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Sample records for activity indicator model

  1. Modelization of cognition, activity and motivation as indicators for Interactive Learning Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Asmaa Darouich

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available In Interactive Learning Environment (ILE, the cognitive activity and behavior of learners are the center of the researchers’ concerns. The improvement of learning through combining these axes as a structure of indicators for well-designed learning environment, encloses the measurement of the educational activity as a part of the learning process. In this paper, we propose a mathematical modeling approach based on learners actions to estimate the cognitive activity, learning behavior and motivation, in accordance with a proposed course content structure. This Cognitive indicator includes the study of knowledge, memory and reasoning. While, activity indicator aims to study effort, resistance and intensity. The results recovered on a sample of students with different levels of education, assume that the proposed approach presents a relation among all these indicators which is relatively reliable in the term of cognitive system.

  2. Performance indicators of work activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lahoz, Manoela de Assis; Camarotto, João Alberto

    2012-01-01

    The measurement of performance is a current topic in the management of people in companies, used as a parameter of effectiveness of processes and operations of production. The methods and models of the indicators of current use in the production have concentrated in the assessment of people's performance as determinative resource of the organizational success in the search for the competitiveness. Associated with the classic indicators of performance assessment of the production proceeding, other indicators are used in the assessment of risks and hazards, however with methods focused in the tasks, without connection with the real work activity. The present article explores literature on the models of performance measurement in use in companies and a field research to understand how companies interpret and use indicators that relate health and work, to direct future studies on the subject. Regarding the literature review, one can see that health indicators can be basically divided into two major groups: the legal and managerial indicators. When conducting case studies, it can be realized that companies do not have precisely the concept of health indicator, or were unable to define which of the indicators could be considered indicators of health, considering that absenteeism was the indicator mentioned by the four companies.

  3. Observing and Understanding an On-Line Learning Activity: A Model-Based Approach for Activity Indicator Engineering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Djouad, Tarek; Mille, Alain

    2018-01-01

    Although learning indicators are now properly studied and published, it is still very difficult to manage them freely within most distance learning platforms. As all activity indicators need to collect and analyze properly traces of the learning activity, we propose to use these traces as a starting point for a platform independent Trace…

  4. Should researchers use single indicators, best indicators, or multiple indicators in structural equation models?

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    Hayduk Leslie A

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Structural equation modeling developed as a statistical melding of path analysis and factor analysis that obscured a fundamental tension between a factor preference for multiple indicators and path modeling’s openness to fewer indicators. Discussion Multiple indicators hamper theory by unnecessarily restricting the number of modeled latents. Using the few best indicators – possibly even the single best indicator of each latent – encourages development of theoretically sophisticated models. Additional latent variables permit stronger statistical control of potential confounders, and encourage detailed investigation of mediating causal mechanisms. Summary We recommend the use of the few best indicators. One or two indicators are often sufficient, but three indicators may occasionally be helpful. More than three indicators are rarely warranted because additional redundant indicators provide less research benefit than single indicators of additional latent variables. Scales created from multiple indicators can introduce additional problems, and are prone to being less desirable than either single or multiple indicators.

  5. Extracellular enzyme activity assay as indicator of soil microbial functional diversity and activity

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hendriksen, Niels Bohse; Winding, Anne

    2012-01-01

    Extracellular enzyme activity assay as indicator of soil microbial functional diversity and activity Niels Bohse Hendriksen, Anne Winding. Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark Soils provide numerous essential ecosystem services such as carbon cycling...... of soil microbial functions is still needed. In soil, enzymes originate from a variety of organisms, notably fungi and bacteria and especially hydrolytic extracellular enzymes are of pivotal importance for decomposition of organic substrates and biogeochemical cycling. Their activity will reflect...... the functional diversity and activity of the microorganisms involved in decomposition processes. Their activity has been measured by the use of fluorogenic model substrates e.g. methylumbelliferyl (MUF) substrates for a number of enzymes involved in the degradation of polysacharides as cellulose, hemicellulose...

  6. Geophysical and solar activity indices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bossy, L.; Lemaire, J.

    1984-04-01

    A large number of geophysicists try to correlate their observations with one or even a series of different geophysical or solar activity indices. Yet the right choice of the most appropriate index with which to correlate depends mainly on our understanding of the physical cause-effect relationship between the new set of observations and the index chosen. This best choice will therefore depend on our good understanding of the methods of measurement and derivation of the adopted index in such correlative studies. It relies also on our awareness of the range of applicability of the indices presently available as well as on our understanding of their limitations. It was to achieve these goals that a series of general lectures on geophysical and solar activity indices was organized by L. Bossy and J. Lemaire (Institut d'Aeronomie Spatiale de Belgique (IASB), Brussels), March 26-29, 1984 at Han-sur-Lesse, Belgium.

  7. Using geochemical indicators to distinguish high biogeochemical activity in floodplain soils and sediments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kenwell, Amy [Hydrologic Sciences and Engineering Program, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St., Golden, CO 80401 (United States); Navarre-Sitchler, Alexis, E-mail: asitchle@mines.edu [Hydrologic Sciences and Engineering Program, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St., Golden, CO 80401 (United States); Prugue, Rodrigo [Hydrologic Sciences and Engineering Program, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St., Golden, CO 80401 (United States); Spear, John R. [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St., Golden, CO 80401 (United States); Hering, Amanda S. [Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St., Golden, CO 80401 (United States); Maxwell, Reed M. [Hydrologic Sciences and Engineering Program, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St., Golden, CO 80401 (United States); Carroll, Rosemary W.H. [Desert Research Institute, Division of Hydrologic Sciences, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV 89512 (United States); Williams, Kenneth H. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)

    2016-09-01

    A better understanding of how microbial communities interact with their surroundings in physically and chemically heterogeneous subsurface environments will lead to improved quantification of biogeochemical reactions and associated nutrient cycling. This study develops a methodology to predict potential elevated rates of biogeochemical activity (microbial “hotspots”) in subsurface environments by correlating microbial DNA and aspects of the community structure with the spatial distribution of geochemical indicators in subsurface sediments. Multiple linear regression models of simulated precipitation leachate, HCl and hydroxylamine extractable iron and manganese, total organic carbon (TOC), and microbial community structure were used to identify sample characteristics indicative of biogeochemical hotspots within fluvially-derived aquifer sediments and overlying soils. The method has been applied to (a) alluvial materials collected at a former uranium mill site near Rifle, Colorado and (b) relatively undisturbed floodplain deposits (soils and sediments) collected along the East River near Crested Butte, Colorado. At Rifle, 16 alluvial samples were taken from 8 sediment cores, and at the East River, 46 soil/sediment samples were collected across and perpendicular to 3 active meanders and an oxbow meander. Regression models using TOC and TOC combined with extractable iron and manganese results were determined to be the best fitting statistical models of microbial DNA (via 16S rRNA gene analysis). Fitting these models to observations in both contaminated and natural floodplain deposits, and their associated alluvial aquifers, demonstrates the broad applicability of the geochemical indicator based approach. - Highlights: • Biogeochemical characterization of alluvial floodplain soils and sediments was performed to investigate parameters that may indicate microbial hot spot formation. • A correlation between geochemical parameters (total organic carbon and

  8. Using geochemical indicators to distinguish high biogeochemical activity in floodplain soils and sediments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kenwell, Amy; Navarre-Sitchler, Alexis; Prugue, Rodrigo; Spear, John R.; Hering, Amanda S.; Maxwell, Reed M.; Carroll, Rosemary W.H.; Williams, Kenneth H.

    2016-01-01

    A better understanding of how microbial communities interact with their surroundings in physically and chemically heterogeneous subsurface environments will lead to improved quantification of biogeochemical reactions and associated nutrient cycling. This study develops a methodology to predict potential elevated rates of biogeochemical activity (microbial “hotspots”) in subsurface environments by correlating microbial DNA and aspects of the community structure with the spatial distribution of geochemical indicators in subsurface sediments. Multiple linear regression models of simulated precipitation leachate, HCl and hydroxylamine extractable iron and manganese, total organic carbon (TOC), and microbial community structure were used to identify sample characteristics indicative of biogeochemical hotspots within fluvially-derived aquifer sediments and overlying soils. The method has been applied to (a) alluvial materials collected at a former uranium mill site near Rifle, Colorado and (b) relatively undisturbed floodplain deposits (soils and sediments) collected along the East River near Crested Butte, Colorado. At Rifle, 16 alluvial samples were taken from 8 sediment cores, and at the East River, 46 soil/sediment samples were collected across and perpendicular to 3 active meanders and an oxbow meander. Regression models using TOC and TOC combined with extractable iron and manganese results were determined to be the best fitting statistical models of microbial DNA (via 16S rRNA gene analysis). Fitting these models to observations in both contaminated and natural floodplain deposits, and their associated alluvial aquifers, demonstrates the broad applicability of the geochemical indicator based approach. - Highlights: • Biogeochemical characterization of alluvial floodplain soils and sediments was performed to investigate parameters that may indicate microbial hot spot formation. • A correlation between geochemical parameters (total organic carbon and

  9. Multiple Indicator Stationary Time Series Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sivo, Stephen A.

    2001-01-01

    Discusses the propriety and practical advantages of specifying multivariate time series models in the context of structural equation modeling for time series and longitudinal panel data. For time series data, the multiple indicator model specification improves on classical time series analysis. For panel data, the multiple indicator model…

  10. INDICATIVE MODEL OF DEVIATIONS IN PROJECT

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    Олена Борисівна ДАНЧЕНКО

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available The article shows the process of constructing the project deviations indicator model. It based on a conceptual model of project deviations integrated management (PDIM. During the project different causes (such as risks, changes, problems, crises, conflicts, stress lead to deviations of integrated project indicators - time, cost, quality, and content. For a more detailed definition of where in the project deviations occur and how they are dangerous for the whole project, it needs to develop an indicative model of project deviations. It allows identifying the most dangerous deviations that require PDIM. As a basis for evaluation of project's success has been taken famous model IPMA Delta. During the evaluation, IPMA Delta estimated project management competence of organization in three modules: I-Module ("Individuals" - a self-assessment personnel, P-module ("Projects" - self-assessment of projects and/or programs, and O-module ("Organization" - used to conduct interviews with selected people during auditing company. In the process of building an indicative model of deviations in the project, the first step is the assessment of project management in the organization by IPMA Delta. In the future, built cognitive map and matrix of system interconnections of the project, which conducted simulations and built a scale of deviations for the selected project. They determined a size and place of deviations. To identify the detailed causes of deviations in the project management has been proposed to use the extended system of indicators, which is based on indicators of project management model Project Excellence. The proposed indicative model of deviations in projects allows to estimate the size of variation and more accurately identify the place of negative deviations in the project and provides the project manager information for operational decision making for the management of deviations in the implementation of the project

  11. Performance indicators at Embalse NPP: PSA and safety system indicators based on PSA models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fornero, D.A.

    2001-01-01

    Several indicators have been implemented at Embalse NPP. The objective was selecting some representative parameters to evaluate the performance of both the plant and the personnel activities, important for safety. A first set of indicators was defined in accordance with plant technical staff criteria. A complementary set of them was addressed later based on WANO guidance. This report presents the set of indicators used at Embalse NPP, centering the description to related to safety systems performance indicators (SSPI). Some considerations are done about the calculation methods, the need for aligning and updating their values following Embalse Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) development, and some pros and cons of using the PSA model for getting systems indicators. Owing to the fact that PSA ownership by utilities is also a subject of the meeting, some characteristics of the organization of the PSA Project are described at the beginning of the report. At Embalse NPP a Level 1 PSA has been developed under the responsibility of its own plant and with an important contribution from the IAEA. PSA was developed at the site, conducting this to a study strongly interactive with the station staff. (author)

  12. Cycling indices for ecosystem models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carney, J.H.; Gardner, R.H.; Mankin, J.B.; DeAngelis, D.L.

    1979-01-01

    The study of ecosystems is aided by representing structural and functional groups of organisms or processes as discrete components. A complex compartment model will explicitly map pathways from one compartment to another and specify transfer rates. This quantitative description allows insight into the dynamics of flow of nutrients, toxic chemicals, radionuclides, or energy. Three new indices that calculate compartment-specific probabilities of occurrence and recycling and illustrate the problem of applying these indices to ecosystem models are presented

  13. Modelling Dynamics of Main Economic Indicators of an Enterprise

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    Sherstennykov Yurii V.

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available The article develops an economic and mathematical model of dynamics of main economic indicators of an enterprise, reflected in six book-keeping accounts with consideration of logistics and interrelation with current market characteristics and needs of products consumers. It applies this model for a quantitative study of influence of an advertising campaign and seasonality upon quantitative indicators of economic activity of the enterprise. The enterprise operation programme includes internal financial and economic procedures, which ensure the production process, and also connection with suppliers and buyers (customers. When setting different initial conditions, it is possible to trace transitional processes and enterprise entering (under favourable conditions the stationary mode of operation or its laying-off (in case of insufficiency of circulating funds. The developed model contains many parameters, which allow not only study of dependence of enterprise operation on alteration of one of them but also optimisation of economic conditions of functioning.

  14. FORMALIZATION OF LOCOMOTIVE DRIVER ACTIVITY TENSION INDICATOR BASED ON THE ERGONOMIC MODEL

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    O. M. Horobchenko

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Purpose. A key factor contributing to the safety and quality of ergatic system "train-driver" is the intensity of the locomotive crew’s work. The aim of this work is formalization of locomotive driver activity tension indicator. Methodology. One of the characteristics of driver activity tension is the difference between the time allotted to complete the task, and the necessary (external reserve or deficiency time. The sets of major and minor operations in the management of the train locomotive in different train situations were identified. Using the methods of fuzzy logic, the concept of "materiality of the operation of the locomotive control" is presented in the form of a set of linguistic variables. To determine the function membership of the elements of the set "the importance of the operation of the locomotive control" the method of expert evaluations was used. Coefficient of temporary tension is presented in the form of fuzzy number L-R-type. Findings. It was found the value of the relative number of operations of locomotive control according to the distribution using the parameter of operation "importance". To determine the most tensioned mode of the driver ranking the traffic condition according to the parameter of relative amounts of the important management operations was conducted. The most difficult modes are the "front hindrance", "movement in unfavorable weather conditions" and "departure from the station to the running line". Originality. The introduction of the value "conventional importance of the operation" allowed us to more accurately describe the terms of train driving. For the first time the work presents determination of tension of the driver’s work in the form of a unimodal fuzzy number, which will make it possible to use the methods of the theory of artificial intelligence to simulate activity of the locomotive driver and develop intelligent control systems. Practical value. There were obtained the opportunity to

  15. SAFARI: Searching Asteroids For Activity Revealing Indicators

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    Curtis, Anthony; Chandler, Colin Orion; Mommert, Michael; Sheppard, Scott; Trujillo, Chadwick A.

    2018-06-01

    We present results on one of the deepest and widest systematic searches for active asteroids, objects in the main-belt which behave dynamically like asteroids but display comet-like comae. This activity comes from a variety of sources, such as the sublimation of ices or rotational breakup, the former of which offers an opportunity to study a family of protoplanetary ices different than those seen in comets and Kuiper Belt objects. Indications of activity may be detected through visual or spectroscopic evidence of gas or dust emissions. However, these objects are still poorly understood, with only about 25 identified to date. We looked for activity indicators with a pipeline that examined ~35,000 deep images taken with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the 4-meter Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Our pipeline was configured to perform astrometry on DECam images and produce thumbnail images of known asteroids in the field to be examined by eye for signs of activity. We detected three previously identified active asteroids, one of which has shown repeated signs of activity in these data. Our proof of concept demonstrates 1) our novel informatics approach can locate active asteroids 2) DECam data are well suited to search for active asteroids. We will discuss the design structure of our pipeline, adjustments that had to be made for the specific dataset to improve performance, and the the significance of detecting activity in the main-belt. The authors acknowledge funding for this project through NSF grant number AST-1461200.

  16. Linear indices in nonlinear structural equation models : best fitting proper indices and other composites

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dijkstra, T.K.; Henseler, J.

    2011-01-01

    The recent advent of nonlinear structural equation models with indices poses a new challenge to the measurement of scientific constructs. We discuss, exemplify and add to a family of statistical methods aimed at creating linear indices, and compare their suitability in a complex path model with

  17. Major indicators of analysis of insurers’ investment activity

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    O.O. Poplavskyi

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The article is devoted to topical issues of economic nature, selection and use of economic indicators in analysis of insurers’ investment activity. The author determines the main criteria of permissible investment activity, such as different assets covering the insurance reserves and share of various types of investments in assets and capital on the base of the results of summarizing recent public requirements of key banks to insurance companies in Ukraine. The recommendations of the insurers’ analysis approved by the regulatory bodies in Ukraine (the State Commission for Regulation of Financial Services Markets, Belarus (the Ministry of Finance and Poland (the Financial Supervision Authority are not left without author’s attention. According to the results of comparing using of different indicators, like the return on equity and investment, their strength and weaknesses are identified and the improving the scales of their assessment are proposed. The article singles out the main indicators which can be adapted to national features+ and used for management decisions and regulation of investment activities of insurers.

  18. Patch-occupancy models indicate human activity as major determinant of forest elephant Loxodonta cyclotis seasonal distribution in an industrial corridor in Gabon

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    Buij, R.; McShea, W.J.; Campbell, P.; Lee, M.E.; Dallmeier, F.; Guimondou, S.; Mackaga, L.; Guisseougou, N.; Mboumba, S.; Hines, J.E.; Nichols, J.D.; Alonso, A.

    2007-01-01

    The importance of human activity and ecological features in influencing African forest elephant ranging behaviour was investigated in the Rabi-Ndogo corridor of the Gamba Complex of Protected Areas in southwest Gabon. Locations in a wide geographical area with a range of environmental variables were selected for patch-occupancy surveys using elephant dung to assess seasonal presence and absence of elephants. Patch-occupancy procedures allowed for covariate modelling evaluating hypotheses for both occupancy in relation to human activity and ecological features, and detection probability in relation to vegetation density. The best fitting models for old and fresh dung data sets indicate that (1) detection probability for elephant dung is negatively related to the relative density of the vegetation, and (2) human activity, such as presence and infrastructure, are more closely associated with elephant distribution patterns than are ecological features, such as the presence of wetlands and preferred fresh fruit. Our findings emphasize the sensitivity of elephants to human disturbance, in this case infrastructure development associated with gas and oil production. Patch-occupancy methodology offers a viable alternative to current transect protocols for monitoring programs with multiple covariates.

  19. Fetal functional brain age assessed from universal developmental indices obtained from neuro-vegetative activity patterns.

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    Dirk Hoyer

    Full Text Available Fetal brain development involves the development of the neuro-vegetative (autonomic control that is mediated by the autonomic nervous system (ANS. Disturbances of the fetal brain development have implications for diseases in later postnatal life. In that context, the fetal functional brain age can be altered. Universal principles of developmental biology applied to patterns of autonomic control may allow a functional age assessment. The work aims at the development of a fetal autonomic brain age score (fABAS based on heart rate patterns. We analysed n = 113 recordings in quiet sleep, n = 286 in active sleep, and n = 29 in active awakeness from normals. We estimated fABAS from magnetocardiographic recordings (21.4-40.3 weeks of gestation preclassified in quiet sleep (n = 113, 63 females and active sleep (n = 286, 145 females state by cross-validated multivariate linear regression models in a cross-sectional study. According to universal system developmental principles, we included indices that address increasing fluctuation range, increasing complexity, and pattern formation (skewness, power spectral ratio VLF/LF, pNN5. The resulting models constituted fABAS. fABAS explained 66/63% (coefficient of determination R(2 of training and validation set of the variance by age in quiet, while 51/50% in active sleep. By means of a logistic regression model using fluctuation range and fetal age, quiet and active sleep were automatically reclassified (94.3/93.1% correct classifications. We did not find relevant gender differences. We conclude that functional brain age can be assessed based on universal developmental indices obtained from autonomic control patterns. fABAS reflect normal complex functional brain maturation. The presented normative data are supplemented by an explorative study of 19 fetuses compromised by intrauterine growth restriction. We observed a shift in the state distribution towards active awakeness. The lower WGA

  20. Tactical models of competitive activity in football

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    Виктор Костюкевич

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Methodological approaches to the analysis of competitive activity of high qualification football teams are examined. Four tactical models of play of high qualification football teams: «A», «B», «C», «D», are identified on the basis of the developed method of competitive activity control, an integrated assessment of technical and tactical activity, and classification of interactions between players. Each of the models is characterized by the main components of competitive activity: positional attacks, high-speed attacks, pressing; passing the ball; modes of coordinative complexity of technical and tactical actions performance; specific indicators of the integral assessment of tactical activity.

  1. Modeling Patterns of Activities using Activity Curves.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dawadi, Prafulla N; Cook, Diane J; Schmitter-Edgecombe, Maureen

    2016-06-01

    Pervasive computing offers an unprecedented opportunity to unobtrusively monitor behavior and use the large amount of collected data to perform analysis of activity-based behavioral patterns. In this paper, we introduce the notion of an activity curve , which represents an abstraction of an individual's normal daily routine based on automatically-recognized activities. We propose methods to detect changes in behavioral routines by comparing activity curves and use these changes to analyze the possibility of changes in cognitive or physical health. We demonstrate our model and evaluate our change detection approach using a longitudinal smart home sensor dataset collected from 18 smart homes with older adult residents. Finally, we demonstrate how big data-based pervasive analytics such as activity curve-based change detection can be used to perform functional health assessment. Our evaluation indicates that correlations do exist between behavior and health changes and that these changes can be automatically detected using smart homes, machine learning, and big data-based pervasive analytics.

  2. 'Ecological value added' in an integrated ecosystem-economy model. An indicator for sustainability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kratena, Kurt

    2004-01-01

    This paper sets up an input-output system of the relevant ecosystem flows that determine the carbon cycle in the global ecosystem. Introducing energy as the value added component in the ecosystem allows to calculate ecosystem prices expressed in 'energy values'. Linking the ecosystem with the economy in an integrated input-output model then allows to calculate prices of economic activities and of ecosystem activities. In analogy to the 'Ecological Footprint', where productive land is needed to absorb anthropogenic emissions, in this integrated input-output model additional carbon sinks are introduced for emission absorption. These carbon sinks need solar energy input, i.e. 'ecological value added'. Emission absorption as well as GDP therefore become activities valued in the numeraire of the integrated system, i.e.'energy values'. From that sustainability indicators can be derived

  3. Indicators of activity-friendly communities: an evidence-based consensus process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brennan Ramirez, Laura K; Hoehner, Christine M; Brownson, Ross C; Cook, Rebeka; Orleans, C Tracy; Hollander, Marla; Barker, Dianne C; Bors, Philip; Ewing, Reid; Killingsworth, Richard; Petersmarck, Karen; Schmid, Thomas; Wilkinson, William

    2006-12-01

    Regular physical activity, even at modest intensities, is associated with many health benefits. Most Americans, however, do not engage in the recommended levels. As practitioners seek ways to increase population rates of physical activity, interventions and advocacy efforts are being targeted to the community level. Yet, advocates, community leaders, and researchers lack the tools needed to assess local barriers to and opportunities for more active, healthy lifestyles. Investigators used a systematic review process to identify key indicators of activity-friendly communities that can assess and improve opportunities for regular physical activity. Investigators conducted a comprehensive literature review of both peer-reviewed literature and fugitive information (e.g., reports and websites) to generate an initial list of indicators for review (n=230). The review included a three-tiered, modified Delphi consensus-development process that incorporated input of international, national, state, and local researchers and practitioners from academic institutions, federal and state government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and funding agencies in public health, transportation, urban planning, parks and recreation, and public policy. Ten promising indicators of activity-friendly communities were identified: land use environment, access to exercise facilities, transportation environment, aesthetics, travel patterns, social environment, land use economics, transportation economics, institutional and organizational policies, and promotion. Collaborative, multidisciplinary approaches are underway to test, refine, and expand this initial list of indicators and to develop measures that communities, community leaders, and policymakers can use to design more activity-friendly community environments.

  4. Activity of a social dynamics model

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    Reia, Sandro M.; Neves, Ubiraci P. C.

    2015-10-01

    Axelrod's model was proposed to study interactions between agents and the formation of cultural domains. It presents a transition from a monocultural to a multicultural steady state which has been studied in the literature by evaluation of the relative size of the largest cluster. In this article, we propose new measurements based on the concept of activity per agent to study the Axelrod's model on the square lattice. We show that the variance of system activity can be used to indicate the critical points of the transition. Furthermore the frequency distribution of the system activity is able to show a coexistence of phases typical of a first order phase transition. Finally, we verify a power law dependence between cluster activity and cluster size for multicultural steady state configurations at the critical point.

  5. PROXIMA CENTAURI AS A BENCHMARK FOR STELLAR ACTIVITY INDICATORS IN THE NEAR-INFRARED

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Robertson, Paul; Bender, Chad; Mahadevan, Suvrath; Roy, Arpita; Ramsey, Lawrence W. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA (United States)

    2016-12-01

    A new generation of dedicated Doppler spectrographs will attempt to detect low-mass exoplanets around mid- to late M stars at near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths, where those stars are brightest and have the most Doppler information content. A central requirement for the success of these instruments is to properly measure the component of radial velocity (RV) variability contributed by stellar magnetic activity and to account for it in exoplanet models of RV data. The wavelength coverage for many of these new instruments will not include the Ca ii H and K or H α  lines, the most frequently used absorption-line tracers of magnetic activity. Thus, it is necessary to define and characterize NIR activity indicators for mid- to late M stars in order to provide simultaneous activity metrics for NIR RV data. We have used the high-cadence UVES observations of the M5.5 dwarf Proxima Centauri from Fuhrmeister et al. to compare the activity sensitivity of eight NIR atomic lines to that of H α . We find that equivalent-width-type measurements of the NIR K i doublet and the Ca ii NIR triplet are excellent proxies for the canonical optical tracers. The Ca ii triplet will be acquired by most of the new and upcoming NIR Doppler spectrographs, offering a common, reliable indicator of activity.

  6. A comparison of emission calculations using different modeled indicators with 1-year online measurements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lengers, Bernd; Schiefler, Inga; Büscher, Wolfgang

    2013-12-01

    The overall measurement of farm level greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in dairy production is not feasible, from either an engineering or administrative point of view. Instead, computational model systems are used to generate emission inventories, demanding a validation by measurement data. This paper tests the GHG calculation of the dairy farm-level optimization model DAIRYDYN, including methane (CH₄) from enteric fermentation and managed manure. The model involves four emission calculation procedures (indicators), differing in the aggregation level of relevant input variables. The corresponding emission factors used by the indicators range from default per cow (activity level) emissions up to emission factors based on feed intake, manure amount, and milk production intensity. For validation of the CH₄ accounting of the model, 1-year CH₄ measurements of an experimental free-stall dairy farm in Germany are compared to model simulation results. An advantage of this interdisciplinary study is given by the correspondence of the model parameterization and simulation horizon with the experimental farm's characteristics and measurement period. The results clarify that modeled emission inventories (2,898, 4,637, 4,247, and 3,600 kg CO₂-eq. cow(-1) year(-1)) lead to more or less good approximations of online measurements (average 3,845 kg CO₂-eq. cow(-1) year(-1) (±275 owing to manure management)) depending on the indicator utilized. The more farm-specific characteristics are used by the GHG indicator; the lower is the bias of the modeled emissions. Results underline that an accurate emission calculation procedure should capture differences in energy intake, owing to milk production intensity as well as manure storage time. Despite the differences between indicator estimates, the deviation of modeled GHGs using detailed indicators in DAIRYDYN from on-farm measurements is relatively low (between -6.4% and 10.5%), compared with findings from the literature.

  7. Multi-day activity scheduling reactions to planned activities and future events in a dynamic model of activity-travel behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nijland, Linda; Arentze, Theo; Timmermans, Harry

    2014-01-01

    Modeling multi-day planning has received scarce attention in activity-based transport demand modeling so far. However, new dynamic activity-based approaches are being developed at the current moment. The frequency and inflexibility of planned activities and events in activity schedules of individuals indicate the importance of incorporating those pre-planned activities in the new generation of dynamic travel demand models. Elaborating and combining previous work on event-driven activity generation, the aim of this paper is to develop and illustrate an extension of a need-based model of activity generation that takes into account possible influences of pre-planned activities and events. This paper describes the theory and shows the results of simulations of the extension. The simulation was conducted for six different activities, and the parameter values used were consistent with an earlier estimation study. The results show that the model works well and that the influences of the parameters are consistent, logical, and have clear interpretations. These findings offer further evidence of face and construct validity to the suggested modeling approach.

  8. Analysis and modeling of active occupancy of the residential sector in Spain: An indicator of residential electricity consumption

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    López-Rodríguez, M.A.; Santiago, I.; Trillo-Montero, D.; Torriti, J.; Moreno-Munoz, A.

    2013-01-01

    The growing energy consumption in the residential sector represents about 30% of global demand. This calls for Demand Side Management solutions propelling change in behaviors of end consumers, with the aim to reduce overall consumption as well as shift it to periods in which demand is lower and where the cost of generating energy is lower. Demand Side Management solutions require detailed knowledge about the patterns of energy consumption. The profile of electricity demand in the residential sector is highly correlated with the time of active occupancy of the dwellings; therefore in this study the occupancy patterns in Spanish properties was determined using the 2009–2010 Time Use Survey (TUS), conducted by the National Statistical Institute of Spain. The survey identifies three peaks in active occupancy, which coincide with morning, noon and evening. This information has been used to input into a stochastic model which generates active occupancy profiles of dwellings, with the aim to simulate domestic electricity consumption. TUS data were also used to identify which appliance-related activities could be considered for Demand Side Management solutions during the three peaks of occupancy. -- Highlights: •Active occupancy profiles of Spanish dwellings has been obtained and modeled from Time Use Survey data. •Occupancy profiles resulting from the model can be used to model domestic energy consumption. •The presence of three peaks of active occupation was verified, which coincide with morning, noon and evening. •Manual and incentive-based DSM programmes are considered the most suitable for Spanish dwellings. •TV electricity consumption becomes important at aggregate level

  9. Indicators of safety culture - selection and utilization of leading safety performance indicators

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Reiman, Teemu; Pietikaeinen, Elina (VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland (Finland))

    2010-03-15

    Safety indicators play a role in providing information on organizational performance, motivating people to work on safety and increasing organizational potential for safety. The aim of this report is to provide an overview on leading safety indicators in the domain of nuclear safety. The report explains the distinction between lead and lag indicators and proposes a framework of three types of safety performance indicators - feedback, monitor and drive indicators. Finally the report provides guidance for nuclear energy organizations for selecting and interpreting safety indicators. It proposes the use of safety culture as a leading safety performance indicator and offers an example list of potential indicators in all three categories. The report concludes that monitor and drive indicators are so called lead indicators. Drive indicators are chosen priority areas of organizational safety activity. They are based on the underlying safety model and potential safety activities and safety policy derived from it. Drive indicators influence control measures that manage the socio technical system; change, maintain, reinforce, or reduce something. Monitor indicators provide a view on the dynamics of the system in question; the activities taking place, abilities, skills and motivation of the personnel, routines and practices - the organizational potential for safety. They also monitor the efficacy of the control measures that are used to manage the socio technical system. Typically the safety performance indicators that are used are lagging (feedback) indicators that measure the outcomes of the socio technical system. Besides feedback indicators, organizations should also acknowledge the important role of monitor and drive indicators in managing safety. The selection and use of safety performance indicators is always based on an understanding (a model) of the socio technical system and safety. The safety model defines what risks are perceived. It is important that the safety

  10. Indicators of safety culture - selection and utilization of leading safety performance indicators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reiman, Teemu; Pietikaeinen, Elina

    2010-03-01

    Safety indicators play a role in providing information on organizational performance, motivating people to work on safety and increasing organizational potential for safety. The aim of this report is to provide an overview on leading safety indicators in the domain of nuclear safety. The report explains the distinction between lead and lag indicators and proposes a framework of three types of safety performance indicators - feedback, monitor and drive indicators. Finally the report provides guidance for nuclear energy organizations for selecting and interpreting safety indicators. It proposes the use of safety culture as a leading safety performance indicator and offers an example list of potential indicators in all three categories. The report concludes that monitor and drive indicators are so called lead indicators. Drive indicators are chosen priority areas of organizational safety activity. They are based on the underlying safety model and potential safety activities and safety policy derived from it. Drive indicators influence control measures that manage the socio technical system; change, maintain, reinforce, or reduce something. Monitor indicators provide a view on the dynamics of the system in question; the activities taking place, abilities, skills and motivation of the personnel, routines and practices - the organizational potential for safety. They also monitor the efficacy of the control measures that are used to manage the socio technical system. Typically the safety performance indicators that are used are lagging (feedback) indicators that measure the outcomes of the socio technical system. Besides feedback indicators, organizations should also acknowledge the important role of monitor and drive indicators in managing safety. The selection and use of safety performance indicators is always based on an understanding (a model) of the socio technical system and safety. The safety model defines what risks are perceived. It is important that the safety

  11. Merging remotely sensed data, models and indicators for a sustainable development of coastal aquaculture in Algeria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brigolin, Daniele; Venier, Chiara; Amine Taji, Mohamed; Lourguioui, Hichem; Mangin, Antoine; Pastres, Roberto

    2014-05-01

    Finfish cage farming is an economically relevant activity, which exerts pressures on coastal systems and thus require a science-based management, based on the Ecosystem Approach, in order to be carry out in a sustainable way. Within MEDINA project (EU 282977), ocean color data and models were used for estimating indicators of pressures of aquaculture installations along the north African coast. These indicators can provide important support for decision makers in the allocation of new zones for aquaculture, by taking into account the suitability of an area for this activity and minimizing negative environmental effects, thus enhancing the social acceptability of aquaculture. The increase in the number of farms represents a strategic objective for the Algerian food production sector, which is currently being supported by different national initiatives. The case-study presented in this work was carried out in the Gulf of Bejaia. Water quality for aquaculture was first screened based on ocean color CDOM data (http://www.globcolour.info/). The SWAN model was subsequently used to propagate offshore wave data and to derive wave height statistics. On this basis, sub-areas of the Gulf were ranked, according their optimality in respect to cage resistance and fish welfare requirements. At the three best sites an integrated aquaculture impact assessment model was therefore applied: this tool allows one to obtain a detailed representation of fish growth and population dynamics inside the rearing cages, and to simulate the deposition of uneaten food and faeces on the sediment and the subsequent mineralization of organic matter. This integrated model was used to produce a set of indicators of the fish cages environmental interaction under different scenarios of forcings (water temperature, feeding, currents). These model-derived indicators could usefully contribute to the implementation of the ecosystem approach for the management of aquaculture activities, also required by the

  12. Monitoring population disability: Evaluation of a new Global Activity Limitation Indicator (GALI)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oyen, H. van; Heyden, J.; Perenboom, R.; Jagger, C.

    2006-01-01

    Objective: To evaluate a single item instrument, the Global Activity Limitation Indicator (GALI), to measure long-standing health related activity limitations, against several health indicators: a composite morbidity indicator, instruments measuring mental health (SCL-90R, GHQ-12), physical

  13. ANN multiscale model of anti-HIV drugs activity vs AIDS prevalence in the US at county level based on information indices of molecular graphs and social networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    González-Díaz, Humberto; Herrera-Ibatá, Diana María; Duardo-Sánchez, Aliuska; Munteanu, Cristian R; Orbegozo-Medina, Ricardo Alfredo; Pazos, Alejandro

    2014-03-24

    This work is aimed at describing the workflow for a methodology that combines chemoinformatics and pharmacoepidemiology methods and at reporting the first predictive model developed with this methodology. The new model is able to predict complex networks of AIDS prevalence in the US counties, taking into consideration the social determinants and activity/structure of anti-HIV drugs in preclinical assays. We trained different Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) using as input information indices of social networks and molecular graphs. We used a Shannon information index based on the Gini coefficient to quantify the effect of income inequality in the social network. We obtained the data on AIDS prevalence and the Gini coefficient from the AIDSVu database of Emory University. We also used the Balaban information indices to quantify changes in the chemical structure of anti-HIV drugs. We obtained the data on anti-HIV drug activity and structure (SMILE codes) from the ChEMBL database. Last, we used Box-Jenkins moving average operators to quantify information about the deviations of drugs with respect to data subsets of reference (targets, organisms, experimental parameters, protocols). The best model found was a Linear Neural Network (LNN) with values of Accuracy, Specificity, and Sensitivity above 0.76 and AUROC > 0.80 in training and external validation series. This model generates a complex network of AIDS prevalence in the US at county level with respect to the preclinical activity of anti-HIV drugs in preclinical assays. To train/validate the model and predict the complex network we needed to analyze 43,249 data points including values of AIDS prevalence in 2,310 counties in the US vs ChEMBL results for 21,582 unique drugs, 9 viral or human protein targets, 4,856 protocols, and 10 possible experimental measures.

  14. Variance-based sensitivity indices for models with dependent inputs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mara, Thierry A.; Tarantola, Stefano

    2012-01-01

    Computational models are intensively used in engineering for risk analysis or prediction of future outcomes. Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses are of great help in these purposes. Although several methods exist to perform variance-based sensitivity analysis of model output with independent inputs only a few are proposed in the literature in the case of dependent inputs. This is explained by the fact that the theoretical framework for the independent case is set and a univocal set of variance-based sensitivity indices is defined. In the present work, we propose a set of variance-based sensitivity indices to perform sensitivity analysis of models with dependent inputs. These measures allow us to distinguish between the mutual dependent contribution and the independent contribution of an input to the model response variance. Their definition relies on a specific orthogonalisation of the inputs and ANOVA-representations of the model output. In the applications, we show the interest of the new sensitivity indices for model simplification setting. - Highlights: ► Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses are of great help in engineering. ► Several methods exist to perform variance-based sensitivity analysis of model output with independent inputs. ► We define a set of variance-based sensitivity indices for models with dependent inputs. ► Inputs mutual contributions are distinguished from their independent contributions. ► Analytical and computational tests are performed and discussed.

  15. Using the Statistical Indicators for the General Insurances Activity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ion Partachi

    2007-04-01

    Full Text Available The statistics of the general insurances activity is largely used in the actuarial calculations. The actuarial analysis are achieved exclusively on the basis of primary and derived indicators, which are drawn up by various statistical methods. The statistical indicators which are used in this respect are obtained on the basis of the factors and conditions allowing the compensation cases to occur.The actuarial analysis is performed over the time as well, by using the chronological which allow the decomposition of the phenomenon being studied by its factors of influence.In this article, after briefly presenting a number of point of view regarding the utilization of the statistical indicators in the actuarial analysis, we have analyzed, successively, a series of issues, such as: the statistical indicators as regards the general insurances fund forming, expressed in physical and value units, or as absolute, relative and average volumes; the statistical indicators of the utilization of the general insurances funds (with the same diversified form of expression and the statistical indicators of the outcomes of the general insurances activity.A particular accent went to the underlying of certain methodological aspects regarding the calculation of the above mentioned indicators, emphasizing certain particular characteristics concerning their utilization in the frame of the actuarial analysis.The article is stressing the clarification of the fact that these indicators are used in the actuarial analysis as a real system. The respective proportions are enumerated, by underlying the concrete possibilities of computation, which secure the possibility of performing the necessary analysis involved by a decisional process.

  16. Unifying distance-based goodness-of-fit indicators for hydrologic model assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Qinbo; Reinhardt-Imjela, Christian; Chen, Xi; Schulte, Achim

    2014-05-01

    The goodness-of-fit indicator, i.e. efficiency criterion, is very important for model calibration. However, recently the knowledge about the goodness-of-fit indicators is all empirical and lacks a theoretical support. Based on the likelihood theory, a unified distance-based goodness-of-fit indicator termed BC-GED model is proposed, which uses the Box-Cox (BC) transformation to remove the heteroscedasticity of model errors and the generalized error distribution (GED) with zero-mean to fit the distribution of model errors after BC. The BC-GED model can unify all recent distance-based goodness-of-fit indicators, and reveals the mean square error (MSE) and the mean absolute error (MAE) that are widely used goodness-of-fit indicators imply statistic assumptions that the model errors follow the Gaussian distribution and the Laplace distribution with zero-mean, respectively. The empirical knowledge about goodness-of-fit indicators can be also easily interpreted by BC-GED model, e.g. the sensitivity to high flow of the goodness-of-fit indicators with large power of model errors results from the low probability of large model error in the assumed distribution of these indicators. In order to assess the effect of the parameters (i.e. the BC transformation parameter λ and the GED kurtosis coefficient β also termed the power of model errors) of BC-GED model on hydrologic model calibration, six cases of BC-GED model were applied in Baocun watershed (East China) with SWAT-WB-VSA model. Comparison of the inferred model parameters and model simulation results among the six indicators demonstrates these indicators can be clearly separated two classes by the GED kurtosis β: β >1 and β ≤ 1. SWAT-WB-VSA calibrated by the class β >1 of distance-based goodness-of-fit indicators captures high flow very well and mimics the baseflow very badly, but it calibrated by the class β ≤ 1 mimics the baseflow very well, because first the larger value of β, the greater emphasis is put on

  17. Driver's mental workload prediction model based on physiological indices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Shengyuan; Tran, Cong Chi; Wei, Yingying; Habiyaremye, Jean Luc

    2017-09-15

    Developing an early warning model to predict the driver's mental workload (MWL) is critical and helpful, especially for new or less experienced drivers. The present study aims to investigate the correlation between new drivers' MWL and their work performance, regarding the number of errors. Additionally, the group method of data handling is used to establish the driver's MWL predictive model based on subjective rating (NASA task load index [NASA-TLX]) and six physiological indices. The results indicate that the NASA-TLX and the number of errors are positively correlated, and the predictive model shows the validity of the proposed model with an R 2 value of 0.745. The proposed model is expected to provide a reference value for the new drivers of their MWL by providing the physiological indices, and the driving lesson plans can be proposed to sustain an appropriate MWL as well as improve the driver's work performance.

  18. Active fiber optic technologies used as tamper-indicating devices

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Horton, P.R.V.; Waddoups, I.G.

    1995-11-01

    The Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) Safeguards and Seals Evaluation Program is evaluating new fiber optic active seal technologies for use at Department of Energy (DOE) facilities. The goal of the program is to investigate active seal technologies that can monitor secured containers storing special nuclear materials (SNM) within DOE vaults. Specifically investigated were active seal technologies that can be used as tamper-indicating devices to monitor secured containers within vaults while personnel remain outside the vault area. Such a system would allow minimal access into vaults while ensuring container content accountability. The purpose of this report is to discuss tamper-indicating devices that were evaluated for possible DOE use. While previous seal evaluations (Phase I and II) considered overall facility applications, this discussion focuses specifically on their use in vault storage situations. The report will highlight general background information, specifications and requirements, and test procedures. Also discussed are the systems available from four manufacturers: Interactive Technologies, Inc., Fiber SenSys, Inc., Inovonics, Inc., and Valve Security Systems

  19. On the usage of geomagnetic indices for data selection in internal field modelling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kauristie, K.; Morschhauser, A.; Olsen, Nils

    2017-01-01

    are primarily used in data selection criteria for weak magnetic activity.The publicly available extensive data bases of index values are used to derive joint conditional Probability Distribution Functions (PDFs) for different pairs of indices in order to investigate their mutual consistency in describing quiet......) as derived from solar wind observations. We use in our PDF analysis the PC-index as a proxy for MEF and estimate the magnetic activity level at auroral latitudes with the AL-index. With these boundary conditions we conclude that the quiet time conditions that are typically used in main field modelling (PC...

  20. Where and what TMS activates: Experiments and modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laakso, Ilkka; Murakami, Takenobu; Hirata, Akimasa; Ugawa, Yoshikazu

    Despite recent developments in navigation and modeling techniques, the type and location of the structures that are activated by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) remain unknown. We studied the relationships between electrophysiological measurements and electric fields induced in the brain to locate the TMS activation site. The active and resting motor thresholds of the first dorsal interosseous muscle were recorded in 19 subjects (7 female, 12 male, age 22 ± 4 years) using anteromedially oriented monophasic TMS at multiple locations over the left primary motor cortex (M1). Structural MR images were used to construct electric field models of each subject's head and brain. The cortical activation site was estimated by finding where the calculated electric fields best explained the coil-location dependency of the measured MTs. The experiments and modeling showed individual variations both in the measured motor thresholds (MTs) and in the computed electric fields. When the TMS coil was moved on the scalp, the calculated electric fields in the hand knob region were shown to vary consistently with the measured MTs. Group-level analysis indicated that the electric fields were significantly correlated with the measured MTs. The strongest correlations (R 2  = 0.69), which indicated the most likely activation site, were found in the ventral and lateral part of the hand knob. The site was independent of voluntary contractions of the target muscle. The study showed that TMS combined with personalized electric field modeling can be used for high-resolution mapping of the motor cortex. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. AATR an ionospheric activity indicator specifically based on GNSS measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Juan, José Miguel; Sanz, Jaume; Rovira-Garcia, Adrià; González-Casado, Guillermo; Ibáñez, D.; Perez, R. Orus

    2018-03-01

    This work reviews an ionospheric activity indicator useful for identifying disturbed periods affecting the performance of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). This index is based in the Along Arc TEC Rate (AATR) and can be easily computed from dual-frequency GNSS measurements. The AATR indicator has been assessed over more than one Solar Cycle (2002-2017) involving about 140 receivers distributed world-wide. Results show that it is well correlated with the ionospheric activity and, unlike other global indicators linked to the geomagnetic activity (i.e. DST or Ap), it is sensitive to the regional behaviour of the ionosphere and identifies specific effects on GNSS users. Moreover, from a devoted analysis of different Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) performances in different ionospheric conditions, it follows that the AATR indicator is a very suitable mean to reveal whether SBAS service availability anomalies are linked to the ionosphere. On this account, the AATR indicator has been selected as the metric to characterise the ionosphere operational conditions in the frame of the European Space Agency activities on the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS). The AATR index has been adopted as a standard tool by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for joint ionospheric studies in SBAS. In this work we explain how the AATR is computed, paying special attention to the cycle-slip detection, which is one of the key issues in the AATR computation, not fully addressed in other indicators such as the Rate Of change of the TEC Index (ROTI). After this explanation we present some of the main conclusions about the ionospheric activity that can extracted from the AATR values during the above mentioned long-term study. These conclusions are: (a) the different spatial correlation related with the MOdified DIP (MODIP) which allows to clearly separate high, mid and low latitude regions, (b) the large spatial correlation in mid

  2. Enzyme activities by indicator of quality in organic soil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raigon Jiménez, Mo; Fita, Ana Delores; Rodriguez Burruezo, Adrián

    2016-04-01

    The analytical determination of biochemical parameters, as soil enzyme activities and those related to the microbial biomass is growing importance by biological indicator in soil science studies. The metabolic activity in soil is responsible of important processes such as mineralization and humification of organic matter. These biological reactions will affect other key processes involved with elements like carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus , and all transformations related in soil microbial biomass. The determination of biochemical parameters is useful in studies carried out on organic soil where microbial processes that are key to their conservation can be analyzed through parameters of the metabolic activity of these soils. The main objective of this work is to apply analytical methodologies of enzyme activities in soil collections of different physicochemical characteristics. There have been selective sampling of natural soils, organic farming soils, conventional farming soils and urban soils. The soils have been properly identified conserved at 4 ° C until analysis. The enzyme activities determinations have been: catalase, urease, cellulase, dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase, which bring together a representative group of biological transformations that occur in the soil environment. The results indicate that for natural and agronomic soil collections, the values of the enzymatic activities are within the ranges established for forestry and agricultural soils. Organic soils are generally higher level of enzymatic, regardless activity of the enzyme involved. Soil near an urban area, levels of activities have been significantly reduced. The vegetation cover applied to organic soils, results in greater enzymatic activity. So the quality of these soils, defined as the ability to maintain their biological productivity is increased with the use of cover crops, whether or spontaneous species. The practice of cover based on legumes could be used as an ideal choice

  3. Biochemical and hematological indicators in model of total body irradiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dubner, D; Gisone, P.; Perez, M.R.; Barboza, M.; Luchetta, P.; Longoni, H.; Sorrentino, M.; Robison, A.

    1998-01-01

    With the purpose of evaluating the applicability of several biological indicators in accidental overexposures a study was carried out in 20 patients undergoing therapeutical total body irradiation (TBI). The following parameters were evaluated: a) Oxidative stress indicators: erythrocyte superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase activity (CAT), lipo peroxyde levels (TBARS) and total plasma antioxidant activity (TAA). b) Haematological indicators: reticulocyte maturity index (RMI) and charges in lymphocyte subpopulations. Non significant changes in SOD and CAT activity were observed. Significant higher TBARS levels were found in patients with unfavorable post-BTM course without any significant correlation with TAA. RMI decreased early and dropped to zero in most of the patients and rose several days prior to reticulocyte, neutrophils and platelets counts. A significant decrease in absolute counts of all lymphocyte subpopulations was observed during TBI, particularly for B lymphocytes. A subpopulation of natural killer (NK) cells (CD16+/ CD 56 +) showed a relative higher radioresistance. Cytotoxic activity was significantly decreased after TBI. These data suggest that TBARS could provide an useful evolutive indicator in accidental over exposure d patients and RMI is an early indicator of bone marrow recovery after radioinduced aplasia. The implications of the different radiosensitivities within the NK subsets remains unanswered. (author) [es

  4. Design of a leading indicator for Costa Rican economic activity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Chaverri Morales

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the results of estimating three leading indicators for the turning points of the economic activity in Costa Rica. This was done following the methodology proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD. The Monthly Economic Activity Index (IMAE in Spanish was selected as the reference variable.  A total of 270 data series were analyzed including monetary, real and job market variables, as well as price indices, external sector indicators and fiscal sector variables. The real sector information was disaggregated into three levels, which included the classification of data at an industrial level using the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC with two digits, information from the agricultural sector based on the Central Product Classification (CPC and information from the manufacturing sector.  A leading indicator was developed for each level of aggregation, resulting in average leads of 7 to 12 months compared to the reference variable.

  5. Modeling Chaotic Behavior of Chittagong Stock Indices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shipra Banik

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Stock market prediction is an important area of financial forecasting, which attracts great interest to stock buyers and sellers, stock investors, policy makers, applied researchers, and many others who are involved in the capital market. In this paper, a comparative study has been conducted to predict stock index values using soft computing models and time series model. Paying attention to the applied econometric noises because our considered series are time series, we predict Chittagong stock indices for the period from January 1, 2005 to May 5, 2011. We have used well-known models such as, the genetic algorithm (GA model and the adaptive network fuzzy integrated system (ANFIS model as soft computing forecasting models. Very widely used forecasting models in applied time series econometrics, namely, the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (GARCH model is considered as time series model. Our findings have revealed that the use of soft computing models is more successful than the considered time series model.

  6. An Active Learning Exercise for Introducing Agent-Based Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinder, Jonathan P.

    2013-01-01

    Recent developments in agent-based modeling as a method of systems analysis and optimization indicate that students in business analytics need an introduction to the terminology, concepts, and framework of agent-based modeling. This article presents an active learning exercise for MBA students in business analytics that demonstrates agent-based…

  7. Indicators to support the dynamic evaluation of air quality models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thunis, P.; Clappier, A.

    2014-12-01

    Air quality models are useful tools for the assessment and forecast of pollutant concentrations in the atmosphere. Most of the evaluation process relies on the “operational phase” or in other words the comparison of model results with available measurements which provides insight on the model capability to reproduce measured concentrations for a given application. But one of the key advantages of air quality models lies in their ability to assess the impact of precursor emission reductions on air quality levels. Models are then used in a dynamic mode (i.e. response to a change in a given model input data) for which evaluation of the model performances becomes a challenge. The objective of this work is to propose common indicators and diagrams to facilitate the understanding of model responses to emission changes when models are to be used for policy support. These indicators are shown to be useful to retrieve information on the magnitude of the locally produced impacts of emission reductions on concentrations with respect to the “external to the domain” contribution but also to identify, distinguish and quantify impacts arising from different factors (different precursors). In addition information about the robustness of the model results is provided. As such these indicators might reveal useful as first screening methodology to identify the feasibility of a given action as well as to prioritize the factors on which to act for an increased efficiency. Finally all indicators are made dimensionless to facilitate the comparison of results obtained with different models, different resolutions, or on different geographical areas.

  8. Sensitivity of Fit Indices to Misspecification in Growth Curve Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Wei; West, Stephen G.

    2010-01-01

    This study investigated the sensitivity of fit indices to model misspecification in within-individual covariance structure, between-individual covariance structure, and marginal mean structure in growth curve models. Five commonly used fit indices were examined, including the likelihood ratio test statistic, root mean square error of…

  9. USE OF TRANS-CONTEXTUAL MODEL-BASED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY COURSE IN DEVELOPING LEISURE-TIME PHYSICAL ACTIVITY BEHAVIOR OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Müftüler, Mine; İnce, Mustafa Levent

    2015-08-01

    This study examined how a physical activity course based on the Trans-Contextual Model affected the variables of perceived autonomy support, autonomous motivation, determinants of leisure-time physical activity behavior, basic psychological needs satisfaction, and leisure-time physical activity behaviors. The participants were 70 Turkish university students (M age=23.3 yr., SD=3.2). A pre-test-post-test control group design was constructed. Initially, the participants were randomly assigned into an experimental (n=35) and a control (n=35) group. The experimental group followed a 12 wk. trans-contextual model-based intervention. The participants were pre- and post-tested in terms of Trans-Contextual Model constructs and of self-reported leisure-time physical activity behaviors. Multivariate analyses showed significant increases over the 12 wk. period for perceived autonomy support from instructor and peers, autonomous motivation in leisure-time physical activity setting, positive intention and perceived behavioral control over leisure-time physical activity behavior, more fulfillment of psychological needs, and more engagement in leisure-time physical activity behavior in the experimental group. These results indicated that the intervention was effective in developing leisure-time physical activity and indicated that the Trans-Contextual Model is a useful way to conceptualize these relationships.

  10. AN ANALYSIS OF ACCIDENT TRENDS AND MODELING OF SAFETY INDICES IN AN INDIAN CONSTRUCTION ORGANIZATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sunku Venkata Siva Rajaprasad

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Construction industry has been recognized as a hazardous industry in many countries due to distinct nature of execution of works.The accident rate in construction sector is high all over the world due to dynamic nature of work activities. Occurrence of accidents and its severity in construction industry is several times higher than the manufacturing industries. The study was limited to a major construction organization in India to examine the trends in construction accidents for the period 2008-2014. In India, safety performance is gauged basing on safety indices; frequency, severity and incidence rates. It is not practicable to take decisions or to implement safety strategies on the basis of indices. The data used for this study was collected from a leading construction organization involved in execution of major construction activities all over India and abroad. The multiple regression method was adopted to model the pattern of safety indices wise .The pattern showed that significant relationships exist between the three safety indices and the related independent variables.

  11. Relative Release-to-Birth Indicators for Investigating TRISO Fuel Fission Gas Release Models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harp, Jason M.; Hawari, Ayman I.

    2008-01-01

    TRISO microsphere fuel is the fundamental fuel unit for Very High Temperature Reactors (VHTR). A single TRISO particle consists of an inner kernel of uranium dioxide or uranium oxycarbide surrounded by layers of pyrolytic carbon and silicon carbide. If the silicon carbide layer fails, fission products, especially the noble fission gases Kr and Xe, will begin to escape the failed particle. The release of fission gas is usually quantified by measuring the ratio of the released activity (R) to the original birth activity (B), which is designated as the R/B ratio. In this work, relative Release-to-Birth indicators (I) are proposed as a technique for interpreting the results of TRISO irradiation experiments. By implementing a relative metric, it is possible to reduce the sensitivity of the indicators to instrumental uncertainties and variations in experimental conditions. As an example, relative R/B indicators are applied to the interpretation of representative data from the Advanced Gas Reactor-1 TRISO fuel experiment that is currently taking place at the Advanced Test Reactor of Idaho National Laboratory. It is shown that the comparison of measured to predicted relative R/B indicators (I) gives insight into the physics of release and helps validate release models. Different trends displayed by the indicators are related to the mechanisms of fission gas release such as diffusion and recoil. The current analysis shows evidence for separate diffusion coefficients for Kr and Xe and supports the need to account for recoil release. (authors)

  12. Improvement of Measurement and Evaluation of Regional Authorities Activity: Model and Statistical Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petrova Elena Аleksandrovna

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Formation of strategy of long-term social and economic development is a basis for effective functioning of executive authorities and the assessment of its efficiency in general. Modern theories of assessment of public administration productivity are guided by the process approach when it is expedient to carry out the formation of business processes of regional executive authorities according to strategic indicators of territorial development. In this regard, there is a problem of modeling of interrelation of indicators of social and economic development of the region and quantitative indices of results of business processes of executive authorities. At the first stage of modeling, two main directions of strategic development, namely innovative and investment activity of regional economic systems are considered. In this regard, the work presents the results of modeling the interrelation between the indicators of regional social and economic development and innovative and investment activity. Therefore, for carrying out the analysis, the social and economic system of the region is presented in space of the main indicators of social and economic development of the territory and indicators of innovative and investment activity. The analysis is made on values of the indicators calculated for regions of the Russian Federation during 2000, 2005, 2008, 2010 and 2011. It was revealed that strategic indicators of innovative and investment activity have the most significant impact on key signs of social and economic development.

  13. TRADITIONAL ACTIVITY INDICATORS IN THE FUNCTION OF DETERMINATION OF MATERIAL MISSTATEMENT IN THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF THE COMPANIES

    OpenAIRE

    Gabrić, Dragan Gabrić

    2017-01-01

    The financial statements of general purpose are important source of information for purpose of business decision-making. Therefore, it is important to present financial statements fairly and faithfully without material misstatement. The subject of this paper is to explore the impact of traditional indicators of activity on the determination of material misstatements in the financial statements. The main objective of this research is to create a model of an impact of the traditional indicators...

  14. Statistical model of planning technological indicators for oil extraction

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Galeyev, R G; Lavushchenko, V P; Sheshnev, A S

    1979-01-01

    The efficiency of the process of oil extraction is determined by the effect of a number of interrelated technological indicators. Analytical expression of the interrelationships of the indicators was represented by an econometric model consisting of a system of linear regression equations. The basic advantage of these models is the possibility of calculating in them different, significantly important interrelationships. This makes it possible to correlate all calculations into a single logically noncontradictory balanced system. The developed model of the technological process of oil extraction makes it possible to significantly facilitate calculation and planning of its basic indicators with regard for system and balance requirements, makes it possible to purposefully generate new variants. In this case because of the optimal distribution of the volumes of geological-technical measures, a decrease in the total outlays for their implementation is achieved. Thus for the Berezovskiy field, this saving was R 150,000.

  15. Caffeine as an indicator of estrogenic activity in source water.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montagner, C C; Umbuzeiro, G A; Pasquini, C; Jardim, W F

    2014-08-01

    Caffeine has already been used as an indicator of anthropogenic impacts, especially the ones related to the disposal of sewage in water bodies. In this work, the presence of caffeine has been correlated with the estrogenic activity of water samples measured using the BLYES assay. After testing 96 surface water samples, it was concluded that caffeine can be used to prioritize samples to be tested for estrogenic activity in water quality programs evaluating emerging contaminants with endocrine disruptor activity.

  16. Methodological foundations of evaluation of effectiveness indicators of small-scale business activities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivanova T.

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The methodological approach to the measurement of financial indicators of small-scale enterprises has been developed. It enables to secure the comparability of financial condition indicators and the results of small-scale enterprise activities, and also to develop the methods of vertical integral estimate calculation at separate aspects of financial condition and the results of smallscale enterprise activities.

  17. Blood coagulation parameters and activity indices in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. A. Arshinov

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective. To assess coagulation parameters and activity indices in pts with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE. Material and methods . 86 pts with SLE (83 female and 3 male were examined. 12 of them had antiphospholipid syndrome. Mean age was 35,9±1,5 years (from 18 to 58 years, mean disease duration was 9,8+1,4 years. Control group consisted of 60 healthy volunteers with mean age 37,1+4,1 years. SLE activity assessment was performed with SLAM, SLEDAI and ECLAM indices. Results. SLE pts showed 5-fold (p<0,01 increase of spontaneous platelets aggregation and more than 3-fold increase of factor von Willebrand antigen (FWA concentration. Platelet activation in pts was accompanied by decrease of platelet aggregation with collagen (on 27%, p<0,01. Characteristic sign of coagulation hemostasis activation was significant increase of soluble fibrin-monomer complexes (SFMC concentration on 81 % (p<0,01 so as increase D-dimers level in 53,3% of pts. Fibrinogen concentration was increased on 29%, spontaneous fibrinolysis parameters were decreased on 20%, antithrombin (AT 111 - on 21% in comparison with control. Direct correlation between activity indiccs and SFMC(ECLAM, r=0,5, fibrinogen concentration (SLAM, r=0,34, D- dimers level (ECLAM, r=0,5, spontaneous platelet aggregation (ECLAM, r=0,5 so as inverse correlation with AT III activity (SLEDAI, r-0,73 was revealed. Conclusion. Changes of hemostasis parameters in SLE may serve as predictors of thrombotic disorders development and indication to drug correction of blood coagulation disorders. Direct correlation between blood coagulation system activity and indices of SLE activity.

  18. Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) for insecticides: development of predictive in vivo insecticide activity models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naik, P K; Singh, T; Singh, H

    2009-07-01

    Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analyses were performed independently on data sets belonging to two groups of insecticides, namely the organophosphates and carbamates. Several types of descriptors including topological, spatial, thermodynamic, information content, lead likeness and E-state indices were used to derive quantitative relationships between insecticide activities and structural properties of chemicals. A systematic search approach based on missing value, zero value, simple correlation and multi-collinearity tests as well as the use of a genetic algorithm allowed the optimal selection of the descriptors used to generate the models. The QSAR models developed for both organophosphate and carbamate groups revealed good predictability with r(2) values of 0.949 and 0.838 as well as [image omitted] values of 0.890 and 0.765, respectively. In addition, a linear correlation was observed between the predicted and experimental LD(50) values for the test set data with r(2) of 0.871 and 0.788 for both the organophosphate and carbamate groups, indicating that the prediction accuracy of the QSAR models was acceptable. The models were also tested successfully from external validation criteria. QSAR models developed in this study should help further design of novel potent insecticides.

  19. MODELING OF INDICATORS OF LIVESTOCK IN RUSSIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ekaterina S. Darda

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The role of livestock in food without dangerous country. The analysis of the dynamics of production indicators waspsmainly livestock products. The problems offorecasting-ing performance of LivestockDevelopment of the Russian Federationon the basis of the a-analytical models ofalignment and connected series.

  20. The conceptualization and measurement of cognitive reserve using common proxy indicators: Testing some tenable reflective and formative models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ikanga, Jean; Hill, Elizabeth M; MacDonald, Douglas A

    2017-02-01

    The examination of cognitive reserve (CR) literature reveals a lack of consensus regarding conceptualization and pervasive problems with its measurement. This study aimed at examining the conceptual nature of CR through the analysis of reflective and formative models using eight proxies commonly employed in the CR literature. We hypothesized that all CR proxies would significantly contribute to a one-factor reflective model and that educational and occupational attainment would produce the strongest loadings on a single CR factor. The sample consisted of 149 participants (82 male/67 female), with 18.1 average years of education and ages of 45-99 years. Participants were assessed for eight proxies of CR (parent socioeconomic status, intellectual functioning, level of education, health literacy, occupational prestige, life leisure activities, physical activities, and spiritual and religious activities). Primary statistical analyses consisted of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test reflective models and structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) models. CFA did not produce compelling support for a unitary CR construct when using all eight of our CR proxy variables in a reflective model but fairly cogent evidence for a one-factor model with four variable proxies. A second three-factor reflective model based upon an exploratory principal components analysis of the eight proxies was tested using CFA. Though all eight indicators significantly loaded on their assigned factors, evidence in support of overall model fit was mixed. Based upon the results involving the three-factor reflective model, two alternative formative models were developed and evaluated. While some support was obtained for both, the model in which the formative influences were specified as latent variables appeared to best account for the contributions of all eight proxies to the CR construct. While the findings provide partial support for our

  1. [Influence of ademol on NO metabolism indices in rats with modeling myocardial infarction].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khodakivs'kyĭ, O A; Pavlov, S V; Bukhtiiarova, N V

    2013-01-01

    It was established in experiments on the rats in the acute period of modeling pituitrin-isadrin myocardial infarction the formation of nitrogen monoxide decreases along with its accelerated transformation into peroxynitrite. It was evidenced by more than double inhibition of NO synthase activity in the myocardium and by decreasing the amount of nitrates on the background of the increasing level of peroxynitrites' marker--nitrotyrosine by 246.6% at an average. Experimental therapy of rats by ademol which is a derivate of adamantan (1-adamantiloxy-3-morpholino-2 propanol hydrochloride) better than by corvitin normalizes the processes of synthesis of nitric oxide. At the same time ademol probably exceeded the reference drug in ability to increase NO synthase activity and amount of nitrate, and promoted a decrease of the level of nitrotyrosine in the myocardium on the average by 36.3; 50.6 and 12.7%, respectively. Corrective influence of ademol on indicators of metabolism in NO system under the conditions of acute cardiac ischemia indicates to promicing development of domestic cardioprotector on its base.

  2. How to use composite indicator and linear programming model for determine sustainable tourism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ziaabadi, Maryam; Malakootian, Mohammad; Zare Mehrjerdi, Mohammad Reza; Jalaee, Seied Abdolmajid; Mehrabi Boshrabadi, Hosein

    2017-01-01

    The tourism industry which is one of the most dynamic economic activities in today's world plays a significant role in the sustainable development. Therefore, in addition to paying attention to tourism, sustainable tourism must be taken into huge account; otherwise, the environment and its health will be damaged irreparably. To determine the level of sustainability in this study, indicators of sustainable tourism were first presented in three environmental health, economic and social aspects. Then, the levels of sustainable tourism and environmental sustainability were practically measured in different cities of Kerman Province using a composite indicator, a linear programming model, Delphi method and the questionnaire technique. Finally, the study cities (tourist attractions) were ranked. Result of this study showed that unfortunately the tourism opportunities were not used appropriately in these cities and tourist destinations, and that environmental aspect (health and environmental sustainability) had very bad situations compared to social and economic aspects. In other words, environmental health had the lowest levels of sustainability. The environment is a place for all human activities like tourism, social and economic issues; therefore, its stability and health is of great importance. Thus, it is necessary to pay more attention to sustainability of activities, management and environmental health in planning sustainable development in regional and national policy.

  3. Histologic scoring indices for evaluation of disease activity in Crohn's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Novak, Gregor; Parker, Claire E; Pai, Rish K; MacDonald, John K; Feagan, Brian G; Sandborn, William J; D'Haens, Geert; Jairath, Vipul; Khanna, Reena

    2017-07-21

    Histologic assessment of mucosal disease activity has been increasingly used in clinical trials of treatment for Crohn's disease. However, the operating properties of the currently existing histologic scoring indices remain unclear. A systematic review was undertaken to evaluate the development and operating characteristics of available histologic disease activity indices in Crohn's disease. Electronic searches of MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library (CENTRAL) databases from inception to 20 July 2016 were supplemented by manual reviews of bibliographies and abstracts submitted to major gastroenterology meetings (Digestive Disease Week, United European Gastroenterology Week, European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation). Any study design (e.g. randomised controlled trial, cohort study, case series) that evaluated a histologic disease activity index in patients with Crohn's disease was considered for inclusion. Study participants included adult patients (> 16 years), diagnosed with Crohn's disease using conventional clinical, radiographic or endoscopic criteria. Two authors independently reviewed the titles and abstracts of the studies identified from the literature search. The full text of potentially relevant citations were reviewed for inclusion and the study investigators were contacted as needed for clarification. Any disagreements regarding study eligibility were resolved by discussion and consensus with a third author.Two authors independently extracted and recorded data using a standard form. The following data were recorded from each eligible study: number of patients enrolled; number of patients per treatment arm; patient characteristics: age and gender distribution; description of histologic disease activity index utilized; and outcomes such as content validity, construct validity, criterion validity, responsiveness, intra-rater reliability, inter-rater reliability, and feasibility. Sixteen reports of 14 studies describing 14 different numerical

  4. Fish biomarkers for environmental monitoring: An integrated model supporting enzyme activity and histopathological lesions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neta, Raimunda Nonata Fortes Carvalho; Torres Junior, Audalio Rebelo

    2014-10-01

    We present a mathematical model describing the association between glutathione-S-transferase activity and brachial lesions in the catfish, Sciades herzbergii (Ariidae) from a polluted port. The catfish were sampled from a port known to be contaminated with heavy metals and organic compounds and from a natural reserve in São Marcos Bay, Brazil. Two biomarkers, hepatic glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity and histopathological lesions, in gills tissue were measured. The values for GST activity were modeled with the occurrence of branchial lesions by fitting a third order polynomial. Results from the mathematical model indicate that GST activity has a strong polynomial relationship with the occurrence of branchial lesions in both the wet and the dry seasons, but only at the polluted port site. The model developed in this study indicates that branchial and hepatic lesions are initiated when GST activity reaches 2.15 μmol min-1 mg protein-1. Beyond this limit, GST activity decreased to very low levels and irreversible histopathological lesions occurred. This mathematical model provides a realistic approach to analyze predictive biomarkers of environmental health status.

  5. Pollution evaluation in the Shahrood River: Do physico-chemical and macroinvertebrate-based indices indicate same responses to anthropogenic activities?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharifinia, Moslem; Mahmoudifard, Abbas; Imanpour Namin, Javid; Ramezanpour, Zohreh; Yap, Chee Kong

    2016-09-01

    This study evaluates the impact of anthropogenic activities on the Shahrood River using water physico-chemical variables and macroinvertebrates data sets obtained over a period of 12 months between February 2012 and February 2013 at 8 sampling sites. Biotic indices i.e. FBI and BMWP based on macroinvertebrates and physico-chemical indices (MPI, HPI and NSF-WQI) were employed to evaluate the water quality status in connection with natural- and human-induced pressures. Based on physico-chemical indices, water quality was categorized as low polluted level and it is suitable for drinking purposes. The water quality based on biotic indices was related to the anthropic activities; a clear deterioration of the water quality was observed from upstream to downstream sites. The water quality along the river changed from very good (class I; reference sites) to good (class II; midstream sites) and turned into moderate (class III) and poor (class IV) quality (downstream sites). These findings indicate that biotic indices are more powerful indicators in assessing water quality than physico-chemical indices. Allocapnia, Glossosoma and Hesperoperla were exclusively related to least disturbed sites, and Naididae, Orthocladiinae and Ecdyonurus were found in sites showing notable degradation. Our results recommended that the use of macroinvertebrates could be employed as a cost-effective tool for biomonitoring and controlling of polluted riverine ecosystems in the Middle East. Finally, the results from this study may be useful not only for developing countries, but also for any organization struggling to use macroinvertebrate based indices with restricted financial resources and knowledge. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Global Indicators Analysis and Consultancy Experience Insights into Correlation between Entrepreneurial Activities and Business Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jovan Krivokapić

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Many researches and practical experiences clearly indicate the existence of a strong relationship between entrepreneurial activities and the business environment in which these activities are initiated. Although this topic has been quite ignored until the late twentieth century, a lot of studies and consulting practice have contributed to the fact that there are now a number of theories concerning mentioned correlation. These theories aim to offer a model that would provide better utilization of the possibilities from the business environment which could be very important for the development from both macroeconomic and microeconomic aspects. An increasing number of articles on this topic says enough about its importance, and numerous researches by many reputable globally recognized institutions go in favor of this claim. There are many indicators that observe the economic situation in a country or a region from different aspects, so the analyses of these indicators make it possible to determine the specific relationships between entrepreneurial activities and the local and the global business environment. Given the complexity of these relations, the impact cannot be observed partially, without taking into consideration other important factors, but more detailed analyses, however, result in some useful conclusions, which in the proper context can have a positive impact on many economic factors. It is very important to emphasize the fact that the correlation between the business environment and entrepreneurial activities is bidirectional, since this influence is mutual, so that changes in one of these factors can and usually cause some modifications in the other. Frequent series of such iterations actually lead to changes in the business environment, while entrepreneurial activity changes its shape and affects the economy of a country or a region, which is of particular importance for its competitiveness in the era of globalization.

  7. Environmental Indicator Principium with Case References to Agricultural Soil, Water, and Air Quality and Model-Derived Indicators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, T Q; Zheng, Z M; Lal, R; Lin, Z Q; Sharpley, A N; Shober, A L; Smith, D; Tan, C S; Van Cappellen, P

    2018-03-01

    Environmental indicators are powerful tools for tracking environmental changes, measuring environmental performance, and informing policymakers. Many diverse environmental indicators, including agricultural environmental indicators, are currently in use or being developed. This special collection of technical papers expands on the peer-reviewed literature on environmental indicators and their application to important current issues in the following areas: (i) model-derived indicators to indicate phosphorus losses from arable land to surface runoff and subsurface drainage, (ii) glutathione-ascorbate cycle-related antioxidants as early-warning bioindicators of polybrominated diphenyl ether toxicity in mangroves, and (iii) assessing the effectiveness of using organic matrix biobeds to limit herbicide dissipation from agricultural fields, thereby controlling on-farm point-source pollution. This introductory review also provides an overview of environmental indicators, mainly for agriculture, with examples related to the quality of the agricultural soil-water-air continuum and the application of model-derived indicators. Current knowledge gaps and future lines of investigation are also discussed. It appears that environmental indicators, particularly those for agriculture, work efficiently at the field, catchment, and local scales and serve as valuable metrics of system functioning and response; however, these indicators need to be refined or further developed to comprehensively meet community expectations in terms of providing a consistent picture of relevant issues and/or allowing comparisons to be made nationally or internationally. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  8. Methods of Modelling Marketing Activity on Software Sales

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bashirov Islam H.

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available The article studies a topical issue of development of methods of modelling marketing activity on software sales for achievement of efficient functioning of an enterprise. On the basis of analysis of the market type for the studied CloudLinux OS product, the article identifies the market structure type: monopolistic competition. To ensure the information basis of the marketing activity in the target market segment, the article offers the survey method. The article provides a questionnaire, which contains specific questions regarding the studied market segment of hosting services, for an online survey with the help of the Survio service. In accordance with the system approach the CloudLinux OS has properties of systems, namely, diversity. Economic differences are non-price indicators that have no numeric expression and are quality descriptions. Analysis of the market and the conducted survey allow obtaining them. Combination of price and non-price indicators provides a complete description of the product properties. To calculate an integral indicator of competitiveness the article offers to apply a model, which is based on the direct algebraic addition of weight measures of individual indicators, regulation of formalised indicators and use of the mechanism of fuzzy sets for identification of non-formalised indicators. The calculated indicator allows not only assessment of the current level of competitiveness, but also identification of influence of changes of various indicators, which allows increase of efficiency of marketing decisions. Also, having identified the target customers of hosting OS and formalised non-price parameters, it is possible to conduct the search for a set of optimal characteristics of the product. In the result an optimal strategy of the product advancement to the market is formed.

  9. Groundwater development stress: Global-scale indices compared to regional modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alley, William; Clark, Brian R.; Ely, Matt; Faunt, Claudia

    2018-01-01

    The increased availability of global datasets and technologies such as global hydrologic models and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites have resulted in a growing number of global-scale assessments of water availability using simple indices of water stress. Developed initially for surface water, such indices are increasingly used to evaluate global groundwater resources. We compare indices of groundwater development stress for three major agricultural areas of the United States to information available from regional water budgets developed from detailed groundwater modeling. These comparisons illustrate the potential value of regional-scale analyses to supplement global hydrological models and GRACE analyses of groundwater depletion. Regional-scale analyses allow assessments of water stress that better account for scale effects, the dynamics of groundwater flow systems, the complexities of irrigated agricultural systems, and the laws, regulations, engineering, and socioeconomic factors that govern groundwater use. Strategic use of regional-scale models with global-scale analyses would greatly enhance knowledge of the global groundwater depletion problem.

  10. Econometric Models for Forecasting of Macroeconomic Indices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sukhanova, Elena I.; Shirnaeva, Svetlana Y.; Mokronosov, Aleksandr G.

    2016-01-01

    The urgency of the research topic was stipulated by the necessity to carry out an effective controlled process by the economic system which can hardly be imagined without indices forecasting characteristic of this system. An econometric model is a safe tool of forecasting which makes it possible to take into consideration the trend of indices…

  11. County-Scale Spatial Distribution of Soil Enzyme Activities and Enzyme Activity Indices in Agricultural Land: Implications for Soil Quality Assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiangping Tan

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Here the spatial distribution of soil enzymatic properties in agricultural land was evaluated on a county-wide (567 km2 scale in Changwu, Shaanxi Province, China. The spatial variations in activities of five hydrolytic enzymes were examined using geostatistical methods. The relationships between soil enzyme activities and other soil properties were evaluated using both an integrated total enzyme activity index (TEI and the geometric mean of enzyme activities (GME. At the county scale, soil invertase, phosphatase, and catalase activities were moderately spatially correlated, whereas urease and dehydrogenase activities were weakly spatially correlated. Correlation analysis showed that both TEI and GME were better correlated with selected soil physicochemical properties than single enzyme activities. Multivariate regression analysis showed that soil OM content had the strongest positive effect while soil pH had a negative effect on the two enzyme activity indices. In addition, total phosphorous content had a positive effect on TEI and GME in orchard soils, whereas alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen and available potassium contents, respectively, had negative and positive effects on these two enzyme indices in cropland soils. The results indicate that land use changes strongly affect soil enzyme activities in agricultural land, where TEI provides a sensitive biological indicator for soil quality.

  12. [The association between socioeconomic indicators andadolescents'physical activity and health-related fitness].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Constantino-Coledam, Diogo H; Ferraiol, Philippe Fanelli; Arruda, Gustavo Aires de; Pires-Júnior, Raymundo; Teixeira, Marcio; Greca, João Paulo de Aguiar; Oliveira, Arli Ramos de

    2013-01-01

    This study was aimed at analysing the association between socioeconomic indicators and adolescents' physical activity and health-related fitness. The study involved 716 adolescents from both genders whose age ranged from 10 to 18 years-old (46.8% male) who answered a questionnaire for estimating their habitual physical activity, socioeconomic status; two health-related physical fitness tests were also performed. The socioeconomic indicators analysed concerned their parents' educational level and the number of bathrooms, TVs, cars, housemaids, refrigerators and freezers in their homes. A positive association was found between paternal education (PR=1.61 (range 1.27-2.10) and 1.41 (1.10-1.83)) and housemaids (PR=1.97 (1.04-3.81) and 1.92 (1.05-3.52)) with recommended physical activity and leisure time physical activity, respectively. The number of cars (PR=1.48: 1.02-2.19) and freezers (PR=1.88: 1.12-3.18) was positively associated with leisure time physical activity and the number of TVs negatively so (PR=0.75: 0.63-0.89). The number of TVs (PR=0.80: 0.67-0.96) and cars (PR=0.70: 0.55-0.89) was negatively associated with cardiorespiratory fitness whilst paternal education (PR=1.17: 1.00-1.37) and the number of bathrooms in the home (PR=1.25: 1.02-1.54) were positively associated with muscular strength. Physical activity and health-related physical fitness were associated with socioeconomic status. However, such association depended on the socioeconomic indicator being analysed. Caution should be taken when analysing studies which use different socioeconomic indicators.

  13. The photochemical reflectance index provides an optical indicator of spring photosynthetic activation in evergreen conifers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Christopher Y S; Gamon, John A

    2015-04-01

    In evergreens, the seasonal down-regulation and reactivation of photosynthesis is largely invisible and difficult to assess with remote sensing. This invisible phenology may be changing as a result of climate change. To better understand the mechanism and timing of these hidden physiological transitions, we explored several assays and optical indicators of spring photosynthetic activation in conifers exposed to a boreal climate. The photochemical reflectance index (PRI), chlorophyll fluorescence, and leaf pigments for evergreen conifer seedlings were monitored over 1 yr of a boreal climate with the addition of gas exchange during the spring. PRI, electron transport rate, pigment levels, light-use efficiency and photosynthesis all exhibited striking seasonal changes, with varying kinetics and strengths of correlation, which were used to evaluate the mechanisms and timing of spring activation. PRI and pigment pools were closely timed with photosynthetic reactivation measured by gas exchange. The PRI provided a clear optical indicator of spring photosynthetic activation that was detectable at leaf and stand scales in conifers. We propose that PRI might provide a useful metric of effective growing season length amenable to remote sensing and could improve remote-sensing-driven models of carbon uptake in evergreen ecosystems. © 2015 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2015 New Phytologist Trust.

  14. Bayesian Geostatistical Modeling of Malaria Indicator Survey Data in Angola

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gosoniu, Laura; Veta, Andre Mia; Vounatsou, Penelope

    2010-01-01

    The 2006–2007 Angola Malaria Indicator Survey (AMIS) is the first nationally representative household survey in the country assessing coverage of the key malaria control interventions and measuring malaria-related burden among children under 5 years of age. In this paper, the Angolan MIS data were analyzed to produce the first smooth map of parasitaemia prevalence based on contemporary nationwide empirical data in the country. Bayesian geostatistical models were fitted to assess the effect of interventions after adjusting for environmental, climatic and socio-economic factors. Non-linear relationships between parasitaemia risk and environmental predictors were modeled by categorizing the covariates and by employing two non-parametric approaches, the B-splines and the P-splines. The results of the model validation showed that the categorical model was able to better capture the relationship between parasitaemia prevalence and the environmental factors. Model fit and prediction were handled within a Bayesian framework using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations. Combining estimates of parasitaemia prevalence with the number of children under we obtained estimates of the number of infected children in the country. The population-adjusted prevalence ranges from in Namibe province to in Malanje province. The odds of parasitaemia in children living in a household with at least ITNs per person was by 41% lower (CI: 14%, 60%) than in those with fewer ITNs. The estimates of the number of parasitaemic children produced in this paper are important for planning and implementing malaria control interventions and for monitoring the impact of prevention and control activities. PMID:20351775

  15. Social Inequalities on Selected Determinants of Active Aging and Health Status Indicators in a Large Brazilian City (2003-2010).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braga, Luciana de Souza; Lima-Costa, Maria Fernanda; César, Cibele Comini; Macinko, James

    2016-02-01

    To assess trends in social inequalities among 2,624 elderly living in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in three domains of the World Health Organization's Active Aging model (physical environment, social determinants, use of health services) and health status indicators. Data came from two representative household surveys conducted in 2003 and 2010. Social inequality was measured by the slope and the relative index of inequality. Educational level was used to define socioeconomic status. Significant improvements were observed in the prevalence rates of 7 out of 12 indicators. However, the social inequalities persisted through 10 out of 12 selected active aging and health status indicators, except for fear of falling on the sidewalks/crossing the streets and fear of being robbed. Social inequalities persistence might be assigned to the continuity of unequal distribution of resources among groups with different educational levels. © The Author(s) 2015.

  16. Environmental indicators and international models for making decision

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Polanco, Camilo

    2006-01-01

    The last international features proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD) and United Nations (UN) are analyzed in the use of the environmental indicators, in typology, selection criteria, and models, for organizing the information for management, environmental performance, and decision making. The advantages and disadvantages of each model are analyzed, as well as their environmental index characteristics. The analyzed models are Pressure - State - Response (PSR) and its conceptual developments: Driving Force - State Response (DSR), Driving Force - Pressure - State - Impact - Response (DPSIR), Model- Flow-Quality (MFQ), Pressure - State - Impact - Effect - Response (PSIER), and, finally, Pressure-State - Impact - Effect - Response - Management (PSIERM). The use of one or another model will depend on the quality of the available information, as well as on the proposed objectives

  17. The modeling of response indicators of integrated water resources ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The results indicate that the feed forward multilayer perceptron models with back propagation are useful tools to define and prioritize the most effective response variable on water resources mobilization to intervene and solve water problems. The model evaluation shows that the correlation coefficients are more than 96% ...

  18. Breakthrough indicator for aromatic VOCs using needle trap samplers for activated carbon adsorbent.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Wen-Hsi; Jiang, Jia-Rong; Huang, Yi-Ning; Huang, Shiun-Chian; Yu, Yan-Pin

    2012-08-01

    Internal circulation cabinets equipped with granular activated carbon (GAC) for adsorbing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are widely used to store bottles containing organic solvents in universities, colleges, and hospital laboratories throughout Taiwan. This work evaluates the VOC adsorption capacities of GAC using various adsorption times for gas stream mixtures of 100 ppm toluene and 100 ppm o-xylene. Additionally, needle trap sampling (NTS) technology was used to indicate the time for renewing the GAC to avoid VOC breakthrough from adsorbents. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed models can linearly express toluene and o-xylene adsorption capacities as the natural logarithm of adsorption time (ln(t)) and can accurately simulate the equilibrium adsorption capacities (Qe, g VOCs/g GAC) for gaseous toluene and o-xylene. The NTS, packed with 60-80 mesh divinylbenzene (DVB) particles, was compared in terms of extraction efficiency by simultaneously using the 75-microm Carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane-solid-phase microextraction (Carboxen/PDMS-SPME) fiber for time-weighted average (TWA) sampling, and experimental results indicated that the packed DVB-NTS achieved higher toluene extraction rates. Additionally, the NTS installed in the outlet air stream for adsorbing toluene and o-xylene exhausted through GAC accurately indicated toluene and o-xylene breakthrough times of 4700-5000 min. The GAC-NTS operational instructions to indicate the replacing time of adsorbent in the internal circulation cabinets are also included in this paper.

  19. Patterns of physical activity and obesity indices among white-collar men in Taiwan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liou, Yiing Mei

    2007-06-01

    The purposes of this study were to identify patterns of physical activity among white-collar men in Taiwan and to analyze the relationships between physical activity patterns and obesity indices. This cross-sectional survey included 350 subjects (between 21 and 75 years old). The Monitoring Trends and Determinants of Cardiovascular Disease Optional Study of Physical Activity Questionnaire (MOSPA-Q), developed and published by the World Health Organization (WHO) was used to measure subjects' daily energy expenditures attributed to physical activity. Obesity indices included body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist/hip ratio (WHR), body fat percentage, total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Three patterns of physical activity, namely work-oriented, active, and light-active lifestyles, were identified through cluster analysis. The work-oriented group reported spending the most amount of time on work-related activities (10.5 hours/week). The active group spent the most time (1 hour/day) of the three groups on leisure activities. The light-active group spent the most time (7 hours/day) of the three groups on light activities. Referencing the 150 minutes/week of moderate- intensity physical activity recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) for health gain as a cut-off point, 1.1%, 15.2%, and 29.1% of subjects in the active, light-active and work-oriented groups, respectively, failed to achieve this minimal level. Those in the work-oriented group categorized in high work-overload and prevalent inactivity situations returned the worst obesity indices (Body weight, BMI, WHR, and body fat percentages) adjusted by age.

  20. Caffeine As An Indicator Of Estrogenic Activity In Source Water.

    OpenAIRE

    Montagner, C C; Umbuzeiro, G A; Pasquini, C; Jardim, W F

    2015-01-01

    Caffeine has already been used as an indicator of anthropogenic impacts, especially the ones related to the disposal of sewage in water bodies. In this work, the presence of caffeine has been correlated with the estrogenic activity of water samples measured using the BLYES assay. After testing 96 surface water samples, it was concluded that caffeine can be used to prioritize samples to be tested for estrogenic activity in water quality programs evaluating emerging contaminants with endocrine ...

  1. Sensitivity analysis of model output - a step towards robust safety indicators?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Broed, R.; Pereira, A.; Moberg, L.

    2004-01-01

    The protection of the environment from ionising radiation challenges the radioecological community with the issue of harmonising disparate safety indicators. These indicators should preferably cover the whole spectrum of model predictions on chemo-toxic and radiation impact of contaminants. In question is not only the protection of man and biota but also of abiotic systems. In many cases modelling will constitute the basis for an evaluation of potential impact. It is recognised that uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of model output will play an important role in the 'construction' of safety indicators that are robust, reliable and easy to explain to all groups of stakeholders including the general public. However, environmental models of transport of radionuclides have some extreme characteristics. They are, a) complex, b) non-linear, c) include a huge number of input parameters, d) input parameters are associated with large or very large uncertainties, e) parameters are often correlated to each other, f) uncertainties other than parameter-driven may be present in the modelling system, g) space variability and time-dependence of parameters are present, h) model predictions may cover geological time scales. Consequently, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis are non-trivial tasks, challenging the decision-maker when it comes to the interpretation of safety indicators or the application of regulatory criteria. In this work we use the IAEA model ISAM, to make a set of Monte Carlo calculations. The ISAM model includes several nuclides and decay chains, many compartments and variable parameters covering the range of nuclide migration pathways from the near field to the biosphere. The goal of our calculations is to make a global sensitivity analysis. After extracting the non-influential parameters, the M.C. calculations are repeated with those parameters frozen. Reducing the number of parameters to a few ones will simplify the interpretation of the results and the use

  2. Improved infrared-sensing running wheel systems with an effective exercise activity indicator.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Chi-Chun; Chang, Ming-Wen; Chang, Ching-Ping; Chang, Wen-Ying; Chang, Shin-Chieh; Lin, Mao-Tsun; Yang, Chin-Lung

    2015-01-01

    This paper describes an infrared-sensing running wheel (ISRW) system for the quantitative measurement of effective exercise activity in rats. The ISRW system provides superior exercise training compared with commercially available traditional animal running platforms. Four infrared (IR) light-emitting diode/detector pairs embedded around the rim of the wheel detect the rat's real-time position; the acrylic wheel has a diameter of 55 cm and a thickness of 15 cm, that is, it is larger and thicker than traditional exercise wheels, and it is equipped with a rubber track. The acrylic wheel hangs virtually frictionless, and a DC motor with an axially mounted rubber wheel, which has a diameter of 10 cm, drives the acrylic wheel from the outer edge. The system can automatically train rats to run persistently. The proposed system can determine effective exercise activity (EEA), with the IR sensors (which are connected to a conventional PC) recording the rat exercise behavior. A prototype of the system was verified by a hospital research group performing ischemic stroke experiments on rats by considering middle cerebral artery occlusion. The experimental data demonstrated that the proposed system provides greater neuroprotection in an animal stroke model compared with a conventional treadmill and a motorized running wheel for a given exercise intensity. The quantitative exercise effectiveness indicator showed a 92% correlation between an increase in the EEA and a decrease in the infarct volume. This indicator can be used as a noninvasive and objective reference in clinical animal exercise experiments.

  3. Improved infrared-sensing running wheel systems with an effective exercise activity indicator.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chi-Chun Chen

    Full Text Available This paper describes an infrared-sensing running wheel (ISRW system for the quantitative measurement of effective exercise activity in rats. The ISRW system provides superior exercise training compared with commercially available traditional animal running platforms. Four infrared (IR light-emitting diode/detector pairs embedded around the rim of the wheel detect the rat's real-time position; the acrylic wheel has a diameter of 55 cm and a thickness of 15 cm, that is, it is larger and thicker than traditional exercise wheels, and it is equipped with a rubber track. The acrylic wheel hangs virtually frictionless, and a DC motor with an axially mounted rubber wheel, which has a diameter of 10 cm, drives the acrylic wheel from the outer edge. The system can automatically train rats to run persistently. The proposed system can determine effective exercise activity (EEA, with the IR sensors (which are connected to a conventional PC recording the rat exercise behavior. A prototype of the system was verified by a hospital research group performing ischemic stroke experiments on rats by considering middle cerebral artery occlusion. The experimental data demonstrated that the proposed system provides greater neuroprotection in an animal stroke model compared with a conventional treadmill and a motorized running wheel for a given exercise intensity. The quantitative exercise effectiveness indicator showed a 92% correlation between an increase in the EEA and a decrease in the infarct volume. This indicator can be used as a noninvasive and objective reference in clinical animal exercise experiments.

  4. The impact of green logistics-based activities on the sustainable monetary expansion indicators of Oman

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alshubiri, Faris

    2017-01-01

    's economy also activating the industrial sectors by reducing operating costs and improving the quality of service provided to customers as an indicator of social activities to building green logistic and increase corporate awareness about an environmental variables and behavior of consumers to establish financial and economic system based on green logistical concept. Research limitations The available data in statistical annual report of Oman is limited, which limited of the period and all variables of the study. Practical implications: The management of firms should be adopting of green logistic operations by comparing the results of these concepts with competitors in the market for concentrated position of these firms in the market. Also this concept of green logistic helps firms to build an intellectual model that’s contributes to enhance the value-added. The results of this study enhance the stability of monastery policy indicators that’s reflecting of growth economic. Social implications: Green logistic is presenting a behavior role on the firm’s and country performance and determines the trends and attitudes of future growth of firms especially in environment indicator. Originality/value: This study aims to analysis the green logistic in the financial economic, social and environment that’s reflect more variations especially as they affected by changes of global markets, particularly with respect to the oil price, which is the main source of revenue for the Sultanate of Oman as the green logistic is one of the modern concepts is influencing the construction of corporate strategies to build economic plans of the country. Also this study has supplied researcher's conceptual framework to explain the green logistic in preparation for many future studies to examine the elements of green logistic.

  5. The impact of green logistics-based activities on the sustainable monetary expansion indicators of Oman

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Alshubiri, Faris

    2017-07-01

    's economy also activating the industrial sectors by reducing operating costs and improving the quality of service provided to customers as an indicator of social activities to building green logistic and increase corporate awareness about an environmental variables and behavior of consumers to establish financial and economic system based on green logistical concept. Research limitations The available data in statistical annual report of Oman is limited, which limited of the period and all variables of the study. Practical implications: The management of firms should be adopting of green logistic operations by comparing the results of these concepts with competitors in the market for concentrated position of these firms in the market. Also this concept of green logistic helps firms to build an intellectual model that’s contributes to enhance the value-added. The results of this study enhance the stability of monastery policy indicators that’s reflecting of growth economic. Social implications: Green logistic is presenting a behavior role on the firm’s and country performance and determines the trends and attitudes of future growth of firms especially in environment indicator. Originality/value: This study aims to analysis the green logistic in the financial economic, social and environment that’s reflect more variations especially as they affected by changes of global markets, particularly with respect to the oil price, which is the main source of revenue for the Sultanate of Oman as the green logistic is one of the modern concepts is influencing the construction of corporate strategies to build economic plans of the country. Also this study has supplied researcher's conceptual framework to explain the green logistic in preparation for many future studies to examine the elements of green logistic.

  6. Bilevel Traffic Evacuation Model and Algorithm Design for Large-Scale Activities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danwen Bao

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper establishes a bilevel planning model with one master and multiple slaves to solve traffic evacuation problems. The minimum evacuation network saturation and shortest evacuation time are used as the objective functions for the upper- and lower-level models, respectively. The optimizing conditions of this model are also analyzed. An improved particle swarm optimization (PSO method is proposed by introducing an electromagnetism-like mechanism to solve the bilevel model and enhance its convergence efficiency. A case study is carried out using the Nanjing Olympic Sports Center. The results indicate that, for large-scale activities, the average evacuation time of the classic model is shorter but the road saturation distribution is more uneven. Thus, the overall evacuation efficiency of the network is not high. For induced emergencies, the evacuation time of the bilevel planning model is shortened. When the audience arrival rate is increased from 50% to 100%, the evacuation time is shortened from 22% to 35%, indicating that the optimization effect of the bilevel planning model is more effective compared to the classic model. Therefore, the model and algorithm presented in this paper can provide a theoretical basis for the traffic-induced evacuation decision making of large-scale activities.

  7. The ACTIVE conceptual framework as a structural equation model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gross, Alden L.; Payne, Brennan R.; Casanova, Ramon; Davoudzadeh, Pega; Dzierzewski, Joseph M.; Farias, Sarah; Giovannetti, Tania; Ip, Edward H.; Marsiske, Michael; Rebok, George W.; Schaie, K. Warner; Thomas, Kelsey; Willis, Sherry; Jones, Richard N.

    2018-01-01

    Background/Study Context Conceptual frameworks are analytic models at a high level of abstraction. Their operationalization can inform randomized trial design and sample size considerations. Methods The Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) conceptual framework was empirically tested using structural equation modeling (N=2,802). ACTIVE was guided by a conceptual framework for cognitive training in which proximal cognitive abilities (memory, inductive reasoning, speed of processing) mediate treatment-related improvement in primary outcomes (everyday problem-solving, difficulty with activities of daily living, everyday speed, driving difficulty), which in turn lead to improved secondary outcomes (health-related quality of life, health service utilization, mobility). Measurement models for each proximal, primary, and secondary outcome were developed and tested using baseline data. Each construct was then combined in one model to evaluate fit (RMSEA, CFI, normalized residuals of each indicator). To expand the conceptual model and potentially inform future trials, evidence of modification of structural model parameters was evaluated by age, years of education, sex, race, and self-rated health status. Results Preconceived measurement models for memory, reasoning, speed of processing, everyday problem-solving, instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) difficulty, everyday speed, driving difficulty, and health-related quality of life each fit well to the data (all RMSEA .95). Fit of the full model was excellent (RMSEA = .038; CFI = .924). In contrast with previous findings from ACTIVE regarding who benefits from training, interaction testing revealed associations between proximal abilities and primary outcomes are stronger on average by nonwhite race, worse health, older age, and less education (p conceptual model. Findings suggest that the types of people who show intervention effects on cognitive performance potentially may be

  8. The ACTIVE conceptual framework as a structural equation model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gross, Alden L; Payne, Brennan R; Casanova, Ramon; Davoudzadeh, Pega; Dzierzewski, Joseph M; Farias, Sarah; Giovannetti, Tania; Ip, Edward H; Marsiske, Michael; Rebok, George W; Schaie, K Warner; Thomas, Kelsey; Willis, Sherry; Jones, Richard N

    2018-01-01

    Background/Study Context: Conceptual frameworks are analytic models at a high level of abstraction. Their operationalization can inform randomized trial design and sample size considerations. The Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) conceptual framework was empirically tested using structural equation modeling (N=2,802). ACTIVE was guided by a conceptual framework for cognitive training in which proximal cognitive abilities (memory, inductive reasoning, speed of processing) mediate treatment-related improvement in primary outcomes (everyday problem-solving, difficulty with activities of daily living, everyday speed, driving difficulty), which in turn lead to improved secondary outcomes (health-related quality of life, health service utilization, mobility). Measurement models for each proximal, primary, and secondary outcome were developed and tested using baseline data. Each construct was then combined in one model to evaluate fit (RMSEA, CFI, normalized residuals of each indicator). To expand the conceptual model and potentially inform future trials, evidence of modification of structural model parameters was evaluated by age, years of education, sex, race, and self-rated health status. Preconceived measurement models for memory, reasoning, speed of processing, everyday problem-solving, instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) difficulty, everyday speed, driving difficulty, and health-related quality of life each fit well to the data (all RMSEA .95). Fit of the full model was excellent (RMSEA = .038; CFI = .924). In contrast with previous findings from ACTIVE regarding who benefits from training, interaction testing revealed associations between proximal abilities and primary outcomes are stronger on average by nonwhite race, worse health, older age, and less education (p conceptual model. Findings suggest that the types of people who show intervention effects on cognitive performance potentially may be different from

  9. Activity-based DEVS modeling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Alshareef, Abdurrahman; Sarjoughian, Hessam S.; Zarrin, Bahram

    2018-01-01

    architecture and the UML concepts. In this paper, we further this work by grounding Activity-based DEVS modeling and developing a fully-fledged modeling engine to demonstrate applicability. We also detail the relevant aspects of the created metamodel in terms of modeling and simulation. A significant number......Use of model-driven approaches has been increasing to significantly benefit the process of building complex systems. Recently, an approach for specifying model behavior using UML activities has been devised to support the creation of DEVS models in a disciplined manner based on the model driven...... of the artifacts of the UML 2.5 activities and actions, from the vantage point of DEVS behavioral modeling, is covered in details. Their semantics are discussed to the extent of time-accurate requirements for simulation. We characterize them in correspondence with the specification of the atomic model behavior. We...

  10. The role of Patient Health Engagement Model (PHE-model in affecting patient activation and medication adherence: A structural equation model.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guendalina Graffigna

    Full Text Available Increasing bodies of scientific research today examines the factors and interventions affecting patients' ability to self-manage and adhere to treatment. Patient activation is considered the most reliable indicator of patients' ability to manage health autonomously. Only a few studies have tried to assess the role of psychosocial factors in promoting patient activation. A more systematic modeling of the psychosocial factors explaining the variance of patient activation is needed.To test the hypothesized effect of patient activation on medication adherence; to test the the hypothesized effects of positive emotions and of the quality of the patient/doctor relationship on patient activation; and to test the hypothesized mediating effect of Patient Health Engagement (PHE-model in this pathway.This cross-sectional study involved 352 Italian-speaking adult chronic patients. The survey included measures of i patient activation (Patient Activation Measure 13 -short form; ii Patient Health Engagement model (Patient Health Engagement Scale; iii patient adherence (4 item-Morinsky Medication Adherence Scale; iv the quality of the patients' emotional feelings (Manikin Self Assessment Scale; v the quality of the patient/doctor relationship (Health Care Climate Questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses proposed.According to the theoretical model we hypothesized, research results confirmed that patients' activation significantly affects their reported medication adherence. Moreover, psychosocial factors, such as the patients' quality of the emotional feelings and the quality of the patient/doctor relationship were demonstrated to be factors affecting the level of patient activation. Finally, the mediation effect of the Patient Health Engagement model was confirmed by the analysis.Consistently with the results of previous studies, these findings demonstrate that the Patient Health Engagement Model is a critical factor in

  11. The role of Patient Health Engagement Model (PHE-model) in affecting patient activation and medication adherence: A structural equation model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Graffigna, Guendalina; Barello, Serena; Bonanomi, Andrea

    2017-01-01

    Increasing bodies of scientific research today examines the factors and interventions affecting patients' ability to self-manage and adhere to treatment. Patient activation is considered the most reliable indicator of patients' ability to manage health autonomously. Only a few studies have tried to assess the role of psychosocial factors in promoting patient activation. A more systematic modeling of the psychosocial factors explaining the variance of patient activation is needed. To test the hypothesized effect of patient activation on medication adherence; to test the the hypothesized effects of positive emotions and of the quality of the patient/doctor relationship on patient activation; and to test the hypothesized mediating effect of Patient Health Engagement (PHE-model) in this pathway. This cross-sectional study involved 352 Italian-speaking adult chronic patients. The survey included measures of i) patient activation (Patient Activation Measure 13 -short form); ii) Patient Health Engagement model (Patient Health Engagement Scale); iii) patient adherence (4 item-Morinsky Medication Adherence Scale); iv) the quality of the patients' emotional feelings (Manikin Self Assessment Scale); v) the quality of the patient/doctor relationship (Health Care Climate Questionnaire). Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses proposed. According to the theoretical model we hypothesized, research results confirmed that patients' activation significantly affects their reported medication adherence. Moreover, psychosocial factors, such as the patients' quality of the emotional feelings and the quality of the patient/doctor relationship were demonstrated to be factors affecting the level of patient activation. Finally, the mediation effect of the Patient Health Engagement model was confirmed by the analysis. Consistently with the results of previous studies, these findings demonstrate that the Patient Health Engagement Model is a critical factor in enhancing

  12. Understanding Activation Patterns in Shared Circuits: Toward a Value Driven Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lisa Aziz-Zadeh

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Over the past decade many studies indicate that we utilize our own motor system to understand the actions of other people. This mirror neuron system (MNS has been proposed to be involved in social cognition and motor learning. However, conflicting findings regarding the underlying mechanisms that drive these shared circuits make it difficult to decipher a common model of their function. Here we propose adapting a “value-driven” model to explain discrepancies in the human mirror system literature and to incorporate this model with existing models. We will use this model to explain discrepant activation patterns in multiple shared circuits in the human data, such that a unified model may explain reported activation patterns from previous studies as a function of value.

  13. Validating activity indices from camera traps for commensal rodents and other wildlife in and around farm buildings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lambert, Mark; Bellamy, Fiona; Budgey, Richard; Callaby, Rebecca; Coats, Julia; Talling, Janet

    2018-01-01

    Indices of rodent activity are used as indicators of population change during field evaluation of rodenticides. We investigated the potential for using camera traps to determine activity indices for commensal rodents living in and around farm buildings, and sought to compare these indices against previously calibrated survey methods. We recorded 41 263 images of 23 species, including Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus Berk.) and house mice (Mus musculus L.). We found a positive correlation between activity indices from camera traps and activity indices from a method (footprint tracking) previously shown to have a linear relationship with population size for Norway rats. Filtering the camera trap data to simulate a 30-s delay between camera trigger events removed 59.9% of data and did not adversely affect the correlation between activity indices from camera traps and footprint tracking. The relationship between activity indices from footprint tracking and Norway rat population size is known from a previous study; from this, we determined the relationship between activity indices from camera traps and population size for Norway rats living in and around farm buildings. Systematic use of camera traps was used to determine activity indices for Norway rats living in and around farm buildings; the activity indices were positively correlated with those derived from a method previously calibrated against known population size for this species in this context. © 2017 Crown copyright. Pest Management Science © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Crown copyright. Pest Management Science © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

  14. Comparison between model-predicted tumor oxygenation dynamics and vascular-/flow-related Doppler indices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Belfatto, Antonella; Vidal Urbinati, Ailyn M; Ciardo, Delia; Franchi, Dorella; Cattani, Federica; Lazzari, Roberta; Jereczek-Fossa, Barbara A; Orecchia, Roberto; Baroni, Guido; Cerveri, Pietro

    2017-05-01

    Mathematical modeling is a powerful and flexible method to investigate complex phenomena. It discloses the possibility of reproducing expensive as well as invasive experiments in a safe environment with limited costs. This makes it suitable to mimic tumor evolution and response to radiotherapy although the reliability of the results remains an issue. Complexity reduction is therefore a critical aspect in order to be able to compare model outcomes to clinical data. Among the factors affecting treatment efficacy, tumor oxygenation is known to play a key role in radiotherapy response. In this work, we aim at relating the oxygenation dynamics, predicted by a macroscale model trained on tumor volumetric data of uterine cervical cancer patients, to vascularization and blood flux indices assessed on Ultrasound Doppler images. We propose a macroscale model of tumor evolution based on three dynamics, namely active portion, necrotic portion, and oxygenation. The model parameters were assessed on the volume size of seven cervical cancer patients administered with 28 fractions of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) (1.8 Gy/fraction). For each patient, five Doppler ultrasound tests were acquired before, during, and after the treatment. The lesion was manually contoured by an expert physician using 4D View ® (General Electric Company - Fairfield, Connecticut, United States), which automatically provided the overall tumor volume size along with three vascularization and/or blood flow indices. Volume data only were fed to the model for training purpose, while the predicted oxygenation was compared a posteriori to the measured Doppler indices. The model was able to fit the tumor volume evolution within 8% error (range: 3-8%). A strong correlation between the intrapatient longitudinal indices from Doppler measurements and oxygen predicted by the model (about 90% or above) was found in three cases. Two patients showed an average correlation value (50-70%) and the remaining

  15. A cardiac electrical activity model based on a cellular automata system in comparison with neural network model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Muhammad Sadiq Ali; Yousuf, Sidrah

    2016-03-01

    Cardiac Electrical Activity is commonly distributed into three dimensions of Cardiac Tissue (Myocardium) and evolves with duration of time. The indicator of heart diseases can occur randomly at any time of a day. Heart rate, conduction and each electrical activity during cardiac cycle should be monitor non-invasively for the assessment of "Action Potential" (regular) and "Arrhythmia" (irregular) rhythms. Many heart diseases can easily be examined through Automata model like Cellular Automata concepts. This paper deals with the different states of cardiac rhythms using cellular automata with the comparison of neural network also provides fast and highly effective stimulation for the contraction of cardiac muscles on the Atria in the result of genesis of electrical spark or wave. The specific formulated model named as "States of automaton Proposed Model for CEA (Cardiac Electrical Activity)" by using Cellular Automata Methodology is commonly shows the three states of cardiac tissues conduction phenomena (i) Resting (Relax and Excitable state), (ii) ARP (Excited but Absolutely refractory Phase i.e. Excited but not able to excite neighboring cells) (iii) RRP (Excited but Relatively Refractory Phase i.e. Excited and able to excite neighboring cells). The result indicates most efficient modeling with few burden of computation and it is Action Potential during the pumping of blood in cardiac cycle.

  16. STUDY OF INDICATORS OF AMYLOLYTIC ACTIVITY OF MOUTH FLUID OF DENTAL HEALTHCARE WORKERS UNDER VARIOUS CONDITIONS OF PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. V. Melnikova

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Amylolytic activity indicators of oral liquid of dentists in different conditions of professional activity at outpatient dental care and lectures have been studied. We observed an increase in amylolytic activity of oral liquid of dentists men and women after outpatient dental care, that indicates the activation of the sympathetic-adrenal system in response to the professional stress. We also identified the gender-specific response to the α-amylase load in professional dentists: male amylolytic activity of oral fluid was higher than female. In the group of male and female dentist cadets we registered the decrease of amylolytic activity of oral fluid. The correlation analysis revealed a negative relationship between the level of α-amylase and rigidity in a group of male dentists. We suggested that male dentists reduced their adaptation to the psychosocial conditions under job stress. Keywords: dentist, professional activity, professional stress, outpatient dental care, lectures, amylolytic activity of oral fluid.

  17. Active Video Games and Health Indicators in Children and Youth: A Systematic Review

    OpenAIRE

    LeBlanc, Allana G.; Chaput, Jean-Philippe; McFarlane, Allison; Colley, Rachel C.; Thivel, David; Biddle, Stuart J. H.; Maddison, Ralph; Leatherdale, Scott T.; Tremblay, Mark S.

    2013-01-01

    Background Active video games (AVGs) have gained interest as a way to increase physical activity in children and youth. The effect of AVGs on acute energy expenditure (EE) has previously been reported; however, the influence of AVGs on other health-related lifestyle indicators remains unclear. Objective This systematic review aimed to explain the relationship between AVGs and nine health and behavioural indicators in the pediatric population (aged 0?17 years). Data sources Online databases (M...

  18. Gasification under CO2–Steam Mixture: Kinetic Model Study Based on Shared Active Sites

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xia Liu

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available In this work, char gasification of two coals (i.e., Shenfu bituminous coal and Zunyi anthracite and a petroleum coke under a steam and CO2 mixture (steam/CO2 partial pressures, 0.025–0.075 MPa; total pressures, 0.100 MPa and CO2/steam chemisorption of char samples were conducted in a Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA. Two conventional kinetic models exhibited difficulties in exactly fitting the experimental data of char–steam–CO2 gasification. Hence, a modified model based on Langmuir–Hinshelwood model and assuming that char–CO2 and char–steam reactions partially shared active sites was proposed and had indicated high accuracy for estimating the interactions in char–steam–CO2 reaction. Moreover, it was found that two new model parameters (respectively characterized as the amount ratio of shared active sites to total active sites in char–CO2 and char–steam reactions in the modified model hardly varied with gasification conditions, and the results of chemisorption indicate that these two new model parameters mainly depended on the carbon active sites in char samples.

  19. IAEA activities related to safety indicators, time frames and reference scenarios

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Batandjieva, B.; Hioki, K.; Metcalf, P.

    2002-01-01

    The fundamental principles for the safe management of radioactive waste have been agreed internationally and form the basis for the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management that entered into force in June 2001. Protection of human health and the environment and safety of facilities (including radioactive waste disposal facilities) are widely recognised principles to be followed and demonstrated in post-closure safety assessment of waste repositories. Dose and risk are at present internationally agreed safety criteria, used for judging the acceptability of such facilities. However, there have been a number of activities initiated and co-ordinated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which have provided an international forum for discussion and consensus building on the use safety indicators which are complementary to dose and risk. The Agency has been working on the definition of other safety indicators, such as flux, time, environmental concentration, etc.; the desired characteristics, and use of these indicators in different time frames. The IAEA has focused on safety indicators related to geological disposal, exploring their role in the development of a safety case, evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of using other safety indicators and how they complement the dose and risk indicators. The use of these indicators have been discussed also from regulatory perspective, mainly in terms of achieving reasonable assurance and confidence in safety assessments for waste repositories and decision making in the presence of uncertainty in the context of disposal of long-lived waste. Considerable effort has also been expended by the Agency on the development and application of principles for defining critical groups and biospheres for deep geological repositories. One of the important and successful IAEA programmes in this field is the Biosphere Modelling and Assessment (BIOMASS) project

  20. Dynamic energy conservation model REDUCE. Extension with experience curves, energy efficiency indicators and user's guide

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Uyterlinde, M.A.; Rijkers, F.A.M.

    1999-12-01

    The main objective of the energy conservation model REDUCE (Reduction of Energy Demand by Utilization of Conservation of Energy) is the evaluation of the effectiveness of economical, financial, institutional, and regulatory measures for improving the rational use of energy in end-use sectors. This report presents the results of additional model development activities, partly based on the first experiences in a previous project. Energy efficiency indicators have been added as an extra tool for output analysis in REDUCE. The methodology is described and some examples are given. The model has been extended with a method for modelling the effects of technical development on production costs, by means of an experience curve. Finally, the report provides a 'users guide', by describing in more detail the input data specification as well as all menus and buttons. 19 refs

  1. Optimization of a GCaMP calcium indicator for neural activity imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akerboom, Jasper; Chen, Tsai-Wen; Wardill, Trevor J; Tian, Lin; Marvin, Jonathan S; Mutlu, Sevinç; Calderón, Nicole Carreras; Esposti, Federico; Borghuis, Bart G; Sun, Xiaonan Richard; Gordus, Andrew; Orger, Michael B; Portugues, Ruben; Engert, Florian; Macklin, John J; Filosa, Alessandro; Aggarwal, Aman; Kerr, Rex A; Takagi, Ryousuke; Kracun, Sebastian; Shigetomi, Eiji; Khakh, Baljit S; Baier, Herwig; Lagnado, Leon; Wang, Samuel S-H; Bargmann, Cornelia I; Kimmel, Bruce E; Jayaraman, Vivek; Svoboda, Karel; Kim, Douglas S; Schreiter, Eric R; Looger, Loren L

    2012-10-03

    Genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) are powerful tools for systems neuroscience. Recent efforts in protein engineering have significantly increased the performance of GECIs. The state-of-the art single-wavelength GECI, GCaMP3, has been deployed in a number of model organisms and can reliably detect three or more action potentials in short bursts in several systems in vivo. Through protein structure determination, targeted mutagenesis, high-throughput screening, and a battery of in vitro assays, we have increased the dynamic range of GCaMP3 by severalfold, creating a family of "GCaMP5" sensors. We tested GCaMP5s in several systems: cultured neurons and astrocytes, mouse retina, and in vivo in Caenorhabditis chemosensory neurons, Drosophila larval neuromuscular junction and adult antennal lobe, zebrafish retina and tectum, and mouse visual cortex. Signal-to-noise ratio was improved by at least 2- to 3-fold. In the visual cortex, two GCaMP5 variants detected twice as many visual stimulus-responsive cells as GCaMP3. By combining in vivo imaging with electrophysiology we show that GCaMP5 fluorescence provides a more reliable measure of neuronal activity than its predecessor GCaMP3. GCaMP5 allows more sensitive detection of neural activity in vivo and may find widespread applications for cellular imaging in general.

  2. N-acetyl -β-D-glucosaminidase activity in cow milk as an indicator of mastitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hovinen, Mari; Simojoki, Heli; Pösö, Reeta; Suolaniemi, Jenni; Kalmus, Piret; Suojala, Leena; Pyörälä, Satu

    2016-05-01

    Activity of lysosomal N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase (NAGase) in milk has been used as an indicator of bovine mastitis. We studied NAGase activity of 808 milk samples from healthy quarters and quarters of cows with spontaneous subclinical and clinical mastitis. Associations between milk NAGase activity and milk somatic cell count (SCC), mastitis causing pathogen, quarter, parity, days in milk (DIM) and season were studied. In addition, the performance of NAGase activity in detecting clinical and subclinical mastitis and distinguishing infections caused by minor and major bacteria was investigated. Our results indicate that NAGase activity can be used to detect both subclinical and clinical mastitis with a high level of accuracy (0·85 and 0·99). Incomplete correlation between NAGase activity and SCC suggests that a substantial proportion of NAGase activity comes from damaged epithelial cells of the udder in addition to somatic cells. We therefore recommend determination of NAGase activity from quarter foremilk after at least six hours from the last milking using the method described. Samples should be frozen before analysis. NAGase activity should be interpreted according to DIM, at least during the first month of lactation. Based on the results of the present study, a reference value for normal milk NAGase activity of 0·1-1·04 pmoles 4-MU/min/μl for cows with ≥30 DIM (196 samples) could be proposed. We consider milk NAGase activity to be an accurate indicator of subclinical and clinical mastitis.

  3. Improving Healthcare in Pediatric Oncology: Development and Testing of Multiple Indicators to Evaluate a Hub-And-Spoke Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zucchetti, Giulia; Bertorello, Nicoletta; Angelastro, Angela; Gianino, Paola; Bona, Gianni; Barbara, Affif; Besenzon, Luigi; Brach Del Prever, Adalberto; Pesce, Fernando; Nangeroni, Marco; Fagioli, Franca

    2017-06-01

    Purpose The hub-and-spoke is a new innovation model in healthcare that has been adopted in some countries to manage rare pathologies. We developed a set of indicators to assess current quality practices of the hub-and-spoke model adopted in the Interregional Pediatric Oncology Network in Northwest Italy and to promote patient, family, and professional healthcare empowerment. Methods Literature and evidence-based clinical guidelines were reviewed and multiprofessional team workshops were carried out to highlight some important issues on healthcare in pediatric oncology and to translate them into a set of multiple indicators. For each indicator, specific questions were formulated and tested through a series of questionnaires completed by 80 healthcare professionals and 50 pediatric patients and their parents. Results The results highlighted a positive perception of healthcare delivered by the hub-and-spoke model (M HP = 156, M Pat = 93, M Par = 104). Based on the participants' suggestions, some quality improvements have been implemented. Conclusions This study represents the first attempt to examine this new model of pediatric oncology care through the active involvement of patients, families, and healthcare professionals. Suggestions for adopting a hub-and-spoke model in pediatric oncology in other regions and countries are also highlighted.

  4. Respiration and enzymatic activities as indicators of stabilization of sewage sludge composting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nikaeen, Mahnaz; Nafez, Amir Hossein; Bina, Bijan; Nabavi, BiBi Fatemeh; Hassanzadeh, Akbar

    2015-05-01

    The objective of this work was to study the evolution of physico-chemical and microbial parameters in the composting process of sewage sludge (SS) with pruning wastes (PW) in order to compare these parameters with respect to their applicability in the evaluation of organic matter (OM) stabilization. To evaluate the composting process and organic matter stability, different microbial activities were compared during composting of anaerobically digested SS with two volumetric ratios, 1:1 and 3:1 of PW:SS and two aeration techniques including aerated static piles (ASP) and turned windrows (TW). Dehydrogenase activity, fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis, and specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR) were used as microbial activity indices. These indices were compared with traditional parameters, including temperature, pH, moisture content, organic matter, and C/N ratio. The results showed that the TW method and 3:1 (PW:SS) proportion was superior to the ASP method and 1:1 proportion, since the former accelerate the composting process by catalyzing the OM stabilization. Enzymatic activities and SOUR, which reflect microbial activity, correlated well with temperature fluctuations. Based on these results it appears that SOUR and the enzymatic activities are useful parameters to monitor the stabilization of SS compost. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Model of transcriptional activation by MarA in Escherichia coli.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wall, Michael E; Markowitz, David A; Rosner, Judah L; Martin, Robert G

    2009-12-01

    The AraC family transcription factor MarA activates approximately 40 genes (the marA/soxS/rob regulon) of the Escherichia coli chromosome resulting in different levels of resistance to a wide array of antibiotics and to superoxides. Activation of marA/soxS/rob regulon promoters occurs in a well-defined order with respect to the level of MarA; however, the order of activation does not parallel the strength of MarA binding to promoter sequences. To understand this lack of correspondence, we developed a computational model of transcriptional activation in which a transcription factor either increases or decreases RNA polymerase binding, and either accelerates or retards post-binding events associated with transcription initiation. We used the model to analyze data characterizing MarA regulation of promoter activity. The model clearly explains the lack of correspondence between the order of activation and the MarA-DNA affinity and indicates that the order of activation can only be predicted using information about the strength of the full MarA-polymerase-DNA interaction. The analysis further suggests that MarA can activate without increasing polymerase binding and that activation can even involve a decrease in polymerase binding, which is opposite to the textbook model of activation by recruitment. These findings are consistent with published chromatin immunoprecipitation assays of interactions between polymerase and the E. coli chromosome. We find that activation involving decreased polymerase binding yields lower latency in gene regulation and therefore might confer a competitive advantage to cells. Our model yields insights into requirements for predicting the order of activation of a regulon and enables us to suggest that activation might involve a decrease in polymerase binding which we expect to be an important theme of gene regulation in E. coli and beyond.

  6. Model of transcriptional activation by MarA in Escherichia coli.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael E Wall

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available The AraC family transcription factor MarA activates approximately 40 genes (the marA/soxS/rob regulon of the Escherichia coli chromosome resulting in different levels of resistance to a wide array of antibiotics and to superoxides. Activation of marA/soxS/rob regulon promoters occurs in a well-defined order with respect to the level of MarA; however, the order of activation does not parallel the strength of MarA binding to promoter sequences. To understand this lack of correspondence, we developed a computational model of transcriptional activation in which a transcription factor either increases or decreases RNA polymerase binding, and either accelerates or retards post-binding events associated with transcription initiation. We used the model to analyze data characterizing MarA regulation of promoter activity. The model clearly explains the lack of correspondence between the order of activation and the MarA-DNA affinity and indicates that the order of activation can only be predicted using information about the strength of the full MarA-polymerase-DNA interaction. The analysis further suggests that MarA can activate without increasing polymerase binding and that activation can even involve a decrease in polymerase binding, which is opposite to the textbook model of activation by recruitment. These findings are consistent with published chromatin immunoprecipitation assays of interactions between polymerase and the E. coli chromosome. We find that activation involving decreased polymerase binding yields lower latency in gene regulation and therefore might confer a competitive advantage to cells. Our model yields insights into requirements for predicting the order of activation of a regulon and enables us to suggest that activation might involve a decrease in polymerase binding which we expect to be an important theme of gene regulation in E. coli and beyond.

  7. Testing for Nonuniform Differential Item Functioning with Multiple Indicator Multiple Cause Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woods, Carol M.; Grimm, Kevin J.

    2011-01-01

    In extant literature, multiple indicator multiple cause (MIMIC) models have been presented for identifying items that display uniform differential item functioning (DIF) only, not nonuniform DIF. This article addresses, for apparently the first time, the use of MIMIC models for testing both uniform and nonuniform DIF with categorical indicators. A…

  8. Active video games and health indicators in children and youth: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    LeBlanc, Allana G; Chaput, Jean-Philippe; McFarlane, Allison; Colley, Rachel C; Thivel, David; Biddle, Stuart J H; Maddison, Ralph; Leatherdale, Scott T; Tremblay, Mark S

    2013-01-01

    Active video games (AVGs) have gained interest as a way to increase physical activity in children and youth. The effect of AVGs on acute energy expenditure (EE) has previously been reported; however, the influence of AVGs on other health-related lifestyle indicators remains unclear. This systematic review aimed to explain the relationship between AVGs and nine health and behavioural indicators in the pediatric population (aged 0-17 years). Online databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, psycINFO, SPORTDiscus and Cochrane Central Database) and personal libraries were searched and content experts were consulted for additional material. Included articles were required to have a measure of AVG and at least one relevant health or behaviour indicator: EE (both habitual and acute), adherence and appeal (i.e., participation and enjoyment), opportunity cost (both time and financial considerations, and adverse events), adiposity, cardiometabolic health, energy intake, adaptation (effects of continued play), learning and rehabilitation, and video game evolution (i.e., sustainability of AVG technology). 51 unique studies, represented in 52 articles were included in the review. Data were available from 1992 participants, aged 3-17 years, from 8 countries, and published from 2006-2012. Overall, AVGs are associated with acute increases in EE, but effects on habitual physical activity are not clear. Further, AVGs show promise when used for learning and rehabilitation within special populations. Evidence related to other indicators was limited and inconclusive. Controlled studies show that AVGs acutely increase light- to moderate-intensity physical activity; however, the findings about if or how AVG lead to increases in habitual physical activity or decreases in sedentary behaviour are less clear. Although AVGs may elicit some health benefits in special populations, there is not sufficient evidence to recommend AVGs as a means of increasing daily physical activity.

  9. Active video games and health indicators in children and youth: a systematic review.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Allana G LeBlanc

    Full Text Available Active video games (AVGs have gained interest as a way to increase physical activity in children and youth. The effect of AVGs on acute energy expenditure (EE has previously been reported; however, the influence of AVGs on other health-related lifestyle indicators remains unclear.This systematic review aimed to explain the relationship between AVGs and nine health and behavioural indicators in the pediatric population (aged 0-17 years.Online databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, psycINFO, SPORTDiscus and Cochrane Central Database and personal libraries were searched and content experts were consulted for additional material.Included articles were required to have a measure of AVG and at least one relevant health or behaviour indicator: EE (both habitual and acute, adherence and appeal (i.e., participation and enjoyment, opportunity cost (both time and financial considerations, and adverse events, adiposity, cardiometabolic health, energy intake, adaptation (effects of continued play, learning and rehabilitation, and video game evolution (i.e., sustainability of AVG technology.51 unique studies, represented in 52 articles were included in the review. Data were available from 1992 participants, aged 3-17 years, from 8 countries, and published from 2006-2012. Overall, AVGs are associated with acute increases in EE, but effects on habitual physical activity are not clear. Further, AVGs show promise when used for learning and rehabilitation within special populations. Evidence related to other indicators was limited and inconclusive.Controlled studies show that AVGs acutely increase light- to moderate-intensity physical activity; however, the findings about if or how AVG lead to increases in habitual physical activity or decreases in sedentary behaviour are less clear. Although AVGs may elicit some health benefits in special populations, there is not sufficient evidence to recommend AVGs as a means of increasing daily physical activity.

  10. Active Video Games and Health Indicators in Children and Youth: A Systematic Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    McFarlane, Allison; Colley, Rachel C.; Thivel, David; Biddle, Stuart J. H.; Maddison, Ralph; Leatherdale, Scott T.; Tremblay, Mark S.

    2013-01-01

    Background Active video games (AVGs) have gained interest as a way to increase physical activity in children and youth. The effect of AVGs on acute energy expenditure (EE) has previously been reported; however, the influence of AVGs on other health-related lifestyle indicators remains unclear. Objective This systematic review aimed to explain the relationship between AVGs and nine health and behavioural indicators in the pediatric population (aged 0–17 years). Data sources Online databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, psycINFO, SPORTDiscus and Cochrane Central Database) and personal libraries were searched and content experts were consulted for additional material. Data selection Included articles were required to have a measure of AVG and at least one relevant health or behaviour indicator: EE (both habitual and acute), adherence and appeal (i.e., participation and enjoyment), opportunity cost (both time and financial considerations, and adverse events), adiposity, cardiometabolic health, energy intake, adaptation (effects of continued play), learning and rehabilitation, and video game evolution (i.e., sustainability of AVG technology). Results 51 unique studies, represented in 52 articles were included in the review. Data were available from 1992 participants, aged 3–17 years, from 8 countries, and published from 2006–2012. Overall, AVGs are associated with acute increases in EE, but effects on habitual physical activity are not clear. Further, AVGs show promise when used for learning and rehabilitation within special populations. Evidence related to other indicators was limited and inconclusive. Conclusions Controlled studies show that AVGs acutely increase light- to moderate-intensity physical activity; however, the findings about if or how AVG lead to increases in habitual physical activity or decreases in sedentary behaviour are less clear. Although AVGs may elicit some health benefits in special populations, there is not sufficient evidence to recommend AVGs as a

  11. [Evaluating the activity of the Italian Mental Health Services inpatient and residential facilities: the PRISM (Process Indicator System for Mental health) indicators].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Picardi, Angelo; Tarolla, Emanuele; de Girolamo, Giovanni; Gigantesco, Antonella; Neri, Giovanni; Rossi, Elisabetta; Biondi, Massimo

    2014-01-01

    This article describes the activities of a project aimed at developing a system of process and process/outcome indicators suitable to monitor over time the quality of psychiatric care of Italian inpatient and residential psychiatric facilities. This system, named PRISM (Process Indicator System for Mental health), was developed by means of a standardized evaluation made by a panel of experts and a consecutive pilot study in 17 inpatient and 13 residential psychiatric facilities. A total of 28 indicators were selected from a set of 251 candidate indicators developed by the most relevant and qualified Italian and international authorities. These indicators are derived by data from medical records and information about characteristics of facilities, and they cover processes of care, operational equipment of facilities, staff training and working, relationships with external agencies, and sentinel events. The procedure followed for the development of the indicator system was reliable and innovative. The data collected from the pilot study suggested a favourable benefit-cost ratio between the workload associated with regular use of the indicators into the context of daily clinical activities and the advantages related to the information gathered through regular use of the indicators. CONCLUSIONS.:The PRISM system provides additional information about the healthcare processes with respect to the information gathered via routine information systems, and it might prove useful for both continuous quality improvement programs and health services research.

  12. Using species abundance distribution models and diversity indices for biogeographical analyses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fattorini, Simone; Rigal, François; Cardoso, Pedro; Borges, Paulo A. V.

    2016-01-01

    We examine whether Species Abundance Distribution models (SADs) and diversity indices can describe how species colonization status influences species community assembly on oceanic islands. Our hypothesis is that, because of the lack of source-sink dynamics at the archipelago scale, Single Island Endemics (SIEs), i.e. endemic species restricted to only one island, should be represented by few rare species and consequently have abundance patterns that differ from those of more widespread species. To test our hypothesis, we used arthropod data from the Azorean archipelago (North Atlantic). We divided the species into three colonization categories: SIEs, archipelagic endemics (AZEs, present in at least two islands) and native non-endemics (NATs). For each category, we modelled rank-abundance plots using both the geometric series and the Gambin model, a measure of distributional amplitude. We also calculated Shannon entropy and Buzas and Gibson's evenness. We show that the slopes of the regression lines modelling SADs were significantly higher for SIEs, which indicates a relative predominance of a few highly abundant species and a lack of rare species, which also depresses diversity indices. This may be a consequence of two factors: (i) some forest specialist SIEs may be at advantage over other, less adapted species; (ii) the entire populations of SIEs are by definition concentrated on a single island, without possibility for inter-island source-sink dynamics; hence all populations must have a minimum number of individuals to survive natural, often unpredictable, fluctuations. These findings are supported by higher values of the α parameter of the Gambin mode for SIEs. In contrast, AZEs and NATs had lower regression slopes, lower α but higher diversity indices, resulting from their widespread distribution over several islands. We conclude that these differences in the SAD models and diversity indices demonstrate that the study of these metrics is useful for

  13. Histologic scoring indices for evaluation of disease activity in Crohn's disease

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Novak, Gregor; Parker, Claire E.; Pai, Rish K.; Macdonald, John K.; Feagan, Brian G.; Sandborn, William J.; D'Haens, Geert; Jairath, Vipul; Khanna, Reena

    2017-01-01

    Histologic assessment of mucosal disease activity has been increasingly used in clinical trials of treatment for Crohn's disease. However, the operating properties of the currently existing histologic scoring indices remain unclear. A systematic review was undertaken to evaluate the development and

  14. Modelling the effects of social networks on activity and travel behaviour

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ronald, N.A.

    2012-01-01

    Activity-based models of transport demand are increasingly used by governments, engineering firms and consultants to predict the impact of various design and planning decisions on travel and consequently on noise emissions, energy consumption, accessibility and other performance indicators. In this

  15. Key performance indicators in hospital based on balanced scorecard model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hamed Rahimi

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Performance measurement is receiving increasing verification all over the world. Nowadays in a lot of organizations, irrespective of their type or size, performance evaluation is the main concern and a key issue for top administrators. The purpose of this study is to organize suitable key performance indicators (KPIs for hospitals’ performance evaluation based on the balanced scorecard (BSC. Method: This is a mixed method study. In order to identify the hospital’s performance indicators (HPI, first related literature was reviewed and then the experts’ panel and Delphi method were used. In this study, two rounds were needed for the desired level of consensus. The experts rated the importance of the indicators, on a five-point Likert scale. In the consensus calculation, the consensus percentage was calculated by classifying the values 1-3 as not important (0 and 4-5 to (1 as important. Simple additive weighting technique was used to rank the indicators and select hospital’s KPIs. The data were analyzed by Excel 2010 software. Results: About 218 indicators were obtained from a review of selected literature. Through internal expert panel, 77 indicators were selected. Finally, 22 were selected for KPIs of hospitals. Ten indicators were selected in internal process perspective and 5, 4, and 3 indicators in finance, learning and growth, and customer, respectively. Conclusion: This model can be a useful tool for evaluating and comparing the performance of hospitals. However, this model is flexible and can be adjusted according to differences in the target hospitals. This study can be beneficial for hospital administrators and it can help them to change their perspective about performance evaluation.

  16. Univariate and Multivariate Specification Search Indices in Covariance Structure Modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hutchinson, Susan R.

    1993-01-01

    Simulated population data were used to compare relative performances of the modification index and C. Chou and P. M. Bentler's Lagrange multiplier test (a multivariate generalization of a modification index) for four levels of model misspecification. Both indices failed to recover the true model except at the lowest level of misspecification. (SLD)

  17. Ratio of Circulating Estrogen Receptors Beta and Alpha (ERβ/ERα) Indicates Endoscopic Activity in Patients with Crohn's Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linares, Pablo M; Algaba, Alicia; Urzainqui, Ana; Guijarro-Rojas, Mercedes; González-Tajuelo, Rafael; Garrido, Jesús; Chaparro, María; Gisbert, Javier P; Bermejo, Fernando; Guerra, Iván; Castellano, Víctor; Fernández-Contreras, María-Encarnación

    2017-10-01

    Data supporting a role of female hormones and/or their receptors in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are increasing, but most of them are derived from animal models. Estrogen receptors alpha (ERα) and beta (ERβ) participate in immune and inflammatory response, among a variety of biological processes. Their effects are antagonistic, and the net action of estrogens may depend on their relative proportions. To determine the possible association between the balance of circulating ERβ and ERα (ERβ/ERα) and IBD risk and activity. Serum samples from 145 patients with IBD (79 Crohn's disease [CD] and 66 ulcerative colitis [UC]) and 39 controls were retrospectively studied. Circulating ERα and ERβ were measured by ELISA. Disease activities were assessed by clinical and endoscopic indices specific for CD and UC. Low values of ERβ/ERα ratio were directly associated with clinical (p = 0.019) and endoscopic (p = 0.002) disease activity. Further analyses by type of IBD confirmed a strong association between low ERβ/ERα ratio and CD clinical (p = 0.011) and endoscopic activity (p = 0.002). The receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis showed that an ERβ/ERα ratio under 0.85 was a good marker of CD endoscopic activity (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.84; p = 0.002; sensitivity: 70%; specificity: 91%). ERβ/ERα ratio was not useful to predict UC activity. An ERβ/ERα ratio under 0.85 indicated CD endoscopic activity. The determination of serum ERβ/ERα might be a useful noninvasive screening tool for CD endoscopic activity.

  18. New Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP) model for predicting crankshaft movement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Omran, Rabih; Younes, Rafic; Champoussin, Jean-Claude; Outbib, Rachid

    2011-01-01

    Highlights: → IMEP is essential to estimate the indicated torque in internal combustion engine. → We proposed model which describes the IMEP-Low pressure and the IMEP-High pressure. → We studied the evolution of the IMEP with respect to the engine's variables. → We deduced the variables of influence that can be used to develop the models. → The IMEP model is compared to transient experimental New European Driving Cycle. - Abstract: Indicated Mean Effective Pressure models (IMEP) are essential to estimate the indicated torque in internal combustion engine; they also provide important information about the mechanical efficiency of the engine thermodynamic cycle which describes the conversion of the fuel combustion energy into mechanical work. In the past, many researches were made to improve the IMEP prediction and measurement techniques at different engine operating conditions. In this paper, we proposed a detailed IMEP model which separately describes the IMEP-Low pressure and the IMEP-High pressure of a modern diesel engine; the IMEP is the direct subtraction result between these two variables. We firstly studied the evolution of the IMEP HP and IMEP LP with respect to the engine's variables and then we deduced the variables of influence and the form of the equations that can be used to develop the models. Finally, the models' coefficients were determined based on experimental data collected on a steady state test bench and using the least square regression method. In addition, the IMEP HP model results were compared to transient experimental data collected on a chassis dynamometer test bench; the model results are in excellent agreement with the experimental data.

  19. Mathematical model for estimating of technical and technological indicators of railway stations operation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D.M. Kozachenko

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Purpose. The article aims to create a mathematical model of the railway station functioning for the solving of problems of station technology development on the plan-schedule basis. Methodology. The methods of graph theory and object-oriented analysis are used as research methods. The model of the station activity plan-schedule includes a model of technical equipment of the station (plan-schedule net and a model of the station functioning , which are formalized on the basis of parametric graphs. Findings. The presented model is implemented as an application to the graphics package AutoCAD. The software is developed in Visual LISP and Visual Basic. Taking into account that the construction of the plan-schedule is mostly a traditional process of adding, deleting, and modifying of icons, the developed interface is intuitively understandable for a technologist and practically does not require additional training. Originality. A mathematical model was created on the basis of the theory of graphs and object-oriented analysis in order to evaluate the technical and process of railway stations indicators; it is focused on solving problems of technology development of their work. Practical value. The proposed mathematical model is implemented as an application to the graphics package of AutoCAD. The presence of a mathematical model allows carrying out an automatic analysis of the plan-schedule and, thereby, reducing the period of its creation more than twice.

  20. Three Cs in Measurement Models: Causal Indicators, Composite Indicators, and Covariates

    OpenAIRE

    Bollen, Kenneth A.; Bauldry, Shawn

    2011-01-01

    In the last two decades attention to causal (and formative) indicators has grown. Accompanying this growth has been the belief that we can classify indicators into two categories, effect (reflective) indicators and causal (formative) indicators. This paper argues that the dichotomous view is too simple. Instead, there are effect indicators and three types of variables on which a latent variable depends: causal indicators, composite (formative) indicators, and covariates (the “three Cs”). Caus...

  1. Interpretive Structural Model of Key Performance Indicators for Sustainable Maintenance Evaluatian in Rubber Industry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amrina, E.; Yulianto, A.

    2018-03-01

    Sustainable maintenance is a new challenge for manufacturing companies to realize sustainable development. In this paper, an interpretive structural model is developed to evaluate sustainable maintenance in the rubber industry. The initial key performance indicators (KPIs) is identified and derived from literature and then validated by academic and industry experts. As a result, three factors of economic, social, and environmental dividing into a total of thirteen indicators are proposed as the KPIs for sustainable maintenance evaluation in rubber industry. Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) methodology is applied to develop a network structure model of the KPIs consisting of three levels. The results show the economic factor is regarded as the basic factor, the social factor as the intermediate factor, while the environmental factor indicated to be the leading factor. Two indicators of social factor i.e. labor relationship, and training and education have both high driver and dependence power, thus categorized as the unstable indicators which need further attention. All the indicators of environmental factor and one indicator of social factor are indicated as the most influencing indicator. The interpretive structural model hoped can aid the rubber companies in evaluating sustainable maintenance performance.

  2. Diagnostic and interactive systems of strategic risk indicators of management accounting in innovation activities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V.M. Ivankov

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The article deals with the investigation of main trends of the development of innovative activity in Ukraine during last years. It is determined that the quantity of innovatively active Ukrainian enterprises is growing, and this trend continues existing. The statistic indicators of innovative activity of industrial enterprises for 2014-2015 years are investigated. It is determined that the world market of technologies remains the engine of economic growth in modern economic conditions. It is proved, that the reliable information provision of needs in management of innovative processes requires argumentation of new accounting technologies that must consider risk nature of innovations and main trends of the development of instruments of the strategic management accounting. The characteristics of diagnostic and interactive systems of indicators are investigated and it is identified that both systems are interactive and may function simultaneously for control of realization of chosen strategy (diagnostic system and for testing of non-standard situations in conditions of uncertainty and risk (interactive system. It is identified, that the peculiarity of interactive systems is still the adaptation of one or two indicators of diagnostic systems by means of focusing on influence of uncertainty and risk on the results of realization of strategic goals or on the indicators of risk-result. Taking into consideration the risk nature of innovative activity, the author investigates the approaches upon the possible usage of instruments of risk-management in the concepts of management accounting, namely balanced scorecard. It is identified that the modern approach provides the inspection of strategic goals realization as the chances, and the risks as factors, that inhibit their achievement. This allows determining the influence of all the identified risks on deviations from the target (normative values of strategic indicators, which are the expression of a

  3. Characterizing and modeling the dynamics of activity and popularity.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peng Zhang

    Full Text Available Social media, regarded as two-layer networks consisting of users and items, turn out to be the most important channels for access to massive information in the era of Web 2.0. The dynamics of human activity and item popularity is a crucial issue in social media networks. In this paper, by analyzing the growth of user activity and item popularity in four empirical social media networks, i.e., Amazon, Flickr, Delicious and Wikipedia, it is found that cross links between users and items are more likely to be created by active users and to be acquired by popular items, where user activity and item popularity are measured by the number of cross links associated with users and items. This indicates that users generally trace popular items, overall. However, it is found that the inactive users more severely trace popular items than the active users. Inspired by empirical analysis, we propose an evolving model for such networks, in which the evolution is driven only by two-step random walk. Numerical experiments verified that the model can qualitatively reproduce the distributions of user activity and item popularity observed in empirical networks. These results might shed light on the understandings of micro dynamics of activity and popularity in social media networks.

  4. Characterizing and modeling the dynamics of activity and popularity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Peng; Li, Menghui; Gao, Liang; Fan, Ying; Di, Zengru

    2014-01-01

    Social media, regarded as two-layer networks consisting of users and items, turn out to be the most important channels for access to massive information in the era of Web 2.0. The dynamics of human activity and item popularity is a crucial issue in social media networks. In this paper, by analyzing the growth of user activity and item popularity in four empirical social media networks, i.e., Amazon, Flickr, Delicious and Wikipedia, it is found that cross links between users and items are more likely to be created by active users and to be acquired by popular items, where user activity and item popularity are measured by the number of cross links associated with users and items. This indicates that users generally trace popular items, overall. However, it is found that the inactive users more severely trace popular items than the active users. Inspired by empirical analysis, we propose an evolving model for such networks, in which the evolution is driven only by two-step random walk. Numerical experiments verified that the model can qualitatively reproduce the distributions of user activity and item popularity observed in empirical networks. These results might shed light on the understandings of micro dynamics of activity and popularity in social media networks.

  5. Activity Recognition Using Hybrid Generative/Discriminative Models on Home Environments Using Binary Sensors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Araceli Sanchis

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Activities of daily living are good indicators of elderly health status, and activity recognition in smart environments is a well-known problem that has been previously addressed by several studies. In this paper, we describe the use of two powerful machine learning schemes, ANN (Artificial Neural Network and SVM (Support Vector Machines, within the framework of HMM (Hidden Markov Model in order to tackle the task of activity recognition in a home setting. The output scores of the discriminative models, after processing, are used as observation probabilities of the hybrid approach. We evaluate our approach by comparing these hybrid models with other classical activity recognition methods using five real datasets. We show how the hybrid models achieve significantly better recognition performance, with significance level p < 0:05, proving that the hybrid approach is better suited for the addressed domain.

  6. Statistical Properties of Geomagnetic Activity Indices and Solar Wind Parameters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jung-Hee Kim

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available As the prediction of geomagnetic storms is becoming an important and practical problem, conditions in the Earth’s magnetosphere have been studied rigorously in terms of those in the interplanetary space. Another approach to space weather forecast is to deal with it as a probabilistic geomagnetic storm forecasting problem. In this study, we carry out detailed statistical analysis of solar wind parameters and geomagnetic indices examining the dependence of the distribution on the solar cycle and annual variations. Our main findings are as follows: (1 The distribution of parameters obtained via the superimposed epoch method follows the Gaussian distribution. (2 When solar activity is at its maximum the mean value of the distribution is shifted to the direction indicating the intense environment. Furthermore, the width of the distribution becomes wider at its maximum than at its minimum so that more extreme case can be expected. (3 The distribution of some certain heliospheric parameters is less sensitive to the phase of the solar cycle and annual variations. (4 The distribution of the eastward component of the interplanetary electric field BV and the solar wind driving function BV2, however, appears to be all dependent on the solar maximum/minimum, the descending/ascending phases of the solar cycle and the equinoxes/solstices. (5 The distribution of the AE index and the Dst index shares statistical features closely with BV and BV2 compared with other heliospheric parameters. In this sense, BV and BV2 are more robust proxies of the geomagnetic storm. We conclude by pointing out that our results allow us to step forward in providing the occurrence probability of geomagnetic storms for space weather and physical modeling.

  7. IASM: Individualized activity space modeler

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hasanzadeh, Kamyar

    2018-01-01

    Researchers from various disciplines have long been interested in analyzing and describing human mobility patterns. Activity space (AS), defined as an area encapsulating daily human mobility and activities, has been at the center of this interest. However, given the applied nature of research in this field and the complexity that advanced geographical modeling can pose to its users, the proposed models remain simplistic and inaccurate in many cases. Individualized Activity Space Modeler (IASM) is a geographic information system (GIS) toolbox, written in Python programming language using ESRI's Arcpy module, comprising four tools aiming to facilitate the use of advanced activity space models in empirical research. IASM provides individual-based and context-sensitive tools to estimate home range distances, delineate activity spaces, and model place exposures using individualized geographical data. In this paper, we describe the design and functionality of IASM, and provide an example of how it performs on a spatial dataset collected through an online map-based survey.

  8. Evaluation of eco-physiological indicators in Northeast Asia dryland regions based on MODIS products and ecological models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, W.

    2017-12-01

    Ecosystem carbon-energy-water circles have significant effect on function and structure and vice verse. Based on these circles mechanism, some eco-physiological indicators, like Transpiration (T), gross primary productivity (GPP), light use efficiency (LUE) and water use efficiency (WUE), are commonly applied to assess terrestrial ecosystem function and structure dynamics. The ecosystem weakened function and simple structure in Northeast dryland regions resulted from land degradation or desertification, which could be demonstrated by above-mentioned indicators. In this study, based on MODIS atmosphere (MYD07, MYD04, MYD06 data) and land products (MYD13A2 NDVI, MYD11A1 LST, MYD15A2 LAI and land cover data), we first retrieved transpiration and LUE via Penman-Monteith Model and modified Vegetation Photosynthesis Model (VPM), respectively; and then evaluated dynamics of these eco-physiological indicators (Tair, VPD, T, LUE, GPP and WUE) and some hotspots were found for next land degradation assessment. The results showed: (1) LUE and WUE are lower in barren or sparsely vegetated area and grasslands than in forest and croplands. (2) Whereas, all indicators presented higher variability in grassland area, particularly in east Mongolia. (3) GPP and transpiration have larger variability than other indicators due to fraction of absorbed Photosynthetically active radiation (FPAR). These eco-physiological indicators are expected to continue to change under future climate change and to help to assess land degradation from ecosystem energy-water-carbon perspectives.

  9. Prioritizing public- private partnership models for public hospitals of iran based on performance indicators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gholamzadeh Nikjoo, Raana; Jabbari Beyrami, Hossein; Jannati, Ali; Asghari Jaafarabadi, Mohammad

    2012-01-01

    The present study was conducted to scrutinize Public- Private Partnership (PPP) models in public hospitals of different countries based on performance indicators in order to se-lect appropriated models for Iran hospitals. In this mixed (quantitative-qualitative) study, systematic review and expert panel has been done to identify varied models of PPP as well as performance indicators. In the second step we prioritized performance indicator and PPP models based on selected performance indicators by Analytical Hierarchy process (AHP) technique. The data were analyzed by Excel 2007 and Expert Choice11 software's. In quality - effectiveness area, indicators like the rate of hospital infections (100%), hospital accidents prevalence rate (73%), pure rate of hospital mortality (63%), patient satisfaction percentage (53%), in accessibility equity area indicators such as average inpatient waiting time (100%) and average outpatient waiting time (74%), and in financial - efficiency area, indicators including average length of stay (100%), bed occupation ratio (99%), specific income to total cost ratio (97%) have been chosen to be the most key performance indicators. In the pri¬oritization of the PPP models clinical outsourcing, management, privatization, BOO (build, own, operate) and non-clinical outsourcing models, achieved high priority for various performance in¬dicator areas. This study had been provided the most common PPP options in the field of public hospitals and had gathered suitable evidences from experts for choosing appropriate PPP option for public hospitals. Effect of private sector presence in public hospital performance, based on which PPP options undertaken, will be different.

  10. Metabolic syndrome indicators and target organ damage in urban active coping African and Caucasian men: the SABPA study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Kock, A; Malan, L; Potgieter, J C; Steenekamp, W; van der Merwe, M T

    2012-05-01

    Psychosocial stress relating to an urban environment or acculturation increases the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS). The objectives of this study were firstly to indicate and compare differences regarding appraisal of stress or active coping responses in urban African (n=88) and Caucasian (n=101) male teachers of South Africa, in accord with the prevalence of MetS indicators. And secondly to investigate the extent to which utilisation of active coping responses, together with MetS indicators, predict target organ damage, in these men. The Coping Strategy Indicator determined high and low active coping responses in male teachers from the Sympathetic Activity and Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Africans (SABPA) study. SABPA inclusion and exclusion criteria were used. Additionally, diabetic medication users (n=8), and participants with renal impairment (n=2) or HIV positive (n=13), were excluded. MetS indicators included glucose, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, blood pressure, and waist circumference, independent of confounders (age, physical activity, gamma glutamyl transferase). Microalbuminuria and carotid intima-media thickness indicated target organ damage. More MetS indicators exceeded the IDF cut-off points in high active coping African men (14.71%) than in their Caucasian counterparts (3.33%), as determined from χ² analyses. Furthermore, stepwise regressions indicated that more MetS indicators predicted endothelial dysfunction, especially in the high active coping African men. High active coping African men showed more manifestation of MetS, compared to their Caucasian counterparts, and revealed progress towards endothelial dysfunction. © J. A. Barth Verlag in Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

  11. Activated sludge model No. 3

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gujer, W.; Henze, M.; Mino, T.

    1999-01-01

    The Activated Sludge Model No. 3 (ASM3) can predict oxygen consumption, sludge production, nitrification and denitrification of activated sludge systems. It relates to the Activated Sludge Model No. 1 (ASM1) and corrects for some defects of ASM I. In addition to ASM1, ASM3 includes storage of org...

  12. Socio-economic vulnerability to natural hazards - proposal for an indicator-based model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eidsvig, U.; McLean, A.; Vangelsten, B. V.; Kalsnes, B.; Ciurean, R. L.; Argyroudis, S.; Winter, M.; Corominas, J.; Mavrouli, O. C.; Fotopoulou, S.; Pitilakis, K.; Baills, A.; Malet, J. P.

    2012-04-01

    Vulnerability assessment, with respect to natural hazards, is a complex process that must consider multiple dimensions of vulnerability, including both physical and social factors. Physical vulnerability refers to conditions of physical assets, and may be modeled by the intensity and magnitude of the hazard, the degree of physical protection provided by the natural and built environment, and the physical robustness of the exposed elements. Social vulnerability refers to the underlying factors leading to the inability of people, organizations, and societies to withstand impacts from the natural hazards. Social vulnerability models can be used in combination with physical vulnerability models to estimate both direct losses, i.e. losses that occur during and immediately after the impact, as well as indirect losses, i.e. long-term effects of the event. Direct impact of a landslide typically includes casualties and damages to buildings and infrastructure while indirect losses may e.g. include business closures or limitations in public services. The direct losses are often assessed using physical vulnerability indicators (e.g. construction material, height of buildings), while indirect losses are mainly assessed using social indicators (e.g. economical resources, demographic conditions). Within the EC-FP7 SafeLand research project, an indicator-based method was proposed to assess relative socio-economic vulnerability to landslides. The indicators represent the underlying factors which influence a community's ability to prepare for, deal with, and recover from the damage associated with landslides. The proposed model includes indicators representing demographic, economic and social characteristics as well as indicators representing the degree of preparedness and recovery capacity. Although the model focuses primarily on the indirect losses, it could easily be extended to include more physical indicators which account for the direct losses. Each indicator is individually

  13. An improved active contour model for glacial lake extraction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, H.; Chen, F.; Zhang, M.

    2017-12-01

    Active contour model is a widely used method in visual tracking and image segmentation. Under the driven of objective function, the initial curve defined in active contour model will evolve to a stable condition - a desired result in given image. As a typical region-based active contour model, C-V model has a good effect on weak boundaries detection and anti noise ability which shows great potential in glacial lake extraction. Glacial lake is a sensitive indicator for reflecting global climate change, therefore accurate delineate glacial lake boundaries is essential to evaluate hydrologic environment and living environment. However, the current method in glacial lake extraction mainly contains water index method and recognition classification method are diffcult to directly applied in large scale glacial lake extraction due to the diversity of glacial lakes and masses impacted factors in the image, such as image noise, shadows, snow and ice, etc. Regarding the abovementioned advantanges of C-V model and diffcults in glacial lake extraction, we introduce the signed pressure force function to improve the C-V model for adapting to processing of glacial lake extraction. To inspect the effect of glacial lake extraction results, three typical glacial lake development sites were selected, include Altai mountains, Centre Himalayas, South-eastern Tibet, and Landsat8 OLI imagery was conducted as experiment data source, Google earth imagery as reference data for varifying the results. The experiment consequence suggests that improved active contour model we proposed can effectively discriminate the glacial lakes from complex backgound with a higher Kappa Coefficient - 0.895, especially in some small glacial lakes which belongs to weak information in the image. Our finding provide a new approach to improved accuracy under the condition of large proportion of small glacial lakes and the possibility for automated glacial lake mapping in large-scale area.

  14. Oriented active shape models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Jiamin; Udupa, Jayaram K

    2009-04-01

    Active shape models (ASM) are widely employed for recognizing anatomic structures and for delineating them in medical images. In this paper, a novel strategy called oriented active shape models (OASM) is presented in an attempt to overcome the following five limitations of ASM: 1) lower delineation accuracy, 2) the requirement of a large number of landmarks, 3) sensitivity to search range, 4) sensitivity to initialization, and 5) inability to fully exploit the specific information present in the given image to be segmented. OASM effectively combines the rich statistical shape information embodied in ASM with the boundary orientedness property and the globally optimal delineation capability of the live wire methodology of boundary segmentation. The latter characteristics allow live wire to effectively separate an object boundary from other nonobject boundaries with similar properties especially when they come very close in the image domain. The approach leads to a two-level dynamic programming method, wherein the first level corresponds to boundary recognition and the second level corresponds to boundary delineation, and to an effective automatic initialization method. The method outputs a globally optimal boundary that agrees with the shape model if the recognition step is successful in bringing the model close to the boundary in the image. Extensive evaluation experiments have been conducted by utilizing 40 image (magnetic resonance and computed tomography) data sets in each of five different application areas for segmenting breast, liver, bones of the foot, and cervical vertebrae of the spine. Comparisons are made between OASM and ASM based on precision, accuracy, and efficiency of segmentation. Accuracy is assessed using both region-based false positive and false negative measures and boundary-based distance measures. The results indicate the following: 1) The accuracy of segmentation via OASM is considerably better than that of ASM; 2) The number of landmarks

  15. Activation scheme to use performance indicators for the graded regulation on Korean NPPs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hwang, M. J.; Kang, D. I.; Kim, G. R.; Sung, G. Y.

    2003-01-01

    In this paper, we will provide an activation scheme of using performance indicators for graded regulation on Korean Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). The safe operation of NPPs is the basic objective of nuclear society. To achieve the object, the direction of the regulation is established to regulate the risk of public health and safety. Therefore, it's essential to keep the safety of plants. However, it's not easy to define the appropriate safety level. So, the requirement of performance indicator establishment and framework establishment for safety management has been increased. Performance indicators can provide quantified safety value numerically. Therefore, we can increase the acceptance and trust of the public for safety of NPPs. Also, it helps pridictive regulation through the objective comparison of safety. Moreover, according to the importance of safety, we can allocate the resources effectively and lead an effort for the improvement of safety by comparison among nations and plants. The safety of a plant is affected by not only design but also the quality of operators, appropriate operation, maintenance and test. So, in this paper, we reviewed the application of performance indicators in domestic and foreign countries, and groped for a method to activate the use of performance indicators

  16. Investigations of the Propagation of Plant Pollen by an Indicator Activation Method

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fendrik, I.; Glubrecht, H. [Technische Hochschule, Hanover (Germany)

    1967-10-15

    The study of the propagation of plant pollen is of special interest in ecology and plant breeding. Generally, radioactive labelling cannot be applied for this purpose since radioactive contamination of the materials under investigation cannot be tolerated. Instead, labelling can be performed by the use of an indicator element that has a high cross-section for neutron activation. This substance is introduced into the plant under consideration. The flying pollen is caught by polyethylene foils by means of electrostatic attraction. The foils with the pollen are irradiated in a nuclear reactor with a suitable flux of thermal neutrons. The labelled pollen grains can be detected and counted by autoradiography or by direct measurement. The method has proved satisfactory for pines and sugar beet. Indicator elements used for detection by neutron activation were manganese and dysprosium. (author)

  17. Prioritizing Public- Private Partnership Models for Public Hospitals of Iran Based on Performance Indicators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Asghari Jaafarabadi

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Background: The present study was conducted to scrutinize Public- Private Partnership (PPP models in public hospitals of different countries based on performance indicators in order to se-lect appropriated models for Iran hospitals.Methods: In this mixed (quantitative-qualitative study, systematic review and expert panel hasbeen done to identify varied models of PPP as well as performance indicators. In the second stepwe prioritized performance indicator and PPP models based on selected performance indicatorsby Analytical Hierarchy process (AHP technique. The data were analyzed by Excel 2007 andExpert Choice11 software’s.Results: In quality – effectiveness area, indicators like the rate of hospital infections(100%, hospital accidents prevalence rate (73%, pure rate of hospital mortality (63%, patientsatisfaction percentage (53%, in accessibility equity area indicators such as average inpatientwaiting time (100% and average outpatient waiting time (74%, and in financial – efficiency area,indicators including average length of stay (100%, bed occupation ratio (99%, specific incometo total cost ratio (97% have been chosen to be the most key performance indicators. In the prioritizationof the PPP models clinical outsourcing, management, privatization, BOO (build, own,operate and non-clinical outsourcing models, achieved high priority for various performance indicatorareas.Conclusion: This study had been provided the most common PPP options in the field of public hospitals and had gathered suitable evidences from experts for choosing appropriate PPP option for public hospitals. Effect of private sector presence in public hospital performance, based on which PPP options undertaken, will be different.

  18. Analysis of indicators of an efficiency estimation of work of the employee and the business model of the organization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yury G. Odegov

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available In conditions of increasing competition, the problems of efficiency increase of activity of the company are significantly actualized, which directly depends on efficiency of labour activity of every employee and the implemented business model of the organization. On this basis the aim of the research is to analyze existing indicators of performance evaluation of the labour activities of both the employee and the business model of the organization.The theoretical basis of the study consists of principles of the economic theory, the works of native and foreign experts in the field of job evaluation. The information base of the research consists of economic and legal literature dealing with problems of this study, the data published in periodicals, materials of Russian scientific conferences, seminars, and Internet resources.In this article I have used and found the application of scientific methods of data collection, methods of research and methods of assessing their credibility: quantitative, comparative, logical analysis and synthesis.The modern business concern about the accumulation of wealth of shareholders, giving the company stability, growth and efficiency inevitably leads to necessity of creation and development of technologies aimed at improving the productivity of employees. The paper presents a comparative analysis of different approaches to assessing the labour effectiveness.The performance of the work is the ratio of the four essential parameters that determine the measure of efficiency of persons’ activity: the quantity and quality of result of work (a service, material product or technology in relation to spend time and cost on its production. The use of employees («performance» should be in the following way that they could achieve the planned results in the workplace. The authors have noted that to develop of technologies for the measurement of productivity it is very important to use the procedures and indicators that are

  19. Standards of care and quality indicators for multidisciplinary care models for psoriatic arthritis in Spain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gratacós, Jordi; Luelmo, Jesús; Rodríguez, Jesús; Notario, Jaume; Marco, Teresa Navío; de la Cueva, Pablo; Busquets, Manel Pujol; Font, Mercè García; Joven, Beatriz; Rivera, Raquel; Vega, Jose Luis Alvarez; Álvarez, Antonio Javier Chaves; Parera, Ricardo Sánchez; Carrascosa, Jose Carlos Ruiz; Martínez, Fernando José Rodríguez; Sánchez, José Pardo; Olmos, Carlos Feced; Pujol, Conrad; Galindez, Eva; Barrio, Silvia Pérez; Arana, Ana Urruticoechea; Hergueta, Mercedes; Coto, Pablo; Queiro, Rubén

    2018-06-01

    To define and give priority to standards of care and quality indicators of multidisciplinary care for patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). A systematic literature review on PsA standards of care and quality indicators was performed. An expert panel of rheumatologists and dermatologists who provide multidisciplinary care was established. In a consensus meeting group, the experts discussed and developed the standards of care and quality indicators and graded their priority, agreement and also the feasibility (only for quality indicators) following qualitative methodology and a Delphi process. Afterwards, these results were discussed with 2 focus groups, 1 with patients, another with health managers. A descriptive analysis is presented. We obtained 25 standards of care (9 of structure, 9 of process, 7 of results) and 24 quality indicators (2 of structure, 5 of process, 17 of results). Standards of care include relevant aspects in the multidisciplinary care of PsA patients like an appropriate physical infrastructure and technical equipment, the access to nursing care, labs and imaging techniques, other health professionals and treatments, or the development of care plans. Regarding quality indicators, the definition of multidisciplinary care model objectives and referral criteria, the establishment of responsibilities and coordination among professionals and the active evaluation of patients and data collection were given a high priority. Patients considered all of them as important. This set of standards of care and quality indicators for the multidisciplinary care of patients with PsA should help improve quality of care in these patients.

  20. A Natural Component-Based Oxygen Indicator with In-Pack Activation for Intelligent Food Packaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Won, Keehoon; Jang, Nan Young; Jeon, Junsu

    2016-12-28

    Intelligent food packaging can provide consumers with reliable and correct information on the quality and safety of packaged foods. One of the key constituents in intelligent packaging is a colorimetric oxygen indicator, which is widely used to detect oxygen gas involved in food spoilage by means of a color change. Traditional oxygen indicators consisting of redox dyes and strong reducing agents have two major problems: they must be manufactured and stored under anaerobic conditions because air depletes the reductant, and their components are synthetic and toxic. To address both of these serious problems, we have developed a natural component-based oxygen indicator characterized by in-pack activation. The conventional oxygen indicator composed of synthetic and artificial components was redesigned using naturally occurring compounds (laccase, guaiacol, and cysteine). These natural components were physically separated into two compartments by a fragile barrier. Only when the barrier was broken were all of the components mixed and the function as an oxygen indicator was begun (i.e., in-pack activation). Depending on the component concentrations, the natural component-based oxygen indicator exhibited different response times and color differences. The rate of the color change was proportional to the oxygen concentration. This novel colorimetric oxygen indicator will contribute greatly to intelligent packaging for healthier and safer foods.

  1. Similitude Modeling in RDC Activities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosli Darmawan

    2015-01-01

    Research and development activities would involve the scaled modelling activities in order to investigate theory, facts, thesis or concepts. In commercialisation activities, scaling-up proses is necessary for the development of pilot plants or prototypes. The issue with scaled modelling is the similarity between the small scaled model and the full scaled prototype in all aspects of the system such as physical appearance, dimension and the system behaviour. Similarly, for scaling-up process, physical parameters and behaviour of a smaller model need to be developed into a bigger prototype with similar system. Either way, the modelling process must be able to produce a reliable representation of the system or process so that the objectives or functions of the system can be achieved. This paper discusses a modelling method which may be able to produce similar representation of any system or process either in scaled-model testing or scaling-up processes. (author)

  2. A model to environmental monitoring based on glutathione-S-transferase activity and branchial lesions in catfish

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neta, Raimunda Nonata Fortes Carvalho; Torres, Audalio Rebelo

    2017-11-01

    In this work, we validate the glutathione-S-transferase and branchial lesions as biomarkers in catfish Sciades herzbergii to obtain a predictive model of the environmental impact effects in a harbor of Brazil. The catfish were sampled from a port known to be contaminated with heavy metals and organic compounds and from a natural reserve in São Marcos Bay, Maranhão. Two biomarkers, hepatic glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity and branchial lesions were analyzed. The values for GST activity were modeled with the occurrence of branchial lesions by fitting a third order polynomial. Results from the mathematical model indicate that GST activity has a strong polynomial relationship with the occurrence of branchial lesions in both the wet and the dry seasons, but only at the polluted port site. Our mathematic model indicates that when the GST ceases to act, serious branchial lesions are observed in the catfish of the contaminated port area.

  3. Modeling Active Aging and Explicit Memory: An Empirical Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ponce de León, Laura Ponce; Lévy, Jean Pierre; Fernández, Tomás; Ballesteros, Soledad

    2015-08-01

    The rapid growth of the population of older adults and their concomitant psychological status and health needs have captured the attention of researchers and health professionals. To help fill the void of literature available to social workers interested in mental health promotion and aging, the authors provide a model for active aging that uses psychosocial variables. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships among the latent variables of the state of explicit memory, the perception of social resources, depression, and the perception of quality of life in a sample of 184 older adults. The results suggest that explicit memory is not a direct indicator of the perception of quality of life, but it could be considered an indirect indicator as it is positively correlated with perception of social resources and negatively correlated with depression. These last two variables influenced the perception of quality of life directly, the former positively and the latter negatively. The main outcome suggests that the perception of social support improves explicit memory and quality of life and reduces depression in active older adults. The findings also suggest that gerontological professionals should design memory training programs, improve available social resources, and offer environments with opportunities to exercise memory.

  4. The New Digital Media Value Network: Proposing an Interactive Model of Digital Media Value Activities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sylvia Chan-Olmsted

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available This study models the dynamic nature of today’s media markets using the framework of value-adding activities in the provision and consumption of media products. The proposed user-centric approach introduces the notion that the actions of external users, social media, and interfaces affect the internal value activities of media firms via a feedback loop, and therefore should themselves be considered value activities. The model also suggests a more comprehensive list of indicators for value assessment.

  5. Specific-activity and concentration model applied to cesium movement in an oligotrophic lake

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vanderploeg, H.A.; Booth, R.S.; Clark, F.H.

    1975-01-01

    A linear systems-analysis model was derived to simulate the time-dependent dynamics of specific activity and concentration of radionuclides in aquatic systems. Transfer coefficients were determined for movement of 137 Cs in the components of an oligotrophic lake. These coefficients were defined in terms of basic environmental and ecological data so that the model can be applied to a wide variety of sites. Simulations with a model that ignored sediment--water interactions predicted much higher 137 Cs specific activities in the lake water and biota than did those with the complete model. Comparing 137 Cs concentrations predicted by the model with concentrations reported for the biota of an experimentally contaminated oligotrophic lake indicated that the transfer coefficients derived for the biota are adequate

  6. Energy Model of Neuron Activation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romanyshyn, Yuriy; Smerdov, Andriy; Petrytska, Svitlana

    2017-02-01

    On the basis of the neurophysiological strength-duration (amplitude-duration) curve of neuron activation (which relates the threshold amplitude of a rectangular current pulse of neuron activation to the pulse duration), as well as with the use of activation energy constraint (the threshold curve corresponds to the energy threshold of neuron activation by a rectangular current pulse), an energy model of neuron activation by a single current pulse has been constructed. The constructed model of activation, which determines its spectral properties, is a bandpass filter. Under the condition of minimum-phase feature of the neuron activation model, on the basis of Hilbert transform, the possibilities of phase-frequency response calculation from its amplitude-frequency response have been considered. Approximation to the amplitude-frequency response by the response of the Butterworth filter of the first order, as well as obtaining the pulse response corresponding to this approximation, give us the possibility of analyzing the efficiency of activating current pulses of various shapes, including analysis in accordance with the energy constraint.

  7. Modeling of Activated Sludge Process Using Sequential Adaptive Neuro-fuzzy Inference System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahsa Vajedi

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available In this study, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS has been applied to model activated sludge wastewater treatment process of Mobin petrochemical company. The correlation coefficients between the input variables and the output variable were calculated to determine the input with the highest influence on the output (the quality of the outlet flow in order to compare three neuro-fuzzy structures with different number of parameters. The predictions of the neuro-fuzzy models were compared with those of multilayer artificial neural network models with similar structure. The comparison indicated that both methods resulted in flexible, robust and effective models for the activated sludge system. Moreover, the root mean square of the error for neuro-fuzzy and neural network models were 5.14 and 6.59, respectively, which means the former is the superior method.

  8. Daily House Price Indices: Construction, Modeling, and Longer-Run Predictions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bollerslev, Tim; Patton, Andrew J.; Wang, Wenjing

    We construct daily house price indices for ten major U.S. metropolitan areas. Our calculations are based on a comprehensive database of several million residential property transactions and a standard repeat-sales method that closely mimics the methodology of the popular monthly Case-Shiller house...... price indices. Our new daily house price indices exhibit dynamic features similar to those of other daily asset prices, with mild autocorrelation and strong conditional heteroskedasticity of the corresponding daily returns. A relatively simple multivariate time series model for the daily house price...... index returns, explicitly allowing for commonalities across cities and GARCH effects, produces forecasts of monthly house price changes that are superior to various alternative forecast procedures based on lower frequency data....

  9. Appraisal of active tectonics in Hindu Kush: Insights from DEM derived geomorphic indices and drainage analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Syed Amer Mahmood

    2012-07-01

    The results obtained from these indices were combined to yield an index of relative active tectonics (IRAT using GIS. The average of the seven measured geomorphic indices was used to evaluate the distribution of relative tectonic activity in the study area. We defined four classes to define the degree of relative tectonic activity: class 1__very high (1.0 ≤ IRAT < 1.3; class 2__high (1.3 ≥ IRAT < 1.5; class 3—moderate (1.5 ≥ IRAT < 1.8; and class 4—low (1.8 ≥ IRAT. In view of the results, we conclude that this combined approach allows the identification of the highly deformed areas related to active tectonics. Landsat imagery and field observations also evidence the presence of active tectonics based on the deflected streams, deformed landforms, active mountain fronts and triangular facets. The indicative values of IRAT are consistent with the areas of known relative uplift rates, landforms and geology.

  10. A neighborhood statistics model for predicting stream pathogen indicator levels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pandey, Pramod K; Pasternack, Gregory B; Majumder, Mahbubul; Soupir, Michelle L; Kaiser, Mark S

    2015-03-01

    Because elevated levels of water-borne Escherichia coli in streams are a leading cause of water quality impairments in the U.S., water-quality managers need tools for predicting aqueous E. coli levels. Presently, E. coli levels may be predicted using complex mechanistic models that have a high degree of unchecked uncertainty or simpler statistical models. To assess spatio-temporal patterns of instream E. coli levels, herein we measured E. coli, a pathogen indicator, at 16 sites (at four different times) within the Squaw Creek watershed, Iowa, and subsequently, the Markov Random Field model was exploited to develop a neighborhood statistics model for predicting instream E. coli levels. Two observed covariates, local water temperature (degrees Celsius) and mean cross-sectional depth (meters), were used as inputs to the model. Predictions of E. coli levels in the water column were compared with independent observational data collected from 16 in-stream locations. The results revealed that spatio-temporal averages of predicted and observed E. coli levels were extremely close. Approximately 66 % of individual predicted E. coli concentrations were within a factor of 2 of the observed values. In only one event, the difference between prediction and observation was beyond one order of magnitude. The mean of all predicted values at 16 locations was approximately 1 % higher than the mean of the observed values. The approach presented here will be useful while assessing instream contaminations such as pathogen/pathogen indicator levels at the watershed scale.

  11. Developing model-making and model-breaking skills using direct measurement video-based activities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vonk, Matthew; Bohacek, Peter; Militello, Cheryl; Iverson, Ellen

    2017-12-01

    This study focuses on student development of two important laboratory skills in the context of introductory college-level physics. The first skill, which we call model making, is the ability to analyze a phenomenon in a way that produces a quantitative multimodal model. The second skill, which we call model breaking, is the ability to critically evaluate if the behavior of a system is consistent with a given model. This study involved 116 introductory physics students in four different sections, each taught by a different instructor. All of the students within a given class section participated in the same instruction (including labs) with the exception of five activities performed throughout the semester. For those five activities, each class section was split into two groups; one group was scaffolded to focus on model-making skills and the other was scaffolded to focus on model-breaking skills. Both conditions involved direct measurement videos. In some cases, students could vary important experimental parameters within the video like mass, frequency, and tension. Data collected at the end of the semester indicate that students in the model-making treatment group significantly outperformed the other group on the model-making skill despite the fact that both groups shared a common physical lab experience. Likewise, the model-breaking treatment group significantly outperformed the other group on the model-breaking skill. This is important because it shows that direct measurement video-based instruction can help students acquire science-process skills, which are critical for scientists, and which are a key part of current science education approaches such as the Next Generation Science Standards and the Advanced Placement Physics 1 course.

  12. Shell carbon isotope indicators of metabolic activity in the deep-sea mussel Bathymodiolus childressi

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riekenberg, P. M.; Carney, R. S.; Fry, B.

    2018-04-01

    The incorporation of metabolic carbon (Cm) into shells of mollusks has been used as an indicator of animal condition and availability of food resources in estuarine and freshwater settings. This study examines Cm in Bathymodiolus childressi, a marine cold seep mussel dependent on methanotrophic symbionts. As seeps develop, mature, and go quiescent, methane supply will vary and affect the amount of metabolic carbon deposited into the growing shell. B. childressi (n = 136) were live-collected from two seep sites over a 17 year period in the Northern Gulf of Mexico to investigate whether changes in Cm were detectable between sites and across years. Significant differences in Cm were observed between mussel populations at Brine Pool (15.4 ± 0.4%) and Bush Hill (10.3 ± 0.3%). Cm also changed significantly within each site across year (Bush Hill 1991: 12.2 ± 0.5%, 1992: 17.3 ± 0.8%) and decadal time scales (Brine Pool 1989: 15.5 ± 0.7%, 2006: 19.5 ± 0.7%). These findings agree with previous studies that found mussel condition was higher at Brine Pool and correlate well with a trophic mixing model that indicated significantly higher methane source utilization at the Brine Pool (65 ± 1.1%) than at Bush Hill (49 ± 1.6%). Further development of this method should allow for assessment of Cm in shell assemblages as an indicator of historical resource availability at both active and former cold seep sites.

  13. Structural Modeling for the Comparison Indicators in Various Electricity Generating Systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Seong Ho; Kim, Tae Woon

    2006-01-01

    Comparison indicators of various power systems can be yielded by solving a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. In reality, there are different grades of interdependence among the decision elements (e.g., decision goal, decision criteria, and decision alternatives). In our previous work, based on an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique, an independence model was developed for the comparison indicators under the assumption that there is no interdependence among the decision elements. For handling different interdependence phenomena (e.g., independence, inner dependence, outer dependence, feedback effect, a combination thereof) among the decision elements, one of the simplest graph structures was investigated on the basis of an analytic network process (ANP) technique. In the present work, the main objective is to study an assessment model with a high grade of interactions among the decision elements. Comparison indicators (e.g., weighting factors, overall priority scores, and risk attitudes towards a nuclear power plant) for seven power generation systems are obtained

  14. [Purity Detection Model Update of Maize Seeds Based on Active Learning].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Jin-ya; Huang, Min; Zhu, Qi-bing

    2015-08-01

    Seed purity reflects the degree of seed varieties in typical consistent characteristics, so it is great important to improve the reliability and accuracy of seed purity detection to guarantee the quality of seeds. Hyperspectral imaging can reflect the internal and external characteristics of seeds at the same time, which has been widely used in nondestructive detection of agricultural products. The essence of nondestructive detection of agricultural products using hyperspectral imaging technique is to establish the mathematical model between the spectral information and the quality of agricultural products. Since the spectral information is easily affected by the sample growth environment, the stability and generalization of model would weaken when the test samples harvested from different origin and year. Active learning algorithm was investigated to add representative samples to expand the sample space for the original model, so as to implement the rapid update of the model's ability. Random selection (RS) and Kennard-Stone algorithm (KS) were performed to compare the model update effect with active learning algorithm. The experimental results indicated that in the division of different proportion of sample set (1:1, 3:1, 4:1), the updated purity detection model for maize seeds from 2010 year which was added 40 samples selected by active learning algorithm from 2011 year increased the prediction accuracy for 2011 new samples from 47%, 33.75%, 49% to 98.89%, 98.33%, 98.33%. For the updated purity detection model of 2011 year, its prediction accuracy for 2010 new samples increased by 50.83%, 54.58%, 53.75% to 94.57%, 94.02%, 94.57% after adding 56 new samples from 2010 year. Meanwhile the effect of model updated by active learning algorithm was better than that of RS and KS. Therefore, the update for purity detection model of maize seeds is feasible by active learning algorithm.

  15. Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) dissipation in rhizosphere based on molecular structure and effect size

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ma Bin; Chen Huaihai; Xu Minmin; Hayat, Tahir; He Yan; Xu Jianming

    2010-01-01

    Rhizoremediation is a significant form of bioremediation for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). This study examined the role of molecular structure in determining the rhizosphere effect on PAHs dissipation. Effect size in meta-analysis was employed as activity dataset for building quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models and accumulative effect sizes of 16 PAHs were used for validation of these models. Based on the genetic algorithm combined with partial least square regression, models for comprehensive dataset, Poaceae dataset, and Fabaceae dataset were built. The results showed that information indices, calculated as information content of molecules based on the calculation of equivalence classes from the molecular graph, were the most important molecular structural indices for QSAR models of rhizosphere effect on PAHs dissipation. The QSAR model, based on the molecular structure indices and effect size, has potential to be used in studying and predicting the rhizosphere effect of PAHs dissipation. - Effect size based on meta-analysis was used for building PAHs dissipation quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models.

  16. Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) dissipation in rhizosphere based on molecular structure and effect size

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ma Bin; Chen Huaihai; Xu Minmin; Hayat, Tahir [Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Subtropical Soil and Plant Nutrition, College of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029 (China); He Yan, E-mail: yhe2006@zju.edu.c [Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Subtropical Soil and Plant Nutrition, College of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029 (China); Xu Jianming, E-mail: jmxu@zju.edu.c [Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Subtropical Soil and Plant Nutrition, College of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029 (China)

    2010-08-15

    Rhizoremediation is a significant form of bioremediation for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). This study examined the role of molecular structure in determining the rhizosphere effect on PAHs dissipation. Effect size in meta-analysis was employed as activity dataset for building quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models and accumulative effect sizes of 16 PAHs were used for validation of these models. Based on the genetic algorithm combined with partial least square regression, models for comprehensive dataset, Poaceae dataset, and Fabaceae dataset were built. The results showed that information indices, calculated as information content of molecules based on the calculation of equivalence classes from the molecular graph, were the most important molecular structural indices for QSAR models of rhizosphere effect on PAHs dissipation. The QSAR model, based on the molecular structure indices and effect size, has potential to be used in studying and predicting the rhizosphere effect of PAHs dissipation. - Effect size based on meta-analysis was used for building PAHs dissipation quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models.

  17. Estimating indices of range shifts in birds using dynamic models when detection is imperfect

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clement, Matthew J.; Hines, James E.; Nichols, James D.; Pardieck, Keith L.; Ziolkowski, David J.

    2016-01-01

    There is intense interest in basic and applied ecology about the effect of global change on current and future species distributions. Projections based on widely used static modeling methods implicitly assume that species are in equilibrium with the environment and that detection during surveys is perfect. We used multiseason correlated detection occupancy models, which avoid these assumptions, to relate climate data to distributional shifts of Louisiana Waterthrush in the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data. We summarized these shifts with indices of range size and position and compared them to the same indices obtained using more basic modeling approaches. Detection rates during point counts in BBS surveys were low, and models that ignored imperfect detection severely underestimated the proportion of area occupied and slightly overestimated mean latitude. Static models indicated Louisiana Waterthrush distribution was most closely associated with moderate temperatures, while dynamic occupancy models indicated that initial occupancy was associated with diurnal temperature ranges and colonization of sites was associated with moderate precipitation. Overall, the proportion of area occupied and mean latitude changed little during the 1997–2013 study period. Near-term forecasts of species distribution generated by dynamic models were more similar to subsequently observed distributions than forecasts from static models. Occupancy models incorporating a finite mixture model on detection – a new extension to correlated detection occupancy models – were better supported and may reduce bias associated with detection heterogeneity. We argue that replacing phenomenological static models with more mechanistic dynamic models can improve projections of future species distributions. In turn, better projections can improve biodiversity forecasts, management decisions, and understanding of global change biology.

  18. Activity-dependent branching ratios in stocks, solar x-ray flux, and the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld sandpile model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Elliot; Shreim, Amer; Paczuski, Maya

    2010-01-01

    We define an activity-dependent branching ratio that allows comparison of different time series X(t). The branching ratio b(x) is defined as b(x)=E[xi(x)/x]. The random variable xi(x) is the value of the next signal given that the previous one is equal to x, so xi(x)=[X(t+1) | X(t)=x]. If b(x)>1, the process is on average supercritical when the signal is equal to x, while if b(x)efficient market hypothesis." For stock volumes, solar x-ray flux intensities, and the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld (BTW) sandpile model, b(x) is supercritical for small values of activity and subcritical for the largest ones, indicating a tendency to return to a typical value. For stock volumes this tendency has an approximate power-law behavior. For solar x-ray flux and the BTW model, there is a broad regime of activity where b(x) approximately equal 1, which we interpret as an indicator of critical behavior. This is true despite different underlying probability distributions for X(t) and for xi(x). For the BTW model the distribution of xi(x) is Gaussian, for x sufficiently larger than 1, and its variance grows linearly with x. Hence, the activity in the BTW model obeys a central limit theorem when sampling over past histories. The broad region of activity where b(x) is close to one disappears once bulk dissipation is introduced in the BTW model-supporting our hypothesis that it is an indicator of criticality.

  19. Mathematic Modeling for Vegetal Coal Activation in a Rotating Cylindrical Furnace

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Zalazar-Oliva

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The activation of vegetal coal by applying physical or thermal methods is carried out under an atmosphere containing air, carbon dioxide or water vapor at temperatures ranging from 800 °C and 900 °C. This investigation was completed based on the mathematical modeling for the coal activation process in order to estimate the gas distribution and coal temperatures inside a rotating cylindrical kiln. The model consists of a system of non-lineal differential equations and equations to calculate the temperature of the cylinder internal wall and heat transfer coefficients. The 4th order Runge–Kutta method was used for the calculations. The comparison of the results obtained from modeling gas temperatures in the interior of the cylinder and the experimental data indicated that the variation is insignificant with an error margin below 5 %.

  20. Use of tamper-indicating seals at model facility. Part 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Logsdon, R.B.

    1984-01-01

    Tamper-indicating seals, when applied to containers of nuclear material, serve a vital safeguards function. Because of the importance of the seal in safeguards, it is essential that their acquisition, storage, and distribution be controlled effectively. These functions are described for the model facility

  1. Prediction of Availability Indicator of Water Pipes Using Artificial Intelligence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kutyłowska Małgorzata

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents the results of artificial neural networks application to the availability indicator prediction. The forecasted results indicate that artificial networks may be used to model the reliability level of the water supply systems. The network was trained using 147 and 173 operational data from one Polish medium-sized city (distribution pipes and house connections, respectively. 50% of all data was chosen for learning, 25% for testing and 25% for validation. In prognosis phase, the best created network used 100% of 114 and 133 values for testing. Following functions were used to activate neurons in hidden and output layers: linear, logistic, hyperbolic tangent, exponential. The learning of the artificial network was performed using following input parameters: material, total length, diameter. In the optimal models hyperbolic tangent was chosen to activate the hidden and output neurons in modeling the availability indicator of house connections during 68 epochs of training. Hidden and output neurons were activated (20 epochs of learning respectively by hyperbolic tangent and linear function during the prediction of availability indicator of distribution pipes. The maximum relative errors in learning and prognosis step were equal to 0.10% and 1.20% as well as 0.27% and 1.15% for distribution pipes and house connections, respectively.

  2. Activity-dependent branching ratios in stocks, solar x-ray flux, and the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld sandpile model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Elliot; Shreim, Amer; Paczuski, Maya

    2010-01-01

    We define an activity-dependent branching ratio that allows comparison of different time series Xt . The branching ratio bx is defined as bx=E[ξx/x] . The random variable ξx is the value of the next signal given that the previous one is equal to x , so ξx={Xt+1∣Xt=x} . If bx>1 , the process is on average supercritical when the signal is equal to x , while if bxmarket hypothesis.” For stock volumes, solar x-ray flux intensities, and the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld (BTW) sandpile model, bx is supercritical for small values of activity and subcritical for the largest ones, indicating a tendency to return to a typical value. For stock volumes this tendency has an approximate power-law behavior. For solar x-ray flux and the BTW model, there is a broad regime of activity where bx≃1 , which we interpret as an indicator of critical behavior. This is true despite different underlying probability distributions for Xt and for ξx . For the BTW model the distribution of ξx is Gaussian, for x sufficiently larger than 1, and its variance grows linearly with x . Hence, the activity in the BTW model obeys a central limit theorem when sampling over past histories. The broad region of activity where bx is close to one disappears once bulk dissipation is introduced in the BTW model—supporting our hypothesis that it is an indicator of criticality.

  3. A combined sensitivity analysis and kriging surrogate modeling for early validation of health indicators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lamoureux, Benjamin; Mechbal, Nazih; Massé, Jean-Rémi

    2014-01-01

    To increase the dependability of complex systems, one solution is to assess their state of health continuously through the monitoring of variables sensitive to potential degradation modes. When computed in an operating environment, these variables, known as health indicators, are subject to many uncertainties. Hence, the stochastic nature of health assessment combined with the lack of data in design stages makes it difficult to evaluate the efficiency of a health indicator before the system enters into service. This paper introduces a method for early validation of health indicators during the design stages of a system development process. This method uses physics-based modeling and uncertainties propagation to create simulated stochastic data. However, because of the large number of parameters defining the model and its computation duration, the necessary runtime for uncertainties propagation is prohibitive. Thus, kriging is used to obtain low computation time estimations of the model outputs. Moreover, sensitivity analysis techniques are performed upstream to determine the hierarchization of the model parameters and to reduce the dimension of the input space. The validation is based on three types of numerical key performance indicators corresponding to the detection, identification and prognostic processes. After having introduced and formalized the framework of uncertain systems modeling and the different performance metrics, the issues of sensitivity analysis and surrogate modeling are addressed. The method is subsequently applied to the validation of a set of health indicators for the monitoring of an aircraft engine’s pumping unit

  4. Rainfall-induced fecal indicator organisms transport from manured fields: model sensitivity analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinez, Gonzalo; Pachepsky, Yakov A; Whelan, Gene; Yakirevich, Alexander M; Guber, Andrey; Gish, Timothy J

    2014-02-01

    Microbial quality of surface waters attracts attention due to food- and waterborne disease outbreaks. Fecal indicator organisms (FIOs) are commonly used for the microbial pollution level evaluation. Models predicting the fate and transport of FIOs are required to design and evaluate best management practices that reduce the microbial pollution in ecosystems and water sources and thus help to predict the risk of food and waterborne diseases. In this study we performed a sensitivity analysis for the KINEROS/STWIR model developed to predict the FIOs transport out of manured fields to other fields and water bodies in order to identify input variables that control the transport uncertainty. The distributions of model input parameters were set to encompass values found from three-year experiments at the USDA-ARS OPE3 experimental site in Beltsville and publicly available information. Sobol' indices and complementary regression trees were used to perform the global sensitivity analysis of the model and to explore the interactions between model input parameters on the proportion of FIO removed from fields. Regression trees provided a useful visualization of the differences in sensitivity of the model output in different parts of the input variable domain. Environmental controls such as soil saturation, rainfall duration and rainfall intensity had the largest influence in the model behavior, whereas soil and manure properties ranked lower. The field length had only moderate effect on the model output sensitivity to the model inputs. Among the manure-related properties the parameter determining the shape of the FIO release kinetic curve had the largest influence on the removal of FIOs from the fields. That underscored the need to better characterize the FIO release kinetics. Since the most sensitive model inputs are available in soil and weather databases or can be obtained using soil water models, results indicate the opportunity of obtaining large-scale estimates of FIO

  5. Modeling interdisciplinary activities involving Mathematics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Iversen, Steffen Møllegaard

    2006-01-01

    In this paper a didactical model is presented. The goal of the model is to work as a didactical tool, or conceptual frame, for developing, carrying through and evaluating interdisciplinary activities involving the subject of mathematics and philosophy in the high schools. Through the terms...... of Horizontal Intertwining, Vertical Structuring and Horizontal Propagation the model consists of three phases, each considering different aspects of the nature of interdisciplinary activities. The theoretical modelling is inspired by work which focuses on the students abilities to concept formation in expanded...... domains (Michelsen, 2001, 2005a, 2005b). Furthermore the theoretical description rest on a series of qualitative interviews with teachers from the Danish high school (grades 9-11) conducted recently. The special case of concrete interdisciplinary activities between mathematics and philosophy is also...

  6. [Activities using websites and social networks: tools and indicators for evaluation].

    Science.gov (United States)

    López, María José; Continente, Xavier; Sánchez, Esther; Bartroli, Montse

    In the field of health, information and communication technology (ICT) can create a space that, regardless of place or time, enables information to be shared and disseminated quickly. In addition to the usual challenges of evaluating public health activities, other difficulties are present when evaluating activities using ICT, such as lack of previous standards, unknown individual exposure or lack of information on the characteristics of those exposed. The aim of this paper is to describe some tools and indicators that may help to assess the scope, use and parameters related to website positioning on search engines as well as the connected social networks. Copyright © 2017 SESPAS. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  7. Developing of Indicators of an E-Learning Benchmarking Model for Higher Education Institutions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sae-Khow, Jirasak

    2014-01-01

    This study was the development of e-learning indicators used as an e-learning benchmarking model for higher education institutes. Specifically, it aimed to: 1) synthesize the e-learning indicators; 2) examine content validity by specialists; and 3) explore appropriateness of the e-learning indicators. Review of related literature included…

  8. Modelled microgravity alters the Na+, K+-ATPase activity in rat heart homogenates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peana, Alessandra T.; Pippia, Proto; Paci, Silvia; Tognacini, Christina; Assaretti, Anna Rita; Meloni, Antonietta M.; Galleri, Grazia; Bernardini, Federico

    2005-08-01

    This study was aimed at establishing whether modeled microgravity conditions, created in a three-dimensional clinostat (Random Positioning Machine, RPM), influence the membrane-associated Na+, K+- and Mg2+- ATPase activities in heart homogenates from rats (ex- posed to RPM for 48 hours). The experimental data indicate that modeled low g significantly decreased the total ATPase (p<0.01) and Na+, K+ -ATPase activities (p<0.05) with no change of the Mg2+-ATPase activity, compared to the respective rat control groups (ground). This Na+, K+- pump inhibition could cause a digital- like effect in response to several modifications of many physiological processes even if this inhibition might also be causally related to the physiological environment induced by RPM. The exact mechanism by which total A TPase and Na+, K+ -A TPase activities decrease in response to RPM conditions remains to be established. We cannot rule out that a reduced intracellular ATP production, previously demonstrated in other cellular systems submitted to modeled microgravity conditions, could be responsible for the effects reported here.

  9. Does physical activity impact on presenteeism and other indicators of workplace well-being?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Helen E; Gilson, Nicholas D; Burton, Nicola W; Brown, Wendy J

    2011-03-01

    The term 'presenteeism' is a relatively new concept in workplace health, and has come to signify being at work despite poor health and performing below par. Presenteeism, which is potentially critical to employers, has been associated with a range of psychosocial outcome measures, such as poor mental health and employee well-being. Physical activity is a potential strategy for reducing presenteeism, and for improving the mental health of employees. This article reviews evidence on the relationships between physical activity and employee well-being and presenteeism in the workplace, and identifies directions for research in an emerging field. Electronic and manual literature searches were used to identify 20 articles that met the inclusion criteria. These included 13 intervention trials (8 randomized controlled trials, 5 comparison trials) and 7 observational studies (3 cohort, 4 cross-sectional). Outcome measures were grouped into 'workplace well-being', 'psychosocial well-being' and 'physical well-being'. Studies measured a wide variety of outcomes, with absenteeism being the most commonly assessed. Evidence indicated a positive association between physical activity and psychosocial health in employees, particularly for quality of life and emotional well-being. However, findings were inconclusive as to the role of physical activity in promoting workplace well-being. Only one study reported on presenteeism, with mixed evidence for outcomes. This article indicates that physical activity and employee psychosocial health are positively related, but there is limited evidence of a relationship between physical activity and presenteeism. A standardized definition of presenteeism and an appropriate evaluation tool are key research priorities if the complex relationships between physical activity and workplace well-being are to be better understood. © 2011 Adis Data Information BV. All rights reserved.

  10. Activation analysis of several species of marine invertebrates as indicators of environmental conditions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fukushima, M.; Tamate, H.; Nakano, Y.

    2000-01-01

    Marine invertebrates are well known to accumulate trace metals from seawater, plankton, sea plants, and sediments. To test the usefulness of such organisms as a bio-indicator of environmental conditions, we have determined levels of trace elements in tissue of twelve species of marine invertebrates by photon and neutron activation analysis. Relatively higher concentration of elements were observed for Ni and Sn in mid-gut gland, for Cu and Zn in oyster tissues, for Se in swimming crabs, for Cu, Fe, and Se in gills of swimming crabs. Our results indicate that mid-gut gland of ear-shell will be useful as the indicator of environmental conditions. (author)

  11. Development of QSAR model for immunomodulatory activity of natural coumarinolignoids

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dharmendra K Yadav

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available Dharmendra K Yadav, Abha Meena, Ankit Srivastava, D Chanda, Feroz Khan, SK ChattopadhyayMetabolic and Structural Biology Department, Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, PO-CIMAP, IndiaAbstract: Immunomodulation is the process of alteration in immune response due to foreign intrusion of molecules inside the body. Along with the available drugs, a large number of herbal drugs are promoted in traditional Indian treatments, for their immunomodulating activity. Natural coumarinolignoids isolated from the seeds of Cleome viscose have been recognized as having hepatoprotective action and have recently been tested preclinically for their immunomodulatory activity affecting both cell-mediated and humoral immune response. To explore the immunomodulatory compound from derivatives of coumarinolignoids, a quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR and molecular docking studies were performed. Theoretical results are in accord with the in vivo experimental data studied on Swiss albino mice. Immunostimulatory activity was predicted through QSAR model, developed by forward feed multiple linear regression method with leave-one-out approach. Relationship correlating measure of QSAR model was 99% (R2 = 0.99 and predictive accuracy was 96% (RCV2 = 0.96. QSAR studies indicate that dipole moment, steric energy, amide group count, lambda max (UV-visible, and molar refractivity correlates well with biological activity, while decrease in dipole moment, steric energy, and molar refractivity has negative correlation. Docking studies also showed strong binding affinity to immunomodulatory receptors.Keywords: coumarinolignoids, immunomodulation, docking, QSAR, regression model

  12. Relating the bipolar spectrum to dysregulation of behavioural activation: a perspective from dynamical modelling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steinacher, Arno; Wright, Kim A

    2013-01-01

    Bipolar Disorders affect a substantial minority of the population and result in significant personal, social and economic costs. Understanding of the causes of, and consequently the most effective interventions for, this condition is an area requiring development. Drawing upon theories of Bipolar Disorder that propose the condition to be underpinned by dysregulation of systems governing behavioural activation or approach motivation, we present a mathematical model of the regulation of behavioural activation. The model is informed by non-linear, dynamical principles and as such proposes that the transition from "non-bipolar" to "bipolar" diagnostic status corresponds to a switch from mono- to multistability of behavioural activation level, rather than an increase in oscillation of mood. Consistent with descriptions of the behavioural activation or approach system in the literature, auto-activation and auto-inhibitory feedback is inherent within our model. Comparison between our model and empirical, observational data reveals that by increasing the non-linearity dimension in our model, important features of Bipolar Spectrum disorders are reproduced. Analysis from stochastic simulation of the system reveals the role of noise in behavioural activation regulation and indicates that an increase of nonlinearity promotes noise to jump scales from small fluctuations of activation levels to longer lasting, but less variable episodes. We conclude that further research is required to relate parameters of our model to key behavioural and biological variables observed in Bipolar Disorder.

  13. The performance indicators of model projects. A special evaluation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-11-01

    As a result of the acknowledgment of the key role of the Model Project concept in the Agency's Technical Co-operation Programme, the present review of the objectives of the model projects which are now in operation, was undertaken, as recommended by the Board of Governors, to determine at an early stage: the extent to which the present objectives have been defined in a measurable way; whether objectively verifiable performance indicators and success criteria had been identified for each project; whether mechanisms to obtain feedback on the achievements had been foreseen. The overall budget for the 23 model projects, as approved from 1994 to 1998, amounts to $32,557,560, of which 45% is funded by Technical Co-operation Fund. This represents an average investment of about $8 million per year, that is over 15% of the annual TC budget. The conceptual importance of the Model Project initiative, as well as the significant funds allocated to them, led the Secretariat to plan the methods to be used to determine their socio-economic impact. 1 tab

  14. Structure model of energy efficiency indicators and applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu, Li-Ming; Chen, Bai-Sheng; Bor, Yun-Chang; Wu, Yin-Chin

    2007-01-01

    For the purposes of energy conservation and environmental protection, the government of Taiwan has instigated long-term policies to continuously encourage and assist industry in improving the efficiency of energy utilization. While multiple actions have led to practical energy saving to a limited extent, no strong evidence of improvement in energy efficiency was observed from the energy efficiency indicators (EEI) system, according to the annual national energy statistics and survey. A structural analysis of EEI is needed in order to understand the role that energy efficiency plays in the EEI system. This work uses the Taylor series expansion to develop a structure model for EEI at the level of the process sector of industry. The model is developed on the premise that the design parameters of the process are used in comparison with the operational parameters for energy differences. The utilization index of production capability and the variation index of energy utilization are formulated in the model to describe the differences between EEIs. Both qualitative and quantitative methods for the analysis of energy efficiency and energy savings are derived from the model. Through structural analysis, the model showed that, while the performance of EEI is proportional to the process utilization index of production capability, it is possible that energy may develop in a direction opposite to that of EEI. This helps to explain, at least in part, the inconsistency between EEI and energy savings. An energy-intensive steel plant in Taiwan was selected to show the application of the model. The energy utilization efficiency of the plant was evaluated and the amount of energy that had been saved or over-used in the production process was estimated. Some insights gained from the model outcomes are helpful to further enhance energy efficiency in the plant

  15. Disease activity indices in coeliac disease: systematic review and recommendations for clinical trials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hindryckx, Pieter; Levesque, Barrett G; Holvoet, Tom; Durand, Serina; Tang, Ceen-Ming; Parker, Claire; Khanna, Reena; Shackelton, Lisa M; D'Haens, Geert; Sandborn, William J; Feagan, Brian G; Lebwohl, Benjamin; Leffler, Daniel A; Jairath, Vipul

    2018-01-01

    Although several pharmacological agents have emerged as potential adjunctive therapies to a gluten-free diet for coeliac disease, there is currently no widely accepted measure of disease activity used in clinical trials. We conducted a systematic review of coeliac disease activity indices to evaluate their operating properties and potential as outcome measures in registration trials. MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane central library were searched from 1966 to 2015 for eligible studies in adult and/or paediatric patients with coeliac disease that included coeliac disease activity markers in their outcome measures. The operating characteristics of histological indices, patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and endoscopic indices were evaluated for content and construct validity, reliability, responsiveness and feasibility using guidelines proposed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Of 19 123 citations, 286 studies were eligible, including 24 randomised-controlled trials. Three of five PROs identified met most key evaluative criteria but only the Celiac Disease Symptom Diary (CDSD) and the Celiac Disease Patient-Reported Outcome (CeD PRO) have been approved by the FDA. All histological and endoscopic scores identified lacked content validity. Quantitative morphometric histological analysis had better reliability and responsiveness compared with qualitative scales. Endoscopic indices were infrequently used, and only one index demonstrated responsiveness to effective therapy. Current best evidence suggests that the CDSD and the CeD PRO are appropriate for use in the definition of primary end points in coeliac disease registration trials. Morphometric histology should be included as a key secondary or co-primary end point. Further work is needed to optimise end point configuration to inform efficient drug development. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  16. Vibro-acoustic model of an active aircraft cabin window

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aloufi, Badr; Behdinan, Kamran; Zu, Jean

    2017-06-01

    This paper presents modeling and design of an active structural acoustic control (ASAC) system for controlling the low frequency sound field transmitted through an aircraft cabin window. The system uses stacked piezoelectric elements arranged in a manner to generate out-of-plane actuation point forces acting on the window panel boundaries. A theoretical vibro-acoustic model for an active quadruple-panel system is developed to characterize the dynamic behavior of the system and achieve a good understanding of the active control performance and the physical phenomena of the sound transmission loss (STL) characteristics. The quadruple-panel system represents the passenger window design used in some classes of modern aircraft with an exterior double pane of Plexiglas, an interior dust cover pane and a glazed dimmable pane, all separated by thin air cavities. The STL characteristics of identical pane window configurations with different piezoelectric actuator sets are analyzed. A parametric study describes the influence of important active parameters, such as the input voltage, number and location of the actuator elements, on the STL is investigated. In addition, a mathematical model for obtaining the optimal input voltage is developed to improve the acoustic attenuation capability of the control system. In general, the achieved results indicate that the proposed ASAC design offers a considerable improvement in the passive sound loss performance of cabin window design without significant effects, such as weight increase, on the original design. Also, the results show that the acoustic control of the active model with piezoelectric actuators bonded to the dust cover pane generates high structural vibrations in the radiating panel (dust cover) and an increase in sound power radiation. High active acoustic attenuation can be achieved by designing the ASAC system to apply active control forces on the inner Plexiglas panel or dimmable panel by installing the actuators on the

  17. Semi-analytical Model for Estimating Absorption Coefficients of Optically Active Constituents in Coastal Waters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, D.; Cui, Y.

    2015-12-01

    The objectives of this paper are to validate the applicability of a multi-band quasi-analytical algorithm (QAA) in retrieval absorption coefficients of optically active constituents in turbid coastal waters, and to further improve the model using a proposed semi-analytical model (SAA). The ap(531) and ag(531) semi-analytically derived using SAA model are quite different from the retrievals procedures of QAA model that ap(531) and ag(531) are semi-analytically derived from the empirical retrievals results of a(531) and a(551). The two models are calibrated and evaluated against datasets taken from 19 independent cruises in West Florida Shelf in 1999-2003, provided by SeaBASS. The results indicate that the SAA model produces a superior performance to QAA model in absorption retrieval. Using of the SAA model in retrieving absorption coefficients of optically active constituents from West Florida Shelf decreases the random uncertainty of estimation by >23.05% from the QAA model. This study demonstrates the potential of the SAA model in absorption coefficients of optically active constituents estimating even in turbid coastal waters. Keywords: Remote sensing; Coastal Water; Absorption Coefficient; Semi-analytical Model

  18. INDICATOR SYSTEM FOR MEASUREMENT OF FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valeriy Dudnyk

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The object of the work is study of methods for analyzing the current financial and economic performance of a company as well as the usage of existing methods for the assessment of the company in the current and future periods. Analysis of financial and economic performance provides not only assessment of the current situation of a company, but a projection of its future behavior. Thus, the results can be used for planning and prediction. Different ways of handling of economic information are currently used in activity analysis to study the factors influencing the performance of a company and to account its reserves. An objective assessment of the financial and economic situation of the modern enterprise is the crucial part of justified decision-making. It forms the basis for determining the development strategy and acts as one of the key indicators for investors and creditors. Tracking and evaluating the effectiveness of a company requires above all comprehensive assessment of its financial and economic activities, monitoring the implementation of decisions, and identification of reserves for improvement. The process of activity analysis requires generalization of models which allow using their results both as a guide for future development of the economic system as well as a base for comparison and evaluation of the present state of the company. This enables justified decision making in particular situations and clarifies usage of existing methods for assessment of the company in the current and future periods. Results. Financial and economic activities of a company require comprehensive analysis, which may be carried out in the following steps: formulating and analyzing business objectives of the company, forming the information basis, constructing a comparison table, analyzing the data, producing a comprehensive rating score of the financial and economic situation of the company. Comprehensive rating score should take into account all

  19. Economic performance indicators of wind energy based on wind speed stochastic modeling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    D’Amico, Guglielmo; Petroni, Filippo; Prattico, Flavio

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • We propose a new and different wind energy production indicator. • We compute financial profitability of potential wind power sites. • The wind speed process is modeled as an indexed semi-Markov chain. • We check if the wind energy is a good investment with and without incentives. - Abstract: We propose the computation of different wind energy production indicators and financial profitability of potential wind power sites. The computation is performed by modeling the wind speed process as an indexed semi-Markov chain to predict and simulate the wind speed dynamics. We demonstrate that the indexed semi-Markov chain approach enables reproducing the indicators calculated on real data. Two different time horizons of 15 and 30 years are analyzed. In the first case we consider the government incentives on the energy price now present in Italy, while in the second case the incentives have not been taken into account

  20. SUSTAINABILITY IN AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS: SOCIO-ECONOMICAL INDICATORS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Omar Daniel

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available It is wide the discussion involving the importance of production adjustment activities in general, to the concept of sustainable development. Among the agricultural activities, the agroforestry systems have been considered sustainable, coming as alternatives to the intensive systems of agricultural production. To monitor the sustainability of agricultural activities, includings  AF,  the  literature  emphasizes  the  biophysical  indicators,  in  detriment  of  the  socio-economical ones. Seeking to define a list of socio-economical indicators that can be adapted to the several models recommendations of  AF a study was developed, supported by specialists and technicians and wide literature review. The conclusions were: the categories related  to the operation of the systems had the largest number of indicators in the socioeconômic component, with larger concentration in the endogenous operations of the system, followed by the endogenous and exogenous resources; the largest number of indicators suggested in the category operation of the system was in the descriptors health and nutrition, employment, habitation and sanity and economic analysis; in the category operation of exogenous systems, there were certain larger number of indicators for the descriptors commercialization and rural infrastructure; practically there was no difference among the number of indicators obtained for the agroforestry systems with and without the animal component.

  1. Modeling and Predicting the Daily Equatorial Plasma Bubble Activity Using the Tiegcm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carter, B. A.; Retterer, J. M.; Yizengaw, E.; Wiens, K. C.; Wing, S.; Groves, K. M.; Caton, R. G.; Bridgwood, C.; Francis, M. J.; Terkildsen, M. B.; Norman, R.; Zhang, K.

    2014-12-01

    Describing and understanding the daily variability of Equatorial Plasma Bubble (EPB) occurrence has remained a significant challenge over recent decades. In this study we use the Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamics General Circulation Model (TIEGCM), which is driven by solar (F10.7) and geomagnetic (Kp) activity indices, to study daily variations of the linear Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instability growth rate in relation to the measured scintillation strength at five longitudinally distributed stations. For locations characterized by generally favorable conditions for EPB growth (i.e., within the scintillation season for that location) we find that the TIEGCM is capable of identifying days when EPB development, determined from the calculated R-T growth rate, is suppressed as a result of geomagnetic activity. Both observed and modeled upward plasma drift indicate that the pre-reversal enhancement scales linearly with Kp from several hours prior, from which it is concluded that even small Kp changes cause significant variations in daily EPB growth. This control of Kp variations on EPB growth prompted an investigation into the use of predicted Kp values from the Wing Kp model over a 2-month equinoctial campaign in 2014. It is found that both the 1-hr and 4-hr predicted Kp values can be reliably used as inputs into the TIEGCM to forecast the EPB growth conditions during scintillation season, when daily EPB variability is governed by the suppression of EPBs on days with increased, but not necessarily high, geomagnetic activity.

  2. Analysis of creative mathematical thinking ability by using model eliciting activities (MEAs)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winda, A.; Sufyani, P.; Elah, N.

    2018-05-01

    Lack of creative mathematical thinking ability can lead to not accustomed with open ended problem. Students’ creative mathematical thinking ability in the first grade at one of junior high school in Tangerang City is not fully developed. The reason of students’ creative mathematical thinking ability is not optimally developed is so related with learning process which has done by the mathematics teacher, maybe the learning design that teacher use is unsuitable for increasing students’ activity in the learning process. This research objective is to see the differences in students’ ways of answering the problems in terms of students’ creative mathematical thinking ability during the implementation of Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs). This research use post-test experimental class design. The indicators for creative mathematical thinking ability in this research arranged in three parts, as follow: (1) Fluency to answer the problems; (2) Flexibility to solve the problems; (3) Originality of answers. The result of this research found that by using the same learning model and same instrument from Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) there are some differences in the way students answer the problems and Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) can be one of approach used to increase students’ creative mathematical thinking ability.

  3. Safety update on the use of recombinant activated factor VII in approved indications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neufeld, Ellis J; Négrier, Claude; Arkhammar, Per; Benchikh el Fegoun, Soraya; Simonsen, Mette Duelund; Rosholm, Anders; Seremetis, Stephanie

    2015-06-01

    This updated safety review summarises the large body of safety data available on the use of recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa) in approved indications: haemophilia with inhibitors, congenital factor VII (FVII) deficiency, acquired haemophilia and Glanzmann's thrombasthenia. Accumulated data up to 31 December 2013 from clinical trials as well as post-marketing data (registries, literature reports and spontaneous reports) were included. Overall, rFVIIa has shown a consistently favourable safety profile, with no unexpected safety concerns, in all approved indications. No confirmed cases of neutralising antibodies against rFVIIa have been reported in patients with congenital haemophilia, acquired haemophilia or Glanzmann's thrombasthenia. The favourable safety profile of rFVIIa can be attributed to the recombinant nature of rFVIIa and its localised mechanism of action at the site of vascular injury. Recombinant FVIIa activates factor X directly on the surface of activated platelets, which are present only at the site of injury, meaning that systemic activation of coagulation is avoided and the risk of thrombotic events (TEs) thus reduced. Nonetheless, close monitoring for signs and symptoms of TE is warranted in all patients treated with any pro-haemostatic agent, including rFVIIa, especially the elderly and any other patients with concomitant conditions and/or predisposing risk factors to thrombosis. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. A Critical Review of Construct Indicators and Measurement Model Misspecification in Marketing and Consumer Research.

    OpenAIRE

    Jarvis, Cheryl Burke; MacKenzie, Scott B; Podsakoff, Philip M

    2003-01-01

    A review of the literature suggests that few studies use formative indicator measurement models, even though they should. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to (a) discuss the distinction between formative and reflective measurement models, (b) develop a set of conceptual criteria that can be used to determine whether a construct should be modeled as having formative or reflective indicators, (c) review the marketing literature to obtain an estimate of the extent of measurement model ...

  5. Development of the information model for consumer assessment of key quality indicators by goods labelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koshkina, S.; Ostrinskaya, L.

    2018-04-01

    An information model for “key” quality indicators of goods has been developed. This model is based on the assessment of f standardization existing state and the product labeling quality. According to the authors’ opinion, the proposed “key” indicators are the most significant for purchasing decision making. Customers will be able to use this model through their mobile technical devices. The developed model allows to decompose existing processes in data flows and to reveal the levels of possible architectural solutions. In-depth analysis of the presented information model decomposition levels will allow determining the stages of its improvement and to reveal additional indicators of the goods quality that are of interest to customers in the further research. Examining the architectural solutions for the customer’s information environment functioning when integrating existing databases will allow us to determine the boundaries of the model flexibility and customizability.

  6. A low free-parameter stochastic model of daily Forbush decrease indices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patra, Sankar Narayan; Bhattacharya, Gautam; Panja, Subhash Chandra; Ghosh, Koushik

    2014-01-01

    Forbush decrease is a rapid decrease in the observed galactic cosmic ray intensity pattern occurring after a coronal mass ejection. In the present paper we have analyzed the daily Forbush decrease indices from January, 1967 to December, 2003 generated in IZMIRAN, Russia. First the entire indices have been smoothened and next we have made an attempt to fit a suitable stochastic model for the present time series by means of a necessary number of process parameters. The study reveals that the present time series is governed by a stationary autoregressive process of order 2 with a trace of white noise. Under the consideration of the present model we have shown that chaos is not expected in the present time series which opens up the possibility of validation of its forecasting (both short-term and long-term) as well as its multi-periodic behavior.

  7. The Study of Relationship between Anthropometric Indices and Physical Activities with Musculoskeletal Complaints in High School Female Students of Tabriz in 1388

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shabnam Salekzamani

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available ​Background and Objectives : Adolescence is a proper time to make lifestyle changes to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases in the adulthood. This study aimed to describe the anthropometric indices and physical activities status and their relationship with musculoskeletal complaints in high school female students in Tabriz. Materials and Methods : Two hundred students were selected by cluster sampling method. Anthropometric indicators, physical activity level and musculoskeletal complaints were determined using standard protocols and questionnaires. Statistical analysis of data was performed according to age and body types. Results : The mean age and BMI of the subjects were 17.12 years and 22.16 kg/m2, respectively. About 20% of the students were overweight or obese. The body type of the students was endomorph-mesomorph. Only 8% of the students exercised in gyms and 31% spent more than three hours a day watching television and 70% did the housework. Body type and Body Mass Index did not differ significantly between age groups. Logistic regression models showed no relationship between musculoskeletal complaints, physical activities and body types. Conclusion : This study showed reduction in the physical activities of female students, but there was no significant relationship between musculoskeletal complaints, physical activities and body types.

  8. Magnetic resonance and diffusion tensor imaging analyses indicate heterogeneous strains along human medial gastrocnemius fascicles caused by submaximal plantar-flexion activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karakuzu, Agah; Pamuk, Uluç; Ozturk, Cengizhan; Acar, Burak; Yucesoy, Can A

    2017-05-24

    Sarcomere length changes are central to force production and excursion of skeletal muscle. Previous modeling indicates non-uniformity of that if mechanical interaction of muscle with its surrounding muscular and connective tissues is taken into account. Hence, quantifying length changes along the fascicles of activated human muscle in vivo is crucial, but this is lacking due to technical complexities. Combining magnetic resonance imaging deformation analyses and diffusion tensor imaging tractography, the aim was to test the hypothesis that submaximal plantar flexion activity at 15% MVC causes heterogeneous length changes along the fascicles of human medial gastrocnemius (GM) muscle. A general fascicle strain distribution pattern shown for all subjects indicates that proximal track segments are shortened, whereas distal ones are lengthened (e.g., by 13% and 29%, respectively). Mean fiber direction strains of different tracts also shows heterogeneity (for up to 57.5% of the fascicles). Inter-subject variability of amplitude and distribution of fascicle strains is notable. These findings confirm the hypothesis and are solid indicators for the functionally dependent mechanics of human muscle, in vivo. Heterogeneity of fascicle strains can be explained by epimuscular myofascial force transmission. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study, which quantified local deformations along human skeletal muscle fascicles caused by sustained submaximal activation. The present approach and indicated fascicle strain heterogeneity has numerous implications for muscle function in health and disease to estimate the muscle's contribution to the joint moment and excursion and to evaluate mechanisms of muscle injury and several treatment techniques. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Leukocytes respiratory burst activity as indicator of innate immunity of pacu Piaractus mesopotamicus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    JD Biller-Takahashi

    Full Text Available The present study evaluated the assay to quantify the respiratory burst activity of blood leukocytes of pacu as an indicator of the innate immune system, using the reduction of nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT to formazan as a measure of the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS. In order to assess the accuracy of the assay, fish were challenged by Aeromonas hydrophila and sampled one week after challenge. The A. hydrophila infection increased the leukocyte respiratory burst activity. The protocol showed a reliable and easy assay, appropriate to determine the respiratory burst activity of blood leukocytes of pacu, a neotropical fish, in the present experimental conditions.

  10. Representing and estimating interactions between activities in a need-based model of activity generation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nijland, L.; Arentze, T.; Timmermans, H.

    2013-01-01

    Although several activity-based models made the transition to practice in recent years, modeling dynamic activity generation and especially, the mechanisms underlying activity generation are not well incorporated in the current activity-based models. For instance, current models assume that

  11. Representing and estimating interactions between activities in a need-based model of activity generation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nijland, E.W.L.; Arentze, T.A.; Timmermans, H.J.P.

    2011-01-01

    Although several activity-based models made the transition to practice in recent years, modelling dynamic activity generation and especially, the mechanisms underlying activity generation are not well incorporated in the current activity-based models. For example, current models assume that

  12. Relating the bipolar spectrum to dysregulation of behavioural activation: a perspective from dynamical modelling.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arno Steinacher

    Full Text Available Bipolar Disorders affect a substantial minority of the population and result in significant personal, social and economic costs. Understanding of the causes of, and consequently the most effective interventions for, this condition is an area requiring development. Drawing upon theories of Bipolar Disorder that propose the condition to be underpinned by dysregulation of systems governing behavioural activation or approach motivation, we present a mathematical model of the regulation of behavioural activation. The model is informed by non-linear, dynamical principles and as such proposes that the transition from "non-bipolar" to "bipolar" diagnostic status corresponds to a switch from mono- to multistability of behavioural activation level, rather than an increase in oscillation of mood. Consistent with descriptions of the behavioural activation or approach system in the literature, auto-activation and auto-inhibitory feedback is inherent within our model. Comparison between our model and empirical, observational data reveals that by increasing the non-linearity dimension in our model, important features of Bipolar Spectrum disorders are reproduced. Analysis from stochastic simulation of the system reveals the role of noise in behavioural activation regulation and indicates that an increase of nonlinearity promotes noise to jump scales from small fluctuations of activation levels to longer lasting, but less variable episodes. We conclude that further research is required to relate parameters of our model to key behavioural and biological variables observed in Bipolar Disorder.

  13. Systematic review of the relationships between physical activity and health indicators in the early years (0-4 years

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valerie Carson

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Given the rapid development during the early years (0-4 years, an understanding of the health implications of physical activity is needed. The purpose of this systematic review was to examine the relationships between objectively and subjectively measured physical activity and health indicators in the early years. Methods Electronic databases were originally searched in April, 2016. Included studies needed to be peer-reviewed, written in English or French, and meet a priori study criteria. The population was apparently healthy children aged 1 month to 59.99 months/4.99 years. The intervention/exposure was objectively and subjectively measured physical activity. The comparator was various volumes, durations, frequencies, patterns, types, and intensities of physical activity. The outcomes were health indicators ranked as critical (adiposity, motor development, psychosocial health, cognitive development, fitness and important (bone and skeletal health, cardiometabolic health, and risks/harm. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE framework was used to assess the quality of evidence for each health indicator by each study design. Results Ninety-six studies representing 71,291 unique participants from 36 countries were included. Physical activity interventions were consistently (>60% of studies associated with improved motor and cognitive development, and psychosocial and cardiometabolic health. Across observational studies, physical activity was consistently associated with favourable motor development, fitness, and bone and skeletal health. For intensity, light- and moderate-intensity physical activity were not consistently associated with any health indicators, whereas moderate- to vigorous-intensity, vigorous-intensity, and total physical activity were consistently favourably associated with multiple health indicators. Across study designs, consistent favourable associations with

  14. Activity Prediction of Schiff Base Compounds using Improved QSAR Models of Cinnamaldehyde Analogues and Derivatives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hui Wang

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available In past work, QSAR (quantitative structure-activity relationship models of cinnamaldehyde analogues and derivatives (CADs have been used to predict the activities of new chemicals based on their mass concentrations, but these approaches are not without shortcomings. Therefore, molar concentrations were used instead of mass concentrations to determine antifungal activity. New QSAR models of CADs against Aspergillus niger and Penicillium citrinum were established, and the molecular design of new CADs was performed. The antifungal properties of the designed CADs were tested, and the experimental Log AR values were in agreement with the predicted Log AR values. The results indicate that the improved QSAR models are more reliable and can be effectively used for CADs molecular design and prediction of the activity of CADs. These findings provide new insight into the development and utilization of cinnamaldehyde compounds.

  15. Anticancer activities against cholangiocarcinoma, toxicity and pharmacological activities of Thai medicinal plants in animal models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plengsuriyakarn, Tullayakorn; Viyanant, Vithoon; Eursitthichai, Veerachai; Picha, Porntipa; Kupradinun, Piengchai; Itharat, Arunporn; Na-Bangchang, Kesara

    2012-03-27

    Chemotherapy of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), a devastating cancer with increasing worldwide incidence and mortality rates, is largely ineffective. The discovery and development of effective chemotherapeutics is urgently needed. The study aimed at evaluating anticancer activities, toxicity, and pharmacological activities of the curcumin compound (CUR), the crude ethanolic extracts of rhizomes of Zingiber officinale Roscoe (Ginger: ZO) and Atractylodes lancea thung. DC (Khod-Kha-Mao: AL), fruits of Piper chaba Hunt. (De-Plee: PC), and Pra-Sa-Prao-Yhai formulation (a mixture of parts of 18 Thai medicinal plants: PPF) were investigated in animal models. Anti-cholangiocarcinoma (anti-CCA) was assessed using CCA-xenograft nude mouse model. The antihypertensive, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, and anti-ulcer activities and effects on motor coordination were investigated using Rota-rod test, CODA tail-cuff system, writhing and hot plate tests, carrageenan-induced paw edema test, brewer's yeast test, and alcohol-induced gastric ulcer test, respectively. Acute and subacute toxicity tests were performed according to the OECD guideline for testing of chemicals with modification. Promising anticancer activity against CCA in nude mouse xenograft model was shown for the ethanolic extract of AL at all oral dose levels (1000, 3000, and 5000 mg/kg body weight) as well as the extracts of ZO, PPF, and CUR compound at the highest dose level (5000, 4000, and 5000 mg/kg body weight, respectively). PC produced no significant anti-CCA activity. Results from acute and subacute toxicity tests both in mice and rats indicate safety profiles of all the test materials in a broad range of dose levels. No significant toxicity except stomach irritation and general CNS depressant signs were observed. Investigation of pharmacological activities of the test materials revealed promising anti-inflammatory (ZO, PPF, and AL), analgesic (CUR and PPF), antipyretic (CUR and AL), antihypertensive (ZO

  16. Managing CSCL Activity through networking models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luis Casillas

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available This study aims at managing activity carried out in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL environments. We apply an approach that gathers and manages the knowledge underlying huge data structures, resulting from collaborative interaction among participants and stored as activity logs. Our method comprises a variety of important issues and aspects, such as: deep understanding of collaboration among participants in workgroups, definition of an ontology for providing meaning to isolated data manifestations, discovering of knowledge structures built in huge amounts of data stored in log files, and development of high-semantic indicators to describe diverse primitive collaborative acts, and binding these indicators to formal descriptions defined in the collaboration ontology; besides our method includes gathering collaboration indicators from web forums using natural language processing (NLP techniques.

  17. Hierarchical modeling of active materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Taya, Minoru

    2003-01-01

    Intelligent (or smart) materials are increasingly becoming key materials for use in actuators and sensors. If an intelligent material is used as a sensor, it can be embedded in a variety of structure functioning as a health monitoring system to make their life longer with high reliability. If an intelligent material is used as an active material in an actuator, it plays a key role of making dynamic movement of the actuator under a set of stimuli. This talk intends to cover two different active materials in actuators, (1) piezoelectric laminate with FGM microstructure, (2) ferromagnetic shape memory alloy (FSMA). The advantage of using the FGM piezo laminate is to enhance its fatigue life while maintaining large bending displacement, while that of use in FSMA is its fast actuation while providing a large force and stroke capability. Use of hierarchical modeling of the above active materials is a key design step in optimizing its microstructure for enhancement of their performance. I will discuss briefly hierarchical modeling of the above two active materials. For FGM piezo laminate, we will use both micromechanical model and laminate theory, while for FSMA, the modeling interfacing nano-structure, microstructure and macro-behavior is discussed. (author)

  18. Global Patterns in Ecological Indicators of Marine Food Webs: A Modelling Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heymans, Johanna Jacomina; Coll, Marta; Libralato, Simone; Morissette, Lyne; Christensen, Villy

    2014-01-01

    Background Ecological attributes estimated from food web models have the potential to be indicators of good environmental status given their capabilities to describe redundancy, food web changes, and sensitivity to fishing. They can be used as a baseline to show how they might be modified in the future with human impacts such as climate change, acidification, eutrophication, or overfishing. Methodology In this study ecological network analysis indicators of 105 marine food web models were tested for variation with traits such as ecosystem type, latitude, ocean basin, depth, size, time period, and exploitation state, whilst also considering structural properties of the models such as number of linkages, number of living functional groups or total number of functional groups as covariate factors. Principal findings Eight indicators were robust to model construction: relative ascendency; relative overhead; redundancy; total systems throughput (TST); primary production/TST; consumption/TST; export/TST; and total biomass of the community. Large-scale differences were seen in the ecosystems of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with the Western Atlantic being more complex with an increased ability to mitigate impacts, while the Eastern Atlantic showed lower internal complexity. In addition, the Eastern Pacific was less organised than the Eastern Atlantic although both of these systems had increased primary production as eastern boundary current systems. Differences by ecosystem type highlighted coral reefs as having the largest energy flow and total biomass per unit of surface, while lagoons, estuaries, and bays had lower transfer efficiencies and higher recycling. These differences prevailed over time, although some traits changed with fishing intensity. Keystone groups were mainly higher trophic level species with mostly top-down effects, while structural/dominant groups were mainly lower trophic level groups (benthic primary producers such as seagrass and macroalgae

  19. Global patterns in ecological indicators of marine food webs: a modelling approach.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Johanna Jacomina Heymans

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Ecological attributes estimated from food web models have the potential to be indicators of good environmental status given their capabilities to describe redundancy, food web changes, and sensitivity to fishing. They can be used as a baseline to show how they might be modified in the future with human impacts such as climate change, acidification, eutrophication, or overfishing. METHODOLOGY: In this study ecological network analysis indicators of 105 marine food web models were tested for variation with traits such as ecosystem type, latitude, ocean basin, depth, size, time period, and exploitation state, whilst also considering structural properties of the models such as number of linkages, number of living functional groups or total number of functional groups as covariate factors. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Eight indicators were robust to model construction: relative ascendency; relative overhead; redundancy; total systems throughput (TST; primary production/TST; consumption/TST; export/TST; and total biomass of the community. Large-scale differences were seen in the ecosystems of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with the Western Atlantic being more complex with an increased ability to mitigate impacts, while the Eastern Atlantic showed lower internal complexity. In addition, the Eastern Pacific was less organised than the Eastern Atlantic although both of these systems had increased primary production as eastern boundary current systems. Differences by ecosystem type highlighted coral reefs as having the largest energy flow and total biomass per unit of surface, while lagoons, estuaries, and bays had lower transfer efficiencies and higher recycling. These differences prevailed over time, although some traits changed with fishing intensity. Keystone groups were mainly higher trophic level species with mostly top-down effects, while structural/dominant groups were mainly lower trophic level groups (benthic primary producers such as

  20. A unified internal model theory to resolve the paradox of active versus passive self-motion sensation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laurens, Jean; Angelaki, Dora E

    2017-10-18

    Brainstem and cerebellar neurons implement an internal model to accurately estimate self-motion during externally generated ('passive') movements. However, these neurons show reduced responses during self-generated ('active') movements, indicating that predicted sensory consequences of motor commands cancel sensory signals. Remarkably, the computational processes underlying sensory prediction during active motion and their relationship to internal model computations during passive movements remain unknown. We construct a Kalman filter that incorporates motor commands into a previously established model of optimal passive self-motion estimation. The simulated sensory error and feedback signals match experimentally measured neuronal responses during active and passive head and trunk rotations and translations. We conclude that a single sensory internal model can combine motor commands with vestibular and proprioceptive signals optimally. Thus, although neurons carrying sensory prediction error or feedback signals show attenuated modulation, the sensory cues and internal model are both engaged and critically important for accurate self-motion estimation during active head movements.

  1. Emotional eating and physical activity self-efficacy as pathways in the association between depressive symptoms and adiposity indicators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Konttinen, Hanna; Silventoinen, Karri; Sarlio-Lähteenkorva, Sirpa; Männistö, Satu; Haukkala, Ari

    2010-11-01

    There is increasing evidence that depressive symptoms and obesity are positively related, but the mechanisms that explain the association between them are unclear. We examined direct and indirect associations between depressive symptoms, emotional eating, physical activity (PA) self-efficacy (ie, an individual's confidence in his or her ability to overcome barriers to maintain PA behaviors), and adiposity indicators. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized mediation model in Finnish men (n = 2312) and women (n = 2674) aged 25-74 y from the National Cardiovascular Risk Factor Survey conducted in 2007. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale, the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-R18, and a PA barriers self-efficacy scale were used. Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and percentage body fat of participants were measured in a health examination. Depressive symptoms and emotional eating had positive correlations and PA self-efficacy had negative correlations with BMI, WC, and percentage body fat. Elevated depressive symptoms were related to higher emotional eating (β = 0.38 for men and 0.31 for women) and lower PA self-efficacy (β = -0.41 for men and -0.31 for women), whereas emotional eating and PA self-efficacy were inversely correlated (r = -0.12 and -0.18, respectively). The positive bivariate associations between depressive symptoms and adiposity indicators became nonsignificant in models that included emotional eating and PA self-efficacy, and both of these factors significantly mediated the effects of depressive symptoms on adiposity indicators. Psychological factors related to both eating and PA may be relevant in explaining the positive relation between depressive symptoms and adiposity. Interventions that target obesity should take into account the effects of these factors on weight regulation.

  2. Estimating daily climatologies for climate indices derived from climate model data and observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahlstein, Irina; Spirig, Christoph; Liniger, Mark A; Appenzeller, Christof

    2015-01-01

    Climate indices help to describe the past, present, and the future climate. They are usually closer related to possible impacts and are therefore more illustrative to users than simple climate means. Indices are often based on daily data series and thresholds. It is shown that the percentile-based thresholds are sensitive to the method of computation, and so are the climatological daily mean and the daily standard deviation, which are used for bias corrections of daily climate model data. Sample size issues of either the observed reference period or the model data lead to uncertainties in these estimations. A large number of past ensemble seasonal forecasts, called hindcasts, is used to explore these sampling uncertainties and to compare two different approaches. Based on a perfect model approach it is shown that a fitting approach can improve substantially the estimates of daily climatologies of percentile-based thresholds over land areas, as well as the mean and the variability. These improvements are relevant for bias removal in long-range forecasts or predictions of climate indices based on percentile thresholds. But also for climate change studies, the method shows potential for use. Key Points More robust estimates of daily climate characteristics Statistical fitting approach Based on a perfect model approach PMID:26042192

  3. Assessment of subclinical atherosclerosis in ankylosing spondylitis: correlations with disease activity indices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F.M. Perrotta

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the study was to evaluate atherosclerosis in ankylosing spondylitis (AS through the assessment of morphological and functional measures of subclinical atherosclerosis. Twenty patients [M/F=12/8, age (median/range 43.5/28-69 years; disease duration (median/range 9.7/1-36 years] with AS classified according to modified New York criteria and twenty age and sex related healthy controls with negative past medical history for cardiovascular events were enrolled in the study. In all patients and controls, the intima-media thickness (IMT of common carotid artery, carotid bulb and internal carotid artery, and the flow-mediated dilatation (FMD of non-dominant arm brachial artery were determined, using a sonographic probe Esaote GPX (Genoa, Italy. Furthermore, we assess the main disease activity and disability indices [bath ankylosing spondylitis disease activity index, ankylosing spondylitis disease activity score-eritrosedimentation rate (ASDAS-ESR, ASDAS-C-reactive protein (CRP, bath ankylosing spondylitis metrology index, bath ankylosing spondylitis functional index and acute phase reactants. Plasmatic values of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein, triglyceride and homocysteine were carried out in all twenty patients. IMT at carotid bulb was significant higher in patients than in controls (0.67 mm vs 0.54 mm; P=0.03. FMD did not statistically differ between patients and controls (12.5% vs 15%; P>0.05. We found a correlation between IMT at carotid bulb and ESR (rho 0.43; P=0.04. No correlation was found between FMD and disease activity and disability indices. This study showed that in AS patients, without risk factors for cardiovascular disease, carotid bulb IMT, morphological index of subclinical atherosclerosis, is higher than in controls.

  4. The Use of Indicators in Modified Historical Model to Estimate the Intrinsic Value of a Stock

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gottwald Radim

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The article mentions several methods of a fundamental analysis used to value stocks. It primarily focuses on the historical model. This model enables undervalued, correctly valued and overvalued stocks to be identified. The model is further modified in the article, using selected accounting indicators. The modified model versions are applied to selected stocks in the SPAD segment, Prague Stock Exchange, within the 2005-2010 period. Empirical analysis is applied to a comparison of accuracy of the accounting indicator value estimates and accuracy of stock intrinsic value estimates, both separately for each stock and accounting indicator. The comparisons of accuracy of the accounting indicator value estimates and the accuracy of the stock intrinsic value estimates are also done based on the length of applied time period. With respect to the obvious fierce competition between stock issuers within the financial markets, the model enables potential investors, who are to select from an extensive offer of stocks, to make better informed investment decisions.

  5. Development of stochastic indicator models of lithology, Yucca Mountain, Nevada

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rautman, C.A.; Robey, T.H.

    1994-01-01

    Indicator geostatistical techniques have been used to produce a number of fully three-dimensional stochastic simulations of large-scale lithologic categories at the Yucca Mountain site. Each realization reproduces the available drill hole data used to condition the simulation. Information is propagated away from each point of observation in accordance with a mathematical model of spatial continuity inferred through soft data taken from published geologic cross sections. Variations among the simulated models collectively represent uncertainty in the lithology at unsampled locations. These stochastic models succeed in capturing many major features of welded-nonwelded lithologic framework of Yucca Mountain. However, contacts between welded and nonwelded rock types for individual simulations appear more complex than suggested by field observation, and a number of probable numerical artifacts exist in these models. Many of the apparent discrepancies between the simulated models and the general geology of Yucca Mountain represent characterization uncertainty, and can be traced to the sparse site data used to condition the simulations. Several vertical stratigraphic columns have been extracted from the three-dimensional stochastic models for use in simplified total-system performance assessment exercises. Simple, manual adjustments are required to eliminate the more obvious simulation artifacts and to impose a secondary set of deterministic geologic features on the overall stratigraphic framework provided by the indictor models

  6. Use of the Pyrithiamine-Induced Thiamine Deficient Animal Model of Korsakoff’s Syndrome for Exploratory Research Activities in Undergraduate Physiological Psychology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flint, Robert W.; Hill, Jonathan E.; Sandusky, Leslie A.; Marino, Christina L.

    2007-01-01

    Undergraduate neuroscience laboratory activities frequently focus on exercises that build student’s wet/dry laboratory skills, foster critical thinking, and provide opportunities for hands-on experiences. Such activities are, without a doubt, extremely important, but sometimes fall short of modeling actual research and often lack the ‘unknown’ hypothetical nature accompanying empirical studies. In this article we report a series of research activities using an animal model of Korsakoff’s syndrome in a Physiological Psychology course. The activities involve testing hypotheses regarding performance of animals with experimentally-induced Korsakoff’s syndrome and the effectiveness of glucose as a memory-enhancer in this model. Students were given a set of 24 articles for use in answering a series of laboratory report questions regarding the activities. At the conclusion of the course, students were asked to complete a questionnaire designed to assess the effectiveness of the laboratory activities. Results of the laboratory exercises indicated that locomotor activity, environmental habituation, and anxiety were unaffected in the Korsakoff condition, and glucose had no effect. Results of performance in the T-maze indicated that Korsakoff animals had significantly fewer spontaneous alternations than controls, but Korsakoff animals given glucose did not reveal this difference. Results of the student assessments indicated that the activities were considered educational, challenging, and more interesting than standard laboratory activities designed to reproduce reliable phenomena. PMID:23494173

  7. Regime Switching Vine Copula Models for Global Equity and Volatility Indices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Holger Fink

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available For nearly every major stock market there exist equity and implied volatility indices. These play important roles within finance: be it as a benchmark, a measure of general uncertainty or a way of investing or hedging. It is well known in the academic literature that correlations and higher moments between different indices tend to vary in time. However, to the best of our knowledge, no one has yet considered a global setup including both equity and implied volatility indices of various continents, and allowing for a changing dependence structure. We aim to close this gap by applying Markov-switching R-vine models to investigate the existence of different, global dependence regimes. In particular, we identify times of “normal” and “abnormal” states within a data set consisting of North-American, European and Asian indices. Our results confirm the existence of joint points in a time at which global regime switching between two different R-vine structures takes place.

  8. Artificial neural network model for prediction of safety performance indicators goals in nuclear plants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Souto, Kelling C.; Nunes, Wallace W. [Instituto Federal de Educacao, Ciencia e Tecnologia do Rio de Janeiro, Nilopolis, RJ (Brazil). Lab. de Aplicacoes Computacionais; Machado, Marcelo D., E-mail: dornemd@eletronuclear.gov.b [ELETROBRAS Termonuclear S.A. (ELETRONUCLEAR), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Gerencia de Combustivel Nuclear - GCN.T

    2011-07-01

    Safety performance indicators have been developed to provide a quantitative indication of the performance and safety in various industry sectors. These indexes can provide assess to aspects ranging from production, design, and human performance up to management issues in accordance with policy, objectives and goals of the company. The use of safety performance indicators in nuclear power plants around the world is a reality. However, it is necessary to periodically set goal values. Such goals are targets relating to each of the indicators to be achieved by the plant over a predetermined period of operation. The current process of defining these goals is carried out by experts in a subjective way, based on actual data from the plant, and comparison with global indices. Artificial neural networks are computational techniques that present a mathematical model inspired by the neural structure of intelligent organisms that acquire knowledge through experience. This paper proposes an artificial neural network model aimed at predicting values of goals to be used in the evaluation of safety performance indicators for nuclear power plants. (author)

  9. Artificial neural network model for prediction of safety performance indicators goals in nuclear plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Souto, Kelling C.; Nunes, Wallace W.; Machado, Marcelo D.

    2011-01-01

    Safety performance indicators have been developed to provide a quantitative indication of the performance and safety in various industry sectors. These indexes can provide assess to aspects ranging from production, design, and human performance up to management issues in accordance with policy, objectives and goals of the company. The use of safety performance indicators in nuclear power plants around the world is a reality. However, it is necessary to periodically set goal values. Such goals are targets relating to each of the indicators to be achieved by the plant over a predetermined period of operation. The current process of defining these goals is carried out by experts in a subjective way, based on actual data from the plant, and comparison with global indices. Artificial neural networks are computational techniques that present a mathematical model inspired by the neural structure of intelligent organisms that acquire knowledge through experience. This paper proposes an artificial neural network model aimed at predicting values of goals to be used in the evaluation of safety performance indicators for nuclear power plants. (author)

  10. Bi-temporal 3D active appearance models with applications to unsupervised ejection fraction estimation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stegmann, Mikkel Bille; Pedersen, Dorthe

    2005-01-01

    in four-dimensional MRI. The theoretical foundation of our work is the generative two-dimensional Active Appearance Models by Cootes et al., here extended to bi-temporal, three-dimensional models. Further issues treated include correction of respiratory induced slice displacements, systole detection......, and a texture model pruning strategy. Cross-validation carried out on clinical-quality scans of twelve volunteers indicates that ejection fraction and cardiac blood pool volumes can be estimated automatically and rapidly with accuracy on par with typical inter-observer variability....

  11. The impact of green logistic based on financial economic, social and environment activities on sustainable monetary expansion indicators of Oman

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Faris Alshubiri

    2017-05-01

    the country's economy also activating the industrial sectors by reducing operating costs and improving the quality of service provided to customers as an indicator of social activities to building green logistic and increase corporate awareness about an environmental variables and behavior of consumers to establish financial and economic system based on green logistical concept.  Research limitations The available data in statistical annual report of Oman is limited, which limited of the period and all variables of the study.  Practical implications: The management of firms should be adopting of green logistic operations by comparing the results of these concepts with competitors in the market for concentrated position of these firms in the market. Also this concept of green logistic helps firms to build an intellectual model that’s contributes to enhance the value-added. The results of this study enhance the stability of monastery policy indicators that’s reflecting of growth economic.  Social implications: Green logistic is presenting a behavior role on the firm’s and country performance and determines the trends and attitudes of future growth of firms especially in environment indicator.  Originality/value: This study aims to analysis the green logistic in the financial economic, social and environment that’s reflect more variations especially as they affected by changes of global markets, particularly with respect to the oil price, which is the main source of revenue for the Sultanate of Oman as the green logistic is one of the modern concepts is influencing the construction of corporate strategies to build economic plans of the country. Also this study has supplied researcher's conceptual framework to explain the green logistic in preparation for many future studies to examine the elements of green logistic.

  12. Factors Predicting the Physical Activity Behavior of Female Adolescents: A Test of the Health Promotion Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hashem Mohamadian

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available ObjectivesPhysical activity behavior begins to decline during adolescence and continues to decrease throughout young adulthood. This study aims to explain factors that influence physical activity behavior in a sample of female adolescents using a health promotion model framework.MethodsThis cross-sectional survey was used to explore physical activity behavior among a sample of female adolescents. Participants completed measures of physical activity, perceived self-efficacy, self-esteem, social support, perceived barriers, and perceived affect. Interactions among the variables were examined using path analysis within a covariance modeling framework.ResultsThe final model accounted for an R2 value of 0.52 for physical activity and offered a good model-data fit. The results indicated that physical activity was predicted by self-esteem (β=0.46, p<0.001, perceived self-efficacy (β=0.40, p<0.001, social support (β=0.24, p<0.001, perceived barriers (β=-0.19, p<0.001, and perceived affect (β=0.17, p<0.001.ConclusionsThe findings of this study showed that the health promotion model was useful to predict physical activity behavior among the Iranian female adolescents. Information related to the predictors of physical activity behavior will help researchers plan more tailored culturally relevant health promotion interventions for this population.

  13. Use of Artificial Neural Network Models to Predict Indicator Organism Concentrations in an Urban Watershed

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mas, D. M.; Ahlfeld, D. P.

    2004-05-01

    Forecasting stream water quality is important for numerous aspects of resource protection and management. Fecal coliform and enteroccocus are primary indicator organisms used to assess potential pathogen contamination. Consequently, modeling the occurrence and concentration of fecal coliform and enterococcus is an important tool in watershed management. In addition, analyzing the relationship between model input and predicted indicator organisms is useful for elucidating possible sources of contamination and mechanisms of transport. While many process-based, statistical, and empirical models exist for water quality prediction, artificial neural network (ANN) models are increasingly being used for forecasting of water resources variables because ANNs are often capable of modeling complex systems for which behavioral rules are either unknown or difficult to simulate. The performance of ANNs compared to more established modeling approaches such as multiple linear regression (MLR) remains an importance research question. Data collected the U.S. Geological Survey in the lower Charles River in Massachusetts, USA in 1999-2000 was examined to determine correlation between various water quality constituents and indicator organisms and to explore the relationship between rainfall characteristics and indicator organism concentrations. Using the results of the statistical analysis to guide the selection of explanatory variables, MLR was performed to develop predictive equations for wet weather and dry weather conditions. The results show that the best-performing predictor variables are generally consistent for both indicator organisms considered. In addition, the regression equations show increasing indicator organism concentrations as a function of suspended sediment concentrations and length of time since last precipitation event, suggesting accumulation and wash off as a key mechanism of pathogen transport under wet weather conditions. This research also presents the

  14. Risk-based safety indicators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sedlak, J.

    2001-12-01

    The report is structured as follows: 1. Risk-based safety indicators: Typology of risk-based indicators (RBIs); Tools for defining RBIs; Requirements for the PSA model; Data sources for RBIs; Types of risks monitored; RBIs and operational safety indicators; Feedback from operating experience; PSO model modification for RBIs; RBI categorization; RBI assessment; RBI applications; Suitable RBI applications. 2. Proposal for risk-based indicators: Acquiring information from operational experience; Method of acquiring safety relevance coefficients for the systems from a PSA model; Indicator definitions; On-line indicators. 3. Annex: Application of RBIs worldwide. (P.A.)

  15. Geological modeling by an indicator kriging approach applied to a limestone deposit in Indiara city - Goiás

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paulo Elias Carneiro Pereira

    Full Text Available Abstract The mineral exploration activity consists of a set of successive stages that are interdependent on each other, in which the main goal is to discover and subsequently evaluate a mineral deposit for the feasibility of its extraction. This process involves setting the shape, dimensions and grades for eventual production. Geological modeling determines the orebody's possible format in subsoil, which can be done by two approaches: vertical sections (deterministic methods or geostatistical methods. The latter approach is currently being preferred, as it is a more accurate alternative and therefore, more reliable for establishing the physical format of orebodies, especially in instances where geologic boundaries are soft and/or with widely spaced sample information. This study uses the concept of indicator kriging (IK to model the geologic boundaries of a limestone deposit located at Indiara city, Goiás State, Brazil. In general, the results indicated a good adherence in relation to samples. However, there are reasonable differences, particularly in lithological domains with a small number of samples in relation to the total amount sampled. Therefore, the results showed that there is a need for additional sampling to better delineate the geological contacts, especially between carbonate and non-carbonate rocks. Uncertainty maps confirmed this necessity and also indicated potential sites for future sampling; information that would not be obtained by usage of deterministic methods.

  16. Modeling Aspects Of Activated Sludge Processes Part I: Process Modeling Of Activated Sludge Facilitation And Sedimentation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ibrahim, H. I.; EI-Ahwany, A.H.; Ibrahim, G.

    2004-01-01

    Process modeling of activated sludge flocculation and sedimentation reviews consider the activated sludge floc characteristics such as: morphology viable and non-viable cell ratio density and water content, bio flocculation and its kinetics were studied considering the characteristics of bio flocculation and explaining theory of Divalent Cation Bridging which describes the major role of cations in bio flocculation. Activated sludge flocculation process modeling was studied considering mass transfer limitations from Clifft and Andrew, 1981, Benefild and Molz 1983 passing Henze 1987, until Tyagi 1996 and G. Ibrahim et aI. 2002. Models of aggregation and breakage of flocs were studied by Spicer and Pratsinis 1996,and Biggs 2002 Size distribution of floes influences mass transfer and biomass separation in the activated sludge process. Therefore, it is of primary importance to establish the role of specific process operation factors, such as sludge loading dynamic sludge age and dissolved oxygen, on this distribution with special emphasis on the formation of primary particles

  17. Multi-timescale Modeling of Activity-Dependent Metabolic Coupling in the Neuron-Glia-Vasculature Ensemble

    KAUST Repository

    Jolivet, Renaud

    2015-02-26

    Glucose is the main energy substrate in the adult brain under normal conditions. Accumulating evidence, however, indicates that lactate produced in astrocytes (a type of glial cell) can also fuel neuronal activity. The quantitative aspects of this so-called astrocyte-neuron lactate shuttle (ANLS) are still debated. To address this question, we developed a detailed biophysical model of the brain’s metabolic interactions. Our model integrates three modeling approaches, the Buxton-Wang model of vascular dynamics, the Hodgkin-Huxley formulation of neuronal membrane excitability and a biophysical model of metabolic pathways. This approach provides a template for large-scale simulations of the neuron-glia-vasculature (NGV) ensemble, and for the first time integrates the respective timescales at which energy metabolism and neuronal excitability occur. The model is constrained by relative neuronal and astrocytic oxygen and glucose utilization, by the concentration of metabolites at rest and by the temporal dynamics of NADH upon activation. These constraints produced four observations. First, a transfer of lactate from astrocytes to neurons emerged in response to activity. Second, constrained by activity-dependent NADH transients, neuronal oxidative metabolism increased first upon activation with a subsequent delayed astrocytic glycolysis increase. Third, the model correctly predicted the dynamics of extracellular lactate and oxygen as observed in vivo in rats. Fourth, the model correctly predicted the temporal dynamics of tissue lactate, of tissue glucose and oxygen consumption, and of the BOLD signal as reported in human studies. These findings not only support the ANLS hypothesis but also provide a quantitative mathematical description of the metabolic activation in neurons and glial cells, as well as of the macroscopic measurements obtained during brain imaging.

  18. Multi-timescale Modeling of Activity-Dependent Metabolic Coupling in the Neuron-Glia-Vasculature Ensemble

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jolivet, Renaud; Coggan, Jay S.; Allaman, Igor; Magistretti, Pierre J.

    2015-01-01

    Glucose is the main energy substrate in the adult brain under normal conditions. Accumulating evidence, however, indicates that lactate produced in astrocytes (a type of glial cell) can also fuel neuronal activity. The quantitative aspects of this so-called astrocyte-neuron lactate shuttle (ANLS) are still debated. To address this question, we developed a detailed biophysical model of the brain’s metabolic interactions. Our model integrates three modeling approaches, the Buxton-Wang model of vascular dynamics, the Hodgkin-Huxley formulation of neuronal membrane excitability and a biophysical model of metabolic pathways. This approach provides a template for large-scale simulations of the neuron-glia-vasculature (NGV) ensemble, and for the first time integrates the respective timescales at which energy metabolism and neuronal excitability occur. The model is constrained by relative neuronal and astrocytic oxygen and glucose utilization, by the concentration of metabolites at rest and by the temporal dynamics of NADH upon activation. These constraints produced four observations. First, a transfer of lactate from astrocytes to neurons emerged in response to activity. Second, constrained by activity-dependent NADH transients, neuronal oxidative metabolism increased first upon activation with a subsequent delayed astrocytic glycolysis increase. Third, the model correctly predicted the dynamics of extracellular lactate and oxygen as observed in vivo in rats. Fourth, the model correctly predicted the temporal dynamics of tissue lactate, of tissue glucose and oxygen consumption, and of the BOLD signal as reported in human studies. These findings not only support the ANLS hypothesis but also provide a quantitative mathematical description of the metabolic activation in neurons and glial cells, as well as of the macroscopic measurements obtained during brain imaging. PMID:25719367

  19. Multi-timescale modeling of activity-dependent metabolic coupling in the neuron-glia-vasculature ensemble.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renaud Jolivet

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Glucose is the main energy substrate in the adult brain under normal conditions. Accumulating evidence, however, indicates that lactate produced in astrocytes (a type of glial cell can also fuel neuronal activity. The quantitative aspects of this so-called astrocyte-neuron lactate shuttle (ANLS are still debated. To address this question, we developed a detailed biophysical model of the brain's metabolic interactions. Our model integrates three modeling approaches, the Buxton-Wang model of vascular dynamics, the Hodgkin-Huxley formulation of neuronal membrane excitability and a biophysical model of metabolic pathways. This approach provides a template for large-scale simulations of the neuron-glia-vasculature (NGV ensemble, and for the first time integrates the respective timescales at which energy metabolism and neuronal excitability occur. The model is constrained by relative neuronal and astrocytic oxygen and glucose utilization, by the concentration of metabolites at rest and by the temporal dynamics of NADH upon activation. These constraints produced four observations. First, a transfer of lactate from astrocytes to neurons emerged in response to activity. Second, constrained by activity-dependent NADH transients, neuronal oxidative metabolism increased first upon activation with a subsequent delayed astrocytic glycolysis increase. Third, the model correctly predicted the dynamics of extracellular lactate and oxygen as observed in vivo in rats. Fourth, the model correctly predicted the temporal dynamics of tissue lactate, of tissue glucose and oxygen consumption, and of the BOLD signal as reported in human studies. These findings not only support the ANLS hypothesis but also provide a quantitative mathematical description of the metabolic activation in neurons and glial cells, as well as of the macroscopic measurements obtained during brain imaging.

  20. Thermodynamic modelling of alkali-activated slag cements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Myers, Rupert J.; Lothenbach, Barbara; Bernal, Susan A.; Provis, John L.

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • A thermodynamic modelling analysis of alkali-activated slag cements is presented. • Thermodynamic database describes zeolites, alkali carbonates, C–(N–)A–S–H gel. • Updated thermodynamic model for Mg–Al layered double hydroxides. • Description of phase assemblages in Na 2 SiO 3 - and Na 2 CO 3 -activated slag cements. • Phase diagrams for NaOH-activated and Na 2 SiO 3 -activated slag cements are simulated. - Abstract: This paper presents a thermodynamic modelling analysis of alkali-activated slag-based cements, which are high performance and potentially low-CO 2 binders relative to Portland cement. The thermodynamic database used here contains a calcium (alkali) aluminosilicate hydrate ideal solid solution model (CNASH-ss), alkali carbonate and zeolite phases, and an ideal solid solution model for a hydrotalcite-like Mg–Al layered double hydroxide phase. Simulated phase diagrams for NaOH- and Na 2 SiO 3 -activated slag-based cements demonstrate the high stability of zeolites and other solid phases in these materials. Thermodynamic modelling provides a good description of the chemical compositions and types of phases formed in Na 2 SiO 3 -activated slag cements over the most relevant bulk chemical composition range for these cements, and the simulated volumetric properties of the cement paste are consistent with previously measured and estimated values. Experimentally determined and simulated solid phase assemblages for Na 2 CO 3 -activated slag cements were also found to be in good agreement. These results can be used to design the chemistry of alkali-activated slag-based cements, to further promote the uptake of this technology and valorisation of metallurgical slags

  1. Modeling Atmospheric Activity of Cool Stars

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schrijver, C. J.

    2003-10-01

    This review discusses a set of simple models for cool-star activity with which we compute (1) photospheric field patterns on stars of different activity levels, (2) the associated outer-atmospheric field configurations, and (3) the soft X-ray emission that is expected to result from the ensemble of loop atmospheres in the coronae of these stars. The model is based on empirically-determined properties of solar activity. It allows us to extrapolate to stars of significantly higher and lower activity than seen on the present-day Sun through its cycle. With it, we can, for example, gain insight into stellar field patterns (including a possible formation mechanism for polar starspots), as well as in the properties of coronal heating (helpful in the identification of the quiescent coronal heating mechanism). Lacking comprehensive theoretical understanding, the model's reliance on empirical solar data means that the multitude of processes involved are approximated to be independent of rotation rate, activity level, and fundamental stellar parameters, or -- where unavoidably necessary -- assumed to simply scale with activity. An evaluation of the most important processes involved guides a discussion of the limits of the model, of the limitations in our knowledge, and of future needs. "I propose to adopt such rules as will ensure the testability of scientific statements; which is to say, their falsifiability." Karl Popper (1902-1994)

  2. Modelling activity transport behavior in PWR plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Henshaw, Jim; McGurk, John; Dickinson, Shirley; Burrows, Robert; Hinds, Kelvin; Hussey, Dennis; Deshon, Jeff; Barrios Figueras, Joan Pau; Maldonado Sanchez, Santiago; Fernandez Lillo, Enrique; Garbett, Keith

    2012-09-01

    The activation and transport of corrosion products around a PWR circuit is a major concern to PWR plant operators as these may give rise to high personnel doses. The understanding of what controls dose rates on ex-core surfaces and shutdown releases has improved over the years but still several questions remain unanswered. For example the relative importance of particle and soluble deposition in the core to activity levels in the plant is not clear. Wide plant to plant and cycle to cycle variations are noted with no apparent explanations why such variations are observed. Over the past few years this group have been developing models to simulate corrosion product transport around a PWR circuit. These models form the basis for the latest version of the BOA code and simulate the movement of Fe and Ni around the primary circuit. Part of this development is to include the activation and subsequent transport of radioactive species around the circuit and this paper describes some initial modelling work in this area. A simple model of activation, release and deposition is described and then applied to explain the plant behaviour at Sizewell B and Vandellos II. This model accounts for activation in the core, soluble and particulate activity movement around the circuit and for activity capture ex-core on both the inner and outer oxides. The model gives a reasonable comparison with plant observations and highlights what controls activity transport in these plants and importantly what factors can be ignored. (authors)

  3. Activity in the fronto-parietal network indicates numerical inductive reasoning beyond calculation: An fMRI study combined with a cognitive model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liang, Peipeng; Jia, Xiuqin; Taatgen, Niels A; Borst, Jelmer P; Li, Kuncheng

    2016-05-19

    Numerical inductive reasoning refers to the process of identifying and extrapolating the rule involved in numeric materials. It is associated with calculation, and shares the common activation of the fronto-parietal regions with calculation, which suggests that numerical inductive reasoning may correspond to a general calculation process. However, compared with calculation, rule identification is critical and unique to reasoning. Previous studies have established the central role of the fronto-parietal network for relational integration during rule identification in numerical inductive reasoning. The current question of interest is whether numerical inductive reasoning exclusively corresponds to calculation or operates beyond calculation, and whether it is possible to distinguish between them based on the activity pattern in the fronto-parietal network. To directly address this issue, three types of problems were created: numerical inductive reasoning, calculation, and perceptual judgment. Our results showed that the fronto-parietal network was more active in numerical inductive reasoning which requires more exchanges between intermediate representations and long-term declarative knowledge during rule identification. These results survived even after controlling for the covariates of response time and error rate. A computational cognitive model was developed using the cognitive architecture ACT-R to account for the behavioral results and brain activity in the fronto-parietal network.

  4. Comparison of several climate indices as inputs in modelling of the Baltic Sea runoff

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hanninen, J.; Vuorinen, I. [Turku Univ. (Finland). Archipelaco Research Inst.], e-mail: jari.hanninen@utu.fi

    2012-11-01

    Using Transfer function (TF) models, we have earlier presented a chain of events between changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and their oceanographical and ecological consequences in the Baltic Sea. Here we tested whether other climate indices as inputs would improve TF models, and our understanding of the Baltic Sea ecosystem. Besides NAO, the predictors were the Arctic Oscillation (AO), sea-level air pressures at Iceland (SLP), and wind speeds at Hoburg (Gotland). All indices produced good TF models when the total riverine runoff to the Baltic Sea was used as a modelling basis. AO was not applicable in all study areas, showing a delay of about half a year between climate and runoff events, connected with freezing and melting time of ice and snow in the northern catchment area of the Baltic Sea. NAO appeared to be most useful modelling tool as its area of applicability was the widest of the tested indices, and the time lag between climate and runoff events was the shortest. SLP and Hoburg wind speeds showed largely same results as NAO, but with smaller areal applicability. Thus AO and NAO were both mostly contributing to the general understanding of climate control of runoff events in the Baltic Sea ecosystem. (orig.)

  5. A cluster-randomised quality improvement study to improve two inpatient stroke quality indicators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Linda; Daggett, Virginia; Slaven, James E; Yu, Zhangsheng; Sager, Danielle; Myers, Jennifer; Plue, Laurie; Woodward-Hagg, Heather; Damush, Teresa M

    2016-04-01

    Quality indicator collection and feedback improves stroke care. We sought to determine whether quality improvement training plus indicator feedback was more effective than indicator feedback alone in improving inpatient stroke indicators. We conducted a cluster-randomised quality improvement trial, randomising hospitals to quality improvement training plus indicator feedback versus indicator feedback alone to improve deep vein thrombosis (DVT) prophylaxis and dysphagia screening. Intervention sites received collaborative-based quality improvement training, external facilitation and indicator feedback. Control sites received only indicator feedback. We compared indicators pre-implementation (pre-I) to active implementation (active-I) and post-implementation (post-I) periods. We constructed mixed-effect logistic models of the two indicators with a random intercept for hospital effect, adjusting for patient, time, intervention and hospital variables. Patients at intervention sites (1147 admissions), had similar race, gender and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores to control sites (1017 admissions). DVT prophylaxis improved more in intervention sites during active-I period (ratio of ORs 4.90, pimproved similarly in both groups during active-I, but control sites improved more in post-I period (ratio of ORs 0.67, p=0.04). In logistic models, the intervention was independently positively associated with DVT performance during active-I period, and negatively associated with dysphagia performance post-I period. Quality improvement training was associated with early DVT improvement, but the effect was not sustained over time and was not seen with dysphagia screening. External quality improvement programmes may quickly boost performance but their effect may vary by indicator and may not sustain over time. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

  6. Genetic Algorithm Calibration of Probabilistic Cellular Automata for Modeling Mining Permit Activity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Louis, S.J.; Raines, G.L.

    2003-01-01

    We use a genetic algorithm to calibrate a spatially and temporally resolved cellular automata to model mining activity on public land in Idaho and western Montana. The genetic algorithm searches through a space of transition rule parameters of a two dimensional cellular automata model to find rule parameters that fit observed mining activity data. Previous work by one of the authors in calibrating the cellular automaton took weeks - the genetic algorithm takes a day and produces rules leading to about the same (or better) fit to observed data. These preliminary results indicate that genetic algorithms are a viable tool in calibrating cellular automata for this application. Experience gained during the calibration of this cellular automata suggests that mineral resource information is a critical factor in the quality of the results. With automated calibration, further refinements of how the mineral-resource information is provided to the cellular automaton will probably improve our model.

  7. Progress with modeling activity landscapes in drug discovery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vogt, Martin

    2018-04-19

    Activity landscapes (ALs) are representations and models of compound data sets annotated with a target-specific activity. In contrast to quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models, ALs aim at characterizing structure-activity relationships (SARs) on a large-scale level encompassing all active compounds for specific targets. The popularity of AL modeling has grown substantially with the public availability of large activity-annotated compound data sets. AL modeling crucially depends on molecular representations and similarity metrics used to assess structural similarity. Areas covered: The concepts of AL modeling are introduced and its basis in quantitatively assessing molecular similarity is discussed. The different types of AL modeling approaches are introduced. AL designs can broadly be divided into three categories: compound-pair based, dimensionality reduction, and network approaches. Recent developments for each of these categories are discussed focusing on the application of mathematical, statistical, and machine learning tools for AL modeling. AL modeling using chemical space networks is covered in more detail. Expert opinion: AL modeling has remained a largely descriptive approach for the analysis of SARs. Beyond mere visualization, the application of analytical tools from statistics, machine learning and network theory has aided in the sophistication of AL designs and provides a step forward in transforming ALs from descriptive to predictive tools. To this end, optimizing representations that encode activity relevant features of molecules might prove to be a crucial step.

  8. Comparison of activity coefficient models for electrolyte systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lin, Yi; ten Kate, Antoon; Mooijer, Miranda

    2010-01-01

    Three activity coefficient models for electrolyte solutions were evaluated and compared. The activity coefficient models are: The electrolyte NRTL model (ElecNRTL) by Aspentech, the mixed solvent electrolyte model (MSE) by OLI Systems Inc., and the Extended UNIQUAC model from the Technical Univer...

  9. Using Virtual Pets to Promote Physical Activity in Children: An Application of the Youth Physical Activity Promotion Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahn, Sun Joo Grace; Johnsen, Kyle; Robertson, Tom; Moore, James; Brown, Scott; Marable, Amanda; Basu, Aryabrata

    2015-01-01

    A virtual pet was developed based on the framework of the youth physical activity promotion model and tested as a vehicle for promoting physical activity in children. Children in the treatment group interacted with the virtual pet for three days, setting physical activity goals and teaching tricks to the virtual pet when their goals were met. The virtual pet became more fit and learned more sophisticated tricks as the children achieved activity goals. Children in the control group interacted with a computer system presenting equivalent features but without the virtual pet. Physical activity and goal attainment were evaluated using activity monitors. Results indicated that children in the treatment group engaged in 1.09 more hours of daily physical activity (156% more) than did those in the control group. Physical activity self-efficacy and beliefs served as mediators driving this increase in activity. Children that interacted with the virtual pet also expressed higher intentions than children in the control group to continue physical activity in the future. Theoretical and practical potentials of using a virtual pet to systematically promote physical activity in children are discussed.

  10. Active control: Wind turbine model

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bindner, H.

    1999-01-01

    This report is a part of the reporting of the work done in the project 'Active Control of Wind Turbines'. This project aim is to develop a simulation model for design of control systems for turbines with pitch control and to use that model to designcontrollers. This report describes the model...... validation as well as parameter estimation. The model includes a simple model of the structure of the turbine including tower and flapwise blade bending,a detailed model of the gear box and induction generator, a linearized aerodynamic model including modelling of induction lag and actuator and sensor models...

  11. Reduced butyrylcholinesterase activity is an early indicator of trauma-induced acute systemic inflammatory response

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zivkovic AR

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Aleksandar R Zivkovic, Jochen Bender, Thorsten Brenner, Stefan Hofer,* Karsten Schmidt* Department of Anesthesiology, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany *These authors contributed equally to this work Purpose: Early diagnosis of systemic inflammatory response syndrome is fundamentally important for an effective and a goal-directed therapy. Various inflammation biomarkers have been used in clinical and experimental practice. However, a definitive diagnostic tool for an early detection of systemic inflammation remains to be identified. Acetylcholine (Ach has been shown to play an important role in the inflammatory response. Serum cholinesterase (butyrylcholinesterase [BChE] is the major Ach hydrolyzing enzyme in blood. The role of this enzyme during inflammation has not yet been fully understood. This study tests whether a reduction in the BChE activity could indicate the onset of the systemic inflammatory response upon traumatic injury. Patients and methods: This observational study measured BChE activity in patients with traumatic injury admitted to the emergency room by using point-of-care-test system (POCT. In addition, the levels of routine inflammation biomarkers during the initial treatment period were measured. Injury Severity Score was used to assess the trauma severity. Results: Altered BChE activity was correlated with trauma severity, resulting in systemic inflammation. Reduction in the BChE activity was detected significantly earlier compared to those of routinely measured inflammatory biomarkers. Conclusion: This study suggests that the BChE activity reduction might serve as an early indicator of acute systemic inflammation. Furthermore, BChE activity, measured using a POCT system, might play an important role in the early diagnosis of the trauma-induced systemic inflammation. Keywords: trauma, injury, early diagnostics, cholinergic, pseudocholinesterase, SIRS

  12. Mercury Anomaly in the Okinawa Trough Sediments—An Indicator of Modern Seafloor Hydrothermal Activity

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    赵一阳; 鄢明才

    1995-01-01

    The Okinawa Trough is located between the shelf-sea area of the East China Sea and the deep-sea area of western Pacific Ocean.More than 60 chemical elements in the sediments from the shelf area of the East China Sea,the Okinawa Trough and western Pacific Ocean were determined by advanced techniques including neutron acti-vation analysis,X-ray fluorescence spectrometry,atomic fluorescence spectrometry and atomic absorption spectrometry.Quantitative comparisons of the element abundances of the sediments were made in terms of the enrichment coefficients(K) of the elements.K>1.5 indicates enrichment (K=1.5-2, weak enrichment;K=2-4,strong enrichment) and K>4,anomalous enrichment.The results show that the Okinawa Trough sediments are characterized by Hg anomaly and the enrichment of such elements as Au,Ag,Se,Te,Sb,Cd,Mn,Mo,etc.Detailed studies show that the excess Hg comes from hydrothermal solutions rather than from the continent,sea water ,marine organisms,cosmic dust or vol-canic rocks.Attributed to modern hydrothermal activities on the sea floor ,Hg anomaly can be used as a geochemical indicator of modern seafloor hydrothermal activity.

  13. Modeling trends of health and health related indicators in Ethiopia (1995-2008: a time-series study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nigatu Tilahun H

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The Federal Ministry of Health of Ethiopia has been publishing Health and Health related indicators of the country annually since 1987 E.C. These indicators have been of high importance in indicating the status of health in the country in those years. However, the trends/patterns of these indicators and the factors related to the trends have not yet been investigated in a systematic manner. In addition, there were minimal efforts to develop a model for predicting future values of Health and Health related indicators based on the current trend. Objectives The overall aim of this study was to analyze trends of and develop model for prediction of Health and Health related indicators. More specifically, it described the trends of Health and Health related indicators, identified determinants of mortality and morbidity indicators and developed model for predicting future values of MDG indicators. Methods This study was conducted on Health and Health related indicators of Ethiopia from the year 1987 E.C to 2000 E.C. Key indicators of Mortality and Morbidity, Health service coverage, Health systems resources, Demographic and socio-economic, and Risk factor indicators were extracted and analyzed. The trends in these indicators were established using trend analysis techniques. The determinants of the established trends were identified using ARIMA models in STATA. The trend-line equations were then used to predict future values of the indicators. Results Among the mortality indicators considered in this study, it was only Maternal Mortality Ratio that showed statistically significant decrement within the study period. The trends of Total Fertility Rate, physician per 100,000 population, skilled birth attendance and postnatal care coverage were found to have significant association with Maternal Mortality Ratio trend. There was a reversal of malaria parasite prevalence in 1999 E.C from Plasmodium Falciparum to Plasmodium Vivax. Based on

  14. Outdoor time, physical activity, sedentary time, and health indicators at ages 7 to 14: 2012/2013 Canadian Health Measures Survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larouche, Richard; Garriguet, Didier; Gunnell, Katie E; Goldfield, Gary S; Tremblay, Mark S

    2016-09-21

    International data show that the majority of children and youth are not sufficiently active. According to recent research, children who spend more time outdoors accumulate more daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and engage in less sedentary behaviour. However, the generalizability of these findings is uncertain, and few studies investigated whether outdoor time is associated with other physical and psychosocial health indicators. This study examined associations between outdoor time and measures of physical activity, sedentary time, and physical and psychosocial health in a nationally representative sample of 7-to-14-year-olds (n = 1,159) who participated in the 2012/2013 Canadian Health Measures Survey. Physical activity and sedentary time were measured with Actical accelerometers. Direct measures of height, weight, waist circumference, grip strength, blood pressure, cholesterol, and glycohemoglobin were obtained. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to assess psychosocial health. Relationships between outdoor time and physical health measures were examined with multi-variable linear regression models adjusted for age, sex, parental education, and household income. Logistic regression models controlling for the same variables were used for psychosocial health. Each additional hour spent outdoors per day was associated with 7.0 more minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, 762 more steps, and 13 fewer minutes of sedentary time. As well, each hour outdoors was associated with lower odds of negative psychosocial outcomes (specifically, peer relationship problems and total difficulties score). Outdoor time was not associated with any of the measures of physical health. Children reporting more time outdoors are more active, less sedentary, and less likely to have peer relationship problems, compared with those who spend less time outdoors.

  15. A Prediction Model for Community Colleges Using Graduation Rate as the Performance Indicator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moosai, Susan

    2010-01-01

    In this thesis a prediction model using graduation rate as the performance indicator is obtained for community colleges for three cohort years, 2003, 2004, and 2005 in the states of California, Florida, and Michigan. Multiple Regression analysis, using an aggregate of seven predictor variables, was employed in determining this prediction model.…

  16. Time variations of geomagnetic activity indices Kp and Ap: an update

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. K. Rangarajan

    1997-10-01

    Full Text Available Kp and Ap indices covering the period 1932 to 1995 are analysed in a fashion similar to that attempted by Bartels for the 1932–1961 epoch to examine the time variations in their characteristics. Modern analysis techniques on the extended data base are used for further insight. The relative frequencies of occurrence of Kp with different magnitudes and the seasonal and solar cycle dependences are seen to be remarkably consistent despite the addition of 35 years of observations. Many of the earlier features seen in the indices and special intervals are shown to be replicated in the present analysis. Time variations in the occurrence of prolonged periods of geomagnetic calm or of enhanced activity are presented and their relation to solar activity highlighted. It is shown that in the declining phase the occurrence frequencies of Kp = 4–5 (consecutively over 4 intervals can be used as a precursor for the maximum sunspot number to be expected in the next cycle. The semi-annual variation in geomagnetic activity is re-examined utilising not only the Ap index but also the occurrence frequencies of Kp index with different magnitudes. Lack of dependence of the amplitude of semi-annual variation on sunspot number is emphasised. Singular spectrum analysis of the mean monthly Ap index shows some distinct periodic components. The temporal evolution of ~44 month, ~21 month and ~16 month oscillations are examined and it is postulated that while QBO and the 16 month oscillations could be attributed to solar wind and IMF oscillations with analogous periodicity, the 44 month variation is associated with a similar periodicity in recurrent high speed stream caused by sector boundary passage. It is reconfirmed that there could have been only one epoch around 1940 when solar wind speed could have exhibited a 1.3-year periodicity comparable to that seen during the post-1986 period.

  17. Time variations of geomagnetic activity indices Kp and Ap: an update

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. K. Rangarajan

    Full Text Available Kp and Ap indices covering the period 1932 to 1995 are analysed in a fashion similar to that attempted by Bartels for the 1932–1961 epoch to examine the time variations in their characteristics. Modern analysis techniques on the extended data base are used for further insight. The relative frequencies of occurrence of Kp with different magnitudes and the seasonal and solar cycle dependences are seen to be remarkably consistent despite the addition of 35 years of observations. Many of the earlier features seen in the indices and special intervals are shown to be replicated in the present analysis. Time variations in the occurrence of prolonged periods of geomagnetic calm or of enhanced activity are presented and their relation to solar activity highlighted. It is shown that in the declining phase the occurrence frequencies of Kp = 4–5 (consecutively over 4 intervals can be used as a precursor for the maximum sunspot number to be expected in the next cycle. The semi-annual variation in geomagnetic activity is re-examined utilising not only the Ap index but also the occurrence frequencies of Kp index with different magnitudes. Lack of dependence of the amplitude of semi-annual variation on sunspot number is emphasised. Singular spectrum analysis of the mean monthly Ap index shows some distinct periodic components. The temporal evolution of ~44 month, ~21 month and ~16 month oscillations are examined and it is postulated that while QBO and the 16 month oscillations could be attributed to solar wind and IMF oscillations with analogous periodicity, the 44 month variation is associated with a similar periodicity in recurrent high speed stream caused by sector boundary passage. It is reconfirmed that there could have been only one epoch around 1940 when solar wind speed could have exhibited a 1.3-year periodicity comparable to that seen during the post-1986 period.

  18. Socioeconomic status indicators, physical activity, and overweight/obesity in Brazilian children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Victor Keihan Rodrigues Matsudo

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Objective: To analyze the associations between socioeconomic status (SES indicators and physical activity and overweight/obesity in children. Methods: 485 children wore accelerometers for 7 days. Variables included time in sedentary behavior and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA, and steps/day. Children were further categorized as meeting or not meeting guidelines of ≥60min/day MVPA and ≥12,000 steps/day. Body mass index (BMI and body fat percentage (BF% were measured using bioelectrical impedance. Overweight/obesity was defined as BMI >+1 SD and BF% ≥85th percentile. Parents answered questionnaires that questioned total annual household income, parental education level, parental employment status and automobile ownership. Results: Children averaged 59.5min/day in MVPA (44.1% met MVPA guidelines, and 9639 steps/day (18.4% met steps/day guidelines. 45.4% and 33% were overweight/obese classified by BMI and BF% respectively. Higher relative total annual household income level (Odds Ratio 0.31; 95% confidence interval=0.15-0.65, and relatively higher maternal (OR=0.38; 95%CI=0.20-0.72 and paternal (OR=0.36; 95%CI=0.17-0.75 education levels were associated with lower odds of children meeting MVPA guidelines. Household automobile ownership was associated with lower odds of children meeting MVPA (OR=0.48; 95%CI=0.31-0.75 and steps/day guidelines (OR=0.44; 95%CI=0.26-0.74. Conclusions: SES indicators were not associated with overweight/obesity, but higher SES was associated with lower odds of children meeting MVPA guidelines.

  19. SPECTRAL COLOR INDICES BASED GEOSPATIAL MODELING OF SOIL ORGANIC MATTER IN CHITWAN DISTRICT, NEPAL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    U. K. Mandal

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Space Technology provides a resourceful-cost effective means to assess soil nutrients essential for soil management plan. Soil organic matter (SOM is one of valuable controlling productivity of crops by providing nutrient in farming systems. Geospatial modeling of soil organic matter is essential if there is unavailability of soil test laboratories and its strong spatial correlation. In the present analysis, soil organic matter is modeled from satellite image derived spectral color indices. Brightness Index (BI, Coloration Index (CI, Hue Index (HI, Redness Index (RI and Saturation Index (SI were calculated by converting DN value to radiance and radiance to reflectance from Thematic Mapper image. Geospatial model was developed by regressing SOM with color indices and producing multiple regression model using stepwise regression technique. The multiple regression equation between SOM and spectral indices was significant with R = 0. 56 at 95% confidence level. The resulting MLR equation was then used for the spatial prediction for the entire study area. Redness Index was found higher significance in estimating the SOM. It was used to predict SOM as auxiliary variables using cokringing spatial interpolation technique. It was tested in seven VDCs of Chitwan district of Nepal using Thematic Mapper remotely sensed data. SOM was found to be measured ranging from 0.15% to 4.75 %, with a mean of 2.24 %. Remotely sensed data derived spectral color indices have the potential as useful auxiliary variables for estimating SOM content to generate soil fertility management plans.

  20. Variance-based sensitivity indices for stochastic models with correlated inputs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kala, Zdeněk [Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Structural Mechanics Veveří St. 95, ZIP 602 00, Brno (Czech Republic)

    2015-03-10

    The goal of this article is the formulation of the principles of one of the possible strategies in implementing correlation between input random variables so as to be usable for algorithm development and the evaluation of Sobol’s sensitivity analysis. With regard to the types of stochastic computational models, which are commonly found in structural mechanics, an algorithm was designed for effective use in conjunction with Monte Carlo methods. Sensitivity indices are evaluated for all possible permutations of the decorrelation procedures for input parameters. The evaluation of Sobol’s sensitivity coefficients is illustrated on an example in which a computational model was used for the analysis of the resistance of a steel bar in tension with statistically dependent input geometric characteristics.

  1. Variance-based sensitivity indices for stochastic models with correlated inputs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kala, Zdeněk

    2015-01-01

    The goal of this article is the formulation of the principles of one of the possible strategies in implementing correlation between input random variables so as to be usable for algorithm development and the evaluation of Sobol’s sensitivity analysis. With regard to the types of stochastic computational models, which are commonly found in structural mechanics, an algorithm was designed for effective use in conjunction with Monte Carlo methods. Sensitivity indices are evaluated for all possible permutations of the decorrelation procedures for input parameters. The evaluation of Sobol’s sensitivity coefficients is illustrated on an example in which a computational model was used for the analysis of the resistance of a steel bar in tension with statistically dependent input geometric characteristics

  2. Predicting fecal indicator organism contamination in Oregon coastal streams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pettus, Paul; Foster, Eugene; Pan, Yangdong

    2015-01-01

    In this study, we used publicly available GIS layers and statistical tree-based modeling (CART and Random Forest) to predict pathogen indicator counts at a regional scale using 88 spatially explicit landscape predictors and 6657 samples from non-estuarine streams in the Oregon Coast Range. A total of 532 frequently sampled sites were parsed down to 93 pathogen sampling sites to control for spatial and temporal biases. This model's 56.5% explanation of variance, was comparable to other regional models, while still including a large number of variables. Analysis showed the most important predictors on bacteria counts to be: forest and natural riparian zones, cattle related activities, and urban land uses. This research confirmed linkages to anthropogenic activities, with the research prediction mapping showing increased bacteria counts in agricultural and urban land use areas and lower counts with more natural riparian conditions. - Highlights: • We modeled fecal indicator pathogens in Oregon Coast range streams. • We used machine learning tools with only publicly available data. • These models demonstrate the importance of riparian land use on water quality. • Regional water quality was characterized in streams with little to no monitoring. - A desktop approach to predict stream pathogens from exclusively publicly available data sets on a regional scale.

  3. Moderating effect of gross family income on the association between demographic indicators and active commuting to work in Brazilian adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    da Silva, Jaqueline Aragoni; da Silva, Kelly Samara; Del Duca, Giovani Firpo; Dos Santos, Priscila Cristina; Wolker, Sofia; de Oliveira, Elusa Santina Antunes; de Barros, Mauro Virgílio Gomes; Nahas, Markus Vinicius

    2016-06-01

    To investigate the moderating effect of gross family income on the association between demographic indicators and active commuting to work in Brazilian adults. Secondary analysis of the survey "Lifestyle and leisure habits of industry workers" (n=46,981), conducted in 24 Brazilian states (2006-2008). Self-reported information was collected with a previously tested questionnaire. Crude and adjusted logistic regression models were applied to analyze the association between sociodemographic variables (sex, age, marital status, number of children, education, country area and company size) and active commuting to work in different strata of gross family income. To test the moderating effect, an interaction analysis was applied. The proportion of active commuters among low-, medium- and high-income workers was 40.7% (95%CI:40.0%;41.5%), 27.0% (95%CI:26.3;27.6%) and 11.1%, (95%CI:10.5%;11.7%), respectively. The moderating effect of gross family income was confirmed. Men were more likely (OR:1.22 95%CI:1.12;1.32) to commute actively than women among low-income individuals. Active commuting was less likely among older workers in low-(OR30-39:0.90 95%CI: 0.83;0.98; OR≥40: 0.76 95%CI: 0.68;0.85) and medium-income strata (OR30-39:0.87 95%CI:0.80;0.95; OR≥40:0.84 95%CI:0.76;0.93) and among married individuals in high-income strata (OR:0.72 95%IC:0.61;0.84). Adults with lower education (ORhigh:10.80 95%CI:8.47;13.77), working in the south (ORhigh:1.93 95%CI:1.53;2.44) and in small companies (ORlow:2.50 95%CI:2.28;2.74) were more likely to commute actively; however, the magnitude of these associations differed at each income strata. There was an inverse association between gross family income and active commuting. Gross family income acts as a moderator of the association between demographic indicators and active commuting. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Asymmetric multi-fractality in the U.S. stock indices using index-based model of A-MFDFA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Minhyuk; Song, Jae Wook; Park, Ji Hwan; Chang, Woojin

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • ‘Index-based A-MFDFA’ model is proposed to assess the asymmetric multi-fractality. • The asymmetric multi-fractality in the U.S. stock indices are investigated using ‘Index-based’ and ‘Return-based’ A-MFDFA. • The asymmetric feature is more significantly identified by ‘Index-based’ model than ‘return-based’ model. • Source of multi-fractality and time-varying features are analyzed. - Abstract: We detect the asymmetric multi-fractality in the U.S. stock indices based on the asymmetric multi-fractal detrended fluctuation analysis (A-MFDFA). Instead using the conventional return-based approach, we propose the index-based model of A-MFDFA where the trend based on the evolution of stock index rather than stock price return plays a role for evaluating the asymmetric scaling behaviors. The results show that the multi-fractal behaviors of the U.S. stock indices are asymmetric and the index-based model detects the asymmetric multi-fractality better than return-based model. We also discuss the source of multi-fractality and its asymmetry and observe that the multi-fractal asymmetry in the U.S. stock indices has a time-varying feature where the degree of multi-fractality and asymmetry increase during the financial crisis.

  5. Temporal Synchronization Analysis for Improving Regression Modeling of Fecal Indicator Bacteria Levels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Multiple linear regression models are often used to predict levels of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) in recreational swimming waters based on independent variables (IVs) such as meteorologic, hydrodynamic, and water-quality measures. The IVs used for these analyses are traditiona...

  6. Screening for gestational diabetes mellitus by a model based on risk indicators

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Dorte Møller; Mølsted-Pedersen, Lars; Beck-Nielsen, Henning

    2003-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to prospectively evaluate a screening model for gestational diabetes mellitus on the basis of clinical risk indicators. STUDY DESIGN: In a prospective multicenter study with 5235 consecutive pregnant women, diagnostic testing with a 2-hour 75-g oral glucose...... of the results from tested women to the whole group in question, a 2.4% prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus was calculated. Sensitivity and specificity of the model was 80.6 (73.7-87.6) and 64.8 (63.5-66.1), respectively (95% CIs). CONCLUSION: Under ideal conditions, sensitivity of the model...

  7. Generic Modelling of Faecal Indicator Organism Concentrations in the UK

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carl M. Stapleton

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available To meet European Water Framework Directive requirements, data are needed on faecal indicator organism (FIO concentrations in rivers to enable the more heavily polluted to be targeted for remedial action. Due to the paucity of FIO data for the UK, especially under high-flow hydrograph event conditions, there is an urgent need by the policy community for generic models that can accurately predict FIO concentrations, thus informing integrated catchment management programmes. This paper reports the development of regression models to predict base- and high-flow faecal coliform (FC and enterococci (EN concentrations for 153 monitoring points across 14 UK catchments, using land cover, population (human and livestock density and other variables that may affect FIO source strength, transport and die-off. Statistically significant models were developed for both FC and EN, with greater explained variance achieved in the high-flow models. Both land cover and, in particular, population variables are significant predictors of FIO concentrations, with r2 maxima for EN of 0.571 and 0.624, respectively. It is argued that the resulting models can be applied, with confidence, to other UK catchments, both to predict FIO concentrations in unmonitored watercourses and evaluate the likely impact of different land use/stocking level and human population change scenarios.

  8. Data-Driven Nonlinear Subspace Modeling for Prediction and Control of Molten Iron Quality Indices in Blast Furnace Ironmaking

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhou, Ping; Song, Heda; Wang, Hong; Chai, Tianyou

    2017-09-01

    Blast furnace (BF) in ironmaking is a nonlinear dynamic process with complicated physical-chemical reactions, where multi-phase and multi-field coupling and large time delay occur during its operation. In BF operation, the molten iron temperature (MIT) as well as Si, P and S contents of molten iron are the most essential molten iron quality (MIQ) indices, whose measurement, modeling and control have always been important issues in metallurgic engineering and automation field. This paper develops a novel data-driven nonlinear state space modeling for the prediction and control of multivariate MIQ indices by integrating hybrid modeling and control techniques. First, to improve modeling efficiency, a data-driven hybrid method combining canonical correlation analysis and correlation analysis is proposed to identify the most influential controllable variables as the modeling inputs from multitudinous factors would affect the MIQ indices. Then, a Hammerstein model for the prediction of MIQ indices is established using the LS-SVM based nonlinear subspace identification method. Such a model is further simplified by using piecewise cubic Hermite interpolating polynomial method to fit the complex nonlinear kernel function. Compared to the original Hammerstein model, this simplified model can not only significantly reduce the computational complexity, but also has almost the same reliability and accuracy for a stable prediction of MIQ indices. Last, in order to verify the practicability of the developed model, it is applied in designing a genetic algorithm based nonlinear predictive controller for multivariate MIQ indices by directly taking the established model as a predictor. Industrial experiments show the advantages and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

  9. Associative memory model with spontaneous neural activity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurikawa, Tomoki; Kaneko, Kunihiko

    2012-05-01

    We propose a novel associative memory model wherein the neural activity without an input (i.e., spontaneous activity) is modified by an input to generate a target response that is memorized for recall upon the same input. Suitable design of synaptic connections enables the model to memorize input/output (I/O) mappings equaling 70% of the total number of neurons, where the evoked activity distinguishes a target pattern from others. Spontaneous neural activity without an input shows chaotic dynamics but keeps some similarity with evoked activities, as reported in recent experimental studies.

  10. Quality of life and physical activity as indicators of health-preserving competence of teachers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pavlova Iu.A.

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available The quality of life and physical activity of teachers of physical culture, basic of health, labour, the defense of Motherland and pedagogue-organizers from secondary schools Lviv region (Ukraine were investigated. The 402 persons (age 24-78 years were surveyed with the use of questionnaires MOS SF 36 and IPAQ. The highest quality of life and level of physical activity have teachers of physical culture. It is considered the quality of life of teachers of other subjects similar to persons with chronic diseases. The level of physical activity in leisure time was particularly low for teachers of Basic of Health and pedagogue-organizers. The teachers spent no more than 433 MET-min/ week for moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity. The level of physical activity of teachers (besides the physical education teachers was insufficient to improve health and indicate about low level of health-preserving competence.

  11. Active Learning with Statistical Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1995-01-01

    Active Learning with Statistical Models ASC-9217041, NSF CDA-9309300 6. AUTHOR(S) David A. Cohn, Zoubin Ghahramani, and Michael I. Jordan 7. PERFORMING...TERMS 15. NUMBER OF PAGES Al, MIT, Artificial Intelligence, active learning , queries, locally weighted 6 regression, LOESS, mixtures of gaussians...COMPUTATIONAL LEARNING DEPARTMENT OF BRAIN AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES A.I. Memo No. 1522 January 9. 1995 C.B.C.L. Paper No. 110 Active Learning with

  12. Developing a Model for Assessing Public Culture Indicators at Universities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Meisam Latifi

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The present study is aimed to develop a model for assessing public culture at universities and evaluating its indicators at public universities in Mashhad. The research follows an exploratory mixed approach. Research strategies in qualitative and quantitative sections are thematic networks analysis and descriptive- survey method, respectively. In the qualitative section, document analysis and semi-structured interviews with cultural experts are used as research tools. In this section, targeted sampling is carried out. In the quantitative section, a questionnaire which is developed based on the findings of the qualitative section is used as the research tool. Research population of the quantitative section consists of all the students who are admitted to public universities in Mashhad between 2009 and 2012. Sample size was calculated according to Cochran’s formula. Stratified sampling was used to select the sample. The results of the qualitative section led to the identification of 44 basic themes which are referred to as the micro indicators. These themes were clustered into similar groups. Then, 10 organizer themes were identified and recognized as macro indicators. In the next phase, importance factor of each indicator is determined according to the AHP method. The results of the qualitative assessment of indicators at public universities of Mashhad show that the overall cultural index declines during the years the student attends the university. Additionally, the highest correlation exists between national identity and revolutionary identity. The only negative correlations are observed between family and two indicators including social capital and cultural consumption. The results of the present study can be used to assess the state of public culture among university students and also be considered as a basis for assessing cultural planning.

  13. The Binary System Laboratory Activities Based on Students Mental Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albaiti, A.; Liliasari, S.; Sumarna, O.; Martoprawiro, M. A.

    2017-09-01

    Generic science skills (GSS) are required to develop student conception in learning binary system. The aim of this research was to know the improvement of students GSS through the binary system labotoratory activities based on their mental model using hypothetical-deductive learning cycle. It was a mixed methods embedded experimental model research design. This research involved 15 students of a university in Papua, Indonesia. Essay test of 7 items was used to analyze the improvement of students GSS. Each items was designed to interconnect macroscopic, sub-microscopic and symbolic levels. Students worksheet was used to explore students mental model during investigation in laboratory. The increase of students GSS could be seen in their N-Gain of each GSS indicators. The results were then analyzed descriptively. Students mental model and GSS have been improved from this study. They were interconnect macroscopic and symbolic levels to explain binary systems phenomena. Furthermore, they reconstructed their mental model with interconnecting the three levels of representation in Physical Chemistry. It necessary to integrate the Physical Chemistry Laboratory into a Physical Chemistry course for effectiveness and efficiency.

  14. Benchmarking in pathology: development of an activity-based costing model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burnett, Leslie; Wilson, Roger; Pfeffer, Sally; Lowry, John

    2012-12-01

    Benchmarking in Pathology (BiP) allows pathology laboratories to determine the unit cost of all laboratory tests and procedures, and also provides organisational productivity indices allowing comparisons of performance with other BiP participants. We describe 14 years of progressive enhancement to a BiP program, including the implementation of 'avoidable costs' as the accounting basis for allocation of costs rather than previous approaches using 'total costs'. A hierarchical tree-structured activity-based costing model distributes 'avoidable costs' attributable to the pathology activities component of a pathology laboratory operation. The hierarchical tree model permits costs to be allocated across multiple laboratory sites and organisational structures. This has enabled benchmarking on a number of levels, including test profiles and non-testing related workload activities. The development of methods for dealing with variable cost inputs, allocation of indirect costs using imputation techniques, panels of tests, and blood-bank record keeping, have been successfully integrated into the costing model. A variety of laboratory management reports are produced, including the 'cost per test' of each pathology 'test' output. Benchmarking comparisons may be undertaken at any and all of the 'cost per test' and 'cost per Benchmarking Complexity Unit' level, 'discipline/department' (sub-specialty) level, or overall laboratory/site and organisational levels. We have completed development of a national BiP program. An activity-based costing methodology based on avoidable costs overcomes many problems of previous benchmarking studies based on total costs. The use of benchmarking complexity adjustment permits correction for varying test-mix and diagnostic complexity between laboratories. Use of iterative communication strategies with program participants can overcome many obstacles and lead to innovations.

  15. Modeling Aspects of Activated Sludge Processes Part l l: Mathematical Process Modeling and Biokinetics of Activated Sludge Processes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    AbdElHaleem, H S [Cairo Univ.-CivlI Eng. Dept., Giza (Egypt); EI-Ahwany, A H [CairoUlmrsity- Faculty ofEngincering - Chemical Engineering Department, Giza (Egypt); Ibrahim, H I [Helwan University- Faculty of Engineering - Biomedical Engineering Department, Helwan (Egypt); Ibrahim, G [Menofia University- Faculty of Engineering Sbebin EI Kom- Basic Eng. Sc. Dept., Menofia (Egypt)

    2004-07-01

    Mathematical process modeling and biokinetics of activated sludge process were reviewed considering different types of models. It has been evaluated the task group models of ASMI. and 2, and 3 versioned by Henze et al considering the conditions of each model and the different processes of which every model consists. It is revealed that ASMI contains some defects avoided in ASM3. Relied on homogeneity, Models can be classified into homogenous models characterized by taking the activated sludge process as one phase. In this type of models, the internal mass transfer inside the floes was neglected.. Hence, the kinetic parameter produces can be considered inaccurate. The other type of models is the heterogeneous model This type considers the mass transfer operations in addition to the biochemical reaction processes; hence, the resulted kinetic parameters can be considered more accurate than that of homogenous type.

  16. Modeling Aspects of Activated Sludge Processes Part l l: Mathematical Process Modeling and Biokinetics of Activated Sludge Processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    AbdElHaleem, H.S.; EI-Ahwany, A. H.; Ibrahim, H.I.; Ibrahim, G.

    2004-01-01

    Mathematical process modeling and biokinetics of activated sludge process were reviewed considering different types of models. It has been evaluated the task group models of ASMI. and 2, and 3 versioned by Henze et al considering the conditions of each model and the different processes of which every model consists. It is revealed that ASMI contains some defects avoided in ASM3. Relied on homogeneity, Models can be classified into homogenous models characterized by taking the activated sludge process as one phase. In this type of models, the internal mass transfer inside the floes was neglected.. Hence, the kinetic parameter produces can be considered inaccurate. The other type of models is the heterogeneous model This type considers the mass transfer operations in addition to the biochemical reaction processes; hence, the resulted kinetic parameters can be considered more accurate than that of homogenous type

  17. Breast cancer screening in Italy: evaluating key performance indicators for time trends and activity volumes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giordano, Livia; Castagno, Roberta; Giorgi, Daniela; Piccinelli, Cristiano; Ventura, Leonardo; Segnan, Nereo; Zappa, Marco

    2015-01-01

    Together with the National centre for screening monitoring (ONS), GISMa supports annual collection of data on national breast screening activities. Aggregated data on implementation and performance are gathered through a standardized form to calculate process and impact indicators. Analyzed data belong to 153 local programmes in the period 2006-2011 (2006-2012 for participation rate only). During the whole period, Italian crude participation rate exceeded GISMa's acceptable standard (50%), even though a higher participation in northern and central Italy compared to southern Italy and Islands was observed. Time trend analysis of diagnostic indicators confirmed in 2011 an adequate quality of breast screening performance, especially at subsequent screening. Recall rate at initial screening did not reach the acceptable standard (performance was achieved at subsequent screening. The same trend was followed by the overall detection rate and positive predictive value. They both showed a progressive reduction (from 6.2‰ in 2006 to 4.5‰ in 2011 for DR and from 8.0% in 2006 to 5.2% in 2011 for PPV, respectively) at initial screening and a good, stable trend at subsequent screening. Activity volume analysis shows that in programmes with greater activity (test/year ≥10,000) RR at both initial and subsequent screening has a better performance. This is also true for DR and PPV where programmes with high volumes of activity do better, especially when compared with those that interpret fewer than 5,000 mammograms per year. In spite of a few limits, these results are reassuring, and they reward the efforts made by screening professionals. It is therefore important to continue to monitor screening indicators and suggest, test, and evaluate new strategies for continuous improvement.

  18. An approach for activity-based DEVS model specification

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Alshareef, Abdurrahman; Sarjoughian, Hessam S.; Zarrin, Bahram

    2016-01-01

    Creation of DEVS models has been advanced through Model Driven Architecture and its frameworks. The overarching role of the frameworks has been to help develop model specifications in a disciplined fashion. Frameworks can provide intermediary layers between the higher level mathematical models...... and their corresponding software specifications from both structural and behavioral aspects. Unlike structural modeling, developing models to specify behavior of systems is known to be harder and more complex, particularly when operations with non-trivial control schemes are required. In this paper, we propose specifying...... activity-based behavior modeling of parallel DEVS atomic models. We consider UML activities and actions as fundamental units of behavior modeling, especially in the presence of recent advances in the UML 2.5 specifications. We describe in detail how to approach activity modeling with a set of elemental...

  19. Escherichia coli at Ohio Bathing Beaches--Distribution, Sources, Wastewater Indicators, and Predictive Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Francy, Donna S.; Gifford, Amie M.; Darner, Robert A.

    2003-01-01

    . None of the concentrations of wastewater indicators of fecal contamination, including 3b-coprostanol and cholesterol, were significantly correlated (a=0.05) to concentrations of E. coli. Concentrations of the two compounds that were significantly correlated to E. coli were components of coal tar and asphalt, which are not necessarily indicative of fecal contamination. Data were collected to build on an earlier 1997 study to develop and test multiple-linear-regression models to predict E. coli concentrations using water-quality and environmental variables as explanatory variables. The probability of exceeding the single-sample bathing-water standard for E. coli (235 colonies per 100 milliliters) was used as the model output variable. Threshold probabilities for each model were established. Computed probabilities that are less than a threshold probability indicate that bacterial water quality is most likely acceptable. Computed probabilities equal to or above the threshold probability indicate that the water quality is most likely not acceptable and that a water-quality advisory may be needed. Models were developed at each beach, whenever possible, using combinations of 1997, 2000, and (or) 2001 data. The models developed and tested in this study were shown to be beach specific; that is, different explanatory variables were used to predict the probability of exceeding the standard at each beach. At Mentor Headlands and Fairport Harbor, models were not developed because water quality was generally good. At the three Lake Erie urban beaches, models were developed with variable lists that included the number of birds on the beach at the time of sampling, lake-current direction, wave height, turbidity, streamflow of a nearby river, and rainfall. The models for Huntington explained a larger percentage of the variability in E. coli concentrations than the models for Edgewater and Villa Angela. At Mosquito Lake, a model based on 2000 and 2001 data contained the

  20. Active Subspaces for Wind Plant Surrogate Modeling

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    King, Ryan N [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Quick, Julian [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Dykes, Katherine L [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Adcock, Christiane [Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    2018-01-12

    Understanding the uncertainty in wind plant performance is crucial to their cost-effective design and operation. However, conventional approaches to uncertainty quantification (UQ), such as Monte Carlo techniques or surrogate modeling, are often computationally intractable for utility-scale wind plants because of poor congergence rates or the curse of dimensionality. In this paper we demonstrate that wind plant power uncertainty can be well represented with a low-dimensional active subspace, thereby achieving a significant reduction in the dimension of the surrogate modeling problem. We apply the active sub-spaces technique to UQ of plant power output with respect to uncertainty in turbine axial induction factors, and find a single active subspace direction dominates the sensitivity in power output. When this single active subspace direction is used to construct a quadratic surrogate model, the number of model unknowns can be reduced by up to 3 orders of magnitude without compromising performance on unseen test data. We conclude that the dimension reduction achieved with active subspaces makes surrogate-based UQ approaches tractable for utility-scale wind plants.

  1. Fast Newton active appearance models

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kossaifi, Jean; Tzimiropoulos, Georgios; Pantic, Maja

    2014-01-01

    Active Appearance Models (AAMs) are statistical models of shape and appearance widely used in computer vision to detect landmarks on objects like faces. Fitting an AAM to a new image can be formulated as a non-linear least-squares problem which is typically solved using iterative methods. Owing to

  2. Modeling and preparation of activated carbon for methane storage II. Neural network modeling and experimental studies of the activated carbon preparation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Namvar-Asl, Mahnaz; Soltanieh, Mohammad; Rashidi, Alimorad

    2008-01-01

    This study describes the activated carbon (AC) preparation for methane storage. Due to the need for the introduction of a model, correlating the effective preparation parameters with the characteristic parameters of the activated carbon, a model was developed by neural networks. In a previous study [Namvar-Asl M, Soltanieh M, Rashidi A, Irandoukht A. Modeling and preparation of activated carbon for methane storage: (I) modeling of activated carbon characteristics with neural networks and response surface method. Proceedings of CESEP07, Krakow, Poland; 2007.], the model was designed with the MATLAB toolboxes providing the best response for the correlation of the characteristics parameters and the methane uptake of the activated carbon. Regarding this model, the characteristics of the activated carbon were determined for a target methane uptake. After the determination of the characteristics, the demonstrated model of this work guided us to the selection of the effective AC preparation parameters. According to the modeling results, some samples were prepared and their methane storage capacity was measured. The results were compared with those of a target methane uptake (special amount of methane storage). Among the designed models, one of them illustrated the methane storage capacity of 180 v/v. It was finally found that the neural network modeling for the assay of the efficient AC preparation parameters was financially feasible, with respect to the determined methane storage capacity. This study could be useful for the development of the Adsorbed Natural Gas (ANG) technology

  3. Assessing global vegetation activity using spatio-temporal Bayesian modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mulder, Vera L.; van Eck, Christel M.; Friedlingstein, Pierre; Regnier, Pierre A. G.

    2016-04-01

    This work demonstrates the potential of modelling vegetation activity using a hierarchical Bayesian spatio-temporal model. This approach allows modelling changes in vegetation and climate simultaneous in space and time. Changes of vegetation activity such as phenology are modelled as a dynamic process depending on climate variability in both space and time. Additionally, differences in observed vegetation status can be contributed to other abiotic ecosystem properties, e.g. soil and terrain properties. Although these properties do not change in time, they do change in space and may provide valuable information in addition to the climate dynamics. The spatio-temporal Bayesian models were calibrated at a regional scale because the local trends in space and time can be better captured by the model. The regional subsets were defined according to the SREX segmentation, as defined by the IPCC. Each region is considered being relatively homogeneous in terms of large-scale climate and biomes, still capturing small-scale (grid-cell level) variability. Modelling within these regions is hence expected to be less uncertain due to the absence of these large-scale patterns, compared to a global approach. This overall modelling approach allows the comparison of model behavior for the different regions and may provide insights on the main dynamic processes driving the interaction between vegetation and climate within different regions. The data employed in this study encompasses the global datasets for soil properties (SoilGrids), terrain properties (Global Relief Model based on SRTM DEM and ETOPO), monthly time series of satellite-derived vegetation indices (GIMMS NDVI3g) and climate variables (Princeton Meteorological Forcing Dataset). The findings proved the potential of a spatio-temporal Bayesian modelling approach for assessing vegetation dynamics, at a regional scale. The observed interrelationships of the employed data and the different spatial and temporal trends support

  4. Optical indicators of plant physiolgical activity

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Kováč, Daniel; Ač, Alexander; Šigut, Ladislav; Klem, Karel; Urban, Otmar

    2012-01-01

    Roč. 60, č. 3 (2012), s. 101-110 ISSN 1211-8516 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) ED1.1.00/02.0073; GA MŽP(CZ) SP/2D1/70/08 Institutional support: RVO:67179843 Keywords : Picea abies * refl ectance * vegetation indices * photosynthesis * ecophysiology Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour

  5. Optimizing Dredge-and-Dump Activities for River Navigability Using a Hydro-Morphodynamic Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andries J. Paarlberg

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Worldwide, significant dredging activities of riverbed sediment are employed to ensure that freight transportation on rivers can continue year-round. Imbalances of sediment budget may produce relevant impacts regarding river morphology and related environmental services. This study shows that hydro-morphodynamic modeling tools can be used to optimize dredge-and-dump activities and, at the same time, mitigate problems deriving from these activities in rivers. As a case study, we focused on dredging activities on the Lower Parana River, Argentina. Navigation on this river is of crucial importance to the economies of the bordering countries, hence, each year significant dredging activities are employed. To estimate dredging loads under different strategies, a 25 km river reach of the Parana River was modeled using the Delft3D-modelling suite by Deltares. The Netherlands, to simulate flow-sediment interactions in a quasi-steady and uncoupled approach. Impacts of dredging activities were explicitly included. Different dredge-and-dump strategies included variations in dredging over-depth (clearance and variations in dumping locations. Our results indicate that dredge-and-dump strategies can be targeted to stimulate natural processes that improve the depth and stability of the navigation channel and to counteract unwanted bed level responses in the long-medium term. A ~40% reduction in dredging effort could be achieved by moving the dredged material to distant locations in the secondary channel rather than dumping to the side of the waterway in the main channel.

  6. Monitoring the performances of a real scale municipal solid waste composting and a biodrying facility using respiration activity indices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evangelou, Alexandros; Gerassimidou, Spyridoula; Mavrakis, Nikitas; Komilis, Dimitrios

    2016-05-01

    Objective of the work was to monitor two full-scale commingled municipal solid waste (MSW) mechanical and biological pretreatment (MBT) facilities in Greece, namely a biodrying and a composting facility. Monitoring data from a 1.5-year sampling period is presented, whilst microbial respiration indices were used to monitor the decomposition process and the stability status of the wastes in both facilities during the process. Results showed that in the composting facility, the organic matter reduced by 35 % after 8 weeks of combined composting/curing. Material exiting the biocells had a moisture content of less than 30 % (wb) indicating a moisture limitation during the active composting process. The static respiration indexes indicated that some stabilization occurred during the process, but the final material could not be characterized as stable compost. In the biodrying facility, the initial and final moisture contents were 50 % and less than 20 % wb, respectively, and the biodrying index was equal to 4.1 indicating effective biodrying. Lower heating values at the inlet and outlet were approximately 5.5 and 10 MJ/wet kg, respectively. The organic matter was reduced by 20 % during the process and specifically from a range of 63-77 % dw (inlet) to a range of 61-70 % dw. A significant respiration activity reduction was observed for some of the biodrying samples. A statistically significant correlation among all three respiration activity indices was recorded, with the two oxygen related activity indices (CRI7 and SRI24) observing the highest correlation.

  7. PERFORMANCE INDICATORS APPLIED TO BRAZILIAN PRIVATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Átila de Melo Lira

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Initially focused on for-profit companies the Balance Scorecard (BSC has been adopted by many organizations with different objectives, such as higher education institutions (HEIs. However, it is not clear if the adoption of the BSC model is appropriate, or yet is hard to perceive how HEIs have modified and implemented this tool for evaluating educational institutions, public or privates, in Brazil. This study aims to fill the gap existent in the context of using the BSC in organizations. We intend to demonstrate how these organizations use performance indicators to measure their primary activities. A quantitative and exploratory study was developed from the analysis of performance indicators found in the web sites to Brazilian universities. A total of 91 Brazilian private universities evaluation process were reviewed. Even with a considerable amount of private HEIs there are few that have performance indicators guided by numerical and statistical data covering its main activities which is a concern for their managers in terms of managerial control.

  8. Spectral Analysis of Geomagnetic Activity Indices and Solar Wind Parameters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jung-Hee Kim

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Solar variability is widely known to affect the interplanetary space and in turn the Earth’s electromagnetical environment on the basis of common periodicities in the solar and geomagnetic activity indices. The goal of this study is twofold. Firstly, we attempt to associate modes by comparing a temporal behavior of the power of geomagnetic activity parameters since it is barely sufficient searching for common peaks with a similar periodicity in order to causally correlate geomagnetic activity parameters. As a result of the wavelet transform analysis we are able to obtain information on the temporal behavior of the power in the velocity of the solar wind, the number density of protons in the solar wind, the AE index, the Dst index, the interplanetary magnetic field, B and its three components of the GSM coordinate system, BX, BY, BZ. Secondly, we also attempt to search for any signatures of influence on the space environment near the Earth by inner planets orbiting around the Sun. Our main findings are as follows: (1 Parameters we have investigated show periodicities of ~ 27 days, ~ 13.5 days, ~ 9 days. (2 The peaks in the power spectrum of BZ appear to be split due to an unknown agent. (3 For some modes powers are not present all the time and intervals showing high powers do not always coincide. (4 Noticeable peaks do not emerge at those frequencies corresponding to the synodic and/or sidereal periods of Mercury and Venus, which leads us to conclude that the Earth’s space environment is not subject to the shadow of the inner planets as suggested earlier.

  9. Gender and School-Level Differences in Students' Moderate and Vigorous Physical Activity Levels When Taught Basketball through the Tactical Games Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harvey, Stephen; Smith, Megan L.; Song, Yang; Robertson, David; Brown, Renee; Smith, Lindsey R.

    2016-01-01

    The Tactical Games Model (TGM) prefaces the cognitive components of physical education (PE), which has implications for physical activity (PA) accumulation. PA recommendations suggest students reach 50% moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). However, this criterion does not indicate the contribution from vigorous physical activity (VPA).…

  10. Multi-day activity scheduling reactions to planned activities and future events in a dynamic model of activity-travel behavior

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nijland, L.; Arentze, T.A.; Timmermans, H.J.P.

    2014-01-01

    Modeling multi-day planning has received scarce attention in activity-based transport demand modeling so far. However, new dynamic activity-based approaches are being developed at the current moment. The frequency and inflexibility of planned activities and events in activity schedules of

  11. Multi-Day Activity Scheduling Reactions to Planned Activities and Future Events in a Dynamic Model of Activity-Travel Behavior

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nijland, L.; Arentze, T.; Timmermans, H.

    2014-01-01

    Modeling multi-day planning has received scarce attention in activity-based transport demand modeling so far. However, new dynamic activity-based approaches are being developed at the current moment. The frequency and inflexibility of planned activities and events in activity schedules of

  12. Association between self-reported physical activity and indicators of body composition in Malaysian adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Su, Tin Tin; Sim, Pei Ying; Nahar, Azmi Mohamed; Majid, Hazreen Abd; Murray, Liam J; Cantwell, Marie M; Al-Sadat, Nabilla; Jalaludin, Muhammad Yazid

    2014-10-01

    Obesity and lack of physical activity are fast becoming a concern among Malaysian adolescents. This study aims to assess physical activity levels among Malaysian adolescents and investigate the association between physical activity levels and body composition such as body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and percentage of body fat. 1361 school-going 13 year old multi-ethnic adolescents from population representative samples in Malaysia were involved in our study. Self-reported physical activity levels were assessed using the validated Malay version of the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C). Height, weight, body fat composition and waist circumference (WC) were measured. Data collection period was from March to May 2012. 10.8% of the males and 7.4% of the females were obese according to the International Obesity Task Force standards. A majority of the adolescents (63.9%) were physically inactive. There is a weak but significant correlation between physical activity scores and the indicators of obesity. The adjusted coefficient for body fatness was relatively more closely correlated to physical activity scores followed by waist circumference and lastly BMI. This study demonstrates that high physical activity scores were associated with the decreased precursor risk factors of obesity. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  13. Heme oxygenase activity correlates with serum indices of iron homeostasis in healthy nonsmokers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heme oxygenase (HO) catalyzes the breakdown of heme to carbon monoxide, iron, and biliverdin. While the use of genetically altered animal models in investigation has established distinct associations between HO activity and systemic iron availability, studies have not yet confirm...

  14. Value Added Productivity Indicators: A Statistical Comparison of the Pre-Test/Post-Test Model and Gain Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weerasinghe, Dash; Orsak, Timothy; Mendro, Robert

    In an age of student accountability, public school systems must find procedures for identifying effective schools, classrooms, and teachers that help students continue to learn academically. As a result, researchers have been modeling schools and classrooms to calculate productivity indicators that will withstand not only statistical review but…

  15. How reliable are geometry-based building indices as thermal performance indicators?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rodrigues, Eugénio; Amaral, Ana Rita; Gaspar, Adélio Rodrigues; Gomes, Álvaro

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • Geometry-based building indices are tested in different European climate regions. • Building design programs are used to randomly generate sets of simulation models. • Some indices correlate in specific climates and design programs. • Shape-based Relative Compactness presented the best correlation of all indices. • Window-to-Surface Ratio was the window-based index with best correlation. - Abstract: Architects and urban planners have been relying on geometry-based indices to design more energy efficient buildings for years. The advantage of such indices is their ease of use and capability to capture the relation of a few geometric variables with the building’s performance. However, such relation is usually found using only a few simple building models and considering only a few climate regions. This paper presents the analysis of six geometry-based building indices to determine their adequacy in eight different climate regions in Europe. For each location, three residential building design programs were used as building specifications. Two algorithms were employed to randomly generate and assess the thermal performance of three sets of 500 alternative building models. The results show that geometry-based indices only correlate with the buildings’ thermal performance according to specific climate regions and building design programs

  16. Spinal astrocytic activation contributes to mechanical allodynia in a rat chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain model.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xi-Tuan Ji

    Full Text Available Chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain (CNP is the major dose-limiting factor in cancer chemotherapy. However, the neural mechanisms underlying CNP remain enigmatic. Accumulating evidence implicates the involvement of spinal glia in some neuropathic pain models. In this study, using a vincristine-evoked CNP rat model with obvious mechanical allodynia, we found that spinal astrocyte rather than microglia was dramatically activated. The mechanical allodynia was dose-dependently attenuated by intrathecal administratration of L-α-aminoadipate (astrocytic specific inhibitor; whereas minocycline (microglial specific inhibitor had no such effect, indicating that spinal astrocytic activation contributes to allodynia in CNP rat. Furthermore, oxidative stress mediated the development of spinal astrocytic activation, and activated astrocytes dramatically increased interleukin-1β expression which induced N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR phosphorylation in spinal neurons to strengthen pain transmission. Taken together, our findings suggest that spinal activated astrocytes may be a crucial component of the pathophysiology of CNP and "Astrocyte-Cytokine-NMDAR-neuron" pathway may be one detailed neural mechanisms underlying CNP. Thus, inhibiting spinal astrocytic activation may represent a novel therapeutic strategy for treating CNP.

  17. Respirometry techniques and activated sludge models

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Benes, O.; Spanjers, H.; Holba, M.

    2002-01-01

    This paper aims to explain results of respirometry experiments using Activated Sludge Model No. 1. In cases of insufficient fit of ASM No. 1, further modifications to the model were carried out and the so-called "Enzymatic model" was developed. The best-fit method was used to determine the effect of

  18. Horizontal rotation of the local stress field in response to magmatic activity: Evidence from case studies and modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roman, D. C.

    2003-12-01

    A complete understanding of the initiation, evolution, and termination of volcanic eruptions requires reliable monitoring techniques to detect changes in the conduit system during periods of activity, as well as corresponding knowledge of conduit structure and of magma physical properties. Case studies of stress field orientation prior to, during, and after magmatic activity can be used to relate changes in stress field orientation to the state of the magmatic conduit system. These relationships may be tested through modeling of induced stresses. Here I present evidence from case studies and modeling that horizontal rotation of the axis of maximum compressive stress at an active volcano indicates pressurization of a magmatic conduit, and that this rotation, when observed, may also be indicative of the physical properties of the ascending magma. Changes in the local stress field orientation during the 1992 eruption sequence at Crater Peak (Mt. Spurr), Alaska were analyzed by calculating and inverting subsets of over 150 fault-plane solutions. Local stress tensors for four time periods, corresponding approximately to changes in activity at the volcano, were calculated based on the misfit of individual fault-plane solutions to a regional stress tensor. Results indicate that for nine months prior to the eruption, local maximum compressive stress was oriented perpendicular to regional maximum compressive stress. A similar horizontal rotation was observed beginning in November of 1992, coincident with an episode of elevated earthquake and tremor activity indicating intrusion of magma into the conduit. During periods of quiescence the local stress field was similar to the regional stress field. Similar horizontal rotations have been observed at Mt. Ruapehu, New Zealand (Miller and Savage 2001, Gerst 2003), Usu Volcano, Japan (Fukuyama et al. 2001), Unzen Volcano, Japan (Umakoshi et al. 2001), and Mt. St. Helens Volcano, USA (Moran 1994) in conjunction with eruptive

  19. MODELLING THE FUTURE MUSIC TEACHERS’ READINESS TO PERFORMING AND INTERPRETIVE ACTIVITY DURING INSTRUMENTAL TRAINING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chenj Bo

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available One of the main fields of training future music teachers in Ukrainian system of higher education is instrumental music one, such as skills of performing and interpretive activities. The aim of the article is to design a model of the future music teachers’ readiness to performing and interpretive activities in musical and instrumental training. The process of modelling is based on several interrelated scientific approaches, including systemic, personality-centered, reflective, competence, active and creative ones. While designing a model of music future teachers’ readinesses to musical interpretive activities, its philosophical, informative, interactive, hedonistic, creative functions are taken into account. Important theoretical and methodological factors are thought to be principles of musical and pedagogical education: culture correspondence and reflection; unity of emotional and conscious, artistic and technical items in musical education; purposeful interrelations and art and pedagogical communication between teachers and students; intensification of music and creative activity. Above-mentioned pedagogical phenomenon is subdivided into four components: motivation-oriented, cognitive-evaluating, performance-independent, creative and productive. For each component relevant criteria and indicators are identified. The stages of future music teachers’ readiness to performing interpretative activity are highlighted: information searching one, which contributes to the implementation of complex diagnostic methods (surveys, questionnaires, testing; regulative and performing one, which is characterized by future music teachers’ immersion into music performing and interpretative activities; operational and reflective stage, which involves activation of mechanisms of future music teachers’ self-knowledge, self-realization, formation of skills of independent artistic and expressive various music genres and styles interpretation; projective and

  20. The Influence of Urban Land-Use and Public Transport Facilities on Active Commuting in Wellington, New Zealand: Active Transport Forecasting Using the WILUTE Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joreintje Dingena Mackenbach

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Physical activity has numerous physical and mental health benefits, and active commuting (walking or cycling to work can help meet physical activity recommendations. This study investigated socioeconomic differences in active commuting, and assessed the impact of urban land-use and public transport policies on active commuting in the Wellington region in New Zealand. We combined data from the New Zealand Household Travel Survey and GIS data on land-use and public transport facilities with the Wellington Integrated Land-Use, Transportation and Environment (WILUTE model, and forecasted changes in active commuter trips associated with changes in the built environment. Results indicated high income individuals were more likely to commute actively than individuals on low income. Several land-use and transportation factors were associated with active commuting and results from the modelling showed a potential increase in active commuting following an increase in bus frequency and parking fees. In conclusion, regional level policies stimulating environmental factors that directly or indirectly affect active commuting may be a promising strategy to increase population level physical activity. Access to, and frequency of, public transport in the neighbourhood can act as a facilitator for a more active lifestyle among its residents without negatively affecting disadvantaged groups.

  1. A new online secondary path modeling method for adaptive active structure vibration control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pu, Yuxue; Zhang, Fang; Jiang, Jinhui

    2014-01-01

    This paper proposes a new variable step size FXLMS algorithm with an auxiliary noise power scheduling strategy for online secondary path modeling. The step size for the secondary path modeling filter and the gain of auxiliary noise are varied in accordance with the parameters available directly. The proposed method has a low computational complexity. Computer simulations show that an active vibration control system with the proposed method gives much better vibration attenuation and modeling accuracy at a faster convergence rate than existing methods. National Instruments’ CompactRIO is used as an embedded processor to control simply supported beam vibration. Experimental results indicate that the vibration of the beam has been effectively attenuated. (papers)

  2. A Support Vector Machine Classification Model for Benzo[c]phenathridine Analogues with Topoisomerase-I Inhibitory Activity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thanh-Dao Tran

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Benzo[c]phenanthridine (BCP derivatives were identified as topoisomerase I (TOP-I targeting agents with pronounced antitumor activity. In this study, a support vector machine model was performed on a series of 73 analogues to classify BCP derivatives according to TOP-I inhibitory activity. The best SVM model with total accuracy of 93% for training set was achieved using a set of 7 descriptors identified from a large set via a random forest algorithm. Overall accuracy of up to 87% and a Matthews coefficient correlation (MCC of 0.71 were obtained after this SVM classifier was validated internally by a test set of 15 compounds. For two external test sets, 89% and 80% BCP compounds, respectively, were correctly predicted. The results indicated that our SVM model could be used as the filter for designing new BCP compounds with higher TOP-I inhibitory activity.

  3. Quantitative modeling of clinical, cellular, and extracellular matrix variables suggest prognostic indicators in cancer: a model in neuroblastoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tadeo, Irene; Piqueras, Marta; Montaner, David; Villamón, Eva; Berbegall, Ana P; Cañete, Adela; Navarro, Samuel; Noguera, Rosa

    2014-02-01

    Risk classification and treatment stratification for cancer patients is restricted by our incomplete picture of the complex and unknown interactions between the patient's organism and tumor tissues (transformed cells supported by tumor stroma). Moreover, all clinical factors and laboratory studies used to indicate treatment effectiveness and outcomes are by their nature a simplification of the biological system of cancer, and cannot yet incorporate all possible prognostic indicators. A multiparametric analysis on 184 tumor cylinders was performed. To highlight the benefit of integrating digitized medical imaging into this field, we present the results of computational studies carried out on quantitative measurements, taken from stromal and cancer cells and various extracellular matrix fibers interpenetrated by glycosaminoglycans, and eight current approaches to risk stratification systems in patients with primary and nonprimary neuroblastoma. New tumor tissue indicators from both fields, the cellular and the extracellular elements, emerge as reliable prognostic markers for risk stratification and could be used as molecular targets of specific therapies. The key to dealing with personalized therapy lies in the mathematical modeling. The use of bioinformatics in patient-tumor-microenvironment data management allows a predictive model in neuroblastoma.

  4. Modeling and control of active twist aircraft

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cramer, Nicholas Bryan

    The Wright Brothers marked the beginning of powered flight in 1903 using an active twist mechanism as their means of controlling roll. As time passed due to advances in other technologies that transformed aviation the active twist mechanism was no longer used. With the recent advances in material science and manufacturability, the possibility of the practical use of active twist technologies has emerged. In this dissertation, the advantages and disadvantages of active twist techniques are investigated through the development of an aeroelastic modeling method intended for informing the designs of such technologies and wind tunnel testing to confirm the capabilities of the active twist technologies and validate the model. Control principles for the enabling structural technologies are also proposed while the potential gains of dynamic, active twist are analyzed.

  5. Antimalarial activity of plumbagin in vitro and in animal models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sumsakul, Wiriyaporn; Plengsuriyakarn, Tullayakorn; Chaijaroenkul, Wanna; Viyanant, Vithoon; Karbwang, Juntra; Na-Bangchang, Kesara

    2014-01-12

    Plumbagin is the major active constituent in several plants including Plumbago indica Linn. (root). This compound has been shown to exhibit a wide spectrum of biological and pharmacological activities. The present study aimed to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo antimalarial activity of plumbagin including its acute and subacute toxicity in mice. In vitro antimalarial activity of plumbagin against K1 and 3D7 Plasmodium falciparum clones were assessed using SYBR Green I based assay. In vivo antimalarial activity was investigated in Plasmodium berghei-infected mouse model (a 4-day suppressive test). Plumbagin exhibited promising antimalarial activity with in vitro IC50 (concentration that inhibits parasite growth to 50%) against 3D7 chloroquine-sensitive P. falciparum and K1 chloroquine-resistant P. falciparum clones of 580 (270-640) and 370 (270-490) nM, respectively. Toxicity testing indicated relatively low toxicity at the dose levels up to 100 (single oral dose) and 25 (daily doses for 14 days) mg/kg body weight for acute and subacute toxicity, respectively. Chloroquine exhibited the most potent antimalarial activity in mice infected with P. berghei ANKA strain with respect to its activity on the reduction of parasitaemia on day 4 and the prolongation of survival time. Plumbagin at the dose of 25 mg/kg body weight given for 4 days was safe and produced weak antimalarial activity. Chemical derivatization of the parent compound or preparation of modified formulation is required to improve its systemic bioavailability.

  6. AIRLINE ACTIVITY FORECASTING BY REGRESSION MODELS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Н. Білак

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Proposed linear and nonlinear regression models, which take into account the equation of trend and seasonality indices for the analysis and restore the volume of passenger traffic over the past period of time and its prediction for future years, as well as the algorithm of formation of these models based on statistical analysis over the years. The desired model is the first step for the synthesis of more complex models, which will enable forecasting of passenger (income level airline with the highest accuracy and time urgency.

  7. A model for promoting physical activity among rural South African adolescent girls

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kinsman, John; Norris, Shane A.; Kahn, Kathleen; Twine, Rhian; Riggle, Kari; Edin, Kerstin; Mathebula, Jennifer; Ngobeni, Sizzy; Monareng, Nester; Micklesfield, Lisa K.

    2015-01-01

    Background In South Africa, the expanding epidemic of non-communicable diseases is partly fuelled by high levels of physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour. Women especially are at high risk, and interventions promoting physical activity are urgently needed for girls in their adolescence, as this is the time when many girls adopt unhealthy lifestyles. Objective This qualitative study aimed to identify and describe facilitating factors and barriers that are associated with physical activity among adolescent girls in rural, north-eastern South Africa and, based on these, to develop a model for promoting leisure-time physical activity within this population. Design The study was conducted in and around three secondary schools. Six focus group discussions were conducted with adolescent girls from the schools, and seven qualitative interviews were held with sports teachers and youth leaders. The data were subjected to thematic analysis. Results Seven thematic areas were identified, each of which was associated with the girls’ self-reported levels of physical activity. The thematic areas are 1) poverty, 2) body image ideals, 3) gender, 4) parents and home life, 5) demographic factors, 6) perceived health effects of physical activity, and 7) human and infrastructural resources. More barriers to physical activity were reported than facilitating factors. Conclusions Analysis of the barriers found in the different themes indicated potential remedial actions that could be taken, and these were synthesised into a model for promoting physical activity among South African adolescent girls in resource-poor environments. The model presents a series of action points, seen both from the ‘supply-side’ perspective (such as the provision of resources and training for the individuals, schools, and organisations which facilitate the activities) and from the ‘demand-side’ perspective (such as the development of empowering messages about body image for teenage girls, and

  8. Technical Publications as Indicators for Nuclear Fuel Cycle Declarable Activities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schuler, R.; El Gebaly, A.; Feldman, Y.; Gagne, D.; Schot, P.-M.; Ferguson, M.

    2015-01-01

    The Department of Safeguards aims to provide credible assurances to the international community that States are fulfiling their safeguards obligations in that all nuclear material remains in peaceful use. It does so in part by developing and implementing methodologies for early detection of undeclared activities or misuse of nuclear material or technology, based on large and diverse sources of information. Analyzing scientific, technical and patent information allows analysts in the Department to understand the technology available to a State, to forecast possible technical developments, to map collaborative research activities within and across States, and compare that information with declarations received by the State for completeness and correctness. Furthermore, with regard to patent information, scientists or companies want to make sure their intellectual property is protected; accordingly, patents are frequently filed before the information is published elsewhere, making patent information also an early indicator of relevant activities. Dealing with such large information sources requires the use of an innovative methodology conducting analysis. The Department has recently begun to examine the efficacy of link analysis tools to help carry out its mission. Using the link analysis platform Palantir, the authors conducted several case studies with the aim of deriving sound analytical results from large amounts of technical information within a reasonable time frame. The authors used data sets of bibliographic references from the IAEA International Nuclear Information System (INIS),Web of Science, Science Direct and data on worldwide patents from the European Patent Office (EPO). Based on these case studies, the authors are developing methodologies for the efficient application of link analysis to scientific and technical information, thus strengthening the Department's information collection and analysis capabilities and the overall process of State

  9. A model for promoting physical activity among rural South African adolescent girls

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Kinsman

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Background: In South Africa, the expanding epidemic of non-communicable diseases is partly fuelled by high levels of physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour. Women especially are at high risk, and interventions promoting physical activity are urgently needed for girls in their adolescence, as this is the time when many girls adopt unhealthy lifestyles. Objective: This qualitative study aimed to identify and describe facilitating factors and barriers that are associated with physical activity among adolescent girls in rural, north-eastern South Africa and, based on these, to develop a model for promoting leisure-time physical activity within this population. Design: The study was conducted in and around three secondary schools. Six focus group discussions were conducted with adolescent girls from the schools, and seven qualitative interviews were held with sports teachers and youth leaders. The data were subjected to thematic analysis. Results: Seven thematic areas were identified, each of which was associated with the girls’ self-reported levels of physical activity. The thematic areas are 1 poverty, 2 body image ideals, 3 gender, 4 parents and home life, 5 demographic factors, 6 perceived health effects of physical activity, and 7 human and infrastructural resources. More barriers to physical activity were reported than facilitating factors. Conclusions: Analysis of the barriers found in the different themes indicated potential remedial actions that could be taken, and these were synthesised into a model for promoting physical activity among South African adolescent girls in resource-poor environments. The model presents a series of action points, seen both from the ‘supply-side’ perspective (such as the provision of resources and training for the individuals, schools, and organisations which facilitate the activities and from the ‘demand-side’ perspective (such as the development of empowering messages about body image for

  10. An Integrated Model Based on a Hierarchical Indices System for Monitoring and Evaluating Urban Sustainability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xulin Guo

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Over 50% of world’s population presently resides in cities, and this number is expected to rise to ~70% by 2050. Increasing urbanization problems including population growth, urban sprawl, land use change, unemployment, and environmental degradation, have markedly impacted urban residents’ Quality of Life (QOL. Therefore, urban sustainability and its measurement have gained increasing attention from administrators, urban planners, and scientific communities throughout the world with respect to improving urban development and human well-being. The widely accepted definition of urban sustainability emphasizes the balancing development of three primary domains (urban economy, society, and environment. This article attempts to improve the aforementioned definition of urban sustainability by incorporating a human well-being dimension. Major problems identified in existing urban sustainability indicator (USI models include a weak integration of potential indicators, poor measurement and quantification, and insufficient spatial-temporal analysis. To tackle these challenges an integrated USI model based on a hierarchical indices system was established for monitoring and evaluating urban sustainability. This model can be performed by quantifying indicators using both traditional statistical approaches and advanced geomatic techniques based on satellite imagery and census data, which aims to provide a theoretical basis for a comprehensive assessment of urban sustainability from a spatial-temporal perspective.

  11. Concentration of enteric virus indicator from seawater using granular activated carbon.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cormier, Jiemin; Gutierrez, Miguel; Goodridge, Lawrence; Janes, Marlene

    2014-02-01

    Fecal contamination of shellfish growing seawater with enteric viruses is often associated with human outbreaks of gastroenteritis. Male specific bacteriophage MS2 is correlated with those of enteric viruses in a wide range of water environments and has been used widely as a surrogate for pathogenic waterborne viruses. Since viruses in contaminated water are usually at low levels, the development of methods to concentrate viruses from water is crucial for detection purposes. In the present study, granular activated carbon was evaluated for concentration of MS2 from artificial seawater, and different parameters of the seawater were also compared. Recovery of MS2 from warm seawater (37°C) was found to be significantly greater than from cold seawater (4 and 20°C), and even greater than from fresh water (4, 20 and 37°C); the difference between seawater and fresh water became less profound when the temperatures of both were below 37°C. Although not of statistical significance, recovery of MS2 from low salinity seawater (10 and 20 parts per thousand, ppt) was greater than from high salinity seawater (30 and 40ppt). One gram of granular activated carbon was able to extract 6-log plaque forming units (PFU) of MS2 from 500ml seawater at 37°C. This study demonstrated that granular activated carbon can concentrate an enteric virus indicator from shellfish growing seawater effectively. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Technology and industrialization in Spanish economy from 1950 to 1960: the patents as technological activity indicators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hidalgo Nuchera, A.; Molero Zayas, J.; Granda Gayo, I.

    2007-01-01

    The goal of this research is to study the innovative activity developed in the fifties by the Spanish industry focussing on the foreign technology incorporated in the activity of several industrial sectors. The structure of innovation in each sector has been characterized by using patents as technological activity indicators. The data of patents registered in Spain belonging to the 1950-1960 period have been obtained taking into account the research developed by the Department of Business Administration of the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid through a subsidy granted by the Spanish Patent Office. (Author)

  13. Chemical Structure-Biological Activity Models for Pharmacophores’ 3D-Interactions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mihai V. Putz

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Within medicinal chemistry nowadays, the so-called pharmaco-dynamics seeks for qualitative (for understanding and quantitative (for predicting mechanisms/models by which given chemical structure or series of congeners actively act on biological sites either by focused interaction/therapy or by diffuse/hazardous influence. To this aim, the present review exposes three of the fertile directions in approaching the biological activity by chemical structural causes: the special computing trace of the algebraic structure-activity relationship (SPECTRAL-SAR offering the full analytical counterpart for multi-variate computational regression, the minimal topological difference (MTD as the revived precursor for comparative molecular field analyses (CoMFA and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA; all of these methods and algorithms were presented, discussed and exemplified on relevant chemical medicinal systems as proton pump inhibitors belonging to the 4-indolyl,2-guanidinothiazole class of derivatives blocking the acid secretion from parietal cells in the stomach, the 1-[(2-hydroxyethoxy-methyl]-6-(phenylthiothymine congeners’ (HEPT ligands antiviral activity against Human Immunodeficiency Virus of first type (HIV-1 and new pharmacophores in treating severe genetic disorders (like depression and psychosis, respectively, all involving 3D pharmacophore interactions.

  14. A decision support model for identification and prioritization of key performance indicators in the logistics industry

    OpenAIRE

    Kucukaltan, Berk; Irani, Zahir; Aktas, Emel

    2016-01-01

    Performance measurement of logistics companies is based upon various performance indicators. Yet, in the logistics industry, there are several vaguenesses, such as deciding on key indicators and determining interrelationships between performance indicators. In order to resolve these vaguenesses, this paper first presents the stakeholder-informed Balanced Scorecard (BSC) model, by incorporating financial (e.g. cost) and non-financial (e.g. social media) performance indicators, with a comprehen...

  15. Elderly benzodiazepine users at increased risk of activity limitations: influence of chronicity, indications, and duration of action--the three-city cohort.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carrière, Isabelle; Mura, Thibault; Pérès, Karine; Norton, Joanna; Jaussent, Isabelle; Edjolo, Arlette; Rouaud, Olivier; Berr, Claudine; Ritchie, Karen; Ancelin, Marie Laure

    2015-08-01

    To examine the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between benzodiazepine use and daily activity limitations, according to drug indications and duration of action. Prospective cohort study. Population-based three-city study. 6,600 participants aged 65 years and over included between 1999 and 2001 and followed after 2, 4, and 7 years. Benzodiazepine users were separated into hypnotic, short-acting anxiolytic, and long-acting anxiolytic users and compared with non users. Three outcomes were examined assessing restrictions in mobility, instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) and social participation. In multivariate simple or mixed logistic models adjusted for sociodemographic variables, impairments and comorbidity, and for anxiety, insomnia, and depression, hypnotic benzodiazepines were moderately associated with mobility limitation prevalence and IADL limitation incidence. Short-acting and long-acting anxiolytics were associated with IADL limitation prevalence and with mobility limitation prevalence and incidence and long-acting anxiolytics were also associated with IADL limitation incidence. Chronic benzodiazepines users were at a marked risk of developing restrictions for the three outcomes; odds ratio: 1.71 (95% CI: 1.23-2.39) for mobility, 1.54 (95% CI: 1.14-2.10) for IADL, and 1.74 (95% CI: 1.23-2.47) for participation limitations. Benzodiazepine users are at increased risk of activity limitations regardless of the duration of action or indication. Chronic use of benzodiazepines should be avoided in order to extend disability-free survival. Copyright © 2015 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Mathematical model of radon activity measurements

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Paschuk, Sergei A.; Correa, Janine N.; Kappke, Jaqueline; Zambianchi, Pedro, E-mail: sergei@utfpr.edu.br, E-mail: janine_nicolosi@hotmail.com [Universidade Tecnologica Federal do Parana (UTFPR), Curitiba, PR (Brazil); Denyak, Valeriy, E-mail: denyak@gmail.com [Instituto de Pesquisa Pele Pequeno Principe, Curitiba, PR (Brazil)

    2015-07-01

    Present work describes a mathematical model that quantifies the time dependent amount of {sup 222}Rn and {sup 220}Rn altogether and their activities within an ionization chamber as, for example, AlphaGUARD, which is used to measure activity concentration of Rn in soil gas. The differential equations take into account tree main processes, namely: the injection of Rn into the cavity of detector by the air pump including the effect of the traveling time Rn takes to reach the chamber; Rn release by the air exiting the chamber; and radioactive decay of Rn within the chamber. Developed code quantifies the activity of {sup 222}Rn and {sup 220}Rn isotopes separately. Following the standard methodology to measure Rn activity in soil gas, the air pump usually is turned off over a period of time in order to avoid the influx of Rn into the chamber. Since {sup 220}Rn has a short half-life time, approximately 56s, the model shows that after 7 minutes the activity concentration of this isotope is null. Consequently, the measured activity refers to {sup 222}Rn, only. Furthermore, the model also addresses the activity of {sup 220}Rn and {sup 222}Rn progeny, which being metals represent potential risk of ionization chamber contamination that could increase the background of further measurements. Some preliminary comparison of experimental data and theoretical calculations is presented. Obtained transient and steady-state solutions could be used for planning of Rn in soil gas measurements as well as for accuracy assessment of obtained results together with efficiency evaluation of chosen measurements procedure. (author)

  17. Modelling spatiotemporal distribution patterns of earthworms in order to indicate hydrological soil processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palm, Juliane; Klaus, Julian; van Schaik, Loes; Zehe, Erwin; Schröder, Boris

    2010-05-01

    Soils provide central ecosystem functions in recycling nutrients, detoxifying harmful chemicals as well as regulating microclimate and local hydrological processes. The internal regulation of these functions and therefore the development of healthy and fertile soils mainly depend on the functional diversity of plants and animals. Soil organisms drive essential processes such as litter decomposition, nutrient cycling, water dynamics, and soil structure formation. Disturbances by different soil management practices (e.g., soil tillage, fertilization, pesticide application) affect the distribution and abundance of soil organisms and hence influence regulating processes. The strong relationship between environmental conditions and soil organisms gives us the opportunity to link spatiotemporal distribution patterns of indicator species with the potential provision of essential soil processes on different scales. Earthworms are key organisms for soil function and affect, among other things, water dynamics and solute transport in soils. Through their burrowing activity, earthworms increase the number of macropores by building semi-permanent burrow systems. In the unsaturated zone, earthworm burrows act as preferential flow pathways and affect water infiltration, surface-, subsurface- and matrix flow as well as the transport of water and solutes into deeper soil layers. Thereby different ecological earthworm types have different importance. Deep burrowing anecic earthworm species (e.g., Lumbricus terrestris) affect the vertical flow and thus increase the risk of potential contamination of ground water with agrochemicals. In contrast, horizontal burrowing endogeic (e.g., Aporrectodea caliginosa) and epigeic species (e.g., Lumbricus rubellus) increase water conductivity and the diffuse distribution of water and solutes in the upper soil layers. The question which processes are more relevant is pivotal for soil management and risk assessment. Thus, finding relevant

  18. Validating the Heat Stress Indices for Using In Heavy Work Activities in Hot and Dry Climates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hajizadeh, Roohalah; Golbabaei, Farideh; Farhang Dehghan, Somayeh; Beheshti, Mohammad Hossein; Jafari, Sayed Mohammad; Taheri, Fereshteh

    2016-01-01

    Necessity of evaluating heat stress in the workplace, require validation of indices and selection optimal index. The present study aimed to assess the precision and validity of some heat stress indices and select the optimum index for using in heavy work activities in hot and dry climates. It carried out on 184 workers from 40 brick kilns workshops in the city of Qom, central Iran (as representative hot and dry climates). After reviewing the working process and evaluation the activity of workers and the type of work, environmental and physiological parameters according to standards recommended by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) including ISO 7243 and ISO 9886 were measured and indices were calculated. Workers engaged in indoor kiln experienced the highest values of natural wet temperature, dry temperature, globe temperature and relative humidity among studied sections (Pstress index (HSI) indices had the highest correlation with other physiological parameters among the other heat stress indices. Relationship between WBGT index and carotid artery temperature (r=0.49), skin temperature (r=0.319), and oral temperature (r=0.203) was statistically significant (P=0.006). Since WBGT index, as the most applicable index for evaluating heat stress in workplaces is approved by ISO, and due to the positive features of WBGT such as ease of measurement and calculation, and with respect to some limitation in application of HSI; WBGT can be introduced as the most valid empirical index of heat stress in the brick workshops.

  19. The effect of measurement quality on targeted structural model fit indices: A comment on Lance, Beck, Fan, and Carter (2016).

    Science.gov (United States)

    McNeish, Daniel; Hancock, Gregory R

    2018-03-01

    Lance, Beck, Fan, and Carter (2016) recently advanced 6 new fit indices and associated cutoff values for assessing data-model fit in the structural portion of traditional latent variable path models. The authors appropriately argued that, although most researchers' theoretical interest rests with the latent structure, they still rely on indices of global model fit that simultaneously assess both the measurement and structural portions of the model. As such, Lance et al. proposed indices intended to assess the structural portion of the model in isolation of the measurement model. Unfortunately, although these strategies separate the assessment of the structure from the fit of the measurement model, they do not isolate the structure's assessment from the quality of the measurement model. That is, even with a perfectly fitting measurement model, poorer quality (i.e., less reliable) measurements will yield a more favorable verdict regarding structural fit, whereas better quality (i.e., more reliable) measurements will yield a less favorable structural assessment. This phenomenon, referred to by Hancock and Mueller (2011) as the reliability paradox, affects not only traditional global fit indices but also those structural indices proposed by Lance et al. as well. Fortunately, as this comment will clarify, indices proposed by Hancock and Mueller help to mitigate this problem and allow the structural portion of the model to be assessed independently of both the fit of the measurement model as well as the quality of indicator variables contained therein. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  20. Exploratory Topology Modelling of Form-Active Hybrid Structures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Holden Deleuran, Anders; Pauly, Mark; Tamke, Martin

    2016-01-01

    The development of novel form-active hybrid structures (FAHS) is impeded by a lack of modelling tools that allow for exploratory topology modelling of shaped assemblies. We present a flexible and real-time computational design modelling pipeline developed for the exploratory modelling of FAHS...... that enables designers and engineers to iteratively construct and manipulate form-active hybrid assembly topology on the fly. The pipeline implements Kangaroo2's projection-based methods for modelling hybrid structures consisting of slender beams and cable networks. A selection of design modelling sketches...

  1. Dynamic response and transfer function of social systems: A neuro-inspired model of collective human activity patterns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lymperopoulos, Ilias N

    2017-10-01

    The interaction of social networks with the external environment gives rise to non-stationary activity patterns reflecting the temporal structure and strength of exogenous influences that drive social dynamical processes far from an equilibrium state. Following a neuro-inspired approach, based on the dynamics of a passive neuronal membrane, and the firing rate dynamics of single neurons and neuronal populations, we build a state-of-the-art model of the collective social response to exogenous interventions. In this regard, we analyze online activity patterns with a view to determining the transfer function of social systems, that is, the dynamic relationship between external influences and the resulting activity. To this end, first we estimate the impulse response (Green's function) of collective activity, and then we show that the convolution of the impulse response with a time-varying external influence field accurately reproduces empirical activity patterns. To capture the dynamics of collective activity when the generating process is in a state of statistical equilibrium, we incorporate into the model a noisy input convolved with the impulse response function, thus precisely reproducing the fluctuations of stationary collective activity around a resting value. The outstanding goodness-of-fit of the model results to empirical observations, indicates that the model explains human activity patterns generated by time-dependent external influences in various socio-economic contexts. The proposed model can be used for inferring the temporal structure and strength of external influences, as well as the inertia of collective social activity. Furthermore, it can potentially predict social activity patterns. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Active Player Modeling in the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Hyunsoo; Kim, Kyung-Joong

    2016-01-01

    The iterated prisoner's dilemma (IPD) is well known within the domain of game theory. Although it is relatively simple, it can also elucidate important problems related to cooperation and trust. Generally, players can predict their opponents' actions when they are able to build a precise model of their behavior based on their game playing experience. However, it is difficult to make such predictions based on a limited number of games. The creation of a precise model requires the use of not only an appropriate learning algorithm and framework but also a good dataset. Active learning approaches have recently been introduced to machine learning communities. The approach can usually produce informative datasets with relatively little effort. Therefore, we have proposed an active modeling technique to predict the behavior of IPD players. The proposed method can model the opponent player's behavior while taking advantage of interactive game environments. This experiment used twelve representative types of players as opponents, and an observer used an active modeling algorithm to model these opponents. This observer actively collected data and modeled the opponent's behavior online. Most of our data showed that the observer was able to build, through direct actions, a more accurate model of an opponent's behavior than when the data were collected through random actions.

  3. Analytic network process model for sustainable lean and green manufacturing performance indicator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aminuddin, Adam Shariff Adli; Nawawi, Mohd Kamal Mohd; Mohamed, Nik Mohd Zuki Nik

    2014-09-01

    Sustainable manufacturing is regarded as the most complex manufacturing paradigm to date as it holds the widest scope of requirements. In addition, its three major pillars of economic, environment and society though distinct, have some overlapping among each of its elements. Even though the concept of sustainability is not new, the development of the performance indicator still needs a lot of improvement due to its multifaceted nature, which requires integrated approach to solve the problem. This paper proposed the best combination of criteria en route a robust sustainable manufacturing performance indicator formation via Analytic Network Process (ANP). The integrated lean, green and sustainable ANP model can be used to comprehend the complex decision system of the sustainability assessment. The finding shows that green manufacturing is more sustainable than lean manufacturing. It also illustrates that procurement practice is the most important criteria in the sustainable manufacturing performance indicator.

  4. Technology and Innovation Management Indicators and Assessment Based on Government Performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sanja Marinković

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Throughout large global databases, such as OECD, UNDP, ITU, Eurostat, World Bank, and Statistical offices of countries, there are many indicators that refer to Technology and Innovation Management (TIM performance of countries. However, a question arises of how to classify and systematically analyze these indicators in terms of measuring, monitoring and enhancing TIM performance at a national level. More specifically, in this paper we pose a question of how to assess the government performance in TIM, as one aspect of the Triple Helix model. Therefore, we use a model of thirty-nine indicators which are classified according to three main management functions: planning, organizing and control, observed as input, process and output, respectively. More importantly, we analyze the relations that exist between these three categories of indicators. Planning indicators are observed as the investments in technological and innovative activities; organizing indicators include the infrastructure, public administration efficiency and cooperation support, while control indicators refer to the national economy R&D, transfer effects and entrepreneurship outcomes. The model is tested for assessing and comparing government performance in TIM for three countries: Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, for the time period 2007-2012. Finally, as a feedback in the model, we used scores of the countries according to the Global Innovation Index and the Global Competitiveness Index, to verify the results and provide the final conclusion.

  5. OBJECT ORIENTED MODELLING, A MODELLING METHOD OF AN ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION ACTIVITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    TĂNĂSESCU ANA

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Now, most economic organizations use different information systems types in order to facilitate their activity. There are different methodologies, methods and techniques that can be used to design information systems. In this paper, I propose to present the advantages of using the object oriented modelling at the information system design of an economic organization. Thus, I have modelled the activity of a photo studio, using Visual Paradigm for UML as a modelling tool. For this purpose, I have identified the use cases for the analyzed system and I have presented the use case diagram. I have, also, realized the system static and dynamic modelling, through the most known UML diagrams.

  6. Toward a Progress Indicator for Machine Learning Model Building and Data Mining Algorithm Execution: A Position Paper

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Gang

    2017-01-01

    For user-friendliness, many software systems offer progress indicators for long-duration tasks. A typical progress indicator continuously estimates the remaining task execution time as well as the portion of the task that has been finished. Building a machine learning model often takes a long time, but no existing machine learning software supplies a non-trivial progress indicator. Similarly, running a data mining algorithm often takes a long time, but no existing data mining software provides a nontrivial progress indicator. In this article, we consider the problem of offering progress indicators for machine learning model building and data mining algorithm execution. We discuss the goals and challenges intrinsic to this problem. Then we describe an initial framework for implementing such progress indicators and two advanced, potential uses of them, with the goal of inspiring future research on this topic. PMID:29177022

  7. Synaptic model for spontaneous activity in developing networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lerchner, Alexander; Rinzel, J.

    2005-01-01

    Spontaneous rhythmic activity occurs in many developing neural networks. The activity in these hyperexcitable networks is comprised of recurring "episodes" consisting of "cycles" of high activity that alternate with "silent phases" with little or no activity. We introduce a new model of synaptic...... dynamics that takes into account that only a fraction of the vesicles stored in a synaptic terminal is readily available for release. We show that our model can reproduce spontaneous rhythmic activity with the same general features as observed in experiments, including a positive correlation between...

  8. Identifying Value Indicators and Social Capital in Community Health Partnerships

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hausman, Alice J.; Becker, Julie; Brawer, Rickie

    2005-01-01

    Increasingly, public health practice is turning to the application of community collaborative models to improve population health status. Despite the growth of these activities, however, evaluations of the national demonstrations have indicated that community health partnerships fail to achieve measurable results and struggle to maintain integrity…

  9. An Empirical Comparison of Different Models of Active Aging in Canada: The International Mobility in Aging Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bélanger, Emmanuelle; Ahmed, Tamer; Filiatrault, Johanne; Yu, Hsiu-Ting; Zunzunegui, Maria Victoria

    2017-04-01

    Active aging is a concept that lacks consensus. The WHO defines it as a holistic concept that encompasses the overall health, participation, and security of older adults. Fernández-Ballesteros and colleagues propose a similar concept but omit security and include mood and cognitive function. To date, researchers attempting to validate conceptual models of active aging have obtained mixed results. The goal of this study was to examine the validity of existing models of active aging with epidemiological data from Canada. The WHO model of active aging and the psychological model of active aging developed by Fernández-Ballesteros and colleagues were tested with confirmatory factor analysis. The data used included 799 community-dwelling older adults between 65 and 74 years old, recruited from the patient lists of family physicians in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec and Kingston, Ontario. Neither model could be validated in the sample of Canadian older adults. Although a concept of healthy aging can be modeled adequately, social participation and security did not fit a latent factor model. A simple binary index indicated that 27% of older adults in the sample did not meet the active aging criteria proposed by the WHO. Our results suggest that active aging might represent a human rights policy orientation rather than an empirical measurement tool to guide research among older adult populations. Binary indexes of active aging may serve to highlight what remains to be improved about the health, participation, and security of growing populations of older adults. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  10. Network based early warning indicators of vegetation changes in a land–atmosphere model

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Yin, Z.; Dekker, S.C.; Rietkerk, M.; Hurk, B.J.J.M. van den; Dijkstra, H.A.

    2016-01-01

    Abstract Numerous model studies demonstrate that ecosystems might not shift smoothly with a gradual change in resource concentration. At specific points, vegetation can suddenly shift from one stable state to another. To predict such undesirable shifts, statistical indicators are proposed for early

  11. Evaluating a Model of Youth Physical Activity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heitzler, Carrie D.; Lytle, Leslie A.; Erickson, Darin J.; Barr-Anderson, Daheia; Sirard, John R.; Story, Mary

    2010-01-01

    Objective: To explore the relationship between social influences, self-efficacy, enjoyment, and barriers and physical activity. Methods: Structural equation modeling examined relationships between parent and peer support, parent physical activity, individual perceptions, and objectively measured physical activity using accelerometers among a…

  12. Behavioral and Brain Activity Indices of Cognitive Control Deficits in Binge Drinkers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sean M. Molnar

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Heavy episodic drinking is prevalent among young adults and is a public issue of increasing importance. Its initiation and maintenance are associated with deficits in the capacity to inhibit automatic processing in favor of non-habitual responses. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI to examine behavioral and brain activity indices of cognitive control during the Stroop task as a function of binge drinking. Heavy episodic drinkers (HED reported consuming 5+/6+ drinks in two hours at least five times in the past six months and were compared to light drinkers (LED who reported two or fewer binge episodes but were matched on demographics, intelligence and family history of alcoholism. Greater conflict-induced activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC and thalamus was observed in HED participants and it was positively correlated with alcohol intake and alcohol-related harmful consequences. HEDs maintained intact accuracy but at a cost of prolonged reaction times to high-conflict trials and increased ratings of task difficulty. Greater activation of the areas implicated in cognitive control is consistent with compensatory network expansion to meet higher cognitive demands. These results provide further insight into degradation of cognitive control in HEDs which may benefit development of detection and prevention strategies.

  13. Ferromagnetic interaction model of activity level in workplace communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akitomi, Tomoaki; Ara, Koji; Watanabe, Jun-ichiro; Yano, Kazuo

    2013-03-01

    The nature of human-human interaction, specifically, how people synchronize with each other in multiple-participant conversations, is described by a ferromagnetic interaction model of people’s activity levels. We found two microscopic human interaction characteristics from a real-environment face-to-face conversation. The first characteristic is that people quite regularly synchronize their activity level with that of the other participants in a conversation. The second characteristic is that the degree of synchronization increases as the number of participants increases. Based on these microscopic ferromagnetic characteristics, a “conversation activity level” was modeled according to the Ising model. The results of a simulation of activity level based on this model well reproduce macroscopic experimental measurements of activity level. This model will give a new insight into how people interact with each other in a conversation.

  14. Waste indicators

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dall, O.; Lassen, C.; Hansen, E. [Cowi A/S, Lyngby (Denmark)

    2003-07-01

    The Waste Indicator Project focuses on methods to evaluate the efficiency of waste management. The project proposes the use of three indicators for resource consumption, primary energy and landfill requirements, based on the life-cycle principles applied in the EDIP Project. Trial runs are made With the indicators on paper, glass packaging and aluminium, and two models are identified for mapping the Danish waste management, of which the least extensive focuses on real and potential savings. (au)

  15. Waste indicators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dall, O.; Lassen, C.; Hansen, E.

    2003-01-01

    The Waste Indicator Project focuses on methods to evaluate the efficiency of waste management. The project proposes the use of three indicators for resource consumption, primary energy and landfill requirements, based on the life-cycle principles applied in the EDIP Project. Trial runs are made With the indicators on paper, glass packaging and aluminium, and two models are identified for mapping the Danish waste management, of which the least extensive focuses on real and potential savings. (au)

  16. Students’ mathematical learning in modelling activities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjeldsen, Tinne Hoff; Blomhøj, Morten

    2013-01-01

    Ten years of experience with analyses of students’ learning in a modelling course for first year university students, led us to see modelling as a didactical activity with the dual goal of developing students’ modelling competency and enhancing their conceptual learning of mathematical concepts i...... create and help overcome hidden cognitive conflicts in students’ understanding; that reflections within modelling can play an important role for the students’ learning of mathematics. These findings are illustrated with a modelling project concerning the world population....

  17. Forming Factors And Builder Indicators Of Brand Personality Models In Traditional Retail Traders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunelly Asra

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This study aims to find the factors forming and indicator builder model of brand personality of traditional retail traders through measuring the influence of retail mix and culture. The formation of brand personality uses Aaker brand personality dimension to 250 consumers in Bengkalis Regency. The type of research is causal research design. The research variables are brand personality Retail Mix and Brand Personality. Data collection is done by probability sampling with purposive method. Data analysis was done by perception analysis frequency distribution and multiple regression using SPSS version 21.0. The results of this study are The factor of retail mix partially has a positive and significant impact on the brand personality of traditional retail traders in Bengkalis Regency. Factor cultural partially does not affect the brand personality of traditional retail traders in Bengkalis Regency. Simultaneously retail mix and cultural have positive and significant influence on traditional brand traders brand personality in Bengkalis Regency. Initial forming factor of brand personality model of traditional retail traders in Bengkalis Regency is Retail Mix Factor. Indicator of the model of traditional traders brand personality builder in Bengkalis are sincerity excitement competence sophistication competence ruggedness.

  18. Bioclimatic indices based on the menex model example on Banja Luka

    OpenAIRE

    Pecelj Milica

    2013-01-01

    It has long been known that weather and climate have influence on human health and well-being. The human organism is in constant interaction with the environmental conditions. To access the atmospheric impact on humans, different methods in human bioclimatology are created. Most of them are based on human heat balance. In this paper it has been tried to present several bioclimatic indices based on the human heat balance according to the bioclimatic model menex (man-environment exchange)...

  19. Modeling for thermodynamic activities of components in simulated reprocessing solutions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sasahira, Akira; Hoshikawa, Tadahiro; Kawamura, Fumio

    1992-01-01

    Analyses of chemical reactions have been widely carried out for soluble fission products encountered in nuclear fuel reprocessing. For detailed analyses of reactions, a prediction of the activity or activity coefficient for nitric acid, water, and several nitrates of fission products is needed. An idea for the predicted nitric acid activity was presented earlier. The model, designated the hydration model, does not predict the nitrate activity. It did, however, suggest that the activity of water would be a function of nitric acid activity but not the molar fraction of water. If the activities of nitric acid and water are accurately predicted, the activity of the last component, nitrate, can be calculated using the Gibbs-Duhem relation for chemical potentials. Therefore, in this study, the earlier hydration model was modified to evaluate the water activity more accurately. The modified model was experimentally examined in stimulated reprocessing solutions. It is concluded that the modified model was suitable for water activity, but further improvement was needed for the activity evaluation of nitric acid in order to calculate the nitrate activity

  20. Solar Indices

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Collection includes a variety of indices related to solar activity contributed by a number of national and private solar observatories located worldwide. This...

  1. Metal ion site engineering indicates a global toggle switch model for seven-transmembrane receptor activation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Elling, Christian E; Frimurer, Thomas M; Gerlach, Lars-Ole

    2006-01-01

    for monoamine binding in TM-III, was used as the starting point to engineer activating metal ion sites between the extracellular segments of the beta2-adrenergic receptor. Cu(II) and Zn(II) alone and in complex with aromatic chelators acted as potent (EC50 decreased to 0.5 microm) and efficacious agonists...

  2. Non-linear modeling of active biohybrid materials

    KAUST Repository

    Paetsch, C.

    2013-11-01

    Recent advances in engineered muscle tissue attached to a synthetic substrate motivate the development of appropriate constitutive and numerical models. Applications of active materials can be expanded by using robust, non-mammalian muscle cells, such as those of Manduca sexta. In this study, we propose a model to assist in the analysis of biohybrid constructs by generalizing a recently proposed constitutive law for Manduca muscle tissue. The continuum model accounts (i) for the stimulation of muscle fibers by introducing multiple stress-free reference configurations for the active and passive states and (ii) for the hysteretic response by specifying a pseudo-elastic energy function. A simple example representing uniaxial loading-unloading is used to validate and verify the characteristics of the model. Then, based on experimental data of muscular thin films, a more complex case shows the qualitative potential of Manduca muscle tissue in active biohybrid constructs. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Physicochemical modeling of reactive violet 5 dye adsorption on home-made cocoa shell and commercial activated carbons using the statistical physics theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lotfi Sellaoui

    Full Text Available Two equilibrium models based on statistical physics, i.e., monolayer model with single energy and multilayer model with saturation, were developed and employed to access the steric and energetic aspects in the adsorption of reactive violet 5 dye (RV-5 on cocoa shell activated carbon (AC and commercial activated carbon (CAC, at different temperatures (from 298 to 323 K. The results showed that the multilayer model with saturation was able to represent the adsorption system. This model assumes that the adsorption occurs by a formation of certain number of layers. The n values ranged from 1.10 to 2.98, indicating that the adsorbate molecules interacted in an inclined position on the adsorbent surface and aggregate in solution. The study of the total number of the formed layers (1 + L2 showed that the steric hindrance is the dominant factor. The description of the adsorbate–adsorbent interactions by calculation of the adsorption energy indicated that the process occurred by physisorption in nature, since the values were lower than 40 kJ mol−1. Keywords: RV-5 dye, Activated carbon, Modeling, Aggregation

  4. Object tracking using active appearance models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stegmann, Mikkel Bille

    2001-01-01

    This paper demonstrates that (near) real-time object tracking can be accomplished by the deformable template model; the Active Appearance Model (AAM) using only low-cost consumer electronics such as a PC and a web-camera. Successful object tracking of perspective, rotational and translational...

  5. Study of relief changes related to active doming in the eastern Moroccan Rif (Morocco) using geomorphological indices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barcos, L.; Jabaloy, A.; Azdimousa, A.; Asebriy, L.; Gómez-Ortiz, D.; Rodríguez-Peces, M. J.; Tejero, R.; Pérez-Peña, J. V.

    2014-12-01

    This work studies the influence of active tectonics in the drainage networks and topography of the eastern Rif belt, eastern Middle Atlas, and Rekkame high plateau. We have performed a trend-topographic surface analysis at small to medium scales, several landscape analyses at medium scale, and the slope analysis of the relief. Furthermore, we have determined several geomorphic indices in the drainage networks of the study area: hypsometric curve analysis and normalised stream-length gradient (SLk) estimations. The trend-topography surface analysis identifies a NE-SW trending undulation that correspond to the positive topography of the Middle and High Atlas mountain ranges and the Rekkame high plateau as well as an E-W elongated dome in the eastern Rif-Beni Snassen massif. The geomorphologic indices indicate that drainage network is strongly deformed in the vicinity of the Trougout-Nekor active fault system. Furthermore, the Oued Molouya catchment is deformed in the northern limit of the Beni Snassen massif by active deformations accommodating a roughly N-S shortening. According to the available geochronological data from volcanic rocks as well as from Neogene to Quaternary sediments, the most likely age for the deformation of the drainage network producing the anomalous high geomorphic indexes was Placenzian to Present.

  6. Active Learning for Player Modeling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Shaker, Noor; Abou-Zleikha, Mohamed; Shaker, Mohammad

    2015-01-01

    Learning models of player behavior has been the focus of several studies. This work is motivated by better understanding of player behavior, a knowledge that can ultimately be employed to provide player-adapted or personalized content. In this paper, we propose the use of active learning for player...... experience modeling. We use a dataset from hundreds of players playing Infinite Mario Bros. as a case study and we employ the random forest method to learn mod- els of player experience through the active learning approach. The results obtained suggest that only part of the dataset (up to half the size...... that the method can be used online during the content generation process where the mod- els can improve and better content can be presented as the game is being played....

  7. Design of energy management indicator.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ernesto Tomás Dalmau García

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available This work has as a main goal to demostrate the viability of the energy management indicator, that will be a part of the Balanced Scorecard in the organization and the own process of calculation allows to obtain a Balanced Scorecard of energy management. It describes the executive order of the actions that have to be done to reach to the mentioned indicator, based on the selection of the selected period of time; the types of power carriers, the weight of each carrier in the structure of the consumption and the activities where they are used. With these elements several tools are used to reach to the expected results, as the bar charts, comparative tables and indices of power intensity. The indices of energy intensity are recommended as comparative elements for the contribution to the operativity and information level, meaning that not always is necessary to tie them , if not, in some cases, may be other selected indicators that may result as qualitatives type, The Cuban enterprise system uses the model Control of Consumption and Catchment Demand of fuels and lubricants (CDA 002 of the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP that is used in the work and it is recommended for the organizations who apply it. The study and application of this method were made in the Company of Raw materials Recovery in an experimental form.

  8. N = 1 supersymmetric indices and the four-dimensional A-model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Closset, Cyril; Kim, Heeyeon; Willett, Brian

    2017-08-01

    We compute the supersymmetric partition function of N = 1 supersymmetric gauge theories with an R-symmetry on M_4\\cong M_{g,p}× {S}^1 , a principal elliptic fiber bundle of degree p over a genus- g Riemann surface, Σ g . Equivalently, we compute the generalized supersymmetric index I_{M}{_{g,p}, with the supersymmetric three-manifold M_{g,p} as the spatial slice. The ordinary N = 1 supersymmetric index on the round three-sphere is recovered as a special case. We approach this computation from the point of view of a topological A-model for the abelianized gauge fields on the base Σ g . This A-model — or A-twisted two-dimensional N = (2 , 2) gauge theory — encodes all the information about the generalized indices, which are viewed as expectations values of some canonically-defined surface defects wrapped on T 2 inside Σ g × T 2. Being defined by compactification on the torus, the A-model also enjoys natural modular properties, governed by the four-dimensional 't Hooft anomalies. As an application of our results, we provide new tests of Seiberg duality. We also present a new evaluation formula for the three-sphere index as a sum over two-dimensional vacua.

  9. Modeling of IP scanning activities with Hidden Markov Models: Darknet case study

    OpenAIRE

    De Santis , Giulia; Lahmadi , Abdelkader; Francois , Jerome; Festor , Olivier

    2016-01-01

    International audience; We propose a methodology based on Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) to model scanning activities monitored by a darknet. The HMMs of scanning activities are built on the basis of the number of scanned IP addresses within a time window and fitted using mixtures of Poisson distributions. Our methodology is applied on real data traces collected from a darknet and generated by two large scale scanners, ZMap and Shodan. We demonstrated that the built models are able to characteri...

  10. Evaluating Gridded Spring Indices Using the USA National Phenology Network's Observational Phenology Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crimmins, T. M.; Gerst, K.

    2017-12-01

    The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN; www.usanpn.org) produces and freely delivers daily and short-term forecast maps of spring onset dates at fine spatial scale for the conterminous United States and Alaska using the Spring Indices. These models, which represent the start of biological activity in the spring season, were developed using a long-term observational record of four species of lilacs and honeysuckles contributed by volunteer observers. Three of the four species continue to be tracked through the USA-NPN's phenology observation program, Nature's Notebook. The gridded Spring Index maps have utility for a wide range of natural resource planning and management applications, including scheduling invasive species and pest detection and control activities, anticipating allergy outbreaks and planning agricultural harvest dates. However, to date, there has not been a comprehensive assessment of how well the gridded Spring Index maps accurately reflect phenological activity in lilacs and honeysuckles or other species of plants. In this study, we used observational plant phenology data maintained by the USA-NPN to evaluate how well the gridded Spring Index maps match leaf and flowering onset dates in a) the lilac and honeysuckle species used to construct the models and b) in several species of deciduous trees. The Spring Index performed strongly at predicting the timing of leaf-out and flowering in lilacs and honeysuckles. The average error between predicted and observed date of onset ranged from 5.9 to 11.4 days. Flowering models performed slightly better than leaf-out models. The degree to which the Spring Indices predicted native deciduous tree leaf and flower phenology varied by year, species, and region. Generally, the models were better predictors of leaf and flowering onset dates in the Northeastern and Midwestern US. These results reveal when and where the Spring Indices are a meaningful proxy of phenological activity across the United States.

  11. Innovation indicators: a survey of innovative activities in the international food processed industry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vinicius Cardoso de Barros Fornari

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper seeks to combine traditional methods of measuring intensity with other alternative indicators to examine the dispersion of innovation activities in different industries and countries. The hypothesis that underlies the study lies in the fact that in the Food Processed Industry (IAP the traditional methods are insufficient to detect the core of the innovation process. As method, we analyzed patent data extracted from the twenty-five largest food processed companies in the world and suggested different indicators developed from the Pesquisa de Inovação Tecnológica (PINTEC, 2010 – for Brazilian companies – and the Community Innovation Survey (CIS, 2009 – for European Union companies. The results allowed us to establish relationships in three dimensions: (i the complexity of the innovative effort of the IAP; (ii the efforts to innovation in different countries are distinct and; (iii there is heterogeneity in country performance.

  12. Multi-day activity scheduling reactions to planned activities and future events in a dynamic agent-based model of activity-travel behavior

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nijland, E.W.L.; Arentze, T.A.; Timmermans, H.J.P.

    2009-01-01

    Modeling multi-day planning has received scarce attention today in activity-based transport demand modeling. Elaborating and combining previous work on event-driven activity generation, the aim of this paper is to develop and illustrate an extension of a need-based model of activity generation that

  13. Mathematical Modeling of Tuberculosis Granuloma Activation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steve M. Ruggiero

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Tuberculosis (TB is one of the most common infectious diseases worldwide. It is estimated that one-third of the world’s population is infected with TB. Most have the latent stage of the disease that can later transition to active TB disease. TB is spread by aerosol droplets containing Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb. Mtb bacteria enter through the respiratory system and are attacked by the immune system in the lungs. The bacteria are clustered and contained by macrophages into cellular aggregates called granulomas. These granulomas can hold the bacteria dormant for long periods of time in latent TB. The bacteria can be perturbed from latency to active TB disease in a process called granuloma activation when the granulomas are compromised by other immune response events in a host, such as HIV, cancer, or aging. Dysregulation of matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP-1 has been recently implicated in granuloma activation through experimental studies, but the mechanism is not well understood. Animal and human studies currently cannot probe the dynamics of activation, so a computational model is developed to fill this gap. This dynamic mathematical model focuses specifically on the latent to active transition after the initial immune response has successfully formed a granuloma. Bacterial leakage from latent granulomas is successfully simulated in response to the MMP-1 dynamics under several scenarios for granuloma activation.

  14. Adsorption of diclofenac and nimesulide on activated carbon: Statistical physics modeling and effect of adsorbate size

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sellaoui, Lotfi; Mechi, Nesrine; Lima, Éder Cláudio; Dotto, Guilherme Luiz; Ben Lamine, Abdelmottaleb

    2017-10-01

    Based on statistical physics elements, the equilibrium adsorption of diclofenac (DFC) and nimesulide (NM) on activated carbon was analyzed by a multilayer model with saturation. The paper aimed to describe experimentally and theoretically the adsorption process and study the effect of adsorbate size using the model parameters. From numerical simulation, the number of molecules per site showed that the adsorbate molecules (DFC and NM) were mostly anchored in both sides of the pore walls. The receptor sites density increase suggested that additional sites appeared during the process, to participate in DFC and NM adsorption. The description of the adsorption energy behavior indicated that the process was physisorption. Finally, by a model parameters correlation, the size effect of the adsorbate was deduced indicating that the molecule dimension has a negligible effect on the DFC and NM adsorption.

  15. Teaching Quality Management Model for the Training of Innovation Ability and the Multilevel Decomposition Indicators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Xingjiang; Yao, Chen; Zheng, Jianmin

    2013-01-01

    This paper focuses on the training of undergraduate students' innovation ability. On top of the theoretical framework of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD), we propose a teaching quality management model. Based on this model, we establish a multilevel decomposition indicator system, which integrates innovation ability characterized by four…

  16. A Multiscale Survival Process for Modeling Human Activity Patterns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Tianyang; Cui, Peng; Song, Chaoming; Zhu, Wenwu; Yang, Shiqiang

    2016-01-01

    Human activity plays a central role in understanding large-scale social dynamics. It is well documented that individual activity pattern follows bursty dynamics characterized by heavy-tailed interevent time distributions. Here we study a large-scale online chatting dataset consisting of 5,549,570 users, finding that individual activity pattern varies with timescales whereas existing models only approximate empirical observations within a limited timescale. We propose a novel approach that models the intensity rate of an individual triggering an activity. We demonstrate that the model precisely captures corresponding human dynamics across multiple timescales over five orders of magnitudes. Our model also allows extracting the population heterogeneity of activity patterns, characterized by a set of individual-specific ingredients. Integrating our approach with social interactions leads to a wide range of implications.

  17. Cognitive model of the power unit operator activity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chachko, S.A.

    1992-01-01

    Basic notions making it possible to study and simulate the peculiarities of man-operator activity, in particular his way of thiking, are considered. Special attention is paid to cognitive models based on concept of decisive role of knowledge (its acquisition, storage and application) in the man mental processes and activity. The models are based on three basic notions, which are the professional world image, activity strategy and spontaneous decisions

  18. Theoretical Modeling and Analysis of L- and P-band Radar Backscatter Sensitivity to Soil Active Layer Dielectric Variations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jinyang Du

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Freeze-thaw (FT and moisture dynamics within the soil active layer are critical elements of boreal, arctic and alpine ecosystems, and environmental change assessments. We evaluated the potential for detecting dielectric changes within different soil layers using combined L- and P-band radar remote sensing as a prerequisite for detecting FT and moisture profile changes within the soil active layer. A two-layer scattering model was developed and validated for simulating radar responses from vertically inhomogeneous soil. The model simulations indicated that inhomogeneity in the soil dielectric profile contributes to both L- and P-band backscatter, but with greater P-band sensitivity at depth. The difference in L- and P-band responses to soil dielectric profile inhomogeneity appears suitable for detecting associated changes in soil active layer conditions. Additional evaluation using collocated airborne radar (AIRSAR observations and in situ soil moisture measurements over alpine tundra indicates that combined L- and P-band SAR observations are sensitive to soil dielectric profile heterogeneity associated with variations in soil moisture and FT conditions.

  19. Energy indicators for tracking sustainability in developing countries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kemmler, Andreas; Spreng, Daniel

    2007-01-01

    Due to the fact that human activities and most sustainability issues are closely related to energy use, the energy system is a sound framework for providing lead indicators for sustainable development. Common energy-economic models enable the estimation of future states of the energy system. An energy system-based lead indicator set can be used to develop consistent and coherent future indicator estimates and to track sustainability, a clear advantage over existing sets. In developed countries, the sustainability discussion is focused on environmental topics, while in developing countries the issues of poverty and equity are equally important. Consequently, for measuring sustainable development in a developing country, the inclusion of a poverty indicator in a set of lead indicators is essential. By correlation and descriptive analysis, it is shown that reliable energy-based indicators of poverty can be created. Although no one-dimensional indicator is a comprehensive measure of poverty, the explanatory power of energy poverty indicators is comparable to that of other poverty indicators. Thus, the use of energy indicators is not restricted to environmental and economic issues but is also relevant for social issues

  20. Assessing impact of changes in human resources features on enterprise activities: simulation model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kalmykova Svetlana

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The need for creating programs of human resources development is shown; the impact of these programs on organizational effectiveness is taken into account. The stages of development tools and HRD programs on the basis of cognitive modelling are disclosed; these stages will help assess the impact of HR-practices on the key indicators of organization activity at the design stage. The method of HR-practices’ pre-selection in professional development of the employees is represented.

  1. Active Orientation Models for Face Alignment In-the-Wild

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tzimiropoulos, Georgios; Alabort-i-Medina, Joan; Zafeiriou, Stefanos; Pantic, Maja

    2014-01-01

    We present Active Orientation Models (AOMs), generative models of facial shape and appearance, which extend the well-known paradigm of Active Appearance Models (AAMs) for the case of generic face alignment under unconstrained conditions. Robustness stems from the fact that the proposed AOMs employ a

  2. Southern Phosphorus Indices, Water Quality Data, and Modeling (APEX, APLE, and TBET) Results: A Comparison.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osmond, Deanna; Bolster, Carl; Sharpley, Andrew; Cabrera, Miguel; Feagley, Sam; Forsberg, Adam; Mitchell, Charles; Mylavarapu, Rao; Oldham, J Larry; Radcliffe, David E; Ramirez-Avila, John J; Storm, Dan E; Walker, Forbes; Zhang, Hailin

    2017-11-01

    Phosphorus (P) Indices in the southern United States frequently produce different recommendations for similar conditions. We compared risk ratings from 12 southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas) using data collected from benchmark sites in the South (Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas). Phosphorus Index ratings were developed using both measured erosion losses from each benchmark site and Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation 2 predictions; mostly, there was no difference in P Index outcome. The derived loss ratings were then compared with measured P loads at the benchmark sites by using equivalent USDA-NRCS P Index ratings and three water quality models (Annual P Loss Estimator [APLE], Agricultural Policy Environmental eXtender [APEX], and Texas Best Management Practice Evaluation Tool [TBET]). Phosphorus indices were finally compared against each other using USDA-NRCS loss ratings model estimate correspondence with USDA-NRCS loss ratings. Correspondence was 61% for APEX, 48% for APLE, and 52% for TBET, with overall P index correspondence at 55%. Additive P Indices (Alabama and Texas) had the lowest USDA-NRCS loss rating correspondence (31%), while the multiplicative (Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee) and component (Georgia, Kentucky, and North Carolina) indices had similar USDA-NRCS loss rating correspondence-60 and 64%, respectively. Analysis using Kendall's modified Tau suggested that correlations between measured and calculated P-loss ratings were similar or better for most P Indices than the models. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  3. Modeling electrically active viscoelastic membranes.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sitikantha Roy

    Full Text Available The membrane protein prestin is native to the cochlear outer hair cell that is crucial to the ear's amplification and frequency selectivity throughout the whole acoustic frequency range. The outer hair cell exhibits interrelated dimensional changes, force generation, and electric charge transfer. Cells transfected with prestin acquire unique active properties similar to those in the native cell that have also been useful in understanding the process. Here we propose a model describing the major electromechanical features of such active membranes. The model derived from thermodynamic principles is in the form of integral relationships between the history of voltage and membrane resultants as independent variables and the charge density and strains as dependent variables. The proposed model is applied to the analysis of an active force produced by the outer hair cell in response to a harmonic electric field. Our analysis reveals the mechanism of the outer hair cell active (isometric force having an almost constant amplitude and phase up to 80 kHz. We found that the frequency-invariance of the force is a result of interplay between the electrical filtering associated with prestin and power law viscoelasticity of the surrounding membrane. Paradoxically, the membrane viscoelasticity boosts the force balancing the electrical filtering effect. We also consider various modes of electromechanical coupling in membrane with prestin associated with mechanical perturbations in the cell. We consider pressure or strains applied step-wise or at a constant rate and compute the time course of the resulting electric charge. The results obtained here are important for the analysis of electromechanical properties of membranes, cells, and biological materials as well as for a better understanding of the mechanism of hearing and the role of the protein prestin in this mechanism.

  4. Which indicators for measuring the daily physical activity? An overview on the challenges and technology limits for Telehealth applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tagliente, Irene; Solvoll, Terje; Trieste, Leopoldo; De Cecco, Carlo N; Murgia, Fabrizio; Bella, Sergio

    2016-09-14

    Obesity is one of the biggest drivers of preventable chronic diseases and healthcare costs in Worldwide. Different prevention activities are suggested. By monitoring daily energy expenditure (EE) could be possible make personalized diets and programming physical activity. In this, physical inactivity is one of the most important public health problems. Some studies refer the effort of the international community in promoting physical activities. Physical activity can be promoted only by increasing citizens' empowerment on taking care of their health, and it passes from the improving of individual information. Technology can offer solutions and metrics for monitoring and measuring daily activity by interacting with individuals, sharing information and feedbacks. In this study we review indicators of total energy expenditure and weaknesses of available devices in assessing these parameters. Literature review and technology testing EuNetHta core model. For the clinical aspects, it is fundamental to take into account all the factor that can influence the personal energy expenditure as: heart rate, blood pressure and thermoregulation (influenced by the body temperature). In this study we focused the attention on the importance of tools to encourage the physical activity. We made an analysis of the factor that can influence the right analysis of energy expenditure and at the same time the energy regime. A punctual monitoring of the exercise regime could be helpful in Telemedicine application as Telemonitorig. More study are needed to value the impact of physical activity tracker in Telemonitorig protocols. On the assessment of the energy expenditure, critical issues are related to the physiological data acquisition. Sensors connected with mobile devices could be important tools for disease prevention and interventions affecting health behaviors. New devices applications are potential useful for telemedicine assistance, but security of data and the related communication

  5. Synchronous fire activity in the tropical high Andes: an indication of regional climate forcing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roman-Cuesta, R.M.; Carmona-Moreno, C.; Lizcano, G.; New, M.; Silman, M.R.; Knoke, T.; Malhi, Y.; Oliveras Menor, I.; Asbjornsen, H.; Vuille, M.

    2014-01-01

    Global climate models suggest enhanced warming of the tropical mid and upper troposphere, with larger temperature rise rates at higher elevations. Changes in fire activity are amongst the most significant ecological consequences of rising temperatures and changing hydrological properties in

  6. Background effects of emergencies on indicators of economic analysis of enterprise economic activity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K.Yu. Polyak

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with the study of scientific works on the issue of formation and development of organizational and methodological regulations of accounting and analytical support of the economic activity of an enterprise in emergencies, which led to the conclusion about the complex character of the study of theory, methodology and economic analysis of enterprises in various sectors of national economy. The author studies the approaches to the nature and methods of economic analysis that resulted in the presentation of instructional techniques to the economic structure. In assessing the consequences of emergencies, it is necessary to determine their impact on the indices of economic analysis; so, there was the need to define areas resulting index changes as a result of emergency situations by identifying its components which may affect emergencies. After analyzing the data, it was found that the consequences of emergency situations affecting the indices of business analysis and can lead to changes in management decisions of internal and external users.

  7. Review and Recommendations for Zero-inflated Count Regression Modeling of Dental Caries Indices in Epidemiological Studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stamm, John W.; Long, D. Leann; Kincade, Megan E.

    2012-01-01

    Over the past five to ten years, zero-inflated count regression models have been increasingly applied to the analysis of dental caries indices (e.g., DMFT, dfms, etc). The main reason for that is linked to the broad decline in children’s caries experience, such that dmf and DMF indices more frequently generate low or even zero counts. This article specifically reviews the application of zero-inflated Poisson and zero-inflated negative binomial regression models to dental caries, with emphasis on the description of the models and the interpretation of fitted model results given the study goals. The review finds that interpretations provided in the published caries research are often imprecise or inadvertently misleading, particularly with respect to failing to discriminate between inference for the class of susceptible persons defined by such models and inference for the sampled population in terms of overall exposure effects. Recommendations are provided to enhance the use as well as the interpretation and reporting of results of count regression models when applied to epidemiological studies of dental caries. PMID:22710271

  8. Emergency department and 'Google flu trends' data as syndromic surveillance indicators for seasonal influenza.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, L H; Malik, M T; Gumel, A; Strome, T; Mahmud, S M

    2014-11-01

    We evaluated syndromic indicators of influenza disease activity developed using emergency department (ED) data - total ED visits attributed to influenza-like illness (ILI) ('ED ILI volume') and percentage of visits attributed to ILI ('ED ILI percent') - and Google flu trends (GFT) data (ILI cases/100 000 physician visits). Congruity and correlation among these indicators and between these indicators and weekly count of laboratory-confirmed influenza in Manitoba was assessed graphically using linear regression models. Both ED and GFT data performed well as syndromic indicators of influenza activity, and were highly correlated with each other in real time. The strongest correlations between virological data and ED ILI volume and ED ILI percent, respectively, were 0·77 and 0·71. The strongest correlation of GFT was 0·74. Seasonal influenza activity may be effectively monitored using ED and GFT data.

  9. Towards longitudinal activity-based models of travel demand

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Arentze, T.A.; Timmermans, H.J.P.; Lo, H.P.; Leung, Stephen C.H.; Tan, Susanna M.L.

    2008-01-01

    Existing activity-based models of travel demand consider a day as the time unit of observation and predict activity patterns of inhviduals for a typical or average day. In this study we argue that the use of a time span of one day severely limits the ability of the models to predict responsive

  10. Molluscan indicator species and their potential use in ecological status assessment using species distribution modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moraitis, Manos L; Tsikopoulou, Irini; Geropoulos, Antonios; Dimitriou, Panagiotis D; Papageorgiou, Nafsika; Giannoulaki, Marianna; Valavanis, Vasilis D; Karakassis, Ioannis

    2018-05-24

    Marine habitat assessment using indicator species through Species Distribution Modeling (SDM) was investigated. The bivalves: Corbula gibba and Flexopecten hyalinus were the indicator species characterizing disturbed and undisturbed areas respectively in terms of chlorophyll a concentration in Greece. The habitat suitability maps of these species reflected the overall ecological status of the area. The C. gibba model successfully predicted the occurrence of this species in areas with increased physical disturbance driven by chlorophyll a concentration, whereas the habitat map for F. hyalinus showed an increased probability of occurrence in chlorophyll-poor areas, affected mainly by salinity. We advocate the use of C. gibba as a proxy for eutrophication and the incorporation of this species in monitoring studies through SDM methods. For the Mediterranean Sea we suggest the use of F. hyalinus in SDM as an indicator of environmental stability and a possible forecasting tool for salinity fluctuations. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Analysis of risk indicators and issues associated with applications of screening model for hazardous and radioactive waste sites

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buck, J.W.; Strenge, D.L.; Droppo, J.G. Jr.

    1990-12-01

    Risk indicators, such as population risk, maximum individual risk, time of arrival of contamination, and maximum water concentrations, were analyzed to determine their effect on results from a screening model for hazardous and radioactive waste sites. The analysis of risk indicators is based on calculations resulting from exposure to air and waterborne contamination predicted with Multimedia Environmental Pollutant Assessment System (MEPAS) model. The different risk indicators were analyzed, based on constituent type and transport and exposure pathways. Three of the specific comparisons that were made are (1) population-based versus maximum individual-based risk indicators, (2) time of arrival of contamination, and (3) comparison of different threshold assumptions for noncarcinogenic impacts. Comparison of indicators for population- and maximum individual-based human health risk suggests that these two parameters are highly correlated, but for a given problem, one may be more important than the other. The results indicate that the arrival distribution for different levels of contamination reaching a receptor can also be helpful in decisions regarding the use of resources for remediating short- and long-term environmental problems. The addition of information from a linear model for noncarcinogenic impacts allows interpretation of results below the reference dose (RfD) levels that might help in decisions for certain applications. The analysis of risk indicators suggests that important information may be lost by the use of a single indicator to represent public health risk and that multiple indicators should be considered. 15 refs., 8 figs., 1 tab

  12. 234U/238U activity ratio in groundwater - an indicator of past hydrogeological processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rasilainen, K.; Suksi, J.; Marcos, N.; Nordman, H.

    2005-01-01

    In this report we describe the long-term behaviour of the uranium isotopes, U-234 and U-238 in groundwater systems. U is a redox sensitive element what for its behaviour is largely controlled by changes in the environmental conditions. A striking feature in U isotope geochemistry is seemingly different behaviour of U-238 and U-234. U isotopes fractionate at the rock-groundwater interface depending on chemical and radiological factors. Changes of the redox conditions in groundwater may thus affect the behaviour of U and its isotopes resulting in variable U concentration and U-234/U-238 activity ratios (AR). We examined the formation of ARs in different groundwater types from a geochemical and a physical/radiological point of view. It was envisaged that AR in groundwater is the consequence of radiological, chemical and hydrological processes. Groundwater condition (redox, flow, etc.) play a very important role in controlling the mass flow of U isotopes. Quantitative α-recoil modelling showed that α-recoil induced flux can be considered insignificant in cases of high-flow. This was an important finding because the exclusion of direct a-recoil means that it is groundwater chemistry and its variations which controls the U-234 mass flow and the formation of AR. Therefore, AR values could be used more confidently to indicate past redox changes and possibly flow paths. (orig.)

  13. Finite-dimensional effects and critical indices of one-dimensional quantum models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bogolyubov, N.M.; Izergin, A.G.; Reshetikhin, N.Yu.

    1986-01-01

    Critical indices, depending on continuous parameters in Bose-gas quantum models and Heisenberg 1/2 spin antiferromagnetic in two-dimensional space-time at zero temperature, have been calculated by means of finite-dimensional effects. In this case the long-wave asymptotics of the correlation functions is of a power character. Derivation of man asymptotics terms is reduced to the determination of a central charge in the appropriate Virassoro algebra representation and the anomalous dimension-operator spectrum in this representation. The finite-dimensional effects allow to find these values

  14. A muscle model for hybrid muscle activation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Klauer Christian

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available To develop model-based control strategies for Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES in order to support weak voluntary muscle contractions, a hybrid model for describing joint motions induced by concurrent voluntary-and FES induced muscle activation is proposed. It is based on a Hammerstein model – as commonly used in feedback controlled FES – and exemplarily applied to describe the shoulder abduction joint angle. Main component of a Hammerstein muscle model is usually a static input nonlinearity depending on the stimulation intensity. To additionally incorporate voluntary contributions, we extended the static non-linearity by a second input describing the intensity of the voluntary contribution that is estimated by electromyography (EMG measurements – even during active FES. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN is used to describe the static input non-linearity. The output of the ANN drives a second-order linear dynamical system that describes the combined muscle activation and joint angle dynamics. The tunable parameters are adapted to the individual subject by a system identification approach using previously recorded I/O-data. The model has been validated in two healthy subjects yielding RMS values for the joint angle error of 3.56° and 3.44°, respectively.

  15. Modeling spatially- and temporally-explicit water stress indices for use in life cycle assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scherer, L.; Venkatesh, A.; Karuppiah, R.; Usadi, A.; Pfister, S.; Hellweg, S.

    2013-12-01

    Water scarcity is a regional issue in many areas across the world, and can affect human health and ecosystems locally. Water stress indices (WSIs) have been developed as quantitative indicators of such scarcities - examples include the Falkenmark indicator, Social Water Stress Index, and the Water Supply Stress Index1. Application of these indices helps us understand water supply and demand risks for multiple users, including those in the agricultural, industrial, residential and commercial sectors. Pfister et al.2 developed a method to calculate WSIs that were used to estimate characterization factors (CFs) in order to quantify environmental impacts of freshwater consumption within a life cycle assessment (LCA) framework. Global WSIs were based on data from the WaterGAP model3, and presented as annual averages for watersheds. Since water supply and demand varies regionally and temporally, the resolution used in Pfister et al. does not effectively differentiate between seasonal and permanent water scarcity. This study aims to improve the temporal and spatial resolution of the water scarcity calculations used to estimate WSIs and CFs. We used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT)4 hydrological model to properly simulate water supply in different world regions with high spatial and temporal resolution, and coupled it with water use data from WaterGAP3 and Pfister et al.5. Input data to SWAT included weather, land use, soil characteristics and a digital elevation model (DEM), all from publicly available global data sets. Potential evapotranspiration, which affects water supply, was determined using an improved Priestley-Taylor approach. In contrast to most other hydrological studies, large reservoirs, water consumption and major water transfers were simulated. The model was calibrated against observed monthly discharge, actual evapotranspiration, and snow water equivalents wherever appropriate. Based on these simulations, monthly WSIs were calculated for a few

  16. Indices to measure risk of HIV acquisition in Rakai, Uganda.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joseph Kagaayi

    Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: Targeting most-at-risk individuals with HIV preventive interventions is cost-effective. We developed gender-specific indices to measure risk of HIV among sexually active individuals in Rakai, Uganda. METHODS: We used multivariable Cox proportional hazards models to estimate time-to-HIV infection associated with candidate predictors. Reduced models were determined using backward selection procedures with Akaike's information criterion (AIC as the stopping rule. Model discrimination was determined using Harrell's concordance index (c index. Model calibration was determined graphically. Nomograms were used to present the final prediction models. RESULTS: We used samples of 7,497 women and 5,783 men. 342 new infections occurred among females (incidence 1.11/100 person years, and 225 among the males (incidence 1.00/100 person years. The final model for men included age, education, circumcision status, number of sexual partners, genital ulcer disease symptoms, alcohol use before sex, partner in high risk employment, community type, being unaware of a partner's HIV status and community HIV prevalence. The Model's optimism-corrected c index was 69.1 percent (95% CI = 0.66, 0.73. The final women's model included age, marital status, education, number of sex partners, new sex partner, alcohol consumption by self or partner before sex, concurrent sexual partners, being employed in a high-risk occupation, having genital ulcer disease symptoms, community HIV prevalence, and perceiving oneself or partner to be exposed to HIV. The models optimism-corrected c index was 0.67 (95% CI = 0.64, 0.70. Both models were well calibrated. CONCLUSION: These indices were discriminative and well calibrated. This provides proof-of-concept that population-based HIV risk indices can be developed. Further research to validate these indices for other populations is needed.

  17. Integrated Experimental and Model-based Analysis Reveals the Spatial Aspects of EGFR Activation Dynamics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shankaran, Harish; Zhang, Yi; Chrisler, William B.; Ewald, Jonathan A.; Wiley, H. S.; Resat, Haluk

    2012-10-02

    The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) belongs to the ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases, and controls a diverse set of cellular responses relevant to development and tumorigenesis. ErbB activation is a complex process involving receptor-ligand binding, receptor dimerization, phosphorylation, and trafficking (internalization, recycling and degradation), which together dictate the spatio-temporal distribution of active receptors within the cell. The ability to predict this distribution, and elucidation of the factors regulating it, would help to establish a mechanistic link between ErbB expression levels and the cellular response. Towards this end, we constructed mathematical models for deconvolving the contributions of receptor dimerization and phosphorylation to EGFR activation, and to examine the dependence of these processes on sub-cellular location. We collected experimental datasets for EGFR activation dynamics in human mammary epithelial cells, with the specific goal of model parameterization, and used the data to estimate parameters for several alternate models. Model-based analysis indicated that: 1) signal termination via receptor dephosphorylation in late endosomes, prior to degradation, is an important component of the response, 2) less than 40% of the receptors in the cell are phosphorylated at any given time, even at saturating ligand doses, and 3) receptor dephosphorylation rates at the cell surface and early endosomes are comparable. We validated the last finding by measuring EGFR dephosphorylation rates at various times following ligand addition both in whole cells, and in endosomes using ELISAs and fluorescent imaging. Overall, our results provide important information on how EGFR phosphorylation levels are regulated within cells. Further, the mathematical model described here can be extended to determine receptor dimer abundances in cells co-expressing various levels of ErbB receptors. This study demonstrates that an iterative cycle of

  18. Active control: Wind turbine model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bindner, Henrik

    1999-07-01

    This report is a part of the reporting of the work done in the project `Active Control of Wind Turbines`. This project aim is to develop a simulation model for design of control systems for turbines with pitch control and to use that model to design controllers. This report describes the model developed for controller design and analysis. Emphasis has been put on establishment of simple models describing the dynamic behavior of the wind turbine in adequate details for controller design. This has been done with extensive use of measurements as the basis for selection of model complexity and model validation as well as parameter estimation. The model includes a simple model of the structure of the turbine including tower and flapwise blade bending, a detailed model of the gear box and induction generator, a linearized aerodynamic model including modelling of induction lag and actuator and sensor models. The models are all formulated as linear differential equations. The models are validated through comparisons with measurements performed on a Vestas WD 34 400 kW wind turbine. It is shown from a control point of view simple linear models can be used to describe the dynamic behavior of a pitch controlled wind turbine. The model and the measurements corresponds well in the relevant frequency range. The developed model is therefore applicable for controller design. (au) EFP-91. 18 ills., 22 refs.

  19. Activated sludge model No. 2d, ASM2d

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Henze, M.

    1999-01-01

    The Activated Sludge Model No. 2d (ASM2d) presents a model for biological phosphorus removal with simultaneous nitrification-denitrification in activated sludge systems. ASM2d is based on ASM2 and is expanded to include the denitrifying activity of the phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAOs......). This extension of ASM2 allows for improved modeling of the processes, especially with respect to the dynamics of nitrate and phosphate. (C) 1999 IAWQ Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved....

  20. Imaging activity in astrocytes and neurons with genetically encoded calcium indicators following in utero electroporation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Michael eGee

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Complex interactions between networks of astrocytes and neurons are beginning to be appreciated, but remain poorly understood. Transgenic mice expressing fluorescent protein reporters of cellular activity, such as the GCaMP family of genetically encoded calcium indicators, have been used to explore network behavior. However, in some cases, it may be desirable to use long-established rat models that closely mimic particular aspects of human conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and the development of epilepsy following status epilepticus. Methods for expressing reporter proteins in the rat brain are relatively limited. Transgenic rat technologies exist but are fairly immature. Viral-mediated expression is robust but unstable, requires invasive injections, and only works well for fairly small genes (< 5 kb. In utero electroporation offers a valuable alternative. IUE is a proven method for transfecting populations of astrocytes and neurons in the rat brain without the strict limitations on transgene size. We built a toolset of IUE plasmids carrying GCaMP variants 3, 6s or 6f driven by CAG and targeted to the cytosol or the plasma membrane. Because low baseline fluorescence of GCaMP can hinder identification of transfected cells, we included the option of co-expressing a cytosolic tdTomato protein. A binary system consisting of a plasmid carrying a piggyBac inverted terminal repeat-flanked CAG-GCaMP-IRES-tdTomato cassette and a separate plasmid encoding for expression of piggyBac transposase was employed to stably express GCaMP and tdTomato. The plasmids were co-electroporated on embryonic days 13.5-14.5 and astrocytic and neuronal activity was subsequently imaged in acute or cultured brain slices prepared from the cortex or hippocampus. Large spontaneous transients were detected in slices obtained from rats of varying ages up to 127 days. In this report, we demonstrate the utility of this toolset for interrogating astrocytic and neuronal

  1. Application of the International Water Association activated sludge models to describe aerobic sludge digestion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghorbani, M; Eskicioglu, C

    2011-12-01

    Batch and semi-continuous flow aerobic digesters were used to stabilize thickened waste-activated sludge at different initial conditions and mean solids retention times. Under dynamic conditions, total suspended solids, volatile suspended solids (VSS) and total and particulate chemical oxygen demand (COD and PCOD) were monitored in the batch reactors and effluent from the semi-continuous flow reactors. Activated Sludge Model (ASM) no. 1 and ASM no. 3 were applied to measured data (calibration data set) to evaluate the consistency and performances of models at different flow regimes for digester COD and VSS modelling. The results indicated that both ASM1 and ASM3 predicted digester COD, VSS and PCOD concentrations well (R2, Ra2 > or = 0.93). Parameter estimation concluded that compared to ASM1, ASM3 parameters were more consistent across different batch and semi-continuous flow runs with different operating conditions. Model validation on a data set independent from the calibration data successfully predicted digester COD (R2 = 0.88) and VSS (R2 = 0.94) concentrations by ASM3, while ASM1 overestimated both reactor COD (R2 = 0.74) and VSS concentrations (R2 = 0.79) after 15 days of aerobic batch digestion.

  2. Modeling of the active vibroseismic monitoring

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kovalevskij, V.V.

    2006-01-01

    The results of the mathematical modeling of vibroseismic monitoring of changes in the elastic characteristics in the interior Earth's crust zone are presented. The model of the 'Earth's crust-mantle' system with point vibrational source on the free surface is considered. The estimates of sensitivity of active monitoring method with harmonic vibrational signals is determined. (author)

  3. Advanced Performance Modeling with Combined Passive and Active Monitoring

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dovrolis, Constantine [Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States); Sim, Alex [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

    2015-04-15

    To improve the efficiency of resource utilization and scheduling of scientific data transfers on high-speed networks, the "Advanced Performance Modeling with combined passive and active monitoring" (APM) project investigates and models a general-purpose, reusable and expandable network performance estimation framework. The predictive estimation model and the framework will be helpful in optimizing the performance and utilization of networks as well as sharing resources with predictable performance for scientific collaborations, especially in data intensive applications. Our prediction model utilizes historical network performance information from various network activity logs as well as live streaming measurements from network peering devices. Historical network performance information is used without putting extra load on the resources by active measurement collection. Performance measurements collected by active probing is used judiciously for improving the accuracy of predictions.

  4. Investigating accessibility indicators for feedback from a travel to a land use model

    OpenAIRE

    Thomas Nicolai; Kai Nagel

    2011-01-01

    Activity locations such as work locations or leisure facilities are not uniformly distributed geographically. Also, the travel access to different locations is not uniform. It is plausible to assume that locations with easier access to other activity locations are more attractive than locations with less access. In consequence, urban simulation models such as UrbanSim use accessibility measures, such as ``number of jobs with 30 minutes by car', for several of their submodels. A problem, howev...

  5. Unspoken Playground Rules Discourage Adolescent Physical Activity in School: A Focus Group Study of Constructs in the Prototype Willingness Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wheatley, Catherine M; Davies, Emma L; Dawes, Helen

    2018-03-01

    The health benefits of exercise in school are recognized, yet physical activity continues to decline during early adolescence despite numerous interventions. In this study, we investigated whether the prototype willingness model, an account of adolescent decision making that includes both reasoned behavioral choices and unplanned responses to social environments, might improve understanding of physical activity in school. We conducted focus groups with British pupils aged 12 to 13 years and used deductive thematic analysis to search for themes relating to the model. Participants described reasoned decisions about physical activity outside school and unplanned choices to be inactive during break, in response to social contexts described as more "judgmental" than in primary school. Social contexts appeared characterized by anxiety about competence, negative peer evaluation, and inactive playground norms. The prototype willingness model might more fully explain physical activity in school than reasoned behavioral models alone, indicating potential for interventions targeting anxieties about playground social environments.

  6. PROJECT ACTIVITY ANALYSIS WITHOUT THE NETWORK MODEL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Munapo

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available

    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This paper presents a new procedure for analysing and managing activity sequences in projects. The new procedure determines critical activities, critical path, start times, free floats, crash limits, and other useful information without the use of the network model. Even though network models have been successfully used in project management so far, there are weaknesses associated with the use. A network is not easy to generate, and dummies that are usually associated with it make the network diagram complex – and dummy activities have no meaning in the original project management problem. The network model for projects can be avoided while still obtaining all the useful information that is required for project management. What are required are the activities, their accurate durations, and their predecessors.

    AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die navorsing beskryf ’n nuwerwetse metode vir die ontleding en bestuur van die sekwensiële aktiwiteite van projekte. Die voorgestelde metode bepaal kritiese aktiwiteite, die kritieke pad, aanvangstye, speling, verhasing, en ander groothede sonder die gebruik van ’n netwerkmodel. Die metode funksioneer bevredigend in die praktyk, en omseil die administratiewe rompslomp van die tradisionele netwerkmodelle.

  7. MAXIMUM CORONAL MASS EJECTION SPEED AS AN INDICATOR OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITIES

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kilcik, A.; Yurchyshyn, V. B.; Abramenko, V.; Goode, P. R.; Gopalswamy, N.; Ozguc, A.; Rozelot, J. P.

    2011-01-01

    We investigate the relationship between the monthly averaged maximal speeds of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), international sunspot number (ISSN), and the geomagnetic Dst and Ap indices covering the 1996-2008 time interval (solar cycle 23). Our new findings are as follows. (1) There is a noteworthy relationship between monthly averaged maximum CME speeds and sunspot numbers, Ap and Dst indices. Various peculiarities in the monthly Dst index are correlated better with the fine structures in the CME speed profile than that in the ISSN data. (2) Unlike the sunspot numbers, the CME speed index does not exhibit a double peak maximum. Instead, the CME speed profile peaks during the declining phase of solar cycle 23. Similar to the Ap index, both CME speed and the Dst indices lag behind the sunspot numbers by several months. (3) The CME number shows a double peak similar to that seen in the sunspot numbers. The CME occurrence rate remained very high even near the minimum of the solar cycle 23, when both the sunspot number and the CME average maximum speed were reaching their minimum values. (4) A well-defined peak of the Ap index between 2002 May and 2004 August was co-temporal with the excess of the mid-latitude coronal holes during solar cycle 23. The above findings suggest that the CME speed index may be a useful indicator of both solar and geomagnetic activities. It may have advantages over the sunspot numbers, because it better reflects the intensity of Earth-directed solar eruptions.

  8. Kinetic parameter estimation model for anaerobic co-digestion of waste activated sludge and microalgae.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Eunyoung; Cumberbatch, Jewel; Wang, Meng; Zhang, Qiong

    2017-03-01

    Anaerobic co-digestion has a potential to improve biogas production, but limited kinetic information is available for co-digestion. This study introduced regression-based models to estimate the kinetic parameters for the co-digestion of microalgae and Waste Activated Sludge (WAS). The models were developed using the ratios of co-substrates and the kinetic parameters for the single substrate as indicators. The models were applied to the modified first-order kinetics and Monod model to determine the rate of hydrolysis and methanogenesis for the co-digestion. The results showed that the model using a hyperbola function was better for the estimation of the first-order kinetic coefficients, while the model using inverse tangent function closely estimated the Monod kinetic parameters. The models can be used for estimating kinetic parameters for not only microalgae-WAS co-digestion but also other substrates' co-digestion such as microalgae-swine manure and WAS-aquatic plants. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Stellar model chromospheres. IX - Chromospheric activity in dwarf stars

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelch, W. L.; Worden, S. P.; Linsky, J. L.

    1979-01-01

    High-resolution Ca II K line profiles are used to model the upper photospheres and lower chromospheres of eight main-sequence stars ranging in spectral type from F0 to M0 and exhibiting different degrees of chromospheric activity. The model chromospheres are studied as a function of spectral type and activity for stars of similar spectral type in order to obtain evidence of enhanced nonradiative heating in the upper-photospheric models and in the ratio of minimum temperature at the base of the chromosphere to effective temperature, a correlation between activity and temperature in the lower chromospheres, and a correlation of the width at the base of the K-line emission core and at the K2 features with activity. Chromospheric radiative losses are estimated for the modelled stars and other previously analyzed main-sequence stars. The results obtained strengthen the argument that dMe flare stars exhibit fundamentally solar-type activity but on an increased scale.

  10. Modeling cancer registration processes with an enhanced activity diagram.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyalin, D; Williams, W

    2005-01-01

    Adequate instruments are needed to reflect the complexity of routine cancer registry operations properly in a business model. The activity diagram is a key instrument of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) for the modeling of business processes. The authors aim to improve descriptions of processes in cancer registration, as well as in other public health domains, through the enhancements of an activity diagram notation within the standard semantics of UML. The authors introduced the practical approach to enhance a conventional UML activity diagram, complementing it with the following business process concepts: timeline, duration for individual activities, responsibilities for individual activities within swimlanes, and descriptive text. The authors used an enhanced activity diagram for modeling surveillance processes in the cancer registration domain. Specific example illustrates the use of an enhanced activity diagram to visualize a process of linking cancer registry records with external mortality files. Enhanced activity diagram allows for the addition of more business concepts to a single diagram and can improve descriptions of processes in cancer registration, as well as in other domains. Additional features of an enhanced activity diagram allow to advance the visualization of cancer registration processes. That, in turn, promotes the clarification of issues related to the process timeline, responsibilities for particular operations, and collaborations among process participants. Our first experiences in a cancer registry best practices development workshop setting support the usefulness of such an approach.

  11. Emphasis: an active management model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gray, L.M.

    1983-01-01

    The Institute of Nuclear Materials Management was founded and has grown on the basis of promoting professionalism in the nuclear industry. This paper is concerned with professional management of nuclear material. The paper introduces the reader to Emphasis, an active management model. The management model provides the framework to assist a manager in directing his available resources. Emphasis provides for establishing goals, identifying and selecting objectives, matching objectives to specific personnel, preparing and monitoring action plans, and evaluating results. The model stresses crisis prevention by systematically administering and controlling resources. A critical requirement for implementation of the model is the desire to manage, to be in charge of the situation. The nuclear industry does need managers - people who realize the sensitive nature of the industry, professionals who insist on improved performance

  12. Simulation of tropical cyclone activity over the western North Pacific based on CMIP5 models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Haibo; Zhou, Weican; Zhao, Haikun

    2017-09-01

    Based on the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project 5 (CMIP5) models, the tropical cyclone (TC) activity in the summers of 1965-2005 over the western North Pacific (WNP) is simulated by a TC dynamically downscaling system. In consideration of diversity among climate models, Bayesian model averaging (BMA) and equal-weighed model averaging (EMA) methods are applied to produce the ensemble large-scale environmental factors of the CMIP5 model outputs. The environmental factors generated by BMA and EMA methods are compared, as well as the corresponding TC simulations by the downscaling system. Results indicate that BMA method shows a significant advantage over the EMA. In addition, impacts of model selections on BMA method are examined. To each factor, ten models with better performance are selected from 30 CMIP5 models and then conduct BMA, respectively. As a consequence, the ensemble environmental factors and simulated TC activity are similar with the results from the 30 models' BMA, which verifies the BMA method can afford corresponding weight for each model in the ensemble based on the model's predictive skill. Thereby, the existence of poor performance models will not particularly affect the BMA effectiveness and the ensemble outcomes are improved. Finally, based upon the BMA method and downscaling system, we analyze the sensitivity of TC activity to three important environmental factors, i.e., sea surface temperature (SST), large-scale steering flow, and vertical wind shear. Among three factors, SST and large-scale steering flow greatly affect TC tracks, while average intensity distribution is sensitive to all three environmental factors. Moreover, SST and vertical wind shear jointly play a critical role in the inter-annual variability of TC lifetime maximum intensity and frequency of intense TCs.

  13. Effects of lead contamination on soil microbial activity and rice physiological indices in soil-Pb-rice (Oryza sativa L.) system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Lu-Sheng; Liao, Min; Chen, Cheng-Li; Huang, Chang-Yong

    2006-10-01

    The effect of lead (Pb) treatment on the soil microbial activities (soil microbial biomass and soil basal respiration) and rice physiological indices were studied by greenhouse pot experiment. Pb was applied as lead acetate at six different levels in two different paddy soils, namely 0 (control), 100, 300, 500, 700, 900 mg kg-1 soil. The results showed that the application of Pb at lower level (500 mg Pb kg-1 soil), which might be the critical concentration of Pb causing a significant decline in the soil microbial activities. However, the degree of influence on soil microbial activities by Pb was related to the clay and organic matter contents of the soils. On the other hand, when the level of Pb treatments increased to 500 mg kg-1, there was ecological risk for both soil microbial activities and plants. The results also revealed that there was a consistent trend that the chlorophyll contents increased initially, and then decreased gradually with increase in Pb concentration. Pb was effective in inducing proline accumulation and its toxicity causes oxidative stress in rice plants. In a word, soil microbial activities and rice physiological indices, therefore, may be sensitive indicators reflecting environmental stress in soil-Pb-rice system.

  14. Activation and Molecular Targets of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-γ Ligands in Lung Cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raphael A. Nemenoff

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, and five-year survival remains poor, raising the urgency for new treatment strategies. Activation of PPARγ represents a potential target for both the treatment and prevention of lung cancer. Numerous studies have examined the effect of thiazolidinediones such as rosiglitazone and pioglitazone on lung cancer cells in vitro and in xenograft models. These studies indicate that activation of PPARγ inhibits cancer cell proliferation as well as invasiveness and metastasis. While activation of PPARγ can occur by direct binding of pharmacological ligands to the molecule, emerging data indicate that PPARγ activation can occur through engagement of other signal transduction pathways, including Wnt signaling and prostaglandin production. Data, both from preclinical models and retrospective clinical studies, indicate that activation of PPARγ may represent an attractive chemopreventive strategy. This article reviews the existing biological and mechanistic experiments focusing on the role of PPARγ in lung cancer, focusing specifically on nonsmall cell lung cancer.

  15. Modelling of activity transport in PHWR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Veena, S.N.; Rangarajan, S.; Narasimhan, S.V.; Horvath, G.L.

    2000-01-01

    The modelling of mass and activity transport in PHWR is of importance in predicting the build up of radiation field in and around the Primary Heat Transport system which will consequently help in planning the Dilute Chemical Decontamination and man rem budgeting. Modeling also helps in understanding the different parameters controlling the transport behaviour. Some of the important parameters include coolant chemistry like pH, physical parameters like temperature, the nature of the corrosion film and hence the effect of passivation techniques. VVER code for activity transport uses six nodes for the primary system and is essentially devised for stainless steel system. In the present work though based on this model, major modifications have been incorporated to suit the PHWR conditions. In the code, the PHT system of PHWR is suitably divided into 14 nodes, 5 in-core and 9 out of core nodes based on material and heat transfer properties. This paper describes the mechanisms involved in the various processes like generation of corrosion products, their release as well as their transport into the primary coolant, the activation of inactive corrosion product nuclides and the build up of radiation field due to 60 Co around the PHT system. (author)

  16. Spectral Bio-indicator Simulations for Tracking Photosynthetic Activities in a Corn Field

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Yen-Ben; Middleton, Elizabeth M.; Huemmrich, K. Fred; Zhang, Qingyuan; Corp, Lawrence; Campbell, Petya; Kustas, William

    2011-01-01

    Accurate assessment of vegetation canopy optical properties plays a critical role in monitoring natural and managed ecosystems under environmental changes. In this context, radiative transfer (RT) models simulating vegetation canopy reflectance have been demonstrated to be a powerful tool for understanding and estimating spectral bio-indicators. In this study, two narrow band spectroradiometers were utilized to acquire observations over corn canopies for two summers. These in situ spectral data were then used to validate a two-layer Markov chain-based canopy reflectance model for simulating the Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI), which has been widely used in recent vegetation photosynthetic light use efficiency (LUE) studies. The in situ PRI derived from narrow band hyperspectral reflectance exhibited clear responses to: 1) viewing geometry which affects the asset of light environment; and 2) seasonal variation corresponding to the growth stage. The RT model (ACRM) successfully simulated the responses to the variable viewing geometry. The best simulations were obtained when the model was set to run in the two layer mode using the sunlit leaves as the upper layer and shaded leaves as the lower layer. Simulated PRI values yielded much better correlations to in situ observations when the cornfield was dominated by green foliage during the early growth, vegetative and reproductive stages (r = 0.78 to 0.86) than in the later senescent stage (r = 0.65). Further sensitivity analyses were conducted to show the important influences of leaf area index (LAI) and the sunlit/shaded ratio on PRI observations.

  17. Evaluation of non-microbial salivary caries activity parameters and salivary biochemical indicators in predicting dental caries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A Kaur

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Aim: The aim of the present study was the evaluation of non-microbial salivary caries activity parameters and salivary biochemical indicators in predicting dental caries. Materials and Methods: The present study was carried out on 60 children, aged 4-6 years, selected from the schools of Panchkula district, Haryana, on the basis of their caries status. Level of hydration, flow rate, pH, buffering capacity, relative viscosity, calcium, phosphorus and alkaline phosphatase levels in caries-free and caries-active children were evaluated. Results: Results showed that 90% of subjects in the caries-free group and 30% of subjects in the caries-active group had normal level of hydration value of less than 60 s and the difference was found to be statistically very highly significant. Normal flow rate of stimulated saliva was found in 90% of the subjects in caries-free group and 33.3% subjects in the caries active group and difference was found to be statistically very highly significant. Adequate salivary pH was found in 100% subjects in caries-free group and 30% in caries-active group and the difference was statistically very highly significant. Conclusion: To conclude, within limitations of this study, it became clear that normal level of hydration and higher values for flow rate, pH, buffering capacity of saliva lead to good oral health and a reduced caries occurrence. Increased salivary viscosity plays a role in increasing caries incidence. Salivary biochemical indicators like calcium, phosphorus and alkaline phosphatase also play their respective role in determining caries susceptibility of an individual. These salivary parameters can be used as diagnostic tool for caries risk assessment.

  18. Soil pollution indices conditioned by medieval metallurgical activity - A case study from Krakow (Poland).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kowalska, Joanna; Mazurek, Ryszard; Gąsiorek, Michał; Setlak, Marcin; Zaleski, Tomasz; Waroszewski, Jaroslaw

    2016-11-01

    The studied soil profile under the Main Market Square (MMS) in Krakow was characterised by the influence of medieval metallurgical activity. In the presented soil section lithological discontinuity (LD) was found, which manifests itself in the form of cultural layers (CLs). Moreover, in this paper LD detection methods based on soil texture are presented. For the first time, three different ways to identify the presence of LD in the urban soils are suggested. The presence of LD had an influence on the content and distribution of heavy metals within the soil profile. The content of heavy metals in the CLs under the MMS in Krakow was significantly higher than the content in natural horizons. In addition, there were distinct differences in the content of heavy metals within CLs. Profile variability and differences in the content of heavy metals and phosphorus within the CLs under the MMS were activity indicators of Krakow inhabitants in the past. This paper presents alternative methods for the assessment of the degree of heavy metal contamination in urban soils using selected pollution indices. On the basis of the studied total concentration of heavy metals (Zn, Pb, Cu, Mn, Cr, Cd, Ni, Sn, Ag) and total phosphorus content, the Geoaccumulation Index (I geo ), Enrichment Factor (EF), Sum of Pollution Index (PI sum ), Single Pollution Index (PI), Nemerow Pollution Index (PI Nemerow ) and Potential Ecological Risk (RI) were calculated using different local and reference geochemical backgrounds. The use of various geochemical backgrounds is helpful to evaluate the assessment of soil pollution. The individual CLs differed from each other according to the degree of pollution. The different values of pollution indices within the studied soil profile showed that LDS should not be evaluated in terms of contamination as one, homogeneous soil profile but each separate CL should be treated individually. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Production and characterization of granular activated carbon from activated sludge

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Z. Al-Qodah

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available In this study, activated sludge was used as a precursor to prepare activated carbon using sulfuric acid as a chemical activation agent. The effect of preparation conditions on the produced activated carbon characteristics as an adsorbent was investigated. The results indicate that the produced activated carbon has a highly porous structure and a specific surface area of 580 m²/g. The FT-IR analysis depicts the presence of a variety of functional groups which explain its improved adsorption behavior against pesticides. The XRD analysis reveals that the produced activated carbon has low content of inorganic constituents compared with the precursor. The adsorption isotherm data were fitted to three adsorption isotherm models and found to closely fit the BET model with R² equal 0.948 at pH 3, indicating a multilayer of pesticide adsorption. The maximum loading capacity of the produced activated carbon was 110 mg pesticides/g adsorbent and was obtained at this pH value. This maximum loading was found experimentally to steeply decrease as the solution pH increases. The obtained results show that activated sludge is a promising low cost precursor for the production of activated carbon.

  20. Using a phosphorus loss model to evaluate and improve phosphorus indices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bolster, Carl H; Vadas, Peter A; Sharpley, Andrew N; Lory, John A

    2012-01-01

    In most states, the phosphorus (P) index (PI) is the adopted strategy for assessing a field's vulnerability to P loss; however, many state PIs have not been rigorously evaluated against measured P loss data to determine how well the PI assigns P loss risk-a major reason being the lack of field data available for such an analysis. Given the lack of P loss data available for PI evaluation, our goal was to demonstrate how a P loss model can be used to evaluate and revise a PI using the Pennsylvania (PA) PI as an example. Our first objective was to compare two different formulations-multiplicative and component-for calculating a PI. Our second objective was to evaluate whether output from a P loss model can be used to improve PI weighting by calculating weights for modified versions of the PA PI from model-generated P loss data. Our results indicate that several potential limitations exist with the original multiplicative index formulation and that a component formulation is more consistent with how P loss is calculated with P loss models and generally provides more accurate estimates of P loss. Moreover, using the PI weights calculated from the model-generated data noticeably improved the correlation between PI values and a large and diverse measured P loss data set. The approach we use here can be used with any P loss model and PI and thus can serve as a guide to assist states in evaluating and modifying their PI. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  1. Group-Based Active Learning of Classification Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Zhipeng; Hauskrecht, Milos

    2017-05-01

    Learning of classification models from real-world data often requires additional human expert effort to annotate the data. However, this process can be rather costly and finding ways of reducing the human annotation effort is critical for this task. The objective of this paper is to develop and study new ways of providing human feedback for efficient learning of classification models by labeling groups of examples. Briefly, unlike traditional active learning methods that seek feedback on individual examples, we develop a new group-based active learning framework that solicits label information on groups of multiple examples. In order to describe groups in a user-friendly way, conjunctive patterns are used to compactly represent groups. Our empirical study on 12 UCI data sets demonstrates the advantages and superiority of our approach over both classic instance-based active learning work, as well as existing group-based active-learning methods.

  2. Combined statistical and spatially distributed hydrological model for evaluating future drought indices in Virginia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hyunwoo Kang

    2017-08-01

    New hydrological insights for the region: The results of the ensemble mean of SSI indicated that there was an overall increase in agricultural drought occurrences projected in the New (>1.3 times and Rappahannock (>1.13 times river basins due to increases in evapotranspiration and surface and groundwater flow. However, MSDI and MPDSI exhibited a decrease in projected future drought, despite increases in precipitation, which suggests that it is essential to use hybrid-modeling approaches and to interpret application-specific drought indices that consider both precipitation and temperature changes.

  3. Genetically encoded pH-indicators reveal activity-dependent cytosolic acidification of Drosophila motor nerve termini in vivo

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rossano, Adam J; Chouhan, Amit K; Macleod, Gregory T

    2013-01-01

    All biochemical processes, including those underlying synaptic function and plasticity, are pH sensitive. Cytosolic pH (pHcyto) shifts are known to accompany nerve activity in situ, but technological limitations have prevented characterization of such shifts in vivo. Genetically encoded pH-indicators (GEpHIs) allow for tissue-specific in vivo measurement of pH. We expressed three different GEpHIs in the cytosol of Drosophila larval motor neurons and observed substantial presynaptic acidification in nerve termini during nerve stimulation in situ. SuperEcliptic pHluorin was the most useful GEpHI for studying pHcyto shifts in this model system. We determined the resting pH of the nerve terminal cytosol to be 7.30 ± 0.02, and observed a decrease of 0.16 ± 0.01 pH units when the axon was stimulated at 40 Hz for 4 s. Realkalinization occurred upon cessation of stimulation with a time course of 20.54 ± 1.05 s (τ). The chemical pH-indicator 2′,7′-bis-(2-carboxyethyl)-5-(and-6)-carboxyfluorescein corroborated these changes in pHcyto. Bicarbonate-derived buffering did not contribute to buffering of acid loads from short (≤4 s) trains of action potentials but did buffer slow (∼60 s) acid loads. The magnitude of cytosolic acid transients correlated with cytosolic Ca2+ increase upon stimulation, and partial inhibition of the plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPase, a Ca2+/H+ exchanger, attenuated pHcyto shifts. Repeated stimulus trains mimicking motor patterns generated greater cytosolic acidification (∼0.30 pH units). Imaging through the cuticle of intact larvae revealed spontaneous pHcyto shifts in presynaptic termini in vivo, similar to those seen in situ during fictive locomotion, indicating that presynaptic pHcyto shifts cannot be dismissed as artifacts of ex vivo preparations. PMID:23401611

  4. Prediction of genetic gains by selection indices using mixed models in elephant grass for energy purposes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silva, V B; Daher, R F; Araújo, M S B; Souza, Y P; Cassaro, S; Menezes, B R S; Gravina, L M; Novo, A A C; Tardin, F D; Júnior, A T Amaral

    2017-09-27

    Genetically improved cultivars of elephant grass need to be adapted to different ecosystems with a faster growth speed and lower seasonality of biomass production over the year. This study aimed to use selection indices using mixed models (REML/BLUP) for selecting families and progenies within full-sib families of elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) for biomass production. One hundred and twenty full-sib progenies were assessed from 2014 to 2015 in a randomized block design with three replications. During this period, the traits dry matter production, the number of tillers, plant height, stem diameter, and neutral detergent fiber were assessed. Families 3 and 1 were the best classified, being the most indicated for selection effect. Progenies 40, 45, 46, and 49 got the first positions in the three indices assessed in the first cut. The gain for individual 40 was 161.76% using Mulamba and Mock index. The use of selection indices using mixed models is advantageous in elephant grass since they provide high gains with the selection, which are distributed among all the assessed traits in the most appropriate situation to breeding programs.

  5. Efficacy of extracting indices from large-scale acoustic recordings to monitor biodiversity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buxton, Rachel; McKenna, Megan F; Clapp, Mary; Meyer, Erik; Stabenau, Erik; Angeloni, Lisa M; Crooks, Kevin; Wittemyer, George

    2018-04-20

    Passive acoustic monitoring has the potential to be a powerful approach for assessing biodiversity across large spatial and temporal scales. However, extracting meaningful information from recordings can be prohibitively time consuming. Acoustic indices offer a relatively rapid method for processing acoustic data and are increasingly used to characterize biological communities. We examine the ability of acoustic indices to predict the diversity and abundance of biological sounds within recordings. First we reviewed the acoustic index literature and found that over 60 indices have been applied to a range of objectives with varying success. We then implemented a subset of the most successful indices on acoustic data collected at 43 sites in temperate terrestrial and tropical marine habitats across the continental U.S., developing a predictive model of the diversity of animal sounds observed in recordings. For terrestrial recordings, random forest models using a suite of acoustic indices as covariates predicted Shannon diversity, richness, and total number of biological sounds with high accuracy (R 2 > = 0.94, mean squared error MSE indices assessed, roughness, acoustic activity, and acoustic richness contributed most to the predictive ability of models. Performance of index models was negatively impacted by insect, weather, and anthropogenic sounds. For marine recordings, random forest models predicted Shannon diversity, richness, and total number of biological sounds with low accuracy (R 2 = 195), indicating that alternative methods are necessary in marine habitats. Our results suggest that using a combination of relevant indices in a flexible model can accurately predict the diversity of biological sounds in temperate terrestrial acoustic recordings. Thus, acoustic approaches could be an important contribution to biodiversity monitoring in some habitats in the face of accelerating human-caused ecological change. This article is protected by copyright. All rights

  6. Rainfall-induced fecal indicator organisms transport from animal waste applied fields: model sensitivity analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    The microbial quality of surface waters warrants attention because of associated food- and waterborne-disease outbreaks, and fecal indicator organisms (FIOs) are commonly used to evaluate levels of microbial pollution. Models that predict the fate and transport of FIOs are required for designing and...

  7. Review and Extension of Suitability Assessment Indicators of Weather Model Output for Analyzing Decentralized Energy Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hans Schermeyer

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E is gaining more and more influence in traditional energy and electricity markets in Europe and around the world. When modeling RES-E feed-in on a high temporal and spatial resolution, energy systems analysts frequently use data generated by numerical weather models as input since there is no spatial inclusive and comprehensive measurement data available. However, the suitability of such model data depends on the research questions at hand and should be inspected individually. This paper focuses on new methodologies to carry out a performance evaluation of solar irradiation data provided by a numerical weather model when investigating photovoltaic feed-in and effects on the electricity grid. Suitable approaches of time series analysis are researched from literature and applied to both model and measurement data. The findings and limits of these approaches are illustrated and a new set of validation indicators is presented. These novel indicators complement the assessment by measuring relevant key figures in energy systems analysis: e.g., gradients in energy supply, maximum values and volatility. Thus, the results of this paper contribute to the scientific community of energy systems analysts and researchers who aim at modeling RES-E feed-in on a high temporal and spatial resolution using weather model data.

  8. A data fusion approach to indications and warnings of terrorist attacks

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDaniel, David; Schaefer, Gregory

    2014-05-01

    Indications and Warning (I&W) of terrorist attacks, particularly IED attacks, require detection of networks of agents and patterns of behavior. Social Network Analysis tries to detect a network; activity analysis tries to detect anomalous activities. This work builds on both to detect elements of an activity model of terrorist attack activity - the agents, resources, networks, and behaviors. The activity model is expressed as RDF triples statements where the tuple positions are elements or subsets of a formal ontology for activity models. The advantage of a model is that elements are interdependent and evidence for or against one will influence others so that there is a multiplier effect. The advantage of the formality is that detection could occur hierarchically, that is, at different levels of abstraction. The model matching is expressed as a likelihood ratio between input text and the model triples. The likelihood ratio is designed to be analogous to track correlation likelihood ratios common in JDL fusion level 1. This required development of a semantic distance metric for positive and null hypotheses as well as for complex objects. The metric uses the Web 1Terabype database of one to five gram frequencies for priors. This size requires the use of big data technologies so a Hadoop cluster is used in conjunction with OpenNLP natural language and Mahout clustering software. Distributed data fusion Map Reduce jobs distribute parts of the data fusion problem to the Hadoop nodes. For the purposes of this initial testing, open source models and text inputs of similar complexity to terrorist events were used as surrogates for the intended counter-terrorist application.

  9. Environmental Indicators in the Newspaper Industry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Enroth

    2003-12-01

    Full Text Available Environmental indicators promote the eco-efficient development of companies, as demonstrated in earlier study. This study builds on a previously developed model and inventory tools for industryspecific environmental indicators for the graphic arts industry. This study is based on case studies from 14 newspaper companies with experience of the use of these industry-specific environmental indicators in actual production.This paper presents data on industry-specific environmental indicators for the newspaper industry. The data describes the average situation and the range of values for the indicators in 14 environmentally aware newspaper companies in Sweden in 2001. The data is also grouped so as to illustrate average values for various classes:Newspaper companies with printing facilities.Newspaper companies with no printing facilities.Newspaper printing companies.In addition, a preliminary comparison has been carried out using equivalent data for the commercial printing industry.The indicators calculated for each specific company, together with average values for these indicators, have been used to identify areas for action for the various companies and to formulate action plans. The aim of this is to promote more eco-efficient activities. The study also summarizes measures already implemented at the various companies.The use of indicators within these companies has been linked with the current and predicted future eed to communicate environmental issues. Financial and social aspects have been considered to a limited extent in the study in order to put forward the concept of sustainable development in the newspaper industry in Sweden.

  10. Nordic eHealth Indicators

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hyppönen, Hannele; Faxvaag, Arild; Gilstad, Heidi

    2013-01-01

    eHealth indicator and benchmarking activities are rapidly increasing nationally and internationally. The work is rarely based on a transparent methodology for indicator definition. This article describes first results of testing an indicator methodology for defining eHealth indicators, which...... was reported at the Medical Informatics Europe conference in 2012. The core elements of the methodology are illustrated, demonstrating validation of each of them in the context of Nordic eHealth Indicator work. Validation proved the importance of conducting each of the steps of the methodology, with several...

  11. Examining the Effects of Video Modeling and Prompts to Teach Activities of Daily Living Skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aldi, Catarina; Crigler, Alexandra; Kates-McElrath, Kelly; Long, Brian; Smith, Hillary; Rehak, Kim; Wilkinson, Lisa

    2016-12-01

    Video modeling has been shown to be effective in teaching a number of skills to learners diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In this study, we taught two young men diagnosed with ASD three different activities of daily living skills (ADLS) using point-of-view video modeling. Results indicated that both participants met criterion for all ADLS. Participants did not maintain mastery criterion at a 1-month follow-up, but did score above baseline at maintenance with and without video modeling. • Point-of-view video models may be an effective intervention to teach daily living skills. • Video modeling with handheld portable devices (Apple iPod or iPad) can be just as effective as video modeling with stationary viewing devices (television or computer). • The use of handheld portable devices (Apple iPod and iPad) makes video modeling accessible and possible in a wide variety of environments.

  12. Feature extraction for face recognition via Active Shape Model (ASM) and Active Appearance Model (AAM)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iqtait, M.; Mohamad, F. S.; Mamat, M.

    2018-03-01

    Biometric is a pattern recognition system which is used for automatic recognition of persons based on characteristics and features of an individual. Face recognition with high recognition rate is still a challenging task and usually accomplished in three phases consisting of face detection, feature extraction, and expression classification. Precise and strong location of trait point is a complicated and difficult issue in face recognition. Cootes proposed a Multi Resolution Active Shape Models (ASM) algorithm, which could extract specified shape accurately and efficiently. Furthermore, as the improvement of ASM, Active Appearance Models algorithm (AAM) is proposed to extracts both shape and texture of specified object simultaneously. In this paper we give more details about the two algorithms and give the results of experiments, testing their performance on one dataset of faces. We found that the ASM is faster and gains more accurate trait point location than the AAM, but the AAM gains a better match to the texture.

  13. Development of a predictive model to determine micropollutant removal using granular activated carbon

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. J. de Ridder

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available The occurrence of organic micropollutants in drinking water and its sources has opened up a field of study related to monitoring concentration levels in water sources, evaluating their toxicity and estimating their removal in drinking water treatment processes. Because a large number of organic micropollutants is currently present (although in relatively low concentrations in drinking water sources, a method should be developed to select which micropollutants has to be evaluated with priority. In this paper, a screening model is presented that can predict solute removal by activated carbon, in ultrapure water and in natural water. Solute removal prediction is based on a combination of solute hydrophobicity (expressed as log D, the pH corrected log Kow, solute charge and the carbon dose. Solute molecular weight was also considered as model input parameter, but this solute property appeared to relate insufficiently to solute removal.

    Removal of negatively charged solutes by preloaded activated carbon was reduced while the removal of positively charged solutes was increased, compared with freshly regenerated activated carbon. Differences in charged solute removal by freshly regenerated activated carbon were small, indicating that charge interactions are an important mechanism in adsorption onto preloaded carbon. The predicted solute removal was within 20 removal-% deviation of experimentally measured values for most solutes.

  14. Cognitive Value of Financial Indicators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gabriela Cristina FLOREA

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Economic and Financial indicators are very important tools in the assessment of the economic entity's well-being. They Provide permanent monitoring of the significance of the issues related to the economic activity's deployment. The main Objectives tracked by the process of managing the company with the help of Economic and Financial indicators is the activity's continuity, ensuring liquidity and Achieving positive results.

  15. Overview of models allowing calculation of activity coefficients

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jaussaud, C.; Sorel, C

    2004-07-01

    Activity coefficients must be estimated to accurately quantify the extraction equilibrium involved in spent fuel reprocessing. For these calculations, binary data are required for each electrolyte over a concentration range sometimes exceeding the maximum solubility. The activity coefficients must be extrapolated to model the behavior of binary supersaturated aqueous solution. According to the bibliography, the most suitable models are based on the local composition concept. (authors)

  16. ISOTROPIC LUMINOSITY INDICATORS IN A COMPLETE AGN SAMPLE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar M.; Rieke, George H.; Rigby, Jane R.

    2009-01-01

    The [O IV] λ25.89 μm line has been shown to be an accurate indicator of active galactic nucleus (AGN) intrinsic luminosity in that it correlates well with hard (10-200 keV) X-ray emission. We present measurements of [O IV] for 89 Seyfert galaxies from the unbiased revised Shapley-Ames (RSA) sample. The [O IV] luminosity distributions of obscured and unobscured Seyferts are indistinguishable, indicating that their intrinsic AGN luminosities are quite similar and that the RSA sample is well suited for tests of the unified model. In addition, we analyze several commonly used proxies for AGN luminosity, including [O III] λ5007 A, 6 cm radio, and 2-10 keV X-ray emission. We find that the radio luminosity distributions of obscured and unobscured AGNs show no significant difference, indicating that radio luminosity is a useful isotropic luminosity indicator. However, the observed [O III] and 2-10 keV luminosities are systematically smaller for obscured Seyferts, indicating that they are not emitted isotropically.

  17. Comparing droplet activation parameterisations against adiabatic parcel models using a novel inverse modelling framework

    Science.gov (United States)

    Partridge, Daniel; Morales, Ricardo; Stier, Philip

    2015-04-01

    Many previous studies have compared droplet activation parameterisations against adiabatic parcel models (e.g. Ghan et al., 2001). However, these have often involved comparisons for a limited number of parameter combinations based upon certain aerosol regimes. Recent studies (Morales et al., 2014) have used wider ranges when evaluating their parameterisations, however, no study has explored the full possible multi-dimensional parameter space that would be experienced by droplet activations within a global climate model (GCM). It is important to be able to efficiently highlight regions of the entire multi-dimensional parameter space in which we can expect the largest discrepancy between parameterisation and cloud parcel models in order to ascertain which regions simulated by a GCM can be expected to be a less accurate representation of the process of cloud droplet activation. This study provides a new, efficient, inverse modelling framework for comparing droplet activation parameterisations to more complex cloud parcel models. To achieve this we couple a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm (Partridge et al., 2012) to two independent adiabatic cloud parcel models and four droplet activation parameterisations. This framework is computationally faster than employing a brute force Monte Carlo simulation, and allows us to transparently highlight which parameterisation provides the closest representation across all aerosol physiochemical and meteorological environments. The parameterisations are demonstrated to perform well for a large proportion of possible parameter combinations, however, for certain key parameters; most notably the vertical velocity and accumulation mode aerosol concentration, large discrepancies are highlighted. These discrepancies correspond for parameter combinations that result in very high/low simulated values of maximum supersaturation. By identifying parameter interactions or regimes within the multi-dimensional parameter space we hope to guide

  18. QSAR models for anti-malarial activity of 4-aminoquinolines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masand, Vijay H; Toropov, Andrey A; Toropova, Alla P; Mahajan, Devidas T

    2014-03-01

    In the present study, predictive quantitative structure - activity relationship (QSAR) models for anti-malarial activity of 4-aminoquinolines have been developed. CORAL, which is freely available on internet (http://www.insilico.eu/coral), has been used as a tool of QSAR analysis to establish statistically robust QSAR model of anti-malarial activity of 4-aminoquinolines. Six random splits into the visible sub-system of the training and invisible subsystem of validation were examined. Statistical qualities for these splits vary, but in all these cases, statistical quality of prediction for anti-malarial activity was quite good. The optimal SMILES-based descriptor was used to derive the single descriptor based QSAR model for a data set of 112 aminoquinolones. All the splits had r(2)> 0.85 and r(2)> 0.78 for subtraining and validation sets, respectively. The three parametric multilinear regression (MLR) QSAR model has Q(2) = 0.83, R(2) = 0.84 and F = 190.39. The anti-malarial activity has strong correlation with presence/absence of nitrogen and oxygen at a topological distance of six.

  19. Learning models of activities involving interacting objects

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Manfredotti, Cristina; Pedersen, Kim Steenstrup; Hamilton, Howard J.

    2013-01-01

    We propose the LEMAIO multi-layer framework, which makes use of hierarchical abstraction to learn models for activities involving multiple interacting objects from time sequences of data concerning the individual objects. Experiments in the sea navigation domain yielded learned models that were t...

  20. Development of multiple linear regression models as predictive tools for fecal indicator concentrations in a stretch of the lower Lahn River, Germany.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herrig, Ilona M; Böer, Simone I; Brennholt, Nicole; Manz, Werner

    2015-11-15

    Since rivers are typically subject to rapid changes in microbiological water quality, tools are needed to allow timely water quality assessment. A promising approach is the application of predictive models. In our study, we developed multiple linear regression (MLR) models in order to predict the abundance of the fecal indicator organisms Escherichia coli (EC), intestinal enterococci (IE) and somatic coliphages (SC) in the Lahn River, Germany. The models were developed on the basis of an extensive set of environmental parameters collected during a 12-months monitoring period. Two models were developed for each type of indicator: 1) an extended model including the maximum number of variables significantly explaining variations in indicator abundance and 2) a simplified model reduced to the three most influential explanatory variables, thus obtaining a model which is less resource-intensive with regard to required data. Both approaches have the ability to model multiple sites within one river stretch. The three most important predictive variables in the optimized models for the bacterial indicators were NH4-N, turbidity and global solar irradiance, whereas chlorophyll a content, discharge and NH4-N were reliable model variables for somatic coliphages. Depending on indicator type, the extended mode models also included the additional variables rainfall, O2 content, pH and chlorophyll a. The extended mode models could explain 69% (EC), 74% (IE) and 72% (SC) of the observed variance in fecal indicator concentrations. The optimized models explained the observed variance in fecal indicator concentrations to 65% (EC), 70% (IE) and 68% (SC). Site-specific efficiencies ranged up to 82% (EC) and 81% (IE, SC). Our results suggest that MLR models are a promising tool for a timely water quality assessment in the Lahn area. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Parametrization in models of subcritical glass fracture: Activation offset and concerted activation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodrigues, Bruno Poletto; Hühn, Carolin; Erlebach, Andreas; Mey, Dorothea; Sierka, Marek; Wondraczek, Lothar

    2017-08-01

    There are two established but fundamentally different empirical approaches to parametrize the rate of subcritical fracture in brittle materials. While both are relying on a thermally activated reaction of bond rupture, the difference lies in the way as to how the externally applied stresses affect the local energy landscape. In the consideration of inorganic glasses, the strain energy is typically taken as an off-set on the activation barrier. As an alternative interpretation, the system’s volumetric strain-energy is added to its thermal energy. Such an interpretation is consistent with the democratic fiber bundle model. Here, we test this approach of concerted activation against macroscopic data of bond cleavage activation energy, and also against ab initio quantum chemical simulation of the energy barrier for cracking in silica. The fact that both models are able to reproduce experimental observation to a remarkable degree highlights the importance of a holistic consideration towards non-empirical understanding.

  2. Modeling of flash calcination process during clay activation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Borrajo Perez, Ruben; Gonzalez Bayon, Juan Jose; Sanchez Rodriguez, Andy A.

    2011-01-01

    Pozzolanic activity in some materials can be increased by means of different processes, among them, thermal activation is one of the most promising. The activation process, occurring at high temperatures and velocities produces a material with better characteristics. In the last few years, high reactivity pozzolan during cure's early days has been produced. Temperature is an important parameter in the activation process and as a consequence, the activation units must consider temperature variation to allow the use of different raw materials, each one of them with different characteristics. Considering the high prices of Kaolin in the market, new materials are being tested, the clayey soil, which after a sedimentation process produces a clay that has turned out to be a suitable raw material, when the kinetics of the pozzolanic reaction is considered. Additionally, other material with higher levels of kaolin are being used with good results. This paper is about the modeling of thermal, hydrodynamics and dehydroxilation processes suffering for solids particles exposed to a hot gas stream. The models employed are discussed; the velocity and temperature of particles are obtained as a function of carrier gas parameters. The calculation include the heat losses and finally the model predict the residence time needed for finish the activation process. (author)

  3. Active Player Modeling in the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hyunsoo Park

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The iterated prisoner’s dilemma (IPD is well known within the domain of game theory. Although it is relatively simple, it can also elucidate important problems related to cooperation and trust. Generally, players can predict their opponents’ actions when they are able to build a precise model of their behavior based on their game playing experience. However, it is difficult to make such predictions based on a limited number of games. The creation of a precise model requires the use of not only an appropriate learning algorithm and framework but also a good dataset. Active learning approaches have recently been introduced to machine learning communities. The approach can usually produce informative datasets with relatively little effort. Therefore, we have proposed an active modeling technique to predict the behavior of IPD players. The proposed method can model the opponent player’s behavior while taking advantage of interactive game environments. This experiment used twelve representative types of players as opponents, and an observer used an active modeling algorithm to model these opponents. This observer actively collected data and modeled the opponent’s behavior online. Most of our data showed that the observer was able to build, through direct actions, a more accurate model of an opponent’s behavior than when the data were collected through random actions.

  4. Kinetic model of excess activated sludge thermohydrolysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Imbierowicz, Mirosław; Chacuk, Andrzej

    2012-11-01

    Thermal hydrolysis of excess activated sludge suspensions was carried at temperatures ranging from 423 K to 523 K and under pressure 0.2-4.0 MPa. Changes of total organic carbon (TOC) concentration in a solid and liquid phase were measured during these studies. At the temperature 423 K, after 2 h of the process, TOC concentration in the reaction mixture decreased by 15-18% of the initial value. At 473 K total organic carbon removal from activated sludge suspension increased to 30%. It was also found that the solubilisation of particulate organic matter strongly depended on the process temperature. At 423 K the transfer of TOC from solid particles into liquid phase after 1 h of the process reached 25% of the initial value, however, at the temperature of 523 K the conversion degree of 'solid' TOC attained 50% just after 15 min of the process. In the article a lumped kinetic model of the process of activated sludge thermohydrolysis has been proposed. It was assumed that during heating of the activated sludge suspension to a temperature in the range of 423-523 K two parallel reactions occurred. One, connected with thermal destruction of activated sludge particles, caused solubilisation of organic carbon and an increase of dissolved organic carbon concentration in the liquid phase (hydrolysate). The parallel reaction led to a new kind of unsolvable solid phase, which was further decomposed into gaseous products (CO(2)). The collected experimental data were used to identify unknown parameters of the model, i.e. activation energies and pre-exponential factors of elementary reactions. The mathematical model of activated sludge thermohydrolysis appropriately describes the kinetics of reactions occurring in the studied system. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Statin Selection in Qatar Based on Multi-indication Pharmacotherapeutic Multi-criteria Scoring Model, and Clinician Preference.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Badriyeh, Daoud; Fahey, Michael; Alabbadi, Ibrahim; Al-Khal, Abdullatif; Zaidan, Manal

    2015-12-01

    Statin selection for the largest hospital formulary in Qatar is not systematic, not comparative, and does not consider the multi-indication nature of statins. There are no reports in the literature of multi-indication-based comparative scoring models of statins or of statin selection criteria weights that are based primarily on local clinicians' preferences and experiences. This study sought to comparatively evaluate statins for first-line therapy in Qatar, and to quantify the economic impact of this. An evidence-based, multi-indication, multi-criteria pharmacotherapeutic model was developed for the scoring of statins from the perspective of the main health care provider in Qatar. The literature and an expert panel informed the selection criteria of statins. Relative weighting of selection criteria was based on the input of the relevant local clinician population. Statins were comparatively scored based on literature evidence, with those exceeding a defined scoring threshold being recommended for use. With 95% CI and 5% margin of error, the scoring model was successfully developed. Selection criteria comprised 28 subcriteria under the following main criteria: clinical efficacy, best publish evidence and experience, adverse effects, drug interaction, dosing time, and fixed dose combination availability. Outcome measures for multiple indications were related to effects on LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglyceride, total cholesterol, and C-reactive protein. Atorvastatin, pravastatin, and rosuvastatin exceeded defined pharmacotherapeutic thresholds. Atorvastatin and pravastatin were recommended as first-line use and rosuvastatin as a nonformulary alternative. It was estimated that this would produce a 17.6% cost savings in statins expenditure. Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of the evaluation's outcomes against input uncertainties. Incorporating a comparative evaluation of statins in Qatari practices based on a locally developed, transparent, multi-indication

  6. Derivation and validation of a multivariable model to predict when primary care physicians prescribe antidepressants for indications other than depression

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wong J

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Jenna Wong, Michal Abrahamowicz, David L Buckeridge, Robyn Tamblyn Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada Objective: Physicians commonly prescribe antidepressants for indications other than depression that are not evidence-based and need further evaluation. However, lack of routinely documented treatment indications for medications in administrative and medical databases creates a major barrier to evaluating antidepressant use for indications besides depression. Thus, the aim of this study was to derive a model to predict when primary care physicians prescribe antidepressants for indications other than depression and to identify important determinants of this prescribing practice. Methods: Prediction study using antidepressant prescriptions from January 2003–December 2012 in an indication-based electronic prescribing system in Quebec, Canada. Patients were linked to demographic files, medical billings data, and hospital discharge summary data to create over 370 candidate predictors. The final prediction model was derived on a random 75% sample of the data using 3-fold cross-validation integrated within a score-based forward stepwise selection procedure. The performance of the final model was assessed in the remaining 25% of the data. Results: Among 73,576 antidepressant prescriptions, 32,405 (44.0% were written for indications other than depression. Among 40 predictors in the final model, the most important covariates included the molecule name, the patient’s education level, the physician’s workload, the prescribed dose, and diagnostic codes for plausible indications recorded in the past year. The final model had good discrimination (concordance (c statistic 0.815; 95% CI, 0.787–0.847 and good calibration (ratio of observed to expected events 0.986; 95% CI, 0.842–1.136. Conclusion: In the absence of documented treatment indications, researchers may be able to use

  7. Pre-Service Teachers' Modelling Processes through Engagement with Model Eliciting Activities with a Technological Tool

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daher, Wajeeh M.; Shahbari, Juhaina Awawdeh

    2015-01-01

    Engaging mathematics students with modelling activities helps them learn mathematics meaningfully. This engagement, in the case of model eliciting activities, helps the students elicit mathematical models by interpreting real-world situation in mathematical ways. This is especially true when the students utilize technology to build the models.…

  8. Dysregulated neuronal activity patterns implicate corticostriatal circuit dysfunction in multiple rodent models of Huntington’s disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Benjamin R. Miller

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Huntington’s disease (HD is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder that targets the corticostriatal system and results in progressive deterioration of cognitive, emotional, and motor skills. Although cortical and striatal neurons are widely studied in animal models of HD, there is little information on neuronal function during expression of the HD behavioral phenotype. To address this knowledge gap, we used chronically implanted micro-wire bundles to record extracellular spikes and local field potentials (LFPs in truncated (R6/1 and R6/2 and full-length (knock-in, KI mouse models as well as in tgHD rats behaving in an open-field arena. Spike activity was recorded in the striatum of all models and in prefrontal cortex (PFC of R6/2 and KI mice, and in primary motor cortex (M1 of R6/2 mice. We also recorded LFP activity in R6/2 striatum. All HD models exhibited altered neuronal activity relative to wild-type (WT controls. Although there was no consistent effect on firing rate across models and brain areas, burst firing was reduced in striatum, PFC, and M1 of R6/2 mice, and in striatum of KI mice. Consistent with a decline in bursting, the interspike-interval coefficient of variation was reduced in all regions of all models, except PFC of KI mice and striatum of tgHD rats. Among simultaneously recorded neuron pairs, correlated firing was reduced in all brain regions of all models, while coincident bursting, which measures the temporal overlap between bursting pairs, was reduced in striatum of all models as well as in M1 of R6/2's. Preliminary analysis of striatal LFPs revealed aberrant behavior-related oscillations in the delta to theta range and in gamma activity. Collectively, our results indicate that disrupted corticostriatal processing occurs across multiple HD models despite differences in the severity of the behavioral phenotype. Efforts aimed at normalizing corticostriatal activity may hold the key to developing new HD

  9. Bi-temporal 3D Active Appearance Modelling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stegmann, Mikkel Bille

    2005-01-01

    in fourdimensional MRI. The theoretical foundation of our work is the generative two-dimensional Active Appearance Models by Cootes et al., here extended to bi-temporal, three-dimensional models. Further issues treated include correction of respiratory induced slice displacements, systole detection, and a texture...

  10. Proteinase-Activated Receptor-1 and Immunomodulatory Effects of a PAR1-Activating Peptide in a Mouse Model of Prostatitis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stanton, M. Mark; Nelson, Lisa K.; Benediktsson, Hallgrimur; Hollenberg, Morley D.; Buret, Andre G.; Ceri, Howard

    2013-01-01

    Background. Nonbacterial prostatitis has no established etiology. We hypothesized that proteinase-activated receptor-1 (PAR1) can play a role in prostatitis. We therefore investigated the effects of PAR1 stimulation in the context of a new model of murine nonbacterial prostatitis. Methods. Using a hapten (ethanol-dinitrobenzene sulfonic acid- (DNBS-)) induced prostatitis model with both wild-type and PAR1-null mice, we examined (1) the location of PAR1 in the mouse prostate and (2) the impact of a PAR1-activating peptide (TFLLR-NH2: PAR1-TF) on ethanol-DNBS-induced inflammation. Results. Ethanol-DNBS-induced inflammation was maximal at 2 days. In the tissue, PAR1 was expressed predominantly along the apical acini of prostatic epithelium. Although PAR1-TF on its own did not cause inflammation, its coadministration with ethanol-DNBS reduced all indices of acute prostatitis. Further, PAR1-TF administration doubled the prostatic production of interleukin-10 (IL-10) compared with ethanol-DNBS treatment alone. This enhanced IL-10 was not observed in PAR1-null mice and was not caused by the reverse-sequence receptor-inactive peptide, RLLFT-NH2. Surprisingly, PAR1-TF, also diminished ethanol-DNBS-induced inflammation in PAR1-null mice. Conclusions. PAR1 is expressed in the mouse prostate and its activation by PAR1-TF elicits immunomodulatory effects during ethanol-DNBS-induced prostatitis. However, PAR1-TF also diminishes ethanol-DNBS-induced inflammation via a non-PAR1 mechanism by activating an as-yet unknown receptor. PMID:24459330

  11. Measurement of infrared refractive indices of organic and organophosphorous compounds for optical modeling

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tonkyn, Russell G.; Danby, Tyler O.; Birnbaum, Jerome C.; Taubman, Matthew S.; Bernacki, Bruce E.; Johnson, Timothy J.; Myers, Tanya L.

    2017-05-03

    The complex optical refractive index contains the optical constants, n($\\tilde{u}$)and k($\\tilde{u}$), which correspond to the dispersion and absorption of light within a medium, respectively. By obtaining the optical constants one can in principle model most optical phenomena in media and at interfaces including reflection, refraction and dispersion. We have developed improved protocols based on the use of multiple path lengths to determine the optical constants for dozens of liquids, including organic and organophosphorous compounds. Detailed description of the protocols to determine the infrared indices will be presented, along with preliminary results using the constants with their applications to optical modeling.

  12. Global Convergence of the EM Algorithm for Unconstrained Latent Variable Models with Categorical Indicators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weissman, Alexander

    2013-01-01

    Convergence of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm to a global optimum of the marginal log likelihood function for unconstrained latent variable models with categorical indicators is presented. The sufficient conditions under which global convergence of the EM algorithm is attainable are provided in an information-theoretic context by…

  13. The Cross-Correlation Analysis of Indicators of the Scientific-Innovation and Educational Activity of the Regions of Ukraine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhuravka Andrey V.

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available The article is aimed at exploring the cross-correlation dependency between the 11 selected indicators of the scientific-innovation and educational activity of the regions of Ukraine over the past years using the standard features of the MS Excel software. The calculated values of the pairwise coefficients of Pearson correlation changed from 0,66 to 1. The worst-case correlation coefficient, which changed from 0,7 to 0,8, was observed only with the number of students at the beginning of the academic year 2015/16. The article provides seven selected equations of linear regression and their graphs, with the latter equation corresponding to the worst correlation coefficient between the number of students and doctoral candidates (R = 0,6574. The first five equations of linear regression conform to correlations between financing the costs for completing scientific and scientific-technical works by the regions of Ukraine and various indicators of the scientific-educational potential of personnel. In all five cases, there was a high correlation dependency. As result of the study, fairly high correlation relationships among all indicators have been obtained. Prospect for further research is accounting for a larger number of indicators of the scientific-innovation and educational activity of the regions of Ukraine.

  14. Energy Efficiency Indicators Methodology Booklet

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sathaye, Jayant; Price, Lynn; McNeil, Michael; de la rue du Can, Stephane

    2010-05-01

    This Methodology Booklet provides a comprehensive review and methodology guiding principles for constructing energy efficiency indicators, with illustrative examples of application to individual countries. It reviews work done by international agencies and national government in constructing meaningful energy efficiency indicators that help policy makers to assess changes in energy efficiency over time. Building on past OECD experience and best practices, and the knowledge of these countries' institutions, relevant sources of information to construct an energy indicator database are identified. A framework based on levels of hierarchy of indicators -- spanning from aggregate, macro level to disaggregated end-use level metrics -- is presented to help shape the understanding of assessing energy efficiency. In each sector of activity: industry, commercial, residential, agriculture and transport, indicators are presented and recommendations to distinguish the different factors affecting energy use are highlighted. The methodology booklet addresses specifically issues that are relevant to developing indicators where activity is a major factor driving energy demand. A companion spreadsheet tool is available upon request.

  15. Gamma-variate modeling of indicator dilution curves in electrical impedance tomography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hentze, Benjamin; Muders, Thomas; Luepschen, Henning; Leonhardt, Steffen; Putensen, Christian; Walter, Marian

    2017-07-01

    Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a non-invasive imaging technique, that can be used to monitor regional lung ventilation (V̇) in intensive care units (ICU) at bedside. This work introduces a method to extract regional lung perfusion (Q̇) from EIT image streams in order to quantify regional gas exchange in the lungs. EIT data from a single porcine animal trial, recorded during injection of a contrast agent (NaCl 10%) into a central venous catheter (CVC), are used for evaluation. Using semi-negative matrix factorization (Semi-NMF) a set of source signals is extracted from the data. A subsequent non-linear fit of a gamma-variate model to the source signals results in model signals, describing contrast agent flow through the cardio-pulmonary system. A linear fit of the model signals to the EIT image stream then yields functional images ofQ̇. Additionally, a pulmonary transit function (PTF) and parameters, such as mean transit time (MTT), time to peak (TTP) and area under curve (AUC) are derived. In result, EIT was used to track changes of regional lung ventilation to perfusion ratio (V̇/Q̇) during changes of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP). Furthermore, correlations of MTT and AUC with cardiac output (CO) indicate that CO measurement by EIT might be possible.

  16. Modeling Indicator Systems for Evaluating Environmental Sustainable Development Based on Factor Analysis

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    WU Hao; CHEN Xiaoling; HE Ying; HE Xiaorong; CAI Xiaobin; XU Keyan

    2006-01-01

    Indicator systems of environmental sustainable development in the Poyang Lake Basin are established from 51 elementary indexes by factor analysis, which is composed of four steps such as the factor model, the parameter estimation, the factor rotation and the factor score. Under the condition that the cumulative proportion is greater than 85%, 5 explicit factors of environmental sustainable development as well as its factor score by region are carried out. The result indicates some impact factors to the basin environmental in descending sort order are volume of water, volume of waste gas discharge, volume of solid wastes, the degree to comprehensive utilization of waste gas, waste water and solid wastes, the emission volume of waste gas, waste water and solid wastes. It is helpful and important to provide decision support for constituting sustainable development strategies and evaluate the sustainable development status of each city.

  17. Computational Models for Analysis of Illicit Activities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nizamani, Sarwat

    been explored in this thesis by considering them as epidemic-like processes. A mathematical model has been developed based on differential equations, which studies the dynamics of the issues from the very beginning until the issues cease. This study extends classical models of the spread of epidemics...... to describe the phenomenon of contagious public outrage, which eventually leads to the spread of violence following a disclosure of some unpopular political decisions and/or activity. The results shed a new light on terror activity and provide some hint on how to curb the spreading of violence within...

  18. Rapid Screening of Active Components with an Osteoclastic Inhibitory Effect in Herba epimedii Using Quantitative Pattern–Activity Relationships Based on Joint-Action Models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiao-Yan Yuan

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Screening of bioactive components is important for modernization and quality control of herbal medicines, while the traditional bioassay-guided phytochemical approach is time-consuming and laborious. The presented study proposes a strategy for rapid screening of active components from herbal medicines. As a case study, the quantitative pattern–activity relationship (QPAR between compounds and the osteoclastic inhibitory effect of Herba epimedii, a widely used herbal medicine in China, were investigated based on joint models. For model construction, standard mixtures data showed that the joint-action models are better than the partial least-squares (PLS model. Then, the Good2bad value, which could reflect components’ importance based on Monte Carlo sampling, was coupled with the joint-action models for screening of active components. A compound (baohuoside I and a component composed of compounds with retention times in the 6.9–7.9 min range were selected by our method. Their inhibition rates were higher than icariin, the key bioactive compound in Herba epimedii, which could inhibit osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption in a previous study. Meanwhile, the half-maximal effective concentration, namely, EC50 value of the selected component was 7.54 μg/mL, much smaller than that of baohuoside I—77 μg/mL—which indicated that there is synergistic action between compounds in the selected component. The results clearly show our proposed method is simple and effective in screening the most-bioactive components and compounds, as well as drug-lead components, from herbal medicines.

  19. Future scenarios for viticultural bioclimatic indices in Europe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santos, João.; Malheiro, Aureliano C.; Fraga, Helder; Pinto, Joaquim G.

    2010-05-01

    Winemaking has a predominant economic, social and environmental relevance in several European countries. Studies addressing the influence of climate variability and change in viticulture are particularly pertinent, as climate is one of the main conditioning factors of this activity. In this context, bioclimatic indices are a useful zoning tool, allowing the description of the suitability of a particular region for wine production. In this study, we compute climatic indices (concerning to thermal and hydrological conditions) for Europe, characterize regions with different viticultural aptitude, and assess possible variations in these regions under a future climate conditions using a state-of-the-art regional climate model. The indices are calculated from climatic variables (mostly daily maximum and minimum temperatures and precipitation) obtained from the NCEP reanalysis dataset. Then, the same indices are calculated for present and future climate conditions using data from the regional climate model COSMO-CLM (Consortium for Small Scale Modelling - Climate Limited-area Modelling). Maps of theses indices for recent-past periods (1961-2008) and for the SRES A1B scenario are considered in order to identify significant changes in their patterns. Results show that climate change is projected to have a significant negative impact in wine quality by increased dryness and cumulative thermal effects during growing seasons in Southern European regions (e.g. Portugal, Spain and Italy). These changes represent an important constraint to grapevine growth and development, making crucial adaptation/mitigation strategies to be adopted. On the other hand, regions of western and central Europe (e.g. southern Britain, northern France and Germany) will benefit from this scenario both in wine quality, and in new potential areas for viticulture. This approach provides a macro-characterization of European areas where grapevines may preferentially grow, as well as their projected changes

  20. Effects of Organized Physical Activity on Selected Health Indices among Women Older than 55 Years

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Piotr Zmijewski

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The main aim of this study was to determine health benefits among women older than 55 years who participated in organized, group-based physical activity (OPA. Thirty-five women aged 65.0 ± 7.3 years volunteered for this study. The classical and nonclassical cardiovascular (CVD risk factors were measured before and after a 2-week OPA camp in a remote location and 3 months of OPA. Self-guided physical activity was analyzed 18 months after OPA. Two-week effects included significant decreases in body mass index, waist and hip circumferences, resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP and resting heart rate, improved exercise capacity (EC, improved low-density lipoprotein and high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C, cholesterol, and other atherogenic lipid indices (ALI, and a reduction in 10-year estimated risk of death from CVD. Three-month effects included a further decrease in systolic BP, improvements in EC and HDL-C, and maintenance of lower levels of ALI, as well as lower CVD risk. The implementation of the OPA programme had a positive impact on somatic features, exercise capacity, biochemical indices, and risk for death from CVD. The presented programme can be regarded as an effective element of primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases among women older than 55 years.

  1. Modification of van La ar activity coefficient model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vakili-Nezhaad, G. R.; Modarress, H.; Mansoori, G. A.

    2001-01-01

    Based on statistical and mechanical arguments, the original van La ar activity coefficient model has been improved by reasonable assumptions. This modifications has been done by replacing the van der Waals equation of state with the Redlich-K wong equation of state in the formulation of van La ar with consistent mixing rules for the energy and volume parameters of this equation of state (a mix , b mix ). Other equations of state, such as the Soave modification of the Redlich-K wong equation of state, P eng-Robinson and Mohsen-Nia, Modarress and Mansoori equations of state, have been introduced in the formulation of van La ar for the activity coefficients of the components present in the binary liquid mixtures, and their effects on the accuracy of the resultant activity coefficient models have been examined. The results of these revised models have been compared with the experimental data and it was found that the Redlich-K wong equation of state with the van der Waals mixing rules for the volume and energy parameters of this equation, is the best choice among these equations of state. In addition, it can improve the original van La ar activity coefficient model and, therefore a better agreement with the experimental data is obtained

  2. Investigation on Secondary Structure Perturbations of Proteins Embedded in Solid Lipid Matrices as a Novel Indicator of their Biological Activity upon In Vitro Release

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zeeshan, Farrukh; Tabbassum, Misbah; Jorgensen, Lene

    2018-01-01

    encased in solid lipid matrices as a novel indicator of their stability upon in vitro release. Model proteins namely catalase and lysozyme were incorporated into lipid namely Precirol® AT05 (glycerol palmitostearate, melting point 58°C) at 30% w/w loading using melting and mixing and wet granulation...... aggregation for catalase which was increased using wet granulation. The biological activity of catalase was statistically different from that of control and was affected by the incorporation method and was found to be in alignment with ATR spectral changes and extent of aggregation. In conclusion, ATR...

  3. Epistemic Gameplay and Discovery in Computational Model-Based Inquiry Activities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilkerson, Michelle Hoda; Shareff, Rebecca; Laina, Vasiliki; Gravel, Brian

    2018-01-01

    In computational modeling activities, learners are expected to discover the inner workings of scientific and mathematical systems: First elaborating their understandings of a given system through constructing a computer model, then "debugging" that knowledge by testing and refining the model. While such activities have been shown to…

  4. Modeling Age-Friendly Environment, Active Aging, and Social Connectedness in an Emerging Asian Economy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ming-Ming Lai

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper empirically tested eight key features of WHO guidelines to age-friendly community by surveying 211 informal caregivers and 402 self-care adults (aged 45 to 85 and above in Malaysia. We examined the associations of these eight features with active aging and social connectedness through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. A structural model with satisfactory goodness-of-fit indices (CMIN/df = 1.11, RMSEA = 0.02, NFI = 0.97, TLI = 1.00, CFI = 1.00, and GFI = 0.96 indicates that transportation and housing, community support and health services, and outdoor spaces and buildings are statistically significant in creating an age-friendly environment. We found a statistically significant positive relationship between an age-friendly environment and active aging. This relationship is mediated by social connectedness. The results indicate that built environments such as accessible public transportations and housing, affordable and accessible healthcare services, and elderly friendly outdoor spaces and buildings have to be put into place before social environment in building an age-friendly environment. Otherwise, the structural barriers would hinder social interactions for the aged. The removal of the environmental barriers and improved public transportation services provide short-term solutions to meet the varied and growing needs of the older population.

  5. True dose from incorporated activities. Models for internal dosimetry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Breustedt, B.; Eschner, W.; Nosske, D.

    2012-01-01

    The assessment of doses after incorporation of radionuclides cannot use direct measurements of the doses, as for example dosimetry in external radiation fields. The only observables are activities in the body or in excretions. Models are used to calculate the doses based on the measured activities. The incorporated activities and the resulting doses can vary by more than seven orders of magnitude between occupational and medical exposures. Nevertheless the models and calculations applied in both cases are similar. Since the models for the different applications have been developed independently by ICRP and MIRD different terminologies have been used. A unified terminology is being developed. (orig.)

  6. 2-dimensional numerical modeling of active magnetic regeneration

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Kaspar Kirstein; Pryds, Nini; Smith, Anders

    2009-01-01

    Various aspects of numerical modeling of Active Magnetic Regeneration (AMR) are presented. Using a 2-dimensional numerical model for solving the unsteady heat transfer equations for the AMR system, a range of physical effects on both idealized and non-idealized AMR are investigated. The modeled...

  7. USING PASSIVE AND ACTIVE MULTISPECTRAL SENSORS ON THE CORRELATION WITH THE PHENOLOGICAL INDICES OF COTTON

    OpenAIRE

    Souza, Heloisa B.; Baio, Fabio H. R.; Neves, Danilo C.

    2017-01-01

    ABSTRACT: The investment in precision agriculture technologies has been growing as well the investment in vegetation index sensors with different types of data collection. This study aimed to evaluate the NDVI potential use obtained from passive and active multispectral sensors as phenological parameters indicator of cotton growth. The experiment was conducted in cultivated cotton fields during the harvest seasons of 2013/14 and 2014/15. The phenological variables analyzed in the field, were ...

  8. One-dimensional models of thermal activation under shear stress

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Nabarro, FRN

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available - dimensional models presented here may illuminate the study of more realistic models. For the model in which as many dislocations are poised for backward jumps as for forward jumps, the experimental activation volume Vye(C27a) under applied stresses close to C...27a is different from the true activation volume V(C27) evaluated at C27 ?C27a. The relations between the two are developed. A model is then discussed in which fewer dislocations are available for backward than for forward jumps. Finally...

  9. Model based on diffuse logic for the construction of indicators of urban vulnerability in natural phenomena

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garcia L, Carlos Eduardo; Hurtado G, Jorge Eduardo

    2003-01-01

    Upon considering the vulnerability of a urban system in a holistic way and taking into account some natural, technological and social factors, a model based upon a system of fuzzy logic, allowing to estimate the vulnerability of any system under natural phenomena potentially catastrophic is proposed. The model incorporates quantitative and qualitative variables in a dynamic system, in which variations in one of them have a positive or negative impact over the rest. An urban system model and an indicator model to determine the vulnerability due to natural phenomena were designed

  10. AMBI indices and multivariate approach to assess the ecological health of Vellar-Coleroon estuarine system undergoing various human activities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sigamani, Sivaraj; Perumal, Murugesan; Arumugam, Silambarasan; Preetha Mini Jose, H M; Veeraiyan, Bharathidasan

    2015-11-15

    Estuaries receive a considerable amount of pollutants from various sources. Presently an attempt has been made to assess whether the aquaculture discharges and dredging activities alter the ecological conditions of Vellar-Coleroon estuarine complex. The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) established a framework for the protection of marine waters. In this commission, a variety of indices were used, among them, AMBI (AZTI Marine Biotic Index) indices along with multivariate statistical approach is unique, to assess the ecological status by using macrobenthic communities. Keeping this in view, stations VE-1 and VE-4 in Vellar; CE-6 and CE-7 in Coleroon estuaries showed moderately disturbed with the AMBI values ranging between 3.45 and 3.72. The above said stations were situated near the shrimp farm discharge point and sites of dredging activities. The present study proves that various statistical and biotic indices have great potential in assessing the nature of the ecosystem undergoing various human pressures. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Gill ATPase activity in Procambarus clarkii as an indicator of heavy metal pollution

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Torreblanca, A.; Del Ramo, J.; Diaz-Mayans, J. (Univ. of Valencia (Spain))

    1989-06-01

    Lake Albufera and the surrounding rice field waters are subjected to very heavy loads of sewage and toxic industrial residues, including heavy metals, from the many urban and waste waters of this area. The American red crayfish, Procambarus clarkii have a high resistance to toxic effects of heavy metals. The sublethal effects of heavy metals on gills of fish and aquatic invertebrates have been extensively studied. Some metabolic disturbances and histologic damages have been reported, as well as osmoregulation alterations. However, little work has been done about the effect of heavy metals on Na,K and Mg-ATPases of freshwater invertebrate gills. Na,K-ATPase is the prime mediator of ion transport across cellular membranes and plays a central role in whole body ion regulation in marine and estuarine animals. Na,K-ATPase has been reviewed and assessed as a potentially useful indicator of pollution stress in aquatic animals. The purpose of this study is look for the relation, if any, between crayfish gill ATP-ase activity changes and metal exposure in laboratory. This find would allow the authors to assay this potential indicator in the field.

  12. Bioclimatic indices based on the menex model example on Banja Luka

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pecelj Milica

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available It has long been known that weather and climate have influence on human health and well-being. The human organism is in constant interaction with the environmental conditions. To access the atmospheric impact on humans, different methods in human bioclimatology are created. Most of them are based on human heat balance. In this paper it has been tried to present several bioclimatic indices based on the human heat balance according to the bioclimatic model menex (man-environment exchange. The aim of this paper is to present bioclimatic conditions in Banja Luka vicinage (Bosnia and Herzegovina and to explore climate-recreation relationship. In the near vicinity of Banja Luka there are three spa centers that are favorable for recreation. For this analysis average available daily weather data for two extreme months (January and July, 1990 were used as well as the average monthly weather values for the period 1961-1990. The data were taken from Banja Luka weather station. As a result, several thermophisiological bioclimatic indices have been obtained. These are heat load in man, physiological strain, subjective temperature, subjective physiological temperature.

  13. Mathematical model of combined parametrical analysis of indicator process and thermal loading on the Diesel engine piston

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Lebedeva

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available In the publication the methodical aspects of a mathematical model of the combined parametrical analysis of an indicator process and thermal loading on the diesel engine piston have been considered. A thermodynamic model of a diesel engine cycle is developed. The executed development is intended for use during researches and on the initial stages of design work. Its realization for high revolution diesel engines of perspective type CHN15/15 allowed to choose rational variants for the organization of an indicator process and to prove power ranges of application for not cooled and created cooled oil welded pistons.

  14. Reliability and usability of tourism climate indices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ghislain Dubois

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Tourism climate indices (TCI are commonly used to describe the climate conditions suitable for tourism activities, from the planning, investment or daily operations perspectives. A substantial amount of research has been carried out, in particular with respect to new indices formulae adapted to specific tourism products, and parameters and their weighting, taking into account surveys on the stated preferences of tourists, especially in terms of comfort. This paper illustrates another field of research, which seeks to better understand the different sources of uncertainty associated with indices. Indeed, slight differences in formula thresholds, variations in computation methods, and also the use of multimodel ensembles create nuances that affect the ways in which indices projections are usually presented. Firstly, we assess the impact of differences in preference surveys on the definition of indices thresholds, in particular for thermal comfort. Secondly, we compare computation methods for France, showing the need to better specify detailed data sources and their use to ensure the comparability of results. Thirdly, using multimodel ensembles for the Mediterranean basin, we assess the uncertainty inherent in long-term projections, which are used in modelling the economic impact of climate change. This paper argues in favour of a more cautious use of tourism comfort indices, with more consideration given to the robustness of data (validation, debiasing, uncertainty assessment, etc. and users’ needs, from the climate services perspective.

  15. Identifying carcinogenic activity of methylated and non-methylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) through electronic and topological indices

    CERN Document Server

    Braga, R S; Barone, P M V B

    2000-01-01

    Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of planar molecules, abundant in urban environment, which can induce chemical carcinogenesis. Their carcinogenic power varies in a large range, from very strong carcinogens to inactive ones. In a previous study, we proposed a methodology to identify the PAHs carcinogenic activity exploring electronic and topological indices. In the present work, we show that it is possible to simplify that methodology and expand its applicability to include methylated PAHs compounds. Using very simple rules, we can predict their carcinogenic activity with high accuracy (approx 89%).

  16. Spatial correlation structure of the ionosphere predicted by geomagnetic indices and application to global field modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holschneider, M.; Ferrat, K.; Lesur, V.; Stolle, C.

    2017-12-01

    Ionospheric fields are modelled in terms of random structures taking into account a mean behaviour as well as random fluctuations which are described through two point correlation kernels. These kernels are estimated from long time series of numerical simulations from various models. These correlations are best expressed in SM system of coordinates. For the moment we limit ourselves to spatial correlations only in this coordinate system. We study the influence of various indices as possible predictor parameters for these correlations as well as seasonal effects. The various time series of ionospheric fields are stored in a HDF5 database which is accessible via a web interface. The obtained correlation structures serve as prior information to separate external and internal field components from observatory based measurements. We present a model that predicts the correlations as a function of time and some geomagnetic indices. First results of the inversion from observatory data are presented.

  17. Comparative characteristics of immune answers indicators depending on the replicative activity and genotype of hepatitis c virus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Олеся Василівна Гололобова

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Aim. To analyze the character of changes and disorders of immune system with the help of complex study of indicators of cellular and humor section of immunity, cytokine status in patients with HCV-infection taking into account the replicative activity, genotype of virus and to formulate the possible causes of chronization.Methods. There were examined 155 patients with HCV-infection. An acute hepatitis C AHC was fixed in 23,9 %, chronic hepatitis C (CHC– in 76,1 %, 18–70 years old. Among examined patients with AHC and CHC prevailed men (67,6 and 72 % respectively. Diagnosis was set on the base of clinic and amnestic, epidemiologic, laboratory and instrumental data. Epidemiologic verification of diagnosis was realized by detection the specific serologic markers of HC (anti-HCV (sum, anti-HCV IgM and Ig G, anti-HCV core and anti-HCV NS-3, NS-4, NS-5 in blood serum using ELISA method. Molecular and genetic studies that included definition of replicative activity of HCV evaluated on the base of detection of RNA HCV in blood serum using the qualitative PCR method were carried out in 126 patients (31 with AHC and 95 with CHC. At the same time RNA of HCV was detected in peripheral blood in all (31 patients with AHC and in 74 (77,89 % patients with CHC. Using the method of restriction analysis we carried out the genetic typing of HCV in 90 patients with AHC and 60 with CHC. We carried out the comparative characteristics of the content of immunologic indicators in 45 (75 % patients with CHC with positive and 15 (25 % patients with negative results of PCR-study (polymerase chain reaction of HCV RNA in blood. For detection of regularities of changes of immune status depending on virus genotype there was carried out the comparative assessment of the content of immunologic indicators in patients with AHC and CHC with the most widespread genotypes of HVC– 1b and 3a. Immunologic studies included the definitions of the main subpopulations of lymphocytes

  18. Critical factors influencing physicians' intention to use computerized clinical practice guidelines: an integrative model of activity theory and the technology acceptance model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsiao, Ju-Ling; Chen, Rai-Fu

    2016-01-16

    With the widespread use of information communication technologies, computerized clinical practice guidelines are developed and considered as effective decision supporting tools in assisting the processes of clinical activities. However, the development of computerized clinical practice guidelines in Taiwan is still at the early stage and acceptance level among major users (physicians) of computerized clinical practice guidelines is not satisfactory. This study aims to investigate critical factors influencing physicians' intention to computerized clinical practice guideline use through an integrative model of activity theory and the technology acceptance model. The survey methodology was employed to collect data from physicians of the investigated hospitals that have implemented computerized clinical practice guidelines. A total of 505 questionnaires were sent out, with 238 completed copies returned, indicating a valid response rate of 47.1 %. The collected data was then analyzed by structural equation modeling technique. The results showed that attitudes toward using computerized clinical practice guidelines (γ = 0.451, p technology) factors mentioned in the activity theory should be carefully considered when introducing computerized clinical practice guidelines. Managers should pay much attention on those identified factors and provide adequate resources and incentives to help the promotion and use of computerized clinical practice guidelines. Through the appropriate use of computerized clinical practice guidelines, the clinical benefits, particularly in improving quality of care and facilitating the clinical processes, will be realized.

  19. An Analysis of Audio Features to Develop a Human Activity Recognition Model Using Genetic Algorithms, Random Forests, and Neural Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos E. Galván-Tejada

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This work presents a human activity recognition (HAR model based on audio features. The use of sound as an information source for HAR models represents a challenge because sound wave analyses generate very large amounts of data. However, feature selection techniques may reduce the amount of data required to represent an audio signal sample. Some of the audio features that were analyzed include Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC. Although MFCC are commonly used in voice and instrument recognition, their utility within HAR models is yet to be confirmed, and this work validates their usefulness. Additionally, statistical features were extracted from the audio samples to generate the proposed HAR model. The size of the information is necessary to conform a HAR model impact directly on the accuracy of the model. This problem also was tackled in the present work; our results indicate that we are capable of recognizing a human activity with an accuracy of 85% using the HAR model proposed. This means that minimum computational costs are needed, thus allowing portable devices to identify human activities using audio as an information source.

  20. Useful model organisms, indicators, or both? Ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) reflecting environmental conditions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koivula, Matti J

    2011-01-01

    Classic studies have successfully linked single-species abundances, life-history traits, assemblage structures and biomass of carabid beetles to past and present, human-caused environmental impacts and variation in 'natural' conditions. This evidence has led many to suggest carabids to function as 'indicators' - a term that bears multiple meanings. Here, a conservation-oriented definition for an indicator is used, carabid indicator potential from seven views is evaluated, and ways to proceed in indicator research are discussed. (1) Carabid species richness poorly indicates the richness and abundance of other taxa, which underlines the importance of using multiple taxa in environmental assessments. The ability of assemblage indices and specialist or functional-group abundances to reflect rare species and habitats should be examined in detail. (2) Experimental evidence suggests that carabids may potentially serve as keystone indicators. (3) Carabids are sensitive to human-altered abiotic conditions, such as pesticide use in agro-ecosystems and heavy metal contamination of soils. Carabids might thus reflect ecological sustainability and 'ecosystem health'. (4) Carabid assemblages host abundant species characteristic of particular habitat types or successional stages, which makes them promising dominance indicators. (5) Carabids reflect variation in 'natural' conditions, but vegetation and structural features are more commonly adopted as condition indicators. Carabids nevertheless provide yet another, equally accurate, view on the structure of the environment. (6) Carabids may function as early-warning signalers, as suggested by recent studies linking climate and carabid distributions. (7) Carabids reflect natural and human-caused disturbances and management, but the usefulness of these responses for conservation purposes requires further research. In summary, European carabids appear useful model organisms and possibly indicators because they are diverse

  1. Preference as a Function of Active Interresponse Times: A Test of the Active Time Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Misak, Paul; Cleaveland, J. Mark

    2011-01-01

    In this article, we describe a test of the active time model for concurrent variable interval (VI) choice. The active time model (ATM) suggests that the time since the most recent response is one of the variables controlling choice in concurrent VI VI schedules of reinforcement. In our experiment, pigeons were trained in a multiple concurrent…

  2. A cluster expansion model for predicting activation barrier of atomic processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rehman, Tafizur; Jaipal, M.; Chatterjee, Abhijit

    2013-01-01

    We introduce a procedure based on cluster expansion models for predicting the activation barrier of atomic processes encountered while studying the dynamics of a material system using the kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) method. Starting with an interatomic potential description, a mathematical derivation is presented to show that the local environment dependence of the activation barrier can be captured using cluster interaction models. Next, we develop a systematic procedure for training the cluster interaction model on-the-fly, which involves: (i) obtaining activation barriers for handful local environments using nudged elastic band (NEB) calculations, (ii) identifying the local environment by analyzing the NEB results, and (iii) estimating the cluster interaction model parameters from the activation barrier data. Once a cluster expansion model has been trained, it is used to predict activation barriers without requiring any additional NEB calculations. Numerical studies are performed to validate the cluster expansion model by studying hop processes in Ag/Ag(100). We show that the use of cluster expansion model with KMC enables efficient generation of an accurate process rate catalog

  3. Percentile-Based ETCCDI Temperature Extremes Indices for CMIP5 Model Output: New Results through Semiparametric Quantile Regression Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, L.; Yang, C.

    2017-12-01

    Climate extremes often manifest as rare events in terms of surface air temperature and precipitation with an annual reoccurrence period. In order to represent the manifold characteristics of climate extremes for monitoring and analysis, the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI) had worked out a set of 27 core indices based on daily temperature and precipitation data, describing extreme weather and climate events on an annual basis. The CLIMDEX project (http://www.climdex.org) had produced public domain datasets of such indices for data from a variety of sources, including output from global climate models (GCM) participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). Among the 27 ETCCDI indices, there are six percentile-based temperature extremes indices that may fall into two groups: exceedance rates (ER) (TN10p, TN90p, TX10p and TX90p) and durations (CSDI and WSDI). Percentiles must be estimated prior to the calculation of the indices, and could more or less be biased by the adopted algorithm. Such biases will in turn be propagated to the final results of indices. The CLIMDEX used an empirical quantile estimator combined with a bootstrap resampling procedure to reduce the inhomogeneity in the annual series of the ER indices. However, there are still some problems remained in the CLIMDEX datasets, namely the overestimated climate variability due to unaccounted autocorrelation in the daily temperature data, seasonally varying biases and inconsistency between algorithms applied to the ER indices and to the duration indices. We now present new results of the six indices through a semiparametric quantile regression approach for the CMIP5 model output. By using the base-period data as a whole and taking seasonality and autocorrelation into account, this approach successfully addressed the aforementioned issues and came out with consistent results. The new datasets cover the historical and three projected (RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP

  4. Aerosol activation and cloud processing in the global aerosol-climate model ECHAM5-HAM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. J. Roelofs

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available A parameterization for cloud processing is presented that calculates activation of aerosol particles to cloud drops, cloud drop size, and pH-dependent aqueous phase sulfur chemistry. The parameterization is implemented in the global aerosol-climate model ECHAM5-HAM. The cloud processing parameterization uses updraft speed, temperature, and aerosol size and chemical parameters simulated by ECHAM5-HAM to estimate the maximum supersaturation at the cloud base, and subsequently the cloud drop number concentration (CDNC due to activation. In-cloud sulfate production occurs through oxidation of dissolved SO2 by ozone and hydrogen peroxide. The model simulates realistic distributions for annually averaged CDNC although it is underestimated especially in remote marine regions. On average, CDNC is dominated by cloud droplets growing on particles from the accumulation mode, with smaller contributions from the Aitken and coarse modes. The simulations indicate that in-cloud sulfate production is a potentially important source of accumulation mode sized cloud condensation nuclei, due to chemical growth of activated Aitken particles and to enhanced coalescence of processed particles. The strength of this source depends on the distribution of produced sulfate over the activated modes. This distribution is affected by uncertainties in many parameters that play a direct role in particle activation, such as the updraft velocity, the aerosol chemical composition and the organic solubility, and the simulated CDNC is found to be relatively sensitive to these uncertainties.

  5. Prothrombin fragment 1+2 in urine as an indicator of sustained coagulation activation after total hip arthroplasty

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Borris, L.C.; Breindahl, M.; Ryge, C.

    2007-01-01

    Purpose: Prothrombin fragment 1 + 2 measured in spot urine (uF1 + 2) is an indicator of thrombin generation. We examined whether measured levels of uF1 + 2 can be used to differentiate between patients who do and do not acquire sustained coagulation activation after total hip arthroplasty (THA...

  6. Modeling change in learning strategies throughout higher education: a multi-indicator latent growth perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coertjens, Liesje; Donche, Vincent; De Maeyer, Sven; Vanthournout, Gert; Van Petegem, Peter

    2013-01-01

    The change in learning strategies during higher education is an important topic of research in the Student Approaches to Learning field. Although the studies on this topic are increasingly longitudinal, analyses have continued to rely primarily on traditional statistical methods. The present research is innovative in the way it uses a multi-indicator latent growth analysis in order to more accurately estimate the general and differential development in learning strategy scales. Moreover, the predictive strength of the latent growth models are estimated. The sample consists of one cohort of Flemish University College students, 245 of whom participated in the three measurement waves by filling out the processing and regulation strategies scales of the Inventory of Learning Styles--Short Versions. Independent-samples t-tests revealed that the longitudinal group is a non-random subset of students starting University College. For each scale, a multi-indicator latent growth model is estimated using Mplus 6.1. Results suggest that, on average, during higher education, students persisting in their studies in a non-delayed manner seem to shift towards high-quality learning and away from undirected and surface-oriented learning. Moreover, students from the longitudinal group are found to vary in their initial levels, while, unexpectedly, not in their change over time. Although the growth models fit the data well, significant residual variances in the latent factors remain.

  7. Modeling change in learning strategies throughout higher education: a multi-indicator latent growth perspective.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liesje Coertjens

    Full Text Available The change in learning strategies during higher education is an important topic of research in the Student Approaches to Learning field. Although the studies on this topic are increasingly longitudinal, analyses have continued to rely primarily on traditional statistical methods. The present research is innovative in the way it uses a multi-indicator latent growth analysis in order to more accurately estimate the general and differential development in learning strategy scales. Moreover, the predictive strength of the latent growth models are estimated. The sample consists of one cohort of Flemish University College students, 245 of whom participated in the three measurement waves by filling out the processing and regulation strategies scales of the Inventory of Learning Styles--Short Versions. Independent-samples t-tests revealed that the longitudinal group is a non-random subset of students starting University College. For each scale, a multi-indicator latent growth model is estimated using Mplus 6.1. Results suggest that, on average, during higher education, students persisting in their studies in a non-delayed manner seem to shift towards high-quality learning and away from undirected and surface-oriented learning. Moreover, students from the longitudinal group are found to vary in their initial levels, while, unexpectedly, not in their change over time. Although the growth models fit the data well, significant residual variances in the latent factors remain.

  8. Modeling and Visualization of Human Activities for Multicamera Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aswin C. Sankaranarayanan

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Multicamera networks are becoming complex involving larger sensing areas in order to capture activities and behavior that evolve over long spatial and temporal windows. This necessitates novel methods to process the information sensed by the network and visualize it for an end user. In this paper, we describe a system for modeling and on-demand visualization of activities of groups of humans. Using the prior knowledge of the 3D structure of the scene as well as camera calibration, the system localizes humans as they navigate the scene. Activities of interest are detected by matching models of these activities learnt a priori against the multiview observations. The trajectories and the activity index for each individual summarize the dynamic content of the scene. These are used to render the scene with virtual 3D human models that mimic the observed activities of real humans. In particular, the rendering framework is designed to handle large displays with a cluster of GPUs as well as reduce the cognitive dissonance by rendering realistic weather effects and illumination. We envision use of this system for immersive visualization as well as summarization of videos that capture group behavior.

  9. Review evaluation indicators of health information technology course of master's degree in medical sciences universities' based on CIPP Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yarmohammadian, Mohammad Hossein; Mohebbi, Nooshin

    2015-01-01

    Sensitivity of teaching and learning processes in universities emphasizes the necessity of assessment of the quality of education which improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the country. This study was conducted with an aim to review and develop the evaluation criteria of health information technology course at Master of Science level in Tehran, Shahid Beheshti, Isfahan, Shiraz, and Kashan medical universities in 2012 by using CIPP model. This was an applied and descriptive research with statistical population of faculty members (23), students (97), directorates (5), and library staff (5), with a total of 130 people, and sampling was done as a census. In order to collect data, four questionnaires were used based on Likert scale with scores ranging from 1 to 5. Questionnaires' validity was confirmed by consulting with health information technology and educational evaluation experts, and questionnaires' reliability of directorates, faculty, students, and library staff was tested using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient formula, which gave r = 0.74, r = 0.93, r = 0.98, and r = 0.80, respectively. SPSS software for data analysis and both descriptive and inferential statistics containing mean, frequency percentage, standard deviation, Pearson correlation, and Spearman correlation were used. With studies from various sources, commentary of experts, and based on the CIPP evaluation model, 139 indicators were determined and then evaluated, which were associated with this course based on the three factors of context, input, and process in the areas of human resources professional, academic services, students, directors, faculty, curriculum, budget, facilities, teaching-learning activities, and scientific research activities of students and faculty, and the activities of the library staff. This study showed that in total, the health information technology course at the Master of Science level is relatively good, but trying to improve and correct it in some areas and

  10. Forming Factors And Builder Indicators Of Brand Personality Models In Traditional Retail Traders

    OpenAIRE

    Yunelly Asra; Teguh Widodo

    2017-01-01

    This study aims to find the factors forming and indicator builder model of brand personality of traditional retail traders through measuring the influence of retail mix and culture. The formation of brand personality uses Aaker brand personality dimension to 250 consumers in Bengkalis Regency. The type of research is causal research design. The research variables are brand personality Retail Mix and Brand Personality. Data collection is done by probability sampling with purposive method. Data...

  11. Constructing coincident indices of economic activity for the Latin American economy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    João Victor Issler

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper has three main contributions. The first is to propose an individual coincident indicator for the following Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. In order to obtain similar series to those traditionally used in business-cycle research in constructing coincident indices (output, sales, income and employment we were forced to back-cast several individual country series which were not available in a long time-series span. The second contribution is to establish a chronology of recessions for these countries, covering the period from 1980 to 2012 on a monthly basis. Based on this chronology, the countries are compared in several respects. The final contribution is to propose an aggregate coincident indicator for the Latin American economy, which weights individual-country composite indices. Finally, this indicator is compared with the coincident indicator (The Conference Board - TCB of the U.S. economy. We find that the U.S. indicator Granger-causes the Latin American indicator in statistical tests

  12. Therapeutic Targets for Neurodevelopmental Disorders Emerging from Animal Models with Perinatal Immune Activation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daisuke Ibi

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Increasing epidemiological evidence indicates that perinatal infection with various viral pathogens enhances the risk for several psychiatric disorders. The pathophysiological significance of astrocyte interactions with neurons and/or gut microbiomes has been reported in neurodevelopmental disorders triggered by pre- and postnatal immune insults. Recent studies with the maternal immune activation or neonatal polyriboinosinic polyribocytidylic acid models of neurodevelopmental disorders have identified various candidate molecules that could be responsible for brain dysfunction. Here, we review the functions of several candidate molecules in neurodevelopment and brain function and discuss their potential as therapeutic targets for psychiatric disorders.

  13. Mechanical properties and leaching modeling of activated incinerator bottom ash in Portland cement blends.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Onori, Roberta; Polettini, Alessandra; Pomi, Raffaella

    2011-02-01

    In the present study the evolution of mechanical strength and the leaching behavior of major and trace elements from activated incinerator bottom ash/Portland cement mixtures were investigated. Chemical and mechanical activation were applied with the purpose of improving the reactivity of bottom ash in cement blends. Chemical activation made use of NaOH, KOH, CaCl(2) or CaSO(4), which were selected for the experimental campaign on the basis of the results from previous studies. The results indicated that CaCl(2) exhibited by far the best effects on the evolution of the hydration process in the mixtures; a positive effect on mechanical strength was also observed when CaSO(4) was used as the activator, while the gain in strength produced by KOH and NaOH was irrelevant. Geochemical modeling of the leaching solutions provided information on the mineral phases responsible for the release of major elements from the hardened materials and also indicated the important role played by surface sorption onto amorphous Fe and Al minerals in dictating the leaching of Pb. The leaching of the other trace metal cations investigated (Cu, Ni and Zn) could not be explained by any pure mineral included in the thermodynamic database used, suggesting they were present in the materials in the form of complex minerals or phase assemblages for which no consistent thermodynamic data are presently available in the literature. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Blood flow to long bones indicates activity metabolism in mammals, reptiles and dinosaurs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seymour, Roger S; Smith, Sarah L; White, Craig R; Henderson, Donald M; Schwarz-Wings, Daniela

    2012-02-07

    The cross-sectional area of a nutrient foramen of a long bone is related to blood flow requirements of the internal bone cells that are essential for dynamic bone remodelling. Foramen area increases with body size in parallel among living mammals and non-varanid reptiles, but is significantly larger in mammals. An index of blood flow rate through the foramina is about 10 times higher in mammals than in reptiles, and even higher if differences in blood pressure are considered. The scaling of foramen size correlates well with maximum whole-body metabolic rate during exercise in mammals and reptiles, but less well with resting metabolic rate. This relates to the role of blood flow associated with bone remodelling during and following activity. Mammals and varanid lizards have much higher aerobic metabolic rates and exercise-induced bone remodelling than non-varanid reptiles. Foramen areas of 10 species of dinosaur from five taxonomic groups are generally larger than from mammals, indicating a routinely highly active and aerobic lifestyle. The simple measurement holds possibilities offers the possibility of assessing other groups of extinct and living vertebrates in relation to body size, behaviour and habitat.

  15. Building Analysis for Urban Energy Planning Using Key Indicators on Virtual 3d City Models - the Energy Atlas of Berlin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krüger, A.; Kolbe, T. H.

    2012-07-01

    In the context of increasing greenhouse gas emission and global demographic change with the simultaneous trend to urbanization, it is a big challenge for cities around the world to perform modifications in energy supply chain and building characteristics resulting in reduced energy consumption and carbon dioxide mitigation. Sound knowledge of energy resource demand and supply including its spatial distribution within urban areas is of great importance for planning strategies addressing greater energy efficiency. The understanding of the city as a complex energy system affects several areas of the urban living, e.g. energy supply, urban texture, human lifestyle, and climate protection. With the growing availability of 3D city models around the world based on the standard language and format CityGML, energy system modelling, analysis and simulation can be incorporated into these models. Both domains will profit from that interaction by bringing together official and accurate building models including building geometries, semantics and locations forming a realistic image of the urban structure with systemic energy simulation models. A holistic view on the impacts of energy planning scenarios can be modelled and analyzed including side effects on urban texture and human lifestyle. This paper focuses on the identification, classification, and integration of energy-related key indicators of buildings and neighbourhoods within 3D building models. Consequent application of 3D city models conforming to CityGML serves the purpose of deriving indicators for this topic. These will be set into the context of urban energy planning within the Energy Atlas Berlin. The generation of indicator objects covering the indicator values and related processing information will be presented on the sample scenario estimation of heating energy consumption in buildings and neighbourhoods. In their entirety the key indicators will form an adequate image of the local energy situation for

  16. Daily life activity routine discovery in hemiparetic rehabilitation patients using topic models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seiter, J; Derungs, A; Schuster-Amft, C; Amft, O; Tröster, G

    2015-01-01

    Monitoring natural behavior and activity routines of hemiparetic rehabilitation patients across the day can provide valuable progress information for therapists and patients and contribute to an optimized rehabilitation process. In particular, continuous patient monitoring could add type, frequency and duration of daily life activity routines and hence complement standard clinical scores that are assessed for particular tasks only. Machine learning methods have been applied to infer activity routines from sensor data. However, supervised methods require activity annotations to build recognition models and thus require extensive patient supervision. Discovery methods, including topic models could provide patient routine information and deal with variability in activity and movement performance across patients. Topic models have been used to discover characteristic activity routine patterns of healthy individuals using activity primitives recognized from supervised sensor data. Yet, the applicability of topic models for hemiparetic rehabilitation patients and techniques to derive activity primitives without supervision needs to be addressed. We investigate, 1) whether a topic model-based activity routine discovery framework can infer activity routines of rehabilitation patients from wearable motion sensor data. 2) We compare the performance of our topic model-based activity routine discovery using rule-based and clustering-based activity vocabulary. We analyze the activity routine discovery in a dataset recorded with 11 hemiparetic rehabilitation patients during up to ten full recording days per individual in an ambulatory daycare rehabilitation center using wearable motion sensors attached to both wrists and the non-affected thigh. We introduce and compare rule-based and clustering-based activity vocabulary to process statistical and frequency acceleration features to activity words. Activity words were used for activity routine pattern discovery using topic models

  17. Unsymmetrical dizinc complexes as models for the active sites of phosphohydrolases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jarenmark, Martin; Csapó, Edit; Singh, Jyoti; Wöckel, Simone; Farkas, Etelka; Meyer, Franc; Haukka, Matti; Nordlander, Ebbe

    2010-09-21

    The unsymmetrical dinucleating ligand 2-(N-isopropyl-N-((2-pyridyl)methyl)aminomethyl)-6-(N-(carboxylmethyl)-N-((2-pyridyl)methyl)aminomethyl)-4-methylphenol (IPCPMP or L) has been synthesized to model the active site environment of dinuclear metallohydrolases. It has been isolated as the hexafluorophosphate salt H(4)IPCPMP(PF(6))(2) x 2 H(2)O (H(4)L), which has been structurally characterized, and has been used to form two different Zn(II) complexes, [{Zn(2)(IPCPMP)(OAc)}(2)][PF(6)](2) (2) and [{Zn(2)(IPCPMP)(Piv)}(2)][PF(6)](2) (3) (OAc = acetate; Piv = pivalate). The crystal structures of and show that they consist of tetranuclear complexes with very similar structures. Infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry indicate that the tetranuclear complexes dissociate into dinuclear complexes in solution. Potentiometric studies of the Zn(II):IPCPMP system in aqueous solution reveal that a mononuclear complex is surprisingly stable at low pH, even at a 2:1 Zn(II):L ratio, but a dinuclear complex dominates at high pH and transforms into a dihydroxido complex by a cooperative deprotonation of two, probably terminally coordinated, water molecules. A kinetic investigation indicates that one of these hydroxides is the active nucleophile in the hydrolysis of bis(2,4-dinitrophenyl)phosphate (BDNPP) enhanced by complex 2, and mechanistic proposals are presented for this reaction as well as the previously reported transesterification of 2-hydroxypropyl p-nitrophenyl phosphate (HPNP) promoted by Zn(II) complexes of IPCPMP.

  18. Useful model organisms, indicators, or both? Ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae reflecting environmental conditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matti Koivula

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Classic studies have successfully linked single-species abundances, life-history traits, assemblage structures and biomass of carabid beetles to past and present, human-caused environmental impacts and variation in ‘natural’ conditions. This evidence has led many to suggest carabids to function as ‘indicators’ − a term that bears multiple meanings. Here, a conservation-oriented definition for an indicator is used, carabid indicator potential from seven views is evaluated, and ways to proceed in indicator research are discussed. (1 Carabid species richness poorly indicates the richness and abundance of other taxa, which underlines the importance of using multiple taxa in environmental assessments. The ability of assemblage indices and specialist or functional-group abundances to reflect rare species and habitats should be examined in detail. (2 Experimental evidence suggests that carabids may potentially serve as keystone indicators. (3 Carabids are sensitive to human-altered abiotic conditions, such as pesticide use in agro-ecosystems and heavy metal contamination of soils. Carabids might thus reflect ecological sustainability and ‘ecosystem health’. (4 Carabid assemblages host abundant species characteristic of particular habitat types or successional stages, which makes them promising dominance indicators. (5 Carabids reflect variation in ‘natural’ conditions, but vegetation and structural features are more commonly adopted as condition indicators. Carabids nevertheless provide yet another, equally accurate, view on the structure of the environment. (6 Carabids may function as early-warning signalers, as suggested by recent studies linking climate and carabid distributions. (7 Carabids reflect natural and human-caused disturbances and management, but the usefulness of these responses for conservation purposes requires further research. In summary, European carabids appear useful model organisms and possibly indicators because

  19. Active Exploration of Large 3D Model Repositories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Lin; Cao, Yan-Pei; Lai, Yu-Kun; Huang, Hao-Zhi; Kobbelt, Leif; Hu, Shi-Min

    2015-12-01

    With broader availability of large-scale 3D model repositories, the need for efficient and effective exploration becomes more and more urgent. Existing model retrieval techniques do not scale well with the size of the database since often a large number of very similar objects are returned for a query, and the possibilities to refine the search are quite limited. We propose an interactive approach where the user feeds an active learning procedure by labeling either entire models or parts of them as "like" or "dislike" such that the system can automatically update an active set of recommended models. To provide an intuitive user interface, candidate models are presented based on their estimated relevance for the current query. From the methodological point of view, our main contribution is to exploit not only the similarity between a query and the database models but also the similarities among the database models themselves. We achieve this by an offline pre-processing stage, where global and local shape descriptors are computed for each model and a sparse distance metric is derived that can be evaluated efficiently even for very large databases. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method by interactively exploring a repository containing over 100 K models.

  20. A measurement error model for physical activity level as measured by a questionnaire with application to the 1999-2006 NHANES questionnaire.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tooze, Janet A; Troiano, Richard P; Carroll, Raymond J; Moshfegh, Alanna J; Freedman, Laurence S

    2013-06-01

    Systematic investigations into the structure of measurement error of physical activity questionnaires are lacking. We propose a measurement error model for a physical activity questionnaire that uses physical activity level (the ratio of total energy expenditure to basal energy expenditure) to relate questionnaire-based reports of physical activity level to true physical activity levels. The 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey physical activity questionnaire was administered to 433 participants aged 40-69 years in the Observing Protein and Energy Nutrition (OPEN) Study (Maryland, 1999-2000). Valid estimates of participants' total energy expenditure were also available from doubly labeled water, and basal energy expenditure was estimated from an equation; the ratio of those measures estimated true physical activity level ("truth"). We present a measurement error model that accommodates the mixture of errors that arise from assuming a classical measurement error model for doubly labeled water and a Berkson error model for the equation used to estimate basal energy expenditure. The method was then applied to the OPEN Study. Correlations between the questionnaire-based physical activity level and truth were modest (r = 0.32-0.41); attenuation factors (0.43-0.73) indicate that the use of questionnaire-based physical activity level would lead to attenuated estimates of effect size. Results suggest that sample sizes for estimating relationships between physical activity level and disease should be inflated, and that regression calibration can be used to provide measurement error-adjusted estimates of relationships between physical activity and disease.

  1. Optimal fall indicators for slip induced falls on a cross-slope.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Domone, Sarah; Lawrence, Daniel; Heller, Ben; Hendra, Tim; Mawson, Sue; Wheat, Jonathan

    2016-08-01

    Slip-induced falls are among the most common cause of major occupational injuries in the UK as well as being a major public health concern in the elderly population. This study aimed to determine the optimal fall indicators for fall detection models which could be used to reduce the detrimental consequences of falls. A total of 264 kinematic variables covering three-dimensional full body model translation and rotational measures were analysed during normal walking, successful recovery from slips and falls on a cross-slope. Large effect sizes were found for three kinematic variables which were able to distinguish falls from normal walking and successful recovery. Further work should consider other types of daily living activities as results show that the optimal kinematic fall indicators can vary considerably between movement types. Practitioner Summary: Fall detection models are used to minimise the adverse consequences of slip-induced falls, a major public health concern. Optimal fall indicators were derived from a comprehensive set of kinematic variables for slips on a cross-slope. Results suggest robust detection of falls is possible on a cross-slope but may be more difficult than level walking.

  2. The Generalized Hill Model: A Kinematic Approach Towards Active Muscle Contraction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Menzel, Andreas; Kuhl, Ellen

    2014-01-01

    Excitation-contraction coupling is the physiological process of converting an electrical stimulus into a mechanical response. In muscle, the electrical stimulus is an action potential and the mechanical response is active contraction. The classical Hill model characterizes muscle contraction though one contractile element, activated by electrical excitation, and two non-linear springs, one in series and one in parallel. This rheology translates into an additive decomposition of the total stress into a passive and an active part. Here we supplement this additive decomposition of the stress by a multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient into a passive and an active part. We generalize the one-dimensional Hill model to the three-dimensional setting and constitutively define the passive stress as a function of the total deformation gradient and the active stress as a function of both the total deformation gradient and its active part. We show that this novel approach combines the features of both the classical stress-based Hill model and the recent active-strain models. While the notion of active stress is rather phenomenological in nature, active strain is micro-structurally motivated, physically measurable, and straightforward to calibrate. We demonstrate that our model is capable of simulating excitation-contraction coupling in cardiac muscle with its characteristic features of wall thickening, apical lift, and ventricular torsion. PMID:25221354

  3. High performance computation of landscape genomic models including local indicators of spatial association.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stucki, S; Orozco-terWengel, P; Forester, B R; Duruz, S; Colli, L; Masembe, C; Negrini, R; Landguth, E; Jones, M R; Bruford, M W; Taberlet, P; Joost, S

    2017-09-01

    With the increasing availability of both molecular and topo-climatic data, the main challenges facing landscape genomics - that is the combination of landscape ecology with population genomics - include processing large numbers of models and distinguishing between selection and demographic processes (e.g. population structure). Several methods address the latter, either by estimating a null model of population history or by simultaneously inferring environmental and demographic effects. Here we present samβada, an approach designed to study signatures of local adaptation, with special emphasis on high performance computing of large-scale genetic and environmental data sets. samβada identifies candidate loci using genotype-environment associations while also incorporating multivariate analyses to assess the effect of many environmental predictor variables. This enables the inclusion of explanatory variables representing population structure into the models to lower the occurrences of spurious genotype-environment associations. In addition, samβada calculates local indicators of spatial association for candidate loci to provide information on whether similar genotypes tend to cluster in space, which constitutes a useful indication of the possible kinship between individuals. To test the usefulness of this approach, we carried out a simulation study and analysed a data set from Ugandan cattle to detect signatures of local adaptation with samβada, bayenv, lfmm and an F ST outlier method (FDIST approach in arlequin) and compare their results. samβada - an open source software for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X available at http://lasig.epfl.ch/sambada - outperforms other approaches and better suits whole-genome sequence data processing. © 2016 The Authors. Molecular Ecology Resources Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  4. Development and use of safety indicators at STUK

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tiipana, P.

    2001-01-01

    This paper gives an outline of the development and use of STUK's indicator system at the department of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (YTO) in the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, STUK. Indicators used at YTO are measures related to the safety of nuclear installations and regulatory activities. Indicators are numbers, ratios, percentages and amounts of interested matters that are for suitable for regulatory purposes, that is assessment and trending of the safety of nuclear installations and regulatory activities. STUK's indicator system is divided into two main areas: safety of nuclear facilities and regulatory activities. Safety of nuclear facilities is divided into 3 areas based on the concept of defence in de safety and quality culture, operational events and physical barriers. Regulatory activities are divided into 3 areas: working processes, resource management and regeneration and ability to work. These areas are measured using several indicators. At the moment some of indicators are included in YTO's management system to measure whether or not internally set goals are achieved. (author)

  5. Association of Vitamin D with Diet Quality, Sun Exposure, Physical Activity, Sociodemographic and Anthropometrics Indices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Hossein Sharifi

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Background: Vitamin D has been linked to health conditions and many serious diseases including cardiovascular, diabetes, and cancer. This study was conducted to determine the correlation between vitamin D with diet quality, sun exposure, physical activity, sociodemographic, and anthropometrics indices. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 180 subjects (90 males and 90 females aged from 14 to 57 years were enrolled. A questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic and anthropometric data, physical activity and food intake information. The correlation between serum vitamin D with these variables was analyzed. Results: Significant difference was noted between two genders regarding age, weight, body mass index, waist circumference, job, income, physical activity, LDL, HDL, TG, and cholesterol. Low quality diets denoted to a mean global score of 47±6.3 and 46±6.4 in male and females, respectively. No significant difference was found between diet quality, calcium intake (1310±734 mg, and vitamin D intake (1.8±1.5 mg with serum vitamin D level. Further analysis revealed that there was a significant positive correlation between cholesterol and saturated fat intake and serum vitamin D. Between two genders, the correlation between physical activity (p<0.005, sitting time(p<0.04, and income (p<0.04 with serum vitamin D level was significant. Conclusion: Based on significant correlation between serum vitamin D level, with cholesterol, saturated fat intake, physical activity and income, we can conclude that physical activity has correlation with a favorable vitamin D status.

  6. Settings for Physical Activity – Developing a Site-specific Physical Activity Behavior Model based on Multi-level Intervention Studies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Troelsen, Jens; Klinker, Charlotte Demant; Breum, Lars

    Settings for Physical Activity – Developing a Site-specific Physical Activity Behavior Model based on Multi-level Intervention Studies Introduction: Ecological models of health behavior have potential as theoretical framework to comprehend the multiple levels of factors influencing physical...... to be taken into consideration. A theoretical implication of this finding is to develop a site-specific physical activity behavior model adding a layered structure to the ecological model representing the determinants related to the specific site. Support: This study was supported by TrygFonden, Realdania...... activity (PA). The potential is shown by the fact that there has been a dramatic increase in application of ecological models in research and practice. One proposed core principle is that an ecological model is most powerful if the model is behavior-specific. However, based on multi-level interventions...

  7. Design of optimized hypoxia-activated prodrugs using pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modeling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annika Bettina Foehrenbacher

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Hypoxia contributes to resistance of tumors to some cytotoxic drugs and to radiotherapy, but can in principle be exploited with hypoxia-activated prodrugs (HAP. HAP in clinical development fall into two broad groups. Class I HAP (like the benzotriazine N-oxides tirapazamine and SN30000, are activated under relatively mild hypoxia. In contrast, Class II HAP (such as the nitro compounds PR-104A or TH-302 are maximally activated only under extreme hypoxia, but their active metabolites (effectors diffuse to cells at intermediate O2 and thus also eliminate moderately hypoxic cells. Here, we use a spatially resolved pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (SR-PK/PD model to compare these two strategies and to identify the features required in an optimal Class II HAP. The model uses a Green’s function approach to calculate spatial and longitudinal gradients of O2, prodrug and effector concentrations, and resulting killing in a digitized 3D tumor microregion to estimate activity as monotherapy and in combination with radiotherapy. An analogous model for a normal tissue with mild hypoxia and short intervesssel distances (based on a cremaster muscle microvessel network was used to estimate tumor selectivity of cell killing. This showed that Class II HAP offer advantages over Class I including higher tumor selectivity and greater freedom to vary prodrug diffusibility and rate of metabolic activation. The model suggests that the largest gains in class II HAP antitumor activity could be realized by optimizing effector stability and prodrug activation rates. We also use the model to show that diffusion of effector into blood vessels is unlikely to materially increase systemic exposure for realistic tumor burdens and effector clearances. However, we show that the tumor selectivity achievable by hypoxia-dependent prodrug activation alone is limited if dose-limiting normal tissues are even mildly hypoxic

  8. Using Structured Additive Regression Models to Estimate Risk Factors of Malaria: Analysis of 2010 Malawi Malaria Indicator Survey Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chirombo, James; Lowe, Rachel; Kazembe, Lawrence

    2014-01-01

    Background After years of implementing Roll Back Malaria (RBM) interventions, the changing landscape of malaria in terms of risk factors and spatial pattern has not been fully investigated. This paper uses the 2010 malaria indicator survey data to investigate if known malaria risk factors remain relevant after many years of interventions. Methods We adopted a structured additive logistic regression model that allowed for spatial correlation, to more realistically estimate malaria risk factors. Our model included child and household level covariates, as well as climatic and environmental factors. Continuous variables were modelled by assuming second order random walk priors, while spatial correlation was specified as a Markov random field prior, with fixed effects assigned diffuse priors. Inference was fully Bayesian resulting in an under five malaria risk map for Malawi. Results Malaria risk increased with increasing age of the child. With respect to socio-economic factors, the greater the household wealth, the lower the malaria prevalence. A general decline in malaria risk was observed as altitude increased. Minimum temperatures and average total rainfall in the three months preceding the survey did not show a strong association with disease risk. Conclusions The structured additive regression model offered a flexible extension to standard regression models by enabling simultaneous modelling of possible nonlinear effects of continuous covariates, spatial correlation and heterogeneity, while estimating usual fixed effects of categorical and continuous observed variables. Our results confirmed that malaria epidemiology is a complex interaction of biotic and abiotic factors, both at the individual, household and community level and that risk factors are still relevant many years after extensive implementation of RBM activities. PMID:24991915

  9. Multi-indication Pharmacotherapeutic Multicriteria Decision Analytic Model for the Comparative Formulary Inclusion of Proton Pump Inhibitors in Qatar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Badriyeh, Daoud; Alabbadi, Ibrahim; Fahey, Michael; Al-Khal, Abdullatif; Zaidan, Manal

    2016-05-01

    The formulary inclusion of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) in the government hospital health services in Qatar is not comparative or restricted. Requests to include a PPI in the formulary are typically accepted if evidence of efficacy and tolerability is presented. There are no literature reports of a PPI scoring model that is based on comparatively weighted multiple indications and no reports of PPI selection in Qatar or the Middle East. This study aims to compare first-line use of the PPIs that exist in Qatar. The economic effect of the study recommendations was also quantified. A comparative, evidence-based multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) model was constructed to follow the multiple indications and pharmacotherapeutic criteria of PPIs. Literature and an expert panel informed the selection criteria of PPIs. Input from the relevant local clinician population steered the relative weighting of selection criteria. Comparatively scored PPIs, exceeding a defined score threshold, were recommended for selection. Weighted model scores were successfully developed, with 95% CI and 5% margin of error. The model comprised 7 main criteria and 38 subcriteria. Main criteria are indication, dosage frequency, treatment duration, best published evidence, available formulations, drug interactions, and pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties. Most weight was achieved for the indications selection criteria. Esomeprazole and rabeprazole were suggested as formulary options, followed by lansoprazole for nonformulary use. The estimated effect of the study recommendations was up to a 15.3% reduction in the annual PPI expenditure. Robustness of study conclusions against variabilities in study inputs was confirmed via sensitivity analyses. The implementation of a locally developed PPI-specific comparative MCDA scoring model, which is multiweighted indication and criteria based, into the Qatari formulary selection practices is a successful evidence-based cost-cutting exercise

  10. Protective effect of active perfusion in porcine models of acute myocardial ischemia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, Zanxiang; Mao, Zhifu; Dong, Shengjun; Liu, Baohui

    2016-01-01

    Mortality rates associated with off-pump coronary artery bypass (CAB) are relatively high, as the majority of patients requiring CAB are at a high risk for cardiac events. The present study aimed to establish porcine models of acute myocardial ischemia, and evaluate the protective role of shunt and active perfusion. A total of 30 pigs were randomly assigned to five groups, as follows: i) Sham (control); ii) A1 (shunt; stenosis rate, 55%); iii) A2 (shunt; stenosis rate, 75%); iv) B1 (active perfusion; stenosis rate, 55%); and v) B2 (active perfusion; stenosis rate, 75%) groups. Aortic pressure (P0), left anterior descending coronary pressure (P1), and coronary effective perfusion pressure (P1/P0) were measured. The expression levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), cardiac troponin (cTnI), creatine kinase-myocardial band (CK-MB), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2), and caspase-3 were detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or western blotting. The myocardial apoptosis rate was determined using the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling assay. Ischemia models with stenosis rates of 55 and 75% were successfully constructed following suturing of the descending artery. Compared with the control, the 55 and 75% stenosis groups demonstrated significantly decreased P1/P0, increased expression levels of TNF-α, cTnI, CK-MB, IL-6, IL-10 and caspase-3, an increased rate of myocardial apoptosis, and a decreased expression level of anti-apoptotic protein, Bcl-2. At 30 min following successful establishment of the model (ST segment elevation to 1 mm), group B demonstrated significantly increased P1/P0, decreased expression levels of TNF-α, cTnI, CK-MB, IL-6, IL-10 and caspase-3, a decreased rate of myocardial apoptosis, and an increased expression level of anti-apoptotic protein, Bcl-2. Furthermore, the current study indicated that active perfusion was more efficacious in maintaining myocardial perfusion and alleviating

  11. NRC performance indicator program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Singh, R.N.

    1987-01-01

    The performance indicator development work of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) interoffice task group involved several major activities that included selection of candidate indicators for a trial program, data collection and review, validation of the trial indicators, display method development, interactions with the industry, and selection of an optimum set of indicators for the program. After evaluating 27 potential indicators against certain ideal attributes, the task group selected 17 for the trial program. The pertinent data for these indicators were then collected from 50 plants at 30 sites. The validation of the indicators consisted of two primary processes: logical validity and statistical analysis. The six indicators currently in the program are scrams, safety system actuations, significant events, safety system failures, forced outage rate, and equipment forced outages per 100 critical hours. A report containing data on the six performance indicators and some supplemental information is issued on a quarterly basis. The NRC staff is also working on refinements of existing indicators and development of additional indicators as directed by the commission

  12. Evaluation on activation activity of reactor in JRR-2 applied 3 dimensional model to neutron flux calculation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kishimoto, Katsumi; Arigane, Kenji

    2005-03-01

    Revaluation to activation activity of reactor evaluated at the notification of dismantling submitted in 1997 was carried out in JRR-2 where decommissioning was advanced now. In the revaluation, estimation accuracy on neutron streaming at various horizontal experimental tubes was improved by applying 3 dimensional model to neutron transport calculation that had been carried out by 2 dimensional model, and calculating with TORT. As the result, excessive overestimations on horizontal experimental tubes and biological shield that had greatly contributed to total activation activity in evaluation at the notification of dismantling was revised, sum of their activation activities in the revaluation decreased to 1/18 (case after 1 year from the permanent shutdown of reactor) of evaluation at the notification of dismantling, and the structural materials that had large activation activity were changed. By the above, it was shown that introducing 3 dimensional model was effective in evaluation on activation activity of the research reactor that had a lot of various experimental tubes. Total activation activity of reactor by the revaluation depended on control rods, thermal shield plates and horizontal experimental tubes, and the value after 1 year from the permanent shutdown of reactor was 1.9x10 14 Bq. (author)

  13. A review of modeling approaches in activated sludge systems

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    use

    Key words: Mathematical modeling, water, wastewater, wastewater treatment plants, activated sludge systems. INTRODUCTION ... sedimentation processes which take place in the aeration ...... activated sludge waste water treatment systems.

  14. An automated approach for segmentation of intravascular ultrasound images based on parametric active contour models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vard, Alireza; Jamshidi, Kamal; Movahhedinia, Naser

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents a fully automated approach to detect the intima and media-adventitia borders in intravascular ultrasound images based on parametric active contour models. To detect the intima border, we compute a new image feature applying a combination of short-term autocorrelations calculated for the contour pixels. These feature values are employed to define an energy function of the active contour called normalized cumulative short-term autocorrelation. Exploiting this energy function, the intima border is separated accurately from the blood region contaminated by high speckle noise. To extract media-adventitia boundary, we define a new form of energy function based on edge, texture and spring forces for the active contour. Utilizing this active contour, the media-adventitia border is identified correctly even in presence of branch openings and calcifications. Experimental results indicate accuracy of the proposed methods. In addition, statistical analysis demonstrates high conformity between manual tracing and the results obtained by the proposed approaches.

  15. Digestion of chrysanthemum stunt viroid by leaf extracts of Capsicum chinense indicates strong RNA-digesting activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iraklis, Boubourakas; Kanda, Hiroko; Nabeshima, Tomoyuki; Onda, Mayu; Ota, Nao; Koeda, Sota; Hosokawa, Munetaka

    2016-08-01

    CSVd could not infect Nicotiana benthamiana when the plants were pretreated with crude leaf extract of Capsicum chinense 'Sy-2'. C. chinense leaves were revealed to contain strong RNA-digesting activity. Several studies have identified active antiviral and antiviroid agents in plants. Capsicum plants are known to contain antiviral agents, but the mechanism of their activity has not been determined. We aimed to elucidate the mechanism of Capsicum extract's antiviroid activity. Chrysanthemum stunt viroid (CSVd) was inoculated into Nicotiana benthamiana plants before or after treating the plants with a leaf extract of Capsicum chinense 'Sy-2'. CSVd infection was determined using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) 3 weeks after inoculation. When Capsicum extract was sprayed or painted onto N. benthamiana before inoculation, it was effective in preventing infection by CSVd. To evaluate CSVd digestion activity in leaf extracts, CSVd was mixed with leaf extracts of Mirabilis, Phytolacca, Pelargonium and Capsicum. CSVd-digesting activities were examined by quantifying undigested CSVd using qRT-PCR, and RNA gel blotting permitted visualization of the digested CSVd. Only Capsicum leaf extract digested CSVd, and in the Capsicum treatment, small digested CSVd products were detected by RNA gel blot analysis. When the digesting experiment was performed for various cultivars and species of Capsicum, only cultivars of C. chinense showed strong CSVd-digesting activity. Our observations indicated that Capsicum extract contains strong RNA-digesting activity, leading to the conclusion that this activity is the main mechanism for protection from infection by CSVd through spraying or painting before inoculation. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a strong RNA-digesting activity by a plant extract.

  16. A fully resolved active musculo-mechanical model for esophageal transport

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kou, Wenjun; Bhalla, Amneet Pal Singh; Griffith, Boyce E.; Pandolfino, John E.; Kahrilas, Peter J.; Patankar, Neelesh A.

    2015-10-01

    Esophageal transport is a physiological process that mechanically transports an ingested food bolus from the pharynx to the stomach via the esophagus, a multi-layered muscular tube. This process involves interactions between the bolus, the esophagus, and the neurally coordinated activation of the esophageal muscles. In this work, we use an immersed boundary (IB) approach to simulate peristaltic transport in the esophagus. The bolus is treated as a viscous fluid that is actively transported by the muscular esophagus, and the esophagus is modeled as an actively contracting, fiber-reinforced tube. Before considering the full model of the esophagus, however, we first consider a standard benchmark problem of flow past a cylinder. Next a simplified version of our model is verified by comparison to an analytic solution to the tube dilation problem. Finally, three different complex models of the multi-layered esophagus, which differ in their activation patterns and the layouts of the mucosal layers, are extensively tested. To our knowledge, these simulations are the first of their kind to incorporate the bolus, the multi-layered esophagus tube, and muscle activation into an integrated model. Consistent with experimental observations, our simulations capture the pressure peak generated by the muscle activation pulse that travels along the bolus tail. These fully resolved simulations provide new insights into roles of the mucosal layers during bolus transport. In addition, the information on pressure and the kinematics of the esophageal wall resulting from the coordination of muscle activation is provided, which may help relate clinical data from manometry and ultrasound images to the underlying esophageal motor function.

  17. Assessment of Environmental Determinants of Physical Activity: a Study of Built Environment Indicators in Brno, Czech Republic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brázdová, Zuzana Derflerová; Klimusová, Helena; Hruška, Dalibor; Prokopová, Alice; Burjanek, Aleš; Wulff, Krauff Rainer Schwanhaeuser

    2015-11-01

    Research on physical activity in relation to obesity gradually becomes more focused on environmental determinants, which can potentially influence people's health choices. The present article addresses the topic of physical activity from a wider sociological perspective. Our pilot study was designed with the objective of testing the applicability of a method included in the EC 6th Framework Programme EURO-PREVOB, in the Czech context. The method examines specific determinants of the built environment that can have an impact on physical activity at the population level. In addition, the study aims to analyze possible differences in built environment indicators and their relation to the physical activity of people living in neighbourhoods with areas of varying socioeconomic status. The field study was carried out in the city of Brno, Czech Republic, in 5 neighbourhood quintiles, i.e. areas divided according to the socioeconomic status of local residents. In each quintile, we evaluated the quality of the built environment according to the quality, aesthetics and safety of segregated cycle facilities, playgrounds/playing areas, public open spaces, marked road crossings and pavements as well as signs of incivilities and devastation. Between the five quintiles, significant differences were found in the quality of parks and playgrounds/playing areas, pavements, marking of pedestrian crossings, and in general aesthetics, i.e. signs of incivilities and devastation of the built environment. No differences were found in the quality and use of cycle facilities. The method we used for the evaluation of the built environment proved highly applicable in Czech populated areas. Monitoring of built environment indicators in the Czech Republic should provide a basis for health maps, showing potential associations between the prevalence of high-incidence, non-infectious diseases and various social determinants of physical activity. This information might help in achieving an

  18. Comparison of Enzymes / Non-Enzymes Proteins Classification Models Based on 3D, Composition, Sequences and Topological Indices

    OpenAIRE

    Munteanu, Cristian Robert

    2014-01-01

    Comparison of Enzymes / Non-Enzymes Proteins Classification Models Based on 3D, Composition, Sequences and Topological Indices, German Conference on Bioinformatics (GCB), Potsdam, Germany (September, 2007)

  19. Modeling Mitigation Activities in North Carolina Watersheds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia, A. M.

    2017-12-01

    Nutrient enrichment and excessive sediment loadings have contributed to the degradation of rivers, lakes and estuaries in North Carolina. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) has implemented several basin-wide nutrient and sediment management strategies, yet gaps remain in understanding the impact of these strategies given the complexities in quantifying the processes that govern the transport of nutrient and sediment. In particular, improved assessment of the status of nutrient and sediment loadings to lakes and estuaries throughout the state is needed, including characterizing their sources and describing the relative contributions of different areas. The NCDEQ Division of Mitigation Services (DMS) uses watershed planning to identify and prioritize the best locations to implement stream, wetland, and riparian-buffer restoration to improve water quality. To support better decision-making for watershed restoration activities we are developing a SPARROW (SPAtially Referenced Regressions On Watershed attributes) model framework specifically for North Carolina. The SPARROW analysis (developed by the U.S. Geological Survey) relates water-quality monitoring data to better understand the effects of human activities and natural processes on surface-water quality. The core of the model consists of using a nonlinear-regression equation to describe the non-conservative transport of contaminants from point and nonpoint sources on land to rivers, lakes and estuaries through the stream and river network. In this presentation, preliminary total Nitrogen, total Phosphorus, and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) NC-SPARROW models are described that illustrate the SPARROW modeling framework incorporating specific restoration datasets and activity metrics, such as extent of riparian buffer and easements.

  20. Identification of novel indicators of cyclosporine A nephrotoxicity in a CD-1 mouse model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'Connell, Sein; Slattery, Craig; Ryan, Michael P.; McMorrow, Tara

    2011-01-01

    The calcineurin inhibitor cyclosporine A (CsA) is a widely used immunosuppressive agent. However, nephrotoxicity is a serious side effect observed in patients which limits clinical use of CsA. CsA nephrotoxicity is associated with tubulointerstitial injury progressing to nephropathy. This is typically diagnosed by invasive renal biopsy and is often only detected when the disease process is well advanced. Therefore identification of novel, early indicators of CsA nephrotoxicity could be clinically advantageous. This study aimed to establish a murine model of CsA nephrotoxicity and to identify urinary proteins that may indicate the onset of CsA-induced nephropathy using 2-D gel electrophoresis. CsA nephrotoxicity was induced in CD-1 mice by daily CsA administration for 4 weeks. By week 4, elevated serum creatinine and proteinuria were observed after CsA treatment indicating significant renal dysfunction. Decreased cadherin-1, increased α-smooth muscle actin and fibroblast specific protein 1 in kidney tissue indicated disruption of normal tubular architecture. Alterations in podocin and uromodulin were also observed which may indicate damage to other segments of the nephron. Proteomic analysis of urine identified a number of differentially regulated proteins that may be involved in early CsA nephropathy including cadherin 1, superoxide dismutase and vinculin. These findings suggest novel mechanisms of CsA nephrotoxicity and identify novel potential markers of the disease.

  1. Indicating anthropogenic effectson urban water system - indicators and extension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strauch, G.; Ufz-Team

    2003-04-01

    Urban water systems are polluted by diffusive and direct contribution of anthropogenic activities. Besides industrial contaminants like aromatic and chlorinated HC and other persistent organic compounds, the urban aquatic environment is increasingly polluted by low concentrated but high eco-toxic compounds as pharmaceuticals, fragrances, plasticizers which most have disrupt endocrine functions, and trace elements carried in by surface and sub-surface waste water and seeping processes. This contamination could have a longtime impact on the urban ecosystem and on the human health. The interdisciplinary project on risk assessment of water pollution was initiated to explore new methodologies for assessing human activities on the urban water system and processes among urban watersheds. In a first assumption we used a flow model concept with in- and output and surface water transport represented by the city of Halle, Germany, and the river Saale. The river Saale acts as surface water system collecting waste water inputs along the city traverse. We investigated the anthropogenic effect on the urban water system using the indicators hydrological parameters, compound specific pattern of complex organic substances and trace elements, isotopic signatures of water (H, O) and dissolved substances (sulfate, DIC, nitrate), pathogens, and microbiota. A first balance modeling showed that main ions are not very sensitive concerning the direct urban input into the river. Depending on the discharge of the river in high and low flood stages the load of dissolved matter has no specific urban effect. However, the concentration pattern of fragrances (tonalid, galaxolid) and endocrine disrupters (t-nonylphenol) point to a different pollution along the city traverse: downstream of the sewage plant a higher load was observed in comparison to the upstream passage. Furthermore, a degradation ability of fungi and bacteria occurred in the bank sediments could be detected in lab experiments

  2. THE EUROPEAN MODEL OF STATE REGULATION OF TOURISM ACTIVITIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    О. Davydova

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available In the article the existing model of state regulation of the development of tourism. Expediency of the European model of state regulation of tourism development in Ukraine. It is noted that the European model of state regulation of tourism activities based on the coordination of marketing activities and the development of cooperation between the public and private sectors. The basic forms of public-private partnerships and the advantages of using cluster model of development of tourism, namely, contracts, production sharing agreement, lease, joint venture. Promising areas of application of the PPP identified the transport sector, housing and utilities, energy and tourism sector. The features of cluster formations in the country and the prospects for tourism clusters.

  3. [Active ageing and success: A brief history of conceptual models].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petretto, Donatella Rita; Pili, Roberto; Gaviano, Luca; Matos López, Cristina; Zuddas, Carlo

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to analyse and describe different conceptual models of successful ageing, active and healthy ageing developed in Europe and in America in the 20° century, starting from Rowe and Kahn's original model (1987, 1997). A narrative review was conducted on the literature on successful ageing. Our review included definition of successful ageing from European and American scholars. Models were found that aimed to describe indexes of active and healthy ageing, models devoted to describe processes involved in successful ageing, and additional views that emphasise subjective and objective perception of successful ageing. A description is also given of critiques on previous models and remedies according to Martin et al. (2014) and strategies for successful ageing according to Jeste and Depp (2014). The need is discussed for the enhancement of Rowe and Kahn's model and other models with a more inclusive, universal description of ageing, incorporating scientific evidence regarding active ageing. Copyright © 2015 SEGG. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  4. The integration of bioclimatic indices in an objective probabilistic model for establishing and mapping viticulture suitability in a region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moral García, Francisco J.; Rebollo, Francisco J.; Paniagua, Luis L.; García, Abelardo

    2014-05-01

    Different bioclimatic indices have been proposed to determine the wine suitability in a region. Some of them are related to the air temperature, but the hydric component of climate should also be considered which, in turn, is influenced by the precipitation during the different stages of the grapevine growing and ripening periods. In this work we propose using the information obtained from 10 bioclimatic indices and variables (heliothermal index, HI, cool night index, CI, dryness index, DI, growing season temperature, GST, the Winkler index, WI, September mean thermal amplitude, MTA, annual precipitation, AP, precipitation during flowering, PDF, precipitation before flowering, PBF, and summer precipitation, SP) as inputs in an objective and probabilistic model, the Rasch model, with the aim of integrating the individual effects of them, obtaining the climate data that summarize all main bioclimatic indices which could influence on wine suitability, and utilize the Rasch measures to generate homogeneous climatic zones. The use of the Rasch model to estimate viticultural suitability constitutes a new application of great practical importance, enabling to rationally determine locations in a region where high viticultural potential exists and establishing a ranking of the bioclimatic indices or variables which exerts an important influence on wine suitability in a region. Furthermore, from the measures of viticultural suitability at some locations, estimates can be computed using a geostatistical algorithm, and these estimates can be utilized to map viticultural suitability potential in a region. To illustrate the process, an application to Extremadura, southewestern Spain, is shown. Keywords: Rasch model, bioclimatic indices, GIS.

  5. Ecotoxicity Effect Indicator for use in the OMNIITOX Base Model

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Henrik Fred; Payet, Jerome; Molander, S

    2004-01-01

    for the estimation of the EFI. However none of these methods are found to be adequately robust and/or able to work on the low data input defined by the OMNIITOX Base Model (BM), i.e. a minimum of three acute EC50 values. Given the fact that the BM should be applicable to a significant number of chemicals......, this requirement follows from the current and the most likely future data availability as defined by the proposed EU chemicals policy REACH. In this paper, a theoretical elaboration of effect-based average approaches (arithmetic mean, geometric mean and median) and the non-effect based approach (PNEC) is made...... focusing on their statistical robustness. Considerations about the possibility to relate the effect indicator to damage on the endpoint, the ecosystem, are also included. The effect-based approaches are tested for their robustness in estimating an HC50 in a practical test on datasets from eleven different...

  6. Improving and Maintaining Physical Activity and Anthropometric Indices in females from Tehran: Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zeynab Gholamnia-shirvani

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Background and Objectives: The amount of physical activity as an essential determinant of healthy lifestyle in females is less than is required. Theory-driven health education interventions, particularly Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB, are effective in promoting and sustaining physical activity. This research evaluated the TPB-based educational intervention on exercise behavior and anthropometric indices in females residing in organizational houses in Tehran. Materials and Methods: A randomized controlled trial was performed on 130 females residing in institutional houses in Tehran (2014. Participants were randomly chosen with multi-stage cluster sampling. The instructional sessions were carried out applying modified methods of the TPB structure (instrumental and affective attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, intention and behavior. The TPB constructs, physical activity level and intensity, Body Mass Index (BMI and Waist Hip Ratio (WHR were analyzed using the SPSS 16software in baseline, three and six months post-education. Results: Conducting the educational program led to a rise and maintained the mean of the TPB constructs and mean rank of the physical activity level and intensity, three and six months post-intervention in the case group (P0.05 Conclusions: Implementing the TPB-directed instructional sessions resulted in ameliorating and sustaining exercise behavior and anthropometric indices in females.

  7. The Use of National Systems of Innovation Models to Develop Indicators of Innovation and Technological Capacity

    OpenAIRE

    Holbrook, J. A.

    1997-01-01

    This paper addresses various models that can be used to assess indicators of innovation and technical capacity. It stresses the importance of looking at the national system of innovation (NSI) to gain a complete understanding of industry capacity.

  8. Operations Assessment of Launch Vehicle Architectures using Activity Based Cost Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruiz-Torres, Alex J.; McCleskey, Carey

    2000-01-01

    The growing emphasis on affordability for space transportation systems requires the assessment of new space vehicles for all life cycle activities, from design and development, through manufacturing and operations. This paper addresses the operational assessment of launch vehicles, focusing on modeling the ground support requirements of a vehicle architecture, and estimating the resulting costs and flight rate. This paper proposes the use of Activity Based Costing (ABC) modeling for this assessment. The model uses expert knowledge to determine the activities, the activity times and the activity costs based on vehicle design characteristics. The approach provides several advantages to current approaches to vehicle architecture assessment including easier validation and allowing vehicle designers to understand the cost and cycle time drivers.

  9. QSTR with extended topochemical atom (ETA) indices. 14. QSAR modeling of toxicity of aromatic aldehydes to Tetrahymena pyriformis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Roy, Kunal, E-mail: kunalroy_in@yahoo.com [Drug Theoretics and Cheminformatics Laboratory, Division of Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032 (India); Das, Rudra Narayan [Drug Theoretics and Cheminformatics Laboratory, Division of Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032 (India)

    2010-11-15

    Aldehydes are a toxic class of chemicals causing severe health hazards. In this background, quantitative structure-toxicity relationship (QSTR) models have been developed in the present study using Extended Topochemical Atom (ETA) indices for a large group of 77 aromatic aldehydes for their acute toxicity against the protozoan ciliate Tetrahymena pyriformis. The ETA models have been compared with those developed using various non-ETA topological indices. Attempt was also made to include the n-octanol/water partition coefficient (log K{sub o/w}) as an additional descriptor considering the importance of hydrophobicity in toxicity prediction. Thirty different models were developed using different chemometric tools. All the models have been validated using internal validation and external validation techniques. The statistical quality of the ETA models was found to be comparable to that of the non-ETA models. The ETA models have shown the important effects of steric bulk, lipophilicity, presence of electronegative atom containing substituents and functionality of the aldehydic oxygen to the toxicity of the aldehydes. The best ETA model (without using log K{sub o/w}) shows encouraging statistical quality (Q{sub int}{sup 2}=0.709,Q{sub ext}{sup 2}=0.744). It is interesting to note that some of the topological models reported here are better in statistical quality than previously reported models using quantum chemical descriptors.

  10. Representing Microbial Dormancy in Soil Decomposition Models Improves Model Performance and Reveals Key Ecosystem Controls on Microbial Activity

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Y.; Yang, J.; Zhuang, Q.; Wang, G.; Liu, Y.

    2014-12-01

    Climate feedbacks from soils can result from environmental change and subsequent responses of plant and microbial communities and nutrient cycling. Explicit consideration of microbial life history traits and strategy may be necessary to predict climate feedbacks due to microbial physiology and community changes and their associated effect on carbon cycling. In this study, we developed an explicit microbial-enzyme decomposition model and examined model performance with and without representation of dormancy at six temperate forest sites with observed soil efflux ranged from 4 to 10 years across different forest types. We then extrapolated the model to all temperate forests in the Northern Hemisphere (25-50°N) to investigate spatial controls on microbial and soil C dynamics. Both models captured the observed soil heterotrophic respiration (RH), yet no-dormancy model consistently exhibited large seasonal amplitude and overestimation in microbial biomass. Spatially, the total RH from temperate forests based on dormancy model amounts to 6.88PgC/yr, and 7.99PgC/yr based on no-dormancy model. However, no-dormancy model notably overestimated the ratio of microbial biomass to SOC. Spatial correlation analysis revealed key controls of soil C:N ratio on the active proportion of microbial biomass, whereas local dormancy is primarily controlled by soil moisture and temperature, indicating scale-dependent environmental and biotic controls on microbial and SOC dynamics. These developments should provide essential support to modeling future soil carbon dynamics and enhance the avenue for collaboration between empirical soil experiment and modeling in the sense that more microbial physiological measurements are needed to better constrain and evaluate the models.

  11. Key Performance Indicators in Irish Hospital Libraries: Developing Outcome-Based Metrics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michelle Dalton

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Objective – To develop a set of generic outcome-based performance measures for Irishhospital libraries.Methods – Various models and frameworks of performance measurement were used as atheoretical paradigm to link the impact of library services directly with measurablehealthcare objectives and outcomes. Strategic objectives were identified, mapped toperformance indicators, and finally translated into response choices to a single-questiononline survey for distribution via email.Results – The set of performance indicators represents an impact assessment tool whichis easy to administer across a variety of healthcare settings. In using a model directlyaligned with the mission and goals of the organization, and linked to core activities andoperations in an accountable way, the indicators can also be used as a channel throughwhich to implement action, change, and improvement.Conclusion – The indicators can be adopted at a local and potentially a national level, asboth a tool for advocacy and to assess and improve service delivery at a macro level. Toovercome the constraints posed by necessary simplifications, substantial further research is needed by hospital libraries to develop more sophisticated and meaningful measures of impact to further aid decision making at a micro level.

  12. Bi-dimension decomposed hidden Markov models for multi-person activity recognition

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Wei-dong ZHANG; Feng CHEN; Wen-li XU

    2009-01-01

    We present a novel model for recognizing long-term complex activities involving multiple persons. The proposed model, named 'decomposed hidden Markov model' (DHMM), combines spatial decomposition and hierarchical abstraction to capture multi-modal, long-term dependent and multi-scale characteristics of activities. Decomposition in space and time offers conceptual advantages of compaction and clarity, and greatly reduces the size of state space as well as the number of parameters.DHMMs are efficient even when the number of persons is variable. We also introduce an efficient approximation algorithm for inference and parameter estimation. Experiments on multi-person activities and multi-modal individual activities demonstrate that DHMMs are more efficient and reliable than familiar models, such as coupled HMMs, hierarchical HMMs, and multi-observation HMMs.

  13. Tectono-geomorphic indices of the Erin basin, NE Kashmir valley, India

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmad, Shabir; Alam, Akhtar; Ahmad, Bashir; Afzal, Ahsan; Bhat, M. I.; Sultan Bhat, M.; Farooq Ahmad, Hakim; Tectonics; Natural Hazards Research Group

    2018-01-01

    The present study aims to assess the tectonic activity in the Erin basin (NE Kashmir) on the basis of several relevant geomorphic indices and field observations. We use Digital Elevation Model (SRTM) and Survey of India (SoI) topographic maps in GIS environment to compute the geomorphic indices. The indices i.e., convex hypsometric curve, high hypsometric integral value (Hi > 0.5), low basin elongation ratio (Eb = 0.17), low mountain front sinuosity values (Smf = 1.08 average), low valley floor width ratios (Vf 4) suggest that the area is tectonically active. Moreover, prominent irregularities (knickpoints/knickzones) along longitudinal profile of the Erin River even in homogenous resistant lithology (Panjal trap) and anomalous stream gradient index (SL) values reflect that the Erin basin is dissected by two faults (EF-1 and EF-2) with NNW-SSE and SSW-NNE trends respectively. The results of this preliminary study further substantiate the recent GPS studies, which argue that the maximum strain is accumulating in the NE part of the Kashmir Himalaya.

  14. Swing Boat: Inducing and Recording Locomotor Activity in a Drosophila melanogaster Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Johannes Berlandi

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Recent studies indicate that physical activity can slow down progression of neurodegeneration in humans. To date, automated ways to induce activity have been predominantly described in rodent models. To study the impact of activity on behavior and survival in adult Drosophila melanogaster, we aimed to develop a rotating tube device “swing boat” which is capable of monitoring activity and sleep patterns as well as survival rates of flies. For the purpose of a first application, we tested our device on a transgenic fly model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD. Activity of flies was recorded in a climate chamber using the Drosophila Activity Monitoring (DAM System connected to data acquisition software. Locomotor activity was induced by a rotating tube device “swing boat” by repetitively tilting the tubes for 30 min per day. A non-exercising group of flies was used as control and activity and sleep patterns were obtained. The GAL4-/UAS system was used to drive pan-neuronal expression of human Aβ42 in flies. Immunohistochemical stainings for Aβ42 were performed on paraffin sections of adult fly brains. Daily rotation of the fly tubes evoked a pronounced peak of activity during the 30 min exercise period. Pan-neuronal expression of human Aβ42 in flies caused abnormalities in locomotor activity, reduction of life span and elevated sleep fragmentation in comparison to wild type flies. Furthermore, the formation of amyloid accumulations was observed in the adult fly brain. Gently induced activity over 12 days did not evoke prominent effects in wild type flies but resulted in prolongation of median survival time by 7 days (32.6% in Aβ42-expressing flies. Additionally, restoration of abnormally decreased night time sleep (10% and reduced sleep fragmentation (28% were observed compared to non-exercising Aβ42-expressing flies. On a structural level no prominent effects regarding prevalence of amyloid aggregations and Aβ42 RNA expression were

  15. Effects of lead contamination on soil enzymatic activities, microbial biomass, and rice physiological indices in soil-lead-rice (Oryza sativa L.) system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Lu S; Liao, Min; Chen, Cheng L; Huang, Chang Y

    2007-05-01

    The effect of lead (Pb) treatment on the soil enzymatic activities, soil microbial biomass, rice physiological indices and rice biomass were studied in a greenhouse pot experiment. Six levels of Pb viz. 0(CK), 100, 300, 500, 700, 900 mg/kg soil were applied in two types of paddy soils. The results showed that Pb treatment had a stimulating effect on soil enzymatic activities and microbial biomass carbon (Cmic) at low concentration and an inhibitory influence at higher concentration. The degree of influence on enzymatic activities and Cmic by Pb was related to the clay and organic matter contents of the soils. When the Pb treatment was raised to the level of 500 mg/kg, ecological risk appeared both to soil microorganisms and plants. The results also revealed a consistent trend of increased chlorophyll contents and rice biomass initially, maximum at a certain Pb treatment, and then decreased gradually with the increase in Pb concentration. Pb was effective in inducing proline accumulation and its toxicity causes oxidative stress in rice plants. Therefore, it was concluded that soil enzymatic activities, Cmic and rice physiological indices, could be sensitive indicators to reflect environmental stress in soil-lead-rice system.

  16. Modeling the Dispersibility of Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes in Organic Solvents by Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yilmaz, Hayriye; Rasulev, Bakhtiyor; Leszczynski, Jerzy

    2015-01-01

    The knowledge of physico-chemical properties of carbon nanotubes, including behavior in organic solvents is very important for design, manufacturing and utilizing of their counterparts with improved properties. In the present study a quantitative structure-activity/property relationship (QSAR/QSPR) approach was applied to predict the dispersibility of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in various organic solvents. A number of additive descriptors and quantum-chemical descriptors were calculated and utilized to build QSAR models. The best predictability is shown by a 4-variable model. The model showed statistically good results (R2training = 0.797, Q2 = 0.665, R2test = 0.807), with high internal and external correlation coefficients. Presence of the X0Av descriptor and its negative term suggest that small size solvents have better SWCNTs solubility. Mass weighted descriptor ATS6m also indicates that heavier solvents (and small in size) most probably are better solvents for SWCNTs. The presence of the Dipole Z descriptor indicates that higher polarizability of the solvent molecule increases the solubility. The developed model and contributed descriptors can help to understand the mechanism of the dispersion process and predictorganic solvents that improve the dispersibility of SWNTs. PMID:28347035

  17. Modeling the Dispersibility of Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes in Organic Solvents by Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hayriye Yilmaz

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available The knowledge of physico-chemical properties of carbon nanotubes, including behavior in organic solvents is very important for design, manufacturing and utilizing of their counterparts with improved properties. In the present study a quantitative structure-activity/property relationship (QSAR/QSPR approach was applied to predict the dispersibility of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs in various organic solvents. A number of additive descriptors and quantum-chemical descriptors were calculated and utilized to build QSAR models. The best predictability is shown by a 4-variable model. The model showed statistically good results (R2training = 0.797, Q2 = 0.665, R2test = 0.807, with high internal and external correlation coefficients. Presence of the X0Av descriptor and its negative term suggest that small size solvents have better SWCNTs solubility. Mass weighted descriptor ATS6m also indicates that heavier solvents (and small in size most probably are better solvents for SWCNTs. The presence of the Dipole Z descriptor indicates that higher polarizability of the solvent molecule increases the solubility. The developed model and contributed descriptors can help to understand the mechanism of the dispersion process and predictorganic solvents that improve the dispersibility of SWNTs.

  18. Surrogate screening models for the low physical activity criterion of frailty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eckel, Sandrah P; Bandeen-Roche, Karen; Chaves, Paulo H M; Fried, Linda P; Louis, Thomas A

    2011-06-01

    Low physical activity, one of five criteria in a validated clinical phenotype of frailty, is assessed by a standardized, semiquantitative questionnaire on up to 20 leisure time activities. Because of the time demanded to collect the interview data, it has been challenging to translate to studies other than the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), for which it was developed. Considering subsets of activities, we identified and evaluated streamlined surrogate assessment methods and compared them to one implemented in the Women's Health and Aging Study (WHAS). Using data on men and women ages 65 and older from the CHS, we applied logistic regression models to rank activities by "relative influence" in predicting low physical activity.We considered subsets of the most influential activities as inputs to potential surrogate models (logistic regressions). We evaluated predictive accuracy and predictive validity using the area under receiver operating characteristic curves and assessed criterion validity using proportional hazards models relating frailty status (defined using the surrogate) to mortality. Walking for exercise and moderately strenuous household chores were highly influential for both genders. Women required fewer activities than men for accurate classification. The WHAS model (8 CHS activities) was an effective surrogate, but a surrogate using 6 activities (walking, chores, gardening, general exercise, mowing and golfing) was also highly predictive. We recommend a 6 activity questionnaire to assess physical activity for men and women. If efficiency is essential and the study involves only women, fewer activities can be included.

  19. Quantitative structure–activity relationship model for amino acids as corrosion inhibitors based on the support vector machine and molecular design

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhao, Hongxia; Zhang, Xiuhui; Ji, Lin; Hu, Haixiang; Li, Qianshu

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • Nonlinear quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) model was built by the support vector machine. • Descriptors for QSAR model were selected by principal component analysis. • Binding energy was taken as one of the descriptors for QSAR model. • Acidic solution and protonation of the inhibitor were considered. - Abstract: The inhibition performance of nineteen amino acids was studied by theoretical methods. The affection of acidic solution and protonation of inhibitor were considered in molecular dynamics simulation and the results indicated that the protonated amino-group was not adsorbed on Fe (1 1 0) surface. Additionally, a nonlinear quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) model was built by the support vector machine. The correlation coefficient was 0.97 and the root mean square error, the differences between predicted and experimental inhibition efficiencies (%), was 1.48. Furthermore, five new amino acids were theoretically designed and their inhibition efficiencies were predicted by the built QSAR model

  20. [Simulation of vegetation indices optimizing under retrieval of vegetation biochemical parameters based on PROSPECT + SAIL model].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Ling; Liu, Xiang-Nan; Zhou, Bo-Tian; Liu, Chuan-Hao; Li, Lu-Feng

    2012-12-01

    This study analyzed the sensitivities of three vegetation biochemical parameters [chlorophyll content (Cab), leaf water content (Cw), and leaf area index (LAI)] to the changes of canopy reflectance, with the effects of each parameter on the wavelength regions of canopy reflectance considered, and selected three vegetation indices as the optimization comparison targets of cost function. Then, the Cab, Cw, and LAI were estimated, based on the particle swarm optimization algorithm and PROSPECT + SAIL model. The results showed that retrieval efficiency with vegetation indices as the optimization comparison targets of cost function was better than that with all spectral reflectance. The correlation coefficients (R2) between the measured and estimated values of Cab, Cw, and LAI were 90.8%, 95.7%, and 99.7%, and the root mean square errors of Cab, Cw, and LAI were 4.73 microg x cm(-2), 0.001 g x cm(-2), and 0.08, respectively. It was suggested that to adopt vegetation indices as the optimization comparison targets of cost function could effectively improve the efficiency and precision of the retrieval of biochemical parameters based on PROSPECT + SAIL model.