Quantum independent increment processes

CERN Document Server

Franz, Uwe

2005-01-01

This volume is the first of two volumes containing the revised and completed notes lectures given at the school "Quantum Independent Increment Processes: Structure and Applications to Physics". This school was held at the Alfried-Krupp-Wissenschaftskolleg in Greifswald during the period March 9 – 22, 2003, and supported by the Volkswagen Foundation. The school gave an introduction to current research on quantum independent increment processes aimed at graduate students and non-specialists working in classical and quantum probability, operator algebras, and mathematical physics. The present first volume contains the following lectures: "Lévy Processes in Euclidean Spaces and Groups" by David Applebaum, "Locally Compact Quantum Groups" by Johan Kustermans, "Quantum Stochastic Analysis" by J. Martin Lindsay, and "Dilations, Cocycles and Product Systems" by B.V. Rajarama Bhat.

Processing Challenges and Opportunities of Camel Dairy Products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tesfemariam Berhe

2017-01-01

Full Text Available A review on the challenges and opportunities of processing camel milk into dairy products is provided with an objective of exploring the challenges of processing and assessing the opportunities for developing functional products from camel milk. The gross composition of camel milk is similar to bovine milk. Nonetheless, the relative composition, distribution, and the molecular structure of the milk components are reported to be different. Consequently, manufacturing of camel dairy products such as cheese, yoghurt, or butter using the same technology as for dairy products from bovine milk can result in processing difficulties and products of inferior quality. However, scientific evidence points to the possibility of transforming camel milk into products by optimization of the processing parameters. Additionally, camel milk has traditionally been used for its medicinal values and recent scientific studies confirm that it is a rich source of bioactive, antimicrobial, and antioxidant substances. The current literature concerning product design and functional potential of camel milk is fragmented in terms of time, place, and depth of the research. Therefore, it is essential to understand the fundamental features of camel milk and initiate detailed multidisciplinary research to fully explore and utilize its functional and technological properties.

Growth increments in teeth of Diictodon (Therapsida

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J. Francis Thackeray

1991-09-01

Full Text Available Growth increments circa 0.02 mm in width have been observed in sectioned tusks of Diictodon from the Late Permian lower Beaufort succession of the South African Karoo, dated between about 260 and 245 million years ago. Mean growth increments show a decline from relatively high values in the Tropidostoma/Endothiodon Assemblage Zone, to lower values in the Aulacephalodon/Cistecephaluszone, declining still further in the Dicynodon lacerficeps/Whaitsia zone at the end of the Permian. These changes coincide with gradual changes in carbon isotope ratios measured from Diictodon tooth apatite. It is suggested that the decline in growth increments is related to environmental changes associated with a decline in primary production which contributed to the decline in abundance and ultimate extinction of Diictodon.

Implementing Kernel Methods Incrementally by Incremental Nonlinear Projection Trick.

Science.gov (United States)

Kwak, Nojun

2016-05-20

Recently, the nonlinear projection trick (NPT) was introduced enabling direct computation of coordinates of samples in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. With NPT, any machine learning algorithm can be extended to a kernel version without relying on the so called kernel trick. However, NPT is inherently difficult to be implemented incrementally because an ever increasing kernel matrix should be treated as additional training samples are introduced. In this paper, an incremental version of the NPT (INPT) is proposed based on the observation that the centerization step in NPT is unnecessary. Because the proposed INPT does not change the coordinates of the old data, the coordinates obtained by INPT can directly be used in any incremental methods to implement a kernel version of the incremental methods. The effectiveness of the INPT is shown by applying it to implement incremental versions of kernel methods such as, kernel singular value decomposition, kernel principal component analysis, and kernel discriminant analysis which are utilized for problems of kernel matrix reconstruction, letter classification, and face image retrieval, respectively.

On conditional scalar increment and joint velocity-scalar increment statistics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Hengbin; Wang Danhong; Tong Chenning

2004-01-01

Conditional velocity and scalar increment statistics are usually studied in the context of Kolmogorov's refined similarity hypotheses and are considered universal (quasi-Gaussian) for inertial-range separations. In such analyses the locally averaged energy and scalar dissipation rates are used as conditioning variables. Recent studies have shown that certain local turbulence structures can be captured when the local scalar variance (φ 2 ) r and the local kinetic energy k r are used as the conditioning variables. We study the conditional increments using these conditioning variables, which also provide the local turbulence scales. Experimental data obtained in the fully developed region of an axisymmetric turbulent jet are used to compute the statistics. The conditional scalar increment probability density function (PDF) conditional on (φ 2 ) r is found to be close to Gaussian for (φ 2 ) r small compared with its mean and is sub-Gaussian and bimodal for large (φ 2 ) r , and therefore is not universal. We find that the different shapes of the conditional PDFs are related to the instantaneous degree of non-equilibrium (production larger than dissipation) of the local scalar. There is further evidence of this from the conditional PDF conditional on both (φ 2 ) r and χ r , which is largely a function of (φ 2 ) r /χ r , a measure of the degree of non-equilibrium. The velocity-scalar increment joint PDF is close to joint Gaussian and quad-modal for equilibrium and non-equilibrium local velocity and scalar, respectively. The latter shape is associated with a combination of the ramp-cliff and plane strain structures. Kolmogorov's refined similarity hypotheses also predict a dependence of the conditional PDF on the degree of non-equilibrium. Therefore, the quasi-Gaussian (joint) PDF, previously observed in the context of Kolmogorov's refined similarity hypotheses, is only one of the conditional PDF shapes of inertial range turbulence. The present study suggests that

The impact of weather conditions on dynamics of Hylocomium splendens annual increment and net production in forest communities of forest-steppe zone in Khakassia

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I. A. Goncharova

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Dynamics of annual increments of green moss Hylocomium splendens (Hedw. Schimp. in B.S.G. in the Khakassia forest-steppe zone has been studied. The values of the moss linear and phytomass increments were investigated in different habitats for 6 years. The aboveground annual production of the H. splendens in phytocenosis was estimated. Linear increments of the H. splendens growing under the tree canopy and opening between trees were not significantly different. Phytomass increments under the tree canopy are significantly higher than in the openings between trees. The density of moss mats, proportion between leaves and stems were calculated. It was revealed that climatic factors have a different degree and duration influence on the moss increments in different habitats. Linear increments of H. splendens in different habitats synchronously respond to weather factor changes. The air temperature was the most important at the beginning and the end of the vegetation period; the amount of precipitation was more important in the middle of the growth period. Phytomass increments of H. splendens in different habitats respond differently to influence of weather conditions. Phytomass increments under the tree canopy are not sensitive to air temperature, and more sensitive to precipitations in the middle of growth period than one of opening between trees. The specificity of the climatic factors’ influence on the biomass growth depends on habitat conditions.

Additive manufacturing in production: challenges and opportunities

Science.gov (United States)

Ahuja, Bhrigu; Karg, Michael; Schmidt, Michael

2015-03-01

Additive manufacturing, characterized by its inherent layer by layer fabrication methodology has been coined by many as the latest revolution in the manufacturing industry. Due to its diversification of Materials, processes, system technology and applications, Additive Manufacturing has been synonymized with terminology such as Rapid prototyping, 3D printing, free-form fabrication, Additive Layer Manufacturing, etc. A huge media and public interest in the technology has led to an innovative attempt of exploring the technology for applications beyond the scope of the traditional engineering industry. Nevertheless, it is believed that a critical factor for the long-term success of Additive Manufacturing would be its ability to fulfill the requirements defined by the traditional manufacturing industry. A parallel development in market trends and product requirements has also lead to a wider scope of opportunities for Additive Manufacturing. The presented paper discusses some of the key challenges which are critical to ensure that Additive Manufacturing is truly accepted as a mainstream production technology in the industry. These challenges would highlight on various aspects of production such as product requirements, process management, data management, intellectual property, work flow management, quality assurance, resource planning, etc. In Addition, changing market trends such as product life cycle, mass customization, sustainability, environmental impact and localized production will form the foundation for the follow up discussion on the current limitations and the corresponding research opportunities. A discussion on ongoing research to address these challenges would include topics like process monitoring, design complexity, process standardization, multi-material and hybrid fabrication, new material development, etc.

The Opportunities Map at Cornell University: finding direction in dairy production medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Mitchell, Hilda M; Nydam, Daryl V; Reyher, Kristen; Gilbert, Robert O

2004-01-01

Discussion between faculty and interested students revealed the existence of a multitude of opportunities in dairy production medicine at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University. Many of these were not well known to students, or even to some of the faculty, and the means of accessing specific learning experiences were sometimes obscure. Together, an informal group of faculty, students, and alumni set about cataloging available educational opportunities, resulting in a 31-page publication referred to as the "Opportunities Map." Essentially a student handbook for production medicine students, the Opportunities Map at Cornell helps guide the travel of food animal-interested students through the curriculum without missing the important highlights along the way. The map was originally developed to chronicle the opportunities and resources available to students, but it has also been used to foster face-to-face communications between students and faculty, to welcome incoming students with production animal interests, and to provide a baseline description for further discussion about the curriculum.

Current Situation and Development Opportunities of Apple Production inThe Province Konya

OpenAIRE

BAYRAMOĞLU, Zeki; ÇELİK, Yusuf; OĞUZ, Cennet

2009-01-01

In this study sectoral analysis of apple production activity in Konya was made. Within this scope at first apple production amount in Turkey and in the world and developments in cultivation areas were examined, development opportunities of apple production in the province were discussed. The data about this issue was collected from secondary sources (Food and Agriculture Organization, Turkish Statistical Institute etc.) In line with this data strong, weak sides of this sector, opportunities a...

When 'national innovation system' meet 'varieties of capitalism' arguments on labour qualifications: On the skill types and scientific knowledge needed for radical and incremental product innovations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Herrmann, A.M.; Peine, A.

2011-01-01

The literatures on 'varieties of capitalism' (VoC) and 'national innovation systems' (NIS) propose very similar arguments about how firms require different types of labour qualifications to pursue strategies of radical product innovation (RPI), incremental product innovation (IPI), and product

Organization Strategy and Structural Differences for Radical Versus Incremental Innovation

OpenAIRE

John E. Ettlie; William P. Bridges; Robert D. O'Keefe

1984-01-01

The purpose of this study was to test a model of the organizational innovation process that suggests that the strategy-structure causal sequence is differentiated by radical versus incremental innovation. That is, unique strategy and structure will be required for radical innovation, especially process adoption, while more traditional strategy and structure arrangements tend to support new product introduction and incremental process adoption. This differentiated theory is strongly supported ...

Lexical Planning in Sentence Production Is Highly Incremental: Evidence from ERPs.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Li-Ming; Yang, Yu-Fang

2016-01-01

The scope of lexical planning, which means how far ahead speakers plan lexically before they start producing an utterance, is an important issue for research into speech production, but remains highly controversial. The present research investigated this issue using the semantic blocking effect, which refers to the widely observed effects that participants take longer to say aloud the names of items in pictures when the pictures in a block of trials in an experiment depict items that belong to the same semantic category than different categories. As this effect is often interpreted as a reflection of difficulty in lexical selection, the current study took the semantic blocking effect and its associated pattern of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as a proxy to test whether lexical planning during sentence production extends beyond the first noun when a subject noun-phrase includes two nouns, such as "The chair and the boat are both red" and "The chair above the boat is red". The results showed a semantic blocking effect both in onset latencies and in ERPs during the utterance of the first noun of these complex noun-phrases but not for the second noun. The indication, therefore, is that the lexical planning scope does not encompass this second noun-phrase. Indeed, the present findings are in line with accounts that propose radically incremental lexical planning, in which speakers plan ahead only one word at a time. This study also provides a highly novel example of using ERPs to examine the production of long utterances, and it is hoped the present demonstration of the effectiveness of this approach inspires further application of ERP techniques in this area of research.

Consumer behaviour and opportunities for new product development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grunert, Klaus G

and Q-PORKCHAINS and a Danish project, all dealing with new product development in the meat sector, it is shown how the use of consumer insight techniques can a) support the identification of market opportunities, b) make sure that technologies applied are acceptable to consumers, c) aid the selection...

Teraflop-scale Incremental Machine Learning

OpenAIRE

Özkural, Eray

2011-01-01

We propose a long-term memory design for artificial general intelligence based on Solomonoff's incremental machine learning methods. We use R5RS Scheme and its standard library with a few omissions as the reference machine. We introduce a Levin Search variant based on Stochastic Context Free Grammar together with four synergistic update algorithms that use the same grammar as a guiding probability distribution of programs. The update algorithms include adjusting production probabilities, re-u...

EFFECT OF COST INCREMENT DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF JIT SUPPLY CHAIN

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Ayu Bidiawati J.R

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Cost is an important consideration in supply chain (SC optimisation. This is due to emphasis placed on cost reduction in order to optimise profit. Some researchers use cost as one of their performance measures and others propose ways of accurately calculating cost. As product moves across SC, the product cost also increases. This paper studied the effect of cost increment distribution patterns on the performance of a JIT Supply Chain. In particular, it is necessary to know if inventory allocation across SC needs to be modified to accommodate different cost increment distribution patterns. It was found that funnel is still the best card distribution pattern for JIT-SC regardless the cost increment distribution patterns used.

Evaluation of Whole Tree Growth Increment Derived from Tree-Ring Series for Use in Assessments of Changes in Forest Productivity across Various Spatial Scales

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Juha M. Metsaranta

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The inherent predictability of inter-annual variation in forest productivity remains unknown. Available field-based data sources for understanding this variability differ in their spatial resolution, temporal resolution, and typical units of measure. Nearly all other tree and forest characteristics are in practice derived from measurements of diameter at breast height (DBH. Therefore, diameter increment reconstructed annually from tree-ring data can be used to estimate annual growth increments of wood volume, but the accuracy and precision of these estimates requires assessment. Annual growth estimates for n = 170 trees sampled for whole stem analysis from five tree species (jack pine, lodgepole pine, black spruce, white spruce, and trembling aspen in Western Canada were compared against increments derived from breast height measurements only. Inter-annual variability of breast height and whole tree growth increments was highly correlated for most trees. Relative errors varied by species, diameter class, and the equation used to estimate volume (regional vs. national. A simple example of the possible effect of this error when propagated to the stand level is provided.

When ‘national innovation system’ meet ‘varieties of capitalism’ arguments on labour qualifications: On the skill types and scientific knowledge needed for radical and incremental product innovations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Herrmann, A.M.; Peine, A.

2012-01-01

The literatures on ‘varieties of capitalism’ (VoC) and ‘national innovation systems’ (NIS) propose very similar arguments about how firms require different types of labour qualifications to pursue strategies of radical product innovation (RPI), incremental product innovation (IPI), and product

Effect of multiple forming tools on geometrical and mechanical properties in incremental sheet forming

Science.gov (United States)

Wernicke, S.; Dang, T.; Gies, S.; Tekkaya, A. E.

2018-05-01

The tendency to a higher variety of products requires economical manufacturing processes suitable for the production of prototypes and small batches. In the case of complex hollow-shaped parts, single point incremental forming (SPIF) represents a highly flexible process. The flexibility of this process comes along with a very long process time. To decrease the process time, a new incremental forming approach with multiple forming tools is investigated. The influence of two incremental forming tools on the resulting mechanical and geometrical component properties compared to SPIF is presented. Sheets made of EN AW-1050A were formed to frustums of a pyramid using different tool-path strategies. Furthermore, several variations of the tool-path strategy are analyzed. A time saving between 40% and 60% was observed depending on the tool-path and the radii of the forming tools while the mechanical properties remained unchanged. This knowledge can increase the cost efficiency of incremental forming processes.

Estimation of incremental reactivities for multiple day scenarios: an application to ethane and dimethyoxymethane

Science.gov (United States)

Stockwell, William R.; Geiger, Harald; Becker, Karl H.

Single-day scenarios are used to calculate incremental reactivities by definition (Carter, J. Air Waste Management Assoc. 44 (1994) 881-899.) but even unreactive organic compounds may have a non-negligible effect on ozone concentrations if multiple-day scenarios are considered. The concentration of unreactive compounds and their products may build up over a multiple-day period and the oxidation products may be highly reactive or highly unreactive affecting the overall incremental reactivity of the organic compound. We have developed a method for calculating incremental reactivities for multiple days based on a standard scenario for polluted European conditions. This method was used to estimate maximum incremental reactivities (MIR) and maximum ozone incremental reactivities (MOIR) for ethane and dimethyoxymethane for scenarios ranging from 1 to 6 days. It was found that the incremental reactivities increased as the length of the simulation period increased. The MIR of ethane increased faster than the value for dimethyoxymethane as the scenarios became longer. The MOIRs of ethane and dimethyoxymethane increased but the change was more modest for scenarios longer than 3 days. MOIRs of both volatile organic compounds were equal within the uncertainties of their chemical mechanisms by the 5 day scenario. These results show that dimethyoxymethane has an ozone forming potential on a per mass basis that is only somewhat greater than ethane if multiple-day scenarios are considered.

HCl co-production from CFC alternatives: Threat or opportunity?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mikulka, C.J.

1990-01-01

CFC production facilities have typically been located near CFC consumers and not necessarily near their feedstock sources. The co-production of HCl from these facilities has in the past been small and manageable by the CFC producers. Production of the CFC replacements, however, will result in larger quantities of HCl co-production at a scrutiny. Since new facilities are likely to be required for the replacements, there may be the opportunity to site facilities next to chlorocarbon suppliers who may be in a better position to take back the HCl co-product for reuse in their production facilities. This paper provides an overview of these issues as well as considers the implications of returning the HCl to the chlorocarbon supplier as well as viability of converting HCl back to chlorine

Applying and Individual-Based Model to Simultaneously Evaluate Net Ecosystem Production and Tree Diameter Increment

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, F. J.

2017-12-01

Reconciling observations at fundamentally different scales is central in understanding the global carbon cycle. This study investigates a model-based melding of forest inventory data, remote-sensing data and micrometeorological-station data ("flux towers" estimating forest heat, CO2 and H2O fluxes). The individual tree-based model FORCCHN was used to evaluate the tree DBH increment and forest carbon fluxes. These are the first simultaneous simulations of the forest carbon budgets from flux towers and individual-tree growth estimates of forest carbon budgets using the continuous forest inventory data — under circumstances in which both predictions can be tested. Along with the global implications of such findings, this also improves the capacity for forest sustainable management and the comprehensive understanding of forest ecosystems. In forest ecology, diameter at breast height (DBH) of a tree significantly determines an individual tree's cross-sectional sapwood area, its biomass and carbon storage. Evaluation the annual DBH increment (ΔDBH) of an individual tree is central to understanding tree growth and forest ecology. Ecosystem Carbon flux is a consequence of key ecosystem processes in the forest-ecosystem carbon cycle, Gross and Net Primary Production (GPP and NPP, respectively) and Net Ecosystem Respiration (NEP). All of these closely relate with tree DBH changes and tree death. Despite advances in evaluating forest carbon fluxes with flux towers and forest inventories for individual tree ΔDBH, few current ecological models can simultaneously quantify and predict the tree ΔDBH and forest carbon flux.

Deep Incremental Boosting

OpenAIRE

Mosca, Alan; Magoulas, George D

2017-01-01

This paper introduces Deep Incremental Boosting, a new technique derived from AdaBoost, specifically adapted to work with Deep Learning methods, that reduces the required training time and improves generalisation. We draw inspiration from Transfer of Learning approaches to reduce the start-up time to training each incremental Ensemble member. We show a set of experiments that outlines some preliminary results on some common Deep Learning datasets and discuss the potential improvements Deep In...

On excursion increments in heartbeat dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guzmán-Vargas, L.; Reyes-Ramírez, I.; Hernández-Pérez, R.

2013-01-01

We study correlation properties of excursion increments of heartbeat time series from healthy subjects and heart failure patients. We construct the excursion time based on the original heartbeat time series, representing the time employed by the walker to return to the local mean value. Next, the detrended fluctuation analysis and the fractal dimension method are applied to the magnitude and sign of the increments in the time excursions between successive excursions for the mentioned groups. Our results show that for magnitude series of excursion increments both groups display long-range correlations with similar correlation exponents, indicating that large (small) increments (decrements) are more likely to be followed by large (small) increments (decrements). For sign sequences and for both groups, we find that increments are short-range anti-correlated, which is noticeable under heart failure conditions

Adaptive scallop height tool path generation for robot-based incremental sheet metal forming

Science.gov (United States)

Seim, Patrick; Möllensiep, Dennis; Störkle, Denis Daniel; Thyssen, Lars; Kuhlenkötter, Bernd

2016-10-01

Incremental sheet metal forming is an emerging process for the production of individualized products or prototypes in low batch sizes and with short times to market. In these processes, the desired shape is produced by the incremental inward motion of the workpiece-independent forming tool in depth direction and its movement along the contour in lateral direction. Based on this shape production, the tool path generation is a key factor on e.g. the resulting geometric accuracy, the resulting surface quality, and the working time. This paper presents an innovative tool path generation based on a commercial milling CAM package considering the surface quality and working time. This approach offers the ability to define a specific scallop height as an indicator of the surface quality for specific faces of a component. Moreover, it decreases the required working time for the production of the entire component compared to the use of a commercial software package without this adaptive approach. Different forming experiments have been performed to verify the newly developed tool path generation. Mainly, this approach serves to solve the existing conflict of combining the working time and the surface quality within the process of incremental sheet metal forming.

Design of process parameters for the incremental tube forming (ITF) by FEM to control product properties

Science.gov (United States)

Nazari, Esmaeil; Löbbe, Christian; Gallus, Stefan; Izadyar, S. Ahmad; Tekkaya, A. Erman

2018-05-01

The incremental tube forming (ITF) is a process combination of the kinematic tube bending and spinning to shape high strength and tailored tubes with variable diameters and thicknesses. In contrast to conventional bending methods, the compressive stress superposition by the spinning process facilitates low bending stresses, so that geometrical errors are avoided and the shape accuracy is improved. The study reveals the interaction of plastic strains of the rolling and bending process through an explicit FEM investigation. For this purpose, the three-dimensional machine set-up is discretized and modeled in terms of the fully disclosed spinning process during the gradual deflection of the tube end for bending. The analysis shows that, depending on the forming tool shape, the stress superposition is accompanied by high plastic strains. Furthermore, this phenomenon is explained by the three dimensional normal and shear strains during the incremental spinning. Analyzing the strains history also shows a nonlinearity between the strains by bending and spinning. It is also shown that process parameters like rotational velocity of the spinning rolls have a huge influence on the deformation pattern. Finally, the method is used for the manufacturing of an example product, which reveals the high process flexibility. In one clamp a component with a graded wall thickness and outside diameter along the longitudinal axis is produced.

Energy conservation opportunities: audit vis-a-vis mine productivity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Iyer, G.H.

2009-07-01

Mining operation, whether opencast or underground, with modern equipment is highly energy intensive, needing energy conservation and management to ensure efficiency, cost effectiveness, and overall productivity. Exhaustible primary energy resources such as coal, lignite, oil, and nuclear fuels are being mined out to meet our energy needs. An attempt has been made in this paper to highlight the energy conservation opportunities, energy audit, the relevant Energy Conservation Act 2001 and certain energy saving measures leading to higher productivity followed by a few case study examples. 3 refs.

Legislative Bargaining and Incremental Budgeting

OpenAIRE

Dhammika Dharmapala

2002-01-01

The notion of 'incrementalism', formulated by Aaron Wildavsky in the 1960's, has been extremely influential in the public budgeting literature. In essence, it entails the claim that legislators engaged in budgetary policymaking accept past allocations, and decide only on the allocation of increments to revenue. Wildavsky explained incrementalism with reference to the cognitive limitations of lawmakers and their desire to reduce conflict. This paper uses a legislative bargaining framework to u...

Opportunities application of cleaner production practices in paint industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohammed, Y. S. Y.

2010-08-01

There are releases of volatile organic compounds VOC from paint manufacturing process steps and from cleaning operations in El Mohandas Paint Factory. These emission can cause health, safety and productivity problems in the work area. Hence cleaner production application is necessary in this case. Some of the manufacturing processes and equipment used to accomplish these manufacturing are analyzed and generate cleaner production opportunities, implement some of cleaner production solutions of VOC emission control by some of the methods used by paint facilities in reducing emissions. It was found that there is no control available for emissions factors in paints manufacturing process, so that VOC emission based on raw material consumption rather than calculation emission from processes or equipment by alternative method. (Author)

Incremental Approach to the Technology of Test Design for Industrial Projects

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P. D. Drobintsev

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The paper presents an approach to effort reduction in developing test suites for industrial software products based on the incremental technology. The main problems to be solved by the incremental technology are full automation design of test scenarios and significant reducing of test explosion. The proposed approach provides solutions to the mentioned problems through joint co-working of a designer and a customer, through the integration of symbolic verification with the automatic generation of test suites; through the usage of an efficient technology with the toolset VRS/TAT.

Unmanned Maritime Systems Incremental Acquisition Approach

Science.gov (United States)

2016-12-01

REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED MBA professional report 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE UNMANNED MARITIME SYSTEMS INCREMENTAL ACQUISITION APPROACH 5. FUNDING...Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited. UNMANNED MARITIME SYSTEMS INCREMENTAL ACQUISITION APPROACH Thomas Driscoll, Lieutenant...UNMANNED MARITIME SYSTEMS INCREMENTAL ACQUISITION APPROACH ABSTRACT The purpose of this MBA report is to explore and understand the issues

Incremental deformation: A literature review

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Nasulea Daniel

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays the customer requirements are in permanent changing and according with them the tendencies in the modern industry is to implement flexible manufacturing processes. In the last decades, metal forming gained attention of the researchers and considerable changes has occurred. Because for a small number of parts, the conventional metal forming processes are expensive and time-consuming in terms of designing and manufacturing preparation, the manufacturers and researchers became interested in flexible processes. One of the most investigated flexible processes in metal forming is incremental sheet forming (ISF. ISF is an advanced flexible manufacturing process which allows to manufacture complex 3D products without expensive dedicated tools. In most of the cases it is needed for an ISF process the following: a simple tool, a fixing device for sheet metal blank and a universal CNC machine. Using this process it can be manufactured axis-symmetric parts, usually using a CNC lathe but also complex asymmetrical parts using CNC milling machines, robots or dedicated equipment. This paper aim to present the current status of incremental sheet forming technologies in terms of process parameters and their influences, wall thickness distribution, springback effect, formability, surface quality and the current main research directions.

FEM Simulation of Incremental Shear

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosochowski, Andrzej; Olejnik, Lech

2007-01-01

A popular way of producing ultrafine grained metals on a laboratory scale is severe plastic deformation. This paper introduces a new severe plastic deformation process of incremental shear. A finite element method simulation is carried out for various tool geometries and process kinematics. It has been established that for the successful realisation of the process the inner radius of the channel as well as the feeding increment should be approximately 30% of the billet thickness. The angle at which the reciprocating die works the material can be 30 deg. . When compared to equal channel angular pressing, incremental shear shows basic similarities in the mode of material flow and a few technological advantages which make it an attractive alternative to the known severe plastic deformation processes. The most promising characteristic of incremental shear is the possibility of processing very long billets in a continuous way which makes the process more industrially relevant

The path to Agenda 2020: Progress, products, and opportunities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robinson, V.; McQueen, S.; Dove, L.

1999-01-01

To compete in global markets, the forest products industry must reduce its energy use and capital costs, while increasing its productivity and product quality. The industry must also meet strict environmental regulations governing its processing operations. The Industries of the Future initiative offers US industries like the forest products industry an opportunity to develop and implement innovative technical solutions to meet these various challenges. This paper discusses the basic features of the initiative and describes progress in developing three promising technologies: (1) On-Site, On-Demand Chlorine Dioxide Generation, (2) the Methane DeNOsx Reburner and (3) Multiport Cylinder Dryers. The technologies are expected to have near term positive impacts on the forest products industry's energy efficiency and environmental performance. Moreover, the new technologies may be transferable to other manufacturing sectors where they will have similar advantages. The Industries of the Future initiative, facilitated by the US Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technologies, encourages energy efficiency and environmental protection nationwide

The scope of application of incremental rapid prototyping methods in foundry engineering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Stankiewicz

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The article presents the scope of application of selected incremental Rapid Prototyping methods in the process of manufacturing casting models, casting moulds and casts. The Rapid Prototyping methods (SL, SLA, FDM, 3DP, JS are predominantly used for the production of models and model sets for casting moulds. The Rapid Tooling methods, such as: ZCast-3DP, ProMetalRCT and VoxelJet, enable the fabrication of casting moulds in the incremental process. The application of the RP methods in cast production makes it possible to speed up the prototype preparation process. This is particularly vital to elements of complex shapes. The time required for the manufacture of the model, the mould and the cast proper may vary from a few to several dozen hours.

Biorefinery of microalgae - opportunities and constraints for different production scenarios.

Science.gov (United States)

Hariskos, Ioanna; Posten, Clemens

2014-06-01

In order to design economically feasible production processes it is necessary, as part of the biorefinery concept, to valorize all constituents of the microalgal biomass. Such an approach requires appropriate biorefinery side-process strategies to be adapted to production of the primary product. These strategies are particularly valid for microalgae, since the composition and amount of residual biomass can vary significantly depending on cell stoichiometry and cultivation techniques. This review investigates opportunities and constraints for biorefinery concepts in production scenarios for four different products from microalgae with different market volumes, including high- and medium-value products, whole cells and biodiesel. Approaches to close material and energy balances, as well as to adapt the biorefinery according to biological potential, process routes, and market needs are presented, which will further contribute to making the biorefinery concept a success. Copyright © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Incremental net social benefit associated with using nuclear-fueled power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maoz, I.

1976-12-01

The incremental net social benefit (INSB) resulting from nuclear-fueled, rather than coal-fired, electric power generation is assessed. The INSB is defined as the difference between the 'incremental social benefit' (ISB)--caused by the cheaper technology of electric power generation, and the 'incremental social cost' (ISC)--associated with an increased power production, which is induced by cheaper technology. Section 2 focuses on the theoretical and empirical problems associated with the assessment of the long-run price elasticity of the demand for electricity, and the theoretical-econometric considerations that lead to the reasonable estimates of price elasticities of demand from those provided by recent empirical studies. Section 3 covers the theoretical and empirical difficulties associated with the construction of the long-run social marginal cost curves (LRSMC) of electricity. Sections 4 and 5 discuss the assessment methodology and provide numerical examples for the calculation of the INSB resulting from nuclear-fueled power generation

How shear increments affect the flow production branching ratio in CSDX

Science.gov (United States)

Li, J. C.; Diamond, P. H.

2018-06-01

The coupling of turbulence-driven azimuthal and axial flows in a linear device absent magnetic shear (Controlled Shear Decorrelation Experiment) is investigated. In particular, we examine the apportionment of Reynolds power between azimuthal and axial flows, and how the azimuthal flow shear affects axial flow generation and saturation by drift wave turbulence. We study the response of the energy branching ratio, i.e., ratio of axial and azimuthal Reynolds powers, PzR/PyR , to incremental changes of azimuthal and axial flow shears. We show that increasing azimuthal flow shear decreases the energy branching ratio. When axial flow shear increases, this ratio first increases but then decreases to zero. The axial flow shear saturates below the threshold for parallel shear flow instability. The effects of azimuthal flow shear on the generation and saturation of intrinsic axial flows are analyzed. Azimuthal flow shear slows down the modulational growth of the seed axial flow shear, and thus reduces intrinsic axial flow production. Azimuthal flow shear reduces both the residual Reynolds stress (of axial flow, i.e., ΠxzR e s ) and turbulent viscosity ( χzDW ) by the same factor |⟨vy⟩'|-2Δx-2Ln-2ρs2cs2 , where Δx is the distance relative to the reference point where ⟨vy⟩=0 in the plasma frame. Therefore, the stationary state axial flow shear is not affected by azimuthal flow shear to leading order since ⟨vz⟩'˜ΠxzR e s/χzDW .

Future opportunities in production of disposable optics and electronics

Science.gov (United States)

Korhonen, Raimo

2001-05-01

The several production methods of paper processing chain can be used, by analogy, to generate novel ideas for production of optics and electronics. Paper processing is a very fast reel-to-reel process: In the beginning of the paper web production the process is running at the speed of over thousand meters per minute and the web width can be 10 meters, and still at the later stages the speed is several hundreds of meters per minute with the web width of a couple of meters. There are several potential reel-to-reel production methods like embossing, printing, laminating and different kinds of vacuum coating, for example evaporation and sputtering. End products are complex multi-layer composite structures. The benefits from this analogy for optics and electronics would be ideas for ultra fast production, paper-like disposable and recyclable products and the integration of optics and electronics into ordinary things like books, wallpapers, tissue papers and packages. Two experiments are presented to demonstrate the possibilities. In the first experiment optical patterns are embossed directly on paper. In the second one conductive polymers are printed on paper and plastic webs. In future, a wide network of cooperation will be needed to realize all the opportunities.

BARRIERS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN DEVELOPING 'DO-IT-YOURSELF' (DIY PRODUCTS FOR LOW-INCOME HOUSING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Priscilla Lepre

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Direct involvement of the user in the assembling process of his/her own products or even entire house is a reality among low-income populations in developing countries. Nevertheless, there are a limited number of products that have actually been designed from a do-it-yourself (DIY perspective, which results in several problems, such as poor user safety while the product is being assembled or inadequate results from an improvised assembling. Hence, the main goal of this paper is to analyse barriers to and opportunities for developing DIY products for low-income housing in developing countries. The research method utilises a case study of a DIY product consisting of a hybrid solution that acted as both a partition wall and a wardrobe. The identified opportunities included more systematic use of existing craft competencies among low-income families and the possibility of cost reduction through DIY concepts. Major barriers included the perception of the DIY product as inferior and the difficulty of communicating the DIY assembly process to users who quite often are illiterate.

Incremental benefits from the increasing in the production of koi fish Cyprinus carpio var. koi culture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iis Diatin

2017-07-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT  Koi fish is one of the species included in the intensification program of ornamental fish production. Production of koi has only reached 82.04% of total national production target thus making it potential for development. The objective of the study was to assess additional financial benefit of production increment through stocking pattern modification. Present research was performed using case study method on Pokdakan PBC Fish Farm (PPFF, koi fish farmers in Sukabumi. Financial analysis consisted of business analysis, investment criteria, and sensitivity. Stocking pattern management could increase ornamental fish production and its benefit margin up to 1.5 times higher. That investment criteria has shown NPV at value of IDR3,824 million, net BCR 4.96, IRR 86.0%, and PP 1.7 years. Koi fish farming was sensitive to a decline in survival rate and insensitive to the rise of formulated feed price. Keywords: business analysis, koi, investment criteria, production pattern, sensitivity  ABSTRAK  Ikan koi merupakan salah satu ikan yang termasuk dalam program penguatan produksi ikan hias Indonesia. Capaian dari target produksi ikan koi yang ditetapkan pemerintah hanya mencapai 82,04 %, sehingga budidaya ikan koi potensial untuk dikembangkan dan ditingkatkan produksinya. Metode yang digunakan adalah studi kasus pada kelompok pembudidaya ikan hias koi PPFF di Sukabumi. Analisis finansial yang digunakan meliputi analisis usaha, kriteria investasi dan sensitivitas. Pengaturan pola tebar dapat meningkatkan jumlah produksi ikan hias dan marjin keuntungan hingga 1,5 kali. Analisis kriteria investasi menghasilkan nilai NPV sebesar Rp3.824 juta, net B/C 4,94, IRR 86,0% dan PP 1,7 tahun. Budidaya ikan koi sensitif terhadap penurunan kelangsungan hidup dan tidak sensitif terhadap peningkatan harga pakan buatan. Kata kunci: analisis usaha, koi, kriteria investasi, pola tebar, produksi

48 CFR 3432.771 - Provision for incremental funding.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Provision for incremental funding. 3432.771 Section 3432.771 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION..., Incremental Funding, in a solicitation if a cost-reimbursement contract using incremental funding is...

Evaluation of incremental reactivity and its uncertainty in Southern California.

Science.gov (United States)

Martien, Philip T; Harley, Robert A; Milford, Jana B; Russell, Armistead G

2003-04-15

The incremental reactivity (IR) and relative incremental reactivity (RIR) of carbon monoxide and 30 individual volatile organic compounds (VOC) were estimated for the South Coast Air Basin using two photochemical air quality models: a 3-D, grid-based model and a vertically resolved trajectory model. Both models include an extended version of the SAPRC99 chemical mechanism. For the 3-D modeling, the decoupled direct method (DDM-3D) was used to assess reactivities. The trajectory model was applied to estimate uncertainties in reactivities due to uncertainties in chemical rate parameters, deposition parameters, and emission rates using Monte Carlo analysis with Latin hypercube sampling. For most VOC, RIRs were found to be consistent in rankings with those produced by Carter using a box model. However, 3-D simulations show that coastal regions, upwind of most of the emissions, have comparatively low IR but higher RIR than predicted by box models for C4-C5 alkenes and carbonyls that initiate the production of HOx radicals. Biogenic VOC emissions were found to have a lower RIR than predicted by box model estimates, because emissions of these VOC were mostly downwind of the areas of primary ozone production. Uncertainties in RIR of individual VOC were found to be dominated by uncertainties in the rate parameters of their primary oxidation reactions. The coefficient of variation (COV) of most RIR values ranged from 20% to 30%, whereas the COV of absolute incremental reactivity ranged from about 30% to 40%. In general, uncertainty and variability both decreased when relative rather than absolute reactivity metrics were used.

Increment memory module for spectrometric data recording

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhuchkov, A.A.; Myagkikh, A.I.

1988-01-01

Incremental memory unit designed to input differential energy spectra of nuclear radiation is described. ROM application as incremental device has allowed to reduce the number of elements and do simplify information readout from the unit. 12-bit 2048 channels present memory unit organization. The device is connected directly with the bus of microprocessor systems similar to KR 580. Incrementation maximal time constitutes 3 mks. It is possible to use this unit in multichannel counting mode

Maximal power output during incremental exercise by resistance and endurance trained athletes.

Science.gov (United States)

Sakthivelavan, D S; Sumathilatha, S

2010-01-01

This study was aimed at comparing the maximal power output by resistance trained and endurance trained athletes during incremental exercise. Thirty male athletes who received resistance training (Group I) and thirty male athletes of similar age group who received endurance training (Group II) for a period of more than 1 year were chosen for the study. Physical parameters were measured and exercise stress testing was done on a cycle ergometer with a portable gas analyzing system. The maximal progressive incremental cycle ergometer power output at peak exercise and carbon dioxide production at VO2max were measured. Highly significant (P biofeedback and perk up the athlete's performance.

The opportunity cost of family labor in the economy of the dairy production in Michoacan, Mexico

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Randy Alexis Jiménez Jiménez

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The objective of this research is to analyze associated factors with the variation of the profit margin and the influence of the opportunity cost of family labor in the economic profit of the family dairy in the municipality of Maravatio, Michoacan. Productive economic information was obtained through the use of questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and direct observation, using the methodology of Participatory Action Research. The opportunity cost of workforce was established on the basis of the work options for the family members involved in the activity; the options were classified into three types: local, regional, and foreign, according to the location of the job opportunities. In order to determine the influence of family labor in earning, it was used a multiple regression model with inclusion of step-by-step variables. The livestock feed represented the highest index of determination of the profit margin variation with the 68 %. Family labor is one of the variables that have an adverse impact on the profitability of the production units, it represented 26% of the variation of economic gain, with a negative linear relation of -1.05 (P ≤0.001. The best labor alternatives for producers, when emigrating, show that family labor is not the productive factor allowing them to have earnings; however, the dairy activity provides productive and economic sustenance for people with a local and regional opportunity cost.

Estimating the Reference Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio for the Australian Health System.

Science.gov (United States)

Edney, Laura Catherine; Haji Ali Afzali, Hossein; Cheng, Terence Chai; Karnon, Jonathan

2018-02-01

Spending on new healthcare technologies increases net population health when the benefits of a new technology are greater than their opportunity costs-the benefits of the best alternative use of the additional resources required to fund a new technology. The objective of this study was to estimate the expected incremental cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained of increased government health expenditure as an empirical estimate of the average opportunity costs of decisions to fund new health technologies. The estimated incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) is proposed as a reference ICER to inform value-based decision making in Australia. Empirical top-down approaches were used to estimate the QALY effects of government health expenditure with respect to reduced mortality and morbidity. Instrumental variable two-stage least-squares regression was used to estimate the elasticity of mortality-related QALY losses to a marginal change in government health expenditure. Regression analysis of longitudinal survey data representative of the general population was used to isolate the effects of increased government health expenditure on morbidity-related, QALY gains. Clinical judgement informed the duration of health-related quality-of-life improvement from the annual increase in government health expenditure. The base-case reference ICER was estimated at AUD28,033 per QALY gained. Parametric uncertainty associated with the estimation of mortality- and morbidity-related QALYs generated a 95% confidence interval AUD20,758-37,667. Recent public summary documents suggest new technologies with ICERs above AUD40,000 per QALY gained are recommended for public funding. The empirical reference ICER reported in this article suggests more QALYs could be gained if resources were allocated to other forms of health spending.

Planning Through Incrementalism

Science.gov (United States)

Lasserre, Ph.

1974-01-01

An incremental model of decisionmaking is discussed and compared with the Comprehensive Rational Approach. A model of reconciliation between the two approaches is proposed, and examples are given in the field of economic development and educational planning. (Author/DN)

FDTD Stability: Critical Time Increment

OpenAIRE

Z. Skvor; L. Pauk

2003-01-01

A new approach suitable for determination of the maximal stable time increment for the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) algorithm in common curvilinear coordinates, for general mesh shapes and certain types of boundaries is presented. The maximal time increment corresponds to a characteristic value of a Helmholz equation that is solved by a finite-difference (FD) method. If this method uses exactly the same discretization as the given FDTD method (same mesh, boundary conditions, order of ...

Incremental Visualizer for Visible Objects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bukauskas, Linas; Bøhlen, Michael Hanspeter

This paper discusses the integration of database back-end and visualizer front-end into a one tightly coupled system. The main aim which we achieve is to reduce the data pipeline from database to visualization by using incremental data extraction of visible objects in a fly-through scenarios. We...... also argue that passing only relevant data from the database will substantially reduce the overall load of the visualization system. We propose the system Incremental Visualizer for Visible Objects (IVVO) which considers visible objects and enables incremental visualization along the observer movement...... path. IVVO is the novel solution which allows data to be visualized and loaded on the fly from the database and which regards visibilities of objects. We run a set of experiments to convince that IVVO is feasible in terms of I/O operations and CPU load. We consider the example of data which uses...

Prehospital Blood Product Administration Opportunities in Ground Transport ALS EMS - A Descriptive Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Mix, Felicia M; Zielinski, Martin D; Myers, Lucas A; Berns, Kathy S; Luke, Anurahda; Stubbs, James R; Zietlow, Scott P; Jenkins, Donald H; Sztajnkrycer, Matthew D

2018-06-01

IntroductionHemorrhage remains the major cause of preventable death after trauma. Recent data suggest that earlier blood product administration may improve outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine whether opportunities exist for blood product transfusion by ground Emergency Medical Services (EMS). This was a single EMS agency retrospective study of ground and helicopter responses from January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2015 for adult trauma patients transported from the scene of injury who met predetermined hemodynamic (HD) parameters for potential transfusion (heart rate [HR]≥120 and/or systolic blood pressure [SBP]≤90). A total of 7,900 scene trauma ground transports occurred during the study period. Of 420 patients meeting HD criteria for transfusion, 53 (12.6%) had a significant mechanism of injury (MOI). Outcome data were available for 51 patients; 17 received blood products during their emergency department (ED) resuscitation. The percentage of patients receiving blood products based upon HD criteria ranged from 1.0% (HR) to 5.9% (SBP) to 38.1% (HR+SBP). In all, 74 Helicopter EMS (HEMS) transports met HD criteria for blood transfusion, of which, 28 patients received prehospital blood transfusion. Statistically significant total patient care time differences were noted for both the HR and the SBP cohorts, with HEMS having longer time intervals; no statistically significant difference in mean total patient care time was noted in the HR+SBP cohort. In this study population, HD parameters alone did not predict need for ED blood product administration. Despite longer transport times, only one-third of HEMS patients meeting HD criteria for blood administration received prehospital transfusion. While one-third of ground Advanced Life Support (ALS) transport patients manifesting HD compromise received blood products in the ED, this represented 0.2% of total trauma transports over the study period. Given complex logistical issues involved in

Exploring barriers and opportunities in adopting crowdsourcing based new product development in manufacturing SMEs

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, Shengfeng; Van der Velde, David; Chatzakis, Emmanouil; McStea, Terry; Smith, Neil

2016-10-01

Crowdsourcing is an innovative business practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content or even funds by soliciting contributions from a large group of people (the `Crowd'). The potential benefits of utilizing crowdsourcing in product design are well-documented, but little research exists on what are the barriers and opportunities in adopting crowdsourcing in new product development (NPD) of manufacturing SMEs. In order to answer the above questions, a Proof of Market study is carried out on crowdsourcing-based product design under an Innovate UK funded Smart project, which aims at identifying the needs, challenges and future development opportunities associated with adopting crowdsourcing strategies for NPD. The research findings from this study are reported here and can be used to guide future development of crowdsourcing-based collaborative design methods and tools and provide some practical references for industry to adopt this new and emerging collaborative design method in their business.

Power variation for Gaussian processes with stationary increments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barndorff-Nielsen, Ole Eiler; Corcuera, J.M.; Podolskij, Mark

2009-01-01

We develop the asymptotic theory for the realised power variation of the processes X=•G, where G is a Gaussian process with stationary increments. More specifically, under some mild assumptions on the variance function of the increments of G and certain regularity conditions on the path of the pr......We develop the asymptotic theory for the realised power variation of the processes X=•G, where G is a Gaussian process with stationary increments. More specifically, under some mild assumptions on the variance function of the increments of G and certain regularity conditions on the path...... a chaos representation....

Opportunities, perspectives and limits in lactic acid production from waste and industrial by-products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mladenović Dragana D.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In line with the goals of sustainable development and environmental protection today great attention is directed towards new technologies for waste and industrial by-products utilization. Waste products represent potentially good raw material for production other valuable products, such as bioethanol, biogas, biodiesel, organic acids, enzymes, microbial biomass, etc. Since the first industrial production to the present, lactic acid has found wide application in food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. In recent years, the demand for lactic acid has been increasing considerably owing to its potential use as a monomer for the production of poly-lactic acid (PLA polymers which are biodegradable and biocompatible with wide applications. Waste and industrial by-products such are whey, molasses, stillage, waste starch and lignocellulosic materials are a good source of fermentable sugars and many other substances of great importance for the growth of microorganisms, such as proteins, minerals and vitamins. Utilization of waste products for production of lactic acid could help to reduce the total cost of lactic acid production and except the economic viability of the process offers a solution of their disposal. Fermentation process depends on chemical and physical nature of feedstocks and the lactic acid producer. This review describes the characteristics, abilities and limits of microorganisms involved in lactic acid production, as well as the characteristics and types of waste products for lactic acid production. The fermentation methods that have been recently reported to improve lactic acid production are summarized and compared. In order to improve processes and productivity, fed-batch fermentation, fermentation with immobilized cell systems and mixed cultures and opportunities of open (non-sterilized fermentation have been investigated.

76 FR 41178 - Pesticides; Policies Concerning Products Containing Nanoscale Materials; Opportunity for Public...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-13

... Pesticides; Policies Concerning Products Containing Nanoscale Materials; Opportunity for Public Comment; Extension of Comment Period AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Proposed policy statement; extension of comment period. SUMMARY: EPA issued a proposed policy statement in the Federal Register of June...

Incremental passivity and output regulation for switched nonlinear systems

Science.gov (United States)

Pang, Hongbo; Zhao, Jun

2017-10-01

This paper studies incremental passivity and global output regulation for switched nonlinear systems, whose subsystems are not required to be incrementally passive. A concept of incremental passivity for switched systems is put forward. First, a switched system is rendered incrementally passive by the design of a state-dependent switching law. Second, the feedback incremental passification is achieved by the design of a state-dependent switching law and a set of state feedback controllers. Finally, we show that once the incremental passivity for switched nonlinear systems is assured, the output regulation problem is solved by the design of global nonlinear regulator controllers comprising two components: the steady-state control and the linear output feedback stabilising controllers, even though the problem for none of subsystems is solvable. Two examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Peri-urban dairy production systems in developing countries: Characteristics, potential and opportunities for improvement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Devendra, C.

2002-01-01

Full text: Peri-urban dairy production systems in developing countries are discussed with reference to type of systems, their characteristics, potential, and opportunities for improvement. Three types of dairy systems are identified and described: smallholder systems, smallholder co-perative dairy production systems, and intensive dairy production systems. The first two systems are by far the most important, and are associated with increasing intensification. Buffaloes are especially important in South Asia, but elsewhere dairy production mainly involves Holstein-Friesian cross-bred cattle. Dairy goats are important in some countries, but are generally neglected in development programmes. The expansion and intensification of peri-urban dairy production is fuelled by increased demand for milk with associated problems of milk handling and distribution, hygiene and environmental pollution. The major constraints to production are inter alia, choice of species, breeds and availability of animals; feed resources and improved feeding systems; improved breeding, reproduction, and animal health care; management of animal manure, and organised marketing, and market outlets. These constraints provide major opportunities and challenges for research and development to increase dairy production, efficient management of natural resources, and improved livelihoods of poor farmers. Specific areas for research are identified, as also the need of a holistic focus involving interdisciplinary research and integrated natural resource management, in a shared partnership between farmers and scientists that can demonstrate increased productivity and sustainable production systems. Suggestions for performance indicators for such systems are indicated. (author)

Theory of Single Point Incremental Forming

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Martins, P.A.F.; Bay, Niels; Skjødt, Martin

2008-01-01

This paper presents a closed-form theoretical analysis modelling the fundamentals of single point incremental forming and explaining the experimental and numerical results available in the literature for the past couple of years. The model is based on membrane analysis with bi-directional in-plan......-plane contact friction and is focused on the extreme modes of deformation that are likely to be found in single point incremental forming processes. The overall investigation is supported by experimental work performed by the authors and data retrieved from the literature.......This paper presents a closed-form theoretical analysis modelling the fundamentals of single point incremental forming and explaining the experimental and numerical results available in the literature for the past couple of years. The model is based on membrane analysis with bi-directional in...

Efficiency of Oral Incremental Rehearsal versus Written Incremental Rehearsal on Students' Rate, Retention, and Generalization of Spelling Words

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia, Dru; Joseph, Laurice M.; Alber-Morgan, Sheila; Konrad, Moira

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficiency of an incremental rehearsal oral versus an incremental rehearsal written procedure on a sample of primary grade children's weekly spelling performance. Participants included five second and one first grader who were in need of help with their spelling according to their teachers. An…

Lead 210 and moss-increment dating of two Finnish Sphagnum hummocks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El-Daoushy, F.

1982-01-01

A comparison is presented of 210 Pb dating data with mass-increment dates of selected peat material from Finland. The measurements of 210 Pb were carried out by determining the granddaughter product 210 Po by means of the isotope dilution. The ages in 210 Pb yr were calculated using the constant initial concentration and the constant rate of supply models. (U.K.)

Sustainable Product Service Systems in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs: Opportunities in the Leather Manufacturing Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ricardo J. Hernández Pardo

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an approach to identify opportunities to develop sustainable Product Service Systems (PSS involving Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs. The purpose of the research is to build understanding of how the integration of product and service design and the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT can contribute to identify opportunities to develop sustainable PSS involving SMEs. In order to develop the approach, research with 16 Colombian Manufacturing SMEs was carried out. A reference model and four generic types of PSS according to the relationships between product and service design and ICT are used to analyse the data. Finally, the possibility of extending the approach into a general framework to work with other industries is discussed.

Performance Evaluation of Incremental K-means Clustering Algorithm

OpenAIRE

Chakraborty, Sanjay; Nagwani, N. K.

2014-01-01

The incremental K-means clustering algorithm has already been proposed and analysed in paper [Chakraborty and Nagwani, 2011]. It is a very innovative approach which is applicable in periodically incremental environment and dealing with a bulk of updates. In this paper the performance evaluation is done for this incremental K-means clustering algorithm using air pollution database. This paper also describes the comparison on the performance evaluations between existing K-means clustering and i...

Improved incremental conductance method for maximum power point tracking using cuk converter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Saad Saoud

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The Algerian government relies on a strategy focused on the development of inexhaustible resources such as solar and uses to diversify energy sources and prepare the Algeria of tomorrow: about 40% of the production of electricity for domestic consumption will be from renewable sources by 2030, Therefore it is necessary to concentrate our forces in order to reduce the application costs and to increment their performances, Their performance is evaluated and compared through theoretical analysis and digital simulation. This paper presents simulation of improved incremental conductance method for maximum power point tracking (MPPT using DC-DC cuk converter. This improved algorithm is used to track MPPs because it performs precise control under rapidly changing Atmospheric conditions, Matlab/ Simulink were employed for simulation studies.

Opportunistic maintenance considering non-homogenous opportunity arrivals and stochastic opportunity durations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Truong Ba, H.; Cholette, M.E.; Borghesani, P.; Zhou, Y.; Ma, L.

2017-01-01

Many systems and manufacturing processes undergo intermittent operation due to external factors (e.g. weather, low market prices), offering opportunities to conduct maintenance with reduced production losses. Making use of appropriate opportunities can thus lead to significant reduction in the total cost of maintenance and improvement in productivity. In this paper, an opportunistic maintenance (OM) model is developed considering two critical properties of real world opportunities: (i) non-homogeneous opportunity arrivals and (ii) stochastic opportunity duration. The model enables exploiting downtime cost savings from “partial” opportunities (stops shorter than the required maintenance time) thus extending the potential benefit of OM. The criteria for accepting maintenance opportunities are found by minimizing the single-cycle total cost. A closed form expression of the single-cycle total cost is derived for a given PM/OM policy and then a Genetic Algorithm is used to solve the optimization problem. Numerical results are presented to assess the benefit of opportunistic maintenance and the marginal benefit of considering partial opportunities. Results indicate that significant savings can be achieved by considering OM. Moreover, it is shown that the novel consideration of partial opportunities significantly increase the benefit of OM. - Highlights: • Opportunistic and time-based preventive maintenance jointly optimized. • Non-homogeneous opportunity arrivals and stochastic durations considered. • “Partial” opportunities considered for the first time. • Opportunity duration thresholds used as a decision criterion. • Numerical study conducted to evaluate benefit of optimized policy.

Opportunity cost of funding drugs for rare diseases: the cost-effectiveness of eculizumab in paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria.

Science.gov (United States)

Coyle, Doug; Cheung, Matthew C; Evans, Gerald A

2014-11-01

Both ethical and economics concerns have been raised with respect to the funding of drugs for rare diseases. This article reports both the cost-effectiveness of eculizumab for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) and its associated opportunity costs. Analysis compared eculizumab plus current standard of care v. current standard of care from a publicly funded health care system perspective. A Markov model covered the major consequences of PNH and treatment. Cost-effectiveness was assessed in terms of the incremental cost per life year and per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained. Opportunity costs were assessed by the health gains foregone and the alternative uses for the additional resources. Eculizumab is associated with greater life years (1.13), QALYs (2.45), and costs (CAN$5.24 million). The incremental cost per life year and per QALY gained is CAN$4.62 million and CAN$2.13 million, respectively. Based on established thresholds, the opportunity cost of funding eculizumab is 102.3 discounted QALYs per patient funded. Sensitivity and subgroup analysis confirmed the robustness of the results. If the acquisition cost of eculizumab was reduced by 98.5%, it could be considered cost-effective. The nature of rare diseases means that data are often sparse for the conduct of economic evaluations. When data were limited, assumptions were made that biased results in favor of eculizumab. This study demonstrates the feasibility of conducting economic evaluations in the context of rare diseases. Eculizumab may provide substantive benefits to patients with PNH in terms of life expectancy and quality of life but at a high incremental cost and a substantial opportunity cost. Decision makers should fully consider the opportunity costs before making positive reimbursement decisions. © The Author(s) 2014.

Options for electricity production, the actual opportunities and regulatory framework

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Raphals, P.

2006-01-01

Thermal power and nuclear power represent the traditional methods of generating electricity. This paper presented opportunities for alternative centralized power production methods that include wind energy, biomass and solar energy. It also discussed decentralized alternatives for power generation, such as geothermal energy and cogeneration, including microturbines. The primary focus was on aspects of competitive market design for residential and small commercial applications as well as commercial and industrial applications. Law 116 of Quebec's Energy Board was reviewed in terms of energy policy and utility regulation. In particular, the framework agreement between Hydro-Quebec Production (HQP) and Hydro-Quebec Distribution (HQD) was discussed with reference to balancing electricity produced from renewable energy sources and energy security. The presentation also addressed issues regarding the role of competition, regulation and environmental implications of electricity trade. refs., tabs., figs

Incremental phonological encoding during unscripted sentence production

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florian T Jaeger

2012-11-01

Full Text Available We investigate phonological encoding during unscripted sentence production, focusing on the effect of phonological overlap on phonological encoding. Previous work on this question has almost exclusively employed isolated word production or highly scripted multiword production. These studies have led to conflicting results: some studies found that phonological overlap between two words facilitates phonological encoding, while others found inhibitory effects. One worry with many of these paradigms is that they involve processes that are not typical to everyday language use, which calls into question to what extent their findings speak to the architectures and mechanisms underlying language production. We present a paradigm to investigate the consequences of phonological overlap between words in a sentence while leaving speakers much of the lexical and structural choices typical in everyday language use. Adult native speakers of English described events in short video clips. We annotated the presence of disfluencies and the speech rate at various points throughout the sentence, as well as the constituent order. We find that phonological overlap has an inhibitory effect on phonological encoding. Specifically, if adjacent content words share their phonological onset (e.g., hand the hammer, they are preceded by production difficulty, as reflected in fluency and speech rate. We also find that this production difficulty affects speakers’ constituent order preferences during grammatical encoding. We discuss our results and previous works to isolate the properties of other paradigms that resulted in facilitatory or inhibitory results. The data from our paradigm also speak to questions about the scope of phonological planning in unscripted speech and as to whether phonological and grammatical encoding interact.

Incremental short daily home hemodialysis: a case series.

Science.gov (United States)

Toth-Manikowski, Stephanie M; Mullangi, Surekha; Hwang, Seungyoung; Shafi, Tariq

2017-07-05

Patients starting dialysis often have substantial residual kidney function. Incremental hemodialysis provides a hemodialysis prescription that supplements patients' residual kidney function while maintaining total (residual + dialysis) urea clearance (standard Kt/Vurea) targets. We describe our experience with incremental hemodialysis in patients using NxStage System One for home hemodialysis. From 2011 to 2015, we initiated 5 incident hemodialysis patients on an incremental home hemodialysis regimen. The biochemical parameters of all patients remained stable on the incremental hemodialysis regimen and they consistently achieved standard Kt/Vurea targets. Of the two patients with follow-up >6 months, residual kidney function was preserved for ≥2 years. Importantly, the patients were able to transition to home hemodialysis without automatically requiring 5 sessions per week at the outset and gradually increased the number of treatments and/or dialysate volume as the residual kidney function declined. An incremental home hemodialysis regimen can be safely prescribed and may improve acceptability of home hemodialysis. Reducing hemodialysis frequency by even one treatment per week can reduce the number of fistula or graft cannulations or catheter connections by >100 per year, an important consideration for patient well-being, access longevity, and access-related infections. The incremental hemodialysis approach, supported by national guidelines, can be considered for all home hemodialysis patients with residual kidney function.

Quantum independent increment processes

CERN Document Server

Franz, Uwe

2006-01-01

This is the second of two volumes containing the revised and completed notes of lectures given at the school "Quantum Independent Increment Processes: Structure and Applications to Physics". This school was held at the Alfried-Krupp-Wissenschaftskolleg in Greifswald in March, 2003, and supported by the Volkswagen Foundation. The school gave an introduction to current research on quantum independent increment processes aimed at graduate students and non-specialists working in classical and quantum probability, operator algebras, and mathematical physics. The present second volume contains the following lectures: "Random Walks on Finite Quantum Groups" by Uwe Franz and Rolf Gohm, "Quantum Markov Processes and Applications in Physics" by Burkhard Kümmerer, Classical and Free Infinite Divisibility and Lévy Processes" by Ole E. Barndorff-Nielsen, Steen Thorbjornsen, and "Lévy Processes on Quantum Groups and Dual Groups" by Uwe Franz.

COMPETITIVE PRODUCT ADVANTAGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrian MICU

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Cost advantages may be either internal or external. Internal economics of scope, scale, or experience, and external economies of focus or logistical integration, enable a company to produce some products at a lower cost than the competition. The coordination of pricing with suppliers, although not actually economizing resources, can improve the efficiency of pricing by avoiding the incrementalization of a supplier's nonincremental fixed costs and profit. Any of these strategies can generate cost advantages that are, at least in the short run, sustainable. Even cost advantages that are not sustainable, however, can generate temporary savings that are often the key to building more sustainable cost or product advantages later.. Even when a product's physical attributes are not readily differentiable, opportunities to develop product advantages remain. The augmented product that customers buy is more than the particular product or service exchanged. It includes all sorts of ancillary services and intangible relationships that make buying thesame product from one company less difficult, less risky, or more pleasant than buying from a competitor. Superior augmentation of the same basic product can add substantial value in the eyes of consumers, leading them to pay willingly what are often considerable price premiums.

Incremental electrohydraulic forming - A new approach for the manufacture of structured multifunctional sheet metal blanks

Science.gov (United States)

Djakow, Eugen; Springer, Robert; Homberg, Werner; Piper, Mark; Tran, Julian; Zibart, Alexander; Kenig, Eugeny

2017-10-01

Electrohydraulic Forming (EHF) processes permit the production of complex, sharp-edged geometries even when high-strength materials are used. Unfortunately, the forming zone is often limited as compared to other sheet metal forming processes. The use of a special industrial-robot-based tool setup and an incremental process strategy could provide a promising solution for this problem. This paper describes such an innovative approach using an electrohydraulic incremental forming machine, which can be employed to manufacture the large multifunctional and complex part geometries in steel, aluminium, magnesium and reinforced plastic that are employed in lightweight constructions or heating elements.

Incremental Integrity Checking: Limitations and Possibilities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Henning; Martinenghi, Davide

2005-01-01

Integrity checking is an essential means for the preservation of the intended semantics of a deductive database. Incrementality is the only feasible approach to checking and can be obtained with respect to given update patterns by exploiting query optimization techniques. By reducing the problem...... to query containment, we show that no procedure exists that always returns the best incremental test (aka simplification of integrity constraints), and this according to any reasonable criterion measuring the checking effort. In spite of this theoretical limitation, we develop an effective procedure...

Analysis of near-term production and market opportunities for hydrogen and related activities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mauro, R.; Leach, S. [National Hydrogen Association, Washington, DC (United States)

1995-09-01

This paper summarizes current and planned activities in the areas of hydrogen production and use, near-term venture opportunities, and codes and standards. The rationale for these efforts is to assess industry interest and engage in activities that move hydrogen technologies down the path to commercialization. Some of the work presented in this document is a condensed, preliminary version of reports being prepared under the DOE/NREL contract. In addition, the NHA work funded by Westinghouse Savannah River Corporation (WSRC) to explore the opportunities and industry interest in a Hydrogen Research Center is briefly described. Finally, the planned support of and industry input to the Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel (HTAP) on hydrogen demonstration projects is discussed.

Design of methodology for incremental compiler construction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pavel Haluza

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with possibilities of the incremental compiler construction. It represents the compiler construction possibilities for languages with a fixed set of lexical units and for languages with a variable set of lexical units, too. The methodology design for the incremental compiler construction is based on the known algorithms for standard compiler construction and derived for both groups of languages. Under the group of languages with a fixed set of lexical units there belong languages, where each lexical unit has its constant meaning, e.g., common programming languages. For this group of languages the paper tries to solve the problem of the incremental semantic analysis, which is based on incremental parsing. In the group of languages with a variable set of lexical units (e.g., professional typographic system TEX, it is possible to change arbitrarily the meaning of each character on the input file at any time during processing. The change takes effect immediately and its validity can be somehow limited or is given by the end of the input. For this group of languages this paper tries to solve the problem case when we use macros temporarily changing the category of arbitrary characters.

Engaged scholarship for designing product service system innovation opportunities in an industrial design course

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lu, Y.; Baha, S.E.; Hsieh, P.H.

2013-01-01

This paper explores a design case study in an industrial design classroom in which actors with diverse expertise were involved for the creation of Product Service System (PSS) innovation opportunities in societal contexts. By engaging diverse experts from different fields, the classroom was turned

21 CFR 874.1070 - Short increment sensitivity index (SISI) adapter.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Short increment sensitivity index (SISI) adapter. 874.1070 Section 874.1070 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN... increment sensitivity index (SISI) adapter. (a) Identification. A short increment sensitivity index (SISI...

A Syntactic-Semantic Approach to Incremental Verification

OpenAIRE

Bianculli, Domenico; Filieri, Antonio; Ghezzi, Carlo; Mandrioli, Dino

2013-01-01

Software verification of evolving systems is challenging mainstream methodologies and tools. Formal verification techniques often conflict with the time constraints imposed by change management practices for evolving systems. Since changes in these systems are often local to restricted parts, an incremental verification approach could be beneficial. This paper introduces SiDECAR, a general framework for the definition of verification procedures, which are made incremental by the framework...

Shredder: GPU-Accelerated Incremental Storage and Computation

OpenAIRE

Bhatotia, Pramod; Rodrigues, Rodrigo; Verma, Akshat

2012-01-01

Redundancy elimination using data deduplication and incremental data processing has emerged as an important technique to minimize storage and computation requirements in data center computing. In this paper, we present the design, implementation and evaluation of Shredder, a high performance content-based chunking framework for supporting incremental storage and computation systems. Shredder exploits the massively parallel processing power of GPUs to overcome the CPU bottlenecks of content-ba...

Simulation and comparison of perturb and observe and incremental ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Perturb and Observe (P & O) algorithm and Incremental conductance algorithm. ... Keywords. Solar array; insolation; MPPT; modelling, P & O; incremental conductance. 1. .... voltage level. It is also ..... Int. J. Advances in Eng. Technol. 133–148.

Study on irradiation sterilization of medical gauze pad by incremental dosage method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lei Qing; Huang Min; Deng Wenmin; Wu Ling; Wang Yan; Gao Peng; Du Xiaoying; Xie Yan

2011-01-01

To explore the sterilization dose setting method for medical products, the irradiation sterilization dose for medical products was set according to the method 2A of international standard ISO11137 Part 2. The verification dose for medical gauze pad by was set by incremental dose method and with a series of formula. Then the sterilization dose for an SAL of 10 -6 was established by completing the verification dose experiment. The final sterilization dose for medical gauze pad was decided to be 29.7 kGy. This study gives reference for the setting irradiation sterilization dose for medical products which need to adopt the method 2A of international standard ISO11137 Part 2. (authors)

Towards sustainable soy : an assessment of opportunities and risks for soybean production based on a case study Brazil

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berkum, van S.; Bindraban, P.S.

2008-01-01

This study investigates opportunities for and implications of expanding soybean production in developing countries. Increasing soybean production is expected to take place mainly in Latin America. However the international community is increasingly concerned about managing the natural resources in

Efficient incremental relaying

KAUST Repository

Fareed, Muhammad Mehboob

2013-07-01

We propose a novel relaying scheme which improves the spectral efficiency of cooperative diversity systems by utilizing limited feedback from destination. Our scheme capitalizes on the fact that relaying is only required when direct transmission suffers deep fading. We calculate the packet error rate for the proposed efficient incremental relaying scheme with both amplify and forward and decode and forward relaying. Numerical results are also presented to verify their analytical counterparts. © 2013 IEEE.

Entity versus incremental theories predict older adults' memory performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Plaks, Jason E; Chasteen, Alison L

2013-12-01

The authors examined whether older adults' implicit theories regarding the modifiability of memory in particular (Studies 1 and 3) and abilities in general (Study 2) would predict memory performance. In Study 1, individual differences in older adults' endorsement of the "entity theory" (a belief that one's ability is fixed) or "incremental theory" (a belief that one's ability is malleable) of memory were measured using a version of the Implicit Theories Measure (Dweck, 1999). Memory performance was assessed with a free-recall task. Results indicated that the higher the endorsement of the incremental theory, the better the free recall. In Study 2, older and younger adults' theories were measured using a more general version of the Implicit Theories Measure that focused on the modifiability of abilities in general. Again, for older adults, the higher the incremental endorsement, the better the free recall. Moreover, as predicted, implicit theories did not predict younger adults' memory performance. In Study 3, participants read mock news articles reporting evidence in favor of either the entity or incremental theory. Those in the incremental condition outperformed those in the entity condition on reading span and free-recall tasks. These effects were mediated by pretask worry such that, for those in the entity condition, higher worry was associated with lower performance. Taken together, these studies suggest that variation in entity versus incremental endorsement represents a key predictor of older adults' memory performance. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Lifetime costs of lung transplantation : Estimation of incremental costs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

VanEnckevort, PJ; Koopmanschap, MA; Tenvergert, EM; VanderBij, W; Rutten, FFH

1997-01-01

Despite an expanding number of centres which provide lung transplantation, information about the incremental costs of lung transplantation is scarce. From 1991 until 1995, in The Netherlands a technology assessment was performed which provided information about the incremental costs of lung

Exploring opportunities for enhancing innovation in agriculture: The case of oil palm production in Ghana

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Adjei-Nsiah, S.; Sakyi-Dawson, O.; Kuyper, T.W.

2012-01-01

We carried out a study using key informant interviews, focus group discussions and individual interviews to explore opportunities to enhance innovation in the oil palm sector in Ghana. Current technical innovations at the farm level are insufficient to promote sustainable oil palm production and to

Cultural Differences in Opportunity Cost Consideration.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Ning; Ji, Li-Jun; Li, Ye

2017-01-01

Two studies were conducted to investigate cultural differences in opportunity cost consideration between Chinese and Euro-Canadians. Opportunity cost is defined as the cost of a benefit that must be forgone in order to pursue a better alternative (Becker et al., 1974). In both studies, participants read about hypothetical purchase scenarios, and then decided whether they would buy a certain product. Opportunity cost consideration was measured in two ways: (1) participants' thoughts pertaining to other (nonfocal) products while making decisions; (2) participants' decisions not to buy a focal product (Study 1) or a more expensive product (Study 2). Across both indexes, we found that after controlling for individual difference variables and amount of pocket money, Chinese participants in China considered financial opportunity cost more than Euro-Canadians in Study 1. Similar results were observed in Study 2 when comparing Chinese in Canada with Euro-Canadians However, the cultural effect on opportunity cost consideration was confounded by family income in Study 2. Implications for resource management, limitations of the current research and directions for future research are discussed.

Climate Variability and Change in Bihar, India: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Crop Production

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kindie Tesfaye

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Climate change and associated uncertainties have serious direct and indirect consequences for crop production and food security in agriculture-based developing regions. Long-term climate data analysis can identify climate risks and anticipate new ones for planning appropriate adaptation and mitigation options. The aim of this study was to identify near-term (2030 and mid-term (2050 climate risks and/or opportunities in the state of Bihar, one of India’s most populous and poorest states, using weather data for 30 years (1980–2009 as a baseline. Rainfall, maximum and minimum temperatures, and evapotranspiration will all increase in the near- and mid-term periods relative to the baseline period, with the magnitude of the change varying with time, season and location within the state. Bihar’s major climate risks for crop production will be heat stress due to increasing minimum temperatures in the rabi (winter season and high minimum and maximum temperatures in the spring season; and intense rainfall and longer dry spells in the kharif (monsoon season. The increase in annual and seasonal rainfall amounts, and extended crop growing period in the kharif season generally provide opportunities; but increasing temperature across the state will have considerable negative consequences on (staple crops by affecting crop phenology, physiology and plant-water relations. The study helps develop site-specific adaptation and mitigation options that minimize the negative effects of climate change while maximizing the opportunities.

Defense Agencies Initiative Increment 2 (DAI Inc 2)

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-01

module. In an ADM dated September 23, 2013, the MDA established Increment 2 as a MAIS program to include budget formulation; grants financial...2016 Major Automated Information System Annual Report Defense Agencies Initiative Increment 2 (DAI Inc 2) Defense Acquisition Management...President’s Budget RDT&E - Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation SAE - Service Acquisition Executive TBD - To Be Determined TY - Then

Biometrics Enabling Capability Increment 1 (BEC Inc 1)

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-01

modal biometrics submissions to include iris, face, palm and finger prints from biometrics collection devices, which will support the Warfighter in...2016 Major Automated Information System Annual Report Biometrics Enabling Capability Increment 1 (BEC Inc 1) Defense Acquisition Management...Phone: 227-3119 DSN Fax: Date Assigned: July 15, 2015 Program Information Program Name Biometrics Enabling Capability Increment 1 (BEC Inc 1) DoD

76 FR 53763 - Immigration Benefits Business Transformation, Increment I

Science.gov (United States)

2011-08-29

..., 100, et al. Immigration Benefits Business Transformation, Increment I; Final Rule #0;#0;Federal... Benefits Business Transformation, Increment I AGENCY: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, DHS... USCIS is engaged in an enterprise-wide transformation effort to implement new business processes and to...

Shakedown analysis by finite element incremental procedures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borkowski, A.; Kleiber, M.

1979-01-01

It is a common occurence in many practical problems that external loads are variable and the exact time-dependent history of loading is unknown. Instead of it load is characterized by a given loading domain: a convex polyhedron in the n-dimensional space of load parameters. The problem is then to check whether a structure shakes down, i.e. responds elastically after a few elasto-plastic cycles, or not to a variable loading as defined above. Such check can be performed by an incremental procedure. One should reproduce incrementally a simple cyclic process which consists of proportional load paths that connect the origin of the load space with the corners of the loading domain. It was proved that if a structure shakes down to such loading history then it is able to adopt itself to an arbitrary load path contained in the loading domain. The main advantage of such approach is the possibility to use existing incremental finite-element computer codes. (orig.)

Automatic incrementalization of Prolog based static analyses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eichberg, Michael; Kahl, Matthias; Saha, Diptikalyan

2007-01-01

Modem development environments integrate various static analyses into the build process. Analyses that analyze the whole project whenever the project changes are impractical in this context. We present an approach to automatic incrementalization of analyses that are specified as tabled logic...... programs and evaluated using incremental tabled evaluation, a technique for efficiently updating memo tables in response to changes in facts and rules. The approach has been implemented and integrated into the Eclipse IDE. Our measurements show that this technique is effective for automatically...

Procedure for the Management control with process approach at the Dairy Products Company Río Zaza Sancti Spiritus.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Madelaine Herrera Carriles

2013-03-01

Full Text Available In this research work we propose a procedure for the management control with process approaches to quality continuing improvement approaches at the Dairy Products Company Río Zaza Sancti Spíritus. Improvement opportunities were detected after measuring economical and productive parameters of commercialization process. The procedure includes techniques and tools such as Kendall coefficient, questionnaire, SWOT matrix (Weaknesses, Threats, Strengths, Opportunities, process management, process map, flow diagrams, process chip, Pareto diagram, strategic alignment matrix, balanced scorecard and the Deming cycle. The integration of strategic deployment, the process approaches; balanced scorecard in the procedure of management control contributed to the continuous improvement of quality evaluated by means of the indicators monitoring. It was possible to lower the billing cycle to 45 days and to have an increment of 2.2 MP from the total revenues.

Equal Opportunities Questionnaire

CERN Multimedia

2007-01-01

The initiative to promote Equal Opportunities at CERN started in 1993. The first Equal Opportunities Officer was appointed in 1996, which was followed by the creation of the Equal Opportunities Advisory Panel in 1998. Initially the concern was mainly the fair treatment of women in the work-place. Today the emphasis has evolved to ensuring that diversity is used to increase creativity and productivity in the work-place. In order to ensure that all aspects of Equal Opportunities and Diversity are covered, CERN’s Equal Opportunities team has prepared a survey to obtain your input. Your answers are confidential and will only be used for generating statistics. The questionnaire is on-line and can be accessed via: https://espace.cern.ch/EOQ. We hope that you will take a few minutes of your time to give your input and would be grateful if you could reply before 15/10/07. For further information about Equal Opportunities at CERN see: http://cern.ch/equal-opportunities The Equa...

Equal Opportunities Questionnaire

CERN Multimedia

2007-01-01

The initiative to promote Equal Opportunities at CERN started in 1993. The first Equal Opportunities Officer was appointed in 1996 followed by the creation of the Equal Opportunities Advisory Panel in 1998. Initially the concern was mainly the fair treatment of women in the work-place. Today the emphasis has evolved to ensuring that diversity is used to increase creativity and productivity in the work-place. In order to ensure that all aspects of Equal Opportunities and Diversity are covered, CERN’s Equal Opportunities team has prepared a survey to obtain your input. Your answers are confidential and will only be used for generating statistics. The questionnaire is on-line and can be accessed via: https://espace.cern.ch/EOQ. We hope that you will take a few minutes of your time to give your input and would be grateful if you could reply before 15/10/07. For further information about Equal Opportunities at CERN see: http://cern.ch/equal-opportunities The Equal Opportuni...

Mission Planning System Increment 5 (MPS Inc 5)

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-01

2016 Major Automated Information System Annual Report Mission Planning System Increment 5 (MPS Inc 5) Defense Acquisition Management Information...President’s Budget RDT&E - Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation SAE - Service Acquisition Executive TBD - To Be Determined TY - Then Year...Phone: 845-9625 DSN Fax: Date Assigned: May 19, 2014 Program Information Program Name Mission Planning System Increment 5 (MPS Inc 5) DoD

MRI: Modular reasoning about interference in incremental programming

OpenAIRE

Oliveira, Bruno C. D. S; Schrijvers, Tom; Cook, William R

2012-01-01

Incremental Programming (IP) is a programming style in which new program components are defined as increments of other components. Examples of IP mechanisms include: Object-oriented programming (OOP) inheritance, aspect-oriented programming (AOP) advice and feature-oriented programming (FOP). A characteristic of IP mechanisms is that, while individual components can be independently defined, the composition of components makes those components become tightly coupled, sh...

Incremental short daily home hemodialysis: a case series

OpenAIRE

Toth-Manikowski, Stephanie M.; Mullangi, Surekha; Hwang, Seungyoung; Shafi, Tariq

2017-01-01

Background Patients starting dialysis often have substantial residual kidney function. Incremental hemodialysis provides a hemodialysis prescription that supplements patients? residual kidney function while maintaining total (residual + dialysis) urea clearance (standard Kt/Vurea) targets. We describe our experience with incremental hemodialysis in patients using NxStage System One for home hemodialysis. Case presentation From 2011 to 2015, we initiated 5 incident hemodialysis patients on an ...

Volatilities, Traded Volumes, and Price Increments in Derivative Securities

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Kyungsik; Lim, Gyuchang; Kim, Soo Yong; Scalas, Enrico

2007-03-01

We apply the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) to the statistics of the Korean treasury bond (KTB) futures from which the logarithmic increments, volatilities, and traded volumes are estimated over a specific time lag. For our case, the logarithmic increment of futures prices has no long-memory property, while the volatility and the traded volume exhibit the existence of long-memory property. To analyze and calculate whether the volatility clustering is due to the inherent higher-order correlation not detected by applying directly the DFA to logarithmic increments of the KTB futures, it is of importance to shuffle the original tick data of futures prices and to generate the geometric Brownian random walk with the same mean and standard deviation. It is really shown from comparing the three tick data that the higher-order correlation inherent in logarithmic increments makes the volatility clustering. Particularly, the result of the DFA on volatilities and traded volumes may be supported the hypothesis of price changes.

Space-time quantitative source apportionment of soil heavy metal concentration increments.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Yong; Christakos, George; Guo, Mingwu; Xiao, Lu; Huang, Wei

2017-04-01

Assessing the space-time trends and detecting the sources of heavy metal accumulation in soils have important consequences in the prevention and treatment of soil heavy metal pollution. In this study, we collected soil samples in the eastern part of the Qingshan district, Wuhan city, Hubei Province, China, during the period 2010-2014. The Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn concentrations in soils exhibited a significant accumulation during 2010-2014. The spatiotemporal Kriging technique, based on a quantitative characterization of soil heavy metal concentration variations in terms of non-separable variogram models, was employed to estimate the spatiotemporal soil heavy metal distribution in the study region. Our findings showed that the Cd, Cu, and Zn concentrations have an obvious incremental tendency from the southwestern to the central part of the study region. However, the Pb concentrations exhibited an obvious tendency from the northern part to the central part of the region. Then, spatial overlay analysis was used to obtain absolute and relative concentration increments of adjacent 1- or 5-year periods during 2010-2014. The spatial distribution of soil heavy metal concentration increments showed that the larger increments occurred in the center of the study region. Lastly, the principal component analysis combined with the multiple linear regression method were employed to quantify the source apportionment of the soil heavy metal concentration increments in the region. Our results led to the conclusion that the sources of soil heavy metal concentration increments should be ascribed to industry, agriculture and traffic. In particular, 82.5% of soil heavy metal concentration increment during 2010-2014 was ascribed to industrial/agricultural activities sources. Using STK and SOA to obtain the spatial distribution of heavy metal concentration increments in soils. Using PCA-MLR to quantify the source apportionment of soil heavy metal concentration increments. Copyright © 2017

Support vector machine incremental learning triggered by wrongly predicted samples

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Ting-long; Guan, Qiu; Wu, Yi-rong

2018-05-01

According to the classic Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) theorem, at every step of incremental support vector machine (SVM) learning, the newly adding sample which violates the KKT conditions will be a new support vector (SV) and migrate the old samples between SV set and non-support vector (NSV) set, and at the same time the learning model should be updated based on the SVs. However, it is not exactly clear at this moment that which of the old samples would change between SVs and NSVs. Additionally, the learning model will be unnecessarily updated, which will not greatly increase its accuracy but decrease the training speed. Therefore, how to choose the new SVs from old sets during the incremental stages and when to process incremental steps will greatly influence the accuracy and efficiency of incremental SVM learning. In this work, a new algorithm is proposed to select candidate SVs and use the wrongly predicted sample to trigger the incremental processing simultaneously. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve good performance with high efficiency, high speed and good accuracy.

Average-case analysis of incremental topological ordering

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ajwani, Deepak; Friedrich, Tobias

2010-01-01

Many applications like pointer analysis and incremental compilation require maintaining a topological ordering of the nodes of a directed acyclic graph (DAG) under dynamic updates. All known algorithms for this problem are either only analyzed for worst-case insertion sequences or only evaluated...... experimentally on random DAGs. We present the first average-case analysis of incremental topological ordering algorithms. We prove an expected runtime of under insertion of the edges of a complete DAG in a random order for the algorithms of Alpern et al. (1990) [4], Katriel and Bodlaender (2006) [18], and Pearce...

Internships, employment opportunities, and research grants

Science.gov (United States)

,

2015-01-01

As an unbiased, multidisciplinary science organization, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is dedicated to the timely, relevant, and impartial study of the health of our ecosystems and environment, our natural resources, the impacts of climate and land-use change, and the natural hazards that threaten us. Opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students and faculty to participate in USGS science are available in the selected programs described below. Please note: U.S. citizenship is required for all government positions.This publication has been superseded by USGS General Information Product 165 Grant Opportunities for Academic Research and Training and USGS General Information Product 166 Student and Recent Graduate Employment Opportunities.This publication is proceeded by USGS General Information Product 80 Internships, Employment Opportunities, and Research Grants published in 2008.

Motion-Induced Blindness Using Increments and Decrements of Luminance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stine Wm Wren

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Motion-induced blindness describes the disappearance of stationary elements of a scene when other, perhaps non-overlapping, elements of the scene are in motion. We measured the effects of increment (200.0 cd/m2 and decrement targets (15.0 cd/m2 and masks presented on a grey background (108.0 cd/m2, tapping into putative ON- and OFF-channels, on the rate of target disappearance psychophysically. We presented two-frame motion, which has coherent motion energy, and dynamic Glass patterns and dynamic anti-Glass patterns, which do not have coherent motion energy. Using the method of constant stimuli, participants viewed stimuli of varying durations (3.1 s, 4.6 s, 7.0 s, 11 s, or 16 s in a given trial and then indicated whether or not the targets vanished during that trial. Psychometric function midpoints were used to define absolute threshold mask duration for the disappearance of the target. 95% confidence intervals for threshold disappearance times were estimated using a bootstrap technique for each of the participants across two experiments. Decrement masks were more effective than increment masks with increment targets. Increment targets were easier to mask than decrement targets. Distinct mask pattern types had no effect, suggesting that perceived coherence contributes to the effectiveness of the mask. The ON/OFF dichotomy clearly carries its influence to the level of perceived motion coherence. Further, the asymmetry in the effects of increment and decrement masks on increment and decrement targets might lead one to speculate that they reflect the ‘importance’ of detecting decrements in the environment.

Industrial-strength ecology: trade-offs and opportunities in algal biofuel production.

Science.gov (United States)

Shurin, Jonathan B; Abbott, Rachel L; Deal, Michael S; Kwan, Garfield T; Litchman, Elena; McBride, Robert C; Mandal, Shovon; Smith, Val H

2013-11-01

Microalgae represent one of the most promising groups of candidate organisms for replacing fossil fuels with contemporary primary production as a renewable source of energy. Algae can produce many times more biomass per unit area than terrestrial crop plants, easing the competing demands for land with food crops and native ecosystems. However, several aspects of algal biology present unique challenges to the industrial-scale aquaculture of photosynthetic microorganisms. These include high susceptibility to invading aquatic consumers and weeds, as well as prodigious requirements for nutrients that may compete with the fertiliser demands of other crops. Most research on algal biofuel technologies approaches these problems from a cellular or genetic perspective, attempting either to engineer or select algal strains with particular traits. However, inherent functional trade-offs may limit the capacity of genetic selection or synthetic biology to simultaneously optimise multiple functional traits for biofuel productivity and resilience. We argue that a community engineering approach that manages microalgal diversity, species composition and environmental conditions may lead to more robust and productive biofuel ecosystems. We review evidence for trade-offs, challenges and opportunities in algal biofuel cultivation with a goal of guiding research towards intensifying bioenergy production using established principles of community and ecosystem ecology. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Logistics Modernization Program Increment 2 (LMP Inc 2)

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-01

Sections 3 and 4 of the LMP Increment 2 Business Case, ADM), key functional requirements, Critical Design Review (CDR) Reports, and Economic ...from the 2013 version of the LMP Increment 2 Economic Analysis and replace it with references to the Economic Analysis that will be completed...of ( inbound /outbound) IDOCs into the system. LMP must be able to successfully process 95% of ( inbound /outbound) IDOCs into the system. Will meet

Incremental Tensor Principal Component Analysis for Handwritten Digit Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang Liu

2014-01-01

Full Text Available To overcome the shortcomings of traditional dimensionality reduction algorithms, incremental tensor principal component analysis (ITPCA based on updated-SVD technique algorithm is proposed in this paper. This paper proves the relationship between PCA, 2DPCA, MPCA, and the graph embedding framework theoretically and derives the incremental learning procedure to add single sample and multiple samples in detail. The experiments on handwritten digit recognition have demonstrated that ITPCA has achieved better recognition performance than that of vector-based principal component analysis (PCA, incremental principal component analysis (IPCA, and multilinear principal component analysis (MPCA algorithms. At the same time, ITPCA also has lower time and space complexity.

Validation of the periodicity of growth increment deposition in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Validation of the periodicity of growth increment deposition in otoliths from the larval and early juvenile stages of two cyprinids from the Orange–Vaal river ... Linear regression models were fitted to the known age post-fertilisation and the age estimated using increment counts to test the correspondence between the two for ...

Creating Helical Tool Paths for Single Point Incremental Forming

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skjødt, Martin; Hancock, Michael H.; Bay, Niels

2007-01-01

Single point incremental forming (SPIF) is a relatively new sheet forming process. A sheet is clamped in a rig and formed incrementally using a rotating single point tool in the form of a rod with a spherical end. The process is often performed on a CNC milling machine and the tool movement...

Single point incremental forming: Formability of PC sheets

Science.gov (United States)

Formisano, A.; Boccarusso, L.; Carrino, L.; Lambiase, F.; Minutolo, F. Memola Capece

2018-05-01

Recent research on Single Point Incremental Forming of polymers has slightly covered the possibility of expanding the materials capability window of this flexible forming process beyond metals, by demonstrating the workability of thermoplastic polymers at room temperature. Given the different behaviour of polymers compared to metals, different aspects need to be deepened to better understand the behaviour of these materials when incrementally formed. Thus, the aim of the work is to investigate the formability of incrementally formed polycarbonate thin sheets. To this end, an experimental investigation at room temperature was conducted involving formability tests; varying wall angle cone and pyramid frusta were manufactured by processing polycarbonate sheets with different thicknesses and using tools with different diameters, in order to draw conclusions on the formability of polymer sheets through the evaluation of the forming angles and the observation of the failure mechanisms.

Martingales, nonstationary increments, and the efficient market hypothesis

Science.gov (United States)

McCauley, Joseph L.; Bassler, Kevin E.; Gunaratne, Gemunu H.

2008-06-01

We discuss the deep connection between nonstationary increments, martingales, and the efficient market hypothesis for stochastic processes x(t) with arbitrary diffusion coefficients D(x,t). We explain why a test for a martingale is generally a test for uncorrelated increments. We explain why martingales look Markovian at the level of both simple averages and 2-point correlations. But while a Markovian market has no memory to exploit and cannot be beaten systematically, a martingale admits memory that might be exploitable in higher order correlations. We also use the analysis of this paper to correct a misstatement of the ‘fair game’ condition in terms of serial correlations in Fama’s paper on the EMH. We emphasize that the use of the log increment as a variable in data analysis generates spurious fat tails and spurious Hurst exponents.

B-2 Extremely High Frequency SATCOM and Computer Increment 1 (B-2 EHF Inc 1)

Science.gov (United States)

2015-12-01

Confidence Level Confidence Level of cost estimate for current APB: 55% This APB reflects cost and funding data based on the B-2 EHF Increment I SCP...This cost estimate was quantified at the Mean (~55%) confidence level . Total Quantity Quantity SAR Baseline Production Estimate Current APB...Production Estimate Econ Qty Sch Eng Est Oth Spt Total 33.624 -0.350 1.381 0.375 0.000 -6.075 0.000 -0.620 -5.289 28.335 Current SAR Baseline to Current

Incremental Learning for Place Recognition in Dynamic Environments

OpenAIRE

Luo, Jie; Pronobis, Andrzej; Caputo, Barbara; Jensfelt, Patric

2007-01-01

This paper proposes a discriminative approach to template-based Vision-based place recognition is a desirable feature for an autonomous mobile system. In order to work in realistic scenarios, visual recognition algorithms should be adaptive, i.e. should be able to learn from experience and adapt continuously to changes in the environment. This paper presents a discriminative incremental learning approach to place recognition. We use a recently introduced version of the incremental SVM, which ...

On the instability increments of a stationary pinch

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bud'ko, A.B.

1989-01-01

The stability of stationary pinch to helical modes is numerically studied. It is shown that in the case of a rather fast plasma pressure decrease to the pinch boundary, for example, for an isothermal diffusion pinch with Gauss density distribution instabilities with m=0 modes are the most quickly growing. Instability increments are calculated. A simple analytical expression of a maximum increment of growth of sausage instability for automodel Gauss profiles is obtained

Incremental Trust in Grid Computing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brinkløv, Michael Hvalsøe; Sharp, Robin

2007-01-01

This paper describes a comparative simulation study of some incremental trust and reputation algorithms for handling behavioural trust in large distributed systems. Two types of reputation algorithm (based on discrete and Bayesian evaluation of ratings) and two ways of combining direct trust and ...... of Grid computing systems....

Convergent systems vs. incremental stability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rüffer, B.S.; Wouw, van de N.; Mueller, M.

2013-01-01

Two similar stability notions are considered; one is the long established notion of convergent systems, the other is the younger notion of incremental stability. Both notions require that any two solutions of a system converge to each other. Yet these stability concepts are different, in the sense

Guide to resource conservation and cost savings opportunities in the soap, detergents and related products sector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-03-01

The soaps, detergents and related products sector is an important component of the chemical industry within Ontario, as these products are used for cleaning purposes in industrial, institutional and domestic consumer applications. This guide was prepared to assist the sector with cost savings and resource conservation. The guide highlights opportunities for resource conservation through energy and water efficiency improvements, more efficient utilisation of raw materials, and reduction of environmental releases at source. 54 figs.

Power calculation of linear and angular incremental encoders

Science.gov (United States)

Prokofev, Aleksandr V.; Timofeev, Aleksandr N.; Mednikov, Sergey V.; Sycheva, Elena A.

2016-04-01

Automation technology is constantly expanding its role in improving the efficiency of manufacturing and testing processes in all branches of industry. More than ever before, the mechanical movements of linear slides, rotary tables, robot arms, actuators, etc. are numerically controlled. Linear and angular incremental photoelectric encoders measure mechanical motion and transmit the measured values back to the control unit. The capabilities of these systems are undergoing continual development in terms of their resolution, accuracy and reliability, their measuring ranges, and maximum speeds. This article discusses the method of power calculation of linear and angular incremental photoelectric encoders, to find the optimum parameters for its components, such as light emitters, photo-detectors, linear and angular scales, optical components etc. It analyzes methods and devices that permit high resolutions in the order of 0.001 mm or 0.001°, as well as large measuring lengths of over 100 mm. In linear and angular incremental photoelectric encoders optical beam is usually formulated by a condenser lens passes through the measuring unit changes its value depending on the movement of a scanning head or measuring raster. Past light beam is converting into an electrical signal by the photo-detecter's block for processing in the electrical block. Therefore, for calculating the energy source is a value of the desired value of the optical signal at the input of the photo-detecter's block, which reliably recorded and processed in the electronic unit of linear and angular incremental optoelectronic encoders. Automation technology is constantly expanding its role in improving the efficiency of manufacturing and testing processes in all branches of industry. More than ever before, the mechanical movements of linear slides, rotary tables, robot arms, actuators, etc. are numerically controlled. Linear and angular incremental photoelectric encoders measure mechanical motion and

Making context explicit for explanation and incremental knowledge acquisition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brezillon, P. [Univ. Paris (France)

1996-12-31

Intelligent systems may be improved by making context explicit in problem solving. This is a lesson drawn from a study of the reasons why a number of knowledge-based systems (KBSs) failed. We discuss the interest to make context explicit in explanation generation and incremental knowledge acquisition, two important aspects of intelligent systems that aim to cooperate with users. We show how context can be used to better explain and incrementally acquire knowledge. The advantages of using context in explanation and incremental knowledge acquisition are discussed through SEPIT, an expert system for supporting diagnosis and explanation through simulation of power plants. We point out how the limitations of such systems may be overcome by making context explicit.

The use of single point incremental forming for customized implants of unicondylar knee arthroplasty: a review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pankaj Kailasrao Bhoyar

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction The implantable devices are having enormous market. These products are basically made by traditional manufacturing process, but for the custom-made implants Incremental Sheet Forming is a paramount alternative. Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF is a manufacturing process to form intricate, asymmetrical components. It forms the component using stretching and bending by maintaining materials crystal structure. SPIF process can be performed using conventional Computer Numerical Control (CNC milling machine. Review This review paper elaborates the various manufacturing processes carried on various biocompatible metallic and nonmetallic customised implantable devices. Conclusion Ti-6Al-4V alloy is broadly used for biomedical implants, but in this alloy, Vanadium is toxic so this alloy is not compatible for implants. The attention of researchers is towards the non toxic and suitable biocompatible materials. For this reason, a novel approach was developed in order to enhance the mechanical properties of this material. . The development of incremental forming technique can improve the formability of existing alloys and may meet the current strict requirements for performance of dies and punches.

"Omics" of maize stress response for sustainable food production: opportunities and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, Fangping; Yang, Le; Tai, Fuju; Hu, Xiuli; Wang, Wei

2014-12-01

Maize originated in the highlands of Mexico approximately 8700 years ago and is one of the most commonly grown cereal crops worldwide, followed by wheat and rice. Abiotic stresses (primarily drought, salinity, and high and low temperatures), together with biotic stresses (primarily fungi, viruses, and pests), negatively affect maize growth, development, and eventually production. To understand the response of maize to abiotic and biotic stresses and its mechanism of stress tolerance, high-throughput omics approaches have been used in maize stress studies. Integrated omics approaches are crucial for dissecting the temporal and spatial system-level changes that occur in maize under various stresses. In this comprehensive analysis, we review the primary types of stresses that threaten sustainable maize production; underscore the recent advances in maize stress omics, especially proteomics; and discuss the opportunities, challenges, and future directions of maize stress omics, with a view to sustainable food production. The knowledge gained from studying maize stress omics is instrumental for improving maize to cope with various stresses and to meet the food demands of the exponentially growing global population. Omics systems science offers actionable potential solutions for sustainable food production, and we present maize as a notable case study.

Domestic market opportunities for Alaska lumber-species preferences by secondary wood products manufacturers in the continental United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Joseph Roos; David L. Nicholls

2006-01-01

New equipment, technology, and marketing efforts have allowed Alaska’s wood products producers to consider opportunities previously unavailable to them. Until recently, the primary product produced by Alaska firms was rough, unseasoned lumber sold primarily within local markets. Given the purchase and installation of new drying and planing equipment, Alaska producers...

Influence of part orientation on the geometric accuracy in robot-based incremental sheet metal forming

Science.gov (United States)

Störkle, Denis Daniel; Seim, Patrick; Thyssen, Lars; Kuhlenkötter, Bernd

2016-10-01

This article describes new developments in an incremental, robot-based sheet metal forming process (`Roboforming') for the production of sheet metal components for small lot sizes and prototypes. The dieless kinematic-based generation of the shape is implemented by means of two industrial robots, which are interconnected to a cooperating robot system. Compared to other incremental sheet metal forming (ISF) machines, this system offers high geometrical form flexibility without the need of any part-dependent tools. The industrial application of ISF is still limited by certain constraints, e.g. the low geometrical accuracy. Responding to these constraints, the authors present the influence of the part orientation and the forming sequence on the geometric accuracy. Their influence is illustrated with the help of various experimental results shown and interpreted within this article.

Incrementality in naming and reading complex numerals: Evidence from eyetracking

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Korvorst, M.H.W.; Roelofs, A.P.A.; Levelt, W.J.M.

2006-01-01

Individuals speak incrementally when they interleave planning and articulation. Eyetracking, along with the measurement of speech onset latencies, can be used to gain more insight into the degree of incrementality adopted by speakers. In the current article, two eyetracking experiments are reported

Assessment of herbal medicinal products: Challenges, and opportunities to increase the knowledge base for safety assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jordan, Scott A.; Cunningham, David G.; Marles, Robin J.

2010-01-01

Although herbal medicinal products (HMP) have been perceived by the public as relatively low risk, there has been more recognition of the potential risks associated with this type of product as the use of HMPs increases. Potential harm can occur via inherent toxicity of herbs, as well as from contamination, adulteration, plant misidentification, and interactions with other herbal products or pharmaceutical drugs. Regulatory safety assessment for HMPs relies on both the assessment of cases of adverse reactions and the review of published toxicity information. However, the conduct of such an integrated investigation has many challenges in terms of the quantity and quality of information. Adverse reactions are under-reported, product quality may be less than ideal, herbs have a complex composition and there is lack of information on the toxicity of medicinal herbs or their constituents. Nevertheless, opportunities exist to capitalise on newer information to increase the current body of scientific evidence. Novel sources of information are reviewed, such as the use of poison control data to augment adverse reaction information from national pharmacovigilance databases, and the use of more recent toxicological assessment techniques such as predictive toxicology and omics. The integration of all available information can reduce the uncertainty in decision making with respect to herbal medicinal products. The example of Aristolochia and aristolochic acids is used to highlight the challenges related to safety assessment, and the opportunities that exist to more accurately elucidate the toxicity of herbal medicines.

Atmospheric response to Saharan dust deduced from ECMWF reanalysis increments

Science.gov (United States)

Kishcha, P.; Alpert, P.; Barkan, J.; Kirchner, I.; Machenhauer, B.

2003-04-01

This study focuses on the atmospheric temperature response to dust deduced from a new source of data - the European Reanalysis (ERA) increments. These increments are the systematic errors of global climate models, generated in reanalysis procedure. The model errors result not only from the lack of desert dust but also from a complex combination of many kinds of model errors. Over the Sahara desert the dust radiative effect is believed to be a predominant model defect which should significantly affect the increments. This dust effect was examined by considering correlation between the increments and remotely-sensed dust. Comparisons were made between April temporal variations of the ERA analysis increments and the variations of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer aerosol index (AI) between 1979 and 1993. The distinctive structure was identified in the distribution of correlation composed of three nested areas with high positive correlation (> 0.5), low correlation, and high negative correlation (Forecast(ECMWF) suggests that the PCA (NCA) corresponds mainly to anticyclonic (cyclonic) flow, negative (positive) vorticity, and downward (upward) airflow. These facts indicate an interaction between dust-forced heating /cooling and atmospheric circulation. The April correlation results are supported by the analysis of vertical distribution of dust concentration, derived from the 24-hour dust prediction system at Tel Aviv University (website: http://earth.nasa.proj.ac.il/dust/current/). For other months the analysis is more complicated because of the essential increasing of humidity along with the northward progress of the ITCZ and the significant impact on the increments.

OXYGEN UPTAKE KINETICS DURING INCREMENTAL- AND DECREMENTAL-RAMP CYCLE ERGOMETRY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fadıl Özyener

2011-09-01

Full Text Available The pulmonary oxygen uptake (VO2 response to incremental-ramp cycle ergometry typically demonstrates lagged-linear first-order kinetics with a slope of ~10-11 ml·min-1·W-1, both above and below the lactate threshold (ӨL, i.e. there is no discernible VO2 slow component (or "excess" VO2 above ӨL. We were interested in determining whether a reverse ramp profile would yield the same response dynamics. Ten healthy males performed a maximum incremental -ramp (15-30 W·min-1, depending on fitness. On another day, the work rate (WR was increased abruptly to the incremental maximum and then decremented at the same rate of 15-30 W.min-1 (step-decremental ramp. Five subjects also performed a sub-maximal ramp-decremental test from 90% of ӨL. VO2 was determined breath-by-breath from continuous monitoring of respired volumes (turbine and gas concentrations (mass spectrometer. The incremental-ramp VO2-WR slope was 10.3 ± 0.7 ml·min-1·W-1, whereas that of the descending limb of the decremental ramp was 14.2 ± 1.1 ml·min-1·W-1 (p < 0.005. The sub-maximal decremental-ramp slope, however, was only 9. 8 ± 0.9 ml·min-1·W-1: not significantly different from that of the incremental-ramp. This suggests that the VO2 response in the supra-ӨL domain of incremental-ramp exercise manifest not actual, but pseudo, first-order kinetics

Data for Participation and Participation as Data: Supporting Incremental Participatory Decision-Making in Urban Planning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ddamba, Joshua; Dittrich, Yvonne

2015-01-01

Current literature on urban planning explores how to use ICT to support citizen participation. Advances in open data and its possibility to easily represent data on maps, opens up new opportunities to support participation and decision making in urban projects. This article investigates how spatial...... process and the decisions that are part of it. The paper concludes with design implications for decision support for urban planning. In future research, the intention is to explore these implications in a Participatory Design process....... of an urban renewal project, the article investigates the use of structured and unstructured data for participation. The fieldwork is conducted using ethnographically inspired methods, based on participatory observations, interviews and document analysis. As a result, the incremental decisions, the resulting...

Finite element simulation and Experimental verification of Incremental Sheet metal Forming

Science.gov (United States)

Kaushik Yanamundra, Krishna; Karthikeyan, R., Dr.; Naranje, Vishal, Dr

2018-04-01

Incremental sheet metal forming is now a proven manufacturing technique that can be employed to obtain application specific, customized, symmetric or asymmetric shapes that are required by automobile or biomedical industries for specific purposes like car body parts, dental implants or knee implants. Finite element simulation of metal forming process is being performed successfully using explicit dynamics analysis of commercial FE software. The simulation is mainly useful in optimization of the process as well design of the final product. This paper focuses on simulating the incremental sheet metal forming process in ABAQUS, and validating the results using experimental methods. The shapes generated for testing are of trapezoid, dome and elliptical shapes whose G codes are written and fed into the CNC milling machine with an attached forming tool with a hemispherical bottom. The same pre-generated coordinates are used to simulate a similar machining conditions in ABAQUS and the tool forces, stresses and strains in the workpiece while machining are obtained as the output data. The forces experimentally were recorded using a dynamometer. The experimental and simulated results were then compared and thus conclusions were drawn.

Finance for incremental housing: current status and prospects for expansion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ferguson, B.; Smets, P.G.S.M.

2010-01-01

Appropriate finance can greatly increase the speed and lower the cost of incremental housing - the process used by much of the low/moderate-income majority of most developing countries to acquire shelter. Informal finance continues to dominate the funding of incremental housing. However, new sources

One Step at a Time: SBM as an Incremental Process.

Science.gov (United States)

Conrad, Mark

1995-01-01

Discusses incremental SBM budgeting and answers questions regarding resource equity, bookkeeping requirements, accountability, decision-making processes, and purchasing. Approaching site-based management as an incremental process recognizes that every school system engages in some level of site-based decisions. Implementation can be gradual and…

History Matters: Incremental Ontology Reasoning Using Modules

Science.gov (United States)

Cuenca Grau, Bernardo; Halaschek-Wiener, Christian; Kazakov, Yevgeny

The development of ontologies involves continuous but relatively small modifications. Existing ontology reasoners, however, do not take advantage of the similarities between different versions of an ontology. In this paper, we propose a technique for incremental reasoning—that is, reasoning that reuses information obtained from previous versions of an ontology—based on the notion of a module. Our technique does not depend on a particular reasoning calculus and thus can be used in combination with any reasoner. We have applied our results to incremental classification of OWL DL ontologies and found significant improvement over regular classification time on a set of real-world ontologies.

Analysis of pastoralists' perception on challenges and opportunities for sheep and goat production in Northern Kenya.

Science.gov (United States)

Abdilatif, Mohamed Haji; Onono, Joshua Orungo; Mutua, Florence Kanini

2018-05-16

Small ruminants' production contributes to livelihood of pastoral communities, but this faces myriad constraints. This study aimed at identifying challenges facing producers of small ruminants, prioritizing diseases and their control measures and documenting opportunities for improvement. Sixteen focus group discussions with livestock owners and 13 key informant interviews were done in selected areas in Mandera County, Northern Kenya, and both quantitative and qualitative data collected using a questionnaire guide. Occurrences of diseases (27.4%) and drought (25%) were consistently ranked high in all groups. Other production challenges included increased predation of livestock, inadequate delivery of veterinary services, and increased livestock mortalities. Peste des Petit ruminants was ranked high with a median rank of 21.5%, while contagious caprine pleuropneumonia and sheep and goat pox were ranked second and third, respectively. Other diseases included tick-borne diseases, helminthosis, and pneumonia. Vaccination was ranked as the most effective control strategy for infectious diseases. Other control measures included recitation of Quran and cauterization. However, several opportunities exist for support of small ruminants' production: increased budgetary allocation for disease control by government, initiation of projects that enhance livestock production in the region by government and its development partners. These findings are useful for policy makers for disease control and organizations that are working on projects that focuses on enhancement of pastoralists' resilience, while future research could also identify appropriate technologies that reduces these impacts.

Grain production trends in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan: New opportunities in an increasingly unstable world?

Science.gov (United States)

Lioubimtseva, Elena; Henebry, Geoffrey M.

2012-06-01

Grain production in the countries of the former USSR sharply declined during the past two decades and has only recently started to recover. In the context of the current economic and food-price crisis, Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan might be presented with a window of opportunity to reemerge on the global agricultural market, if they succeed in increasing their productivity. The future of their agriculture, however, is highly sensitive to a combination of internal and external factors, such as institutional changes, land-use changes, climate variability and change, and global economic trends. The future of this region's grain production is likely to have a significant impact on the global and regional food security over the next decades.

76 FR 73475 - Immigration Benefits Business Transformation, Increment I; Correction

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-29

... Benefits Business Transformation, Increment I, 76 FR 53764 (Aug. 29, 2011). The final rule removed form... [CIS No. 2481-09; Docket No. USCIS-2009-0022] RIN 1615-AB83 Immigration Benefits Business Transformation, Increment I; Correction AGENCY: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, DHS. ACTION: Final...

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES OF CITRIC ACID PRODUCTION BY FERMENTATION FROM SUGAR SUBSTRATES IN CUBA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Omar Pérez Navarro

2016-04-01

Full Text Available A proposal for opportunities of citric acid production in Cuba, using sources of sugar substrates such as refined sugar, molasses and whey, by submerged fermentation with Aspergillus niger, where a technology is established from the selected substrate which is provided and the microorganism used. This is a demanding process in terms of investment costs and operation where the best combinations of productivity and cost are achieved with molasses followed by refined sugar and whey. For the selected substrate, the mass and energy balance in each of the steps in the process of obtaining citric acid for different productive capacities of citric acid was made and the minimum economic size of 2.5 t / day was determined. A production capacity of 8 t / day of granulated acid (2 640 t / a, with estimated total investment of $ 9,068,713, NPV = $ 1,401,561, IRR = 27% and DPP = 3 years was selected. The project is resistant to the rising price of raw materials and the cost of electricity and is favored when the process is integrated into a sugar mill cogeneration, while it is sensitive to a reduction in the selling price of the product.

Short-term load forecasting with increment regression tree

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang, Jingfei; Stenzel, Juergen [Darmstadt University of Techonology, Darmstadt 64283 (Germany)

2006-06-15

This paper presents a new regression tree method for short-term load forecasting. Both increment and non-increment tree are built according to the historical data to provide the data space partition and input variable selection. Support vector machine is employed to the samples of regression tree nodes for further fine regression. Results of different tree nodes are integrated through weighted average method to obtain the comprehensive forecasting result. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through its application to an actual system. (author)

Knowledge Production and Distribution by Institutions of Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Opportunities and Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Ondari-Okemwa, E.

2011-01-01

This article focuses on available opportunities and challenges which institutions of higher education in sub-Saharan Africa face in producing and distributing knowledge. Institutions of higher education are also expected to produce knowledge workers for the knowledge economy. Knowledge production falls into Mode 1, in which problems are set and…

The Time Course of Incremental Word Processing during Chinese Reading

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Junyi; Ma, Guojie; Li, Xingshan; Taft, Marcus

2018-01-01

In the current study, we report two eye movement experiments investigating how Chinese readers process incremental words during reading. These are words where some of the component characters constitute another word (an embedded word). In two experiments, eye movements were monitored while the participants read sentences with incremental words…

Switch-mode High Voltage Drivers for Dielectric Electro Active Polymer (DEAP) Incremental Actuators

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thummala, Prasanth

voltage DC-DC converters for driving the DEAP based incremental actuators. The DEAP incremental actuator technology has the potential to be used in various industries, e.g., automotive, space and medicine. The DEAP incremental actuator consists of three electrically isolated and mechanically connected...

Efficient Incremental Checkpointing of Java Programs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lawall, Julia Laetitia; Muller, Gilles

2000-01-01

This paper investigates the optimization of language-level checkpointing of Java programs. First, we describe how to systematically associate incremental checkpoints with Java classes. While being safe, the genericness of this solution induces substantial execution overhead. Second, to solve...

Single-point incremental forming and formability-failure diagrams

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Silva, M.B.; Skjødt, Martin; Atkins, A.G.

2008-01-01

In a recent work [1], the authors constructed a closed-form analytical model that is capable of dealing with the fundamentals of single point incremental forming and explaining the experimental and numerical results published in the literature over the past couple of years. The model is based...... of deformation that are commonly found in general single point incremental forming processes; and (ii) to investigate the formability limits of SPIF in terms of ductile damage mechanics and the question of whether necking does, or does not, precede fracture. Experimentation by the authors together with data...

Marine Sponge Derived Natural Products between 2001 and 2010: Trends and Opportunities for Discovery of Bioactives

Science.gov (United States)

Mehbub, Mohammad Ferdous; Lei, Jie; Franco, Christopher; Zhang, Wei

2014-01-01

Marine sponges belonging to the phylum Porifera (Metazoa), evolutionarily the oldest animals are the single best source of marine natural products. The present review presents a comprehensive overview of the source, taxonomy, country of origin or geographical position, chemical class, and biological activity of sponge-derived new natural products discovered between 2001 and 2010. The data has been analyzed with a view to gaining an outlook on the future trends and opportunities in the search for new compounds and their sources from marine sponges. PMID:25196730

Incremental Innovation and Competitive Pressure in the Presence of Discrete Innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ghosh, Arghya; Kato, Takao; Morita, Hodaka

2017-01-01

Technical progress consists of improvements made upon the existing technology (incremental innovation) and innovative activities aiming at entirely new technology (discrete innovation). Incremental innovation is often of limited relevance to the new technology invented by successful discrete...

Calculation of the increment reduction in spruce stands by charcoal smoke

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guede, J

1954-01-01

Chronic damage to spruce trees by charcoal smoke, often hardly noticeable from outward appearance but causing marked reductions of wood increment can be determined by means of a calculation by increment cores. Sulfurous acid anhydride causes the closure of the stomates of needles by which the circulation of water is checked. The assimilation and the wood increment are reduced. The cores are taken from uninjured trees belonging to the dominant class. These trees are liable to irregular variations in the trend of growth only by atmospheric influences and disturbances in the circulation of water. The decrease of increment of a stand can be judged by the trend of growth of the basal area of sample trees. Two methods are applied: in the first method, the difference between the mean total increment before the damage has been caused and that after it is calculated by the yield table in deriving the site quality classes from the basal area growth of dominant stems. This is possible by using the mean diameter of each age class and the frequency curve of basal area for each site class. In the other method, the reduction of basal area increment of sample trees is measured directly. The total reduction of a stand can be judged by the share of the dominant class of stem in the total current growth of the basal area of a sound stand and by the percent of reduction of the sample trees.

Do otolith increments allow correct inferences about age and growth of coral reef fishes?

Science.gov (United States)

Booth, D. J.

2014-03-01

Otolith increment structure is widely used to estimate age and growth of marine fishes. Here, I test the accuracy of the long-term otolith increment analysis of the lemon damselfish Pomacentrus moluccensis to describe age and growth characteristics. I compare the number of putative annual otolith increments (as a proxy for actual age) and widths of these increments (as proxies for somatic growth) with actual tagged fish-length data, based on a 6-year dataset, the longest time course for a coral reef fish. Estimated age from otoliths corresponded closely with actual age in all cases, confirming annual increment formation. However, otolith increment widths were poor proxies for actual growth in length [linear regression r 2 = 0.44-0.90, n = 6 fish] and were clearly of limited value in estimating annual growth. Up to 60 % of the annual growth variation was missed using otolith increments, suggesting the long-term back calculations of otolith growth characteristics of reef fish populations should be interpreted with caution.

The Dark Side of Malleability: Incremental Theory Promotes Immoral Behaviors.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Niwen; Zuo, Shijiang; Wang, Fang; Cai, Pan; Wang, Fengxiang

2017-01-01

Implicit theories drastically affect an individual's processing of social information, decision making, and action. The present research focuses on whether individuals who hold the implicit belief that people's moral character is fixed (entity theorists) and individuals who hold the implicit belief that people's moral character is malleable (incremental theorists) make different choices when facing a moral decision. Incremental theorists are less likely to make the fundamental attribution error (FAE), rarely make moral judgment based on traits and show more tolerance to immorality, relative to entity theorists, which might decrease the possibility of undermining the self-image when they engage in immoral behaviors, and thus we posit that incremental beliefs facilitate immorality. Four studies were conducted to explore the effect of these two types of implicit theories on immoral intention or practice. The association between implicit theories and immoral behavior was preliminarily examined from the observer perspective in Study 1, and the results showed that people tended to associate immoral behaviors (including everyday immoral intention and environmental destruction) with an incremental theorist rather than an entity theorist. Then, the relationship was further replicated from the actor perspective in Studies 2-4. In Study 2, implicit theories, which were measured, positively predicted the degree of discrimination against carriers of the hepatitis B virus. In Study 3, implicit theories were primed through reading articles, and the participants in the incremental condition showed more cheating than those in the entity condition. In Study 4, implicit theories were primed through a new manipulation, and the participants in the unstable condition (primed incremental theory) showed more discrimination than those in the other three conditions. Taken together, the results of our four studies were consistent with our hypotheses.

The Dark Side of Malleability: Incremental Theory Promotes Immoral Behaviors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Niwen Huang

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Implicit theories drastically affect an individual’s processing of social information, decision making, and action. The present research focuses on whether individuals who hold the implicit belief that people’s moral character is fixed (entity theorists and individuals who hold the implicit belief that people’s moral character is malleable (incremental theorists make different choices when facing a moral decision. Incremental theorists are less likely to make the fundamental attribution error (FAE, rarely make moral judgment based on traits and show more tolerance to immorality, relative to entity theorists, which might decrease the possibility of undermining the self-image when they engage in immoral behaviors, and thus we posit that incremental beliefs facilitate immorality. Four studies were conducted to explore the effect of these two types of implicit theories on immoral intention or practice. The association between implicit theories and immoral behavior was preliminarily examined from the observer perspective in Study 1, and the results showed that people tended to associate immoral behaviors (including everyday immoral intention and environmental destruction with an incremental theorist rather than an entity theorist. Then, the relationship was further replicated from the actor perspective in Studies 2–4. In Study 2, implicit theories, which were measured, positively predicted the degree of discrimination against carriers of the hepatitis B virus. In Study 3, implicit theories were primed through reading articles, and the participants in the incremental condition showed more cheating than those in the entity condition. In Study 4, implicit theories were primed through a new manipulation, and the participants in the unstable condition (primed incremental theory showed more discrimination than those in the other three conditions. Taken together, the results of our four studies were consistent with our hypotheses.

Dental caries increments and related factors in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Science.gov (United States)

Siudikiene, J; Machiulskiene, V; Nyvad, B; Tenovuo, J; Nedzelskiene, I

2008-01-01

The aim of this study was to analyse possible associations between caries increments and selected caries determinants in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus and their age- and sex-matched non-diabetic controls, over 2 years. A total of 63 (10-15 years old) diabetic and non-diabetic pairs were examined for dental caries, oral hygiene and salivary factors. Salivary flow rates, buffer effect, concentrations of mutans streptococci, lactobacilli, yeasts, total IgA and IgG, protein, albumin, amylase and glucose were analysed. Means of 2-year decayed/missing/filled surface (DMFS) increments were similar in diabetics and their controls. Over the study period, both unstimulated and stimulated salivary flow rates remained significantly lower in diabetic children compared to controls. No differences were observed in the counts of lactobacilli, mutans streptococci or yeast growth during follow-up, whereas salivary IgA, protein and glucose concentrations were higher in diabetics than in controls throughout the 2-year period. Multivariable linear regression analysis showed that children with higher 2-year DMFS increments were older at baseline and had higher salivary glucose concentrations than children with lower 2-year DMFS increments. Likewise, higher 2-year DMFS increments in diabetics versus controls were associated with greater increments in salivary glucose concentrations in diabetics. Higher increments in active caries lesions in diabetics versus controls were associated with greater increments of dental plaque and greater increments of salivary albumin. Our results suggest that, in addition to dental plaque as a common caries risk factor, diabetes-induced changes in salivary glucose and albumin concentrations are indicative of caries development among diabetics. Copyright 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Market potential and opportunities for commercialization of traditional meat products in North East Hill Region of India.

Science.gov (United States)

Kadirvel, G; Banerjee, Bandita B; Meitei, Surajit; Doley, S; Sen, Arnab; Muthukumar, M

2018-02-01

The North Eastern (NE) India is renowned for its preference for animal-based food. This region is known for its traditional meat products. However, the popularity of these products remains confined to the specific community/location. The knowledge on the traditional preparation methods is generally passed across generations through practice and word of mouth. The traditional style of preparation and the specific ingredients added to each product makes them unique. In this review, an attempt has been made to identify the initiatives, opportunities, and market potential for commercialization of the traditional meat products. These unique features and properties of the traditional meat products have been highlighted. The commercialization of these products will enhance entrepreneurship development and ensure quality ethnic products to the consumer in the NE hill region of India.

Market potential and opportunities for commercialization of traditional meat products in North East Hill Region of India

Science.gov (United States)

Kadirvel, G.; Banerjee, Bandita B.; Meitei, Surajit; Doley, S.; Sen, Arnab; Muthukumar, M.

2018-01-01

The North Eastern (NE) India is renowned for its preference for animal-based food. This region is known for its traditional meat products. However, the popularity of these products remains confined to the specific community/location. The knowledge on the traditional preparation methods is generally passed across generations through practice and word of mouth. The traditional style of preparation and the specific ingredients added to each product makes them unique. In this review, an attempt has been made to identify the initiatives, opportunities, and market potential for commercialization of the traditional meat products. These unique features and properties of the traditional meat products have been highlighted. The commercialization of these products will enhance entrepreneurship development and ensure quality ethnic products to the consumer in the NE hill region of India. PMID:29657390

Opportunities for implementation of concepts and tools lean production aiming to improve competitiveness of enterprises of shoe APL Jaú / SP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Célio Favoni

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Lean production has been applied by organizations around the world as part of strategy to reduce waste in their value stream intending to improve performance. Despite the use of lean production concepts and tools have continually been introduced in different companies, the literature shows the most of application is identified in large companies than in Small-and  Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs. The reason can be the lack of financial and human resources available to the lean initiatives in these enterprises. However, a wide range of concepts and techniques of lean production can be applied without considerable financial investments. This paper aims to study the opportunities and difficulties of lean production applicability in SMEs. Case research was developed in three SMEs of industrial cluster of Jaú/SP and the results suggest that these companies face similar difficulties. Nevertheless, the study confirms that there are several opportunities to implement lean production concepts and techniques which can lead to improve performance in these companies.

Dynamic physiological responses to the incremental shuttle walk test in adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Evandro Fornias Sperandio

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction: Understanding the normal dynamic physiological responses to the incremental shuttle walk test might enhance the interpretation of walking performance in clinical settings. Objective: To assess dynamic physiological responses to the incremental shuttle walk test and its predictors in healthy adults. Methods: We assessed the simultaneous rates of changes of Δoxygen uptake/Δwalking velocity (ΔVO 2 /ΔWV, Δheart rate/Δoxygen uptake (ΔHR/ΔVO 2 , Δventilation/Δcarbon dioxide production (ΔVE/ΔVCO 2 , and Δtidal volume/Δlinearized ventilation (ΔVT/ΔlnVE during the incremental shuttle walk test in 100 men and women older than 40 years. Fat and lean body masses (bioimpedance were also evaluated. Results: We found that the dynamic relationships were not sex-dependent. Participants aged ≥ 70 presented declines in ΔVO 2 /ΔWV slope compared to those aged 40-49 (215 ± 69 vs. 288 ± 84 mL.min-1.km.h-1. Obese participants presented shallower slopes for ΔVO 2 /ΔWV (2.94 ± 0.90 vs. 3.84 ± 1.21 mL.min-1.kg-1.km.h-1 and ΔVT/ΔlnVE (0.57 ± 0.20 vs. 0.67 ± 0.26. We found negative influence of fat body mass on ΔVT/ΔlnVE (R2 = 0.20 and positive influence of lean body mass on ΔVO 2 /ΔWV (R2 = 0.31, ΔHR/ΔVO2 (R2 = 0.25, and ΔVT/ΔlnVE (R2 = 0.44. Conclusion: Dynamic relationships during walking were slightly influenced by age, but not sex-dependent. Body composition played an important role in these indices. Our results may provide better interpretation of walking performance in patients with chronic diseases.

An Improved Incremental Learning Approach for KPI Prognosis of Dynamic Fuel Cell System.

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, Shen; Xie, Xiaochen; Lam, James; Cheung, Kie Chung; Gao, Huijun

2016-12-01

The key performance indicator (KPI) has an important practical value with respect to the product quality and economic benefits for modern industry. To cope with the KPI prognosis issue under nonlinear conditions, this paper presents an improved incremental learning approach based on available process measurements. The proposed approach takes advantage of the algorithm overlapping of locally weighted projection regression (LWPR) and partial least squares (PLS), implementing the PLS-based prognosis in each locally linear model produced by the incremental learning process of LWPR. The global prognosis results including KPI prediction and process monitoring are obtained from the corresponding normalized weighted means of all the local models. The statistical indicators for prognosis are enhanced as well by the design of novel KPI-related and KPI-unrelated statistics with suitable control limits for non-Gaussian data. For application-oriented purpose, the process measurements from real datasets of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell system are employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of KPI prognosis. The proposed approach is finally extended to a long-term voltage prediction for potential reference of further fuel cell applications.

Enabling Incremental Query Re-Optimization.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Mengmeng; Ives, Zachary G; Loo, Boon Thau

2016-01-01

As declarative query processing techniques expand to the Web, data streams, network routers, and cloud platforms, there is an increasing need to re-plan execution in the presence of unanticipated performance changes. New runtime information may affect which query plan we prefer to run. Adaptive techniques require innovation both in terms of the algorithms used to estimate costs , and in terms of the search algorithm that finds the best plan. We investigate how to build a cost-based optimizer that recomputes the optimal plan incrementally given new cost information, much as a stream engine constantly updates its outputs given new data. Our implementation especially shows benefits for stream processing workloads. It lays the foundations upon which a variety of novel adaptive optimization algorithms can be built. We start by leveraging the recently proposed approach of formulating query plan enumeration as a set of recursive datalog queries ; we develop a variety of novel optimization approaches to ensure effective pruning in both static and incremental cases. We further show that the lessons learned in the declarative implementation can be equally applied to more traditional optimizer implementations.

Industrial opportunities - offshore

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gerrits, D.J.

1998-01-01

Industrial opportunities available in the Canadian offshore petroleum industry are discussed. Oil has been produced offshore from Nova Scotia since 1992, and offshore from Newfoundland since 1997. Special needs that must be addressed in offshore operations in eastern Canada such as the cold North Atlantic environment, isolation, logistics, safety, and quality assurance, are examined. The most obvious opportunities lie with the designing, building and installing the facilities needed to extract oil and gas from beneath the sea floor and transport it to market. However, there are also opportunities in designing and fabricating clothing, customized food containers and other equipment for offshore needs. Short term opportunities also exist in the decommissioning of depleted production fields and their facilities. One of the greatest obstacles facing new entrants into the offshore oil and gas industry is the lack of a track record. To meet this challenge, the ability to seek out partners to pursue local and international opportunities through joint ventures, strategic alliances and technology sharing partnering arrangements is of great importance. It may be the difference between success and failure. 6 figs

On the Path to SunShot - Emerging Opportunities and Challenges in U.S. Solar Manufacturing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chung, Donald [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Horowitz, Kelsey [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Kurup, Parthiv [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2016-05-01

Innovation-driven cost and performance improvements, along with strong projected solar demand in the United States and across the Americas, could increase the attractiveness of U.S.-based solar manufacturing (see Chung et al. 2016). Although improvements to standard PV modules have produced deep cost reductions over the past 5 years, the returns on such incremental improvements appear to be diminishing, and more dramatic innovations in module design and manufacturing are required to continue along the path of rapid progress. At the same time, major opportunities exist for innovation to unlock the potential of CSP technologies. This need for innovation could benefit U.S. PV and CSP manufacturers. The United States has been rated one of the world’s most competitive and innovative countries as well as one of the best locations for PV manufacturing. It is a global leader in PV and CSP R&D and patent production, and U.S. PV manufacturers are already pursuing highly differentiated innovations.

Organic livestock production: an emerging opportunity with new challenges for producers in tropical countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Chander, M; Subrahmanyeswari, B; Mukherjee, R; Kumar, S

2011-12-01

Agrochemicals, veterinary drugs, antibiotics and improved feeds can increase the food supply while minimising production costs in various livestock production systems around the world. However, these days, quality-conscious consumers are increasingly seeking environmentally safe, chemical-residue-free healthy foods, along with product traceability and a high standard of animal welfare, which organic production methods are said to ensure. Organic production is not only a challenge for producers in developing countries, it offers new export opportunities as well. Organic agriculture is practised by 1.8 million producers in 160 countries, and production of organically grown food continues to increase steadily by 15% per year. Most tropical countries are now exporting organic agricultural products but, apart from organic beef from Brazil and Argentina, organic livestock products are yetto take off. Most trade in organic livestock products is restricted to the European Union and other developed nations. Nevertheless, tropical countries cannot afford to neglect this emerging system of animal production. Organic production is knowledge- and management-intensive. Producers must be well versed in organic production standards, principles and practices, which require a high degree of knowledge and skill. In organic production, it is not simply the final product but the whole production process that must be inspected and approved by the accredited certification bodies. Organic livestock farming is still evolving, and further research is needed to make it sustainable. In this paper, the authors review the prospects of organic animal husbandry and its possible constraints in developing and tropical countries.

A qualitative risk assessment approach for Swiss dairy products: opportunities and limitations.

Science.gov (United States)

Menéndez González, S; Hartnack, S; Berger, T; Doherr, M; Breidenbach, E

2011-05-01

Switzerland implemented a risk-based monitoring of Swiss dairy products in 2002 based on a risk assessment (RA) that considered the probability of exceeding a microbiological limit value set by law. A new RA was launched in 2007 to review and further develop the previous assessment, and to make recommendations for future risk-based monitoring according to current risks. The resulting qualitative RA was designed to ascertain the risk to human health from the consumption of Swiss dairy products. The products and microbial hazards to be considered in the RA were determined based on a risk profile. The hazards included Campylobacter spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, coagulase-positive staphylococci and Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin. The release assessment considered the prevalence of the hazards in bulk milk samples, the influence of the process parameters on the microorganisms, and the influence of the type of dairy. The exposure assessment was linked to the production volume. An overall probability was estimated combining the probabilities of release and exposure for each combination of hazard, dairy product and type of dairy. This overall probability represents the likelihood of a product from a certain type of dairy exceeding the microbiological limit value and being passed on to the consumer. The consequences could not be fully assessed due to lack of detailed information on the number of disease cases caused by the consumption of dairy products. The results were expressed as a ranking of overall probabilities. Finally, recommendations for the design of the risk-based monitoring programme and for filling the identified data gaps were given. The aims of this work were (i) to present the qualitative RA approach for Swiss dairy products, which could be adapted to other settings and (ii) to discuss the opportunities and limitations of the qualitative method. © 2010 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

Enterprise Implementation of Digital Pathology: Feasibility, Challenges, and Opportunities.

Science.gov (United States)

Hartman, D J; Pantanowitz, L; McHugh, J S; Piccoli, A L; OLeary, M J; Lauro, G R

2017-10-01

Digital pathology is becoming technically possible to implement for routine pathology work. At our institution, we have been using digital pathology for second opinion intraoperative consultations for over 10 years. Herein, we describe our experience in converting to a digital pathology platform for primary pathology diagnosis. We implemented an incremental rollout for digital pathology on subspecialty benches, beginning with cases that contained small amounts of tissue (biopsy specimens). We successfully scanned over 40,000 slides through our digital pathology system. Several lessons (both challenges and opportunities) were learned through this implementation. A successful conversion to digital pathology requires pre-imaging adjustments, integrated software and post-imaging evaluations.

Opportunities and constraints in the subsistence production and marketing of indigenous vegetables in East and Central Africa

OpenAIRE

Schippers, Rudy; Fereday, Nicholas

1998-01-01

This report summarises the results of market and production surveys carried out in both the dry and wet seasons in Cameroon and Uganda during 1997/98 as part of the DFID fimded project "Opportunities and constraints in the subsistence production and marketing of indigenous vegetables in East and Central Africa (A0699)". The main objective of the study was to establish the socio-economic significance of indigenous vegetables compared to exotic ones. This project is a follow up to the strategy ...

Context-dependent incremental timing cells in the primate hippocampus.

Science.gov (United States)

Sakon, John J; Naya, Yuji; Wirth, Sylvia; Suzuki, Wendy A

2014-12-23

We examined timing-related signals in primate hippocampal cells as animals performed an object-place (OP) associative learning task. We found hippocampal cells with firing rates that incrementally increased or decreased across the memory delay interval of the task, which we refer to as incremental timing cells (ITCs). Three distinct categories of ITCs were identified. Agnostic ITCs did not distinguish between different trial types. The remaining two categories of cells signaled time and trial context together: One category of cells tracked time depending on the behavioral action required for a correct response (i.e., early vs. late release), whereas the other category of cells tracked time only for those trials cued with a specific OP combination. The context-sensitive ITCs were observed more often during sessions where behavioral learning was observed and exhibited reduced incremental firing on incorrect trials. Thus, single primate hippocampal cells signal information about trial timing, which can be linked with trial type/context in a learning-dependent manner.

Statistics of wind direction and its increments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doorn, Eric van; Dhruva, Brindesh; Sreenivasan, Katepalli R.; Cassella, Victor

2000-01-01

We study some elementary statistics of wind direction fluctuations in the atmosphere for a wide range of time scales (10 -4 sec to 1 h), and in both vertical and horizontal planes. In the plane parallel to the ground surface, the direction time series consists of two parts: a constant drift due to large weather systems moving with the mean wind speed, and fluctuations about this drift. The statistics of the direction fluctuations show a rough similarity to Brownian motion but depend, in detail, on the wind speed. This dependence manifests itself quite clearly in the statistics of wind-direction increments over various intervals of time. These increments are intermittent during periods of low wind speeds but Gaussian-like during periods of high wind speeds. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics

Incremental Beliefs of Ability, Achievement Emotions and Learning of Singapore Students

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Wenshu; Lee, Kerry; Ng, Pak Tee; Ong, Joanne Xiao Wei

2014-01-01

This study investigated the relationships of students' incremental beliefs of math ability to their achievement emotions, classroom engagement and math achievement. A sample of 273 secondary students in Singapore were administered measures of incremental beliefs of math ability, math enjoyment, pride, boredom and anxiety, as well as math classroom…

Non-operative anti-caries agents and dental caries increment among adults at high caries risk: a retrospective cohort study.

Science.gov (United States)

Chaffee, Benjamin W; Cheng, Jing; Featherstone, John D B

2015-09-24

Consensus guidelines support non-operative preventives for dental caries management; yet, their use in practice is far from universal. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of non-operative anti-caries agents in caries prevention among high caries risk adults at a university clinic where risk-based caries management is emphasized. This retrospective observational study drew data from the electronic patient records of non-edentulous adult patients deemed to be at high risk for dental caries during baseline oral evaluations that were completed between July 1, 2007 and December 31, 2012 at a dental university in the United States. We calculated and compared adjusted mean estimates for the number of new decayed or restored teeth (DFT increment) from baseline to the next completed oral evaluation (N = 2,724 patients with follow-up) across three categories of delivery of non-operative anti-caries agents (e.g., high-concentration fluoride toothpaste, chlorhexidine rinse, xylitol products): never, at a single appointment, or at ≥2 appointments ≥4 weeks apart. Estimates were adjusted for patient and provider characteristics, baseline dental status, losses-to-follow-up, and follow-up time. Approximately half the patients did not receive any form of non-operative anti-caries agent. Most that received anti-caries agents were given more than one type of product in combination. One-time delivery of anti-caries agents was associated with a similar DFT increment as receiving no such therapy (difference in increment: -0.04; 95% CI: -0.28, 0.21). However, repeated, spaced delivery of anti-caries agents was associated with approximately one decayed or restored tooth prevented over 18 months for every three patients treated (difference in increment: -0.35; 95% CI: -0.65, -0.08). These results lend evidence that repeatedly receiving anti-caries agents can reduce tooth decay among high-risk patients engaged in regular dental care.

Radial-rotation profile forming: A new processing technology of incremental sheet metal forming

Science.gov (United States)

Laue, Robert; Härtel, Sebastian; Awiszus, Birgit

2018-05-01

Incremental forming processes (i.e., spinning) of sheet metal blanks into cylindrical cups are suitable for lower lot sizes. The produced cups were frequently used as preforms to produce workpieces in further forming steps with additional functions like profiled hollow parts [1]. The incremental forming process radial-rotation profile forming has been developed to enable the production of profiled hollow parts with low sheet thinning and good geometrical accuracy. The two principal forming steps are the production of the preform by rotational swing-folding [2] and the subsequent radial profiling of the hollow part in one clamping position. The rotational swing-folding process is based on a combination of conventional spinning and swing-folding. Therefore, a round blank rotates on a profiled mandrel and due to the swinging of a cylindrical forming tool, the blank is formed to a cup with low sheet thinning. In addition, thickening results at the edge of the blank and wrinkling occurs. However, the wrinkles are formed into the indentation of the profiled mandrel and can be reshaped as an advantage in the second process step, the radial profiling. Due to the rotation and continuous radial feed of a profiled forming tool to the profiled mandrel, the axial profile is formed in the second process step. Because of the minor relative movement in axial direction between tool and blank, low sheet thinning occurs. This is an advantage of the principle of the process.

Opportunities in biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Gartland, Kevan M A; Gartland, Jill S

2018-06-08

Strategies for biotechnology must take account of opportunities for research, innovation and business growth. At a regional level, public-private collaborations provide potential for such growth and the creation of centres of excellence. By considering recent progress in areas such as genomics, healthcare diagnostics, synthetic biology, gene editing and bio-digital technologies, opportunities for smart, strategic and specialised investment are discussed. These opportunities often involve convergent or disruptive technologies, combining for example elements of pharma-science, molecular biology, bioinformatics and novel device development to enhance biotechnology and the life sciences. Analytical applications use novel devices in mobile health, predictive diagnostics and stratified medicine. Synthetic biology provides opportunities for new product development and increased efficiency for existing processes. Successful centres of excellence should promote public-private business partnerships, clustering and global collaborations based on excellence, smart strategies and innovation if they are to remain sustainable in the longer term. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The Cognitive Underpinnings of Incremental Rehearsal

Science.gov (United States)

Varma, Sashank; Schleisman, Katrina B.

2014-01-01

Incremental rehearsal (IR) is a flashcard technique that has been developed and evaluated by school psychologists. We discuss potential learning and memory effects from cognitive psychology that may explain the observed superiority of IR over other flashcard techniques. First, we propose that IR is a form of "spaced practice" that…

Problems of finding production losses in smoke areas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vins, B

1971-01-01

The world-wide research results obtained up to now give evidence that the injurious effects of emissions in forest stands occur in the form of the decrease of diameter increment leading to premature die-back of trees. The effects of emissions are different both in individual tree species and in stand components. The occurrence and size of increment losses are also influenced by the interaction of climate conditions and concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere. Combining original methodical procedures and laboratory equipment for production ecology with computer processing techniques bring about favorable conditions for the solution of problems concerning the emission effects on the production of forest stands. No solution has been found as yet for the problem of diameter increment decrease differentiation based on age and social position of trees. Research work should provide data necessary for the economic evaluation of losses in the main smoke areas and for the choice of suitable economic measures aimed at the mitigation of injuries. This study indicates that it is the modified increment boring method which becomes an efficient method for the control of production processes and for the evaluation of increment changes both in research work and in practice.

One-step production of biocommodities from lignocellulosic biomass by recombinant cellulolytic bacillus subtilis: opportunities and challenges

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Xiao-Zhou [Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA (United States); Zhang, Yi-Heng P. [Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA (United States); Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA (United States); BioEnergy Science Center of Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2010-10-15

One-step consolidated bioprocessing that integrates cellulase production, cellulose hydrolysis, and product fermentation into a single step for decreasing costly cellulase use, increasing volumetric productivity, and reducing capital investment is widely accepted for low-cost production of biofuels or other value-added biochemicals. Considering the narrow margins between biomass and low-value biocommodities, good physiological performance of industrial microbes is crucial for economically viable production. Bacillus subtilis, the best-characterized Gram-positive microorganism, is a major industrial microorganism with numerous valuable features such as hexose and pentose utilization, low-nutrient needs, fast growth rate, high protein secretion capacity, industrial safety, etc. As compared with other potential consolidated bioprocessing microorganisms such as Clostridium spp., Escherichia coli, and the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, recombinant cellulolytic B. subtilis strains would be a potential platform for biocommodity production from nonfood biomass. Here, we review the advances in recombinant cellulolytic B. subtilis development and metabolic engineering for biocommodity production, and discuss the opportunities and challenges of cellulolytic B. subtilis for biocommodity production. (Copyright copyright 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

El conformado incremental como nueva técnica de prototipado rápido

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel Ángel Peydró Rasero

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Various industrial sectors (aerospace, automotive, use forming processes nowadays to produce components of complex shapes from sheet metal. Traditional processes that use arrays are suitable for the production of large volumes of parts, but are not profitable for small series (special vehicles, prototypes, .... Incremental forming is a different process, intelligent and flexible, which presents itself as an alternative to traditional forming methods. This process is based on Rapid Manufacturing methodologies, and greatly reduces tooling costs, since it only requires a simple tool support. It’s well suited to the manufacture of prototypes and small series by low production costs, but the time required to manufacture a part, typically several hours, which makes it impractical for longer runs.

Decentralised bioenergy systems: A review of opportunities and threats

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mangoyana, Robert B.; Smith, Timothy F.

2011-01-01

Decentralised bioenergy systems are receiving increasing attention due to the potential ability to support local development, create local employment, and contribute to climate change mitigation. These issues, along with other bioenergy sustainability issues, are reviewed through eighteen international case studies with the objective of identifying opportunities and threats to decentralised bioenergy systems. The case studies were selected based on feedstock type, bioenergy type, production capacity, synergistic alliances, ownership structure and physical locations. This variation was used to provide a basis for evaluating opportunities and threats from different contexts. Commercial viability remains the primary concern for the sustainability of decentralised bioenergy systems. There are, however, opportunities for compounding benefits through integrating small scale decentralised bioenergy systems with other production systems. Integrated production, including closed loop models, allow waste materials from one process to be used as inputs in other production processes, and thereby increasing economic, social and environmental outcomes. Synergistic opportunities along the bioenergy production chain, which include feedstock production, bioenergy marketing and distribution could also be exploited by communities and other investors to minimise decentralised production risk. - Research Highlights: → Small scale decentralised bioenergy production is a potentially sustainable energy system. →Economic viability limits small scale decentralised bioenergy production. → Synergistic alliances along the bioenergy production chain could enhance viability.

The Dark Side of Malleability: Incremental Theory Promotes Immoral Behaviors

OpenAIRE

Huang, Niwen; Zuo, Shijiang; Wang, Fang; Cai, Pan; Wang, Fengxiang

2017-01-01

Implicit theories drastically affect an individual’s processing of social information, decision making, and action. The present research focuses on whether individuals who hold the implicit belief that people’s moral character is fixed (entity theorists) and individuals who hold the implicit belief that people’s moral character is malleable (incremental theorists) make different choices when facing a moral decision. Incremental theorists are less likely to make the fundamental attribution err...

New Incremental Actuators based on Electro-active Polymer: Conceptual, Control, and Driver Design Considerations. 

OpenAIRE

Thummala, Prasanth; Schneider, Henrik; Zhang, Zhe; Andersen, Michael A. E.; Sarban, Rahimullah

2016-01-01

This paper presents an overview of the widely usedconventional linear actuator technologies and existing electroactivepolymer based linear and rotary actuators. It also providesthe conceptual, control and driver design considerations for anew dielectric electro-active polymer (DEAP) based incrementalactuator. The DEAP incremental actuator consists of threeindependent DEAP actuators with a unique cylindrical designthat potentially simplifies mass production and scalabilitycompared to existing ...

Opportunities for Local for Local Food Production: A Case in the Dutch Fruit and Vegetables

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jurriaan Visser

2013-03-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the opportunities for farmers to produce for local consumers, based on a case study in the Dutch horticulture sector. Main requirements for the set-up of a local chain of supply chain actors are investigated. Producer requirements are added value, availability of time, infrastructure and training. Retailer requirements are quality of food, purchasing volumes, food safety, communication to consumers and traceability of products. For consumers taste/freshness, sustainability, health benefits and authenticity are important attributes of local foods. Based on literature review and interviews with stakeholders four possible strategies for local food chains are defined. The ‘keep it local’ strategy means that the local food supply chains will not make use of the current infrastructure of the marketing coop that acts as chain coordinator. Deliveries are directly between farmer and retail outlet. The local products - conventional supply chain strategy implies that current (non-local supply chains are used to distribute local products. The supply chain planning will be more complex since products need to be separated per grower and distributed to several local supermarkets. In the ‘enabling producers’ strategy the marketing coop/chain coordinator is going to enable its member producers to sell their products locally. The marketing coop can support producers in for instance, billing and payments, marketing, logistics. The fourth strategy aims at strengthening current consumer communication strategies. It is argued that connecting producers and consumers, regardless of where they live is advantageous.Conclusion is that strategy 3; ‘Enabling producers’, in combination with strategy 4; ‘Strengthening current consumer communication strategies’ are the most promising options in setting up local food supply chains. Strategies 1 and 2, where the marketing coop/chain coordinator itself takes on the challenge of setting up

A Self-Organizing Incremental Neural Network based on local distribution learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Xing, Youlu; Shi, Xiaofeng; Shen, Furao; Zhou, Ke; Zhao, Jinxi

2016-12-01

In this paper, we propose an unsupervised incremental learning neural network based on local distribution learning, which is called Local Distribution Self-Organizing Incremental Neural Network (LD-SOINN). The LD-SOINN combines the advantages of incremental learning and matrix learning. It can automatically discover suitable nodes to fit the learning data in an incremental way without a priori knowledge such as the structure of the network. The nodes of the network store rich local information regarding the learning data. The adaptive vigilance parameter guarantees that LD-SOINN is able to add new nodes for new knowledge automatically and the number of nodes will not grow unlimitedly. While the learning process continues, nodes that are close to each other and have similar principal components are merged to obtain a concise local representation, which we call a relaxation data representation. A denoising process based on density is designed to reduce the influence of noise. Experiments show that the LD-SOINN performs well on both artificial and real-word data. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Incremental Reconstruction of Urban Environments by Edge-Points Delaunay Triangulation

OpenAIRE

Romanoni, Andrea; Matteucci, Matteo

2016-01-01

Urban reconstruction from a video captured by a surveying vehicle constitutes a core module of automated mapping. When computational power represents a limited resource and, a detailed map is not the primary goal, the reconstruction can be performed incrementally, from a monocular video, carving a 3D Delaunay triangulation of sparse points; this allows online incremental mapping for tasks such as traversability analysis or obstacle avoidance. To exploit the sharp edges of urban landscape, we ...

Quasi-static incremental behavior of granular materials: Elastic-plastic coupling and micro-scale dissipation

Science.gov (United States)

Kuhn, Matthew R.; Daouadji, Ali

2018-05-01

The paper addresses a common assumption of elastoplastic modeling: that the recoverable, elastic strain increment is unaffected by alterations of the elastic moduli that accompany loading. This assumption is found to be false for a granular material, and discrete element (DEM) simulations demonstrate that granular materials are coupled materials at both micro- and macro-scales. Elasto-plastic coupling at the macro-scale is placed in the context of thermomechanics framework of Tomasz Hueckel and Hans Ziegler, in which the elastic moduli are altered by irreversible processes during loading. This complex behavior is explored for multi-directional loading probes that follow an initial monotonic loading. An advanced DEM model is used in the study, with non-convex non-spherical particles and two different contact models: a conventional linear-frictional model and an exact implementation of the Hertz-like Cattaneo-Mindlin model. Orthotropic true-triaxial probes were used in the study (i.e., no direct shear strain), with tiny strain increments of 2 ×10-6 . At the micro-scale, contact movements were monitored during small increments of loading and load-reversal, and results show that these movements are not reversed by a reversal of strain direction, and some contacts that were sliding during a loading increment continue to slide during reversal. The probes show that the coupled part of a strain increment, the difference between the recoverable (elastic) increment and its reversible part, must be considered when partitioning strain increments into elastic and plastic parts. Small increments of irreversible (and plastic) strain and contact slipping and frictional dissipation occur for all directions of loading, and an elastic domain, if it exists at all, is smaller than the strain increment used in the simulations.

Spatial variability in growth-increment chronologies of long-lived freshwater mussels: Implications for climate impacts and reconstructions

Science.gov (United States)

Black, Bryan A.; Dunham, Jason B.; Blundon, Brett W.; Raggon, Mark F.; Zima, Daniela

2010-01-01

Estimates of historical variability in river ecosystems are often lacking, but long-lived freshwater mussels could provide unique opportunities to understand past conditions in these environments. We applied dendrochronology techniques to quantify historical variability in growth-increment widths in valves (shells) of western pearlshell freshwater mussels (Margaritifera falcata). A total of 3 growth-increment chronologies, spanning 19 to 26 y in length, were developed. Growth was highly synchronous among individuals within each site, and to a lesser extent, chronologies were synchronous among sites. All 3 chronologies negatively related to instrumental records of stream discharge, while correlations with measures of water temperature were consistently positive but weaker. A reconstruction of stream discharge was performed using linear regressions based on a mussel growth chronology and the regional Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). Models based on mussel growth and PDSI yielded similar coefficients of prediction (R2Pred) of 0.73 and 0.77, respectively, for predicting out-ofsample observations. From an ecological perspective, we found that mussel chronologies provided a rich source of information for understanding climate impacts. Responses of mussels to changes in climate and stream ecosystems can be very site- and process-specific, underscoring the complex nature of biotic responses to climate change and the need to understand both regional and local processes in projecting climate impacts on freshwater species.

Automatic incrementalization of Prolog based static analyses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eichberg, Michael; Kahl, Matthias; Saha, Diptikalyan

2007-01-01

Modem development environments integrate various static analyses into the build process. Analyses that analyze the whole project whenever the project changes are impractical in this context. We present an approach to automatic incrementalization of analyses that are specified as tabled logic prog...

A new recursive incremental algorithm for building minimal acyclic deterministic finite automata

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Watson, B.W.; Martin-Vide, C.; Mitrana, V.

2003-01-01

This chapter presents a new algorithm for incrementally building minimal acyclic deterministic finite automata. Such minimal automata are a compact representation of a finite set of words (e.g. in a spell checker). The incremental aspect of such algorithms (where the intermediate automaton is

Robot Visual Tracking via Incremental Self-Updating of Appearance Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Danpei Zhao

2013-09-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a target tracking method called Incremental Self-Updating Visual Tracking for robot platforms. Our tracker treats the tracking problem as a binary classification: the target and the background. The greyscale, HOG and LBP features are used in this work to represent the target and are integrated into a particle filter framework. To track the target over long time sequences, the tracker has to update its model to follow the most recent target. In order to deal with the problems of calculation waste and lack of model-updating strategy with the traditional methods, an intelligent and effective online self-updating strategy is devised to choose the optimal update opportunity. The strategy of updating the appearance model can be achieved based on the change in the discriminative capability between the current frame and the previous updated frame. By adjusting the update step adaptively, severe waste of calculation time for needless updates can be avoided while keeping the stability of the model. Moreover, the appearance model can be kept away from serious drift problems when the target undergoes temporary occlusion. The experimental results show that the proposed tracker can achieve robust and efficient performance in several benchmark-challenging video sequences with various complex environment changes in posture, scale, illumination and occlusion.

Atmospheric response to Saharan dust deduced from ECMWF reanalysis (ERA) temperature increments

Science.gov (United States)

Kishcha, P.; Alpert, P.; Barkan, J.; Kirchner, I.; Machenhauer, B.

2003-09-01

This study focuses on the atmospheric temperature response to dust deduced from a new source of data the European Reanalysis (ERA) increments. These increments are the systematic errors of global climate models, generated in the reanalysis procedure. The model errors result not only from the lack of desert dust but also from a complex combination of many kinds of model errors. Over the Sahara desert the lack of dust radiative effect is believed to be a predominant model defect which should significantly affect the increments. This dust effect was examined by considering correlation between the increments and remotely sensed dust. Comparisons were made between April temporal variations of the ERA analysis increments and the variations of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer aerosol index (AI) between 1979 and 1993. The distinctive structure was identified in the distribution of correlation composed of three nested areas with high positive correlation (>0.5), low correlation and high negative correlation (Forecast (ECMWF) suggest that the PCA (NCA) corresponds mainly to anticyclonic (cyclonic) flow, negative (positive) vorticity and downward (upward) airflow. These findings are associated with the interaction between dust-forced heating/cooling and atmospheric circulation. This paper contributes to a better understanding of dust radiative processes missed in the model.

Modular manufacturing processes : Status, challenges, and opportunities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Baldea, Michael; Edgar, Thomas F.; Stanley, Bill L.; Kiss, Anton A.

2017-01-01

Chemical companies are constantly seeking new, high-margin growth opportunities, the majority of which lie in high-grade, specialty chemicals, rather than in the bulk sector. To realize these opportunities, manufacturers are increasingly considering decentralized, flexible production facilities:

Global Combat Support System - Army Increment 2 (GCSS-A Inc 2)

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-01

2016 Major Automated Information System Annual Report Global Combat Support System - Army Increment 2 (GCSS-A Inc 2) Defense Acquisition...Secretary of Defense PB - President’s Budget RDT&E - Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation SAE - Service Acquisition Executive TBD - To Be...Date Assigned: Program Information Program Name Global Combat Support System - Army Increment 2 (GCSS-A Inc 2) DoD Component Army Responsible

The balanced scorecard: an incremental approach model to health care management.

Science.gov (United States)

Pineno, Charles J

2002-01-01

The balanced scorecard represents a technique used in strategic management to translate an organization's mission and strategy into a comprehensive set of performance measures that provide the framework for implementation of strategic management. This article develops an incremental approach for decision making by formulating a specific balanced scorecard model with an index of nonfinancial as well as financial measures. The incremental approach to costs, including profit contribution analysis and probabilities, allows decisionmakers to assess, for example, how their desire to meet different health care needs will cause changes in service design. This incremental approach to the balanced scorecard may prove to be useful in evaluating the existence of causality relationships between different objective and subjective measures to be included within the balanced scorecard.

Incremental Learning of Context Free Grammars by Parsing-Based Rule Generation and Rule Set Search

Science.gov (United States)

Nakamura, Katsuhiko; Hoshina, Akemi

This paper discusses recent improvements and extensions in Synapse system for inductive inference of context free grammars (CFGs) from sample strings. Synapse uses incremental learning, rule generation based on bottom-up parsing, and the search for rule sets. The form of production rules in the previous system is extended from Revised Chomsky Normal Form A→βγ to Extended Chomsky Normal Form, which also includes A→B, where each of β and γ is either a terminal or nonterminal symbol. From the result of bottom-up parsing, a rule generation mechanism synthesizes minimum production rules required for parsing positive samples. Instead of inductive CYK algorithm in the previous version of Synapse, the improved version uses a novel rule generation method, called ``bridging,'' which bridges the lacked part of the derivation tree for the positive string. The improved version also employs a novel search strategy, called serial search in addition to minimum rule set search. The synthesis of grammars by the serial search is faster than the minimum set search in most cases. On the other hand, the size of the generated CFGs is generally larger than that by the minimum set search, and the system can find no appropriate grammar for some CFL by the serial search. The paper shows experimental results of incremental learning of several fundamental CFGs and compares the methods of rule generation and search strategies.

Volatilities, traded volumes, and the hypothesis of price increments in derivative securities

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Gyuchang; Kim, SooYong; Scalas, Enrico; Kim, Kyungsik

2007-08-01

A detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) is applied to the statistics of Korean treasury bond (KTB) futures from which the logarithmic increments, volatilities, and traded volumes are estimated over a specific time lag. In this study, the logarithmic increment of futures prices has no long-memory property, while the volatility and the traded volume exhibit the existence of the long-memory property. To analyze and calculate whether the volatility clustering is due to a inherent higher-order correlation not detected by with the direct application of the DFA to logarithmic increments of KTB futures, it is of importance to shuffle the original tick data of future prices and to generate a geometric Brownian random walk with the same mean and standard deviation. It was found from a comparison of the three tick data that the higher-order correlation inherent in logarithmic increments leads to volatility clustering. Particularly, the result of the DFA on volatilities and traded volumes can be supported by the hypothesis of price changes.

Software designs of image processing tasks with incremental refinement of computation.

Science.gov (United States)

Anastasia, Davide; Andreopoulos, Yiannis

2010-08-01

Software realizations of computationally-demanding image processing tasks (e.g., image transforms and convolution) do not currently provide graceful degradation when their clock-cycles budgets are reduced, e.g., when delay deadlines are imposed in a multitasking environment to meet throughput requirements. This is an important obstacle in the quest for full utilization of modern programmable platforms' capabilities since worst-case considerations must be in place for reasonable quality of results. In this paper, we propose (and make available online) platform-independent software designs performing bitplane-based computation combined with an incremental packing framework in order to realize block transforms, 2-D convolution and frame-by-frame block matching. The proposed framework realizes incremental computation: progressive processing of input-source increments improves the output quality monotonically. Comparisons with the equivalent nonincremental software realization of each algorithm reveal that, for the same precision of the result, the proposed approach can lead to comparable or faster execution, while it can be arbitrarily terminated and provide the result up to the computed precision. Application examples with region-of-interest based incremental computation, task scheduling per frame, and energy-distortion scalability verify that our proposal provides significant performance scalability with graceful degradation.

Accounting for forest carbon pool dynamics in product carbon footprints: Challenges and opportunities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Newell, Joshua P.; Vos, Robert O.

2012-01-01

Modification and loss of forests due to natural and anthropogenic disturbance contribute an estimated 20% of annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide. Although forest carbon pool modeling rarely suggests a ‘carbon neutral’ flux profile, the life cycle assessment community and associated product carbon footprint protocols have struggled to account for the GHG emissions associated with forestry, specifically, and land use generally. Principally, this is due to underdeveloped linkages between life cycle inventory (LCI) modeling for wood and forest carbon modeling for a full range of forest types and harvest practices, as well as a lack of transparency in globalized forest supply chains. In this paper, through a comparative study of U.S. and Chinese coated freesheet paper, we develop the initial foundations for a methodology that rescales IPCC methods from the national to the product level, with reference to the approaches in three international product carbon footprint protocols. Due to differences in geographic origin of the wood fiber, the results for two scenarios are highly divergent. This suggests that both wood LCI models and the protocols need further development to capture the range of spatial and temporal dimensions for supply chains (and the associated land use change and modification) for specific product systems. The paper concludes by outlining opportunities to measure and reduce uncertainty in accounting for net emissions of biogenic carbon from forestland, where timber is harvested for consumer products. - Highlights: ► Typical life cycle assessment practice for consumer products often excludes significant land use change emissions when estimating carbon footprints. ► The article provides a methodology to rescale IPCC guidelines for product-level carbon footprints. ► Life cycle inventories and product carbon footprint protocols need more comprehensive land use-related accounting. ► Interdisciplinary collaboration linking the LCA and

International ROR: risk, opportunity, reward

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krentz, D.; Gair, J.

1996-01-01

Norcen Energy Resources Limited's pursuit of international oil and gas opportunities since the late 1980s were outlined. By 1994 Norcen had exploration and production concessions in 12 countries stretching from Algeria, Russia, Argentina, Indonesia to offshore Australia. The company had seen its share of risks, opportunities and rewards. Since 1994 international efforts of the Company have been focused on lower risk opportunities with exploration upside in defined core areas of South America, particularly in Venezuela, a country with conventional, heavy and ultra-heavy oil resources exceeding that of Saudi Arabia. These, and other similar foreign investments in the formerly closed national oil industries of South America have been greatly facilitated by the political liberalization, economic reforms and stabilization that have taken place there over the past ten years. The story of Norcen's successful bidding on the Oritupano-Leona production block in 1993 and Delta Centro exploration block in 1996 was the subject of this presentation

Evidence combination for incremental decision-making processes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berrada, Ghita; van Keulen, Maurice; de Keijzer, Ander

The establishment of a medical diagnosis is an incremental process highly fraught with uncertainty. At each step of this painstaking process, it may be beneficial to be able to quantify the uncertainty linked to the diagnosis and steadily update the uncertainty estimation using available sources of

Incremental Nonnegative Matrix Factorization for Face Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wen-Sheng Chen

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF is a promising approach for local feature extraction in face recognition tasks. However, there are two major drawbacks in almost all existing NMF-based methods. One shortcoming is that the computational cost is expensive for large matrix decomposition. The other is that it must conduct repetitive learning, when the training samples or classes are updated. To overcome these two limitations, this paper proposes a novel incremental nonnegative matrix factorization (INMF for face representation and recognition. The proposed INMF approach is based on a novel constraint criterion and our previous block strategy. It thus has some good properties, such as low computational complexity, sparse coefficient matrix. Also, the coefficient column vectors between different classes are orthogonal. In particular, it can be applied to incremental learning. Two face databases, namely FERET and CMU PIE face databases, are selected for evaluation. Compared with PCA and some state-of-the-art NMF-based methods, our INMF approach gives the best performance.

Apparatus for electrical-assisted incremental forming and process thereof

Science.gov (United States)

Roth, John; Cao, Jian

2018-04-24

A process and apparatus for forming a sheet metal component using an electric current passing through the component. The process can include providing an incremental forming machine, the machine having at least one arcuate tipped tool and at least electrode spaced a predetermined distance from the arcuate tipped tool. The machine is operable to perform a plurality of incremental deformations on the sheet metal component using the arcuate tipped tool. The machine is also operable to apply an electric direct current through the electrode into the sheet metal component at the predetermined distance from the arcuate tipped tool while the machine is forming the sheet metal component.

Entrepreneurs turn problems into opportunities.

Science.gov (United States)

Hostetler, D

1985-10-01

The need for products and services to accommodate changes in medical record practice and the increasing number of women going into business for themselves are combining to create new opportunities for the medical record professional who wants to start a business. JAMRA interviewed several entrepreneurs in the medical record field to find out about their experiences, where they see today's opportunities, and what advice they have for would-be entrepreneurs.

Livestock, the World, and the Dutch : a quick scan of opportunities in livestock production in nine countries : final draft for discussion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lee, van der J.; Hooft, van 't K.; Cornelissen, J.M.R.; Wouters, A.P.

2013-01-01

This report explores opportunities and associated challenges for companies and organizations engaged in livestock production and marketing by looking at nine countries, representing BRIC countries, the so-called Next 11, and developing countries.

Concurrent sourcing and external supplier opportunism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mols, Niels Peter

costs of opportunism are determined as a product of four factors. The four factors are: likelihood of discovering supplier opportunism, buyer’s internalized quantity as reaction to supplier opportunism, asset specificity of external supplier’s investments, and multiplicator effects. Each......When a firm simultaneously makes and buys the same components then the firm uses concurrent sourcing. This paper presents an agency model for explaining how and when concurrent sourcing reduces the likelihood of external supplier opportunism. In the proposed model, the external supplier’s expected...... of these factors are explained and discussed in the paper. The paper ends by offering a number of theoretical and managerial implications....

Production and processing of fuel by the forest industry - opportunities and conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Magnusson, L.

1991-01-01

The purpose of this study was to illustrate the opportunities for the forest industry to establish a system of handling and processing biofuels in conjunction with their existing activities, and which would supply a future market for biofuels in, for example, electricity generation. The sawmills report that it is difficult today to find a market for fuel products, especially for sawmills at greater distances from larger biofuel-consuming plants. The sawmills show great interest in cogeneration in their own plants, but report difficulties in achieving profitability. The main problem is reported to be that the price of the surplus electricity delivered to the grid is too low, but also that the electricity prices today are so low that it is difficult to justify even generating electricity for the mill's own use. There is an interest in the paper and pulp industry for integrated methods and production of biofuels since the part-tree methods used, at least in some parts of Sweden, are considered to contribute also to an increase in the availability of pulp wood to the industry. A fundamental viewpoint is, however, that the plants are built for the primary purpose of producing pulp or paper. It is unlikely that the industry would give priority to investments for production of a new secondary product in the form of fuel products, particularly when the conditions today imply that there are few possibilities to achieve any particular profitability. The most probable solution is that the fuel is processed outside the industry by other parties, e.g., the forest divisions. In the long term, increased efficiency in the processes may lead to a primary heat surplus which could be used to produce processed fuels

Upgrading Domestic-Plus Systems in Rural Senegal: An Incremental Income-Cost (I-C Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ralph P. Hall

2015-10-01

Full Text Available There is growing evidence that rural and peri-urban households depend on water not only for basic domestic needs but also for a wide variety of livelihood activities. In recognition of this reality, an alternative approach to water service planning, known as multiple-use water services (MUS, has emerged to design water services around householdsʼ multiple water needs. The benefits of MUS are diverse and include improved health, food security, income generation, and women’s empowerment. A common argument put forth by WASH sector professionals in favour of upgrading existing water systems is that productive water uses allow for income generation that, in turn, enhances the ability to pay for services. However, there has been limited rigorous research to assess whether the additional income generated from productive use activities justifies water service upgrading costs. This paper describes an income-cost (I-C analysis based on survey data and EPANET models for 47 domestic-plus water systems in rural Senegal to assess whether the theoretical financial benefits to households from additional piped-water-based productive activities would be greater than the estimated system upgrade costs. The paper provides a transparent methodology for performing an I-C analysis. We find that the potential incremental income earned by upgrading the existing domestic-plus systems to provide intermediate-level MUS would be equivalent to the funds needed to recover the system upgrade costs in just over one year. Thus, hypothetically, water could pay for water. A sensitivity analysis shows that even with a 55% reduction in household income earned per cubic meter of water, the incremental income is still greater than the upgrade costs over a ten-year period for the majority of the systems.

Demonstration/Validation of Incremental Sampling at Two Diverse Military Ranges and Development of an Incremental Sampling Tool

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-01

Sampling (MIS)? • Technique of combining many increments of soil from a number of points within exposure area • Developed by Enviro Stat (Trademarked...Demonstrating a reliable soil sampling strategy to accurately characterize contaminant concentrations in spatially extreme and heterogeneous...into a set of decision (exposure) units • One or several discrete or small- scale composite soil samples collected to represent each decision unit

Ethical leadership: meta-analytic evidence of criterion-related and incremental validity.

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Thomas W H; Feldman, Daniel C

2015-05-01

This study examines the criterion-related and incremental validity of ethical leadership (EL) with meta-analytic data. Across 101 samples published over the last 15 years (N = 29,620), we observed that EL demonstrated acceptable criterion-related validity with variables that tap followers' job attitudes, job performance, and evaluations of their leaders. Further, followers' trust in the leader mediated the relationships of EL with job attitudes and performance. In terms of incremental validity, we found that EL significantly, albeit weakly in some cases, predicted task performance, citizenship behavior, and counterproductive work behavior-even after controlling for the effects of such variables as transformational leadership, use of contingent rewards, management by exception, interactional fairness, and destructive leadership. The article concludes with a discussion of ways to strengthen the incremental validity of EL. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Springback effects during single point incremental forming: Optimization of the tool path

Science.gov (United States)

Giraud-Moreau, Laurence; Belchior, Jérémy; Lafon, Pascal; Lotoing, Lionel; Cherouat, Abel; Courtielle, Eric; Guines, Dominique; Maurine, Patrick

2018-05-01

Incremental sheet forming is an emerging process to manufacture sheet metal parts. This process is more flexible than conventional one and well suited for small batch production or prototyping. During the process, the sheet metal blank is clamped by a blank-holder and a small-size smooth-end hemispherical tool moves along a user-specified path to deform the sheet incrementally. Classical three-axis CNC milling machines, dedicated structure or serial robots can be used to perform the forming operation. Whatever the considered machine, large deviations between the theoretical shape and the real shape can be observed after the part unclamping. These deviations are due to both the lack of stiffness of the machine and residual stresses in the part at the end of the forming stage. In this paper, an optimization strategy of the tool path is proposed in order to minimize the elastic springback induced by residual stresses after unclamping. A finite element model of the SPIF process allowing the shape prediction of the formed part with a good accuracy is defined. This model, based on appropriated assumptions, leads to calculation times which remain compatible with an optimization procedure. The proposed optimization method is based on an iterative correction of the tool path. The efficiency of the method is shown by an improvement of the final shape.

Evaluation of opportunities for heat integration of biomass-based Fischer–Tropsch crude production at Scandinavian kraft pulp and paper mill sites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ljungstedt, Hanna; Pettersson, Karin; Harvey, Simon

2013-01-01

This study investigates heat integrated production of FT (Fischer–Tropsch) crude, where excess heat from the FT crude plant is delivered to a typical Scandinavian pulp and paper mill that produces fine paper. The sizes of FT crude plants are quantified, when the amount of excess heat from the FT plant exactly matches the heating demand otherwise satisfied by the bark boiler at the mill, considering a number of development pathways at the mill, including various degrees of steam savings and biorefinery options, such as lignin extraction. Performance of integrated production is compared with that of an FT stand-alone plant on the basis of wood fuel-to-FT crude efficiency, GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions balances and FT crude production cost. The results show that there exists a heat integration opportunity for an FT crude plant ranging from 0 up to 350 MW (LHV) of wood fuel depending on the development pathway for the mill. The results indicate higher overall efficiency and a generally lower production cost for the heat integrated, co-located production. Heat integrated production has a larger potential to contribute to GHG emission mitigation, assuming a future generation of grid electricity emitting equal to or less than an NGCC (natural gas combined cycle) power plant. - Highlights: • We investigate opportunities for heat integrated FT crude production at a mill. • Typical kraft pulp and paper mills have a potential for heat integrated production. • We compare the heat integrated production with stand-alone FT crude production. • Higher efficiency and lower production cost for heat integrated production. • Reduction of GHG emissions is strongly dependent on grid electricity emissions

Hot business - cool opportunities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fraser, M.

1997-01-01

A new role for the deregulated electric utilities in the energy services market or performance contracting markets was discussed. It was argued that in view of the long tradition of close customer contact, distribution utilities are in a good position to leverage their relationship with their customers to expand the range of products and services that the ''utility'' provides to them. Real time pricing, energy services, HVAC maintenance and operation are just some of the areas where the distribution utility''s linkage to customers could be used to good advantage. Some case histories, and a list of potential product and service opportunities in the commercial/industrial and residential sectors were provided. Some of the potential pitfalls were also identified for utilities that wish to pursue these opportunities. These pitfalls included legal, marketing, risk management and funding issues

Strategies and limits in multi-stage single-point incremental forming

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skjødt, Martin; Silva, M.B.; Martins, P. A. F.

2010-01-01

paths. The results also reveal that the sequence of multi-stage forming has a large effect on the location of strain points in the principal strain space. Strain paths are linear in the first stage and highly non-linear in the subsequent forming stages. The overall results show that the experimentally......Multi-stage single-point incremental forming (SPIF) is a state-of-the-art manufacturing process that allows small-quantity production of complex sheet metal parts with vertical walls. This paper is focused on the application of multi-stage SPIF with the objective of producing cylindrical cups......-limit curves and fracture forming-limit curves (FFLCs), numerical simulation, and experimentation, namely the evaluation of strain paths and fracture strains in actual multi-stage parts. Assessment of numerical simulation with experimentation shows good agreement between computed and measured strain and strain...

PLAY ANALYSIS AND DIGITAL PORTFOLIO OF MAJOR OIL RESERVOIRS IN THE PERMIAN BASIN: APPLICATION AND TRANSFER OF ADVANCED GEOLOGICAL AND ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGIES FOR INCREMENTAL PRODUCTION OPPORTUNITIES

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shirley P. Dutton; Eugene M. Kim; Ronald F. Broadhead; Caroline L. Breton; William D. Raatz; Stephen C. Ruppel; Charles Kerans

2004-05-01

The Permian Basin of west Texas and southeast New Mexico has produced >30 Bbbl (4.77 x 10{sup 9} m{sup 3}) of oil through 2000, most of it from 1,339 reservoirs having individual cumulative production >1 MMbbl (1.59 x 10{sup 5} m{sup 3}). These significant-sized reservoirs are the focus of this report. Thirty-two Permian Basin oil plays were defined, and each of the 1,339 significant-sized reservoirs was assigned to a play. The reservoirs were mapped and compiled in a Geographic Information System (GIS) by play. Associated reservoir information within linked data tables includes Railroad Commission of Texas reservoir number and district (Texas only), official field and reservoir name, year reservoir was discovered, depth to top of the reservoir, production in 2000, and cumulative production through 2000. Some tables also list subplays. Play boundaries were drawn for each play; the boundaries include areas where fields in that play occur but are <1 MMbbl (1.59 x 10{sup 5} m{sup 3}) of cumulative production. This report contains a summary description of each play, including key reservoir characteristics and successful reservoir-management practices that have been used in the play. The CD accompanying the report contains a pdf version of the report, the GIS project, pdf maps of all plays, and digital data files. Oil production from the reservoirs in the Permian Basin having cumulative production >1 MMbbl (1.59 x 10{sup 5} m{sup 3}) was 301.4 MMbbl (4.79 x 10{sup 7} m{sup 3}) in 2000. Cumulative Permian Basin production through 2000 from these significant-sized reservoirs was 28.9 Bbbl (4.59 x 10{sup 9} m{sup 3}). The top four plays in cumulative production are the Northwest Shelf San Andres Platform Carbonate play (3.97 Bbbl [6.31 x 10{sup 8} m{sup 3}]), the Leonard Restricted Platform Carbonate play (3.30 Bbbl 5.25 x 10{sup 8} m{sup 3}), the Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian Horseshoe Atoll Carbonate play (2.70 Bbbl [4.29 x 10{sup 8} m{sup 3}]), and the San Andres

Incremental natural gas resources through infield reserve growth/secondary natural gas recovery

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Finley, R.J.; Levey, R.A.; Hardage, B.A.

1993-12-31

The primary objective of the Infield Reserve Growth/Secondary Natural Gas Recovery (SGR) project is to develop, test, and verify technologies and methodologies with near- to midterm potential for maximizing the recovery of natural gasfrom conventional reservoirs in known fields. Additional technical and technology transfer objectives of the SGR project include: To establish how depositional and diagenetic heterogeneities in reservoirs of conventional permeability cause reservoir compartmentalization and, hence, incomplete recovery of natural gas. To document examples of reserve growth occurrence and potential from fluvial and deltaic sandstones of the Texas gulf coast basin as a natural laboratory for developing concepts and testing applications to find secondary gas. To demonstrate how the integration of geology, reservoir engineering, geophysics, and well log analysis/petrophysics leads to strategic recompletion and well placement opportunities for reserve growth in mature fields. To transfer project results to a wide array of natural gas producers, not just as field case studies, but as conceptual models of how heterogeneities determine natural gas flow units and how to recognize the geologic and engineering clues that operators can use in a cost-effective manner to identify incremental, or secondary, gas.

Numerical Simulation of Incremental Sheet Forming by Simplified Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Delamézière, A.; Yu, Y.; Robert, C.; Ayed, L. Ben; Nouari, M.; Batoz, J. L.

2011-01-01

The Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) is a process, which can transform a flat metal sheet in a 3D complex part using a hemispherical tool. The final geometry of the product is obtained by the relative movement between this tool and the blank. The main advantage of that process is that the cost of the tool is very low compared to deep drawing with rigid tools. The main disadvantage is the very low velocity of the tool and thus the large amount of time to form the part. Classical contact algorithms give good agreement with experimental results, but are time consuming. A Simplified Approach for the contact management between the tool and the blank in ISF is presented here. The general principle of this approach is to imposed displacement of the nodes in contact with the tool at a given position. On a benchmark part, the CPU time of the present Simplified Approach is significantly reduced compared with a classical simulation performed with Abaqus implicit.

Incremental projection approach of regularization for inverse problems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Souopgui, Innocent, E-mail: innocent.souopgui@usm.edu [The University of Southern Mississippi, Department of Marine Science (United States); Ngodock, Hans E., E-mail: hans.ngodock@nrlssc.navy.mil [Naval Research Laboratory (United States); Vidard, Arthur, E-mail: arthur.vidard@imag.fr; Le Dimet, François-Xavier, E-mail: ledimet@imag.fr [Laboratoire Jean Kuntzmann (France)

2016-10-15

This paper presents an alternative approach to the regularized least squares solution of ill-posed inverse problems. Instead of solving a minimization problem with an objective function composed of a data term and a regularization term, the regularization information is used to define a projection onto a convex subspace of regularized candidate solutions. The objective function is modified to include the projection of each iterate in the place of the regularization. Numerical experiments based on the problem of motion estimation for geophysical fluid images, show the improvement of the proposed method compared with regularization methods. For the presented test case, the incremental projection method uses 7 times less computation time than the regularization method, to reach the same error target. Moreover, at convergence, the incremental projection is two order of magnitude more accurate than the regularization method.

Incremental Design of Perishable Goods Markets through Multi-Agent Simulations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kazuo Miyashita

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In current markets of perishable goods such as fish and vegetables, sellers are typically in a weak bargaining position, since perishable products cannot be stored for long without losing their value. To avoid the risk of spoiling products, sellers have few alternatives other than selling their goods at the prices offered by buyers in the markets. The market mechanism needs to be reformed in order to resolve unfairness between sellers and buyers. Double auction markets, which collect bids from both sides of the trades and match them, allow sellers to participate proactively in the price-making process. However, in perishable goods markets, sellers have an incentive to discount their bid gradually for fear of spoiling unsold goods. Buyers can take advantage of sellers’ discounted bids to increase their profit by strategic bidding. To solve the problem, we incrementally improve an online double auction mechanism for perishable goods markets, which promotes buyers’ truthful bidding by penalizing their failed bids without harming their individual rationality. We evaluate traders’ behavior under several market conditions using multi-agent simulations and show that the developed mechanism achieves fair resource allocation among traders.

Incremental Frequent Subgraph Mining on Large Evolving Graphs

KAUST Repository

Abdelhamid, Ehab; Canim, Mustafa; Sadoghi, Mohammad; Bhatta, Bishwaranjan; Chang, Yuan-Chi; Kalnis, Panos

2017-01-01

, such as social networks, utilize large evolving graphs. Mining these graphs using existing techniques is infeasible, due to the high computational cost. In this paper, we propose IncGM+, a fast incremental approach for continuous frequent subgraph mining problem

Parallel Algorithm for Incremental Betweenness Centrality on Large Graphs

KAUST Repository

Jamour, Fuad Tarek

2017-10-17

Betweenness centrality quantifies the importance of nodes in a graph in many applications, including network analysis, community detection and identification of influential users. Typically, graphs in such applications evolve over time. Thus, the computation of betweenness centrality should be performed incrementally. This is challenging because updating even a single edge may trigger the computation of all-pairs shortest paths in the entire graph. Existing approaches cannot scale to large graphs: they either require excessive memory (i.e., quadratic to the size of the input graph) or perform unnecessary computations rendering them prohibitively slow. We propose iCentral; a novel incremental algorithm for computing betweenness centrality in evolving graphs. We decompose the graph into biconnected components and prove that processing can be localized within the affected components. iCentral is the first algorithm to support incremental betweeness centrality computation within a graph component. This is done efficiently, in linear space; consequently, iCentral scales to large graphs. We demonstrate with real datasets that the serial implementation of iCentral is up to 3.7 times faster than existing serial methods. Our parallel implementation that scales to large graphs, is an order of magnitude faster than the state-of-the-art parallel algorithm, while using an order of magnitude less computational resources.

[Spatiotemporal variation of Populus euphratica's radial increment at lower reaches of Tarim River after ecological water transfer].

Science.gov (United States)

An, Hong-Yan; Xu, Hai-Liang; Ye, Mao; Yu, Pu-Ji; Gong, Jun-Jun

2011-01-01

Taking the Populus euphratica at lower reaches of Tarim River as test object, and by the methods of tree dendrohydrology, this paper studied the spatiotemporal variation of P. euphratic' s branch radial increment after ecological water transfer. There was a significant difference in the mean radial increment before and after ecological water transfer. The radial increment after the eco-water transfer was increased by 125%, compared with that before the water transfer. During the period of ecological water transfer, the radial increment was increased with increasing water transfer quantity, and there was a positive correlation between the annual radial increment and the total water transfer quantity (R2 = 0.394), suggesting that the radial increment of P. euphratica could be taken as the performance indicator of ecological water transfer. After the ecological water transfer, the radial increment changed greatly with the distance to the River, i.e. , decreased significantly along with the increasing distance to the River (P = 0.007). The P. euphratic' s branch radial increment also differed with stream segment (P = 0.017 ), i.e. , the closer to the head-water point (Daxihaizi Reservoir), the greater the branch radial increment. It was considered that the limited effect of the current ecological water transfer could scarcely change the continually deteriorating situation of the lower reaches of Tarim River.

[Incremental cost effectiveness of multifocal cataract surgery].

Science.gov (United States)

Pagel, N; Dick, H B; Krummenauer, F

2007-02-01

Supplementation of cataract patients with multifocal intraocular lenses involves an additional financial investment when compared to the corresponding monofocal supplementation, which usually is not funded by German health care insurers. In the context of recent resource allocation discussions, however, the cost effectiveness of multifocal cataract surgery could become an important rationale. Therefore an evidence-based estimation of its cost effectiveness was carried out. Three independent meta-analyses were implemented to estimate the gain in uncorrected near visual acuity and best corrected visual acuity (vision lines) as well as the predictability (fraction of patients without need for reading aids) of multifocal supplementation. Study reports published between 1995 and 2004 (English or German language) were screened for appropriate key words. Meta effects in visual gain and predictability were estimated by means and standard deviations of the reported effect measures. Cost data were estimated by German DRG rates and individual lens costs; the cost effectiveness of multifocal cataract surgery was then computed in terms of its marginal cost effectiveness ratio (MCER) for each clinical benefit endpoint; the incremental costs of multifocal versus monofocal cataract surgery were further estimated by means of their respective incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER). An independent meta-analysis estimated the complication profiles to be expected after monofocal and multifocal cataract surgery in order to evaluate expectable complication-associated additional costs of both procedures; the marginal and incremental cost effectiveness estimates were adjusted accordingly. A sensitivity analysis comprised cost variations of +/- 10 % and utility variations alongside the meta effect estimate's 95 % confidence intervals. Total direct costs from the health care insurer's perspective were estimated 3363 euro, associated with a visual meta benefit in best corrected visual

Lactate and ammonia concentration in blood and sweat during incremental cycle ergometer exercise

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ament, W; Huizenga, [No Value; Mook, GA; Gips, CH; Verkerke, GJ

It is known that the concentrations of ammonia and lactate in blood increase during incremental exercise. Sweat also contains lactate and ammonia. The aim of the present study was to investigate the physiological response of lactate and ammonia in plasma and sweat during a stepwise incremental cycle

Potential stocks and increments of woody biomass in the European Union under different management and climate scenarios.

Science.gov (United States)

Kindermann, Georg E; Schörghuber, Stefan; Linkosalo, Tapio; Sanchez, Anabel; Rammer, Werner; Seidl, Rupert; Lexer, Manfred J

2013-02-01

Forests play an important role in the global carbon flow. They can store carbon and can also provide wood which can substitute other materials. In EU27 the standing biomass is steadily increasing. Increments and harvests seem to have reached a plateau between 2005 and 2010. One reason for reaching this plateau will be the circumstance that the forests are getting older. High ages have the advantage that they typical show high carbon concentration and the disadvantage that the increment rates are decreasing. It should be investigated how biomass stock, harvests and increments will develop under different climate scenarios and two management scenarios where one is forcing to store high biomass amounts in forests and the other tries to have high increment rates and much harvested wood. A management which is maximising standing biomass will raise the stem wood carbon stocks from 30 tC/ha to 50 tC/ha until 2100. A management which is maximising increments will lower the stock to 20 tC/ha until 2100. The estimates for the climate scenarios A1b, B1 and E1 are different but there is much more effect by the management target than by the climate scenario. By maximising increments the harvests are 0.4 tC/ha/year higher than in the management which maximises the standing biomass. The increments until 2040 are close together but around 2100 the increments when maximising standing biomass are approximately 50 % lower than those when maximising increments. Cold regions will benefit from the climate changes in the climate scenarios by showing higher increments. The results of this study suggest that forest management should maximise increments, not stocks to be more efficient in sense of climate change mitigation. This is true especially for regions which have already high carbon stocks in forests, what is the case in many regions in Europe. During the time span 2010-2100 the forests of EU27 will absorb additional 1750 million tC if they are managed to maximise increments compared

Biotechnological opportunities to biopolymers production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ballesteros, M.; Ballesteros, I.; Oliva, J.M.

1994-01-01

The increasing garbage mountain is more and more recognized as an ecological threat, Space for landfills is limited and additional Incineration capacities require high capital investments and pose additional environmental problems. This paper discusses the current development and utilization state of new biodegradable polymers. Special attention is focused on microbiological production of poli-D-Beta-hydroxybutyrate acid (PHB), reviewing the metabolic regulation of PHB and the elements to determine its industrial scale production. (Author) 6 refs

Fair opportunities, social productivity and wellbeing in disability: Towards a theoretical foundation.

Science.gov (United States)

Siegrist, Johannes; Fekete, Christine

2016-06-13

Theory-based approaches provide explanations of the impact of components of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) classification on outcomes such as health and wellbeing. Here, one such approach is proposed, focusing on social participation and its association with wellbeing. In addition to elaborating a theoretical approach, a narrative review of research on labour market participation of persons with severe disability, spinal cord injury, is conducted to illustrate the utility of the proposed approach. Availability and good quality of productive activities, in particular paid work, are expected to improve wellbeing by strengthening favourable experiences of personal control and social recognition. As these opportunities are restricted among persons with disabilities, conditions that enable full social participation need to be strengthened. Research identified several such conditions at the individual (e.g. coping, social support, educational skills) and the contextual socio-political level (e.g. quality of care, medical and vocational rehabilitation), although their potential of improving wellbeing has not yet been sufficiently explored. In conclusion, supplementing the established ICF classification by theory-based approaches may advance explanations of adverse effects of reduced functioning and wellbeing in disability. This new knowledge can guide the development of interventions to improve participation in general and social productivity in particular.

Challenges and opportunities in establishing scientific and regulatory standards for determining therapeutic equivalence of modified-release products: Workshop summary report.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Mei-Ling; Shah, Vinod P; Ganes, Derek; Midha, Kamal K; Caro, James; Nambiar, Prabu; Rocci, Mario L; Thombre, Avinash G; Abrahamsson, Bertil; Conner, Dale; Davit, Barbara; Fackler, Paul; Farrell, Colm; Gupta, Suneel; Katz, Russell; Mehta, Mehul; Preskorn, Sheldon H; Sanderink, Gerard; Stavchansky, Salomon; Temple, Robert; Wang, Yaning; Winkle, Helen; Yu, Lawrence

2010-09-01

Modified-release (MR) products are complex dosage forms designed to release drug in a controlled manner to achieve the desired efficacy and safety profiles. Inappropriate control of drug release from such products may result in reduced efficacy or increased toxicity. This paper is a summary report of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, International Pharmaceutical Federation, and Product Quality Research Institute workshop titled "Challenges and Opportunities in Establishing Scientific and Regulatory Standards for Assuring Therapeutic Equivalence of Modified Release Products", held October 1-2, 2009, in Baltimore, Maryland. The workshop provided an opportunity for pharmaceutical scientists from academia, industry, and regulatory agencies to discuss current regulatory expectations and industry practices for evaluating the pharmaceutical equivalence and bioequivalence of oral MR products. In the case of conventional monophasic MR formulations, the current regulatory approaches and criteria for bioequivalence evaluation were considered adequate for the assessment of therapeutic equivalence and inter-changeability of drug products. Additional measures may occasionally be needed to determine the bioequivalence of multiphasic MR products. The metric of partial AUC proposed by the US Food and Drug Administration received broad support as an additional measure for evaluating bioequivalence of multiphasic MR products designed to have a rapid onset of drug action followed by sustained response. The cutoff for partial AUCs may be based on the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic or pharmacokinetic/ response characteristics of the products under examination. If the new metric is highly variable, the bioequivalence limits may be set based on the known within-subject variability for the reference product. The current regulatory approaches and criteria for bioequivalence evaluation were considered adequate for the assessment of therapeutic equivalence and

PCA/INCREMENT MEMORY interface for analog processors on-line with PC-XT/AT IBM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Biri, S.; Buttsev, V.S.; Molnar, J.; Samojlov, V.N.

1989-01-01

The functional and operational descriptions on PCA/INCREMENT MEMORY interface are discussed. The following is solved with this unit: connection between the analogue signal processor and PC, nuclear spectrum acquisition up to 2 24 -1 counts/channel using increment or decrement method, data read/write from or to memory via data bus PC during the spectrum acquisition. Dual ported memory organization is 4096x24 bit, increment cycle time at 4.77 MHz system clock frequency is 1.05 μs. 6 refs.; 2 figs

Career opportunities in clinical engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Morse, W A

1992-01-01

The varied career opportunities open to clinical engineers are described in this paper. Many of these opportunities are within the medical device industry in research, development, manufacturing design, regulatory activities, production, operations, sales, marketing, service, and management. Additional opportunities are available in hospitals, with the Veterans Administration, or working as an entrepreneur or a consultant. Each of these careers requires specific training and skills, and they all require a fundamental scientific knowledge of physical principles and mathematics. Research and management, however, require different educational preparation. The research emphasis should be on theoretical principles and creativity; the management emphasis should be on financial and labor problems. In all clinical engineering careers, the individual is a problem solver.

Playing by the rules? Analysing incremental urban developments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Karnenbeek, van Lilian; Janssen-Jansen, Leonie

2018-01-01

Current urban developments are often considered outdated and static, and the argument follows that they should become more adaptive. In this paper, we argue that existing urban development are already adaptive and incremental. Given this flexibility in urban development, understanding changes in the

A program for the numerical control of a pulse increment system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gray, D.C.

1963-08-21

This report will describe the important features of the development of magnetic tapes for the numerical control of a pulse-increment system consisting of a modified Gorton lathe and its associated control unit developed by L. E. Foley of Equipment Development Service, Engineering Services, General Electric Co., Schenectady, N.Y. Included is a description of CUPID (Control and Utilization of Pulse Increment Devices), a FORTRAN program for the design of these tapes on the IBM 7090 computer, and instructions for its operation.

BMI and BMI SDS in childhood: annual increments and conditional change

OpenAIRE

Brannsether-Ellingsen, Bente; Eide, Geir Egil; Roelants, Mathieu; Bjerknes, Robert; Juliusson, Petur Benedikt

2016-01-01

Background: Early detection of abnormal weight gain in childhood may be important for preventive purposes. It is still debated which annual changes in BMI should warrant attention. Aim: To analyse 1-year increments of Body Mass Index (BMI) and standardised BMI (BMI SDS) in childhood and explore conditional change in BMI SDS as an alternative method to evaluate 1-year changes in BMI. Subjects and methods: The distributions of 1-year increments of BMI (kg/m2) and BMI SDS are summarised by...

Decoupled Simulation Method For Incremental Sheet Metal Forming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sebastiani, G.; Brosius, A.; Tekkaya, A. E.; Homberg, W.; Kleiner, M.

2007-01-01

Within the scope of this article a decoupling algorithm to reduce computing time in Finite Element Analyses of incremental forming processes will be investigated. Based on the given position of the small forming zone, the presented algorithm aims at separating a Finite Element Model in an elastic and an elasto-plastic deformation zone. Including the elastic response of the structure by means of model simplifications, the costly iteration in the elasto-plastic zone can be restricted to the small forming zone and to few supporting elements in order to reduce computation time. Since the forming zone moves along the specimen, an update of both, forming zone with elastic boundary and supporting structure, is needed after several increments.The presented paper discusses the algorithmic implementation of the approach and introduces several strategies to implement the denoted elastic boundary condition at the boundary of the plastic forming zone

Products by Glycation Process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liliana Ortega

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The antioxidant properties of sweet and acid whey products were incremented by polymerization of their proteins by glycation of whey protein concentrates (WPC and their hydrolyzates (WPCH with ribose and glucose in individual experiments under similar concentration. Heating at 50°C during 20 h maximum and pH 7 and pH 9 were used in all tests. The higher activity was found in WPC glycosylates products with ribose at pH 7 and heating during 10–15 h. In comparable form, antioxidant activity in WPCH was incremented by prior hydrolysis to glycation with 25–45% of hydrolysis degree. Further functional properties of whey proteins (solubility, emulsion, and foam were also improved by the polymerization with ribose. The color of polymerized products due to Maillard reactions was associated with antioxidant activity of each compound; however comparative color in glycosylates products with glucose and ribose did not show this effect.

Play Analysis and Digital Portfolio of Major Oil Reservoirs in the Permian Basin: Application and Transfer of Advanced Geological and Engineering Technologies for Incremental Production Opportunities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shirley P. Dutton; Eugene M. Kim; Ronald F. Broadhead; Caroline L. Breton; William D. Raatz; Stephen C. Ruppel; Charles Kerans

2004-01-13

A play portfolio is being constructed for the Permian Basin in west Texas and southeast New Mexico, the largest onshore petroleum-producing basin in the United States. Approximately 1,300 reservoirs in the Permian Basin have been identified as having cumulative production greater than 1 MMbbl (1.59 x 10{sup 5} m{sup 3}) of oil through 2000. Of these significant-sized reservoirs, approximately 1,000 are in Texas and 300 in New Mexico. There are 32 geologic plays that have been defined for Permian Basin oil reservoirs, and each of the 1,300 major reservoirs was assigned to a play. The reservoirs were mapped and compiled in a Geographic Information System (GIS) by play. The final reservoir shapefile for each play contains the geographic location of each reservoir. Associated reservoir information within the linked data tables includes RRC reservoir number and district (Texas only), official field and reservoir name, year reservoir was discovered, depth to top of the reservoir, production in 2000, and cumulative production through 2000. Some tables also list subplays. Play boundaries were drawn for each play; the boundaries include areas where fields in that play occur but are smaller than 1 MMbbl (1.59 x 10{sup 5} m{sup 3}) of cumulative production. Oil production from the reservoirs in the Permian Basin having cumulative production of >1 MMbbl (1.59 x 10{sup 5} m{sup 3}) was 301.4 MMbbl (4.79 x 10{sup 7} m{sup 3}) in 2000. Cumulative Permian Basin production through 2000 was 28.9 Bbbl (4.59 x 10{sup 9} m{sup 3}). The top four plays in cumulative production are the Northwest Shelf San Andres Platform Carbonate play (3.97 Bbbl [6.31 x 10{sup 8} m{sup 3}]), the Leonard Restricted Platform Carbonate play (3.30 Bbbl [5.25 x 10{sup 8} m{sup 3}]), the Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian Horseshoe Atoll Carbonate play (2.70 Bbbl [4.29 x 10{sup 8} m{sup 3}]), and the San Andres Platform Carbonate play (2.15 Bbbl [3.42 x 10{sup 8} m{sup 3}]). Detailed studies of three reservoirs

Conservation of wildlife populations: factoring in incremental disturbance.

Science.gov (United States)

Stewart, Abbie; Komers, Petr E

2017-06-01

Progressive anthropogenic disturbance can alter ecosystem organization potentially causing shifts from one stable state to another. This potential for ecosystem shifts must be considered when establishing targets and objectives for conservation. We ask whether a predator-prey system response to incremental anthropogenic disturbance might shift along a disturbance gradient and, if it does, whether any disturbance thresholds are evident for this system. Development of linear corridors in forested areas increases wolf predation effectiveness, while high density of development provides a safe-haven for their prey. If wolves limit moose population growth, then wolves and moose should respond inversely to land cover disturbance. Using general linear model analysis, we test how the rate of change in moose ( Alces alces ) density and wolf ( Canis lupus ) harvest density are influenced by the rate of change in land cover and proportion of land cover disturbed within a 300,000 km 2 area in the boreal forest of Alberta, Canada. Using logistic regression, we test how the direction of change in moose density is influenced by measures of land cover change. In response to incremental land cover disturbance, moose declines occurred where 43% of land cover was disturbed and wolf density declined. Wolves and moose appeared to respond inversely to incremental disturbance with the balance between moose decline and wolf increase shifting at about 43% of land cover disturbed. Conservation decisions require quantification of disturbance rates and their relationships to predator-prey systems because ecosystem responses to anthropogenic disturbance shift across disturbance gradients.

Numerical simulation of pseudoelastic shape memory alloys using the large time increment method

Science.gov (United States)

Gu, Xiaojun; Zhang, Weihong; Zaki, Wael; Moumni, Ziad

2017-04-01

The paper presents a numerical implementation of the large time increment (LATIN) method for the simulation of shape memory alloys (SMAs) in the pseudoelastic range. The method was initially proposed as an alternative to the conventional incremental approach for the integration of nonlinear constitutive models. It is adapted here for the simulation of pseudoelastic SMA behavior using the Zaki-Moumni model and is shown to be especially useful in situations where the phase transformation process presents little or lack of hardening. In these situations, a slight stress variation in a load increment can result in large variations of strain and local state variables, which may lead to difficulties in numerical convergence. In contrast to the conventional incremental method, the LATIN method solve the global equilibrium and local consistency conditions sequentially for the entire loading path. The achieved solution must satisfy the conditions of static and kinematic admissibility and consistency simultaneously after several iterations. 3D numerical implementation is accomplished using an implicit algorithm and is then used for finite element simulation using the software Abaqus. Computational tests demonstrate the ability of this approach to simulate SMAs presenting flat phase transformation plateaus and subjected to complex loading cases, such as the quasi-static behavior of a stent structure. Some numerical results are contrasted to those obtained using step-by-step incremental integration.

On the validity of the incremental approach to estimate the impact of cities on air quality

Science.gov (United States)

Thunis, Philippe

2018-01-01

The question of how much cities are the sources of their own air pollution is not only theoretical as it is critical to the design of effective strategies for urban air quality planning. In this work, we assess the validity of the commonly used incremental approach to estimate the likely impact of cities on their air pollution. With the incremental approach, the city impact (i.e. the concentration change generated by the city emissions) is estimated as the concentration difference between a rural background and an urban background location, also known as the urban increment. We show that the city impact is in reality made up of the urban increment and two additional components and consequently two assumptions need to be fulfilled for the urban increment to be representative of the urban impact. The first assumption is that the rural background location is not influenced by emissions from within the city whereas the second requires that background concentration levels, obtained with zero city emissions, are equal at both locations. Because the urban impact is not measurable, the SHERPA modelling approach, based on a full air quality modelling system, is used in this work to assess the validity of these assumptions for some European cities. Results indicate that for PM2.5, these two assumptions are far from being fulfilled for many large or medium city sizes. For this type of cities, urban increments are largely underestimating city impacts. Although results are in better agreement for NO2, similar issues are met. In many situations the incremental approach is therefore not an adequate estimate of the urban impact on air pollution. This poses issues in terms of interpretation when these increments are used to define strategic options in terms of air quality planning. We finally illustrate the interest of comparing modelled and measured increments to improve our confidence in the model results.

Foreign direct investment in South Africa: how big is Southern Africa’s natural product opportunity and what trade issues impede sectoral development?

OpenAIRE

Bennett, Ben

2006-01-01

This study was conducted to identify the scale of the trade opportunity for natural product exports from Southern Africa and to recommend actions to address market access issues constraining sectoral growth.\\ud Field research was undertaken in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa and the United Kingdom between 9th January and 25th February 2006. The study concentrated on ten countries in Southern Africa1 with potential to export significant quantities of natural products. These products ar...

Bipower variation for Gaussian processes with stationary increments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barndorff-Nielsen, Ole Eiler; Corcuera, José Manuel; Podolskij, Mark

2009-01-01

Convergence in probability and central limit laws of bipower variation for Gaussian processes with stationary increments and for integrals with respect to such processes are derived. The main tools of the proofs are some recent powerful techniques of Wiener/Itô/Malliavin calculus for establishing...

The National Institute of Education and Incremental Budgeting.

Science.gov (United States)

Hastings, Anne H.

1979-01-01

The National Institute of Education's (NIE) history demonstrates that the relevant criteria for characterizing budgeting as incremental are not the predictability and stability of appropriations but the conditions of complexity, limited information, multiple factors, and imperfect agreement on ends; NIE's appropriations were dominated by political…

The great opportunity: Evolutionary applications to medicine and public health.

Science.gov (United States)

Nesse, Randolph M; Stearns, Stephen C

2008-02-01

Evolutionary biology is an essential basic science for medicine, but few doctors and medical researchers are familiar with its most relevant principles. Most medical schools have geneticists who understand evolution, but few have even one evolutionary biologist to suggest other possible applications. The canyon between evolutionary biology and medicine is wide. The question is whether they offer each other enough to make bridge building worthwhile. What benefits could be expected if evolution were brought fully to bear on the problems of medicine? How would studying medical problems advance evolutionary research? Do doctors need to learn evolution, or is it valuable mainly for researchers? What practical steps will promote the application of evolutionary biology in the areas of medicine where it offers the most? To address these questions, we review current and potential applications of evolutionary biology to medicine and public health. Some evolutionary technologies, such as population genetics, serial transfer production of live vaccines, and phylogenetic analysis, have been widely applied. Other areas, such as infectious disease and aging research, illustrate the dramatic recent progress made possible by evolutionary insights. In still other areas, such as epidemiology, psychiatry, and understanding the regulation of bodily defenses, applying evolutionary principles remains an open opportunity. In addition to the utility of specific applications, an evolutionary perspective fundamentally challenges the prevalent but fundamentally incorrect metaphor of the body as a machine designed by an engineer. Bodies are vulnerable to disease - and remarkably resilient - precisely because they are not machines built from a plan. They are, instead, bundles of compromises shaped by natural selection in small increments to maximize reproduction, not health. Understanding the body as a product of natural selection, not design, offers new research questions and a framework for

Incremental Support Vector Machine Framework for Visual Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuichi Motai

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Motivated by the emerging requirements of surveillance networks, we present in this paper an incremental multiclassification support vector machine (SVM technique as a new framework for action classification based on real-time multivideo collected by homogeneous sites. The technique is based on an adaptation of least square SVM (LS-SVM formulation but extends beyond the static image-based learning of current SVM methodologies. In applying the technique, an initial supervised offline learning phase is followed by a visual behavior data acquisition and an online learning phase during which the cluster head performs an ensemble of model aggregations based on the sensor nodes inputs. The cluster head then selectively switches on designated sensor nodes for future incremental learning. Combining sensor data offers an improvement over single camera sensing especially when the latter has an occluded view of the target object. The optimization involved alleviates the burdens of power consumption and communication bandwidth requirements. The resulting misclassification error rate, the iterative error reduction rate of the proposed incremental learning, and the decision fusion technique prove its validity when applied to visual sensor networks. Furthermore, the enabled online learning allows an adaptive domain knowledge insertion and offers the advantage of reducing both the model training time and the information storage requirements of the overall system which makes it even more attractive for distributed sensor networks communication.

Two-Point Incremental Forming with Partial Die: Theory and Experimentation

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, M. B.; Martins, P. A. F.

2013-04-01

This paper proposes a new level of understanding of two-point incremental forming (TPIF) with partial die by means of a combined theoretical and experimental investigation. The theoretical developments include an innovative extension of the analytical model for rotational symmetric single point incremental forming (SPIF), originally developed by the authors, to address the influence of the major operating parameters of TPIF and to successfully explain the differences in formability between SPIF and TPIF. The experimental work comprised the mechanical characterization of the material and the determination of its formability limits at necking and fracture by means of circle grid analysis and benchmark incremental sheet forming tests. Results show the adequacy of the proposed analytical model to handle the deformation mechanics of SPIF and TPIF with partial die and demonstrate that neck formation is suppressed in TPIF, so that traditional forming limit curves are inapplicable to describe failure and must be replaced by fracture forming limits derived from ductile damage mechanics. The overall geometric accuracy of sheet metal parts produced by TPIF with partial die is found to be better than that of parts fabricated by SPIF due to smaller elastic recovery upon unloading.

A comparative study of velocity increment generation between the rigid body and flexible models of MMET

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ismail, Norilmi Amilia, E-mail: aenorilmi@usm.my [School of Aerospace Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang (Malaysia)

2016-02-01

The motorized momentum exchange tether (MMET) is capable of generating useful velocity increments through spin–orbit coupling. This study presents a comparative study of the velocity increments between the rigid body and flexible models of MMET. The equations of motions of both models in the time domain are transformed into a function of true anomaly. The equations of motion are integrated, and the responses in terms of the velocity increment of the rigid body and flexible models are compared and analysed. Results show that the initial conditions, eccentricity, and flexibility of the tether have significant effects on the velocity increments of the tether.

Recent advances in understanding the genetic resources of sheep breeds locally-adapted to the UK uplands : opportunities they offer for sustainable productivity.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dianna eBowles

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Locally adapted breeds of livestock are of considerable interest since they represent potential reservoirs of adaptive fitness traits that may contribute to the future of sustainable productivity in a changing climate.Recent research, involving three hill sheep breeds geographically concentrated in the northern uplands of the UK has revealed the extent of their genetic diversity from one another and from other breeds. Results from the use of SNPs, microsatellites and retrovirus insertions are reviewed in the context of related studies on sheep breeds world-wide to highlight opportunities offered by the genetic resources of locally adapted hill breeds. One opportunity concerns reduced susceptibility to Maedi-Visna, a lentivirus with massive impacts on sheep health and productivity globally. In contrast to many mainstream breeds used in farming, each of the hill breeds analysed are likely to be far less susceptible to the disease threat. A different opportunity, relating specifically to the Herdwick breed, is the extent to which the genome of the breed has retained primitive features, no longer present in other mainland breeds of sheep in the UK and offering a new route for discovering unique genetic traits of use to agriculture.

Evolving effective incremental SAT solvers with GP

OpenAIRE

Bader, Mohamed; Poli, R.

2008-01-01

Hyper-Heuristics could simply be defined as heuristics to choose other heuristics, and it is a way of combining existing heuristics to generate new ones. In a Hyper-Heuristic framework, the framework is used for evolving effective incremental (Inc*) solvers for SAT. We test the evolved heuristics (IncHH) against other known local search heuristics on a variety of benchmark SAT problems.

Real Time Implementation of Incremental Fuzzy Logic Controller for Gas Pipeline Corrosion Control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gopalakrishnan Jayapalan

2014-01-01

Full Text Available A robust virtual instrumentation based fuzzy incremental corrosion controller is presented to protect metallic gas pipelines. Controller output depends on error and change in error of the controlled variable. For corrosion control purpose pipe to soil potential is considered as process variable. The proposed fuzzy incremental controller is designed using a very simple control rule base and the most natural and unbiased membership functions. The proposed scheme is tested for a wide range of pipe to soil potential control. Performance comparison between the conventional proportional integral type and proposed fuzzy incremental controller is made in terms of several performance criteria such as peak overshoot, settling time, and rise time. Result shows that the proposed controller outperforms its conventional counterpart in each case. Designed controller can be taken in automode without waiting for initial polarization to stabilize. Initial startup curve of proportional integral controller and fuzzy incremental controller is reported. This controller can be used to protect any metallic structures such as pipelines, tanks, concrete structures, ship, and offshore structures.

Relay cropping as a sustainable approach: problems and opportunities for sustainable crop production.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanveer, Mohsin; Anjum, Shakeel Ahmad; Hussain, Saddam; Cerdà, Artemi; Ashraf, Umair

2017-03-01

Climate change, soil degradation, and depletion of natural resources are becoming the most prominent challenges for crop productivity and environmental sustainability in modern agriculture. In the scenario of conventional farming system, limited chances are available to cope with these issues. Relay cropping is a method of multiple cropping where one crop is seeded into standing second crop well before harvesting of second crop. Relay cropping may solve a number of conflicts such as inefficient use of available resources, controversies in sowing time, fertilizer application, and soil degradation. Relay cropping is a complex suite of different resource-efficient technologies, which possesses the capability to improve soil quality, to increase net return, to increase land equivalent ratio, and to control the weeds and pest infestation. The current review emphasized relay cropping as a tool for crop diversification and environmental sustainability with special focus on soil. Briefly, benefits, constraints, and opportunities of relay cropping keeping the goals of higher crop productivity and sustainability have also been discussed in this review. The research and knowledge gap in relay cropping was also highlighted in order to guide the further studies in future.

Health claims on food products in Southeast Asia: regulatory frameworks, barriers, and opportunities.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Karin Y M; van der Beek, Eline M; Chan, M Y; Zhao, Xuejun; Stevenson, Leo

2015-09-01

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations aims to act as a single market and allow free movement of goods, services, and manpower. The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the current regulatory framework for health claims in Southeast Asia and to highlight the current barriers and opportunities in the regulatory frameworks in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. To date, 5 countries in Southeast Asia, i.e., Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, have regulations and guidelines to permit the use of health claims on food products. There are inconsistencies in the regulations and the types of evidence required for health claim applications in these countries. A clear understanding of the regulatory frameworks in these countries may help to increase trade in this fast-growing region and to provide direction for the food industry and the regulatory community to develop and market food products with better nutritional quality tailored to the needs of Southeast Asian consumers. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Life Sciences Institute. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Minimizing System Modification in an Incremental Design Approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pop, Paul; Eles, Petru; Pop, Traian

2001-01-01

In this paper we present an approach to mapping and scheduling of distributed embedded systems for hard real-time applications, aiming at minimizing the system modification cost. We consider an incremental design process that starts from an already existing sys-tem running a set of applications. We...

BMI and BMI SDS in childhood: annual increments and conditional change.

Science.gov (United States)

Brannsether, Bente; Eide, Geir Egil; Roelants, Mathieu; Bjerknes, Robert; Júlíusson, Pétur Benedikt

2017-02-01

Background Early detection of abnormal weight gain in childhood may be important for preventive purposes. It is still debated which annual changes in BMI should warrant attention. Aim To analyse 1-year increments of Body Mass Index (BMI) and standardised BMI (BMI SDS) in childhood and explore conditional change in BMI SDS as an alternative method to evaluate 1-year changes in BMI. Subjects and methods The distributions of 1-year increments of BMI (kg/m 2 ) and BMI SDS are summarised by percentiles. Differences according to sex, age, height, weight, initial BMI and weight status on the BMI and BMI SDS increments were assessed with multiple linear regression. Conditional change in BMI SDS was based on the correlation between annual BMI measurements converted to SDS. Results BMI increments depended significantly on sex, height, weight and initial BMI. Changes in BMI SDS depended significantly only on the initial BMI SDS. The distribution of conditional change in BMI SDS using a two-correlation model was close to normal (mean = 0.11, SD = 1.02, n = 1167), with 3.2% (2.3-4.4%) of the observations below -2 SD and 2.8% (2.0-4.0%) above +2 SD. Conclusion Conditional change in BMI SDS can be used to detect unexpected large changes in BMI SDS. Although this method requires the use of a computer, it may be clinically useful to detect aberrant weight development.

Relating annual increments of the endangered Blanding's turtle plastron growth to climate.

Science.gov (United States)

Richard, Monik G; Laroque, Colin P; Herman, Thomas B

2014-05-01

This research is the first published study to report a relationship between climate variables and plastron growth increments of turtles, in this case the endangered Nova Scotia Blanding's turtle (Emydoidea blandingii). We used techniques and software common to the discipline of dendrochronology to successfully cross-date our growth increment data series, to detrend and average our series of 80 immature Blanding's turtles into one common chronology, and to seek correlations between the chronology and environmental temperature and precipitation variables. Our cross-dated chronology had a series intercorrelation of 0.441 (above 99% confidence interval), an average mean sensitivity of 0.293, and an average unfiltered autocorrelation of 0.377. Our master chronology represented increments from 1975 to 2007 (33 years), with index values ranging from a low of 0.688 in 2006 to a high of 1.303 in 1977. Univariate climate response function analysis on mean monthly air temperature and precipitation values revealed a positive correlation with the previous year's May temperature and current year's August temperature; a negative correlation with the previous year's October temperature; and no significant correlation with precipitation. These techniques for determining growth increment response to environmental variables should be applicable to other turtle species and merit further exploration.

Incremental Validity of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form (TEIQue-SF).

Science.gov (United States)

Siegling, A B; Vesely, Ashley K; Petrides, K V; Saklofske, Donald H

2015-01-01

This study examined the incremental validity of the adult short form of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue-SF) in predicting 7 construct-relevant criteria beyond the variance explained by the Five-factor model and coping strategies. Additionally, the relative contributions of the questionnaire's 4 subscales were assessed. Two samples of Canadian university students completed the TEIQue-SF, along with measures of the Big Five, coping strategies (Sample 1 only), and emotion-laden criteria. The TEIQue-SF showed consistent incremental effects beyond the Big Five or the Big Five and coping strategies, predicting all 7 criteria examined across the 2 samples. Furthermore, 2 of the 4 TEIQue-SF subscales accounted for the measure's incremental validity. Although the findings provide good support for the validity and utility of the TEIQue-SF, directions for further research are emphasized.

Learning in Different Modes: The Interaction Between Incremental and Radical Change

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Anders Hedegaard; Boer, Harry; Gertsen, Frank

2004-01-01

The objective of the study presented in this article is to contribute to the development of theory on continuous innovation, i.e. the combination of operationally effective exploitation and strategically flexible exploration. A longitudinal case study is presented of the interaction between...... incremental and radical change in Danish company, observed through the lens of organizational learning. The radical change process is described in five phases, each of which had its own effects on incremental change initiatives in the company. The research identified four factors explaining these effects, all...

Two models of minimalist, incremental syntactic analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Stabler, Edward P

2013-07-01

Minimalist grammars (MGs) and multiple context-free grammars (MCFGs) are weakly equivalent in the sense that they define the same languages, a large mildly context-sensitive class that properly includes context-free languages. But in addition, for each MG, there is an MCFG which is strongly equivalent in the sense that it defines the same language with isomorphic derivations. However, the structure-building rules of MGs but not MCFGs are defined in a way that generalizes across categories. Consequently, MGs can be exponentially more succinct than their MCFG equivalents, and this difference shows in parsing models too. An incremental, top-down beam parser for MGs is defined here, sound and complete for all MGs, and hence also capable of parsing all MCFG languages. But since the parser represents its grammar transparently, the relative succinctness of MGs is again evident. Although the determinants of MG structure are narrowly and discretely defined, probabilistic influences from a much broader domain can influence even the earliest analytic steps, allowing frequency and context effects to come early and from almost anywhere, as expected in incremental models. Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Opportunity Loss Minimization and Newsvendor Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xinsheng Xu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available To study the decision bias in newsvendor behavior, this paper introduces an opportunity loss minimization criterion into the newsvendor model with backordering. We apply the Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR measure to hedge against the potential risks from newsvendor’s order decision. We obtain the optimal order quantities for a newsvendor to minimize the expected opportunity loss and CVaR of opportunity loss. It is proven that the newsvendor’s optimal order quantity is related to the density function of market demand when the newsvendor exhibits risk-averse preference, which is inconsistent with the results in Schweitzer and Cachon (2000. The numerical example shows that the optimal order quantity that minimizes CVaR of opportunity loss is bigger than expected profit maximization (EPM order quantity for high-profit products and smaller than EPM order quantity for low-profit products, which is different from the experimental results in Schweitzer and Cachon (2000. A sensitivity analysis of changing the operation parameters of the two optimal order quantities is discussed. Our results confirm that high return implies high risk, while low risk comes with low return. Based on the results, some managerial insights are suggested for the risk management of the newsvendor model with backordering.

Towards Reliable and Energy-Efficient Incremental Cooperative Communication for Wireless Body Area Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Yousaf, Sidrah; Javaid, Nadeem; Qasim, Umar; Alrajeh, Nabil; Khan, Zahoor Ali; Ahmed, Mansoor

2016-02-24

In this study, we analyse incremental cooperative communication for wireless body area networks (WBANs) with different numbers of relays. Energy efficiency (EE) and the packet error rate (PER) are investigated for different schemes. We propose a new cooperative communication scheme with three-stage relaying and compare it to existing schemes. Our proposed scheme provides reliable communication with less PER at the cost of surplus energy consumption. Analytical expressions for the EE of the proposed three-stage cooperative communication scheme are also derived, taking into account the effect of PER. Later on, the proposed three-stage incremental cooperation is implemented in a network layer protocol; enhanced incremental cooperative critical data transmission in emergencies for static WBANs (EInCo-CEStat). Extensive simulations are conducted to validate the proposed scheme. Results of incremental relay-based cooperative communication protocols are compared to two existing cooperative routing protocols: cooperative critical data transmission in emergencies for static WBANs (Co-CEStat) and InCo-CEStat. It is observed from the simulation results that incremental relay-based cooperation is more energy efficient than the existing conventional cooperation protocol, Co-CEStat. The results also reveal that EInCo-CEStat proves to be more reliable with less PER and higher throughput than both of the counterpart protocols. However, InCo-CEStat has less throughput with a greater stability period and network lifetime. Due to the availability of more redundant links, EInCo-CEStat achieves a reduced packet drop rate at the cost of increased energy consumption.

Reassessment of inclusion body-based production as a versatile opportunity for difficult-to-express recombinant proteins.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffmann, Daniel; Ebrahimi, Mehrdad; Gerlach, Doreen; Salzig, Denise; Czermak, Peter

2017-11-10

The production of recombinant proteins in the microbial host Escherichia coli often results in the formation of cytoplasmic protein inclusion bodies (IBs). Proteins forming IBs are often branded as difficult-to-express, neglecting that IBs can be an opportunity for their production. IBs are resistant to proteolytic degradation and contain up to 90% pure recombinant protein, which does not interfere with the host metabolism. This is especially advantageous for host-toxic proteins like antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). IBs can be easily isolated by cell disruption followed by filtration and/or centrifugation, but conventional techniques for the recovery of soluble proteins from IBs are laborious. New approaches therefore simplify protein recovery by optimizing the production process conditions, and often include mild resolubilization methods that either increase the yield after refolding or avoid the necessity of refolding all together. For the AMP production, the IB-based approach is ideal, because these peptides often have simple structures and are easy to refold. The intentional IB production of almost every protein can be achieved by fusing recombinant proteins to pull-down tags. This review discusses the techniques available for IB-based protein production before considering technical approaches for the isolation of IBs from E. coli lysates followed by efficient protein resolubilization which ideally omits further refolding. The techniques are evaluated in terms of their suitability for the process-scale production and downstream processing of recombinant proteins and are discussed for AMP production as an example.

Making sense of Knowledge Productivity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Christiaan Stam

2010-01-01

In the knowledge economy knowledge productivity is the main source of competitive advantage and thus the biggest management challenge. Based on a review of the concept from two distinct perspectives, knowledge productivity is defined as the process of knowledge-creation that leads to incremental and

Parallel Algorithm for Incremental Betweenness Centrality on Large Graphs

KAUST Repository

Jamour, Fuad Tarek; Skiadopoulos, Spiros; Kalnis, Panos

2017-01-01

: they either require excessive memory (i.e., quadratic to the size of the input graph) or perform unnecessary computations rendering them prohibitively slow. We propose iCentral; a novel incremental algorithm for computing betweenness centrality in evolving

Incremental principal component pursuit for video background modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriquez-Valderrama, Paul A.; Wohlberg, Brendt

2017-03-14

An incremental Principal Component Pursuit (PCP) algorithm for video background modeling that is able to process one frame at a time while adapting to changes in background, with a computational complexity that allows for real-time processing, having a low memory footprint and is robust to translational and rotational jitter.

Geometry of finite deformations and time-incremental analysis

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Fiala, Zdeněk

2016-01-01

Roč. 81, May (2016), s. 230-244 ISSN 0020-7462 Institutional support: RVO:68378297 Keywords : solid mechanics * finite deformations * time-incremental analysis * Lagrangian system * evolution equation of Lie type Subject RIV: BE - Theoretical Physics Impact factor: 2.074, year: 2016 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020746216000330

Incremental View Maintenance for Deductive Graph Databases Using Generalized Discrimination Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Beyhl

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, graph databases are employed when relationships between entities are in the scope of database queries to avoid performance-critical join operations of relational databases. Graph queries are used to query and modify graphs stored in graph databases. Graph queries employ graph pattern matching that is NP-complete for subgraph isomorphism. Graph database views can be employed that keep ready answers in terms of precalculated graph pattern matches for often stated and complex graph queries to increase query performance. However, such graph database views must be kept consistent with the graphs stored in the graph database. In this paper, we describe how to use incremental graph pattern matching as technique for maintaining graph database views. We present an incremental maintenance algorithm for graph database views, which works for imperatively and declaratively specified graph queries. The evaluation shows that our maintenance algorithm scales when the number of nodes and edges stored in the graph database increases. Furthermore, our evaluation shows that our approach can outperform existing approaches for the incremental maintenance of graph query results.

Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) for Building 332, Increment III

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Odell, B. N.; Toy, Jr., A. J.

1977-08-31

This Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) supplements the Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR), dated January 18, 1974, for Building 332, Increment III of the Plutonium Materials Engineering Facility located at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLL). The FSAR, in conjunction with the PSAR, shows that the completed increment provides facilities for safely conducting the operations as described. These documents satisfy the requirements of ERDA Manual Appendix 6101, Annex C, dated April 8, 1971. The format and content of this FSAR complies with the basic requirements of the letter of request from ERDA San to LLL, dated March 10, 1972. Included as appendices in support of th FSAR are the Building 332 Operational Safety Procedure and the LLL Disaster Control Plan.

Rapid Prototyping by Single Point Incremental Forming of Sheet Metal

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skjødt, Martin

2008-01-01

. The process is incremental forming since plastic deformation takes place in a small local zone underneath the forming tool, i.e. the sheet is formed as a summation of the movement of the local plastic zone. The process is slow and therefore only suited for prototypes or small batch production. On the other...... in the plastic zone. Using these it is demonstrated that the growth rate of accumulated damage in SPIF is small compared to conventional sheet forming processes. This combined with an explanation why necking is suppressed is a new theory stating that SPIF is limited by fracture and not necking. The theory...... SPIF. A multi stage strategy is presented which allows forming of a cup with vertical sides in about half of the depth. It is demonstrated that this results in strain paths which are far from straight, but strains are still limited by a straight fracture line in the principal strain space. The multi...

Health level seven interoperability strategy: big data, incrementally structured.

Science.gov (United States)

Dolin, R H; Rogers, B; Jaffe, C

2015-01-01

Describe how the HL7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA), a foundational standard in US Meaningful Use, contributes to a "big data, incrementally structured" interoperability strategy, whereby data structured incrementally gets large amounts of data flowing faster. We present cases showing how this approach is leveraged for big data analysis. To support the assertion that semi-structured narrative in CDA format can be a useful adjunct in an overall big data analytic approach, we present two case studies. The first assesses an organization's ability to generate clinical quality reports using coded data alone vs. coded data supplemented by CDA narrative. The second leverages CDA to construct a network model for referral management, from which additional observations can be gleaned. The first case shows that coded data supplemented by CDA narrative resulted in significant variances in calculated performance scores. In the second case, we found that the constructed network model enables the identification of differences in patient characteristics among different referral work flows. The CDA approach goes after data indirectly, by focusing first on the flow of narrative, which is then incrementally structured. A quantitative assessment of whether this approach will lead to a greater flow of data and ultimately a greater flow of structured data vs. other approaches is planned as a future exercise. Along with growing adoption of CDA, we are now seeing the big data community explore the standard, particularly given its potential to supply analytic en- gines with volumes of data previously not possible.

A fast implementation of the incremental backprojection algorithms for parallel beam geometries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, C.M.; Wang, C.Y.; Cho, Z.H.

1996-01-01

Filtered-backprojection algorithms are the most widely used approaches for reconstruction of computed tomographic (CT) images, such as X-ray CT and positron emission tomographic (PET) images. The Incremental backprojection algorithm is a fast backprojection approach based on restructuring the Shepp and Logan algorithm. By exploiting interdependency (position and values) of adjacent pixels, the Incremental algorithm requires only O(N) and O(N 2 ) multiplications in contrast to O(N 2 ) and O(N 3 ) multiplications for the Shepp and Logan algorithm in two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) backprojections, respectively, for each view, where N is the size of the image in each dimension. In addition, it may reduce the number of additions for each pixel computation. The improvement achieved by the Incremental algorithm in practice was not, however, as significant as expected. One of the main reasons is due to inevitably visiting pixels outside the beam in the searching flow scheme originally developed for the Incremental algorithm. To optimize implementation of the Incremental algorithm, an efficient scheme, namely, coded searching flow scheme, is proposed in this paper to minimize the overhead caused by searching for all pixels in a beam. The key idea of this scheme is to encode the searching flow for all pixels inside each beam. While backprojecting, all pixels may be visited without any overhead due to using the coded searching flow as the a priori information. The proposed coded searching flow scheme has been implemented on a Sun Sparc 10 and a Sun Sparc 20 workstations. The implementation results show that the proposed scheme is 1.45--2.0 times faster than the original searching flow scheme for most cases tested

Increment and mortality in a virgin Douglas-fir forest.

Science.gov (United States)

Robert W. Steele; Norman P. Worthington

1955-01-01

Is there any basis to the forester's rule of thumb that virgin forests eventually reach an equilibrium where increment and mortality approximately balance? Are we wasting potential timber volume by failing to salvage mortality in old-growth stands?

Diagnostic value of triphasic incremental helical CT in early and progressive gastric carcinoma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gao Jianbo; Yan Xuehua; Li Mengtai; Guo Hua; Chen Xuejun; Guan Sheng; Zhang Xiefu; Li Shuxin; Yang Xiaopeng

2001-01-01

Objective: To investigate helical CT enhancement characteristics of gastric carcinoma, and the diagnostic value and preoperative staging of gastric carcinoma with triphasic incremental helical CT of the stomach with water-filling method. Methods: Both double-contrast barium examination and triphasic incremental helical CT of the stomach with water-filling method were performed in 46 patients with gastric carcinoma. Results: (1) Among these patients, normal gastric wall exhibited one layered structure in 18 patients, two or three layered structure in 28 patients in the arterial and portal venous phase. (2) Two cases of early stomach cancer showed marked enhancement in the arterial and portal venous phase and obvious attenuation of enhancement in the equilibrium phase. On the contrary, 32 of the 44 advanced gastric carcinoma was showed marked enhancement in the venous phase compared with the arterial phase ( t = 4.226, P < 0.05). (3) The total accuracy of triphasic incremental helical CT in determining TNM-staging was 81.0%. Conclusion: Different types of gastric carcinoma have different enhancement features. Triphases incremental helical CT is more accurate than conventional CT in the preoperative staging of gastric carcinoma

A System to Derive Optimal Tree Diameter Increment Models from the Eastwide Forest Inventory Data Base (EFIDB)

Science.gov (United States)

Don C. Bragg

2002-01-01

This article is an introduction to the computer software used by the Potential Relative Increment (PRI) approach to optimal tree diameter growth modeling. These DOS programs extract qualified tree and plot data from the Eastwide Forest Inventory Data Base (EFIDB), calculate relative tree increment, sort for the highest relative increments by diameter class, and...

Annual increments, specific gravity and energy of Eucalyptus grandis by gamma-ray attenuation technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rezende, M.A.; Guerrini, I.A.; Ferraz, E.S.B.

1990-01-01

Specific gravity annual increments in volume, mass and energy of Eucalyptus grandis at thirteen years of age were made taking into account measurements of the calorific value for wood. It was observed that the calorific value for wood decrease slightly, while the specific gravity increase significantly with age. The so-called culmination age for the Annual Volume Increment was determined to be around fourth year of growth while for the Annual Mass and Energy Increment was around the eighty year. These results show that a tree in a particular age may not have a significant growth in volume, yet one is mass and energy. (author)

Biodiesel biorefinery: opportunities and challenges for microbial production of fuels and chemicals from glycerol waste.

Science.gov (United States)

Almeida, João R M; Fávaro, Léia C L; Quirino, Betania F

2012-07-18

The considerable increase in biodiesel production worldwide in the last 5 years resulted in a stoichiometric increased coproduction of crude glycerol. As an excess of crude glycerol has been produced, its value on market was reduced and it is becoming a "waste-stream" instead of a valuable "coproduct". The development of biorefineries, i.e. production of chemicals and power integrated with conversion processes of biomass into biofuels, has been singled out as a way to achieve economically viable production chains, valorize residues and coproducts, and reduce industrial waste disposal. In this sense, several alternatives aimed at the use of crude glycerol to produce fuels and chemicals by microbial fermentation have been evaluated. This review summarizes different strategies employed to produce biofuels and chemicals (1,3-propanediol, 2,3-butanediol, ethanol, n-butanol, organic acids, polyols and others) by microbial fermentation of glycerol. Initially, the industrial use of each chemical is briefly presented; then we systematically summarize and discuss the different strategies to produce each chemical, including selection and genetic engineering of producers, and optimization of process conditions to improve yield and productivity. Finally, the impact of the developments obtained until now are placed in perspective and opportunities and challenges for using crude glycerol to the development of biodiesel-based biorefineries are considered. In conclusion, the microbial fermentation of glycerol represents a remarkable alternative to add value to the biodiesel production chain helping the development of biorefineries, which will allow this biofuel to be more competitive.

Stem analysis program (GOAP for evaluating of increment and growth data at individual tree

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gafura Aylak Özdemir

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Stem analysis is a method evaluating in a detailed way data of increment and growth of individual tree at the past periods and widely used in various forestry disciplines. Untreated data of stem analysis consist of annual ring count and measurement procedures performed on cross sections taken from individual tree by section method. The evaluation of obtained this untreated data takes quite some time. Thus, a computer software was developed in this study to quickly and efficiently perform stem analysis. This computer software developed to evaluate untreated data of stem analysis as numerical and graphical was programmed as macro by utilizing Visual Basic for Application feature of MS Excel 2013 program currently the most widely used. In developed this computer software, growth height model is formed from two different approaches, individual tree volume depending on section method, cross-sectional area, increments of diameter, height and volume, volume increment percent and stem form factor at breast height are calculated depending on desired period lengths. This calculated values are given as table. Development of diameter, height, volume, increments of these variables, volume increment percent and stem form factor at breast height according to periodic age are given as chart. Stem model showing development of diameter, height and shape of individual tree in the past periods also can be taken from computer software as chart.

Compelling Research Opportunities using Isotopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-01-01

Isotopes are vital to the science and technology base of the US economy. Isotopes, both stable and radioactive, are essential tools in the growing science, technology, engineering, and health enterprises of the 21st century. The scientific discoveries and associated advances made as a result of the availability of isotopes today span widely from medicine to biology, physics, chemistry, and a broad range of applications in environmental and material sciences. Isotope issues have become crucial aspects of homeland security. Isotopes are utilized in new resource development, in energy from bio-fuels, petrochemical and nuclear fuels, in drug discovery, health care therapies and diagnostics, in nutrition, in agriculture, and in many other areas. The development and production of isotope products unavailable or difficult to get commercially have been most recently the responsibility of the Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy program. The President's FY09 Budget request proposed the transfer of the Isotope Production program to the Department of Energy's Office of Science in Nuclear Physics and to rename it the National Isotope Production and Application program (NIPA). The transfer has now taken place with the signing of the 2009 appropriations bill. In preparation for this, the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC) was requested to establish a standing subcommittee, the NSAC Isotope Subcommittee (NSACI), to advise the DOE Office of Nuclear Physics. The request came in the form of two charges: one, on setting research priorities in the short term for the most compelling opportunities from the vast array of disciplines that develop and use isotopes and two, on making a long term strategic plan for the NIPA program. This is the final report to address charge 1. NSACI membership is comprised of experts from the diverse research communities, industry, production, and homeland security. NSACI discussed research opportunities divided into three areas: (1) medicine

Compelling Research Opportunities using Isotopes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

2009-04-23

Isotopes are vital to the science and technology base of the US economy. Isotopes, both stable and radioactive, are essential tools in the growing science, technology, engineering, and health enterprises of the 21st century. The scientific discoveries and associated advances made as a result of the availability of isotopes today span widely from medicine to biology, physics, chemistry, and a broad range of applications in environmental and material sciences. Isotope issues have become crucial aspects of homeland security. Isotopes are utilized in new resource development, in energy from bio-fuels, petrochemical and nuclear fuels, in drug discovery, health care therapies and diagnostics, in nutrition, in agriculture, and in many other areas. The development and production of isotope products unavailable or difficult to get commercially have been most recently the responsibility of the Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy program. The President's FY09 Budget request proposed the transfer of the Isotope Production program to the Department of Energy's Office of Science in Nuclear Physics and to rename it the National Isotope Production and Application program (NIPA). The transfer has now taken place with the signing of the 2009 appropriations bill. In preparation for this, the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC) was requested to establish a standing subcommittee, the NSAC Isotope Subcommittee (NSACI), to advise the DOE Office of Nuclear Physics. The request came in the form of two charges: one, on setting research priorities in the short term for the most compelling opportunities from the vast array of disciplines that develop and use isotopes and two, on making a long term strategic plan for the NIPA program. This is the final report to address charge 1. NSACI membership is comprised of experts from the diverse research communities, industry, production, and homeland security. NSACI discussed research opportunities divided into three areas: (1

Incremental exercise test performance with and without a respiratory ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Incremental exercise test performance with and without a respiratory gas collection system. ... PROMOTING ACCESS TO AFRICAN RESEARCH ... Industrial- type mask wear is thought to impair exercise performance through increased respiratory dead space, flow ... EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT

Generation of Referring Expressions: Assessing the Incremental Algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

van Deemter, Kees; Gatt, Albert; van der Sluis, Ielka; Power, Richard

2012-01-01

A substantial amount of recent work in natural language generation has focused on the generation of "one-shot" referring expressions whose only aim is to identify a target referent. Dale and Reiter's Incremental Algorithm (IA) is often thought to be the best algorithm for maximizing the similarity to referring expressions produced by people. We…

Productivity losses in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a population-based survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Erdal, Marta; Johannessen, Ane; Askildsen, Jan Erik; Eagan, Tomas; Gulsvik, Amund; Grønseth, Rune

2014-01-01

We aimed to estimate incremental productivity losses (sick leave and disability) of spirometry-defined chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in a population-based sample and in hospital-recruited patients with COPD. Furthermore, we examined predictors of productivity losses by multivariate analyses. We performed four quarterly telephone interviews of 53 and 107 population-based patients with COPD and controls, as well as 102 hospital-recruited patients with COPD below retirement age. Information was gathered regarding annual productivity loss, exacerbations of respiratory symptoms and comorbidities. Incremental productivity losses were estimated by multivariate quantile median regression according to the human capital approach, adjusting for sex, age, smoking habits, education and lung function. Main effect variables were COPD/control status, number of comorbidities and exacerbations of respiratory symptoms. Altogether 55%, 87% and 31% of population-based COPD cases, controls and hospital patients, respectively, had a paid job at baseline. The annual incremental productivity losses were 5.8 (95% CI 1.4 to 10.1) and 330.6 (95% CI 327.8 to 333.3) days, comparing population-recruited and hospital-recruited patients with COPD to controls, respectively. There were significantly higher productivity losses associated with female sex and less education. Additional adjustments for comorbidities, exacerbations and FEV1% predicted explained all productivity losses in the population-based sample, as well as nearly 40% of the productivity losses in hospital-recruited patients. Annual incremental productivity losses were more than 50 times higher in hospital-recruited patients with COPD than that of population-recruited patients with COPD. To ensure a precise estimation of societal burden, studies on patients with COPD should be population-based.

Managing the New Product Portfolio

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsson, Flemming

2008-01-01

Product development companies are increasingly confronted with an unforgiving global marketplace, which urges the top management to pursue every product development opportunity that appears on the road. This situation incurs an important question: Which product development opportunities should a ....... The contributions encourage an improved understanding of the portfolio management concept and support industry professionals in their efforts to compose and continuously maintain a commercially strong product development portfolio.......Product development companies are increasingly confronted with an unforgiving global marketplace, which urges the top management to pursue every product development opportunity that appears on the road. This situation incurs an important question: Which product development opportunities should...

Incremental exposure facilitates adaptation to sensory rearrangement. [vestibular stimulation patterns

Science.gov (United States)

Lackner, J. R.; Lobovits, D. N.

1978-01-01

Visual-target pointing experiments were performed on 24 adult volunteers in order to compare the relative effectiveness of incremental (stepwise) and single-step exposure conditions on adaptation to visual rearrangement. The differences between the preexposure and postexposure scores served as an index of the adaptation elicited during the exposure period. It is found that both single-step and stepwise exposure to visual rearrangement elicit compensatory changes in sensorimotor coordination. However, stepwise exposure, when compared to single-step exposur in terms of the average magnitude of visual displacement over the exposure period, clearly enhances the rate of adaptation. It seems possible that the enhancement of adaptation to unusual patterns of sensory stimulation produced by incremental exposure reflects a general principle of sensorimotor function.

Weighted tunable clustering in local-world networks with increment behavior

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma, Ying-Hong; Li, Huijia; Zhang, Xiao-Dong

2010-01-01

Since some realistic networks are influenced not only by increment behavior but also by the tunable clustering mechanism with new nodes to be added to networks, it is interesting to characterize the model for those actual networks. In this paper, a weighted local-world model, which incorporates increment behavior and the tunable clustering mechanism, is proposed and its properties are investigated, such as degree distribution and clustering coefficient. Numerical simulations are fitted to the model and also display good right-skewed scale-free properties. Furthermore, the correlation of vertices in our model is studied which shows the assortative property. The epidemic spreading process by weighted transmission rate on the model shows that the tunable clustering behavior has a great impact on the epidemic dynamic

On kinematical minimum principles for rates and increments in plasticity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zouain, N.

1984-01-01

The optimization approach for elastoplastic analysis is discussed showing that some minimum principles related to numerical methods can be derived by means of duality and penalization procedures. Three minimum principles for velocity and plastic multiplier rate fields are presented in the framework of perfect plasticity. The first one is the classical Greenberg formulation. The second one, due to Capurso, is developed here with different motivation, and modified by penalization of constraints so as to arrive at a third principle for rates. The counterparts of these optimization formulations in terms of discrete increments of displacements of displacements and plastic multipliers are discussed. The third one of these minimum principles for finite increments is recognized to be closely related to Maier's formulation of holonomic plasticity. (Author) [pt

Variance-optimal hedging for processes with stationary independent increments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hubalek, Friedrich; Kallsen, J.; Krawczyk, L.

We determine the variance-optimal hedge when the logarithm of the underlying price follows a process with stationary independent increments in discrete or continuous time. Although the general solution to this problem is known as backward recursion or backward stochastic differential equation, we...

FDTD Stability: Critical Time Increment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Z. Skvor

2003-06-01

Full Text Available A new approach suitable for determination of the maximal stable timeincrement for the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD algorithm incommon curvilinear coordinates, for general mesh shapes and certaintypes of boundaries is presented. The maximal time incrementcorresponds to a characteristic value of a Helmholz equation that issolved by a finite-difference (FD method. If this method uses exactlythe same discretization as the given FDTD method (same mesh, boundaryconditions, order of precision etc., the maximal stable time incrementis obtained from the highest characteristic value. The FD system issolved by an iterative method, which uses only slightly alteredoriginal FDTD formulae. The Courant condition yields a stable timeincrement, but in certain cases the maximum increment is slightlygreater [2].

User Frustrations as Opportunities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Weiss

2012-04-01

Full Text Available User frustrations are an excellent source of new product ideas. Starting with this observation, this article describes an approach that entrepreneurs can use to discover business opportunities. Opportunity discovery starts with a problem that the user has, but may not be able to articulate. User-centered design techniques can help elicit those latent needs. The entrepreneur should then try to understand how users are solving their problem today, before proposing a solution that draws on the unique skills and technical capabilities available to the entrepreneur. Finally, an in-depth understanding of the user allows the entrepreneur to hone in on the points of difference and resonance that are the foundation of a strong customer value proposition.

Opportunities in independent gas storage

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Daniel, R.

1999-01-01

The range of business opportunities currently available for the midstream oil and gas business were discussed with particular focus on storage opportunities. Alberta Energy Co. (AEC) Ltd.'s two midstream business units include AEC Pipelines and Gas Processing, and AEC Storage and Hub Services. These two businesses provide the company with good investment returns, stable cash flow, and some significant strategic synergies with their exploration and production businesses. In 1988, the AECO C Hub in southeastern Alberta was created as an outgrowth of AEC's gas production operations on the Suffield block, where they had depleted gas reservoirs with high rock quality suitable for high deliverability storage. With the AECO C Hub, AEC was able to offer firm storage contracts of from 1 to 20 years, and to introduce short term interruptible parking and lending services, title exchange, a spot price index for greater price discovery, and an electronic nomination system. AEC is currently completing construction of their second commercial storage facility, the Wild Goose project, in northern California. D ebottlenecking' the Western Canada supply basin should provide additional opportunities for further expansion not only for AEC but also for other midstream service providers. Opportunities are especially available in the areas of new storage facilities to serve location-specific needs, replacement of declining storage capacity, replacement of retiring facilities, technological optimization of existing facilities, more flexible, higher deliverability facilities and commercial optimization of existing facilities. A map of the hubs and market centres of North America are included. 5 figs

Optimization of Single Point Incremental Forming of Al5052-O Sheet

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Chan Il; Xiao, Xiao; Do, Van Cuong; Kim, Young Suk [Kyungpook Nat’l Univ., Daegu (Korea, Republic of)

2017-03-15

Single point incremental forming (SPIF) is a sheet-forming technique. It is a die-less sheet metal manufacturing process for rapid prototyping and small batch production. The Critical parameters in the forming process include tool diameter, step depth, feed rate, spindle speed, etc. In this study, these parameters and the die shape corresponding to the Varying Wall Angle Conical Frustum(VWACF) model were used for forming 0.8mm in thick Al5052-O sheets. The Taguchi method of Experiments of Design (DOE) and Grey relational optimization were used to determine the optimum parameters in SPIF. A response study was performed on formability, spring back, and thickness reduction. The research shows that the optimum combination of these parameters that yield best performance of SPIF is as follows: tool diameter, 6mm; spin speed, 60rpm; step depth, 0.3mm; and feed rate, 500mm/min.

Incremental cryptography and security of public hash functions ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

An investigation of incremental algorithms for crytographic functions was initiated. The problem, for collision-free hashing, is to design a scheme for which there exists an efficient “update” algorithm: this algorithm is given the hash function H, the hash h = H(M) of message M and the “replacement request” (j, m), and outputs ...

Opportunities for Biorenewables in Oil Refineries

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marker, T.L.

2005-12-19

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential for using biorenewable feedstocks in oil refineries. Economic analyses were conducted, with support from process modeling and proof of principle experiments, to assess a variety of potential processes and configurations. The study considered two primary alternatives: the production of biodiesel and green diesel from vegetable oils and greases and opportunities for utilization of pyrolysis oil. The study identified a number of promising opportunities for biorenewables in existing or new refining operations.

First UHF Implementation of the Incremental Scheme for Open-Shell Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Anacker, Tony; Tew, David P; Friedrich, Joachim

2016-01-12

The incremental scheme makes it possible to compute CCSD(T) correlation energies to high accuracy for large systems. We present the first extension of this fully automated black-box approach to open-shell systems using an Unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) wave function, extending the efficient domain-specific basis set approach to handle open-shell references. We test our approach on a set of organic and metal organic structures and molecular clusters and demonstrate standard deviations from canonical CCSD(T) values of only 1.35 kJ/mol using a triple ζ basis set. We find that the incremental scheme is significantly more cost-effective than the canonical implementation even for relatively small systems and that the ease of parallelization makes it possible to perform high-level calculations on large systems in a few hours on inexpensive computers. We show that the approximations that make our approach widely applicable are significantly smaller than both the basis set incompleteness error and the intrinsic error of the CCSD(T) method, and we further demonstrate that incremental energies can be reliably used in extrapolation schemes to obtain near complete basis set limit CCSD(T) reaction energies for large systems.

Pornographic image recognition and filtering using incremental learning in compressed domain

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jing; Wang, Chao; Zhuo, Li; Geng, Wenhao

2015-11-01

With the rapid development and popularity of the network, the openness, anonymity, and interactivity of networks have led to the spread and proliferation of pornographic images on the Internet, which have done great harm to adolescents' physical and mental health. With the establishment of image compression standards, pornographic images are mainly stored with compressed formats. Therefore, how to efficiently filter pornographic images is one of the challenging issues for information security. A pornographic image recognition and filtering method in the compressed domain is proposed by using incremental learning, which includes the following steps: (1) low-resolution (LR) images are first reconstructed from the compressed stream of pornographic images, (2) visual words are created from the LR image to represent the pornographic image, and (3) incremental learning is adopted to continuously adjust the classification rules to recognize the new pornographic image samples after the covering algorithm is utilized to train and recognize the visual words in order to build the initial classification model of pornographic images. The experimental results show that the proposed pornographic image recognition method using incremental learning has a higher recognition rate as well as costing less recognition time in the compressed domain.

A design of LED adaptive dimming lighting system based on incremental PID controller

Science.gov (United States)

He, Xiangyan; Xiao, Zexin; He, Shaojia

2010-11-01

As a new generation energy-saving lighting source, LED is applied widely in various technology and industry fields. The requirement of its adaptive lighting technology is more and more rigorous, especially in the automatic on-line detecting system. In this paper, a closed loop feedback LED adaptive dimming lighting system based on incremental PID controller is designed, which consists of MEGA16 chip as a Micro-controller Unit (MCU), the ambient light sensor BH1750 chip with Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C), and constant-current driving circuit. A given value of light intensity required for the on-line detecting environment need to be saved to the register of MCU. The optical intensity, detected by BH1750 chip in real time, is converted to digital signal by AD converter of the BH1750 chip, and then transmitted to MEGA16 chip through I2C serial bus. Since the variation law of light intensity in the on-line detecting environment is usually not easy to be established, incremental Proportional-Integral-Differential (PID) algorithm is applied in this system. Control variable obtained by the incremental PID determines duty cycle of Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM). Consequently, LED's forward current is adjusted by PWM, and the luminous intensity of the detection environment is stabilized by self-adaptation. The coefficients of incremental PID are obtained respectively after experiments. Compared with the traditional LED dimming system, it has advantages of anti-interference, simple construction, fast response, and high stability by the use of incremental PID algorithm and BH1750 chip with I2C serial bus. Therefore, it is suitable for the adaptive on-line detecting applications.

The Role of Trees on Farms: Challenges and Opportunities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nyamai, D.O

2007-01-01

The challenges facing Kenyan forestry are deforestation and degradation due to increased demand for wood and additional agricultural land, inadequate resources to strengthen capacities in specific research areas including resource accounting, modelling the beneficial effects of carbon sequestration, policy analysis and products development for market dominance, great variations in institutional development and capacity for trees on farm and agroforestry research and development and inadequate research resources to mention but a few. The opportunities for improved forestry research include, economic growth, social welfare, promoting technologies and innovations for value-added processing agroforestry products for local and external effects, emerging private sector and existing regional market such as Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the East African Community for opportunities for trade in agroforestry products and formulation of policies in favour of privatisation of services and management particularly the privatisation of industrial forest plantations that would offer opportunities for the development of smallholder tree crop enterprise

Incremental Learning of Perceptual Categories for Open-Domain Sketch Recognition

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Lovett, Andrew; Dehghani, Morteza; Forbus, Kenneth

2007-01-01

.... This paper describes an incremental learning technique for opendomain recognition. Our system builds generalizations for categories of objects based upon previous sketches of those objects and uses those generalizations to classify new sketches...

Biofuels in Italy: obstacles and development opportunities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pignatelli, Vito; Clementi, Chiara

2006-01-01

Today biofuels are the sole realistically practical way to reduce CO 2 emissions in the transportation sector. In many countries, including Italy, biofuel production and use are already a reality corresponding to a large agro-industrial production system that uses essentially mature technologies. To significantly lower production costs and optimise land use, Italy needs to develop new, second-generation biofuel production operations that can offer significant opportunities to the nation's agro-industrial sector [it

Biodiesel biorefinery: opportunities and challenges for microbial production of fuels and chemicals from glycerol waste

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Almeida João R M

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract The considerable increase in biodiesel production worldwide in the last 5 years resulted in a stoichiometric increased coproduction of crude glycerol. As an excess of crude glycerol has been produced, its value on market was reduced and it is becoming a “waste-stream” instead of a valuable “coproduct”. The development of biorefineries, i.e. production of chemicals and power integrated with conversion processes of biomass into biofuels, has been singled out as a way to achieve economically viable production chains, valorize residues and coproducts, and reduce industrial waste disposal. In this sense, several alternatives aimed at the use of crude glycerol to produce fuels and chemicals by microbial fermentation have been evaluated. This review summarizes different strategies employed to produce biofuels and chemicals (1,3-propanediol, 2,3-butanediol, ethanol, n-butanol, organic acids, polyols and others by microbial fermentation of glycerol. Initially, the industrial use of each chemical is briefly presented; then we systematically summarize and discuss the different strategies to produce each chemical, including selection and genetic engineering of producers, and optimization of process conditions to improve yield and productivity. Finally, the impact of the developments obtained until now are placed in perspective and opportunities and challenges for using crude glycerol to the development of biodiesel-based biorefineries are considered. In conclusion, the microbial fermentation of glycerol represents a remarkable alternative to add value to the biodiesel production chain helping the development of biorefineries, which will allow this biofuel to be more competitive.

Incremental learning for automated knowledge capture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Benz, Zachary O. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Basilico, Justin Derrick [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Davis, Warren Leon [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Dixon, Kevin R. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Jones, Brian S. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Martin, Nathaniel [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Wendt, Jeremy Daniel [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2013-12-01

People responding to high-consequence national-security situations need tools to help them make the right decision quickly. The dynamic, time-critical, and ever-changing nature of these situations, especially those involving an adversary, require models of decision support that can dynamically react as a situation unfolds and changes. Automated knowledge capture is a key part of creating individualized models of decision making in many situations because it has been demonstrated as a very robust way to populate computational models of cognition. However, existing automated knowledge capture techniques only populate a knowledge model with data prior to its use, after which the knowledge model is static and unchanging. In contrast, humans, including our national-security adversaries, continually learn, adapt, and create new knowledge as they make decisions and witness their effect. This artificial dichotomy between creation and use exists because the majority of automated knowledge capture techniques are based on traditional batch machine-learning and statistical algorithms. These algorithms are primarily designed to optimize the accuracy of their predictions and only secondarily, if at all, concerned with issues such as speed, memory use, or ability to be incrementally updated. Thus, when new data arrives, batch algorithms used for automated knowledge capture currently require significant recomputation, frequently from scratch, which makes them ill suited for use in dynamic, timecritical, high-consequence decision making environments. In this work we seek to explore and expand upon the capabilities of dynamic, incremental models that can adapt to an ever-changing feature space.

Revisiting the fundamentals of single point incremental forming by

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Silva, Beatriz; Skjødt, Martin; Martins, Paulo A.F.

2008-01-01

Knowledge of the physics behind the fracture of material at the transition between the inclined wall and the corner radius of the sheet is of great importance for understanding the fundamentals of single point incremental forming (SPIF). How the material fractures, what is the state of strain...

Will Incremental Hemodialysis Preserve Residual Function and Improve Patient Survival?

Science.gov (United States)

Davenport, Andrew

2015-01-01

The progressive loss of residual renal function in peritoneal dialysis patients is associated with increased mortality. It has been suggested that incremental dialysis may help preserve residual renal function and improve patient survival. Residual renal function depends upon both patient related and dialysis associated factors. Maintaining patients in an over-hydrated state may be associated with better preservation of residual renal function but any benefit comes with a significant risk of cardiovascular consequences. Notably, it is only observational studies that have reported an association between dialysis patient survival and residual renal function; causality has not been established for dialysis patient survival. The tenuous connections between residual renal function and outcomes and between incremental hemodialysis and residual renal function should temper our enthusiasm for interventions in this area. PMID:25385441

Robot-based additive manufacturing for flexible die-modelling in incremental sheet forming

Science.gov (United States)

Rieger, Michael; Störkle, Denis Daniel; Thyssen, Lars; Kuhlenkötter, Bernd

2017-10-01

The paper describes the application concept of additive manufactured dies to support the robot-based incremental sheet metal forming process (`Roboforming') for the production of sheet metal components in small batch sizes. Compared to the dieless kinematic-based generation of a shape by means of two cooperating industrial robots, the supporting robot models a die on the back of the metal sheet by using the robot-based fused layer manufacturing process (FLM). This tool chain is software-defined and preserves the high geometrical form flexibility of Roboforming while flexibly generating support structures adapted to the final part's geometry. Test series serve to confirm the feasibility of the concept by investigating the process challenges of the adhesion to the sheet surface and the general stability as well as the influence on the geometric accuracy compared to the well-known forming strategies.

Object class hierarchy for an incremental hypertext editor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Colesnicov

1995-02-01

Full Text Available The object class hierarchy design is considered due to a hypertext editor implementation. The following basic classes were selected: the editor's coordinate system, the memory manager, the text buffer executing basic editing operations, the inherited hypertext buffer, the edit window, the multi-window shell. Special hypertext editing features, the incremental hypertext creation support and further generalizations are discussed.

Incremental Learning of Skill Collections based on Intrinsic Motivation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jan Hendrik Metzen

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Life-long learning of reusable, versatile skills is a key prerequisite forembodied agents that act in a complex, dynamic environment and are faced withdifferent tasks over their lifetime. We address the question of how an agentcan learn useful skills efficiently during a developmental period,i.e., when no task is imposed on him and no external reward signal is provided.Learning of skills in a developmental period needs to be incremental andself-motivated. We propose a new incremental, task-independent skill discoveryapproach that is suited for continuous domains. Furthermore, the agent learnsspecific skills based on intrinsic motivation mechanisms thatdetermine on which skills learning is focused at a given point in time. Weevaluate the approach in a reinforcement learning setup in two continuousdomains with complex dynamics. We show that an intrinsically motivated, skilllearning agent outperforms an agent which learns task solutions from scratch.Furthermore, we compare different intrinsic motivation mechanisms and howefficiently they make use of the agent's developmental period.

Efficient incremental relaying for packet transmission over fading channels

KAUST Repository

Fareed, Muhammad Mehboob

2014-07-01

In this paper, we propose a novel relaying scheme for packet transmission over fading channels, which improves the spectral efficiency of cooperative diversity systems by utilizing limited feedback from the destination. Our scheme capitalizes on the fact that relaying is only required when direct transmission suffers deep fading. We calculate the packet error rate for the proposed efficient incremental relaying (EIR) scheme with both amplify and forward and decode and forward relaying. We compare the performance of the EIR scheme with the threshold-based incremental relaying (TIR) scheme. It is shown that the efficiency of the TIR scheme is better for lower values of the threshold. However, the efficiency of the TIR scheme for higher values of threshold is outperformed by the EIR. In addition, three new threshold-based adaptive EIR are devised to further improve the efficiency of the EIR scheme. We calculate the packet error rate and the efficiency of these new schemes to provide the analytical insight. © 2014 IEEE.

Table incremental slow injection CE-CT in lung cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoshida, Shoji; Maeda, Tomoho; Morita, Masaru

1988-01-01

The purpose of this study is to evaluate tumor enhancement in lung cancer under the table incremental study with slow injection of contrast media. The early serial 8 sliced images during the slow injection (1.5 ml/sec) of contrant media were obtained. Following the early images, delayed 8 same sliced images were taken in 2 minutes later. Chacteristic enhanced patterns of the primary cancer and metastatic mediastinal lymphnode were recognized in this study. Enhancement of the primary lesion was classified in 4 patterns, irregular geographic pattern, heterogeneous pattern, homogeneous pattern and rim-enhanced pattern. In mediastinal metastatic lymphadenopathy, three enhanced patterns were obtained, heterogeneous, homogeneous and ring enhanced pattern. Some characteristic enhancement patterns according to the histopathological finding of the lung cancer were obtained. With using this incremental slow injection CE-CT, precise information about the relationship between lung cancer and adjacent mediastinal structure, and obvious staining patterns of the tumor and mediastinal lymphnode were recognized. (author)

Effort-Based Career Opportunities and Working Time

OpenAIRE

Bratti, M.; Staffolani, S.

2005-01-01

The authors evaluate the economic effects of the hypothesis of effort-based career opportunities, described as a situation in which a firm creates incentives for employees to work longer hours than bargained (or desired), by making career prospects depend on relative working hours. Firms' personnel management policies may tend to increase working time (or workers' effort) in order to maximize profits. Effort-based career opportunities raise working time, production and output per worker, and ...

Broad Learning System: An Effective and Efficient Incremental Learning System Without the Need for Deep Architecture.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, C L Philip; Liu, Zhulin

2018-01-01

Broad Learning System (BLS) that aims to offer an alternative way of learning in deep structure is proposed in this paper. Deep structure and learning suffer from a time-consuming training process because of a large number of connecting parameters in filters and layers. Moreover, it encounters a complete retraining process if the structure is not sufficient to model the system. The BLS is established in the form of a flat network, where the original inputs are transferred and placed as "mapped features" in feature nodes and the structure is expanded in wide sense in the "enhancement nodes." The incremental learning algorithms are developed for fast remodeling in broad expansion without a retraining process if the network deems to be expanded. Two incremental learning algorithms are given for both the increment of the feature nodes (or filters in deep structure) and the increment of the enhancement nodes. The designed model and algorithms are very versatile for selecting a model rapidly. In addition, another incremental learning is developed for a system that has been modeled encounters a new incoming input. Specifically, the system can be remodeled in an incremental way without the entire retraining from the beginning. Satisfactory result for model reduction using singular value decomposition is conducted to simplify the final structure. Compared with existing deep neural networks, experimental results on the Modified National Institute of Standards and Technology database and NYU NORB object recognition dataset benchmark data demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed BLS.

Phase retrieval via incremental truncated amplitude flow algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Quanbing; Wang, Zhifa; Wang, Linjie; Cheng, Shichao

2017-10-01

This paper considers the phase retrieval problem of recovering the unknown signal from the given quadratic measurements. A phase retrieval algorithm based on Incremental Truncated Amplitude Flow (ITAF) which combines the ITWF algorithm and the TAF algorithm is proposed. The proposed ITAF algorithm enhances the initialization by performing both of the truncation methods used in ITWF and TAF respectively, and improves the performance in the gradient stage by applying the incremental method proposed in ITWF to the loop stage of TAF. Moreover, the original sampling vector and measurements are preprocessed before initialization according to the variance of the sensing matrix. Simulation experiments verified the feasibility and validity of the proposed ITAF algorithm. The experimental results show that it can obtain higher success rate and faster convergence speed compared with other algorithms. Especially, for the noiseless random Gaussian signals, ITAF can recover any real-valued signal accurately from the magnitude measurements whose number is about 2.5 times of the signal length, which is close to the theoretic limit (about 2 times of the signal length). And it usually converges to the optimal solution within 20 iterations which is much less than the state-of-the-art algorithms.

A simple extension of contraction theory to study incremental stability properties

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jouffroy, Jerome

Contraction theory is a recent tool enabling to study the stability of nonlinear systems trajectories with respect to one another, and therefore belongs to the class of incremental stability methods. In this paper, we extend the original definition of contraction theory to incorporate...... in an explicit manner the control input of the considered system. Such an extension, called universal contraction, is quite analogous in spirit to the well-known Input-to-State Stability (ISS). It serves as a simple formulation of incremental ISS, external stability, and detectability in a differential setting....... The hierarchical combination result of contraction theory is restated in this framework, and a differential small-gain theorem is derived from results already available in Lyapunov theory....

Quality management system in CCHEN and their product/service certification under ISO 9001:2000; pertinence and opportunity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva Gundelach, Carmen

2002-01-01

This paper describes the pertinence and opportunity for having some strategic products and services of CCHEN in a Quality Management System under ISO 9001:2000. The advantages for the personnel, clients and for the continual improvement are showned in this document. In order to increase our products and services and to enhance their competitive level, it is necessary to have a very good planned process. In a competitive and global world is the quality an attribute that has to be recognized by our clients; today it is not sufficient to know that we are working good, it is necessary to show we are doing thinks well and our clients have to recognize this: customer satisfaction. The implementation of the ISO 9000 family has the significance of a rational quality management system far from inefficient burocracy that increases the credibility of our products and services and that developes and increases the autodiscipline inside the organization and enhances the continual improvement. The starting of this process was a strategic decission that necessarily is going to move our organization to the Changes (author)

17 CFR 248.124 - Reasonable opportunity to opt out.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

...” to indicate their opt out preference or that requires the consumer to check one of two blank check... affiliate to make marketing solicitations to a consumer about your products or services unless the consumer... a reasonable opportunity to opt out. The consumer is given a reasonable opportunity to opt out if...

Evidence for Opportunity Cost Neglect in the Poor.

Science.gov (United States)

Plantinga, Arnoud; Krijnen, Job M T; Zeelenberg, Marcel; Breugelmans, Seger M

2018-01-01

People often neglect opportunity costs: They do not fully take into account forgone alternatives outside of a particular choice set. Several scholars have suggested that poor people should be more likely to spontaneously consider opportunity costs, because budget constraints should lead to an increased focus on trade-offs. We did not find support for this hypothesis in five high-powered experiments (total N = 2325). The experiments used different products (both material and experiential) with both high and low prices (from $8.50 to $249.99) and different methods of reminding participants of opportunity costs. High-income and low-income participants showed an equally strong decrease in willingness to buy when reminded of opportunity costs, implying that both the rich and the poor neglect opportunity costs. © 2017 The Authors Journal of Behavioral Decision Making Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Size, Stability and Incremental Budgeting Outcomes in Public Universities.

Science.gov (United States)

Schick, Allen G.; Hills, Frederick S.

1982-01-01

Examined the influence of relative size in the analysis of total dollar and workforce budgets, and changes in total dollar and workforce budgets when correlational/regression methods are used. Data suggested that size dominates the analysis of total budgets, and is not a factor when discretionary dollar increments are analyzed. (JAC)

Performance of hybrid-ARQ with incremental redundancy over relay channels

KAUST Repository

Chelli, Ali; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

2012-01-01

In this paper, we consider a relay network consisting of a source, a relay, and a destination. The source transmits a message to the destination using hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) with incremental redundancy (IR). The relay overhears

LDHI opportunities for offshore European production

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Clark, L. W.; Anderson, J.; Frostman, L.; Poynton, N.

2006-03-15

Low Dosage Hydrate Inhibitors (LDHIs) are gaining worldwide acceptance as a viable alternative to the more conventional methods of hydrate flow assurance control. Use of this LDHI technology in the European area is becoming more common as operators are beginning to implement and gain from the advantages of LDHIs. This paper will review the basic applicability of the various LDHIs and will review LDHI case histories worldwide in order to show how this technology could be implemented to a greater extent into European production systems. Case histories will illustrate the use and advantages of multifunctional products indicating how operating companies can reduce operating costs and capital expenditure through their implementation. Differing production scenarios will be covered indicating how different LDHIs can be used to cover a range of applications in the field, such as those found in the European region. These will cover both the use of Anti-Agglomerants (AA) and Kinetic Hydrate Inhibitors (KHI). (Author)

Thermomechanical simulations and experimental validation for high speed incremental forming

Science.gov (United States)

Ambrogio, Giuseppina; Gagliardi, Francesco; Filice, Luigino; Romero, Natalia

2016-10-01

Incremental sheet forming (ISF) consists in deforming only a small region of the workspace through a punch driven by a NC machine. The drawback of this process is its slowness. In this study, a high speed variant has been investigated from both numerical and experimental points of view. The aim has been the design of a FEM model able to perform the material behavior during the high speed process by defining a thermomechanical model. An experimental campaign has been performed by a CNC lathe with high speed to test process feasibility. The first results have shown how the material presents the same performance than in conventional speed ISF and, in some cases, better material behavior due to the temperature increment. An accurate numerical simulation has been performed to investigate the material behavior during the high speed process confirming substantially experimental evidence.

Incremental Volumetric Remapping Method: Analysis and Error Evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baptista, A. J.; Oliveira, M. C.; Rodrigues, D. M.; Menezes, L. F.; Alves, J. L.

2007-01-01

In this paper the error associated with the remapping problem is analyzed. A range of numerical results that assess the performance of three different remapping strategies, applied to FE meshes that typically are used in sheet metal forming simulation, are evaluated. One of the selected strategies is the previously presented Incremental Volumetric Remapping method (IVR), which was implemented in the in-house code DD3TRIM. The IVR method fundaments consists on the premise that state variables in all points associated to a Gauss volume of a given element are equal to the state variable quantities placed in the correspondent Gauss point. Hence, given a typical remapping procedure between a donor and a target mesh, the variables to be associated to a target Gauss volume (and point) are determined by a weighted average. The weight function is the Gauss volume percentage of each donor element that is located inside the target Gauss volume. The calculus of the intersecting volumes between the donor and target Gauss volumes is attained incrementally, for each target Gauss volume, by means of a discrete approach. The other two remapping strategies selected are based in the interpolation/extrapolation of variables by using the finite element shape functions or moving least square interpolants. The performance of the three different remapping strategies is address with two tests. The first remapping test was taken from a literature work. The test consists in remapping successively a rotating symmetrical mesh, throughout N increments, in an angular span of 90 deg. The second remapping error evaluation test consists of remapping an irregular element shape target mesh from a given regular element shape donor mesh and proceed with the inverse operation. In this second test the computation effort is also measured. The results showed that the error level associated to IVR can be very low and with a stable evolution along the number of remapping procedures when compared with the

Opportunity Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Louise Møller; Lassen, Astrid Heidemann; Tollestrup, Christian

2012-01-01

Creating and growing new businesses is basically about turning an entrepreneurial opportunity into future business. In literature the emergence of opportunities is often described as opportunity recognition or opportunity discovery, which points to the understanding that opportunities are out the...

Methods of determining incremental energy costs for economic dispatch and inter-utility interchange in Canadian utilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El-Hawary, M.E.; El-Hawary, F.; Mbamalu, G.A.N.

1991-01-01

A questionnaire was mailed to ten Canadian utilities to determine the methods the utilities use in determining the incremental cost of delivering energy at any time. The questionnaire was divided into three parts: generation, transmission and general. The generation section dealt with heat rates, fuel, operation and maintenance, startup and shutdown, and method of prioritizing and economic evaluation of interchange transactions. Transmission dealt with inclusion of transmission system incremental maintenance costs, and transmission losses determination. The general section dealt with incremental costs aspects, and various other economic considerations. A summary is presented of responses to the questionnaire

Endogenous-cue prospective memory involving incremental updating of working memory: an fMRI study.

Science.gov (United States)

Halahalli, Harsha N; John, John P; Lukose, Ammu; Jain, Sanjeev; Kutty, Bindu M

2015-11-01

Prospective memory paradigms are conventionally classified on the basis of event-, time-, or activity-based intention retrieval. In the vast majority of such paradigms, intention retrieval is provoked by some kind of external event. However, prospective memory retrieval cues that prompt intention retrieval in everyday life are commonly endogenous, i.e., linked to a specific imagined retrieval context. We describe herein a novel prospective memory paradigm wherein the endogenous cue is generated by incremental updating of working memory, and investigated the hemodynamic correlates of this task. Eighteen healthy adult volunteers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while they performed a prospective memory task where the delayed intention was triggered by an endogenous cue generated by incremental updating of working memory. Working memory and ongoing task control conditions were also administered. The 'endogenous-cue prospective memory condition' with incremental working memory updating was associated with maximum activations in the right rostral prefrontal cortex, and additional activations in the brain regions that constitute the bilateral fronto-parietal network, central and dorsal salience networks as well as cerebellum. In the working memory control condition, maximal activations were noted in the left dorsal anterior insula. Activation of the bilateral dorsal anterior insula, a component of the central salience network, was found to be unique to this 'endogenous-cue prospective memory task' in comparison to previously reported exogenous- and endogenous-cue prospective memory tasks without incremental working memory updating. Thus, the findings of the present study highlight the important role played by the dorsal anterior insula in incremental working memory updating that is integral to our endogenous-cue prospective memory task.

An Incremental Time-delay Neural Network for Dynamical Recurrent Associative Memory

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2002-01-01

An incremental time-delay neural network based on synapse growth, which is suitable for dynamic control and learning of autonomous robots, is proposed to improve the learning and retrieving performance of dynamical recurrent associative memory architecture. The model allows steady and continuous establishment of associative memory for spatio-temporal regularities and time series in discrete sequence of inputs. The inserted hidden units can be taken as the long-term memories that expand the capacity of network and sometimes may fade away under certain condition. Preliminary experiment has shown that this incremental network may be a promising approach to endow autonomous robots with the ability of adapting to new data without destroying the learned patterns. The system also benefits from its potential chaos character for emergence.

Analytic description of the frictionally engaged in-plane bending process incremental swivel bending (ISB)

Science.gov (United States)

Frohn, Peter; Engel, Bernd; Groth, Sebastian

2018-05-01

Kinematic forming processes shape geometries by the process parameters to achieve a more universal process utilizations regarding geometric configurations. The kinematic forming process Incremental Swivel Bending (ISB) bends sheet metal strips or profiles in plane. The sequence for bending an arc increment is composed of the steps clamping, bending, force release and feed. The bending moment is frictionally engaged by two clamping units in a laterally adjustable bending pivot. A minimum clamping force hindering the material from slipping through the clamping units is a crucial criterion to achieve a well-defined incremental arc. Therefore, an analytic description of a singular bent increment is developed in this paper. The bending moment is calculated by the uniaxial stress distribution over the profiles' width depending on the bending pivot's position. By a Coulomb' based friction model, necessary clamping force is described in dependence of friction, offset, dimensions of the clamping tools and strip thickness as well as material parameters. Boundaries for the uniaxial stress calculation are given in dependence of friction, tools' dimensions and strip thickness. The results indicate that changing the bending pivot to an eccentric position significantly affects the process' bending moment and, hence, clamping force, which is given in dependence of yield stress and hardening exponent. FE simulations validate the model with satisfactory accordance.

Nanomedicine in cancer therapy: challenges, opportunities, and clinical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Wicki, Andreas; Witzigmann, Dominik; Balasubramanian, Vimalkumar; Huwyler, Jörg

2015-02-28

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. Currently available therapies are inadequate and spur demand for improved technologies. Rapid growth in nanotechnology towards the development of nanomedicine products holds great promise to improve therapeutic strategies against cancer. Nanomedicine products represent an opportunity to achieve sophisticated targeting strategies and multi-functionality. They can improve the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles of conventional therapeutics and may thus optimize the efficacy of existing anti-cancer compounds. In this review, we discuss state-of-the-art nanoparticles and targeted systems that have been investigated in clinical studies. We emphasize the challenges faced in using nanomedicine products and translating them from a preclinical level to the clinical setting. Additionally, we cover aspects of nanocarrier engineering that may open up new opportunities for nanomedicine products in the clinic. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Combined Heat and Power Market Potential for Opportunity Fuels

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jones, David [Resource Dynamics Corporation, McLean, VA (United States); Lemar, Paul [Resource Dynamics Corporation, McLean, VA (United States

2015-12-01

This report estimates the potential for opportunity fuel combined heat and power (CHP) applications in the United States, and provides estimates for the technical and economic market potential compared to those included in an earlier report. An opportunity fuel is any type of fuel that is not widely used when compared to traditional fossil fuels. Opportunity fuels primarily consist of biomass fuels, industrial waste products and fossil fuel derivatives. These fuels have the potential to be an economically viable source of power generation in various CHP applications.

Public Key Infrastructure Increment 2 (PKI Inc 2)

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-01

across the Global Information Grid (GIG) and at rest. Using authoritative data, obtained via face-to-face identity proofing, PKI creates a credential ...operating on a network by provision of assured PKI-based credentials for any device on that network. ​​​​PKI Increment One made significant...provide assured/secure validation of revocation of an electronic/ digital credential . 2.DoD PKI shall support assured revocation status requests of

Translation of incremental talk test responses to steady-state exercise training intensity.

Science.gov (United States)

Lyon, Ellen; Menke, Miranda; Foster, Carl; Porcari, John P; Gibson, Mark; Bubbers, Terresa

2014-01-01

The Talk Test (TT) is a submaximal, incremental exercise test that has been shown to be useful in prescribing exercise training intensity. It is based on a subject's ability to speak comfortably during exercise. This study defined the amount of reduction in absolute workload intensity from an incremental exercise test using the TT to give appropriate absolute training intensity for cardiac rehabilitation patients. Patients in an outpatient rehabilitation program (N = 30) performed an incremental exercise test with the TT given every 2-minute stage. Patients rated their speech comfort after reciting a standardized paragraph. Anything other than a "yes" response was considered the "equivocal" stage, while all preceding stages were "positive" stages. The last stage with the unequivocally positive ability to speak was the Last Positive (LP), and the preceding stages were (LP-1 and LP-2). Subsequently, three 20-minute steady-state training bouts were performed in random order at the absolute workload at the LP, LP-1, and LP-2 stages of the incremental test. Speech comfort, heart rate (HR), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were recorded every 5 minutes. The 20-minute exercise training bout was completed fully by LP (n = 19), LP-1 (n = 28), and LP-2 (n = 30). Heart rate, RPE, and speech comfort were similar through the LP-1 and LP-2 tests, but the LP stage was markedly more difficult. Steady-state exercise training intensity was easily and appropriately prescribed at intensity associated with the LP-1 and LP-2 stages of the TT. The LP stage may be too difficult for patients in a cardiac rehabilitation program.

Some theoretical aspects of capacity increment in gaseous diffusion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Coates, J. H.; Guais, J. C.; Lamorlette, G.

1975-09-01

Facing to the sharply growing needs of enrichment services, the problem of implementing new capacities must be included in an optimized scheme spread out in time. In this paper the alternative solutions will be studied first for an unique increment decision, and then in an optimum schedule. The limits of the analysis will be discussed.

How to Perform Precise Soil and Sediment Sampling? One solution: The Fine Increment Soil Collector (FISC)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mabit, L.; Toloza, A. [Soil and Water Management and Crop Nutrition Laboratory, IAEA, Seibersdorf (Austria); Meusburger, K.; Alewell, C. [Environmental Geosciences, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Basel (Switzerland); Iurian, A-R. [Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Cluj-Napoca (Romania); Owens, P. N. [Environmental Science Program and Quesnel River Research Centre, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia (Canada)

2014-07-15

Soil and sediment related research for terrestrial agrienvironmental assessments requires accurate depth incremental sampling to perform detailed analysis of physical, geochemical and biological properties of soil and exposed sediment profiles. Existing equipment does not allow collecting soil/sediment increments at millimetre resolution. The Fine Increment Soil Collector (FISC), developed by the SWMCN Laboratory, allows much greater precision in incremental soil/sediment sampling. It facilitates the easy recovery of collected material by using a simple screw-thread extraction system (see Figure 1). The FISC has been designed specifically to enable standardized scientific investigation of shallow soil/sediment samples. In particular, applications have been developed in two IAEA Coordinated Research Projects (CRPs): CRP D1.20.11 on “Integrated Isotopic Approaches for an Area-wide Precision Conservation to Control the Impacts of Agricultural Practices on Land Degradation and Soil Erosion” and CRP D1.50.15 on “Response to Nuclear Emergencies Affecting Food and Agriculture.”.

How to Perform Precise Soil and Sediment Sampling? One solution: The Fine Increment Soil Collector (FISC)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mabit, L.; Toloza, A.; Meusburger, K.; Alewell, C.; Iurian, A-R.; Owens, P.N.

2014-01-01

Soil and sediment related research for terrestrial agrienvironmental assessments requires accurate depth incremental sampling to perform detailed analysis of physical, geochemical and biological properties of soil and exposed sediment profiles. Existing equipment does not allow collecting soil/sediment increments at millimetre resolution. The Fine Increment Soil Collector (FISC), developed by the SWMCN Laboratory, allows much greater precision in incremental soil/sediment sampling. It facilitates the easy recovery of collected material by using a simple screw-thread extraction system (see Figure 1). The FISC has been designed specifically to enable standardized scientific investigation of shallow soil/sediment samples. In particular, applications have been developed in two IAEA Coordinated Research Projects (CRPs): CRP D1.20.11 on “Integrated Isotopic Approaches for an Area-wide Precision Conservation to Control the Impacts of Agricultural Practices on Land Degradation and Soil Erosion” and CRP D1.50.15 on “Response to Nuclear Emergencies Affecting Food and Agriculture.”

Respiratory ammonia output and blood ammonia concentration during incremental exercise

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ament, W; Huizenga, [No Value; Kort, E; van der Mark, TW; Grevink, RG; Verkerke, GJ

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the increase of ammonia concentration and lactate concentration in blood was accompanied by an increased expiration of ammonia during graded exercise. Eleven healthy subjects performed an incremental cycle ergometer test. Blood ammonia, blood lactate

Identifying the Academic Rising Stars via Pairwise Citation Increment Ranking

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Chuxu; Liu, Chuang; Yu, Lu; Zhang, Zi-Ke; Zhou, Tao

2017-01-01

success academic careers. In this work, given a set of young researchers who have published the first first-author paper recently, we solve the problem of how to effectively predict the top k% researchers who achieve the highest citation increment in Δt

Incremental concept learning with few training examples and hierarchical classification

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bouma, H.; Eendebak, P.T.; Schutte, K.; Azzopardi, G.; Burghouts, G.J.

2015-01-01

Object recognition and localization are important to automatically interpret video and allow better querying on its content. We propose a method for object localization that learns incrementally and addresses four key aspects. Firstly, we show that for certain applications, recognition is feasible

Incremental learning of skill collections based on intrinsic motivation

Science.gov (United States)

Metzen, Jan H.; Kirchner, Frank

2013-01-01

Life-long learning of reusable, versatile skills is a key prerequisite for embodied agents that act in a complex, dynamic environment and are faced with different tasks over their lifetime. We address the question of how an agent can learn useful skills efficiently during a developmental period, i.e., when no task is imposed on him and no external reward signal is provided. Learning of skills in a developmental period needs to be incremental and self-motivated. We propose a new incremental, task-independent skill discovery approach that is suited for continuous domains. Furthermore, the agent learns specific skills based on intrinsic motivation mechanisms that determine on which skills learning is focused at a given point in time. We evaluate the approach in a reinforcement learning setup in two continuous domains with complex dynamics. We show that an intrinsically motivated, skill learning agent outperforms an agent which learns task solutions from scratch. Furthermore, we compare different intrinsic motivation mechanisms and how efficiently they make use of the agent's developmental period. PMID:23898265

The Boundary Between Planning and Incremental Budgeting: Empirical Examination in a Publicly-Owned Corporation

OpenAIRE

S. K. Lioukas; D. J. Chambers

1981-01-01

This paper is a study within the field of public budgeting. It focuses on the capital budget, and it attempts to model and analyze the capital budgeting process using a framework previously developed in the literature of incremental budgeting. Within this framework the paper seeks to determine empirically whether the movement of capital expenditure budgets can be represented as the routine application of incremental adjustments over an existing base of allocations and whether further, forward...

Plant molecular farming: Opportunities and challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valkova Rumyana

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The modern human life is impossible without products derived from the classical, contemporary biotechnology. However, large scale production of biotechnology wares opens a discussion about the economic impact, waste management, biosafety, and bioethical issues. Plant molecular farming offers a relatively inexpensive option for yielding of many valuable products and demonstrates number of advantages over the classical technologies, but also brings the question of further development perspectives, hazard identification and risk assessment. This review is focused on those two questions: opportunities offered and challenges faced by modern plant molecular farming systems.

Enthalpy-increment measurements for CsI(s) and Cs2CrO4(s) by high-temperature Calvet calorimetry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Venugopal, V.; Agarwal, R.; Roy, K.N.; Prasad, R.; Sood, D.D.

1987-01-01

Molar thermodynamic properties of CsI(s) and Cs 2 Cr O 4 (s) have been evaluated by enthalpy-increment measurements, using a Calvet high-temperature calorimeter. Least squares analyses were performed on the enthalpy increment results. Data is presented in tabular form for the dependence of enthalpy increments on temperature, in the range 333 to 822 K, for both caesium compounds, along with the thermal properties of the compounds. Good agreement is found between the present data and previously reported results on reduced enthalpy increments of CsI(s) and Cs 2 CrO 4 (s). (U.K.)

Toward translational incremental similarity-based reasoning in breast cancer grading

Science.gov (United States)

Tutac, Adina E.; Racoceanu, Daniel; Leow, Wee-Keng; Müller, Henning; Putti, Thomas; Cretu, Vladimir

2009-02-01

One of the fundamental issues in bridging the gap between the proliferation of Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) systems in the scientific literature and the deficiency of their usage in medical community is based on the characteristic of CBIR to access information by images or/and text only. Yet, the way physicians are reasoning about patients leads intuitively to a case representation. Hence, a proper solution to overcome this gap is to consider a CBIR approach inspired by Case-Based Reasoning (CBR), which naturally introduces medical knowledge structured by cases. Moreover, in a CBR system, the knowledge is incrementally added and learned. The purpose of this study is to initiate a translational solution from CBIR algorithms to clinical practice, using a CBIR/CBR hybrid approach. Therefore, we advance the idea of a translational incremental similarity-based reasoning (TISBR), using combined CBIR and CBR characteristics: incremental learning of medical knowledge, medical case-based structure of the knowledge (CBR), image usage to retrieve similar cases (CBIR), similarity concept (central for both paradigms). For this purpose, three major axes are explored: the indexing, the cases retrieval and the search refinement, applied to Breast Cancer Grading (BCG), a powerful breast cancer prognosis exam. The effectiveness of this strategy is currently evaluated over cases provided by the Pathology Department of Singapore National University Hospital, for the indexing. With its current accuracy, TISBR launches interesting perspectives for complex reasoning in future medical research, opening the way to a better knowledge traceability and a better acceptance rate of computer-aided diagnosis assistance among practitioners.

Cost of Incremental Expansion of an Existing Family Medicine Residency Program.

Science.gov (United States)

Ashkin, Evan A; Newton, Warren P; Toomey, Brian; Lingley, Ronald; Page, Cristen P

2017-07-01

Expanding residency training programs to address shortages in the primary care workforce is challenged by the present graduate medical education (GME) environment. The Medicare funding cap on new GME positions and reductions in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Teaching Health Center (THC) GME program require innovative solutions to support primary care residency expansion. Sparse literature exists to assist in predicting the actual cost of incremental expansion of a family medicine residency program without federal or state GME support. In 2011 a collaboration to develop a community health center (CHC) academic medical partnership (CHAMP), was formed and created a THC as a training site for expansion of an existing family medicine residency program. The cost of expansion was a critical factor as no Federal GME funding or HRSA THC GME program support was available. Initial start-up costs were supported by a federal grant and local foundations. Careful financial analysis of the expansion has provided actual costs per resident of the incremental expansion of the residencyRESULTS: The CHAMP created a new THC and expanded the residency from eight to ten residents per year. The cost of expansion was approximately $72,000 per resident per year. The cost of incremental expansion of our residency program in the CHAMP model was more than 50% less than that of the recently reported cost of training in the HRSA THC GME program.

The economic burden of diabetes to French national health insurance: a new cost-of-illness method based on a combined medicalized and incremental approach.

Science.gov (United States)

de Lagasnerie, Grégoire; Aguadé, Anne-Sophie; Denis, Pierre; Fagot-Campagna, Anne; Gastaldi-Menager, Christelle

2018-03-01

A better understanding of the economic burden of diabetes constitutes a major public health challenge in order to design new ways to curb diabetes health care expenditure. The aim of this study was to develop a new cost-of-illness method in order to assess the specific and nonspecific costs of diabetes from a public payer perspective. Using medical and administrative data from the major French national health insurance system covering about 59 million individuals in 2012, we identified people with diabetes and then estimated the economic burden of diabetes. Various methods were used: (a) global cost of patients with diabetes, (b) cost of treatment directly related to diabetes (i.e., 'medicalized approach'), (c) incremental regression-based approach, (d) incremental matched-control approach, and (e) a novel combination of the 'medicalized approach' and the 'incremental matched-control' approach. We identified 3 million individuals with diabetes (5% of the population). The total expenditure of this population amounted to €19 billion, representing 15% of total expenditure reimbursed to the entire population. Of the total expenditure, €10 billion (52%) was considered to be attributable to diabetes care: €2.3 billion (23% of €10 billion) was directly attributable, and €7.7 billion was attributable to additional reimbursed expenditure indirectly related to diabetes (77%). Inpatient care represented the major part of the expenditure attributable to diabetes care (22%) together with drugs (20%) and medical auxiliaries (15%). Antidiabetic drugs represented an expenditure of about €1.1 billion, accounting for 49% of all diabetes-specific expenditure. This study shows the economic impact of the assumption concerning definition of costs on evaluation of the economic burden of diabetes. The proposed new cost-of-illness method provides specific insight for policy-makers to enhance diabetes management and assess the opportunity costs of diabetes complications

Essential Drugs Production in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS: Opportunities and Challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zoheir Ezziane

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The objective of this work is to elucidate various essential drugs in the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS countries. It discusses the opportunities and challenges of the existing biotech infrastructure and the production of drugs and vaccines in member states of the BRICS. This research is based on a systematic literature review between the years 2000 and 2014 of documents retrieved from the databases Embase, PubMed/Medline, Global Health, and Google Scholar, and the websites of relevant international organizations, research institutions and philanthropic organizations. Findings vary from one member state to another. These include useful comparison between the BRICS countries in terms of pharmaceuticals expenditure versus total health expenditure, local manufacturing of drugs/vaccines using technology and know-how transferred from developed countries, and biotech entrepreneurial collaborations under the umbrella of the BRICS region. This study concludes by providing recommendations to support more of inter collaborations among the BRICS countries as well as between BRICS and many developing countries to shrink drug production costs. In addition, this collaboration would also culminate in reaching out to poor countries that are not able to provide their communities and patients with cost-effective essential medicines.

Essential drugs production in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS): opportunities and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Ezziane, Zoheir

2014-12-01

The objective of this work is to elucidate various essential drugs in the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) countries. It discusses the opportunities and challenges of the existing biotech infrastructure and the production of drugs and vaccines in member states of the BRICS. This research is based on a systematic literature review between the years 2000 and 2014 of documents retrieved from the databases Embase, PubMed/Medline, Global Health, and Google Scholar, and the websites of relevant international organizations, research institutions and philanthropic organizations. Findings vary from one member state to another. These include useful comparison between the BRICS countries in terms of pharmaceuticals expenditure versus total health expenditure, local manufacturing of drugs/vaccines using technology and know-how transferred from developed countries, and biotech entrepreneurial collaborations under the umbrella of the BRICS region. This study concludes by providing recommendations to support more of inter collaborations among the BRICS countries as well as between BRICS and many developing countries to shrink drug production costs. In addition, this collaboration would also culminate in reaching out to poor countries that are not able to provide their communities and patients with cost-effective essential medicines.

Upcoming Purchasing and Subcontracting Opportunities | NREL

Science.gov (United States)

Management Services & Support Fall 2018 Construction@nrel.gov Banking Agreement Fall 2018 Jeffrey.Soltesz . Recurring Products and/or Services (all opportunities pending funding) Solicitation Time Frame Point of Contact Scientific and Business IT Services and Support Winter 2018 Kimberley.Lopez@nrel.gov A&E

Rare earths production and marketing opportunities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Falconnet, P.G.

1988-01-01

The rare earths (RE) market is relatively small. The total production during 1968 was only 10000 tons (REO) which rose to 27000 tons (REO) during 1985. The three major areas of application, which are volume market for ceric rare earths are catalysts, glass ceramics and metallurgy. Among the other uses of rare earths, the permanent magnets, lamp phosphors and fine ceramics have registered significant growth in RE consumption. Monazite and bastnasite are the main natural source for rare earths and processing of these for one of the rare earths in high demand leads to over production of some others not in demand, thus creating a balance problem. The growth in RE market has always been influenced by the technology shifts and product substitution. For example, the RE consumption during 1974/76 for desulfurization of steel had substantially decreased due to the usage of calcium. Similarly, 1985 had witnessed a drastic cut in the use of REs in fluid cracking due to the introduction of stabilized zeolites which contain less REO. Thus, the overall compound growth rate of demand was only 3.9 % per year during the period 1970-1985. At present, 37 % of the rare earths production goes to the glass/ceramics industry, 33 % for catalyst and 25 % to metallurgy. The price of REs constantly shows a downward trend. This trend coupled with the rapid changes taking place in the various technological fields, demands greater flexibility and high marketing skills from the RE producers. The key factor for future expansion of RE market will be the development of 'high volume' application of ceric rare earths. (author) 2 figs., 8 tabs

Challenges and Opportunities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Foster, J.B.

1999-01-01

A series of overhead viewgraphs accompanied this presentation. The viewgraphs presented 1998 year-end predictions of oil and gas prices. Comparisons of projected versus actual values for 1998 for natural gas consumption, production, imports and wellhead prices for the United States were also presented. A comparison of projected versus actual consumption values for 1998 in the residential, commercial, industrial and electric generation sectors was included. In many cases actual versus projected values were quite different. The importance of storage to balancing the market was illustrated. Graphs depicting gas production, workover rigs, reserve life comparisons, and GOM natural gas rig count and production for the U.S. were described. Drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico was summarized. The total wells drilled in 1997 was 1223 compared to 1019 in 1998. The factors affecting deliverability additions on the Gulf of Mexico shelf include smaller new discoveries, diminishing completion opportunities in older fields, few productive zones in new discoveries and a rapid decline rate resulting from smaller reservoirs. 6 tabs., 13 figs

78 FR 22770 - Immigration Benefits Business Transformation, Increment I; Correction

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-17

...-2009-0022] RIN 1615-AB83 Immigration Benefits Business Transformation, Increment I; Correction AGENCY...: Background On August 29, 2011, DHS issued a final rule titled, Immigration Benefits Business Transformation... business processes. In this notice, we are correcting three technical errors. DATES: The effective date of...

Sustained change blindness to incremental scene rotation: a dissociation between explicit change detection and visual memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Hollingworth, Andrew; Henderson, John M

2004-07-01

In a change detection paradigm, the global orientation of a natural scene was incrementally changed in 1 degree intervals. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants demonstrated sustained change blindness to incremental rotation, often coming to consider a significantly different scene viewpoint as an unchanged continuation of the original view. Experiment 3 showed that participants who failed to detect the incremental rotation nevertheless reliably detected a single-step rotation back to the initial view. Together, these results demonstrate an important dissociation between explicit change detection and visual memory. Following a change, visual memory is updated to reflect the changed state of the environment, even if the change was not detected.

Strengthening the knowledge-policy interface through co-production of a climate adaptation plan: leveraging opportunities in Bergriver Municipality, South Africa

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Ziervogel, G

2016-10-01

Full Text Available plan was presented to the Bergrivier Council to secure buy-in from both the administrative and political spheres. Western Cape government officials, two Climate Systems Analysis Group climate scientists, councillors and officials attended... and innovation. c) d. Capacity opportunity: champions of co-production Deleted: The importance of leaders and champions has been widely cited as critical in driving urban adaptation responses. (61) Maiello et al., (62) for example, observe that public...

Opportunities to enhance and interpret nutrient fluxes and imbalances in animal production systems by use of stable isotopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jarvis, S.C.

2002-01-01

Full text: The flows and transfers of nutrients within agricultural systems are complex and the presence of livestock increases the complexity. Few, if any, systems are in equilibrium with respect to nutrients inputs and outputs and all are 'leaky' to some extent or other: the presence of animals inevitably increases the opportunity for inefficiency. Whilst there is still much need to enhance nutrient use in many parts of the world in order to promote crop/food production particularly in resource-poor environments, there has been considerable recent research which re- examine nutrient behaviour because of pollution effects. Understanding nutrients fluxes and budgets/balances of inputs and outputs within a system and its component parts, provides the means to assess (i) current status, (ii) extent of losses and (iii) potential options for change to reduce losses, increase nutrient use efficiency and sustain or enhance production at minimum cost. Increasingly, nutrient accounting is being used at field, farm and national scales to aid decision making and planning. To do this effectively, requires that the sources and transfers of nutrients to, from and within the system be known. The paper discusses the way in which systems and farm gate balances can be used to promote efficiency of nutrient use in relation to required production levels and to optimise (i) investment in purchased nutrients, (ii) opportunities to capitalise on internal recycling and (iii) other farming activities which influence nutrient balance, surplus and loss. A major challenge for the future will be to balance the on- and off-farm needs of supplying and utilising nutrients in order to maintain long-term sustainability of farming systems, food production and rural resources. The paper concentrates on aspects of N in livestock systems as this provides one of the main opportunities to increase effectiveness of nutrient use in agriculture throughout the world with the aim of demonstrating some of the

ANALYSIS OF POTENTIAL AND DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY OF COCOA IN WEST SULAWESI

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Syamsuddin

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Fluctuation area and produced in West Sulawesi is every year happened, because various factor for example displacing farm function, attack of pest and disease of PBK and VSD, crop old in age and lack of conservancy. Result of SWOT analysis indicated that potency and opportunity of product increase Cocoa in West Sulawesi still very big. Potency of product increased can be conducted by passing effort intensification that is repair of practical system, and also passing extensivication that is extension areal plant. Intensification opportunity still very open to increase productivity and produce crop of because technological innovation of practical mounted by a farmer still be very low. Opportunity of extension areal also still very open, because farm which have potency for practical of its Cocoa exploiting newly reach 37,61 percent of available, that is about 467.627 ha. Technological innovation applying of good practical and also potential exploiting areal for extension of plant area Cocoa, hence for certain that productivity and produce Cocoa in West Sulawesi can mount sharply. Production increased of Cocoa will affect to make-up of earnings and farmer prosperity, others will affect also to area economics.

Identifying the Academic Rising Stars via Pairwise Citation Increment Ranking

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Chuxu

2017-08-02

Predicting the fast-rising young researchers (the Academic Rising Stars) in the future provides useful guidance to the research community, e.g., offering competitive candidates to university for young faculty hiring as they are expected to have success academic careers. In this work, given a set of young researchers who have published the first first-author paper recently, we solve the problem of how to effectively predict the top k% researchers who achieve the highest citation increment in Δt years. We explore a series of factors that can drive an author to be fast-rising and design a novel pairwise citation increment ranking (PCIR) method that leverages those factors to predict the academic rising stars. Experimental results on the large ArnetMiner dataset with over 1.7 million authors demonstrate the effectiveness of PCIR. Specifically, it outperforms all given benchmark methods, with over 8% average improvement. Further analysis demonstrates that temporal features are the best indicators for rising stars prediction, while venue features are less relevant.

Research Opportunities for Fischer-Tropsch Technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jackson, Nancy B.

1999-01-01

Fischer-Tropsch synthesis was discovered in Germany in the 1920's and has been studied by every generation since that time. As technology and chemistry, in general, improved through the decades, new insights, catalysts, and technologies were added to the Fischer-Tropsch process, improving it and making it more economical with each advancement. Opportunities for improving the Fischer-Tropsch process and making it more economical still exist. This paper gives an overview of the present Fischer-Tropsch processes and offers suggestions for areas where a research investment could improve those processes. Gas-to-liquid technology, which utilizes the Fischer Tropsch process, consists of three principal steps: Production of synthesis gas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide) from natural gas, the production of liquid fuels from syngas using a Fischer-Tropsch process, and upgrading of Fischer-Tropsch fuels. Each step will be studied for opportunities for improvement and areas that are not likely to reap significant benefits without significant investment

Automated Dimension Determination for NMF-based Incremental Collaborative Filtering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiwei Wang

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF based collaborative filtering t e chniques h a ve a c hieved great success in product recommendations. It is well known that in NMF, the dimensions of the factor matrices have to be determined in advance. Moreover, data is growing fast; thus in some cases, the dimensions need to be changed to reduce the approximation error. The recommender systems should be capable of updating new data in a timely manner without sacrificing the prediction accuracy. In this paper, we propose an NMF based data update approach with automated dimension determination for collaborative filtering purposes. The approach can determine the dimensions of the factor matrices and update them automatically. It exploits the nearest neighborhood based clustering algorithm to cluster users and items according to their auxiliary information, and uses the clusters as the constraints in NMF. The dimensions of the factor matrices are associated with the cluster quantities. When new data becomes available, the incremental clustering algorithm determines whether to increase the number of clusters or merge the existing clusters. Experiments on three different datasets (MovieLens, Sushi, and LibimSeTi were conducted to examine the proposed approach. The results show that our approach can update the data quickly and provide encouraging prediction accuracy.

Effects of frequency and duration on psychometric functions for detection of increments and decrements in sinusoids in noise.

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, B C; Peters, R W; Glasberg, B R

1999-12-01

Psychometric functions for detecting increments or decrements in level of sinusoidal pedestals were measured for increment and decrement durations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 ms and for frequencies of 250, 1000, and 4000 Hz. The sinusoids were presented in background noise intended to mask spectral splatter. A three-interval, three-alternative procedure was used. The results indicated that, for increments, the detectability index d' was approximately proportional to delta I/I. For decrements, d' was approximately proportional to delta L. The slopes of the psychometric functions increased (indicating better performance) with increasing frequency for both increments and decrements. For increments, the slopes increased with increasing increment duration up to 200 ms at 250 and 1000 Hz, but at 4000 Hz they increased only up to 50 ms. For decrements, the slopes increased for durations up to 50 ms, and then remained roughly constant, for all frequencies. For a center frequency of 250 Hz, the slopes of the psychometric functions for increment detection increased with duration more rapidly than predicted by a "multiple-looks" hypothesis, i.e., more rapidly than the square root of duration, for durations up to 50 ms. For center frequencies of 1000 and 4000 Hz, the slopes increased less rapidly than predicted by a multiple-looks hypothesis, for durations greater than about 20 ms. The slopes of the psychometric functions for decrement detection increased with decrement duration at a rate slightly greater than the square root of duration, for durations up to 50 ms, at all three frequencies. For greater durations, the increase in slope was less than proportional to the square root of duration. The results were analyzed using a model incorporating a simulated auditory filter, a compressive nonlinearity, a sliding temporal integrator, and a decision device based on a template mechanism. The model took into account the effects of both the external noise and an assumed internal

Systematic Luby Transform codes as incremental redundancy scheme

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Grobler, TL

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Transform Codes as Incremental Redundancy Scheme T. L. Grobler y, E. R. Ackermann y, J. C. Olivier y and A. J. van Zylz Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa Email: trienkog...@gmail.com, etienne.ackermann@ieee.org yDefence, Peace, Safety and Security (DPSS) Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Pretoria 0001, South Africa zDepartment of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South...

Deliberate and Crisis Action Planning and Execution Segments Increment 2A (DCAPES Inc 2A)

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-01

2016 Major Automated Information System Annual Report Deliberate and Crisis Action Planning and Execution Segments Increment 2A (DCAPES Inc 2A...Program Name Deliberate and Crisis Action Planning and Execution Segments Increment 2A (DCAPES Inc 2A) DoD Component Air Force Responsible Office Program...APB) dated March 9, 2015 DCAPES Inc 2A 2016 MAR UNCLASSIFIED 4 Program Description Deliberate and Crisis Action Planning and Execution Segments

Deliberate and Crisis Action Planning and Execution Segments Increment 2B (DCAPES Inc 2B)

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-01

2016 Major Automated Information System Annual Report Deliberate and Crisis Action Planning and Execution Segments Increment 2B (DCAPES Inc 2B...Information Program Name Deliberate and Crisis Action Planning and Execution Segments Increment 2B (DCAPES Inc 2B) DoD Component Air Force Responsible Office...been established. DCAPES Inc 2B 2016 MAR UNCLASSIFIED 4 Program Description Deliberate and Crisis Action Planning and Execution Segments (DCAPES) is

Blood flow patterns during incremental and steady-state aerobic exercise.

Science.gov (United States)

Coovert, Daniel; Evans, LeVisa D; Jarrett, Steven; Lima, Carla; Lima, Natalia; Gurovich, Alvaro N

2017-05-30

Endothelial shear stress (ESS) is a physiological stimulus for vascular homeostasis, highly dependent on blood flow patterns. Exercise-induced ESS might be beneficial on vascular health. However, it is unclear what type of ESS aerobic exercise (AX) produces. The aims of this study are to characterize exercise-induced blood flow patterns during incremental and steady-state AX. We expect blood flow pattern during exercise will be intensity-dependent and bidirectional. Six college-aged students (2 males and 4 females) were recruited to perform 2 exercise tests on cycleergometer. First, an 8-12-min incremental test (Test 1) where oxygen uptake (VO2), heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), and blood lactate (La) were measured at rest and after each 2-min step. Then, at least 48-hr. after the first test, a 3-step steady state exercise test (Test 2) was performed measuring VO2, HR, BP, and La. The three steps were performed at the following exercise intensities according to La: 0-2 mmol/L, 2-4 mmol/L, and 4-6 mmol/L. During both tests, blood flow patterns were determined by high-definition ultrasound and Doppler on the brachial artery. These measurements allowed to determine blood flow velocities and directions during exercise. On Test 1 VO2, HR, BP, La, and antegrade blood flow velocity significantly increased in an intensity-dependent manner (repeated measures ANOVA, pflow velocity did not significantly change during Test 1. On Test 2 all the previous variables significantly increased in an intensity-dependent manner (repeated measures ANOVA, pflow patterns during incremental and steady-state exercises include both antegrade and retrograde blood flows.

Crowdsourcing for children : exploring threats and opportunities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Wit, J.M.S.; Manojlovic, S.; Gavrilo, K.; Khan, J.V.; Hansson, K.; Aitamurto, T.; Ludwig, T.; Gupta, N.; Muller, M.

2016-01-01

Children are increasingly being engaged in product development, but they have yet to be introduced to the concept of crowdsourcing. Several opportunities and threats when designing a crowdsourcing platform specifically for children are proposed as topics for further discussion.

Pollution prevention opportunity assessments at Hanford

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Betsch, M.D., Westinghouse Hanford

1996-06-26

The Pollution Prevention Opportunity Assessment (PPOA) is a pro- active way to look at a waste generating activity and identify opportunities to minimize wastes through a cost benefit analysis. Hanford`s PPOA process is based upon the graded approach developed by the Kansas City Plant. Hanford further streamlined the process while building in more flexibility for the individual users. One of the most challenging aspects for implementing the PPOA process at Hanford is one overall mission which is environmental restoration, Now that the facilities are no longer in production, each has a different non- routine activity making it difficult to quantify the inputs and outputs of the activity under consideration.

Identifying PHM market and network opportunities.

Science.gov (United States)

Grube, Mark E; Krishnaswamy, Anand; Poziemski, John; York, Robert W

2015-11-01

Two key processes for healthcare organizations seeking to assume a financially sustainable role in population health management (PHM), after laying the groundwork for the effort, are to identify potential PHM market opportunities and determine the scope of the PHM network. Key variables organizations should consider with respect to market opportunities include the patient population, the overall insurance/employer market, and available types of insurance products. Regarding the network's scope, organizations should consider both traditional strategic criteria for a viable network and at least five additional criteria: network essentiality and PHM care continuum, network adequacy, service distribution right-sizing, network growth strategy, and organizational agility.

Investment opportunities with YPFB capitalization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Escobar, F.

1996-01-01

Investment opportunities with Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (LPFB) in La Paz, Bolivia, were discussed, especially as they may be affected by the new Hydrocarbon Law No. 1689, whose main objective is to encourage investments in Bolivia and to increase production capacity through investors' incorporation. Some of the areas of potential importance examined included reserve development, transportation, upstream consulting, and hydrocarbon development

Incremental Observer Relative Data Extraction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bukauskas, Linas; Bøhlen, Michael Hanspeter

2004-01-01

The visual exploration of large databases calls for a tight coupling of database and visualization systems. Current visualization systems typically fetch all the data and organize it in a scene tree that is then used to render the visible data. For immersive data explorations in a Cave...... or a Panorama, where an observer is data space this approach is far from optimal. A more scalable approach is to make the observer-aware database system and to restrict the communication between the database and visualization systems to the relevant data. In this paper VR-tree, an extension of the R......-tree, is used to index visibility ranges of objects. We introduce a new operator for incremental Observer Relative data Extraction (iORDE). We propose the Volatile Access STructure (VAST), a lightweight main memory structure that is created on the fly and is maintained during visual data explorations. VAST...

Influence of increment thickness on dentin bond strength and light transmission of composite base materials.

Science.gov (United States)

Omran, Tarek A; Garoushi, Sufyan; Abdulmajeed, Aous A; Lassila, Lippo V; Vallittu, Pekka K

2017-06-01

Bulk-fill resin composites (BFCs) are gaining popularity in restorative dentistry due to the reduced chair time and ease of application. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of increment thickness on dentin bond strength and light transmission of different BFCs and a new discontinuous fiber-reinforced composite. One hundred eighty extracted sound human molars were prepared for a shear bond strength (SBS) test. The teeth were divided into four groups (n = 45) according to the resin composite used: regular particulate filler resin composite: (1) G-ænial Anterior [GA] (control); bulk-fill resin composites: (2) Tetric EvoCeram Bulk Fill [TEBF] and (3) SDR; and discontinuous fiber-reinforced composite: (4) everX Posterior [EXP]. Each group was subdivided according to increment thickness (2, 4, and 6 mm). The irradiance power through the material of all groups/subgroups was quantified (MARC® Resin Calibrator; BlueLight Analytics Inc.). Data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's post hoc test. SBS and light irradiance decreased as the increment's height increased (p composite used. EXP presented the highest SBS in 2- and 4-mm-thick increments when compared to other composites, although the differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Light irradiance mean values arranged in descending order were (p composites. Discontinuous fiber-reinforced composite showed the highest value of curing light transmission, which was also seen in improved bonding strength to the underlying dentin surface. Discontinuous fiber-reinforced composite can be applied safely in bulks of 4-mm increments same as other bulk-fill composites, although, in 2-mm thickness, the investigated composites showed better performance.

Incrementally Detecting Change Types of Spatial Area Object: A Hierarchical Matching Method Considering Change Process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yanhui Wang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Detecting and extracting the change types of spatial area objects can track area objects’ spatiotemporal change pattern and provide the change backtracking mechanism for incrementally updating spatial datasets. To respond to the problems of high complexity of detection methods, high redundancy rate of detection factors, and the low automation degree during incrementally update process, we take into account the change process of area objects in an integrated way and propose a hierarchical matching method to detect the nine types of changes of area objects, while minimizing the complexity of the algorithm and the redundancy rate of detection factors. We illustrate in details the identification, extraction, and database entry of change types, and how we achieve a close connection and organic coupling of incremental information extraction and object type-of-change detection so as to characterize the whole change process. The experimental results show that this method can successfully detect incremental information about area objects in practical applications, with the overall accuracy reaching above 90%, which is much higher than the existing weighted matching method, making it quite feasible and applicable. It helps establish the corresponding relation between new-version and old-version objects, and facilitate the linked update processing and quality control of spatial data.

STS-102 Expedition 2 Increment and Science Briefing

Science.gov (United States)

2001-01-01

Merri Sanchez, Expedition 2 Increment Manager, John Uri, Increment Scientist, and Lybrease Woodard, Lead Payload Operations Director, give an overview of the upcoming activities and objectives of the Expedition 2's (E2's) mission in this prelaunch press conference. Ms. Sanchez describes the crew rotation of Expedition 1 to E2, the timeline E2 will follow during their stay on the International Space Station (ISS), and the various flights going to the ISS and what each will bring to ISS. Mr. Uri gives details on the on-board experiments that will take place on the ISS in the fields of microgravity research, commercial, earth, life, and space sciences (such as radiation characterization, H-reflex, colloids formation and interaction, protein crystal growth, plant growth, fermentation in microgravity, etc.). He also gives details on the scientific facilities to be used (laboratory racks and equipment such as the human torso facsimile or 'phantom torso'). Ms. Woodard gives an overview of Marshall Flight Center's role in the mission. Computerized simulations show the installation of the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) onto the ISS and the installation of the airlock using SSRMS. Live footage shows the interior of the ISS, including crew living quarters, the Progress Module, and the Destiny Laboratory. The three then answer questions from the press.

MUNIX and incremental stimulation MUNE in ALS patients and control subjects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Furtula, Jasna; Johnsen, Birger; Christensen, Peter Broegger

2013-01-01

This study compares the new Motor Unit Number Estimation (MUNE) technique, MUNIX, with the more common incremental stimulation MUNE (IS-MUNE) with respect to reproducibility in healthy subjects and as potential biomarker of disease progression in patients with ALS....

Limitations of Spectral Electromyogramic Analysis to Determine the Onset of Neuromuscular Fatigue Threshold during Incremental Ergometer Cycling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iban Latasa, Alfredo Cordova, Armando Malanda, Javier Navallas, Ana Lavilla-Oiz, Javier Rodriguez-Falces

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Recently, a new method has been proposed to detect the onset of neuromuscular fatigue during an incremental cycling test by assessing the changes in spectral electromyographic (sEMG frequencies within individual exercise periods of the test. The method consists on determining the highest power output that can be sustained without a significant decrease in spectral frequencies. This study evaluated the validity of the new approach by assessing the changes in spectral indicators both throughout the whole test and within individual exercise periods of the test. Fourteen cyclists performed incremental cycle ergometer rides to exhaustion with bipolar surface EMG signals recorded from the vastus lateralis. The mean and median frequencies (Fmean and Fmedian, respectively of the sEMG power spectrum were calculated. The main findings were: (1 Examination of spectral indicators within individual exercise periods of the test showed that neither Fmean nor Fmedian decreased significantly during the last (most fatiguing exercise periods. (2 Examination of the whole incremental test showed that the behaviour of Fmean and Fmedian with increasing power output was highly inconsistent and varied greatly among subjects. (3 Over the whole incremental test, half of the participants exhibited a positive relation between spectral indicators and workload, whereas the other half demonstrated the opposite behavior. Collectively, these findings indicate that spectral sEMG indexes do not provide a reliable measure of the fatigue state of the muscle during an incremental cycling test. Moreover, it is concluded that it is not possible to determine the onset of neuromuscular fatigue during an incremental cycling test by examining spectral indicators within individual exercise periods of the test.

Fault-tolerant incremental diagnosis with limited historical data

OpenAIRE

Gillblad, Daniel; Holst, Anders; Steinert, Rebecca

2006-01-01

In many diagnosis situations it is desirable to perform a classification in an iterative and interactive manner. All relevant information may not be available initially and must be acquired manually or at a cost. The matter is often complicated by very limited amounts of knowledge and examples when a new system to be diagnosed is initially brought into use. Here, we will describe how to create an incremental classification system based on a statistical model that is trained from empirical dat...

Statistics of a mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian velocity increment in fully developed turbulence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Friedrich, R; Kamps, O; Grauer, R; Homann, H

2009-01-01

We investigate the relationship between Eulerian and Lagrangian probability density functions obtained from numerical simulations of two-dimensional as well as three-dimensional turbulence. We show that in contrast to the structure functions of the Lagrangian velocity increment δ τ v(y)=u(x(y, τ), τ)- u(y, 0), where u(x, t) denotes the Eulerian velocity and x(y, t) the particle path initially starting at x(y, 0)=y, the structure functions of the velocity increment δ τ w(y)=u(x(y, τ), τ)- u(y, τ) exhibit a wide range of scaling behavior. Similar scaling indices are detected for the structure functions for particles diffusing in frozen turbulent fields. Furthermore, we discuss a connection to the scaling of Eulerian transversal structure functions.

Biochar production and applications in sub-Saharan Africa: opportunities, constraints, risks and uncertainties.

Science.gov (United States)

Gwenzi, Willis; Chaukura, Nhamo; Mukome, Fungai N D; Machado, Stephen; Nyamasoka, Blessing

2015-03-01

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) experiences soil degradation, food and livelihood insecurity, environmental pollution and lack of access to energy. Biochar has gained international research attention, but few studies have investigated the potential of biochar to address the challenges in SSA. This paper seeks to identify and evaluate generic potential opportunities and constraints associated with biochar application in sub-Saharan Africa using Zimbabwe as case study. Specific objectives were to; (1) identify and quantify feedstocks for biochar production; (2) review literature on the biochar properties, and evaluate its potential applications in agriculture, environmental remediation and energy provision, and (3) identify research gaps, risks and constraints associated with biochar technology. Biochar feedstocks in Zimbabwe were estimated to be 9.9 Mton yr(-1), predominantly derived from manure (88%) and firewood (10%). This will yield 3.5, 1.7 and 3.1 Mton yr(-1) of biochar, bio-oil and synthetic gas, respectively. Land application of the 3.5 Mton yr(-1) of biochar (≈63% C) would sequester approximately 2.2 Mton yr(-1) of soil carbon in Zimbabwe alone, while simultaneously minimizing the environmental and public health risks, and greenhouse gas emissions associated with solid organic wastes. Biochar potentially enhances soil and crop productivity through enhanced nutrient and soil moisture availability, amelioration of acidic soils and stimulation of microbial diversity and activity. Due to its excellent adsorption properties, biochar has potential applications in industrial and environmental applications including water and wastewater treatment, remediation and revegetation of contaminated soils and water. Biochar products have energy values comparable or higher than those of traditional biomass fuels; thereby making them ideal alternative sources of energy especially for poor households without access to electricity. Before the benefits of biochar can be

Nanotechnology in the Chemical Industry - Opportunities and Challenges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Qian Qiuzhao; Boxman, Arthur; Chowdhry, Uma

2003-01-01

The traditional chemical industry has become a largely mature industry with many commodity products based on established technologies. Therefore, new product and market opportunities will more likely come from speciality chemicals, and from new functionalities obtained from new processing technologies as well as new microstructure control methodologies. It is a well-known fact that in addition to its molecular structure, the microstructure of a material is key to determining its properties. Controlling structures at the micro- and nano-levels is therefore essential to new discoveries. For this article, we define nanotechnology as the controlled manipulation of nanomaterials with at least one dimension less than 100nm.Nanotechnology is emerging as one of the principal areas of investigation that is integrating chemistry and materials science, and in some cases integrating these with biology to create new and yet undiscovered properties that can be exploited to gain new market opportunities. In this article market opportunities for nanotechnology will be presented from an industrial perspective covering electronic, biomedical, performance materials, and consumer products. Manufacturing technology challenges will be identified, including operations ranging from particle formation, coating, dispersion, to characterization, modeling, and simulation. Finally, a nanotechnology innovation roadmap is proposed wherein the interplay between the development of nanoscale building blocks, product design, process design, and value chain integration is identified. A suggestion is made for an R and D model combining market pull and technology push as a way to quickly exploit the advantages in nanotechnology and translate these into customer benefits

Factors for Radical Creativity, Incremental Creativity, and Routine, Noncreative Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Madjar, Nora; Greenberg, Ellen; Chen, Zheng

2011-01-01

This study extends theory and research by differentiating between routine, noncreative performance and 2 distinct types of creativity: radical and incremental. We also use a sensemaking perspective to examine the interplay of social and personal factors that may influence a person's engagement in a certain level of creative action versus routine,…

Development of the Nonstationary Incremental Analysis Update Algorithm for Sequential Data Assimilation System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yoo-Geun Ham

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This study introduces a modified version of the incremental analysis updates (IAU, called the nonstationary IAU (NIAU method, to improve the assimilation accuracy of the IAU while keeping the continuity of the analysis. Similar to the IAU, the NIAU is designed to add analysis increments at every model time step to improve the continuity in the intermittent data assimilation. However, unlike the IAU, the NIAU procedure uses time-evolved forcing using the forward operator as corrections to the model. The solution of the NIAU is superior to that of the forward IAU, of which analysis is performed at the beginning of the time window for adding the IAU forcing, in terms of the accuracy of the analysis field. It is because, in the linear systems, the NIAU solution equals that in an intermittent data assimilation method at the end of the assimilation interval. To have the filtering property in the NIAU, a forward operator to propagate the increment is reconstructed with only dominant singular vectors. An illustration of those advantages of the NIAU is given using the simple 40-variable Lorenz model.

Stable isotope time series and dentin increments elucidate Pleistocene proboscidean paleobiology

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, Daniel; Rountrey, Adam; Smith, Kathlyn; Fox, David

2010-05-01

Investigations of stable isotope composition of mineralized tissues have added greatly to our knowledge of past climates and dietary behaviors of organisms, even when they are implemented through 'bulk sampling', in which a single assay yields a single, time-averaged value. Likewise, the practice of 'sclerochronology', which documents periodic structural increments comprising a growth record for accretionary tissues, offers insights into rates of growth and age data at a scale of temporal resolution permitted by the nature of structural increments. We combine both of these approaches to analyze dental tissues of late Pleistocene proboscideans. Tusk dentin typically preserves a record of accretionary growth consisting of histologically distinct increments on daily, approximately weekly, and yearly time scales. Working on polished transverse or longitudinal sections, we mill out a succession of temporally controlled dentin samples bounded by clear structural increments with a known position in the sequence of tusk growth. We further subject each sample (or an aliquot thereof) to multiple compositional analyses - most frequently to assess δ18O and δ13C of hydroxyapatite carbonate, and δ13C and δ15N of collagen. This yields, for each animal and each series of years investigated, a set of parallel compositional time series with a temporal resolution of 1-2 months (or finer if we need additional precision). Patterns in variation of thickness of periodic sub-annual increments yield insight into intra-annual and inter-annual variation of tusk growth rate. This is informative even by itself, but it is still more valuable when coupled with compositional time series. Further, the controls on different stable isotope systems are sufficiently different that the data ensemble yields 'much more than the sum of its parts.' By assessing how compositions and growth rates covary, we monitor with greater confidence changes in local climate, diet, behavior, and health status. We

Status, challenges and marketing opportunities for canning navy ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Status, challenges and marketing opportunities for canning navy bean in Kenya. ... improve incomes of smallholder farmers in Kenya; its production and marketing has, however, stagnated. ... EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT

Break-even price for upstream activities in Brazil: Evaluation of the opportunity cost of oil production delay in a non-mature sedimentary production region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Szklo, Alexandre Salem; Machado, Giovani; Carneiro, Jason Thomas Guerreiro

2008-01-01

Some Latin American policy-makers and analysts state that it would be better to hold oil reserves in place than to produce and cash it now, given the recent oil prices spikes and the fear related to future oil supply disruptions. This article evaluates the strategy of delaying the start-up of oil production in a discovered field with proved reserves. A Reference Discounted Cash Flow (FCD-R) for a typical 350 million barrel Brazilian oil field was simulated. The study estimated which future oil price may render the project insensitive to a delay of 5, 10, 15 or 20 years in its production beginning. Additionally, the value of the in situ oil stock was calculated, providing the opportunity cost for delaying oil production in a frontier area, such as Brazil. It is an application of the Hotelling Principle. Findings indicate that progressive delays of 5 years in the start-up of operation of a typical oil field reduce its revenues by a factor of 2. A delay of 10 years would be justifiable at international oil prices higher than US $15/bbl. Delays higher than 10 years lead this break-even price to values between US $200 and 350/bbl. (author)

Enthalpy increment measurements of Sr3Zr2O7(s) and Sr4Zr3O10(s)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Banerjee, A.; Dash, S.; Prasad, R.; Venugopal, V.

1998-01-01

Enthalpy increment measurements on Sr 3 Zr 2 O 7 (s) and Sr 4 Zr 3 O 10 (s) were carried out using a Calvet micro-calorimeter. The enthalpy increment values were least squares analyzed with the constraints that H 0 (T)-H 0 (298.15 K) at 298.15 K equals to zero and C p 0 (298.15 K) equals to the estimated value. The dependence of enthalpy increment with temperature is given. (orig.)

Investigation of productivity in a south Indian Malabari goat herd shows opportunities for planned animal health management to improve food security.

Science.gov (United States)

Sargison, N D; Ivil, S A J; Abraham, J; Abubaker, S P S; Hopker, A M; Mazeri, S; Otter, I A; Otter, N

2017-03-18

Here the authors report the objective veterinary clinical measurement of productivity in a representative south Indian Malabari goat herd. The authors show failure to meet pragmatic production targets that are commensurate with the animals' genetic potential or adequate to meet the demands of global food security. The authors suggest that this situation may have arisen as a consequence of animal husbandry constraints and protein undernutrition and imply the involvement of nematode parasitism. Benzimidazole resistance was detected in Haemonchus species, showing the need for better understanding of the principles of sustainable helminth parasite control within the southern Indian context. This study highlights the need to understand the true costs of goat production in seasonally resource-poor environments, while also considering its impact on the overall ecosystem in which the animals are placed. They conclude that pragmatic opportunities for improvements in goat production efficiency lie in the development of problem-focused planned animal health and nutrition management. British Veterinary Association.

Business Collaboration in Food Networks: Incremental Solution Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Harald Sundmaeker

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The paper will present an approach for an incremental solution development that is based on the usage of the currently developed Internet based FIspace business collaboration platform. Key element is the clear segmentation of infrastructures that are either internal or external to the collaborating business entity in the food network. On the one hand, the approach enables to differentiate between specific centralised as well as decentralised ways for data storage and hosting of IT based functionalities. The selection of specific dataexchange protocols and data models is facilitated. On the other hand, the supported solution design and subsequent development is focusing on reusable “software Apps” that can be used on their own and are incorporating a clear added value for the business actors. It will be outlined on how to push the development and introduction of Apps that do not require basic changes of the existing infrastructure. The paper will present an example that is based on the development of a set of Apps for the exchange of product quality related information in food networks, specifically addressing fresh fruits and vegetables. It combines workflow support for data exchange from farm to retail as well as to provide quality feedback information to facilitate the business process improvement. Finally, the latest status of theFIspace platform development will be outlined. Key features and potential ways for real users and software developers in using the FIspace platform that is initiated by science and industry will be outlined.

Petroleum exploration and development opportunities in Manitoba

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fox, J.N.; Martiniuk, C.D.

1992-01-01

The productive areas of Manitoba are located along the northeastern flank of the Williston basin. Rocks of Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic age form a basin-ward thickening wedge of sedimentary strata that reach a total thickness of 2,300 m in the southwest corner of the province. A brief description is presented of the geology and reservoir characteristics of petroleum producing horizons in Manitoba. Manitoba's Crown land tenure system of leases and exploitation reservations is described and an overview of Manitoba's petroleum royalty and tax structure and incentive programs is presented. Exploration and development opportunities in Manitoba are outlined. There are numerous development drilling opportunities along the poorly defined edges of existing pools. Exploration opportunities exist in the Mississippian in the sparsely explored areas outside existing field boundaries. Deeper Devonian and Ordovician horizons, productive elsewhere in the Williston basin, remain relatively untested in Manitoba. An attractive, stable investment climate is created by: availability of land at comparatively low cost; a stable and competitive fiscal regime; incentive programs designed to enhance pay-out; low drilling density; relatively untested deep potential below the Mississippian; low drilling and completion costs; easy access to market; and competitive oil prices. 12 refs., 11 figs., 7 tabs

Petroleum exploration and development opportunities in Manitoba

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fox, J.N.; Martiniuk, C.D.

1991-01-01

The productive areas of Manitoba are located along the northeastern flank of the Williston basin. Rocks of paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic age form a basin-ward thickening wedge of sedimentary strata that reach a total thickness of 2,300 m in the southwest corner of the province. A brief description is presented of the geology and reservoir characteristics of petroleum producing horizons in Manitoba. Manitoba's Crown land tenure system of leases and exploitation reservations is described and an overview of Manitoba's petroleum royalty and tax structure and incentive programs is presented. Exploration and development opportunities in Manitoba are outlined. There are numerous development drilling opportunities along the poorly defined edges of existing pools. Exploration opportunities exist in the Mississippian in the sparsely explored areas outside existing field boundaries. Deeper Devonian and Ordovician horizons, productive elsewhere in the Williston basin, remain relatively untested in Manitoba. An attractive, stable investment climate is created by: availability of land at comparatively low cost; a stable and competitive fiscal regime; incentive programs designed to enhance pay-out; low drilling density; relatively untested deep potential below the Mississippian; low drilling and completion costs; easy access to market; and competitive oil prices. 12 refs., 11 figs., 7 tabs

Influence of the selection from incremental stages on lactate minimum intensity: a pilot study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Willian Eiji Miyagi

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The purposes of this study were to assess the influence of stage selection from the incremental phase and the use of peak lactate after hyperlactatemia induction on the determination of the lactate minimum intensity (iLACmin. Twelve moderately active university students (23±5 years, 78.3±14.1 kg, 175.3±5.1 cm performed a maximal incremental test to determine the respiratory compensation point (RCP (initial intensity at 70 W and increments of 17.5 W every 2 minutes and a lactate minimum test (induction with the Wingate test, the incremental test started at 30 W below RCP with increments of 10 W every 3 minutes on a cycle ergometer. The iLACmin was determined using second order polynomial adjustment applying five exercise stage selection: 1 using all stages (iLACmin P; 2 using all stages below and two stages above iLACminP (iLACminA; 3 using two stages below and all stages above iLACminP (iLACminB; 4 using the largest and same possible number of stages below and above the iLACminP (iLACminI; 5 using all stages and peak lactate after hyperlactatemia induction (iLACminD. No differences were found between the iLACminP (138.2±30.2 W, iLACminA (139.1±29.1 W, iLACminB (135.3±14.2 W, iLACminI (138.6±20.5 W and iLACmiD (136.7±28.5 W protocols, and a high level of agreement between these intensities and iLACminP was observed. Oxygen uptake, heart rate, rating of perceived exertion and lactate corresponding to these intensities was not different and was strongly correlated. However, the iLACminB presented the lowest success rate (66.7%. In conclusion, stage selection did not influence the determination of iLACmin but modified the success rate

Radical and Incremental Innovation Preferences in Information Technology: An Empirical Study in an Emerging Economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tarun K. Sen

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Radical and Incremental Innovation Preferences in Information Technology: An Empirical Study in an Emerging Economy Abstract Innovation in information technology is a primary driver for growth in developed economies. Research indicates that countries go through three stages in the adoption of innovation strategies: buying innovation through global trade, incremental innovation from other countries by enhancing efficiency, and, at the most developed stage, radically innovating independently for competitive advantage. The first two stages of innovation maturity depend more on cross-border trade than the third stage. In this paper, we find that IT professionals in in an emerging economy such as India believe in radical innovation over incremental innovation (adaptation as a growth strategy, even though competitive advantage may rest in adaptation. The results of the study report the preference for innovation strategies among IT professionals in India and its implications for other rapidly growing emerging economies.

Adults with initial metabolic syndrome have altered muscle deoxygenation during incremental exercise.

Science.gov (United States)

Machado, Alessandro da Costa; Barbosa, Thales Coelho; Kluser Sales, Allan Robson; de Souza, Marcio Nogueira; da Nóbrega, Antonio Claudio Lucas; Silva, Bruno Moreira

2017-02-01

Reduced aerobic power is independently associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS) incidence and prevalence in adults. This study investigated whether muscle deoxygenation (proxy of microvascular O 2 extraction) during incremental exercise is altered in MetS and associated with reduced oxygen consumption ( V˙O 2peak ). Twelve men with initial MetS (no overt diseases and medication-naive; mean ± SD, age 38 ± 7 years) and 12 healthy controls (HCs) (34 ± 7 years) completed an incremental cycling test to exhaustion, in which pulmonary ventilation and gas exchange (metabolic analyzer), as well as vastus lateralis deoxygenation (near infrared spectroscopy), were measured. Subjects with MetS, in contrast to HCs, showed lower V˙O 2peak normalized to total lean mass, similar V˙O 2 response to exercise, and earlier break point (BP) in muscle deoxygenation. Consequently, deoxygenation slope from BP to peak exercise was greater. Furthermore, absolute V˙O 2peak was positively associated with BP in correlations adjusted for total lean mass. MetS, without overt diseases, altered kinetics of muscle deoxygenation during incremental exercise, particularly at high-intensity exercise. Therefore, the balance between utilization and delivery of O 2 within skeletal muscle is impaired early in MetS natural history, which may contribute to the reduction in aerobic power. © 2017 The Obesity Society.

Incremental Query Rewriting with Resolution

Science.gov (United States)

Riazanov, Alexandre; Aragão, Marcelo A. T.

We address the problem of semantic querying of relational databases (RDB) modulo knowledge bases using very expressive knowledge representation formalisms, such as full first-order logic or its various fragments. We propose to use a resolution-based first-order logic (FOL) reasoner for computing schematic answers to deductive queries, with the subsequent translation of these schematic answers to SQL queries which are evaluated using a conventional relational DBMS. We call our method incremental query rewriting, because an original semantic query is rewritten into a (potentially infinite) series of SQL queries. In this chapter, we outline the main idea of our technique - using abstractions of databases and constrained clauses for deriving schematic answers, and provide completeness and soundness proofs to justify the applicability of this technique to the case of resolution for FOL without equality. The proposed method can be directly used with regular RDBs, including legacy databases. Moreover, we propose it as a potential basis for an efficient Web-scale semantic search technology.

An Incremental Weighted Least Squares Approach to Surface Lights Fields

Science.gov (United States)

Coombe, Greg; Lastra, Anselmo

An Image-Based Rendering (IBR) approach to appearance modelling enables the capture of a wide variety of real physical surfaces with complex reflectance behaviour. The challenges with this approach are handling the large amount of data, rendering the data efficiently, and previewing the model as it is being constructed. In this paper, we introduce the Incremental Weighted Least Squares approach to the representation and rendering of spatially and directionally varying illumination. Each surface patch consists of a set of Weighted Least Squares (WLS) node centers, which are low-degree polynomial representations of the anisotropic exitant radiance. During rendering, the representations are combined in a non-linear fashion to generate a full reconstruction of the exitant radiance. The rendering algorithm is fast, efficient, and implemented entirely on the GPU. The construction algorithm is incremental, which means that images are processed as they arrive instead of in the traditional batch fashion. This human-in-the-loop process enables the user to preview the model as it is being constructed and to adapt to over-sampling and under-sampling of the surface appearance.

Incremental Ontology-Based Extraction and Alignment in Semi-structured Documents

Science.gov (United States)

Thiam, Mouhamadou; Bennacer, Nacéra; Pernelle, Nathalie; Lô, Moussa

SHIRIis an ontology-based system for integration of semi-structured documents related to a specific domain. The system’s purpose is to allow users to access to relevant parts of documents as answers to their queries. SHIRI uses RDF/OWL for representation of resources and SPARQL for their querying. It relies on an automatic, unsupervised and ontology-driven approach for extraction, alignment and semantic annotation of tagged elements of documents. In this paper, we focus on the Extract-Align algorithm which exploits a set of named entity and term patterns to extract term candidates to be aligned with the ontology. It proceeds in an incremental manner in order to populate the ontology with terms describing instances of the domain and to reduce the access to extern resources such as Web. We experiment it on a HTML corpus related to call for papers in computer science and the results that we obtain are very promising. These results show how the incremental behaviour of Extract-Align algorithm enriches the ontology and the number of terms (or named entities) aligned directly with the ontology increases.

Lines of Evidence–Incremental Markings in Molar Enamel of Soay Sheep as Revealed by a Fluorochrome Labeling and Backscattered Electron Imaging Study

Science.gov (United States)

Kierdorf, Horst; Kierdorf, Uwe; Frölich, Kai; Witzel, Carsten

2013-01-01

We studied the structural characteristics and periodicities of regular incremental markings in sheep enamel using fluorochrome injections for vital labeling of forming enamel and backscattered electron imaging in the scanning electron microscope. Microscopic analysis of mandibular first molars revealed the presence of incremental markings with a daily periodicity (laminations) that indicated successive positions of the forming front of interprismatic enamel. In addition to the laminations, incremental markings with a sub-daily periodicity were discernible both in interprismatic enamel and in enamel prisms. Five sub-daily increments were present between two consecutive laminations. Backscattered electron imaging revealed that each sub-daily growth increment consisted of a broader and more highly mineralized band and a narrower and less mineralized band (line). The sub-daily markings in the prisms of sheep enamel morphologically resembled the (daily) prisms cross striations seen in primate enamel. Incremental markings with a supra-daily periodicity were not observed in sheep enamel. Based on the periodicity of the incremental markings, maximum mean daily apposition rates of 17.0 µm in buccal enamel and of 13.4 µm in lingual enamel were recorded. Enamel extension rates were also high, with maximum means of 180 µm/day and 217 µm/day in upper crown areas of buccal and lingual enamel, respectively. Values in more cervical crown portions were markedly lower. Our results are in accordance with previous findings in other ungulate species. Using the incremental markings present in primate enamel as a reference could result in a misinterpretation of the incremental markings in ungulate enamel. Thus, the sub-daily growth increments in the prisms of ungulate enamel might be mistaken as prism cross striations with a daily periodicity, and the laminations misidentified as striae of Retzius with a supra-daily periodicity. This would lead to a considerable overestimation of

Fumaric acid production by fermentation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roa Engel, C.A.; Straathof, A.J.J.; Zijlmans, T.W.; Van Gulik, W.M.; Van der Wielen, L.A.M.

2008-01-01

Abstract The potential of fumaric acid as a raw material in the polymer industry and the increment of cost of petroleum-based fumaric acid raises interest in fermentation processes for production of this compound from renewable resources. Although the chemical process yields 112% w/w fumaric acid

A parallel ILP algorithm that incorporates incremental batch learning

OpenAIRE

Nuno Fonseca; Rui Camacho; Fernado Silva

2003-01-01

In this paper we tackle the problems of eciency and scala-bility faced by Inductive Logic Programming (ILP) systems. We proposethe use of parallelism to improve eciency and the use of an incrementalbatch learning to address the scalability problem. We describe a novelparallel algorithm that incorporates into ILP the method of incremen-tal batch learning. The theoretical complexity of the algorithm indicatesthat a linear speedup can be achieved.

Partial and incremental PCMH practice transformation: implications for quality and costs.

Science.gov (United States)

Paustian, Michael L; Alexander, Jeffrey A; El Reda, Darline K; Wise, Chris G; Green, Lee A; Fetters, Michael D

2014-02-01

To examine the associations between partial and incremental implementation of the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model and measures of cost and quality of care. We combined validated, self-reported PCMH capabilities data with administrative claims data for a diverse statewide population of 2,432 primary care practices in Michigan. These data were supplemented with contextual data from the Area Resource File. We measured medical home capabilities in place as of June 2009 and change in medical home capabilities implemented between July 2009 and June 2010. Generalized estimating equations were used to estimate the mean effect of these PCMH measures on total medical costs and quality of care delivered in physician practices between July 2009 and June 2010, while controlling for potential practice, patient cohort, physician organization, and practice environment confounders. Based on the observed relationships for partial implementation, full implementation of the PCMH model is associated with a 3.5 percent higher quality composite score, a 5.1 percent higher preventive composite score, and $26.37 lower per member per month medical costs for adults. Full PCMH implementation is also associated with a 12.2 percent higher preventive composite score, but no reductions in costs for pediatric populations. Incremental improvements in PCMH model implementation yielded similar positive effects on quality of care for both adult and pediatric populations but were not associated with cost savings for either population. Estimated effects of the PCMH model on quality and cost of care appear to improve with the degree of PCMH implementation achieved and with incremental improvements in implementation. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

An Empirical Analysis of Incremental Capital Structure Decisions Under Managerial Entrenchment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Jong, A.; Veld, C.H.

1998-01-01

We study incremental capital structure decisions of Dutch companies. From 1977 to 1996 these companies have made 110 issues of public and private seasoned equity and 137 public issues of straight debt. Managers of Dutch companies are entrenched. For this reason a discrepancy exists between

The effects of the pine processionary moth on the increment of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

STORAGESEVER

2009-05-18

May 18, 2009 ... sycophanta L. (Coleoptera: Carabidae) used against the pine processionary moth (Thaumetopoea pityocampa Den. & Schiff.) (Lepidoptera: Thaumetopoeidae) in biological control. T. J. Zool. 30:181-185. Kanat M, Sivrikaya F (2005). Effect of the pine processionary moth on diameter increment of Calabrian ...

Substructuring in the implicit simulation of single point incremental sheet forming

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hadoush, A.; van den Boogaard, Antonius H.

2009-01-01

This paper presents a direct substructuring method to reduce the computing time of implicit simulations of single point incremental forming (SPIF). Substructuring is used to divide the finite element (FE) mesh into several non-overlapping parts. Based on the hypothesis that plastic deformation is

The incremental role of trait emotional intelligence on perceived cervical screening barriers.

Science.gov (United States)

Costa, Sebastiano; Barberis, Nadia; Larcan, Rosalba; Cuzzocrea, Francesca

2018-02-13

Researchers have become increasingly interested in investigating the role of the psychological aspects related to the perception of cervical screening barriers. This study investigates the influence of trait EI on perceived cervical screening barriers. Furthermore, this study investigates the incremental validity of trait EI beyond the Big Five, as well as emotion regulation in the perceived barrier towards the Pap test as revealed in a sample of 206 Italian women that were undergoing cervical screening. Results have shown that trait EI is negatively related to cervical screening barriers. Furthermore, trait EI can be considered as a strong incremental predictor of a woman's perception of screening over and above the Big Five, emotion regulation, age, sexual intercourse experience and past Pap test. Detailed information on the study findings and future research directions are discussed.

Incremental learning of concept drift in nonstationary environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Elwell, Ryan; Polikar, Robi

2011-10-01

We introduce an ensemble of classifiers-based approach for incremental learning of concept drift, characterized by nonstationary environments (NSEs), where the underlying data distributions change over time. The proposed algorithm, named Learn(++). NSE, learns from consecutive batches of data without making any assumptions on the nature or rate of drift; it can learn from such environments that experience constant or variable rate of drift, addition or deletion of concept classes, as well as cyclical drift. The algorithm learns incrementally, as other members of the Learn(++) family of algorithms, that is, without requiring access to previously seen data. Learn(++). NSE trains one new classifier for each batch of data it receives, and combines these classifiers using a dynamically weighted majority voting. The novelty of the approach is in determining the voting weights, based on each classifier's time-adjusted accuracy on current and past environments. This approach allows the algorithm to recognize, and act accordingly, to the changes in underlying data distributions, as well as to a possible reoccurrence of an earlier distribution. We evaluate the algorithm on several synthetic datasets designed to simulate a variety of nonstationary environments, as well as a real-world weather prediction dataset. Comparisons with several other approaches are also included. Results indicate that Learn(++). NSE can track the changing environments very closely, regardless of the type of concept drift. To allow future use, comparison and benchmarking by interested researchers, we also release our data used in this paper. © 2011 IEEE

Guide to resource conservation and cost savings opportunities in the dairy processing sector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1995-12-31

This guide identifies and promotes opportunities for conserving energy and water, as well as reducing waste, in the dairy processing sector. The guide begins with an introduction and a profile of Ontario`s dairy processing sector, outlining the context for resource conservation and cost savings opportunities. It then outlines the rationale and the generic processes selected for careful examination of resource conservation and cost savings opportunities. Subsequent chapters describe the energy, water, and material resources commonly used in relation to the generic processes; the air, water, and solid waste residuals commonly derived from those processes; and new technologies with potential application in dairy processing. The generic processes covered in the guide are for fluid milk, cheese, ice cream and frozen products, cultured products such as yogurt, butter, and dried or evaporated products. The report ends with additional useful information for dairy processors.

Classifier-ensemble incremental-learning procedure for nuclear transient identification at different operational conditions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baraldi, Piero, E-mail: piero.baraldi@polimi.i [Dipartimento di Energia - Sezione Ingegneria Nucleare, Politecnico di Milano, via Ponzio 34/3, 20133 Milano (Italy); Razavi-Far, Roozbeh [Dipartimento di Energia - Sezione Ingegneria Nucleare, Politecnico di Milano, via Ponzio 34/3, 20133 Milano (Italy); Zio, Enrico [Dipartimento di Energia - Sezione Ingegneria Nucleare, Politecnico di Milano, via Ponzio 34/3, 20133 Milano (Italy); Ecole Centrale Paris-Supelec, Paris (France)

2011-04-15

An important requirement for the practical implementation of empirical diagnostic systems is the capability of classifying transients in all plant operational conditions. The present paper proposes an approach based on an ensemble of classifiers for incrementally learning transients under different operational conditions. New classifiers are added to the ensemble where transients occurring in new operational conditions are not satisfactorily classified. The construction of the ensemble is made by bagging; the base classifier is a supervised Fuzzy C Means (FCM) classifier whose outcomes are combined by majority voting. The incremental learning procedure is applied to the identification of simulated transients in the feedwater system of a Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) under different reactor power levels.

Classifier-ensemble incremental-learning procedure for nuclear transient identification at different operational conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baraldi, Piero; Razavi-Far, Roozbeh; Zio, Enrico

2011-01-01

An important requirement for the practical implementation of empirical diagnostic systems is the capability of classifying transients in all plant operational conditions. The present paper proposes an approach based on an ensemble of classifiers for incrementally learning transients under different operational conditions. New classifiers are added to the ensemble where transients occurring in new operational conditions are not satisfactorily classified. The construction of the ensemble is made by bagging; the base classifier is a supervised Fuzzy C Means (FCM) classifier whose outcomes are combined by majority voting. The incremental learning procedure is applied to the identification of simulated transients in the feedwater system of a Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) under different reactor power levels.

Incremental inverse kinematics based vision servo for autonomous robotic capture of non-cooperative space debris

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, Gangqi; Zhu, Z. H.

2016-04-01

This paper proposed a new incremental inverse kinematics based vision servo approach for robotic manipulators to capture a non-cooperative target autonomously. The target's pose and motion are estimated by a vision system using integrated photogrammetry and EKF algorithm. Based on the estimated pose and motion of the target, the instantaneous desired position of the end-effector is predicted by inverse kinematics and the robotic manipulator is moved incrementally from its current configuration subject to the joint speed limits. This approach effectively eliminates the multiple solutions in the inverse kinematics and increases the robustness of the control algorithm. The proposed approach is validated by a hardware-in-the-loop simulation, where the pose and motion of the non-cooperative target is estimated by a real vision system. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed estimation approach for the target and the incremental control strategy for the robotic manipulator.

Crisis als kans? Over de relatie tussen crises en hervormingen in het vreemdelingenbeleid van Nederland en Duitsland

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alink, F.B.

2006-01-01

Crisis: opportunity to reform? Reform in the wake of a crisis is often resisted by the bureaucracy and by society out of fear of, or lack of knowledge about the consequences of these proposals for change. Although policy reform and creation are generally the products of incremental change, policy

One Size Does Not Fit All: Managing Radical and Incremental Creativity

Science.gov (United States)

Gilson, Lucy L.; Lim, Hyoun Sook; D'Innocenzo, Lauren; Moye, Neta

2012-01-01

This research extends creativity theory by re-conceptualizing creativity as a two-dimensional construct (radical and incremental) and examining the differential effects of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic rewards, and supportive supervision on perceptions of creativity. We hypothesize and find two distinct types of creativity that are associated…

The intermetallic ThRh5: microstructure and enthalpy increments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Banerjee, Aparna; Joshi, A.R.; Kaity, Santu; Mishra, R.; Roy, S.B.

2013-01-01

Actinide intermetallics are one of the most interesting and important series of compounds. Thermochemistry of these compounds play significant role in understand the nature of bonding in alloys and nuclear fuel performance. In the present paper we report synthesis and characterization of thorium based intermetallic compound ThRh 5 (s) by SEM/EDX technique. The mechanical properties and enthalpy increment as a function of temperature of the alloy has been measured. (author)

Efficient Incremental Garbage Collection for Workstation/Server Database Systems

OpenAIRE

Amsaleg , Laurent; Gruber , Olivier; Franklin , Michael

1994-01-01

Projet RODIN; We describe an efficient server-based algorithm for garbage collecting object-oriented databases in a workstation/server environment. The algorithm is incremental and runs concurrently with client transactions, however, it does not hold any locks on data and does not require callbacks to clients. It is fault tolerant, but performs very little logging. The algorithm has been designed to be integrated into existing OODB systems, and therefore it works with standard implementation ...

Incremental validity of positive and negative valence in predicting personality disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Simms, Leonard J; Yufik, Tom; Gros, Daniel F

2010-04-01

The Big Seven model of personality includes five dimensions similar to the Big Five model as well as two evaluative dimensions—Positive Valence (PV) and Negative Valence (NV)—which reflect extremely positive and negative person descriptors, respectively. Recent theory and research have suggested that PV and NV predict significant variance in personality disorder (PD) above that predicted by the Big Five, but firm conclusions have not been possible because previous studies have been limited to only single measures of PV, NV, and the Big Five traits. In the present study, we replicated and extended previous findings using three markers of all key constructs—including PV, NV, and the Big Five—in a diverse sample of 338 undergraduates. Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that PV incrementally predicted Narcissistic and Histrionic PDs above the Big Five and that NV nonspecifically incremented the prediction of most PDs. Implications for dimensional models of personality pathology are discussed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Constraints and opportunities for sustainable crop production in rainfed areas of pothwar plateau

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ghafoor, A.; Shafiq, M.; Aslam, M.

2006-01-01

The rainfed areas, commonly known as barani tract, accounts for about 25% of the total cropped area in the Punjab. The Pothwar plateau comprising 1.82 million hectare, is the largest contiguous block of rainfed areas in Punjab. Low and erratic rainfall, water-erosion hazard, inadequate depth of soil and poor soil-fertility are the main limitations affecting the production-potential of these areas. To ensure that farmers readily adopt the agricultural technologies developed by the research-system, these should be based on real-life problems, appropriate to the natural and socio-economic environments in which farmers make decisions. The present study was undertaken in tehsils Fatehjang and Gujar Khan of Pothwar plateau, to broadly understand farmers perceptions and approaches for rainwater-harvesting and soil-fertility management. It was observed that farm size was relatively bigger in Fatehjang than Gujar Khan. About 86% and 63% of respondents in Gujar Khan and Fatehjang cultivated their own lands. Nearly 40% of respondents in both the tehsils had their lands in 3 to 6 parcels, which hindered the farm-operation and soil and water conservation activities. The uses of fertilizers are sub-optimal and imbalanced. The soil-fertility is going down. The rainwater-conservation practices are not being adopted, due to high cost of machinery and disinterest of farmers in agriculture. The farming is going to be come un- economical. The analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) was carried out and the results are discussed. Some recommendations have been proposed to control soil-erosion, moisture-stress and fertility-degradation and to sustain agricultural production in these areas. (author)

Energy Harvesting-based Spectrum Access with Incremental Cooperation, Relay Selection and Hardware Noises

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. N. Nguyen

2017-04-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we propose an energy harvesting (EH-based spectrum access model in cognitive radio (CR network. In the proposed scheme, one of available secondary transmitters (STs helps a primary transmitter (PT forward primary signals to a primary receiver (PR. Via the cooperation, the selected ST finds opportunities to access licensed bands to transmit secondary signals to its intended secondary receiver (SR. Secondary users are assumed to be mobile, hence, optimization of energy consumption for these users is interested. The EH STs have to harvest energy from the PT's radio-frequency (RF signals to serve the PT-PR communication as well as to transmit their signals. The proposed scheme employs incremental relaying technique in which the PR only requires the assistance from the STs when the transmission between PT and PR is not successful. Moreover, we also investigate impact of hardware impairments on performance of the primary and secondary networks. For performance evaluation, we derive exact and lower-bound expressions of outage probability (OP over Rayleigh fading channel. Monte-Carlo simulations are performed to verify the theoretical results. The results present that the outage performance of both networks can be enhanced by increasing the number of the ST-SR pairs. In addition, it is also shown that fraction of time used for EH, positions of the secondary users and the hardware-impairment level significantly impact on the system performance.

Technological Advances and Opportunities for the Development of Sustainable Biorefineries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mussatto, Solange I.

to generate new jobs and new opportunities for entrepreneurship, with further benefits to the global economy and the society. Biomass can be used to replace fossil feedstocks for the production of different products, among of which, chemicals are particularly very attractive due to their high market value...

Integration of microalgae cultivation with industrial waste remediation for biofuel and bioenergy production: opportunities and limitations.

Science.gov (United States)

McGinn, Patrick J; Dickinson, Kathryn E; Bhatti, Shabana; Frigon, Jean-Claude; Guiot, Serge R; O'Leary, Stephen J B

2011-09-01

There is currently a renewed interest in developing microalgae as a source of renewable energy and fuel. Microalgae hold great potential as a source of biomass for the production of energy and fungible liquid transportation fuels. However, the technologies required for large-scale cultivation, processing, and conversion of microalgal biomass to energy products are underdeveloped. Microalgae offer several advantages over traditional 'first-generation' biofuels crops like corn: these include superior biomass productivity, the ability to grow on poor-quality land unsuitable for agriculture, and the potential for sustainable growth by extracting macro- and micronutrients from wastewater and industrial flue-stack emissions. Integrating microalgal cultivation with municipal wastewater treatment and industrial CO(2) emissions from coal-fired power plants is a potential strategy to produce large quantities of biomass, and represents an opportunity to develop, test, and optimize the necessary technologies to make microalgal biofuels more cost-effective and efficient. However, many constraints on the eventual deployment of this technology must be taken into consideration and mitigating strategies developed before large scale microalgal cultivation can become a reality. As a strategy for CO(2) biomitigation from industrial point source emitters, microalgal cultivation can be limited by the availability of land, light, and other nutrients like N and P. Effective removal of N and P from municipal wastewater is limited by the processing capacity of available microalgal cultivation systems. Strategies to mitigate against the constraints are discussed.

An Environment for Incremental Development of Distributed Extensible Asynchronous Real-time Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Ames, Charles K.; Burleigh, Scott; Briggs, Hugh C.; Auernheimer, Brent

1996-01-01

Incremental parallel development of distributed real-time systems is difficult. Architectural techniques and software tools developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL's) Flight System Testbed make feasible the integration of complex systems in various stages of development.

A gradient surface produced by combined electroplating and incremental frictional sliding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yu, Tianbo; Hong, Chuanshi; Kitamura, K.

2017-01-01

A Cu plate was first electroplated with a Ni layer, with a thickness controlled to be between 1 and 2 mu m. The coated surface was then deformed by incremental frictional sliding with liquid nitrogen cooling. The combined treatment led to a multifunctional surface with a gradient in strain...

The more you learn, the less you store : Memory-controlled incremental SVM for visual place recognition

OpenAIRE

Pronobis, Andrzej; Jie, Luo; Caputo, Barbara

2010-01-01

The capability to learn from experience is a key property for autonomous cognitive systems working in realistic settings. To this end, this paper presents an SVM-based algorithm, capable of learning model representations incrementally while keeping under control memory requirements. We combine an incremental extension of SVMs [43] with a method reducing the number of support vectors needed to build the decision function without any loss in performance [15] introducing a parameter which permit...

Incremental health care utilization and costs for acute otitis media in children.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmed, Sameer; Shapiro, Nina L; Bhattacharyya, Neil

2014-01-01

Determine the incremental health care costs associated with the diagnosis and treatment of acute otitis media (AOM) in children. Cross-sectional analysis of a national health-care cost database. Pediatric patients (age children with and without a diagnosis of AOM, adjusting for age, sex, region, race, ethnicity, insurance coverage, and Charlson comorbidity Index. A total of 8.7 ± 0.4 million children were diagnosed with AOM (10.7 ± 0.4% annually, mean age 5.3 years, 51.3% male) among 81.5 ± 2.3 million children sampled (mean age 8.9 years, 51.3% male). Children with AOM manifested an additional +2.0 office visits, +0.2 emergency department visits, and +1.6 prescription fills (all P <0.001) per year versus those without AOM, adjusting for demographics and medical comorbidities. Similarly, AOM was associated with an incremental increase in outpatient health care costs of $314 per child annually (P <0.001) and an increase of $17 in patient medication costs (P <0.001), but was not associated with an increase in total prescription expenses ($13, P = 0.766). The diagnosis of AOM confers a significant incremental health-care utilization burden on both patients and the health care system. With its high prevalence across the United States, pediatric AOM accounts for approximately $2.88 billion in added health care expense annually and is a significant health-care utilization concern. © 2013 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

Robust flight control using incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion and angular acceleration prediction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sieberling, S.; Chu, Q.P.; Mulder, J.A.

2010-01-01

This paper presents a flight control strategy based on nonlinear dynamic inversion. The approach presented, called incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion, uses properties of general mechanical systems and nonlinear dynamic inversion by feeding back angular accelerations. Theoretically, feedback of

Summaries of important areas for mineral investment and production opportunities of nonfuel minerals in Afghanistan

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Stephen G.; King, Trude V.V.; Mack, Thomas J.; Chornack, Michael P.

2011-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO) entered into an agreement with the Afghanistan Geological Survey to study and assess the fuel and nonfuel mineral resources of Afghanistan from October 2009 to September 2011 so that these resources could be economically extracted to expand the economy of Afghanistan. This report summarizes the results of joint studies on 24 important areas of interest (AOIs) of nonfuel mineral resources that were identified for mineral investment and production opportunities in Afghanistan. This report is supported by digital data and archival and non-USGS reports on each AOI, and these data are available from the Afghanistan Geological Survey Data Center in Kabul (http://mom.gov.af/en/ and http://www.bgs.ac.uk/afghanminerals/) and for viewing and download on the USGS public Web site and in a separate viewer at http://mapdss2.er.usgs.gov/.

Resilience or hope? Incremental and convergent validity of the resilience scale for adults (RSA and the Herth hope scale (HHS in the prediction of anxiety and depression

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roxanna Morote

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Hope and resilience protect against inner vulnerabilities or harsh life circumstances; they explain individual differences in physical or mental health outcomes under high stress. They have been studied in complementary or competing theoretical frameworks; therefore, the study of measures of hope and resilience should be undertaken prior to explore if they are truly value-added for research. This study investigates the convergent and incremental validity of the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA and the Herth Hope Scale (HHS, in the prediction of anxiety and depression (HSCL-25. Methods Participants in this community-based sample are 762 adults from 18 to 74 years old. They answered the RSA, HHS, Spanish Language Stressful Life-Events Checklist (SL-SLE, and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25. Incremental validity analyses combined hierarchical regression and structural equation models (SEM. First, hierarchical regression models were compared based on three criteria (R 2 Diff., ΔF, and semi-partial r, then the direct effect of resilience on affective symptoms was compared with the mediated effect of resilience on affective symptoms through hope. Results The hierarchical models showed that (1 hope and resilience account significantly for the variance of affective symptoms above age, sex, and life-stress; (2 Resilience Total score has greater incremental validity than positive scales of HHS Hope; and (3 RSA Total score, HHS Optimism/Spiritual support, Stressful life-events and sex are unique predictors of affective symptoms. The SEM analyses verified a stronger direct effect of resilience in the prediction of affective symptoms above the significant partial mediated effect of resilience through hope. Additionally, results show that age and better educational opportunities were associated with protection (i.e. resilience and hope and emotional well-being (i.e. affective symptoms and hopelessness. Women showed higher scores

Resilience or hope? Incremental and convergent validity of the resilience scale for adults (RSA) and the Herth hope scale (HHS) in the prediction of anxiety and depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Morote, Roxanna; Hjemdal, Odin; Krysinska, Karolina; Martinez Uribe, Patricia; Corveleyn, Jozef

2017-10-27

Hope and resilience protect against inner vulnerabilities or harsh life circumstances; they explain individual differences in physical or mental health outcomes under high stress. They have been studied in complementary or competing theoretical frameworks; therefore, the study of measures of hope and resilience should be undertaken prior to explore if they are truly value-added for research. This study investigates the convergent and incremental validity of the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) and the Herth Hope Scale (HHS), in the prediction of anxiety and depression (HSCL-25). Participants in this community-based sample are 762 adults from 18 to 74 years old. They answered the RSA, HHS, Spanish Language Stressful Life-Events Checklist (SL-SLE), and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25). Incremental validity analyses combined hierarchical regression and structural equation models (SEM). First, hierarchical regression models were compared based on three criteria (R 2 Diff., ΔF, and semi-partial r), then the direct effect of resilience on affective symptoms was compared with the mediated effect of resilience on affective symptoms through hope. The hierarchical models showed that (1) hope and resilience account significantly for the variance of affective symptoms above age, sex, and life-stress; (2) Resilience Total score has greater incremental validity than positive scales of HHS Hope; and (3) RSA Total score, HHS Optimism/Spiritual support, Stressful life-events and sex are unique predictors of affective symptoms. The SEM analyses verified a stronger direct effect of resilience in the prediction of affective symptoms above the significant partial mediated effect of resilience through hope. Additionally, results show that age and better educational opportunities were associated with protection (i.e. resilience and hope) and emotional well-being (i.e. affective symptoms and hopelessness). Women showed higher scores in social competences and resources (RSA

Incremental growth of therizinosaurian dental tissues: implications for dietary transitions in Theropoda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khai Button

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Previous investigations document functional and phylogenetic signals in the histology of dinosaur teeth. In particular, incremental lines in dentin have been used to determine tooth growth and replacement rates in several dinosaurian clades. However, to date, few studies have investigated the dental microstructure of theropods in the omnivory/herbivory spectrum. Here we examine dental histology of Therizinosauria, a clade of large-bodied theropods bearing significant morphological evidence for herbivory, by examining the teeth of the early-diverging therizinosaurian Falcarius utahensis, and an isolated tooth referred to Suzhousaurus megatherioides, a highly specialized large-bodied representative. Despite attaining some of the largest body masses among maniraptoran theropod dinosaurs, therizinosaurian teeth are diminutive, measuring no more than 0.90 cm in crown height (CH and 0.38 cm in crown base length (CBL. Comparisons with other theropods and non-theropodan herbivorous dinosaurs reveals that when controlling for estimated body mass, crown volume in therizinosaurians plots most closely with dinosaurs of similar dietary strategy as opposed to phylogenetic heritage. Analysis of incremental growth lines in dentin, observed in thin sections of therizinosaurian teeth, demonstrates that tooth growth rates fall within the range of other archosaurs, conforming to hypothesized physiological limitations on the production of dental tissues. Despite dietary differences between therizinosaurians and hypercarnivorous theropods, the types of enamel crystallites present and their spatial distribution—i.e., the schmelzmuster of both taxa—is limited to parallel enamel crystallites, the simplest form of enamel and the plesiomorphic condition for Theropoda. This finding supports previous hypotheses that dental microstructure is strongly influenced by phylogeny, yet equally supports suggestions of reduced reliance on oral processing in omnivorous

Measuring Clinical Productivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Hudson, Mark E; Lebovitz, Evan E

2018-06-01

Productivity measurements have been used to evaluate and compare physicians and physician practices. Anesthesiology is unique in that factors outside anesthesiologist control impact opportunity for revenue generation and make comparisons between providers and facilities challenging. This article uses data from the multicenter University of Pittsburgh Physicians Department of Anesthesiology to demonstrate factors influencing productivity opportunity by surgical facility, between department divisions and subspecialties within multispecialty divisions, and by individuals within divisions. The complexities of benchmarking anesthesiology productivity are demonstrated, and the potential value of creating a productivity profile for facilities and groups is illustrated. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

On the search for an appropriate metric for reaction time to suprathreshold increments and decrements.

Science.gov (United States)

Vassilev, Angel; Murzac, Adrian; Zlatkova, Margarita B; Anderson, Roger S

2009-03-01

Weber contrast, DeltaL/L, is a widely used contrast metric for aperiodic stimuli. Zele, Cao & Pokorny [Zele, A. J., Cao, D., & Pokorny, J. (2007). Threshold units: A correct metric for reaction time? Vision Research, 47, 608-611] found that neither Weber contrast nor its transform to detection-threshold units equates human reaction times in response to luminance increments and decrements under selective rod stimulation. Here we show that their rod reaction times are equated when plotted against the spatial luminance ratio between the stimulus and its background (L(max)/L(min), the larger and smaller of background and stimulus luminances). Similarly, reaction times to parafoveal S-cone selective increments and decrements from our previous studies [Murzac, A. (2004). A comparative study of the temporal characteristics of processing of S-cone incremental and decremental signals. PhD thesis, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Murzac, A., & Vassilev, A. (2004). Reaction time to S-cone increments and decrements. In: 7th European conference on visual perception, Budapest, August 22-26. Perception, 33, 180 (Abstract).], are better described by the spatial luminance ratio than by Weber contrast. We assume that the type of stimulus detection by temporal (successive) luminance discrimination, by spatial (simultaneous) luminance discrimination or by both [Sperling, G., & Sondhi, M. M. (1968). Model for visual luminance discrimination and flicker detection. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 58, 1133-1145.] determines the appropriateness of one or other contrast metric for reaction time.

[Combine fats products: methodic opportunities of it identification].

Science.gov (United States)

Viktorova, E V; Kulakova, S N; Mikhaĭlov, N A

2006-01-01

At present time very topical problem is falsification of milk fat. The number of methods was considered to detection of milk fat authention and possibilities his difference from combined fat products. The analysis of modern approaches to valuation of milk fat authention has showed that the main method for detection of fat nature is gas chromatography analysis. The computer method of express identification of fat products is proposed for quick getting of information about accessory of examine fat to nature milk or combined fat product.

New opportunities from nuclear R and D

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hart, R.G.

1984-01-01

The author presents a new initiative within Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), the intention to look for spin-off business opportunities from main-line research and development. In 1982 AECL began encouraging ideas for spin-off applications. Some problems were encountered: the reluctance of staff to divert attention from the CANDU program; resource allocation; difficulties in getting market input; and difficulties in deciding what to license and what to retain as an in-house business opportunity. Successes have come in the areas of using CANDU technology in LWRs, SLOWPOKE reactors, industrial accelerators, stable isotope production, intelligent sensing systems, and deuterated lucite for fibre optics. (L.L.)

Biomass opportunities in the United States to mitigate the effects of global warming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sampson, R.N.

1991-01-01

The increased interest in the global warming threat has caused a great deal of attention to be paid to the value of forests as a mitigating strategy. This paper is a preliminary report on efforts by a number of investigators to document the opportunities for improving the forests of the United States, and the effect that those improvements might have on global warming. In the process, major interest is on the amount of biomass that can be produced - particularly opportunities to increase the amount of biomass that can be produced annually in relatively stable forms - woody plant structures, woody roots, soil carbon, and long-lived wood products - or burned as a substitute for fossil fuels. While it is readily recognized that growing additional forest products is not a way out of avoiding other issues such as energy conservation and reduction of industrial emissions, forestry opportunities provide an excellent bridging strategy that may buy a few decades of time on the problem of carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere, while at the same time providing a host of other economic and environmental benefits. In other words, at reasonable levels, implementing forestry opportunities is a global warming strategy that does not cost, it pays. The current state of the study leads us to believe that those opportunities can offset somewhere in the neighborhood of half of the current net fossil fuel carbon emissions produced by the United States, with changes that are economically sound for other reasons - mainly in terms of forest products produced, or energy expenditures avoided. In the process, there are substantial collateral environmental benefits that will be realized. It seems clear, however, that we can increase forest acreage, and forest productivity, more than current markets for forest products can absorb. Thus, new markets will need to be established. 36 refs., 11 figs., 6 tabs

Ways of looking ahead: hierarchical planning in language production.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Eun-Kyung; Brown-Schmidt, Sarah; Watson, Duane G

2013-12-01

It is generally assumed that language production proceeds incrementally, with chunks of linguistic structure planned ahead of speech. Extensive research has examined the scope of language production and suggests that the size of planned chunks varies across contexts (Ferreira & Swets, 2002; Wagner & Jescheniak, 2010). By contrast, relatively little is known about the structure of advance planning, specifically whether planning proceeds incrementally according to the surface structure of the utterance, or whether speakers plan according to the hierarchical relationships between utterance elements. In two experiments, we examine the structure and scope of lexical planning in language production using a picture description task. Analyses of speech onset times and word durations show that speakers engage in hierarchical planning such that structurally dependent lexical items are planned together and that hierarchical planning occurs for both direct and indirect dependencies. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A power-driven increment borer for sampling high-density tropical wood

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Krottenthaler, S.; Pitsch, P.; Helle, G.; Locosselli, G. M.; Ceccantini, G.; Altman, Jan; Svoboda, M.; Doležal, Jiří; Schleser, G.; Anhuf, D.

2015-01-01

Roč. 36, November (2015), s. 40-44 ISSN 1125-7865 R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP504/12/1952; GA ČR(CZ) GA14-12262S Institutional support: RVO:67985939 Keywords : tropical dendrochronology * tree sampling methods * increment cores Subject RIV: EF - Botanics Impact factor: 2.107, year: 2015

THE BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES STRATEGY TOWARDS THE TKI (INDONESIAN MIGRANT WORKERS) MARKET

OpenAIRE

Sihombing, Haeryip; Yaakob, Moh. Yuhazri; Safarudin, Mochamad

2015-01-01

The business prospects and opportunities of the migrant workers’ (TKI) market are still wide open. This is shown by the year to year remittances incremental of TKI thatcorresponds to the beneficial opportunity of the business players to optimize their exploration of this market. In reality, the current efforts and strategy in this exploration,however, are still not utilised effectively in terms of competitive advantage. Therefore the initiative strategy towards product differentiation and inn...

Variational formulation for dissipative continua and an incremental J-integral

Science.gov (United States)

Rahaman, Md. Masiur; Dhas, Bensingh; Roy, D.; Reddy, J. N.

2018-01-01

Our aim is to rationally formulate a proper variational principle for dissipative (viscoplastic) solids in the presence of inertia forces. As a first step, a consistent linearization of the governing nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) is carried out. An additional set of complementary (adjoint) equations is then formed to recover an underlying variational structure for the augmented system of linearized balance laws. This makes it possible to introduce an incremental Lagrangian such that the linearized PDEs, including the complementary equations, become the Euler-Lagrange equations. Continuous groups of symmetries of the linearized PDEs are computed and an analysis is undertaken to identify the variational groups of symmetries of the linearized dissipative system. Application of Noether's theorem leads to the conservation laws (conserved currents) of motion corresponding to the variational symmetries. As a specific outcome, we exploit translational symmetries of the functional in the material space and recover, via Noether's theorem, an incremental J-integral for viscoplastic solids in the presence of inertia forces. Numerical demonstrations are provided through a two-dimensional plane strain numerical simulation of a compact tension specimen of annealed mild steel under dynamic loading.

Evaluation of the productive behavior of Psidium salutare (H.B.K. Berg in plantations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nelson Valdes Rodriguez

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The present work was carried out in the productive ecosystem of Psidiumsalutare (H.B.K. Berg (Guayabita del pinar, in the well-known productive area La Lechuza, Los Palacios municipality, having as objectives to value the productive behavior of indicators of the ecosystem, aspect of great importance to maintain the productive levels of the ecosystem, at the same time the species that is an autochthonous species of the western area of Cuba is conserved. For their realization field visits and the collection of all information of production of last 27 years were made, and it shows the productive increment of species, the conservation levels, as well as the first floor employment of external inputs, for that you can conclude that the integral application of the evaluated indicators can bring as results new productive increments and bigger conservation levels for the species and the landscape.

Applying CLSM to increment core surfaces for histometric analyses: A novel advance in quantitative wood anatomy

OpenAIRE

Wei Liang; Ingo Heinrich; Gerhard Helle; I. Dorado Liñán; T. Heinken

2013-01-01

A novel procedure has been developed to conduct cell structure measurements on increment core samples of conifers. The procedure combines readily available hardware and software equipment. The essential part of the procedure is the application of a confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) which captures images directly from increment cores surfaced with the advanced WSL core-microtome. Cell wall and lumen are displayed with a strong contrast due to the monochrome black and green nature of th...

A maximal incremental effort alters tear osmolarity depending on the fitness level in military helicopter pilots.

Science.gov (United States)

Vera, Jesús; Jiménez, Raimundo; Madinabeitia, Iker; Masiulis, Nerijus; Cárdenas, David

2017-10-01

Fitness level modulates the physiological responses to exercise for a variety of indices. While intense bouts of exercise have been demonstrated to increase tear osmolarity (Tosm), it is not known if fitness level can affect the Tosm response to acute exercise. This study aims to compare the effect of a maximal incremental test on Tosm between trained and untrained military helicopter pilots. Nineteen military helicopter pilots (ten trained and nine untrained) performed a maximal incremental test on a treadmill. A tear sample was collected before and after physical effort to determine the exercise-induced changes on Tosm. The Bayesian statistical analysis demonstrated that Tosm significantly increased from 303.72 ± 6.76 to 310.56 ± 8.80 mmol/L after performance of a maximal incremental test. However, while the untrained group showed an acute Tosm rise (12.33 mmol/L of increment), the trained group experienced a stable Tosm physical effort (1.45 mmol/L). There was a significant positive linear association between fat indices and Tosm changes (correlation coefficients [r] range: 0.77-0.89), whereas the Tosm changes displayed a negative relationship with the cardiorespiratory capacity (VO2 max; r = -0.75) and performance parameters (r = -0.75 for velocity, and r = -0.67 for time to exhaustion). The findings from this study provide evidence that fitness level is a major determinant of Tosm response to maximal incremental physical effort, showing a fairly linear association with several indices related to fitness level. High fitness level seems to be beneficial to avoid Tosm changes as consequence of intense exercise. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Just-in-Time Technology to Encourage Incremental, Dietary Behavior Change

OpenAIRE

Intille, Stephen S.; Kukla, Charles; Farzanfar, Ramesh; Bakr, Waseem

2003-01-01

Our multi-disciplinary team is developing mobile computing software that uses “just-in-time” presentation of information to motivate behavior change. Using a participatory design process, preliminary interviews have helped us to establish 10 design goals. We have employed some to create a prototype of a tool that encourages better dietary decision making through incremental, just-in-time motivation at the point of purchase.

Just-in-Time Technology to Encourage Incremental, Dietary Behavior Change

Science.gov (United States)

Intille, Stephen S.; Kukla, Charles; Farzanfar, Ramesh; Bakr, Waseem

2003-01-01

Our multi-disciplinary team is developing mobile computing software that uses “just-in-time” presentation of information to motivate behavior change. Using a participatory design process, preliminary interviews have helped us to establish 10 design goals. We have employed some to create a prototype of a tool that encourages better dietary decision making through incremental, just-in-time motivation at the point of purchase. PMID:14728379

Processing Challenges and Opportunities of Camel Dairy Products

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Berhe, Tesfemariam; Seifu, Eyassu; Ipsen, Richard

2017-01-01

to bovine milk. Nonetheless, the relative composition, distribution, and the molecular structure of the milk components are reported to be different. Consequently, manufacturing of camel dairy products such as cheese, yoghurt, or butter using the same technology as for dairy products from bovine milk can...

Incremental support vector machines for fast reliable image recognition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Makili, L.; Vega, J.; Dormido-Canto, S.

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► A conformal predictor using SVM as the underlying algorithm was implemented. ► It was applied to image recognition in the TJ–II's Thomson Scattering Diagnostic. ► To improve time efficiency an approach to incremental SVM training has been used. ► Accuracy is similar to the one reached when standard SVM is used. ► Computational time saving is significant for large training sets. -- Abstract: This paper addresses the reliable classification of images in a 5-class problem. To this end, an automatic recognition system, based on conformal predictors and using Support Vector Machines (SVM) as the underlying algorithm has been developed and applied to the recognition of images in the Thomson Scattering Diagnostic of the TJ–II fusion device. Using such conformal predictor based classifier is a computationally intensive task since it implies to train several SVM models to classify a single example and to perform this training from scratch takes a significant amount of time. In order to improve the classification time efficiency, an approach to the incremental training of SVM has been used as the underlying algorithm. Experimental results show that the overall performance of the new classifier is high, comparable to the one corresponding to the use of standard SVM as the underlying algorithm and there is a significant improvement in time efficiency

Incremental support vector machines for fast reliable image recognition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Makili, L., E-mail: makili_le@yahoo.com [Instituto Superior Politécnico da Universidade Katyavala Bwila, Benguela (Angola); Vega, J. [Asociación EURATOM/CIEMAT para Fusión, Madrid (Spain); Dormido-Canto, S. [Dpto. Informática y Automática – UNED, Madrid (Spain)

2013-10-15

Highlights: ► A conformal predictor using SVM as the underlying algorithm was implemented. ► It was applied to image recognition in the TJ–II's Thomson Scattering Diagnostic. ► To improve time efficiency an approach to incremental SVM training has been used. ► Accuracy is similar to the one reached when standard SVM is used. ► Computational time saving is significant for large training sets. -- Abstract: This paper addresses the reliable classification of images in a 5-class problem. To this end, an automatic recognition system, based on conformal predictors and using Support Vector Machines (SVM) as the underlying algorithm has been developed and applied to the recognition of images in the Thomson Scattering Diagnostic of the TJ–II fusion device. Using such conformal predictor based classifier is a computationally intensive task since it implies to train several SVM models to classify a single example and to perform this training from scratch takes a significant amount of time. In order to improve the classification time efficiency, an approach to the incremental training of SVM has been used as the underlying algorithm. Experimental results show that the overall performance of the new classifier is high, comparable to the one corresponding to the use of standard SVM as the underlying algorithm and there is a significant improvement in time efficiency.

Building opportunities in the U.S. for PV (PV:BONUS): A progress report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taylor, R.W.

1994-01-01

Five contract teams are developing photovoltaic (PV) products that will have a significant impact on building-integrated PV systems. The product lines that these teams are pursuing include roofing materials, building facade materials, PV integrated into modular homes, ac-PV modules, and utility-dispatchable PV systems. The objective of these efforts is to develop product and market opportunities that can provide for the introduction of PV into the buildings market sector at higher allowable installed systems costs than conventional ground- or roof-mounted systems. Each of the teams has a unique approach, and synergistic opportunities among teams are beginning to emerge. This paper reviews the product and market development efforts of these teams and describes the links between the product efforts and parallel analytical work to develop PV as a demand-side management option

Application and opportunities of pulses in food system: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Asif, Muhammad; Rooney, Lloyd W; Ali, Rashida; Riaz, Mian N

2013-01-01

Pulses are highly nutritious seeds of pod-bearing leguminous plants, specifically dry peas, lentils, and chickpeas. US farmers harvest about 2.6 million pounds of pulses every year but 75% of this is being exported internationally because of its increased consumption in the developing countries. In the current scenario, increasing costs of production, bad economy, and fluctuating food commodity prices have made a strong case for US producers to seek opportunities to increase domestic consumption of pulses through value-added products. Pulses are the richest sources of plant proteins and provide approximately 10% of the total dietary requirements of the proteins world over. Pulses are also high in dietary fibers and complex carbohydrates leading to low GI (glycemic index) foods. Pulses help to lower cholesterol and triglycerides as leguminous fibers are hypoglycosuria because of consisting more amylose than amylopectin. Pulses provide tremendous opportunities to be utilized in the processed foods such as bakery products, bread, pasta, snack foods, soups, cereal bar filing, tortillas, meat, etc. These show excellent opportunities in frozen dough foods either as added flour or as fillings. Pulses in view of their nutrient profile, seem to be ideal for inclusion in designing snack foods, baby, and sports foods.

Single Point Incremental Forming using a Dummy Sheet

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skjødt, Martin; Silva, Beatriz; Bay, Niels

2007-01-01

A new version of single point incremental forming (SPIF) is presented. This version includes a dummy sheet on top of the work piece, thus forming two sheets instead of one. The dummy sheet, which is in contact with the rotating tool pin, is discarded after forming. The new set-up influences....... The possible influence of friction between the two sheets is furthermore investigated. The results show that the use of a dummy sheet reduces wear of the work piece to almost zero, but also causes a decrease in formability. Bulging of the planar sides of the pyramid is reduced and surface roughness...

Possible causes of the recent rapid increase in the radial increment of silver fir in the Western Carpathians

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bošeľa, Michal; Petráš, Rudolf; Sitková, Zuzana; Priwitzer, Tibor; Pajtík, Jozef; Hlavatá, Helena; Sedmák, Róbert; Tobin, Brian

2014-01-01

Silver fir is one of the most productive and ecologically valuable native European tree species, however, it has been experiencing decline which has periodically occurred over its natural range. This paper aims to investigate the recent climate–growth relationships of silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) and its temporal change along the course of its life. Long-term tree-ring databases, as well as records on climate, atmospheric SO 2 , NO 3 and acid concentrations from four different regions in the Western Carpathians were used. The results provide clear evidence of significant increase of silver fir's radial increment over the entire Western Carpathian area since 1970–1980. The results indicated that the most probable factors behind the rapid recovery of tree radial increment were reductions in emissions of NO 3 and SO 2 , alongside a significant increase in mean June, July and April temperatures. Highlights: • Silver fir radial growth was mostly related to mean month late winter temperatures. • Silver fir growth also responded to summer, especially July temperatures. • Strength of the climate–growth response has gradually increased since 1960–1980. • SO 2 , NO 3 , and recent climate change as major factor of the rapid radial growth recovery. -- Reductions of SO 2 and NO 3 emission along with climate change are the major causes of the recent recovery of Silver fir radial growth

Combining Compact Representation and Incremental Generation in Large Games with Sequential Strategies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bosansky, Branislav; Xin Jiang, Albert; Tambe, Milind

2015-01-01

representation of sequential strategies and linear programming, or by incremental strategy generation of iterative double-oracle methods. In this paper, we present novel hybrid of these two approaches: compact-strategy double-oracle (CS-DO) algorithm that combines the advantages of the compact representation...

Contract of Shared Risk. New investment opportunities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carta Petrolera

1997-01-01

In order to offering to the private capital, new investment opportunities in exploration and production in Colombia, ECOPETROL settled down since 1996 the Contract of Shared Risk. This is a novel recruiting modality, because the shared risk is applied to the exploratory areas that are assigned for the direct operation of ECOPETROL

From incremental to fundamental substitution in chemical alternatives assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fantke, Peter; Weber, Roland; Scheringer, Martin

2015-01-01

to similarity in chemical structures and, hence, similar hazard profiles between phase-out and substitute chemicals, leading to a rather incremental than fundamental substitution. A hampered phase-out process, the lack of implementing Green Chemistry principles in chemicals design, and lack of Sustainable...... an integrated approach of all stakeholders involved toward more fundamental and function-based substitution by greener and more sustainable alternatives. Our recommendations finally constitute a starting point for identifying further research needs and for improving current alternatives assessment practice....

Diagnosis of small hepatocellular carcinoma by incremental dynamic CT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uchida, Masafumi; Kumabe, Tsutomu; Edamitsu, Osamu

1993-01-01

Thirty cases of pathologically confirmed small hepatocellular carcinoma were examined by Incremental Dynamic CT (ICT). ICT scanned the whole liver with single-breath-hold technique; therefore, effective early contrast enhancement could be obtained for diagnosis. Among the 30 tumors, 26 were detected. The detection rate was 87%. A high detection rate was obtained in tumors more than 20 mm in diameter. Twenty-two of 26 tumors could be diagnosed correctly. ICT examination was useful for detection of small hepatocellular carcinoma. (author)

Production of unconventional natural gas. Risks and opportunities of fracking; Foerderung von unkonventionellem Erdgas. Risiken und Chancen des Fracking

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Toepfer, Frank-Rainer; Kreutz, Giannina [Baker und McKenzie, Berlin (Germany)

2013-07-15

Through its legislation for the promotion of electricity production from renewable resources and the nuclear phase-out the German Federal Republic has taken decisive steps in orienting its energy policy towards the envisioned energy turnaround. Production of natural gas from unconventional natural gas sources could assist in implementing this policy while at the same time improving Germany's energy self-sufficiency. After intensive discussions in the public arena as well as in expert rounds the Federal Ministers of the Environment and of Economic Affairs have agreed on a draft for an ordinance on the exploitation of unconventional gas resources by means of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). On sober analysis of the risks and opportunities involved in this technology one obtains an overall picture which, taking into account the differentiated view it affords on the various aspects involved, ultimately reveals that, on condition of strict compliance with the necessary requirements, for all the risks associated with it fracking is a viable option for Germany.

Observers for a class of systems with nonlinearities satisfying an incremental quadratic inequality

Science.gov (United States)

Acikmese, Ahmet Behcet; Martin, Corless

2004-01-01

We consider the problem of state estimation from nonlinear time-varying system whose nonlinearities satisfy an incremental quadratic inequality. Observers are presented which guarantee that the state estimation error exponentially converges to zero.

Plastics recycling: challenges and opportunities.

Science.gov (United States)

Hopewell, Jefferson; Dvorak, Robert; Kosior, Edward

2009-07-27

Plastics are inexpensive, lightweight and durable materials, which can readily be moulded into a variety of products that find use in a wide range of applications. As a consequence, the production of plastics has increased markedly over the last 60 years. However, current levels of their usage and disposal generate several environmental problems. Around 4 per cent of world oil and gas production, a non-renewable resource, is used as feedstock for plastics and a further 3-4% is expended to provide energy for their manufacture. A major portion of plastic produced each year is used to make disposable items of packaging or other short-lived products that are discarded within a year of manufacture. These two observations alone indicate that our current use of plastics is not sustainable. In addition, because of the durability of the polymers involved, substantial quantities of discarded end-of-life plastics are accumulating as debris in landfills and in natural habitats worldwide. Recycling is one of the most important actions currently available to reduce these impacts and represents one of the most dynamic areas in the plastics industry today. Recycling provides opportunities to reduce oil usage, carbon dioxide emissions and the quantities of waste requiring disposal. Here, we briefly set recycling into context against other waste-reduction strategies, namely reduction in material use through downgauging or product reuse, the use of alternative biodegradable materials and energy recovery as fuel. While plastics have been recycled since the 1970s, the quantities that are recycled vary geographically, according to plastic type and application. Recycling of packaging materials has seen rapid expansion over the last decades in a number of countries. Advances in technologies and systems for the collection, sorting and reprocessing of recyclable plastics are creating new opportunities for recycling, and with the combined actions of the public, industry and governments it

Plastics recycling: challenges and opportunities

Science.gov (United States)

Hopewell, Jefferson; Dvorak, Robert; Kosior, Edward

2009-01-01

Plastics are inexpensive, lightweight and durable materials, which can readily be moulded into a variety of products that find use in a wide range of applications. As a consequence, the production of plastics has increased markedly over the last 60 years. However, current levels of their usage and disposal generate several environmental problems. Around 4 per cent of world oil and gas production, a non-renewable resource, is used as feedstock for plastics and a further 3–4% is expended to provide energy for their manufacture. A major portion of plastic produced each year is used to make disposable items of packaging or other short-lived products that are discarded within a year of manufacture. These two observations alone indicate that our current use of plastics is not sustainable. In addition, because of the durability of the polymers involved, substantial quantities of discarded end-of-life plastics are accumulating as debris in landfills and in natural habitats worldwide. Recycling is one of the most important actions currently available to reduce these impacts and represents one of the most dynamic areas in the plastics industry today. Recycling provides opportunities to reduce oil usage, carbon dioxide emissions and the quantities of waste requiring disposal. Here, we briefly set recycling into context against other waste-reduction strategies, namely reduction in material use through downgauging or product reuse, the use of alternative biodegradable materials and energy recovery as fuel. While plastics have been recycled since the 1970s, the quantities that are recycled vary geographically, according to plastic type and application. Recycling of packaging materials has seen rapid expansion over the last decades in a number of countries. Advances in technologies and systems for the collection, sorting and reprocessing of recyclable plastics are creating new opportunities for recycling, and with the combined actions of the public, industry and governments it

Challenges and opportunities in synthetic biology for chemical engineers.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Yunzi; Lee, Jung-Kul; Zhao, Huimin

2013-11-15

Synthetic biology provides numerous great opportunities for chemical engineers in the development of new processes for large-scale production of biofuels, value-added chemicals, and protein therapeutics. However, challenges across all scales abound. In particular, the modularization and standardization of the components in a biological system, so-called biological parts, remain the biggest obstacle in synthetic biology. In this perspective, we will discuss the main challenges and opportunities in the rapidly growing synthetic biology field and the important roles that chemical engineers can play in its advancement.

An electromyographic-based test for estimating neuromuscular fatigue during incremental treadmill running

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Camic, Clayton L; Kovacs, Attila J; Hill, Ethan C; Calantoni, Austin M; Yemm, Allison J; Enquist, Evan A; VanDusseldorp, Trisha A

2014-01-01

The purposes of the present study were two fold: (1) to determine if the model used for estimating the physical working capacity at the fatigue threshold (PWC FT ) from electromyographic (EMG) amplitude data during incremental cycle ergometry could be applied to treadmill running to derive a new neuromuscular fatigue threshold for running, and (2) to compare the running velocities associated with the PWC FT , ventilatory threshold (VT), and respiratory compensation point (RCP). Fifteen college-aged subjects (21.5  ±  1.3 y, 68.7  ±  10.5 kg, 175.9  ±  6.7 cm) performed an incremental treadmill test to exhaustion with bipolar surface EMG signals recorded from the vastus lateralis. There were significant (p < 0.05) mean differences in running velocities between the VT (11.3  ±  1.3 km h −1 ) and PWC FT (14.0  ±  2.3 km h −1 ), VT and RCP (14.0  ±  1.8 km h −1 ), but not the PWC FT and RCP. The findings of the present study indicated that the PWC FT model could be applied to a single continuous, incremental treadmill test to estimate the maximal running velocity that can be maintained prior to the onset of neuromuscular fatigue. In addition, these findings suggested that the PWC FT , like the RCP, may be used to differentiate the heavy from severe domains of exercise intensity. (paper)

Stable Myoelectric Control of a Hand Prosthesis using Non-Linear Incremental Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arjan eGijsberts

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Stable myoelectric control of hand prostheses remains an open problem. The only successful human-machine interface is surface electromyography, typically allowing control of a few degrees of freedom. Machine learning techniques may have the potential to remove these limitations, but their performance is thus far inadequate: myoelectric signals change over time under the influence of various factors, deteriorating control performance. It is therefore necessary, in the standard approach, to regularly retrain a new model from scratch.We hereby propose a non-linear incremental learning method in which occasional updates with a modest amount of novel training data allow continual adaptation to the changes in the signals. In particular, Incremental Ridge Regression and an approximation of the Gaussian Kernel known as Random Fourier Features are combined to predict finger forces from myoelectric signals, both finger-by-finger and grouped in grasping patterns.We show that the approach is effective and practically applicable to this problem by first analyzing its performance while predicting single-finger forces. Surface electromyography and finger forces were collected from 10 intact subjects during four sessions spread over two different days; the results of the analysis show that small incremental updates are indeed effective to maintain a stable level of performance.Subsequently, we employed the same method on-line to teleoperate a humanoid robotic arm equipped with a state-of-the-art commercial prosthetic hand. The subject could reliably grasp, carry and release everyday-life objects, enforcing stable grasping irrespective of the signal changes, hand/arm movements and wrist pronation and supination.

Turning palm leaves into wood: Opportunities for Egypt's rural ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2016-04-27

Apr 27, 2016 ... Bedouin women weave handmade baskets, hats, and lamps using dried palm leaves. ... palm tree leaves into hardwood and high-quality wooden products, ... of wood and open doors to job opportunities for rural communities.

Investigating the incremental validity of cognitive variables in early mathematics screening.

Science.gov (United States)

Clarke, Ben; Shanley, Lina; Kosty, Derek; Baker, Scott K; Cary, Mari Strand; Fien, Hank; Smolkowski, Keith

2018-03-26

The purpose of this study was to investigate the incremental validity of a set of domain general cognitive measures added to a traditional screening battery of early numeracy measures. The sample consisted of 458 kindergarten students of whom 285 were designated as severely at-risk for mathematics difficulty. Hierarchical multiple regression results indicated that Wechsler Abbreviated Scales of Intelligence (WASI) Matrix Reasoning and Vocabulary subtests, and Digit Span Forward and Backward measures explained a small, but unique portion of the variance in kindergarten students' mathematics performance on the Test of Early Mathematics Ability-Third Edition (TEMA-3) when controlling for Early Numeracy Curriculum Based Measurement (EN-CBM) screening measures (R² change = .01). Furthermore, the incremental validity of the domain general cognitive measures was relatively stronger for the severely at-risk sample. We discuss results from the study in light of instructional decision-making and note the findings do not justify adding domain general cognitive assessments to mathematics screening batteries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

An Incremental Classification Algorithm for Mining Data with Feature Space Heterogeneity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu Wang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Feature space heterogeneity often exists in many real world data sets so that some features are of different importance for classification over different subsets. Moreover, the pattern of feature space heterogeneity might dynamically change over time as more and more data are accumulated. In this paper, we develop an incremental classification algorithm, Supervised Clustering for Classification with Feature Space Heterogeneity (SCCFSH, to address this problem. In our approach, supervised clustering is implemented to obtain a number of clusters such that samples in each cluster are from the same class. After the removal of outliers, relevance of features in each cluster is calculated based on their variations in this cluster. The feature relevance is incorporated into distance calculation for classification. The main advantage of SCCFSH lies in the fact that it is capable of solving a classification problem with feature space heterogeneity in an incremental way, which is favorable for online classification tasks with continuously changing data. Experimental results on a series of data sets and application to a database marketing problem show the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Incremental Validity of the DSM-5 Section III Personality Disorder Traits With Respect to Psychosocial Impairment.

Science.gov (United States)

Simms, Leonard J; Calabrese, William R

2016-02-01

Traditional personality disorders (PDs) are associated with significant psychosocial impairment. DSM-5 Section III includes an alternative hybrid personality disorder (PD) classification approach, with both type and trait elements, but relatively little is known about the impairments associated with Section III traits. Our objective was to study the incremental validity of Section III traits--compared to normal-range traits, traditional PD criterion counts, and common psychiatric symptomatology--in predicting psychosocial impairment. To that end, 628 current/recent psychiatric patients completed measures of PD traits, normal-range traits, traditional PD criteria, psychiatric symptomatology, and psychosocial impairments. Hierarchical regressions revealed that Section III PD traits incrementally predicted psychosocial impairment over normal-range personality traits, PD criterion counts, and common psychiatric symptomatology. In contrast, the incremental effects for normal-range traits, PD symptom counts, and common psychiatric symptomatology were substantially smaller than for PD traits. These findings have implications for PD classification and the impairment literature more generally.

Determining frustum depth of 304 stainless steel plates with various diameters and thicknesses by incremental forming

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Golabi, Sa' id [University of Kashan, Kashan (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Khazaali, Hossain [Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

2014-08-15

Nowadays incremental forming is more popular because of its flexibility and cost saving. However, no engineering data is available for manufacturers for forming simple shapes like a frustum by incremental forming, and either expensive experimental tests or finite element analysis (FEA) should be employed to determine the depth of a frustum considering: thickness, material, cone diameter, wall angle, feed rate, tool diameter, etc. In this study, finite element technique, confirmed by experimental study, was employed for developing applicable curves for determining the depth of frustums made from 304 stainless steel (SS304) sheet with various cone angles, thicknesses from 0.3 to 1 mm and major diameters from 50 to 200 mm using incremental forming. Using these curves, the frustum angle and its depth knowing its thickness and major diameter can be predicted. The effects of feed rate, vertical pitch and tool diameter on frustum depth and surface quality were also addressed in this study.

Desarrollo de una marcaproducto para Gesta Diseño. Un caso de innovación incremental

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ANDRÉS JULIÁN HURTADO RUIZ

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Este caso tiene el objetivo de guiar al lector en el proceso de innovación incremental de un producto. La guía hacia la innovación comienza con la revisión de tendencias de diseño y finaliza con la elaboración de un brief de diseño. El caso toma el ejemplo de la empresa Gesta Diseño® como medio para guiar un proceso de innovación que permita a la empresa apoyar la representación de su marca. En el marco de la innovación incremental, Gesta Diseño® supone una innovación pequeña pero constante que, apoyada en su imagen de marca, permita a la empresa obtener una ventaja competitiva en el mercado. La principal recomendación del caso es usar la estrategia de innovación incremental como herramienta para el fortalecimiento de marca de una pequeña empresa.

How to set the stage for a full-fledged clinical trial testing 'incremental haemodialysis'.

Science.gov (United States)

Casino, Francesco Gaetano; Basile, Carlo

2017-07-21

Most people who make the transition to maintenance haemodialysis (HD) therapy are treated with a fixed dose of thrice-weekly HD (3HD/week) regimen without consideration of their residual kidney function (RKF). The RKF provides an effective and naturally continuous clearance of both small and middle molecules, plays a major role in metabolic homeostasis, nutritional status and cardiovascular health, and aids in fluid management. The RKF is associated with better patient survival and greater health-related quality of life. Its preservation is instrumental to the prescription of incremental (1HD/week to 2HD/week) HD. The recently heightened interest in incremental HD has been hindered by the current limitations of the urea kinetic model (UKM), which tend to overestimate the needed dialysis dose in the presence of a substantial RKF. A recent paper by Casino and Basile suggested a variable target model (VTM), which gives more clinical weight to the RKF and allows less frequent HD treatments at lower RKF as opposed to the fixed target model, based on the wrong concept of the clinical equivalence between renal and dialysis clearance. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) enrolling incident patients and comparing incremental HD (prescribed according to the VTM) with the standard 3HD/week schedule and focused on hard outcomes, such as survival and health-related quality of life of patients, is urgently needed. The first step in designing such a study is to compute the 'adequacy lines' and the associated fitting equations necessary for the most appropriate allocation of the patients in the two arms and their correct and safe follow-up. In conclusion, the potentially important clinical and financial implications of the incremental HD render it highly promising and warrant RCTs. The UKM is the keystone for conducting such studies. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of ERA-EDTA. All rights reserved.

Cross-correlation of instantaneous phase increments in pressure-flow fluctuations: Applications to cerebral autoregulation

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Zhi; Hu, Kun; Stanley, H. Eugene; Novak, Vera; Ivanov, Plamen Ch.

2006-03-01

We investigate the relationship between the blood flow velocities (BFV) in the middle cerebral arteries and beat-to-beat blood pressure (BP) recorded from a finger in healthy and post-stroke subjects during the quasisteady state after perturbation for four different physiologic conditions: supine rest, head-up tilt, hyperventilation, and CO2 rebreathing in upright position. To evaluate whether instantaneous BP changes in the steady state are coupled with instantaneous changes in the BFV, we compare dynamical patterns in the instantaneous phases of these signals, obtained from the Hilbert transform, as a function of time. We find that in post-stroke subjects the instantaneous phase increments of BP and BFV exhibit well-pronounced patterns that remain stable in time for all four physiologic conditions, while in healthy subjects these patterns are different, less pronounced, and more variable. We propose an approach based on the cross-correlation of the instantaneous phase increments to quantify the coupling between BP and BFV signals. We find that the maximum correlation strength is different for the two groups and for the different conditions. For healthy subjects the amplitude of the cross-correlation between the instantaneous phase increments of BP and BFV is small and attenuates within 3-5 heartbeats. In contrast, for post-stroke subjects, this amplitude is significantly larger and cross-correlations persist up to 20 heartbeats. Further, we show that the instantaneous phase increments of BP and BFV are cross-correlated even within a single heartbeat cycle. We compare the results of our approach with three complementary methods: direct BP-BFV cross-correlation, transfer function analysis, and phase synchronization analysis. Our findings provide insight into the mechanism of cerebral vascular control in healthy subjects, suggesting that this control mechanism may involve rapid adjustments (within a heartbeat) of the cerebral vessels, so that BFV remains steady in

Climate Investment Opportunities in South Asia

OpenAIRE

International Finance Corporation

2017-01-01

South Asia is home to three of the top five countries in terms of vulnerability to climate change globally.It thus urgently needs climate investment to enhance resilience and unlock opportunities for low carbon growth. The region is one of the fastest growing regions in the world; however, estimates suggest that climate impacts could reduce its annual gross domestic product by an average o...

Application of a Double-Sided Chance-Constrained Integer Linear Program for Optimization of the Incremental Value of Ecosystem Services in Jilin Province, China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baofeng Cai

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The Interconnected River System Network Project (IRSNP is a significant water supply engineering project, which is capable of effectively utilizing flood resources to generate ecological value, by connecting 198 lakes and ponds in western Jilin, northeast China. In this article, an optimization research approach has been proposed to maximize the incremental value of IRSNP ecosystem services. A double-sided chance-constrained integer linear program (DCCILP method has been proposed to support the optimization, which can deal with uncertainties presented as integers or random parameters that appear on both sides of the decision variable at the same time. The optimal scheme indicates that after rational optimization, the total incremental value of ecosystem services from the interconnected river system network project increased 22.25%, providing an increase in benefits of 3.26 × 109 ¥ compared to the original scheme. Most of the functional area is swamp wetland, which provides the greatest ecological benefits. Adjustment services increased obviously, implying that the optimization scheme prioritizes ecological benefits rather than supply and production services.

Ductility, strength and hardness relation after prior incremental deformation (ratcheting) of austenitic steel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kussmaul, K.; Diem, H.K.; Wachter, O.

1993-01-01

Experimental investigations into the stress/strain behavior of the niobium stabilized austenitic material with the German notation X6 CrNiNb 18 10 proved that a limited incrementally applied prior deformation will reduce the total deformation capability only by the amount of the prior deformation. It could especially be determined on the little changes in the reduction of area that the basically ductile deformation behavior will not be changed by the type of the prior loading. There is a correlation between the amount of deformation and the increase in hardness. It is possible to correlate both the changes in hardness and the material properties. In the case of low cycle fatigue tests with alternating temperature an incremental increase in total strain (ratcheting) was noted to depend on the strain range applied

Sufficient conditions for a period incrementing big bang bifurcation in one-dimensional maps

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Avrutin, V; Granados, A; Schanz, M

2011-01-01

Typically, big bang bifurcation occurs for one (or higher)-dimensional piecewise-defined discontinuous systems whenever two border collision bifurcation curves collide transversely in the parameter space. At that point, two (feasible) fixed points collide with one boundary in state space and become virtual, and, in the one-dimensional case, the map becomes continuous. Depending on the properties of the map near the codimension-two bifurcation point, there exist different scenarios regarding how the infinite number of periodic orbits are born, mainly the so-called period adding and period incrementing. In our work we prove that, in order to undergo a big bang bifurcation of the period incrementing type, it is sufficient for a piecewise-defined one-dimensional map that the colliding fixed points are attractive and with associated eigenvalues of different signs

Sufficient conditions for a period incrementing big bang bifurcation in one-dimensional maps

Science.gov (United States)

Avrutin, V.; Granados, A.; Schanz, M.

2011-09-01

Typically, big bang bifurcation occurs for one (or higher)-dimensional piecewise-defined discontinuous systems whenever two border collision bifurcation curves collide transversely in the parameter space. At that point, two (feasible) fixed points collide with one boundary in state space and become virtual, and, in the one-dimensional case, the map becomes continuous. Depending on the properties of the map near the codimension-two bifurcation point, there exist different scenarios regarding how the infinite number of periodic orbits are born, mainly the so-called period adding and period incrementing. In our work we prove that, in order to undergo a big bang bifurcation of the period incrementing type, it is sufficient for a piecewise-defined one-dimensional map that the colliding fixed points are attractive and with associated eigenvalues of different signs.

Incremental heating of Bishop Tuff sanidine reveals preeruptive radiogenic Ar and rapid remobilization from cold storage

Science.gov (United States)

Andersen, Nathan L.; Jicha, Brian R.; Singer, Brad S.; Hildreth, Wes

2017-11-01

Accurate and precise ages of large silicic eruptions are critical to calibrating the geologic timescale and gauging the tempo of changes in climate, biologic evolution, and magmatic processes throughout Earth history. The conventional approach to dating these eruptive products using the 40Ar/39Ar method is to fuse dozens of individual feldspar crystals. However, dispersion of fusion dates is common and interpretation is complicated by increasingly precise data obtained via multicollector mass spectrometry. Incremental heating of 49 individual Bishop Tuff (BT) sanidine crystals produces 40Ar/39Ar dates with reduced dispersion, yet we find a 16-ky range of plateau dates that is not attributable to excess Ar. We interpret this dispersion to reflect cooling of the magma reservoir margins below ˜475 °C, accumulation of radiogenic Ar, and rapid preeruption remobilization. Accordingly, these data elucidate the recycling of subsolidus material into voluminous rhyolite magma reservoirs and the effect of preeruptive magmatic processes on the 40Ar/39Ar system. The youngest sanidine dates, likely the most representative of the BT eruption age, yield a weighted mean of 764.8 ± 0.3/0.6 ka (2σ analytical/full uncertainty) indicating eruption only ˜7 ky following the Matuyama‑Brunhes magnetic polarity reversal. Single-crystal incremental heating provides leverage with which to interpret complex populations of 40Ar/39Ar sanidine and U-Pb zircon dates and a substantially improved capability to resolve the timing and causal relationship of events in the geologic record.

A Batch-Incremental Video Background Estimation Model using Weighted Low-Rank Approximation of Matrices

KAUST Repository

Dutta, Aritra

2017-07-02

Principal component pursuit (PCP) is a state-of-the-art approach for background estimation problems. Due to their higher computational cost, PCP algorithms, such as robust principal component analysis (RPCA) and its variants, are not feasible in processing high definition videos. To avoid the curse of dimensionality in those algorithms, several methods have been proposed to solve the background estimation problem in an incremental manner. We propose a batch-incremental background estimation model using a special weighted low-rank approximation of matrices. Through experiments with real and synthetic video sequences, we demonstrate that our method is superior to the state-of-the-art background estimation algorithms such as GRASTA, ReProCS, incPCP, and GFL.

A Batch-Incremental Video Background Estimation Model using Weighted Low-Rank Approximation of Matrices

KAUST Repository

Dutta, Aritra; Li, Xin; Richtarik, Peter

2017-01-01

Principal component pursuit (PCP) is a state-of-the-art approach for background estimation problems. Due to their higher computational cost, PCP algorithms, such as robust principal component analysis (RPCA) and its variants, are not feasible in processing high definition videos. To avoid the curse of dimensionality in those algorithms, several methods have been proposed to solve the background estimation problem in an incremental manner. We propose a batch-incremental background estimation model using a special weighted low-rank approximation of matrices. Through experiments with real and synthetic video sequences, we demonstrate that our method is superior to the state-of-the-art background estimation algorithms such as GRASTA, ReProCS, incPCP, and GFL.

Market Opportunities for Cellulose Products From Combined Renewable Resources

Science.gov (United States)

Zihare, Lauma; Blumberga, Dagnija

2017-05-01

This study investigates available resources that has not been used or is used with low added value, such as woody crops, forest residues and invasive species possibilities in case of cellulosic products. Main aspect is this study is market outlook, to see if the products can have positive market sales if produced. Resource have been selected by availability and current usage and properties they contain. Products have been chosen the most basic, to see is there possibility to enter an existing cellulose product markets. GE/McKinsey matrix have been used for clear visual decision making. The results show that only two out of seven products has a potential in international market.

Distance-independent individual tree diameter-increment model for Thuya [Tetraclinis articulata (VAHL.) MAST.] stands in Tunisia

OpenAIRE

T. Sghaier; M. Tome; J. Tome; M. Sanchez-Gonzalez; I. Cañellas; R. Calama

2013-01-01

Aim of study: The aim of the work was to develop an individual tree diameter-increment model for Thuya (Tetraclinis articulata) in Tunisia.Area of study: The natural Tetraclinis articulata stands at Jbel Lattrech in north-eastern of Tunisia.Material and methods:  Data came from 200 trees located in 50 sample plots. The diameter at age t and the diameter increment for the last five years obtained from cores taken at breast height were measured for each tree. Four difference equations derived f...

A Product Analysis Method and Its Staging to Develop Redesign Competences

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, Claus Thorp; Lenau, Torben Anker

2013-01-01

Most product development work in industrial practice is incremental, i.e., the company has had a product in production and on the market for some time, and now time has come to design an upgraded variant. This type of redesign project requires that the engineering designers have competences to carry through an analysis of the existing product…

The limit distribution of the maximum increment of a random walk with dependent regularly varying jump sizes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mikosch, Thomas Valentin; Moser, Martin

2013-01-01

We investigate the maximum increment of a random walk with heavy-tailed jump size distribution. Here heavy-tailedness is understood as regular variation of the finite-dimensional distributions. The jump sizes constitute a strictly stationary sequence. Using a continuous mapping argument acting...... on the point processes of the normalized jump sizes, we prove that the maximum increment of the random walk converges in distribution to a Fréchet distributed random variable....

An application of the J-integral to an incremental analysis of blunting crack behavior

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Merkle, J.G.

1989-01-01

This paper describes an analytical approach to estimating the elastic-plastic stresses and strains near the tip of a blunting crack with a finite root radius. Rice's original derivation of the path independent J-integral considered the possibility of a finite crack tip root radius. For this problem Creager's elastic analysis gives the relation between the stress intensity factor K I and the near tip stresses. It can be shown that the relation K I 2 = E'J holds when the root radius is finite. Recognizing that elastic-plastic behavior is incrementally linear then allows a derivation to be performed for a bielastic specimen having a crack tip region of reduced modulus, and the result differentiated to estimate elastic-plastic behavior. The result is the incremental form of Neuber's equation. This result does not require the assumption of any particular stress-strain relation. However by assuming a pure power law stress-strain relation and using Ilyushin's principle, the ordinary deformation theory form of Neuber's equation, K σ K var epsilon = K t 2 , is obtained. Applications of the incremental form of Neuber's equation have already been made to fatigue and fracture analysis. This paper helps to provide a theoretical basis for these methods previously considered semiempirical. 26 refs., 4 figs

Exploiting Outage and Error Probability of Cooperative Incremental Relaying in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hina Nasir

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This paper embeds a bi-fold contribution for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs; performance analysis of incremental relaying in terms of outage and error probability, and based on the analysis proposition of two new cooperative routing protocols. Subject to the first contribution, a three step procedure is carried out; a system model is presented, the number of available relays are determined, and based on cooperative incremental retransmission methodology, closed-form expressions for outage and error probability are derived. Subject to the second contribution, Adaptive Cooperation in Energy (ACE efficient depth based routing and Enhanced-ACE (E-ACE are presented. In the proposed model, feedback mechanism indicates success or failure of data transmission. If direct transmission is successful, there is no need for relaying by cooperative relay nodes. In case of failure, all the available relays retransmit the data one by one till the desired signal quality is achieved at destination. Simulation results show that the ACE and E-ACE significantly improves network performance, i.e., throughput, when compared with other incremental relaying protocols like Cooperative Automatic Repeat reQuest (CARQ. E-ACE and ACE achieve 69% and 63% more throughput respectively as compared to CARQ in hard underwater environment.

Performance Analysis of Selective Decode-and-Forward Multinode Incremental Relaying with Maximal Ratio Combining

KAUST Repository

Hadjtaieb, Amir

2013-09-12

In this paper, we propose an incremental multinode relaying protocol with arbitrary N-relay nodes that allows an efficient use of the channel spectrum. The destination combines the received signals from the source and the relays using maximal ratio Combining (MRC). The transmission ends successfully once the accumulated signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) exceeds a predefined threshold. The number of relays participating in the transmission is adapted to the channel conditions based on the feedback from the destination. The use of incremental relaying allows obtaining a higher spectral efficiency. Moreover, the symbol error probability (SEP) performance is enhanced by using MRC at the relays. The use of MRC at the relays implies that each relay overhears the signals from the source and all previous relays and combines them using MRC. The proposed protocol differs from most of existing relaying protocol by the fact that it combines both incremental relaying and MRC at the relays for a multinode topology. Our analyses for a decode-and-forward mode show that: (i) compared to existing multinode relaying schemes, the proposed scheme can essentially achieve the same SEP performance but with less average number of time slots, (ii) compared to schemes without MRC at the relays, the proposed scheme can approximately achieve a 3 dB gain.

Planning and Articulation in Incremental Word Production: Syllable-Frequency Effects in English

Science.gov (United States)

Cholin, Joana; Dell, Gary S.; Levelt, Willem J. M.

2011-01-01

We investigated the role of syllables during speech planning in English by measuring syllable-frequency effects. So far, syllable-frequency effects in English have not been reported. English has poorly defined syllable boundaries, and thus the syllable might not function as a prominent unit in English speech production. Speakers produced either…

Determinants and opportunities for commercial marketing of beef ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The objective of this study was to examine the factors influencing smallholder producers' potential to sell cattle and identify marketing opportunities for sustainable beef production in South Africa. A total of 95 structured questionnaires was administered to the Ncorha and Gxwalibomvu communities in the Eastern Cape ...

Chemical Product Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gani, Rafiqul

2004-01-01

This paper highlights for a class of chemical products, the design process, their design with respect to the important issues, the need for appropriate tools and finally, lists some of the challenges and opportunities for the process systems engineering (PSE)/computer-aided process engineering...... (CAPE) community. The chemical products considered belong to the following types: chemical/biochemical/agrochemical products, coatings and solvents, food (nutraceuticals), HIM (household, industrial and institutional), personal care, pharmaceuticals and drugs. The challenges and opportunities...... are highlighted in terms of the needs for multi-level modeling with emphasis on property models that are suitable for computer-aided applications, flexible solution strategies that are able to solve a large range of chemical product design problems and finally, a systems chemical product design framework...

Exploiting deterministic maintenance opportunity windows created by conservative engineering design rules that result in free time locked into large high-speed coupled production lines with finite buffers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Durandt, Casper

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Conservative engineering design rules for large serial coupled production processes result in machines having locked-in free time (also called ‘critical downtime’ or ‘maintenance opportunity windows’, which cause idle time if not used. Operators are not able to assess a large production process holistically, and so may not be aware that they form the current bottleneck – or that they have free time available due to interruptions elsewhere. A real-time method is developed to accurately calculate and display free time in location and magnitude, and efficiency improvements are demonstrated in large-scale production runs.

DIAMOND: A model of incremental decision making for resource acquisition by electric utilities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gettings, M.; Hirst, E.; Yourstone, E.

1991-02-01

Uncertainty is a major issue facing electric utilities in planning and decision making. Substantial uncertainties exist concerning future load growth; the lifetimes and performances of existing power plants; the construction times, costs, and performances of new resources being brought online; and the regulatory and economic environment in which utilities operate. This report describes a utility planning model that focuses on frequent and incremental decisions. The key features of this model are its explicit treatment of uncertainty, frequent user interaction with the model, and the ability to change prior decisions. The primary strength of this model is its representation of the planning and decision-making environment that utility planners and executives face. Users interact with the model after every year or two of simulation, which provides an opportunity to modify past decisions as well as to make new decisions. For example, construction of a power plant can be started one year, and if circumstances change, the plant can be accelerated, mothballed, canceled, or continued as originally planned. Similarly, the marketing and financial incentives for demand-side management programs can be changed from year to year, reflecting the short lead time and small unit size of these resources. This frequent user interaction with the model, an operational game, should build greater understanding and insights among utility planners about the risks associated with different types of resources. The model is called DIAMOND, Decision Impact Assessment Model. In consists of four submodels: FUTURES, FORECAST, SIMULATION, and DECISION. It runs on any IBM-compatible PC and requires no special software or hardware. 19 refs., 13 figs., 15 tabs.

Analysis of risks and investments’ opportunities in water sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fjona Zeneli

2016-01-01

These opportunities result from the difference between water supply and water demand; an increasingly difference that requires capital investments in production and water treatment technologies. Investments need to be combined with the knowledge on the legislation, regulatory framework and technological developments. This article may serve to clarify type of investments in drinking water sector, known by literature, to identify opportunities of investment in this sector, indicating the theoretical framework of beta and alpha risk ratio coefficient calculation and to suggest how these types of investments can be allocated to the investment portfolios.

Challenges and opportunities in synthetic biology for chemical engineers

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Yunzi; Lee, Jung-Kul; Zhao, Huimin

2012-01-01

Synthetic biology provides numerous great opportunities for chemical engineers in the development of new processes for large-scale production of biofuels, value-added chemicals, and protein therapeutics. However, challenges across all scales abound. In particular, the modularization and standardization of the components in a biological system, so-called biological parts, remain the biggest obstacle in synthetic biology. In this perspective, we will discuss the main challenges and opportunities in the rapidly growing synthetic biology field and the important roles that chemical engineers can play in its advancement. PMID:24222925

Individualized 6-mercaptopurine increments in consolidation treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tulstrup, Morten; Frandsen, Thomas L; Abrahamsson, Jonas

2018-01-01

increments of additional 25 mg/m2 /day beginning on days 50 and/or 71 unless dose-limiting myelosuppression had occurred. RESULTS: In the experimental arm, 166 patients (42%) received one dose increment, and 62 (16%) received two. Fifty-seven of 387 (15%) patients in the experimental arm were MRD positive...... minimal residual disease (MRD) positivity and event-free survival. METHODS: 392 patients were randomized to experimental and 396 to standard therapy. Patients allocated to standard therapy received oral 6-mercaptopurine (25 mg/m2 /day) from days 30 to 85, while the experimental arm received stepwise...... at end of consolidation vs 77 of 389 (20%) in the control arm (P = .08). Five-year probability of event-free survival was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.85-0.93) in the experimental arm vs 0.93 (0.90-0.96) in the control arm (P = .13). The median accumulated length of 6-mercaptopurine treatment interruptions was 7 (IQR...

Incremental first pass technique to measure left ventricular ejection fraction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kocak, R.; Gulliford, P.; Hoggard, C.; Critchley, M.

1980-01-01

An incremental first pass technique was devised to assess the acute effects of any drug on left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) with or without a physiological stress. In particular, the effects of the vasodilater isosorbide dinitrate on LVEF before and after exercise were studied in 11 patients who had suffered cardiac failure. This was achieved by recording the passage of sup(99m)Tc pertechnetate through the heart at each stage of the study using a gamma camera computer system. Consistent values for four consecutive first pass values without exercise or drug in normal subjects illustrated the reproducibility of the technique. There was no significant difference between LVEF values obtained at rest and exercise before or after oral isosorbide dinitrate with the exception of one patient with gross mitral regurgitation. The advantages of the incremental first pass technique are that the patient need not be in sinus rhythm, the effects of physiological intervention may be studied and tests may also be repeated at various intervals during long term follow-up of patients. A disadvantage of the method is the limitation in the number of sequential measurements which can be carried out due to the amount of radioactivity injected. (U.K.)

Successive 1-Month Weight Increments in Infancy Can Be Used to Screen for Faltering Linear Growth.

Science.gov (United States)

Onyango, Adelheid W; Borghi, Elaine; de Onis, Mercedes; Frongillo, Edward A; Victora, Cesar G; Dewey, Kathryn G; Lartey, Anna; Bhandari, Nita; Baerug, Anne; Garza, Cutberto

2015-12-01

Linear growth faltering in the first 2 y contributes greatly to a high stunting burden, and prevention is hampered by the limited capacity in primary health care for timely screening and intervention. This study aimed to determine an approach to predicting long-term stunting from consecutive 1-mo weight increments in the first year of life. By using the reference sample of the WHO velocity standards, the analysis explored patterns of consecutive monthly weight increments among healthy infants. Four candidate screening thresholds of successive increments that could predict stunting were considered, and one was selected for further testing. The selected threshold was applied in a cohort of Bangladeshi infants to assess its predictive value for stunting at ages 12 and 24 mo. Between birth and age 12 mo, 72.6% of infants in the WHO sample tracked within 1 SD of their weight and length. The selected screening criterion ("event") was 2 consecutive monthly increments below the 15th percentile. Bangladeshi infants were born relatively small and, on average, tracked downward from approximately age 6 to strategy is effective, the estimated preventable proportion in the group who experienced the event would be 34% at 12 mo and 24% at 24 mo. This analysis offers an approach for frontline workers to identify children at risk of stunting, allowing for timely initiation of preventive measures. It opens avenues for further investigation into evidence-informed application of the WHO growth velocity standards. © 2015 American Society for Nutrition.

Opportunities and Challenges of Academic Staff in Higher Education in Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Mushemeza, Elijah Dickens

2016-01-01

This paper analyses the opportunities and challenges of academic staff in higher education in Africa. The paper argues that recruitment, appointment and promotion of academic staff should depend highly on their productivity (positive production per individual human resource). The staff profile and qualifications should be posted on the University…

Theories of opportunity creation and effective entrepreneurial actions in opportunity creation context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Behrooz Jamali

2018-09-01

Full Text Available Created opportunities are refered as the opportunities in which none of the supply and demand parties exists clearly and obviously one or both of them must be created. Therefore, several economic inventions should take place in marketing, franchising, etc. so that opportunity can be created. This perception of opportunity deals with the creation of new markets. In the meantime, identifying some entrepreneurial actions influencing on the creation of entrepreneurial opportunities can provide backgrounds for the formation and empowering the opportunity creation. In this paper, some basic ideas about the creation of entrepreneurial opportunities and the evolution of opportunity creation theories are examined. Then effective actions on the opportunity creation are identified. Finally, the structure of the investigated actions is examined using the DEMATLE Method. The results which were according to the opinions of 15 experts of entrepreneurship showed that leadership, decision making, and strategy actions influence other entrepreneurial actions.

Arctic resources : a mechatronics opportunity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McKean, M.; Baiden, G. [Penguin Automated Systems Inc., Naughton, ON (Canada)

2008-07-01

This paper discussed the telerobotic mechatronics opportunities that exist to access mineral resources in the Arctic. The Mining Automation Project (MAP) determined that telerobotics could contribute to productivity gains while providing increased worker safety. The socio-economic benefits of advanced mechatronics for Arctic resource development are particularly attractive due to reduced infrastructure needs; operating costs; and environmental impacts. A preliminary analysis of mining transportation options by the authors revealed that there is a case for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) for oil and gas processing to address resource development. The ISRU options build on concepts developed to support space exploration and were proposed to reduce or modify transportation loads to allow more sustainable and efficient Arctic resource development. Many benefits in terms of efficiency could be achieved by combining demonstrated mechatronics with ISRU because of the constrained transportation infrastructure in the Arctic. In the context of harsh environment operations, mechatronics may provide an opportunity for undersea resource facilities. 15 refs., 6 figs.

Procurement and participation opportunities onshore

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Norcia, J.

1998-01-01

Maritimes and Northeast Pipelines Company is constructing a 1048 km underground gas transmission pipeline that will transport Sable natural gas to markets in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and New England. The Sable Offshore Energy Project brings opportunities for new industries to Atlantic Canada, including the potential for future Sable gas exploration, development and production which will provide thousands of jobs and benefits for local businesses during the construction phase. Maritimes and Northeast Pipelines plan to maximize local content for the construction of the 565 km Canadian portion of the pipeline. The construction phase alone should create about 1,500 jobs during peak times. Seventy per cent of the labour will be sourced locally. Clean-up, landscaping, fencing and tile repair, monitoring services and pipeline inspection are some of the other opportunities that will be contracted to local businesses. Major long-term benefits of the project are expected to be in the construction of lateral or feeder pipelines and in the construction of gas distribution utilities

Analysis of residual stress state in sheet metal parts processed by single point incremental forming

Science.gov (United States)

Maaß, F.; Gies, S.; Dobecki, M.; Brömmelhoff, K.; Tekkaya, A. E.; Reimers, W.

2018-05-01

The mechanical properties of formed metal components are highly affected by the prevailing residual stress state. A selective induction of residual compressive stresses in the component, can improve the product properties such as the fatigue strength. By means of single point incremental forming (SPIF), the residual stress state can be influenced by adjusting the process parameters during the manufacturing process. To achieve a fundamental understanding of the residual stress formation caused by the SPIF process, a valid numerical process model is essential. Within the scope of this paper the significance of kinematic hardening effects on the determined residual stress state is presented based on numerical simulations. The effect of the unclamping step after the manufacturing process is also analyzed. An average deviation of the residual stress amplitudes in the clamped and unclamped condition of 18 % reveals, that the unclamping step needs to be considered to reach a high numerical prediction quality.

Opportunity parameters in the development of Product/Service-Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Matzen, Detlef; Andreasen, Mogens Myrup

2006-01-01

In the light of the current focus on innovative business development throughout industry and society, the concept of product/service-systems (PSS) is a promising approach to product development, which may yield product offers that benefit the company, customer and society alike. Only recently...... while maintaining a high level of need satisfaction [Mont 2004]. The enhancement of goods with the provision of services has been practised in some industrial sectors for decades, mainly based on maintenance deliveries to capital investments in B2B settings. Researchers working with these business....../service-oriented strategy we believe companies can deliver superior value solutions and ensure more optimal utilisation of resources by aligning operations with their customers compared to traditional product-oriented offers. The corresponding integration is not reflected in existing models and processes of product...