Correlations between the air permeability coefficient and various pore structure indicators in cementitious materials were examined to determine the pore structure indicator that best evaluated air permeability using data from previous studies of air permeabilities and pore structures. The determination coefficients of air permeability with total pore volume, critical pore diameter, and ordinary threshold pore diameter were low, although these have often been used as indicators. The median and threshold pore diameters obtained by percolation theory showed high determination coefficients. The equation using the threshold pore diameter better estimated the air permeability coefficient than the Katz–Thompson equation.

Direct laser writing based on non-linear 3D nanolithography (also known as 3D laser lithography, 3DLL) is a powerful technology to manufacture polymeric micro-optical components. However, practical applications of these elements are limited due to the lack of knowledge of their optical resilience and durability. In this work, we employ 3DLL for the fabrication of bulk (i.e. fully filled) and woodpile structures out of different photopolymers. We then characterize them using S-on-1 laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) measurements. In this way, quantitative data of LIDT values can be collected. Furthermore, this method permits to gather damage morphologies. The results presented in this work demonstrate that LIDT values depend on the material and the geometry of the structure. Bulk non-photosensitized hybrid organic-inorganic photopolymer SZ2080 structures are found to be the most resilient with a damage threshold being of 169±15 mJ/cm².

In this study, it was aimed to analyze the multi-cultural characteristics of the pre-service teachers and the values they have in terms of various variables, to determine the relationship between these values. Descriptive survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the study. The population of the study consisted of the pre-service teachers studying in different departments in the Faculty of Education, İbrahim Çeçen University of Ağrı in 2017-2018 academic years. The sample of the study consisted of 341 pre-service teachers selected with random sampling method. According to the results obtained from the study, it was determined that the value preferences of the pre-service teachers and their multicultural personality characteristics showed a significant difference in terms of gender, undergraduate program, educational background of the mother, having social media account and daily internet use variables; however, there was not a significant difference in terms of family structure, the place s/he grew up, educational background of the father and monthly income variables. The abstract does not include information about which groups are favored for the difference in the variables and in which sub-dimensions, but detailed information is given in the following sections of the study.

Patients with degenerative diseases refer to feeling more pain during the night. However, it is unknown whether spinal nociception can be circadian and how is it controlled. We investigated whether the paw withdrawal threshold (PWT) could exhibit physiological circadian behavior as well as the contribution of the dopaminergic A11 nucleus and the spinal dopamine (DA) receptors (DRs) on the circadian PWT and the spinal clock gene transcription. Results revealed that control rats present a circadian PWT. Injecting 6-hydroxidopamine (6-OHDA) into the dopaminergic A11 nucleus reduced DA tissue content in the lumbar spinal cord, abolished the circadian PWT, induced allodynia, and reduced Period 1 and 2 (Per1 and 2), retinoid-related orphan receptor α (Rorα), Cryptochrome 1 (Cry1), and brain and muscle aryl-hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator-like protein (Bmal) mRNA. Likewise, administration of D1-like and D2-like DR antagonists blunted circadian PWT, producing allodynia, and altered the clock genes mRNA. In contrast, administration of D1-like or D2-like DR agonists blocked 6-OHDA-induced allodynia. This study shows that the spinal cord has physiological circadian PWT, which is modulated by the descending dopaminergic A11 through differential activation of the spinal DRs. Also, A11 nuclei and spinal DRs can regulate the clock gene transcription, which can likely modulate the circadian PWT.

The changes in consumer preferences and the increasingly competitive global market have demanded that food entrepreneurs engage in innovative value-added activities. The date is a delicatessen fruit known by its content of active compounds (e.g., dietary fiber and antioxidants) and its biological activity which has a vast potential in the design of new products such as bioactive ingredients, sugar substitutes, dietary supplements, functional foods, among others. In the current paper, innovative approaches to the value addition to date fruits and their processing by-products have been reviewed from recent high-quality scientific works. New processes such as ultrafiltration and hydrothermal treatments are shown as a useful alternative to obtain differentiated date-based ingredients (e.g., fiber concentrates, sap syrups, and date powders). Moreover, the use of date fruits and their byproducts as natural sources of value-added active compounds in the preparation of dairy, meat, and bakery and cereal products is also presented.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, WIC increased the Cash Value Benefit (CVB) for fruits and vegetables by roughly $25/month/person. We sought to understand WIC participant perceptions of this change and barriers and facilitators to using the CVB. We conducted 10 virtual focus groups (5 rural, 5 urban/suburban) with WIC participants (n=55) in North Carolina in March 2022. Focus groups were recorded and transcribed. We open coded the content and used thematic analysis to uncover consistencies within and between sampled groups. Participants expressed favorable perceptions of the CVB increase and stated the pre-pandemic CVB amount was insufficient. Barriers to using the increased CVB were identifying WIC approved fruits and vegetables in stores and insufficient supply of fruits and vegetables. Barriers were more pronounced in rural groups. CVB use facilitators were existing household preferences for fruits and vegetables and the variety of products that can be purchased with the CVB relative to other components of the WIC food package. Participants felt the CVB increase allowed their families to eat a wider variety of fruits and vegetables. The CVB increase may improve fruit and vegetable intake, particularly if made permanent, but barriers to CVB and WIC benefit use may be limiting the potential impact.

Adequate energy intake is critical for the healthy longevity of older adults, and the estimated energy requirement is determined by total energy expenditure (TEE). We aimed to identify the relationship between measured aerobic capacity and TEE, activity energy expenditure (AEE) or physical activity level (PAL) with the doubly labeled water (DLW) methods in the advanced older adults. A total of 12 physically independent older adults (10 males and 2 females) aged between 81 to 94 years participated in this study. Aerobic capacity was evaluated according to the lactate threshold (LT). TEE under free-living conditions was assessed using the DLW method, and self-reported physical activity was obtained through the Japanese version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). LT was significantly positively correlated with TEE, AEE, and PAL after adjustment for age and sex (ρ= 0.77 (P<0.01), 0.86 (p<0.01), and 0.86 (p<0.01), respectively). We found the LT as an aerobic capacity is positively and independently correlated with TEE, AEE or PAL. The present results suggest that maintaining aerobic capacity is an important factor for preventing frailty, although further research is needed to multisite studies and many samples.

Investments in digital infrastructure in marginalised communities are set to increase in the next decade. These are premised on the potential of digital technologies to contribute towards solving societal problems, including the fragility of food value chains in rural areas. Although there are mixed empirical findings on the impact of these digital infrastructure investments, huge investments are continuing amid changing ICT policies in most developing countries. This paper, using a case study of a local livestock value chain in a rural community in Zimbabwe, argues for the application of non-conventional approaches towards digital infrastructure transformation impact assessment. Using selected theories and frameworks (socio-ecological systems framework, choice framework and technology affordances theory) as well as empirical data from a project in a rural community, the paper shows that real-time impact assessment using context-specific metrics may reveal hidden digital infrastructure transformation impacts, positive and negative, that are often overlooked when traditional impact assessment approaches are employed. The findings of this study contribute towards improving approaches towards ICT impact assessment. Practitioners engaging in impact assessment are challenged to move beyond dependence on traditional metrics (e.g. access) to the adoption of participatory processes to decipher context-appropriate metrics.

AAs the global energy market undergoes a wholesale transformation accelerated by the need to decarbonise, a rapid transition to renewable energy and the mass deployment of distributed energy resources, autonomous energy networks or microgrids are emerging as an attractive mechanism for the delivery of electricity to end users. Yet in Australia, at least, relatively little is known about key aspects of microgrids that are fundamental to their successful deployment, not least the more commercial and economic elements rather than the purely technical. Drawing on the extant global literature on microgrids, this paper explores the most important of these aspects including business models, ownership and investment. Identifying the ambiguity, inconsistency and uncertainty evident in many of the feasibility studies currently in train across Australia, this paper highlights specific areas for future research that need to be addressed if the full potential of microgrids is to be realised in the context of a global energy transition both domestically and internationally.

Deep learning has been applied in many areas that have had a significant impact on applications that improves real-life challenges. The success of deep learning in a wide range of areas is due in part to the use of activation functions, which are particularly effective at solving non-linear problems. Activation functions are a key focus for researchers in artificial intelligence who aim to improve the performance of neural networks. This article provides a comprehensive explanation and comparison of different activation functions, with a focus on the arc tangent and its variations specifically. The paper presents experimental results that show that variations of the arc tangent using irrational numbers such as pi, the golden ratio, and Euler’s number, as well as a self-arctan function, produce promising results. Since we experimented with promising activation functions on two different problems, and datasets, we reached a result that different irrationals work well for different problems. In other words, arctan ϕ gives the best results mostly for multiclass classification and arctan e gives the best results for time series prediction problems. The paper focuses on a multi-class classification problem applied to the Reuters Newswire dataset and a time-series prediction problem on Türkiye energy trade value to show the impacts of activation functions.

This work analyzes the visibility and scientific impact of publications related to agricultural value chains. The incidence of bibliometric indicators allows for the interpretation of bibliographic information generated worldwide. Objective: The objective of this research is to analyze the published literature and bibliometric indicators on agricultural value chains. The Web of Science database was used to extract value chains data. The study analyzed articles published between 2010 and 2020. The keywords used are "agricultural value chains'' and articles from journals or studies related to the subject were selected for bibliometric analysis and methodological review. In the search for the keyword, a total of 4208 results were extracted, of which 1,669 records were considered for analysis. The bibliometric analysis of the data reveals that Wageningen University (55) has the highest number of publications, followed by Chinese Acad Sci (26). The author Klerkx L (9) has the highest number of records, followed by Hellin J (7). With respect to the countries with the greatest contributions on the subject are: the People's Republic of China, Germany, Italy, France and the United States. The study contributes to the analysis of bibliometrics and provides a methodological review of published journal articles on agricultural value chains. This bibliographic study presents the history of research development in agricultural value chains.

Single-molecule fluorescence detection (SMFD) experiments are useful in distinguishing sub-populations of molecular species when measuring heterogeneous samples. One experimental platform for SMFD is based on a confocal microscope, where molecules randomly traverse an effective detection volume. The non-uniformity of the excitation profile and the random nature of Brownian motion, produce fluctuating fluorescence signals. For these signals to be distinguished from the background, burst analysis is frequently used. Yet, the relation between the results of burst analyses and the underlying information of the diffusing molecules is still obscure and requires systematic assessment. In this work we performed three-dimensional Brownian motion simulations of SMFD, and tested the positions at which molecules emitted photons that passed the burst analysis criteria for different values of burst analysis parameters. The results of this work verify which of the burst analysis parameters and experimental conditions influence both the position of molecules in space when fluorescence is detected and taken into account, and whether these bursts of photons arise purely from single molecules, or not entirely. Finally, we show, as an example, the effect of bursts that are not purely from a single molecule on the accuracy in single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer measurements.

The bivalve mollusk, Anadara tuberculosa (Black Shell, in Spanish Concha prieta, "CP"), is found on America's Pacific coast, where it is harvested for subsistence and commercial markets. This paper aims to diagnose the performance of the black shell's value chain. We also identify several challenges that must be addressed to improve the sustainability of the black shell fishery in Ecuador. The descriptive methodology was quantitative, with a non-experimental, field, cross-sectional, and ex post facto design. Similar questionnaires were designed, validated, and applied to each link in the production chain to collect information. The performance of the value chain was diagnosed in the dimensions of productivity, competitiveness, and quality of life, reaching a 75.1% index, a result that indicates that the value chain has a moderate to good performance level. However, the value chain can be improved if the following challenges are met: 1) Restoration of the mangrove ecosystem, 2) Promotion of low-intensity shellfish aquaculture, 3) Good sanitary management and purification, 4) Promotion of value-focused ventures, 5) Strengthening of organizations and agreements for the use and custody of mangroves, and 6) Strengthening of institutions that contribute to the advancement of these challenges.

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) progression metrics indicate AGI will occur within decades. No proof exists that AGI will benefit humans and not harm or eliminate humans. I propose a set of logically distinct conceptual components that are necessary and sufficient to 1) ensure various AGI scenarios will not harm humanity and 2) robustly align AGI and human values and goals. By systematically addressing pathways to malevolent AI we can induce the methods/axioms required to redress them. Distributed ledger technology (DLT, ‘blockchain’) is integral to this proposal, e.g. ‘smart contracts’ are necessary to address evolution of AI that will be too fast for human monitoring and intervention. The proposed axioms: 1) Access to technology by market license. 2) Transparent ethics embodied in DLT. 3) Morality encrypted via DLT. 4) Behavior control structure with values at roots. 5) Individual bar-code identification of critical components. 6) Configuration Item (from business continuity/disaster recovery planning). 7) Identity verification secured via DLT. 8) ‘Smart’ automated contracts based on DLT. 9) Decentralized applications - AI software modules encrypted via DLT. 10) Audit trail of component usage stored via DLT. 11) Social ostracism (denial of resources) augmented by DLT petitions. 12) Game theory and mechanism design.

This article presents a new method of segmenting grayscale images by minimizing Shannon's neutrosophic entropy. For the proposed segmentation method, the neutrosophic information components, i.e., the degree of truth, the degree of neutrality and the degree of falsity are defined taking into account the belonging to the segmented regions and at the same time to the separation threshold area. The principle of the method is simple and easy to understand and can lead to multiple thresholds. The efficacy of the method is illustrated using some test gray level images. The experimental results show that the proposed method has good performance for segmentation with optimal gray level thresholds.

Finding out how cells with the same genome change fates in differentiation commitment is a challenge of biology. We used MCF-7 breast cancer cells treated with the ErbB2 ligand heregulin (HRG), which induces differentiation, to address if and how the constitutive pericentromere-associated domains (PADs) may be involved in this process. PAD-specific repressive heterochromatin (H3K9me3) and active euchromatin (H3K4me3) marking, centromere (CENPA) labelling, qPCR, acridine-orange-DNA structural test, and microscopic image analysis were applied. We found a two-step DNA unfolding, at 15-20 min and 60 min after HRG treatment, coinciding with bi-phasic activation of the early response genes (c-FOS family) and two steps of critical phase transition which were revealed in transcriptome studies. In control, the distribution of PAD number and size displays a power-law scaling with a boundary at the nucleolus. PADs’ clustering correlates with centromere numbers. 15 min after HRG treatment, the unravelling of PADs occurs, coinciding with the first step of euchromatin unfolding. The second step is associated with transcription of long-non-coding-RNA from satellite III DNA. We hypothesize that splitting of the PAD clusters under the critical size threshold of the silencing domain abrupts position effect variegation. It allows the first genome transcription avalanche to occur, starting differentiation commitment.

Climate adaptation is a major challenge. Chasing the sufficient amount of hay is getting in higher priority. Distant mass hay producers give favourable offers despite long distances. Quality is also gaining position and indicators like RFQ (Relative Forage Quality) is highlighting the marketing language. Hay market as we knew no longer exists in Hungary. Most farmers produce their own hay and do not spend extra cents to buy bales. Climate change however, force them to adapt and store more bales for the future. Horse owners and dairy farmers are the main driver to convince hay producers to provide high quality forage. We gathered Hungarian regional hay-price information and evaluated the trends in this sector. The demand-driven hay-price is in contradiction with premium quality timothy grass hay.

Twenty-first century infrastructure needs to respond to changing demographics, becoming climate neutral, resilient, and economically affordable, while remaining a driver for development and shared prosperity. However, the infrastructure sector remains one of the least innovative and digitalized, plagued by delays, cost overruns, and benefit shortfalls [1-4]. The root cause is the prevailing fragmentation of the infrastructure value chain [5]. To support overcoming the shortcomings, an integration of the value chain is needed. This could be achieved through a use-cased-based creation of federated digital platforms applied to infrastructure projects. Such digital platforms enable full-lifecycle participation and responsible governance guided by a shared infrastructure vision.

Convective rainfall can cause dangerous flash floods within less than six hours. Thus, simple approaches are required for issuing quick warnings. The Flash Flood Guidance (FFG) approach pre-calculates rainfall levels (thresholds) potentially causing critical water levels for a specific catchment. Afterwards, only rainfall and soil moisture information is required to issue warn-ings. This study applied the principle of FFG to the Wernersbach Catchment (Germany) with excellent data coverage using the BROOK90 water budget model. The rainfall thresholds were determined for durations of 1 to 24 hours, by running BROOK90 in “inverse” mode, identifying rainfall values for each duration that led to exceedance of critical discharge (fixed value). After calibrating the model based on its runoff, we ran it in hourly mode with four precipitation types and various levels of initial soil moisture for the period 1996 – 2010. The rainfall threshold curves showed a very high probability of detection (POD) of 91% for the 40 extracted flash flood events in the study period, however, the false alarm rate (FAR) of 56% and the critical success index (CSI) of 42% should be improved in further studies. The approach proved potential as an early flood indicator for head-catchments with limited available information.

China is in the climbing phase of the "Inverted U" environmental Kuznets curve, from excessive environmental consumption to the development stage of governance and protection, and green innovation. It is the most complex period of environmental quality. Environmental and policy regulation are very important. Select panel data of 29 provinces of China (excluding Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Hainan and Tibet) from 2008 to 2017, construct a nonlinear two-threshold regression model, empirically analyse the impact of environmental tax and government innovation subsidies to green processes innovation, and attempt to explore whether the implementation of these two policies at the same time can make enterprises more inclined to green process innovation and whether there is an optimal space for policy implementation. It is proposed that the synergy effect of environmental tax and government innovation subsidy policies on enterprise green process innovation should be fully utilized, and the enterprise green process innovation environment and incentive mechanism should be improved to promote the green transformation and sustainable development of enterprises.

Land consolidation engineering inevitably interferes with terrestrial ecosystems, leading to natural capital loss. Therefore, conducting an ecological sensitivity evaluation of a project area before consolidation engineering is very important for reducing unnecessary human interference. Conservation of terrestrial ecosystems and the biodiversity therein to the greatest possible extent is urgently needed. This research analyzes the interference by human activities caused by land consolidation engineering in terrestrial ecosystems. GIS technology, ecological values, landscape pattern indexes, and an ecological risk evaluation were used to construct an ecological sensitivity evaluation index. The coefficient of variation method and a comprehensive sensitivity rating evaluation were used to calculate the weights and results. The project area was divided into sensitivity zones according to the results, and the results and suggestions are as follows: In the highly eco-sensitive zone, where bare rocks, gravel, and grass-covered areas compose the main landscape type, vegetation should be restored, and forests should be planted. In the medium eco-sensitivity zone, where irrigated paddy fields and arid land compose the main landscape type, land parcels should be merged, and agricultural infrastructure should be constructed or improved. In the low eco-sensitivity zone, where forests compose the main landscape type, roads should be closed, natural habitat should be restored, and buffer zones should be created. This study provides suggestions for future land management decisions.

Though innovations for sustainable management of natural resources have emerged over time, the rising demand for nature based health solutions and integration of endemic flora into global value chains could have adverse impacts on ecosystems. The ecological risks in the exploitation of wild medicinal plant resources are exacerbated by a myriad of agrotechnological risks and challenges that highly constrain their domestication. Successful exploitation and commercialization of medicinal plants thus require a clear understanding of their demand and production systems or value chain analysis. Accordingly there is need for innovative approaches towards their integration into global value chains. Since quality and safety, traceability, certification, as well as, consumer tastes and preferences are critical drivers in purchasing decisions by global consumers, they are inadvertently exploited to weaken Indigenous knowledge (IK), undermine common property rights and entrench value chains that favour a few elite buyers. This tend to create pervasive incentives for overexploitation of medicinal plant resources and environmental degradation. Potential solution lies in the recognition of drivers of vulnerability to environmental degradation and the innovative use of policy bricolage, feedback loops and interactions between knowledge, power and agency on one hand, and collective action and property rights institutions on the other hand. We conceptualise a framework that can mediate a transformational agenda and enhance systematic understanding of sustainability lenses in endemic medicinal plant resources value chains. This could in turn strengthen IK, enhance collective action and promote participation of local actors with positive impact on the utilisation and integration of endemic medicinal plant resources into global value chains.

The objective of this study is to determine the type of governance of the four main agricultural value chains in Tamaulipas, northeast of Mexico. For the preparation of this research used a qualitative design, using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to a sample of representatives of the four selected chains. The results showed that in all the studied networks, control and coordination capacity is limited by the influence that has a link on the rest of the chain. In all cases, was that the industrial link is who leads the chains and exert control over the rest of the links. The results showed that, when the industrial link is located close geographically to the rest of the links (chains of rice and sugar cane), the chains showed a hierarchical type, where the industrial exercised dominion over the rest of the links and captures most of the income. On the other hand, in chains where control is exercised by links that are outside the territory (chains of soybeans and sorghum), they function as captive chains, putting the rest of the chain to its influence and control.

The annual budget for the United States National Park Service was roughly three billion dollars in 2016. This is distributed amongst 405 National Parks, 23 national scenic and historic trails, and 60 wild and scenic rivers. Entrance fees and concessions generate millions of dollars in income for the National Park Service; however, this metric fails to account for the total value of the National Parks. In failing to consider the value of the ecosystem services provided by the National Parks we fail to quantify and appreciate the contributions our parks make to society. This oversight allows us to continue to underfund a valuable part of our natural capital and consequently damage our supporting environment, national heritage, monetary economy, and many of our diverse cultures. We explore a simple benefits transfer valuation of the United States national parks using National Land Cover Data from 2011 and ecosystem service values determined by Costanza (et al). This produces an estimate suggesting the parks provide $84 billion / year in ecosystem service value. If the natural infrastructure 'asset' that is our national park system had a budget comparable to a piece of commercial real estate of this value, the annual budget of the National Park Service would be roughly an order of magnitude larger at something closer to $30 billion rather than $3 billion.

The finding of important explanatory variables for the location parameter and the scale parameter of the generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution, when the latter is used for the modelling of annual streamflow maxima, is known to have reduced the uncertainties in inferences, as estimated through regional flood frequency analysis frameworks. However, important explanatory variables have not been found for the GEV shape parameter, despite its critical significance, which stems from the fact that it determines the behaviour of the upper tail of the distribution. Here we examine the nature of the shape parameter by revealing its relationships with basin attributes. We use a dataset that comprises information about daily streamflow and forcing, climatic indices, topographic, land cover, soil and geological characteristics of 591 basins with minimal human influence in the contiguous United States. We propose a framework that uses random forests and linear models to find (a) important predictor variables of the shape parameter and (b) an interpretable model with high predictive performance. The process of study comprises of assessing the predictive performance of the models, selecting a parsimonious predicting model and interpreting the results in an ad-hoc manner. The findings suggest that the shape parameter mostly depends on climatic indices, while the selected prediction model results in more than 20% higher accuracy in terms of RMSE compared to a naïve approach. The implications are important, since incorporating the regression model into regional flood frequency analysis frameworks can considerably reduce the predictive uncertainties.

The post-2007 crisis-induced an agricultural expansion across Africa, but local level production and marketing experiences remain understudied. This study assesses the dynamics of agricultural expansion and small-scale farmers’ experiences in rural Zambia. Using a mixed research design, data were drawn from surveys, multi-level interviews, group discussions policy reviews and observations. Results show an agriculture expansion among small-scale farmers is underway due to favourable climatic conditions, land, and water availability, enabled by state subsidies, and an emerging market in commercial and supermarket outlets. However, farmers encounter production and marketing challenges related to poor tenure security, late delivery of inputs, and low financing. They face low and fluctuating prices, poor infrastructure, including low levels of mechanisation necessary to expand the production. Overall, despite an agricultural and land-use expansion taking shape, actual benefits for real transformation are largely missing – and currently over their heads. An argument is made that whilst policy actors continue to impress farmers to organise themselves to maximise benefits of an agricultural expansion, actual processes on how farmers can achieve this are missing in policy and practice. This necessitates a focus on multi-level processes aimed at addressing production, storage and marketing dynamics within a progressive coordination arrangement that centralizes small producers. Until that is addressed, the prospects for local development and poverty reduction for small-scale farmers under an agricultural expansion will be slender but continue to centrally reside in the state efforts to create enabling local and community environment that addresses real challenges. Overall, this study helps to extend the debate on diverse processes shaping rural transformation in Zambia and across sub-Saharan Africa, including the role and importance of agricultural expansion.

Attackers are perpetually modifying their tactics to avoid detection and frequently leverage legitimate credentials with trusted tools already deployed in a network environment, making it difficult for organizations to proactively identify critical security risks. Network traffic analysis products have emerged in response to attackers’ relentless innovation, offering organizations a realistic path forward for combatting creative attackers. Additionally, thanks to the widespread adoption of cloud computing, Device Operators (DevOps) processes, and the Internet of Things (IoT), maintaining effective network visibility has become a highly complex and overwhelming process. What makes network traffic analysis technology particularly meaningful is its ability to combine its core capabilities to deliver malicious intent detection. In this paper, we propose a novel darknet traffic analysis and network management framework to real-time automating the malicious intent detection process, using a weight agnostic neural networks architecture. It is an effective and accurate computational intelligent forensics tool for network traffic analysis, the demystification of malware traffic, and encrypted traffic identification in real-time. Based on Weight Agnostic Neural Networks (WANNs) methodology, we propose an automated searching neural net architectures strategy that can perform various tasks such as identify zero-day attacks. By automating the malicious intent detection process from the darknet, the advanced proposed solution is reducing the skills and effort barrier that prevents many organizations from effectively protecting their most critical assets.

Imperceptible vibratory noise stimulation has shown to be an effective means of improving stability for both whole body postural control and simple motor control tasks. While the physiological mechanism affording this improvement is uncertain, it is suspected that sensory noise stimulation may elicit a stochastic resonance-like effect within the somatosensory system. A stochastic resonance effect describes the phenomenon in which noise added to a non-linear system improves signal detection rather than degrading it. One hallmark of stochastic resonance is the existence of an optimal noise level which elicits the best system performance. There is disagreement in the literature regarding the presence of an optimal stimulation level for motor stability in humans. The goals of this study were to: 1) determine optimal stimulation level as a function of an individual’s sub-sensory threshold level, and 2) to determine whether performance of a force stability task was significantly better when subjects received stimulation at this identified optimal level compared to other sub-sensory threshold stimulation levels. Eighteen (18) participants completed an isometric finger flexion task with visual feedback while receiving noise stimulation scaled to varying percentages of their individual sub-sensory threshold level. Performance for this force stabilization task was quantified as the root-mean-square (RMS) error between the target force and the actual generated force values. Despite controlling all other signal properties and varying only amplitude, optimal noise stimulation values still varied widely across participants (10-100% sub-sensory threshold level). Statistical modeling revealed a significant improvement in task performance with optimal noise stimulation compared to other sub-sensory stimulation levels (p ≤ 0.019) with estimated marginal mean differences in force errors ranging from 0.13 to 0.23 N. Moderate significant Spearman correlations (r_s = 0.49 and r_s = 0.56, respectively) were found between finger flexion maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) and sub-sensory threshold level and MVC and optimal stimulation level. A strong, significant Spearman correlation (r_s = 0.65) was observed between sub-sensory threshold level and optimal stimulation level. Although these correlations do not provide a means to predict optimal stimulation level as a function of these other measures, optimal stimulation level appears to increase with sub-sensory threshold and MVC.

Planning and implementation of construction projects are difficult processes and are burdened with many risk elements. The budget spread over time, which is developed on the basis of the schedule, presents the expected distribution of costs throughout the duration of the works, which during the implementation of the project is subject to constant changes resulting from time, cost and organizational factors. Managing construction contracts requires managers to be able to analyze on an ongoing basis the variances of production costs - from the values calculated in the offer cost estimate and assumed in the Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled. The article attempts to analyze the emerging time and cost variances using proprietary C-S and S-C monitoring, based on simple indicators of the EVM method. An example of construction of a multi-family housing development was used to study the variances of planned and incurred costs.

A long-term investigation of D. suzukii dynamics in wild blueberry fields from 2012 - 2018 demonstrates relative abundance is still increasing seven years after initial invasion. Relative abundance is determined by physiological date of first detection and air temperatures the previous winter. Date of first detection of flies does not determine date of fruit infestation. The level of fruit infestation is determined by year, fly pressure, and insecticide application frequency. Frequency of insecticide application is determined by production system. Non-crop wild fruit and predation influences fly pressure; increased wild fruit abundance results in increased fly pressure. Increased predation rate reduces fly pressure, but only at high abundance of flies, or when high levels of wild fruit are present along field edges. Male sex ratio might be declining over the seven years. Action thresholds were developed from samples of 92 fields from 2012 - 2017 that related cumulative adult male trap capture to the following week likelihood of fruit infestation. A two-parameter gamma density function describing this probability was used to develop a risk-based gradient action threshold system. The action thresholds were validated from 2016-2018 in 35 fields and were shown to work well in two of three years (2016 and 2017).

Although the majority of mobile phone (MP) users do not attribute adverse effects on health or well-being to MP-emitted radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs), the exponential increase in the number of RF devices necessitates continuing research aimed at the objective investigation of such concerns. In this work, we investigate the effects of acute exposure from Long Term Evolution (LTE) MP EMFs on thermal pain threshold in healthy young adults. We use a protocol that was validated in a previous study in a capsaicin-induced hyperalgesia model, and was also successfully used to show that exposure from an RF source mimicking a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) MP led to mildly stronger desensitization to repeated noxious thermal stimulation relative to the sham condition. Using the same experimental design, we did not find any effects of LTE exposure on thermal pain threshold. The present results are in accordance with previous evidence suggesting that effects are likely to be placebo/nocebo effects and are unrelated to the brief acute LTE EMF exposure itself. The fact that this is dissimilar to our previous results on UMTS exposure implies that RF modulations might differentially affect pain perception, and points to the necessity of further research in the topic.

Supermarkets in Port Harcourt (PH) city, Nigeria, predominantly rely on diesel electricity generation due to grid instability, leading to high cost of electricity prices. Although solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have been proposed as an alternative, these supermarkets have yet to adopt them, mainly due to high investment costs and a lack of awareness of the long-term financial and environmental benefits. This paper examines the technical and economic practicality of a PV system for these supermarkets using the PVsyst software and a spreadsheet model. Solar resources showed that PH has a daily average solar radiation and temperature of 4.21 kWh/m2/day and 25.73℃, respectively. Market Square, the supermarket with the highest peak power demand of 59.8 kW, and a 561 kWh/day load profile, was chosen as a case study. A proposed PV system with a power capacity of 232 kW, battery storage capacity of 34,021 Ah, a charge controller size of 100 A/560V, and an inverter with a power rating of 60V/75 kW has been designed to meet the load demand. The economic analysis showed a $266,936 life cycle cost, $0.12 per kWh levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), 4-year simple payback time, and a 20.5% internal rate of return (IRR). The PV system is feasible due to its positive net present value (NPV) of $165,322 and carbon savings of 582 tCO2/year.

In this article, we establish the existence of and then compare smallest eigenvalues for nabla fractional boundary value problems involving a fractional difference boundary condition, using the theory of u0-positive operators with respect to a cone in a Banach space.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of fungal treatment (Pleurotus ostreatus) of urea-treated rice stubble on growth performance in slow-growing goats. Eighteen crossbred Thai native x Anglo-Nubian male goats (average body weight: 20.4 ± 2.0 kg) were randomly assigned to three experimental total mixed rations containing 35% rice stubble (RS) that was either untreated (URS), urea treated (UTRS) or treated with urea and fungi (UFTRS). URS and UTRS were cultivated and harvested from aseptically fungal spawn, incubated at 25-30 °C for 25 days. Indicators of growth performance were monitored and faeces were collected quantitatively to assess nutrient digestibility, during a 12-week feeding trial. All goats remained healthy throughout experiment. The goats fed UFTRS had a lower feed conversion ratio (kg feed/kg growth) compared to goats fed URS or UTRS. Compared to URS, dietary UFTRS increased nutrient digestibility of slow-growing goats, such as OM (+8.5%), CP (+5.5%), NDF (+39.2%), and ADF (+27.4%). Likewise, dietary UFTRS tended to increase rumen ammonia concentrations but rumen pH and volatile fatty acids were not affected by UFTRS. In conclusion, the present study indicates that the fungal treatment of RS is an effective tool to improve the growth performance of slow-growing goats.

Methods are currently lacking to prove artificial general intelligence (AGI) safety. An AGI ‘hard takeoff’ is possible, in which first generation AGI1 rapidly triggers a succession of more powerful AGIn that differ dramatically in their computational capabilities (AGIn≪AGIn+1). No proof exists that AGI will benefit humans or of a sound value-alignment method. Numerous paths toward human extinction or subjugation have been identified. We suggest that probabilistic proof methods are the fundamental paradigm for proving safety and value-alignment between disparately powerful autonomous agents. Interactive proof systems (IPS) describe mathematical communication protocols wherein a Verifier queries a computationally more powerful Prover and reduces the probability of the Prover deceiving the Verifier to any specified low probability (e.g., 2-100). IPS procedures can test AGI behavior control systems that incorporate hard-coded ethics or value-learning methods. Mapping the axioms and transformation rules of a behavior control system to a finite set of prime numbers allows validation of ‘safe’ behavior via IPS number-theoretic methods. Many other representations are needed for proving various AGI properties. Multi-prover IPS, program-checking IPS, and probabilistically checkable proofs further extend the paradigm. In toto, IPS provides a way to reduce AGIn↔AGIn+1 interaction hazards to an acceptably low level.

Over time, the agricultural sector's contribution to the nation's Gross Domestic Product and revenue is declining exponentially; the decline may be attributed to varying problems affecting the agricultural value chain resulting in low productivity. The agricultural value chain comprises a series of activities and value addition processes required to transform raw materials into useable products to maximize the final consumers' utility.¹ The agricultural value chain's marketing activities have been skewed with challenges, thus affecting agricultural productivity and agricultural sector contribution to the economy. The paper critically examines and discuss the impact of agricultural marketing to economic development, a historical review of agricultural marketing in Nigeria, challenges undermining the impact of agricultural marketing, measures to reposition agricultural marketing potential to build back better, policy recommendations to reposition the future of Nigeria's agricultural productivity. The paper aims to promote concerted efforts through knowledge dissemination to build back better through market research and facilitation and boost economic prosperity.

In this paper, by using the variational method, a sufficient condition for the unique existence of the stationary solution of the reaction-diffusion ecosystem is obtained, which directly leads to the global asymptotic stability of the unique equilibrium point. Moreover, delayed feedback ecosystem with reaction-diffusion item is considered, and utilizing impulse control results in the globally exponential stability criterion of the delayed ecosystem. It is worth mentioning that the Neumann zero-boundary value that the infected and the susceptible people or animals should be controlled in the epidemic prevention area and not allowed to cross the border, which is a good simulation of the actual situation of epidemic prevention. And numerical examples illuminate the effectiveness of impulse control, which has a certain enlightening effect on the actual epidemic prevention work . That is, in the face of the epidemic situation, taking a certain frequency of positive and effective epidemic prevention measures is conducive to the stability and control of the epidemic situation. Particularly, the newly-obtained theorems quantifies this feasible step. Besides, utilizing Laplacian semigroup derives the $p$th moment stability criterion for the impulsive ecosystem.

This study assesses the pursued impacts of Tulsi value chain development intervention on the livelihoods of rural poor in Uttarakhand state of India. Tulsi as an alternative livelihood, particularly for the rural poor, is less explored. With increased crop depredation of major cereal crops grown in the district by wild animals and pests, and decreasing availability of water agriculture, attempts were made to improve earnings from Tulsi as an alternative livelihood. Findings suggest that the average households’ gross profit from Tulsi farming increases by more than double within a span of two years. Total crop income of beneficiary farmers’ increases by 0.8 percent for every 1 percent increase in Tulsi income. Intervention helped enhance productivity of Tulsi, thereby enhancing earnings from Tulsi farming. Most importantly, intervention has shown a tremendous adoption rate. Towards the end of the intervention, the value chain work was out-scaled to another 19 villages in Chamoli district, thereby reaching out to more than 400 households.

In this study, a mixed rule of degree of precision nine has been developed and implemented in the field of electrical sciences to obtain the instantaneous current in the RLC- circuit for particular value .The linearity has been performed with the Volterra’s integral equation of second kind with particular kernel . Then the definite integral has been evaluated through the mixed quadrature to obtain the numerical result which is very effective. A polynomial has been used to evaluate Volterra’s integral equation in the place of unknown functions. The accuracy of the proposed method has been tested taking different electromotive force in the circuit and absolute error has been estimated.

This is the first study to provide a systematic monetary benefit matrix, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction benefits and air pollution reduction health co-benefits, for a change in on-the-road transport to low-carbon types. The benefit transfer method is employed to estimate the social cost of carbon and the health co-benefits via impact pathway analysis in Taiwan. Specifically, the total emissions reduction benefits from changing all internal combustion vehicles to either hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or electric vehicles would generate an average of US$760 million from GHG emissions reduction and US$2,091 million from health co-benefits based on air pollution reduction, for a total benefit of US$2,851 million annually. For a change from combustion scooters to light- or heavy-duty electric scooters, the average GHG emissions reduction benefits would be US$96.02 million, and the health co-benefits from air pollution reduction would be US$1,008.83 million, for total benefits of US$1,104.85 million annually.

With the Paris Agreement, countries are obliged to report greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduc-tions, which will ensure that the global temperature increase is maintained well below 2C. The Parties will report their Nationally Determined Contributions in terms of plans and progress to-wards these targets during the postponed COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021. These commit-ments however do not take significant portions of the consumption related emissions related to countries imports in to account. Similarly, the majority of companies that report their emissions to CDP also do not account for their embodied value-chain related emissions. Municipalities, on the path towards carbon neutrality in accordance with the methods outlined by C40, also do not in-clude imported and embodied CO2e in their total emission tallies. So, who is responsible for these emissions - the producer or the consumer? How can we ensure that the NDC's, municipalities and companies reduction targets share the responsibility of the emissions in the value-chain thus en-suring that targets and plans become, sustainable, climate fair, and just in global value chains? Today the responsibility lays with the producer, which is not sustainable. We have the outline for the tools needed to quantify and transparently share the responsibility between producers and consumers at corporate, municipal and national level based on an improved understanding of the attendant sources, causes, flows and risks og GHG emissions globally. Hybrid LCA/EEIO models can for example be further developed. This will, in the end, enable everyday consumption to support a more sustainable, green and low carbon transition of our economy.

In this work, we studied the Green’s functions of the second order differential operators with involution. Uniform equiconvergence of spectral expansions related to the second-order differential operators with involution is obtained. Basicity of eigenfunctions of the second-order differential operator operator with complex-valued coefficient is established.

Rapid development of high-throughput omics technologies generates an increasing interests in algorithms for cutoff point identification. Existing cutoff methods and tools identify cutoff points based on association of continuous variables with another variable, such as phenotype, disease state or treatment group. These approaches are not applicable for descriptive studies in which continuous variables are reported without known association with any biologically meaningful variables. The most common shape of the ranked distribution of continuous variables in high-throughput descriptive studies corresponds to a biphasic exponential/super-exponential curve, where the first phase includes big number of variables with values slowly growing with rank and the second phase includes smaller number of variables rapidly growing with rank. This study describes an easy algorithm to identify the boundary between these phases to be used as a cutoff point. The major assumption of that approach is that small number of variables with high values dominate biological system and determine its major processes and functions. This approach was tested on three different datasets: genes in the human cerebral cortex, mammalian genes sensitive to chemical exposures, and proteins expressed in human heart. In every case, the described cutoff identification method produced shortlists of variables (genes, proteins) highly relevant for dominant functions/pathways of the analyzed biological systems. Thus, our described method for cutoff identification may be used to prioritize variables for a focused functional analysis, in situations where other methods of dichotomization of data are inaccessible.

The increasing demand for higher inclusion cleanliness levels motivates the control over the formation and evolution of inclusions in the steel production process. In this work, the evolution of the chemical composition and size distribution of inclusions throughout a slab production process of Al-killed steel, including ladle furnace (LF) treatment and continuous casting (CC), was followed. The initial solid Al2O3 and Al2O3-MgO inclusions were modified to liquid Al2O3-CaO-MgO inclusions during LF treatment. The evolution of the size distributions during LF treatment was associated with the growth and removal of inclusions, as new inclusions were not created after the deoxidation process, according to a population density function (PDF) analysis. Additionally, the size distributions tended to be similar as the LF treatment progressed regardless of their initial features, whereas they differed during CC. Analysis of the upper tails of the distributions through generalized extreme values theory showed that inclusion distributions shifted from larger to smaller sizes as the process progressed. There were great changes in the distributions of large inclusions throughout the LF treatment and between the end of the LF treatment and the start of the CC process. Additionally, distributions of large inclusions differed at the end of the LF treatment, whereas such differences decreased as CC progressed.

Effective discharge, which represents the flow, or range of flows, that transport the most sediment over long term, was determined based on the mean daily flow discharge and mean daily suspended sediment discharge recorded between 1994 and 2014 at four gauging stations along the Trotuș River. This study proposes an efficient method for the estimation of effective discharge based on observed values of the suspended sediment load. By employing this method the suspended sediment load is no longer either under- or overestimated as in the cases when the assessment is based on sediment rating curves. The assessment on effective discharge was performed at two distinct levels: for the entire data series during the investigated time spans and, subsequently, for flows less than the bankfull discharge. The effectiveness curves of the suspended sediment transport characteristics revealed highly multimodal characteristics with many peaks, indicating ample ranges for the effective discharges. The main effective discharge corresponded to large flood events, which are typical for the upper end of the discharge range, whereas the secondary effective discharges corresponded to sub-bankfull flows, which are more frequent. The changes that occurred in the channel bed are reflected by the temporal variations in the effective discharge.

The connection of two phenomena - non-conservative friction forces and dissipation-induced instability can lead to many interesting engineering problems. The paper studies general material-dependent damping influence on dynamical instability of disc brake systems leading to brake squeal. The effect of general damping is demonstrated on a minimal and complex model of a disc brake. A complex system including material-dependent damping is defined in the commercial finite element software. The finite element model validated by experimental data on the brake-disc test bench is used to compute the influence of a pad and a disc damping variations on system stability by complex eigenvalue analysis. Analyzes show a significant sensitivity of the experimentally verified unstable mode of the system to the ratio of the damping between the disc and the friction material components.

Growing acreage and changing consumer preferences cause increasing interest in the cereal products originating from organic farming. Lack of results of objective test, however, does not allow drawing conclusions about the effects of cultivation in the organic system and comparison to currently preferred conventional system. Field experiment was conducted in organic and conventional fields. Thirty modern cultivars of winter wheat were sown. They were characterized for disease infection including Fusarium head blight, seed sowing value, the amount of DNA of the six species of Fusarium fungi as well as concentration of ergosterol and trichothecenes in grain. The intensity Fusarium head blight was at a similar level in both systems. However, Fusarium colonization of kernels expressed as ergosterol level or DNA concentration was higher for the organic system. It did not reflect in an increased accumulation of trichothecenes in grain, which was similar in both systems, but sowing value of organically produced seeds was lower. Significant differences between analyzed cropping systems and experimental variants were found. The selection of the individual cultivars for organic growing in terms of resistance to diseases and contamination of grain with Fusarium toxins was possible. Effects of organic growing differ significantly from the conventional and grain obtained such way can be recommended to consumers. There are indications for use of particular cultivars bred for conventional agriculture in the case of organic farming, and the growing organic decreases plant stress resulting from intense fertilization and chemical plant protection.

In this paper, we proposed a novel saddle type FinFET (S-FinFET) to effectively solve problems occurring under the capacitor node of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) cell and showed how its structure was superior to conventional S-FinFETs in terms of short channel effect (SCE), subthreshold slope (SS), and gate-induced drain leakage (GIDL). The proposed FinFET exhibited 4 times lower Ioff than modified S-FinFET called RFinFET with more improved DIBL characteristics while minimizing Ion reduction compared to RFinFET. Our results also confirmed that the proposed device showed improved DIBL and Ioff characteristics as gate channel length decreased.

Using a theorem of Ulam and Hyers, we will prove the Hyers-Ulam stability of two-dimensional Lagrange's mean value points $(\eta, \xi)$ which satisfy the equation, $f(u, v) - f(p, q) = (u-p) f_x(\eta, \xi) + (v-q) f_y(\eta, \xi)$, where $(p, q)$ and $(u, v)$ are distinct points in the plane. Moreover, we introduce an efficient algorithm for applying our main result in practical use.

We present a normative methodology, for value-pricing B2B services, using a Nash Equilibrium mechanism. Value is fundamental to any service, yet it has defied a definition. The literature is conspicuously silent on how to define value, but abounds in richly descriptive characterizations. To overcome this deficit, we focus on the financial economics of service-value. We formulate an axiomatic definition and a differential equation that embodies the idea of service-value. We specify a set of value axioms and multidisciplinary postulates that coherently form our service-value constructs. Value-pricing is challenging. It is natural that providers desire a high price and customers want a low price. Realistically, both will agree on a win-win price. To uncover this price, we specify an algorithm to reveal the Nash Equilibrium. Once agreed, it validates providers’ and customers’ commitments, and payment obligations. Service value is cocreated by both provider and customer. For a reciprocal process, its treatment is remarkably asymmetric favoring the customer. We argue that one-sided descriptions of value-in-use and value-proposition are limiting mental models. We propose the additional ideas of value-from-use and value-supposition to strengthen the conceptual symmetry of cocreation. Our work reveals a critical gap in service science, metrology. Metrology, the science of measurements, is absent from service-science. Service-value is silent on the questions of quantities, units, scales, measurement principles and instruments. We argue for a call to action for Service Metrology. We sketch a roadmap of actionable suggestions to get started.

This paper compares the finite sample performance of three non-parametric threshold estimators via Monte Carlo method. Our results show that the finite sample performance of the three estimators is not robust to the relative position of the threshold level along the distribution of threshold variable, especially when a structural change occurs at the tail part of the distribution.

In this work the existence and nonexistence of stationary radial solutions to the elliptic partial differential equation arising in the molecular beam epitaxy are studied. Since we are interested in radial solutions we arrive at the following fourth-order differential equation

Current pharmacological treatments of Fibromyalgia (FM) are merely symptom palliative, as clinical trials have so far failed to provide overall benefits without associated harms. Polypharmacy often leads to patient´s health deterioration and chronic drug use to an eventual lack of patient´s response. Emerging evidence support that physiotherapy treatments based on mechanical triggers improve FM symptoms and therefore could be used for therapeutic purposes by themselves, or in combination with current pharmacological treatments, as part of integrative medicine programs. However, a paucity of studies rigorously and systematically evaluating this possibility exists. This study uses scores from validated standardized questionnaires, algometer pressure point threshold (PPT) readings and responses from a custom self-developed questionnaire to determine the impact of a pressure-controlled manual protocol on FM hyperalgesia/allodynia, fatigue and patient´s quality of life. The results show that patient´s baseline sensitivity to pain inversely correlates with treatment response in FM. Moreover, patients presenting comorbid ME/CFS do not seem to respond to the applied therapy as those presenting FM only. Thus, pre-treatment PPTs and ME/CFS comorbidity may serve as indicators to predict patient´s response to physiotherapy programs based on mechanical triggers, as the one evaluated here. These unexpected findings grant further explorations including the study of gene expression profiles associating to patient´s treatment response in the blood collection of samples generated by this study.

In table tennis competitions the rule violation judgment with the greatest controversy is the height of the ball serve. This is because inaccuracy in the ball height judgment, which results in erroneous judgment, is unavoidable. Thus, we designed an automatic image judgment auxiliary system for table tennis ball height during service in this study. We used a high-speed camera to record the ball toss in the table tennis service. The designed algorithm architecture can automatically search for the ball and the position of the hand action under low light source conditions. The algorithm is mainly divided into hue-saturation-value color space processing and morphology processing using Hough transform to search for the circular ball. Experiment result shows that color segmentation can successfully and accurately determine the ball position under low light conditions. The morphology method can find the position of the hand and help determine the moment when the ball leaves the hand during the service ball toss. Finally, the actual size of the target is used to estimate the actual distance unit represented by the image pixel.

This paper presents a study on the influence of the frequency variation of a nonlinear1 control allocation technique execution, developed by the author [1], named by Fast Control2 Allocation (FCA) for the Quadrotor Tilt-Rotor (QTR) aircraft. Then, through Software In The3 Loop (SITL) simulation, the proposed work considers the use of Gazebo, QGroundControl, and4 Matlab applications, where different frequencies of the FCA can be implemented separated in5 Matlab, always analyzing the QTR stability conditions from the virtual environment performed in6 Gazebo. TheresultsshowedthattheFCAneedsatleast200HzoffrequencyfortheQTRsafeflight7 conditions, i. e., 2 times smaller than the main control loop frequency, 400 Hz. Lower frequencies8 than this one would case instability or crashes during the QTR Operation.

This work is concerned with the existence and uniqueness of boundary value problems defined on semi-infinite intervals. These kinds of problems seldom admit exactly known solutions and, therefore, the theoretical information on their well-posedness is essential before attempting to derive an approximate solution by analytical or numerical means. Our utmost contribution in this context is the definition of a numerical test for investigating the existence and uniqueness of solutions of boundary problems defined on semi-infinite intervals. The main result is given by a theorem relating the existence and uniqueness question to the number of real zeros of a function implicitly defined within the formulation of the iterative transformation method. As a consequence, we can investigate the existence and uniqueness of solutions by studying the behaviour of that function. Within such a context the numerical test is illustrated by two examples where we find meaningful numerical results.

Fundamental principles of classical (Newtonian) physics are employed to probe the cosmological lambda Λ; it yields the values ρ_vac = 2.61 x 10^-39 g cm^-3 and Λ = 4.87 x 10^-66 cm^-2. It is revealed that Λ is a fundamental physical constant defined by vacuum density-light speed ρ_vacc² correlation. However, the constant accelerates along the groups and periods of a universal spatial periodicity equivalent to the chemical periodicity. Previous results are cited to show that chemical elements are quantum harmonic (periodic) oscillators QHOs and their waveform oscillations exclusively define the vacuum field. The cosmological periodic unit CPU is introduced, it relies on the cosmological principle to argue that a relative physical quantity evaluated for the QHO applies to constituents of corresponding cosmological spatial quanta. Compelling evidences, backed with relevant data and quantitative expressions, are then presented to argue that: there was never a big bang, it is a Linde-universe sans “chaotic”; nature posts no singularity; mass does not curve spacetime, neither does metric space curvature trace directly to gravitation nor particle creation, gravity is classical, not quantum; reality is quadri-phasic not mono-phasic with a clear distinction between the atomic waveform defined with absolute atomic mass and condensed matter defined with relative atomic mass; every chemical element exists in three particle-generations thus, dark matter is invisible form (conjugate) of the visible element, its waveform manifests dark energy, it is not implicated in metric space expansion; Planck scale does not exist, radioactivity constrains fundamental length to atomic radius of the heaviest element.

Sustainable development (SD) is essential to reduce and mitigate climate change impacts, environmental deterioration and to increase social sustainability. SD is therefore highly relevant for the engineering profession and is today found integrated with the higher education of specific engineering programs. This paper investigated the knowledge of SD for students entering the master’s program in Sustainable Building Information Management (BIM) by comparing levels of knowledge at the start and end of the first course Sustainability, Analyses and Simulations. The level of knowledge of SD was analyzed by classifying students’ conceptions of sustainability using SOLO taxonomy and the spectrum of liminality and the threshold concept. Students written responses to the question “What do you know about sustainability?” and written group project reports were used for analyzing levels of knowledge of SD. Levels of knowledge of SD was classified as pre (pre-liminal or pre-structural); uni-structural, multi-structural, relational and post-stages (extended abstract or post-liminal). In total, 68% of the students entering the master’s program in 2017 and 88% in 2018 showed a pre-structural, uni-structural and multi-structural SD knowledge. In general, few students entering the program showed relational and post-stages of SD knowledge, 32% and 12% of the students in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The students at the post-stage were able to express themselves more individually and creatively compared to previous levels in that they could connect the dimensions of SD to the context of SD of buildings, but also argue why SD of buildings was important and they could also suggest actions or tools for improved SD that engineers should use. Only one group of five (in 2017) showed a post-stage level of knowledge in the group project report. It is likely that the student’s general approach to the work with the reports was to mainly cope with the course requirements which is a sign of surface approach to learning. It, therefore, seems reasonable that future developments of the course should ensure that the students use the scientific literature in their group project reports to make it easier for them to understand the relationship between software use and the connection to green buildings certificate systems and SD of buildings. By making it mandatory to include scientific literature in the reports the students will be encouraged to read and think critically, and deeper, and to put the practical implementation of the software analysis results into a scientific context of SD and BIM.

The use of risk measures such as the Value at Risk (VaR) or Tail Conditional Expectation (TCE) is required by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in determining a bank’s risk profile. However, both measures can be shown to have shortcomings in the information that they provide to regulators and investors. In this paper we present an introduction to risk measure calculations before demonstrating the weaknesses of these measures. Through the exploration of specific cases we show how familiar yet differing risk profiles have identical values for combinations of these measures. From this evidence we recommend that a sequence of several risk measures should be used to give a more accurate representation of the risk contained on banking balance sheet.

The present review is dedicated to using of peat on the example of fen peat in high added-value products and applications. Mainly, but not limited, last decade literature was analysed from the perspective of innovation potential of peat applications in environmental technologies on examples of studies from the Baltic Sea region. Paper covers a wide range of applications of peat products started from agriculture to medicine and cosmetics. A separate chapter is devoted to the deep-processed peat product - humic substances (humate, humic and fulvic salts and acids). Generalised dependence of product extraction rate and its properties, depending on the process parameters are provided. Widely are described applications of the humic sub-stance applications covering economic aspects, such as production costs. In the last chapter of the review are given recommendations for applications considering the most recent trends of peat-based product developments. This accumulated information could be useful for future production, development of new, environmentally friendly products and start-ups establishment.

The aim of the article is to present a snapshot in time, of the current state in cryptocurrencies, the values and risks associated to blockchains. With emergence of over 20,000 crypto projects, the first objective of this article is to present the stage as it is in 2023, with historical overview since Satoshi presented the first paper on decentralised blockchains, until today. Second objective of the article is to review the values and risks associated to cryptocurrencies, and to clarify the differences between cryptocurrencies from blockchain technologies. The research questions that drive this article are related determining if the blockchain technology an innovation or its already obsolete technology? Are there any significant risks from cryptocurrencies? And are the potential values to society and economy worth pursuing? Would developed or developing countries benefit more from these technologies? And which blockchain projects will survive in the long run? In other words, where is the money and is there money or just hype. The review discusses the high probability that some crypto projects will fail, and given the vast number of cryptos, the article acknowledges that many of these projects are nothing more than ponzies. These are discussed and acknowledged, then the focus is shifted to the real-world use cases of blockchain projects.

This paper utilizes dynamic panel threshold technology to conduct a nonlinear test on the direct effect between environmental regulation and economic fluctuations and the effect of industrial structure upgrading by taking 35 industrial sectors in China from 2003 to 2016 . The research has found that there is an inverted "U" relationship between environmental regulation and economic fluctuations, with the enhancement of environmental regulations, the economic fluctuation increases first and then decreases. The cross-terms of environmental regulation and industrial structure rationalization or industrial structure upgrading are significantly negative, which indicates that the enhancement of environmental regulation is conducive to promoting industrial structure upgrading and reducing the economic fluctuations. While the rationalization factors of industrial structure and advanced industrial structure are significantly negative, indicating that both forms of industrial structure upgrading are conducive to reducing the economic fluctuations. Environmental regulation has technical innovation thresholds for industrial structure upgrading and economic fluctuations, but there are no human capital or FDI thresholds. In the rationalization model of industrial structure, there is a nonlinear "U" relationship between environmental regulation and economic fluctuations when the proportion of scientific research expenditure is more than 1.35%. With the enhancement of environmental regulation, the economic fluctuation reduces first and then increases, and the corresponding inflection point value is 2.398% of the environmental regulation level. At the same time, the environmental regulation can indirectly reduce economic fluctuations by pushing down the industrial structure upgrades. In the advanced model of industrial structure, there is a “U” relationship between environmental regulation and economic fluctuation when the proportion of scientific research expenditure is greater than 1.26%. With continuous enhancement of environmental regulation, the economic fluctuation reduces first and then increases. The corresponding inflection point value is 1.78% of the environmental regulation level, and environmental regulation can indirectly reduce economic fluctuations by promoting the industrial structure at the same time.

An empirical model for log yield from trees is established and applied in microeconomics of carbon storage in a boreal spruce estate. The transition from pulpwood to sawlogs is a smoother function of stem diameter in the empirical data, in comparison to literature values. Correspondingly, the value transition of trees along with increasing size is gentler. Due to price premium of sawlogs from clearcuttings, all economically feasible treatment schedules terminate in clearcutting. Best capital return rates are gained with two heavy thinnings from above before clearcutting. Present carbon emission prices allow moderate carbon storage increment if the increment is compensated by proportional carbon rent. Doubling the present carbon prices would allow strong carbon storage increments if compensated by carbon rent. Application of nonproportional carbon rent is proposed.

Public participation is significant for the success of any urban planning project. However, most members of the general public are not planning professionals and may not understand the technical details of a 2D paper-based plan, which might hamper their participation. One way to expand the participation of citizens is to present plans in well-designed, user-friendly and interactive platforms that allow participation regardless of the technical skills of the participants. This paper investigates the impacts of the combined use of 3D visualization and E-participation on public participation in Kisumu, Kenya. A 3D City model, created with CityEngine2016, was exported into a web-based geo-portal and used as a Planning Support System in two stakeholder workshops in order to evaluate its usability. For e-participation, 300 questionnaires given out to planning practitioners. Five indicators were developed for evaluating the usability of the 3D model while the usability of e-participation was evaluated using communication, collaboration and learning as indicators. Results showed that effectiveness and efficiency varies within different professional groups while the questionnaires showed strong preference for e-participation methods, especially SMSs/USSDs and emails. The study concludes that the use of 3D visualization and E-participation has the potential for improving the quality and quantity of public participation and recommends further research on the subject.

Purpose: To assess the utility of measurement of the computed tomography (CT) attenuation value (CTav) in predicting tumor necrosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who achieve a complete response (CR), defined using modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (mRECIST), after lenvatinib treatment. Method: We compared CTav in arterial phase CT images with postoperative histopathology in four patients who underwent HCC resection after lenvatinib treatment, to determine CTav thresholds indicative of histological necrosis (N-CTav). Next, we confirmed the accuracy of the determined N-CTav in 15 cases with histopathologically proven necrosis in surgical specimens. Furthermore, the percentage of the tumor with N-CTav, i.e. the N-CTav occupancy rate, assessed using Image J software in 30 tumors in 12 patients with CR out of 571 HCC patients treated with lenvatinib, and its correlation with local recurrence following CR were examined. Results: Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed an optimal cut-off value of CTav of 30.2 HU, with 90.0% specificity and 65.0% sensitivity in discriminating between pathologically identified necrosis and degeneration, with a CTav of less than 30.2 HU indicating necrosis after lenvatinib treatment (N30-CTav). Furthermore, the optimal cut-off value of 30.6% for the N30-CTav occupancy rate by ROC analysis was a significant indicator of local recurrence following CR with 76.9% specificity and sensitivity (area under the ROC curve; 0.939), with the CR group with high N30-CTav occupancy (&gt;30.6%) after lenvatinib treatment showing significantly lower local recurrence (8.3% at 1 year) compared with the low (&lt;30.6%) N30-CTav group (P&lt;0.001, 61.5% at 1 year). Conclusion: The cut-off value of 30.2 HU for CTav (N30-CTav) might be appropriate for identifying post-lenvatinib necrosis in HCC, and an N30-CTav occupancy rate of &gt;30.6% might be a　predictor of maintenance of CR. Use of these indicators have the potential to impact systemic chemotherapy for HCC.

In this paper, we consider with a class of system of differential equations whose argument transforms are involution. In this an initial value problem for a differential equation with involution is reduced to an initial value problem for a higher order ordinary differential equation. Than either two initial conditions are necessary for a solution, the equation is then reduced to a boundary value problem for a higher order ODE.

Protected areas, such as natural World Heritage sites, RAMSAR wetlands, and Biosphere reserves are ecosystems within landscapes. Each site meets certain criteria that allow it to qualify as heritage or protected. Both climate change and human influence (e.g., incursion, increased tourist visitation) are altering biophysical conditions at many such sites. As a result, conditions at many sites are falling outside the criteria for their original designation. The alternatives are to change the criteria, remove protection from the site, change site boundaries such that the larger or smaller landscape meets the criteria, or manage the existing landscape in some way that reduces the threat. This paper argues for adaptive heritage, an approach that explicitly recognizes changing conditions. We discuss the need to view heritage areas as parts of a larger landscape, and to take an adaptive approach to management of that landscape. We offer five themes of adaptive heritage: 1) treat sites as living heritage, 2) employ innovative governance, 3) embrace transparency and accountability, 4) invest in monitoring and evaluation, and 5) manage adaptively. We offer the Australian Wet Tropics as an example where aspects of adaptive heritage currently are practiced, highlighting the tools being used. This paper offers guidance supporting decisions about natural heritage in the face of climate change and non-climatic pressures. Rather than delisting or lowering standards, we argue for adaptive approaches.

Urban transit planning is going through a transition to greater private investment in many parts of the world and is now on the agenda in Australia. After showing examples of private investment in transit globally the paper focuses on historical case studies of private rail investment in Western Australia. These case studies mirror the historical experience in rapidly growing railway cities in Europe, North America and Asia (particularly Japan), and also the land grant railways that facilitated settlement in North America. The Western Australian experience is noteworthy for the small but rapidly growing populations of the settlements involved, suggesting that growth, rather than size, is the key to successfully raising funding for railways through land development. The paper shows through the history of transport, with particular reference to Perth, that the practice of private infrastructure provision can provide lessons for how to enable this again. It suggests that new partnerships with private transport investment as set out in the Federal Government City Deal process, should create many more opportunities to improve the future of cities through once again integrating transit, land development and private finance.

Background: Identifying a specific threshold level of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies that confers protection in immunocompromised patients has been very challenging. The aim was to assess the threshold of 264 binding antibody units (BAU)/ml using four different SARS-CoV-2 antibody assays (Abbott, Beckman, Roche, and Siemens) and to establish a new optimal threshold of protection for each of the four antibody assays. Methods: This study was performed on data retrieved from 69 individuals, who received at least one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2 or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine (Spikevax) at the Alphabio Laboratory in Marseille, France (European Hospital, Alphabio – Biogroup). The results were compared to the percent inhibition calculated using a functional surrogate of a standardized virus neutralization test (Genscript). Results: Samples from 69 patients were analyzed. For a reference cutoff of 264 BAU/ml, assays showed moderate to good overall concordance with Genscript: 87% concordance for Abbott, 78% for Beckman, 75% for Roche, and 88% for Siemens. Overall concordance increased consistently after applying new thresholds, i.e., 148 BAU/ml (Abbott), 48 (Beckman), 559 (Roche), and 270 (Siemens). Conclusion: We suggest specific adjusted thresholds (BAU/ml) for the four commercial antibody assays that are used to assess pre-exposure prophylaxis in immunocompromised patients.

In the face of the upcoming 30th anniversary of econophysics, we review our contributions and other related works on the modeling of the long–range memory phenomenon in physical, economic, and other social complex systems. Our group has shown that the long–range memory phenomenon can be reproduced using various Markov processes, such as point processes, stochastic differential equations and agent–based models. Reproduced well enough to match other statistical properties of the financial markets, such as return and trading activity distributions and first–passage time distributions. Research has lead us to question whether the observed long–range memory is a result of actual long–range memory process or just a consequence of non–linearity of Markov processes. As our most recent result we discuss the long–range memory of the order flow data in the financial markets and other social systems from the perspective of the fractional Lèvy stable motion. We test widely used long-range memory estimators on discrete fractional Lèvy stable motion represented by the ARFIMA sample series. Our newly obtained results seem indicate that new estimators of self–similarity and long–range memory for analyzing systems with non–Gaussian distributions have to be developed.

As one of the unique destinations in Iran, Abdanan Black Twin Lake attracts many tourists yearly. Among striking features is the presence of minerals, boiling springs, and its beautiful landscape. Human beings are willing to spend money on such natural resources. An economic valuation can be interfered constructively and positively in improving environmental policies. So, quantifying these benefits is of the utmost importance. The paper mainly estimated the tourists' willingness to pay and their recreational value using the contingent valuation method. Random sampling was conducted on 384 people using the two-dimensional double-choice questionnaire in spring 2019. In the Twin Lake Recreational Value Questionnaire, the main questions were devoted to the visitors' willingness to pay, with three bids of 0.07 $, 0.14 $, and 0.22$. Among 384 respondents, 304 (79%) were willing to pay for recreational use of the lake, and 80 respondents (21%) were not. The likelihood, the model's parameters were estimated. The findings indicated the average tourists' willingness to pay for recreational value was estimated at 0.09$ per visit and the recreational value of this lake for each household was estimated at 0.40$. The findings revealed the effect of education, household income, household size and tourists' willingness to pay was significant.

Energy-efficient microprocessors are essential for a wide range of applications. While near-threshold computing is a promising technique to improve energy efficiency, optimal supply demands from logic core and on-chip memory are conflicting. In this paper, we perform static reliability analysis of 6T SRAM and discover the variance among different sizing configuration and asymmetric minimum voltage requirements between read and write operations. We leverage this asymmetric property in near-threshold processors equipped with voltage boosting capability by proposing an opportunistic dual-supply switching scheme with a write aggregation buffer. Our results show that proposed technique improves energy efficiency by more than 21.45% with approximate 10.19% performance speed-up.

Based on hospital capacities, facts from past experience with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) virus and the number of dark infections during the second wave (DII = 2D2), a reasonable limiting value of 140/D2 for the 7-day incidence per 100,000 persons (MSDIHT) and a second wave herd immunization threshold fraction value of 0.26 in Germany were calculated. If the MSDIHT is held below this limiting value, the German hospital system can cope with the number of new seriously infected persons without any triage decisions. On the basis of the SIRV epidemics model, the classical threshold values for herd immunization were calculated for 18 countries. For these countries, the dates regarding when herd immunization against the second COVID-19 wave will be reached were estimated

It is increasingly common for experiments in biology and medicine to involve large numbers of hypothesis tests. A natural graphical method for visualizing these tests is to construct a histogram from the p-values of these tests. In this article, we examine the shapes, both normal and abnormal, that these histograms can take on, as well as present simple inferential procedures that help to interpret the shapes in terms of diagnosing potential problems with the experiment. We examine potential causes of these problems in detail, and discuss potential remedies. Throughout, examples of abnormal-looking p-value histograms are provided and based on case studies involving real biological experiments.

Taste and smell function decline with age, with robust impairment in the very old. Much less is known about taste and smell function in young and middle old. We investigated taste and smell sensitivity via thresholds in a sub-sample of the NutriAct Family Study (NFS), the NFS Examinations cohort (NFSE; N=251, age M=62.5 years). We examined different aspects relating to taste and smell function: the degree to which taste and smell sensitivity relate to another and to taste and smell preferences, the role of gender and age, as well as effects on Quality of Life (QOL). Taste thresholds were highly correlated but no correlation was observed between taste and smell thresholds and between thresholds and preference. Women were more sensitive for both taste and smell than men. We found no effect of age on sensitivity and no effect of sensitivity on QoL. All null-findings were corroborated with Bayesian statistics providing evidence for the null hypotheses. Together our results indicate the independence of taste and smell despite their overlap during sensorial experiences. We found no evidence for age-related sensory decline, which could be due to our sample´s characteristics of non-clinical volunteers with good dental health and 93% non-smokers.

We examine how external triggers, including the digital imperative and the need for more sustainable resource and stakeholder employment, spark the development of transformative sustainable business models. Drawing on the resource-based view and the shared value approach we conceptualize a multifaceted framework that helps to identify key determinants and coherent layers of transformative sustainable businesses models. Our theoretical arguments integrate recent research findings on external dynamics, such as digital technological advances and rising global competitive dynamics, with internal capabilities on both the organizational and the individual level, allowing for a more complete understanding of transformative potentials on the firm level. We propose that key determinants of sustainable transformative business models adhere to both, innovative value-creating reconstructionist and sustainable shared-value logic, and include elements such as co-creation with customers, usage-based pricing, agile and adaptive behavior, closed-loop resource employment, asset-sharing, and collaborative business ecosystems. At the same time, organizational, economic, and environmental layers encompassing sustainable business models need to be both horizontally and vertically coherent to unfold their full potential.

Densimetric Froude (Fr) is the minimum velocity required to prevent sediment deposition in pipes. Prediction of Fr is of utmost importance in numerous applications in civil engineering. In this paper through using a new hybrid method. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used for optimum selection of membership functions of Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) method is used to compute the linear parameters of ANFIS’s results section (ANFIS-GA/SVD). Also, two different target functions are known as training error (TE) and prediction error (PE) by Pareto curve, the trade-off between these functions is selected as the optimal modeling point. First, different models will be presented using the parameters affecting Fr prediction, classifying them in different groups; then the Fr parameter will be predicted for all the different models through utilizing three different sets of data and the ANFIS-GA/SVD technique. The results of the models indicate that the best Fr prediction is obtained when independent parameters such as volumetric sediment concentration (CV), ratio of median diameter of particle size to pipe diameter (d/D), ratio of median diameter of particle size to hydraulic radius (d/R) and overall friction factor of sediment (λs) use as input variables in prediction of Fr. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted for the purpose of examining the effect of each of the dimensionless parameters on Fr prediction accuracy. Comparing the results of the suggested models with the existing regression-based equations shows that ANFIS-GA/SVD (R²=0.986, MAPE=4.397, RMSE=0.206, SI=0.053, ρ=0.026, BIAS=-0.025) is more accurate than the rest of the models.

Recently the use of food by products as natural sources of biologically active substances has been extensively investigated especially for the development of functional foods fortified with natural antioxidants. Due to their content of bioactive compounds, such as carotenoids, flavonoids and limonoids, Citrus peels could be suitable to formulate enriched olive oils able to boost a healthy nutrition. The aim of this study was: (i) to determine the compositional and sensory profiles of the Citrus olive oil and (ii) to evaluate its nutraceutical properties in rats with high fat diet-induced-metabolic syndrome and oxidative stress. The results obtained show the potential of using the Citrus peels as a source of bioactive compounds to improve the sensory profile as well as the phytochemical composition of olive oil. We demonstrated that the production system of C. aurantium olive oil and C. limon olive oil improves their organoleptic properties without altering their beneficial effects, which, like control extra virgin olive oil, showed protective effects on glucose and serum lipid levels, metabolic activity of adipocytes, myocardial tissue functionality, oxidative stress markers and endothelial function at blood vessel level.

In this paper, we study the entire or meromorphic solutions for differential-difference equations in f(z) , its shifts, its derivatives and derivatives of its shifts. and study some Hayman's results for differential-difference polynomials.

Unique analytical challenges arise when drivers, who face a route choice between a toll lane and a set of free lanes, have different values of time. The most complex situation is one in which multiple sub-populations of drivers exist, each with their own unique mean and coefficient of variation of value of time. This situation, when imbedded within a larger network cannot be tackled using existing planning models, and consequently is usually only approximated. This paper examines these different approximations, the resulting numerical solutions and the implications of these approximations on the estimate of the number of expected toll lane users. The paper also shows how this problem can be solved using a combined traffic assignment/simulation model. The first part of this paper develops an analytical formulation for solving the toll lane scenario using the “value of time” representations range from the simplest to the most complex. It is shown that one of the most critical issues is a determination of who the marginal users are of the toll lane, at each level of usage, as the perceived disutility of the last marginal toll lane user depends dynamically upon that driver’s value of time. Analytical formulations based on these different approximations are then solved numerically in the second part of the paper. These numerical solutions show that significant different lane use estimates result, depending upon the representation of value of time. Consequently, it is clear that solving this problem with the fewest approximations is both of theoretical and practical importance. The third part of the paper illustrates the solution to the toll lane problem, with each level of approximation, using a combined traffic assignment/simulation model. The simulated resulting estimates of the toll lane usage for each case matches both the relative and absolute trends found in analytical solutions. However, the solution using the assignment/simulation model is not only much faster and simpler to obtain, but is also scalable both in size and complexity. The additional complexities, that are associated with a less approximate representation of value of time, should therefore be incorporated in all future assessments of toll lane facilities, be they analyzed analytically or through simulation.

A quite energetic seismic excitation consisting of one main and additional three distinctive earthquake clusters that occurred in the transition area between the Kefalonia Transform Fault Zone (KTFZ) and the continental collision between Adriatic and Aegean microplates, is thoroughly studied after high–precision aftershocks’ relocation. The activated fault segments are in an area where historical and instrumental data have never claimed the occurrence of a catastrophic (M>6.0) earthquake. The relocated seismicity initially defines an activated structure extending from the northern segment of the Lefkada branch of KTFZ with the same NNE–SSW orientation and dextral strike-slip faulting and then keeping the same sense of motion its strike becomes NE–SW and its dip direction NW. This provides unprecedented information on the link between the KTFZ and the Collision front and sheds more light on the regional geodynamics. The earthquake catalog, which is specially compiled for this study, starts one year before the occurrence of the Mw5.4 mainshock and adequately provides the proper data source for investigating the temporal variation of the b–value, which might be used for discriminating foreshock and aftershock behavior.

The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which the Tyme Wear smart shirt is as reliable and valid in detecting personalized ventilatory thresholds when compared to the Parvo Medics TrueOne 2400. In this validation study, 19 subjects were recruited to conduct two graded exercise test (GXT) trials. Each GXT trial was separated by seven to ten days of rest. During the GXT, gas exchange and heart rate data were collected by the TrueOne 2400 (TRUE) in addition to the ventilation data collected by the Tyme Wear smart shirt (S-PRED). Gas exchange data from TRUE was used to detect VT1 and VT2. TRUE and S-PRED VT1 and VT2 were compared to determine the reliability and validity of the smart shirt. Of the 19 subjects, data from 15 subjects were used during analysis. S-PRED exhibited excellent (ICC &gt; 0.90) reliability for detection of VT1 and VT2 utilizing time point and workload and moderate (0.90 &gt; ICC &gt; 0.75 ) reliability utilizing heart rate. TRUE exhibited excellent reliability for detection of VT1 and VT2 utilizing time point, workload, and heart rate. When compared to TRUE, S-PRED appears to underestimate the VT1 workload (p &gt; 0.05) across both trials and heart rate (p &lt; 0.05) for trial 1. However, S-PRED appears to underestimate VT2 workload (p &lt; 0.05) and heart rate (p &lt; 0.05) across both trials. The result from this study suggests that the Tyme Wear smart shirt is less valid but is comparable in reliability when compared to the gold standard. Moreover, despite the underestimation of S-PRED VT1 and VT2, the S-PRED detected personalized ventilatory thresholds will provide an adequate training workload for most individuals. In conclusion, the Tyme Wear smart shirt provides easily accessible testing to establish threshold-guided training zones but does not devalue the long-standing laboratory equivalent.

Goals: To use visual logistics for interpreting COVID-19 molecular and rapid antigen test (RAgT) performance, determine prevalence boundaries where risk exceeds expectations, and evaluate benefits of recursive testing along home, community, and emergency spatial care paths. Methods: Mathematica/open access software helped graph relationships, compare performance patterns, and perform recursive computations. Results: Tiered sensitivity/specificity comprise: T1) 90%/95%; T2) 95%/97.5%; and T3) 100%/≥99%, respectively. In emergency medicine, median RAgT performance peaks at 13.2% prevalence, then falls below T1, generating risky prevalence boundaries. RAgTs in pediatric ERs/EDs parallel this pattern with asymptomatic worse than symptomatic performance. In communities, RAgTs display large uncertainty with median prevalence boundary of 14.8% for 1/20 missed diagnoses, and at prevalence >33.3-36.9% risk 10% false omissions for symptomatic subjects. Recursive testing improves home RAgT performance. Home molecular tests elevate performance above T1, but lack adequate validation. Conclusions: Widespread RAgT availability encourages self-testing. Asymptomatic RAgT and PCR-based saliva testing present the highest chance of missed diagnoses. Home testing twice, once just before mingling, and molecular-based self-testing help avoid false omissions. Community and ER/ED RAgTs can identify contagiousness in low prevalence (<22%). Real-world trials of performance, cost-effectiveness, and public health impact could identify home molecular diagnostics as the optimal diagnostic portal.

Burning woody biomass for energy is gaining attention due to environmental issues associated with fossil fuels and carbon emission. The carbon released from burning wood is absorbed by plants and is carbon neutral. The purpose of this study was to investigate the combustion characteristics (heat calorific values and ash contents) of three timbers: Araucaria cunninghamii, Instia bijuga and Pometia pinnata and recommend for fuelwood. The test samples were sawdust particles (treatment) and solid woods (control) extracted from the heartwoods. The sawdust particles were oven-dried, sieved and pelletized into pellets using a hand-held pelletizing device, thus, forming cylindrical dimension (volume 1178.57 mm3, oven dry density 0.0008 g/mm3). While the solid woods were cubed and oven-dried (volume 1000.00 mm3, oven dry density 0.001 g/mm3). Prior to combustion in a semi-automatic bomb calorimeter, 90 test specimens (15 replicates per treatment and control per species) were conditioned to 14 % moisture content (at temperature 105 ºC) and weighed to a constant (unit) mass (1.0 g). The heat energy outputs and ash residues (of treatments) were analyzed statistically. The results indicated variability in heat energy outputs and ash residues between test specimens of the three species. Comparatively, the treatment specimens of A. cunninghamii produced higher calorific value (18.546 kJ/g) than the control (18.376 kJ/g) whilst the treatment specimens of I. bijuga and P. pinnata generated lower heat calorific values (17.124 kJ/g and 18.822 kJ/g) than the control (18.415 kJ/g and 20.659 kJ/g), respectively. According to ash content analysis, A. cunninghamii generated higher residues (6.3%) followed by P. pinnata (4.5%) and I. bijuga (2.8%). The treatment specimens of the three species could not meet the standard heat energy requirement (20.0 kJ/g) and thus, were unsuitable for fuelwood. However, the control specimens of P. pinnata generated equivalent heat energy (20.659 kJ/g) and could be a potential fuelwood.

We introduce the Transformation Flower Approach (TFA), a Theory of Change that attends to multiple value creation and institutional change as a dual design challenge. We highlight how the TFA integrates social scientific theories and models relevant for transformative change (in particular focusing on pathways, leverage points, governance, power, and values) and demonstrate its practical value by an application to the ongoing transformation of the Dutch food system. By providing a holistic, transdisciplinary and practically relevant approach that aims to support new social contract formation, the TFA goes beyond other transformative change approaches. Based on the notion of pathways, it offers a toolbox that aids in working towards desired futures, involving both incumbents and challengers in an effort to harness untapped yet proximal potentials in a forward-looking way. By embracing an innovation approach, it not only promises to circumvent resistance to change, but also serves as a step-by-step approach to identify options for multiple value creation and effective cooperation. We demonstrate the analytical and practical value of the TFA by discussing action perspectives at various levels and scales in the context of the Dutch food system transition, including (1) area-oriented approaches, (2) acceleration agendas for specific transformation pathways, and (3) actor-specific transformation flowers. In developing these, we emphasize the importance of interdependencies between leverage points. Our approach helps to identify opportunities to link transformative options (the what), actors (the who) and levers (the how) in dynamic interaction to embark on transformative pathways.

The concept of this prototype is to create a cold air film layer, in indoor side of the window. The function of this extra cold air layer is to increase the amount of window resistance and decrease its U-Value. It provide air film layer by using the same concept of desert cooler or wind catcher. They both bring the hot air from outside then let it go throw straw miost with cold water. After hot air move through straw, it would become cold, thus increase the window resistance and decrease the haet gian, therefore, decrease the cooling load. So, this window model works by heating the air in air room by sun radiation, then after a while, air pressure will rise and its volume will increase then it will impulse to wet hay, and become cold. Then there is fins to guide air flow to its correct direction, thus inner side of window will become cold, not like other type of window which when temperature rise, the inner side of window become hot. So, this window prevents heat transition and creare regenereted trubouland air flim in the inner side of the window. Using calculation to find air film characteristics and WINDOW7.7 software to calculate heat gain through window, shows that it is expected from this prototype to reduce heat gain by 6.85 % for double glazed clear window.

The expense of carbon sequestration in terms of capital return deficiency is investigated at estate level, in the case of a fertile boreal estate dominated by spruce forest. Thinnings from below result as a high expense of increased rotation age, thinnings from above as a small expense. The expense of increased timber stock is greater than any proportional carbon rent based on present carbon prices. Application of non-proportional carbon rent is proposed.

This paper presents and discusses the pedagogical implication of teaching Shared Value, presenting a case study about a contamination lab namely the case of the Shared Value Living Lab (SVLL) which took place at the University of Torino (UniTO) in Italy. The paper analyzes the pedagogical side of CSV (arguments, topics, learning methodologies, etc.) in the framework of recent theories and approaches of teaching sustainability in business school and in the cooperation between industry and academia, as well. Our research methodology relies on the analysis and comparison of one case study under an intrinsic as it enables researchers to find “interactivity” and connectedness between the individuals participating. The SVLL case is an interesting example of co-creation of social value between academia and its stakeholders. First, it represents an inclusive project linking society and business; second, SVLL acted as a hub putting in contact different interlocutors; third, SVLL training stimulated the acquisition of soft skill in students (interviews, managing relations, represents the project outside university, explaining the project to people, research curiosity) through contamination activities. With our study, we demonstrate the change in students participating in the SVLL may not only be cognitive but also affective, making students feel hopeful, empowered and liberated, and ready to contribute to a more profound change towards the vast array of pro-sustainability behaviors.

The design flood concept (DF) provides for an essential tool in designing the hydraulic works, in defining the reservoir operation programs and for a reliable flood hazard identification. Under a simplified approach, the maximum discharge and the floods volume are statistically processed to reasonably define the DF. Yet, the integral hydrograph provides additional key temporal and quantitative details of important significance for flood management and particularly for the res-ervoirs operation and associated risks of failures. The procedure presented in this paper (as applied on a set of compatibly shaped hydrographs) involves the following key stages: (i) normalize the floods, (ii) define similar flood shape classes and (iii) evaluate the average dimensionless flood (ADF) for each class. The ADFs are finally transformed into a set of (DF)s. Many statistical distributions approximate acceptably the frequent values of the maximum discharges or the flood volumes, yet displaying a significant spread for medium or rare probabilities of exceedance (PE). This scattering, which can be explained by the epistemic uncertainty, defines an area of uncertainty both for measured and extrapolated values. In considering upper and lower values of the uncertainty in-tervals as limits for maximum discharges and flood volumes, then by combining them compatibly, a set of DFs - as completely defined hydrographs, with different shapes - results for each PE. The herein proposed procedure defines both one peak DF and multi-peaks DF. Subsequently, such DFs do assist water managers in examining and establishing tailored approaches for a variety of input hydrographs. Among the DFs that would correspond to a same PE, the most compact floods arise a special interest, for they are basic in defining the set of safe operation rules for hydraulic structures.

Nested structure is a structural feature that is conducive to system stability formed by the co-evolution of species in mutualistic ecosystems, and reflects the ability of ecosystem stability to be restored to a stable state again after being destroyed. The co-opetition relationship and value flow between industrial sectors in the global value chain are similar to the mutualistic ecosystem, and the pattern of the global economic system is always changing in dynamic equilibrium. Nestedness theory is used in this article to define the generalist and specialist sectors in the global value chain to analyze the changes in the global supply pattern. Then we study the mechanism of the global economic system to reach a stable equilibrium and the role of different sectors in the steady of the economic system, so as to provide countermeasures for enhancing the stability of the global economic system. At the end of the article, the domestic trade network, export trade network and import trade network of each country are extracted, and an econometric model is designed to analyze how the microstructure of the production system affects a country’s macroeconomic performance, thereby deriving the conclusion that the stability of the international trade network is crucial to a country's economic development.

In 2020, the early Covid-19 lockdown and social distancing induced the abrupt migration of traditionally presential learning activities to online domains. This “new normal” environment affected management not only of training courses, but also educational events whose main added value consisted in providing students with an interactive experience onsite, as it is the case of inter-institutional summer schools. The following research corresponds to a case study in which our organization, a French university, had to reformulate, in less than three months, one of its traditional summer schools while trying to keep the original goals. We aimed at identifying the impact of four managerial decisions by analyzing, through qualitative and quantitative surveys, students’ perception of gained or lost value regarding four topics: a) online teaching, b) pre-recorded busines cases providers, c) online social events, and d) technical solutions. With an emphasis in both didactics (i.e., knowledge) and pedagogics (i.e., learning experience), the analysis of perceived value allowed as to learn about students’ assessment position, which revealed two main issues at stake: belonging, in relation to students’ identity and academic background, and performing, related to students’ expectations.

A family of linear singularly perturbed Cauchy problems is studied. The equations defining the problem combine both partial differential operators together with the action of linear fractional transforms. The exotic geometry of the problem in the Borel plane, involving both sectorial regions and strip-like sets, gives rise to asymptotic results relating the analytic solution and the formal one through Gevrey asymptotic expansions. The main results lean on the appearance of domains in the complex plane which remain intimately related to Lambert W function, which turns out to be crucial in the construction of the analytic solutions. On the way, an accurate description of the deformation of the integration paths defining the analytic solutions and the knowledge of Lambert W function are needed in order to provide the asymptotic behavior of the solution near the origin, regarding the perturbation parameter. Such deformation varies depending on the analytic solution considered, which lies in two families with different geometric features.

Modified structure along latent tracks and track formation process have been investigated in poly(allyl diglycol carbonate), PADC, which is well recognized as a sensitive etched track detector. This knowledge is essential to develop novel detectors with improved track registration property. The track structures of protons and heavy ions (He, C, Ne, Ar, Fe, Kr and Xe) have been examined by means of FT-IR spectrometry, covering the stopping power region between 1.2 to 12,000 eV/nm. Through a set of experiments on low-LET radiations – such as gamma ray -, multi-step damage process by electron hits was confirmed in the radiation-sensitive parts of the PADC repeat-unit. From this result, we unveiled for the first-time the layered structure in tracks, in relation with the number of secondary electrons. We also proved that etch pit was formed when at least two repeat-units were destroyed along the track radial direction. To evaluate the number of secondary electrons around tracks, a series of numerical simulations were performed with Geant4-DNA. Therefore, we are proposing new physical criterions to describe the detection thresholds. Futhermore, we propose a present issue of the definition of detection threshold for semi-relativistic C ions. And as a possible chemical criterion, formation density of hydroxyl group is suggested to express the response of PADC.

Loyalty is one of the greatest intangible assets that any organization can possess and improving client loyalty is a primary marketing goal that can have a significant financial impact on any business. This quantitative study examined the mediating role of communication on the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty (attitudinal and behavioral) in veterinary clinics, along with the moderating roles of trust, commitment, perceived value, and relational characteristics. Responses collected from 351 pet-owners through social media were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results show that attitudinal loyalty (AL) has a strong positive relationship with communication at multiple points in a veterinary clinic whereas the relationship with behavioral loyalty was not as clear. Additional findings suggest that AL, which is influenced by trust in the veterinarian, communication from staff members and commitment, has a strong positive relationship with behavioral intentions, increases the number of products and services that a pet-owner consumes at his or her primary veterinary clinic, and attenuates the role of cost in receiving veterinary care. These findings can help veterinary clinic owners and managers in developing and implementing relationship strategies that improve pet-owner loyalty. The article that follows is a synopsis of the author’s dissertation.

The properties of iterative splitting methods with serial versions have been analyzed since recent years, see [1] and [3]. We extend the iterative splitting methods to a class of parallel versions, which allow to reduce the computational time and keep the benet of the higher accuracy with each iterative step. Parallel splitting methods are nowadays important to solve large problems, which can be splitted in subproblems and computed independently with the dierent processors. We present a novel parallel iterative splitting method, which is based on the multi-splitting methods, see [2], [10] and [15]. Such a exibilisation with multisplitting methods allow to decompose large iterative splitting methods and recover the benet of their underlying waveform-relaxation (WR) methods. We discuss the convergence results of the parallel iterative splitting methods, while we could reformulate such an error to a summation of the individual WR methods. We discuss the numerical convergence of the serial and parallel iterative splitting methods and present dierent numerical applications to validate the benet of the parallel versions.

When we are asleep we lose the ability to promptly respond to external stimuli and yet we spend many hours every day in this inherently risky behavioral state. This simple fact strongly suggests that sleep must serve essential functions that rely on the brain going offline, on a daily basis, and for long periods of time. If these functions did not require partial sensory disconnection, it would be difficult to explain why they are not performed during waking. Paradoxically, despite its central role in defining sleep and what sleep does, sensory disconnection during sleep remains a mystery. We have a limited understanding of how it is implemented along the sensory pathways, we do not know whether the same mechanisms apply to all sensory modalities, nor do we know to which extent these mechanisms are shared between non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and REM sleep. The main goal of this contribution is to review some knowns and unknowns about sensory disconnection during sleep as a first step to fill this gap.

The one-dimensional gas of bosons interacting via a repulsive contact potential was solved long ago via Bethe's ansatz by Lieb and Liniger [Phys. Rev. {\bf 130}, 1605 (1963)]. The low energy excitation spectrum is a Luttinger liquid parametrized by a conformal field theory with conformal charge $c=1$. For higher energy excitations the spectral function displays deviations from the Luttinger behavior arising from the curvature terms in the dispersion. Adding a corrective term of the form of a mobile impurity coupled to the Luttinger liquid modes corrects this problem. The ``impurity'' term is an irrelevant operator, which if treated non-perturbatively, yields the threshold singularities in the one-particle and one-hole hole Green's function correctly. We show that the exponents obtained via the finite size corrections to the ground state energy are identical to those obtained through the shift function.

Background: Shared value creation in Base of the Pyramid (BoP) communities is a crucial process towards building sustainable societies. BoP communities in developing countries represent more than four billion people who live on low incomes with limited access to basic products and services. Current or emerging technologies offer promising solutions for organisations pursuing manufacturing opportunities in BoP communities. This study seeks to explore the literature on how BoP communities may become active participants in sustainably manufacturing products using micro-manufacturing factories. The research question posed is: What are the core concepts that need to be taken into consideration for creating shared value through micro-manufacturing factories in BoP communities? Method: A Systematised Literature review (SLR) was completed following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) method for data selection criteria and analysis. The SLR is used to explore the state of literature with regards to creating manufacturing shared value in BoP communities with the objective to identify study gaps and to explore shared value creation concepts. Results: Literature indicates BoP initiatives that have pursued to engage BoP communities through various innovation strategies. The findings of the review is organised under three strategic pillars: Capability building strategy, Implementation process, and Growth strategy. The capability building strategy defines the users’ intention to create shared value in BoP communities with Micro-manufacturing factories (MMF). It is followed by the implementation process which guides the users to create manufacturing shared value in BoP communities. This is followed by a growth strategy to scale for impact.

Abstract: Ambulatory cancer centers face fluctuating patient demand and deploy specialized personnel who have variable availability. This undermines operational stability through misa-lignment of resources to patient needs, resulting in overscheduled clinics, budget deficits, and wait times exceeding provincial targets. We describe deployment of a Learning Health System framework for operational improvements within the entire ambulatory center. Known methods of value stream mapping, operations research and statistical process control were applied to achieve organizational high performance that is data-informed, agile and adaptive. We transitioned from a fixed template model by individual physician to a caseload management by disease site model that is realigned quarterly. We adapted a block schedule model for the ambulatory oncology clinic to align the regional demand for specialized services with optimized human and physical resources. We demonstrated improved utilization of clinical space, increased weekly consistency and im-proved distribution of activity across the workweek. Increased value, represented as the ratio of monthly encounters per nursing worked hours, and increased percentage of services delivered by full-time nurses were benefits realized in our cancer system. The creation of a data-informed demand capacity model enables application of predictive analytics and business intelligence tools that will further enhance clinical responsiveness..

Genomic selection (GS) is a predictive approach that was build up to increase the rate of genetic gain per unit of time in breeding programs. It has emerged as a valuable method for improving complex traits that are controlled by many genes with small effect. GS enables the prediction of breeding value of candidate genotypes for selection. In this work we address important issues related to GS and its implementation in tomato breeding context. Genomic constrains and critical parameters affecting the accuracy of prediction in such crop such as phenotyping, genotyping training population composition and size and statistical method should be carefully evaluated. Comparison of GS approaches for facilitating the selection of tomato superior genotypes during breeding program are also discussed. GS applied to tomato breeding has already shown to be feasible. We illustrated how GS can improve the rate of gain in elite lines selection, descendent and in backcross schemes. The GS schemes begin to be delineated and computer science can provide support for future selection strategies. A new breeding framework is beginning to emerge for optimizing tomato improvement procedures.