bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Phenotypic and Physiological Evaluation of Two and Six Rows Barley under Different Environmental Conditions
Authors: Naser Mahmoud , Badran Mohamed , Abouzied Hanaa , Ali Heba , Elbasyoni Ibrahim
Published: May 2018

In recent years, barley has attracted more interest as a food and feed source because of its high soluble dietary fiber and β-glucan content compared with other small grains. Twenty-five barley genotypes (20 imported genotypes and five check cultivars) were grown in three environments for two successive seasons: 2015/2016 and 2016/2017. The first environment was in El-Nubaria, Alexandria, Egypt during 2015/2016, while the second and third environments were in El-Bostan, Elbhera, Egypt during 2015/2016 and 2016/2017. The experiments were conducted in a randomized complete block design with the three replicates. The primary objectives of the current study were to evaluate the performance of 20 imported barley genotypes under several environmental conditions. The imported materials were superior to the local commercial cultivars for several traits, including grain yield. Therefore, the superior genotypes will be further evaluated and used in barley breeding programs. Our future work will focus on creating several crosses among the selected superior genotypes to improve yield and other important traits, while applying marker-assisted selection.
Surface Layer Fluorination-Modulated Space Charge Behaviors in HVDC Cable Accessory
Authors: Li Jin , Du Boxue , Su Jingang , Liang Hucheng , Liu Yong
Published: May 2018

Space charges tend to accumulate on the surface and at the interface of ethylene–propylene–diene terpolymer (EPDM), serving as high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable accessory insulation, which likely induces electrical field distortion and dielectric breakdown. Direct fluorination is an effective method to modify the surface characteristics of the EPDM without altering the bulk properties too much. In this paper, the surface morphology, hydrophobic properties, relative permittivity, and DC conductivity of the EPDM before and after fluorination treatment were tested. Furthermore, the surface and interface charge behaviors in the HVDC cable accessory were investigated by the pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) method, and explained from the point of view of trap distribution. The results show that fluorination helps the EPDM polymer obtain lower surface energy and relative permittivity, which is beneficial to the interface match in composite insulation systems. The lowest degree of space charge accumulation occurs in EPDM with 30 min of fluorination. After analyzing the results of the 3D potentials and the density of states (DOS) behaviors in EPDM before and after fluorination, it can be found that fluorination treatment introduces shallower electron traps, and the special electrostatic potential after fluorination can significantly suppress the space charge accumulation at the interface in the HVDC cable accessory.
One-Pot Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Shape-Memory Poly(ε-Caprolactone) Based Polyurethane-Epoxy Co-networks with Diels–Alder Couplings
Authors: Czifrák Katalin , Lakatos Csilla , Karger-Kocsis József , Daróczi Lajos , Zsuga Miklós , Kéki Sándor
Published: May 2018

The present work aimed at the preparation and investigation of different epoxy-polyurethane (EP-PU) co-networks. The EP-PU co-networks were obtained by applying two different synthetic strategies, in which the coupling element, the Diels–Alder (DA) adduct, was prepared previously or formed “in situ” in the reaction between furan functionalized polyurethane and furfuryl amine-diglycidyl ether bisphenol-A oligomers (FA_DGEBA). For the synthesis of these EP-PU networks, poly(ε-caprolactone)-diol (PCD, Mn = 2 kg/mol) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) with different molecular weights (Mn = 10, 25 and 50 kg/mol) and 1,6-hexamethylenediisocyanate (HDI) were used. The EP-PU co-networks were characterized by Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier-Transform Infrared spectroscopy (AT-FT-IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamical mechanical analysis (DMA). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was applied to assess the morphology of the EP-PU samples. It was demonstrated that the stress–strain curves for the EP-PUs could be interpreted based on the Standard Linear Solid (SLS) model. The DMA traces of some EP-PUs (depending on the composition and the synthetic method) revealed a plateau-like region above the melting temperature (Tm) of PCL confirming the presence of cross-linked structure. This feature predicted shape memory (SM) behavior for these EP-PU samples. Indeed, very good shape fixity and moderate shape recovery were obtained. The shape recovery processes of these EP-PU samples were described using double exponential decay functions.
Implementation of Cyber-Physical Production Systems for Quality Prediction and Operation Control in Metal Casting
Authors: Lee JuneHyuck , Noh Sang Do , Kim Hyun-Jung , Kang Yong-Shin
Published: May 2018

The prediction of internal defects of metal casting immediately after the casting process saves unnecessary time and money by reducing the amount of inputs into the next stage, such as the machining process, and enables flexible scheduling. Cyber-physical production systems (CPPS) perfectly fulfill the aforementioned requirements. This study deals with the implementation of CPPS in a real factory to predict the quality of metal casting and operation control. First, a CPPS architecture framework for quality prediction and operation control in metal-casting production was designed. The framework describes collaboration among internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence, simulations, manufacturing execution systems, and advanced planning and scheduling systems. Subsequently, the implementation of the CPPS in actual plants is described. Temperature is a major factor that affects casting quality, and thus, temperature sensors and IoT communication devices were attached to casting machines. The well-known NoSQL database, HBase and the high-speed processing/analysis tool, Spark, are used for IoT repository and data pre-processing, respectively. Many machine learning algorithms such as decision tree, random forest, artificial neural network, and support vector machine were used for quality prediction and compared with R software. Finally, the operation of the entire system is demonstrated through a CPPS dashboard. In an era in which most CPPS-related studies are conducted on high-level abstract models, this study describes more specific architectural frameworks, use cases, usable software, and analytical methodologies. In addition, this study verifies the usefulness of CPPS by estimating quantitative effects. This is expected to contribute to the proliferation of CPPS in the industry.
An Ultra-Low-Power RFID/NFC Frontend IC Using 0.18 μm CMOS Technology for Passive Tag Applications
Authors: Bhattacharyya Mayukh , Gruenwald Waldemar , Jansen Dirk , Reindl Leonhard , Aghassi-Hagmann Jasmin
Published: May 2018

Battery-less passive sensor tags based on RFID or NFC technology have achieved much popularity in recent times. Passive tags are widely used for various applications like inventory control or in biotelemetry. In this paper, we present a new RFID/NFC frontend IC (integrated circuit) for 13.56 MHz passive tag applications. The design of the frontend IC is compatible with the standard ISO 15693/NFC 5. The paper discusses the analog design part in details with a brief overview of the digital interface and some of the critical measured parameters. A novel approach is adopted for the demodulator design, to demodulate the 10% ASK (amplitude shift keying) signal. The demodulator circuit consists of a comparator designed with a preset offset voltage. The comparator circuit design is discussed in detail. The power consumption of the bandgap reference circuit is used as the load for the envelope detection of the ASK modulated signal. The sub-threshold operation and low-supply-voltage are used extensively in the analog design—to keep the power consumption low. The IC was fabricated using 0.18 μ m CMOS technology in a die area of 1.5 mm × 1.5 mm and an effective area of 0.7 m m 2 . The minimum supply voltage desired is 1.2 V, for which the total power consumption is 107 μ W. The analog part of the design consumes only 36 μ W, which is low in comparison to other contemporary passive tags ICs. Eventually, a passive tag is developed using the frontend IC, a microcontroller, a temperature and a pressure sensor. A smart NFC device is used to readout the sensor data from the tag employing an Android-based application software. The measurement results demonstrate the full passive operational capability. The IC is suitable for low-power and low-cost industrial or biomedical battery-less sensor applications. A figure-of-merit (FOM) is proposed in this paper which is taken as a reference for comparison with other related state-of-the-art researches.
Distributed Power Allocation for Wireless Sensor Network Localization: A Potential Game Approach
Authors: Ke Mingxing , Li Ding , Tian Shiwei , Zhang Yuli , Tong Kaixiang , Xu Yuhua
Published: May 2018

The problem of distributed power allocation in wireless sensor network (WSN) localization systems is investigated in this paper, using the game theoretic approach. Existing research focuses on the minimization of the localization errors of individual agent nodes over all anchor nodes subject to power budgets. When the service area and the distribution of target nodes are considered, finding the optimal trade-off between localization accuracy and power consumption is a new critical task. To cope with this issue, we propose a power allocation game where each anchor node minimizes the square position error bound (SPEB) of the service area penalized by its individual power. Meanwhile, it is proven that the power allocation game is an exact potential game which has one pure Nash equilibrium (NE) at least. In addition, we also prove the existence of an ϵ -equilibrium point, which is a refinement of NE and the better response dynamic approach can reach the end solution. Analytical and simulation results demonstrate that: (i) when prior distribution information is available, the proposed strategies have better localization accuracy than the uniform strategies; (ii) when prior distribution information is unknown, the performance of the proposed strategies outperforms power management strategies based on the second-order cone program (SOCP) for particular agent nodes after obtaining the estimated distribution of agent nodes. In addition, proposed strategies also provide an instructional trade-off between power consumption and localization accuracy.
Pedestrian Injury Severity Analysis in Motor Vehicle Crashes in Ohio
Authors: Uddin Majbah , Ahmed Fahim
Published: May 2018

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 116 pedestrians were killed in motor vehicle crashes in Ohio in 2015. However, no study to date has analyzed crashes in Ohio in order to explore the factors contributing to the pedestrian injury severity resulting from motor vehicle crashes. This study fills this gap by investigating the crashes involving pedestrians exclusively in Ohio. This study uses the crash data from the Highway Safety Information System, from 2009 to 2013. The explanatory factors include the pedestrian, driver, vehicle, crash, and roadway characteristics. Both fixed- and random-parameters ordered probit models of injury severity (where possible outcomes are major, minor, and possible/no injury) were estimated. The model results indicate that older pedestrian (65 and over), younger driver (less than 24), driving under influence (DUI), struck by truck, dark-unlighted roadways, six-lane roadways, and speed limits of 40 mph and 50 mph were all factors associated with more severe injuries to the pedestrians. Conversely, older driver (65 and over), passenger car, crash occurring in urban locations, daytime traffic off-peak (10 a.m. to 3:59 p.m.), weekdays, and daylight condition were all factors associated with less severe injuries. This study provides specific safety recommendations so that effective countermeasures can be developed and implemented by policy makers, which in turn will improve overall highway safety.
Sustainability in the Minerals Industry: Seeking a Consensus on Its Meaning
Authors: Segura-Salazar Juliana , Tavares Luís Marcelo
Published: May 2018

Sustainability science has received progressively greater attention worldwide, given the growing environmental concerns and socioeconomic inequity, both largely resulting from a prevailing global economic model that has prioritized profits. It is now widely recognized that mankind needs to adopt measures to change the currently unsustainable production and consumption patterns. The minerals industry plays a fundamental role in this context, having received attention through various initiatives over the last decades. Several of these have been, however, questioned in practice. Indeed, a consensus on the implications of sustainability in the minerals industry has not yet been reached. The present work aims to deepen the discussion on how the mineral sector can improve its sustainability. An exhaustive literature review of peer-reviewed academic articles published on the topic in English over the last 25 years, as well as complementary references, has been carried out. From this, it became clear that there is a need to build a better definition of sustainability for the mineral sector, which has been proposed here from a more holistic viewpoint. Finally, and in light of this new perspective, several of the trade-offs and synergies related to sustainability of the minerals industry are discussed in a cross-sectional manner.
Estimating Residential Electricity Consumption in Nigeria to Support Energy Transitions
Authors: Olaniyan Kayode , McLellan Benjamin C. , Ogata Seiichi , Tezuka Tetsuo
Published: May 2018

Considering the challenge of accessing reliable household metering data in Nigeria, how can electricity consumption levels be determined? And how do disparities in electricity consumption patterns across the country affect the pursuit of sustainability, universal access and energy transition objectives? This study combined household-reported data on ownership of electrical appliances and energy expenditure with online sales records of household appliances to estimate current and future residential electricity demand in Nigeria, as well as the required generation capacity to achieve 100% electricity access, under various scenarios. Median residential electricity consumption was estimated at 18–27 kWh per capita but these estimates vary between the geographical zones with the North East and South West representing extremes. Under a universal access scenario, the future electricity supply system would be expected to have installed generation capacity sufficient to meet the estimated residential demand of 85 TWh. To further understand the required infrastructure investment as a whole and the approaches that might be preferred in rural versus urban areas, the disaggregated, zone-by-zone and urban/rural data may offer more insight than a whole-of-country approach. The data obtained is useful for identifying specific transitions at the sub-national level that can minimize the required investment while maximizing households’ energy access.
Seasonal Variations of Dissolved Organic Matter in the East China Sea Using EEM-PARAFAC and Implications for Carbon and Nutrient Cycling
Authors: Zheng Hao , Yan Zhishen , Chen Jianfang , Jin Haiyan , Chen Chen-Tung Arthur , Liu Maokun , Yan Zupeng , Ji Zhongqiang
Published: May 2018

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) plays a very important role in the dynamics of different biogeochemical processes in the global marine carbon cycle. Seasonal variations of DOM were investigated using dissolved organic carbon (DOC), absorption spectroscopy, and fluorescence excitation emission matrix–parallel factor analysis (EEM-PARAFAC) in Niushan Island in the East China Sea, off southeast Zhejiang, in winter, spring, and summer 2017. A strong positive correlation between temperature and salinity was observed in winter, whereas negative correlations were obtained in spring and summer. The results suggest that the water in the study area originates from the Changjiang River water coinciding with the direction of winds in winter. On the other hand, the Taiwan Strait water flows northward on the eastern part of the study area in summer and spring. The DOC concentration showed significant seasonal variations and was much lower in summer than in winter, but largely independent of the temperature, degree of absorption and intensity of the fluorescence component. Three tryptophan-like components (C1, C2 and C4) and one humic-like component were identified by the PARAFAC model in winter, while two tryptophan-like components (C1 and C2) and two humic-like components were illustrated in summer. The seasonal variations of DOC concentrations and intensities of the fluorescence components in the study area from winter to summer suggest that the waters in this area were influenced mainly by mixing water of the Changjiang River and the Taiwan Strait. A strongly linear relationship was found between the nutrient and the fluorescence intensities of different components in winter, reflecting the profound impacts of the dynamics of DOM on nutrient cycling.
Target Air Change Rate and Natural Ventilation Potential Maps for Assisting with Natural Ventilation Design During Early Design Stage in China
Authors: Wen Liwei , Hiyama Kyosuke
Published: May 2018

To achieve the desired free-cooling effect, the preliminary design of natural ventilation should be combined with discussions of building shape during the early design stages. In an earlier study a method for supporting strategic design of natural ventilation was developed that relied on the target air change rate and natural ventilation potential. The authors defined target air change rate as a point where the gradient of the increase in the cooling effect from natural ventilation reached a maximum. To verify the viability of the proposed method, the robustness of the target air change rate is examined in this paper using a typical Chinese office building model with representative operation conditions in five climate zones of China. The impacts of insulation level, thermal capacity, and window-to-wall ratio (WWR) on the target air change rate are investigated. In addition, the target air change rate and natural ventilation potential maps in China are created to inform rough natural ventilation strategies in the early design stages. According to the evaluation results, simple natural ventilation strategies are sufficient for buildings with relatively low internal gains to realize the required small target air change rate, regardless of climate conditions. Under moderate internal gains condition, well-organized and examined natural ventilation strategies are required in the Hot Summer and Warm Winter zone and the Temperate zone. However, these strategies are particularly suggested for cities in the Temperate zone with a warm climate due to the higher cooling potential. Moreover, elaborate natural ventilation design is recommended for buildings in cold climates when the internal gains are increased to a high level.
Corporate Sustainability Management and Its Market Benefits
Authors: Kim Joonhyun , Kim Jinsoo
Published: May 2018

An increasing number of firms around the world are applying corporate sustainability management (CSM) to their business operations, and the research interest on the effect of CSM in terms of the capital market benefit has grown rapidly under the different research settings across various countries. This study investigates whether CSM contributes to increasing firm value and improving the market response to earnings disclosure, using Korean firms as the sample. The test results show that firms with CSM reporting outperform the other firms in terms of Tobin’s Q and the market-adjusted stock returns over a year. Further, investors respond more strongly to the earnings announcement events of the CSM firms than the non-CSM firms, which is more likely to be attributed to the enhanced corporate disclosure practice of the CSM firms than an improvement in earnings quality. Our findings indicate that the shareholders of firms with CSM reporting can enjoy relatively higher market valuations and enhanced information content of earnings disclosures. In conclusion, the results show that the CSM activities in pursuit of a harmonious relationship with the various stakeholders bring different forms of market benefits to shareholders as well.
Weakly Supervised Object Co-Localization via Sharing Parts Based on a Joint Bayesian Model
Authors: Wu Lu , Liu Quan
Published: May 2018

Objects in images are characterized by intra-class variation, inter-class diversity, and noisy images. These characteristics pose a challenge to object localization. To address this issue, we present a novel joint Bayesian model for weakly-supervised object localization. The differences compared to previous discriminative methods are evaluated in three aspects: (1) We co-localize the similar object per class through transferring shared parts, which are pooling by modeling object, parts and features within and between-class; (2) Labels are given at class level to provide strong supervision for features and corresponding parts; (3) Noisy images are considered by leveraging a constraint on the detection of shared parts. In addition, our methods are evaluated by extensive experiments. The results indicated outperformance of the state-of-the-art approaches with almost 7% and 1.5% improvements in comparison to the previous methods on PASCAL VOC 2007 6 × 2 and Object Discovery datasets, respectively.
PFS: Particle-Filter-Based Superpixel Segmentation
Authors: Xu Li , Luo Bing , Pei Zheng , Qin Keyun
Published: May 2018

In this paper, we propose a particle-filter-based superpixel (PFS) segmentation method that extends the original tracking problem as a region clustering problem. The basic idea is to approximate superpixel centers by multiple particles to obtain high intra-region similarity. Specifically, we firstly use a density cluster to initialize single-group particles and introduce the association rule for mining other initial candidate particles. In propagation, particles are transferred to neighboring local regions by a moving step aiming to update local candidate particles with a lower energy cost. We evaluate all particles on the basis of their cluster similarity and estimate the largest particles as the final superpixel centers. The proposed method can locate cluster centers in diverse feature space, which alleviates the risk of a local optimum and produces better segmentation performance. Experimental results on the Berkeley segmentation 500 dataset (BSD500) demonstrate that our method outperforms seven state-of-the-art methods.
Transposition Behavior Revealed by High-Resolution Description of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Saltovirus Integration Sites
Authors: Vergnaud Gilles , Midoux Cédric , Blouin Yann , Bourkaltseva Maria , Krylov Victor , Pourcel Christine
Published: May 2018

Transposable phages, also called saltoviruses, of which the Escherichia coli phage Mu is the reference, are temperate phages that multiply their genome through replicative transposition at multiple sites in their host chromosome. The viral genome is packaged together with host DNA at both ends. In the present work, genome sequencing of three Pseudomonas aeruginosa transposable phages, HW12, 2P1, and Ab30, incidentally gave us access to the location of thousands of replicative integration sites and revealed the existence of a variable number of hotspots. Taking advantage of deep sequencing, we then designed an experiment to study 13,000,000 transposon integration sites of bacteriophage Ab30. The investigation revealed the presence of 42 transposition hotspots adjacent to bacterial interspersed mosaic elements (BIME) accounting for 5% of all transposition sites. The rest of the sites appeared widely distributed with the exception of coldspots associated with low G-C content segments, including the putative O-antigen biosynthesis cluster. Surprisingly, 0.4% of the transposition events occurred in a copy of the phage genome itself, indicating that the previously described immunity against such events is slightly leaky. This observation allowed drawing an image of the phage chromosome supercoiling into four loops.
Hydrological Modeling in Data-Scarce Catchments: The Kilombero Floodplain in Tanzania
Authors: Näschen Kristian , Diekkrüger Bernd , Leemhuis Constanze , Steinbach Stefanie , Seregina Larisa , Thonfeld Frank , Van der Linden Roderick
Published: May 2018

Deterioration of upland soils, demographic growth, and climate change all lead to an increased utilization of wetlands in East Africa. This considerable pressure on wetland resources results in trade-offs between those resources and their related ecosystem services. Furthermore, relationships between catchment attributes and available wetland water resources are one of the key drivers that might lead to wetland degradation. To investigate the impacts of these developments on catchment-wetland water resources, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was applied to the Kilombero Catchment in Tanzania, which is like many other East African catchments, as it is characterized by overall data scarcity. Due to the lack of recent discharge data, the model was calibrated for the period from 1958–1965 (R2 = 0.86, NSE = 0.85, KGE = 0.93) and validated from 1966–1970 (R2 = 0.80, NSE = 0.80, KGE = 0.89) with the sequential uncertainty fitting algorithm (SUFI-2) on a daily resolution. Results show the dependency of the wetland on baseflow contribution from the enclosing catchment, especially in dry season. Main contributions with regard to overall water yield arise from the northern mountains and the southeastern highlands, which are characterized by steep slopes and a high share of forest and savanna vegetation, respectively. Simulations of land use change effects, generated with Landsat images from the 1970s up to 2014, show severe shifts in the water balance components on the subcatchment scale due to anthropogenic activities. Sustainable management of the investigated catchment should therefore account for the catchment–wetland interaction concerning water resources, with a special emphasis on groundwater fluxes to ensure future food production as well as the preservation of the wetland ecosystem.
Spatial Variation in Trophic Structure of Dominant Fish Species in Lake Dongting, China during Dry Season
Authors: Yu Jia , Guo Longgen , Zhang Huan , Xu Jun , Hu Huaming , Xue Ting , Luo Congqiang , Yi Chunlong , Hu Yufei , Silva Kaluwa Handi Wasana Lalanthi De , Xie Ping
Published: May 2018

Understanding trophic interactions in food webs is crucial to revealing the transfer of substances and energy from primary food sources to consumers in aquatic ecosystems. We hypothesize that the trophic structure of consumers can be significantly affected by primary food sources (pelagic, benthic, and littoral sources) through complex trophic interactions. This study used stable isotope analysis and Bayesian mixing models to estimate the trophic levels of fish consumers and the contributions of primary food sources in the three sub-lakes (Eastern, Southern, and Western Dongting) of Lake Dongting, which have different physical and chemical parameters of water, fish species diversity, and plankton (phytoplankton and zooplankton) density. Results showed the differences in community structures of fish among sub-lakes. Fish trophic levels were significantly higher in Eastern Dongting than those in the two other areas. The contributions of primary food sources to fishes were as follows: the pelagic source was the main basal food source in Eastern Dongting, and littoral and pelagic sources played equally essential roles in Southern Dongting; fishes in Western Dongting relied on more benthic source to growth than those in the two other regions. This study can fill gaps in our knowledge of the influence of the underlying food available on trophic structure of consumers by exploring the role of primary food sources and making the trophic structure of consumers in the aquatic food web highly complicated and diverse through control of the distribution of primary food sources.
GPs’ understanding and practice of safety netting for potential cancer presentations: a qualitative study in primary care
Authors: Evans Julie , Ziebland Sue , MacArtney John I , Bankhead Clare R , Rose Peter W , Nicholson Brian D
Published: May 2018

Background

Safety netting is a diagnostic strategy used in UK primary care to ensure patients are monitored until their symptoms or signs are explained. Despite being recommended in cancer diagnosis guidelines, little evidence exists about which components are effective and feasible in modern-day primary care.

Aim

To understand the reality of safety netting for cancer in contemporary primary care.

Design and setting

A qualitative study of GPs in Oxfordshire primary care.

Method

In-depth interviews with a purposive sample of 25 qualified GPs were undertaken. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim, and analysed thematically using constant comparison.

Results

GPs revealed uncertainty about which aspects of clinical practice are considered safety netting. They use bespoke personal strategies, often developed from past mistakes, without knowledge of their colleagues’ practice. Safety netting varied according to the perceived risk of cancer, the perceived reliability of each patient to follow advice, GP working patterns, and time pressures. Increasing workload, short appointments, and a reluctance to overburden hospital systems or create unnecessary patient anxiety have together led to a strategy of selective active follow-up of patients perceived to be at higher risk of cancer or less able to act autonomously. This left patients with low-risk-but-not-no-risk symptoms of cancer with less robust or absent safety netting.

Conclusion

GPs would benefit from clearer guidance on which aspects of clinical practice contribute to effective safety netting for cancer. Practice systems that enable active follow-up of patients with low-risk-but-not-no-risk symptoms, which could represent malignancy, could reduce delays in cancer diagnosis without increasing GP workload.
Manutenção e pesquisa e desenvolvimento (P&D) como elementos de redução dos custos de produção: um estudo simulado
Authors: Berto Andreia Maria , Dias Junior Claudelino Martins , Cesconeto Simone Moretto , Souza Gueibi Peres
Published: May 2018

Este estudo analisa uma experiência em ambiente simulado do tipo industrial, o período de exercício simulado equivale a 10 (dez) rodadas ou períodos trimestrais de decisões entre 5 (cinco) empresas concorrentes atuando dentro de um mercado fechado (oligopólio). Para tanto, o conjunto de decisões de cada uma das empresas é analisado sobre a perspectiva da administração dos custos de produção, em especial, trata-se do efeito dos montantes de investimentos em manutenção de equipamentos/maquinas e P&D na redução dos custos com a mão-de-obra. A metodologia utilizada é predominantemente quantitativa, onde a mensuração da relação presumidamente existente entre investimentos em manutenção de equipamentos e máquinas consorciados a investimentos em P&D é estimada, valendo-se do conjunto de dados de decisões gerenciais por meio de uma análise econométrica de dados em painel com efeitos fixos. Os resultados das análises sugerem que os investimentos em Manutenção, ceteris-paribus, se mostraram tanto mais persistentes, quanto mais intensivos do que os investimentos em P&D para a amostra analisada.
What is a species? A new universal method to measure differentiation and assess the taxonomic rank of allopatric populations, using continuous variables
Authors: Donegan Thomas M.
Published: May 2018

Existing models for assigning species, subspecies, or no taxonomic rank to populations which are geographically separated from one another were analyzed. This was done by subjecting over 3,000 pairwise comparisons of vocal or biometric data based on birds to a variety of statistical tests that have been proposed as measures of differentiation. One current model which aims to test diagnosability (Isler et al. 1998) is highly conservative, applying a hard cut-off, which excludes from consideration differentiation below diagnosis. It also includes non-overlap as a requirement, a measure which penalizes increases to sample size. The “species scoring” model of Tobias et al. (2010) involves less drastic cut-offs, but unlike Isler et al. (1998), does not control adequately for sample size and attributes scores in many cases to differentiation which is not statistically significant. Four different models of assessing effect sizes were analyzed: using both pooled and unpooled standard deviations and controlling for sample size using t-distributions or omitting to do so. Pooled standard deviations produced more conservative effect sizes when uncontrolled for sample size but less conservative effect sizes when so controlled. Pooled models require assumptions to be made that are typically elusive or unsupported for taxonomic studies. Modifications to improving these frameworks are proposed, including: (i) introducing statistical significance as a gateway to attributing any weighting to findings of differentiation; (ii) abandoning non-overlap as a test; (iii) recalibrating Tobias et al. (2010) scores based on effect sizes controlled for sample size using t-distributions. A new universal method is proposed for measuring differentiation in taxonomy using continuous variables and a formula is proposed for ranking allopatric populations. This is based first on calculating effect sizes using unpooled standard deviations, controlled for sample size using t-distributions, for a series of different variables. All non-significant results are excluded by scoring them as zero. Distance between any two populations is calculated using Euclidian summation of non-zeroed effect size scores. If the score of an allopatric pair exceeds that of a related sympatric pair, then the allopatric population can be ranked as species and, if not, then at most subspecies rank should be assigned. A spreadsheet has been programmed and is being made available which allows this and other tests of differentiation and rank studied in this paper to be rapidly analyzed.
Refractive Outcomes After Femtosecond Laser–Assisted Cataract Surgery in Eyes With Anterior Chamber Phakic Intraocular Lenses
Authors: Steinwender Gernot , Shajari Mehdi , Kohnen Thomas
Published: May 2018

PURPOSE:

To report the efficacy, predictability, and safety of femtosecond laser–assisted cataract surgery (FLACS) in eyes with anterior chamber phakic intraocular lenses (IOLs).

METHODS:

This retrospective case series included eyes with previous implantation of an angle-supported and an iris-fixated phakic IOL for the correction of myopia that underwent a combined procedure of phakic IOL ex-plantation and FLACS with in-the-bag implantation of a posterior chamber IOL. Postoperative corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), predictability of refractive outcome, and occurrence of intraoperative and postoperative complications were analyzed.

RESULTS:

Ten eyes of 7 patients with significant cataract were included: 5 eyes with an angle-supported foldable hydrophobic phakic IOL, 4 eyes with an angle-supported polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) phakic IOL, and 1 eye with an iris-fixated PMMA phakic IOL. Mean follow-up after FLACS was 8.4 ± 5.8 months. Mean interval between phakic IOL implantation and FLACS was 11.9 ± 4.0 years. After the combined procedure of phakic IOL explantation and FLACS, mean manifest refractive spherical equivalent (MRSE) was −0.11 ± 0.49 diopters (D) and MRSE was within ± 0.75 D of target refraction in all eyes. Four eyes received a toric posterior chamber IOL after phacoemulsification. Mean preoperative CDVA of 0.40 ± 0.23 logMAR improved significantly to 0.22 ± 0.11 logMAR postoperatively (
P
= .027). No intraoperative or postoperative complications occurred.

CONCLUSIONS:

The results in this series showed that FLACS in eyes with previous implantation of both rigid and foldable anterior chamber phakic IOLs offers good refractive outcomes with a high level of predictability and safety.

[
J Refract Surg.
2018;34(5):338–342.]
Bilateral, Asymmetric Keratoconus Induced by Thyrotoxicosis With Long-term Stability After Corneal Cross-linking
Authors: Lee Ramon , El-Massry Ahmed , El-Massry Youssef , Randleman J. Bradley
Published: May 2018

PURPOSE:

To present a case of bilateral, asymmetric keratoconus presenting unilaterally after partial thyroidectomy with delayed presentation in the second eye after thyrotoxicosis, with disease stabilization following corneal cross-linking (CXL).

METHODS:

Case report and literature review.

RESULTS:

A 17-year-old girl with a history of Graves' disease underwent partial thyroidectomy without thyroid hormone replacement therapy with normal baseline ophthalmic examination of corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA) of 20/20 and no manifest astigmatism in either eye. At age 29 years, keratoconus manifested in the right eye and standard protocol CXL was performed. At age 40 years, the right eye remained stable after CXL, but keratoconus manifested in the left eye and epithelium-off accelerated CXL was performed with subsequent disease stabilization.

CONCLUSIONS:

This case demonstrates the association between thyrotoxicosis and keratoconus and the bilateral nature of keratoconus, and highlights the potentially asymmetric presentation of thyroid-induced keratoconus. CXL had a long-term stabilizing effect over 10 years despite the ongoing effects of thyroid gland dysfunction.

[
J Refract Surg.
2018;34(5):354–356.]
Participación de los estados soberanos en el ramo general de bienes de manos muertas en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX colombiano
Authors: De la Cruz-Vergara Maribel
Published: May 2018

El objetivo de esta investigación gira en torno al análisis cuantitativo de la participación de los Estados Soberanos, en el ramo general de bienes de manos muertas en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX colombiano, a través de la interpretación de los informes de los agentes generales de bienes desamortizados y los datos reportados en las memorias de la hacienda pública.
El reclutamiento, los soldados y la experiencia del cuartel: servicio militar obligatorio en Perú y Colombia (1919-1933)
Authors: Camacho Arango Carlos
Published: May 2018

Este artículo examina diferentes aspectos del servicio militar obligatorio en Perú y Colombia de 1919 a 1933: el proceso de reclutamiento, los orígenes de los soldados (sociales, «raciales» y geográficos) y su paso por los cuarteles de los ejércitos de ambos países. Sus fuentes principales son documentos de archivos militares de Estados Unidos y Francia, y escritos de oficiales y suboficiales peruanos y colombianos. El método es comparativo y muestra claramente rasgos comunes como la precariedad que afectaba a todos los aspectos del servicio.
War in Rio: the city goes to the movies
Authors: Bel Pierre-Mathieu Le
Published: May 2018

Urban violence exacerbates existing trends of inefficient urban planning and social fracture. On the one hand, some actors instrumentalize violence to legitimate aggressive security plans and, on the other hand, discourses that depict specific urban territories as territories of violence and others as ordered spaces polarize citizens in two groups, as if each was irreconcilable, and circulate an atmosphere of generalized anxiety.Getting ready for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics has implied numerous and regular surges of violence for the Cidade Maravilhosa. If those events activated debates about public security in Rio de Janeiro and in Brazil in general, another event, this one cultural, has also created a debate on the same issues. The two movies Tropa de Elite (2007) and Tropa de Elite 2 (2010) by director José Padilha, not only were the most popular movies of Brazilian cinema but also occupied a great deal of the news. Rapidly, the line between the discourse circulated about the violence in Rio and the discourse about the movies was blurred. My paper seeks to explore how Tropa de Elite 1 and 2 produced and circulated a specific conception of place, violence and the city. My intention is, thus, not to consider movies as an object giving a more or less accurate representation of reality, but as set of relations that together create specific subjectivities and, ultimately, territorial representations. These representations will be looked at in the context of the preparation for the 2016 Olympics.
Amplified music as part of urban design: Toulouse copes with the inherent complexities
Authors: Balti Samuel
Published: May 2018

In Toulouse, the urban development project that was consolidated at the end of the 2000's has led to repositioning culture as a lever in favor of metropolitan construction. A broad-based steering committee reached out to the city's artistic actors in seeking to define a novel project involving amplified music that called for, among other things, construction of a complex dedicated to the local performing arts scene, known as the "Metronum". Inaugurated in 2014, this facility is intended over the long run to bolster a territory that had been weakened by a lack of venues of artistic creation and performance. The location chosen in an outlying district of Toulouse was also aimed at easing the social and geographic transformations shaping a metropolitan area, where buoyant growth had stretched the urban fabric over a much broader scale. However, the roundtables held on integrating music into the urban planning and development process attested to the presence of tensions between the political and artistic communities, opposing the desire to facilitate widespread musical activities with artists' tendency to spontaneously converge their craft at the city center. This article shows the extent to which the study of amplified music reveals a city's unique spatial dynamics, capable of undermining the priorities of an urban design project.
In-between new figures of art and urban transformation projects. A French perspective
Authors: Kullmann Clotilde , Bouhaddou Marie-Kenza
Published: May 2018

For more than fifteen years, art experimentations dealing with urban transformation have been increasing more and more. Artists are now influenced by places and urban planning. Urban planners turn to a new conception that implies more creativity and stances directly inspired by artists. Because of its flexibility, art is a negotiation and an innovation lever. Besides, it is part of urban, in situ, interpersonal relationships and based on process and context reality.Our hypothesis is that art meeting urban transformation creates new roles and figures prone to change the deal of how urban planning projects are made and how actors got organized. This paper, related to a French context, shows the figures’ emergence, identifies their cross-cutting skills, and explains the limits of this hybridization. By comparing two different case studies, we will analyze how these figures make the projects visible, and how they enhance depreciated areas in terms of individual and collective perception so as to include them in the rest of the city.With the art worlds, these figures appear at the core of artistic projects linked to urban renewal. They can perform roles either in an old or a brand-new way. With the urban worlds, they affect the actors game, modify the relationships and diversify the actors’ skills. By doing this they now look for legitimacy. We will start by presenting our case studies to identify these new figures. Then, we will see how the worksite specific context, as an art playground, enables to change the players game. Finally, we will show the limits and problems of these in-between figures.
Analytical Modeling of a Descending Aorta Containing Human Blood Flow
Authors: Abdessamad Mehdari , Hasnaoui Mohamed , Agouzoul Mohamed
Published: May 2018

In the recent years, blood flow through an aorta has been the main focus of many investigators. It shows particular interest in analyzing human aortic stiffness and blood flow behavior. Mainly, an unsteady state is applied for incompressible fluid, which is assumed to be newtonian. Artery is considered an elastic tube and the wall boundaries are isotropic. The analytical modeling of blood involves adopting an asymptotic approach according to a small aspect radio,which is inversely proportionalto Reynolds number. The wall has been assumed a thin shell, which generates a small axisymmetric vibration. The mathematical model of the wall is developed using the thin shell theory based on geodesic curvature parameter. In the end, the analytical results simulation is applied to have better understanding of the effects of blood flow behavior over the elasticity aortic wall properties.
The Relationship between Capital Structure and Ownership Structure: Evidence from Listed Companies in Hotel and Manufacturing Sectors in Sri Lanka
Authors: Kulathunga K.M.K.N.S. , Perera L.A.S. , Anagipura G.N.
Published: May 2018

This study examines the relationship between capital structure and ownership structure for a sample of thirty-eight listed companies in the hotel and manufacturing sectors in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) in Sri Lanka over the period of 2011-2015. All the secondary data were collected from audited annual reports of each company and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis. Mainly the ownership structure is measured using individual, managerial, institutional and share ownership concentration. Furthermore, the impact of Profit and Tangibility on capital structure is also examined in the study. The results revealed the managerial ownership and ownership concentration have significant influence on the capital structure. In the comparison of hotel sector and manufacturing sector listed companies in CSE we can identify that there is higher impact of ownership structure on capital structure in manufacturing sector compared to the hotel sector.
Flow Cytometry Data Preparation Guidelines for Improved Automated Phenotypic Analysis
Authors: Jimenez-Carretero Daniel , Ligos José M. , Martínez-López María , Sancho David , Montoya María C.
Published: May 2018

Advances in flow cytometry (FCM) increasingly demand adoption of computational analysis tools to tackle the ever-growing data dimensionality. In this study, we tested different data input modes to evaluate how cytometry acquisition configuration and data compensation procedures affect the performance of unsupervised phenotyping tools. An analysis workflow was set up and tested for the detection of changes in reference bead subsets and in a rare subpopulation of murine lymph node CD103+ dendritic cells acquired by conventional or spectral cytometry. Raw spectral data or pseudospectral data acquired with the full set of available detectors by conventional cytometry consistently outperformed datasets acquired and compensated according to FCM standards. Our results thus challenge the paradigm of one-fluorochrome/one-parameter acquisition in FCM for unsupervised cluster-based analysis. Instead, we propose to configure instrument acquisition to use all available fluorescence detectors and to avoid integration and compensation procedures, thereby using raw spectral or pseudospectral data for improved automated phenotypic analysis.