Studies have shown that conventional dietary pattern has some limitations to study the relationship between dietary patterns and type 2 diabetes as well as cardiovascular diseases [15, 16] . Our earlier study has established relationship between factor scores of dietary patterns derived through factor analysis and chronic energy deficiency [17] . In the present manuscript similar technique has been used to demonstrate the relationship between dietary pattern and nutritional status among adolescents. The dietary data has been collected using 24 hr recall method in which actual intakes were measured. When quantitative data is available, the multivariate factor analysis which is based on interrelations of the entire data set is a suitable statistical method. The result obtained through this method is robust in indentifying the dietary patterns.

Studies have shown that conventional dietary pattern has some limitations to study the relationship between dietary patterns and type 2 diabetes as well as cardiovascular diseases.

Our earlier study has established relationship between factor scores of dietary patterns derived through factor analysis and chronic energy deficiency.


A series of pathophysiological changes in brain tissue arises after ICH [12] . Previous studies revealed that a large number of inflammatory cells surround the hematoma in the rat model of ICH and that the inflammatory response is an important mechanism of secondary brain damage after ICH [13, 14] . Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) has been recognized as a critical regulator of inflammatory responses since its discovery [15] . In unstimulated cells, inactive NF-κB is sequestered in the cytoplasm by inhibitory protein IκB. NF-κB can be activated by a wide array of factors such as thrombin, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1 (IL-1), oxidative stress, and growth factors [16] . Then, the free NF-κB rapidly migrates into the nucleus, binds to DNA, and promotes the transcription of genes for the release of inflammatory substances. So NF-κB plays an important role in the inflammatory response after ICH [17] .

A series of pathophysiological changes in brain tissue arises after ICH.

Previous studies revealed that a large number of inflammatory cells surround the hematoma in the rat model of ICH and that the inflammatory response is an important mechanism of secondary brain damage after ICH.

Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) has been recognized as a critical regulator of inflammatory responses since its discovery.

In unstimulated cells, inactive NF-κB is sequestered in the cytoplasm by inhibitory protein IκB. NF-κB can be activated by a wide array of factors such as thrombin, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1 (IL-1), oxidative stress, and growth factors.

So NF-κB plays an important role in the inflammatory response after ICH.


Of particular interest to the current study, each type of adaptation protects different numbers of properties, and each requires engagement and consensus at different scales in the community to successfully implement. The construction of a communal adaptation, such as a sea wall, can protect both the buildings and land values of many properties, as well as adjacent infrastructure such as roads (Fletcher et al. 2012) . In Australia, such projects are usually coordinated and funded by local government, often with co-funding from State or Federal governments (Harman et al. 2014) . In contrast, adaptations implemented at the property level, such as changes to minimum floor heights, impose extra construction costs for the private landholder while providing protection to their individual property (Fletcher et al. 2012) . In some cases, the communal benefit provided by a sea wall adaptation may prove more efficient than many separate actions each protecting individual properties. At the same time, however, implementing a sea wall requires communal funding and therefore at least some consensus on the benefit to the overall community. This is important, because even when adaptation is economically justified in the long term, communities may not choose to invest in adaptations in the short and medium term (Turner et al. 1995) . This may be due to absolute financial constraints, but it can also reflect limited community buy-in because, for instance, the risks are perceived to impact only a small fraction of the community (Niven and Bardsley 2013) . This is certainly the case with inundation risk in some coastal communities. A communal adaptation that could efficiently protect multiple properties may not be supported by the community if the costs are perceived to accrue to all while the benefits are enjoyed by only a few.

The construction of a communal adaptation, such as a sea wall, can protect both the buildings and land values of many properties, as well as adjacent infrastructure such as roads.

In Australia, such projects are usually coordinated and funded by local government, often with co-funding from State or Federal governments.

In contrast, adaptations implemented at the property level, such as changes to minimum floor heights, impose extra construction costs for the private landholder while providing protection to their individual property.

This is important, because even when adaptation is economically justified in the long term, communities may not choose to invest in adaptations in the short and medium term.

This may be due to absolute financial constraints, but it can also reflect limited community buy-in because, for instance, the risks are perceived to impact only a small fraction of the community.


Today, technology and information systems are going through a process of change rapidly. These changes bring along the need for learning a common language, English, to keep up with these changes in the globalized world. Due to the countries producing technology use English or because it is the language of science. It is easier to build international communication, information exchange and economic relations with the help of a commonly spoken language. Learning a second language is also necessary for academic or professional life. Recognizing the importance of learning a second language for students, developed or developing societies include English language teaching (ELT) courses in their curriculum to meet this requirement. The new requirements such as technology in education lead to some changes in the curriculum. It turns from a subject-centered approach into a student-centered approach. In this respect, students learn not as passive participants but as participants actively involved in the learning process in which learning differs from person to person and also occurs individually. Therefore, the curriculum turns into a student-centered one where the students are not passive recipients but active constructors of knowledge. Students are strategic learners who are responsible for their own learning which is the basic characteristic of self-regulated learning. They set their own learning goals, try to regulate their own cognitions, motivations and behaviors, they are guided and limited by the contextual characteristics of their environments in an active and constructive process (Pintrich, 2000) . They try to maximize the level of their own and the other students' learning while working in groups. When they work together in groups to achieve the learning goals in a social interaction, a cooperative learning occurs. Cooperative learning exists when students work together to accomplish shared learning goals (Johnson and Johnson, 1999) . In foreign language learning, especially in the process of learning grammar rules, students should be able to work in cooperation with group interdependence, be aware of their needs or deficiencies and take necessary precautions. For an effective and efficient foreign language learning environment and academic achievement, they need to work collaboratively with self-regulated methods during the learning process. This study reveals the impact of combining self-regulated and cooperative learning techniques, when they are both used together, on students' academic achievements and attitudes towards the courses.

They set their own learning goals, try to regulate their own cognitions, motivations and behaviors, they are guided and limited by the contextual characteristics of their environments in an active and constructive process.

Cooperative learning exists when students work together to accomplish shared learning goals.


A further lymphocyte population, shown to be enriched in non-miliary ascites, was comprised of NKT cells, possibly as response to hypoxic conditions in ascites. The analysis of corresponding RNA-seq data of CD45-enriched immune cells from ascites showed an association of the frequency of NKT cells with the HIF1 signaling pathway. The hypoxia inducible transcription factor HIFα is needed for transcription of angiogenesis related genes and HIF1α mRNA is also upregulated in T-cells upon TCR signaling under hypoxic conditions [33] .

The hypoxia inducible transcription factor HIFα is needed for transcription of angiogenesis related genes and HIF1α mRNA is also upregulated in T-cells upon TCR signaling under hypoxic conditions.


The problem of understanding under which conditions vacua that break spontaneously supersymmetry may by at least metastable clearly emerges as one of the most relevant possible discrimination tools on the structure of the hidden sector. While the stability of supersymmetry-preserving vacua is guaranteed, that of supersymmetry-breaking ones is not, and whether they can be metastable or even absolutely stable depends on certain particular aspects of the theory. By now it has been well appreciated that requiring only metastability, rather than absolute stability, is perfectly satisfactory, as long as the life-time of the vacuum is sufficiently large, say larger than the age of the universe. Moreover, a supersymmetric theory generically admits both stable supersymmetry-preserving vacua and metastable supersymmetry-breaking vacua, but generically no absolutely stable supersymmetry-breaking vacua, unless some extra features are imposed, like for instance the existence of a global R-symmetry [1] . This clearly means that metastability of supersymmetry-breaking vacua is the relevant minimal requirement to impose, rather than absolute stability. More specifically, the requirement of metastability translates into the requirement that the mass matrix of the scalar field fluctuations, given by the Hessian matrix of the scalar potential at the stationary point defining the vacuum, should be positive definite. This obviously constrains the theory, but at first sight in a rather indirect and mild way. It turns however out that one can deduce from this requirement a quite simple and sharp necessary condition.

Moreover, a supersymmetric theory generically admits both stable supersymmetry-preserving vacua and metastable supersymmetry-breaking vacua, but generically no absolutely stable supersymmetry-breaking vacua, unless some extra features are imposed, like for instance the existence of a global R-symmetry.


Despite this overall increase in prescription drugs over time, fewer patients with RA are prescribed statins and nonstatin antilipemic agents than their non-RA counterparts. Although there was an overall increase in cardiovascular category prescription drugs over time in both groups, and while this increase was primarily driven by statin and antihypertensive prescriptions, fewer patients with RA received prescriptions for cardiovascular drugs than comparators over the observed period. This is concerning as patients with RA are at increased risk for cardiovascular events and are often at sufficiently high risk to require statin therapy [13, 22] . A previous study from this same population found that patients with RA were not adequately initiated on lipid lowering therapy when they met clinical guidelines set by the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) and their lipids were tested less frequently than individuals from the general population [23] .

This is concerning as patients with RA are at increased risk for cardiovascular events and are often at sufficiently high risk to require statin therapy.

A previous study from this same population found that patients with RA were not adequately initiated on lipid lowering therapy when they met clinical guidelines set by the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) and their lipids were tested less frequently than individuals from the general population.


One of the major forms of degradation in ChargeCoupled Device (CCD) imagers exposed to ionizing radiation is an increase in the background dark current [1] . Dark current is the signal collected in an optical imager while not illuminated, an effect which degrades the quality of the optical image produced. In irradiated CCD imagers, the increase in dark current results in serious degradation of the optical image at irradiation doses well below total device failure.

One of the major forms of degradation in ChargeCoupled Device (CCD) imagers exposed to ionizing radiation is an increase in the background dark current.


Among chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods, polymer flooding is the most widely used due to its simplicity and low cost. Polymers are used to increase viscosity of aqueous phase which improves mobility ratio and form a uniform flood front to displace oil [1] , [2] . It has been as a technically and commercially proven technology and it is considered as one of the most mature chemical flooding methods. Polymer rheological behaviour through porous media affects sweep efficiency and injectivity during flooding process.

Polymers are used to increase viscosity of aqueous phase which improves mobility ratio and form a uniform flood front to displace oil.


In conclusion, we identified several promising nontoxic products and potential priming agents able to reduce gray mold development on tomato, notably through the activation of the JA pathway, but also through other signalling and regulation pathways (i.e., those involved in BABA-induced resistance). In addition, our work provides clear evidence that prior exposure of tomato plants to abiotic stress (leaf wounding, water stress or nitrogen deficiency) alters the protection efficacy of PDE treatments, suggesting an antagonistic interaction between the tomato responses to abiotic stresses and product treatments. Under our experimental conditions, we also showed that leaf cuttings and product treatments induced metabolic changes in a timedependent manner, and that both of which activated the oxylipin and JA pathway. Interplay with other signalling events may also be involved that were not identified here, such as processes involved in plant growth or in other hormone signalling pathways. In turn, these interplays may have resulted in competitive interactions and ultimately led to an increased susceptibility of the plant to B. cinerea under stressed conditions. The outcomes of biotic and abiotic stress combination most probably vary according to the severity of the abiotic stress conditions, the plant species or genotype (Suzuki et al. 2014) . The synergic or antagonist molecular mechanisms involved in the plant responses are also highly complex and mostly unknown (Suzuki et al. 2014) . Future challenges will involve deciphering such mechanisms notably through the application of advanced omics technologies.

The outcomes of biotic and abiotic stress combination most probably vary according to the severity of the abiotic stress conditions, the plant species or genotype.

The synergic or antagonist molecular mechanisms involved in the plant responses are also highly complex and mostly unknown.


It is well known that the event called T wave alternans (TWA) is a marker of cardiac instability and high risk of sudden death. Recently, index of presence of such event are used to decide whether a device has to be implanted. This phenomenon is observable with high rate of internal pacing, during coronary angioplasty intervention or when patients perform graded and maximal exercise test. The latter experiment does not need surgery and is a good candidate for TWA investigation. Unfortunately, because of the body motion observable during the exercise and an increasing tidal volume due to the effort, it exists a large modulation of the ECG signal added to a baseline wander larger than during resting conditions. Note that the ECG amplitude modulation and the baseline are also present in classical TWA records. It exists very few studies linking the TWA analysis performance to these sources of artifacts [1] .

It exists very few studies linking the TWA analysis performance to these sources of artifacts.


A constant window with L = 16 has been used for the proposed detector and for the reference one [3] . For the application of the reference method, the segments have been preprocessed as previously mentioned. For the application of the constraints, a t-value of 2.94 has been chosen for a significance level equal to 0.01. Results are given in fig. 3 , where it can be seen that the proposed method detects correctly the occurence of the two alternans waves, unlike the reference detector. In addition to this result, the performance of the two detectors are compared in fig. 4 where the amplitude modulation and the offset are weak, in that case 10 times lower than for the first simulation. As an illustration, the next result will concern the application of the GLRT-based detector to a patient undergoing angioplasty. Data are from the STAFF III database with a location of the balloon inflation corresponding to the left anterior descending artery. On this example, the occlusion time corresponds to the 178'th beat. In fig. 5 , the presence of the TWA is clearly visible using both methods. It shows that at least when the TWA is very clear, the proposed method performs as well as the reference one.

A constant window with L = 16 has been used for the proposed detector and for the reference one.


The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains a major global public health problem. Approximately 36.9 million people were estimated to be living with HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 2014 [1] . The majority (25.8 million, 70 %) are in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) [2] . Approximately 3.9 million young people aged 15-24 years in SSA are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS, and of these, three quarters are young women [1] . In recent years, increased coverage of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has led to a decline in morbidity and mortality related to HIV and its associated opportunistic infections [3] [4] [5] . Studies have also shown a global decline in HIV incidence among the general population [6] .

Approximately 36.9 million people were estimated to be living with HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 2014.

The majority (25.8 million, 70 %) are in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Approximately 3.9 million young people aged 15-24 years in SSA are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS, and of these, three quarters are young women.

In recent years, increased coverage of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has led to a decline in morbidity and mortality related to HIV and its associated opportunistic infections.

Studies have also shown a global decline in HIV incidence among the general population.


Increased energy consumption, limited reserves of fossil fuels and more stringent requirements for preservation of the environment impose new approach to energy management. Such conditions have led to the development and application of new technologies that were until recently regarded as economically and technically unjustified [1] . Considerations in this paper are focused on the recuperative systems for waste heat recovery by indirect heat exchange, i. e. through an intermediate medium.

Such conditions have led to the development and application of new technologies that were until recently regarded as economically and technically unjustified.


After entering into the plant, O3 induces the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), including H2O2, superoxide radicals (O2 -) and OH -. The ROS damages the membrane system of the plants and aggravates the peroxidation of the membrane lipid, leading to physiological function disorder of plants, especially photosynthesis process (Pasqualini et al., 2002; Calatayud et al., 2003) . Malondialdehyde (MDA) is an end-product of the radicalinitiated oxidative decomposition of polyunsaturated fatty acids; therefore, it is frequently used as a biomarker of oxidative stress.

The ROS damages the membrane system of the plants and aggravates the peroxidation of the membrane lipid, leading to physiological function disorder of plants, especially photosynthesis process.


The poor dissolution characteristics of water insoluble drugs are a major challenge for pharmaceutical science. Powder solutions are designed to contain liquid medications in powdered form and there have been numerous advances in increasing drug dissolution rate profiles. During the past few years many techniques have been developed such as drug micronization, solid dispersions, coprecipitation, lyophilization, micro-encapsulation, use of pro-drug and drug derivatization processes, and inclusion of drug solutions into soft gelatin capsules (Kapsi, 2001) .

During the past few years many techniques have been developed such as drug micronization, solid dispersions, coprecipitation, lyophilization, micro-encapsulation, use of pro-drug and drug derivatization processes, and inclusion of drug solutions into soft gelatin capsules.


Bio-Pharmaceutical classification class II (water insoluble drugs), the rate of oral absorption is often controlled by the rate in the GIT. Therefore, together with 476 permeation, solubility profile and dissolution rate profiles of drugs are major key factors for its oral bio-availability. The concept of powdered solutions makes it possible to convert drug solutions or liquid medications into moderately flowing powders by an admixture with selected powder excipient. Some investigators have used a similar approach to increase release profiles of several water-insoluble drugs (Spireas, 2002) .

Some investigators have used a similar approach to increase release profiles of several water-insoluble drugs.


Traditional methods for estimating the mineral concentration of dental tissues involve destructive and time-consuming chemical analysis (Swain and Xue 2009) . Micro-CT analyses of teeth scanned together with resinhydroxyapatite calibration standards of known densities allowed the quantification of mineral density of dental tissues in odontocetes without having to section and destroy specimens. Average mineral concentrations and effective densities were estimated for the Guiana dolphin and franciscana, providing the first report of these values for cetaceans. The overall low standard deviation observed in our results both for mineral concentratio ns and effective densities suggest that although the regions of interest were relatively small by necessity due to the small of size of teeth (for the franciscana in particular), the results reliably indicate mean values for dental tissues in these two species of dolphins.

Traditional methods for estimating the mineral concentration of dental tissues involve destructive and time-consuming chemical analysis.


When the non-perturbative effects come from Euclidean D3-branes wrapping the same 4-cycle Σ 4 , the analogous F-term condition is obtained by replacing N D7 → 1 [14] . Even if this second step involves reasonably well-known ingredients in string theory, the existence and main features of the supersymmetric vacuum solution were obtained using 4D supergravity. This raises the question of whether the effective field theory approach captures the relevant physics (namely, the vacuum solution as well as its deformations), or if the higher dimensional analysis may reveal new features of the compatification that the effective field theory misses. In particular, the inclusion of NP effects leads to a small 4D (negative) cosmological constant, resulting in an AdS scale much larger than the KK scale, a feature that has recently been conjectured not to be possible in the landscape [9, 15] . On the other hand, the AdS background is the seed solution to ultimately obtain de Sitter compactifications, and in this process the NP effects are key in evading classical no-go theorems [16, 17] . Recent results revealed that in order to properly address whether the KKLT uplifting mechanism can work or not using a Maldacena-Núñez-like approach, it is crucial to understand what is the effect of NP physics on the geometry [8, 9, [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] .

When the non-perturbative effects come from Euclidean D3-branes wrapping the same 4-cycle Σ 4 , the analogous F-term condition is obtained by replacing N D7 → 1.

In particular, the inclusion of NP effects leads to a small 4D (negative) cosmological constant, resulting in an AdS scale much larger than the KK scale, a feature that has recently been conjectured not to be possible in the landscape.

On the other hand, the AdS background is the seed solution to ultimately obtain de Sitter compactifications, and in this process the NP effects are key in evading classical no-go theorems.

Recent results revealed that in order to properly address whether the KKLT uplifting mechanism can work or not using a Maldacena-Núñez-like approach, it is crucial to understand what is the effect of NP physics on the geometry.


RT-qPCR is considered the most precise method for quantifying gene expression and verifying differential transcription profiles identified by microarray analysis [19] . Variation in results of gene expression analysis may arise from biological variation in gene expression among samples and also from technical variation encountered during processes of RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis, real time PCR and sample loading. Researchers typically attempt to account for this variation by normalizing expression levels relative to levels observed for "reference" genes [18] . Broadly applicable reference genes should be equally expressed in a wide range of genetic backgrounds, tissue types, and treatments.

RT-qPCR is considered the most precise method for quantifying gene expression and verifying differential transcription profiles identified by microarray analysis.

Researchers typically attempt to account for this variation by normalizing expression levels relative to levels observed for "reference" genes.


Once the resonance fields are explicitly included in the effective lagrangian, the chiral counting becomes ineffective because the masses of these resonances are of the same order than the chiral characteristic scale Λ χ . However, an expansion of QCD and its low-energy effective field theory in powers of 1/N C , with N C the number of quark colours, appears to be suitable [12] . In the large-N C limit, the hadronic description reduces to tree-level processes without hadron loops. As the 1/N C expansion seems to yield a proper description of N C = 3 QCD, it seems also appropriate to expand the RχT results in powers of 1/N C [13] . To a certain extent, this reduces to just counting the number of loops.

However, an expansion of QCD and its low-energy effective field theory in powers of 1/N C , with N C the number of quark colours, appears to be suitable.

As the 1/N C expansion seems to yield a proper description of N C = 3 QCD, it seems also appropriate to expand the RχT results in powers of 1/N C.


Although there are several examples of studies focusing on identification, dynamics, and bioindication of periphytic microorganisms, most of them have been developed in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, we recall few studies that tested toxicity of chemicals to periphyton, or composition of periphytic communities with emphasis on autotrophic microorganisms (Salomoni and Torgan 2008) . No study so far has investigated peritrichs or other ciliates as components of periphytic communities in Brazil or in the Southern Hemisphere.

In the Southern Hemisphere, we recall few studies that tested toxicity of chemicals to periphyton, or composition of periphytic communities with emphasis on autotrophic microorganisms.


To control these agrarian policy actions a precise follow-up or monitoring of presence or absence of cover crops is required by the EU and Andalusian administrations. Current methods to estimate the cover crop soil coverage consist of sampling and ground visits to only 1% of the total olive orchards at any time from midMarch to late-June. However, this procedure is time-consuming and very expensive, delivering inconsistent result due to the fact that it covers relatively small areas or only target fields, and it does not sample inaccessible areas. Remotely sensed data may offer the ability to efficiently identify and map crops and cropping methods over large areas (South, Qi, & Lusch, 2004) . These techniques may imply lower costs, faster work and better reliability than ground visits. At the same time, the accuracy of the thematic map is extremely important because this map could be used as a tool to help the administrative follow-up to make the decision on conceding or not the subsidy.

Remotely sensed data may offer the ability to efficiently identify and map crops and cropping methods over large areas.


Membrane separation processes have been used for many applications in the chemical industry, given the compactness, simple and efficient operation and low energy consumption of membranes (Hagg, 1998) . However, in some cases membrane use is limited by the opposite relation between permeability and selectivity, in such a way that membranes with high permeability also have low selectivity, and viceversa, which is referred to as an "upper bound" relationship (Robeson, 1991) . This can be explained by the fact that the tighter the polymer molecular spacing, the lower the diffusion coefficient through the material; hence, the lower the permeability. The separation efficiency, on the other hand, is increased.

Membrane separation processes have been used for many applications in the chemical industry, given the compactness, simple and efficient operation and low energy consumption of membranes.

However, in some cases membrane use is limited by the opposite relation between permeability and selectivity, in such a way that membranes with high permeability also have low selectivity, and viceversa, which is referred to as an "upper bound" relationship.


The efficiency of these conventional membranes can be enhanced using facilitated transport. Facilitated transport membranes involve the use of a carrier, which interacts specifically and reversibly with one of the mixture components (reactive species). In these membranes, the reactive species is transported through other mechanism in addition to the ordinary sorption-diffusion, increasing its permeability. Since the carrier does not interfere with in the transport of the nonreactive species, selectivity also increases (Way and Noble, 1992) .

Since the carrier does not interfere with in the transport of the nonreactive species, selectivity also increases.


All models are applied to the task of forecasting and trading on the DIA, NYC and SPY ETFs from 2 January 2004 to 31 December 2012. Their performance is benchmarked against traditional MLP and WNN architectures, autoregressive moving average models (ARMA), a Smooth Transition Autoregressive Model (STAR) and a random walk model. In the aDEMLP and aDEWNN models, the selection of inputs, parameter optimization and architecture are generated through adaptive Differential Evolution (aDE) algorithms which require no practitioner Along similar lines, data snooping occurs when a dataset is used more than once for purposes of inference or model selection (White (2000) ). In financial forecasting applications, data snooping may show superior trading performance which is only due to chance. The data snooping bias unfortunately dominates NN financial applications, which is caused by the complexity and the large number of parameters that need to be optimized in NNs ). In the aDEMLP and aDEWNN architecture, the process of the simultaneous optimization of the NN's structure, parameters and inputs in a single optimization procedure averts the data snooping effect and excludes any bias from the estimation procedure.

In the aDEMLP and aDEWNN models, the selection of inputs, parameter optimization and architecture are generated through adaptive Differential Evolution (aDE) algorithms which require no practitioner Along similar lines, data snooping occurs when a dataset is used more than once for purposes of inference or model selection).


In this work, we have measured the relative dynamics of the concentrations of O and D in the tissue probed from the human forehead, in protocols that induce systemic ABP oscillations at a frequency of 0.1 Hz. Our results provide indications on the different depth-sensitivity of three sets of data collected in non-invasive FD NIRS, namely SDI, SDφ, and SSI. It is known that SDI and SDφ have different regions of sensitivity within tissue, with SDφ data probing deeper than SDI, and that SSI affords a reduced sensitivity to the most superficial tissue layer. As expected, SDI data show a trend as the source-detector distance increases, corresponding to the larger contribution from deeper tissue sensed at greater source-detector distances. It is therefore expected that the asymptotic value of SDI data at large distances is more representative of deeper brain tissue, even though it still remains sensitive to extracerebral, superficial tissue. Probably more surprisingly, the SDφ data does not show a similar trend with source-detector distance, or at least SDφ data appear to reach their asymptotic value at a relatively short distance of~20 mm. We assign this behavior to a significantly greater sensitivity of SDφ data versus SDI data to deeper, cerebral tissue. Similarly, and in this case expectedly, SSI data also shows a greater sensitivity to deeper tissue with respect to SDI data. A major advantage of SDφ data over SSI data is that it only needs one source-detector pair, but it requires the instrumental complexity of FD technology. The increased noise in φ measurements affects even more strongly single-slope phase (SSφ) data, not reported here, than SDφ data because of a smaller signal (the phase difference corresponding to ∆ρ instead of ρ) and a greater noise (because of the need for two φ measurements instead of one). Nevertheless, SSφ holds a significant promise for an even more selective depth sensitivity and should be further explored [24, 25] .

Nevertheless, SSφ holds a significant promise for an even more selective depth sensitivity and should be further explored.


We did not observe consistent differences between the right and left sides of the forehead, and across measurement days, at least not within the experimental uncertainties of measured amplitude and phase of O and D phasors. For this reason, we opted to resort to averages over all subjects, days, and locations in Figure 5a ,c, and over all days in Figure 6 . However, the temporal and spatial variability of oscillatory cerebral hemodynamics in response to controlled systemic perturbations, as studied in CHS, is worth of careful consideration as it may provide valuable functional and physiological information [22] . The spatial dependence of coherent cerebral hemodynamics is an important future direction for CHS imaging.

However, the temporal and spatial variability of oscillatory cerebral hemodynamics in response to controlled systemic perturbations, as studied in CHS, is worth of careful consideration as it may provide valuable functional and physiological information.


In terms of the dependence of measured hemodynamics on source-detector distance, the results obtained with the two protocols (cyclic cuff occlusion, paced breathing) are similar (Figures 4 and 5) . A close inspection of the results obtained at large source-detector separation ( Figure 6 ) shows some differences between the SDI data collected in the two protocols. Typically, ∠(D/O) is more negative in the cuff protocol than in the paced breathing protocol. If this result is assigned to the brain, a possible explanation is the better cerebral autoregulation during paced breathing, if the subject hyperventilates and therefore creates hypocapnia [32] . However, this difference between protocols is not visible in the SSI data, for which the phase of D/O vectors are closer and do not show a consistent phase difference between protocols, and even less so in the SDφ data, for which the phase of D/O vectors is essentially the same for the two protocols. Therefore, we assign the differences between protocols observed in the SDI data to extracerebral tissue contributions, as a result of variable scalp hemodynamic changes in the two protocols. While the relatively small number of subjects (five) in this study does not allow for a statistically significant comparison of the results obtained with the two protocols, we contend that the subjective nature of the paced breathing protocol will introduce a level of variability that is intrinsically linked to the specific subject population. The value of the results reported in this work, which fall short of demonstrating the equivalence or the difference between the two protocols for CHS, lies in confirming the feasibility of both protocols for CHS and in demonstrating a qualitative similarity of the coherent hemodynamics elicited by the two protocols.

If this result is assigned to the brain, a possible explanation is the better cerebral autoregulation during paced breathing, if the subject hyperventilates and therefore creates hypocapnia.


For secure data transmission, most often a symmetric-key cryptography is used, and more precisely block ciphers [9] . All block ciphers need some nonlinear element to be secure. A well known element of this kind is the Substitution Box Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s).

For secure data transmission, most often a symmetric-key cryptography is used, and more precisely block ciphers.


In this work, a focus is made on the liquid-liquid dispersion in continuous oscillatory baffled reactor. The different process parameters (flow rate, oscillation conditions) and the effect of the dispersed phase hold-up are reviewed. A correlation is proposed to estimate the mean droplet size. The required reactor length to obtain the liquid-liquid dispersion is then defined. A brief perspective of its use as suspension polymerization reactor is finally described to produce poly(vinyl acetate) PVAc. It is used to produce PVA (polyvinyl alcohol, vinyl acetate polymer partially hydrolyzed) by saponification. It is mainly used as wood glue and provides some medicine applications for tumour embolization [47, 48] . Table 1 Droplet size correlations for different liquid-liquid contactors, d 32 is the mean Sauter diameter, D h the hydraulic diameter, D o is the pore diameter, l c is the continuous phase viscosity, q c and q d are the continuous and dispersed phase density, q e is the mixture density, V 0 is the flow velocity, e is the porosity, r is the interfacial tension and c the continuous phase shear rate.

It is mainly used as wood glue and provides some medicine applications for tumour embolization.


In pulsed flow, an inversion of the flow occurs at every half period because U pm /U 0 is superior to 1 [40] . According to the operating conditions ( Table 5) , it ranges from 1.7 to 8.3. Table 5 covers the different parameters investigated in this section: throughput, pulsation conditions (amplitude, frequency) and dispersed phase hold-up.

In pulsed flow, an inversion of the flow occurs at every half period because U pm /U 0 is superior to 1.


The pioneering use of biomaterials dates back to early civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt, since artificial ears, noses, and teeth were found in many mummified bodies [1] . In the last 50 years, much effort has been focused on understanding the interactions between biomaterials and targets, contributing to the creation of advanced products with different biomedical applications [1] . Polymeric blends as well as the combination of different types of biomaterials 2 International Journal of Polymer Science have been tried for the development of biosensors, scaffolds, implants, tissue engineering, wound healing, and sustained drug delivery [2] .

The pioneering use of biomaterials dates back to early civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt, since artificial ears, noses, and teeth were found in many mummified bodies.

In the last 50 years, much effort has been focused on understanding the interactions between biomaterials and targets, contributing to the creation of advanced products with different biomedical applications.

Polymeric blends as well as the combination of different types of biomaterials 2 International Journal of Polymer Science have been tried for the development of biosensors, scaffolds, implants, tissue engineering, wound healing, and sustained drug delivery.


Thus, organic-organic biohybrid systems for sustained drug release emerged as a versatile strategy for the development of optimized formulations and dosage forms. Biohybrid materials are advanced systems that combine the properties of organic nanocarriers with the adhesiveness and biodegradability of (bio)polymers [9] . Within this context, this minireview aims to examine the main advances in biohybrid materials based on organic compounds for sustained drug release and provides a perspective to inspire their future developments.

Biohybrid materials are advanced systems that combine the properties of organic nanocarriers with the adhesiveness and biodegradability of (bio)polymers.


The so-called DDS are technological devices that have been studied since 1959 to overcome the limitations of the traditional drug therapy [3] . DDS are composed of excipients such as inorganic, lipid, or polymeric origin (or their combination), used in the preparation of nanosystems (e.g., vesicles, micelles, nanocapsules, and nanospheres), microparticulates (e.g., microspheres and microemulsions), or dosage forms, such as films and hydrogels. Each carrier system has specific properties and can bind, encapsulate, adhere to, or adsorb active compounds such as genes or drugs [4] . Among the desirable features of DDS are nontoxicity, high drug upload, and targeting, thus reducing side effects in nontarget tissues, sustained delivery of therapeutic molecules, physicochemical stability, ability to protect drugs from degradation, sterilization, and large-scale production [3] [4] [5] .

The so-called DDS are technological devices that have been studied since 1959 to overcome the limitations of the traditional drug therapy.

Each carrier system has specific properties and can bind, encapsulate, adhere to, or adsorb active compounds such as genes or drugs.

Among the desirable features of DDS are nontoxicity, high drug upload, and targeting, thus reducing side effects in nontarget tissues, sustained delivery of therapeutic molecules, physicochemical stability, ability to protect drugs from degradation, sterilization, and large-scale production.


Wood ash has also been reported in research studies in China, Vietnam, South Africa, El Savador, Guatemala, and other countries to be effective in raising the pH of feces to sanitizing levels resulting in the inactivation of pathogens [8, 23, 24] . All these studies were however limited to raw excreta from dry onsite sanitation systems (Urine Diverting Dry Toilet) and failed to investigate the rate of pH change with time upon addition of varying quantities of wood ash. Information on the optimum quantity of ash required to increase the pH of fecal sludge from wet onsite sanitation systems to sanitizing levels therefore remains unknown although that of lime has been severally reported in literature. In most urban communities in Ghana where wet sanitation systems are common, as in other Sub-Saharan countries, the fecal sludge from these systems is mainly disposed of untreated into nearby storm drains or water courses raising public health concerns [25] [26] [27] . Only few treatment systems exist countrywide and are mainly detention ponds, which discharge their effluents into adjoining waterbodies although the sludge can be sanitized and reused for agricultural purposes [28] .

Wood ash has also been reported in research studies in China, Vietnam, South Africa, El Savador, Guatemala, and other countries to be effective in raising the pH of feces to sanitizing levels resulting in the inactivation of pathogens.

In most urban communities in Ghana where wet sanitation systems are common, as in other Sub-Saharan countries, the fecal sludge from these systems is mainly disposed of untreated into nearby storm drains or water courses raising public health concerns.

Only few treatment systems exist countrywide and are mainly detention ponds, which discharge their effluents into adjoining waterbodies although the sludge can be sanitized and reused for agricultural purposes.


In this paper, we give a natural definition of Morrey spaces associated with the nonhomogeneous spaces of Hytönen and investigate the boundedness of some classical operators including maximal operator, fractional integral operator and Marcinkiewicz integrals operator. To state the main results of this paper, we first recall some necessary notion, and notations. The following notions of geometrically doubling and upper doubling metric measure spaces were originally introduced by Hytönen [10] .

The following notions of geometrically doubling and upper doubling metric measure spaces were originally introduced by Hytönen.


Currently, there are a lot of wireless devices in the world which demand a greater bandwidth every day, because the data service has become a basic need: from 2013 to 2018 it is expected that the average traffic per smartphone increases from 529 MB to 2672 MB per month [12] . This trends require that wireless service provision is in constant innovation to meet users' needs. At the same time, providing broadband wireless connectivity anytime and anywhere poses a great challenge in indoor scenarios due to signal attenuation. This is specially true for conventional cellular service providers whose radio network infrastructure is primarily based on base stations servicing macrocells. These factors have generated an attractive business opportunity for new service providers (SPs) that want to enter the wireless market.

Currently, there are a lot of wireless devices in the world which demand a greater bandwidth every day, because the data service has become a basic need: from 2013 to 2018 it is expected that the average traffic per smartphone increases from 529 MB to 2672 MB per month.


Besides race/ethnicity and immigrant status, the other important predictors of maternal hypertension included maternal age, gestational diabetes, prepregnancy BMI, and gestational weight gain, which are consistent with previous studies [7, 8, 12, 13] . The finding of higher prevalence of maternal hypertension in the Midwest and Southern regions is consistent with the previously reported regional patterns in adult hypertension [25] . Increased risk of maternal hypertension and chronic hypertension associated with lower education is in line with the previously reported positive relationship between low socioeconomic status (SES) and gestational hypertension [8, 27, 28] . The finding that immigrants in most racial/ethnic groups have a lower risk of maternal hypertension than their US-born counterparts is consistent with studies that show significantly lower rates of maternal hypertension and adult hypertension among immigrants [11, 13, 29] .

Besides race/ethnicity and immigrant status, the other important predictors of maternal hypertension included maternal age, gestational diabetes, prepregnancy BMI, and gestational weight gain, which are consistent with previous studies.

The finding of higher prevalence of maternal hypertension in the Midwest and Southern regions is consistent with the previously reported regional patterns in adult hypertension.

Increased risk of maternal hypertension and chronic hypertension associated with lower education is in line with the previously reported positive relationship between low socioeconomic status (SES) and gestational hypertension.

The finding that immigrants in most racial/ethnic groups have a lower risk of maternal hypertension than their US-born counterparts is consistent with studies that show significantly lower rates of maternal hypertension and adult hypertension among immigrants.


However, the profile of 137 Cs is not of great importance for estimating erosion rate for cultivated soils. In this case, tillage produces a turned and mixed top layer, as deep as the plough itself, which homogenises the cesium concentration. Experimental measurements of the isotope concentration determine the average value in the profile, thus making it possible to establish, and fairly closely, a linear relationship between cesium loss and soil loss at that point (Brown et al. 1981; Kachanoski & De Jong, 1984) .

Experimental measurements of the isotope concentration determine the average value in the profile, thus making it possible to establish, and fairly closely, a linear relationship between cesium loss and soil loss at that point.


Correlation and MANOVA analyses, supported by PCA, indicated that there were several differences between temperate and tropical rats sampled during winter months. First, male and female rats captured from Salvador did not differ with respect to their overall size, while Baltimore males were larger than females. Second, support for our hypothesis that rats captured from an area of lower absolute latitude (i.e., tropical zones) would be smaller than those captured at higher absolute latitude (i.e., temperate zones) was supported by results showing that male and female rats from Salvador were significantly smaller than their counterparts from Baltimore. These findings are consistent with Bergmann's rule. Third, in contrast to our expectations, the sexual maturity of Norway rats, based on external and internal evidence of sexual status, did not show that Salvador rats were sexually mature at a smaller mass/age than Baltimore rats but rather that sexual maturity occurred at a similar threshold mass of ~200 g in both populations. All primiparous females in the Salvador population had masses greater than 200 g, and all but one of the nulliparous females had masses less than 200 g. For Salvador males, using either the scrotal status of the testes or the development of the epididymes, the results indicated that males also reach maturity at ~200 g. Studies from Baltimore have also specified 200 g as the mass/age threshold for reproduction in both males and females (Davis and Hall 1948; Glass et al. 1989) .

All primiparous females in the Salvador population had masses greater than 200 g, and all but one of the nulliparous females had masses less than 200 g. For Salvador males, using either the scrotal status of the testes or the development of the epididymes, the results indicated that males also reach maturity at ~200 g. Studies from Baltimore have also specified 200 g as the mass/age threshold for reproduction in both males and females.


This and similar lines of questions has a long history and has proven to be influential in the weighted theory in harmonic analysis. Weighted norm estimates for typical classical operators often follow similar patterns as their probabilistic models. Certain classical operators in harmonic analysis, such as Riesz transforms can be written as a conditional expectation of certain martingale transforms [8] . Other, deeper connection have surfaced in the last ten to twenty years [17] [9] . During the last twenty years interest has shifted towards sharp norm estimates in terms of the characteristic of the weight, in part thanks to the solution of a long standing regularity problem in PDE through a sharp weighted norm estimate of the Beurling operator [18] .

Certain classical operators in harmonic analysis, such as Riesz transforms can be written as a conditional expectation of certain martingale transforms.

Other, deeper connection have surfaced in the last ten to twenty years.

During the last twenty years interest has shifted towards sharp norm estimates in terms of the characteristic of the weight, in part thanks to the solution of a long standing regularity problem in PDE through a sharp weighted norm estimate of the Beurling operator.


Among air power, land power, and sea power, air power plays the most decisive role in the outcome of any war [1] . With the development of military air combat, the problem of WTA has received considerable attention [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] . Because the goal of air power is to maximize the military effectiveness, it becomes imperative to find a proper assignment of weapons to targets. From the perspective of the quantity of objective functions, the WTA problem can be classified into single-objective WTA problem and multiple-objective WTA problem. When taking the time factor into account, the WTA problem can be divided into dynamic WTA problem and static WTA problem. The current research status of various WTA is summarized in Table 1 . In this paper, we mainly focus on the static biobjective WTA problem which aims at finding a proper static assignment of maximizing the expected damage of the enemy and minimizing the cost of missiles.

Among air power, land power, and sea power, air power plays the most decisive role in the outcome of any war.

With the development of military air combat, the problem of WTA has received considerable attention.


In addition to organizational influences, a person's interest or motivation in assigned tasks also likely has an impact on individual boredom [17, 86] . We leave the question of motivation and boredom in supervisory control domains to future work, but it is a critical one that raises recruitment and retention issues already acute for the US Air Force's UAV workforce [29] . Other areas that deserve further scrutiny include the impact of training on boredom coping strategies in terms of how could or should operators be taught to sustain attention, and whether distractions add to or mitigate fatigue.

In addition to organizational influences, a person's interest or motivation in assigned tasks also likely has an impact on individual boredom.

We leave the question of motivation and boredom in supervisory control domains to future work, but it is a critical one that raises recruitment and retention issues already acute for the US Air Force's UAV workforce.


Because of the high risk involved in the operation of nuclear power plants, air traffic control, and other safety-critical supervisory control domains, personnel selection is of practical concern so identifying those personnel who can manage long stretches of inactivity in such settings is important. To this end, experience, age, intellectual capacity, gender, and personality type have all been suggested as contributors to individual variability of perceived boredom [17, 87, 88] . Moreover, in air traffic control tasks similar to the UAV control tasks in this study, it has been suggested that task characteristics of repetitiveness and traffic density may interact with individual traits (e.g., personality, experience, age) in a way that causes monotony and boredom [16] . The only clear evidence of such influences in this work was video game experience that suggested poorer performance for those with significant gaming experience, although the sample size and homogeneity of participants likely was a factor in determining other possible associations. Clearly more data is needed in these areas to understand the interaction of the individual with tedious supervisory control environments and associated distractions, and how personnel selection practices might benefit.

To this end, experience, age, intellectual capacity, gender, and personality type have all been suggested as contributors to individual variability of perceived boredom.

Moreover, in air traffic control tasks similar to the UAV control tasks in this study, it has been suggested that task characteristics of repetitiveness and traffic density may interact with individual traits (e.g., personality, experience, age) in a way that causes monotony and boredom.


In case I t is a single item at each step, the algorithm discovers in a greedy manner independent sets of the relation graph. If I t is a subgraph, N t is the set of non-active, non-explored neighbors of this subgraph at step t. Exploration algorithms can also be identified in diverse applications. For example, they can be linked to communication procedures in communication networks [7] . In this context, the relation graph might be the outcome of random spatial effects, i.e. nodes could be interacting through a geometry which itself can be random. This is certainly the case in wireless networks in which acceptable radio conditions have been defined based on the level of admissible interference between two competing nodes, so conditions that determine whether simultaneous communication is possible. These interference constraints can be modeled using a hardcore interference graph, in which an edge is present between two nodes if their radio conditions would impede a simultaneous communication [3] .

For example, they can be linked to communication procedures in communication networks.

These interference constraints can be modeled using a hardcore interference graph, in which an edge is present between two nodes if their radio conditions would impede a simultaneous communication.


Regarding the prevalence of risk behaviors, particularly those related to cigarette use, the groups obtained rates of 10.8% to 25.6% for current cigarette use. Another study found similar results, with 39% of the girls and 25% of the boys from a sample of 743 adolescents aged 12-15 years, reporting having smoked cigarettes in the past 12 months (Whitbeck, Yu, McChargue & Crawford, 2009) . We can also find evidence at earlier ages (9-11 years) of significant rates of preadolescents who had smoked at least one cigarette (12.3%) or had smoked within the previous 30 days (5.1%) (Sasco, Laforest, Benhaı¨m-Luzon, Poncet & Little, 2002) .

Another study found similar results, with 39% of the girls and 25% of the boys from a sample of 743 adolescents aged 12-15 years, reporting having smoked cigarettes in the past 12 months.

We can also find evidence at earlier ages (9-11 years) of significant rates of preadolescents who had smoked at least one cigarette (12.3%) or had smoked within the previous 30 days (5.1%).


This paper deals with the topic of shunt active power filter (SAPF) control [1] [2] [3] [4] . The aim of the study is to present a review of the methods of SAPF control used in practice. SAPFs are specially controlled voltage or current inverters, and they have to contain a very powerful computing unit that is able to react to the presence of higher harmonics immediately and reliably compensate these higher harmonics and reactive powers in the network.

This paper deals with the topic of shunt active power filter (SAPF) control.


For the measurement equipment, the effective number of bits (ENOB) has to be considered to respect the whole signal-chain and the real AD converter parameters. In the documentation for NI 9227, the ENOB cannot be found, but even subtracting 4 bits because of noise, the smallest measured signal was converted into digital form using a 14−4 = 10 bit AD converter. Regular oscilloscopes use 8 bit AD converters, the high-end oscilloscopes use 10 bit AD converters, and only the best oscilloscopes use 12 bit AD converters [79] .

Regular oscilloscopes use 8 bit AD converters, the high-end oscilloscopes use 10 bit AD converters, and only the best oscilloscopes use 12 bit AD converters.


Despite a century of effort, we still do not fully understand visual processing in the retina. Recently, it was determined that the communication between light sensitive neurons in the retina; rods and cones, which were traditionally thought to be autonomous, is important to the quality of vision [12] . Here, signals from rods and cones integrate thereby enabling the retina to operate over a very large dynamic range of light intensities. However, the extent of the interaction between these two distinct pathways under varying light conditions is still unknown [8] .

Recently, it was determined that the communication between light sensitive neurons in the retina; rods and cones, which were traditionally thought to be autonomous, is important to the quality of vision.

However, the extent of the interaction between these two distinct pathways under varying light conditions is still unknown.


These intraspecific studies are at least in tentative agreement with the conclusions of comparative studies: that the 'classical' lock-and-key hypothesis is a less plausible explanation for genitalic evolution (Eberhard, 1985; Shapiro & Porter, 1989) . However, knowledge of current selection on genitalic traits, patterns and causes of morphometric variation of genitalia, and an understanding of the mechanisms involved are necessary to enable a future resolution of the evolutionary problem that animal genitalia constitute. It is clear that we need thorough single species studies to enable a future synthesis of the causes of the evolution of animal genitalia; the main hypotheses make numerous more or less exclusive predictions for several different types of data.

These intraspecific studies are at least in tentative agreement with the conclusions of comparative studies: that the 'classical' lock-and-key hypothesis is a less plausible explanation for genitalic evolution.


Two within-species patterns of genital morphology have previously been held as being 'general' (1) size of genitalia does not correlate with body size and (2) genitalic traits are less phenotypically variable than 'other traits'. However, these beliefs are deeply rooted in old confounding assumptions of the lock-and-key hypothesis, and factual assessments of these patterns are very rare. The highly limited amount of data that is available, actually show that neither of these patterns are generally present (Kunze, 1959; Coyne, 1983; Eberhard, 1985 Eberhard, , 1993a Porter & Shapiro, 1990; Goulson, 1993; Liu et al., 1996) .

The highly limited amount of data that is available, actually show that neither of these patterns are generally present.


To the best of our knowledge, periodic boundary conditions were explicitly taken into account only in the very recent paper [22] . Therein, a topological approach based on Mawhin's coincidence degree was introduced to prove that the mean value condition (1.3) guarantees the existence of a positive T -periodic solution for a large class of indefinite equations including (1.1). In such a way, a first affirmative answer to Butler's question can be given.

To the best of our knowledge, periodic boundary conditions were explicitly taken into account only in the very recent paper.


A model with evolving nonlocal interactions is developed in this study. The thermodynamic admissibility of the model is addressed and localisation analysis based on the propagation of acceleration waves carried out. Numerical examples illustrate the mesh-independence of the numerical solutions, thus confirming the analytical predictions by localisation analysis. We show the capability of this model in overcoming the wrong initiation of damage usually encountered in other models with fixed nonlocal interaction (Simone et al., 2004) . Our numerical study also indicates that the migration of shear bands, once thought to be related to the wrong initiation of damage, is in fact associated with the behaviour of the material model. Significant reduction in the size of the FPZ during late stage of the damage process, when a macro crack is expected, is however hard to achieve due to constraint on the stability of the nonlocal model. Attempts with non-monotonic function mðãÞ decreasing towards the critical value of damage lead to material instability observed through mesh-dependent numerical solutions (Section 4.1). This requires further work on the localisation characteristics of the proposed local-nonlocal mixing.

We show the capability of this model in overcoming the wrong initiation of damage usually encountered in other models with fixed nonlocal interaction.


Due to the heterogeneity of quasi-brittle material (e.g. concrete, rocks), diffuse micro-cracking over a certain volume is usually observed at early stages of the fracturing process (Haidar et al., 2005; Grassl and Jirásek, 2010) . This volume, where micro-cracks develop, is called fracture process zone (FPZ) in the literature. It has been experimentally observed that the size of the active FPZ is evolving with the fracturing process (Jankowski and Styś, 1990; Otsuka and Date, 2000) . This zone expands once micro-cracks start to grow, and then reduces to a zero-volume (macro) crack. During this fracturing process, many micro-cracks in the FPZ are deactivated, while some continuously develop, propagate, and coalesce with other to form a final macro crack.

Due to the heterogeneity of quasi-brittle material (e.g. concrete, rocks), diffuse micro-cracking over a certain volume is usually observed at early stages of the fracturing process.

It has been experimentally observed that the size of the active FPZ is evolving with the fracturing process.


Material stability is an issue one should always consider when developing constitutive models for softening materials. One of the effective techniques to deal with the issue of material stability is the nonlocal regularisation technique (Pijaudier-Cabot and Bazant, 1987) . The key idea of this regularisation is to introduce into constitutive models a characteristic length representing the heterogeneity of the evolving material micro-structure. Considering the richness of the evolving micro-structure of quasi-brittle materials, the introduction of a single length parameter can be seen as an over simplified process aiming at reducing the complexity of the constitutive models and also the numerical implementation. This however has been proved to be sufficient for several practical applications.

One of the effective techniques to deal with the issue of material stability is the nonlocal regularisation technique.


Methods to control the propagation of elastic waves, such as vibration reduction and noise isolation, are often the focus of engineering studies. Much research has been conducted over many years to suppress unwanted vibration or noise. A variety of vibration control technologies, including visco-elastic materials, springs, soft materials, hydraulic dampers, and pneumatic isolators, among others, were gradually developed and are widely used in engineering practice [1] . As technology progresses, scientific equipment and structures are developed further to be more complex and precise. The control of the higher-order vibration or coupled vibration in these complicated structures, as well as the higher precision and flexibility of the vibration isolation in precise instruments, is increasingly important. Currently, the traditional vibration/noise control technologies are facing new challenges.

A variety of vibration control technologies, including visco-elastic materials, springs, soft materials, hydraulic dampers, and pneumatic isolators, among others, were gradually developed and are widely used in engineering practice.


Usually, studies conducted to evaluate the reduction in crude protein by means of amino acid supplementation use only L-Lysine, DL-methionine, L-threonine and L-tryptophan, but, progressive CP Acta Scientiarum. Animal Sciences Maringá, v. 38, n. 2, p. 219-225, Apr. -June, 2016 reduction in diets may lead to a situation in which other amino acids, such as arginine, valine and isoleucine, act as limiting factors for improved performance (Peganova & Eder, 2002) . Isoleucine is an essential amino acid of the family of aliphatic hydrophobic amino acids mainly found mainly in proteins and enzymes. After ingestion, L-isoleucine is absorbed by the small intestine and transported in the blood stream to the liver, where a part is used for the production of proteins, and the other is catabolized, in the presence of vitamin B 12, into derivatives essential for energy production.

Animal Sciences Maringá, v. 38, n. 2, p. 219-225, Apr. -June, 2016 reduction in diets may lead to a situation in which other amino acids, such as arginine, valine and isoleucine, act as limiting factors for improved performance.


Being an entrepreneur, one who is self-employed and who starts, organizes, manages, and assumes responsibility for a business, offers a personal challenge that many individuals prefer over being an employee working for someone else. Entrepreneurs accept the personal financial risks that go with owning a business but also benefit directly from the potential success of the business. Being an entrepreneur is often viewed as an aversive career choice where one is faced with everyday life and work situations that are fraught with increased uncertainty, impediments, failures, and frustrations associated with the process of new firm creation (Campbell, 1992) . Not IJEBR 11,1 surprisingly, many researchers have investigated the motivation to become self-employed. What is it about certain people that drives them to take on the risk, the uncertainty and the independent structure of business ownership?

Being an entrepreneur is often viewed as an aversive career choice where one is faced with everyday life and work situations that are fraught with increased uncertainty, impediments, failures, and frustrations associated with the process of new firm creation.


The type and context of behaviour episodes can be identified through manual annotation of wearable camera images. This verifies that machine vision classifiers should be evaluated on whether they can automatically replicate these manual annotations. If this is satisfied future studies using accelerometers could consider the use of wearable cameras to objectively categorise and contextualise accelerometer identified episodes of activity, regardless of choice of episode or bout type identification algorithm. The wearable camera should not be viewed as a replacement device for the hip-mounted accelerometer, but instead as a complementary source of information to provide much needed contextual information. This will enable researchers to better understand human behaviour using an objective free-living behaviour, thus providing better quality information to devise appropriate public health interventions [4] . Future studies using both of these devices together will likely provide better objective measurement of episodes of interest in terms of: type, context; intensity (from accelerometer, and also cross-referencing Physical Activity Compendium); time, and duration (from either device).

This will enable researchers to better understand human behaviour using an objective free-living behaviour, thus providing better quality information to devise appropriate public health interventions.


Nitrogen fertilizers are recommended to be applied at 67 -90 kg·N·ha −1 (60 -80 lb N acre ) on bottom soils in Tennessee [3] . These recommendations have been used for decades without modifications although cotton production systems have been changed dramatically. For example, new cotton cultivars with high yield potentials have been continuously introduced to the market over the past decades. Due to security concern, urea and ammonium nitrate (UAN) and urea have been increasingly used to replace ammonium nitrate as the N source for cotton production in Tennessee. Presently, UAN is usually injected into the soil, while ammonium nitrate is broadcast on the soil surface. Traditionally, N fertilizer is applied around cotton planting, but split applications (a small portion of N as pre-plant plus a large portion of N as side-dress) have recently gained grower's attention. No-tillage systems are being widely used by producers in cotton production in Tennessee and throughout the southeastern USA. Under no-tillage, N fertilizer is often broadcast on soil surface without incorporation into the soil, while it is generally incorporated after surface application under conventional tillage systems [4] . Overall, information on cotton responses to the application rate, timing, and method of alternate N sources such as UAN and urea is limited under no-till production systems.

Nitrogen fertilizers are recommended to be applied at 67 -90 kg·N·ha −1 (60 -80 lb N acre ) on bottom soils in Tennessee.

Under no-tillage, N fertilizer is often broadcast on soil surface without incorporation into the soil, while it is generally incorporated after surface application under conventional tillage systems.


Unsustainable fishing is attributed to population increase and movement of people from other food systems which are also under immense pressure [5, 25] . Lake Malawi is an open resource where anyone can just walk in and start fishing. In addition, the regulations set by the government in collaboration with the local communities have failed to yield positive behavior changes, as people need to survive [26] . However, this has led local communities to suffer most because their livelihoods are centered around fish.

Unsustainable fishing is attributed to population increase and movement of people from other food systems which are also under immense pressure.

In addition, the regulations set by the government in collaboration with the local communities have failed to yield positive behavior changes, as people need to survive.


Fish farming was also affected by extreme weather events. These events perceived by farmers offer room for practicing adaptive management. For instance, breeding fish for extreme temperature tolerance and early maturing fish strains. Although progress of aquaculture development in Malawi is being made, there is a long way to go before it can be considered successful. This is the case because these pre-existing bottlenecks reported more than 10 years ago are still persistent [6] . Furthermore, the results also suggest the need to strengthen the supply chain by the government or offer business opportunities in food system activities such as fingerling and feed production and supply. Therefore, fish farming is not an illusion as it might provide supplementary livelihoods to inland fishers, but this development reliant upon improving the operational environment with more easily accessible inputs.

This is the case because these pre-existing bottlenecks reported more than 10 years ago are still persistent.


Global environmental changes challenge achieving sustainable development goals. For instance, global environmental changes derail achieving global food security, which is an outcome for many food systems [1] . Continuous exposure to global environmental changes renders many households vulnerable and unable to attain sustained livelihoods. Therefore, in order to devise ways to enhance livelihoods, there is need to understand available food systems and their role in providing livelihoods.

For instance, global environmental changes derail achieving global food security, which is an outcome for many food systems.


Therefore, this calls for a holistic assessment of other food systems that could be promoted to support the livelihoods of Lake Malawi fishers. This might ease the fishing pressure being exerted on the already overfished resource. Malawi fishers migrate between agriculture and fisheries as major livelihood sources [27] . Nevertheless, just like fisheries, the Malawi agricultural sector has also been experiencing continuous low crop yields [28, 29] . Global environmental changes is among the factors impacting Malawi's agriculture because of over-dependence on rainfall, which is characterized by erratic, late onset, early cessation, and low intensity [30, 31] .

Malawi fishers migrate between agriculture and fisheries as major livelihood sources.

Nevertheless, just like fisheries, the Malawi agricultural sector has also been experiencing continuous low crop yields.

Global environmental changes is among the factors impacting Malawi's agriculture because of over-dependence on rainfall, which is characterized by erratic, late onset, early cessation, and low intensity.


As global environmental destruction and social issues became serious, academics began to worry about how to approach these problems. As a way to solve the problems, sustainable entrepreneurship has attracted attention, contending that entrepreneurs can contribute to solving problems caused by environmental degradation by creating new, sustainable products and services. Recently, studies have emerged that link entrepreneurship to sustainability and cover the broad concept of sustainable entrepreneurship, including economic, environmental and social values [1] . For entrepreneurs, environmental and social problems such as climate change and environmental pollution can create another entrepreneurial opportunity to solve the problem. Socially, new inventions of entrepreneurs can be tools for solving environmental and social problems, and sustainable enterprise and society can be realized.

Recently, studies have emerged that link entrepreneurship to sustainability and cover the broad concept of sustainable entrepreneurship, including economic, environmental and social values.


The stages of hepatic fibrosis are correlated with the serum levels of HA, LN and IV-C, which as markers may play a role in detecting the degree of hepatic fibrosis [23] . It has been reported that HA is the major resource of extracellular matrix. IV-C as the essential element of the basement membrane will be synthesized abundantly and deposit heavily in the earlier phases liver cirrhosis. The serum levels of LN and IV-C are the indexes of the turnover rate of the basement membrane and show the degree of fibrosis in the portal area and sinusoidal capillaries [24] . PC III is a marker in the diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis and early cirrhosis, but its sensitivity and specificity are not high, and there is no significant difference between the various stages of fibrosis in many references [24, 25] . This study obtained a similar result.

The stages of hepatic fibrosis are correlated with the serum levels of HA, LN and IV-C, which as markers may play a role in detecting the degree of hepatic fibrosis.

The serum levels of LN and IV-C are the indexes of the turnover rate of the basement membrane and show the degree of fibrosis in the portal area and sinusoidal capillaries.

PC III is a marker in the diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis and early cirrhosis, but its sensitivity and specificity are not high, and there is no significant difference between the various stages of fibrosis in many references.

This study obtained a similar result.


For arbitrary sensor arrays, many indexes, such as directive gain, sensitivity factor, beam efficiency, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), can be used for evaluating their performance [1] . Among these, directive gain often receives the most attention. It is well known that conventional array with half-wavelength aperture can easily achieve optimal directive gain by adding equal amplitude excitations and proper phase shifts. However, this does not result in the same effect on mini-arrays which have much smaller element space than half wavelength. Seeking gain maximization with small aperture array forms a meaningful exploration, and all relative solutions can be classified as superdirective beamforming methods [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] . These methods can make sufficiently small array, which acquires the same directivity as conventional array. Actually, practice is not as ideal as theory assumption. Superdirective beamforming is very sensitive to various errors. It requires array precisely calibrated. Besides, high directive gain is obtained by large excitation currents of opposite signs in neighboring elements, which makes radiation efficiency rather low [5] . In other words, if we scale down the excitation currents to affordable range, the summed signal may be substantially attenuated and even drowned into internal noise, which means the loss of SNR. Consequently, blind pursuit of high gain is unrealistic.

For arbitrary sensor arrays, many indexes, such as directive gain, sensitivity factor, beam efficiency, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), can be used for evaluating their performance.

Seeking gain maximization with small aperture array forms a meaningful exploration, and all relative solutions can be classified as superdirective beamforming methods.

It requires array precisely calibrated.

Besides, high directive gain is obtained by large excitation currents of opposite signs in neighboring elements, which makes radiation efficiency rather low.


Our study sheds light on the way in which the adaptive immune response to acute bacterial infection is modified in a cancer host. Previous data published by our lab suggest that lymphocytes also play an important role in modulating the increased mortality seen in septic cancer mice [21, 22] . Upregulation of BTLA on lymphocytes and PD-1 on macrophages is noted to contribute to increased mortality seen in sepsis [46, 47] . Given our findings demonstrating increased expression of coinhibitory molecules on bacteria-specific CD8 + T cells in the setting of pre-existing malignancy, we speculate that this upregulation of costimulatory molecules may underlie the increased mortality observed in septic cancer animals, where the bacterial burden may make T cells more likely to undergo exhaustion. Future investigation to interrogate the functional role of coinhibitory receptors in the setting of cancer-induced sepsis mortality is warranted.

Previous data published by our lab suggest that lymphocytes also play an important role in modulating the increased mortality seen in septic cancer mice.

Upregulation of BTLA on lymphocytes and PD-1 on macrophages is noted to contribute to increased mortality seen in sepsis.


In his work, Overbey proposes the use of a language-independent library to generate most of the code needed to implement the refactoring tool components (parser, AST, etc.) [20] . His approach focuses on using grammar to generate ASTs with a very rich API, and gives the tool developer the possibility to customize the structure of ASTs (and thus the parser) by annotating the grammar. However, developers are obliged to work with the author's toolkit (Ludwig which is a grammar-based code generator with an EBNF parser, and the Rephraser Engine which is a language-independent library).

In his work, Overbey proposes the use of a language-independent library to generate most of the code needed to implement the refactoring tool components (parser, AST, etc.).


MDE increases the abstraction level where high level reuse (i.e., generative reuse) takes place, and this is achieved through modeling, transformations and code generation. Metamodels provide high expressiveness for describing languages and can be easily integrated and extended for reuse. Textual syntaxes and grammars (used to generate parsers and printers) can be reused as well along with metamodels [5] , [6] , [8] .

Textual syntaxes and grammars (used to generate parsers and printers) can be reused as well along with metamodels.


Similarly, Liang introduces a model-driven approach for precondition checking [10] . He uses OCL to specify refactoring preconditions for C++ programs. However, and besides the fact that he didn't cover the code transformation part, his implementation relies on a Component-Based Tool Development technique where the Eclipse CDT API (i.e., the eclipse parser and AST for C++) is used to extract artifacts from the source code, then models representing the program are constructed against the language metamodel by mapping the extracted AST elements to the corresponding model elements. He claims that programmers should be able to specify their own preconditions and he bases his approach on this hypothesis. The problem is that many programmers are neither familiar with metamodeling and declarative languages such as OCL nor experts in refactoring precondition specification. Our approach targets refactoring tool developers who are familiar with model-driven techniques.

Similarly, Liang introduces a model-driven approach for precondition checking.


In the sector of municipal solid waste (MSW) aerobic biological treatment, odor is not related to the presence of only one compound. Thus the management of the related problems is not easy. The interest in this problem has become more and more relevant in the recent years because of the construction of these plants near urbanized areas but also because of the greater attention paid to environmental protection and human health [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] . However the odor perception is a complex phenomenon with a strong subjective component.

The interest in this problem has become more and more relevant in the recent years because of the construction of these plants near urbanized areas but also because of the greater attention paid to environmental protection and human health.


DNA, which carries genetic information, is continuously exposed to various types of damaging factors, including internally generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) along with external factors such as ionizing radiation, ultraviolet radiation, ROS, and other reactive molecules. These can cause DNA lesions that are processed by dedicated repair pathways to protect genome integrity. Unrepaired DNA lesions cause mutations that can lead to cell death or cancer (Ciccia and Elledge 2010) .

Unrepaired DNA lesions cause mutations that can lead to cell death or cancer.


The classification of supergravity solutions has many applications in string theory. Such classifications have been used recently to construct new black hole and black ring solutions. Furthermore, the classifications can also be used to prove non-existence theorems in several supergravity theories, whereby solutions preserving certain proportions of supersymmetry are excluded. Recently, a partial classification of solutions of N = 2, D = 5 was constructed [1] . Solutions with four linearly independent Killing spinors for which at least two generate a timelike Killing vector were completely classified. In this paper we complete the classification of half-supersymmetric solutions of N = 2, D = 5 supergravity by considering the case when all four Killing spinors generate null Killing vectors.

Recently, a partial classification of solutions of N = 2, D = 5 was constructed.


Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an important fruit of tropical and subtropical regions, which originated in the Middle East and India and has been used for centuries in ancient cultures for its medicinal purposes. It is widely reported that pomegranate exhibits antivirus, antioxidant, anticancer, and antiproliferative activities [1] [2] [3] . Pomegranate is consumed fresh and in processed form as juice, wines, flavors, and extracts. Commercial pomegranate juice has the highest antioxidant activities compared to other fruit juices, red wine, and green tea and currently is a high value product in the agricultural market.

It is widely reported that pomegranate exhibits antivirus, antioxidant, anticancer, and antiproliferative activities.


This study is undertaken in North Cyprus which recently becomes a destination for many international students, real estate investors and tourists, what causes a remarkable advance in its the banking sector in corresponding to the increased demand for banking services by newcomers. In general the economy of North Cyprus depends on the service sector that includes education and tourism, and according to a recent study on customer satisfaction and loyalty in banking sector in North Cyprus showed that the vast majority of the TRNC citizens who have participated in this study prefer visiting bank branches, due to security issues and friendly service provided by the banks' personnel. Furthermore, the quiet lifestyle in this small part of the island, which is free of congestion, and the accessibility of all facilities within a short time, in addition to the socializing nature of the TRNC people who they live in a cohesive society in which the personal relationships is highly valued, These special characteristics have reflected on the banks' working environment, as most customers prefer visiting the bank branch in their neighbourhood and establishing good relations with the bank personnel rather than using the alternative banking channels (Ozatac, et al., 2016) .

Furthermore, the quiet lifestyle in this small part of the island, which is free of congestion, and the accessibility of all facilities within a short time, in addition to the socializing nature of the TRNC people who they live in a cohesive society in which the personal relationships is highly valued, These special characteristics have reflected on the banks' working environment, as most customers prefer visiting the bank branch in their neighbourhood and establishing good relations with the bank personnel rather than using the alternative banking channels.


It is expected that mobile data traffic will increase a thousand-fold over the next decade which will be driven by the expected 50 billion mobile devices connected to the cloud, anywhere and anytime. With a rapid increase in the number of connected devices, some challenges for next 5G networks appear which will be responded by increasing capacity and by improving energy efficiency (EE), coverage, spectrum utilization, and so on [1] . As the key techniques to address the requirements for 5G networks, direct device-to-device (D2D) communication and in-band full-duplex (FD) have attracted a great deal of research interests [2] [3] [4] .

With a rapid increase in the number of connected devices, some challenges for next 5G networks appear which will be responded by increasing capacity and by improving energy efficiency (EE), coverage, spectrum utilization, and so on.

As the key techniques to address the requirements for 5G networks, direct device-to-device (D2D) communication and in-band full-duplex (FD) have attracted a great deal of research interests.


The ANT+ group was significantly more likely than the ANT-group to have abnormal liver laboratory results and most patients within the ANT+ group evidenced abnormally high alanine aminotransferase (ALT; 67.9%) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST; 75.0%) concentrations at baseline. Liver biopsy results were only available within the ANT+ group, of which 58.8% evidenced advanced fibrosis (stage 3 or 4) and 41.2% evidenced advanced inflammation (grade 3 or 4). Rates of advanced liver disease are high within the treated group probably because, historically, providers have not frequently recommended treatment to patients unless they have presented with clinical indications of advanced liver disease, such as abnormal liver functioning tests. Other factors could include the high rates of AUD among veterans with HCV. Within the total sample, genotype information was available for 55.0% (33/60) of patients, with 60.6% (20/33) of those infected with either genotypes 1 or 4 and 39.4% (13/33) infected with either genotypes 2 or 3. Within the ANT+ group, all but one patient received combination therapy with ribavirin (96.6%). Most patients were prescribed pegylated interferon-α2a (53.3%) or pegylated interferon-α2b (30.3%), but 13.3% were prescribed interferon-α2b and ribavirin. A detailed discussion of the completion and response rates for the ANT+ group, as well as related factors (for example, reasons for early discontinuation), can be found elsewhere [8] .

A detailed discussion of the completion and response rates for the ANT+ group, as well as related factors (for example, reasons for early discontinuation), can be found elsewhere.


Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a coherent imaging system capable of generating fine resolution images of stationary targets on the ground, which has become an important tool in military intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] . With the development of SAR technology, more specialized radar problems are being studied in the framework of SAR systems. A prominent example is ground moving target indication and imaging (GMTI&Im) in a SAR scene [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] . As well known when a conventional SAR processing algorithm is applied to a scene containing moving targets, the images of moving targets are typically dislocated and smeared out due to the additional phase error and range migration induced by the motion. Therefore, a prediction of the response of the SAR processing algorithm employed to the SAR echo, including the geometric displacement, residual range migration and defocusing effect in both the range and azimuth dimensions, might be helpful to improve the performance of a SAR/GMTI&Im system. Many previous studies have investigated the effect of target motion on SAR image [8] [9] [10] . However, these discussions are mainly focused on the error analysis of phase history, which are equivalent to the analysis of target signatures on the SAR image obtained by 2-D separable SAR processing. To the authors' knowledge, until recently, little work is available in the literatures on the analysis of signatures of moving target after the application of fine resolution SAR processing. Thus the purpose of this paper is to develop the SAR image spectrum of moving target and give a detailed description of its signatures.

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a coherent imaging system capable of generating fine resolution images of stationary targets on the ground, which has become an important tool in military intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

A prominent example is ground moving target indication and imaging (GMTI&Im) in a SAR scene.

Many previous studies have investigated the effect of target motion on SAR image.


Clearly, something happened to D68 in 2014 or 2015 to create the clumps seen at the end of the Cassini Mission. The most obvious explanation for such dramatic and localized increases in brightness is that fine material was released by collisions into or among larger objects located within or nearby D68, similar to the way bright features are thought to form in the F ring (Showalter 1998; Barbara and Esposito 2002; French et al. 2012 French et al. , 2014 Murray and French 2018) . This scenario will be examined in some detail below. Section 4.1 examines how much material is needed to produce the visible clumps, and whether suitable source bodies for this material could be lurking in or around D68. Next, Section 4.2 argues that the clumps in D68 are primarily due to collisions among particles orbiting close to D68, rather than impacts from interplanetary objects. These arguments are based on comparisons between the properties of the clumps in D68 and those found in the F ring. Finally, Section 4.3 examines the spatial and temporal distribution of the clump forming events and what they may imply about the distribution of source bodies within D68.

The most obvious explanation for such dramatic and localized increases in brightness is that fine material was released by collisions into or among larger objects located within or nearby D68, similar to the way bright features are thought to form in the F ring.


Container terminals (CTs), connecting seaside and landside transportation, are an essential part of the global transportation system. Over the past two decades, the demand for maritime transport has increased dramatically [1] . The number of container shipments between 1990 and 2008 has increased from 28.7 million to 152 million, representing a 9.5% average annual compound growth rate [2] . In addition, about 60% of the maritime transports employed containers, with a growth rate of 6.4% each year. This figure even approaches 100% for developed countries [3] . The above figures show the need to improve the efficiency of CTs.

Over the past two decades, the demand for maritime transport has increased dramatically.

The number of container shipments between 1990 and 2008 has increased from 28.7 million to 152 million, representing a 9.5% average annual compound growth rate.

This figure even approaches 100% for developed countries.


One effective way to improve the efficiency of a CT is to directly improve its operations, which are usually separated into three areas: seaside, yard, and landside [4, 5] . The seaside operations are particularly critical as they employ berths and quay cranes (QCs), two scarce resources that can affect the CT performance considerably [6] . For the seaside operations, there are three well known operational problems, i.e., berth assignment problem (BAP), quay crane assignment problem (QCAP), and quay crane scheduling problem (QCSP). Essentially, the BAP is a problem of allocating berths to ships. The QCAP focuses on assigning QCs to ships whereas the QCSP focuses on the further assignment of QCs to the tasks of ships, where each task consists of a group of containers from a same ship to be loaded and unloaded, so that the QC schedules can be finally settled down. A solution to the QCSP should clarify which task is handled by which QC and what are the starting and ending times of each task. To solve the QCAP, it usually needs to solve the QCAP first. The solution found for the QCAP can affect the solution found for the QCSP, thus the two problems are related. In our approach, we use an indirect approach to assign QCs to ships, i.e., QCs are first assigned to berths based on the workload of the berths and then the QCs assigned to a berth are used to serve the ships that moor that berth.

One effective way to improve the efficiency of a CT is to directly improve its operations, which are usually separated into three areas: seaside, yard, and landside.

The seaside operations are particularly critical as they employ berths and quay cranes (QCs), two scarce resources that can affect the CT performance considerably.