The dynamic interactions of the workers in an uncertain and dynamic construction environment where the building infrastructure is continuously evolving with time often resulted in unsafe worker behaviors [8] . These dynamic interactions raise serious safety concerns for H&S managers as the movements of construction resources (workers and machinery) are changing according to the change in the building infrastructure [9, 10] . In the last few decades, to reduce safety hazards, dynamic interactions of the construction resources are tracked in real time using different sensor-based location tracking technologies such as radio-frequency identification (RFID), Global Positioning System (GPS), ultra-wideband (UWB), and vision-based sensing systems [11] . Each one of them has its own benefits and limitations. Among all, the most prominent and widely used tracking technology for construction safety applications is based on the GPS or an IPS [10, 12] . It is used to record spatio-temporal trajectories as a series of location points as spatio-temporal tuples (x i , y i , t i ) in the form of latitude and longitude coordinates with timestamps generated by a moving object in space [13] . It holds multifaceted attributes, for example, time, a position of an object in the geographical coordinate system, a direction of an object, the speed of an object, a change in direction, acceleration, and distance traveled [14] . These attributes can be extracted directly from spatio-temporal trajectories by applying preprocessing techniques. However, processed spatio-temporal trajectory data cannot provide a clear understanding of the meanings behind workers' mobility behaviors because it lacks semantic information related to the environment [13] . To add semantic information to processed trajectories using external data sources (application databases, geodatabases, etc.) including openly available and private data related to the environment, a semantic enrichment process is required [13, 14] . The added relevant semantic or contextual information to complement the processed trajectory data using alphanumeric properties is called Bannotations.^In this paper, three types of annotations are discussed which are as follows: annotating with semantic points (spatio-temporal tuples selected based on the user stay duration), semantic lines (detecting the transportation mode between successive spatio-temporal tuples based on the speed values), and semantic regions (the geographical building or site location where the trajectory takes place). For example, a trajectory of a worker named BJohn^is going to dump a construction material on a site. The extracted stay locations of BJohn^are annotated as the semantic points or the point of interests (POIs) where he is spending most of his time. Segmenting each trajectory episode to find the transportation mode used by BJohn^while traveling between the semantic points is annotated as a semantic line. Moreover, the whole trajectory of BJohn^will be annotated with a semantic region or region of interest (ROI) where an entire mobility has been taken place to visualize it from the geographical context of a building. In the existing literature, there exist many approaches of semantic enrichment of trajectories. However, these approaches are constructed to understand the outdoor trajectories of moving objects and do not generate semantic trajectories for dynamic indoor environments where the building infrastructure is evolving in its shape, size, and attributes with time. Construction sites are the best example of dynamic environments where the new walls and infrastructure supports are added frequently on sites. Such changes in the building environment are required to be captured by the semantic data model to generate trajectories with the most updated semantic information for studying worker movements in dynamic environments.

The dynamic interactions of the workers in an uncertain and dynamic construction environment where the building infrastructure is continuously evolving with time often resulted in unsafe worker behaviors.

These dynamic interactions raise serious safety concerns for H&S managers as the movements of construction resources (workers and machinery) are changing according to the change in the building infrastructure.

In the last few decades, to reduce safety hazards, dynamic interactions of the construction resources are tracked in real time using different sensor-based location tracking technologies such as radio-frequency identification (RFID), Global Positioning System (GPS), ultra-wideband (UWB), and vision-based sensing systems.

Among all, the most prominent and widely used tracking technology for construction safety applications is based on the GPS or an IPS.

It is used to record spatio-temporal trajectories as a series of location points as spatio-temporal tuples (x i , y i , t i ) in the form of latitude and longitude coordinates with timestamps generated by a moving object in space.

It holds multifaceted attributes, for example, time, a position of an object in the geographical coordinate system, a direction of an object, the speed of an object, a change in direction, acceleration, and distance traveled.

However, processed spatio-temporal trajectory data cannot provide a clear understanding of the meanings behind workers' mobility behaviors because it lacks semantic information related to the environment.

To add semantic information to processed trajectories using external data sources (application databases, geodatabases, etc.) including openly available and private data related to the environment, a semantic enrichment process is required.


In rural communities, ignorance, non-cooperation, cultural unacceptability and the disruptive nature of measurements to the rural lifestyle all make it difficult to include a large number of subjects. Some earlier studies also measured energy costs of activities on small numbers of subjects [27] [28] [29] . However the importance of such data, although on smaller numbers of subjects, needs to be appreciated in view of the scarcity of data on energy expenditure. In our study we tried to cover most of the typical daily activities that a rural woman performs. Therefore, this information could be useful in estimating energy expenditures close to the reality for rural women in India.

Some earlier studies also measured energy costs of activities on small numbers of subjects.


Spinal stenosis is a common health problem in the aging population with a significant burden on quality of life in a subset of patients. With increasing longevity, the need for surgical treatment will likely grow in the future. Knowledge expectations of spinal stenosis patients are high [1] . In general, surgical patients expect more knowledge than they actually receive [2] . For the patient to be able to give an informed consent, he/she has to master a broad understanding of the risks and benefits, as well as the likely outcomes of the different treatment options [3] . In addition to the bio-physiological factors of multidimensional knowledge, patients require knowledge in the functional (e.g., mobility, rehabilitation, rest, nutrition), social (family, work), experiential (emotions, attitude), ethical (patient rights, participation in decision-making, and confidentiality), and financial (costs and social benefits) aspects of surgical treatment [4, 5] .

Knowledge expectations of spinal stenosis patients are high.

In general, surgical patients expect more knowledge than they actually receive.

For the patient to be able to give an informed consent, he/she has to master a broad understanding of the risks and benefits, as well as the likely outcomes of the different treatment options.

In addition to the bio-physiological factors of multidimensional knowledge, patients require knowledge in the functional (e.g., mobility, rehabilitation, rest, nutrition), social (family, work), experiential (emotions, attitude), ethical (patient rights, participation in decision-making, and confidentiality), and financial (costs and social benefits) aspects of surgical treatment.


Previous studies have shown that haptic assistance provides the most significant improvements for more severely impaired operators (Keates et al., 2000 (Keates et al., , 2002 Hwang et al., 2001) . In this study participant △ exhibited a tendency to slip when performing clicks. This is reflected in the click-release displacement and number of missed-clicks. The most significant improvements for participant △ can be observed for the small targets in Experiment 2. The addition of deformable cones and deformable switches helped to prevent the cursor from leaving the target region, which reduced error-rates and improved targeting times. In contrast the motor skills of participant tend to be more controlled, which means that the assistance will have a less profound effect. However, in Experiment 1 the two deformable techniques were still able to reduce the number of missed-clicks to zero and improve targeting times for this person.

Previous studies have shown that haptic assistance provides the most significant improvements for more severely impaired operators.


To use video attributes, we may refer to a typical approach that involves training attribute classifiers and then using their outputs as intermediate representations for the complex event videos [8, 11] . But this approach has two problems. First, when the number of attributes used is limited, it is insufficient to learn a discriminative intermediate representation. Second, given a particular event to detect, only some attributes are discriminative while others are comparatively useless or even noisy [16] . It is difficult to decide what attributes to use for different events. In contrast, we propose to use video attributes as additional information to assist complex event detection. Specifically, our framework learns the attribute classifier and event detector simultaneously. The observation of a particular event affects the attribute classifier, and in return, attributes characterize the event. This kind of mutual influence is explored by a correlation vector, which helps incorporate extra informative cues into the event detector. We name the proposed method Multi-level Collaborative Regression (MCR). Our approach has two merits: the learning process of event detector is not solely dependent on the video attributes; and the joint framework adapts the knowledge from attributes for different events, i.e., a particular event obtains dedicated perks via the joint learning of attribute classifier and event detector.

To use video attributes, we may refer to a typical approach that involves training attribute classifiers and then using their outputs as intermediate representations for the complex event videos.

But this approach has two problems.

Second, given a particular event to detect, only some attributes are discriminative while others are comparatively useless or even noisy.


Internet is one of the world's most remarkable engineering and social phenomena. Despite its success, it has become a playground where stakeholders with conflicting interests interact with each other. These ongoing "tussles" may constitute a threat to the Future Internet [6] .

These ongoing "tussles" may constitute a threat to the Future Internet.


At present, there are increasing demands for new chemical products that are used in environmentally friendly technologies and adopt sustainable approaches. These are driving the search for new biocatalysts for the development of new bioprocesses. Environmental microbes are considered to be the main source of new enzymatic activities owing to their enormous metabolic capability and diversity, much of which currently remains unexplored [18] . The new range of enzymes, especially the ones involved in various biodegradation pathways and enantiopure bioproducts, including di-, tri-and tetra-oxygenated metabolites resulting from tandem dioxygenase-catalysed oxidations of arene substrates, open exciting possibilities for the synthesis of new compounds [19, 20] .

Environmental microbes are considered to be the main source of new enzymatic activities owing to their enormous metabolic capability and diversity, much of which currently remains unexplored.

The new range of enzymes, especially the ones involved in various biodegradation pathways and enantiopure bioproducts, including di-, tri-and tetra-oxygenated metabolites resulting from tandem dioxygenase-catalysed oxidations of arene substrates, open exciting possibilities for the synthesis of new compounds.


Phrase-based models have been used for interactive CAT in this work. We show how SMT can be used, with slight adaptations, in a CAT system. A prototype has been developed in the framework of the TransType2 project (SchlumbergerSema S.A. et al., 2001) .

A prototype has been developed in the framework of the TransType2 project.


The Gd sample has large grain size compared with all the other samples which plays a role in decreasing the number of intra-granular pores, I 1 ( Table 1 ). This conclusion is conformed experimentally (Fig. 2b) . Also, it was reported that the number of inter -granular porosity depends on the grain size [12] . The large increase of its grain size relative to all other samples leads to increas the number of intergranular pores. Then, the number of the inter-granular pores may dominant the grain boundaries defects for Gd sample. This accounts on the increase of I 2 for Gd sample (Fig. 2b) . Accordingly, as the grain size is increased, G.S. > 3.46 μm, the number of inter-granular pores as defects is increased and can dominant the grain boundaries thickness defects. This means that the dominant defect of I 2 is the number of intergranular pores for the Gd sample only. It is reported that the dominant defects of I 2 was inter-granular pores for almost samples for Mn -Zn ferrite substituted with the rare earth ions, Mn 0.6 Zn 0.4 Fe 1.9 R 0.1 O 4 (R = La, Nd, Sm, Gd and Dy) [11] .

Also, it was reported that the number of inter -granular porosity depends on the grain size.

It is reported that the dominant defects of I 2 was inter-granular pores for almost samples for Mn -Zn ferrite substituted with the rare earth ions, Mn 0.6 Zn 0.4 Fe 1.9 R 0.1 O 4 (R = La, Nd, Sm, Gd and Dy).


In summary, in a study on human subjects we corroborated the fi ndings that the degree of oxidative stress is directly related to the advance of cognitive impairment and AD. Thus, high correlations between the oxidative stress marker FRAP and cognitive impairment indicate that oxidative stress should be considered a risk factor in the development of cognitive disorders (Perry et al 2000) . Oxidative stress is critical in the pathogenesis of AD, and is involved in biological damage, thus one might think that the administration of antioxidants may be useful in the prevention and treatment of AD and other neurodegenerative disorders.

Thus, high correlations between the oxidative stress marker FRAP and cognitive impairment indicate that oxidative stress should be considered a risk factor in the development of cognitive disorders.


Sample variability between circumferential and axial force vs. stretch ratio curves was found to be lower than the effect of deformation rate, supporting the use of an isotropic constitutive equation to predict the behavior of the arterial wall. Isotropic models have also been used to model the artery in other studies [43, [47] [48] [49] [50] . Forces instead of stresses were reported here due to the non-homogeneous stress and strain distributions found in speci-mens subjected to biaxial tests, where the highest and lowest stresses are found near the curved boundaries and near the center of the sample, respectively [51] . Moreover, researchers who are focused (like us) on experimental rather than theoretical work will appreciate to report the data as raw as possible.

Isotropic models have also been used to model the artery in other studies.

Forces instead of stresses were reported here due to the non-homogeneous stress and strain distributions found in speci-mens subjected to biaxial tests, where the highest and lowest stresses are found near the curved boundaries and near the center of the sample, respectively.


The main constituents of arterial tissues are collagen and elastin. The elastic response of arteries is largely due to elastin because elastin is about 1000 times more extensible than collagen. The proportion of elastin to the other arterial constituents is the highest in the aorta. Elastin chains are crosslinked together to form rubberlike, elastic fibers [52] . Each elastin molecule uncoils into a more extended conformation when the fiber is stretched and recoils spontaneously as soon as the stretching force is relaxed. Its elasticity is based on changes in the entropy of the molecular chains, while the material is deformed. An imposed strain increases the order in the molecular network and thus decreases its entropy. According to the thermodynamic laws, the network would try to recover its former shape, increasing their entropy.

Elastin chains are crosslinked together to form rubberlike, elastic fibers.


Differences exist not only in content knowledge but also in students' understanding of experimentation. In inquiry-based instruction, students often engage in experimentation. Setting up and interpreting experiments requires adequate understanding of domain-general experimentation principles such as the control-of-variables strategy (CVS) (Kuhn, Black, Keselman, & Kaplan, 2000; Kuhn, Ramsey, & Arvidsson, 2015) . There are other, more and less advanced steps in the development of knowledge about experimentation, however understanding of the CVS is pivotal (Croker & Buchanan, 2011; Kuhn, Iordanou, Pease, & Wirkala, 2008; Osterhaus, Körber, & Sodian, 2016; Piekny & Maehler, 2013; Sodian, Zaitchik, & Carey, 1991) . Interindividual differences in understanding this domain-general strategy can be expected to influence the acquisition of scientific concepts. In the present study, we aim at scrutinizing the predictive value and interplay of students' understanding of the CVS and their prior content knowledge for subsequent knowledge acquisition and conceptual change in inquiry-based science instruction. Building on prior lab-based research, we examine this interplay in the context of real science classrooms, with a large-scale sample of elementary school students being instructed by their classroom teachers. For data analysis, we apply an innovative kind of statistical modeling, specifically, a latent transition analysis.

Setting up and interpreting experiments requires adequate understanding of domain-general experimentation principles such as the control-of-variables strategy (CVS).

There are other, more and less advanced steps in the development of knowledge about experimentation, however understanding of the CVS is pivotal.


Intermediate conceptions are also sometimes deliberately introduced by teachers in order to simplify content, but still to prepare their students' future science learning. For example, when children think about floating and sinking, they often give explanations such as "light things float, heavy ones sink" or "small objects float, large ones sink". They do not yet understand that weight and size interact as density and thus see these conceptions as independent of each other (Maclin, Grosslight, & Davis, 1997; Smith, Carey, & Wiser, 1985) . A more elaborate but still limited intermediate conception would be "things made of wood float, while stones sink". This material-based conception can explain more floating ability phenomena than the conceptions of weight and size, but it is still limited in its explanatory power. When learning science, students show diverse developmental patterns in how they change from misconceptions via intermediate conceptions to scientific concepts. To support this development, it is necessary to understand how these learning patterns are structured and constrained, and how optimal knowledge development can be supported.

They do not yet understand that weight and size interact as density and thus see these conceptions as independent of each other.


Much research is being carried out on the use of vibrating systems to enhance navigation, especially when visual feedback is reduced, absent or already overloaded. Vibrating devices have been used in several applications to enhance navigation ability. Most of these applications aim at giving spatial orientation information to the user through vibrating feedback. One example of this application is the research done on vibrating belts for navigation way point enhancement [21] . The device consists of a belt containing eight vibrators that vibrate according to the position of the target given by GPS coordinates. The system has been tested on board of helicopter and a boat to detect its influence on the trajectory taken by the pilot by using direct GPS coordinate and/or tactile feedback. Prototypes of tactile display onto the user body have been tested on aircraft crew members by the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory to enhance spatial orientation and situation awareness in military applications [14] .

One example of this application is the research done on vibrating belts for navigation way point enhancement.

Prototypes of tactile display onto the user body have been tested on aircraft crew members by the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory to enhance spatial orientation and situation awareness in military applications.


In this paper we propose and demonstrate a novel approach to control the frequency and phase of the beams using multiple optical phase locked loops (OPLLs) [9] [10] [11] . Figure 1 gives the schematic of a binary-tree filledaperture CBC system using OPLLs. A number of slave lasers are phase locked to a common master laser using heterodyne OPLLs. The slave lasers seed an array of high power fiber amplifiers, the outputs of which are coherently combined. In a heterodyne OPLL, the phase of the slave laser can be adjusted by the rf reference signal. Hence, instead of using an optical phase shifter, one can use an electric phase shifter or frequency shifter [such as a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO)] to compensate for variations in the optical path lengths of the combining beams. Compared to previously demonstrated approaches using an optical phase shifter, this approach enables a much cheaper, more compact, fully electronic servo system.

In this paper we propose and demonstrate a novel approach to control the frequency and phase of the beams using multiple optical phase locked loops (OPLLs).


The practical implications of this experiment are presented as follows: The findings indicate quality-oriented (35.1%) and health-conscious (28.0%) consumers represent more than half of the respondents. For food manufacturers and bakeries, this clearly demonstrates potential for product differentiation and marketing strategies promoting high quality, exclusive, exotic, and healthy products. Consumers often do not like to change their eating habits; therefore, an effective strategy could be to integrate the healthy properties of certain ingredients into existing products [4] . For traditional consumers and price-conscious consumers (36.9%), the remaining groups, an optimal price-performance ratio is needed. Regarding the structure of a possible product, a portfolio of bread types for traditional and price-conscious consumers could serve as a base product. Further superfood ingredients or quality attributes could be added to some types of bread to obtain a product solution for quality-oriented and health-conscious consumers. Finally, further research needs to be conducted on other superfood products (processed/unprocessed) and also for different consumer groups, such as in North and South Germany or in different European regions.

Consumers often do not like to change their eating habits; therefore, an effective strategy could be to integrate the healthy properties of certain ingredients into existing products.


In relation to functional capacity, there were improvements in all the variables analyzed. Contributing with our found, a study verified the effects of a physical activity program in elderly people during one year and concluded that regular physical activity could reverse or slow the decline in motor performance related to aging and improved balance and choice reaction time (Petroski, 2012) . In study with 163 people over 65 years of age was concluded that participation in a weekly group exercise program with ancillary home exercises can improve balance and reduce the rate of falling in the community of at risk older people (Barnett et al., 2003) . The improvement of the components of strength, mobility, and balance as evaluated in this study are very important because this population can subsequently perform the ADL with security and efficiency, decreasing the risk of falls and fractures due to frailty. Furthermore, handgrip strength can be a predictor of all causes of mortality among the oldest of the elderly population and may serve as a convenient tool for predicting mortality risk among elderly people (Ling et al., 2010) .

Contributing with our found, a study verified the effects of a physical activity program in elderly people during one year and concluded that regular physical activity could reverse or slow the decline in motor performance related to aging and improved balance and choice reaction time.

In study with 163 people over 65 years of age was concluded that participation in a weekly group exercise program with ancillary home exercises can improve balance and reduce the rate of falling in the community of at risk older people.

Furthermore, handgrip strength can be a predictor of all causes of mortality among the oldest of the elderly population and may serve as a convenient tool for predicting mortality risk among elderly people.


In all cases shown here, the mean latitude of the o/c boundary has not drifted relative to the radar. In reality, the boundary is always likely to be moving over the radar. For example, the 630-nm transients are observed usually during southward IMF and when the cusp/cleft red line aurora is migrating equatorwards because of erosion of the dayside magnetosphere (Fasel, 1995; Sandholt et al., 1992) . Thus for fully pulsed reconnection, the N C and ¹ C pulses shown in Fig. 6a may rapidly evolve to a form like those in Fig. 6b and then those in 6c. Such changes will make identification of the pulses yet more difficult. Nevertheless, with satellite, optical measurements and the ESR, the effects of many different reconnection patterns can now be studied in detail, and we look forward to testing our model further and interpreting the results, using the first data from the ESR.

For example, the 630-nm transients are observed usually during southward IMF and when the cusp/cleft red line aurora is migrating equatorwards because of erosion of the dayside magnetosphere.


Vaginal birth (VB) has been associated with pelvic floor dysfunction, with past studies indicating that maternal expulsive efforts and perineal trauma are risk factors for postpartum pelvic floor disorders [1] [2] [3] [4] . Perineal and introital stretch in the second stage of labor is thought to contribute to pelvic floor muscle damage. However, with the exception of overt levator damage and third-and fourth-degree perineal lacerations, the relationship of perineal injury to postpartum pelvic floor dysfunction has not been consistently demonstrated [5] [6] [7] [8] . Data are lacking to predict how stretching of the perineal structures in the second stage of labor correlates with perineal laceration at delivery and postpartum functional outcomes, such as urinary (UI), anal (AI), and fecal (FI) incontinence, sexual dysfunction, and pelvic organ prolapse (POP).

Vaginal birth (VB) has been associated with pelvic floor dysfunction, with past studies indicating that maternal expulsive efforts and perineal trauma are risk factors for postpartum pelvic floor disorders.

However, with the exception of overt levator damage and third-and fourth-degree perineal lacerations, the relationship of perineal injury to postpartum pelvic floor dysfunction has not been consistently demonstrated.


Available design tools have their own advantages and disadvantages, and uniquely accommodate the different perspectives that designers have towards solving a design problem. For instance, CAD-based systems typically concentrate on capturing geometric attributes of a design instead of providing support for concept generation. Even though researchers have developed both conventional and non-conventional techniques for concept generation, a generalized computer algorithm has yet to be fully established, in part because the level of abstraction is not uniform across all methods. The solution set for a particular design problem is frequently so large that it is difficult to reduce the solutions down to a manageable number of viable results without a systematic method in place. Often, results found in the unfiltered solution set are impractical due to incompatibilities between components, either flow-wise, structurally, or both. Previous research efforts have focused on the interactions between components, but none are defined in a manner that efficiently translates into a useful form for use in concept generation [Pimmler and Eppinger, 1994; Chakrabarti and Bligh, 1994; Bracewell and Sharpe, 1996; Lee and Gossard, 1985; Callahan and Heisserman, 1997] .

Previous research efforts have focused on the interactions between components, but none are defined in a manner that efficiently translates into a useful form for use in concept generation.


Why the reproducibility of the VT was only moderately reproducible is not clear, but may have been due to the small sample size (n = 8). Because a recent larger study in adults (n = 40) obtained a stronger correlation coefficient (r = 0.94) and a lower CR (~250 mLÁmin -1 ), the sample size provides the likely explanation (Gaskill et al. 2001) . A future study with a larger sample size (range of body weights including OW and OB children) is required to confirm the usefulness of VT as an aerobic fitness measure in children.

Because a recent larger study in adults (n = 40) obtained a stronger correlation coefficient (r = 0.94) and a lower CR (~250 mLÁmin -1 ), the sample size provides the likely explanation.


Wheat is a major crop contributing to the world's food supply. Of the total supply of wheat, an average of 53% is consumed as food in the developed countries, and close to 85% in the developing countries (Denčić et al., 2011) . It has long been recognized that wheat yields and other agronomic and quality traits vary considerably as a result of genotype, environment and their interaction (Allard and Bradshaw, 1964; Basford and Cooper, 1998; Trethowan and Crossa, 2007; Denčić et al., 2011) .

Of the total supply of wheat, an average of 53% is consumed as food in the developed countries, and close to 85% in the developing countries.

It has long been recognized that wheat yields and other agronomic and quality traits vary considerably as a result of genotype, environment and their interaction.


In the era of globalization, everything is globalizing, from economies of countries to the social lives of people. In this rapidly changing world, English is also becoming a global language that is spoken by millions of people all over the world for different reasons, which makes it the most widely used lingua franca. Therefore, in many parts of the world people are struggling to learn the English language through formal or informal education no matter how old they are. The area of language teaching and learning is constantly changing due to trends or innovations appearing in educational, technological and social areas around the world and countries are trying to keep up with these innovations. Turkey is one of the countries that experience frequent shifts in its language education policy since language education is not very satisfying. Students begin learning English at primary school and keep learning until they graduate from high school; however, they still cannot use it efficiently. The Ministry of National Education in Turkey (MONE) has taken some initiatives to improve this situation like designing curriculums, revising teaching methods, providing course materials to students, providing in-service training to teachers (Sarıçoban, 2012) . Unfortunately, the results have been disappointing yet.

The Ministry of National Education in Turkey (MONE) has taken some initiatives to improve this situation like designing curriculums, revising teaching methods, providing course materials to students, providing in-service training to teachers.


In 2000, when Global Compact was launched, its initial nine principles did not address the issue of corruption [18] . Nevertheless, it soon became apparent that unless corruption was tackled, the Global Compact would not be effective; and as a result, the tenth 'Anti-corruption Principle' was added in 2004. Other CSR instruments, such as the Organization for the Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and business self-regulation initiatives, such as codes of conduct of several multinational corporations, as well refer to the anti-corruption struggle as a shared responsibility of business sector [19] [20] [21] .

In 2000, when Global Compact was launched, its initial nine principles did not address the issue of corruption.

Other CSR instruments, such as the Organization for the Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and business self-regulation initiatives, such as codes of conduct of several multinational corporations, as well refer to the anti-corruption struggle as a shared responsibility of business sector.


The risk of corruption in the energy sector is linked to the supply chain of specific energy sources and their significance in a given country. The socio-political and institutional environment, in which extraction, transformation, and the use of energy carriers occur, plays an important role in defining corruption risks. The cultural environment in the country, the strengths of institutions, the enforcement of regulation, and the number of persons participating in the decision-making are of the key importance in the occurrence of the corruption risks [4] . A lack of transparency and accountability as poor legal and institutional systems creates conditions for the abuse of power and impunity of decision makers. In order to mitigate corruption risks, it is necessary to consider each of these issues simultaneously. It can help to mitigate corruption risks at the enterprise level that corporate control, prevention programs, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standards, including codes of ethics that are accordingly applied at the organizational level [7] . Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives guide and allow energy companies to implement principles of sustainability at the enterprise level and have a direct impact on the sustainable energy development on local and country level. However, government policies are more important in mitigating corruption risks in the energy sector [8] . Though the development and enforcement of anti-corruption laws have been emphasized during the past decades, which included huge fines for companies and imprisonment of guilty corporate executives, the problem of corruption is still relevant in the energy sector. The importance of proper legal regulation is linked to the fact that energy resources are located in the developing countries where governments have principal control over the decisions in the energy sector, especially in granting licenses and public procurement procedures [9] .

The cultural environment in the country, the strengths of institutions, the enforcement of regulation, and the number of persons participating in the decision-making are of the key importance in the occurrence of the corruption risks.

It can help to mitigate corruption risks at the enterprise level that corporate control, prevention programs, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standards, including codes of ethics that are accordingly applied at the organizational level.

However, government policies are more important in mitigating corruption risks in the energy sector.

The importance of proper legal regulation is linked to the fact that energy resources are located in the developing countries where governments have principal control over the decisions in the energy sector, especially in granting licenses and public procurement procedures.


Under normal physiologic conditions, there is a critical balance in generation of oxygen free radicals and antioxidant defense systems used by organisms to deactivate and protect themselves against free radical toxicity. However, rapid cultural and social changes, ageing populations, increasing urbanization, dietary changes, reduced physical activity and other unhealthy lifestyle and behavioral patterns has broken the balance and caused abrupt accumulation of free radical in vivo [1] [2] [3] [4] . It has been generally accepted that free radicals can react with a variety of biomolecules, including lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, and macromolecules of connective tissue, thereby interfering with cell function. However, whether and how accumulation of free radicals in vivo impact on glucose metabolism by other pathway can few be understood.

However, rapid cultural and social changes, ageing populations, increasing urbanization, dietary changes, reduced physical activity and other unhealthy lifestyle and behavioral patterns has broken the balance and caused abrupt accumulation of free radical in vivo.


Diabetes was an epidemic whose critical character was foul-up of glucose metabolism. Among the factors to cause foul-up of metabolism, the Fe 3+ 's content increase, Fe 2+ and total iron's content decrease led by oxidant stress is the critical factor induced diabetes generation. In previous study, we have also reported that supplementation of FeSO 4 can decrease blood glucose level and accelerate glucose metabolism [9] .

In previous study, we have also reported that supplementation of FeSO 4 can decrease blood glucose level and accelerate glucose metabolism.


Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) is a system that integrates the management of information through the management of the flow of data across the entire enterprise (Botta-Genoulaz et al., 2005) (Schlichter & Kraemmergaard, 2010) . Organizations usually buy ERP systems because of the inefficiency of institutional processes. Through automating business processes, enhancing operational efficiency, and easing access to information, the application of an ERP system improves the performance of the organization in its daily operations. Organizations often think about getting ERP when they deal with many complex and overlapping business problems. Most of these organizations expect to receive trade benefits through the implementation of ERP. One of these benefits is achieve the financial goals of the company through productivity gains and efficiency resulting from business process automation. Another is to simplify the management and operations of a large-scale company that has grown organically or through acquisitions. Such a company may involve multiple currencies, offices, or business areas. ERP acquisition can also replace or upgrade an outdated, unwanted or ineffective existing ERP system. This can involve improved information management through the promotion of access to information, reducing duplication of data and improving predictive capabilities.

Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) is a system that integrates the management of information through the management of the flow of data across the entire enterprise.


The company has evolved the software until it has become a comprehensive program for all sections of a company, whether the company is small, medium, or large. It is now one of the largest companies that provides practical solutions to businesses (Gargeya & Brady, 2005) . However, systems are expensive and most often purchased by the largest companies. Its main activity is to produce management programs that help enterprises improve their businesses and connect them into one system to ensure its coherence and efficiency without having to use several software systems from different companies.

It is now one of the largest companies that provides practical solutions to businesses.


An attempt to obtain exact solutions of MHD flow of couple stress fluid with heat transfer has been made. The methodology in the present work is easy to linearize the equation of MHD flow for couple stress fluid. It should be noted that when g fi 0 and C + a 0 < 0, there is no couple stresses, exponential type of solutions has been recovered for viscous and non-Newtonian fluids [32] [33] [34] . The method has been used in a direct way without any restrictive assumptions and labourious calculation. For future research, we will solve the three dimensional Newtonian and couple stress flow equations by using proposed method. Moreover, this methodology can be employed on other non-Newtonian fluids to obtain an exact solutions, for instance pseudoplastic and rate type fluids.

It should be noted that when g fi 0 and C + a 0 < 0, there is no couple stresses, exponential type of solutions has been recovered for viscous and non-Newtonian fluids.


In this study the women education was found to be one of associated factors of unmet need of LAPMs of contraception. This finding is similar to a study done in Ethiopia and Sri Lanka [17, 18, 19] . So, effort should be on empowering every woman for education as stated in Millennium Development Goal 2.

This finding is similar to a study done in Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.


Fossil-fuel shortages and environmental concerns have strongly impacted the energy industries during the last decades. As one of the promising solutions to reduce the usage of the fossil fuel and carbon emissions, electric vehicles (EVs) are receiving much attention. Various infrastructures and charging standards for EVs have been presented considering different power levels as well as charging fields [1] . Among them, the direct-current charging standard, which is defined to deliver high power and high current charging capability, normally requires an off-board charger. Traditionally, a unidirectional dc converter is able to satisfy the requirement of refreshing battery energy. Recently, various economical and technical issues about using EVs to support the power grid have been discussed [2, 3] . In this sense, power has to be delivered between the utility and EVs to meet demand response and/or take advantage of time-of-use electricity rates. On the other hand, EVs should be able to act as a standalone backup power in emergency situations [4] [5] [6] . Regarded as distributed energy resources, in this scenario EVs require an interface dc converter with both charging and discharging capabilities.

Various infrastructures and charging standards for EVs have been presented considering different power levels as well as charging fields.

Recently, various economical and technical issues about using EVs to support the power grid have been discussed.

On the other hand, EVs should be able to act as a standalone backup power in emergency situations.


The authors have presented the 3ΦDAB converter with hybrid modulation in previous research [21] . The converter is able to switch its modulation between phase-shifted and trapezoidal modes autonomously to maintain efficiency even in the light-load condition. In this paper, we further focused on theoretical analysis of the mode transition based on loss analysis of the circuit. The condition of when the modulation modes switch is pre-determined based on efficiency analysis. Design considerations of the modulation are also proposed and the corresponding suggested control progress with flowchart for hybrid modulation is also provided. A lab-scale platform consisting of a 1.2 kW 3ΦDAB converter with a 48V/20Ah LiFePO 4 battery was established to verify the proposed method. Figure 1 shows the 3ΦDAB converter. Two sets of three-phase half bridges are deployed with a three-phase isolated transformer. Various modulating strategies have been presented. The phase-shift modulation is able to provide zero-voltage switching (ZVS) for all switches, but this feature may lose in case of wide voltage gain and load variation. In order to assure ZVS in light load operation, the trapezoidal modulation was presented [12, 13, 20, 22] . Here, we briefly review both modulations.

The authors have presented the 3ΦDAB converter with hybrid modulation in previous research.

Figure 1 shows the 3ΦDAB converter.

In order to assure ZVS in light load operation, the trapezoidal modulation was presented.


In this paper, we use the method of image processing and pattern recognition to process the infrared image, detect and diagnose the power transmission line [3] , [4] . The results of experiments demonstrate that the proposed method has better robustness, accuracy and validity. The proposed method can not only improve the ability of fault prediction, assessment and timely response for power system, and it can also make aid decision for the repair of power transmission line. Besides, the method will bring significant benefits for society and economy, due to it can protect the power equipment, maximize the equipment's working life, satisfy the growing demand for electricity, and increase the level of productivity and automation for power grid [5] , [6] .

In this paper, we use the method of image processing and pattern recognition to process the infrared image, detect and diagnose the power transmission line.

Besides, the method will bring significant benefits for society and economy, due to it can protect the power equipment, maximize the equipment's working life, satisfy the growing demand for electricity, and increase the level of productivity and automation for power grid.


The mean-field potential for the first (SIS) model is a quadratic function, while the second (Schlögl model) example displays a double-well potential. In the SIS model, the mean first passage time from initial state n to the extinct 0-state, asymptotically proportional to e N V n , has a constant (as regards n) exponent V n in the large-N asymptotic limit [10] . On the other hand, in the Schlögl model, the mean first passage time to one of the deterministically stable states (say, n 1 ) has interesting behaviour as a function of n. It is exponentially large in N if there is a potential maximum to overcome, namely from the region [n 3 , +∞) in figure 3 , but it is also exponentially large in the region [n s , n 3 ] even though there is a deterministic path 'downhill' from n ∈ [n s , n 3 ] to n 1 . Such a deterministic path connecting the initial and final states usually coincides with the most probable path connecting these states. We find in this case, however, that it does not coincide with the path that contributes most to the mean first passage time. The direct deterministic path adds nothing to the exponent of the mean first passage time asymptotics, while a trajectory that first goes to the second well (with probability exponent N( (n/N)− (n 3 /N))) makes an exponentially large contribution (with exponent N( (n 3 /N) − (n 2 /N))) which results in the correct, positive exponent N( (n/N) − (n 2 /N)).

In the SIS model, the mean first passage time from initial state n to the extinct 0-state, asymptotically proportional to e N V n , has a constant (as regards n) exponent V n in the large-N asymptotic limit.


Over the decades, it has been realized that spacetimes -through the existence of the null surfaces which act as horizons to certain class of observers -also possess the heat density T s [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] . This connection between thermodynamics and spacetime dynamics forms the core of the emergent gravity paradigm [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] . This paradigm rests on the results obtained over the last decade or so which suggest that the field equations of gravity, in a large class of theories, have the same status as the equations describing, say, a fluid or an elastic solid. That is, gravity emerges in the thermodynamic limit of the statistical mechanics of the atoms of spacetime [17] [18] [19] [20] . The heat density of spacetime is an evidence for the existence of the atoms of spacetime just as the heat density of matter was successfully interpreted by Boltzmann as evidence for the atomic structure of matter. There is considerable amount of evidence which suggests that this is indeed a useful and correct point of view to pursue [21, 22] .

Over the decades, it has been realized that spacetimes -through the existence of the null surfaces which act as horizons to certain class of observers -also possess the heat density T s.

This connection between thermodynamics and spacetime dynamics forms the core of the emergent gravity paradigm.

That is, gravity emerges in the thermodynamic limit of the statistical mechanics of the atoms of spacetime.

There is considerable amount of evidence which suggests that this is indeed a useful and correct point of view to pursue.


In the study that follows these forces and moments are determined from the analysis of the nonlinear dynamic response of the PCB to the drop impact during board level drop test. Its objective is to develop a simple and physically meaningful predictive analytical model that would enable one to evaluate the interfacial dynamic stresses in the solder material of the CGA and BGA designs. The analysis is an extension and a modification of the study [11] .

The analysis is an extension and a modification of the study.


We should also raise our concerns about the third-party applications connected to social media accounts with user permissions. If these applications are breached by malicious entities, they can be employed to disturb communication channels and disseminate misinformation. A recent example of such an attack have targeted hundreds of Twitter accounts, including popular news organizations and celebrities, when a third-party analytics application was compromised (Kharpal, 2017) . These accounts have posted tweets, written in Turkish, that contained the swastika symbol and hashtags which, when translated, mean "Nazi Germany" and "Nazi Holland". Accounts compromised by this attack, such as Forbes (@forbes), Germany soccer club Borussia Dortmund (@BVB), and Justin Bieber's Japanese account (@bieber japan) have the combined follower count of several millions. Considering the wide reach of such a compromise in a 3rd party application is worrisome.

A recent example of such an attack have targeted hundreds of Twitter accounts, including popular news organizations and celebrities, when a third-party analytics application was compromised.


SRC of the stomach is thought to arise in gastric mucosa that is not metaplastic and is confined to the glandular neck region in the proliferative zone [20] . SRC is a subtype of gastric carcinoma that is distinct from other gastric adenocarcinomas at presentation. Studies have shown that subtypes of gastric cancer with histological distinctions can be distinguished by gene expression data, which suggest that SRC may be a completely distinct entity [3] .

SRC of the stomach is thought to arise in gastric mucosa that is not metaplastic and is confined to the glandular neck region in the proliferative zone.

Studies have shown that subtypes of gastric cancer with histological distinctions can be distinguished by gene expression data, which suggest that SRC may be a completely distinct entity.


The adolescents' appropriation of public places has often been considered as a misuse of space. Clear evidence can be found in many shopping malls, which have been constructed as spaces with the focus on commercial-related activities only where the presence of adolescents' hanging out is not welcomed (Thomas, 2003) . Such evidence implies an understanding that public places should have specific function and adolescents' socialising activities in such places fall into 'other functions' that are deemed inappropriate.

Clear evidence can be found in many shopping malls, which have been constructed as spaces with the focus on commercial-related activities only where the presence of adolescents' hanging out is not welcomed.


An empirical work to examine the relationship between financial development, trade openness and economic growth in Japan using data from 1960 to 2003 is made by Soukhakian [13] . The findings revealed the existence of a long run relationship between financial development, trade and economic growth in Japan except between domestic credit, trade and growth. And concerning the causality, the economic growth appears to Granger-cause openness, thus supporting the growth-driven trade hypothesis for Japan.

An empirical work to examine the relationship between financial development, trade openness and economic growth in Japan using data from 1960 to 2003 is made by Soukhakian.


Mobile Networks may take different topologies and structures [1] . Wireless 802.11 networks with different topologies suffer from weaknesses in the level of physical and data link layer of communication such as low signal strength, other resources transmission interference and signal fading problem that causes high bit error rate. These problems contribute in disturbing the upper layers protocols especially TCP transport layer protocol.

Mobile Networks may take different topologies and structures.


Finally, and maybe most controversially, we would like to argue that concerns of a 'survivorship bias' are perhaps the wrong way of framing the empirical analysis. After all, Gabaix's granular view of aggregate fluctuations in the US economy firmly suggests that the surviving corporations in our sample account for the major share of macroeconomic fluctuations, and are thus at the very least an interesting group of firms to study in its own right. Since everything in our analysis is conditional on (the uncertain and unpredictable) survival of corporations, one might instead wonder whether there is a systemic cost for the survival of a certain number of large corporations? Does capital need to be churned, do other corporations have to die, in order to observe the tranquil dissipation of excess profits for a certain (and ultimately interchangeable) set of surviving corporations? And if so, how much capital needs to be metabolized in the process? Simulations of the diffusion process (9) reproduce the stationary density and autocorrelation profile on a sufficiently long time scale, as illustrated in Figure 11 . To demonstrate the relevance of the negative bias in the estimated autocorrelation function for shorter time scales, we have done Monte Carlo simulations of the Laplace diffusion in equation (9) with different time series length T . We then calculated the autocovariance function using the estimator suggested in equation (7) . Figure 12 shows that subtracting the time series mean leads to a significant negative bias in the estimated autocorrelation function which becomes smaller if the length of the time series increases. In fact, for short time series as in our data (T ≈ 30), this particular shape of the autocorrelation function results from an exponentially decaying autocorrelation function and a bias which is linear in the time lag τ . Subtracting m instead of the sample mean of each time series leads to a considerable reduction of the bias, without eliminating it completely. Thus, we also computed the correlation time based on the analytical solution of the autocorrelation function which lead to more accurate estimates of profit persistence if one subscribes to the model (9). Table 4 : Estimates for the slope coefficient in linear ordinary least squares regressions of the location parameter m on the logarithm of firm size. Standard errors are shown in parantheses. Stars indicate statistical significance at the 1 ( * * * ), 5 ( * * ), and 10 ( * ) percent level, respectively.

We then calculated the autocovariance function using the estimator suggested in equation.


A pilot study carried out by the author of the feasibility of delivering an evidence-based multiprofessional breastfeeding learning package to primary care teams concluded that general practitioners (GPs) were happy to participate in practice-based educational sessions and many expressed a need for breastfeeding education [13] . All health professionals involved in the study expressed a preference for training to be tailored to the needs of the practice. Breastfeeding rates for all the practices in the pilot improved in the six months after the training sessions had been delivered [13] . The package was modified as a result of the pilot study and the material transferred to a CD-ROM using Macromedia Flash software.

A pilot study carried out by the author of the feasibility of delivering an evidence-based multiprofessional breastfeeding learning package to primary care teams concluded that general practitioners (GPs) were happy to participate in practice-based educational sessions and many expressed a need for breastfeeding education.

Breastfeeding rates for all the practices in the pilot improved in the six months after the training sessions had been delivered.


Robots supported by artificial intelligent algorithms have been able to execute highly complicated missions. However, if the robots are placed in completely unknown working environments, the robots often find itself difficult to perform properly. This is because the internal representations of the robot are foreknown and designed for expected environments [1] . It is a crucial issue that robots should be able to create their own internal representations. This problem has been solved in cognitive biological systems through processes of structured growth known as "development". Robotic scientists apply this idea to produce a novel research topic "developmental robotics". In the field of developmental robotics, it is assumed that a robot system is not programmed for specific and fixed tasks. The robot is programmed to develop and learn new behavioral and cognitive competence and skills autonomously [2] . This also means that a robot should be able to create its own internal representations through developmental learning. Developmental learning is concerned with not just the ability to learn and gain mastery at a given task but more importantly with how learning may progress and grow to achieve competence over a series of new tasks as they are encountered [3] . Developmental robotic draws inspiration from various aspects of developmental psychology and developmental neuroscience, e.g., sensory-motor coordinations, emergent behaviors, and social interactions [4] . In particular, very early development such as growth of sensory-motor control and skills plays an important role in both human infant and robotic cognition. Because early experiences and struc- tures are likely to underpin all subsequent growth in ways that may be crucial. This agrees with the suggestion that sensory-motor coordination is likely to be a significant general principle of cognition [4] . Robotic hand-eye coordination belongs to the sensory-motor coordination. In this case, this paper emphasizes that it is very important to design learning algorithms of a robotic hand-eye system to achieve mastery of its local, egocentric space and to perform reaching task. This is because if we can understand the implementation of low level sensory motor, we might also apply those guidelines to build complex cognitive tasks in robotics.

This is because the internal representations of the robot are foreknown and designed for expected environments.

The robot is programmed to develop and learn new behavioral and cognitive competence and skills autonomously.

Developmental learning is concerned with not just the ability to learn and gain mastery at a given task but more importantly with how learning may progress and grow to achieve competence over a series of new tasks as they are encountered.

Developmental robotic draws inspiration from various aspects of developmental psychology and developmental neuroscience, e.g., sensory-motor coordinations, emergent behaviors, and social interactions.

This agrees with the suggestion that sensory-motor coordination is likely to be a significant general principle of cognition.


In order to improve the current implementations, an integration of both a brain inspired computational structure and a significant developmental learning algorithm is appli-ed to guide an autonomous robotic system to learn its handeye coordination. Adopting a brain inspired structure is realized as a key fact by reviewing aforementioned researches. By mimicking the mechanisms of the brain system, we would be able to learn important design principles for autonomous robotic systems, and bring higher autonomy into developmental robotics. Furthermore, implementing a brain inspired structure may support our robot to approach the complexity of cognition and adaptive behavior that we associate with biological organisms and may find their way into practical applications. This work, therefore, proposes a novel computational structure with two neural networks to map visual space to the robotic hand motor system. On the other hand, we believe that features of infant development can be used to guide our robot to develop. Therefore, "lifting constraints, act and saturate (LCAS)" algorithm is introduced to control the robot to gradually gain its hand-eye coordination ability. The algorithm works by removing several types of developmental constraints, which are summarized by psychological literatures [13] . LCAS algorithm was applied in several developmental models successfully [14−18] . This approach, combining the brain inspired structure and LCAS algorithm, will considerably widen the scope of psychological inspirations for developmental robotics, deepen the research on robotic reaching and hand-eye coordination, and bring more psychological and biological ideas into the developmental robotics.

The algorithm works by removing several types of developmental constraints, which are summarized by psychological literatures.


Vehicle suspension plays a central role in vehicle dynamics, contributing to improve the ride comfort and the vehicle stability [1] . Generally speaking, suspension systems can be classified into passive, semi-active and active suspensions. Passive suspensions are composed of only passive elements, such as springs, dampers and inerters [2] . Simplicity, high reliability, low cost and zero energy consumption are the advantages of passive suspensions. Semiactive suspensions are integrated with semi-active elements, such as the MR damper, the ER damper and the EH damper, of which the damping coefficient can be adjusted within a large actuation bandwidth by consuming only a small amount of energy [3, 4] . Active suspensions not only provide best performance but also demand most energy due to the force-generating actuators [5, 6] .

Vehicle suspension plays a central role in vehicle dynamics, contributing to improve the ride comfort and the vehicle stability.

Passive suspensions are composed of only passive elements, such as springs, dampers and inerters.

Semiactive suspensions are integrated with semi-active elements, such as the MR damper, the ER damper and the EH damper, of which the damping coefficient can be adjusted within a large actuation bandwidth by consuming only a small amount of energy.

Active suspensions not only provide best performance but also demand most energy due to the force-generating actuators.


In this paper, we have obtained necessary conditions for the invariant measure of a random walk to be an infinite sum of geometric terms. These conditions hold under a mild regularity condition on the structure of these A measure m that satisfied the above necessary conditions may indeed be the invariant measure of a random walk. For example, the invariant measure for the 2 × 2 switch problem satisfies all the above conditions [5] .

For example, the invariant measure for the 2 × 2 switch problem satisfies all the above conditions.


Pipelining: Paxos can be extended to allow the leader to execute several instances in parallel [1] . In this case, when the leader receives a new request, it may decide to start a new instance at once, even if other instances are still undecided, as shown in Fig. 1(b) . Executing parallel instances improves the utilization of resources by pipelining the different instances. This optimization is especially effective in high-latency networks, as the leader might have to wait a long time to receive the Phase 2b messages. The main drawback is that each instance requires additional resources from the system. If too many instances are started in parallel, they may overload the system, either by maxing out the leader's CPU or by causing network congestion, resulting in a more or less severe performance degradation. For this reason, the number of parallel instances that the leader is allowed to start is usually bounded. Choosing a good bound requires some careful analysis. If set too low, the network will be underutilized. If set too high, the system might become overloaded resulting in a severe performance degradation, as shown by the experiments in Section 5. The best value depends on many factors, including the network latency, the size of the requests, the speed of the replicas, and the expected workload.

Pipelining: Paxos can be extended to allow the leader to execute several instances in parallel.


The most common muscle structure where ZD is located is Killian's triangle. It is a space on the posterior esophageal wall limited by the thyropharyngeal muscle at the top, and cricopharyngeal muscle fibers at the bottom that compose the UES [4, 5] . Killian's triangle is the location of the highest susceptibility to create diverticula (locus minoris resistantiae). The second location of lower resistance in the esophageal wall is Killian-Jemison's space. For pouches in this location the lateral position of the diverticulum is characteristic [5] .

It is a space on the posterior esophageal wall limited by the thyropharyngeal muscle at the top, and cricopharyngeal muscle fibers at the bottom that compose the UES.

For pouches in this location the lateral position of the diverticulum is characteristic.


The key findings from our study, specifically that AKI is common and its occurrence is on the rise, may have important health resource and economic implications. For instance, our data support the findings of prior investigations showing that AKI may play a role in prolonging the duration of stay in the ICU and the hospital and may lead to higher rates of hospital discharge to long-term care or rehabilitation facilities [2, 11] . One consequence of these differences in clinical outcomes would undoubtedly be the consumption of considerable health resources [10, 13, 33, 34] . Additionally, there has been considerable controversy as to whether the clinical outcomes -in particular, mortality associated with AKI -have improved [22, 23] . For example, Ympa and colleagues reported in a systematic review that mortality associated with AKI has shown no consistent change over several decades [23] . Regrettably, their study was highly prone to bias and was limited by only reporting crude mortality rates across those studies included and by the inability to show equivalent illness severity. On the contrary, we have found over the past decade that the mortality associated with AKI, when adjusted for covariates, has shown a declining trend. Whether this decline can be attributed to an improvement in the overall care of critically ill patients or by specific interventions or therapies aimed at those with AKI remains unknown [35] [36] [37] [38] . This decline in mortality has, however, occurred despite reported changes to the clinical profile and characteristics of critically ill patients with AKI [8, 22] . Observational studies suggest that critically ill patients with AKI are increasingly older, have more comorbid disease, are more probably septic, and have greater severity of illness and organ failure [2, 6] .

For instance, our data support the findings of prior investigations showing that AKI may play a role in prolonging the duration of stay in the ICU and the hospital and may lead to higher rates of hospital discharge to long-term care or rehabilitation facilities.

One consequence of these differences in clinical outcomes would undoubtedly be the consumption of considerable health resources.

Additionally, there has been considerable controversy as to whether the clinical outcomes -in particular, mortality associated with AKI -have improved.

For example, Ympa and colleagues reported in a systematic review that mortality associated with AKI has shown no consistent change over several decades.

Whether this decline can be attributed to an improvement in the overall care of critically ill patients or by specific interventions or therapies aimed at those with AKI remains unknown.

This decline in mortality has, however, occurred despite reported changes to the clinical profile and characteristics of critically ill patients with AKI.

Observational studies suggest that critically ill patients with AKI are increasingly older, have more comorbid disease, are more probably septic, and have greater severity of illness and organ failure.


Traditionally, catalyst development involves a one-at-a-time sequence of preparation and performance testing. However, the exploitation of massively parallelized experimentation, socalled high throughput experimentation, is gaining increasing acceptance as a vehicle for the discovery, development and optimisation of new catalytic systems [7, 8] . Currently several commercial, state-of-the-art technologies exist for catalyst preparation, catalyst testing and the associated handling of vast data sets [8] .

However, the exploitation of massively parallelized experimentation, socalled high throughput experimentation, is gaining increasing acceptance as a vehicle for the discovery, development and optimisation of new catalytic systems.

Currently several commercial, state-of-the-art technologies exist for catalyst preparation, catalyst testing and the associated handling of vast data sets.


Natural resources from which hydrogen can be extracted include water, fossil fuels (hydrocarbons) and biomass. It is anticipated that, in the long-term, hydrogen will be generated via carbon-free technology (renewable resources), such as solar photovoltaic and electrolysers. The current "carbon free" technologies, however, remain too expensive and efficiency needs to be improved [1] . In the transition period to a carbon-free renewable hydrogen economy, reforming of fossil fuels should be considered as practical hydrogen source using widely available fuels and existing infrastructure [4] .

The current "carbon free" technologies, however, remain too expensive and efficiency needs to be improved.

In the transition period to a carbon-free renewable hydrogen economy, reforming of fossil fuels should be considered as practical hydrogen source using widely available fuels and existing infrastructure.


Another option to increase the proportion of diagnostic images would be to apply more restrictive patient selection criteria to decrease the number of patients with chronic diabetes and haemodialysis [7] . However, the low number of run-off CTA with insufficient diagnostic confidence implies that a more sophisticated and potentially more time consuming acquisition protocol or a more restrictive patient selection are not necessary. This underlines the clinical value of run-off CTA as a cost-efficient imaging modality compared to DSA or MRA [28] . However the continuous development of the CT techniques with more efficient X-ray tubes, detector systems and the introduction of new reconstruction algorithms bears the potential to substantially decrease the radiation burden of a run-off CTA and to minimize the needed iodinated contrast material [29] . Furthermore the improvement of the PACS-systems handling the huge data amounts as well as the introduction of thin-client systems for image interpretation and presentations in the recent years might enable a further simplification of the implementation of run-off CTA in clinical practice.

Another option to increase the proportion of diagnostic images would be to apply more restrictive patient selection criteria to decrease the number of patients with chronic diabetes and haemodialysis.

This underlines the clinical value of run-off CTA as a cost-efficient imaging modality compared to DSA or MRA.

However the continuous development of the CT techniques with more efficient X-ray tubes, detector systems and the introduction of new reconstruction algorithms bears the potential to substantially decrease the radiation burden of a run-off CTA and to minimize the needed iodinated contrast material.


To evaluate the impact of conservation strategies on wildlife in Canada's western boreal region, we assessed the response of wildlife indicators to land use scenarios with and without protected areas (Fig. 2) . The approach involved the following steps: i) establishing the region's current landscape composition; ii) simulating long-term (50-year) changes in landscape composition under alternative land-use and best practice scenarios as well as in the absence of land use to simulate a suite of protected area scenarios; iii) applying habitat models and economic coefficients to estimate future risk to wildlife and economic performance in the presence of alternative land-use scenarios and under a range of levels of protection; and iv) using the outcomes to quantify the trade-off between economic development and risk to wildlife at sequentially higher levels of protection. Full model parameterization and data layers are described in the methods for a broader study including data sources for landscape composition, assumptions for land use and fire, and coefficients for wildlife models (Carlson and Browne, 2015a) .

Full model parameterization and data layers are described in the methods for a broader study including data sources for landscape composition, assumptions for land use and fire, and coefficients for wildlife models.


In this paper, a nonlinear disturbance observer (NDO) based sliding mode controller (NDOBSMC) is designed for the nonlinear longitudinal model of flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicles, and it is proved that the composite system is uniformly ultimately bounded when the controller gains and disturbance observer gains meet specified conditions. Simulation results show that the NDO based compensator can estimate and compensate for the composite disturbance produced by the couplings between flexible and rigid modes, parameter uncertainties, and external disturbances. Furthermore, tracking performance and robustness can be improved by using NDOBSMC, compared with the traditional dynamic inversion based sliding mode controller. One of the future research topics is to study the control problem for flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicles based on the data-driven framework [26] [27] [28] .

One of the future research topics is to study the control problem for flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicles based on the data-driven framework.


In the laminated plates we studied, the fibers are straight in each layer of the plate, and they are tangential to the edge of the cutout in the reinforcement. This is not a restriction, as the solution presented could very well accommodate other types of constitutive models for the reinforcement. Classical laminate theory to model the laminate and technical beam theory to model the reinforcement are used. In many practical constructions, it has been shown before that the bending-stretching coupling diminishes as the laminate gets thicker. We have developed the solutions for these unsymmetrical layups (not reported here) and found that the material coupling has a small effect on the reinforcement distribution in many cases. Neglecting this material coupling and using the procedures developed here leads to a solution for unsymmetrically laminated plates. The case of strong coupling (few layers) is reported elsewhere [9] .

The case of strong coupling (few layers) is reported elsewhere.


Cr(VI) is a highly soluble and toxic chromate anion, and is a suspected carcinogen and mutagen (Costa 2003) . The conventional methods for removing Cr(VI) ions from wastewater are based on the combination of different physical and chemical reduction processes (Kurniawan et al. 2006) . However, such processes are becoming undesirable due to the use of expensive and toxic chemicals.

Cr(VI) is a highly soluble and toxic chromate anion, and is a suspected carcinogen and mutagen.

The conventional methods for removing Cr(VI) ions from wastewater are based on the combination of different physical and chemical reduction processes.


The present study was associated with several limitations. First, the ankle joint obliquity was not mentioned. A long lever arm through the tibia can cause greater changes in ankle joint line obliquity than in JLO after OWHTO [18] . However, it was reported that ankle joint parameters were not significant predictors of abnormal JLO after OWHTO [5] . Second, this study mentioned only the coronal plane of the lower limb alignment. Malalignment of the lower limb in the sagittal or axial planes may cause a correction error. Bony deformity, which can also cause limb alignment correction error, was not addressed in this study [19, 20] . Finally, the study participants were relatively few. The inclusion of a greater number of cases may prove that the postoperative MPTA is a strong predictor of JLO after OWHTO.

A long lever arm through the tibia can cause greater changes in ankle joint line obliquity than in JLO after OWHTO.

However, it was reported that ankle joint parameters were not significant predictors of abnormal JLO after OWHTO.

Bony deformity, which can also cause limb alignment correction error, was not addressed in this study.


We shall show that estimation and structure learning of recursive ML models can be done in a simple and efficient fashion by exploiting properties of the ratios between observable components of the model. For a sufficiently large number of observations, these ratios identify the true ML coefficient matrix with a probability that converges exponentially fast to 1. For the situation where the DAG is known, we show that our estimator can be considered a maximum likelihood estimator in an extended sense, originally introduced by Kiefer and Wolfowitz [18] .

For the situation where the DAG is known, we show that our estimator can be considered a maximum likelihood estimator in an extended sense, originally introduced by Kiefer and Wolfowitz.


A more realistic setup for a wakeup radio was proposed as part of the STEM protocol (Schurgers et al., 2002) . In this scheme, each sensor node would be equipped with two 'standard' radios operating on different frequency channels. One being used for medium reservation, by means of sending out a busy tone, the other for the actual data transfer after a wakeup tone was observed. To keep the power consumption of the wakeup (tone) radio as low as possible, STEM proposes to duty cycle this radio with 'sleeping' nodes regularly polling the tone channel for activity. Simulation results report reasonable latency with a 1% duty cycle, yielding an effective power consumption in the order of 500 μW. Today this level can also be achieved by advanced MAC protocols using a single radio.

A more realistic setup for a wakeup radio was proposed as part of the STEM protocol.


Light-gas guns are employed to test materials and composites for their possible application as armors, for both persons and vehicles. On a smaller scale, it is possible to simulate the impact of a stone on a driving vehicle on accelerated velocities or of ice rocks on a travelling aircraft. Another possible application is to test spacecraft components or materials for their suitability to be used for such a task. There is an ever-growing threat to spacecraft in the form of the impact of micrometeoroids and man-made orbital debris. It is estimated that 200 kg of meteoroid mass exists in a distance of 2000 km of the Earth's surface; the majority of it is 0.1-mm micrometeoroids. Additionally, within the same distance around the Earth, there is 300 kg of orbital debris with diameters of less than 1 mm. Those particles are small Figure 1 : High-strain-rate gas-gun laboratory at Georgia Tech [8] .

Those particles are small Figure 1 : High-strain-rate gas-gun laboratory at Georgia Tech.


Gas-gun facilities can be applied to simulate a range of different situations, varying with the characteristics of the gun itself. Obviously, since their system was derived from conventional guns, light-gas guns can be used to simulate ballistic impacts of various sizes and energies. Common types of lightgas guns are the one-stage light-gas gun, two-stage light gas gun, and the shock tunnel or shock tube. One-stage lightgas guns are rather simple in design, being just one pressure reservoir that accelerates a projectile through a barrel onto the target. The more sophisticated two-stage gun is based on the one-stage gun, but it furthermore has a second stage of compression that increases the pressure in the pressure tank, for example, by combustion, by heating, or by free piston compression in an extra tube mounted before the barrel [2] . Shock tunnels or shock tubes differ as they do not fire projectiles but only produce a gas blast wave on a target [3] .

The more sophisticated two-stage gun is based on the one-stage gun, but it furthermore has a second stage of compression that increases the pressure in the pressure tank, for example, by combustion, by heating, or by free piston compression in an extra tube mounted before the barrel.

Shock tunnels or shock tubes differ as they do not fire projectiles but only produce a gas blast wave on a target.


Depending on the barrel length, it might be built by joining several segments together. As release mechanisms different systems can be employed. It is possible to use a magnetic valve as well as a diaphragm, for example, a thin copper foil with a thickness that causes the foil to break as the desired pressure is achieved [23] .

It is possible to use a magnetic valve as well as a diaphragm, for example, a thin copper foil with a thickness that causes the foil to break as the desired pressure is achieved.


Extremely high velocity threats in a laboratory can be simulated using a two-stage light-gas gun system [7] . One example for a powerful two-stage gun is displayed in Figure  1 . This facility accelerates projectiles with 80 mm in diameter to a maximum velocity of 1.2 km/s using an 8 m barrel and a 28.5 dm 3 gas chamber [8] . Light-gas guns remain the only equipment able to accelerate projectiles of different shapes and masses to a muzzle velocity of up to 11 km/s [9] .

Extremely high velocity threats in a laboratory can be simulated using a two-stage light-gas gun system.

This facility accelerates projectiles with 80 mm in diameter to a maximum velocity of 1.2 km/s using an 8 m barrel and a 28.5 dm 3 gas chamber.

Light-gas guns remain the only equipment able to accelerate projectiles of different shapes and masses to a muzzle velocity of up to 11 km/s.


The knowledge of material properties involved in impact situations is critical in different technological areas in order to guarantee safe operations. In order to evaluate the impact damage on materials and systems, specific equipment tools are needed. An experimental light-gas gun should operate in a similar way to a conventional gun with powder. The main difference is constituted by the means of achieving the necessary pressure to accelerate the projectile. As a conventional gun utilizes the combustion of a propellant charge, a light-gas gun operates with a compressed gas reservoir [1] .

As a conventional gun utilizes the combustion of a propellant charge, a light-gas gun operates with a compressed gas reservoir.


UIML is an XML based language for generating UI models [1, 2] . Programmers write a model user interface in UIML and then use UIML bindings to generate the user interface in the desired language. This requires the programmer to know the UIML language. It has 5 main parts in which the programmer defines the components that make the interface, their arrangement, the data associated with them and their appearance. We are exploring whether UIML may serve as the general model for our approach. An important issue that remains to be determined is whether UIML has adequate support to express, manipulate, and translate modern mobile GUIs.

UIML is an XML based language for generating UI models.


In some of these approaches, the programmer has to learn a new language, while other creating wrapper classes create wrapper classes to port applications to use a different GUI framework [3] . Our approach differs in that we reverse-engineer GUIs at runtime by examining in-memory representations of GUI objects. The extracted general GUI models can then be used to generate equivalent GUIs for other platforms. To take advantage of our approach, the programmer does not have to learn a new language. Furthermore, our approach completely bypasses the source code in the process of reverse-engineering a GUI, which is likely to reduce errors when extracting general GUI models.

In some of these approaches, the programmer has to learn a new language, while other creating wrapper classes create wrapper classes to port applications to use a different GUI framework.


Traditionally, porting a GUI between platforms has required reverse-engineering its source code, which is difficult and errorprone. The source code controlling the appearance and behavior of a modern GUI is large and complex, written according to the conventions of a given GUI framework and its API. The source code is likely to include conditional logic that lays out the GUI differently based on various factors such as the type of data to be displayed or how the user interacted with the GUI previously. All these complications make it impractical to reverse-engineer source code when porting GUIs between frameworks and platforms. A recent approach has proposed using API wrappers to migrate GUIs between Java Swing and SWT GUI frameworks [3] . This approach would be inapplicable, for example, when porting a GUI from Swing to Android; in Swing, widgets are expressed as Java components, while in swing, widgets are expressed in an XML file.

A recent approach has proposed using API wrappers to migrate GUIs between Java Swing and SWT GUI frameworks.


On the other hand, thermoacoustic instabilities occur when the heat released by the flame is sufficiently in phase with the acoustic waves [4] . Therefore, the reflection or generation of acoustics at the nozzle downstream of the combustor has the potential to enhance the flame unsteadiness, which, in turn, generates larger acoustic oscillations. Thermoacoustic oscillations can cause structural damage and cracking resulting in the reduction of the combustor lifetime by a factor of two or more [2, 5, 6] .

On the other hand, thermoacoustic instabilities occur when the heat released by the flame is sufficiently in phase with the acoustic waves.

Thermoacoustic oscillations can cause structural damage and cracking resulting in the reduction of the combustor lifetime by a factor of two or more.


Another key issue in the LECTM is that the model parameters depend on the environment temperature which is influenced by the ambient temperature or the flow rate of the cooling liquid. From a control aspect, the thermal management is requested, on one hand, to drive the battery within the optimal working temperature range and, on the other, to maximise the energy saving through thermal control by minimising the forced convection so that the use of the natural convection is maximised [28] . In the case of forced convection, the convective coefficient varies with the coolant mass and flow rate and is a key factor for designing the cooling system. Therefore, an online parameter estimation scheme is needed to track varying parameters of the battery model in order to improve the model accuracy for control applications.

From a control aspect, the thermal management is requested, on one hand, to drive the battery within the optimal working temperature range and, on the other, to maximise the energy saving through thermal control by minimising the forced convection so that the use of the natural convection is maximised.


Once the model structure is determined, the next step is to estimate the parameters. The simplified refined instrumental variable method in continuous-time domain (SRIVC) has been employed to estimate the parameters [29] . The SRIVC is the direct parameter estimation approach employing a filter and instrumental variables (IVs) to provide an optimal statistical solution of parameter estimation for the selected thermal model with noises. To deal with the problem of time-varying model parameters of the LECTM, The adaptive SRIVC method is adopted, which can, in iterative manner, optimise the filter parameters and generates estimates that are asymptotically efficient (minimum variance) and consistent. The resulted optimal filter is therefore more adaptable compared to the user-defined ones in the traditional approaches, such as the state variable filter or generalised Poisson moment functional methods. Moreover, the SRIVC method offers a rapid convergence, providing consistent and asymptotically unbiased parameter estimates even facing with non-uniform white noises [30, 31] .

The simplified refined instrumental variable method in continuous-time domain (SRIVC) has been employed to estimate the parameters.

Moreover, the SRIVC method offers a rapid convergence, providing consistent and asymptotically unbiased parameter estimates even facing with non-uniform white noises.


Given a tow-dimensional (2D) conductivity distribution, we apply a Fourier transform along the y direction, and we obtain a set of independent 2D problems, one per Fourier mode ξ . The strategy then consists in sampling a finite number of Fourier modes {ξ j } N j =1 for which the 2D problems are solved. We then recover the electromagnetic fields by performing an approximate inverse Fourier transform using the sampled Fourier modes. As this technique amounts to approximate a 3D problem by a sequence of 2D problems, it is usually called 2.5D [1, 2] .

As this technique amounts to approximate a 3D problem by a sequence of 2D problems, it is usually called 2.5D.


In short, there are three sustainability dimensions. The economic dimension refers to the economic viability of the company, which is necessary because it generates benefits, employment, and means that contribute to social and environmental welfare in general. The social dimension comprises the responsibility of companies to the environment in which they operate and combines the interests of employees and society in general with the aim of doing business following an ethical approach. The environmental dimension refers to the impacts of companies on natural systems [38] .

The environmental dimension refers to the impacts of companies on natural systems.


Recently Intel has designed a new consensus algorithm for BC known as Proof of Elapsed Time (POET) which is integrated with Hyperledger [38] . POET is a leader election algorithm which is intended to run in a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) in Intel CPUs. Before a node can store a block in the BC, it must wait for a random time which is selected from a trusted enclave. A TimeChecker function verifies the choice of the random time. The block can only be appended to the BC after this time period. The consensus protocol (see Section 2.1.1) used in LSB is conceptually similar to POET. However, LSB does not rely on a particular hardware platform and is thus more generalized.

Recently Intel has designed a new consensus algorithm for BC known as Proof of Elapsed Time (POET) which is integrated with Hyperledger.


Due to the complexities of their chemical compositions, tropical plants latex are selected for this work and then applied to improve ductility and strength of bioplastic materials. Latex of Artocarpus altilis, for example, is composed of aldehydes, ketones, aromatics, terpenes, carboxylic acid, fatty acids, ester and alcohol [24] . While latex of Calostropis gigantea consists of alkaloids, carbohydrate, glycosides, phenolic compounds/tannins, proteins, amino acids, flavanoids, saponins, sterols, acid compounds and resins [25] . In this present study, characteristics of red algae bioplastics derived from Eucheuma cottonii blended separately with latex of Artocarpus altilis and that of Calostropis gigantea, are evaluated under a tensile test performed at room temperature. Study on potential role of the tropical plants latex on mechanical properties of the red algae bioplastics is also discussed in this paper. Goal of this study, meanwhile, is to improve the tensile properties of red algae bioplastics with use of the selected latex.

Latex of Artocarpus altilis, for example, is composed of aldehydes, ketones, aromatics, terpenes, carboxylic acid, fatty acids, ester and alcohol.

While latex of Calostropis gigantea consists of alkaloids, carbohydrate, glycosides, phenolic compounds/tannins, proteins, amino acids, flavanoids, saponins, sterols, acid compounds and resins.


The enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulose represents a special case of enzymology, since the substrate is solid and hydrolysis occurs in the solid phase. Production of enzymes by Solid State Fermentation (SSF) offers several advantages over submerged system, simply because of its low operational and production cost. At the same time, SSF uses inexpensive agro-waste materials as substrates. The use of agro-wastes not only helps to overcome problem of solid waste management but also allows the development of biotechnological processes from cheap natural resources. Enzymes remain most frequently reported metabolites produced via SSF, some of which include cellulases, xylanases, lipases, phytase, protease, lignin degrading enzymes and pectinases (Pang et al., 2006) .

Enzymes remain most frequently reported metabolites produced via SSF, some of which include cellulases, xylanases, lipases, phytase, protease, lignin degrading enzymes and pectinases.


Energy is the most crucial resource in the wireless microsensor networks due to the difficulty of recharging batteries of thousands of devices in remote or hostile environments. When a sink is mobile, the energy is consumed for building new packet forwarding route, disseminating data, and maintaining linkage between source and sink. The more frequently the sink moves, the more energy is consumed to maintain the linkage between the source and the sink. Some routing protocols have been recently proposed to support the mobile sink [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] . Instead of flooding query packets, Scalable Energy-efficient Asynchronous Dissemination protocol (SEAD) constructs and maintains a data dissemination tree from source to multiple mobile sink [1] . A sink that wants to join the tree registers itself with the closest access node. When the sink moves out of range of the access node, the route is extended through the inclusion of a new access node. A Two-Tier Data Dissemination (TTDD) was proposed to provide scalable and efficient data delivery to mobile sinks [2] . Upon detecting a stimulus, each source node proactively builds a grid structure which enables a mobile sink to receive data continuously while moving by flooding queries within its local cell only. These protocols have some defects in their own assumptions and network model. For example, each sensor node is assumed to be aware of its own geographic location and mobile sensor nodes are not allowed. Moreover, SEAD and TTDD constrain the method of building the data forwarding route in order to support mobile sink. These constraints make them very difficult to be adopted in the other routing protocols for sink mobility.

Some routing protocols have been recently proposed to support the mobile sink.

Instead of flooding query packets, Scalable Energy-efficient Asynchronous Dissemination protocol (SEAD) constructs and maintains a data dissemination tree from source to multiple mobile sink.

A Two-Tier Data Dissemination (TTDD) was proposed to provide scalable and efficient data delivery to mobile sinks.


Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system offers several advantages such as robustness to multi-path fading channel and multiple access properties [1] . Thanks to these advantages, CDMA are adopted in high data rate applications such as UMTS standard (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System), and it is a good candidate for future applications, such as the 4 th generation phone mobile and wireless LAN [2] . However, the performance of such systems is affected by the time sampling offsets and phase rotation, due to many factors such as channel fading, multipath problem, clock imperfection, etc.

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system offers several advantages such as robustness to multi-path fading channel and multiple access properties.

Thanks to these advantages, CDMA are adopted in high data rate applications such as UMTS standard (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System), and it is a good candidate for future applications, such as the 4 th generation phone mobile and wireless LAN.