Educators are increasingly seeking interventions in medical education that objectively produce measurable improved training outcomes of the highest order. Surgical education poses specific challenges as it involves both cognitive and technical training. Recent focus in surgical education has turned to quantifying error events as a means of analyzing surgical performance in trainees in addition to outcomes and complications [7] . This system allows objective tracking of errors related to the performance of a specific operation.

Recent focus in surgical education has turned to quantifying error events as a means of analyzing surgical performance in trainees in addition to outcomes and complications.


In a number of systems anomalous diffusion is accompanied by chemical reactions. For instance, biological media such as lipid bilayers hinder the reaction rate due to their involved structure [3] . In whole living cells the presence of numerous organelles also obstructs normal diffusion [4] . At a fractal interface such as an electrode-electrolyte the reaction rate is reduced due to surface irregularity [5] .

For instance, biological media such as lipid bilayers hinder the reaction rate due to their involved structure.

In whole living cells the presence of numerous organelles also obstructs normal diffusion.

At a fractal interface such as an electrode-electrolyte the reaction rate is reduced due to surface irregularity.


Direct dark matter experiments search for energy deposited by the scattering of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) in the dark halo of our galaxy. In non-directional direct detection the only dark matter signature is the annual modulation of the interaction rate due to the motion of the Earth around the Sun [1] . This motion periodically changes the velocity V lab of the detector with respect to the Galaxy, or equivalently the average velocity of the dark matter particles with respect to the detector. If particles in the dark halo of our galaxy are on average at rest with respect to the Galaxy, the average velocity of WIMPs with respect to the detector is just −V lab . This is the case of the Standard Halo Model. As in this model, we adopt an isotropic Maxwell-Boltzmann (IMB) velocity distribution, but with a dispersion and average velocity chosen to reflect our best knowledge of the dark halo of our galaxy.

In non-directional direct detection the only dark matter signature is the annual modulation of the interaction rate due to the motion of the Earth around the Sun.


Of those changes, the most important interaction between the shepherd and the rest of the file system is in the consistency management subsystem. Most modern file systems use write-ahead logging to a journal to update on-disk structures in a consistent manner [17] . Policies developed in the shepherd often add new ondisk state (e.g., checksums, or replicas) and thus must also update these structures atomically. In most cases, doing so is straightforward. However, we have found that journaling file systems suffer from a general problem of failed intentions, which arises when the intent as written to the journal cannot be realized due to disk failure during checkpointing. Thus, the shepherd incorporates chained transactions, a novel and more powerful transactional model that allows policies to handle unexpected faults during checkpointing and still consistently update on-disk structures. The shepherd provides this support transparently to all reliability policies, as the required actions are encapsulated in various systems primitives.

Most modern file systems use write-ahead logging to a journal to update on-disk structures in a consistent manner.


In this paper, MNSGA-II is applied to multiobjective optimization of a novel steering mechanism for rotary steering system (RSS), the key component of which is a planetary gear set with teeth number difference (PGSTND) [22] . This study aims to minimize the dynamic responses and outer diameter of steering mechanism with structural parameters as design variables subject to geometric, kinematic, and strength constraints. Based on the established dynamic model, the optimization problem is formulated, and both MNSGA-II and NSGA-II are applied to the optimization problem. Meanwhile, in order to avoid human interference in selection of the best solution from Pareto optimal solutions when the objective preferences are absent, the best compromise solution is obtained by fuzzy set theory (FST), and the dynamic responses of optimized and original designs are compared and analyzed.

In this paper, MNSGA-II is applied to multiobjective optimization of a novel steering mechanism for rotary steering system (RSS), the key component of which is a planetary gear set with teeth number difference (PGSTND).


Active noise cancellation (ANC) is to attenuate noise by the same sound but opposite phase. This technique has been practically used in air conditioning systems in largescale buildings, aircraft cabins, and so on [1] . However, there are many fields such as ventilation ducts for small buildings where ANC is desired but has not been applied yet because the conventional adaptive algorithms for ANC require expensive implementation.

This technique has been practically used in air conditioning systems in largescale buildings, aircraft cabins, and so on.


Consistent with Study 1, the results of Study 2 demonstrate that women who engage in social comparisons with men experience more stereotype threat than women who do not engage in these comparisons. Furthermore, although stereotype threat was unrelated to aspirations, stereotype threat mediated the relationship between women's comparisons with men and their perceived likelihood of achieving their career aspirations. Women who engaged in comparisons with men were more likely to experience stereotype threat, and stereotype threat was associated with less confidence that they would reach their career goals. Social comparisons with other women, in contrast, had no independent relationships with stereotype threat or with confidence that they would reach their career goals. Such diminished expectancies of reaching career aspirations can have considerable consequences for women in organizations, as lowered expectations have been found to undermine performance by reducing perseverance in the face of difficulties (Carver & Scheier, 2002) .

Such diminished expectancies of reaching career aspirations can have considerable consequences for women in organizations, as lowered expectations have been found to undermine performance by reducing perseverance in the face of difficulties.


Machine Learning research has recently come up with formal solutions to take into account an explicit budget for image recognition or data classi¯cation [7] [8] [9] . In particular, speci¯c algorithms called Sequential Budgeted Learning algorithms are used in order to learn sequences and representations from limited amounts of data, which o®ers the possibility of adding an explicit budget to limit the model. One of the goals of these approaches is to limit the number of costly accesses to data to the minimum required for successful classi¯cation. One way to do that is to incorporate the decision to access or not to access data in the policy of the agent, so that it learns to timely access data among other possible actions.

Machine Learning research has recently come up with formal solutions to take into account an explicit budget for image recognition or data classi¯cation.


Spatial localization is one of the most challenging problems in Robotics. The main problem consists in taking a spatial decision in the environment in order to localize itself on a map using the di®erent sensors that are available to the robot. The processing of these data is generally di±cult because of their multimodality. The problem is made even more di±cult by the mutual dependency of the localization and mapping steps: in order to localize itself, the robot needs to recognize cues and features which characterize a particular place and which have previously been perceived and stored. Conversely, to build a reliable map and correctly situate features within it, the robot needs to be able to localize itself relative to these features [1] .

Conversely, to build a reliable map and correctly situate features within it, the robot needs to be able to localize itself relative to these features.


Microwave passive circuits have been widely developed during the last few years. Lowpass filters (LPFs) are one of the most important components in modern microwave communication system. Many efforts have been explored to improve its performance, such as high rejection level, wide stopband and minimum size [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] .

Many efforts have been explored to improve its performance, such as high rejection level, wide stopband and minimum size.


Shunt resonators have been widely used to extend the stopband width owing to its advantage of introducing at least one transmission zero in stopband with compact size. Meandered-slot dumbbell resonator and windmill resonator are presented in [1, 2] , respectively. Compact LPF with wide stopband can be obtained by cascading pairs of these resonators with different size. However, they suffer from poor passband flatness and gradual transition. A novel coupling stepped-impedance resonator (SIR) was introduced to obtain a miniaturized LPF with sharp roll off [3] . However, its lower suppression level and fine process requirement restrict its application. In addition, stepped-impedance resonator, open stubs and folded high impedance transmission line were combined to realize a compact LPF with sharp transition [4] . But its stopband needs to be further improved. Cascading LPF units with different size is an effective method to extend stopband with a little size increase. Interdigital structure was embedded in low impedance section of stepped-impedance hairpin unit to control the transmission zeros location and improve stopband and transition property [5] . Two hairpin units with different size were cascaded to achieve wide stopband. But this method cannot improve its suppression level. Stopband, roll-off rate and rejection level can be improved by increasing filters' orders in LPF design. A LPF with wide stopband and high suppression level was obtained by using multiple cascaded stepped-impedance hairpin resonators [6] . But it enlarges component size and in-band loss. In this letter, appropriate filter order (five orders in this letter) and cascading technique are combined to achieve high suppression level, wide stopband and small size.

Meandered-slot dumbbell resonator and windmill resonator are presented in, respectively.

A novel coupling stepped-impedance resonator (SIR) was introduced to obtain a miniaturized LPF with sharp roll off.

In addition, stepped-impedance resonator, open stubs and folded high impedance transmission line were combined to realize a compact LPF with sharp transition.

Interdigital structure was embedded in low impedance section of stepped-impedance hairpin unit to control the transmission zeros location and improve stopband and transition property.

A LPF with wide stopband and high suppression level was obtained by using multiple cascaded stepped-impedance hairpin resonators.


In this study, the unsteady simulation has performed using a computational fluid dynamic with multiple reference frames (CFD-MRF) model. This approach was conducted using the commercial ANSYS FLUENT version 14.0 software [13] . The Multiple Reference Frames (MRF) approach was applied to define the virtual blade rotation about its axis whereas the dynamic mesh and remeshing technique was used to prescribe the pitching motion of the floating platform. On the contrary, the computational fluid dynamic with rigid body motion (CFD-RBM) approach was applied to define the real blade rotation. Using the CFD-RBM approach, the flow unsteadiness due to wakes among wind turbine blades can be taken into account. To impose the pitching motion of the floating platform, a superimposing motion was also used in the commercial STAR-CCM+ software package. Figure 5 shows a computational road map using both the unsteady CFD-MRF and CFD-RBM approaches. The right hand side blocks of each road map indicate that the unsteady computational simulation was solved by the commercial solvers, whereas other computational blocks are developed by user-defined functions that were simultaneously incorporated in the commercial software. The main purpose of user-defined functions is to calculate the rotating center and rotating axis of wind turbine blades. Additionally, the axis vectors of the blade coordinate system were also calculated using the standard 3-2-1 Euler angle so that the force components on each blade root were estimated during the unsteady CFD simulation. Generally, numerical solutions obtained by the CFD technique can be somewhat different depending on the discretization resolution of the computational domain. By limiting a maximum and minimum size of the elements on a wind turbine blade in Table 1 , further refinement of the mesh over the computational domain was achieved in the present study. In order to show the numerical convergence of the present solution, the aerodynamic power and thrust over a range of an amount of elements are compared with those by the FAST code considering both blade element momentum (BEM) and generalized dynamic wake (GDW) models. As shown in Figure 6 , the present CFD-RBM results show overall good correlations with those obtained by the FAST code.

This approach was conducted using the commercial ANSYS FLUENT version 14.0 software.


The GDW aerodynamic theory, which is based on a potential flow solution to Laplace's equation, can be modeled with more flow states and a fully nonlinear implementation to account for the turbulence in and spatial variation of the inflow [25] . However, the unsteady CFD can effectively predict the aerodynamic wake effect better than other numerical approaches. This method completely considers the viscous effect and vortex wake at the interference regime between the rotor blade and windmill. Particularly, an unsteady CFD-RBM approach that models real blade rotation about a hub center can accurately account for the flow field interaction between the blades and wake regime. Therefore, the unsteady CFD-RBM approach is expected to produce the lowest estimation of aerodynamic power and thrust responses because these values are over-predicted by the UBEM solver and other models.

The GDW aerodynamic theory, which is based on a potential flow solution to Laplace's equation, can be modeled with more flow states and a fully nonlinear implementation to account for the turbulence in and spatial variation of the inflow.


The low reliability of clinical use of Doppler for peripheral arterial assessment demonstrated in this present study poses significant implications for ongoing patient care. Vascular assessments of patients tend to occur annually and are interpreted relative to previous results. The reliability of assessments is essential for accurate and appropriate management. Given the poor reliability of Doppler use that we found in this study, reliance on this test in isolation is problematic. Our results suggest that, in the small sample of podiatrists we studied, Doppler assessments are of limited use as a tool for ongoing monitoring in clinical practice and, at the very least, it is essential for other objective vascular tests (e.g., Ankle Brachial Index) to be incorporated in the annual screening process. Research has demonstrated that reliability of use and interpretation of Doppler has been achieved in other professions supporting the use of this form of assessment for ongoing monitoring in clinical practice [10, 22] . Although Australia does not currently have any specific guidelines for lower limb vascular assessment in the general population at risk of PAD, the United Kingdom currently use National Institute for health Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines, which recommend documentation and analysis of Doppler waveforms as part of an overall vascular assessment [23] . Our results suggest that further skill development is required specifically for podiatrists to ensure clinical utility of Doppler use within the profession.

Research has demonstrated that reliability of use and interpretation of Doppler has been achieved in other professions supporting the use of this form of assessment for ongoing monitoring in clinical practice.

Although Australia does not currently have any specific guidelines for lower limb vascular assessment in the general population at risk of PAD, the United Kingdom currently use National Institute for health Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines, which recommend documentation and analysis of Doppler waveforms as part of an overall vascular assessment.


Generally, the resistance of trees against infection by pathogens occurs at the biochemical level through the participation of pre-and/or post-production of antimicrobial compounds (Nicholson and Hammerschmidt 1992) . Primary metabolites are those produced by all plant cells that are directly involved in growth, development or reproduction, while the secondary metabolites are commonly involved in host defense response (Freeman and Beattie 2008; Mazid et al. 2011) . Secondary metabolites are classified as alkaloids, terpenoids, compounds containing sulphur and phenolics according to the biosynthetic pathways (Freeman and Beattie 2008; Mazid et al. 2011) .

Generally, the resistance of trees against infection by pathogens occurs at the biochemical level through the participation of pre-and/or post-production of antimicrobial compounds.

Primary metabolites are those produced by all plant cells that are directly involved in growth, development or reproduction, while the secondary metabolites are commonly involved in host defense response.

Secondary metabolites are classified as alkaloids, terpenoids, compounds containing sulphur and phenolics according to the biosynthetic pathways.


Carpooling, also known as ridesharing, is a solution that could enable private cars to become part of the public transportation system, thus benefiting both users and environment [3] . Passengers benefit by having an alternative when their usual transportation mode is unavailable, and by possibly eliminating the need for an additional car for occasional use. Drivers benefit by having someone to share the cost of the trip or to gain enough passengers to qualify for high occupancy vehicle lanes. Finally, the environment benefits from a reduction of greenhouse gases emissions. Although different implementations can be found 1 , carpooling is typically characterised by four stages: a system registration where some personal information is required, (ii) a negotiation where users finally agree sharing the same car for a determined itinerary, (iii) the trip execution, and (iv) the assessment of the carpooling experience. While first commercial carpooling solutions are already a reality on the Internet, there are privacy aspects that affect the trust of users, consequently limiting their definitive takeoff.

Carpooling, also known as ridesharing, is a solution that could enable private cars to become part of the public transportation system, thus benefiting both users and environment.


This aspect becomes even more important if we take into account that nowadays, over half the world's population already lives in urban areas and by 2050 this is expected to reach 70% [22] . With an increasing population, the emphasis to research new alternatives to efficiently reduce traffic jams and carbon emissions in cities is only going to grow. As our planet becomes more populated, our cities need to evolve smartly. Vehicles sharing is not only going to be a convenient way of travelling in the future, it is going to become a necessity.

This aspect becomes even more important if we take into account that nowadays, over half the world's population already lives in urban areas and by 2050 this is expected to reach 70%.


The experimental heat transfer surface could be a plane slab, a hollow sphere, or a cylinder but since the construction of uniform hollow spheres or slabs is very difficult, cylindrical arrangements are very common and have been used in most of the previous experiments, as reviewed by Grace and Baeyens [10] . Ideally, only a heat flow perpendicular to the surface should occur. For the study of radial heat transfer, the flat end surfaces of the cylinder ought to be covered with a nonconductor of heat. As there is no such perfect insulator, two techniques are frequently used: heat guards are used in order to keep the temperature constant over the whole length of the test section, or results are only taken in the centre section of a test specimen which is long in comparison to its diameter and where the isothermal surfaces are essentially cylindrical over the centre section. In the present study the guard-heater approach will be used, as described further in the text.

The experimental heat transfer surface could be a plane slab, a hollow sphere, or a cylinder but since the construction of uniform hollow spheres or slabs is very difficult, cylindrical arrangements are very common and have been used in most of the previous experiments, as reviewed by Grace and Baeyens.


The high concentration of EC and TDS in urban land use can be attributed to urban runoff and pollutants resulting from human activities that infiltrate into the sub-surface or runoff into the nearby stream [28] . High concentration of Ca may be due to the discharge of industrial wastes and passage through deposits of limestone, dolomite, and gypsum [29] . Water containing high calcium is not suitable for washing, bathing and in boilers and is linked to the formation of concretion in the body and may cause gastro intestinal diseases and stone formations.

The high concentration of EC and TDS in urban land use can be attributed to urban runoff and pollutants resulting from human activities that infiltrate into the sub-surface or runoff into the nearby stream.

High concentration of Ca may be due to the discharge of industrial wastes and passage through deposits of limestone, dolomite, and gypsum.


In Lagos state, groundwater is vulnerable to various types of land uses. However, the extent of groundwater pollution depends on the rainfall pattern, depth of water table distance from the source of contamination and soil properties like permeability, composition of its recharge components as well as geology and hydrology of the area [10] . Concerns about potential exposure to these contaminants, primarily via water consumption and domestic uses, have provoked numerous studies to elucidate associations between specific health implications and chemical constituents in drinking water from land use-impacted water supplies.

However, the extent of groundwater pollution depends on the rainfall pattern, depth of water table distance from the source of contamination and soil properties like permeability, composition of its recharge components as well as geology and hydrology of the area.


Finally, there are other issues that need to be addressed, such as privacy and security. We address this topic in some detail in a recent paper describing our WISDM sensor mining architecture and platform [12] . But there also needs to be some education of the public about the benefits and dangers of this technology, since no application can be made perfectly secure and no data can always be guaranteed to remain private. But many innovative and creative smart phone-based sensor mining applications are just waiting to be developed and we hope that this paper will advance research in this area as well as bring attention to the topic.

We address this topic in some detail in a recent paper describing our WISDM sensor mining architecture and platform.


Based on these studies, we see that there are reasons to believe that we might be able to identify many soft traits that are associated with a user, including some, like balance, that are not listed in Table 1 . But we also see that we may be able to identify other, more temporary things about a user, such as what type of shoe they are currently wearing. But there is also the possibility for learning about a person based on longer term trends, whereas our research thus far, and most of the research discussed in this section, is about short term observations. For example, adolescents have different activity patterns than others and in fact these patterns differ by gender [8] . Also, a longer term study showed that an accelerometer can estimate walking speed together with the pattern, intensity and duration of daily walking activity [19] .

For example, adolescents have different activity patterns than others and in fact these patterns differ by gender.

Also, a longer term study showed that an accelerometer can estimate walking speed together with the pattern, intensity and duration of daily walking activity.


The use of patterns of movement for measuring "soft" biometric traits, such as gait, height, weight, and sex, is a relatively new but growing area. Most of the work in this area is geared toward biometric identification, where research has demonstrated that measuring these soft traits can improve the performance of biometric identification systems [2, 9, 14] . But the connection to work in biometrics is not critical, since information about these "soft" traits can be used for other purposes-which is part of our motivation for this work. Furthermore, as will be made clear in this section, the measurement and impact of these soft traits on activities such as walking has been studied for many years in other disciplines.

Most of the work in this area is geared toward biometric identification, where research has demonstrated that measuring these soft traits can improve the performance of biometric identification systems.


Some of this work on accelerometer based biometric identification, which relies primarily on gait, mentions factors that impact the results. Because these factors impact gait, it seems reasonable to conclude that they may be predictable based on gait and are thus candidates as "soft" traits. One study found that the weight of one's shoes can impact gait-based recognition performance [7] . A second study found that an imposter could not mimic a person's gait to fool a gait-based recognition system unless they also knew the person's sex [7] . Finally, a third study found that biometric identification can be improved by estimating a person's height and stride length [4] .

One study found that the weight of one's shoes can impact gait-based recognition performance.

A second study found that an imposter could not mimic a person's gait to fool a gait-based recognition system unless they also knew the person's sex.

Finally, a third study found that biometric identification can be improved by estimating a person's height and stride length.


The identification of personal traits is often referred to as soft biometrics because these traits, on their own, are not distinctive enough, or invariant enough, to uniquely identify an individual [9] . Soft biometric traits include the three traits that we predict in this paper-sex, height, and weight-which clearly are less distinctive or invariant than hard biometric traits like fingerprints. Nonetheless, these "soft" traits can be used in conjunction with other information or other traits to improve the accuracy of a biometric identification system [2, 9, 14] . While the work described in this paper can be used for biometric identification, our goal is far more general-we want to learn as much as possible about people (in this case smart phone users). This mined knowledge can be used for a variety of purposes. For example, this knowledge can be used for marketing and advertising, since most soft traits, like sex, height, weight, hair color, physical activity level, and foot/shoe size could have an impact on what content advertisers might want to present. Knowledge of these soft traits can also be used to make a smart phone application behave more intelligently by having it automatically customize its behavior to the user. For example, a fitness or diet "app" could consider your weight when calculating calories burned. There are undoubtedly many additional uses for this type of information, although clearly privacy and security issues should be considered.

The identification of personal traits is often referred to as soft biometrics because these traits, on their own, are not distinctive enough, or invariant enough, to uniquely identify an individual.

Nonetheless, these "soft" traits can be used in conjunction with other information or other traits to improve the accuracy of a biometric identification system.


The main strength of this study lies in the strict adherence to and reported methodology. In our opinion, most previous studies do not report on a design where the two time points-12 and 24 hours after aspirin intake-are constant throughout every regimen. These fixed time points increase the comparability of every regimen. Furthermore, although not all parameters of platelet function tests showed statistically significant results-as the thromboxane production is the primary target of aspirin-sTxB 2 levels can be seen as the most specific test for aspirin effectivity [31] . An important limitation, however, lies in the technical properties of the Platelet Function Analyser (PFA). Due to the technical maximum of 300 seconds for the PFA-closure time, all measurements in which the orifice had not yet been occluded at the end of the test as "no closure" were reported as 301 seconds in our database. Seeing as many measurements resulted in values of > 300s it was impossible to find relevant differences between the regimens beyond these maximum values. Therefore, this might have led to an underestimation of the effect of the type of regimen on the inhibition of platelet aggregation. Furthermore, as this was only a pilot-study in healthy volunteers, more research with a larger sample of the target population-patients with stable cardiovascular disease-is needed.

Furthermore, although not all parameters of platelet function tests showed statistically significant results-as the thromboxane production is the primary target of aspirin-sTxB 2 levels can be seen as the most specific test for aspirin effectivity.


With the DA, patients were provided with structured information about Pca and possible treatments. Treatment advantages and disadvantages were presented in a balanced manner, and VCMs were included to help patients establish a treatment preference based on personal values [30] . An earlier investigation into treatment choices within this trial revealed that with the current DA, the treatment decisions were more often in line with the patient's preference instead of the P values report comparisons between the intervention arm and the control arm according to t tests for means and χ 2 tests for frequencies. Numbers may not always add up to the same n due to missing data (e.g. item nonresponse), percentages were rounded 1 All hospitals were general hospitals, except hospital 14 (academic) doctor's preference [31] . However, this did not translate into an effect on decisional conflict in the current study, with previous Pca DA studies also finding mixed results on this outcome [27] . Possibly, this is because of the nature of the concept of decisional conflict. Despite the wide use of decisional conflict as an outcome measure in DA evaluations, it has been debated whether lowering decisional conflict should actually be the desired outcome of a DA intervention [26, 27, 42, 43] . Careful consideration of all available treatment options, including weighing pros and cons against personal preferences, could evoke conflict and the perceived decision difficulty, regardless of interventions to support the decision-making process. If ultimately, the final decision has a better patienttreatment fit, existence or even increase of decisional conflict could also be the expense of a thorough decision-making process [44, 45] . Follow-up evaluation of our trial participants is planned to determine if patients are more satisfied with the selected treatment and experience less regret, after treatment is completed, compared to patients from the control group.

Treatment advantages and disadvantages were presented in a balanced manner, and VCMs were included to help patients establish a treatment preference based on personal values.

Numbers may not always add up to the same n due to missing data (e.g. item nonresponse), percentages were rounded 1 All hospitals were general hospitals, except hospital 14 (academic) doctor's preference.

However, this did not translate into an effect on decisional conflict in the current study, with previous Pca DA studies also finding mixed results on this outcome.

Despite the wide use of decisional conflict as an outcome measure in DA evaluations, it has been debated whether lowering decisional conflict should actually be the desired outcome of a DA intervention.

If ultimately, the final decision has a better patienttreatment fit, existence or even increase of decisional conflict could also be the expense of a thorough decision-making process.


The core of the end-to-end neural coreference resolver is the scoring function to compute the mention scores for all possible spans and the antecedent scores for a pair of spans. Furthermore, one major challenge of coreference resolution is that most mentions in the document are singleton or non-anaphoric, i.e., not coreferent with any previous mention (Wiseman et al., 2015) . Since the data set only have annotations for mention clusters, the end-to-end coreference resolution system needs to detect mentions, detect anaphoricity, and perform coreference linking. Therefore, research questions still remain on good designs of the scoring architecture and the learning strategy for both mention detection and antecedent scoring given only the gold cluster labels.

Furthermore, one major challenge of coreference resolution is that most mentions in the document are singleton or non-anaphoric, i.e., not coreferent with any previous mention.


Sandy lands are often exposed to numerous environmental stresses such as frequent winds and low precipitation [15, 16] . They are characterized by sparse vegetation and loose soil texture; because of frequent sand movement, plants are often buried by sand compared with other areas [17] . Nevertheless, this is important for seed germination, seedling emergence and establishment since a certain degree of sand burial is needed at the early developmental morphology stages if plants are to grow and establish properly [10] .

Sandy lands are often exposed to numerous environmental stresses such as frequent winds and low precipitation.

They are characterized by sparse vegetation and loose soil texture; because of frequent sand movement, plants are often buried by sand compared with other areas.

Nevertheless, this is important for seed germination, seedling emergence and establishment since a certain degree of sand burial is needed at the early developmental morphology stages if plants are to grow and establish properly.


Lighting and air-conditionings account for the majority of power consumption in the office [2] . Therefore, energy conservation methods of these equipments are important. To achieve energy-saving of the lighting without compromising comfort in the office, it is effective approach to turn off the lighting in the unnecessary area, and to keep appropriately illuminance. Therefore, in past studies, controls to automatically turn off the absence area using motion sensors, and controls to keep appropriately illuminance by illumination sensors has been performed [3] , [4] . In recent years, studies to increase the energy-saving effect by controlling the brightness so as to provide the desired brightness each person has been performed [5] ~ [9] . Many of these studies utilize the lighting control system of individually controllable luminous intensity each equipment over the network.

Lighting and air-conditionings account for the majority of power consumption in the office.

Therefore, in past studies, controls to automatically turn off the absence area using motion sensors, and controls to keep appropriately illuminance by illumination sensors has been performed.

In recent years, studies to increase the energy-saving effect by controlling the brightness so as to provide the desired brightness each person has been performed~.


Cellulose is a plentiful biopolymer in the world. In addition to its wide use in papermaking and textiles, cellulose is a very important renewable source for development of many industries due to its special properties. Based on polar surface of cellulose fibers and its hydrophilic groups, the inorganic phases can be grown outward of cellulose that can make it possible to produce a composite with novel properties [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] . One of the remarkable materials for improving paper yarn properties is carbon nanotubes (CNTs).

Based on polar surface of cellulose fibers and its hydrophilic groups, the inorganic phases can be grown outward of cellulose that can make it possible to produce a composite with novel properties.


Recently, due to energy reliability and sustainability issues, DRs such as small distributed generators (DGs), renewable energy sources (RESs) and battery energy storage systems (BESSs) are integrated to the grids [9] [10] [11] . Most DRs are interconnected to the grids through power inverters that are required for synchronization and power control. This paper proposes an effective harmonic compensation method by utilizing the multiple power inverter-based DRs in place of power filters. One of the possible advantages of the proposed method is that the installation cost of additional power filters can be relieved. In addition, we have multiple harmonic compensators instead of one solely devoted harmonic filter in the microgrid.

Recently, due to energy reliability and sustainability issues, DRs such as small distributed generators (DGs), renewable energy sources (RESs) and battery energy storage systems (BESSs) are integrated to the grids.


There are two important issues of the harmonic compensation using the power inverter-based DRs. First, when the power inverters compensate the harmonics in the grids, the injection current of the power inverters should be increased [8] . Therefore, the power margin of each power inverters should be measured accurately and the amount of harmonic compensation should be distributed appropriately to multiple DRs. Second, DRs have diverse control scheme depending on their types and operational strategies [12] [13] . Therefore, the multiple objective functions should be considered to coordinate of multiple DRs.

First, when the power inverters compensate the harmonics in the grids, the injection current of the power inverters should be increased.

Second, DRs have diverse control scheme depending on their types and operational strategies.


Land use itself does not affect water quality. However, human activities on land use changes could influence the types and degree of pollution. Therefore, measuring the proportions of certain land use types in a watershed might enable us to predict water quality [33] .

Therefore, measuring the proportions of certain land use types in a watershed might enable us to predict water quality.


Water from agricultural areas has 2-to 4.5-fold higher total nitrogen (N) concentrations than water from semi-natural areas [37] . Runoff of biogenic elements into surface water from agricultural areas is largely dependent on the type and volume of agricultural activity as well as the vulnerability of soil to erosion along with its permeability. Soils of high use value, in combination with adequate cultivation technologies, offer considerable prospects for agriculture [6] . Leaching of N-NO 3 from field crops into the aquatic environment may reach levels up to 40 kg·ha -1 , depending on the level of fertilization; but in the case of grasslands the observed levels may be considerably lower. Water erosion and surface runoff are the major routes for phosphorus leaching from agricultural areas into water resources [6, 14, 38] . The waters of the Liswarta River and its tributaries can be regarded as eutrophicated or at an increased risk of eutrophication because nitrate concentrations have been reported at most of the sites, except Starokrzepice, and the levels exceed a limit of 10 mg·dm -3 NO 3 2- . In the case of total nitrogen concentrations, the average annual limit of 5 mg was exceeded at the following sites: Boronów, Danków, Kule -for the Liswarta River, Łobodno, the mouth of the Biała Oksza River, and the Górnianka, Piskara, and Bieszcza rivers. The maximum allowable phosphorus level (0.25 mg·dm -3 ) was exceeded at only one site, the Łobodno (on the Biała Oksza River).

Water from agricultural areas has 2-to 4.5-fold higher total nitrogen (N) concentrations than water from semi-natural areas.

Soils of high use value, in combination with adequate cultivation technologies, offer considerable prospects for agriculture.

Water erosion and surface runoff are the major routes for phosphorus leaching from agricultural areas into water resources.


Generally, usage of coal emits more air pollutants than cleaner fossil fuels such as natural gas or refined petroleum. In addition, the degree of sophistication of the control technology affects the emission of air pollutants. For example, the differences of the emissions factors between indigenous ovens and machinery coke ovens were about factor of 10-100 for total suspended particles (TSP) and factor of 10 for sulfur dioxide in China (Huo et al., 2012) . Consequently, resultant emissions of anthropogenic air pollutants, especially from coal consumption should be huge. For example, found a continuous increase of NO 2 concentration during the past decade with a sharp linear increase rate of 14.1-20.5% per year during 2000 to 2005 from the satellite observation data. Also, a huge amount of organic aerosols are emitted into the atmosphere through incomplete combustion of biomass and fossil fuels.

For example, the differences of the emissions factors between indigenous ovens and machinery coke ovens were about factor of 10-100 for total suspended particles (TSP) and factor of 10 for sulfur dioxide in China.


Natural flyers are difficult to study experimentally due to the complexity in their structural surface, control and agility in manoeuvring (Shyy et al. 2008) . The wing structure, surface flexibility, flexibility of feathers, vane and surface hair are a huge challenge to mimic. Another challenge is that the fluid motion is unsteady and has many different phases as the birds' flap bend and wings move based on the flight conditions. A challenge is that the scaling of both fluid dynamics and structural dynamics 8 Aldheeb MA, Asrar W, Sulaeman E, Omar AA between smaller natural flyer and practical flying hardware/lab experiment (larger dimension) is fundamentally difficult (Shyy et al. 2008) . A study of wings with flexible and porous surfaces has not been performed yet. Figure 1 shows a dorsal view of a bird wing planform with its nomenclature that highlights the complex geometry of the multilayer planforms with different functionalities for each layer and sublayer components. Figure 2 describes the sublayer component structure that exposes the nature of the non-prismatic, flexible slender beam structure with flexible connections.

Natural flyers are difficult to study experimentally due to the complexity in their structural surface, control and agility in manoeuvring.

A challenge is that the scaling of both fluid dynamics and structural dynamics 8 Aldheeb MA, Asrar W, Sulaeman E, Omar AA between smaller natural flyer and practical flying hardware/lab experiment (larger dimension) is fundamentally difficult.


However, for short texts the performance degrades quickly. The literature devotes little attention to the accuracy of state-of-the-art algorithms when very short texts are tested. On documents that are 25 characters long, one of the most widely used algorithms (Cavnar and Trenkle, 1994) 1). There are many situations where a higher accuracy is required. For example, we might want to develop a multilingual spellchecker used by an instant messaging (chat) client, able to guess the language that is being used. With the existing techniques, there will be a non negligible chance of the language not being identified correctly until after a number of messages have already been sent.

On documents that are 25 characters long, one of the most widely used algorithms 1).


A use case that has never been addressed in the literature is the case of a multilingual document for which it is required to know which parts are written in which language. The easiest way to solve this problem is by splitting the text into sentences or paragraph and then applying one of the existing algorithms to each piece thus obtained. As shown, however, if the pieces are too short it becomes likely to get a number of inaccurate results. To solve this the locality principle can be used: nearby words and sentences are likely to be written in the same language. A proof of concept implementation showing an application of this idea has previously been developed (Winkelmolen, 2010) . Further improvements in accuracy and speed could be made, using some of the results that have been described here.

A proof of concept implementation showing an application of this idea has previously been developed.


The generalized Pauli constraints, discovered by Borland and Dennis on a classical computer, have been verified through calculations with a quantum computer. While a quantum state is represented by vectors and matrices on a classical computer, it is actually prepared and manipulated on a quantum computer. Consequently, the presented computations can be interpreted as experiments that are measuring the generalized Pauli constraints' satisfaction by the correlated quantum states generated on the computer. Using random unitary transformations to generate a statistical sample of the possible states, we observe that all of the states satisfy the generalized Pauli constraint, experimentally verifying the validity of the constraint to a high degree of confidence. The generalized Pauli constraints have profound consequences for quantum phenomena. First, their existence proves fundamental limitations on quantum entanglement's ability to emulate one-electron occupations and properties of ensemble quantum states. Second, they imply the Higuchi inequalities and thereby place significant restrictions on many-qubit systems in pure states. These restrictions may provide an exploitable resource for efficient error correction. Finally, their recent extension to the two-electron reduced density matrix (2-RDM) provides new conditions for the 2-RDM to represent at least one manyelectron pure-state quantum system 10 . Such conditions can potentially be used to enhance the direct variational calculation of the 2-RDM 28 , which is applicable to treating strongly correlated atomic and molecular quantum systems at a polynomial-scaling computational cost [29] [30] [31] .

Such conditions can potentially be used to enhance the direct variational calculation of the 2-RDM 28 , which is applicable to treating strongly correlated atomic and molecular quantum systems at a polynomial-scaling computational cost.


In comparison with the post-stroke rehabilitation programs conducted by human physical therapists, post-stroke trainings assisted with rehabilitation robot showed their advantages in aspects of well-controlled training setup and saving the human resources [2] [3] . It has been reported that robot-assisted therapy could significantly improve the upper limb motor functions after stroke [4] [5] [6] [7] . The most commonly reported motion types provided by developed rehabilitation robots are: 1) continuous passive motion, 2) active-assisted movement (for interactive treatment), and 3) active-resisted movement [5] . Due to the effectiveness in motor improvement by active-assisted robotic treatment, the recent developments involving rehabilitation robots has been worked towards the active-assisted control strategies for interactive rehabilitation treatment, which allows the robotic system to react to patient's voluntary intention.

In comparison with the post-stroke rehabilitation programs conducted by human physical therapists, post-stroke trainings assisted with rehabilitation robot showed their advantages in aspects of well-controlled training setup and saving the human resources.

It has been reported that robot-assisted therapy could significantly improve the upper limb motor functions after stroke.

The most commonly reported motion types provided by developed rehabilitation robots are: 1) continuous passive motion, 2) active-assisted movement (for interactive treatment), and 3) active-resisted movement.


The indigenous aromatic rice germplasm of Bangladesh is enriched with wide genetic diversity and valuable gene system for yield attributes and adaptability. A detailed understanding about the extent structure of genetic variation in different varieties of the same species is important for the development of appropriate and efficient strategies for collection, conservation, and preservation of cultivar relatives. In addition, the efficient use of genetic resources in all plant-breeding programs requires knowledge about genetic diversity. At present, several varieties have many synonyms in different regions which make identification difficult. Nevertheless, differentiation of varieties through morphological features is inefficient and inaccurate (Rahman et al., 2007) .

Nevertheless, differentiation of varieties through morphological features is inefficient and inaccurate.


Utilising ubiquitous communications such monitoring can easily be applied within a home environment. For example , patients with asthma can be assessed on spirometry self-testing through the exchange of testing data and clinical recommendations between patients and clinicians [8] . In remote areas patients can form close links with medical facilities through the use of communications, and this has proven to help detect anomalies in such patients in real-time, e.g. blood glucose levels, electrocardiogram readings, including low blood oxygen levels [9] .

For example , patients with asthma can be assessed on spirometry self-testing through the exchange of testing data and clinical recommendations between patients and clinicians.

In remote areas patients can form close links with medical facilities through the use of communications, and this has proven to help detect anomalies in such patients in real-time, e.g. blood glucose levels, electrocardiogram readings, including low blood oxygen levels.


One of the crucial tools for educators and science communicators when communicating about evolution is metaphor. Metaphors help us make associations between new concepts and familiar ones, providing new insights and suggesting that certain interpretations of information are more likely to be correct than others (Hellsten and Nehrlich 2008) . Scientific metaphors are useful because they exemplify important aspects of the subject being represented by highlighting certain properties and omitting others, thus allowing us to emphasize or deemphasize important features of scientific concepts.

Metaphors help us make associations between new concepts and familiar ones, providing new insights and suggesting that certain interpretations of information are more likely to be correct than others.


While the tree of life is not the only tool used to communicate about evolution, it is a particularly well-known metaphor. This metaphor combines words and imagery to illustrate the broad scope and branching pattern of macroevolution. It was first conceptualized as an evolution communication tool by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species, and presents his central organizing vision of shared descent (Gruber 2005) . The tree of life illustrates the grand sweep of evolutionary history over time: speciation, extinction, and the relatedness of every living thing. This paper focuses on our visual representations of the tree of life; in other words, how we use tree-like diagrams to communicate about macroevolution.

It was first conceptualized as an evolution communication tool by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species, and presents his central organizing vision of shared descent.


In this paper, we presented a new motion descriptor based on SIFT displacement. The SIFT displacement vectors are further calculated as weighted orientation histogram and then classified by SVM. The proposed method has been tested on both general and sport actions. Experimental results are convincing and comparable to other stateof-the-art temporal feature extraction algorithms. Several techniques can be exploited to improve recognition rate in the future. One possible method is key point tracking. The SIFT displacement method only considers the motions between two frames. However, the key points existing in several frames may contain more information than those only existing in two frames. In our preliminary experiment, a list of matched key points is kept in memory, and updated at every frame. The key points tracking results are shown in Fig. 6 . The waving hands are successfully tracked while some unmoved keys are tracked in the body. In terms of running action, the best tracking points are at the actor's head. The other candidate method is to apply the bag-of-features framework [19] . More research efforts are required to find the best usage of the tracking information as well as exploring the full potential of SIFT displacement.

The other candidate method is to apply the bag-of-features framework.


A simulation was started with the length of the CE and the SEE at L CEopt and L slack , respectively. The optimal pattern of the neural activation input, i.e., the optimal onset time (T on ), was searched via simulated annealing numerical optimization (Press, Teukolsky, Vetterling, & Flannery, 1988) . The goal of the numerical optimization was to lift the inertia as high as possible. Note that the inertia can jump higher than the maximal shortening capability of the CE if enough momentum has been provided before the CE shortens as much as 55% of the L CEopt . T on = 0.0 sec means that the CE is activated from the very first moment. This way, the inertia starts moving upward without a downward moving phase, which corresponds to SQJ. On the other hand, when T on > 0.0 sec, the inertia initially moves downward, which corresponds to CMJ.

The optimal pattern of the neural activation input, i.e., the optimal onset time (T on ), was searched via simulated annealing numerical optimization.


Shipping represents a unique occupational setting in that maritime workers are onboard 24/7, and the ship is therefore a closed social milieu. There is also a very hierarchical structure onboard, and often crews with people of different nationalities (Håvold, 2005) . The multicultural and multinational aspects of the maritime industry might contribute to differences in safety climate across ships in the same trade or even from the same company.

There is also a very hierarchical structure onboard, and often crews with people of different nationalities.


Recently, super low noise InGaP gated PHEMT devices have been demonstrated with 0.46 dB minimum noise figure and 13 dB associated gain at 12 GHz, with the gate dimension of 0.25 × 160 µ m 2 [7] . However, the temperature-dependent of InGaP PHEMTs device parameter and noise performance are still limited. In this paper, we will discuss the temperature effects on InGaP low noise devices for DC characteristics and noise performance. Furthermore, the noise performance between InGaP and AlGaAs low noise devices in different temperatures ranging from 300K to 450K will be also compared. Due to better temperature-dependent noise performance, InGaP/InGaAs/GaAs low noise PHEMT is more promising for low noise applications.

Recently, super low noise InGaP gated PHEMT devices have been demonstrated with 0.46 dB minimum noise figure and 13 dB associated gain at 12 GHz, with the gate dimension of 0.25 × 160 µ m 2.


Tree diameter inside bark (dib) or relative diameter inside bark (dib/dbh, where dbh is diameter outside bark at breast height (1.3 m)) that varies from the bottom to the top, can be regarded as a function and be treated as a unit of analysis (Ramsay and Silverman 1997; Besse et al. 2005; Ferraty and Vieu 2006) . Tree taper measurements contain discrete pair-wise height and relative diameter measurements at certain locations along the length of the tree. Such functional taper data can be analysed using either nonparametric or wavelet-based approaches. The nonparametric approach is less restrictive, as it does not require equally spaced (either in time or space) measurements. However, this approach has limitations when making predictions for a new subject for example a tree as there is neither a way to display nonparametric relationships nor is there structural information about it (Ferraty and Vieu 2006, pp 49-50) . In contrast, the wavelet-based functional approach being a parametric approach, predictions about a new subject can be easily made. However, this approach requires equally spaced functional measurements. Thus, if the height and relative diameter are measured at equal intervals of relative height or time across many trees, these discrete measurements can be analysed using wavelet-based function approach.

Tree diameter inside bark (dib) or relative diameter inside bark (dib/dbh, where dbh is diameter outside bark at breast height (1.3 m)) that varies from the bottom to the top, can be regarded as a function and be treated as a unit of analysis.


The measurement locations or intervals can be regarded as a grid, and tree diameter measurements at various height locations for each tree can be regarded as a function. Figure 1 displays the relationship between jack pine trees relative height and its corresponding relative diameter. There are 11 measurements for each tree that are represented by circles. These circles are connected to obtain a curve. In addition, the functional approach provides specific model parameters for each equally spaced measurement grids (measurement locations). Thus, the functional data refers to the observations collected across curves or functions, where the curve is used as a basic unit of data analysis (Ramsay and Silverman 1997) .

Thus, the functional data refers to the observations collected across curves or functions, where the curve is used as a basic unit of data analysis.


The electrode system which is used in electrical impedance spectroscopy measurement usually includes three different forms: 2-electrode, 3-electrode and 4-electrode systems. In the two-electrode system, two electrodes act as the working electrode (WE) and counter electrode (CE). The two-electrode system is common and easy to use; however the problem of the electrode polarization (electrode-electrolyte interface effects) usually influences the measurements [4] . Three-electrode system involves a third electrode, called reference electrode, which is used to measure the potential of the working electrode. The three-electrode system could be used to investigate the kinetics and mechanism of the electrode reaction occurring on the working electrode surface. In the four-electrode system, two sensor electrodes are involved to measure the AC current response from the suspension. The working electrode (WE) and counter electrode (CE) are used to apply the exciting voltage. Since the functions of electrodes are separated, the electrode polarization effect could be decreased in the four-electrode system [5] .

The two-electrode system is common and easy to use; however the problem of the electrode polarization (electrode-electrolyte interface effects) usually influences the measurements.

Since the functions of electrodes are separated, the electrode polarization effect could be decreased in the four-electrode system.


Electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is a powerful technique to investigate the electrokinetic properties of materials and their interfaces [1] . The EIS measurement can be achieved by applying an alternating voltage to the system and measuring the AC current response. If an AC electric field is applied to a particle suspension, a dipole moment can be induced on the particle surface due to the deformation of the electric double layer [2] . The macroscopic display of induced dipole moment is usually represented by the impedance parameters, including the impedance real part, imaginary part, phase angle and the relaxation frequency [3] . These quantities are related to the surface properties of the particles, and therefore can be used to characterize the colloidal particles.

Electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is a powerful technique to investigate the electrokinetic properties of materials and their interfaces.

If an AC electric field is applied to a particle suspension, a dipole moment can be induced on the particle surface due to the deformation of the electric double layer.

The macroscopic display of induced dipole moment is usually represented by the impedance parameters, including the impedance real part, imaginary part, phase angle and the relaxation frequency.


The electrical impedance spectroscopy of silica suspensions have been studied using four-electrode system [6] . However, due to the complex on fabrication and installation, the four-electrode system is not suitable for industrial application. A probe including two-electrode system can be easily put in a vessel in many industrial processes, for example, the batch reaction process, mixing process, and batch crystallization process, therefore, it could have wide application in industries.

The electrical impedance spectroscopy of silica suspensions have been studied using four-electrode system.


Derivatives of perylene-3,4:9,10-tetracarboxylic diimide (PDI) with N-hexanol (PDI-C 6 OH), N-ethylmorpholine (PDI-C 2 morph), and N-para-phenol (PDI-C 6 H 4 OH) substituents have been found to exhibit interesting near-infrared characteristics [15] . Plots of the relative NIR reflectance of these PDI derivatives in polypropylene films are depicted in Figure 3 . Also included are analogous reflectance measurements of perylene (PR) and the closely related perylene-3,4:9,10-tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCA) as well as the background reflectance measurement of a pure polypropylene (PP) film. The polypropylene film has strong absorptions at 5780 cm -1 , 7780 cm -1 and 9250 cm -1 which are evident in all systems.

Derivatives of perylene-3,4:9,10-tetracarboxylic diimide (PDI) with N-hexanol (PDI-C 6 OH), N-ethylmorpholine (PDI-C 2 morph), and N-para-phenol (PDI-C 6 H 4 OH) substituents have been found to exhibit interesting near-infrared characteristics.


The position of the first peak in the electronic spectrum of pristine perylene (PR) is calculated to occur at 429 nm in excellent agreement with the experimental value (430 nm), obtained in an N 2 matrix at 20 K [22] . This peak arises from a singlet transition from the HOMO to the LUMO. The HOMO of perylene is in fact a set of doubly degenerate π bonding orbitals located on the central bonds of the naphthalene subunits of the molecule (Fig. 5a ).

The position of the first peak in the electronic spectrum of pristine perylene (PR) is calculated to occur at 429 nm in excellent agreement with the experimental value (430 nm), obtained in an N 2 matrix at 20 K.


The electronic properties of perylene based compounds ( Fig. 1a ) have made them suitable for a wide variety of applications including, electro-photographic photoreceptors, light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors, solar cells and other optoelectronic photonic devices [3] . The key to the optoelectronic characteristics of perylene is the conjugated πsystem of the polycyclic aromatic structure (Fig. 1a) . A considerable amount of research into perylene compounds has focussed on either tuning the absorption of the molecules to specific bands, increasing the range of frequencies absorbed or in controlling the electron transport for organic based electronics. However, perylene dyes also have a number of properties that make them suitable for incorporation into coatings including, high thermal stability, high tinctorial strength, good weather stability and good photo-stability.

The electronic properties of perylene based compounds ( Fig. 1a ) have made them suitable for a wide variety of applications including, electro-photographic photoreceptors, light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors, solar cells and other optoelectronic photonic devices.


What makes the proof of this conjecture so challenging is the existence of (n − 1)-spheres in S n in which all disks are wild [5] . That means a failure will be inevitable if one uses a typical shrinking approach-dividing the spheres into cellular subdivisons. Here we treat an important special case of the conjecture, which one can argue is a genuine analog of the three dimensional result depicted in the next paragraph. That is, the conjecture will be true if the Mismatch Property is satisfied. It turns out to be our main theorem in section 3. In this section, readers may find out that even though in such a weak form, the proof is far from straightfoward.

What makes the proof of this conjecture so challenging is the existence of (n − 1)-spheres in S n in which all disks are wild.


Researchers have proved robust stability for MPC by using the closed loop stability criteria, that is, terminal cost and terminal stability constraints. The simplest way to enforce stability with a finite prediction horizon is to add a so-called zero-terminal equality at the end of the prediction horizon in Keerthi and Gilbert [4] . One disadvantage of a zero terminal equality is that the system must be brought into the origin in a finite time. This leads, in general, to infeasibility for the short control horizon length; that is, the horizon length may not be long enough to satisfy the constraints from all states.

The simplest way to enforce stability with a finite prediction horizon is to add a so-called zero-terminal equality at the end of the prediction horizon in Keerthi and Gilbert.


Model predictive control (MPC) refers to a class of algorithms that compute a sequence of manipulated variable adjustments in order to optimize the future behavior of a plant. MPC works out the optimal open-loop-manipulated input trajectory that minimizes the difference between the predicted plant behavior and the desired plant behavior. It differs from other control theories in that the optimal control problem is solved on-line for the current state of the plant, rather than determined off-line as a feedback policy. MPC has been widely applied in the petrochemical and related industries because of its ability to handle input and output constraints in the optimal control problem. However MPC is not designed to explicitly handle plantmodel uncertainty and such system might perform very poorly when implemented on a physical system which is not exactly described by the model [1] .

However MPC is not designed to explicitly handle plantmodel uncertainty and such system might perform very poorly when implemented on a physical system which is not exactly described by the model.


Copepods are, along with nematodes, the most abundant metazoans on Earth and one of the major groups among inland water microcrustaceans (Ohman & Hirche, 2001) . They present filter feeding, predatory, and parasitic habits, and constitute a keystone component of aquatic ecosystems worldwide. The copepod order Calanoida, in particular, is very common in the open waters of inland aquatic ecosystems throughout the Earth, with the family Diaptomidae largely characterizing the Holarctic, Oriental, and Afrotropical aquatic biota (Boxshall & Defaye, 2008) .

Copepods are, along with nematodes, the most abundant metazoans on Earth and one of the major groups among inland water microcrustaceans.

The copepod order Calanoida, in particular, is very common in the open waters of inland aquatic ecosystems throughout the Earth, with the family Diaptomidae largely characterizing the Holarctic, Oriental, and Afrotropical aquatic biota.


To accurately evaluate and compare different AR interaction concepts, a VR setup with higher fidelity than the one presented in this paper would be needed. From a validity point of view, it is crucial that participants behave as they would have done in a corresponding real situation and that their intents and actions are translated to the VE in a precise manner. A key element for achieving this is immersion (as described earlier). Examples of factors that contribute to immersion include field of view, resolution, stereoscopy, type of input, latency etc. In the VR system described in this paper a relatively high degree of immersion was achieved with a wide FOV HMD (100 degrees diagonal) and low latency head tracking. Nevertheless, there is still big room for improvement with regards to immersion factors of the VR system. For example, the version of the Oculus Rift used (DK1), lacks the ability to detect translational movement, restricting the user's head movements to three rotational DOF. Head positional tracking can improve depth perception and thus immersion in a VE due to motion parallax [31] . Furthermore, the display resolution of Oculus Rift DK1 is only 640*800 pixels per eye. Low resolution makes especially text hard to read and it is not possible to faithfully reproduce the crispness of a device UI inside the VE. Also, low pixel density and noticeable pixel persistence inhibit visual fidelity and consequently the degree of immersion.

Head positional tracking can improve depth perception and thus immersion in a VE due to motion parallax.


As has been discussed above, the VR setup described in this paper has big improvement potential in terms of hardware. For example, a new version of the Oculus Rift Development kit, which feature positional tracking, a resolution of 960*1080 per eye and low pixel persistence was released in the summer of 2014 [33] . An alternative VR HMD is also being developed by Sony under the codename Project Morpheus [35] . An alternative display solution for the proposed prototyping method could be see-through displays, such as Microsoft HoloLens [36] . This opens up the possibility to prototype person-to-person interaction as well as multiple user consumer electronics interaction based on AR.

For example, a new version of the Oculus Rift Development kit, which feature positional tracking, a resolution of 960*1080 per eye and low pixel persistence was released in the summer of 2014.

An alternative VR HMD is also being developed by Sony under the codename Project Morpheus.

An alternative display solution for the proposed prototyping method could be see-through displays, such as Microsoft HoloLens.


VE technology has been used as a design tool in many different domains, such as architecture, city planning and industrial design [12] . A general benefit of using a VE to build prototypes of interactive systems is that it allows researchers to test systems or hardware that do not actually exist in a controlled manner. Another advantage, compared to the WOZ method, is that functionality in the prototype can be handled by the VE, instead of relying on an experienced human operator to simulate the technical system's behaviour. One of the main drawbacks when it comes to simulating AR interaction in a VE is related to the fidelity of the real world component in the system, i.e. the simulated real environment and objects upon which augmented information is placed [13] . Examples of issues include the lack of tactile feedback in the VE and physical constraints due to limitations of VE navigation compared to real world movements. However, these issues depend on the goal of the study and are likely to be less of an issue for some use cases.

VE technology has been used as a design tool in many different domains, such as architecture, city planning and industrial design.

One of the main drawbacks when it comes to simulating AR interaction in a VE is related to the fidelity of the real world component in the system, i.e. the simulated real environment and objects upon which augmented information is placed.


Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, low fidelity prototyping such as paper prototyping can be very effective in testing issues of aesthetics and standard graphical UIs. However, to do so when designing for wearable AR interaction, a higher fidelity is likely to be required [9] .

However, to do so when designing for wearable AR interaction, a higher fidelity is likely to be required.


Building prototypes of such wearable AR systems can be difficult and costly, since it involves a number of different devices and systems with varying technological readiness level. The ideal prototyping method for this should offer high fidelity at a relatively low cost and the ability to simulate a wide range of wearable AR use cases. Creating a prototyping method which fulfils these requirements is problematic due to underdeveloped or partially developed technology components, such as display technology and object tracking. Also the lack of development tools and methodologies is a hindrance [5] . In particular, it is difficult to achieve prototypes that offer an integrated user experience and show the full potential of interaction concepts.

Also the lack of development tools and methodologies is a hindrance.


We have experienced in applying the team quiz learning model to the previous research. The team quiz learning model is one of the approaches that can be used to overcome the problems mentioned before. However, in this study, the result of the students has not reached the passing grade. This occurred due to some factors such as teachers not being used to apply the team quiz learning model, teachers were confused about teaching using the 2013 curriculum, classroom atmosphere, and the influence of peers, the method used, and the time spent in the study (Junita, 2014) . Students also had difficulty in creating a problem as students did not understand how to create one. Although the students' learning outcomes have not reached the passing grade, it was reported that students' enthusiasm during the learning activity was quite high. Therefore, we decided to re-use the team quiz learning model in this research but with some enhancement like introducing how to make a good mathematics question, giving some pretest to make them get used to the method atmosphere and giving more time for the student.

This occurred due to some factors such as teachers not being used to apply the team quiz learning model, teachers were confused about teaching using the 2013 curriculum, classroom atmosphere, and the influence of peers, the method used, and the time spent in the study.


The reliability of the electrical power system depends on the performance and availability of its components such as power transformers. Due to the increasing age of the transformer population condition assessment and thus onsite diagnostics are important issues to secure a reliable operation of the electrical power system. During the last decades, major works are being carried out for development of reliable and accurate condition assessment techniques [1] . Offline methods require disconnecting the transformer from the power network and are mainly used during scheduled inspections or when the transformer is already failure suspicious. In comparison to this, online methods are used during the operation and offer a possibility to record the condition under realistic operating conditions (e.g., electric field, load, and temperature). Monitoring is the continuous application of online measurement techniques which allows trending and the early detection of an oncoming fault by automatic evaluation of these data. The applicability of the different condition assessment techniques are depicted in Table 1 .

During the last decades, major works are being carried out for development of reliable and accurate condition assessment techniques.


Energy systems pervade industrial societies and weave a complex web of interactions that affect the daily lives of their citizens. Human development is therefore heated and powered by energy sources of various kinds, but these put at risk the quality and longer-term viability of the biosphere as a result of unwanted, 'second order' effects [1] . Many of such adverse consequences of energy production and consumption give rise to resource uncertainties and potential environmental hazards on a local, regional and global scale. Global warming, predominately caused by the enhanced 'greenhouse effect' from combustion-generated pollutants, is viewed by many as the most serious of the planetary-scale environmental impacts. Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) -the main greenhouse gas (GHG) -is thought to have a 'residence time' in the atmosphere of around one hundred years. CO 2 accounts for some 80% of the total GHG emissions, for example, in the United Kingdom (UK) and the energy sector is responsible for around 95% of these [1] [2] [3] . The emphasis of energy strategies around the world has consequently been on so-called 'low or zero carbon' (LZC) energy options: energy efficiency improvements and demand reduction measures, fossil fuelled power stations with carbon capture and storage (CCS), combined heat and power (CHP) plants, nuclear power, and renewable energy systems. The British Government has therefore set a challenging, legally binding target of reducing the nation's CO 2 emissions overall by 80% by 2050 (in comparison to a 1990 baseline) in their 2008 Climate Change Act. This provides the basis for the adoption of LZC energy options in the UK.

Human development is therefore heated and powered by energy sources of various kinds, but these put at risk the quality and longer-term viability of the biosphere as a result of unwanted, 'second order' effects.

CO 2 accounts for some 80% of the total GHG emissions, for example, in the United Kingdom (UK) and the energy sector is responsible for around 95% of these.


In this study we construct a model climatology of the convective adjustment timescale for the British Isles, and focus on the frequency of the regimes, diurnal and spatial influences on the regimes across the British Isles and the dependence of convective regime occurrence on the large-scale wind direction. It is hypothesised that both the presence of coastlines and the wind direction will have an impact on climatological convection characteristics over the British Isles, given that it is often subject to convection that has initiated on the European continent. This may occur, for example, in 'Spanish plume' synoptic scenarios (Lewis and Gray, 2010) . It is further hypothesised that a regional dependence will be found (Figure 1 ). The western coast of the mainland UK is likely to have more non-equilibrium situations than the eastern coast due to the relative steepness of the orography. Forced ascent in this region may help to overcome any CIN present and the flow within complex terrain may lead to the development of convergence lines. The coastline itself is also hypothesised to contribute to regime characteristics through associated convergence lines, a good example being the initiation (Golding et al., 2005; Burt, 2005; Warren et al., 2014) . Further understanding of these regimes, and other factors that they are associated with, may lead to further improvements in forecasts, not just from a deterministic or ensemble perspective but also from an adaptive forecasting perspective.

This may occur, for example, in 'Spanish plume' synoptic scenarios.

The coastline itself is also hypothesised to contribute to regime characteristics through associated convergence lines, a good example being the initiation.


According to the measured data and the photographs of the sea surface at LGA, Kalmykov and Pustovoytenko assumed that the wedges could approximate the sharp crests, which led to the increase of polarization ratio (HH/V V ) [24] . Kwoh and Lake also suggested that the dominant scattering from the wave crest could be approximated by wedge scattering and analyzed the relationship of scattering fields from capillary wave and the wedge-shaped crest with small perturbation method (SPM) and geometrical theory of diffraction (GTD) respectively [25] . The dihedral wedge was consequently used to simulate the breaking wave, and the effect of the geometric parameters on the scattering was discussed with numerical methods [26] [27] [28] . Different from the breaking wave models simulated based on the hydrodynamic theory, the wedge model is simple and feasible for the analysis of sea surface scattering.

According to the measured data and the photographs of the sea surface at LGA, Kalmykov and Pustovoytenko assumed that the wedges could approximate the sharp crests, which led to the increase of polarization ratio (HH/V V ).

Kwoh and Lake also suggested that the dominant scattering from the wave crest could be approximated by wedge scattering and analyzed the relationship of scattering fields from capillary wave and the wedge-shaped crest with small perturbation method (SPM) and geometrical theory of diffraction (GTD) respectively.

The dihedral wedge was consequently used to simulate the breaking wave, and the effect of the geometric parameters on the scattering was discussed with numerical methods.


Recently we have identified bodies (connected but not simply connected) invisible from a point [10, 14] . In this paper we provide a construction of a body invisible from 2 points. The body has infinitely many connected components. To our best knowledge, this construction demonstrates a new property of confocal conics. Thus, if you look with two eyes open from a fixed position, the body disappears -becomes completely invisible. The previous result meant that you needed to look at the body with one eye open and the other closed.

Recently we have identified bodies (connected but not simply connected) invisible from a point.


Our approach has several features which are important to its success. First, we included all variants in the set of 30 genetic loci as potential predictors of resistance to any drug and did not subset the variants according to a priori knowledge of causative relationships between genetic loci and drugs. The performance gains offered by this more 'permissive' approach were considerable especially for the second line drugs, and the first-line 'sterilizing' drug pyrazinamide [43] . Second, the multidrug structure allows drugs which have less phenotypic data to borrow information about resistance pathways from drugs that have higher numbers of phenotyped isolates. Additionally, the wide and deep structure allows us to include prior information about the genetic etiology of MDR and XDR, as it is known that both individual markers and gene-gene interactions confer resistance [9] [10] [11] . The wide portion of the network allows the effect of individual mutations (e.g. marginal effects) to be easily learned, while the deep portion of the network allows for arbitrarily complex epistatic effects to influence the predictions. The model presented here is the first multitask tool that predicts resistance for 10 anti-tuberculosis drugs simultaneously with state-of-the-art performance.

The performance gains offered by this more 'permissive' approach were considerable especially for the second line drugs, and the first-line 'sterilizing' drug pyrazinamide.

Additionally, the wide and deep structure allows us to include prior information about the genetic etiology of MDR and XDR, as it is known that both individual markers and gene-gene interactions confer resistance.


The word f can be associated with a curve from a drawing rule, which has geometric properties obtained from the combinatorial properties of f [4, 16] . The curve produced depends on the rules given. We read the symbols of the word in order and depending on what we read, we draw a line segment in a certain direction; this idea is the same as that used in LSystems [18] . In this case, the drawing rule is called the "odd-even drawing rule" [16] . This is defined as shown in Table 1 .

The word f can be associated with a curve from a drawing rule, which has geometric properties obtained from the combinatorial properties of f.

We read the symbols of the word in order and depending on what we read, we draw a line segment in a certain direction; this idea is the same as that used in LSystems.

In this case, the drawing rule is called the "odd-even drawing rule".

This is defined as shown in Table 1 .


Similarly, the yearly Hokitika Wild Foods Festival is dedicated to celebrating the consumption of various "wild," "raw," "exotic," or "native" foods; huhu grubs, live crickets and insects, and unusual parts of mammals and birds are all available, off ering middle-class participants the opportunity to exercise their gourmet palates while seemingly reenacting the adventurous spirit of their pioneers (Armstrong & Potts, 2004) . Th ere is no "absent referent" (Adams, 1990, p. 40) at this local festival; instead ,attendees are encouraged to eat whatever most resembles the living animal, rather than portions of an animal euphemistically renamed to conceal their origin. In a similar vein, two of the most popular television programs in New Zealand, Kiwi Kitchen and Hunger for the Wild, graphically showcase local cuisine comprising animals in the wild, freshly killed-usually by the chefs themselves (Logan & Brown, 2001, p. 1) .

Similarly, the yearly Hokitika Wild Foods Festival is dedicated to celebrating the consumption of various "wild," "raw," "exotic," or "native" foods; huhu grubs, live crickets and insects, and unusual parts of mammals and birds are all available, off ering middle-class participants the opportunity to exercise their gourmet palates while seemingly reenacting the adventurous spirit of their pioneers.


Accurate failure data is a crucial requirement for reliability assessment. In many situations, where human judgment, evaluation and decision-making are important, failure data may not be corrected accurately. It might sometime require linguistic terms to express data value (Pandey and Tyagi, 2007) . But if more than one fuzzy number is assigned to a particular event then random selection of any of these fuzzy numbers to determine the failure possibility of this event is not realistic. This work proposes a method to obtain a single fuzzy number having least variance with the fuzzy numbers assigned to that particular event.

It might sometime require linguistic terms to express data value.


The methodology adopted in this study primarily involved a content review of official government legal, policy and planning documents. Through this review we also identified the main institutions responsible for the mandate outlined in each of the instruments, and the administrative level at which they operate. We reviewed laws, policies and plans explicitly aimed at regulating land and land-use, and those indirectly influencing the use of land in a rural context. This review was guided as follows. First, in contrast to LDN, which is a relatively new concept, land degradation is not a new environmental challenge for Kenya. Land degradation is a complex multidimensional process that has been defined in many and various ways [19] . For the purpose of this study, the following definition by the UNCCD is adopted: the "loss, in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rainfed cropland, irrigated cropland, or range, pasture, forest and woodlands resulting from land uses or from a process or combination of processes, including processes arising from human activities and habitation patterns" [20] . In its broadest sense, land degradation is the decline in the bio-physical properties of both above and below ground functions and resources. In this regard, we focused on assessing the potential of the current land-use policy framework to address land degradation from this broad perspective related to the management and protection of soil and land. Second, the objective of this study was to assess the potential to address LDN through the intentions expressed in the various instruments examined. The focus was to provide information on intentionality and not on the effectiveness resulting from the implementation of the instruments. Policy instruments are implemented when they are in use and when they have an effect on decisions made by households or farmers [21] . Thus, an assessment of policy effectiveness would require an analysis of management results at the scale at which actions to address land degradation are taken, i.e., landscape, farm or plot, which is outside the scope of our study. Following is an elaboration of the main steps of the methodology.

This review was guided as follows.

Land degradation is a complex multidimensional process that has been defined in many and various ways.

For the purpose of this study, the following definition by the UNCCD is adopted: the "loss, in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rainfed cropland, irrigated cropland, or range, pasture, forest and woodlands resulting from land uses or from a process or combination of processes, including processes arising from human activities and habitation patterns".

Policy instruments are implemented when they are in use and when they have an effect on decisions made by households or farmers.


Today there are several projects in Europe both international and national, working in the field of protecting infrastructures against IEMI [4] . The shielding of buildings is one among several different protective actions available. Traditionally the windows have been considered as one of the weakest points together with physical apertures in form of ventilation openings and similar. However, today this is not necessarily the case regarding windows.

Today there are several projects in Europe both international and national, working in the field of protecting infrastructures against IEMI.


Intentional EMI has become a reality over the last decades at the same time as our society has become increasingly dependent of electrical and electronic systems. Of special concern are the parts of society, that form infrastructures critical for its functionality, such as telecommunications; electric power supply; food and water supply; transportation; and financial institutions including banks and ATM's. Even though it is of special importance that the automation and control of these infrastructures is robust against electromagnetic attacks they are strikingly often based on commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) equipment fulfilling no more than basic civil EMC specifications. Hence the need for protection against IEMI has grown radically [1] , [2] , [3] .

Hence the need for protection against IEMI has grown radically.


A large number of different types of coatings have appeared on the market during the last decades which combined creates distinguishable generations of windows. Previous measurements have shown that modern energy efficient windows can have higher attenuation than the walls of the building on frequencies well below the visible spectrum [5] . Several reports have been published about wireless communication systems with degraded performance or even loss of communication at least to some degree due to window installations [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] .

Previous measurements have shown that modern energy efficient windows can have higher attenuation than the walls of the building on frequencies well below the visible spectrum.

Several reports have been published about wireless communication systems with degraded performance or even loss of communication at least to some degree due to window installations.


T. solium follows a relatively complex transmission cycle perpetuated by poverty, free ranging pig systems, poor sanitation and the consumption of raw and undercooked pork. Humans act as both the definitive and accidental dead-end intermediate hosts of the parasite, capable of becoming infected with the adult and larval stages. Human taenia carriers harbour the adult tapeworm in the small intestine, with each tapeworm segment releasing thousands of eggs into the environment. Indiscriminate defecation, freely scavenging pigs and poor sanitation facilitate the ingestion of tapeworm eggs by pigs and humans, risking formation of the cystic larval stage in both. Cysts in the human central nervous system can result in Neurocysticercosis (NCC), manifesting clinically as epilepsy, chronic headaches, vertigo, visual disturbances and nausea amongst other symptoms (Del Brutto, 2012) . Humans that ingest raw or undercooked cystic pork acquire the adult tapeworm, thus completing the life cycle.

Cysts in the human central nervous system can result in Neurocysticercosis (NCC), manifesting clinically as epilepsy, chronic headaches, vertigo, visual disturbances and nausea amongst other symptoms.


We tested the proposed method on all the images and distortions available in the LIVE database, after converting the color images to gray level images. In order to provide quantitative measures on the performance of the objective quality assessment models, different evaluation metrics were adopted in the Video Quality Experts Group (VQEG) Phase-I test [27] . We performed non-linear mapping between the objective and subjective scores, using 4-parameter logistic function of the form shown in Equation (5) .

In order to provide quantitative measures on the performance of the objective quality assessment models, different evaluation metrics were adopted in the Video Quality Experts Group (VQEG) Phase-I test.

We performed non-linear mapping between the objective and subjective scores, using 4-parameter logistic function of the form shown in Equation.


The proposed quality index was tested using LIVE image database [24] . The database consists of twenty-nine high resolution 24-bits/pixel RGB color images (typically 768 x 512), distorted using five distortion types: JPEG2000, JPEG, White noise in the RGB components, Gaussian blur in the RGB components, and bit errors in JPEG2000 bit stream using a fast-fading Rayleigh channel model. Each image was distorted with each type, and for each type the perceptual quality covered the entire quality range. Difference Mean Opinion Score (DMOS) value for each distorted image was computed based on the perception of quality of the images by observers.

The proposed quality index was tested using LIVE image database.


Based on these premises, the present work focused on a forest biomass plant that represents a complex activity that involves territorial planning, logistic activity, suitable management of the energy production plant, and a vast commercial achievement dedicated to the purchase of energy fuel. The proposed model exposed that the tangible feasibility of the plant is linked to the ability to find fuel in the neighboring area (province of Rieti, Central Italy). Generally, the plant's profit can be active only in case of the purchase of fuel in the short supply chain [47, 48] . In the present case, the results revealed that the studied plant can be sustainable over time, owing to the relevant incidence of forest biomass in the province of Rieti, which emerged thanks to territorial analysis. The transportation costs that resulted were not so excessive due to the closeness of the location of the proposed plant to biomass source regions. The energy plant considered can benefit from different waste material, e.g., poplar cultivation (143 tons), beech trees (143 tons), deciduous trees (excluding poplar and chestnut trees) (53 tons), and castanets (884 tons). In this way, it also allows the energy plant to continuously operate, also ensuring that its operators (initially about seven people, including five operators, an administrative person, and a chief engineer with experience in the bioenergy sector) work to endlessly strengthen the employment conditions in the agricultural sector [49] [50] [51] .

Generally, the plant's profit can be active only in case of the purchase of fuel in the short supply chain.

In this way, it also allows the energy plant to continuously operate, also ensuring that its operators (initially about seven people, including five operators, an administrative person, and a chief engineer with experience in the bioenergy sector) work to endlessly strengthen the employment conditions in the agricultural sector.


Using renewable sources in the energy sector requires agreeing to meet the energetic demand while respecting the environment [44, 45] . Agroenergy districts characterize a tangible chance for central realities in Italy toward sustainability and higher environmental quality, with the purpose of strengthening local socio-economic structures using new technologies [11] . Biomass utilization can support rural development [46] . The degree of sustainability of the agroenergy supply chains must be evaluated, as well as their networks of production processes [13] .

Using renewable sources in the energy sector requires agreeing to meet the energetic demand while respecting the environment.

Agroenergy districts characterize a tangible chance for central realities in Italy toward sustainability and higher environmental quality, with the purpose of strengthening local socio-economic structures using new technologies.

Biomass utilization can support rural development.

The degree of sustainability of the agroenergy supply chains must be evaluated, as well as their networks of production processes.