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Paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera (L.) Vent.) was one of the most widely distributed crop species in prehistoric Oceania, occurring from continental East Asia to the Polynesian islands. Its broad distribution is largely due to human-mediated dispersal during colonization of the islands of Near and Remote Oceania. We explore the potential for analyses of genetic variation in paper mulberry and the value of such data for the development of a new commensal model species for reconstructing patterns of human mobility in Oceania. We introduce and discuss paper mulberry as another commensal species and outline key features for its contribution to the understanding of human migration and post-colonization interaction. Here, we describe some of the extant B. papyrifera populations in Remote Oceania and Taiwan that were sampled for initial studies. We argue that the unique characteristics of this species and its importance in ancient Pacific island societies may provide the opportunity to collect valuable gen...

Dye removal from effluents is a major problem for most textile industries. At present, wastewater treatments are currently based on physico-chemical methods which are expensive, energy inefficient and of limited versatility. The aim of this work was to find a low-cost and efficient method for dye removal. To do this, we designed a combined system based on the immobilization of the ligninolytic white-rot fungus Peniophora laxitexta (BAFC 4687) on mixed supports consisting of two polyurethane foam discs and a middle layer of diverse lignocellulosic substrates: soybean hulls, wheat straw or cellulose spent casings. As a corticioid fungus, P. laxitexta was able to completely colonize the supports developing a compact and tight structure that maintained the integrity of the system after several dye removal cycles. The immobilized fungus removed between 30% and 50% of the azoic dye Xylidine and more than 50% of the anthraquinonic dye RBBR in three successive cycles, and near 90% of the triphenylmethane Malachite Green in 10 repeated cycles without any loss of efficiency. Our analysis showed that the removal of the dyes was due to the combined effect of adsorption to the supports and enzymatic decolorization by soluble laccases and enzymes associated with the mycelium. Additionally, we showed that the presence of Malachite Green induced the expression of a new laccase isoform with high decolorization capacity. Based on these results, we propose that this inoculated laminar biocarrier could be effectively used for dye removal in textile wastewater. Fil: Majul, Leonardo Matias. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Micología y Botánica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Micología y Botánica; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular; Argentina Fil: Wirth, Sonia Alejandra. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Levin, Laura Noemí. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Micología y Botánica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Micología y Botánica; Argentina

Insect repellent textiles are currently being investigated as a complementary tool to control disease vectors, such as mosquitoes. The application of microencapsulated biopesticides to textiles is a promising low-toxicity alternative to other control methods, as microcapsules may prolong the release of the repellent agent. In this work, microcapsules containing two biopesticides, namely citronella essential oil and citriodiol® were prepared and applied to cotton textiles using a variety of techniques. The aim of this work was to evaluate these functional textiles to select the most efficient, durable systems. Citriodiol-treated cotton presented a prolonged durability, and 100% repellency could be achieved for more than 30 days after padding onto cotton fabrics. It has to be pointed out that all these repellent textiles have been obtained by scalable, low-cost methods which would require no additional investment for textile finishing industries., Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores

WOS: 000400069000006, Silver compounds have extensive use among the antimicrobial agents in textiles. Silver particles are released into the water during washing processes in particular and they are released from the textile in time due to use. In this work, silver ion release from cotton and polyester antimicrobial fabrics which are the most widely used textiles have been studied. Two well-known silver-based commercial agents and silver-doped calcium phosphate powder-based antibacterial finishing agent which was developed in our previous work were applied to the fabric samples. The release of silver from the fabric samples during washing and incubation was determined by ICP-OES. The effects of fabric composition, time and laundering process on the silver release were studied. It was found that significant amount of silver was released from textile fabrics during washing due to the mechanical forces exerted on the fabrics. The total released silver varied from 73.43 to 92.27% for cotton fabrics and 76.49 to 89.70% for PES fabrics after 20 washing cycles. Results also showed that calcium phosphate can reduce the amount of silver release significantly. It was also found that even a smaller quantity of nanosilver particles was sufficient for strong antibacterial activity., Anadolu University Scientific Research Projects Commission [1108F128], This study was supported by Anadolu University Scientific Research Projects Commission [grant number 1108F128].

Agave sisalana components have great potential in different pharmaceutical applications, but the quality of herbal raw materials is essential to reach the desired product specifications. In this work, we investigated the physico-chemical quality parameters of bole and wastes from decortication of A. sisalana leaves. The statistically significant variations among products suggest different pharmaceutical applications for each of them.

Aging populations are a dramatically increased worldwide trend, both in developed and developing countries. This study examines the prevalence of fatal and non-fatal work-related injuries between young (= 45 years old) workers. A systematic literature review aimed at examining studies comparing safety outcomes, namely fatal and non-fatal injuries, between older and younger workers. Results show that 50% of the reviewed papers suggest that fatal injuries are suffered mainly by older workers, while the remaining 50% show no differences between older and younger workers. Regarding non-fatal injuries, 49% of the reviewed papers found no relationship between workers' age; 31% found increased age as a protective factor against non-fatal injuries; and 19% showed that older workers had a higher risk of non-fatal injuries than younger ones. This review suggests that older workers experience higher rates of fatal injuries, and younger workers experience higher rates of non-fatal injuries., This work was financed by the Mutual de Seguridad de la C. Ch.C in the framework of the fund titled "Proyectos de Investigacion e Innovacion SUSESO.

As Chinese investment in foreign land and agriculture expands dramatically worldwide, a growing body of research has emerged on the prevalence of land deals in Latin America and Africa. Southeast Asia, however, has only recently begun to receive significant attention in these discussions. A deeper exploration of the Southeast Asian context offers crucial insights into understanding the puzzle of global land deals (why, where, how they occur) more broadly. This paper frames this exploration via an overview of regional land deal trends – focusing particularly on China’s emergence as a prolific investor in the Global South, and why Chinese investment is increasingly targeting Southeast Asia, especially vis-a-vis expanding flex and boom crop production. This paper aims to provide a broader contextualization for recent Southeast Asian case studies, and to highlight why more research in the region is key in deepening our understanding of global land deal trends.

This paper considers a low-level unit-load warehouse employing single-deep storage lanes and a single-command manual storage and retrieval policy. Analytical travel distance models are developed for class-based and full turnover storage policies under across-aisle, within-aisle and a newly proposed hybrid product placement schemes. Our computational studies show that the analytical models developed in this paper are very accurate as compared to simulation results and a comparative study with a real-world warehouse case. Hybrid storage policies proposed in this paper outperform all other traditional storage policies. The paper also presents insights and simple design rules to warehouse practitioners.

A political leader's authenticity has always been a site of struggle: politicians have tried to control their own image, while mass media has promised to reveal the "real" self behind the electoral campaign. In recent years, social media such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube have gained a positive reputation as electoral tools. This paper seeks to critically engage with this reputation, by focusing on how these services become discursively articulated with the notion of political "authenticity" in the case of the 2010 municipal elections in Calgary, Canada. In these elections, the intense use of social media by the winning candidate has been seen as proof of the democratic power of these communication technologies to bring together politicians and citizens. A qualitative thematic analysis of 86 undergraduate essays reveals how participants collectively talked about political "authenticity." The paper argues that political "authenticity" becomes articulated as a result of the intrinsic features of social media, reinforcing the longstanding technological determinist view of technology as the guarantor of a better citizen/politician relation. The discursive articulation of social media and political "authenticity" portrays politics as a customer relations service, providing little insight into how we are to understand and relate to democratic politics after elections.

OBJECTIVES: An association is found between changes in cytokine levels and antidepressant treatment outcome. Also, a proinflammatory profile is associated with a favourable electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) outcome. This paper investigates the pattern of inflammatory markers during a course of ECT in older depressed patients and whether this pattern is associated with ECT outcome. We hypothesised that ECT has an anti-inflammatory effect. METHODS: The pattern of CRP, IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-α during a course of ECT was examined using longitudinal mixed model analyses. Serum samples were collected in 99 older depressed patients (mean age: 72.8 ± 8.3 years, MADRS score 33.8 ± 9.0). RESULTS: After Bonferroni correction, there were no statistically significant alterations in levels of inflammatory markers during and after ECT. Effect sizes (Cohen's d) were -0.29 for CRP, -0.13 for IL-6, -0.06 for IL-10, and -0.07 for TNF-α. Changes in CRP or cytokine levels did not differ between remitters and non-remitters. Median baseline levels of CRP were significantly higher in remitters. CONCLUSIONS: A small to medium effect size towards decreased CRP and IL-6 levels was observed. An anti-inflammatory effect of ECT could not be confirmed. However, the findings may suggest that patients with an inflammatory profile benefit more from ECT than other patients. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings. ispartof: WORLD JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY vol:22 issue:10 pages:770-777 ispartof: location:England status: published

This paper sets out to deepen our understanding of the relationship between popular music and cultural heritage and to delineate the practices of popular music as cultural heritage. The paper illustrates how the term has been mobilised by a variety of actors, from the public to the private sector, to highlight the value of particular popular music manifestations and justify or encourage their preservation and diffusion for posterity. We focus on Austria, England, France and the Netherlands - countries with diverse popular music histories and with varying national and international reach. Popular music heritage is present in national and local public sector heritage institutions and practices in a number of ways. These range from the preservation and exhibition of the material culture of heritage in museums and archives, to a variety of ‘bottom-up’ initiatives, delineating a rich landscape of emblematic places, valued for their attachment to particular musicians or music scenes. The paper points to an underlying tension between the adoption and replication of conventional heritage practices to the preservation and remembrance of the popular music and its celebration as an expression of the dynamism of contemporary popular culture.

Purpose: Self-reliance and social participation are strongly promoted by social policy. Both concepts are linked to the concept of vulnerability, for people who do not meet these standards are labelled "vulnerable people". In this paper, the insider's perspective takes central stage by seeking to explore what it means to be labelled a "vulnerable person", and through this to further our insight into the meaning of the concept of vulnerability. Method: Thirty-three in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 allegedly vulnerable people. The data were subjected to thematic content analysis. Results: Our analysis revealed three main dimensions and eight sub-dimensions of perceived vulnerability, outlining an insider's concept of vulnerability. This concept includes manifestations of vulnerability, feelings coexisting with vulnerability, and the image of vulnerable people. Conclusion: The perception of vulnerability changes when interacting with others in society, especially with social policy implementers. In this interaction, the perceived vulnerability increases and becomes societal vulnerability. It concerns a dependency situation in which one's strength and self-determination are not recognized, and the help needed is not provided. By acknowledging the insider's perspective, social policy can fulfil a more empowering role towards "vulnerable people" and contribute to people's well-being. ispartof: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF QUALITATIVE STUDIES ON HEALTH AND WELL-BEING vol:16 issue:1 ispartof: location:United States status: published

The paper presents in a chronological and systematic way the development of the hybrid method for seismic vulnerability assessment of structures, which combines the use of empirical databases of earthquake damage with the results of nonlinear analysis of representative structural models. The key concepts and milestones in the development of the method are identified, and selected examples of its application are summarised. The first part of the paper focuses on the derivation of hybrid damage probability matrices and the second one with the derivation of fragility curves for reinforced concrete and masonry buildings. Finally, some general conclusions are drawn and directions of future research on the hybrid approach are suggested.

WOS: 000389443300019, PubMed ID: 27291089, Context: Human beings have long utilized plants for medicinal purposes. Investigation of these plants has led to the discovery of several modern drugs. Objective: This paper documents and evaluates traditional knowledge on medicinal plants used by the local people of Mihalgazi district of Eskisehir,Turkey. Materials and methods: Six villages of the study area were visited between February 2014 and April 2015 to collect the data. One hundred and eighty-nine informants were interviewed by the survey method and face to face semi-structured interviews. Taxonomic identification, the most commonly used plant parts, preparation and administration methods were evaluated. Ethnomedicinal data were analyzed quantitatively with relative importance (RI) and the informant consensus factor (FIC). Results: This paper reported a total of 52 medicinal plants (37 wild, 15 cultivated) belonging to 34 families. Some uses of 22 plants were not found in the literature and are reported for the first time in this study. Furthermore, one of the plants, Calamagrostis arundinacea (L.) Roth (Poaceae), was reported for the first time as being used within the scope of traditional therapies. Discussion and conclusion: This study recorded traditional knowledge on medicinal plants used in Mihalgazi, Turkey. This paper provides a basis for further investigations to discover efficient pharmaceuticals., Anadolu University [1402S037], This work was financially supported by Scientific Research Projects Unit of Anadolu University (Project no: 1402S037).

The paper presents a fast and efficient method for the detection and characterisation of delamination in photovoltaic (PV) modules by using active infrared thermography approach. A discrete part of PV module was irradiated by step heating and its thermal image sequence was used to detect and analyse delamination. Different types of heating source for thermal excitation for this application have been studied. An electro-thermal model was developed to simulate the active thermography approach for the characterisation of delamination in PV module by equivalent resistance-capacitance (RC) network using a circuit simulator. This simulation approach was used to estimate the extent of delamination in the module and to determine the optimum parameters for the characterisation of delamination. Different applications based on front and backsides of heating the module were also proposed in this paper. The proposed method has the potential to be employed for the quality check of PV modules during inline production as well as for the predictive maintenance of outdoor PV plants.

In this paper the relation between religion and income is investigated using a micro-dataset for the Netherlands. Religiosity is measured by religious membership and by participation. Instead of estimating separately a religion and an income equation, joint regression is preferred since this generally yields more efficient estimates. Following the single equation approach, both religious measures are found to decrease significantly income and income is found to affect negatively religion. However, these cross-effects get insignificant once the equations are simultaneously estimated. In contrast, the effects of socio-economic characteristics on religion and income hardly differ between both approaches.This discussion paper has resulted in a publication in Applied Economics.

This paper addresses the process of event handling and rescheduling in manufacturing practice. Firms are confronted with many diverse events, such as new or changed orders, machine breakdowns, and material shortages. These events influence the feasibility and optimality of schedules, and thus induce rescheduling. In many manufacturing firms, schedules are created by several human planners. Coordination between them is needed to respond to events adequately. In this paper, the practice of coordination during event handling is analysed by an extensive case study. The study shows that human planners spend much time in communicating events and in negotiating rescheduling solutions. Because many events demand a quick response, the possibilities for coordination are restricted by time constraints. The paper proposes a procedure to structure the event handling process. This procedure helps a scheduler to select an appropriate response to an event by evaluating its influence on schedule feasibility and the time available for coordination and rescheduling. The use of the procedure in the case company has led to improved rescheduling performance through a reduction of scheduler interactions and increasing coordination efficiency. The procedure contributes to traditional planning frameworks and paradigms, and supports the conscious selection and use of rescheduling methods in manufacturing practice.

Innovative organisations need creative employees who generate new ideas for product or process innovation. This paper presents a conceptual framework for the effect of personal, social-organisational and physical factors on employee creativity. Based on this framework, an instrument to analyse the extent to which the work environment enhances creativity is developed. This instrument was applied to a sample of 409 employees and support was found for the hypothesis that a creative work environment enhances creative performance. This paper illustrates how the instrument can be used in companies to select and implement improvements. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: The ergonomics discipline addresses the work environment mainly for improving health and safety and sometimes productivity and quality. This paper opens a new area for ergonomics: designing work environments for enhancing employee creativity in order to strengthen an organisation's capability for product and process innovation and, consequently, its competitiveness.

Advances in production planning and control in recent decades have focused on increasing the sophistication of the planning function. For good reasons, these advances have led to the centralisation of the planning function in production. However, the sophistication of the planning function should be in balance with monitoring and control of the plan. Monitoring and control are by their nature decentralised, beginning on the shop floor, and, therefore, the desire for greater sophistication in monitoring and control leads to renewed interest in decentralised and localised approaches. This paper demonstrates the possibility of using intelligent products for decentralised monitoring and control. Intelligent products are aware of their local context and can negotiate with local manufacturing resources. As such, local solutions to problems can be proposed directly when problems occur. With the advancement of the 'Internet of Things', such a scenario is likely to become feasible in the near future. The paper demonstrates the viability of such an approach through a simulation study, in which robustness is included as an additional measure of performance. The results of the simulations are encouraging.

Introduction: Pulmonary route is one of the preferred routes for the administration of therapeutically active agents for systemic as well as localized delivery. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), bronchial asthma, pneumonia, pulmonary hypertension, bronchiolitis, lung cancer, and tuberculosis are the major chronic diseases associated with the pulmonary system. Knowledge about the affecting factors, namely, the etiology, pathophysiology, and the various barriers (mechanical, chemical, immunological, and behavioral) in pulmonary drug delivery is essential to develop an effective drug delivery system. Formulation strategies and mechanisms of particle deposition in the lungs also play an important role in designing a suitable delivery system.Areas covered: In the present paper, various drug delivery strategies, viz. nanoparticles, microparticles, liposomes, powders, and microemulsions have been discussed systematically, from a patent perspective.Expert opinion: Patent publications on formulation strategies have been instrumental in the evolution of new techniques and technologies for safe and effective treatment of pulmonary diseases. New delivery systems are required to be simple/reproducible/scalable/cost-effective scale for manufacturing ability and should be safe/effective/stable/controllable for meeting quality and regulatory compliance.

In this paper we discuss some of the major strengths and limitations of an application programming interfaces (API)-based approach to studying accessibility in transport networks. To this end, we p...

The effect of time bucket length on the choice of a lot-splitting approach is studied. Due to the continuing pressure to reduce throughput times and increase efficiency, managers apply various measures, such as lot splitting and cycle time reduction programmes, that change the length of the time bucket in their planning systems. It is shown that the choice for a suitable lot-splitting approach depends on the time bucket length used, so these measures cannot be treated independently as costs may increase rapidly without substantial effect on throughput times. Moreover, the current belief in the lot-splitting literature that the improvements of a variable lot-splitting approach are only marginal compared with an equal sub-batch approach is challenged. Some papers estimate the possible flow time improvement to be less than 5%. It is shown that such statements are not valid as the improvement depends strongly on the type of equal sub-batch strategy applied and the length of the time bucket. Moreover, flow time improvements are accompanied by extra transfer costs, so a cost perspective that includes both effects is more appropriate. The paper shows that equal sub-batching is only effective if information on the time bucket length and on product characteristics is included. At time bucket lengths between one and three days, costs are very sensitive for the type of sub-batching strategy applied. Simulation experiments show that variable sub-batching leads to average cost improvements from 3 to 11%, depending on the time bucket length and the equal sub-batch strategy applied. Lower costs are due to throughput time reductions and transfer cost savings.

E-commerce companies often use manual order-picking systems in their warehouses since these systems can provide the required flexibility and scalability. Manual systems have been widely studied, but the operating policies may require significant changes for e-commerce settings. First, to maintain consumers' loyalty, it is important to maintain delivery reliability even on the busiest days. When the number of order pickers in an area increases, however, more delays due to interactions may occur. For example, travel speed may need to be lowered when order pickers pass each other in narrow aisles. Second, many products sold through e-commerce are returned by consumers. Before these returned products can be sold again, they must be reintegrated in the stock. This paper presents hybrid genetic algorithms to determine routes for simultaneous pickup of products in response to consumers' orders and delivery of returned products to storage locations. Furthermore, interactions between the order pickers are considered in the routing decisions. The developed algorithms use specific warehouse problem characteristics. We identify the mix of pickups and deliveries to realise the highest savings in practice. It is shown that order-picker interactions can be a significant cause for delay and should be accounted for in the routing.

WOS: 000470591700001, In the present paper, a theoretically study of the non-resonant laser field effect on the optical response, such as nonlinear optical rectification (NOR), second (SHG) and third harmonic generation (THG) coefficients in double finite oscillator potential (DFO) quantum wells is performed in the framework of the effective mass approximation. The obtained results reveal that, energy states and optical response is significantly affected by the non-resonant intense laser field (ILF) intensity and symmetry of the structure. Also it was found that the laser field is more effective on the optical response in the DFO potential when the asymmetric character of the confinement potential is strong. Thus, the NOR, SHG and THG coefficients with designated values can be obtained by using a properly adjusted ILF intensity and symmetry parameter of confinement potential.

0000-0001-5333-5750, WOS: 000477771800005, C120 steel sections are the most widely used post shapes in European guardrail designs. The design length of these posts is determined based on guardrail containment level and engineering judgment. The soil properties where these posts are embedded are usually not considered in design. It is a well-known fact that the crash test performance of soil embedded posts depends mostly on post-soil interaction and post embedment depth (PED). In this study, a series of field impact tests were performed on soil embedded C120 posts to determine optimum PED for three different soil conditions. Seven different PED varied from 650 to 900mm was used for each soil type. Based on these findings a full-scale crash test is performed on a guardrail to verify optimum PED for hard soil conditions. With the use of optimum length guardrail posts considerable amount of installation time, labor and material savings are expected., TUBITAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey)Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [213M516], The work presented in this paper was carried out with funding from TUBITAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey), Grant number 213M516. Their support to this study is gratefully acknowledged.

0000-0003-1555-6426 WOS: 000482944000001 Accurate prediction of surface subsidence due to the extraction of underground coal seams becomes a significant challenge in engineering. For a projected longwall coal mining operation, conditions of weak cover rock and thick coal seams (6-12 m) in Turgut basin in Yatagan-Turkey are described and discussed based on the field data, using surface deformation prediction system software. This paper aims at predicting the subsidence values only numerically by evaluating the influence of subsidence on irrigation pipeline structure to be built on the ground for the cases with pillars left in the coal seam.

WOS: 000457020400005, This paper investigates the electricity-growth nexus of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries from 1980 to 2014. To achieve the goal of this research, both panel cointegration and causality approaches are utilised to examine the long-term and causal relationships between variables. Empirical results confirm the presence of cointegration between variables. Moreover, this study finds that electricity consumption affects the long-term economic growth. Given that GCC member countries are energy-dependent economies, policies that aim to conserve energy consumption may jeopardise economic growth.

This paper challenges the mainstream narrative that links the strength and speed of the world trade collapse in 2008–2009 to the international fragmentation of production, organized in international value chains. The paper points out often overlooked counteracting forces such as non-bank-intermediated credit, trust in long-term commercial affairs and intra-firm relationships. A cross-section of the strength and speed of the import decline in 42 countries shows that both the share of manufacturing trade and an indicator for the vertical specialization in trade are associated with less contraction and slower adjustment. Countries with large shares of manufactures in trade (a proxy for international value chain activity) and/or vertical specialization in trade did not reduce their trade more strongly. The empirical evidence points out that international value chains may very well have had a major dampening effect that reduced the extent to which world trade fell.

Historical soil survey paper maps are valuable resources that underpin strategies to support soil protection and promote sustainable land use practices, especially in developing countries where digital soil information is often missing. However, many of the soil maps, in particular those for developing countries, are held in traditional archives that are not easily accessible to potential users. Additionally, many of these documents are over 50 years old and are beginning to deteriorate. Realising the need to conserve this information, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the ISRIC-World Soil Information foundation have created the European Digital Archive of Soil Maps (EuDASM), through which all archived paper maps of ISRIC has been made accessible to the public through the Internet. The immediate objective is to transfer paper-based soil maps into a digital format with the maximum possible resolution and to ensure their preservation and easy disclosure. More than 6,000 maps from 135 countries have been captured and are freely available to users through a user-friendly web-based interface. Initial feedback has been very positive, especially from users in Africa, South America and Asia to whom archived soil maps were made available to local users, often for the first time. Link: http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu/library/maps/country_maps/ list_countries.cfm, JRC.H.7-Land management and natural hazards

The concept of “strong stability” of LTI systems has been introduced in a recent paper [KHP2]. This is a stronger notion of stability compared to alternative definitions (e.g. stability in the sense of Lyapunov, asymptotic stability), which allows the analysis and design of control systems with non-overshooting response in the state-space for arbitrary initial conditions. The paper reviews the notion of “strong stability” [KHP2] and introduces the problem of non-overshooting stabilization. It is shown that non-overshooting stabilization under dynamic and static output feedback are, in a certain sense, equivalent problems. Thus, we turn our attention to static non-overshooting stabilization problems under state-feedback, output injection and output feedback. After developing a number of preliminary results, we give a geometric interpretation to the problem in terms of the intersection of an affine hyperplane and the interior of an open convex cone. A solution to the problem is finally obtained via Linear Matrix Inequalities, along with the complete parametrization of the optimal solution set.

This paper describes a new approach to cooperative design using distributed, off-the-shelf design components. The ultimate goal is to enable assemblers to rapidly design their products and perform simulations using parts that are offered by a global network of suppliers. The obvious way to realise this goal would be to transfer desired component models to the client computer. However, in order to protect proprietary data, manufacturers are reluctant to share their design models without non-disclosure agreements, which can take in the order of months to put in place. Due to bandwidth limitations, it is also impractical to keep the models at the manufacturer site and do simulations by simple message passing. To deal with these impediments in e-commerce the modular distributed modelling (MDM) methodology is leveraged, which enables transfer of component models while hiding proprietary implementation details. MDM methodology with routine design (RD) methods are augmented to realise a platform (RD-MDM) that enables automatic selection of secured off-the-shelf design components over the Internet, integration of these components in an assembly, running simulations for design testing and publishing the approved product model as a secured MDM agent. This paper demonstrates the capabilities of the RD-MDM platform on a fuel cell-battery hybrid vehicle design example. Publisher's Version Author Post Print WOS:000208045000004

This paper describes the state of the art in land mine detection technology and algorithms. Landmine detection is a growing concern due to the danger of buried landmines to people's lives, economic growth and development. Most of the injured people have no connection with the reason why the mines were placed. There are 50-100 million landmines in more than 80 countries around the world. Deactivation is estimated at 100 000 mines per year, against the nearly 2 million mines laid annually. In this paper we describe and analyse sensor technology available including state-of-the-art technology such as ground penetrating radar (GPR), electromagnetic induction (EMI) and nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) among others. Robotics, data processing and algorithms are mentioned, considering support vectors, sensor fusion, neural networks, etc. Finally, we establish conclusions highlighting the need to improve not only the way images are acquired, but the way this information is processed and compared.

The workload control literature highlights the importance of balancing the shop floor workload, but also acknowledges that this can conflict with processing the most urgent orders – hence, there is a trade-off. In practice, shops contain many complexities, e.g. simultaneous batching and sequence-dependent set-up times that may conflict with processing the most urgent orders and require other solutions than workload balancing to avoid capacity losses. This adds to the trade-off dilemma, which traditionally only considers timing and balancing. This paper develops a framework that determines whether to address a complexity through order release or dispatching. It comprises two dimensions: (i) the typical position of a complexity in the routing of an order and (ii) the criticality of the complexity. A case study is presented, which demonstrates the framework’s utility and illustrates the development of specific solutions designed to handle the complexities. Most complexities present in the case require handling at the order release stage. The challenges of handling multiple complexities at this decision level are evaluated. Finally, the implications for managers and future research are outlined.

Introduction: Despite several available evidence-based interventions for major depression relapse, rates remain high and relapse prevention programs are still scarce. To increase effectiveness, novel techniques that target underlying vulnerability factors may be a promising avenue. Depression is associated with impairments in executive functioning, which is in turn associated with poor psychosocial outcomes and more Repetitive Negative Thinking (RNT), a key vulnerability factor for relapse. This paper examines deficits in cognitive control as a potentially modifiable causal mechanism for depression. Areas covered: An overview of studies on the interplay between cognitive control and RNT is presented, assessing the potential of training cognitive control in depressed individuals. Cognitive Control Training (CCT), or other techniques aimed at remediating executive functioning, provides an interesting way to examine the causal status of executive functions in depression-related symptoms, such as emotion regulation and psychosocial functioning. The clinical utility of CCT is assessed. Expert commentary: There is emerging evidence for clinical utility of CCT but more large-scale, longitudinal studies are required. The section discusses how the adaptive Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT) can be used as a technique that can be combined with psychological as well as biological interventions, to increase overall effectiveness of treatment for depression.

Psoriasis is a systemic inflammatory disorder associated with many other chronic and progressive diseases. Ocular comorbidity has been reported in 10-15% of patients with plaque psoriasis, but the real incidence is still underestimated. This paper reports successful treatment with secukinumab of a patient with plaque psoriasis and dry eye syndrome. Secukinumab treatment was rapidly effective on skin psoriasis and this result was in agreement with observations reported in the literature. Interestingly, both the skin condition and the ocular disease improved after treatment. Our experience suggests that this drug should be used in patients with plaque psoriasis and ophthalmologic manifestations.

This paper presents a congestion control protocol for ad-hoc Wireless-LAN (WLAN) with Bandwidth-on Demand (BoD) access. The novelty of this paper is in the extensive use of model-based control methodologies to simultaneously compute the capacity requests necessary to access the network (BoD) and the capacity allocations required to regulate the rates of the traffic flows (congestion control). The proposed scheme allows one to compute upper-bounds of the queue lengths in all the network buffers (thus allowing proper buffer dimensioning and, therefore, overflow prevention), avoids that the assigned capacity is left unused (thus entailing full link utilization) and guarantees the recovery of a satisfactory traffic behaviour as soon as congestion situations terminate (congestion recovery). The high-speed WLAN considered in the paper has been developed within the European Union (EU) project Wireless Indoor Flexible High Bitrate Modern Architecture (WINDFLEX). Extensive simulations prove the effectiveness of th...

To come to decisions in a multilevel setting, informal as well as procedural interactions are of importance. In this paper, we explored in a case study the decision-making patterns between informal interactions and procedural interactions, and the significance of the decisions resulting from different patterns.We discovered five patterns of multilevel decision-making: top-down processes, bottom-up processes, collaborative decision-making, synchronization by procedures, and synchronization by interactions. We conclude that these patterns do have different results. Top-down and bottom-up processes often result in mutually extinguishing decisions, whereas the other patterns can result into decisions that matter, depending on the relationships between levels.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to improve the general operationalization of an “active patient,” by examining the specific activities and skills expected of active patients. Design/methodology/approach – Expected activities and necessary skills were studied through a qualitative case study into the development and use of an assistive technology (i.e. web site) aimed at stimulating active patient-ship. Interviews, observations and document analysis were used to capture and explore designers’ inscribing practices and their consequences regarding expected competences and activities of patients using the web site. Findings – Designers inscribed two “co-design roles” that active patients were expected to perform on the web site (co-designing their own healthcare and co-designing the healthcare of peers), for which at least eight different competencies were needed. The absence of skills or facilities to apply these skills resulted in incomplete use, a different use than intended by designers and non-use of the web site. Practical implications – Technological choices and inscribing processes determine who is able or facilitated to become active and who is not. Due to inscribed co-design roles, it also influences the extent to which already active peers are able to perform health-related activities. Different users with different conditions should be taken into account in the design as specific group characteristics can influence level of individual activity. Originality/value – This study is, as far as the authors know, the first that examines the “active patient” concept by studying an assistive technology and using scripting literature, resulting in an improved understanding of what it means to become “active” in terms of skills and activities.

The world population is increasing and there is a growing demand for food, leading to intensification of farming methods and a requirement for more coadjuvants. Potential high profits sometimes lead to fraudulent use of drugs and pesticides. Veterinary drugs in particular can pose a real risk to human health if their residues are allowed to enter the food chain. Parent drugs and their metabolites can occur in foodstuffs individually or as multicomponent mixtures with enhanced adverse effects. In order to protect consumer safety, the European Union has established lists of forbidden substances, maximum residue limits for authorised drugs and precise criteria for confirmation analyses and interpretation of the results. Due to their nature and potential danger, the 'best available technique' should always be applied. Following this principle, this review examines the procedures and techniques applied to monitoring pharmaceutical products of major concern (e.g. anthelmintics, NSAIDs, corticosteroids, coccidiostats) in foods of animal origin, discussing advances over the past five years and future trends in the field of food safety. Our goal was both to focus attention on this important topic and to provide a selection of the most relevant recent papers on drug residues in foodstuffs.

In this paper, four immittance function simulators consisting of a single modified current follower with single Z- terminal and a minimum number of passive components are proposed. The first proposed circuit can provide +L parallel with +R and the second proposed one can realise -L parallel with -R. The third proposed structure can provide +L series with +R and the fourth proposed one can realise -L series with -R. However, all the proposed immittance function simulators need a single resistive matching constraint. Parasitic impedance effects on all the proposed immittance function simulators are investigated. A second-order current-mode (CM) high-pass filter derived from the first proposed immittance function simulator is given as an application example. Also, a second-order CM low-pass filter derived from the third proposed immittance function simulator is given as an application example. A number of simulation results based on SPICE programme and an experimental test result are given to verify the theory. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Prediction of cargo volumes is important for authorities such as port administrations and port operators, as cargo throughput affects port planning and operation. The forecasting results help planners and policy-makers to take decisions on issues such as port investment, port development, berth location selection, port operation, and freight rate. The success of the port operation policy depends on the accuracy of the cargo forecast. This paper presents an improved model known as dynamic regression (DR) model to forecast cargo demand simultaneously for ports within a port system; the model is applied to forecast cargo demand at major seaports in India. Past cargo flow data from years 1980-1981 to 2013-2014 at 11 major ports in India are used for estimating the proposed model. Average prediction error is found to be within 10% for most of the ports. The DR model is used to produce forecasts up to 2019-2020 for all the ports studied. The model forecast is compared with the projections of the Ministry of Shipping, Government of India. This study is intended to provide guidance to planners in taking decisions on issues related to port infrastructure development, such as construction of new terminals and improvement of access roads to ports for the major ports in India. The study will also be beneficial to shipping agencies for their investment strategies in the Indian ports sector.

Background: Overuse of antibiotics contributes to the development of antimicrobial resistance. Objective: This study aims to assess the condition of antibiotic use at health facilities at county, township and village levels in rural Guangxi, China. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions in 2014 for children aged 2–14 years with upper respiratory infections (URI). Twenty health facilities were randomly selected, including four county hospitals, eight township hospitals and eight village clinics. Prescriptions were extracted from the electronic records in the county hospitals and paper copies in the township hospitals and village clinics. Results: The antibiotic prescription rate was higher in township hospitals (593/877, 68%) compared to county hospitals (2736/8166, 34%) and village clinics (96/297, 32%) (p

A single mode laser based on novel deep etched V-notch reflectors is presented in this paper. The reported device has a stable single mode operation and a side mode suppression ratio of 37 dB. The laser is widely tunable and it can be fine-tuned. Moreover, the laser cavity is monolithically integrated with an active multimode interference reflector, and has a total length of 860μm.

Delamination significantly affects the performance and reliability of photovoltaic (PV) modules. Recently, an active infrared thermography approach using step heating has been exploited for the detection and characterisation of delamination in PV modules. However, step heating takes longer observation time and causes overheating problems. This paper presents the effects of different thermal excitation waveforms namely rectangular, half-sine and short pulse, on the detection and characterisation of delamination in PV module by experiments and simulations. For simulation, a 3-dimensional electro-thermal model of heat conduction, based on resistance-capacitance network approach, has been exploited to study the variation in maximum thermal contrast and peak contrast time with the delamination thickness and heating parameters. Results show that the rectangular waveform provides better detection of delamination due to higher absolute contrast, while the half-sine waveform allows better characterisation of delamination in the PV modules with low-cost and low-power heat source. The high-energy short pulse enabled quick visualisation of delamination, but has limited practical implementation. The advantages and limitations of each waveform have been highlighted to assess the specific requirement for appropriate choice in the non-destructive thermographic inspection of delamination in PV modules at the manufacturing units or outdoor fields.

The International Journal of Production Research has successfully navigated through its first 50 years while remaining truthful to its initial editorial goals of publishing interdisciplinary work that is both relevant and rigorous. Will the journal be equally successful in the decades to come? Surely, the world has gone through huge changes and we now are part of global interconnected networks that make us vulnerable to new or at least unfamiliar phenomena. We have added expressions like black swans to our lexicon. The world has experienced both natural tsunami and business tsunami, which we term grey swans. This article describes characteristics of these grey swan business tsunami and argues that our current dominant toolkit of parsimonious analytical models may fall short of passing the test of interdisciplinary work that is both relevant and rigorous. IJPR needs to reflect upon what type of papers to encourage to keep on its original course and provides answers on how to deal with today’s grey swans.

The response time of a storage system is mainly influenced by its shape (configuration), the storage assignment and retrieval policies, and the location of the input/output (I/O) points. In this paper, we show that the optimal shape of a storage system, which minimises the response time for single command cycles, is independent of the used storage policy and the location of the I/O point. This means decisions on the shape of the storage system and storage policy can be decoupled. This simplifies system design since at the design stage little information on customer demand is available. The storage system can then be designed for optimality assuming a random storage policy. Such a system optimally accommodates other time-saving storage policies such as class-based or full-turnover-based storage without requiring configuration correction. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

This paper proposes a proportional derivative (PD)-like controller applied to the delayed bilateral teleoperation of wheeled robots with force feedback in face of asymmetric and varying-time delays. In contrast to bilateral teleoperation of manipulator robots, in these systems, there is a mismatch between the models of the master and slave (mobile robot), problem that is approached in this work, where the system stability is analysed. From this study, it is possible to infer the control parameters, depending on the time delay, necessary to assure stability. Finally, the performance of the delayed teleoperation system is evaluated through tests where a human operator drives a 3D simulator as well as a mobile robot for pushing objects. Fil: Slawiñski, Emanuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan. Instituto de Automática. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Automática; Argentina Fil: Mut, Vicente Antonio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan. Instituto de Automática. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Automática; Argentina Fil: Santiago, Diego Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan. Instituto de Automática. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Automática; Argentina

Three phase 3-leg inverters are the most common interfaces for forming distributed generation and microgrids. However, in low voltage systems, loads are often 3-phase, 4-wire with frequent unbalances. The question of unbalanced loads on stand-alone microgrids can be handled in two ways. First, unbalanced load compensators can be provided near each unbalanced load. Second, unbalanced loads can be fed by 4-leg inverter interfaces with a 4-wire microgrid. This paper is concerned with the second approach. The design of closed-loop system for 4-leg inverter interface for microgrid with unbalanced loads is carried out. Detailed analysis of power flow dynamics and stability for a 3-phase, 4-wire microgrid with 4-leg inverters catering to unbalanced loads is reported. The analysis is supported by simulations and laboratory experiments. The proposed microgrid shows stable operation and maintains balanced voltages at unbalanced load terminals without any load compensators.

In performance-oriented architectural design, the use of advanced computational simulation tools may provide valuable insight during design. However, the use of such tools is often a bottleneck in the design process, given that computational requirements are usually high. This is a fact that mostly affects the early conceptual stage of design, where crucial decisions mainly occur, and available time is limited. In order to deal with this, decision-makers frequently resort to drawing conclusions from experience, and, as such, valuable insight that advanced computational methods have to offer is lost. This paper explores an alternative approach, which builds on machine-learning algorithms that inductively learn from simulation-derived data, yielding models that approximate to a good degree and are orders of magnitude faster. We focus on visual comfort of office spaces. This is a type of space that specifically requires visual comfort more than others. Three machine-learning methods are compared with respect...

In the end stages of life, drug treatment goals shift to symptom control and quality of life and as such changes in drug utilization are expected. The aim of this paper is to review the extent to which costs are considered in drug utilization research at the end of life, with a particular focus on the outcome measures being used. This systematic review identified seven studies across varied settings studies reporting both drug utilization and medication cost outcome measures. The main factors identified that impacted medication use and cost were the time period considered and the provision of specialist palliative care services. Combining drug utilization and medication cost outcomes is critical for the allocation of healthcare resources and the development of a sound health policy.