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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

In survival analysis, the classical Koziol-Green model under random censorship is commonly used for informative censoring. We propose in this paper an extension of this model in which we derive a nonparametric estimator for the distribution function of a survival time under two types of informative censoring. For the first type of informative censoring, we assume that the censoring time depends on the survival time through the expression of their joint distribution by an Archimedean copula. For the second type of informative censoring, we assume that the marginal distribution of the censoring time is a function of the marginal distribution of the survival time where this function is found through a section of a known copula function on the observed lifetime and the censoring indicator. We prove in this paper the uniform consistency of the new estimator and show the weak convergence of the associated process. Afterwards, we give some finite sample simulation results and illustrate this estimator on a real-life data set. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the IAP research Network P6/03 of the Belgian Government (Belgian Science Policy). Furthermore, the authors would like to thank the associate editor and two anonymous referees for their comments which improved the first version of this paper.

The consignment stock (CS) is an innovative approach to manage inventories in which the vendor removes his inventory and maintains a stock of materials at the buyer's plant. The aim of this paper is to promote a successful application and comprehension of the CS policy both in literature and practice. In this paper, we deal with a multi-echelon inventory system in which one vendor supplies an item to multiple buyers. The study develops a single-vendor and multi-buyer consignment stock inventory model in which many clients can establish a CS policy with the same vendor. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the real economical and logistic benefits from the point of view of both the partners and the whole supply chain, following the adoption of a CS policy. We determine the maximum and minimum inventory stock levels to store in the buyers’ plant warehouse and the optimal quantity delivered from the vendor to each buyer in order to minimise total supply chain costs. Space constraints in clients’ plant warehou...

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 is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Children's Geographies, 7(1), 2009. Copyright @ 2009 Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14733280802630981. In contrast to pre-colonial practices, education in Lesotho's formal school system has historically assumed a Cartesian separation of mind and body, the disciplining of students' bodies serving principally to facilitate cognitive learning. Lesotho has among the highest HIV-prevalence rates worldwide, and AIDS has both direct and indirect impacts on the bodies of many children. Thus, students' bodies can no longer be taken for granted but present a challenge for education. Schools are increasingly seen as a key point of intervention to reduce young people's risk of contracting the disease and also to assist them to cope with its consequences: there is growing recognition that such goals require more than cognitive learning. The approaches adopted, however, range from those that posit a linear and causal relationship between knowledge, attitudes and practices (so-called ‘KAP’ approaches, in which the role of schools is principally to inculcate the pre-requisite knowledge) to ‘life skills programmes’ that advocate a more embodied learning practice in schools. Based on interviews with policy-makers and practitioners and a variety of documentary sources, this paper examines a series of school-based AIDS interventions, arguing that they represent a less radical departure from ‘education for the mind’ than might appear to be the case. The paper concludes that most interventions serve to cast on children responsibility for averting a social risk, and to ‘normalise’ aberrant children's bodies to ensure they conform to what the cognitively-oriented education system expects.

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.

International audience; Self-storage warehousing is a rapidly growing industry where consumers or companies can rent storage space for personal or company use, over a certain horizon. This paper addresses the question of how to design the facilities so that revenue can be maximized over a nite horizon, considering multiple demand requirements with respect to size, pricing, location within the facility, climate control, security, or outside access, among others. Using a customer choice model to specify the probability of purchase for each fare product as a function of the set of fare products offered, we propose methods to design self-storage warehouses while allowing different customer choice behaviors. We model the problem as a mixed-integer program and solve it using column generation and branch-and-price algorithms. In addition, we study the impact of re-layout and methods to modify facility layout, since self-storage facilities are relatively fexible in layout and individual storage compartments can be adapted to changes in demand. We validate our model using the data of four self-storage warehouses, and show our method can improve the expected revenue by nearly 11% on average for these cases.

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...

espanolLas investigaciones desarrolladas acerca del arte rupestre relacionado con ocupaciones de momentos tardios en el Noroeste Argentino (NOA), han estado comunmente focalizadas al estudio iconografico, temporal o de significacion y pocos frecuentes aquellos relacionados al contexto de produccion y a la identificacion de los artefactos liticos utilizados en este proceso. Es asi que el siguiente trabajo intenta contribuir con el estudio de las tecnicas de produccion de grabados en el sector norte del Valle de Hualfin (Catamarca, Argentina) a partir del analisis de las cadenas operativas que intervinieron en este proceso, incluyendo el estudio de materiales liticos asociados y su determinacion funcional. El analisis realizado permitio reconocer que en su mayoria los motivos identificados son figurativos zoomorfos y que de acuerdo a los antecedentes en el area, pantean una estrecha relacion con momentos de ocupacion incaica y con asociacion iconografica Belen/Santamariana. A su vez, las tecnicas aplicadas fueron definidas principalmente como picado, pero a partir de los resultados obtenidos de las cinematicas identificadas mediante el analisis funcional realizado, se cree que en los primeros momentos de su produccion incluiria la tecnica de horadacion. Por otro lado, si bien se registraron incisiones y raspado en la produccion de estos petroglifos estas tecnicas fueron aplicadas en menor medida y a partir de artefactos con disenos expeditivos y angulos de trabajo relativamente abruptos. EnglishThe rock art research related to Late Regional Developments and the Inca Period in Northwest Argentina (NWA) has commonly focused on iconographic, temporal, or significance studies, and little is related to the production context and stone tools used in this process. The following paper contributes to the study of engraving techniques in the northern area of the Hualfin Valley (De Catamarca Province, Argentina), based on the analysis of the operating chains, including the associated lithic materials and their functional determination. Previous analysis identified most of the motifs as figurative zoomorphs, which are related to the Inca Period and have some association with Belen/Santamariana iconography. These images were mainly created by removing part of the rock surface by pounding, and, to a lesser extent, incisions and scraping techniques are also recorded in the production of these petroglyphs. A functional analysis of the associated lithic materials confirms the kinematics employed and their relation in the production process. The analysis carried out also identifies that the artifacts used in this process would have expeditious designs and relatively abrupt working angles.

WOS: 000435120200001 Rodrigues parameters depend on the tangent of the half rotation angle in Euclidean space but in Dual space, dual Rodrigues parameters contain both rotation angle and distance corresponding the shortest distance between the straight lines in R-3. In this paper, we give Cayley's formula for the dual hyperbolic spherical motion and explain 3x3 type L-Dual skew symmetric matrices by using properties of this formula. Then, we obtain Rodrigues parameters of dual Hyperbolic unit sphere and show that Rodrigues parameters contain the hyperbolic rotation angle which is being between timelike lines and distance which is the minimal Lorentzian distance between the timelike lines of R-1(3) TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey)Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) The first author would like to thank TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) for their financial supports during her PhD studies.

WOS: 000456971300005, In this paper, a generalized difference-based estimator is introduced for the vector parameter beta in the partially linear model when the errors are correlated. A generalized difference-based Liu estimator is defined for the vector parameter beta. Under the linear stochastic constraint r = R beta + e, a new generalized difference-based weighted mixed Liu estimator is introduced. The performance of this estimator over the generalized difference-based weighted mixed estimator and the generalized difference-based Liu estimator in terms of the mean squared error matrix criterion is investigated. Then, a method to select the biasing parameter d and non-stochastic weight. is considered. The efficiency properties of the newestimator are illustrated by a simulation study. Finally, the performance of the new estimator is evaluated for a real data set., Semnan University Research [266/97/17577], The third author's research is supported by Semnan University Research [grant number 266/97/17577].

Introduction: Diagnosing and managing drug hypersensitivity is challenging because there are no clear limits between different types of drug reactions. Distinguishing between type A (predictable) and type B (hypersensitivity) reactions when a drug is introduced on the market is not easy. When many people use a drug, adverse reactions can occur, conditioned by diverse genetic profiles, viral infections or concomitant therapy. Occasionally the only tool clinicians have on which to base the diagnosis is the clinical history. Skins tests or in vitro tests sometimes have low sensitivity or are unavailable, and drug provocation tests may be dangerous or strictly forbidden in case of severe cutaneous reactions. Areas covered: This paper reviews the diagnosis and management of the two main types of immunological reactions: IgE-mediated immediate drug hypersensitivity reactions (IDHRs) and non-immediate drug hypersensitivity reactions (NIDHRs). Expert commentary: Although Europe and the United States use different diagnostic methods, patients with history of drug hypersensitivity must avoid the suspicious drug, and clinicians must assess tolerance to safe alternatives under medical surveillance. Sometimes desensitization may be required. There is a consensus about the need to perform genetic testing for specific drugs and give patients proper documentation to prevent future exposure to culprit drugs.

In this paper, an electronically switchable quad-band microstrip bandpass filter is designed using varactor perturbed dual-mode resonators. For this purpose, four meandered dual-mode square loop resonators (DMSLRs) having reference patches are nested and varactor diodes are used to serve as perturbation elements. The designed resonator is analyzed by deriving even/odd mode resonance conditions. S-parameters are also calculated according to the even and odd mode input impedances. Stub loaded feedlines are used to couple the DMSLRs to Input/Output (I/O) ports. According to the capacitances of varactor diodes, each passband can be independently turned on and off. Coupling scheme and coupling matrix of the designed filter are introduced to realize the coupling descriptions. Switching operations are also investigated over the frequency responses obtained from coupling matrix. Passbands of the filter are adjusted to 1.4, 1.7, 2.25, and 2.7GHz. The designed filter was also fabricated and measured results show a good agreement with the simulated and theoretical results.

This introductory paper reviews the literature on the use of evidence-based knowledge (EBK) in the initial and continuing professional development of teachers and also in their everyday practice. It will set the scene for the theme of the SI and critically discuss general current issues about the generation of educational research evidence, how teachers may, or may not, acquire this and, drawing on and updating the outcomes of the previous JET SI (41 (5), 2014), some of the implications of translational research and knowledge mobilisation., Financial Support by CIEC (Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho; FCT R&D unit 317, Portugal) by the Strategic Project UID/CED/00317/2013, with financial support of National Funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) and co-financed by European Regional Development Funds (FEDER) through the COMPETE 2020 - Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI) with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007562

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. To estimate the central tendency or location of a sample of interval-valued data, a standard statistic is the interval-valued sample mean. Its strong sensitivity to outliers or data changes motivates the search for more robust alternatives. In this respect, a more robust location statistic is studied in this paper. This measure is inspired by the concept of spatial median and makes use of the versatile generalized Bertoluzza's metric between intervals, the so-called dθ distance. The problem of minimizing the mean dθ distance to the values the random interval takes, which defines the spatial-type dθ-median, is analysed. Existence and uniqueness of the sample version are shown. Furthermore, the robustness of this proposal is investigated by deriving its finite sample breakdown point. Finally, a real-life example from the Economics field illustrates the robustness of the sample dθ-median, and simulation studies show some comparisons with respect to the mean and several recently introduced robust location measures for interval-valued data. ispartof: STATISTICS vol:52 issue:3 pages:479-502 status: published

The Supplemental Material for this paper is available at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1080/17470218.2017.1343362., Past research has shown that the perceptual characteristics of studied items (e.g., font size) lead to a metamemory illusion, and that delayed judgements of learning (JOLs) are better predictors of memory performance than immediate JOLs. Here, we tested whether delayed JOLs could reduce or eliminate the effect of perceptual characteristics on JOLs and restudy decisions. We adopted a meta-analytic approach and analysed the results of 28 experiments in which participants' studied items were presented in either large or small font. JOLs and, sometimes, restudy decisions were collected either immediately or after a delay. Finally, participants completed a memory test. The results of the meta-analyses confirmed the effect of the font size on JOLs and restudy decisions. The delayed procedures reliably reduced the effect of perceptual characteristics on JOLs, but the effect was still significant after a delay. For restudy decisions, delayed procedures only reduced numerically the effect. Surprisingly, the meta-analysis also showed a very subtle memory advantage for items presented in large font over small font, although no individual study showed a significant difference and the overall effect size was small. One plausible explanation is that after a delay, information about font size is not available for some items, causing a reduction in the effect. Moreover, our results suggest that the dissociation between memory and metamemory reported previously may not be dissociation at all, but a mistmatched effect of font size on memory and metamemory., The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (PSI/01662), University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653). This work was also partially supported by the Russian Academic Excellence Project '5-100'.

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.

Introduction: Diagnosing and managing drug hypersensitivity is challenging because there are no clear limits between different types of drug reactions. Distinguishing between type A (predictable) and type B (hypersensitivity) reactions when a drug is introduced on the market is not easy. When many people use a drug, adverse reactions can occur, conditioned by diverse genetic profiles, viral infections or concomitant therapy. Occasionally the only tool clinicians have on which to base the diagnosis is the clinical history. Skins tests or in vitro tests sometimes have low sensitivity or are unavailable, and drug provocation tests may be dangerous or strictly forbidden in case of severe cutaneous reactions. Areas covered: This paper reviews the diagnosis and management of the two main types of immunological reactions: IgE-mediated immediate drug hypersensitivity reactions (IDHRs) and non-immediate drug hypersensitivity reactions (NIDHRs). Expert commentary: Although Europe and the United States use different diagnostic methods, patients with history of drug hypersensitivity must avoid the suspicious drug, and clinicians must assess tolerance to safe alternatives under medical surveillance. Sometimes desensitization may be required. There is a consensus about the need to perform genetic testing for specific drugs and give patients proper documentation to prevent future exposure to culprit drugs.

The current paper aims to review the recent evidence on the neural correlates of emotion regulation. The review is organized into two main sections. First cognitive models that neuroimaging research is based on are introduced with a specific emphasis on the process-specific explanations of emotion regulation. In the second section neuroimaging research is discussed in line with the evidence from human and nonhuman animals. Existing evidence suggests that regulation of emotions may be achieved either by bottom-up subcortical or top-down frontal mechanisms. The former way acts on the initial phases of emotion generation whereas the latter appears to influence the higher-order structures for cognitive change and modulation of emotional responses. Although there is still an ongoing debate on when the generation stops and regulation starts on the emotion process with respect to neural mechanisms underlying regulatory strategies appear to be more consistent. Potential questions are also addressed for future research to contribute to especially the individual differences adaptive emotion regulation.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Applicable Analysis on 02/12/2016, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/00036811.2016.1263838. The paper deals with jump generators with a convolution kernel. Assuming that the kernel decays either exponentially or polynomially, we prove a number of lower and upper bounds for the resolvent of such operators. In particular we focus on sharp estimates of the resolvent kernel for small values of the spectral parameter. We consider two applications of these results. First we obtain pointwise estimates for principal eigenfunction of jump generators perturbed by a compactly supported potential (so-called nonlocal Schrödinger operators). Then we consider the Cauchy problem for the corresponding inhomogeneous evolution equations and study the behaviourofitssolutions.

New frequency-domain 2-stability criteria are derived for nonlinear discrete-time MIMO systems, having a linear time-invariant block with the transfer function (z), in negative feedback with an aperiodic matrix gain A(k), k = 0, 1, 2,..., and a linear combination of a vector of certain classes of (generalised) first-and-third-quadrant non-monotone nonlinearities.(center dot), having arguments with constant and time-varying delays, but without restrictions on their slopes. The framework does not employ Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals involving linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) or their equivalent. The new stability criteria seem to be the most general for nonlinear and time variying time-delay systems, and have the following structure: (1) positive definiteness of the real part (as evaluated on | z| = 1) of the product of (z) and an algebraic sum of general causal and anticausal matrix multiplier functions of z. (2) An upper bound on the L1-norm of the inverse Fourier transform of the multiplier function, the L1-norm being weighted by certain novel, quantitative characteristic parameters (CPs) of the nonlinearities.(center dot) without the asumptions of monotonicity, slope restrictions and the like. And (3) constraints on certain global averages of the generalised eigenvalues of (A(k + 1), A(k)), k = 1, 2,..., that are expressed in terms of (i) CPs of the nonlinearities, (ii) their coefficients, and, in general, (iii) time-delays in their arguments, a trade-off among all the three being possible. These global averages imply a restriction on the rate of variation of A(k) in a new sense. The literature results turn out to be special cases of the results of the present paper. Examples illustrate the stability theorems.

This paper reports on findings from a broader piece of research aimed at investigating the ways in which head teachers experience a new teacher evaluation policy in Portugal, particularly in regard to the challenges and perceived effects of the policy on school and on teacher development. Data were collected through a questionnaire with open and closed-ended questions. In total, 134 head teachers participated in the study. Findings suggest a number of tensions and problems, most of which are related to the key features of the model of teacher evaluation itself. Others issues pertain to the lack of recognition of the appraisers and to the emergence of tensions amongst staff leading to the deterioration of the school climate. Persisting challenges to policy implementation, perceived effects on teachers and schools as well as the dilemmas of head teachers are analysed. The article concludes with the discussion of ways forward., Financial Support by CIEC (Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho; FCT R&D unit 317, Portugal) by the Strategic Project UID/CED/00317/2013, with financial support of National Funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) and co-financed by European Regional Development Funds (FEDER) through the COMPETE 2020 - Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI) with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007562

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.

Spare parts management is a function of maintenance management that aims to support maintenance activities, giving real-time information on the available quantities of each spare part and adopting the inventory policies that ensure their availability when required, minimizing costs. The classification of spare parts is crucial to control the vast number of parts that have different characteristics and specificities. Spare parts management involves mainly two areas, maintenance and logistics. Therefore, the integration of both input information is recommended to make decisions. This paper presents a multi-criteria classification methodology combining maintenance and logistics perspectives that intends to differentiate and group spare parts to, subsequently, define the most appropriate stock management policy for each group. The methodology was developed based on a case study carried out in a multinational manufacturing company and is intended to be included in its computerized maintenance management system to support decision-making., This work was supported by European Structural and Investment Funds in the FEDER component, through the Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization Programme (COMPETE 2020) [Project no 002814; Funding Reference: POCI-01-0247-FEDER-002814].

This paper empirically investigates the importance of financial and political variables in determining debt rescheduling probabilities in Turkey for 1955-2000. The problem of sovereign debt default and rescheduling has been the subject of substantial academic research during the last two decades. There has been criticism of models of developing countries' indebtedness and rescheduling that rely solely on some economic or financial predictors related to country debt, the foreign exchange sector or the domestic economic situation. Using probit analysis, this paper indicates that financial variables are important determinants of rescheduling probabilities. However, political variables are not significant in our models. C1 Balikesir Univ, Dept Econ, TR-10200 Bandirma, Balikesir, Turkey. Pamukkale Univ, Dept Publ Finance, TR-20040 Denizli, Turkey.

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.

In the past three decades, the magnitude of business dynamics has increased rapidly due to increased complexity, uncertainty and risk of international projects. This fact made it increasingly tough to ‘go alone’ into the international projects. As a consequence, companies with diverse strengths and weaknesses cooperatively bid for joint ventures (JV) formation. Joint venture is also a well-established aspect of the crude oil industry, specifically in the upstream segment. Making decision on the optimal form of JVs is still a challenging problem. In addition, the success of a JV is intertwined with the accuracy of the partner selection phase. Therefore, this paper formulates a multi-criteria mathematical model to select the best partners and form an optimal JV for undertaking oilfield projects. The lexicographic goal programming technique is employed to minimise undesirable deviations from diverse goals such as resources needs (technological and expertise), budgetary requirements, time, etc. The model is validated with a real-life-based example and provides insightful views on alternative formats of cooperation.

In this paper, we discuss the disassembly line balancing problem in the presence of task failures (DLBP-F). There are precedence relationships among disassembly tasks and the tasks must be completed within a given time, determined by the demand in a given period. However, if a task (or more than one task) cannot be performed because of some defect, some or all of the remaining tasks may be disabled due to the precedence relationships among tasks. This may result in various complications in the flow of workpieces on the disassembly line, e.g. early-leaving, self-skipping, skipping, disappearing and revisiting workpieces. We discuss these complications and highlight their effects on the disassembly line. The problem is to assign tasks to workstations such that the effect of the defective parts on the disassembly line is minimized. This paper presents a solution procedure to the DLBP-F. An example is provided to illustrate the approach.

In this opinion paper, we, a group of scientists from environmental-, geo-, ocean- and information science, argue visual data exploration should become a common analytics approach in Earth system science due to its potential for analysis and interpretation of large and complex spatio-temporal data. We discuss the challenges that appear such as synthesis of heterogeneous data from various sources, reducing the amount of information and facilitating multidisciplinary, collaborative research. We argue that to fully exploit the potential of visual data exploration, several bottlenecks and challenges have to be addressed: providing an efficient data management and an integrated modular workflow, developing and applying suitable visual exploration concepts and methods with the help of effective and tailored tools as well as generating and raising the awareness of visual data exploration and education. We are convinced visual data exploration is worth the effort since it significantly facilitates insight into environmental data and derivation of knowledge from it.

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, we investigate estimation methods to deal with situations where random intercepts are associated to time-varying covariates in the context of linear mixed models. First, a review of previous ways to deal with this so-called endogeneity issue is presented, then a new method based on shared random effects is proposed. Simulation studies and an empirical example are utilized to assess the performance of our proposed method. It is shown that our new approach is more efficient than most competitors and is robust to the misspecification of the random-effects distributions. The authors advise no direct funding is associated with the research reported on this article.

This paper presents the results of the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) study of the anion radical formed from 3-nitroacetophenone (C8H7NO3) (3NAP) single crystal, by gamma irradiation. The EPR spectra of gamma-irradiated single crystals of 3NAP have been recorded at 10-degree intervals for different orientations of crystals in a magnetic field, at room temperature. The EPR analysis of gamma-irradiated crystals of 3NAP has shown that the radiation damage center produced by gamma irradiation is the carbon-centered 3NAP anion radical. One-electron reduction of 3NAP results in general bond loosening. The single crystals have been investigated between 120 and 450K. The spectra have been found to be temperature-dependent. The EPR parameters of the 3NAP anion radical have been evaluated.

WOS: 000424358600001, This paper presents the results of a geomorphological investigation of Mount Akdag landslide complex, located on the Western Taurus range, SW Turkey. The landslide, resulting in the collapse of a 5 km segment of Mount Akdag, covers an area of 9.8 km(2) and has a volume of about 3 x 108 m(3). The 1: 15,000 scale geomorphological map (Main Map) of the Akdag landslide presented here was produced from a combination of field studies and unmanned aerial vehicle-based DSM, including aerial-photo interpretation and geomorphometric analysis of landforms. The map shows contemporary and past geomorphological hillslope processes and landforms associated with the landslide complex. Our new map suggests that the Akdag landslide was a complex rockslide consisting of multiple landslide types that developed through various movements. We found that 43 highly developed and active mass movements on the main body and side slopes of the landslide made a major contribution to the sediment input. The sediment produced in the upstream severely threatens the touristic site of Saklikent Canyon in the lower catchment via an increasing magnitude of torrents. This map will provide important data for local and national administrators regarding monitoring up-to-date mass-wasting processes, understanding the landslide and its related sedimentary dynamics, and implementing risk assessment and necessary precautions., Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit of Istanbul University [ONAP 33594 [ID734]]; Anadolu University Scientific Research Projects Commission [1210E156], The authors would like to thank the Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit of Istanbul University (Project number: ONAP 33594 [ID734]) and Anadolu University Scientific Research Projects Commission for their financial support through grant no. 1210E156.

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.

International audience; Models under location uncertainty are derived assuming that a component of the velocity is uncorrelated in time. The material derivative is accordingly modified to include an advection correction, inhomogeneous and anisotropic diffusion terms and a multiplicative noise contribution. This change can be consistently applied to all fluid dynamics evolution laws. This paper continues to explore benefits of this framework and consequences of specific scaling assumptions. Starting from a Boussinesq model under location uncertainty, a model is developed to describe a mesoscale flow subject to a strong underlying submesoscale activity. Specifically , turbulent diffusion and rotation effects have similar orders of magnitude. As obtained, the geostrophic balance is modified and the Quasi-Geostrophic (QG) assumptions remarkably lead to a zero Potential Vorticity (PV). The ensuing Surface Quasi-Geostrophic (SQG) model provides a simple diagnosis of warm frontolysis and cold frontogenesis.

Introduction: Neuroblastoma is the most common solid extracranial tumor of childhood. Outcome for children with high-risk neuroblastoma remains suboptimal. More than half of children diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma either do not respond to conventional therapies or relapse after treatment with dismal prognosis. Areas covered: This paper presents a short review of the state of the art in the current treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma. An updated review of new targeted therapies in this group of patients is also presented. Expert opinion: In order to improve prognosis for high-risk patients there is an urgent need to better understand spatial and temporal heterogeneity and obtain new predictive preclinical models in neuroblastoma. Combination strategies with conventional chemotherapy and/or other targeted therapies may overcome current ALK inhibitors resistance. Improvement of international and transatlantic cooperation to speed clinical trials accrual is needed.

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

This paper deals with the antibacterial properties of nonwoven Co/PET and PP fabrics and woven cotton fabrics treated with the pad-dry-cure (PDC) and electrospray processes. Firstly, the surface modification of nonwoven Co/PET and PP fabrics was carried out to obtain their hydrophilicity by RF-plasma system using acrylic acid as the monomer. Subsequently, Ag-doped TiO2 nanoparticles prepared by sol-gel and chemical reduction processes using titanium isopropoxide and silver nitrate as precursor were applied to the fabric samples by PDC and electrospray processes. The effect of different synthesis processes of the nanoparticles and various application processes on their antibacterial efficiency was investigated. After RF-plasma pretreatment, the absorbency properties of the fabric samples were measured. The antibacterial activity of fabric samples against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was determined qualitatively and quantitatively according to AATCC Method 147 and AATCC Method 100, respectively. The microstructural characteristics and surface morphology of the fabric samples were investigated by SEM-EDX and FTIR-ATR analyses. These results suggest that Ag-doped TiO2 nanoparticles synthesized by the chemical reduction process imparted good and durable antibacterial activity to nonwoven Co/PET and PP fabrics and woven cotton fabrics for use in wall textiles.

International audience; Fissure-ridge travertines (FRTs) are of great importance for the determination and comparison of tectonic deformation ina region. The coeval development of these travertines with active fault zones supplies significant information aboutregional dynamics in terms of deformation pattern and evolution. In this paper, the characteristics of FRTs of the Başkalebasin (eastern Turkey) and responsible regional tectonism are discussed for the first time. The Başkale basin is locatedbetween the Başkale Fault Zone (BFZ) characterised by Çamlık fault and Işıklı–Ziraniş fault. It is located betweendextral Yüksekova Fault Zone and southern end of dextral Guilato–Siahcheshmeh–Khoy Fault system (Iran). Variousmorphological features indicating recent activity are exposed along the BFZ, including offsetting rivers, fissure-ridgetravertine and fault scarps. The Çamlık fissure-ridge travertine composing of three different depositions is observed alongthe eastern edge of the BFZ with approximately parallel orientations. The Çamlık fissure-ridge travertine has beenformed and developed on fault zone related to strike-slip or oblique movements. We explain how kinematic changes offaults can influence the fissure-ridge development.

Have you ever questioned why do we almost always use vector calculus and differential equations in electromagnetics? Are these the only tools at our disposal for studying and modelling electromagnetic problems? Well, the answer is no and this paper is about an alternative approach to model electromagnetic problems using algebraic topology. This approach has a few advantages compared to the familiar differential formulation-based methods in modelling electromagnetic and multiphysics problems. In differential formulation we need one of the several numerical methods like finite difference, finite element, method of moments and spectral methods to obtain approximate solution to the electromagnetic problem. In contrast, algebraic topology-based method leads directly to discrete formulation using global quantities. Furthermore, in the case of electromagnetics, all underlying global quantities are scalars. Hence, there is no need for vector calculus. In addition, we also avoid interpolating local vector field quantities as required in several numerical methods. Though algebraic topology offers powerful and elegant tools for solving various engineering problems, many applied physicists and engineers are not familiar with this subject. This is partly due to the fact that most publications on this topic burden us with complicated mathematical analysis filled with convoluted jargons. If one can introduce the key ideas of algebraic topology using familiar concepts, computational and applied physics, and engineering community can appreciate and benefit from its advantages over methods based on differential formulation. With this goal, we present the main ideas of algebraic topology applied to electromagnetics problems.

This paper deals with the antibacterial properties of nonwoven Co/PET and PP fabrics and woven cotton fabrics treated with the pad-dry-cure (PDC) and electrospray processes. Firstly, the surface modification of nonwoven Co/PET and PP fabrics was carried out to obtain their hydrophilicity by RF-plasma system using acrylic acid as the monomer. Subsequently, Ag-doped TiO2 nanoparticles prepared by sol-gel and chemical reduction processes using titanium isopropoxide and silver nitrate as precursor were applied to the fabric samples by PDC and electrospray processes. The effect of different synthesis processes of the nanoparticles and various application processes on their antibacterial efficiency was investigated. After RF-plasma pretreatment, the absorbency properties of the fabric samples were measured. The antibacterial activity of fabric samples against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was determined qualitatively and quantitatively according to AATCC Method 147 and AATCC Method 100, respectively. The microstructural characteristics and surface morphology of the fabric samples were investigated by SEM-EDX and FTIR-ATR analyses. These results suggest that Ag-doped TiO2 nanoparticles synthesized by the chemical reduction process imparted good and durable antibacterial activity to nonwoven Co/PET and PP fabrics and woven cotton fabrics for use in wall textiles.

WOS: 000393880000002, The newly synthesised Ba2Sb4GeS10 compound is notable because of the interesting features of the quaternary Sb-containing materials. The first principle method has been used to determine the physical properties of this compound. In particular, the electronic structure has been analysed using both conventional GGA-PBE and HSE06 functional. The values of the band gap for PBE and HSE06 calculations were 1.324 and 1.84 eV, respectively. The calculated elastic constants were used to predict polycrystalline mechanical properties. The estimated Vickers hardness (2.7 GPa) values show that Ba2Sb4GeS10 is soft matter. Moreover, the vibrational properties of the compound have been studied. The calculation of the elastic constants and phonon dispersion curves indicates that the Ba2Sb4GeS10 compound is stable both mechanically and dynamically. Furthermore, the minimum thermal conductivity and optical properties, such as dielectric functions and energy loss function, have also been discussed in detail in this paper.

The locus of knowledge externalities and the cost of knowledge. Regional Studies. This paper provides an extended Crepon–Duguet–Mairesse (CDM) approach to analyse jointly the simultaneous effects of knowledge spillovers in the knowledge-generation and technology production functions. It introduces the distinction between imitation and knowledge externalities and articulates the hypothesis that spillovers yield their effects via three well-distinct mechanisms: (1) knowledge externalities that exert positive and direct effects on the knowledge-production function and (2) indirect effects on the technology-production function via their effects on the cost of knowledge; and (3) imitation externalities that exert direct and positive effects on productivity in the technology-production function. We test our hypotheses on a large panel of Italian companies distributed in NUTS-2 regions for the period 2005–09. The econometric analysis consists of a model comprising a system of equations that test the simu...

WOS: 000407961100004, In this paper, the non-linear Schrodinger (NLS) equation was solved by a meshless method based on the moving least-squares approximation. Single-soliton solution and interaction of two colliding solitons were studied to validate the accuracy of the proposed method. In calculations, different weight functions in which Gaussian and Wendland's compactly supported functions were used. For the single-soliton solution of NLS equation whose analytical solution was known L-2, L-infinity error norms and invariants were calculated for two test problems. The obtained results were compared with both each other and some earlier results. Stability analysis of difference equation was done by applying the proposed method for NLS equation.

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.