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The article extends the authors' previous research to the case of discrete response functions. A process consisting of sequential operations is considered. For each operation, you can determine the currently available probability of its error-free (high-quality) execution. By the qualitative performance of the operation, we will understand the achievement of a given level of quality in quantitative proportion to the overall level. The purpose of the article is to build a quality management strategy in which a set of probabilities of quality levels not less than a certain threshold value is achieved, with minimal costs for carrying out appropriate measures. The corresponding optimization problem is presented and a heuristic multistep algorithm for its solution is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A process consisting of sequential operations is considered. For each operation, you can determine the currently available probability of its error-free (high-quality) execution. By the qualitative performance of the operation, we will understand the achievement of a given level of quality in quantitative proportion to the overall level. The purpose of the article is to build a quality management strategy in which a set of probabilities of quality levels not less than a certain threshold value is achieved, with minimal costs for carrying out appropriate measures. The article presents the decomposition of operations into activities; classification of activities into activities with conditionally linear or asymptotic response; quality assessment in a multi-level control system with response functions of various types; optimization problems and their algorithmic solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While climate change affects everyone, less attention has been paid to the impacts of extreme weather on vulnerable groups such as middle-aged and elderly individuals. By using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), we explore the impact of extreme temperatures on the health of middle-aged and elderly individuals. Our study findings highlight that extreme temperatures have detrimental effects on the health of middle-aged and elderly individuals. Physiologically, extreme high and low temperatures increase the risk of diseases in this demographic. Psychologically, extreme high temperatures impair cognitive abilities, whereas extreme low temperatures exacerbate depression. Heterogeneity analysis shows that extreme low temperatures exacerbate the risk of chronic diseases among the elderly, while extreme high temperatures reduce cognitive abilities in highly educated individuals. In addition, residents in economically underdeveloped areas face a greater risk of illness during extremely low temperatures. The study emphasizes the need for middle-aged and elderly individuals to prioritize their health in response to climate change. The findings also provide valuable insights for governments to develop targeted medical preventive measures, thereby reducing the burden on the social welfare system. [Display omitted] • Thresholding is interesting method for measuring extreme temperatures. • Middle-aged and elderly individual health will be undermined in extreme temperatures. • Extreme heat negatively affect cognitive ability, and extreme cold raises depression levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Romanian Case Law Review / Revista Română de Jurisprudenţă is the property of Universul Juridic Publishing House and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Heavy metals are harmful to human body. Soil-plant system is an important way for heavy metals to enter the food ehain. In our study, we summarize the data published in CNKI, web of science, Wan Fang database and Wei Pu from 2005 to 2017 about heavy metal contamination in soil and rice crop of the pearl river delta region of Guangdong. The database expose that the pollution of Cd in the soil is serious, followed by Cu, Ni, As, Hg. The contamination of Zn, Pb, Cr, was lower as compare to Cd. Concentration of Cd and Pb in rice grains was serious, followed by As and Cr Hg and Cu. When soil organic matter in tillage layer was >20%, the Cd limited value is 0.96 mg/kg. When the organic matter content in soil tillage layer is <20%, the Cd limited value is soil organic matter in tillage lay20% the fitting equation As limit value is 18.86mg/kg. When soil organic matter in tillage layer was <20%, As limited value is 19.68 mg/kg. National soil environment quality standard (GB15618-2018) the pearl river delta soil have Cd contamination which can produce security rice, As contaminated farmland soil cannot produce safety rice crops, in rice cultivation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With continuous increase in volume of data and its computational capacity in cloud, support for users request in cloud cannot be ignored. Considering problem of load imbalance resulting in high throughput and response time, there is the need therefore to develop a better model that will improve resource utility and performance of distributed systems so as to reduce response and processing time while providing better Virtual Machine (VM) efficiency. This paper analysed Round Robin load balancing algorithm and the deficiencies of this algorithm served as a basis for improvement in the proposed load balancer. The proposed algorithm has three phases; VM categorization phase that re-arrange VMs in the increasing order of their processing speed with 80% of total threshold value of each VM computed. Allocation phase helps find suitable VM for execution of cloudlet and the reliability assessment phase ensures that each VM performs at it optimal level before its consideration for allocation of cloudlets. An extensive simulation was carried out to evaluate the proposed algorithm using cloud analyst simulator. Results obtained from simulation shows that the proposed algorithm yields better response time, datacentre processing time and a lower turnaround time than the existing round robin load balancing algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three new peptides: (pGlu)L-ethyl, (pGlu)LFGP-ethyl and (pGlu)LFNP-ethyl, were identified in the search for pyroglutamyl oligopeptide ethyl esters in sake. The ethyl esterified peptides in sake were quantitated using stable isotope dilution analysis and additional quantitation of (pGlu)L was performed using an external standard method. The concentrations of (pGlu)L-ethyl and (pGlu)L in 33 commercial sake samples ranged from 0.16 to 1.57 mg/L and 1.49 to 7.55 mg/L, respectively. The sensory properties of the pyroglutamyl oligopeptide ethyl esters and corresponding non-esterified peptides were examined: the estimated difference threshold of (pGlu)L (2.0 mg/L) and (pGlu)L-ethyl (0.267 mg/L) was exceeded in 32 and 26 samples, respectively. Estimated thresholds of (pGlu)LFGP-ethyl and (pGlu)LFNP-ethyl were often lower than the levels in quantitated sake samples. The sensory effects of these pyroglutamyl dipeptides on a model sake quality may be negative because of their unpleasant taste, however, (pGlu)LFNP-ethyl may be positive because of its mild taste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Northeastern University (Social Science) / Dongbei Daxue Xuebao (Shehui Kexue Ban) is the property of Dongbei Daxue and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Road traffic safety is emerging as an area of increased attention and concern in many countries including India. Safety evaluation by conflict study using surrogate measures is a proactive method which does not require any accident data. Conflict study may be carried out using post encroachment time (PET) as a surrogate measure, where critical conflicts are determined based on certain threshold value of PET. Identifying critical conflicts using a threshold value of PET is good and correct for highways and major roads where traffic follows posted speed, but on highways with mixed traffic for varied speeds this is not correct. It can be seen that conflicts with PET less than the threshold value may not be critical if the speed of conflicting vehicle is less. Similarly, conflicts with PET more than threshold value may also be critical if the speed of conflicting vehicle is high. The speed of conflicting vehicle is also important in evaluating severity of conflict. Hence, the use of PET alone for conflict study is not correct for evaluating safety of intersections on highways where traffic follows varied speeds. Therefore, in the present study, safety evaluation of an unsignalized intersection is carried out using two surrogate measures, PET and the speed of corresponding conflicting through vehicle. A term critical speed is proposed to identify critical conflicts. Critical speed for a particular PET value is determined using stopping/braking distance concept. Results show that there are significant percent of conflicts which are critical at the intersection. This shows that drivers of right-turning vehicles do take risks in accepting small gaps in through traffic at the intersection, which is dangerous. As crossing maneuver depends on length and speed of turning vehicle, the effect of type of turning vehicle has also been studied. Results show that right-turning light motor vehicles are at higher risk compared to two wheelers and heavy vehicles at the intersection. Safety evaluation of such unsignalized intersections may be carried out using this concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even in pristine and remote environments of the Mediterranean, marine litter is building up threatening habitats and species and inhibiting sustainable development. The present study reports the findings of beach litter surveys carried out by 250 local community members in nine sites along the coastline of the Asterousia Biosphere Reserve, situated in the southernmost end of Europe. The average recorded litter density along these sites amounted to 125 items per 100 meters of coastline (range: 22–510) and to 0.05 items per square meter of beach (range: 0.01–0.13). Only two of the nine surveyed beaches were found to be in good environmental status, in compliance with the European threshold value for beach litter. The other seven studied beaches surpassed the European threshold value. The primary sources of the litter identified in the study can be attributed to unsustainable practices and inadequate waste management by individuals, communities and municipalities using the coastal and marine environment. Additionally, unsustainable waste management practices within the agricultural sector were also found to be a significant contributor to marine litter pollution. • Participatory-science is an effective tool for generating fit-for-purpose beach litter data. • The majority of traceable marine litter items in the study area originate from shoreline sources. • The vast majority of litter items are plastics, accounting for 86 % of all litter collected. • Single-use plastics account for a large fraction of the recorded items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé La prévalence des allergies alimentaires en France ne cesse de croître. La prise en charge repose sur un régime d’éviction plus ou moins strict vis-à-vis des aliments pouvant contenir l’allergène. Cependant, l’absence d’uniformisation des étiquetages des allergènes contaminant, sur les produits peut rendre difficile l’application de ces régimes. Cette contamination peut être prévisible et donc affichée, mais elle peut également survenir de façon fortuite. L’étiquetage de précaution n’est pas satisfaisant ni pour le malade ni pour l’industriel ou le distributeur. En effet, pour les premiers il est source d’inquiétude et il est souvent pris en défaut. Pour les seconds, il conduit à retirer des produits à tort et à laisser certains potentiellement dangereux. Ainsi, pour essayer de surmonter cette difficulté, nous avons repris les études épidémiologiques publiées récemment qui ont tenté d’établir des valeurs seuils de quantité d’allergène capables de déclencher des symptômes d’allergie à l’échelle d’une population pour permettre de développer un système proche de celui de VITAL. VITAL est système australien qui propose un étiquetage basé sur les doses réactogènes dites seuils de santé publique qui conduisent à trois niveaux d’action. Un modèle dans le même esprit que le système VITAL serait beaucoup plus précis pour les malades et permettrait peut-être une amélioration du quotidien des patients allergiques en leur rendant plus aisée l’accès à une plus grande variété de produits. Le respect de l’étiquetage alimentaire proposé réduirait l’anxiété et le risque d’accident causés par leur allergie alimentaire. Il reste cependant, l’écueil des mesures des allergènes alimentaires qui n’est pas toujours aussi fiable qu’on le voudrait. The prevalence of food allergies in France is continually increasing. Treatment is generally based on avoidance of the offending allergen. Due to the absence of standardized labelling of consumer foods indicating contaminant allergens, avoidance can be difficult. However, while such contamination may be predicted and thus displayed, it can also arise by chance. Based on the VITAL system in Australia, which uses threshold values called “public health thresholds”, we have attempted to define thresholds suitable for use in France. A system such as the VITAL system could perhaps improve the day-to-day life of allergic patients, giving them access to a wider variety of products. Compliance with the proposed food labelling would reduce anxiety and the risk of accidents due to food allergy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of image processing techniques has made it extremely easy to alter the content of images or create new images. So photographs, which appear in magazines, social media, and political attacks, can no longer be trusted. A novel and effective technique is proposed in this paper to expose image forgery using inconsistent reflection vanishing point (RVP). More specifically, the definition of error distance is given, sin2 () -based function is proposed to normalize error distance, and a reasonable threshold value is set to detect image forgery. The experimental data and results are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present study was to observe the relationship between V extraction rate and threshold value of electrically evoked auditory brainstem response (EABR) waves in artificial cochlear implantation, in order to optimize EABR parameters for improving auditory rehabilitation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Thirty patients without residual hearing and treated with artificial cochlear implants were selected. The experimental group included 17 cases with normal cochlear morphology, four with large vestibular aqueduct syndrome (LVAS), six with Mondini malformation, and three with internal auditory canal stenosis. Thirty patients with residual hearing and approximate conditions, treated with artificial cochlear implantation to conduct matching were taken as the control group. For artificial cochlear implantation, Remolded Cochlear Freedom artificial cochleas and platinum-iridium alloy spheroid electrodes were used to provide electric stimulation of different pulse widths (50 μs, 100 μs and 200 μs) to patients in the two groups. A Bio-logic Navigator Pro auditory evoked potentiometer was used to record V extraction rate and threshold value of EABR waves under the different pulse widths. RESULTS: T here w ere n o s ignificant d ifferences in V extraction rates of EABR waves at pulse widths of 50 μs, 100 μs and 200 μs (p >0.05). All EABR threshold values in the experimental group were higher than those in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (p <0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The monopole stimulation within the cochlea can induce good EABR waves and EABR threshold values of patients without residual hearing were significantly higher than those of patients with residual hearing (p <0.05). Waveform differentiation of pulse width 100 μs was better, dynamic range was broader and it was necessary to increase stimulation when the malformation was serious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Threshold of WUE with climate variability and land-use changes were analyzed. • Contribution rate of climate variability and land-use changes to WUE variation was quantified. • Precipitation, temperature and LAI are the main driving factors of the regional WUE. • The Grain to Green Program contributed to increase of WUE. • Mixed forest has the highest annual average WUE in water deficient regions. Water use efficiency (WUE) is a measure used for evaluating the trade-off between carbon sequestration and water consumption of terrestrial ecosystems. Much attention has been directed on how and to what extent WUE varies with climate variability and land-use changes. In this study, the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach model and remote sensing data are utilized to analyze the response of WUE to climate variability and land-use changes in the mountainous area of North China from 2000 to 2020. The results show that the annual WUE follows an increasing trend at a rate of 0.012 gC/mm·m2·yr with an average value of 1.027 gC/mm·m2. Spatially, significant heterogeneity was detected in WUE with gradients decreasing from the southeast to the northwest, while significant increases were found in Beijing, Tianjin, and some regions of Hebei. The annual average WUE of different vegetation types decreased following the order of mixed forest > needleleaf forest > broadleaf forest > grassland > shrubland > cropland. Among various meteorologic and vegetation factors, WUE was mainly influenced by temperature, precipitation, and LAI. The cumulative effect of these three factors explained 79.43 % of the variations of WUE. Finally, when precipitation was 490–510 mm, or temperature was 13 ℃, or LAI was 1.27 m2m−2, WUE reached the threshold value, i.e., vegetation had the highest degree of water use. These results have implications for the management of water resources and regional ecosystem optimization in regions with limited water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Zhejiang University. Humanities & Social Sciences / Zhejiang Daxue Xuebao is the property of Zhejiang University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: Fatigue failure of high-strength steels still occurs beyond 107 cycles in the very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) regime [1]. The reason for this late failure is that the fatigue properties in the long life region are strongly affected by flaws like non-meta llic inclusions inside the materia l [2]. In the case of VHCF failure a characteristic fine granular area (FGA) which is responsible for subsequent crack init iation can be observed in the vicinity of the inclusion on the fracture surface [3]. It is still unclear how diffe rent inclusion types affect the initiation mechanis m. Our study aims to clarify the influence of different inclusion types on the crack initiat ion in the very high cycle fatigue regime. Additionally, the threshold value for crack in itiation as a result of FGA formation shall be revealed. For this purpose ultrasonic fatigue tests (R = -1) of the high-strength steel 100Cr6 were carried out until an ultimate number of cycles of 109. Additionally, runout specimens were tested repeatedly with higher stress amplitudes until failure occurred. By this method an inclusion/flaw type dependent threshold value for the formation of the FGA was derived from fracture surfaces and stress amplitudes. The lowest threshold value indicates an absolute threshold value for VHCF crack initiation due to FGA formation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Ovarian teratocarcinoma (OVTC) arises from germ cells and contains a high percentage of cancer stem/progenitor cells (CSPCs), which promote cancer development through their ability to self-renew. Androgen and androgen receptor (androgen/AR) signaling has been reported to participate in cancer stemness in some types of cancer; however, this phenomenon has never been studied in OVTC. Methods: Ovarian teratocarcinoma cell line PA1 was manipulated to overexpress or knockdown AR by lentiviral deliver system. After analyzing of AR expression in PA1 cells, cell growth assay was assessed at every given time point. In order to determine ligand effect on AR actions, luciferase assay was performed to evaluate endogenous and exogenous AR function in PA1 cells. CD133 stem cell marker antibody was used to identify CSPCs in PA1 cells, and AR expression level in enriched CSPCs was determined. To assess AR effects on CD133 + population progression, stem cell functional assays (side population, sphere formation assay, CD133 expression) were used to analyze role of AR in PA1 CSPCs. In tissue specimen, immunohistochemistry staining was used to carry out AR and CD133 staining in normal and tumor tissue. Results: We examined androgen/AR signaling in OVTC PA1 cells, a CSPCs-rich cell line, and found that AR, but not androgen, promoted cell growth. We also examined the effects of AR on CSPCs characteristics and found that AR expression was more abundant in CD133 + cells, a well-defined ovarian cancer stem/progenitor marker, than in CD133 populations. Moreover, results of the sphere formation assay revealed that AR expression was required to maintain CSPCs populations. Interestingly, this AR-governed self-renewal capacity of CSPCs was only observed in CD133 + cells. In addition, we found that AR-mediated CSPCs enrichment was accompanied by down-regulation of p53 and p16. Finally, co-expression of AR and CD133 was more abundant in OVTC lesions than in normal ovarian tissue. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that AR itself might play a ligand-independent role in the development of OVTC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zentralblatt fuer Arbeitsmedizin, Arbeitsschutz und Ergonomie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This is a study of the influence of urbanization lag on the gap of urban -- rural income. The theoretical model of it demonstrates that the increase in migrant workers wage has reached a threshold, which could contribute to narrow the gap. We find some missing error in the statistical data about the wages of rural migrant workers in China's Statistics Yearbook. The phenomenon of increase of migrant workers together with the widening of urban -- rural income gap is the result of both the statistical error and lower migrant workers wage in China. Our positive analysis proves that rural migrant workers wage has reached a threshold value, which could play a active role to narrow the urban -- rural income gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis is a useful statistical tool to visualize, organize, and select diagnostic variables. Accuracy of the test is represented by the area under the ROC curve (AUC), sensitivity (Se), and specificity (Sp). In the present study, ROC analysis of prepartum feeding time (day −11 to day −2) of 20 pluriparous Holstein-Friesian crossbred cows were recorded, and the cows were followed up for detecting postpartum metritis development if any. Prepartum daily feeding time data during whole study was grouped into 2 periods (P1 [day −11 to day −7] and P2 [day −6 to day −2]). The AUC of feeding time for the P1 and P2 periods was 0.64 (P = 0.29) and 0.86 (P = 0.006), respectively. Cows with daily feeding times below the optimum threshold value of 284.5 min/d during P2 (Se = 75% and Sp = 91.67%) had more chance of developing postpartum metritis compared with those with daily feeding time above the threshold value (positive likelihood ratio = 9.0). Furthermore, relative risk (RR) analysis revealed that the risk of development of postpartum metritis increased as feeding time decreased below the optimum threshold value during P2 (RR = 5.571, P = 0.004). Thus, the optimum threshold value of feeding time during P2 may be used to predict risk of postpartum metritis, allowing for preventive measures to be implemented in the early postpartum period to reduce the likelihood of postpartum complications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Power-optimization is an essential issue for all types of mobile hosts in the network. This paper proposes a new approach for optimizing power consumption in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) that consents to maximum life time of mobile hosts while transmitting a packet from the source to destination. It can be implemented by avoiding nodes which has a minimum residual battery power. The proposed approach is implemented by introducing a threshold value on each node and transmitting the equal length of packet on the route. This threshold indicates whether the node should be included in making routing decisions for a packet and length of the packet considered for equal power consumption. Extensive simulation results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In Image segmentation, the boundary of threshold segmentation would be deviated from the true edge points with regional growth segmentation, which based on dual cores is proposed employing local contrast information. By analyzing the threshold segmentation and edge detection segmentation, the fused segmentation algorithm is proposed integrating of them. Region growing segmentation based on dual-core is researched, the Gaussian noise effect on the segmentation is analyzed, and contrast with Otsu segmentation or Sobel operator segmentation; the dual-core segmentation principle is analyzed, high and low threshold segmentation method is designed. The characteristics of the transition region are studied; and whose pixels assigned algorithm is designed based on the local contrast. Experimental results show that the algorithm not only considers the adjacent uniformity of image information, but also takes into account the local contrast, which improves the effect of a simple threshold; it is an effective and practical image segmentation algorithm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: For the Image threshold segmentation, local contrast information is not sufficient used for threshold, the border is a single pixel wide, but is deviation from the true boundary point. Gradient segmentation does not take full advantage of global information, which can get the real boundary points, and affected by noise with not complete single-pixel contour. By analyzing the threshold segmentation and gradient segmentation, fused with which a segmentation algorithm is proposed. The histogram threshold is studied in three ways: interactive, iterative and the Otsu method, and the wide valley impact on image segmentation is analyzed, the algorithm of selecting the best threshold is designed. The optimal threshold is researched on the gradient mean of the same gray value, which integrates the local gradient and global threshold. Experimental results show that the algorithm not only considers the adjacent consistency of the image information, but also taking into account the local contrast, and improve the effect of simple threshold, which is an effective and practical image segmentation algorithm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article investigates the distribution of each sanshool in the Japanese pepper plant grown in various regions citing the change in composition of sanshools during maturation of the fruit. A quantitative analysis of sanshool compounds in Japanese pepper and their pungent characteristics were conducted. The study has calculated the degree of pungency and evaluated the pungent qualities of the products.

Although considered an effective means to alleviate the urban heat island effect, the cold island effect of urban wetlands and its influencing factors remain unclear, especially in inland basin areas. Chengdu, a typical inland metropolis in Southwest China, was chosen as the case study area to study the cooling effect of wetlands and the impact of the spatial form of wetlands (e.g., size, shape, hydrological connectivity) on the cooling effect, and optimized strategies for the cooling efficiency of urban wetlands were proposed. The results showed that (1) the cooling intensity logarithmically increased with the wetland size and that the threshold value of efficiency (TVoE) was 1.47 ± 0.34 ha. (2) The hydrological connectivity significantly influenced the cooling effect, accounting for 28.2% of the total. (3) The wetlands within the high-density building areas had a relatively high cooling efficiency, while the green space could expand the cooling extent. We propose building a number of small and connected wetlands in densely built-up areas instead of building large and isolated wetlands to improve the cooling efficiency of urban wetlands. • The threshold value of efficiency (TVoE) is 1.47 ± 0.34 ha in the inland megacity. • Building small wetlands is the important and cost-effective way to alleviate UHIs. • Hydrological connected wetlands exert higher cooling intensity than isolated ones. • The cooling efficiency in urban built-up areas is higher than nonurban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores a method for speaker verification to appropriately set the threshold value used to judge the identities of individual speakers and also considers methods to update speaker models and the robustness of the speaker models so as to make the models more robust with respect to utterance variations, using a small amount of data for updating that was recently uttered. The speaker model is represented by the hidden Markov model (HMM). In the model updating, the parameters of the speaker HMM are estimated from the data for updating and the current parameter values. For setting the threshold, the new threshold value for each speaker is set with the initial value as a value that is passed to an FA rate higher than the equal error rate (a value for which the false rejection rate and the false acceptance rate are equal), which is calculated from the data for updating and which steadily approaches the value that was passed to the equal error rate in concert with updating of the speaker HMM. The results of evaluating this method using text-dependent and text-prompted speaker verification experiments with twenty speakers shows that the average error rate fell by roughly 40% for the text-independent type and by roughly 80% for the text-prompted type as compared to when the model and threshold value are not updated. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Syst Comp Jpn, 30(13): 96–105, 1999 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Agricultural labor migrants have a phased impact on rural land transfer in China. • Labor migration will significantly promote rural land transfer if it is less than or equal to 0.125 on the national level. • The thresholds of labor migration scale varied from different regions on the regional level. • Land transfer policies should be targeted to different labor migration phases and regions. Land transfer in rural areas and labor migration from rural areas to cities are both becoming common in China due to the increasing development of the non-agricultural sector resulting from rapid urbanization. Many rural labours who migrated to cities left their land in rural areas, and in most cases, this land was abandoned. To make full use of abandoned land in rural areas, the central government in China has formulated policies to promote rural land transfer, but rural land transfer still lags far behind labor migration in China. Drivers of rural land transfer still need to be explored. In addition, the labor migration scale shows dynamic features as the labor migration of more family members is substituted for that of individuals recent years. Thus, the phased feature of household labor migration should be taken into consideration to examine the phased influence of the labor migration scale on rural land transfer. Considering the probability threshold effect of the impact of labor migration on rural land transfer, a threshold model was used to perform the empirical analysis. Based on the threshold model and CHARLS 2015 data, this study empirically analysed the impact of the labor migration scale on rural land transfer. On the national level, labor migration will significantly promote rural land transfer if it is less than or equal to 0.125, but when it is greater than 0.125, its impact on land transfer is not significant. On the basis of the spatial differentiation of rural land transfer, four regions were divided to do the regional threshold regression analysis. On the regional level, the thresholds of labor migration scale of the central region, the east region and the west region are 0.112, 0.221 and 0.133 respectively, and there is no threshold in the north region. The results show that labor migration have a phased impact on rural land transfer in China and policies should be targeted to different labor migration phases and different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural background levels (NBLs) and threshold values (TVs) are crucial parameters for identification and the quantification of groundwater pollution, and the evaluation of pollution control measures. The cumulative probability distribution technique was used for the evaluation of NBLs for 36 samples collected during two climate conditions in the part of the desert area from Rajasthan, India. The NBLs for Na+, Cl−, SO 4 2−, HCO 3 − , NO 3 − and F− ions were assessed and compared with the natural and anthropogenic processes. The TVs were also calculated for Na+, Cl−, SO 4 2−, HCO 3 − , NO 3 − and F− ions, and compared with the drinking limits of the Bureau of Indian Standards. Additionally, the pollution percentage (%) at the individual well was estimated and identified the polluted zones. Results indicate that most of the polluted areas were situated in the southern part, which was influenced by the natural and anthropogenic factors. The sodium concentrations above the TVs, in indicating the saline nature of water. Chloride threshold value above the drinking water limit was mainly observed in the dry season, related to intensive evaporation and industrial waste, which leads to groundwater quality degradation. The NO 3 − concentration (∼56% samples) above the TVs indicates extensive use of nitrate fertilizers and sewage effluent. The values of total dissolved solids (TDS) shows the suspicious scenario as about 84% of the samples in the dry period and about 89% in the wet season exceeding the drinking limit. Assessment of background concentrations and threshold values on regional and local scale assigns the basis for the identification of groundwater pollution, and helpful for better water quality guidelines to protecting of water resources. Image 1 • Cumulative probability plots have separated the natural background levels (NBLs). • Threshold values of hydrochemical parameters indicate the contamination. • Use of fertilizers and sewage effluent influence the NBLs of NO 3 − in groundwater. • Long-term dissolution of quaternary sediment and rocks causes high NBLs of HCO 3 −. • Evaporation of lowlands leads anomalous to salt concentration in groundwater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]