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The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is an important brain area for executive functions. The OFC projects to both the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA). These two pathways share some similar behavioral functions, but their anatomical and physiological properties have not been compared before. In this study, we first explored the connection of the lateral OFC (lOFC) to NAc core (NAcc) and/or BLA, especially the collateral projections (

An image based surface velocity measurement of river flow that applies the adaptive large-scale particle Image velocimetry (LS-PIV) with dynamically adjusting detection region (DADR) approach is presented in this research. The image based measurement is a safe and efficient method. However, the flow conditions, weather or environment changes caused this type of measurement was hard to adapt each situation. In this paper, the DADR method was proposed to determine the better detection region whenever the flow condition changed. The proposed adaptable interrogation area (IA) size determining algorithm was applied to automatically correct the IA size and overcome the lower signal to noise rate (SNR) and higher errors produced by the conventional measurement with the fixed IA under varied environments. Based on the experimental results, our proposed approaches are accurate, robust and adaptable enough to overcome multiple flow and weather conditions presented in this paper.

Background Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a condition involving several molecular mechanisms related to the intestinal microbiota for its development. Intestinal fatty acid‐binding protein (I‐FABP) is a sensitive marker to study enterocyte damage. A prebiotic is a non‐digestible food ingredient that improves host health by selectively stimulating the growth and/or activities of bacteria in the colon. We aimed to clarify the currently described effects of prebiotics in the prevention and management of T2DM. Methods In this case‐control study, we chose 68 participants with T2DM and 52 healthy participants. Both groups were further divided based on consumption of prebiotics. Forty participants with T2DM consumed prebiotics, and 28 did not; 30 healthy volunteers consumed prebiotics, and 22 did not. We used the analysis of variance to compare the inflammation levels between the case and control groups. Multiple linear regression was performed for the significantly correlated groups to estimate the influence of prebiotics on inflammation level. Results Age was a significant factor for difference in I‐FABP levels (standardized coefficient: 0.06; P = .047). The analysis of eating habits showed that vegetarian diets produced lower I‐FABP levels than non‐vegetarian diets (standardized coefficient: −2.55; P = .022). Results showed that patients with T2DM who consumed prebiotics expressed lower I‐FABP levels, reflecting an improvement in inflammation level, than the healthy volunteers who did not consume prebiotics (standardized coefficient: −3.20; P = .019). Conclusions For patients with T2DM, prebiotics supplemented produced no significant impact on serum I‐FABP levels., To evaluate effects of prebiotics in the prevention and management T2DM, totally 120 patients were recruited for the initial screening with I‐FABP. The participants in this study had no history of gastrointestinal disease and had not been treated with antibiotics or laxatives within 3 months before the experiment; all T2DM patients received dietary advice to control and treat diabetes. Blood or urine samples were collected at baseline and at 1, 3, and 6 months, followed by proper statistical analysis.

This paper presents the development of active noise control (ANC) for light-weight earphones, and proposes using music or natural sound to estimate the critical secondary path model instead of extra random noise. Three types of light-weight ANC earphones including in-ear, earbud, and clip phones are developed. Real-time experiments are conducted to evaluate their performance using the built-in microphone inside KEMAR&rsquo, s ear and to compare with commercially-available ANC headphones and earphones. Experimental results show that the developed light-weight ANC earphones achieve higher noise reduction than the commercial ANC headphones and earphones, and the in-ear ANC earphone has the best noise reduction performance.

In this paper, an image based approach of the water flow information measurement is proposed. Applying the image based measurement is a safely and efficiently non-contact method. The image based flow discharge estimation method is proposed in this paper. The multi virtual water level probes (MVWLP) method is proposed to estimate water level. This approach mainly applies the color space adjustable technique to reduce noises and uses the adaptive edge detection to extract the water line. Then, the velocity area method (VAM) is applied to estimate flow discharge in this study. The depth-averaged velocity of sampling verticals of the designed transection can be obtained by the image-based surface velocity estimation method denoted large-scale particle image velocimetry (LS-PIV). We convince that the proposed methods are accurate, robust and adaptable enough to overcome multiple conditions.

Because of capacity constraints, the companies who produce joint products have to assess the desirability of further processing joint products beyond the split-off point. Especially in a situation in which market demands exceed the company's production capacity. In order to satisfy customer's orders and maximize total profits, these companies must study the feasibility of expanding capacity or outsourcing the production of parts. The aim of this paper is to develop an ABC joint products decision model which incorporates capacity expansions and outsourcing features, by using a mathematical programming approach. With the model presented in this paper, we can evaluate the comparative benefits of expanding the various kinds of capacity and outsourcing simultaneously. By applying this model, the companies who produce joint products can derive an optimal decision about further processing, capacity expansions or outsourcing.

Companies declare that quality or customer satisfaction is their top priority in order to keep and attract more business in an increasingly competitive marketplace. The cost of quality (COQ) is a tool which can help determine the optimal level of quality investment. COQ analysis enables organizations to identify measure and control the consequences of poor quality. This study attempts to identify the COQ elements across the enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation phases for the ERP implementation services of consultancy companies. The findings provide guidance to project managers on how best to utilize their limited resources. In summary, we suggest that project teams should focus on “value-added” activities and minimize the cost of “non-value-added” activities at each phase of the ERP implementation project. Key words: Services, ERP implementation services, quality standard, service quality standard, cost of quality, project management, project quality management, project financial management.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are used to provide companies with integrated information for operations management and decision-making. An ERP implementation project may become a troubled project at any stage during the life cycle of the project. We must detect and correct the causes of a project’s problems before it fails. This study investigated troubled ERP implementation projects, sought the root causes of the troubled projects and determined what actions could be taken to turn around the troubled projects. We used case study methodology. The purpose of this study was to help determine whether a project is troubled and summarise possible management methods for saving a project, while it is still possible or cancelling it with minimal negative impact.