Percentage Allocation Research Articles

Sex estimation from the calcaneus and talus using discriminant function analysis and its possible application in fossil remains

Foot bones have been shown to be sexually dimorphic and they are frequently used for sex estimation. In this study, we estimated the sex based on the calcaneus and the talus of a modern North American population obtained from the Hamann-Todd Osteological Collection, housed at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (Ohio, USA). A total of 164 calcanei (84 males and 80 females) and 162 tali (83 males and 79 females) were studied. Several univariate discriminant functions were obtained, with accuracy ranging from 70.2 to 90.2%. The best variable for sex estimation in this sample is the talar length. Multivariate discriminant functions were also obtained. The accuracy (83.3 to 96.4%) was generally higher than that obtained with the univariate discriminant functions. The best multivariate equation is the one that uses all the variables measured in the talus. Discriminant functions previously reported in other studies were tested on the Hamann-Todd collection to verify their validity outside the population for which they were made. In addition, together with the equations reported here, they were applied on data from fossil remains belonging to three different groups (Homo neanderthalensis, hominins from the Sima de los Huesos, and anatomically modern Homo sapiens) in order to find some discriminant functions that allow for a valid determination of sex in this type of fossil populations. Several equations yielded good correct allocation percentages in fossil populations thus facilitating the estimation of sex for 16 fossil specimens of previously unknown sex.

Co-accumulation characters of soil organic carbon and nitrogen under broadleaved Korean pine and Betula platyphylla secondary forests in Changbai Mountain, China.

The retrogressive succession is an important driver for dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN). We studied the quantitative distribution and synergistic accumulation characteristics of soil organic carbon and nitrogen in the primary broadleaved Korean pine (KP) forest and Betula platyphylla (BP) secondary forest in Changbai Mountain through paired plot approach. Further, we analyzed the changes of carbon pool and carbon sink effect in temperate forest soil caused by secondary succession and their carbon-nitrogen coupling mechanism. The results showed that the BP forest accumulated more organic carbon and nitrogen in the surface and subsurface soil (0-20 cm) than the KP forest, with relatively low soil C/N. Compared with KP forest, soil organic carbon storage in BP forest (0-20 cm) was higher by 14.7 t·hm-2, equivalent to a soil carbon sink gain of 29.4 g·m-2·a-1. SOC and TN concentrations were positively correlated in each soil layer of all forest types, causing a co-accumulative relationship between SOC and TN. The coefficient of determination (R2) between SOC and TN in the upper soil layers of BP forest was significantly higher than that of the KP forest, indicating that SOC accumulation under the relatively N-rich BP forest was more dependent on the accumulation of organic nitrogen. In the upper soil layers (0-10 cm) where organic matter concentrated, there was no significant difference in light fraction organic carbon and nitrogen stock between the two forest types, whereas the content, stock, and allocation percentage of heavy fraction organic carbon and nitrogen of BP forest were all significantly higher than that of the KP forest, with an average increment of 8.5 t·hm-2 in heavy fraction organic carbon stock. Those results indicated that the increase of soil organic carbon and nitrogen during secondary succession was mainly due to the increases of soil organic carbon and nitrogen pools in mineral-bound stability. The carbon-nitrogen coupling mechanisms in litter decomposition and soil organic matter formation was an important driving mechanisms underlying the changes of soil organic carbon and nitrogen pools during secondary succession.

Analysis and Optimization of Automated Power Distribution Within Nigeria

Nigeria currently generates approximately 81,122 MWH (or 3,380 MWH/H) of electricity for national consumption, which is far less than the daily electricity demand of the country, leading to a need for allotted power distribution within the country. A power optimization software owned and patented by RACETT NIGERIA LTD. was used to perform automated distribution of electricity from the National Grid for October 1, 2019. The software automatically calculated and deducted the power transmission loss in transporting the electricity from the generating stations to the distribution companies by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). The total power available for distribution was automatically shared to 11 distribution companies based on the established electricity grid percentage allocation. After deducting the distribution losses for each distribution companies, the remaining electricity was distributed among constituent states, and the hours of electricity supplied to each state selected, with priority given to the peak demand period of 8:00 p.m. -11: 00 p.m. The distribution results show that Nigeria is currently able to provide 4 hours of electricity across the nation from 8:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. Eight (8) states received electricity for only 4 hours of the day, while some states like Lagos State received as much as 24 hours. The percentage grid allocation to the distribution companies needs to be revised to improve even distribution of electricity across the nation, and transmission and distribution losses need to be drastically reduced. Further analysis revealed that Nigeria presently needs to generate 240,000 MWH (or 19, 583 MWH/H) of electricity in order to provide 24 hours of electricity to every state across the nation. Future work includes power generation analysis to investigate the effect of new generating stations on each electricity distribution region in Nigeria.

Optimal Tactical Asset Allocation – Using Recommender Systems in Portfolio Management

Here we present a novel approach to how the Chief Investment Office (CIO) can select investment strategies to allocate to and to decide the percentage allocation to them. The method that we outline here is a continuation of our previous research on recommender systems science[13]. The aim of this project is to improve upon an objective measure of the CIO’s efficiency. The CIO office is tasked with allocating to the available investment strategies and altering the allocation based on changes in financial markets. The allocation algorithm outlined here tries to adapt to new market regimes while simultaneously responding to observations of the relative performance of investment strategies. It turns out that a solution to the strategy selection problem faced by CIOs is very similar to the science behind movie or music recommendation. The algorithm learns from historical observations about strategies. It tries to figure out a relationship between different dates and months in the past, and between strategies to which we are possibly allocating. This process of detecting a two-dimensional neighborhood is what is superior to methods adopted by CIO offices in the past.

Use of the Pesticide Intermediate Benzene Hexachloride as a Tracer to Determine Liability

Solvent alleged that chlorinated benzene contamination detected in Solvent's offsite groundwater recovery wells was 98% due to releases from the neighboring Olin chlorobenzene production facility and only 2% due to Solvent's nearby chlorinated benzene production facility. However, Solvent's position was complicated by the fact that it had acknowledged that its operations had impacted site contamination levels. Solvent's position was that the onsite contamination was partially due to Olin, but it faced an uphill struggle because the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) had assigned Solvent responsibility for the Hot Spot cleanup at the Olin site. However, Solvent was able to recover virtually the entire amount of its Hot Spot costs attributable to chlorinated benzenes from Olin, as well as the full percentage of allocation they requested from Olin for the Solvent site through the useof chemical tracers such as benzene hexachloride (BHC).

Increasing Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing HESI Grade Allocation Percentage in a Psychiatric Nursing Course.

Scant evidence is found in the literature regarding the unit-level Health Education Systems, Inc. (HESI) examinations. This study aims to (a) compare student Psych HESI examination scores between cohorts after increasing grade allocation from 5% to 15%, and (b) examine student perceptions of the impact of increasing the percentage of course grade allocation. An ex post facto research design analyzed differences in Psych HESI examination scores. HESI examination mean score differences between groups were analyzed using ANOVA. Narrative responses were analyzed using content analysis. Psych HESI examination means increased from 836 in spring 2015 (5% of course grade) to 905 in fall 2015 (15% of course grade). Narrative response themes included (a) Validated Learning; (b) Compelled Participants to Study More; (c) Incongruent With Class Content and Preparation Books; and (d) Stress-Producing. HESI examination scores improved with increasing course grade percentage allocated to the HESI score. Students indicated positive and negative perceptions of the increased grade allocation. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(10):604-608.].

The efficacy of life insurance company general account equity asset allocations: a safety-first perspective using vine copulas

AbstractWe study the asset allocation decision of a life insurance company’s general account with respect to the possibility of large negative economic shocks and examine how this account is affected by policyholder investment decisions in the company’s separate account. This is accomplished using a performance metric that incorporates downside risk measured using univariate and multivariate extreme value distributions. Because of its well-known price volatility, diversification attributes, and significant weight in the combined general and separate accounts, our primary focus is the company’s equity investments. Although industry asset allocations have varied over the past two decades, we find that the actual allocations to equity in the general account are close to the allocation percentages suggested by our extreme value metrics and both are far below the maximum values indicated by the relevant regulatory bodies.

The Optimal Advertising-Allocation Rules For Sequentially Released Products

ABSTRACT This study investigates the optimal advertising-allocation rules for sequentially released products. The authors used both analytical and empirical approaches to derive and validate the rules using theatrical prerelease, postrelease, and DVD advertising and sales data in the movie industry. Theatrical prerelease advertising increased when there was a strong prerelease advertising effect on the opening box office or a strong carryover effect on DVDs through the opening box office. The optimal allocation percentages are proposed on the basis of the estimated parameters of the empirical analysis. A simulation study proposes likely improvements in revenues for 74 percent of the titles with optimal rules.

An evaluation of constrained randomization for the design and analysis of group-randomized trials with binary outcomes.

Group-randomized trials are randomized studies that allocate intact groups of individuals to different comparison arms. A frequent practical limitation to adopting such research designs is that only a limited number of groups may be available, and therefore, simple randomization is unable to adequately balance multiple group-level covariates between arms. Therefore, covariate-based constrained randomization was proposed as an allocation technique to achieve balance. Constrained randomization involves generating a large number of possible allocation schemes, calculating a balance score that assesses covariate imbalance, limiting the randomization space to a prespecified percentage of candidate allocations, and randomly selecting one scheme to implement. When the outcome is binary, a number of statistical issues arise regarding the potential advantages of such designs in making inference. In particular, properties found for continuous outcomes may not directly apply, and additional variations on statistical tests are available. Motivated by two recent trials, we conduct a series of Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the statistical properties of model-based and randomization-based tests under both simple and constrained randomization designs, with varying degrees of analysis-based covariate adjustment. Our results indicate that constrained randomization improves the power of the linearization F-test, the KC-corrected GEE t-test (Kauermann and Carroll, 2001, Journal of the American Statistical Association 96, 1387-1396), and two permutation tests when the prognostic group-level variables are controlled for in the analysis and the size of randomization space is reasonably small. We also demonstrate that constrained randomization reduces power loss from redundant analysis-based adjustment for non-prognostic covariates. Design considerations such as the choice of the balance metric and the size of randomization space are discussed.

The prevalence of orthodontic treatment needs of school children in northern Herzegovina.

The study was conducted to evaluate the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need based on the Dental Health Component (DHC). 300 students aged 12-15 years were included in this study. The examinations were performed in two elementary schools in the municipality of Prozor-Rama, using standard dental instruments. Children were ranked into five grades according to the DHC. Only 12% of children were found not to have a need for orthodontic treatment. Of the others, 45.33% had a great, and 10% a very great need for orthodontic treatment. The rest of the children were found to have a need for minor or moderate orthodontic treatment. Slightly more girls than boys had a great or a very great need for treatment, although the difference by gender was not statistically significant. Analysis of the level of need by age of children showed no significant difference; children with a great need of orthodontic treatment prevailed in all age groups. About 85% of children with a great and a very great need for orthodontic treatment would agree to orthodontic treatment, while the rate of non-acceptance was about 5%. The high rate of need for orthodontic treatment in the examined students is explained by the lack of programs for this type of health care, the insufficient number of qualified orthodontic specialists, and the very low percentage of allocations from the state budget for oral health.

The effect of marketing expenses on car sales – an empirical analysis

The paper assesses empirically the relationship between marketing expenditures and sales in a highly competitive industry, namely automotive, by analyzing the marketing expending of Automobile Dacia S.A. The first part of the paper presents the state-of-the-art and discusses the studies previously conducted which focus on the structure, dynamic and the impact of marketing expenses, while the second part consists in an empirical analysis conducted on Automobile Dacia S.A. marketing spending. The results of the study show that the company managed to increase its’ market share by adopting differentiated marketing for each geographical area. Although the research revealed that the allocation percentage from sales for marketing spending is relatively low (5-6%), the analysis conducted on the cost per unit sold reveals a share of 3% on marketing spending.

Lifecycle Based User Value Analysis of Rail - Road Level Crossings: Probabilistic Approach Using Monte Carlo Simulation

Railway operators are in continuous pressure to minimize maintenance and rehabilitation costs of infrastructures; at the same time they are expected to provide a reliable service by optimum allocation of natural and economical resources. Railway tracks and level crossings are long-lived assets where their service life stretch 30 to 100 years. This paper aims to show an approach that serve as a decision support whereby expert's knowledge can directly be integrated by using a delphiround. A proposed methodology is illustrated by application examples using level crossings commonly used in Austria by Wiener Lokalbahnen. Lifecycle based user – product performance – expectations and economic imperatives could be incorporated through the development of key performance metrics. Assessment criteria are set by allocation percentages for value criteria under these criteria are the sub value – contingencies where Monte Carlo simulation is used for probabilistic scenario analysis. The approach facilitates the first step for a detailed lifecycle cost analysis of infrastructures by supporting experts and non-expert decision makers to get a quicker overview on system benefits as well as serve as a bridge to the practical application of more robust data-driven lifecycle cost analysis.

Energy Optimization for Bidirectional Multimedia Communication in Unsynchronized TDD Systems

Energy efficiency is one of the main system resources that has to be optimally allocated, due to its impact on the amount of generated interference and the battery life for multimedia communication. In this paper, we concentrate on the time-division duplexing (TDD) option and how to efficiently allocate energy on both uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) channels that share the same bandwidth but over different time intervals. One of the main advantages of TDD is the possibility for load compensation between UL and DL, by allocating a larger percentage of time for the operation in DL if the system is congested in DL, and vice versa. While this allocation can be done on each cell independently, the result is that adjacent cells would have a different compensation value, thus generating cross interference, which decreases the system performance, mainly on the cell-edge users. This paper presents an energy allocation in order to compensate the unsynchronization in the percentage allocation, where the objective is to guarantee minimum quality of service satisfaction at all receivers, while the least amount of energy is consumed.

Quantitative Risk Allocation in Construction Projects Using Cooperative-Bargaining Game Theory

This paper presents a cooperative-bargaining game model for quantitative risk allocation that extends the previous existing system dynamics (SD) based model. The proposed model accounts for both the client and the contractor costs to perform the quantitative risk allocation process. In this research, the behavior of contracting parties in the quantitative risk allocation process is modeled as the players’ behavior in a game. The cooperative game forms at a risk allocation percentage at which the summation of the client and the contractor costs are minimized. A bargaining process is then performed to share the benefit of a decrease in the contractor costs between the client and the contractor. To evaluate the performance of the proposed model, it has been employed in a pipeline project. The quantitative risk allocation is performed for the inflation as one of the most important identified risks. It is shown that using the proposed cooperative-bargaining game model, the percentage of risk allocated to the client is determined to be 100. Hence, the client and the contractor costs are decreased by 3.1 and 3.7 % in comparison to the previous SD-based risk allocation approach, respectively.

SPREADING AND GENOTYPIC STRUCTURE OF ROTAVIRUSES IN THE ODESA REGION

Aim. The study was to determine the distribution and genotypic diversity of rotaviruses in children under the age of 5 years, the circulation of rotavirus and other viral pathogens of intestinal infections in tap water and in the environment (waste water) in the Odesa region in 2010-2015. Methods. Determination of rotavirus antigen was determined by enzyme immunoassay, and the determination of nucleic acid of rotaviruses, astroviruses, caliciviruses, enteroviruses, adenoviruses by polymerase chain reaction with reverse transcription (RT-PCR). Results. During the study period, the percentage of allocation of rotavirus sick children at acute intestinal infection was 41.8%. The greatest number of positive samples among children aged 2–5 years – 52%. Based on these data the incidence of rotavirus is recorded all year round. There is a peculiarity in virus circulation. There were registered two uncharacteristic summer peaks of infection in July and August (2012–2015). The prevailing was propagation among genotypes of rotavirus G4P(8), G1P(8), G3P(8) and G2P(4). The examination of faeces and waste water samples revealed that rotaviruses, among other activators of intestinal infections, were found out in a significant number (37.2%). Conclusions. Thus, it was found that among the pathogens of acute enteritis at infected children and in the waste water there were dominated genotypes G4P(8), G1P(8), G3P(8) and G2P(4). The incidence of rotavirus infection is registered in the year-round with indistinctive two peaks in July and August.

Cost allocation for less-than-truckload collaboration among perishable product retailers

We study cost allocation problem arising from less-than-truckload collaboration among perishable product retailers. The relevant costs we consider include fixed transportation cost, variable transportation cost, and decay loss of perishable products. Cooperative game theory is applied to study this cost allocation problem. The corresponding cooperative game, called transportation facility choice game, is established. First, we show that the core of the transportation facility choice game is non-empty. Then, we identify some conditions for concavity and quasi-concavity of the transportation facility choice game with the linear decay and negative exponential decay functions, respectively. Finally, simulation is conducted to analyze how optimal solutions differ under the linear decay and exponential decay functions, and intuitive cost allocation schemes are proposed and compared with the $$\tau $$?-value and the Shapley value of the corresponding game. Simulation results show that the optimal solution under linear decay function tends to choose facilities with higher fixed cost than that under exponential decay function. Additionally, among all the cost allocation schemes compared, the simple cost allocation scheme called A-IM, the $$\tau $$?-value, and the Shapley value have better performance in terms of the percentage of allocations lying in the core.

Optimum designs of high mobility wireless systems with channel estimation errors

This research studies the optimum system designs of high mobility wireless communication systems with imperfect channel state information. In high mobility systems, the channel estimation error is usually inevitable and might have significant impacts on system performance. The impacts of channel estimation errors on system performance are quantified through the development of a spectral efficiency lower bound. With the help of the asymptotic analysis of the channel estimation mean squared error, the spectral efficiency lower bound is expressed as explicit functions of a number of system parameters, such as the maximum Doppler frequency, the percentage of pilots in the transmitted symbols, and the ratio of energy allocated between data symbols and pilot symbols. The optimum pilot percentage and energy allocation factor that jointly maximise the spectral efficiency lower bound are identified through analytical studies. It is discovered that, in term of maximising spectral efficiency, the optimum performance can be achieved by optimising the energy allocation factor when the pilots sample the fast time-varying fading at its Nyquist rate.

Genetic Algorithm Based Objective Functions Comparative Study for Damage Detection and Localization in Beam Structures

The detection techniques based on non-destructive testing (NDT) defects are preferable because of their low cost and operational aspects related to the use of the analyzed structure. In this study, we used the genetic algorithm (GA) for detecting and locating damage. The finite element was used for diagnostic beams. Different structures considered may incur damage to be modelled by a loss of rigidity supposed to represent a defect in the structure element. Identification of damage is formulated as an optimization problem using three objective functions (change of natural frequencies, Modal Assurance Criterion MAC and MAC natural frequency). The results show that the best objective function is based on the natural frequency and MAC while the method of the genetic algorithm present its efficiencies in indicating and quantifying multiple damage with great accuracy. Three defects have been created to enhance damage depending on the elements 2, 5 and 8 with a percentage allocation of 50% in the beam structure which has been discretized into 10 elements. Finally the defect with noise was introduced to test the stability of the method against uncertainty.

Examining the Policy Agenda on Food Security: A Question of Food Availability in Malaysia

Food security implies the ability of the country to ensure a stable supply for domestic consumption. To achieve that, the Malaysian Federal Government has to allocate a certain percentage of the national budget for food production. Within this framework, this article attempts to examine policies regarding food security in Malaysia. Since the Malaysian government initiated agricultural policies to provide sustainable food production, the percentage of budgetary allocation for food has varied substantially over the years. Prior to the establishment of the industrial policy, the budgetary allocation for food related policies was quite high. However, the influence of global warming as well as a series of catastrophic events in food producing nations such as Thailand and Australia has forced Malaysia to relook at its food security agenda. Using a content analysis method, based on the documents of the Malaysia economic development plans, this paper first explores government policies on food and agriculture. Then, the paper examines how these policies affect the balance of trade in regards to food availability in terms of three major commodities (rice, fruit, and vegetables). Finally, the researchers analyze the future direction of Malaysia in regards to the food security agenda focusing on food availability. It is hopeful that the recommendations will help policymakers formulate agricultural policies which can help the country to sustain its food production and at the same time protect the country from any unforeseen circumstances relating to food security issues.

Power‐conservative server consolidation based resource management in cloud

SUMMARYThe cloud computing environment is a real‐time communication network that involves a large number of systems connected in a distributed fashion, for which resources are available on demand. In recent years, due to the enormous growth of data and information, data maintenance tasks involve a major effort in information technology (IT) industries. So, IT industries are concentrating on the cloud computing environment in order to maintain their data and manage their resources. Owing to the increase in the number of data centres, which have an impact on electrical energy cost, peak power dissipation, cooling and carbon emission, power‐conservation‐based resource management is essential. A best‐fit heuristic job placement algorithm is proposed in this paper in order to increase the job allocation percentage, a worst‐fit heuristic virtual machine (VM) placement algorithm is also proposed in order to place the VMs over the physical machines (PMs) thereby reducing the number of the latter allotted, and a server consolidation algorithm is proposed in order to improve power conservation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.