Permanent Losses Research Articles

A NOVEL COMBINED POINT DETECTION AND FEATURE EXTRACTION METHOD FOR EARLY DETECTION OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

Now a days even though there are different methods to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease ,it is always been challenging to the doctors for proper diagnosis and planning of appropriate treatment of this disease. The manual spotting of Alzheimer’s disease from MRI images is driven by many factors and may differ from experts depending on their expertise in the diagnosis of the disease. The automatic and accurate identification of Alzheimer’s disease from MRI images helps to eliminate the above issues and deliver better results. Alzheimer’s disease is an irrevocable brain disease that steadily destroys brain cells and hence resulting in permanent memory losses. To overcome this situation, a new algorithm is developed by combining different point detection and feature extraction methods for early prediction of various stages of Alzheimer's disease. This new method is integrated with different classifiers like k Nearest Neighbor and Random Forest classifiers. The classification accuracy and performance are evaluated and analyzed for both classifiers. The new proposed method provides an accuracy rate of 98.3% when k Nearest Neighbor classifier is used and gives an accuracy rate of 97.12% when Random Forest classifier is used. From the results the new proposed algorithm is found to be more efficient than the existing algorithms since it uses a combination of multiple feature extraction methods when compared to the methods which uses single feature extraction method.

Protection of multi‐terminal remote DC microgrids with overhead lines against temporary and permanent faults

Multi-terminal low-voltage DC (MT-LVDC) remote microgrids are subjected to faults with low current magnitudes. Although such faults do not disturb microgrid steady-state operation, their continuous existence can lead to permanent (prm) power losses and personnel hazard. Yet, given that faults are often temporary (tmp) on overhead lines, instantaneous de-energisation of the entire microgrid upon fault detection can result in prolonged loss of infeed, i.e. loss of load. This study proposes a centralised protection scheme to achieve tmp-fault resilient MT-LVDC microgrids. The proposed approach is comprised of local intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) at each terminal and a central IED at one of the MT-LVDC microgrid terminals. Low-bandwidth communication is utilised between local and central IEDs. Local IEDs are equipped with overcurrent function to take fast protective action under faults with high current magnitudes. On the other hand, the central IED consists of two passive oscillators and DC choppers. The passive oscillators facilitate the detection and identification of tmp and prm faults with low current magnitudes. DC choppers are used for online pole voltage rebalancing upon tmp fault clearance. Testing the centralised protection scheme on a ± 750 V , TN-S grounded, MT-LVDC microgrid reveals that the approach is fast, sensitive, selective and resilient under various conditions.

Fog–Cloud Assisted IoT-Based Hierarchical Approach For Controlling Dengue Infection

Abstract The past five decades have witnessed the unprecedented contribution of arboviral diseases towards global morbidity and disability. It is primarily attributed due to unplanned urbanization, population explosion and globalization. Out of these, dengue is considered the most important arboviral disease because of its predominant growth in the past. The presented study explores the immense potential of Internet of things (IoT), fog and cloud computing for providing technology-based healthcare solutions for dengue virus (DENV) infection. In this paper, a hierarchical healthcare computing system for controlling DENV infection using fog–cloud-assisted IoT is proposed. This system provides a real-time remote diagnosis of DENV infection in individuals and monitors and predicts their health sensitivity during its infection period. The system uses fog computing to diagnose the DENV infection status of the individuals using $k$-means clustering and generates immediate diagnostic alerts to individuals, at the fog layer. Furthermore, the system uses cloud computing to monitor and predict the probabilistic health sensitivity of the DENV-infected individuals using Bayesian belief network and artificial neural network, respectively, at the cloud layer. The prediction of health sensitivity in the proposed system helps the infected individuals and healthcare agencies in determining the health vulnerability of DENV-infected individuals and preventing severe or permanent health losses in the future. The proposed system is experimentally evaluated using well-defined approaches, which conform to its validity and applicability. The results obtained from the experimental evaluations of the proposed system acknowledge the performance superiority and high efficiency of the system in delivering DENV-related healthcare services in real time.

Life Beyond Heart Failure—What Are the Long-Term Challenges, Supportive Care Needs, and Views Toward Supportive Care of Multiethnic Asian Patients With Left Ventricular Assist Device and Their Caregivers?

ContextChallenges experienced by patients with the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) and their caregivers during the early period after LVAD implantation are well documented. However, little is known about long-term challenges, supportive care needs, and views toward supportive care of Asian LVAD patients and caregivers. ObjectivesWe aimed to explore the experiences of multiethnic Asian LVAD patients and caregivers so as to identify their long-term challenges, supportive care needs, and views toward supportive care. MethodsSemistructured interviews with LVAD patients and caregivers were conducted based on the grounded theory approach. Participants were purposively recruited from the inpatient and outpatient settings of the National Heart Center Singapore. ResultsA total of 30 patients and 11 caregivers participated. More than half of the participants were Chinese (patients 63%; caregivers 64%). Most patients (83%) were males, whereas most caregivers were females (91%). The median duration on support was 31 months and 46 months for patients and caregivers, respectively. The implantation of the LVAD was a significant milestone in their lives and caused long-term changes in multiple domains (physical, financial, social, psychoemotional, and spiritual). Experiencing permanent and recurrent losses over time was particularly challenging. Participants expressed the need for mutual support between patient and caregiver and connectedness with others and society at large. Participants desired holistic supportive care from their health care team. ConclusionAsian LVAD patients and caregivers experienced long-term challenges and had unique supportive care needs. Our findings have implications on the design of future interventions and supportive care models.

Macroeconomic Policy, Product Market Competition, and Growth

While there is growing evidence of persistent or even permanent output losses from financial crises, the causes remain unclear. One candidate is intangible capital – a rising driver of economic growth that, being non-pledgeable as collateral, is vulnerable to financial frictions. By sheltering intangible investment from financial shocks, counter-cyclical macroeconomic policy could strengthen longer-term growth, particularly so where strong product market competition prevents firms from self-financing their investments through rents. Using a rich cross-country firm-level dataset and exploiting heterogeneity in firm-level exposure to the sharp and unforeseen tightening of credit conditions around September 2008, we find strong support for these theoretical predictions. The quantitative implications are large, highlighting a powerful stabilizing role for macroeconomic policy through the intangible investment channel, and its complementarity with pro-competition product market deregulation.

Uncovering Technological and Environmental Potentials of Aluminum Alloy Scraps Recycling Through Friction Stir Consolidation

Conventional metal chips recycling processes are energy-intensive with low efficiency and permanent material losses during re-melting. Solid state recycling allows direct recycling of metal scraps into semi-finished products. It is expected that this process category would lower the environmental performance of metals recycling. Friction Stir Consolidation is a new solid-state technique taking advantage of friction heat generation and severe plastic deformation to consolidate chips into billets. In this research, the feasibility of Friction Stir Consolidation as aluminum chips recycling process is analyzed. Specifically, an experimental campaign has been carried out with varying main process parameters. Three main aspects have been evaluated in order to highlight products quality and environmental impact of the process: (i) metallurgical and mechanical properties of the consolidated products; (ii) primary energy demand, as compared to conventional processes; (iii) forgeability of the consolidated products, as compared to parent material. Results revealed that a proper process parameters selection results in fully consolidated aluminum disk with satisfactory mechanical properties. Also, the new recycling strategy allows substantial energy savings with respect the conventional (remelting based) route.

Rate-Dependent Aging Resulting from Fast Charging of Li-Ion Cells

The mass electrification of personal and service vehicles is reliant on the ability of battery packs to undergo extreme fast recharging. A central challenge is that the repeated exposure to high currents can trigger and/or accelerate mechanisms of performance degradation, such as lithium deposition, mechanical damage of active material particles, and impedance rise. Here, we investigate whether constraining high-rate charging to limited state-of-charge (SOC) ranges can mitigate these aging processes. Our experiments map the boundaries of lithium plating conditions, and also indicate that permanent losses of electrode capacity appear to be a function of cycle number, but not charging rate. Interestingly, we show that impedance rise appears to depend on charging rate alone, and not on the amount of charge passed at each cycle. This observation suggests that limiting fast charging to a narrow SOC range would only delay cell aging, but not fully prevent it from happening. We identify oxide-particle cracking as the likely mechanism for this impedance rise, suggesting that particle and electrode design are essential to enable fast charging. The findings of this work can inform the development of fast-charging protocols that are less damaging to cell health.

Audiological Considerations for Managing Mild Bilateral or Unilateral Hearing Loss in Infants and Young Children.

Purpose This clinical focus article describes considerations for recommending assistive hearing technology to infants and young children who have mild bilateral or unilateral hearing loss. These conditions present special challenges compared to bilateral permanent hearing losses that are moderate to profound in their degree in that the recommendation to proceed with technology is not as clear. Conclusion Current clinical practice guidelines and protocols for pediatric hearing aid fitting recommend managing these conditions on a case-by-case basis. Descriptions of key considerations for recommending assistive hearing technology for infants and young children with mild bilateral hearing loss or unilateral hearing loss are offered herein.

K-Loss Robust Diagnosability of Discrete-Event Systems

Abstract Recently, the problem of robust diagnosis against intermittent loss of observations (RDILO) has been proposed in the literature, where a model for the plant subject to intermittent loss of event observations is presented, and fault diagnosability verification methods are proposed based on the new plant model. In this method it is assumed that some sensors of the system are reliable and are always capable of communicating their readings to the diagnoser, while the other sensors, or communication channels between sensors and diagnoser, are subject to intermittent failures. The case of unreliable communication of all observable events cannot be addressed using the RDILO since the model of the plant subject to intermittent loss of event observations also represents their permanent losses. In this paper, we formulate a different problem of robust diagnosis that considers only intermittent loss of observations, which allows considering the case that all communication channels between the plant and diagnoser are not reliable. The new formulation leads to a different notion of robust diagnosability, called K-loss robust diagnosability.

Macroeconomic Policy, Product Market Competition, and Growth: The Intangible Investment Channel

While there is growing evidence of persistent or even permanent output losses from financial crises, the causes remain unclear. One candidate is intangible capital - a rising driver of economic growth that, being non-pledgeable as collateral, is vulnerable to financial frictions. By sheltering intangible investment from financial shocks, counter-cyclical macroeconomic policy could strengthen longer-term growth, particularly so where strong product market competition prevents firms from self-financing their investments through rents. Using a rich cross-country firm-level dataset and exploiting heterogeneity in firm-level exposure to the sharp and unforeseen tightening of credit conditions around September 2008, we find strong support for these theoretical predictions. The quantitative implications are large, highlighting a powerful stabilizing role for macroeconomic policy through the intangible investment channel, and its complementarity with pro-competition product market deregulation.

An energy efficiency analysis of Single Point Incremental Forming as an Approach for Sheet Metal Based Component Reuse

Abstract Producing materials causes about 25% of all anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Metals play a significant role, steel and aluminum account for 24% and 3% of worldwide material related emissions respectively. Fostering resources efficiency strategies in the field of sheet components could lead to a significant environmental impact reduction. Reshaping could be one of the most efficient strategy to foster material reuse and lower the environmental impact due to material production. Specifically, for aluminum recycling, the overall energy efficiency of conventional route is very low and, more importantly, permanent material losses occur during re-melting because of oxidation. The present paper aims at presenting the technical feasibility of Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF)-based reshaping approach. Change in shape of aluminum stamped part is obtained through SPIF process implementation. Preliminary energy savings quantification through life cycle energy and material flows modelling are provided, energy efficiency of conventional recycling approach and SPIF-based reshaping routes are analyzed and compared.

Losers Amongst the Losers: The Welfare Effects of the Great Recession Across Cohorts

This paper studies the effect of deep recessions on intergenerational inequality by quantifying the welfare effects on households at different phases of the life cycle. Deep recessionary episodes are characterized by large declines in the prices of real and financial assets and in employment. The former levies high welfare costs on older households who own financial wealth, the latter determines labour income losses and destroys the human capital of younger cohorts, lowering their productivity. The paper extends previous analyses in the literature by including permanent labour income losses in an OLG model calibrated to match the Great Recession. The analysis shows that younger households lose more than double of all other living cohorts, as younger household become unemployed and experience a decline in their future income. The dynamics of households’ consumption and portfolio composition between 2007 and 2013 in the US are consistent with the predictions of the model. JEL Classification: E21, D31, D58, D63, D91

Evaluation of Performance by Operating Process Improvement Modeling On A Company With Pump Manufacturing

There may be more than one element affecting quality and efficiency in the manufacturing organizations. As a result of multiple elements occurring at the same time, permanent losses occur in final production and quality. Both the customer sense of trust and their satisfaction are negatively affected because of those problems. Failure to achieve targeted levels of quality and productivity in the organization reduces customer satisfaction. Quality and productivity in the organization are affected by inefficiency in resource utilization, bottlenecks in the production and inefficient workflow design within the organization. This study aims to improve production process in a manufacturer of air operated diaphragm pumps by simulation analysis. Most efficient way of utilizing raw materials, manpower, vehicles and equipment is sought by simulation based process improvement. Discrete-event simulation software (Arena) is used to detect problems in the production process such as: transportation, blockage and/or layout. Simulation is used to experiment with process improvement approaches without making changes in the real-world production system. Simulation models of the current state and the proposed future state with improvements to the layout of the production system are created. The results from the models were compared with each other and evaluations were made. The future state simulation model utilizes existing resources for process improvement, without the requirement for additional resource acquisition. Comparison of current state model and future state model simulation output data, suggests a 67% increase in the number of products produced per month. It is foreseen that this increase can greatly affect the operational efficiency and future managerial decisions, and suggestions are made for future works.

On The Origins Of Long-term Capital Losses And Gains - A Graham & Doddsville Perspective On Risk And Investing

The year 2019 marked the 70th anniversary of The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham (1949). We start this paper by reintroducing the definition of an investment operation as conceived by Graham. From this definition we deduce that in Graham’s investment philosophy investment risk equates with a permanent or long-term loss of capital – not with stock price fluctuations. According to Graham permanent or long-term losses of capital are periodically caused by the purchase of low quality securities far above their tangible value. Consequently investment risk can be avoided and a satisfactory return can be realized through the purchase of quality securities at low valuations, i.e. through the adoption of the margin-of-safety principle. In this paper we define a long-term capital loss/gain as a real capital loss/gain over a ten-year investment horizon. Applied to a dataset spanning 130 years covering four regions (US, Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific) we find that high valuation, low quality portfolios are characterized by the highest investment risk. Investors in high valuation, low quality portfolios experienced real losses of up to -75% over a ten-year investment horizon. A low valuation and a medium/high quality are on the other hand key fundamental characteristics in avoiding long-term capital losses. Concurrently low valuation, high quality stocks provided investors with a ten-year total real return of more than +100%, i.e. a doubling of purchasing power, in 10 out of the 14 decades across the four regions. Consequently, and consistent with Graham’s (1949) main conclusion, margin-of-safety investors have succeeded in combining low investment risk with high inflation-adjusted returns. Wealth managers and financial advisors can incorporate our findings and conclusions in building fundamentals-based (rather than price-fluctuation-based) risk profiles and investment programs in collaboration with their clients.

EFFICIENT BUSINESS MODEL AS A BASIS FOR THE GROWTH OF THE INVESTMENT COST OF A PROFESSIONAL SPORTS CLUB

The precarious financial condition of sports clubs, combined with negative cash flows and permanent losses, can be the cause of the further collapse of the entire football industry. This is largely due to the European model of the implementation of sports activities, when in the pursuit of a sports result, the basic principles of building a business and financial efficiency go to the background. The article has been devoted to the search questions of an effective business model for the further development of the professional sports industry, taking into account the modern requirements of a market economy. The arguments, that the financial rules, introduced by Union of European Football Associations, will make football clubs profitable projects attractive to investors, are given in the article.

Friction stir extrusion to recycle aluminum alloys scraps: Energy efficiency characterization

Solid state recycling refers to a group of processes allowing direct recycling of metals scraps into semi-finished product. Their main advantage lies in avoiding the molten state of the material which badly affects the environmental performance of the conventional (remelting based) recycling routes. It is expected that such process category would lower the environmental performance of metals recycling. In this paper, the friction stir extrusion process for aluminum alloy AA 2050 wire production is analyzed under the primary energy demand perspective. The process electrical energy demand is quantified with varying process parameters. An empirical modelling approach was applied and an analytical model able to expresses the specific energy consumption as a function of the extrusion rate was carried out. Finally, the primary energy demand of the whole recycling route was quantified and compared with both conventional and Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) based routes. Results revealed that Friction Stir Extrusion approach allows substantial primary energy savings for the case of wire production. To be more specific, FSE allows a reduction in energy demand up to 74% and 63% with respect the conventional and the ECAP routes, respectively. This is mainly due to avoided permanent material losses as well as to the absence of intermediated process steps (wire drawing).

Use of an artificial crown pillar in transition from open pit to underground mining

In the transition from open pit to underground mining, a crown pillar is usually left at the open pit bottom. Crown pillars are often not recovered and as a result they are deemed as permanent losses. To address this problem, this paper discusses use of an artificial crown pillar as replacement for the natural crown pillar during a transition from open-pit to underground mining. The substitution of the natural crown pillar with an artificial one enabled total recovery of sterilized ore in the natural crown pillar. A case study is presented on Shandong Guilai Village Gold Mine open pit transition to underground mining. The safe and profitable mining of the natural crown pillar, and the simultaneous construction of the artificial crown pillar was achieved by combined use of analytical and empirical methods, numerical modelling and instrumentation. The analytical and empirical methodologies were used to determine the natural crown pillar thickness. Numerical modelling was performed to further evaluate the results of the analytical and empirical methods, and to predict the performances of the artificial crown pillar. The instrumentation monitoring ensured safety of the open pit slopes and underground infrastructure prior to, during and after the process of mining and simultaneous construction of the artificial crown pillar. It was concluded that the process of simultaneously mining the natural crown pillar and replacing it with an artificial one was successful in protecting the open pit slopes and underground infrastructure. A comparison of the cost of mining the natural crown pillar, processing the ore and constructing the artificial crown pillar with the market price of the gold obtained showed a profit of 30%. While this study is limited to a particular mine, the procedure could be used in other mines in similar situations.

Inland surface waters in protected areas globally: Current coverage and 30-year trends.

Inland waters are unique ecosystems offering services and habitat resources upon which many species depend. Despite the importance of, and threats to, inland water, global assessments of protected area (PA) coverage and trends have focused on land habitats or have assessed land and inland waters together. We here provide the first assessment of the level of protection of inland open surface waters and their trends (1984–2015) within PAs for all countries, using a globally consistent, high-resolution (30 m) and validated dataset on permanent and seasonal surface waters based on Landsat images. Globally, 15% of inland surface waters are covered by PAs with mapped boundaries. Estimated inland water protection increases to 16.4% if PAs with reported area but delineated only as points are included as circular buffers. These coverage estimates slightly exceed the comparable figure for land but fall below the 17% goal of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi Target 11 for 2020. Protection levels are very uneven across countries, half of which do not yet meet the 17% target. The lowest coverage of surface water by PAs (<5%) was found in Africa and in parts of Asia. There was a global trend of permanent water losses and seasonal water gains within PAs, concomitant with an increase of both water types outside PAs. In 38% of countries, PAs lost over 5% of permanent water. Global protection targets for inland waters may well be met by 2020, but much stronger efforts are required to ensure their effective conservation, which will depend not only on sound PA governance and management but also on the sustainable use of water resources outside PAs. Given the pressures on water in a rapidly changing world, integrated management planning of water resources involving multiple sectors and entire basins is therefore necessary.

Energy Demand Reduction Of Aluminum Alloys Recycling Through Friction Stir Extrusion Processes Implementation

Abstract Aluminum alloys are characterized by high-energy demands for primary production. Recycling is a well-documented strategy to lower the environmental impact of light alloys production. Despite that, conventional recycling processes are still energy-intensive with a low energy efficiency. Also, permanent material losses occur during remelting because of oxidation. Recently, several solid-state recycling approaches have been analyzed; in fact, by avoiding the remelting step both energy and material can be saved and, therefore, the embodied energy of secondary production can be substantially reduced. In this paper, the solid-state approach Friction Stir Extrusion (FSE) is analyzed for aluminum alloys recycling, the primary energy demand of such recycling strategy is quantified. Comparative analyses with both conventional and direct extrusion based processes are developed.

Aluminium sheet metal scrap recycling through friction consolidation

Abstract In the last decades, several direct-recycling techniques have been developed and investigated in order to avoid material remelting, typical of the conventional aluminum alloys recycling processes. Moreover, the remelting step for aluminum recycling is affected by permanent material losses. Solid-state recycling processes have proven to be a suitable strategy to face such issues. Friction Consolidation is an innovative solid state-recycling technology developed for metal chips. During the process, a rotating die is plunged into a hollow chamber containing the material to be processed. The work of friction forces decaying into heat soften the material and, together with the stirring action of the die, enable solid bonding phenomena producing a consolidated metal disc. This technology has been successively applied to metal chips; in this paper, the feasibility of the process to recycle sheet metal scrap is investigated. The quality of the obtained billets is evaluated through morphological observation and hardness measurements.