Search results for "Programming"

2014

The role of literal meaning during the construction of meaning that goes beyond pure literal composition was investigated by combining cross-modal masked priming and ERPs. This experimental design was chosen to compare two conflicting theoretical positions on this topic. The indirect access account claims that literal aspects are processed first, and additional meaning components are computed only if no satisfactory interpretation is reached. In contrast, the direct access approach argues that figurative aspects can be accessed immediately. We presented metaphors (These lawyers are hyenas, Experiment 1a & 1b) and producer-for-product metonymies (The boy read Boll, Experiment 2a & 2b) with a…

Automated segmentation and description of the internal morphology of human permanent teeth by means of micro-CT

2020

High-resolution micro-computed tomography is a powerful tool to analyze and visualize the internal morphology of human permanent teeth. It is increasingly used for investigation of epidemiological questions to provide the dentist with the necessary information required for successful endodontic treatment. The aim of the present paper was to propose an image processing method to automate parts of the work needed to fully describe the internal morphology of human permanent teeth. One hundred and four human teeth were scanned on a high-resolution micro-CT scanner using an automatic specimen changer. Python code in a Jupyter notebook was used to verify and process the scans, prepare the dataset…

Using Matlab's wavelet toolbox to compare electric signals outputted by microbial fuel cells

2019

Motivation: microbial fuel cells (MFC) represents a wastewater treatment technology with the potential for a relevant electric energy generation. The monitoring of the electric current outputted generates time series of data. It was generated two time series using an experimental setup with a low-cost dual chamber microbial fuel cell treating cassava wastewater and, also, it was used the electric current data from a previously described experiment with this same setup treating cheese whey. All of this, innovatively, according our best knowledge, was studied using power spectral density, multifractal and wavelet coherence analysis. Results are promising and indeed point out this approach as …

Misidentification ofDiphyllobothriumSpecies Related to Global Fish Trade, Europe

2014

To the Editor: Diphyllobothriosis, infection by tapeworms of the genus Diphyllobothrium (Cestoda: Diphyllobothriidea) (1), is a well-known disease of humans. In Europe, infections caused by 3 species of Diphyllobothrium have recently been reported in humans: D. latum is considered to be the principal species infecting persons in Europe (1); 4 cases of D. dendriticum infection and 6 cases of D. nihonkaiense infection have also been reported (2,3). Except for those caused by D. latum, which is autochthonous in northeastern Europe and subalpine lakes, most of the cases in Europe have been imported or caused by consumption of fish imported from areas to which the parasites are endemic (1,3,4). …

Early Development of the Gut Microbiota and Immune Health

2014

In recent years, the increase in human microbiome research brought about by the rapidly evolving “omic” technologies has established that the balance among the microbial groups present in the human gut, and their multipronged interactions with the host, are crucial for health. On the other hand, epidemiological and experimental support has also grown for the ‘early programming hypothesis’, according to which factors that act in utero and early in life program the risks for adverse health outcomes later on. The microbiota of the gut develops during infancy, in close interaction with immune development, and with extensive variability across individuals. It follows that the specific process of…

Dynamic Portfolio Optimization with Stochastic Programming

2010

Are you a good employee or simply a good guy? Influence costs and contract design

2013

We develop a principal–agent model with a moral hazard problem in which the principal has access to a hard signal (the level of output) and a soft behavioral signal (the supervision signal) about the agent's level of effort. In our model, the agent can initiate influence activities and manipulate the behavioral signal. These activities are costly for the principal as they detract the agent from the productive task. We show that the agent's ability to manipulate the behavioral signal leads to low-powered incentives and increases the cost of implementing the efficient equilibrium as a result. Interestingly, the fact that manipulation activities entail productivity losses may lead to the desig…

Fair Transfer Prices of Global Supply Chains in the Process Industry

2016

This work addresses the optimisation of transfer prices for the fair profit distribution among the members involved in a global supply chain in the process industry. A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is developed for production and distribution planning of global supply chains, where the optimal transfer prices of products between plants and markets are determined. Two solution approaches are presented for fair solutions using Nash and lexicographic maximin principles. The applicability of the proposed models and approaches are demonstrated by an illustrative example. The results show that both approaches can fairly distribute the whole supply chain’s profit to the members.

Measuring microfinance performance

2015

MFIs are measured according to two dimensions. One is their outreach to poor people, that is, their ability to provide poor families access to financial services. This is the MFIs’ social mission. The other dimension is their financial sustainability, that is, their ability to pay their employees, lenders, and other suppliers, in short, their ability to produce a profit from their operations. We set out the main microfinance measures and confirm earlier findings that profitability is rather weak in microfinance, and that operational costs constitute a large part of the total costs. We argue that researchers should put more efforts into identifying the MFI’s cost drivers because social outre…

Toward fast malaria detection by secondary speckle sensing microscopy

2012

Diagnosis of malaria must be rapid, accurate, simple to use, portable and low cost, as suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite recent efforts, the gold standard remains the light microscopy of a stained blood film. This method can detect low parasitemia and identify different species of Plasmodium. However, it is time consuming, it requires well trained microscopist and good instrumentation to minimize misinterpretation, thus the costs are considerable. Moreover, the equipment cannot be easily transported and installed. In this paper we propose a new technique named "secondary speckle sensing microscopy" ((SM)-M-3) based upon extraction of correlation based statistics of s…