Lap lambert academic publishing jun 2009 (294 risultati)

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This study is a qualitative analysis that focuses on how agencies in Saskatoon define youth gang activities and behaviours. The agencies involved constitute community based organizations, permanent and part-time holding residences, justice and city officials. Grounded theory analysis was utilized to maintain the original interviewees own voices from interviews to the final product. The final analysis is divided into three sections that focus on: characteristics of Saskatoon youth gangs, implications of defining, and programming. By analyzing these themes we begin to see that defining youth gangs becomes a very political issue and that agencies who work with youth have difficulty in coming to terms in creating a common definition or criteria to assess youth gangs for Saskatoon. 120 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The issue of Foreign Direct Investment has elicited international attention in recent times, mainly because of the growing awareness of the economic explioitation of millions of Africans. Some of the Leaders of the African continent, along with their governments, have equally placed the lack of FDI high on their agendas. This awareness has generated sustained debates within governments, international organisations and the private sector, to try and formulate policies aimed at addressing the problem regarding the lack of FDI. FDI has a clear and distinct effect on Africa and its economies; it therefore should be seen as the most positive approach that should be followed to address the problems listed below. The dominant debates around Africa are those concerning poverty alleviation, sustainable development, infrastucture development and economic stability. The lack of a collaborative approach within Africa with reference to economic integration, and the effects FDI has with specific reference to investment flows and the role of rating agencies, places Africa in a negative position. 108 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Qualitative and quantitative trade information on West Africa has remained a scarce resource for several decades. Thus, seaports in the region, that are maritime corridors to the landlocked countries (LLCs) of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, compete in a vacuum without any reliable basis to assess their individual competitiveness vis-à-vis the regional market. This book, therefore, provides an analysis of transit trade and transport with emphasis on five seaports used by the three LLCs in West Africa. It assesses the LLCs seaborne trade type, volume, distribution and growth trend, and examines the competitive status of each of the transit corridors on the basis of regional share of transit traffic, distance, infrastructure, logistics costs, legal and institutional framework and overall quality of service. The book provides sufficient and necessary overview of the transit trade and transport sub-sector in West Africa. It can serve as a working document for a sustainable transit trade development in any corridor and would, therefore, be useful to maritime trade and transport sector professionals, researchers and policy makers of both coastal and landlocked countries. 120 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This work addresses the problem of finding the minimum number of vehicles required to service weekly a set of customers subject to time windows. The specific structure of the problem requires that a full loaded vehicle serve only one customer each time it leaves the depot. As a consequence, all feasible schedules involve the same total distance traveled. The fleet is homogeneous and is located in a common depot. Vehicle capacity is finite, weekly mileage is limited, and split service is not permitted. Four heuristics are developed to obtain feasible solutions. Results are reported for 1000 randomly generated problems with up to 150 deliveries. It is shown that the new heuristics outperform the actual algorithm used by the Transportation Company in terms of computation time and the quality of solution. To gauge the quality of the solutions, three lower bounding procedures are developed. The first considers the 'bin packing aspect of the problem' with regard to the maximum weekly mileage. The second exploits the time windows constraints while the third lowerbounding method uses a network flow formulation. 48 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Corrosion of reinforced concrete (RC) structure becomes severe problem worldwide and results in a need of a huge budget for the maintenance of the corroded structure. In spite of this need, the concept of repair design and execution is still not well established. Without correct understanding how repair work changes behaviors of the RC structure, the repair work become risky as can been seen from many early failures of repaired RC members. The traditional structural analysis seems to be irrelevant to the repaired structure. This book illustrates how the structural behaviors of the flexural RC members are degraded by corrosion and changed by patching repair. The clear example is given through a sound experimental investigation. The numerical analysis was conducted to reproduce the structural performance of repaired RC. The bonding characteristic between repair materials and base concrete is represented by basic Coulomb friction model. The methodology provided in this book should be beneficial especially to professionals in the repair of RC structure or anyone else who may be dealing with the corrosion problem of RC structure. 108 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In recent years, shrimp aquaculture, which is undertaken largely in the tropical countries, has experienced spectacular growth in response to expanding global demand and higher economic return. Despite a number positive aspects (e.g., foreign exchange, employment and food) of shrimp farming, the industry has serious negative environmental impacts. Because of the degradation of natural resources, commercial shrimp farming imposes socio-economic costs on rural resource-reliant communities as their traditional means of food production and livelihoods are displaced. Bangladesh is suffering because of unplanned expansion of this aquaculture and increasingly called as 'a desert in the delta'. The central concern of this book is to apply participatory research techniques to identify and understand the impacts of commercial shrimp farming to the livelihood patterns of coastal villagers in southwest Bangladesh. The findings of this is book should be useful for researchers, government and NGOs to understand vulnerabilities of rural communities in shrimp farming areas and to design alternative livelihood strategies for affected groups. 92 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The use of allograft bone and other bone substitutes in orthopedic surgery has increased tremendously over the last few years. There are inherent problems with allograft tissues, however, such as the risk of disease transmission and immunologic incompatibility. Strategies to reduce these risks include improving allograft sterilization methods and developing bone tissue substitutes were evaluated in this book. Tissue engineering offers a potential avenue to overcome the limitations related to traditional bone substitutes. To enhance the body's own repair system, i.e., tissue regeneration, biomaterial research focuses primarily on developing scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. Among adult stem cells, multipotent adipose stem cells can differentiate into osteoblastic cells when seeded on bioactive biomaterials and/or treated with osteogenic factors. Therefore, adipose stem cells are a promising cell source for bone tissue engineering. The subject of this book is topical and important because in aging population the need for orthopaedic operations will only increase with time. 84 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book covers the development of a power system for an autonomous self-sufficient agricultural robot. The robotic system, designed for precision agriculture applications, was augmented with a new power system, to accommodate a solar energy source for recharging the batteries. The power system consists of a custom-made solar panel, a maximum power point tracker (MPPT), and power monitoring sensors. To increase the whole robotic system energy efficiency, the power system was programmed to monitor the intake and output, and to optimize its power usage accordingly. The robotic system was tested in field conditions, simulating the performance of useful tasks with its actuator. The tests were performed in order to demonstrate the improved run time of the system between manual battery recharges. This book presents the augmentation of the new robotic power system, the tests performed on the robotic system, the results of the performed tests, and a discussion of the results and possible improvements that can be made to the system. 80 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Subacute rumen acidosis (SARA) represent one of the most important metabolic disorders in intensive dairy farms that affects rumen fermentations, animal welfare, productivity and profitability. A practical need for Veterinarians and Food practitioner, is to have a simple and economic method of diagnosis of SARA, in order to implement in a timely manner the appropriate corrective diet, eliminate the causes of arrival of this disorder and avert the danger of progress in the same very high levels. In response to these requests, the aim of this work, was to lead three different studies related to each other but, in order to evaluate the occurrence of subacute rumen acidosis in intensive Italian dairy herds to determine the relationship among diet composition, ruminal pH and short chain fatty acids (SCFA) concentration, to evaluate the effect of the SARA on some blood parameters in lactating dairy cows and finally to evaluate the effects of rumenocentesis on the health and welfare status of lactating dairy cows, evaluated by physical examination, blood analysis, milk production and superficial temperature on the area of rumenocentesis. 80 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Morphodynamics of sedimentary systems is nowadays a fundamental piece of knowledge for civil and environmental engineers involved in fluvial and lagoonal interventions. While morphodynamics is in principle an extremely complex discipline, some fundamental results may be achieved with relatively simple models. The work provides an analysis of a number of simplified models, discussing the usefulness of their approach and the limits of their applications. The entire study is especially on the analytical and numerical analysis of simplified one-dimensional formulations of fluvial morphodynamics and two- dimensional formulations of lagoon morphodynamics. The effects of geometry, hydrology and sediment input unsteadiness and non-uniformities have been studied, considering the validity and limitations of the local uniform water flow hypothesis or other useful simplifications. General results and further developments underline however, that all simplified models analyzed require further verifications against experimental or field measurements. 152 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Focus of this study is to quantify the labeled cell con. using MRI. Two independent theories behind this relationship between MR parameters and labeled cell con. were proposed and tested in vitro and in vivo in rats after stroke. The first approach focused on the relationship between iron and labeled cell con. and R2p. R2p correlation with labeled cell con. is based on static dephasing regime theory. According to this theory, diffusion effects can be neglected if the protons do not migrate out of the local magnetic fields during a given echo time. R2p relaxivity agreed closely with SD regime theory predictions for all cell samples in both conditions. Second approach focused on the effects of apparent diffusion coefficient on T2 and labeled cell con. From theory, diffusion effects with transverse relaxivity (ADCXR2) would have a better correlation with labeled cell con. than R2 alone. In vitro results were as predicted, but in vivo ADCXR2 made the correlation weak. A major reason for this may be due to the background effects. Also, deltaR2 was used in vivo for estimating the effects of labeled cells. DeltaR2 showed a strong linear correlation. 112 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Usability measurement has recently been the subject of many international standards, directives, and theoretical as well as empirical research. An analysis of existing models and standards shows us there is an extreme need for a consistent and comprehensive model for the usability/quality in use measurement; which includes factors, criteria, metrics descriptions and interpretations. In this book, a consolidated model referred as 'QUIM' (Quality in Use Integrated Measurement) is proposed to primarily address these issues by aggregating usability standards, metrics and methods from numerous sources in one centralized knowledge base. QUIM is a repository of 10 factors, 26 criteria, and 128 metrics for assessing usability/quality in use of software systems. Most of the existing usability models/standards may be seen as specific instances of the QUIM model. The underlying practical motivation for the development of QUIM is to make usability measurement practices and knowledge easily accessible to software developers unfamiliar with usability concepts. Therefore, the primary readers of this book are the software engineers interested in usability or users' perspective of software quality. 124 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -It has long been known that somatic illness in a parent is a risk factor for later psychiatric disorders in children, and despite this, little attention has been paid to children's mental health. Children reactions being exposed to an ill parent suffering for acute central nervous system injury are insufficiently known, studies being almost nonexistent. This book, therefore, provides an in-depth analysis of data concerning types and frequencies of mental health problems in children, and aims to specify interaction modalities of specific risks and protective factors, to evaluate attitudes toward preventive intervention, as well as to evaluate an innovative family counselling intervention in an experimental controlled trial. The results suggest a number of interventions which may reduce the negative effects of parental acute central nervous system injury on a child. Thus, interventions aimed at enhancing affective responsiveness, involvement and communication in the family could be helpful. Specifically interventions aimed at helping parents to cope with the situation and to decrease individual parental depressive symptoms may work to help children with their psychosocial outcome. 120 pp. Englisch. …

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -We hypothesized that child abuse (CA) will be associated with decreased social (e.g., high social support, low social conflict) and personal (e.g., self-efficacy, self esteem) resources in adulthood, which in turn, would increase risk for current depression and PTSD symptoms. Participants were inner-city women (N = 650). CA significantly predicted PTSD, and decreased social and personal resources, but did not predict depression. Social resources, but not personal resources directly predicted PTSD and depression. Social resources significantly mediated the CA-PTSD and CA-depression relationships. Personal resources impacted depression and PTSD only through their significant relationship with social resources. Ethnic differences on these models were also observed. Depression and PTSD mediated the association between CA and resources, in reversed models. Overall, results suggest a bidirectional relationship between resources and psychopathology, which may be mutually reinforcing and cyclically related over time. 76 pp. Englisch. …

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Zimbabwe is a republic without a homegrown democratic constitution.The absence of a people's constitution that dictates a democratic electoral framework, formation of legitimate government, observance of human rights, and good governance has led to the country's deepening crises of political dictatorship, violent electoral conflicts,state violence against citizens,economic collapse, financial corruption, social disintegration,and international isolation.These tragedies have left the country without a currency of its own.This book, based on a study on Constitutionalism in Zimbabwe, provides the people of Zimbabwe with a constitution-making process that should lead to the creation of a multiparty constitutional democracy in the country as a permanent solution to the nation's serious problems.The central role that people should play in the constitution-making process is analyzed. Obstacles to a people-driven constitution-making process are identified and analyzed.The analysis should result in empowering individuals,political parties, civil society bodies, government,and the international community with information that may make them more effective in fulfilling their mandates. 76 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The decision-maker is a crucial actor from the point of view of management accounting studies and management studies in general, but usually the human actor isn't dealt with as such at all. We suggest here that understanding the basics of the behaviour of decision-makers would be aided by a comprehensive view of the human actor. Our view covers both the way of functioning of the human brain and the philosophical dimensions of human actor. This aim in mind, we analyse and combine the so-called 'holistic individual image' (by Lauri Rauhala), and a brain model called the 'theater metaphor for conscious experience' (by Bernard J. Baars). On the basis of the resulting combined model, we assume the reader would understand better than before some basic characteristics of the decision-maker in a firm, in particular, in an accounting context. We assume that our results would be potentially useful for understanding human behaviour also in other fields of management studies, and indeed, in all disciplines dealing with human actor. In addition, the practitioners in these fields would also gain in knowing this model on human behaviour. 60 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Because it is a chronic process that includes the proliferation of multiple stressors, chronic illness can lead to significant psychological distress. Within the framework of a stress proliferation model, chronic illness is a significant predictor of such distress. The 1996 National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) was utilized for this secondary analysis. There were 4242 adult respondents surveyed by phone on physical health, midlife development, and social support. Chronic illness was reported by 2095 (71%) respondents. Chronic illness, mediated by perceived control, was a significant predictor of depression. Social support and healthcare discrimination were also significant in the likelihood of depression. The current analysis supports the premise that chronic illness is a stressor that not only leads to poor mental health outcomes but is associated with the emergence of other stressors, such as distress from discrimination. The book highlights the significant impact personal agency and quality support have on dealing with stress from chronic illness. 120 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -'Everybody Learns English' has become a national movement in China. From TV to teashops, English has thickly infiltrated the everyday lives of the Chinese populous and they are crazy about it. Through ethnography this book examines how this cultural appropriation of the foreign - English language - in the names of 'Nationalism' and 'modernization' is affecting the younger urban people (ages 18-25) of contemporary China. The book unfolds as a series of vignettes on English-speaking urban residents from either Sichuan province or Chongqing municipality during 2001-2002. More than just amusing, this book should be insightful for those interested in contemporary Chinese culture, development, and globalization. 108 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Whilst tourism development has brought economic prosperity for many people on Phuket (Thailand), it has also confronted the local population with the very negative impacts. Especially for the people 'excluded' - the locals not actively participating in tourism and unable to take advantage of the development - the negative impacts in the environmental and socio-cultural sphere are extremely evident. Also in economic terms, the development of tourism has often worsened the situation for these 'excluded' since the costs of many everyday goods have increased. As is the case in many developing countries, tourism development has led to the reinforcement of socio-economic inequalities on Phuket. This study indicates and analyses the opportunities for Phuket to increase the participation of the locals 'excluded' from the tourism development process, in order to combat the socio-economic inequality within the local population at the destination. 96 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This study explores the emergence of the profession of public relations in the recently democratic Russian Federation. The significance of this research is embedded in the need to understand the status of public relations in Russia, where few studies about public relations have been conducted. The purpose was to identify whether public relations practitioners in Russia practice Grunig and Hunt's (1984) models of public relations; how public relations has contributed to the political and economic transformation in Russia; and how the former communist propaganda has affected contemporary public relations. This book represents a contribution to the global body of knowledge about public relations. The Russian perspective augments this knowledge concerning a country where prior research has been scant. The goal of this study is to detect patterns that could guide future research involving Russian public relations. Additionally, principles discovered from this study could be meaningful to business entities desiring to mount effective PR campaigns. 92 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -A classification is given of certain separablenuclear C -algebras not necessarily of real rankzero, namely, the class of simple C -algebras whichare inductive limits of continuous trace C -algebraswhose building blocks have spectrum homeomorphic tothe closed interval [0,1]. In particular, aclassification of simple stably AI algebras isobtained. Also, the range of the invariant is calculated. We start by approximating the building blocksappearing in a given inductive limit decomposition bycertain special building blocks. The special buildingblocks are continuous trace C -algebras with finitedimensional irreducible representations and such thatthe dimension of the representations, as a functionon the interval, is a finite (lower semicontinuous)step function. It is then proved that theseC -algebras have finite presentations and stablerelations. The advantage of having inductive limitsof special subhomogeneous algebras is that we canprove the existence of certain gaps for the inducedmaps between the affine function spaces. These gapsare necessary to prove the Existence Theorem. Alsothe Uniqueness theorem is proved for these specialbuilding blocks. 88 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -While runtime compilation has in practice been largely restricted to programming languages that execute on virtual machines, such as Java and C#, parallel OpenMP programs show many promising traits for efficient and effective runtime optimization. This work introduces stOMP: a specializing thread-library for OpenMP. Using a combined compile-time and run-time system, stOMP specializes OpenMP parallel regions for frequently-seen values and the configuration of the runtime system. We present a detailed description of the system, focusing on the optimizations implemented and techniques to minimize the runtime overhead: a context-based hot-spot detector; a pruning mechanism that eliminates poorly behaved variables as specialization targets; several runtime optimization policies; and several code optimizations and transformations that further allow performance improvement. We evaluate our work on the SPEC OMP benchmark suite, showing a performance increase of up to 7.8%. 96 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The present doctoral thesis provides insights into two conventional labeling techniques used in the studies of microbial metabolism - the 13C and fluorescence labeling. Application of both methods on yeast as a model organism is illustrated by two individual research topics, such as metabolic modeling and visualization of stress response by expression of GFP-tagged heat shock protein Hsp12p, respectively. The dissertation begins with a review of the yeast metabolism and metabolic network, discusses the technical details of the respective labeling experiments and concludes with analysis of the experimental results. Special emphasis is given on the set-up of advanced continuous cultivation techniques (D-stat and auxo-accelerostat), used in the respective labeling experiments. The text is for academic researchers and students in microbiology and molecular biotechnology field. 64 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -With the rapid growth of data and computational needs, distributed systems and computational Grids are gaining more and more attention. Grids are playing an important and growing role in today networks. The huge amount of computations a Grid can fulfill in a specific time cannot be done by the best super computers. However, Grid performance can still be improved by making sure all the resources available in the Grid are utilized by a good load balancing algorithm. The purpose of such algorithms is to make sure all nodes are equally involved in Grid computations. This research proposes two new distributed swarm intelligence inspired load balancing algorithms. One is based on ant colony optimization and is called AntZ, the other one is based on particle swarm optimization and is called ParticleZ. 104 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This study concerns with designing bus routes network and determining bus frequencies, while the total passenger travel time, including in-vehicle travel times, waiting times, transfer times and transfer penalties, is minimized. An iterative heuristic algorithm, modified from Lee (1998), with integrated routing and frequency setting is applied in this study. To process the significant amounts of data that are involved in the procedure and to provide graphical presentation of the resulted routes, the heuristic algorithm is embedded with the Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The procedure gives a potential result that has less total travel time of the network when compared with other studies. The algorithm has been applied to the case study, one operation zone of the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority, Bangkok, Thailand. The study area consisted of 23 zones. Compared with the existing bus network, the algorithm produced less numbers of routes and buses. The resulted routes of this study satisfied all demands within the study area, while it is not the case with the existing network. 112 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Pharmacist-physician collaboration has been shown toimprove the safety and cost-effectiveness of drug therapy,however, it occurs relatively infrequently in the community setting,with respect to drug therapy management. This book provides information regarding family physician attitudes towards andreadiness to collaborate with community pharmacists on drugtherapy management. We developed a survey instrumentutilizing the Transtheoretical Model of Behaviour Change, andadministered it to a random sample of 848 family physicians in Ontario,Canada. We found that collaborative relationships betweenpharmacists and physicians were generally underdeveloped.System-related barriers, including pharmacists' lack of patient information,were highlighted by physicians as particularly problematic forcollaborative relationship development. Our analysis sheds light onthe predictors of physician readiness to collaborate withpharmacists, and provide direction for policy makers and health professionalsinterested in developing collaborative working relationship withphysicians. 112 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Anaplasma phagocytophilum is an emerging tick-bornepathogen of humans, horses, sheep, dogs, andwildlife. In humans, granulocytic anaplasmosis (GA)may be associated with pyrexia, headache, myalgia,nausea, and ataxia, organ failure, susceptibility toopportunistic infections, neuritis, or respiratorycomplications with a case fatality rate up to 5% insome areas. The putative reservoir for A.phagocytophilum in the western United States is thedusky-footed woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes). Evidence toimplicate the woodrat as the reservoir includes highPCR- and seroprevalence in enzootic areas, frequentinfestation with the tick vector, Ixodes pacificus,and results of experimental infection studies thatshow woodrat infection persisting for 1-8 months.Unlike in the eastern United States where a singlevector species and a dominant reservoir host speciesmaintain a sylvatic cycle, in the western US, thereare multiple ecologically significant reservoir hostsincluding gray squirrels (Sciurus griseus) andchipmunks (Tamias spp.). The goal of this researchwas to identify the role of a number of abundant butpotential reservoirs for A. phagocytophilum in theWestern United States. 52 pp. Englisch. …

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Purposes: To analyze the low weight gain (WG) from birth to the sixth week of life as a risk factor for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Methods: A prospective cohort study comparing incidence of ROP and WG after preterm birth. Were included infants with birth weight (BW) 1,500 grams and gestational age 32 weeks at birth. Main clinical outcome were development of any stage and severe ROP. Main variable was the proportion of WG to the BW at the sixth week of life. Prevalence of ROP was determined and chi-square and Student-t test were used to compare data. Logistic regression was performed and the accuracy of WG for the development of ROP were evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC)curves. Results: Of 317 studied preterms, 98 (30.9%) developed ROP in any stage. Adjusted logistic regression in Group 1 indicated 1.055 OR for ROP (P0.001) and Group 2, 1.031 (P=0.007). The area under the ROC curve for any stage ROP was 0.67% (P0.001) and for severe ROP 0.63% (P=0.037). Conclusions: Low WG measured by the 6th week of life was an independent risk factor capable to predict the development of any stage and severe ROP. 72 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Buildings typically hide a large and cost-effectivepotential for saving carbon dioxide through energyefficiency improvements. However, numerous barriersmake the opportunities for energy saving in buildingsdifficult to capture. The project-based mechanisms ofthe Kyoto Protocol do not seem to adequately coverenergy efficiency activities in the building sector.Green Investment Schemes (GIS) as an innovativeinstrument offer promising solutions but the mainquestion is how they could be practically designedfor this purpose.The work examines the applicability of GIS withrespect to energy efficiency projects in buildings.First, it looks at the prospects of GIS as a policymitigation instrument in Bulgaria and identifies theexisting barriers to energy efficiency in theBulgarian building sector. Then it discusses thepossibilities for GIS to cover energy efficiencyactivities in buildings, and particularly how certainelements of GIS can overcome the specific barriers toenergy efficiency in this sector. The book concludeswith recommendations for possible GIS design options.It should be especially useful to professionals inclimate change and energy efficiency fields. 80 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Security issues in Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) mainly come from attacks. In general, the attacks in WSNs can be classified as external attacks and internal attacks. In an external attack, the attacking node is not an authorized participant of the sensor network. Cryptography and other security methods can prevent some of external attacks. However, node compromise, the major and unique problem that leads to internal attacks, will eliminate all the efforts. Knowing the probability of node compromise will help systems to detect and defend against it. Although there are some approaches that can be used to detect and defend against node compromise, few of them have the ability to estimate the probability of node compromise. Hence, we develop basic uniform, basic gradient, intelligent uniform and intelligent gradient models for node compromise distribution in order to adapt to different application environments. These models allow systems to estimate the probability of node compromise. Applying these models in system security designs can improve system security and decrease the overheads nearly in every security area. 108 pp. Englisch.…