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Though not necessarily affluent, the hijra community certainly had a place in society. Hijra communities were systematically targeted under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871, with colonial administrators deeming them an "unclean" presence. "Groups that are difficult to classify and know are just anxiety-inducing for the British colonial government, and the hijra community are that in multiple ways. "Because society has isolated the khawaja sira community for so long, the community has created a separate system with its own rules and governance structure", Nayyab explains. [Extracted from the article]

Green's functions of stress and displacement due to wave propagation in a sandwich panel consisting of transversely isotropic face-sheets and aluminum foam core are developed in the present paper. Dynamic partial differential equations of equilibrium for the considered face-sheets and core are expressed in cylindrical coordinates (r, θ, z), and converted into two separate equations using two unknown potential functions. Then, by writing the potential functions as Fourier series in the circumferential direction and using Hankel transform in the radial direction, an analytical solution to the potential functions in Hankel transformed space is developed. Using the boundary conditions and continuity of the problem as well as the place of application of harmonic forces, Green's functions for displacements and stresses in the frequency domain are derived using Hankel's inverse integral transform. These functions are expressed as complex integrals and calculated numerically. To verify the methodology and results, a comparison study is performed for particular cases showing a high level of the accuracy. Green's functions obtained from this paper will give information about the loading models or materials causing the maximum normal stress, shear stress, vertical and radial displacements. In addition, based on the results, with an increase in the core thickness compared to that of face-sheets in a Sandwich panel, an increment in Green's functions of stress and displacement is observed in both real and imaginary parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we used the depth-averaged shallow water equations for modeling flows through vegetation field. The vegetation effects on flow are modeled using Morison's equation taking into account drag and inertia forces which depend on both vegetation and flow properties. We compute and compare different formulations for the stem drag coefficient based on the Froude number or the vegetation volume fraction. Vegetation-induced turbulence is taken into account by adding diffusion terms in the momentum equations. The resulting system of equations is solved using a well-balanced and positivity preserving finite volume method to guarantee the balance between the flux and bed topography source terms, and the positivity of the computed water depth. In our approach, the drag force and bed friction source terms are combined into a unified form. We propose to discretize the obtained term using an implicit temporal method where an analytical technique is used. Special discretization techniques are used for the inertia force and turbulent diffusion terms. Numerical simulations are performed to validate the accuracy of the proposed numerical model. We investigate and compare different formulations for the stem drag coefficient in the vegetation model. Our results confirm the capability of the proposed numerical model for simulating overland flows under vegetation effects. • A well-balanced numerical model is proposed for overland flow with vegetation effects. • We used shallow water equations and Morison's equation for the effects of vegetation. • The proposed numerical model preserves the positivity of the water depth. • The results are analyzed for different formulations for the stem drag coefficient. • We obtain accurate predictions for overland flows under vegetation effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the significant global risk posed by aflatoxins, particularly aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), known for its carcinogenic properties, produced by fungi such as Aspergillus flavus in cereals and animal feed. Topics include prevalence studies indicating high contamination rates in animal diets, factors influencing fungal growth and mycotoxin production, and the adverse effects of aflatoxins on poultry health and immune function.

The article focuses on the Palestinian diaspora, exploring the dispersion of over six million Palestinians across various nations, including Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Dearborn, Michigan, and Santiago, Chile. It delves into the historical context of Palestinian displacement, notably after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, highlighting their longing for a homeland, detailing their experiences in refugee camps, and the ongoing narrative of exile and national aspirations within these communities.

This paper performs a two phase numerical analysis on a solar thermal panel of dimensions 80 × 100 cm in the presence of Ag-water nanofluid flow. The nanofluid flows in two individual tubes beneath the panel, and there are some circular pin fins on the tubes. Tubes and pin fins under the panel are surrounded with a phase change material (PCM), paraffin wax. By increasing the length of pin fins from 1 to 7 cm, the volume fraction (VOF) of molten PCM, outlet nanofluid temperature (T-NF), and heat transfer coefficient (HTC) are examined from the transient state up to reaching the steady state. Utilizing a FEM based on a weak form, namely Galerkin, to find a numerical solution for mathematical modeling. Results of this study indicated that increasing the length of pin fins from 3 to 7 cm maximally increases the outlet nanofluid flow up to 2.11 °C. In the transient conditions, increasing the length of pin fins decreases the VOF of molten PCM. When the problem is evaluated in the transient conditions, increasing the length of pin fins decreases the mean temperature of the panel (T-PL), but in the steady-state conditions, the T-PL is the same for different lengths of pin fins. The lowest value of the HTC occurs for pin fins of length 3 cm, and in most cases, the average HTC is maximum for pin fins of length 1 cm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By embracing a transformational performance management approach that fosters employee autonomy, adopts agile methods, and leverages AI-powered tools, employers will be better prepared to thrive in the dynamic and volatile postpandemic world. The company expects and empowers managers to adjust incentives to new realities.Artificial-Intellience-powered performance management toolsTechnology adoption is limited to reducing the administrative burden of performance management processes. TALENT STRATEGY AND MANAGEMENT The world of work is changing at an unprecedented scale, scope, and speed. Company leaders are not fully committed to allocating decision rights to employees.Employees and their managers share decision-making responsibilities on what, how, and where employees perform work. [Extracted from the article]

Considering the broad applications of the Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) in solving thermal and hydrodynamic problems, the analysis of the mixed convection of nanofluid (NF) flow in a closed enclosure (ENC) is presented using this method. The ENC has three fixed walls and one movable one, and the magnetic field (MGF) influences the NF at the Hartmann numbers (Ha) of 0 to 40. The upper and lower walls of the ENC are cold and hot, respectively. There are five baffles on the hot wall that have different heights and the same temperature as the wall. The baffles on the side walls are taller, and the height of the baffles (HTB) is increased by moving towards the middle of the wall. The changes in the HTBs are from 0.3 to 0.1 in the shortest state and from 0.6 to 0.4 in the longest one. The results demonstrate that the enhancement in the Richardson number (Ri) weakens the vortex inside the ENC and reduces the Nusselt number (Nu). An increment in the HTBs weakens the vortex inside the ENC but enhances the value of the Nu on the upper wall due to the increase in the temperature of the NF inside the ENC. The enhancement of the Ha weakens the Ha vortex and reduces the heat transfer (HET) on both walls, which can be seen at all angles of the MGF. Enhancing the angle of the MGF also improves the HET rate in the ENC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The simulation of the natural convective heat transfer (HTR) of nanofluid (NFD) flow in a two-dimensional rectangular cavity is performed in this paper. A magnetic field (MFD) is placed close to the cavity and the NFD. The top wall of the cavity is cold, and the side walls are insulated. Three isothermal triangular blades are mounted on the bottom wall at the same temperature as the wall. By changing the height of one of these blades from 0.1 to 0.7 and changing the location of this blade, three HTR models are estimated. Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and an in-house code are used for the simulations. The findings show that including the MFD lowers the Nu. The Nu is reduced with the Ha. Enhancing the length of the blades intensifies the average Nu for three studied models so that an increment in the blade length from 0.1 to 0.7 enhances the Nu from 9.3% to 18.5%, respectively. For the blade length of 0.1 and 0.3, model 2 has the maximum Nu, while model 1 has the maximum Nu for the blade length of 0.5 and 0.7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data and information exchange are vital for long-term transboundary water cooperation. However, many transboundary river basins lack regular data exchange between riparian States. In many cases, this is simply a feature of the generally fragmented nature of transboundary water cooperation; in others, transboundary river basin data sharing may be withheld for geopolitical reasons. The Tigris-Euphrates and Indus river basins are among the most highly politicized river basins globally. Cooperation between riparians is complicated by a lack of certainty regarding data, information exchange and legal obligations, as upper riparians in both basins have persistently objected to the customary law of international watercourses. With reference to international water law, this article ascertains the level of data and information exchange in these two basins, both through formal and informal structures, as well as prevalent obstacles and the institutional and technological responses to them. Despite significant challenges, the authors argue that technological advances can stimulate enhanced riparian cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A numerical method has been designed for solving the surface Allen–Cahn model. The proposed numerical procedure is based on the generalized moving least-squares approximation and the closest point method. This approach is free from the structure of the underlying surface. It only needs a set of arbitrarily distributed mesh-free points on the surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the increase in using the biodiesels in the fuel industry, and the need to study its effect on the combustion processes, and the formation of greenhouse gases, the thermal performance of methyl ester-biodiesel fuel was studied in the present paper. The present study was carried out by molecular dynamics method. Furthermore, the effect of hybridaluminiumoxide/copper oxide nanoparticles on this biodiesel fluid's thermal performance and combustion processes was studied. Soy methyl ester was utilized as the study's base fluid. The poiseuille flow in the simulation box was shown by the fluid atomic behavior. Heat flux and the thermal conductivity of methyl ester converged to 1107.56 W/m2 and 0.1412 W/m.K, according to the base fluid's thermal efficiency. The findings demonstrate that the base fluid's thermal efficiency is improved by the addition of NPs. The heat flux and thermal conductivity of the nanostructure thus reach 2860 W/m2 and 0.6020 W/m.K. by adding hybrid NPs to the base fluid. Finally, the combustion processes in nanofluid is studied with the penetrated oxygen atoms number in the nanoparticles, and the radial distribution function (RDF). The results show that 25 oxygen atoms penetrated hybrid nanoparticles after 10 ns. Moreover, the maximum value of RDF increased by changing the time step from initial to final. The increase in the RDF showed the probability of finding oxygen atoms inside the hybrid nanoparticles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Training of dendritic neuron model artificial neural networks is generally achieved by using nonlinear least square methods. The distribution of random error terms is ignored in training algorithms although error terms are random variables. Maximum likelihood estimators can be obtained for dendritic neuron model artificial neural networks by using some indefinite symmetric probability distributions. In this study, statistical learning algorithms are proposed for dendritic neuron model artificial neural networks. Maximum likelihood estimators for dendritic neuron model artificial neural networks are obtained by using Normal, Cauchy, Logistic, Gumbel and Laplace distributions. The Sine cosine algorithm is used for maximization of the likelihood function under error terms that have Normal, Cauchy, Logistic, Gumbel and Laplace distributions. The proposed learning algorithms are applied to Istanbul Stock Exchange time series data sets. At the end of the analysis of application results, the performance of the proposed method is statistically better than well-known deep and shallow artificial neural networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FEATURES On THE EVENING OF MAY 9, I WAS WALKING through downtown Rawalpindi toward General Headquarters, the Pakistan Army's national command center. Days before Khan was picked up, he accused a general in the Pakistan Army and a top official in the country's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence directorate of plotting to have him assassinated. Khan had been arrested on corruption charges by a controversial organization created by the Pakistan Army that has been used almost exclusively to coerce politicians. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: This paper aims to establish a theoretic framework to provide a fundamental understanding of cyberspatial objects, their existence and their identification scheme while providing a connection between cyber-enabled spaces and cyberspace. It develops an avenue to quantify general philosophical and theoretical questions, precisely, inherently spatial basis that produces an unprecedented space–time continuum, in which cyber-enabled relations evolve. Design/methodology/approach: Multidisciplinary theoretical approaches are needed to describe complex systems, which in this paper are integrated in a quest for the principles underlying the structural organization and dynamics of cyberspace. A theoretic framework is presented, and the spatial conception of cyber-enabled physical, social, information and thinking spaces and entities existence are provided. Findings: With spatial objects and spatial properties, cyberspace is inherently spatial. Its basic constructs are founded on its spatial qualities and producing radical space–time compression, cyber-enabled spaces in which dynamic relations develop and thrive. The cyberspatial object operations are primarily built on foundations that depend on physical space and other spatial metaphors. Information space, basically missing in the literature, is an important part of cyberspace. Research limitations/implications: This work suggested a novel analytical approach to describing cyberspace from broader perspectives and fields. Due to the novelty and divergence of cyber concepts, an interdisciplinary study and methodology are needed. Thus, more research toward theoretical direction could help many of the practical implementations of concepts. Practical implications: The research is of particular significance in cyberspatial mechanics to describe the dynamics and behavior of cyber physical systems. For example, object-based analysis functions like spatial query, node pattern analysis, cluster analysis, spatial similarity analysis and location modeling. Originality/value: Complementing the existing literature and defining information space to the research sphere, a theoretical framework providing a fundamental understanding of cyberspatial objects and the general cyberspace foundation has been proposed, resulting in a formalized concept of existence, interactions and applications and services, with respect to philosophy, science and technology, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zainab Janjua, one of Imaan's lawyers, told me that the state is using terrorism laws to suppress dissent. COMMENT At around 3:30 am on the morning of August 19, dozens of police officers and plainclothes operatives stormed the Islamabad residence of the Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist Imaan Mazari. Two days earlier, Imaan had addressed a rally in Islamabad organized by the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), which advocates for the rights of ethnic Pashtuns, who make up around 20 percent of Pakistan's population. [Extracted from the article]

This article provides a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the role of interconnection directionality in a general class of quadratic performance metrics for double-integrator networks. We first develop an analysis framework that can be used to evaluate the quadratic performance metrics of networks defined over a general class of directed graphs. A comparison between systems whose directed graph Laplacians are normal and their undirected counterparts unveils an interplay between the interconnection directionality and the control strategy that determines network performance. We show that directionality can significantly degrade performance; however, well-designed feedback can exploit directionality to mitigate this degradation or even improve performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fasciola gigantica, the causative agent of tropical fasciolosis, is a food-borne zoonotic trematode that affects around 80% livestock of Bangladesh. Triclabendazole (TCBZ), nitroxynil (NTON) and oxyclozanide (OCZN) are frequently used against fascioliasis; however, the current status of potency of these flukicides was unknown. In this study, in vitro efficacy of TCBZ, NTON and OCZN at various concentrations on F. gigantica has been evaluated by relative motility (RM), morphological distortions of apical cone through an inverted microscope, architectural and ultra-structural changes through histopathological and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It is observed that TCBZ, NTON and OCZN at higher concentrations significantly (P < 0.05) reduced RM of the flukes compared to untreated control. NTON at 150 μg mL−1 was the most potent to reduce the motility within 4 h whereas TCBZ and OCZN were much delayed. Histopathological changes showed swollen, extensive cracking, numerous vacuoles and splitting of the tegument surrounding the spines; spine dislodged from its socket in treated flukes compared to untreated worms. Histopathological changes were more conspicuous at higher doses of TCBZ, NTON and OCZN. SEM has shown the disruption of the apical cone, apart from swelling of the tegument on the ventral surface corrugation and disruption of the ventral apical cone. All these changes indicate that NTON is the most potent in killing flukes in vitro among the tested flukicides and suggest the presence of TCBZ-resistant fluke populations in Bangladesh. It is imperative to explore the in vivo effects of these flukicides and subsequently their molecular mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of a biologically plausible spiking neural network (SNN) largely depends on the model parameters and neural dynamics. This article proposes a parameter optimization scheme for improving the performance of a biologically plausible SNN and a parallel on-field-programmable gate array (FPGA) online learning neuromorphic platform for the digital implementation based on two numerical methods, namely, the Euler and third-order Runge–Kutta (RK3) methods. The optimization scheme explores the impact of biological time constants on information transmission in the SNN and improves the convergence rate of the SNN on digit recognition with a suitable choice of the time constants. The parallel digital implementation leads to a significant speedup over software simulation on a general-purpose CPU. The parallel implementation with the Euler method enables around $180\times $ ($20\times $) training (inference) speedup over a Pytorch-based SNN simulation on CPU. Moreover, compared with previous work, our parallel implementation shows more than $300\times $ ($240\times $) improvement on speed and $180\times $ ($250\times $) reduction in energy consumption for training (inference). In addition, due to the high-order accuracy, the RK3 method is demonstrated to gain $2\times $ training speedup over the Euler method, which makes it suitable for online training in real-time applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on addressing the practical difficulty of extracting statistical properties from the Ising model, which incorporates mixed spin- (2 , 1 / 2) configurations and is defined on a Cayley tree of third order. We study Gibbs measures for the mixed spin- (2 , 1 / 2) Ising model by leveraging the self-replicating characteristics of the semi-finite Cayley tree. Our aim is to establish the model's partition function, identify the point at which a phase transition occurs in this model, and compute various thermodynamic properties. We demonstrate the presence of multiple limiting Gibbs measures in both the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic regions, thereby establishing the existence of phase transitions in both domains by a numerical approach. Additionally, we investigate the average magnetization linked to the fixed points in the dynamics of the (2 , 1 / 2) -MSIM system. We examine the behavior of these quantities as temperature approaches both zero and infinity, with a particular focus on the critical temperature T → 0 and as T → ∞. Then, utilizing the self-similarity property inherent in the semi-infinite Cayley tree, we deduce precise expressions for the free energy, entropy, and magnetization of the mixed spin- (2 , 1 / 2) Blume–Capel model. At certain critical temperatures, we numerically observe peaks and kinks in thermodynamic quantities, including free energy, entropy, and magnetization, within the context of the Blume–Capel model. In the case of the Blume–Capel model, it is noted that an increase in the crystal field (D) corresponds to an increase in these thermodynamic quantities. • We study an Ising model and Blum-Capel models with the mixed spins {±1/2} and {±2, ±1, 0} on a Cayley tree. • We construct the Gibbs measures corresponding to the model by means of cavity method. • We derive exact solutions for the mixed spin- (2 , 1 / 2) Blume–Capel model's free energy, entropy, and magnetization. • We compuete the quantities as temperature approaches both zero and infinity compute various thermodynamic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an unconstrained elastic body, emergence of zero natural frequencies is an expectable outcome on account of the body's ability to purely translate or rotate with no structural deformation. Recent advances in literature have pushed such conventional definition and demonstrated properties transcending typical zero-frequency modes, such as localization of deformation at a structural edge or corner. In this paper, a spring–mass honeycomb lattice with an elastic foundation, referred to here as mechanical graphene, is designed to exhibit zero-frequency corner modes. A central element in the proposed design is the elastic foundation, and the zero-frequency corner modes are enabled by intricate modulation of the elastic-foundation's stiffness. These modes are proven to have their origins from the dynamics of a diatomic chain, made from a single strip of the mechanical graphene with free boundaries. Different shapes of finite mechanical graphene with free boundaries are considered and conditions leading to the manifestation of corner modes are correlated with the angle of corners and stiffness of springs supporting them. Finally, the effect of defects on zero-frequency corner modes is briefly discussed, demonstrating robustness against structural defects that are distant from corners. • The concept of zero-frequency corner modes in a mechanical graphene is introduced. • Elastic foundation of positive-negative springs enables zero-frequency corner modes. • Corner modes origin is connected to edge modes in a comparable diatomic lattice. • Corner modes only occur in mechanical graphene having 60°-angle corners. • Theory is verified numerically using different shapes of mechanical graphene. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sherry Rehman, who serves as minister for climate change in the country's ruling coalition, estimates that the crisis has affected more than 33 million people. ALTHOUGH PAKISTAN ACCOUNTS FOR LESS THAN 1 percent of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions, its people have become the victims of an unprecedented climate catastrophe. After a monsoon season in which rainfall exceeded average levels by 780 percent, a third of the country has been flooded, with more than 1,000 people killed in what officials are describing as the worst climate disaster in Pakistan's history. [Extracted from the article]

The article analyzes the porcelain potter figurines modeled by German sculptor and artist Johann Joachim Kändler and produced as part of the artisan series in the 18th-century at Meissen Porcelain Factory in Germany. It discusses the history, production technique and technical features of the figurines including the hair, expression, hands, feet, hat, shirt, waistcoats, trousers, wheel throwing produced form, wooden shelf/wareboard, bench, platform and blue crossed mark.

Under the climate crisis and rapid urbanisation, rainwater harvesting (RWH) is more pertinent than ever. In Bangladesh, the full potential of rainwater use, especially for the urban poor, has not been explored. This study reviewed the recently-executed national plans to assess the RWH provisions, explored literature to map RWH practice, showed the alignment between the plans and the practices, and assessed the provision of RWH in the currently-implemented plans, with a particular focus on the urban poor. Although the past plans recognised RWH, the study found that these did not emphasise the implementation process nor offer provisions for the urban poor. RWH was, however, widely practised in the urban, peri-urban, and rural parts of the country by utilising different catchment structures. Building on the experiences of other countries, the study assessed the feasibility of RWH for the urban poor to meet their sanitation and hygiene needs under the changing climate. The study concluded that a detailed 'Rainwater Harvesting and Management Plan' supporting the adoption and promotion of community-led models to mitigate RWH-related challenges in the urban slums and integrating multi-storied buildings to harvest rainwater for the poor neighbourhoods could ensure efficient and equitable rainwater management for the urban poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Decoding is an important part of machine translation systems, and the most popular inference algorithm used here is beam search. Beam search algorithm improves translation by allowing a larger search space to be traversed than greedy search. However, as the beam width increases, the translation performance declines after a certain point in neural machine translation (NMT). This problem is usually not observed in statistical machine translation (SMT) due to the decoding method. This paper proposes a hybrid system-based method that uses SMT predictions to prevent quality deterioration in the beam search algorithm used in NMT decoding. Our approach is based on the reranking n-best list of NMT according to the SMT system translation sentence. We propose two different algorithms for reranking NMT n-best lists. The first algorithm uses the length information of the SMT outputs. In contrast, the second uses a word-based similarity approach with the Jaccard Index, the Dice's Coefficient, and the Overlap Coefficient. Experiments on three different language pairs show that the method we propose prevents the decrease in translation quality and produces a gain of 1.3 BLEU and 1.6 METEOR for different beam sizes and 1.8 BLEU and 2.1 METEOR average scores compared to the baseline results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neither of us are aware of any recent UK undergraduate course in Psychology, or doctoral course in Clinical Psychology, beginning with such a bold statement. In 1898, under the leadership of a Cambridge Professor of Anthropology, Alfred Cort Haddon, a team of anthropologists, psychologists and a psychiatrist set off for the Torres Straits in South East Asia. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: External factors such as improper handling, extreme weather and insect attacks affect product quality. It is most obvious in fruit products which have a high deterioration rate. Moreover, decaying fruits will increase the deteriorating of other good ones. The purpose of this study is to derive the optimal pricing and replenishment decisions for agricultural products considering the effect of external factors that induce deterioration. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the study investigates ways to reduce the product deterioration rate by separating the near defective items from the other good products and accelerating the quick sales of the near defective items at a discounted price. The objective is to maximize the total profit by optimizing the selling price and the replenishment cycles. Two scenarios are investigated. In the first scenario, the retailer offers a selling price discount for near defective products to stimulate customer demand. In the second scenario, the retailer does not offer such discounts. Findings: An algorithm to solve the model is derived. Further, numerical examples are developed to compare the total profit for the two scenarios. Theoretical derivations and graphical results show the concavity of the profit function. Finally, the sensitivity analysis shows that the total profit of the discount model is higher. Originality/value: This study contributes to a new pricing and inventory decision model. The research provides insights to retailers on making optimal pricing and replenishment decisions for non-instantaneous deterioration items, as well as reducing the external factors that influence higher deterioration rate through separating good products from the near defective ones which are sold at a discount to induce the sale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An algebraic transition model has been developed to preserve the "flow-structure-adaptive" characteristics in "Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes" (RANS) computations for multiple transition mechanisms. The formulation is convenient and plausible in a sense that it relies on the local flow information to trigger transition employing an algebraic intermittency parameter γ rather than a γ -transport equation. The turbulence intensity T u appearing in γ has been evaluated locally using an empirical relation for the turbulent kinetic energy k , resolving the interaction between local and free-stream turbulence intensities. Splitting γ into low and elevated T u regimes assists in calibrating the model coefficients as well as minimizing the "trial-and-error" inconsistency, involved in most of the correlation-based transition models for initiating proper simulations. The γ function is directly fed into the production term of a modified Spalart–Allmaras (MSA) turbulence model. The artifact is pivotal to precisely representing the relevant physical aspects of the flow, such as the bypass, natural and separation-induced transitions, and boundary layer (BL) separation and shock BL interactions. Numerical results demonstrate that the MSA transition model maintains decent agreement with other transition and non-transition models available in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim of Study: To assess patients' comprehension of discharge instructions and to explore associated factors. Methods: Following a cross-sectional design, 300 patients aged above 14 years, who were admitted to Aseer Central Hospital, and were discharged to home, were included. A questionnaire was designed by researchers for data collection. It consisted of personal data and statements related to assessment of the patients' comprehension of discharge instructions. Results: Most participants were males (68.3%). Age of 26% was <30 years or 30-39 years (27%), while age of less than one-quarter of them (22.3%) was 40-49 years or >50 years (24.7%). Educational level of more than one-third was either secondary school (36.7%) or university education (37.7%), while 6.3% were illiterate. Most participants (85.7%) lived with their families, while 14.3% were living alone. More than half of patients (57%) did not know the side effects of their drugs, 13% of participants did not know about times of their medication intake, duration of treatment (16.7%), when to return to hospital (39.1%), or precautions after discharge (30.1%). About one-third of patients (33.7%) had poor comprehension regarding their discharge instructions, while 37.7% had moderate comprehension and 28.7% had good comprehension. More than three-quarters of patients felt satisfied about their understanding regarding discharge instructions, while 5.7% were not satisfied. About half of patients (47.7%) preferred verbal methods for having discharge instructions, 11.3% preferred written instructions, while 41% preferred both verbal and written methods. Knowledge levels were significantly lower among those aged >50 years (p=0.031). Illiterate patients had signifi- cantly lower comprehension about discharge instructions (p=0.021). Those who live with their families had significantly better knowledge than those who don't live alone (p=0.024). Their comprehension differed signifi- cantly according to their department (p=0.009), with best comprehension among those discharged from the Surgery Department, while the worst comprehension was observed among patients discharged from the Urology and Orthopedics Departments (63.6% and 48.1%, respectively). Conclusions: About one-third of patients have poor comprehension regarding their discharge instructions. Verbal methods for discharge instructions are preferred by about half of patients, while 41% prefer both verbal and written methods. Patients' poor comprehension is significantly associated with patients' illiteracy, older age (>50 years) and social isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the hydromagnetic third-grade non-Newtonian fluid flow and heat transfer between two coaxial pipes with a variable radius ratio. Design/methodology/approach: To solve the approximate nonlinear and linear problems with variable coefficients, a trial function was applied. Methods include collocation, least square and Galerkin that can be applied for obtaining these coefficients. Findings: It is revealed that an increase of the non-Newtonian parameter, Hartmann number, and radius ratio leads to an augmentation of the absolute value of the dimensionless velocity, temperature, velocity gradient, and temperature gradient of about 10-60%. Further, the augmentation of Bi1 reduces the absolute value of the dimensionless temperature profile and dimensionless temperature gradient about three to four times; hence, the dimensionless heat transfer rate reduces. However, the growth of Bi2 has a contrary impact. Besides, the increase of Pr and Ec leads to an increase in the dimensionless temperature profile and dimensionless temperature gradient; therefore, the dimensionless heat transfer rate increases. Originality/value: The convection heat transfer on the walls of the pipes is considered, and the nonlinear coupled momentum and energy equations are solved using the least squared method and collocation methods, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine and compare several iterative methods for solving large-scale eigenvalue problems arising from nuclear structure calculations. In particular, we discuss the possibility of using block Lanczos method, a Chebyshev filtering based subspace iterations and the residual minimization method accelerated by direct inversion of iterative subspace (RMM-DIIS) and describe how these algorithms compare with the standard Lanczos algorithm and the locally optimal block preconditioned conjugate gradient (LOBPCG) algorithm. Although the RMM-DIIS method does not exhibit rapid convergence when the initial approximations to the desired eigenvectors are not sufficiently accurate, it can be effectively combined with either the block Lanczos or the LOBPCG method to yield a hybrid eigensolver that has several desirable properties. We will describe a few practical issues that need to be addressed to make the hybrid solver efficient and robust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the slipperiness of language and the disconcerting damage being done to words. Topics include the divorce between communication and AI models like ChatGPT, the importance of bilingual editions in conveying meaning, and the power of language to create and find meaning.

Sliding mode control (SMC) is a well-known nonlinear control strategy which is robust against the model uncertainty; however it can produce control signals with high frequency response (chattering phenomena). To deal with chattering effect, high order SMC has been proposed in the literature, but it has weakness in dealing with measurement noise, and actuator and communication delays. This paper presents a predictive-based discrete higher order SMC design method for multi-input-multi-output linear systems in noisy environment with measurement and actuator delay. The proposed method utilizes distributed multiple step ahead prediction method which is optimal in terms of prediction error variance. The stability of the proposed controller in the sense of mean and mean square is proved. Besides, the lower and upper bound for the reaching time to the sliding surface of the proposed controller is analytically determined. The resulting technique is verified through simulation and experimental test performed on a four-tank process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to simultaneously consider an inventory model with price and advertisement dependent demand, non-instantaneous deterioration rate with preservation technology investment, partially backlogged shortages and trade credit. Design/methodology/approach: This model considered a non-instantaneous deterioration, which starts after a certain storage period with a constant rate. The proposed model focused on two things. The first one is to reduce the deterioration rate by preservation technology investment, and the second one is using an appropriate trade credit period to maximize the total profit. The classical optimization technique is used to solve the problem. Findings: The authors found that trade credit, advertising cost, preservation technology affect the total cost and selling price is one of the most important decision variables affecting the model. Practical implications: This study provides a reference for a manufacturer and a retailer on making inventory decisions under different pricing, advertisement expense, preservation technology investment and credit strategies. Four cases are presented to illustrate the inventory model. Sensitivity analyses are performed to gain managerial insights for decision-making. Originality/value: The study simultaneously considers a non-instantaneous deterioration inventory model, trade-credit, and preservation technology and advertisement policy. From our literature search, no researcher has undergone this type of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zika virus disease is an infection transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes, and can be a serious epidemic if not contained and controlled in its early stages. The purpose of this study is to investigate the transmission dynamics of Zika virus epidemic. A mathematical model of Zika virus with the inclusion of diffusion in the system is formulated, using a system of ordinary differential equations. Mathematical models assume transmission of the virus by mosquitoes, with and without transmission through sexual contact by humans. The basic properties of the model in the absence and presence of diffusion are determined including, points of the disease-free equilibrium (DFE) and the endemic equilibrium (EE). Stability of the disease-free equilibrium using the reproduction number, R 0 is established. The stability of the endemic equilibrium is established using the Routh–Hurwitz stability conditions. Bifurcation values for transmission rates and human recovery rate are also calculated. Numerical simulations based on different population distributions help to understand how the diffusion of human and mosquitoes affects the transmission of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study is to analyse the balanced scorecard (BSC)-based evaluation of the new service development (NSD) in Turkish banking sector. The proposed model includes fuzzy ANP (FANP), Monte Carlo Simulation, fuzzy TOPSIS (FTOPSIS), and fuzzy VIKOR (FVIKOR) respectively. FANP has been used for weighting the criteria, Monte Carlo Simulation has been applied to provide the stochastic values of BSC-based dimensions of NSD in banking sector. FTOPSIS and FVIKOR have been considered to rank the banks by their dimension performances. The novelty of the study is to provide an integrated model including FANP, FTOPSIS, FVIKOR, and Monte Carlo Simulation respectively. Additionally, BSC-based analysis of NSD has been applied for evaluating Turkish banking sector. The results demonstrate that the comparative analysis is coherent for ranking the alternatives and the stochastic values facilitate to obtain the immense expert evaluations under the fuzzy environment. It is identified that the performance of the foreign banks is lower than private and state banks. Hence, it can be said that especially foreign banks should develop new services to attract the attention of their customers. Within this framework, customer expectations should be defined by conducting a detailed analysis. As a result, it can be possible to increase comparative advantage in comparison with the other banks. • The model includes fuzzy ANP, Monte Carlo Simulation, fuzzy TOPSIS, and fuzzy VIKOR. • Comparative analysis is coherent for ranking the alternatives and the stochastic values. • Foreign banks have lower performance in comparison with state and private banks. • New service development process increases the competitive power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A photo essay is presented that documents poor coastal regions of Bangladesh that are vulnerable to sudden cyclones and tidal floods said to be linked to global warming. People displaced by these disasters called climate refugees are mentioned.

Life was tough in Gaza before the war. What will it be like afterwards? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My niece had her second birthday as Israel began its latest war on Gaza. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Young Artist Mentoring Program (YAMP), now in its third year, which provides mentorship to students from diverse backgrounds in the field of flute playing, emphasizing the application process, program structure, and the supportive environment it creates for career advice and project implementation, fostering a sense of community among mentees and mentors.

The present paper extends the work of Akın and Ulusoy (2022). On a Cayley tree of order k with zero effective local external fields, we analyze the q -state Potts model (q -SPM) in the presence of competing for two nearest interactions and prolonged next nearest interactions. We establish Gibbs measures for the model using the Cayley tree's self-similarity feature. The model's phase transitions problem has been completely solved. Indeed, the critical surfaces that indicate the model's phase transition are computed. There is a phase transition above this critical surface, and there is a single Gibbs measure found elsewhere. The chaoticity of the phases (Gibbs measures) is investigated using Lyapunov exponents. We analyze some of the q -SPM's thermodynamic features. Using the cavity approach, we calculate the model's free energy and entropy. • We derive the partial partition functions associated with the q -state Potts model. • We describe the limiting Gibbs measures by means of the cavity method. • We determine the stability analysis associated to the rational function. • We analyze some thermodynamic properties of the q -state Potts model. • We compute the free energy and entropy of the model using the cavity method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to evaluate the market concentration and competition in the European Banking Sector using an integrated multi-criteria decision-making approach under the fuzzy environment. Design/methodology/approach: The hybrid model combining fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), fuzzy analytic network process (ANP) and fuzzy VIKOR methods is applied to measure the market competition and concentration in the European Banking Sector. For this purpose, two academicians and one expert from banking sector with at least five-year experiences are selected to evaluate the dimensions, criteria and alternatives. The academicians are also appointed to define the decision-making problem and determine the dimensions and the criteria on the basis of related literature. The implementation of the model has been constructed in three main phases. The first phase consists of the fuzzy DEMATEL technique for understanding the impact-relation map among the dimensions. The second phase includes the fuzzy ANP method for measuring the relative importance of the criteria. The last phase comprises the fuzzy VIKOR approach to rank the alternatives with the values of the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI). Findings: Turkey, France, England and Germany are placed in the competitive market structure of the European Banking Sector respectively. Additionally, the comparative results of the study confirm the market shares and the competitive policies of the European and Turkish Banking Sector. Originality/value: The novelty of the paper is to construct a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making model with the proposed HHI scales under the fuzzy environment and defined competition dimensions and criteria based on the literature for the European Banking Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Associative processors, while ideal for vector-based applications, have been limited in their use mainly due to area and energy considerations. This reality is changing due to the advent of ultra-dense resistive memories (RRAMs), allowing for area efficient implementations of in-memory associative processors. However, with the high levels of integration, issues related to power density become the major bottleneck. In this paper, we investigate approximate computing in RRAM-based associative processors as a means of enhancing energy efficiency for in-memory associative processors. A case study of a wireless communication system is considered, where fast Fourier transform (FFT) modules are widely used. The proposed manager adjusts the bit width based on the channel SNR, aiming at achieving the desired performance at a reduced energy consumption. An analytical model of system performance under the reduced bit width induced noise is presented. Based on this model, an adaptive bit width adjustment algorithm is presented that utilizes the received SNR estimates to find the optimal bit width that achieves the desired performance goals. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve up to 45% energy savings as compared to wireless communication systems using conventional RRAM FFT associative processor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract As the most important real-time traveler information, travel time can be either experienced or expected (i.e. to be experienced). When a vehicle completes a trip, the travel time refers to the experienced travel time. In contrast, when a vehicle starts its journey, the travel time is unknown but can be predicted, which is the expected travel time. Although the experienced travel time is termed as the real-time travel time, a traveler may encounter a somewhat different travel time (from expected travel time) due to the changing traffic conditions. Therefore, expected travel time needs to be predicted. In this study, the expected travel time was predicted from the experienced travel time using the data mining techniques such as k-nearest neighbor (k-NN), least squares regression boosting (LSBoost) and Kalman filter (KF) methods. After comparing the performances of KF to corresponding modeling techniques from both link and corridor perspectives, it is concluded that the KF method offers superior prediction accuracy in a link-based model. Moreover, the effect of different noise assumptions was examined and it is found that the steady noise computed from the full-dataset had the most accurate prediction. A data processing algorithm, which processed more than a hundred million records reliably and efficiently was also introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The brain-like functionality of the artificial neural networks besides their great performance in various areas of scientific applications, make them a reliable tool to be employed in Audio-Visual Speech Recognition (AVSR) systems. The applications of such networks in the AVSR systems extend from the preliminary stage of feature extraction to the higher levels of information combination and speech modeling. In this paper, some carefully designed deep autoencoders are proposed to produce efficient bimodal features from the audio and visual stream inputs. The basic proposed structure is modified in three proceeding steps to make better usage of the presence of the visual information from the speakers' lips Region of Interest (ROI). The performance of the proposed structures is compared to both the unimodal and bimodal baselines in a professional phoneme recognition task, under different noisy audio conditions. This is done by employing a state-of-the-art DNN-HMM hybrid as the speech classifier. In comparison to the MFCC audio-only features, the finally proposed bimodal features cause an average relative reduction of 36.9% for a range of different noisy conditions, and also, a relative reduction of 19.2% for the clean condition in terms of the Phoneme Error Rates (PER). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents three lifting structures of Daubechies-8 (also known as D8) wavelet transform using efficient factorization of the polyphase matrix. All new filter coefficients are optimally mapped with integers resulting in low cost hardware implementation. We first derive the polyphase matrices using a factorization algorithm, which forms the basis of multiple lifting structures of D8. A theoretical framework is then derived and proven experimentally to eliminate the scaling stage of the algorithm that incurs computation error in conventional integer-based wavelets. This elimination of the scaling stage makes the proposed architecture lossless. Also due to the optimum integer mapping, the 8-bit implementation of our schemes produces very similar results than that of the classical double-precision D8 filter. Finally, we compare our results with other existing lifting wavelets to demonstrate the advantage in terms of lower cost, losslessness and improved performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]