基于土地节约型的陕北山地聚落空间发展模式探究

陕北地区自然生态环境脆弱，加之城镇化进程的快速推进，制约了当地社会、经济、生态的协调发展。本文着眼于聚落空间可持续发展的目标，在土地节约的政策导向下，试图探索陕北山地聚落空间形态发展的适宜性模式。     

Drinking and driving among Italian adolescents: Trends over seven years (2007–2013)

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the issue of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI), especially among young people. The aims of the present study were (1) to analyse the trends of DUI, riding with a driver under influence of alcohol (RWDUI) and alcohol-related road crashes (A-rC) in a nationally representative sample of students in the period 2007–2013, (2) to assess how different drinking patterns were associated with DUI and RWDUI, (3) to evaluate other influential factors (such as gender, older siblings’ and friends’ behaviour with alcohol) on DUI and RWDUI. Data were drawn from the cross-sectional European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) carried out annually in Italy. The sample size ranged from 25,555 to 40,390 students (15–19 years old). Results were stratified for students <18 years and ≥18 years old. Although a significant decreasing trend for alcohol consumption was observed only in the younger group, a significant decrease in DUI [APC (annual percent change) −9.7 in the younger and −6.4 in the older group] and in RWDUI (APC −6.7 in the younger and −4.8 in the older group) was detected. A significant decreasing trend of A-rC was observed only in the older group (APC −3.4). Three specific drinking patterns were identified: “Drinking to Excess” (DE), “Drinking with Intoxication” (DI) and “Drinking but Not to Excess” (DNE). In both age groups, the DE pattern significantly increased the likelihood of DUI, whereas the DI pattern was negatively associated, and the DNE pattern was not associated. Different results were found for RWDUI: the DE and DI patterns where significantly associated with RWDUI, whereas the DNE pattern was negatively associated. Overall, illegal substance use, parental monitoring, peers’ and siblings’ influence were associated with DUI and RWDUI. The change in behaviour towards DUI and RWDUI suggests a cumulative effectiveness of current alcohol policies, although further actions (greater attention to social context, law enforcement, and promotion of good practice) are needed to substantially reduce alcohol-related crashes.     

The Performance Metric for Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) in SOA system: Theoretical underpinnings and empirical illustrations for information processing

Now days, the businesses are going online and e-Commerce industry is on its boom. In this changing era of development, services are to be Robust, Agile, Accessible and Available to its clients. For secured and guaranteed delivery of services, every big organization is shifting their service delivery model to Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). It promises to set up a strong guideline to build System Oriented Architecture (SOA) system, which leverages multiple services from different application domains. This paper presents an analytical survey of ESB on different parameters influencing the performance of SOA in the present changing scenario and service patterns.     

Flow patterns and gas fractions of air–oil and air–water flow in pipe bends

An experimental study of two-phase flow in a 180° pipe bends with 0.016, 0.022 and 0.03 m and the curvature radii of 0.11, 0.154, 0.21 m, respectively have been carried out. The experiments were conducted under the input superficial phase velocity: air from 0.038 to 5.4 m s⁻¹, water from 0.018 to 0.92 m s⁻¹ and oil from 0.014 to 0.92 m s⁻¹. The conducted research involved the observation of the forming flow patterns and determination of average volumetric in situ gas fraction. On the basis of the results of experimental flow map was created for gas–liquid flow and a method of calculating gas fractions was established.     

Mathematical models of the transitions between endocrine therapy responsive and resistant states in breast cancer

Endocrine therapy, targeting the oestrogen receptor pathway, is the most common treatment for oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancers. Unfortunately, these tumours frequently develop resistance to endocrine therapies. Among the strategies to treat resistant tumours are sequential treatment (in which second-line drugs are used to gain additional responses) and intermittent treatment (in which a ‘drug holiday’ is imposed between treatments). To gain a more rigorous understanding of the mechanisms underlying these strategies, we present a mathematical model that captures the transitions among three different, experimentally observed, oestrogen-sensitivity phenotypes in breast cancer (sensitive, hypersensitive and independent). To provide a global view of the transitions between these phenotypes, we compute the potential landscape associated with the model. We show how this oestrogen response landscape can be reshaped by population selection, which is a crucial force in promoting acquired resistance. Techniques from statistical physics are used to create a population-level state-transition model from the cellular-level model. We then illustrate how this population-level model can be used to analyse and optimize sequential and intermittent oestrogen-deprivation protocols for breast cancer. The approach used in this study is general and can also be applied to investigate treatment strategies for other types of cancer.     

MRI and CT image indexing and retrieval using local mesh peak valley edge patterns

In this paper, a new pattern based feature, local mesh peak valley edge pattern (LMePVEP) is proposed for biomedical image indexing and retrieval. The standard LBP extracts the gray scale relationship between the center pixel and its surrounding neighbors in an image. Whereas the proposed method extracts the gray scale relationship among the neighbors for a given center pixel in an image. The relations among the neighbors are peak/valley edges which are obtained by performing the first-order derivative. The performance of the proposed method (LMePVEP) is tested by conducting two experiments on two benchmark biomedical databases. Further, it is mentioned that the databases used for experiments are OASIS−MRI database which is the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) database and VIA/I–ELCAP-CT database which includes region of interest computer tomography (CT) images. The results after being investigated show a significant improvement in terms average retrieval precision (ARP) and average retrieval rate (ARR) as compared to LBP and LBP variant features.     

Photo-deprotection patterning of self-assembled monolayers

Photo-deprotectable self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) provide a versatile platform for creating functional patterned surfaces. In this study, we present nanoscale photo-patterning, multi-component patterning, and a method for producing molecular gradients using photo-deprotectable SAMs. Nanoscale patterning of photo-deprotectable SAMs was achieved by coupling a UV laser (365 nm) through a scanning near field probe to produce nanoscale lines of ～40 nm, i.e. λ/9. Multi-component patterning was achieved by a two-stage method combining both microcontact printing and soft-UV photo-patterning. The example demonstrated in this study produced a three-component patterned surface with regions of CF₃, CH₃ and COOH/CF₃ functionality. The versatility of these photocleavable SAMs is further demonstrated by creating linear molecular gradients of two functionalities along a distance of ～25 mm. The use of ‘soft’ UV gives several advantages including the ability to pattern SAMs with micron-scale features over large areas quickly, with greater control over the photochemical reactions, and compatibility with existing lithographic facilities thus offering an effective alternative to other patterning methods such microcontact-printing or deep UV patterning.     

Framework for computationally efficient optimal crop and water allocation using ant colony optimization

A general optimization framework is introduced with the overall goal of reducing search space size and increasing the computational efficiency of evolutionary algorithm application to optimal crop and water allocation. The framework achieves this goal by representing the problem in the form of a decision tree, including dynamic decision variable option (DDVO) adjustment during the optimization process and using ant colony optimization (ACO) as the optimization engine. A case study from literature is considered to evaluate the utility of the framework. The results indicate that the proposed ACO-DDVO approach is able to find better solutions than those previously identified using linear programming. Furthermore, ACO-DDVO consistently outperforms an ACO algorithm using static decision variable options and penalty functions in terms of solution quality and computational efficiency. The considerable reduction in computational effort achieved by ACO-DDVO should be a major advantage in the optimization of real-world problems using complex crop simulation models.     

On fixed-accuracy and bounded accuracy confidence interval estimation problems in Fisher’s “Nile” example

Fisher’s “Nile” example is a classic that involves a bivariate random variable (X,Y) having a joint probability density function given by f(x,y;𝜃) = exp(?𝜃x?𝜃^?1y), 0<x,y<∞, where 𝜃>0 is a single unknown parameter. We develop (i) fixed-width and (ii) fixed-accuracy confidence intervals for 𝜃 with a preassigned confidence coe?cient. In problem (i), we develop a purely sequential estimation strategy along with its asymptotic properties. In problem (ii), we determine that a fixed-sample-size estimation strategy will su?ce and yet the requisite sample size would have to be found. We have done that both exactly as well as approximately and we report that for all practical purposes the approximations nearly provide the exact sample size whether it is small, moderate, or large. The last problem we address is bounded-accuracy fixed-sample-size estimation of P_𝜃{X>Y}. All theoretical properties are adequately validated by large-scale simulations.     

Micromap plots to visualize air pollution at national and local level in Korea

Air pollution is a persistent and pervasive environmental problem with health implications and economic costs for society. In this study, we introduce a new approach for visualizing air pollution data and describe how spatial patterns of air pollutants can be examined simultaneously using linked micromap plots. To explore the potential utility of the plots, we analysed and visualized Korean air pollution data for the period 1989–2012 at national and local level. Our analysis revealed that sulphur dioxide (SO₂), fine particle and carbon monoxide decreased for the period, but ozone increased uniquely. The pollution level of Jeju was lowest. Daegu and Gyeonggi showed the highest levels. Daegu had highest values in both range and interquartile range. SO₂ decreased the most in Gangwon which had formerly had the largest number of coal mines. Regions with high levels of fine particles were located mainly in the northwest, probably influenced by dust, and in the southeast, industrialized areas.