Process design decisions in community-based collaboration: implications for implementation and collateral social benefits

Collaborative decision-making processes are conducted widely in public affairs at various scales, from community to metropolitan, regional and national. They vary from highly formalized and prescribed processes, such as “regulatory negotiations”, to collaborative planning processes directed by urban planners or other public agency staff, to rather informal processes within community-based organizations. While substantial effort has been invested in identifying the benefits of collaboration, we ask; do the benefits materialize in each case? We researched one ad hoc community collaborative in Oregon, USA, widely considered a success in the aftermath of agreement. We were interested in the implementation of agreement provisions, as well as in any social benefits from the process. Relying on published documents, surveys and interviews one year after the process ended, and additional interviews and on-site observations five years later, we found that despite the initial enthusiasm and confidence in actions proposed in the final report and social relationships strengthened during the process, evidence of long-term success on these two dimensions was mixed. This case provides a cautionary note to process facilitators, urban planners, public administrators and stakeholder and citizen participants. Participants face many strategic and process design decisions. Among these are choices about institutional linkages, stakeholders, the decision rule, and clarity about the purpose and goal of the process. While the degree of “success” of any collaborative may not be our call as observers, we contend that implementation and social impacts are critical to assessing the value of these processes. Consequently, we propose that participants and facilitators alike should understand and consider appropriately the micro-decisions that can and do add to critical implications on these two important dimensions.     

Survey on Diagnosing CORONA VIRUS from Radiography Chest X-ray Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - Corona Virus continues to harms its effects on the people lives across the globe. The screening of infected persons has to be identified is a vital step because...     

De‐embedding of filters in multiplexers via rational approximation and interpolation

In this article, we present a method to recover electrical parameters of filters embedded in a multiplexer for which scattering measurements are given. Unlike other approaches proposed for this problem, this method does not require a priori knowledge of the scattering parameters of the junction. This feature renders the procedure well suited for tuning purposes or for fault diagnosis. Technically, the algorithm starts with a rational approximation step, to derive a rational representation of certain scattering parameters of the multiplexer. This representation is then used in a second step to identify an electrical model of each filter. This second step relies on a rational interpolation technique used to extract the filter's responses. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:647–654, 2015.     

Novel sulfonium salts as thermal and photoinitiators for epoxide and acrylate polymerizations

Novel sulfonium salts, 1‐naphthylmethyl‐, cinnamyl‐, 9‐fluorenyl tetramethylene sulfonium hexafluoroantimonates, and dimethylsulfonium hexafluoroantimonates, were synthesized by the reaction of tetrahydrothiophene and dimethylsulfide with the corresponding bromides or chloride, followed by anion exchange with KSbF₆. These sulfonium salts polymerized epoxy monomers at a temperature lower than previously reported for benzyltetramethylenesulfonium hexafluoroantimonate. They initiated radical photopolymerization as well as cationic polymerization. The photopolymerization was accelerated by the addition of aromatic compounds such as p‐methoxyphenol, 4‐methoxy‐1‐naphthol, 2‐ethyl‐9,10‐dimethoxyanthracene, N‐ethylcarbazole, and phenothiazine as photosensitizers. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 589–597, 2004     

Material forces in finite elasto-plasticity with continuously distributed dislocations

In this paper we propose a thermodynamically consistent model for elasto-plastic material with structural inhomogeneities such as dislocations, subjected to large deformations, in isothermal processes. The plastic measure of deformation is represented by a pair of plastic distortion, and plastic connection with non-zero torsion (in order to have the non-zero Burgers vector). The developments are focused on the balance equations (for material forces and for physical force system), derived from an appropriate principle of the virtual power formulated within the constitutive framework of finite elasto-plasticity and on constitutive restrictions imposed by the free energy imbalance. The presence of the material forces (microforce and microstress momentum) is a key point in the exposure, and viscoplastic (generally rate dependent) constitutive representation are derived.      

SPECTRAL METHODS FOR HISTORICAL PAPER ANALYSIS: COMPOSITION AND AGE APPROXIMATION

The research has been focusing on some connection between the chemical composition of the papers obtained by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and the nature of the fillers, determined by energy dispersion X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectroscopy. The present paper corroborates the FTIR and EDXRF results obtained for some historical papers from books of the XIX-th and XX-th centuries, from private collections. These analytical results allowed a first approximation of technological paper composition and of the age determination of the samples. This analytical method can elaborate some properly methods for paper documents preservation, taking into account the aging and degradation processes of the historical paper.     

Study of diesel fuel desulfurization by adsorption

Removal of sulfur from diesel fuel by adsorption on a commercial activated carbon and 13X type zeolite was studied in a batch adsorber. Kinetic characterization of the adsorption process was performed applying Lagergren's pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order and intraparticle diffusion models using data collected during experiments carried out to determine the sulfur adsorption dependency on time. The experiments investigating adsorption efficiency regarding initial sulfur concentration were also performed and the results were fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, respectively. Activated carbon Norit SXRO PLUS was found to have much better adsorption characteristics. The process of sulfur adsorption on the fore mentioned activated carbon was further studied by statistically analyzing data collected during experiments which were carried out according to three-factor two-level factorial design. Statistical analysis involved the calculation of effects of individual parameters and their interactions on sulfur adsorption and the development of statistical models of the process.     

Experimental investigation and optimization of carbohydrazide application using different alkalization agents on boilers All-Volatile treatment

This paper presents an experimental investigation of a carbohydrazide application on three Units with mixed metallurgy boilers water–steam cycles in the Power Plant of Ptolemais (Greece). The tests were performed using carbohydrazide as an oxygen scavenger and metal passivation agent, with the parallel application of different alkalization agents on All-Volatile regime, in order to find the most appropriate. The optimization of this carbohydrazide application concerns the adaptation of the final products dosage for the Units needs. The tests that were performed, the measurements, the analyses and other relevant data, the results evaluation and the conclusions, are presented. The results were obtained under real industrial conditions and may provide a general tool for developing the know-how of this kind of treatment.