18 research outputs found
Reliability analysis of tunnel final lining
Risk and Reliability in Geotechnical Engineerin
Asynchronous Byzantine Approximate Consensus in Directed Networks
In this work, we study the approximate consensus problem in asynchronous
message-passing networks where some nodes may become Byzantine faulty. We
answer an open problem raised by Tseng and Vaidya, 2012, proposing the first
algorithm of optimal resilience for directed networks. Interestingly, our
results show that the tight condition on the underlying communication networks
for asynchronous Byzantine approximate consensus coincides with the tight
condition for synchronous Byzantine exact consensus. Our results can be viewed
as a non-trivial generalization of the algorithm by Abraham et al., 2004, which
applies to the special case of complete networks. The tight condition and
techniques identified in the paper shed light on the fundamental properties for
solving approximate consensus in asynchronous directed networks.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figure
Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry and Quantitative Ultrasound in Patients With Paget's Disease of Bone Before and After Treatment With Zoledronic Acid: Association With Serum Bone Markers and Dickkopf-1
The main aim of this study was to determine the effect of zoledronic
acid (ZOL) on parameters of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and
quantitative ultrasound (QUS) in unaffected bones of patients with
Paget’s disease of bone (PDB). The secondary aim was the association of
bone markers and Dickkopf (DKK)-1 with parameters of DXA and QUS. Ten
consecutive patients with polyostotic PDB (median age: 63 yr) received a
single 5-mg ZOL infusion. The patients were subjected to calcaneal QUS
and DXA of both lumbar spine (LS) and femoral neck (FN). Blood samples
for serum bone markers and DKK-1 were serially obtained for 12 mo. There
was a significant increase in LS (p = 0.005) and FN bone mineral density
(BMD) (p = 0.021) 12 mo after ZOL infusion. QUS parameters remained
unaffected throughout the study. A significant correlation between
broadband ultrasound attenuation and DKK-1 (p < 0.001) and between speed
of sound and DKK-1 (p = 0.033) at baseline was found, which remained
significant after adjustment for gender, age, and body mass index. Our
data suggest that a single ZOL infusion significantly increases
nonpagetic BMD 12 mo after treatment but has no effect on QUS parameters
or DKK-1. Significant correlations were observed between QUS parameters
and DICK-1 at baseline
Hierarchies, civilization, and the Eurozone crisis: the Greek financial crisis
This final chapter contends that accounting education is strongly related to the recent financial crisis in Greece, since some of the main root causes of the crisis were accounting omissions and manipulations in financial statements all embraced by unethical actions. The global financial crisis in Greece, epitomized by the recession of 2009, raised the question of whether and how should accounting educators respond. The purpose of this chapter is to understand the role of accounting education in the efforts made to prevent another financial crisis in Greece