Policy options for private forest owners in Western Balkans: a qualitative study

Private forest owners start to play an important role in Western Balkans’ forestry and they are essential to the successful implementation of environmental policies. Little is known about how forest policy can support private forest owners in these countries and therefore this study was conducted though a qualitative method, based on personal interviews with representatives of 54 stakeholders that include state forest authorities and administration, private forest owners associations, forest science and research and private sector in Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. The results show significant homogeneity across the region towards creation of independent interest forest owners associations based on financial support. Regression analysis identified stakeholder attitudes as significant predictors of policy preferences and also identified owners of production forest as more supportive of such policies

Impact of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations on sustained virologic response in HCV-infected patients: Results from the GUARD-C Cohort

BACKGROUND: Despite the introduction of direct-acting antiviral agents for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, peginterferon alfa/ribavirin remains relevant in many resource-constrained settings. The non-randomized GUARD-C cohort investigated baseline predictors of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations (sr-RD) and their impact on sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients receiving peginterferon alfa/ribavirin in routine practice. METHODS: A total of 3181 HCV-mono-infected treatment-naive patients were assigned to 24 or 48 weeks of peginterferon alfa/ribavirin by their physician. Patients were categorized by time-to-first sr-RD (Week 4/12). Detailed analyses of the impact of sr-RD on SVR24 (HCV RNA <50 IU/mL) were conducted in 951 Caucasian, noncirrhotic genotype (G)1 patients assigned to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin for 48 weeks. The probability of SVR24 was identified by a baseline scoring system (range: 0-9 points) on which scores of 5 to 9 and <5 represent high and low probability of SVR24, respectively. RESULTS: SVR24 rates were 46.1% (754/1634), 77.1% (279/362), 68.0% (514/756), and 51.3% (203/396), respectively, in G1, 2, 3, and 4 patients. Overall, 16.9% and 21.8% patients experienced 651 sr-RD for peginterferon alfa and ribavirin, respectively. Among Caucasian noncirrhotic G1 patients: female sex, lower body mass index, pre-existing cardiovascular/pulmonary disease, and low hematological indices were prognostic factors of sr-RD; SVR24 was lower in patients with 651 vs. no sr-RD by Week 4 (37.9% vs. 54.4%; P = 0.0046) and Week 12 (41.7% vs. 55.3%; P = 0.0016); sr-RD by Week 4/12 significantly reduced SVR24 in patients with scores <5 but not 655. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, sr-RD to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin significantly impacts on SVR24 rates in treatment-naive G1 noncirrhotic Caucasian patients. Baseline characteristics can help select patients with a high probability of SVR24 and a low probability of sr-RD with peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin

Heterogeneity, high performance computing, self-organization and the Cloud

This open access book addresses the most recent developments in cloud computing such as HPC in the Cloud, heterogeneous cloud, self-organising and self-management, and discusses the business implications of cloud computing adoption. Establishing the need for a new architecture for cloud computing, it discusses a novel cloud management and delivery architecture based on the principles of self-organisation and self-management. This focus shifts the deployment and optimisation effort from the consumer to the software stack running on the cloud infrastructure. It also outlines validation challenges and introduces a novel generalised extensible simulation framework to illustrate the effectiveness, performance and scalability of self-organising and self-managing delivery models on hyperscale cloud infrastructures. It concludes with a number of potential use cases for self-organising, self-managing clouds and the impact on those businesses

First-order theorem proving for program analysis and theory reasoning

Zsfassung in dt. SpracheIn dieser Dissertation untersuchen wir, wie mit Beweismethoden der Prädikatenlogik erster Stufe Programmeigenschaften gefunden und bewiesen werden können. Die erarbeiteten Methoden wurden in einem vollständig automatisierten Tool namens Lingva umgesetzt, welches quantifizierte Invarianten über Arrays generiert. Wir zeigen experimentell, dass die generierten Invarianten das Verhalten der analysierten Schleifen zusammenfassen. Unsere Arbeit basiert auf der erst jüngst entwickelten Methode der Elimination von Symbolen bei Generierung von Invarianten, wobei ein sättigungsbasierter Beweiser für Theoreme der Prädikationlogik verwendet wird. Da Programmeigenschaften sowohl logische als auch arithmetische Operationen über unbeschränkte Datenstrukturen wie Arrays involvieren, sind für das Erzeugen und Beweisen von Programmeigenschaften effiziente Methoden für das Schlussfolgern in das Schlussfolgern in den Theorien und über den Quantoren notwendig. Ein weiterer Beitrag dieser Arbeit ist die Erweiterung des prädikatenlogikbasierten Theorembeweisers Vampire um Schrankenausbreitungsmethoden zur Lösung von Systemen linearer Ungleichungen. Somit kann Vampire als automatisches Tool zum Entscheiden der Erfüllbarkeit von Ungleichungssytemen auf der Menge der rationalen Zahlen oder reellen Zahlen verwendet werden. Wir zeigen experimentell, dass die Effizient der Schrankenausbreitung in Vampire im Vergleich mit state-of-the-art Satisfiability Modulo Theory Lösern auf schweren linearen Optimierungsproblemen gut abschneidet. Unser arithmetischer Löser ist auf Konjunktionen linearer Ungleichungen limitiert. Jedoch haben arithmetische Programmeigenschaften üblicherweise eine komplexere boolesche Struktur aus Kombinationen von Konjunktionen, Disjunktionen und Negierungen. Um daher unsere Arbeit auf komplexe arithmetische Eigenschaften anwendbar zu machen, wurden booleschen Entscheidungsproblem (SAT) Löser in Vampire integriert. Unsere Arbeit nutzt das kürzlich entwickelte AVATAR Framework um das Schlussfolgerungen über Theoreme der Prädikatenlogik von der booleschen Struktur der Probleme zu trennen. Wir beschreiben die technischen und implementierungsbezogenen Herausforderungen die bei der Integration der effizientesten SAT Lösern in Vampire auftreten und verwenden unsere Implementierung zur Evaluierung des AVATAR Frameworks mit einer Vielzahl von Problemen der TPTP Bibliothek automatisierter Theorembeweiser.In this thesis we study the use of first-order theorem proving for generating and proving program properties. Our thesis provides a fully automated tool support, called Lingva, for generating quantified invariants of programs over arrays, and shows experimentally that the generated invariants summarize the behavior of the considered loops. Our work is based on the recently introduced symbol elimination method for invariant generation, using a saturation-based first-order theorem prover. As program properties involve both logical and arithmetical operations over unbounded data structures, such as arrays, generating and proving program properties requires efficient methods for reasoning with both theories and quantifiers. Another contribution of this thesis comes with the integration of the bound propagation method for solving systems of linear inequalities in the first-order theorem prover Vampire. Our work provides an automated tool support for using Vampire for deciding satisfiability of a system of linear inequalities over the reals or rationals. We experimentally show that bound propagation in Vampire performs well when compared to state-of-the-art satisfiability modulo theory solvers on hard linear optimization problems. Our arithmetic solver is limited to conjunction of linear inequalities, while arithmetic program properties usually have a more complex boolean structure, using a combination of logical conjunction, disjunction and negation. To make our work applicable for handling such complex arithmetic properties, another contribution of this thesis is the integration of boolean satisfiability (SAT) solvers within Vampire. Our work exploits the recently introduced AVATAR framework for separating the first-order reasoning part of a problem from its boolean structure. We describe our technical and implementation challenges for integrating the best performing SAT solvers within Vampire, and use our implementation to evaluate the AVATAR framework on a large set of problems coming from the TPTP library of automated theorem provers.11

Multifunctional Structured Platforms: From Patterning of Polymer-Based Films to Their Subsequent Filling with Various Nanomaterials

There is an astonishing number of optoelectronic, photonic, biological, sensing, or storage media devices, just to name a few, that rely on a variety of extraordinary periodic surface relief miniaturized patterns fabricated on polymer-covered rigid or flexible substrates. Even more extraordinary is that these surface relief patterns can be further filled, in a more or less ordered fashion, with various functional nanomaterials and thus can lead to the realization of more complex structured architectures. These architectures can serve as multifunctional platforms for the design and the development of a multitude of novel, better performing nanotechnological applications. In this work, we aim to provide an extensive overview on how multifunctional structured platforms can be fabricated by outlining not only the main polymer patterning methodologies but also by emphasizing various deposition methods that can guide different structures of functional nanomaterials into periodic surface relief patterns. Our aim is to provide the readers with a toolbox of the most suitable patterning and deposition methodologies that could be easily identified and further combined when the fabrication of novel structured platforms exhibiting interesting properties is targeted

Multifunctional Structured Platforms: From Patterning of Polymer-Based Films to Their Subsequent Filling with Various Nanomaterials

There is an astonishing number of optoelectronic, photonic, biological, sensing, or storage media devices, just to name a few, that rely on a variety of extraordinary periodic surface relief miniaturized patterns fabricated on polymer-covered rigid or flexible substrates. Even more extraordinary is that these surface relief patterns can be further filled, in a more or less ordered fashion, with various functional nanomaterials and thus can lead to the realization of more complex structured architectures. These architectures can serve as multifunctional platforms for the design and the development of a multitude of novel, better performing nanotechnological applications. In this work, we aim to provide an extensive overview on how multifunctional structured platforms can be fabricated by outlining not only the main polymer patterning methodologies but also by emphasizing various deposition methods that can guide different structures of functional nanomaterials into periodic surface relief patterns. Our aim is to provide the readers with a toolbox of the most suitable patterning and deposition methodologies that could be easily identified and further combined when the fabrication of novel structured platforms exhibiting interesting properties is targeted

Evolution towards a Cloud Deployed Business Support System

Although less known outside strictly specialized environments, Business Support Systems (BSS) are highly complex and the subject of their installation in cloud implementations is less addressed. This paper presents a short history of BSS evolution, starting from basic voice and messaging services and ending up to 4G and M2M services, presenting new features and their new challenges. Moreover, we present, as a baseline for future developments, a study based on direct interviews with representatives of telecom operators about their vision of possible future BSS solutions depending on the services they will provide. This area of investigation has a certain number of challenges that require collaboration between providers and operators; in this context, we have been established a framework of requirements which will be handled and studied individually

Modélisation du processus de charge et séparation tribo-aéro-électrostatique de matériaux plastiques granulaires

Les procédés de séparation électrostatique sont déjà utilisés pour le recyclage des déchets industriels broyés, chargés au préalable par effet triboélectrique dans des dispositifs à vibrations, à cylindre tournant ou à lit fluidisé. L efficacité de ces dispositifs étant parfois limitée par la charge électrique accumulée pendant le transport pneumatique des matériaux à séparer, une étude a été réalisée en faisant appel la méthode des plans d expériences afin d identifier les facteurs influents et de proposer des solutions d amélioration. Si les dispositifs actuels ne donnent pas satisfaction c est aussi parce que certaines particules n arrivent pas à se charger convenablement pour être séparées en champ électrique. Un procédé et une installation originaux permettent de remédier à ces inconvénients, en utilisant en même temps l effet triboélectrique, la force de Coulomb et la force image électrique. Deux dispositifs à lit fluidisé ont été construits dans le but de faciliter la compréhension des phénomènes physiques à la base du nouveau procédé et de tester sa faisabilité. Les expériences réalisées sur ces dispositifs ont montré que l efficacité du processus de charge dépend fortement de la vitesse de l'air de fluidisation et de la durée passée par les particules dans le dispositif. Ces études ont permis de préciser les solutions techniques essentielles à la réalisation d un séparateur tribo-aéroélectrostatique industriel. Les résultats expérimentaux confirment la charge triboélectrique en lit fluidisé associée à la séparation en champ électrostatique comme un procédé efficace de traitement des déchets granulaires d équipements électriques et électroniques.The electrostatic separation processes are already used for the recycling of granular wastes, electrically charged in advance by the tribo-electric effect in vibratory-, rotating cylinder- or fluidized bed-devices. As the effectiveness of these devices is often limited by the electric charge accumulated during the pneumatic transport of materials to be separated; a study was conducted using the design of experiments methodology in order to identify the influential factors and to propose solutions for improvement. The efficiency of these devices is in many cases rather poor, because some particles do not reach the necessary charge to be separated in the electric field. An original method and equipment have been designed to overcome these drawbacks by simultaneously using of the triboelectric effect, the Coulomb force and the electric image force. Two fluidized bed devices were constructed in order to facilitate the understanding of physical bases of the new process and test its feasibility. Experiments on these devices showed that the efficiency of the charging process depends significantly on the speed of the fluidization air and the time spent by particles in the device. These studies validated most of the technical solutions to be applied in order to build an industrial tribo-aeroelectrostatic separator. The experimental results confirm simultaneous triboelectric charge in a fluidized bed and separation in a horizontal electrostatic field as an effective method of treatment for the granular wastes of electrical and electronic equipment.POITIERS-BU Sciences (861942102) / SudocSudocFranceF

Optimal filtering of a signal generated by a system modeled by Itô differential equations with periodic coefficients: the dichotomic case

International audienceThis note addresses the problem of optimalH2filtering for a class of continuous-time time-varying stochastic systems. The time-variation character is considered to be periodic. The proposed filtering results are proved without requiring the restrictive assumption of exponential stability in the mean square of the underlying stochastic systems. Instead, we would rather assume that the Lyapunov operator associated to the dynamical stochastic system is exponentially dichotomic. The state space representation of the optimal filter is designed based on the unique periodic solution of a suitably defined Lyapunov differential equation and the periodic and stabilizing solution of a suitably defined generalized periodic Riccati differential equation