Direct comparison of processing technology in hardwood and softwood sawmills

This study compares the sawing accuracy of 273 machines in hardwood sawmills to 291 machines in softwood sawmills. Characteristics compared were kerf width, sawing variation (within-board, between-board, and total), machining wood loss per sawline, and oversizing/undersizing practices. While results varied between machine types by region, hardwood sawmills generally performed as well as, or sometimes better than, softwood sawmills for many of the machine characteristics studied

A performance evaluation of edging and trimming operations in U.S. hardwood sawmills

Edger and trimmer operators must make constant decisions in short time periods on the amount of materials to remove from boards produced in the sawmill. Their decisions directly affect the total volume, grade, and value of the boards, and they therefore directly affect the total value of lumber produced. In recent years, many softwood sawmills have installed computer controlled edgers and trimmers with scanners and optimizers to achieve higher recovery rates. Before similar, relatively expensive, technologies can be seriously evaluated for the hardwood industry, however, the current performance of edging and ·trimming operations must be known. Using a sample of 3360 boards, compiled from 37 hardwood sawmills located in 16 states, lumber grade, length, width, and dollar values obtained in edging and trimming operations were compared with values predicted by USDA Forest Service scientists for the same lumber. Significant differences between edging and trimming performance and predicted values were determined via statistical tests. A linear regression model was formulated to study the influence of overedging, overtrirnming, and grade difference on the percentage of predicted dollar value achieved. It was found that most sawmills edged a relatively low proportion of their total production. In 99% of the boards, edging and trimming operations achieved similar values for grade and length to those predicted by the USDA scientists. The value of the lumber increased significantly as the amount of overedging decreased

Capital and Earnings Management:Evidence from Alternative Banking Business Models

This paper examines whether institutional characteristics distinguishing Islamic from conventional banks lead to distinctive capital and earnings management behavior through the use of loan loss provisions. In our sample countries, the two banking sectors operate under different regulatory frameworks: conventional banks currently apply the “incurred” loan loss model until 2018 whereas Islamic banks mandatorily adopt an “expected” loan loss model. Our results provide significant evidence of capital and earnings management practices via loan loss provisions in conventional banks. This finding is more prominent for large and loss-generating banks. By contrast, Islamic banks tend not to use loan loss provisions in either capital or earnings management, irrespective of the bank's size, earnings profile, or the structure of their loan loss model. This difference may be attributed to the constrained business model of Islamic banking, strict governance, and ethical orientation

Risk of bias from inclusion of patients who already have diagnosis of or are undergoing treatment for depression in diagnostic accuracy studies of screening tools for depression: systematic review

Objectives To investigate the proportion of original studies included in systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the diagnostic accuracy of screening tools for depression that appropriately exclude patients who already have a diagnosis of or are receiving treatment for depression and to determine whether these systematic reviews and meta-analyses evaluate possible bias from the inclusion of such patients

MM Algorithms for Geometric and Signomial Programming

This paper derives new algorithms for signomial programming, a generalization of geometric programming. The algorithms are based on a generic principle for optimization called the MM algorithm. In this setting, one can apply the geometric-arithmetic mean inequality and a supporting hyperplane inequality to create a surrogate function with parameters separated. Thus, unconstrained signomial programming reduces to a sequence of one-dimensional minimization problems. Simple examples demonstrate that the MM algorithm derived can converge to a boundary point or to one point of a continuum of minimum points. Conditions under which the minimum point is unique or occurs in the interior of parameter space are proved for geometric programming. Convergence to an interior point occurs at a linear rate. Finally, the MM framework easily accommodates equality and inequality constraints of signomial type. For the most important special case, constrained quadratic programming, the MM algorithm involves very simple updates.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figur

Single Gene Deletions of Orexin, Leptin, Neuropeptide Y, and Ghrelin Do Not Appreciably Alter Food Anticipatory Activity in Mice

Timing activity to match resource availability is a widely conserved ability in nature. Scheduled feeding of a limited amount of food induces increased activity prior to feeding time in animals as diverse as fish and rodents. Typically, food anticipatory activity (FAA) involves temporally restricting unlimited food access (RF) to several hours in the middle of the light cycle, which is a time of day when rodents are not normally active. We compared this model to calorie restriction (CR), giving the mice 60% of their normal daily calorie intake at the same time each day. Measurement of body temperature and home cage behaviors suggests that the RF and CR models are very similar but CR has the advantage of a clearly defined food intake and more stable mean body temperature. Using the CR model, we then attempted to verify the published result that orexin deletion diminishes food anticipatory activity (FAA) but observed little to no diminution in the response to CR and, surprisingly, that orexin KO mice are refractory to body weight loss on a CR diet. Next we tested the orexigenic neuropeptide Y (NPY) and ghrelin and the anorexigenic hormone, leptin, using mouse mutants. NPY deletion did not alter the behavior or physiological response to CR. Leptin deletion impaired FAA in terms of some activity measures, such as walking and rearing, but did not substantially diminish hanging behavior preceding feeding time, suggesting that leptin knockout mice do anticipate daily meal time but do not manifest the full spectrum of activities that typify FAA. Ghrelin knockout mice do not have impaired FAA on a CR diet. Collectively, these results suggest that the individual hormones and neuropepetides tested do not regulate FAA by acting individually but this does not rule out the possibility of their concerted action in mediating FAA

Psychometric properties of the Compulsive Exercise Test in an adolescent eating disorder population

The objective of this study was to evaluate the factor structure, validity, and reliability of the Compulsive Exercise Test (CET) in an adolescent clinical eating disorder population. The data source was the Helping to Outline Paediatric Eating Disorders (HOPE) Project, a prospective ongoing registry study comprising consecutive paediatric tertiary eating disorder referrals. Adolescents (N = 104; 12-17 years) with eating disorders completed the CET and other measures. Factor structure, convergent validity, and internal consistency were evaluated. Despite failing to identify a factor structure, the study provided clear evidence of the multidimensionality of the measure. The total score correlated significantly with measures of eating pathology, perfectionism, and frequency of exercise for shape and weight control (r = 0.32-0.70, ps \u3c 0.05). More research into the multidimensional nature of compulsive exercise in clinical populations is needed, Further, research into compulsive exercise offers promise as an addition to existing cognitive behavioral models and treatments for eating disorders