966 research outputs found

    How to Form the Knowledge that Marketers Need? An Approach for Marketers to SMEs

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    International audienceTraditionally, the formula for knowledge consists of belief and truth. The key challenge behind this is to understand how a marketer can benefit from this knowledge. Like the traditional Chinese saying, the reason a ship floats or sinks is the same, it is because of water. Similarly, the success or failure of a marketing campaign depends on knowledge. For a marketer, useful knowledge is the combination between the truth and the customer " s belief

    Synthesis of Nanoporous Type A and X Zeolite Mixtures from Biomass Combustion Fly Ash for Post-Combustion Carbon Capture

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    In this study, improved nanoporous zeolites for use in post-combustion carbon capture have been synthesised from industrial-grade biomass combustion fly ash generated in one of the largest biomass combustion power plants in the UK. The method of nanoporous zeolite synthesis follows an alkaline fusion-assisted hydrothermal procedure. The nanoporous zeolites have been characterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The presence of two crystalline structures, Faujasite and Linde Type A has been confirmed by the characterisation results. The CO 2 adsorption investigations were conducted via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to estimate the uptake capacity of the prepared adsorbents. TGA studies suggest that the improved nanoporous adsorbent, evaluated under 100 mol % CO 2 at atmospheric pressure, has an equilibrium capacity of over 1.6 mmolCO 2 /g at 50°C, a two-fold increase from our previous study with a crystalline structure confirmed by XRD.10.13039/501100000266-Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK; 10.13039/100008475-Brunel University London, UK

    Senior Leonard Hayes Wins National Piano Competition

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    Lawrence University’s Leonard Hayes, a senior from Dallas, Texas, won the recent Young Artists’ Division of the 2011 Tourgee Debose National Piano Competition conducted at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La. This was Hayes’ second first-place showing in the competition having previously won the Tourgee Debose’s sophomore division in 2009. Hayes received a first-place prize of $1,000 for his winning performance of Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata Op. 90,” Cesar Franck’s “Poco Allegro and Fugue” and two movements from George Walker’s “Piano Sonata No. 2.” A third-place finisher in the 2010 National Association of Negro Musicians’ Piano Scholarship competition, Hayes studies in the piano studio of Catherine Kautsky

    Comparison of Feedforward Perceptron Network with LSTM for Solar Cell Radiation Prediction

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    Intermittency of electrical power in developing countries, as well as some European countries such as Turkey, can be eluded by taking advantage of solar energy. Correct prediction of solar radiation constitutes a very important step to take advantage of PV solar panels. We propose an experimental study to predict the amount of solar radiation using a classical artificial neural network (ANN) and deep learning methods. PV panel and solar radiation data were collected at Duzce University in Turkey. Moreover, we included meteorological data collected from the Meteorological Ministry of Turkey in Duzce. Data were collected on a daily basis with a 5-min interval. Data were cleaned and preprocessed to train long-short-term memory (LSTM) and ANN models to predict the solar radiation amount of one day ahead. Models were evaluated using coefficient of determination (R2), mean square error (MSE), root mean squared error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and mean biased error (MBE). LSTM outperformed ANN with R2, MSE, RMSE, MAE, and MBE of 0.93, 0.008, 0.089, 0.17, and 0.09, respectively. Moreover, we compared our results with two similar studies in the literature. The proposed study paves the way for utilizing renewable energy by leveraging the usage of PV panels

    The effect of erythropoietin on healing of obstructive vs nonobstructive left colonic anastomosis: an experimental study

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Anastomotic leakage is an important problem following primary resection in the left colon and is even more prominent when obstruction is present. We aimed to evaluate the possible effects of erythropoietin on the healing of anastomosis under both obstructive and non-obstructive states.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Forty male Wistar albino rats were divided into four groups. In group I, two cm left colonic resection and primary anastomosis were done. In group II, left colon were completely ligated and 24 hours later animals were re-operated for segmental resection. The same procedures were performed for rats in group III and IV in respect to group I and II and, 500 IU/kg a day erythropoietin were given in the latter two groups for seven days. For the quantative description of anastomotic healing mechanical, biochemical and histopathological parameters were employed on the seventh day and the animals were sacrificied.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Although erythropoietin had positive effects on bursting pressure in group IV when compared to group II, it has no effect in group III. Despite the increased tissue hydroxyproline levels in group IV, erythropoietin failed to show any effects in group III.</p> <p>Erythropoietin had positive effects on neovascularization, fibroblast proliferiation and storage of collagen in group IV.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We failed to find any direct and evident effects of erythropoietin on healing of left colonic anastomosis. On the other hand, erythropoietin might prevent negative effects of obstruction on healing.</p

    Proceedings of the Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference (SPARC) 2011

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    These proceedings bring together a selection of papers from the 2011 Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference(SPARC). It includes papers from PhD students in the arts and social sciences, business, computing, science and engineering, education, environment, built environment and health sciences. Contributions from Salford researchers are published here alongside papers from students at the Universities of Anglia Ruskin, Birmingham City, Chester,De Montfort, Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores and Manchester

    Reversible Cortical Blindness Following Successful Surgical Repair Of Two Stab Wounds In The Heart

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    This report describes a case of cortical blindness that followed successful surgical repair of two stab wounds in the heart in a 29-year old Libyan man. The patient presented in a state of pre cardiac arrest (shock and low cardiac output status), following multiple chest stab wounds. Chest tube was immediately inserted. Surgery was urgently performed suturing the two wounds; in the root of the aorta and in the left ventricle, and haemostasis was secured. Cardiac arrest was successfully prevented. The patient recovered smoothly, but 24 hours later he declared total blindness. Ophtalmic and neurological examinations and investigations that included fundoscopy, Electroencephalograms (EEGs) and Computed Tomography Scans revealed no abnormalities, apart from absence of alpha waves in the EEGs. We diagnosed the case as cortical blindness and continued caring for the patient conservatively. Three days later, the patient regained his vision gradually and was discharged on the 7th postoperative day without any remarks

    Association of CHA2DS2-VASc score with successful recanalization in acute ischemic stroke patients undergoing endovascular thrombectomy

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    Introduction: The CHA2DS2-VASc (congestive heart failure, hypertension, age, diabetes mellitus, stroke, vascular disease and sex) score is a simple risk stratification algorithm to estimate stroke/thromboembolic risk in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF). Higher pre-stroke CHA2DS2-VASc score is known to be associated with greater stroke severity and poorer outcomes. AF patients generally have higher CHA2DS2-VASc scores than non-AF patients. The Modified Thrombolysis in Cerebral Infarction (mTICI) score is the most widely used grading system to assess the result of recanalizing therapies in acute ischemic stroke (AIS). mTICI 2c and mTICI 3 are conventionally accepted as successful recanalization. Aim: We investigated whether pre-stroke CHA2DS2-VASc score is associated with mTICI recanalization score in AIS patients with and without AF undergoing percutaneous thrombectomy. Material and methods: One hundred fifty-nine patients with the diagnosis of AIS who were admitted within 6 h from symptom onset were included in the study (mean age: 65.7 ±12.9). All subjects underwent endovascular treatment. CHA2DS2-VASc scores of the participants were calculated. Subjects were grouped according to mTICI scores achieved after endovascular treatment. mTICI 2c and mTICI 3 were accepted as successful recanalization. Results: Successful reperfusion was observed in 130 (81.8%) of all patients who underwent endovascular treatment (mTICI flow ≄ 2c) and first-pass reperfusion was observed in 107 (67.3%) patients. When the patients with successful (mTICI flow ≄ 2c) and unsuccessful (mTICI flow ≀ 2b) reperfusion were divided into groups, no significant difference was observed between the patients in terms of comorbidities such as AF, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary artery disease and cerebrovascular accident history. Patients with unsuccessful reperfusion were older than patients with successful reperfusion (71.4 ±11.2 vs. 64.5 ±13.01, p = 0.006), with a higher CHA2DS2-VASc score (4.1 ±1.5 vs. 3.04 ±1.6, p = 0.002). In addition, the duration of the procedure was longer in the unsuccessful reperfusion group (92.4 ±27.2 min vs. 65.0 ±25.1 min, p < 0.001). CHA2DS2-VASc score significantly correlated with successful recanalization (correlation coefficient; 0.243, p = 0.002). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that only CHA2DS2-VASc score (OR = 1.43, 95% CI: 1.09-1.87, p = 0.006) and procedure time (OR = 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01-1.05, p < 0.001) were independent predictors of successful reperfusion. The receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the cut-off value for the CHA2DS2-VASc score that best predicts successful reperfusion. The optimal threshold was 3.5, with a sensitivity of 58.6% and specificity of 59.2% (area under the curve (AUC): 0.669, p = 0.005). Conclusions: For the first time in the literature, we investigated and demonstrated that pre-stroke CHA2DS2-VASc score was associated with success of recanalization as assessed with mTICI 2c and mTICI 3 in a cohort of AIS patients regardless of AF presence who underwent endovascular treatment. Our findings deserve to be tested with large scale long term studies
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