118 research outputs found
Video: Adding to Your Case: Examining and Cross Examining Expert Witnesses
Learn skills for using expert witness testimony at trial: Developing strategy for selecting topics and order of presentation Using proper form of questioning on direct and cross Understanding rules of evidence, procedure, and ethics Two role play demonstrations help you learn technique
Modelling and determining the technical efficiency of a surface coal mine supply chain
Determining the efficiency of a surface coal mine operation is an essential
activity, which can help in deciding on the optimal use of input resources,
including effective capital allocation, in generating a desired quantity of
coal of a specific quality.
Mines operate today in challenging conditions, with diminishing
reserves of high-quality coal, remote location of new coal deposits,
infrastructure problems, environmental legislation, and the effects of
climate. All these have an impact on the performance of a mine. Given such
challenges, a company has to be technically efficient compared to other
existing coal producers in order to generate profits. It can use the
measurement of its efficiency to evaluate its productivity, benchmarking
this against the best-performing mines and determining optimal variables
in order to minimize slack and achieve the desired outputs.
This paper discusses the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in
evaluating the efficiency of a surface coal mine supply chain for the coal
export market. The supply chain is considered to be composed of subprocesses
that are modelled as a multistage system. Numeric examples will
be used to illustrate the application of DEA.This paper
was first presented at, A Southern African Silver
Anniversary, 2014 SOMP Annual Meeting, 26â30
June 2014, The Maslow Hotel, Sandton, Gauteng.http://www.saimm.co.za/journal-papersam201
A proposed approach for modelling competitiveness of new surface coal mines
Cost estimation for surface coal mines is a critical practice that affects both
profitability and competitiveness. New mines require these costs to be
estimated using available information before a project begins. The
competitive advantage of a new mine depends on it being both efficient
and cost-effective. Low-cost producing mines have a higher chance of
survival in a low-price environment than do high-cost producers. The
competitiveness and profitability of a coal mine is based on the costs of
production and the supply position on the cost curve. There is no single
method of cost estimation, and the available methods consider only one or
a few variables, leaving out multiple variables that could significantly
affect the estimation of mine costs. Mining companies are thus searching
extensively for a method that will increase accuracy in the estimation and
evaluation of mining projects
This paper highlights the shortcomings of the available approaches
and proposes a data envelopment analysis method to develop a frontier for
effective surface coal mines, and the use of a parametric method for
modelling the costs and productivity of new mines to ensure effective
competitiveness. The models will extend the capability of estimation and
the accuracy of estimates using the efficient decision-making units, by
considering the optimal mine-specific and external variables affecting
costs.http://www.saimm.co.za/journal-papersam2016Mining Engineerin
Predicting the efficiency of a surface coal mine for competitiveness
Mining is a competitive business with many players. The survival of a mine in the
business is determined by its efficiency and cost-effectiveness relative to the other
producers. Both new and operating mines should select optimal technical variables,
such as the production rate, that will make them competitive, taking into account
mine unique project variables.
This paper describes a model for estimating the technical efficiency of surface
mine for Coal Supply to Local and Export (CSLE). The application of the model
and evaluation is shown using simulated data. It proposes a predictive model of the
efficiency of a new project.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/nsme202017-03-31hb2016Industrial and Systems EngineeringMining Engineerin
Overcoming adaptive resistance in mucoepidermoid carcinoma through inhibition of the IKK-ÎČ/IÎșBα/NFÎșB axis
Patients with mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) experience low survival rates and high morbidity following treatment, yet the intrinsic resistance of MEC cells to ionizing radiation (IR) and the mechanisms underlying acquired resistance remain unexplored. Herein, we demonstrated that low doses of IR intrinsically activated NFÎșB in resistant MEC cell lines. Moreover, resistance was significantly enhanced in IR-sensitive cell lines when NFÎșB pathway was stimulated. Pharmacological inhibition of the IKK-ÎČ/IÎșBα/ NFÎșB axis, using a single dose of FDA-approved Emetine, led to a striking sensitization of MEC cells to IR and a reduction in cancer stem cells. We achieved a major step towards better understanding the basic mechanisms involved in IR-adaptive resistance in MEC cell lines and how to efficiently overcome this critical problem
Towards the Development of an Intervention to Address Social Determinants of Non-Communicable Disease in Kerala, India: A Mixed Methods Study
In India, cardiovascular disease (CVD), with hypertension as its foremost risk factor, has the highest prevalence rate of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and a rising mortality. Previous research has found a clustering of behavioural and social risks pertaining to NCDs, though the latter are infrequently addressed in public health interventions in India. This paper reaches toward the development of a social intervention to address social determinants of NCD relating to hypertension and diabetes. We used Theory of Change (ToC) as a theoretical approach to programme design. Mixed methods were used, including qualitative interviews with community members (n = 20), Accredited Social Health Activists (n = 6) and health professionals (n = 8), and a stakeholder workshop (n = 5 participants). The recruitment of participants from one local area in Kerala enabled us to map service provision and gain a holistic understanding of how to utilise the existing workforce to target social risk factors. The findings suggest that social interventions need to focus on ensuring health behaviour information reaches all parts of the community, and that those with more social risk factors are identified and supported to engage with treatment. Further research is required to test the resulting intervention model
The Alaska Arctic Vegetation Archive (AVA-AK)
The Alaska Arctic Vegetation Archive (AVA-AK, GIVD-ID: NA-US-014) is a free, publically available database archive of vegetation-plot data from the Arctic tundra region of northern Alaska. The archive currently contains 24 datasets with 3,026 non-overlapping plots. Of these, 74% have geolocation data with 25-m or better precision. Species cover data and header data are stored in a Turboveg database. A standardized Pan Arctic Species List provides a consistent nomenclature for vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens in the archive. A web-based online Alaska Arctic Geoecological Atlas (AGA-AK) allows viewing and downloading the species data in a variety of formats, and provides access to a wide variety of ancillary data. We conducted a preliminary cluster analysis of the first 16 datasets (1,613 plots) to examine how the spectrum of derived clusters is related to the suite of datasets, habitat types, and environmental gradients. We present the contents of the archive, assess its strengths and weaknesses, and provide three supplementary files that include the data dictionary, a list of habitat types, an overview of the datasets, and details of the cluster analysis
Laboratory adapted Escherichia coli K-12 becomes a pathogen of Caenorhabditis elegans upon restoration of O antigen biosynthesis
Escherichia coli has been the leading model organism for many decades. It is a fundamental player in modern biology, facilitating the molecular biology revolution of the last century. The acceptance of E.?coli as model organism is predicated primarily on the study of one E. coli lineage; E. coli K-12. However, the antecedents of today's laboratory strains have undergone extensive mutagenesis to create genetically tractable offspring but which resulted in loss of several genetic traits such as O antigen expression. Here we have repaired the wbbL locus, restoring the ability of E. coli K-12 strain MG1655 to express the O antigen. We demonstrate that O antigen production results in drastic alterations of many phenotypes and the density of the O antigen is critical for the observed phenotypes. Importantly, O antigen production enables laboratory strains of E. coli to enter the gut of the Caenorhabditis elegans worm and to kill C. elegans at rates similar to pathogenic bacterial species. We demonstrate C. elegans killing is a feature of other commensal E.?coli. We show killing is associated with bacterial resistance to mechanical shear and persistence in the C. elegans gut. These results suggest C. elegans is not an effective model of human-pathogenic E. coli infectious disease
Formation of dense partonic matter in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC: Experimental evaluation by the PHENIX collaboration
Extensive experimental data from high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions were
recorded using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
(RHIC). The comprehensive set of measurements from the first three years of
RHIC operation includes charged particle multiplicities, transverse energy,
yield ratios and spectra of identified hadrons in a wide range of transverse
momenta (p_T), elliptic flow, two-particle correlations, non-statistical
fluctuations, and suppression of particle production at high p_T. The results
are examined with an emphasis on implications for the formation of a new state
of dense matter. We find that the state of matter created at RHIC cannot be
described in terms of ordinary color neutral hadrons.Comment: 510 authors, 127 pages text, 56 figures, 1 tables, LaTeX. Submitted
to Nuclear Physics A as a regular article; v3 has minor changes in response
to referee comments. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures
for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available
at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Model-independent search for CP violation in D0âKâK+ÏâÏ+ and D0âÏâÏ+Ï+Ïâ decays
A search for CP violation in the phase-space structures of D0 and View the MathML source decays to the final states KâK+ÏâÏ+ and ÏâÏ+Ï+Ïâ is presented. The search is carried out with a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fbâ1 collected in 2011 by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. For the KâK+ÏâÏ+ final state, the four-body phase space is divided into 32 bins, each bin with approximately 1800 decays. The p-value under the hypothesis of no CP violation is 9.1%, and in no bin is a CP asymmetry greater than 6.5% observed. The phase space of the ÏâÏ+Ï+Ïâ final state is partitioned into 128 bins, each bin with approximately 2500 decays. The p-value under the hypothesis of no CP violation is 41%, and in no bin is a CP asymmetry greater than 5.5% observed. All results are consistent with the hypothesis of no CP violation at the current sensitivity
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