Dynamical simulation of ORC using Apros

Nowadays many countries are trying to use more renewable sources of energy instead of fossil fuels. That is why new technologies should be developed and improved to fully take advantages of using renewable sources of energy. The Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is a perfect match for these operations. It can be used for the recovery of low-grade energy. This thesis presents basic information about ORC systems. The characteristics of working fluid MDM are presented. The main target of this work is to perform the generic dynamic modelling of the ORC system using Apros. The dynamical model was built using the parameters of the existing micro-ORC system in Lappeenranta – Lahti University of Technology LUT. Possibilities of Apros and modelling methods are described and discussed. Modelling results of each system component are presented. Finally, the results of the generic model performance are presented

Models of Sanctions Compliance and Regulatory Expectations

This article is devoted to the analysis of models of sanctions compliance in different countries. In the first part, I discuss the definition of sanction compliance. Concept compliance is an institution of private law, it is a mechanism (function, system, and culture) of self-regulation for companies, and the methodology of compliance risk management is based on a risk-based approach stemming from different corporate governance and culture. A comparative methodology is based on three criteria: 1) principles of compliance; 2) the ability to interact with regulators and the ability to exclude themselves from sanctions (delisting); and 3) methods of appeal. In paragraph 1.2, I concisely describe models under the above-mentioned criteria of sanctions compliance in the US, the UK, the EU, Germany, and Russia. I carry out a comparative analysis of various models. Each of these models of sanctions compliance has its own specifics

Political-legal reasons behind the failed revolution in Egypt

The article deals with how the rule of law has been implemented in contemporary Egypt. What have been the changes for the last 3 years since A. F. el-Sisi has become president and why have they come about? Also author studied el-Sisi’s attitude to democracy and human rights trying to answer the following study questions: why did Egypt fail to take the path to democracy? What drawbacks have lead to the coup d’état in 2013? What is el-Sisi’s opinion as to the rule of law and democracy? The Constitution 2014 in comparison with the Constitution 2012 is believed to be less liberal. The policy of authoritarianism stems from el-Sisi’s negative attitude to the concept of democracy. He believes that democracy is a secular concept, not very well accepted by the majority of the population of Middle Eastern countries, which should be Islam. The article is divided into several sections: the first sets out the reasons for the topple of the first democratically elected President Mohammed Mursi and the el-Sisi’s success for coming to power. In the second section I study his views on democracy. The third section presents the facts (mass death sentences, returning functionaries of Hosni Mubaraq into power and the justification for the corruption cases), which are signs of repression and authoritarianism. The judiciary has been weakened due to the persecution of the judges for their support of Mohammed Mursi. With a weak judiciary and growing discontent of the population with the economic and security situation, we can assume that the future path of authoritarianism could lead to destabilization. Refs 11

Elite opinion and foreign policy in post-communist Russia

Russian elite opinion on matters of foreign policy may be classified as ‘Liberal Westerniser’, ‘Pragmatic Nationalist’ and ‘Fundamentalist Nationalist’, terms that reflect longstanding debates about the country’s relationship with the outside world. An analysis of press statements and election manifestoes together with a programme of elite interviews between 2004 and 2006 suggests a clustering of opinion on a series of strategic issues. Liberal Westernisers seek the closest possible relationship with Europe, and favour eventual membership of the EU and NATO. Pragmatic Nationalists are more inclined to favour practical co-operation, and do not assume an identity of values or interests with the Western countries. Fundamentalist Nationalists place more emphasis on the other former Soviet republics, and on Asia as much as Europe, and see the West as a threat to Russian values as well as to its state interests. Each of these positions, in turn, draws on an identifiable set of domestic constituencies: Liberal Westernisers on the promarket political parties, Pragmatic Nationalists on the presidential administration and defence and security ministries, and Fundamentalist Nationalists on the Orthodox Church and Communists

The effectiveness of robinium and ash protective forest strips

The yield of agricultural plants depends on a number of factors, including the condition of protective plantings. The aim of the work is to determine the effectiveness of robinium and ash protective plantations in modern conditions in the research area. The overall assessment of forest strip resources was determined according to a generally accepted methodology. The objects of research are agroforestry landscapes of the Dinsky and Korenovsky districts of the Krasnodar Territory. As a result of the research, it was found that despite the more weakened state of the plantations of Fraxinus pennsylvanica (Marsh.) and Fraxinus lanceolate (Borkh.), the total effect of the infl uence of forest plantations in the two studied areas amounted to 12 307 310 903,39 rubles. The income from the sale of additionally obtained agricultural products is estimated at 1785–1790,72 rubles/ha for ash and 1293,1–1624,14 rubles/ha for Robinia pseudoacacia (L.). A higher supply of wood is noted in the plantations of Fraxinus pennsylvanica (Marsh.) and Fraxinus lanceolata (Borkh.), for which the values of wood resources will be higher. This is due to the age-related plantings. The total value of the environmental resource expressed in monetary terms for the studied areas is determined in the amount of 12 661 108,47 rubles. Owners of forest strips are recommended to carry out a system of measures aimed at improving the condition of plantations and bringing the design of forest strips to the recommended one.Урожай сельскохозяйственных растений зависит от ряда факторов, в том числе и от состояния защитных насаждений. Целью работы является определение эффективности робиниевых и ясеневых полезащитных насаждений в современных условиях на территории района исследований. Общая оценка ресурсов лесных полос определялась по общепринятой методике. Объекты исследований – агролесоландшафты Динского и Кореновского районов Краснодарского края. В результате исследований установлено, что, несмотря на более ослабленное состояние насаждений из Fraxinus pennsylvanica (Marsh.) и Fraxinus lanceolata (Borkh.), общий эффект от влияния лесных насаждений двух исследуемых районов составил 12 307 310 903,39 руб. Доход от реализации дополнительно полученной сельскохозяйственной продукции оценен в 1785–1790,72 руб/га для ясеня и 1293,1–1624,14 руб./га для Robinia pseudoacacia (L.). Более высокий запас древесины отмечается в насаждениях Fraxinus pennsylvanica (Marsh.) и Fraxinus lanceolata (Borkh.), для которых ценности ресурсов древесины будут выше. Это объясняется разными в возрастном отношении насаждениями. Общая ценность природоохранного ресурса, выраженного в денежном эквиваленте, для изучаемых районов определена в размере 12 661 108,47 руб. Владельцам лесных полос предлагается проведение системы мероприятий, направленных на улучшение состояния насаждений, и приведение конструкции лесных полос к рекомендуемой

Segmentation uncertainty estimation as a sanity check for image biomarker studies

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Radiomics is referred to as quantitative image biomarker analysis. Due to the uncertainty in image acquisition, processing, and segmentation (delineation) protocols, the radiomic biomarkers lack reproducibility. In this manuscript, we show how this protocol-induced uncertainty can drastically reduce prognostic model performance and propose some insights on how to use it for developing better prognostic models. ABSTRACT: Problem. Image biomarker analysis, also known as radiomics, is a tool for tissue characterization and treatment prognosis that relies on routinely acquired clinical images and delineations. Due to the uncertainty in image acquisition, processing, and segmentation (delineation) protocols, radiomics often lack reproducibility. Radiomics harmonization techniques have been proposed as a solution to reduce these sources of uncertainty and/or their influence on the prognostic model performance. A relevant question is how to estimate the protocol-induced uncertainty of a specific image biomarker, what the effect is on the model performance, and how to optimize the model given the uncertainty. Methods. Two non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cohorts, composed of 421 and 240 patients, respectively, were used for training and testing. Per patient, a Monte Carlo algorithm was used to generate three hundred synthetic contours with a surface dice tolerance measure of less than 1.18 mm with respect to the original GTV. These contours were subsequently used to derive 104 radiomic features, which were ranked on their relative sensitivity to contour perturbation, expressed in the parameter η. The top four (low η) and the bottom four (high η) features were selected for two models based on the Cox proportional hazards model. To investigate the influence of segmentation uncertainty on the prognostic model, we trained and tested the setup in 5000 augmented realizations (using a Monte Carlo sampling method); the log-rank test was used to assess the stratification performance and stability of segmentation uncertainty. Results. Although both low and high η setup showed significant testing set log-rank p-values (p = 0.01) in the original GTV delineations (without segmentation uncertainty introduced), in the model with high uncertainty, to effect ratio, only around 30% of the augmented realizations resulted in model performance with p < 0.05 in the test set. In contrast, the low η setup performed with a log-rank p < 0.05 in 90% of the augmented realizations. Moreover, the high η setup classification was uncertain in its predictions for 50% of the subjects in the testing set (for 80% agreement rate), whereas the low η setup was uncertain only in 10% of the cases. Discussion. Estimating image biomarker model performance based only on the original GTV segmentation, without considering segmentation, uncertainty may be deceiving. The model might result in a significant stratification performance, but can be unstable for delineation variations, which are inherent to manual segmentation. Simulating segmentation uncertainty using the method described allows for more stable image biomarker estimation, selection, and model development. The segmentation uncertainty estimation method described here is universal and can be extended to estimate other protocol uncertainties (such as image acquisition and pre-processing)

Making Radiomics More Reproducible across Scanner and Imaging Protocol Variations: A Review of Harmonization Methods

Radiomics converts medical images into mineable data via a high-throughput extraction of quantitative features used for clinical decision support. However, these radiomic features are susceptible to variation across scanners, acquisition protocols, and reconstruction settings. Various investigations have assessed the reproducibility and validation of radiomic features across these discrepancies. In this narrative review, we combine systematic keyword searches with prior domain knowledge to discuss various harmonization solutions to make the radiomic features more reproducible across various scanners and protocol settings. Different harmonization solutions are discussed and divided into two main categories: image domain and feature domain. The image domain category comprises methods such as the standardization of image acquisition, post-processing of raw sensor-level image data, data augmentation techniques, and style transfer. The feature domain category consists of methods such as the identification of reproducible features and normalization techniques such as statistical normalization, intensity harmonization, ComBat and its derivatives, and normalization using deep learning. We also reflect upon the importance of deep learning solutions for addressing variability across multi-centric radiomic studies especially using generative adversarial networks (GANs), neural style transfer (NST) techniques, or a combination of both. We cover a broader range of methods especially GANs and NST methods in more detail than previous reviews

PENGARUH PRODUCT QUALITY DAN PRICE TERHADAP KEPUASAN KONSUMEN SERTA IMPLIKASINYA PADA LOYALITAS KONSUMEN (Survei Pada Pengguna Smartphone Realme yang membeli di Bandung Electronic Center)

ABSTRAK Perkembangan dunia modern dan globalisasi membuat kebutuhan akan komunikasi digital menjadi sangat penting bagi semua masyarakat. Pesatnya pertumbuhan industri smartphone membuat produsen smartphone bersaing untuk menciptakan produk kelas atas, untuk meluncurkan produk-produk unggulan mereka dan perusahaan perlu kreatif dan inovatif agar produk yang ditawarkan memiliki keunikan tersendiri agar mudah diingat di benak konsumen. Pada era modern industri 4.0, hampir seluruh aktivitas kehidupan manusia tidak bisa terlepas dari penggunaan smartphone. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji pengaruh product quality dan price terhadap kepuasan konsumen serta implikasinya pada loyalitas konsumen pada pengguna smartphone realme yang membeli di Bandung Electronic Center. Penelitian dilakukan terhadap 100 responden. Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan pada penelitian ini adalah penyebaran kuesioner dan studi kepustakaan. Metode analisis data yang digunakan adalah menggunakan analisis jalur (path analysis), analisis koefisien determinasi, uji sobel dan uji hipotesis. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa product quality berada dalam kategori kurang baik, price berada dalam kategori kurang terjangkau sedangkan kepuasan konsumen pada smartphone realme kurang puas dan tingkat loyalitas konsumen rendah. Terdapat pengaruh positif dan signifikan antara product quality dan price terhadap kepuasan konsumen secara parsial dan simultan. Terdapat juga pengaruh positif dan signifikan antara product quality terhadap loyalitas konsumen dan tidak terdapat pengaruh antara price terhadap loyalitas konsumen. Kata kunci: Product Quality, Price, Kepuasan Konsumen, Loyalitas Konsume

Precision-medicine-toolbox: An open-source python package for facilitation of quantitative medical imaging and radiomics analysis

[en] Medical image analysis plays a key role in precision medicine as it allows the clinicians to identify anatomical abnormalities and it is routinely used in clinical assessment. Data curation and pre-processing of medical images are critical steps in the quantitative medical image analysis that can have a significant impact on the resulting model performance. In this paper, we introduce a precision-medicine-toolbox that allows researchers to perform data curation, image pre-processing and handcrafted radiomics extraction (via Pyradiomics) and feature exploration tasks with Python. With this open-source solution, we aim to address the data preparation and exploration problem, bridge the gap between the currently existing packages, and improve the reproducibility of quantitative medical imaging research

MRI-Based Radiomics Analysis for the Pretreatment Prediction of Pathologic Complete Tumor Response to Neoadjuvant Systemic Therapy in Breast Cancer Patients: A Multicenter Study

Simple SummaryThe prediction of pathologic complete response (pCR) to neo-adjuvant systemic therapy (NST) based on radiological assessment of pretreatment MRI exams in breast cancer patients is not possible to date. In this study, we investigated the value of pretreatment MRI-based radiomics analysis for the prediction of pCR to NST. Radiomics, clinical, and combined models were developed and validated based on MRI exams containing 320 tumors collected from two hospitals. The clinical models significantly outperformed the radiomics models for the prediction of pCR to NST and were of similar or better performance than the combined models. This indicates poor performance of the radiomics features and that in these scenarios the radiomic features did not have an added value for the clinical models developed. Due to previous and current work, we tentatively attribute the lack of significant improvement in clinical models following the addition of radiomics features to the effects of variations in acquisition and reconstruction parameters. The lack of reproducibility data meant this effect could not be analyzed. These results indicate the need for reproducibility studies to preselect reproducible features in order to properly assess the potential of radiomics.This retrospective study investigated the value of pretreatment contrast-enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)-based radiomics for the prediction of pathologic complete tumor response to neoadjuvant systemic therapy in breast cancer patients. A total of 292 breast cancer patients, with 320 tumors, who were treated with neo-adjuvant systemic therapy and underwent a pretreatment MRI exam were enrolled. As the data were collected in two different hospitals with five different MRI scanners and varying acquisition protocols, three different strategies to split training and validation datasets were used. Radiomics, clinical, and combined models were developed using random forest classifiers in each strategy. The analysis of radiomics features had no added value in predicting pathologic complete tumor response to neoadjuvant systemic therapy in breast cancer patients compared with the clinical models, nor did the combined models perform significantly better than the clinical models. Further, the radiomics features selected for the models and their performance differed with and within the different strategies. Due to previous and current work, we tentatively attribute the lack of improvement in clinical models following the addition of radiomics to the effects of variations in acquisition and reconstruction parameters. The lack of reproducibility data (i.e., test-retest or similar) meant that this effect could not be analyzed. These results indicate the need for reproducibility studies to preselect reproducible features in order to properly assess the potential of radiomics