A construction of bent functions from plateaued functions

In this presentation, a technique for constructing bent functions from plateaued functions is introduced and analysed. This generalizes earlier techniques for constructing bent from near-bent functions. Using this construction, we obtain a big variety of inequivalent bent functions, some weakly regular and some non-weakly regular. Classes of bent function with some additional properties that enable the construction of strongly regular graphs are constructed, and explicit expressions for bent functions with maximal degree are presented

A REVIEW ON CURRENT SITUATION OF THE EXISTING VIRTUAL SPACES

This paper is aiming to study the current situation of the existing virtual space in the market in order to find out the demands of virtual spaces in our society based on the comparison between the advantages and disadvantages of virtual spaces. An analytical review on the selected articles will be carried out through snowball review technique to gain better comparison of the pros and cons of the virtual spaces from various perspectives by different authors. Besides, the authors will also observe the needs, demands and rationales of developing virtual spaces according to its functions and contributions in different fields, especially in art education and tourism. The targeted articles are selected based on the mutual discussions regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the existing virtual platforms by Alawad et al. (2015), Burton (2010) and Eardley et al .(2016)

The effect of heat treatment time on the formation of forsterite (Mg2SiO4)

In this work, phase pure forsterite (Mg2SiO4) powder was synthesized via solid-state method and heat treatment stage. X-ray diffraction analysis was conducted to investigate on the phase purity of forsterite powder. The synthesized powder were heat treated at 1200 oC for 1 min, 1 hour and 2 hours with ramping rate of 10 oC/min. Decomposition was observed for powder heat treated for 1 min. Periclase and enstatite peak were detected as a form of secondary phases. 1 and 2 hours of holding during heat treatment produced phase pure forsterite with a difference of improved intensity which indicated that there was enhancement towards the crystalline structure of forsterite powder. SEM micrograph was carried out to show the morphology of the obtained forsterite powder. The powders are agglomerated with various sizes was observed.

Integrating access to care and tumor patterns by race and age in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study, 2008–2013

Purpose: Understanding breast cancer mortality disparities by race and age is complex due to disease heterogeneity, comorbid disease, and the range of factors influencing access to care. It is important to understand how these factors group together within patients. Methods: We compared socioeconomic status (SES) and comorbidity factors in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study Phase 3 (CBCS3, 2008–2013) to those for North Carolina using the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Study. In addition, we used latent class analysis of CBCS3 data to identify covariate patterns by SES/comorbidities, barriers to care, and tumor characteristics and examined their associations with race and age using multinomial logistic regression. Results: Major SES and comorbidity patterns in CBCS3 participants were generally similar to patterns in the state. Latent classes were identified for SES/comorbidities, barriers to care, and tumor characteristics that varied by race and age. Compared to white women, black women had lower SES (odds ratio (OR) 6.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) 5.2, 7.8), more barriers to care (OR 5.6, 95% CI 3.9, 8.1) and several aggregated tumor aggressiveness features. Compared to older women, younger women had higher SES (OR 0.5, 95% CI 0.4, 0.6), more barriers to care (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.6, 2.9) and aggregated tumor aggressiveness features. Conclusions: CBCS3 is representative of North Carolina on comparable factors. Patterns of access to care and tumor characteristics are intertwined with race and age, suggesting that interventions to address disparities will need to target both access and biology

Modelling the WELL building concepts for office environments : PLS-SEM approach

The health, well-being and productivity (i.e. WELL) of office building occupants are vulnerable to poor office environments. Therefore, this study aims to identify new features and concepts of office buildings in supporting occupants’ WELL. To achieve that aim, this study: explores new WELL features for office buildings, develops new WELL concepts for office buildings and examines the influence of the newly developed WELL concepts on existing WELL building standard (WELL v2) concepts. Design/methodology/approach: The first phase involved ten experts to assign weightage for health, well-being and productivity. In the second phase, 206 questionnaire survey data were collected from office building occupants throughout Malaysia. Exploratory factor analysis established new WELL concepts for office buildings. Partial least-squares structural equation modelling examined the influence of the newly developed WELL concepts on the existing WELL v2 concepts. Findings: Two new WELL concepts were developed: “space and services”, consisting of sufficient space, workstation privacy, office layouts, building automation systems, cleanliness and information technology (IT) infrastructure, and “building security”, consisting of security systems and safety at parking lots. Here, “space and services” influences all existing WELL v2 concepts, and “building security” influences the water, nourishment, mind and community concepts of WELL v2. Originality/value: This study uncovers holistic WELL building concepts to support occupants’ health, well-being and productivity with additional new features and concepts for construction industry policymakers to establish holistic building assessment tools

Exploring the performance of resampling strategies for the class imbalance problem

The present paper studies the influence of two distinct factors on the performance of some resampling strategies for handling imbalanced data sets. In particular, we focus on the nature of the classifier used, along with the ratio between minority and majority classes. Experiments using eight different classifiers show that the most significant differences are for data sets with low or moderate imbalance: over-sampling clearly appears as better than under-sampling for local classifiers, whereas some under-sampling strategies outperform over-sampling when employing classifiers with global learning

Homoserine and quorum-sensing acyl homoserine lactones as alternative sources of threonine:A potential role for homoserine kinase in insect-stage Trypanosoma brucei

10.1111/mmi.12853Molecular Microbiology951143-15