Method of Adjusting Acoustic Impedances for Impedance-Tunable Acoustic Segments

A method is provided for making localized decisions and taking localized actions to achieve a global solution. In an embodiment of the present invention, acoustic impedances for impedance-tunable acoustic segments are adjusted. A first acoustic segment through an N-th acoustic segment are defined. To start the process, the first acoustic segment is designated as a leader and a noise-reducing impedance is determined therefor. This is accomplished using (i) one or more metrics associated with the acoustic wave at the leader, and (ii) the metric(s) associated with the acoustic wave at the N-th acoustic segment. The leader, the N-th acoustic segment, and each of the acoustic segments exclusive of the leader and the N-th acoustic segment, are tuned to the noise-reducing impedance. The current leader is then excluded from subsequent processing steps. The designation of leader is then given one of the remaining acoustic segments, and the process is repeated for each of the acoustic segments through an (N-1)-th one of the acoustic segments

Barriers to development and progression of women entrepreneurs in Pakistan

This article would help integration of women entrepreneurs into the mainstream economy in Pakistan.In Pakistan, women entrepreneurs do not enjoy the same opportunities as men due to a number of deep-rooted discriminatory socio-cultural values and traditions. Furthermore, these restrictions can be observed within the support mechanisms that exist to assist such fledgling businesswomen. The economic potential of female entrepreneurs is not being realised as they suffer from a lack of access to capital, land, business premises, information technology, training and agency assistance. Inherent attitudes of a patriarchal society, that men are superior to women and that women are best suited to be homemakers, create formidable challenges. Women also receive little encouragement from some male family members, resulting in limited spatial mobility and a dearth of social capital. The research suggests that in order to foster development, multi-agency cooperation is required. The media, educational policy makers and government agencies could combine to provide women with improved access to business development services and facilitate local, regional and national networks

Oklahoma Cotton Variety Tests, 1944 to 1948

The Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station periodically issues revisions to its publications. The most current edition is made available. For access to an earlier edition, if available for this title, please contact the Oklahoma State University Library Archives by email at [email protected] or by phone at 405-744-6311

A pilot cluster randomised trial to assess the effect of a structured communication approach on quality of life in secure mental health settings: the Comquol study

Background There is a lack of research in forensic settings examining therapeutic relationships. A structured communication approach, placing patients’ perspectives at the heart of discussions about their care, was used to improve patients’ quality of life in secure settings. The objectives were to: • Establish the feasibility of the trial design • Determine the variability of the outcomes of interest • Estimate the costs of the intervention • If necessary, refine the intervention Methods A pilot cluster randomised controlled trial was conducted. Data was collected from July 2012 to January 2015 from participants in 6 medium secure in–patient services in London and Southern England. 55 patients and 47 nurses were in the intervention group with 57 patients and 45 nurses in the control group. The intervention comprised 6 nurse-patient meetings over a 6 month period. Patients rated their satisfaction with a range of domains followed by discussions on improving patient identified problems. Assessments took place at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. Participants were not blind to their allocated group. The primary outcome was self-reported quality of life collected by a researcher blind to participants’ allocation status. Results The randomisation procedures and intervention approach functioned well. The measures used were understood by the participants and gave relevant outcome information. The response rates were good with low patient withdrawal rates. The quality of life estimated treatment effect was 0.2 (95% CI: -0.4 to 0.8) at 6 months and 0.4 (95% CI: -0.3 to 1.1) indicating the likely extreme boundaries of effect in the main trial. The estimated treatment effect of the primary outcome is clinically important, and a positive effect of the intervention is not ruled out. The estimate of the ICC for the primary outcome at 6 and 12 months was 0.04 (0.00 to 0.17) and 0.05 (0.00 to 0.18). The cost of the intervention was £529 per patient. Conclusions The trial design was viable as the basis for a full-scale trial. A full trial is justified to estimate the effect of the intervention with greater certainty. The variability of the outcomes could be used to calculate numbers needed for a full-scale trial. Ratings of need for therapeutic security may be useful in any future study

Investigating the impact of remote neuroanatomy education during the COVID-19 pandemic using online examination performance in a National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition

Neuroanatomy is a notoriously challenging subject for medical students to learn. Due to the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, anatomical education transitioned to an online format. We assessed student performance in, and attitudes toward, an online neuroanatomy assessment compared to an in-person equivalent, as a marker of the efficacy of remote neuroanatomy education. Participants in the National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition (NUNC) 2021 undertook two online examinations: a neuroanatomically themed multiple-choice question paper and anatomy spotter. Students completed pre- and post-examination questionnaires to gauge their attitudes toward the online competition and prior experience of online anatomical teaching/assessment. To evaluate performance, we compared scores of students who sat the online (2021) and in-person (2017) examinations, using 12 identical neuroradiology questions present in both years. Forty-six percent of NUNC 2021 participants had taken an online anatomy examination in the previous 12?months, but this did not impact examination performance significantly (p?>?0.05). There was no significant difference in examination scores between in-person and online examinations using the 12 neuroradiology questions (p?=?0.69). Fifty percent of participants found the online format less enjoyable, with 63% citing significantly fewer networking opportunities. The online competition was less stressful for 55% of participants. This study provides some evidence to suggest that student performance is not affected when undertaking online examinations and proposes that online neuroanatomy teaching methods, particularly for neuroradiology, may be equally as effective as in-person approaches within this context. Participants perceived online examinations as less stressful but raised concerns surrounding the networking potential and enjoyment of online events.Peer reviewe

A memetic algorithm with adaptive hill climbing strategy for dynamic optimization problems

Copyright @ Springer-Verlag 2008Dynamic optimization problems challenge traditional evolutionary algorithms seriously since they, once converged, cannot adapt quickly to environmental changes. This paper investigates the application of memetic algorithms, a class of hybrid evolutionary algorithms, for dynamic optimization problems. An adaptive hill climbing method is proposed as the local search technique in the framework of memetic algorithms, which combines the features of greedy crossover-based hill climbing and steepest mutation-based hill climbing. In order to address the convergence problem, two diversity maintaining methods, called adaptive dual mapping and triggered random immigrants, respectively, are also introduced into the proposed memetic algorithm for dynamic optimization problems. Based on a series of dynamic problems generated from several stationary benchmark problems, experiments are carried out to investigate the performance of the proposed memetic algorithm in comparison with some peer evolutionary algorithms. The experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed memetic algorithm in dynamic environments.This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant Nos. 70431003 and 70671020, the National Innovation Research Community Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 60521003, and the National Support Plan of China under Grant No. 2006BAH02A09 and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of UK under Grant EP/E060722/01