Understanding Performance Improvement

1. Field data on the reproductive performance of parent stock and grandparent female line and male line broiler breeders were extracted from a commercial database covering the years of hatch from 1989 to 2002. The data were from the UK, Western Europe, Central and South America and Japan. Quadratic regression curves were fitted to the data to estimate the long-term phenotypic trends in total egg production, hatching egg production, chick numbers, hatchability and female mortality. 2. Changes in performance over time were similar in the UK, Western Europe and Central and South America and are consistent with the suggestion that genetic selection in separate breeding programmes in the UK (supplying the UK and Western Europe) and Brazil (serving Central and South America) was associated with similar improvements in the performance of commercial parent stock and grandparent flocks. Changes in performance in Japan (supplied from the UK) were different but recent performance was similar to those in the other regions. 3. The mean annual improvements over 10 years to 2002 for male line, female line and parent stock, respectively, were 0·4, 1·7 and 1·7 for total egg number; 0·5, 1·8 and 1·6 for hatching egg number; 0·6, 1·8 and 1·3 for total chick production; 0·25, 0·47 and 0·09% for hatchability; and −0·69, −0·05 and −0·41% for female mortality. 4. The results are consistent with claims that significant genetic change in pedigree selection (nucleus) flocks by the primary breeding company are reflected in substantial improvements in reproductive performance in commercial flocks. The presence of similar rates of improvement in different geographical regions as a result of genetic selection in two continents representing tropical and temperate regions suggests that genotype–environment interactions for reproduction traits are not important.

IA21: Risk prediction models for lung cancer

Die onderwerp wat in hierdie artikel bespreek word, is in die Suid-Afrikaanse reg relatief nuut en onontwikkeld. In hierdie artikel word verwysings na stieffamilieverhoudings beperk tot gevalle waar die biologiese ouer met haar of sy kinders in 'n huwelik of burgerlike vennootskap met 'n persoon wat nie 'n biologiese ouer is nie in 'n gemeenskaplike huishouding betrokke is. Sedert die beslissing van Heystek v Heystek, is hierdie aspek in Botha v Botha en in MB v NB in oenskou geneem. Die doel met hierdie artikel is om opnuut na die regsfundering van so 'n aanspraak binne die Suid-Afrikaanse reg te kyk. Die artikel word in vier hoofdele verdeel. Eerstens, sal die verskillende regsteoretiese funderings van die onderhoudsplig beskryf word. Daarna word die bespreking opgevolg deur 'n bondige bespreking van buitelandse reg, waarna die Suid-Afrikaanse reg as derde hoofdeel van nader beskou sal word. Die artikel word deur 'n slotbeskouing afgesluit. A step-child's maintenance claim against a step-parent In this article the foundation of a step-child's claim for maintenance against a step-parent is investigated. Primarily three foundations for a child's maintenance claim are revealed namely the formalistic and status based justification; the best interests of the child justification; and the functional justification. The first mentioned justification does not apply as foundation for the maintenance claim of the stepchild against the step-parent because the step-parent is not the natural or putative parent. The second justification focuses on the economic needs of children and the economic dislocation they suffer when formerly relied support from a step-parent is lost. The last justification pays attention to the social reality of relationships rather than to the formal characteristics thereof. Two reasons are given why the last mentioned justification applies to the maintenance claim of step-children. One, harm and compensation may serve as basis for the liability to pay maintenance. Two, the case where the step-parent takes over the role of parent the in loco parentis principle may serve as a foundation. The comparative law investigation reveals that the majority of foreign country systems grounds the claim on the in loco parentis principle. Different foundations for the claim are found in South African case law. The fact that the parties are married makes them liable for the maintenance of the common household. Two foundational possibilities arise from this. One, the consortium of the marriage grounds the maintenance obligation which is without any foundation in our law. Two, the obligation is founded upon the purchase for household necessaries. In a legal theoretical sense this is unacceptable because there are fundamental differences between the capacity to purchase household necessaries and a claim for maintenance. Section 28(1) (b) and (2) of the constitution are tabled as foundation for the claim. The fact that the step-parent acts in loco parentis grounds the obligation. Lastly, de facto adoption is also forwarded as foundation. The call on different justifications creates confusion and results in different answers. The maintenance of a child must primarily serve to satisfy the financial needs of the child and should focus less on the psychic and psychological support of the child. However, the economic reliance of the child on the support should also not be ignored. Therefore a combination of the reliance based justification and the in loco parentis foundation is advocated which I think is achieved in the MB case where section 28(1)(b) of the constitution in combination with the in loco parentis principle was applied.

Supply chain performance measurement and improvement is required to control the performance and define a strategy to improve agroindustry’s competitiveness. The objectives of the research were to identify supply chain configuration and mechanism, and to analyze the supply chain performance and define the supply chain performance improvement for palm oil agroindustry. The research was conducted at Riau Province and Jambi Province as the central palm oil production in Indonesia. The Supply Chain Operation Reference (SCOR) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) were applied to analyze the supply chain performance and the performance improvement strategies were formulated descriptively with expert discussion. The results showed that the average performance of farmers, traders and refinery at Riau Province were 77.77%, 74.60% and 79.20%. The average performance of farmers, traders and refinery at Riau Province were 72.66%, 75.39% and 83.11%. This research had succeeded to define the strategies to improve palm oil supply chains at Riau Province and Jambi Province. The strategies were focused on good agricultural and good handling practice, specifying the palm oil prices refractions based on quality and implementing the information system to improve the supply chain performance.

Massive transfusion (MT) protocols improve survival in patients with exsanguinating hemorrhage. Both the increased plasma to red blood cells (RBC) and platelets to RBC ratios, and the "protocolization" of product delivery seem to be critical components of the reduction in mortality. The purpose of this study was to identify the incidence and impact of MT protocol noncompliance and to intervene in provider-related events associated with poor compliance and outcomes. A MT protocol was initiated in 2006 at a Level I trauma center. All cases of protocol activation were reviewed by a multidisciplinary performance improvement (PI) group for compliance and the need for "real-time" protocol adjustments. Educational conferences, Grand Rounds presentations, and individual provider education were performed on a quarterly basis. Compliance of seven measures were evaluated as follows: type and screen sent from emergency department (ED), activation of protocol in ED, activation by trauma attending, administration of 2:3 plasma to RBC, administration of 1:5 platelets to RBC, protocol discontinuation on leaving operating room, and no products wasted. Univariate, multivariate, and time-series analyses were performed. All 125 MT protocol activations occurring from February 2006 to January 2008 were reviewed. Full compliance for all PI measures during the entire period was 27%. There were no differences in demographics, injury severity, or physiologic scores between patients for whom activations were compliant and those who were noncompliant. Full compliance was an independent predictor of survival (86.7% vs. 45.0%, p < 0.001). Both activation of the protocol in the ED and achievement of prespecified ratios of plasma: RBC (2:3) and platelets: RBC (1:5) were independent predictors of 24-hour and 30-day survivals. All PI measures demonstrated improved compliance during the study period with the exception of ED activation. Failure to send type and screen from the ED is an independent predictor of wasted blood products. Early activation of a MT protocol and achieving predefined ratios was associated with improved survival. ED activation and direct blood bank notification by the trauma attending were associated with a reduction in blood product wastage. A multidisciplinary PI process helps to identify provider/specialty noncompliance and to assess the impact of these factors, and it was associated with improvement in compliance and MT outcomes over time.

Machine learning algorithms (MLAs) have recently been applied to predict gene mutations of Escherichia coli (E. coli) under different exposure conditions, with room for improvement in performance. In a bid to improve performance, we hypothesize that incorporating the interactions between genes will help MLAs make better predictions. To investigate this, we integrated protein-coding gene cofunctional networks into a mutation dataset of E. coli exposed to different conditions. Also, we proposed a feature-selection algorithm based on gene cofunctional networks to pick the most relevant exposure conditions. Then, we used the extended dataset to train a support vector classifier, an artificial neural network, and an ensemble of both MLAs. Separate models were trained for each of the protein-coding genes. Validation results showed that our approach improved both the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) and the area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC). A peak increase of 8.20% in AUPRC was observed. A similar analysis on selected genes, with ten or more mutation points for each gene, also showed improvement in the general performance of the MLAs. Out-of-sample testing on adaptive laboratory evolution experiments curated from the literature provided further evidence of an enhanced mutation-prediction performance, where a maximum 8.74% boost in the AUC was observed. Finally, we highlighted the genes with the most improved and most degraded predictions due to the additional information of the cofunctional genes. This work suggests that the functional relationship between genes may play a role in gene mutation and illustrates how the relationships might help to improve mutation prediction.

Background: Limited research surrounding sex differences in fatigue and performance after high intensity interval training (HIIT) exists in the field setting. While lab-based protocols provide a controlled environment, physiological mechanisms of fatigue and performance response in competitive athletes are best measured by time-trial (TT). Few studies, however, have investigated fatigue in TT performance while controlling for the menstrual cycle (MC). Objective: The study investigated the influence of sex and MC phase on 3km track TT performance after a HIIT session in Competitive Cross Country (XC) skiers. Methods: A quasi-experimental design was employed and athletes over the age of 16 years (30F, 9M), were recruited from across Canada and completed 3 days of testing/training: a 3km track TT on Day 1 and Day 3; and a HIIT session (4-8x, 800m) on Day 2. MC phase was verified by ovulation testing and salivary hormone samples; athletes were classified as either “Low Hormone” or “High Hormone” for analysis. Results: An overall improvement in performance from pre- to post-HIIT TTs occurred (p&lt;0.01). No significant differences in TT performance after HIIT were observed between sexes (p=0.16) or MC phase (p=0.26). Conclusion: These results indicate that competitive XC skiers will likely experience an improvement in TT performance after a bout of HIIT. Coaches and athletes should plan their workouts prior to testing accordingly to maximize TT performance. These results also suggest that no special adjustments need to be considered for differences in performance after HIIT between sexes and MC phase, although further studies with a greater sample size and repeated testing are warranted.

Effect of the catalyst wettability on the performance of a trickle-bed reactor for ethanol oxidation as a case study

We present a number of approaches based on the radial gradient index (RGI) to achieve false-positive reduction in automated CT lung nodule detection. A database of 38 cases was used that contained a total of 82 lung nodules. For each CT section, a complementary image known as an "RGI map" was constructed to enhance regions of high circularity and thus improve the contrast between nodules and normal anatomy. Thresholds on three RGI parameters were varied to construct RGI filters that sensitively eliminated false-positive structures. In a consistency approach, RGI filtering eliminated 36% of the false-positive structures detected by the automated method without the loss of any true positives. Use of an RGI filter prior to a linear discriminant classifier yielded notable improvements in performance, with the false-positive rate at a sensitivity of 70% being reduced from 0.5 to 0.28 per section. Finally, the performance of the linear discriminant classifier was evaluated with RGI-based features. RGI-based features achieved a substantial improvement in overall performance, with a 94.8% reduction in the false-positive rate at a fixed sensitivity of 70%. These results demonstrate the potential role of RGI analysis in an automated lung nodule detection method.

Previously it has been shown that a controller based on the use of the state-dependent Riccati equation (SDRE) technique has resulted in significant improvements in performance. In our previous work controller performance under certain disturbances and uncertainties that are considered typical for tandem hot rolling was addressed. While the performance under these conditions was quite successful, performance under an expanded set of conditions remained to be evaluated. In this paper we examine performance under such a set of disturbances and uncertainties and show that the improvement in controller performance is retained under these expanded operational aspects. This improves the confidence in the performance of the previously developed controller under these conditions.

The main aim of the present paper is to investigate the influence of multiple winglets on hang-glider climbing performance. The study aims to optimize the CL3/2/CD parameter. The investigation was performed both numerically and experimentally starting from airfoils and winglet shape design. Given the shape of a real hangglider wing under aerodynamic load the first phase of the work concerned the main geometric characteristics of winglet design : number of winglets, airfoils, planform shape, twist. A 3D wing model was built and using the indications obtained from the design, different sets of winglets were built. The wing model was built to enable winglets to be applied to the wing tip without changing the wing span and aspect ratio. The tests carried out on the hang glider model showed an improvement in wing performance of about 15%. However, the model reproduced a full scale wing flying under aerodynamic load and, according to the model builders, it showed a positive twist angle (leading edge up). This could mean that the winglets were more efficient because the original wing showed a strong tip vortex, A new model wing with an elliptical planform was therefore built to verify this further. The test results on the elliptical wing did not show the same improvement in performance obtained with the hang glider model. Nevertheless, compared to the original elliptical wing an improvement was still found.

Highly ordered TiO2 nanorod (TNR) arrays decorated with Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) nanocrystals were prepared via a facile and effective method. The TNR arrays were synthesized using a hydrothermal treatment, and the CZTS nanocrystals were deposited by a three-step successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) technique followed by annealing in a sulfur atmosphere. The morphology, structure, composition, optical, and the photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties of the CZTS/TNR arrays were investigated in detail. The results demonstrate that the CZTS/TNR arrays can effectively facilitate photoinduced carrier transport, reduce the recombination rate of electron-hole pairs, and as a result demonstrate improved light absorption properties and PEC performance. The CZTS/TNR arrays sensitized with 7 SILAR cycles showed a maximal photocurrent density of 2.17 mA/cm2 at 0 V and the longest electron lifetime of 47.39 ms, which is nearly 80 and 2.03 times higher than those of pure TNR, respectively. The improvement in performance can be attributed to the high absorption coefficient and narrow bandgap of CZTS and the type-II nanoheterostructures with a staggered alignment of band edges present at the heterointerface. Surface passivation with ZnS resulted in a further improvement in PEC performance in comparison to the untreated CZTS/TNR arrays with values of 2.53 mA/cm2 and 59.77 ms for the maximal photocurrent density and longest electron lifetime, respectively.

This paper focuses on realization of high per- formance motion control based on acceleration control. A high sampling frequency is known to be effective for improving the performance. Characteristics of acceleration control are investigated and the relationship between the performance and the sampling frequency of the system is discussed. Based on these considerations, a new multirate sampling method for the acceleration control system is proposed. Disturbance observer is redesigned for application in the multirate system. Stability analysis is performed to verify the validity of the proposal. Feasibility of the proposal and influence on the performance are also verified by experimental results. frequency of acceleration control. The needs of a higher sampling frequency for output than for input are de- scribed. From this point of view, this paper proposes a new multirate sampling method with a shorter output sampling period for improvement of acceleration control performance. Disturbance observer is redesigned to fit to the multirate system with a new definition of dis- turbance torque. Stability analysis is performed to make a comparison with single-rate control and to verify the validity of the proposal. Experimental results support the feasibility of the proposed method and improvement of the performance. This study considers the system in the 1st dimension for simplicity.

This paper presents a study on the concurrent topology optimization of a structure and its material microstructure. A modified optimization model is proposed by introducing microstructure orientation angles as a new type of design variable. The new model is based on the assumptions that a structure is made of a material with the same microstructure, and the material may have a different orientation within the design domain of the structure. The homogenization theory is applied to link the material and structure scales. An additional post-processing technique is developed for modifying the obtained design to avoid local optima caused by the use of orientation angle variables. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the viability and effectiveness of the proposed model. It is found that significant improvement in structural performance can be achieved by optimizing the orientation of microstructures in concurrent topology optimization of structures and materials. This paper presents a modified concurrent optimization model with three kinds of design variables. At the micro scale, topological design variables are employed for describing the distribution of base material within a material cell so that the material microstructure can be defined. At the macro scale, in addition to topological design variables for describing the distribution of material with microstructure within the design domain, microstructure orientation angles are introduced for defining material axis directions at different locations. Numerical examples have shown that significant improvement in the performance of optimized designs can be achieved.

Finite Element Analysis of Flexible Pavement with Geogrids