718 research outputs found
Unravelling the relationship between stem temperature and air temperature to correct for errors in sap-flow calculations using stem heat balance sensors
No full textUnravelling the relationship between stem temperature and air temperature to correct for errors in sap-flow calculations using stem heat balance sensors
No full textDonuea collustrata Bosselaers & Dierick, sp. nov.
No full text<i>Donuea collustrata</i> Bosselaers & Dierick sp. nov. <p>Figs. 1 A–E; 2 A–F; 3 A–M; 4 A–I.</p> <p> <b>Type material.</b> Holotype male: Madagascar, Foulpointe, forest on clay soil, beating vegetation, July 1995, A. Pauly leg. (MRAC 206172). Paratype male, in copal from the Sambava area, NE Madagascar, MRAC.</p> <p> <b>Diagnosis.</b> The species can be distinguished from the type species <i>Donuea decorsei</i> Simon, 1903, by its bifid RTA as opposed to a simple one (Simon 1903: 138), its large, bifurcated MA, a simple, pointed conductor situated ventrally instead of dorsally of MA and its shorter embolus which does not describe a circular loop before passing behind the tegulum (Figs. 1 F, 4 C, F, I).</p> <p> <b>Description.</b> Body length without chelicerae (holotype): 4.34, with chelicerae: 5.76. Carapace length: 1.81; w: 1.55, oval, yellow brown, darker in eye region, and with two brown lateral bands (Fig. 1 A–B, D). Fovea short and deep, pale brown, length 0.08, anterior end 1.14 from front. Eight eyes in two rows, ringed with black, AER w: 0.82, recurved from above, slightly procurved from front, PER w: 0.89, procurved from above, strongly procurved from front (Figs. 1 A, D, 3 M). MOQ depth: 0.32, anterior w: 0.37, posterior w: 0.42. All eyes subequal, ALE oval, others circular. All four median eyes with dark retina restricted to median 2/3. Anterior median eyes slightly closer to each other than to ALE. Eyes of PER equidistant, separated by about twice their diameter. ALE and PLE touching, on common tubercle. Clypeus vertical, 1/3 of diameter of AME. Chilum orange-brown, sclerotised, split (Fig. 3 M). Chelicerae large, yellow brown, elongated and pointing forward, parallel to the longitudinal axis of the body (Figs. 1 A–D, 2 C, F, 3 A). One large kneeshaped seta and a row of long, curved setae on ACR, cheliceral fangs brown. Six teeth on ACR, largest one closest to fang base, followed by an isolated very small tooth and two pairs of small teeth separated by a small distance. Seven teeth on PCR, a pair of medium sized teeth close to fang base, followed at some distance by five small teeth in a row. Sternum length: 1.05; w: 0.95, smooth, yellow, elongated and shield-shaped, with pale broad and blunt ICS between legs I–II and II-III, and thin, brown and pointed PCT facing all coxae (Fig. 1 C, E). Pleural bars (Bosselaers & Jocqué 2002: 247, fig. 1P; Simon 1892: 11, fig. 29) yellow-brown continuous strips, weakly protruding between coxae. Labium brown, subtrapezoidal, as long as it is wide at its base, with white, thickened anterior rim. Endites subrectangular, with apical hair tuft and serrula, no oblique depression (Fig. 1 C, E). Abdomen cream, unicolorous ventrally and with two lateral, purple brown bands dorsally (Fig. 1 A–B, D). ALS contiguous, conical, with short, blunt apical segment. PMS very thin and slender, PLS subcylindrical, mottled with grey, with pale, rounded apical segment (Figs. 1 B–D, 3 A). Legs yellow, fe, ti and mt ringed with grey basally and/or terminally (Figs. 1 A–C, 2 B–C, F). No trochanter notch, no retrocoxal hymen (Raven 1998; Bosselaers & Jocqué 2002), patellar indentation long and narrow, ¾ of pa length. Metatarsi III and IV with sparse ve terminal preening brush. Tarsi with two claws and dense claw tufts. Leg formula 1423. Leg spination (Fig. 2 E): fe: palp do 0-1-1 rlv 1-1-1-1-1-0; I pl 0-1-1-1 do 0-1-1-1; II pl 0- 0-0-1 do 0-1-1-1; III do 0-1-1-2; IV do 1-1-1-1-2-2; pa: palp pl 1; ti: palp pl 2-0-0; I pl 0-1-1 ve 2-2-2-2-2; II ve 2-2-2-2; III rl 0-1-0 plv 1-1-0; IV rl 0-1-1-0 plv 1-1-0 rlv 0-0-1; mt: I pl 1-0-0 ve 2-2-2; II ve 2-2-0; III pl 0- 1-0 rl 1-0-0 ve 2-0-0; IV rl 0-0-1 ve 2-0-2.</p> <p>Male palp with a simple, blunt PTA (Figs. 3 D, E, L, 4 F, I) and a bifid RTA consisting of a long, pointed do part and a cup-shaped ve part (Figs. 3 I, J, K, L, 4 A–C). Palpal tarsus elongated and piriform, with a large, bifid, flag-shaped MA (Figs. 3 C–F, 4 D–I), a simple, blunt-tipped conductor situated ventrally of the pl branch of the MA (Figs. 3 C–F, L, 4 D–I) and a long embolus emerging from below the rl branch of the MA, proceeding basally and subsequently passing behind the tegulum (Figs. 3 B–C, G–K, 4 A–C, F).</p> <p>Female. Unknown.</p> <p> <b>Etymology.</b> The species epithet <i>collustrata</i>, irradiated, refers to the X-ray tomography technique used as an aid in the description of the present species.</p> <p> <b>Remarks.</b> The specimen preserved in copal clearly is conspecific with the field-captured holotype. It has the same size (body length 4.21) and general morphology, and both specimens are identical with respect to a number of diagnostic details. Leg spination of the copal specimen is identical to the holotype although a few spines are missing, probably having been lost when the animal got caught in the sticky resin (Figs. 2 E–F). The copal specimen has lost most of its original colour, the abdomen being partly transparent and showing two dark spots in the anterior half, presumably corresponding with the book lungs. However, the leg annulations have been mostly preserved and coincide with those of the field-captured animal (Figs. 1 A–C, 2 B, C, F). Most significantly, palpal structure of both specimens is identical in minute detail, as can be proven by juxtaposing stereomicroscope observations of the field-captured holotype with X-ray micro-CT scans of the copal preserved specimen (Fig. 4 A–I).</p> <p> The assignment of <i>Donuea</i> to Liocranidae is debatable, and it can indeed be argued that the genus would be better placed in Clubionidae. However, a formal transfer is outside the scope of the present contribution.</p>Published as part of <i>Bosselaers, Jan, Dierick, Manuel, Cnudde, Veerle, Masschaele, Bert, Hoorebeke, Luc Van & Jacobs, Patric, 2010, High-resolution X-ray computed tomography of an extant new Donuea (Araneae: Liocranidae) species in Madagascan copal, pp. 25-35 in Zootaxa 2427</i> on pages 27-32, DOI: <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/293907">10.5281/zenodo.293907</a>
Applying Basel II Requirements in Romania
No full textThe Basel II Agreement is a new stage in the development of prudential regulations. Compared to the initial agreement, Basel I, this one allows a more large and precise analysis of banking risks. The European approach of Basel II requirements aims to offer some common conditions for all the credit institutions. Secondly, in order to achieve the objectives of Basel II, an active implication of the supervisory authorities is needed, as well as a tighter cooperation between them in order to increase the financial integration at the European Union level. In what concerns Romania, that has recently joined the European Union, the implementation of Basel II requirements imply a new series of challenges both for credit institutions and for the Central Bank. These challenges, for the commercial banks, reside in adjusting the risk management techniques and the informational system, training the staff, obtaining the databases, etc. and for the Central Bank in both adapting the surveillance process and elaborating new regulations. This paper tries to analyze the main implications of implementing these requirements, both for the Romanian commercial banks and for the National Bank.banking, prudential regulations, supervision, capital requirements
The New Basel Capital Framework and its implementation in the European Union
No full textFollowing the adoption by the Basel Committee of new capital rules for banks, a process is now taking place in the EU to transpose the rules into Community law and, ultimately, into national legislation. This paper gives an overview of the main issues that relate to the EU implementation, mainly from the perspectives of financial stability and financial integration. Although the EU rules are to a large extent based on the texts of the Basel Committee, modifications have been introduced to account for the specific legal and institutional setting, as well as for some features of the European financial system. The paper gives an overview of these modifications and deals in greater detail with a number of selected topics: the monitoring of procyclicality, the role of the consolidating supervisor and the treatment of real estate lending and covered bonds. The paper concludes with an outlook for the future.Banks, Basel II, capital requirements, financial regulation, financial stability, financial supervision, risk management.
Investigating scaling techniques and the cost-efficiency of distributed to single FPGA compositions for Full Waveform Inversion
No full textIn recent years, the big data era has produced an increasing volume and complexity of data that requires processing. To analyze and process these large amounts of data, applications are being scaled on large clusters using distributed data processing frameworks. A more recent trend utilizes hardware accelerators to offload computationally intensive tasks and reduce compute time and energy consumption. As a result, a rapid growth of data center deployment containing heterogeneous compute infrastructures is observed. Alternative to the more commonly used general-purpose GPUs (GPGPUS), the field programmable gate array (FPGA) is becoming an increasingly popular choice of accelerator. Its effectiveness to accelerate highly parallel applications in combination with the flexibility due to its reconfigurable nature make it well suited for a wide range of applications. As a spatial compute resource, the problem size a single FPGA can process is bounded by the available programmable logic and memory. However, applications that do not require the full resources of an FPGA can be vertically scaled by instantiating multiple instances of the hardware design on a single node. A barrier in the adoption of FPGAs is formed by the complexity of hardware design which requires in depth hardware-specific expertise. Additionally, integrating FPGAs in distributed data processing frameworks is a challenge on itself. These challenges are being addressed in two directions. High level synthesis (HLS) tools and compilers are being developed to decrease the complexity of hardware design by allowing users to develop FPGA designs in high level languages. Additionally, there is an increased availability of ready-to-use FPGA designs for common applications in hardware libraries such as Vitis libraries.To aid the adoption of FPGAs and improve their accessibility, this work presents OctoRay: a python framework with a focus on ease-of-use that allows users to flexibly and transparently scale applications both vertically and horizontally on FPGA clusters. Scaling a binarized convolutional neural network (CNN) with OctoRay resulted in performance improvements linear to the number of nodes, or copied instances applied. The framework was also used to analyze the cost-efficiency of a cluster of low-end PYNQ-Z1 FPGAs compared to a data center class Alveo U280 FPGA. A partly in hardware accelerated implementation of Full Waveform Inversion (FWI), a seismic imaging algorithm, was developed and used to conduct the investigation. It was concluded that 32 PYNQ-Z1s are required to match the performance of a single Alveo U280 FPGA. An important bottleneck in the performance of the PYNQ-Z1s was the low-performance host processor on which a significant portion of FWI was executed. The small number of resources available on a PYNQ-Z1 limited the attainable accuracy of FWI to a bare minimum. The FWI hardware design with the same specifications made for the high-end FPGA only utilized a fraction of its resources, far from harnessing its full potential. It was concluded that, unlike FWI, applications that do not require the abundance of resources a high-end FPGA offers, but do benefit from rapid development cycles and low energy consumption are suited for a distributed low-end FPGA composition.Computer Engineerin
Studie van de invloed van de darmflora en van enkele groeibevorderende voederadditiva op het stikstofmetabolisme bij het varken
No full textA Dutch Bigram Network
No full textOnze Taal (Our Lanuage) is the monthloy publication of Onze Taal, a Dutch association dedicated to the correct use of the language. In the article Het netwerk van Nerderlandse bigramman (The network of Dutch bigrams) in the July/August 1985 issue. W. Dierick constructs a 61-word network of Dutch two-letter words. His inspiration for this bit of wordplay was the corresponding 38-word network of English two-letter words given to A. Ross Eckler\u27s Word Recreations (Dover, 1979). However, he takes the author to task for including initalisms such as TV and TB
Classification of Stiff-Knee Gait Kinematic Severity after Stroke Using Retrospective k-Means Clustering Algorithm
No full textNowadays, a classification system for unilateral stiff-knee gait (SKG) kinematic severity in hemiparetic adult patients after stroke does not exist. However, such classification would be useful to the clinicians. We proposed the use of the k-means method in order to define unilateral SKG severity clusters in hemiparetic adults after stroke. A retrospective k-means cluster analysis was applied to five selected knee kinematic parameters collected during gait in 96 hemiparetic adults and 19 healthy adults from our clinical gait analysis database. A total of five discrete knee kinematic clusters were determined. Three clusters of SKG were identified, based on which a three-level severity classification was defined: unbend-knee gait, braked-knee gait, and frozen-limb gait. Preliminary construct validity of the classification was obtained. All selected knee kinematic parameters defining the five clusters and the majority of usual kinematic parameters of the lower limbs showed statistically significant differences between the different clusters. We recommend diagnosing SKG for values strictly below 40° of knee flexion during the swing phase. Clinicians and researchers are now able to specify the level of kinematic severity of SKG in order to optimize treatment choices and future clinical trial eligibility criteria
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