Despite its great applicability in several industries, the combined cutting stock and lot-sizing problem has not been sufficiently studied because of its great complexity. This paper analyses the trade-off that arises when we solve the cutting stock problem by taking into account the production planning for various periods. An optimal solution for the combined problem probably contains non-opti...

BACKGROUND Molecular genotyping of M.tuberculosis is an important laboratory tool in the context of emerging drug resistant TB. The standard 24-loci MIRU-VNTR typing includes PCR amplification followed by the detection and sizing of PCR fragments using capillary electrophoresis on automated sequencers or using agarose gels. The QIAxcel Advanced system might offer a cost-effective medium-through...

We consider matching functions in vector quantization (VQ) based speaker recognition systems. In VQ-based systems, a speaker model consists of a small collection of representative vectors, and matching is performed by computing a dissimilarity value between the unknown speaker’s feature vectors and the speaker models. Typically, the average/total quantization error is used as the dissimilarity ...

We describe a fast (linear time) procedure to optimally size transistors in a chain of multi-input gates/stages. The fast sizing is used in a simultaneous sizing and restructuring optimization procedure, to accurately predict relative optimal performance of alternative circuit structures for a given total area. The idea extends the concept of optimally sizing a buffer chain[5], and uses taperin...

prosite database contains a set of entries corresponding to protein families, which are used to identify the family of a protein from its sequence. although patterns and profiles are developed to be very selective, each may have false positive or negative hits. considering false positives as items that reduce the selectiveness of a pattern, then, the more selective pattern we have, a more accur...

BACKGROUND Ring sizing for mitral valve annuloplasty is conventionally done intraoperatively using specific 'sizer' instruments, which are placed onto the valve tissue. This approach is barely reproducible since different sizing strategies have been established among surgeons. The goal of this study is to virtually apply different sizing methods on the basis of pre-repair echocardiography to fi...

This article examines the extent and manner to which evaluations of flood-related precautions are affected by an individual's motivation and perception of context. It argues that the relationship between risk perception and flood risk preparedness can be fruitfully specified in terms of vulnerability and efficacy if these concepts are put into the perspective of prevention-focused motivation. T...