We design and implement TwinsCoin, the €rst cryptocurrency based on a provably secure and scalable public blockchain design using both proof-of-work and proof-of-stake mechanisms. Di‚erent from the proof-ofwork based Bitcoin, our construction uses two types of resources, computing power and coins (i.e., stake). Œe blockchain in our system is more robust than that in a pure proof-of-work based s...

A comparative analysis of the sensitivity of NDVI and EVI to rainfall indicators has been carried out for different land use/covers in the Southwest of Burkina Faso. Three classified land use/covers maps for 1999, 2006 and 2011 were produced and change detection was applied to locate persistent areas. Thereafter monthly vegetation indices of plots of 750 × 750 m2 were extracted from 2001 to 201...

Mechanisms to mitigate climate change in tropical countries such as India require information on forest structural components i.e., biomass and carbon for conservation steps to be implemented successfully. The present study focuses on investigating the potential use of a one time, QuadPOL ALOS PALSAR L-band 25 m data to estimate above-ground biomass (AGB) using a water cloud model (WCM) in a wi...

To reduce the invasiveness of cryosurgery, a miniaturized cryoprobe is necessary. The authors have developed an ultrafine cryoprobe for realizing low-invasive cryosurgery by local freezing. The objectives of this study are to estimate the heat transfer coefficient and investigate the characteristics of the phase change heat transfer in the ultrafine cryoprobe. This cryoprobe has a double-tube s...

Improving living standards amidst falling oil prices among countries relying heavily on an ample supply of oil presents numerous challenges. Therefore, the relationship associated with oil price changes with identifiable metrics that explain standards of living becomes critical. The following issues are presented in this paper: the management of wealth; sustaining a standard of living; peculiar...

Physiologic and morphologic techniques were used to elucidate the determinants of the GFR in 25 nephrotic patients with minimal change nephropathy. They were divided into two groups according to the finding of either a normal (Group 1, N = 13) or a depressed (Group 2, N = 12) inulin clearance. RPF, afferent oncotic pressure, and dextran sieving coefficients were determined. Mathematical models ...

Random coe cient regression models have been applied in di erent elds and they constitute a unifying setup for many statistical problems. The nonparametric study of this model started with Beran and Hall (1992) and it has become a fruitful framework. In this paper we propose and study statistics for testing a basic hypothesis concerning this model: the constancy of coe cients. The asymptotic be...

An application of formal model reduction to generate a boundary condition independent compact thermal model is discussed. A new method to find a lowdimensional basis that preserves the convection coefficient as a parameter is presented. Numerical results show that the method allows the convection coefficient to change from 1 to 10 while keeping the accuracy of the reduced model to within a few ...

Prefrontal (PFC) cerebral vasoreactivity may be altered in hypertension but has not been studied during postural change and carbon dioxide (CO2) rebreathing. In this study, a dual procedure of 5% CO2 rebreathing with positional change (standing to supine and reverse) was performed on normotensive (N = 24) and essential hypertensive males (N = 16) (18-55 years) to assess reliability of PFC respo...