NUMERICAL RESULTS OF MIXED CONVECTION FLOW OVER A FLAT PLATE WITH THE IMPOSED HEAT AND ANGLE OF INCLINATION

In this paper, the numerical results of mixed convection flow over a flat plate with the imposed heat and different angles of inclination are established by applying the finite difference method of Crank-Nicolson. We further compare these numerical results with the case of non-mixed convection flow. The velocity and temperature profiles are decreased when the different values of the Prandtl number (Pr) are increased. Meanwhile, the velocity profiles are increased, when the different values of angle of inclination (alfa) and mixed convection parameter (lambda) are increased. The mixed convection flow case (lambda=1.5) is affected by the external force, so the velocity of convection flow is higher than the non-mixed case (lambda=0).

Case-Marking in the Romance Languages

Case-marking is subject to several important developments in the passage from Latin to the Romance languages. With respect to synthetic marking, nouns and adjectives witness considerable simplification, leading (with some exceptions, i.e., the binary case systems) to the almost complete disappearance of inflectional case-marking, while pronouns continue to show consistent inflectional case-marking. In binary case systems, case distinctions are also marked in the inflection of determiners. Inflectional simplification is compensated for by the profusion of analytic and mixed case-marking strategies and by alternative strategies of encoding grammatical relations (see article on “Argument Marking in Romance” in this encyclopedia, forthcoming).

Relevance of social and community mediation for health, in processes of reinsertion of people with addictive behaviors and dependencies (ABD)

Background The knowledge of the importance of intervention in the reintegration of people with addictive behaviors and dependencies (ABD), combined with the complexity of the process and the multiplicity of associated factors (SICAD, 2014), has motivated a study developed on social and community mediation, through a interinstitutional collaboration of seven public entities, linking the academy to entities that intervene in the field of health (SICAD, in press). This paper aims to explore and disseminate some of the research results, reflecting on the importance of social intervention in the global health of the citizen. Methods This research was carried out according to a mixed case study plan (multi-case and multi-perspective), which involved reinsertion professionals, people with ABD, families and other stakeholders, in a total of 18 cases, 51 interviews and 21 questionnaires. It has a national scope and combines the descriptive component with the analytical and reflective component. Results Crossing the mapping of the diagnosed problems with the results and impacts of the developed intervention, which translate into changes perceived by the interviewees in several areas, it is possible to explore axes of the effectiveness of the intervention implemented in the reinsertion process. Conclusions The results show a high level of effectiveness (individual, family and community level), which goes beyond the changes in the scope of dependencies and affects the various areas of life of the citizen. The developed intervention generated impacts felt in the health level by the interviewees as positive and allowed to modify the fragile conditions that were identified in the diagnosis.

Iterative Learning for K-Approval Votes in Crowdsourcing Systems

Crowdsourcing systems have emerged as cornerstones to collect large amounts of qualified data in various human-powered problems with a relatively low budget. In eliciting the wisdom of crowds, many web-based crowdsourcing platforms have encouraged workers to select top-K alternatives rather than just one choice, which is called “K-approval voting”. This kind of setting has the advantage of inducing workers to make fewer mistakes when they respond to target tasks. However, there is not much work on inferring the correct answer from crowd-sourced data via a K-approval voting. In this paper, we propose a novel and efficient iterative algorithm to infer correct answers for a K-approval voting, which can be directly applied to real-world crowdsourcing systems. We analyze the average performance of our algorithm, and prove the theoretical error bound that decays exponentially in terms of the quality of workers and the number of queries. Through extensive experiments including the mixed case with various types of tasks, we show that our algorithm outperforms Expectation and Maximization (EM) and existing baseline algorithms.

Delivery Service Optimization When the Information on the Consumers’ Time Values Is Asymmetric

When consumers’ time values are discrete and asymmetric, three delivery service schemes, which are single ordinary delivery, single expedited delivery, and a mixture of ordinary and expedited delivery, were analyzed and compared. From the perspective of the firm, the optimal lead time and price in each delivery service scheme were determined based on the principal-agent theory. The results show that when the proportion of higher time value consumers is not above a specific threshold, providing a mixture of delivery services outperforms providing single delivery services. Otherwise, providing a single expedited delivery service becomes the best choice. As the consumers’ time value increases, the optimal lead time of the delivery service that is targeted to them should be decreased and the optimal price should be increased. If the firm provides a mixture of delivery services, then the optimal lead time of expedited delivery should be equal to that of the single expedited delivery scheme, while the optimal lead time of ordinary delivery should be longer than that of the single ordinary delivery scheme. Moreover, the optimal lead time of ordinary delivery in the mixed case should be increased with the proportion of higher time value consumers until it reaches the maximum length of time that all consumers could bear.