Does the Nonweightbearing Foot Position Replicate the Neutral Calcaneal Stance Position in an Adult Population?

Background The neutral calcaneal stance position (NCSP), despite its known issues, is currently used as an “ideal” measure compared with the resting stance position in clinical podiatric medicine. The nonweightbearing (NWB) foot position, as used in the foot mobility magnitude (FMM), can provide an alternative comparative position, which is partially validated, if a significant correlation between the NCSP and the NWB position exists. This study aimed to establish the correlation between the component measures of the FMM in the NCSP and the NWB foot position of the FMM. Methods Eighty participants were recruited. Measures of dorsal arch height (DAH) and midfoot width (MFW) were obtained at the 50% total foot length mark in the NCSP and the NWB position by two examiners using the apparatus described by McPoil et al. Results Reliability analysis with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) indicated intrarater results of 0.90 to 0.99 for DAH and 0.96 to 0.99 for MFW and interrater results of 0.90 for DAH and 0.96 for MFW in the NWB position. Using a Pearson product moment correlation coefficient analysis, there was a significant correlation between the NCSP and the NWB position for DAH (r = 0.82) and MFW (r = 0.86). Conclusions A significant correlation between the NCSP and the NWB position was evident when the measures of DAH and MFW were conducted. Therefore, clinically, the NWB position can potentially replace the NCSP as the ideal position for clinical treatment.

Avaliação de uma técnica de compactação do gesso odontológico como alternativa para a correta relação água/pó

The water-powder relationship is essential to achieve a proper performance of gypsum for prosthetic purposes. The ideal measure can be obtained with a balance, but this is clinically unavailable, once it is timeconsuming. A powder-compacting technique using a volume measurement is suggested in order to substitute the balance. The technique consists of using a gypsum meter within the gypsum bag. While the operator holds the gypsum meter with one hand, the palm of the other hand is pressed over the surface of the meter, supported by the ventral aspect of the fingers of the hand that is pressing. This procedure is based upon three compactation movements for each operator, then counting the average of compacting sample. Each of the ten operators repeated six times the procedure, and the final average was defined. The resulting samples for each procedure, of each operator, were weighted, and the statistical analysis showed significant differences (p = 0,006) among the operators.

A Novel Approach for Ranking Intuitionisitc Fuzzy Numbers and its Application to Decision Making

Ranking intuitionistic fuzzy numbers is an important issue in practical application of intuitionistic fuzzy sets. For making a rational decision, people need to get an effective sorting over the set of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. Many scholars rank intuitionistic fuzzy numbers by defining different measures. These measures do not comprehensively consider the fuzzy semantics expressed by membership degree, nonmembership degree and hesitancy degree of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. As a result, the ranking results are often counterintuitive, such as the indifference problems, the non-robustness problems, etc. In this paper, according to geometrical representation, a novel measure for intuitionistic fuzzy number is defined, which is called the ideal measure. After that a new sorting approach of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers is proposed. It is proved that the intuitionistic fuzzy order obtained by the ideal measure satisfies the properties of weak admissibility, membership degree robustness, nonmembership degree robustness, and determinism. Numerical example is applied to illustrate the effectiveness and feasibility of this method. Finally, using the presented approach, the optimal alternative can be acquired in multi-attribute decision making problem. Comparison analysis shows that the intuitionistic fuzzy value ordering method obtained by the ideal measure is more effectiveness and simplicity than other existing methods.

When do service suppliers leave their platform?—The role of friendships

Platform organizations connect suppliers with customers. A key success factor for these organizations is the maintenance of a stable base of loyal suppliers. Interpersonal relationships (i.e., friendships) seem to be an ideal measure of suppliers’ loyalty, as the literature generally indicates that friendships within organizations decrease turnover intention. However, platforms are not fully comparable to traditional organizations, and the correlation between friendships and suppliers’ turnover intention is more complicated for platforms. To demonstrate that, this study analyzed a unique dataset from the music industry. The sample included 101 techno DJs (i.e., service suppliers) from 61 booking agencies (i.e., service platforms). The findings show that service suppliers’ turnover intention is considerably lower when they maintain friendships with the platform’s employees. However, friendships with other suppliers who use the same platform do not affect turnover intention. Managers of service platforms could use the results and suggestions of this paper to adapt their management practices to better suit their service suppliers.

Photocatalytic Membranes

A photocatalytic membrane can be characterized as a blend between a photocatalyst and membrane; it is promising for taking care of the issues experienced in detachment and photocatalysis. The photocatalyst can deliver, by retention of bright, infrared, or obvious light, compound changes of response accomplices, continually accompanying them into different compound communications without the event of a perpetual change of its synthetic synthesis. There has been significant advancement in the improvement of photocatalytic membrane through joining of metal-oxide photocatalysts to upgrade the presentation of the membranes. An ideal measure of the photocatalyst ought to be consolidated into the membrane to acknowledge sensible photocatalytic action with insignificant outcomes. New improvements in structure and assembling of photocatalytic membranes have made an incredible commitment to the photocatalytic application. Hybridizing photocatalysis with membrane offers photocatalytic response and products partition in a solitary advance and well control of the product maintenance. This section features a portion of the ongoing advances in photocatalytic membrane - kinds of photocatalysts hybridized with the membrane frameworks, reactor design, and average strategies for the creation of photocatalytic membranes, manufacture and membrane application in cleansing and pollutant expulsion from wastewater.

Indexing Highly Repetitive String Collections, Part I

Two decades ago, a breakthrough in indexing string collections made it possible to represent them within their compressed space while at the same time offering indexed search functionalities. As this new technology permeated through applications like bioinformatics, the string collections experienced a growth that outperforms Moore’s Law and challenges our ability to handle them even in compressed form. It turns out, fortunately, that many of these rapidly growing string collections are highly repetitive, so that their information content is orders of magnitude lower than their plain size. The statistical compression methods used for classical collections, however, are blind to this repetitiveness, and therefore a new set of techniques has been developed to properly exploit it. The resulting indexes form a new generation of data structures able to handle the huge repetitive string collections that we are facing. In this survey, formed by two parts, we cover the algorithmic developments that have led to these data structures. In this first part, we describe the distinct compression paradigms that have been used to exploit repetitiveness, and the algorithmic techniques that provide direct access to the compressed strings. In the quest for an ideal measure of repetitiveness, we uncover a fascinating web of relations between those measures, as well as the limits up to which the data can be recovered, and up to which direct access to the compressed data can be provided. This is the basic aspect of indexability, which is covered in the second part of this survey.

Assessing biomarkers of ageing as measures of cumulative animal welfare

In order to determine which conditions provide the best overall quality of life for nonhuman animals, it is important to be able to measure their cumulative welfare experience. The ideal measure of cumulative welfare would be comprehensive, objectively measurable, and easy to transfer across species; however, existing approaches fall far short of this ideal. Recent academic work has suggested that measures of biological ageing could provide a highly promising alternative measure of cumulative welfare, which comes much closer to meeting these ideal goals. Here, I review the existing empirical support for the use of biomarkers of ageing as a measure of cumulative welfare, discuss the prerequisites of applying the method, and explore a number of important caveats that may limit its applicability. Overall, despite some important potential weaknesses, biomarkers of ageing are likely to represent an important step forward in the assessment of cumulative animal welfare, which could potentially help resolve some important long-running uncertainties and disputes in the animal-welfare movement.

Objective or Perception-Based: A Debate on the Ideal Measure of Corruption

Cornell International Law Journal: Vol. 50 : No. 1 , Article 4.Kazakhstan, usually regarded as a country plagued by high levels of corruption, has recently adopted several legislative and non-legislative measures to address the problem and hopefully to curb corruption. In order to assess the effectiveness of the anticorruption policies, several institutions—from the Institute of Public Policy of the Nur Otan party to the former Academy of Financial Police of the Republic of Kazakhstan—have attempted to conceive, develop, and apply various methodologies to estimate the level of corruption across sectors and over time in Kazakhstan. By developing and applying these newly conceived measures of corruption, policy makers hoped to achieve three basic results: 1) to assess whether and to what extent anti-corruption policies generated the expected results and contributed to the reduction of corruption in the country; 2) to develop a better understanding of the areas/sectors in which anti-corruption policies have been more effective in reducing corruption; and 3) to identify areas/sectors where it is harder to eradicate or at least reduce the level of corruption and where greater efforts are needed.