EPM

Heat resistant conveyor belts are critical assets for a pelletizing plant because of the losses that their failures cause. Accordingly, the life cycle of these conveyor belts should be evaluated during work, in order to assist their maintenance, and, in this context, this study proposes the use of material characterization and thermal degradation of the conveyor belts components. The characterizations were performed in a comparative way between three different kinds of heat resistant conveyor belts supplied to a global mining company. The belts carcasses were characterized by FT-IR aiming at the polymers qualitative analysis. Similarly, the rubbers were characterized by the analysis of their pyrolyzed products by FT-IR and their crosslinks densities were evaluated by the use of the Flory-Rehner equation after the swelling of the rubbers, which helped to justify the belts behavior under thermal degradation, studied in a previous work. Using these results and data of mechanical properties variation according to time and process temperature, it was possible to establish the rate of damage done to each conveyor belt and, applying real process data, the belts performance during work could be evaluated.

Keywords: Conveyor belts. Synthetic fibers. EPDM. FT-IR. Flory-Rehner equation.

A number of holding and project-oriented companies have attached great importance to this subject recently that given the constraints and resources, we have to choose and manage our projects with awareness, while they take some other items like goals, strategies, added-value and the risk of portfolio investment & capabilities into consideration. these companies come across with a great deal of challenges  to plan and control the above items in order to achieve the goals of holding ,since holding companies are working in different businesses  and deal with assorted types of units and processes . So, to this aim, we take the design and implementation of the portfolio and enterprise project management into granted as a big step and strategy being taken to manage the holding companies. Here in this paper, we study the portfolio management by using the enterprise project management (EPM) solution from a holding company view point.

Financial Planning is the process of estimating the capital required and determining its competition. It is the process of framing financial policies in relation to procurement, investment and administration of funds of an enterprise. Financial forecasting is an estimate of future financial outcomes for a company. Financial forecasts estimate future income and expenses for a business over a period of time, generally the next year. They are used to develop projections for profit and loss statements, balance sheets, burn rate, and other cash flow forecasts. Financial forecasts can use historical accounting and sales data, and external market and economic indicators, to predict what will happen to the company in financial terms over the given period of time. The main difference between the two is forecasting answers the question what will happen and strategic planning answers the question how to make it happen. Forecasting uses statistical tools to peek into the future such as time series analysis and regression analysis while as strategic planning requires a lot of data as compared to the former just to formulate a strategy. Strategic planning uses market data, expert opinion, surveys and more and it is only done at the top level management while as forecasting only involves past data to calculate the future ones and is done at the middle level management. The quality of an organization's financial plan lies in the ability to analyze a combination of facts and variables in a way that is reliably insightful and predictive. The ability to repeat the process, reassess the information, and realign goals is essential to making accurate predictions and developing purposeful capital, operational and market strategies. The financial planning process becomes an accurate and reliable tool for strategy-setting and financial measurement. This is accomplished by identifying factors that consistently drive revenues and costs, obtaining understanding and buy-in from those providing data, and building a simple yet controlled solution. OneStream is software for financial planning and forecasting solution that will transform and enhance your entire financial planning cycle, from target setting and budgeting to forecasting and consolidation, with extensive reporting capabilities, predictive analysis and intuitive, highly graphical dashboards. Available as an on-premise or in-cloud solution, OneStream delivers extensive native mobile capabilities that provide full data entry and update capabilities, enabling collaboration on plans, budgets and forecasts from anywhere, at any time. Analyze actual data, create multiple scenarios and versions, and test 'what if' assumptions to reflect a constantly evolving business environment. Monitor performance metrics and align resources and initiatives with corporate objectives and market events using integrated dashboards and data analysis capabilities.

Prior literature documents that the Sharpe ratio (SR) generates biases in performance evaluation if returns distribution deviates from normal distribution because SR is derived under the mean-variance model with the strict assumption of either quadratic preferences or customarily distributed returns. When the return distributions deviate from normality, it may lead to unreasonable results. Therefore, this study examines which performance measurement approaches are efficient for non-normality on the distribution of asset returns. We collect monthly returns of 14 Credit Suisse (CS) hedges fund indexes from April 1994 to June 2021. The hedge fund index returns exhibit high negative skewness or high positive kurtosis, implying non-normal distribution. Then, we employ the Sharpe ratio (SR) and two performance measures, which extend the Sharpe ratio, the generalized Sharpe ratio (GSR), and the economic performance measure (EPM), to evaluate the performances of hedge funds. In addition, both the nonparametric and parametric estimation methods of the GSR and the EPM are utilized. Our findings indicate that the nonparametric GSR and the nonparametric EPM produce more similar rankings than the SR. Among the three parametric estimation methods of the GSR and EPM, only the method proposed by [1] produces similar rankings with the nonparametric GSR and the nonparametric EPM. Finally, our study contributes the practical approach for fund managers to evaluate their fund performance efficiently.

This paper presents an Ecological-Economic (Eco-Eco) modelling using the Intensity of Erosion and Outflow (IntErO) model for calculation of sediment yield and runoff assessing the impacts of different land covers on soil erosion intensity. Calculations have been made for the Velicka River basin, which is one of 57 sub-basins of the Lim River in the Northeast Montenegro. Several different land use scenarios were then simulated in the model in order to find the optimal scenario of land use for intensive seed potato production. The results of Ecological (Eco-) analysis shown that the real soil loss under current conditions is 18148 m³yr-1. If seed potato production is introduced, the model calculated a soil loss of 20834 m³yr-1 as sediment yield. In order to balance the damage caused by the introduction of seed potato production we considered also the ecological measure of afforestation to reduce soil loss caused by seed potato production. The model calculated that afforestation would result in a decrease of sediment yield to 17886 m³yr-1. The results of Economic (-Eco) analysis revealed that the investment of €3,385 per ha for the establishment of the seed potato production will provide the income for the farmers of €15,000 per hectare annually. In parallel, we proposed the investment for the protection of the area (258 ha) with afforestation that amounts to €330,608 (€1,281 per ha), for the period of two years, with no other costs in the next decade. The research results demonstrate that the application of the Eco-Eco modelling, by using the IntErO model for studying the effect of soil erosion and possible land use for intensive seed potato production in the Velicka River Basin provides cost effective solutions for the benefit of the local population.

This report contains the results of the investigative process developed by the Centre for Study of Opinion (CEO) of the University of Antioquia in Medellin y las Empresas Publicas de Medellin (EPM), based on the collaboration agreement with technical, scientific and academic (Contract-No.9DJ 9610/78), under the name of "research on the levels of customer satisfaction - audit service - title that matches every sense of the vision of Empresas Publicas  de Medellin, which is expressed as" being a company leading role in Colombia and Latin America in providing integrated utilities and related home, which based on the knowledge of the needs of clients, providing value-added solutions and a level of excellence that will satisfy, and thus guarantee their loyalty and maximizes the value generated by each of them, "and that any projection in the modern world, from the client and means to meet their expectations on which are mounted services excellence, which ultimately is the ...

In an extensive breeding program based on biotechnological approaches several alfalfa regenerants were selected in vitro for PEG-tolerance. A system in which severe osmotic shock is applied to detached leaves was developed and some physiological traits were followed. No significant differences in relative water content (RWC) decrease, proline accumulation and ion leakage between the tested genotypes were found with 40% PEG stress. When the samples were allowed to recover on osmotic-free buffer clear distinction could be made. The osmotic-tolerant genotypes were able to restore their RWC after 24 h on PEG, while the sensitive plants (the explant-source genotype) lost this capability. The well defined tendency to restore relatively low values of proline content and ion leakage during recovery could be related to osmotic tolerance. Electrophoretic mobility appears to be a sensitive test for assessment of osmotically-induced changes of the cell surface. The surface charge density of the...

Genetic generalised epilepsy (GGE) is the most common form of genetic epilepsy, accounting for 20% of all epilepsies. Genomic copy number variations (CNVs) constitute important genetic risk factors of common GGE syndromes. In our present genome-wide burden analysis, large (≥ 400 kb) and rare (< 1%) autosomal microdeletions with high calling confidence (≥ 200 markers) were assessed by the Affymetrix SNP 6.0 array in European case-control cohorts of 1,366 GGE patients and 5,234 ancestry-matched controls. We aimed to: 1) assess the microdeletion burden in common GGE syndromes, 2) estimate the relative contribution of recurrent microdeletions at genomic rearrangement hotspots and non-recurrent microdeletions, and 3) identify potential candidate genes for GGE. We found a significant excess of microdeletions in 7.3% of GGE patients compared to 4.0% in controls (P = 1.8 x 10-7; OR = 1.9). Recurrent microdeletions at seven known genomic hotspots accounted for 36.9% of all microdeletions ...

The complexity of gonadal steroid hormone actions is reflected in their broad and diverse effects on a host of integrated systems including reproductive physiology, sexual behavior, stress responses, immune function, cognition, and neural protection. Understanding the specific contributions of androgens and estrogens in neurons that mediate these important biological processes is central to the study of neuroendocrinology. Of particular interest in recent years has been the biological role of androgen metabolites. The goal of this review is to highlight recent data delineating the specific brain targets for the dihydrotestosterone metabolite, 5alpha-androstane, 3beta,17beta-diol (3beta-Diol). Studies using both in vitro and in vivo approaches provide compelling evidence that 3beta-Diol is an important modulator of the stress response mediated by the hypothalmo-pituitary-adrenal axis. Furthermore, the actions of 3beta-Diol are mediated by estrogen receptors, and not androgen receptor...

Rodent self-grooming is an important, evolutionarily conserved behavior, highly sensitive to pharmacological and genetic manipulations. Mice with aberrant grooming phenotypes are currently used to model various human disorders. Therefore, it is critical to understand the biology of grooming behavior, and to assess its translational validity to humans. The present in-silico study used publicly available gene expression and behavioral data obtained from several inbred mouse strains in the open-field, light-dark box, elevated plus- and elevated zero-maze tests. As grooming duration differed between strains, our analysis revealed several candidate genes with significant correlations between gene expression in the brain and grooming duration. The Allen Brain Atlas, STRING, GoMiner and Mouse Genome Informatics databases were used to functionally map and analyze these candidate mouse genes against their human orthologs, assessing the strain ranking of their expression and the regional dist...

The complexity of gonadal steroid hormone actions is reflected in their broad and diverse effects on a host of integrated systems including reproductive physiology, sexual behavior, stress responses, immune function, cognition, and neural protection. Understanding the specific contributions of androgens and estrogens in neurons that mediate these important biological processes is central to the study of neuroendocrinology. Of particular interest in recent years has been the biological role of androgen metabolites. The goal of this review is to highlight recent data delineating the specific brain targets for the dihydrotestosterone metabolite, 5α-androstane, 3β, 17β-diol (3β-Diol). Studies using both in vitro and in vivo approaches provide compelling evidence that 3β-Diol is an important modulator of the stress response mediated by the hypothalmo-pituitary-adrenal axis. Further, the actions of 3β-Diol are mediated by estrogen receptors, and not androgen receptors, often through a canonical estrogen response element in the promoter of a given target gene. These novel findings compel us to re-evaluate the interpretation of past studies and the design of future experiments aimed at elucidating the specific effects of androgen receptor signaling pathways.

Interleukin 1 (IL-1) plays a critical role in stress responses, and its mRNA is induced in the brain by restraint stress. Previously, we reported that IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) knockout (KO) mice, which lacked IL-1Ra molecules that antagonize the IL-1 receptor, showed anti-depression-like behavior via adrenergic modulation at the age of 8 weeks. Here, we report that IL-1Ra KO mice display an anxiety-like phenotype that is induced spontaneously by aging in the elevated plus-maze (EPM) test. This anxiety-like phenotype was improved by the administration of diazepam. The expression of the anxiety-related molecule glucocorticoid receptor (GR) was significantly reduced in 20-week-old but not in 11-week-old IL-1Ra KO mice compared to wild-type (WT) littermates. The expression of the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) was not altered between IL-1Ra KO mice and WT littermates at either 11 or 20 weeks old. Analysis of monoamine concentration in the hippocampus revealed that tryptophan, ...

The EPM is a model for qualifying the erosion severity and estimating the total annual sediment yield. The EPM uses empirical coefficients (erodibility coefficient, protection coefficient and erosion coefficient) and a matrix of the basin physical characteristics. The EPM gives a quantitative estimation of erosion intensity as well as the estimation of sediment yield and transportation. To analyze the suitability of the Gavrilovic method for use with GIS techniques, we prepared cartographic data on geology, pedology, slope, temperature and land use in digital form. A raster-based Geographic Information System (GIS) was applied to generate the erosion-severity and sediment yield maps. In order to validate the EPM estimated erosion, data annual sediment yield were collected between 1999 and 2007. The results showed a mean sediment delivery ratio (SDR) of around 8% and a calculated mean sediment yield of 0.108 t/ha/year, which is close to the observed one, 0.169 t/ha/year. The obtained soil loss map could be considered as a useful tool for environmental monitoring and water resources management.

Alterations of nitric oxide (NO) metabolism in the brain have been associated with modifications of stress-related behavior in animal models. It has been generally assumed that these behavioral changes are due to the neuronal nitrosative activity. On the other hand, glial NO production has been demonstrated mainly as a slow reaction to brain insults through the activity of an inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS) isoform (NOS2).Recently we uncovered increased NOS activity in astrocytes of mice with a NOS2 mutation. Interestingly, these mice revealed a behavioral phenotype suggestive of increased susceptibility to stress. In the present study we investigated the responses of these mutants to stress by exposing them to predator scent. Seven days later, mutant mice exhibited significantly higher anxiety-like behavior in the elevated-plus maze, increased acoustic startle responses, and higher plasma corticosterone levels compared with their controls. Systemic administration of a NOS inhibitor prior to the stress exposure reversed these stress-related effects without affecting controls' behavior. These findings are in agreement with previous studies showing an association between increased NO levels and enhanced anxiety-like responses. In addition, mutant mice performed better in the Morris water maze prior to stress exposure, but the two animal groups performed alike in an object-recognition test. Taken together, our results suggest the involvement of astrocytic-derived NO in modulating behavior.