A practical low-complexity implementable coding scheme is considered for a two-link binary Chief Executive Officer (CEO) problem in this paper. The proposed scheme is based on the binary quantization and the Slepian-Wolf (SW) coding problem. It is shown that the source splitting technique is an efficient method for achieving non-corner points of the achievable rate region of the SW problem. Decoding is accomplished by employing iterative message passing algorithms for the Wyner-Ziv (WZ) problem, in the proposed scheme. We show in this paper that applying iterative message-passing schemes yields a close rate-distortion performance to the Berger-Tung inner bound of the binary CEO problem.

Aims The use of intrauterine devices (IUDs) has been one of the most effective, the safest and cost-effective methods for preventing pregnancy, for a long time. However, some complications have been reported for IUDs. The complications may be reduced by using a specific technique for placement of IUD. The objective of this study was to introduce the rotating withdrawal technique for the first time, which was investigated to reduce the complications of IUD insertion. Materials & Methods This historical cohort study was conducted on 1199 females who referred to Sarem Medical Center for IUD insertion from 1984 to 1995. After primary examinations, IUD was inserted by rotating withdrawal technique. The subjects were followed up for 2 years. Findings Displacement was observed just in 20 cases (1. 67%). All of them were seen in the first month after placement. For these cases, IUD insertion was done again. After the second replacement, displacement was observed in 4 cases (0. 035%) after one month. Therefore, it was recommended to them to use another preventive method. There was no pregnancy or displacement in the other cases during 2 years. Conclusion The rotating withdrawal technique can minimize the pregnancy rate when IUD is used. In addition to the type and quality of IUD, insertion method of IUD can increase its effectiveness.

In this paper, a new method for extending and relaxing the noise-coupling (NC) technique is proposed to enhance the noise-shaping order without adding the number of integrators. The noise-shaping order of the introduced ∑∆ modulator whit applying a second-order noise-coupling technique is enhanced and its performance with optimizing the noise transfer function (NTF) zeros is improved. Also, by removing the analog adder at feedforward path and transferring it to a new feedback branch before the last integrator and adding second-order NC path can be decreased the input voltage swing to the quantizer. Thus, by improving the modulator resolution, power consumption can be reduced. Mathematical analyses and behavioural simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the new NC method. To examine its performance, a 2nd-order single loop ΣΔ modulator was designed. The new noise-coupling method is used to achieve the three-order noise shaping to increase the resolution with low complexity and low-power. The results show an outstanding improvement in signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) compared to the conventional structure.

In this article, Ulam Hyers stability of Volterra Fredholm (VF) type fractional integro-differential equation is studied by the fixed point notion in the generalized metric space. In addition, the efficiency of the Laplace decomposition method in the context of solving some integral equations of the Volterra Fredholm type is shown. Further convergence analysis of the numerical scheme is shown.

Context: Decision fusion has emerged as a data management technique due to the diversity and scalability of data in health care. This first-scope review aimed to investigate the use of this technique in health care. Evidence Acquisition: A query was carried out on PubMed, Science Direct, and EMBASE within 1960-2017 using such keywords as decision fusion, information fusion, symbolic fusion, distributed decisions, expert fusion, and sensor fusion, in conjunction with med-* and health-care. The articles were analyzed in terms of methodology and results. Results: The literature search yielded 106 articles. Based on the results, in the field of health care, the articles were related to image processing (29%), sensors (22%), diagnosis area(10%), biology (6%), health informatics (8%), and signal process (15%). The majority of articles were published in 2011, 2012, and 2015, and the USA had the largest number of articles. Most of the articles were about engineering and basic sciences. Regarding healthcare, the majority of studies were conducted on the diagnosis of diseases (80%), while 9% and 11% of articles were about prevention and treatment, respectively. These studies applied the following methods: intelligent methods (44%), new methods (36%), probabilistic (13%), and evidential methods (7%). The dataset was as follows: research project data (49%), online dataset (42%), and simulation (9%). Furthermore, 49% of articles mentioned the applied software, among which classification and interpretation were reportedly the most and the least used methods. Conclusion: Decision fusion is a holistic approach to evaluate all areas of health care and elucidate diverse techniques that can lead to improved quality of care.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive ranking model of companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), using accounting information, balanced scorecard and PAPRIKA technique. To do this, the important criteria in ranking studies were applied to103 firms in the TSE (1133 year-firm) during 2004-2014, using PAPRIKA technique. After recognition of principal factors by factor analysis based on KMO indexing and Bartlett’s test, rakings’ criteria were provided for the participants to determine their preferences, using 1000Minds software (PAPRIKA-based). Then, based on cumulative preferences, ranking of firms were provided in terms of three approaches of accounting information-based ranking, balanced scorecard-based ranking and combined ranking method.To test the hypothesis concerning the explanatory power of approaches, using regression analysis and the scores from the PAPRIKA technique as dependent variable and the criteria from the three approaches as explanatory variables, the mathematical models of the approaches were specified, and the explanatory power and accuracy of them, supported by Vuong test, compared with each other. The findings indicated that the explanatory power and accuracy of the balanced scorecard-based ranking model, and the combined model are significantly greater than the accounting-based ranking model. Also, the explanatory power and accuracy of the combined model are significantly greater than the balanced scorecard-based ranking model. Thus, the combined model represents great advantages in comparison with the two other models.

Pedological criterion affecting desertification in alluvial fans was investigated, for which the map of units was prepared by crossing maps of land use, geology, slope classes and grid layer created by the extension of ET Geo-Wizards in ArcGIS 10.3. Three indices of salinity, erodibility, and permeability of soil were considered and classified. Weights of criteria and consistency ratio were calculated by the AHP method and ELECTRE I method was used to prioritize the options. After creating the weighted super matrix and calculating the concordance and discordance matrix, the difference between dominance and defeat values were calculated. The results showed that the difference in values obtained from AHP-ELECTRE I technique varied from -15 to 16. The alluvial fans were classified into three classes of I, III, and IV from the viewpoint of pedological criterion affecting desertification by using AHP-ELECTRE I technique. Results showed that 71.99% of the area was in the low desertification potential, while 2.19% and 25.82% were in the high and very high desertification potential, respectively.

Since a clear criterion has not been mentioned for liability in religious scriptures and as a result jurisprudents and those who have written the law have only mentioned some instances of liability, problems have occurred for the courts of law. This article has been written to address the necessity of introducing a criterion to be referred to in cases that are unclear and are not mentioned in scriptures. The outcome of this study is that the criterion for liability is the one whom the crime is referred to not other criteria such as aggressive nature of the act or negligence of the perpetrator. Based on this, to consider someone liable it suffices the loss and harm be referred to him/her; whether the act has been aggressive or not and whether the perpetrator has been negligent or not. Relying upon this rule, when there are a number of causes liability should be attributed to someone whom the crime is referred to by the common sense. If the loss and harm are referred to more than one source by the common sense then each one will be liable proportionately.