Traditional algorithms for hidden Markov model decoding seek to maximize either the probability of a state path or the number of positions of a sequence assigned to the correct state. These algorithms provide only a single answer and in practice do not produce good results. The most mathematically sound of these algorithms is the Viterbi algorithm, which returns the state path that has the highest probability of generating a given sequence. Here, we explore an extension to this algorithm that allows us to find the k paths of highest probabilities. The naive implementation of k best Viterbi paths is highly space-inefficient, so we adapt recent work on the Viterbi algorithm for a single path to this domain. Out algorithm uses much less memory than the naive approach. We then investigate the usefulness of the k best Viterbi paths on the example of transmembrane protein topology prediction. For membrane proteins, even simple path combination algorithms give good explanations, and if we look at the paths we are combining, we can give a sense of confidence in the explanation as well. For proteins with two topologies, the k best paths can give insight into both correct explanations of a sequence, a feature lacking from traditional algorithms in this domain.

Kabuli chickpea (<i>Cicer arietinum</i> L.) has two leaf types, the fern and unifoliate. Yield potential is limited for kabuli chickpea in Saskatchewan. It is limited by a short-season, a semi-arid environment, and end-of-season rainfall. Manipulating plant population, and choosing chickpea cultivars with the best leaf type for biomass production, radiation interception and yield for the early, middle, or late growth season, may increase chickpea yield. Therefore, the objectives of this study were: to (i) determine the relationship between leaf type and key growth parameters of six chickpea cultivars varying in leaf morphology at moderate and high plant population densities; (іі) to characterize the reaction of the fern and unifoliate leaf to altered canopy light environments. Different light environments were created by 50% defoliation at vegetative growth, first flower, and 50% shading from vegetative growth to first flower, as well as two light enrichment treatments initiated at the first flower and pod formation stages.<p> Fern leaf cultivars exhibited higher maximum light interception, seasonal cumulative intercepted radiation and a higher harvest index compared to unifoliate leaf cultivars. However, both leaf type canopies had less than 95% light interception for most of the season. The fern and unifoliate leaf type contributed to similar radiation use efficiency in three out of four location-years. In addition, fern leaf cultivars produced significantly higher seed yield than cultivars with unifoliate leaves.<p>Plant density influenced growth parameters. For example, the 45 plants m-2 treatment had a higher harvest index than the 85 plants m-2 treatment, in two location-years, while both population treatments were similar in the other two location-years. Yield of chickpea was increased by higher plant population in only one location-year, but was not significantly affected by plant population in the other location-years. The effect of canopy light environment manipulation on chickpea yield depended on the stages of plant development when they were applied. Defoliation at vegetative growth and first flower had no effect on yield. However, plants responded significantly to the 50% shade treatment; the crop growth rate, harvest index and yield were less in the shaded treatment compared to the control. Shading also increased plant height. Light enrichment treatments increased the yield. However, the degree of yield increase was greater when light enrichment occurred at first flower, than at the later stage of pod formation. These results highlighted the importance of the amount of irradiance during the flowering stage. It was concluded that chickpea breeders should select lines with fern leaves for improved radiation interception when breeding cultivars for semiarid short-season environments such as in Saskatchewan. Management and breeding practices should ensure that the crop can make efficient use of the solar radiation at flowering to maximize yield. Improvement at the canopy and subsequent yield level is yet to be made in Saskatchewan environments by increased light interception, increased growth before flowering, and increased and stable harvest index.

This thesis examines the retention of best practices by clinicians after the implementation of an integrated care pathway for patients with congestive heart failure. While the literature suggests there are many reasons why the implementation of best practices is difficult, there is little information on the sustainability of best practices once implemented.<p>Using a qualitative research design guided by Rogers theory of Diffusion of Innovations the researcher interviewed seven clinicians who participated in the implementation of the pathway. A thematic analysis revealed several themes that ran throughout participants responses. <p>While the participants indicated they see value in best practices, they also identified barriers to getting that knowledge into practice and keeping it there. A spectrum of factors, including individual autonomy, time, resources, organizational support and the organization of the system all played a role.<p>In the end, participants revealed that although small pieces of the pathway remain in practice, the pathway itself is no longer used by clinicians to manage patients with congestive heart failure.

This essay discusses in a comparative way the Swedish and Norwegian legal system, mainly laws that contain adoption regulations. It also compares the administrative work that the government in both countries practices in relation to the individual person. In this essay, focus lies on the legal rights of the child in the adoption process and how well the government and its service meet the requirements from abroad.This essay has shown that the government has many rules and regulations that regulate their work and that all the sub processes are designed to ensure the child’s best in the adoption in both Sweden and Norway. Despite some differences in the investigation process, the work is very much alike. The differences in the investigation that leads to an approval has shown that the government in Norway is not as controlling in comparison to the Swedish government. This could lead to the child’s rights being neglected to a certain extent.

The child and the youth are the overall national properties. Constructing a safe growth and social environment is the first priority to safeguard its rights and interests. Our country in view of the child-youth rights' and interests' safeguard can be seen in the Criminal Law, the Civil Law, the Youth-Event Processing Law,the Child and Youth Sexual Transaction Prevention Act, and the Children and Youth Welfare Act . However, this article aims on ¡§the child-youth sex trade prevention regulations¡¨ in view of the country and ¡§the Children and Youth Welfare Act¡¨ relevant stipulation, examining the country in regard to promote the positive body-and-mind development of the child and the youth, safeguard its rights and interests, promote its welfare, fulfill the goal of ¡§child and youth¡¦s best interests¡¨, by using the family-care pattern compulsory devices, achieves by the protection placement mechanism's implementation method, therefore, to finally examine whether the goal and the methods used meet the proportional principle. This article examines and discusses the foundation of the child and the youth law standard, the legislative reasons and impetus process of child and the Child and Youth Sexual Transaction Prevention Act and the Children and Youth Welfare Act. It compares the relationships between the mechanism of child-and-youth placements and the proportional principle of these two regulations, and therefore, to propose the defects that our country has presented nowadays and provide suggestions and new directions for the government as a reference to emend the law and social workers to implement the child-youth protection placement in a better way in the future.

In recent years, the business environment is rapidly changed, the ever-changing of technology, so continue to create competitive advantage and profitability of the resources is the unique Knowledge Management (KM) of the enterprise. In particular, the characteristics of the semiconductor packaging and testing industry is depreciation fast, technical and professional talent-intensive, capacity and yield must to be able to meet as soon as possible in order to catch up with the rate of depreciation of production machinery, in order to keep profitability and competitiveness, so the R & D, KM of production technology and skills experience heritage become very important. Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE Inc.), the world's leading providers of semiconductor manufacturing services company, founded in 1984, focused on semiconductor customers, offering a comprehensive range of IC packaging and testing services. ASE started the KM at 2001, divided four phase, and though experienced the industrial boom and the financial tsunami, still successfully developed copper process with leading technology. The gold ten-year plan which was launched in 2010 continuously expands capacity and R & D innovation, and expects 2018-2020 to challenge the annual revenue goal of $ 8.4 billion. This research is to analyze the evolution of KM on ASE, and try to identify the characteristics of the semiconductor manufacturing industry about the development of KM, through the results of this research enable to understand the evolutionary process of KM development and change in order to proceed the comprehensive and cross-industry KM for the evolution of research in the future.

Performance-based contracting (PBC) for roadway maintenance is relatively new among various alternative contracting options available at present and is increasingly drawing more attention from state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and the contracting community. Because performance-based maintenance contracts extend over multiple years (typically 5-7 years) and shift performance risk to contractors, it is critical that contractors be selected based on a form of best-value method rather than on the conventional low-bid method. Currently, highway agencies use various methods for determining the best-value bid based on cost and technical scores. Five best-value bid identification methods that are already in practice by the state transportation agencies in Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, United Kingdom, and New Zealand were used as case studies for this research. These five methods were evaluated in terms of the agency’s willingness to pay for quality and the neutrality of these methods with respect to lowest bid and highest quality. To understand and describe the bid evaluation method, the agency can develop a willingness to pay (WTP) curve. This curve should represent the agency’s needs and budget, reflect their project characteristics, and accommodate associated performance risks. An Excel macro based software tool has been developed that automates these five best-value bid identification methods and also helps customize anyone of these options for any agency.

Wireless sensor networks provide an alternative way of improving our environments, such as environment surveillance, hazard monitoring, and other customized environment application, especially in military applications. Furthermore, the coverage issue in wireless sensor networks also plays an important role. Good coverage of a sensor network is an essential issue to ensure the quality of service. This paper studies the barrier coverage problems of a sensor networks, and will find the optimized straight-line path for both best-case and worst-case coverage problems. The optimal algorithm we proposed has a quadratic time complexity and is based on computational geometry. We proposed the distance function theory and applied it in our problems and we used the sweep and divide concept to solve the problems. Furthermore, the correctness of the proposed method is validated and simulated by experiments.

Since the internet appears at the start of 1990s, the society has been changed. Nowadays, the internet has already become an essential part in modern life. The real world¡¦s interpersonal communication, sharing behavior and other interaction ways are all appeared in the internet virtual world. The Virtual Community verified this phenomenon. The Virtual Knowledge Community provided internet users convenient ways to seek useful information. Take the largest Virtual Knowledge Community in Taiwan¡ÐYahoo¡IKimo Knowledge¡Ï as example, its reaching rate exceeded Google Taiwan in only about one year, since the website was launched at the end of 2004. Obviously, the knowledge search service played a very important role in Taiwan. It seems that people can use this service originated from the concept of Web 2.0 to improve their own knowledge experience. However, the virtual world is fictitious because it is filled with good and bad information. Can people distinguish them? Will it influence the users¡¦ cognition and the ability to judge? The research is developed under this issue, adopting Content Analysis method to survey the Best Answers in Virtual Knowledge Community. It tried to prove and find out how the ability of people¡¦s information judgment under the Web 2.0 tendency is. The research found that the Best Answers in different categories are different in their argumentation structure. First, in the category of ¡§Evidence¡¨, the structure is obviously different between the ways Best Answers chosen. Best Answers chosen by asker pay much more attention to evidence than those chosen by voters. In addition, the category of ¡§Information Offering¡¨ played an important role in Best Answers. The significance is more conspicuous than Argumentation Backing and Emotionality Backing. Does it mean the answers provided more information will be chosen as Best Answer more easily? It also reminds us that even the internet and information technology bring this society many advantages and benefits, but we must train ourselves to have depth think and judgment ability, too. Or we will fall into Information Smog and lose our judgment ability.

In this compendium, we hope to continue the efforts of Bates (2000) and others who have convincingly argued the need for institutional strategic planning and adoption of best practices in learning technology management as institutions transform themselves in the new millennium. We offer here a snapshot of contemporary best practices in learning technology planning and management, based on case studies from leading higher educational institutions in Canada, the United States, Australia and Spain. While we make no claim to completeness, it is our hope that this collection and the associated resources we note will be of interest to key decision makers in the academic communities of universities and colleges, including heads of departments, deans, vice presidents, and presidents. It is also aimed at faculty members concerned with teaching and learning policies and practices.