Background and Aim: Diagnosing the status of the posterior ligament complex (PLC) plays an essential role in the management of patients with thoracolumbar fractures. In this study, due to the inefficiency of existing imaging modalities in the accurate detection of PLC damage, we investigated the relevance of some imaging parameters to specific guidelines for rapid PLC injury detection. Methods...

We introduce an evolutionary game in which envy and charity can be considered as a consequence of Darwinian competition, i.e. individuals aim at increasing their own proportion rather than their absolute contribution to the next generation, and other-regarding-preference is a "method" for that. If the damage is additive and its cost is low, an envious strategy defeats a neutral strategy (ration...

The southwest Kansas region is one of the centers in the United States for the production of processed beef and related industries. Trucks utilized to support these industries cause noteworthy damages to the regional highway pavements. The objective of this research project was to determine the pavement damage cost of a typical highway section in southwest Kansas attributed to the truck traffic...

We use FUND 3.5 to estimate the social cost of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and sulphur hexafluoride emissions. We show the results of a range of sensitivity analyses, focusing on the impact of carbon dioxide fertilization. Ignored in previous studies of the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions, carbon dioxide fertilization has a positive effect at the margin, but only for carbon ...

This paper proposes a comprehensive cost-effectiveness analysis to evaluate environmental policies. While effectiveness is measured as the reduction of different pollutants aggregated to a damage index, all the other effects apart from pollutant reduction are monetarised and expressed as cost. The damage index is based on the ‘Umwelt-BelastungsPunkte’ (UBP)-method (Environmental Impact Points) ...

This article examines the prospects for cost reductions of flat panel photovoltaic (PV) electricity. Current PV production cost ranges are presented, in terms of cost per peak W and cost per kWh, for single crystalline and multi-crystalline silicon, as well as for thin-film technologies. Possible decreases of these costs are assessed, as expected based on learning curves. The cumulative product...

results of damage prediction in buildings can be used as a useful tool for managing and decreasing seismic risk of earthquakes. in this study, damage spectrum and c4.5 decision tree algorithm were utilized for damage prediction in steel buildings during earthquakes. in order to prepare the damage spectrum, steel buildings were modeled as a single-degree-of-freedom (sdof) system and time-history...