Free testosterone as marker of adaptation to medium-intensive exercise.

Science.gov (United States)

Shkurnikov, M U; Donnikov, A E; Akimov, E B; Sakharov, D A; Tonevitsky, A G

2008-09-01

A 4-week study of adaptation reserves of the body was carried out during medium intensive exercise (medium intensive training: 60-80% threshold anaerobic metabolism). Two groups of athletes were singled out by the results of pulsometry analysis: with less than 20% work duration at the level above the 80% threshold anaerobic metabolism and with more than 20% work duration at the level above 80% threshold anaerobic metabolism. No appreciable differences between the concentrations of total testosterone, growth hormone, and cortisol before and after exercise in the groups with different percentage of anaerobic work duration were detected. In group 1 the concentrations of free testosterone did not change throughout the period of observation in comparison with the levels before training. In group 2, the level of free testosterone increased in comparison with the basal level: from 0.61+/-0.12 nmol/liter at the end of week 1 to 0.98+/-0.11 nmol/liter at the end of week 4 (p<0.01). The results indicate that the level of free testosterone can be used for evaluating the degree of athlete's adaptation to medium intensive exercise.

Receiver-initiated medium access control protocols for wireless sensor networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fafoutis, Xenofon; Di Mauro, Alessio; Vithanage, Madava D.

2015-01-01

One of the fundamental building blocks of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is the Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol, that part of the system governing when and how two independent neighboring nodes activate their respective transceivers to directly interact. Historically, data exchange has always...

Decentralized Adaptive Overcurrent Protection for Medium Voltage Maritime Power Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ciontea, Catalin-Iosif; Bak, Claus Leth; Blaabjerg, Frede

2016-01-01

the entire electrical network and changes the relay settings accordingly, but this approach is not adequate for the maritime power systems. This paper propose a decentralized adaptive protection method, where each protection relay is able to identify by itself the network status without the need of a central...... control unit. The new adaptive protection method is based on communication between the overcurrent relays and the equipment that could affect the protection system, such as circuit breakers and generators. Using PSCAD, the proposed method is implemented in a test medium voltage maritime power system......More and more maritime applications as marine vessels and offshore platforms need an adaptive protection power system. However, the adaptive protection is yet to be implemented in the maritime sector. Usually, the adaptive protection implies the existence of a central control unit that monitors...

Performance analysis of adaptive modulation for cognitive radios with opportunistic access

KAUST Repository

Chen, Yunfei

2011-06-01

The performance of adaptive modulation for cognitive radio with opportunistic access is analyzed by considering the effects of spectrum sensing and primary user traffic for Nakagami-m fading channels. Both the adaptive continuous rate scheme and the adaptive discrete rate scheme are considered. Numerical results show that spectrum sensing and primary user traffic cause considerable degradation to the bit error rate performance of adaptive modulation in a cognitive radio system with opportunistic access to the licensed channel. They also show that primary user traffic does not affect the link spectral efficiency performance of adaptive modulation, while the spectrum sensing degrades the link spectral efficiency performance. © 2011 IEEE.

Access to finance for micro, small and medium business units in Serbian agribusiness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sedlak Otilija

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Micro, small and medium business units contribute to development of agribusiness only if adequate financial resources for founding and development are given. This paper analyzes the possibilities of financing micro, small and medium legal entities in agribusiness in Serbia, compared to large enterprises. Empirical research included a survey comprising 119 agribusiness units, grouped into three categories dependent on their size. The aim was to confirm that there are substantial differences between units of different sizes, concerning possibilities of accessing bank loans and concerning the process of evaluation of conditions for credit approval. Also, aim was to determine differences between the uses of necessary key economic measures in agribusiness. Results showed significant differences between each group of business units for the majority of the observed parameters. Consequently the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs sector and especially entrepreneurs and farmers (micro units only have limited access to financial resources and more financing costs compared to large enterprises.

Accessing International Funding for Climate Change Adaptation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Lars; Ray, Aaron D.; Smith, Joel B.

of international public funding sources dedicated to adaptation investments (Chapter 3) • Seven fundamental eligibility criteria for accessing international public funding and guidance on how to apply these concepts to project ideas (Chapter 3) • A template (built on the abovementioned seven fundamental...

An IEEE 802.3 Compatible Real Time Medium Access Control with Length-based Priority

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2006-01-01

A new medium access control method is proposed over the predominant Ethernet broadcast channel. Taking advantages of intrinsic variable length characteristic of standard Ethernet frame, message-oriented dynamic priority mechanism is established. Prioritized medium access control operates under a so-called block mode in event of collisions.High priority messages have a chance to preempt block status incurred by low priority ones. By this means, the new MAC provides a conditional deterministic real time performance beyond a statistical one. Experiments demonstrate effectiveness and attractiveness of the proposed scheme. Moreover, this new MAC is completely compatible with IEEE802.3.

Adaptive MAC-layer protocol for multiservice digital access via tree and branch communication networks

Science.gov (United States)

Sriram, Kotikalapudi; Li, Chia-Chang; Magill, Peter; Whitaker, Norman A.; Dail, James E.; Dajer, Miguel A.; Siller, Curtis A.

1995-11-01

Described here is an adaptive MAC-layer protocol that supports multiservice (STM and ATM) applications in the context of subscriber access to tree and branch (e.g., fiber-coaxial cable) networks. The protocol adapts to changing demands for a mix of circuit and cell mode applications, and efficiently allocates upstream and downstream bandwidth to a variety of bursty and isochronous traffic sources. In the case of a hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network the protocol resides in customer premises equipment and a common head-end controller. A medium-access control (MAC) processor provides for dividing the time domain for a given digital bitstream into successive frames, each with multiple STM and ATM time slots. Within the STM region of a frame, variable length time slots are allocated to calls (e.g., telephony, video telephony) requiring different amounts of bandwidth. A contention access signaling channel is also provided in this region for call control and set-up requests. Within the ATM region fixed-length time slots accommodate one individual ATM cell. These ATM time slots may be reserved for a user for the duration of a call or burst of successive ATM cells, or shared via a contention process. At least one contention time slot is available for signaling messages related to ATM call control and set-up requests. Further, the fixed-length ATM time slots may be reserved by a user for the duration of a call, or shared through a contention process. This paper describes the MAC-layer protocol, its relation to circuit- and ATM- amenable applications, and its performance with respect to signaling throughput and latency, and bandwidth efficiency for several service scenarios.

Performance analysis of adaptive modulation for cognitive radios with opportunistic access

KAUST Repository

Chen, Yunfei; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Tang, Liang

2011-01-01

The performance of adaptive modulation for cognitive radio with opportunistic access is analyzed by considering the effects of spectrum sensing and primary user traffic for Nakagami-m fading channels. Both the adaptive continuous rate scheme

Adaptation of Listeria monocytogenes in a simulated cheese medium: effects on virulence using the Galleria mellonella infection model.

Science.gov (United States)

Schrama, D; Helliwell, N; Neto, L; Faleiro, M L

2013-06-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the acid and salt adaptation in a cheese-based medium on the virulence potential of Listeria monocytogenes strains isolated from cheese and dairy processing environment using the Galleria mellonella model. Four L. monocytogenes strains were exposed to a cheese-based medium in conditions of induction of an acid tolerance response and osmotolerance response (pH 5·5 and 3·5% w/v NaCl) and injected in G. mellonella insects. The survival of insects and the L. monocytogenes growth kinetics in insects were evaluated. The gene expression of hly, actA and inlA genes was determined by real-time PCR. The adapted cells of two dairy strains showed reduced insect mortality (P 0·05) was found between adapted and nonadapted cells. The gene expression results evidenced an overexpression of virulence genes in cheese-based medium, but not in simulated insect-induced conditions. Our results suggest that adaptation to low pH and salt in a cheese-based medium can affect the virulence of L. monocytogenes, but this effect is strain dependent. In this study, the impact of adaptation to low pH and salt in a cheese-based medium on L. monocytogenes virulence was tested using the Wax Moth G. mellonella model. This model allowed the differentiation of the virulence potential between the L. monocytogenes strains. The effect of adaptation on virulence is strain dependent. The G. mellonella model revealed to be a prompt method to test food-related factors on L. monocytogenes virulence. © 2013 The Society for Applied Microbiology.

An Adaptive Time-Spread Multiple-Access Policy for Wireless Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Konstantinos Oikonomou

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Sensor networks require a simple and efficient medium access control policy achieving high system throughput with no or limited control overhead in order to increase the network lifetime by minimizing the energy consumed during transmission attempts. Time-spread multiple-access (TSMA policies that have been proposed for ad hoc network environments, can also be employed in sensor networks, since no control overhead is introduced. However, they do not take advantage of any cross-layer information in order to exploit the idiosyncrasies of the particular sensor network environment such as the presence of typically static nodes and a common destination for the forwarded data. An adaptive probabilistic TSMA-based policy, that is proposed and analyzed in this paper, exploits these idiosyncrasies and achieves higher system throughput than the existing TSMA-based policies without any need for extra control overhead. As it is analytically shown in this paper, the proposed policy always outperforms the existing TSMA-based policies, if certain parameter values are properly set; the analysis also provides for these proper values. It is also shown that the proposed policy is characterized by a certain convergence period and that high system throughput is achieved for long convergence periods. The claims and expectations of the provided analysis are supported by simulation results presented in this paper.

Performance Evaluation of TDMA Medium Access Control Protocol in Cognitive Wireless Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammed Enes Bayrakdar

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Cognitive radio paradigm has been revealed as a new communication technology that shares channels in wireless networks. Channel assignment is a crucial issue in the field of cognitive wireless networks because of the spectrum scarcity. In this work, we have evaluated the performance of TDMA medium access control protocol. In our simulation scenarios, primary users and secondary users utilize TDMA as a medium access control protocol. We have designed a network environment in Riverbed simulation software that consists of primary users, secondary users, and base stations. In our system model, secondary users sense the spectrum and inform the base station about empty channels. Then, the base station decides accordingly which secondary user may utilize the empty channel. Energy detection technique is employed as a spectrum sensing technique because it is the best when information about signal of primary user is acquired. Besides, different number of users is selected in simulation scenarios in order to obtain accurate delay and throughput results. Comparing analytical model with simulation results, we have shown that performance analysis of our system model is consistent and accurate.

Distributed Fair Auto Rate Medium Access Control for IEEE 802.11 Based WLANs

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Yanfeng; Niu, Zhisheng

Much research has shown that a carefully designed auto rate medium access control can utilize the underlying physical multi-rate capability to exploit the time-variation of the channel. In this paper, we develop a simple analytical model to elucidate the rule that maximizes the throughput of RTS/CTS based multi-rate wireless local area networks. Based on the discovered rule, we propose two distributed fair auto rate medium access control schemes called FARM and FARM+ from the view-point of throughput fairness and time-share fairness, respectively. With the proposed schemes, after receiving a RTS frame, the receiver selectively returns the CTS frame to inform the transmitter the maximum feasible rate probed by the signal-to-noise ratio of the received RTS frame. The key feature of the proposed schemes is that they are capable of maintaining throughput/time-share fairness in asymmetric situation where the distribution of SNR varies with stations. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed schemes outperform the existing throughput/time-share fair auto rate schemes in time-varying channel conditions.

A hybrid medium access control for convergence of broadband wireless and wireline ATM networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Hong; Gliese, Ulrik Bo; Dittmann, Lars

2000-01-01

In this paper, we propose a hybrid medium access control protocol for supporting broadband integrated services in the wireless ATM networks. The integrated services include CBR, VBR and ABR traffic varying from low bit-rate to very high bit-rate. The proposed protocol is an excellent compromise...

Design Aspects of An Energy-Efficient, Lightweight Medium Access Control Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Hoesel, L.F.W.; Havinga, Paul J.M.

2006-01-01

This document gives an overview of the most relevant design aspects of the lightweight medium access control (LMAC) protocol [16] for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). These aspects include selfconfiguring and localized operation of the protocol, time synchronization in multi-hop networks, network

A Novel Medium Access Control for Ad hoc Networks Based on OFDM System

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

YU Yi-fan; YIN Chang-chuan; YUE Guang-xin

2005-01-01

Recently, hosts of Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols for Ad hoc radio networks have been proposed to solve the hidden terminal problem and exposed terminal problem. However most of them take into no account the interactions between physical (PHY) system and MAC protocol. Therefore, the current MAC protocols are either inefficient in the networks with mobile nodes and fading channel or difficult in hardware implementation. In this paper, we present a novel media access control for Ad hoc networks that integrates a media access control protocol termed as Dual Busy Tone Multiple Access (DBTMA) into Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system proposed in IEEE 802.11a standard. The analysis presented in the paper indicates that the proposed MAC scheme achieves performance improvement over IEEE 802.11 protocol about 25%～80% especially in the environment with high mobility and deep fading. The complexity of the proposed scheme is also lower than other implementation of similar busy tone solution. Furthermore, it is compatible with IEEE 802.11a networks.

Medium Access Control Protocols for Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks: A Survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahdi Zareei

2017-09-01

Full Text Available New wireless network paradigms will demand higher spectrum use and availability to cope with emerging data-hungry devices. Traditional static spectrum allocation policies cause spectrum scarcity, and new paradigms such as Cognitive Radio (CR and new protocols and techniques need to be developed in order to have efficient spectrum usage. Medium Access Control (MAC protocols are accountable for recognizing free spectrum, scheduling available resources and coordinating the coexistence of heterogeneous systems and users. This paper provides an ample review of the state-of-the-art MAC protocols, which mainly focuses on Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks (CRAHN. First, a description of the cognitive radio fundamental functions is presented. Next, MAC protocols are divided into three groups, which are based on their channel access mechanism, namely time-slotted protocol, random access protocol and hybrid protocol. In each group, a detailed and comprehensive explanation of the latest MAC protocols is presented, as well as the pros and cons of each protocol. A discussion on future challenges for CRAHN MAC protocols is included with a comparison of the protocols from a functional perspective.

Adaptive Media Access Control for Energy Harvesting - Wireless Sensor Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fafoutis, Xenofon; Dragoni, Nicola

2012-01-01

ODMAC (On-Demand Media Access Control) is a recently proposed MAC protocol designed to support individual duty cycles for Energy Harvesting — Wireless Sensor Networks (EH-WSNs). Individual duty cycles are vital for EH-WSNs, because they allow nodes to adapt their energy consumption to the ever-ch...

Random access with adaptive packet aggregation in LTE/LTE-A.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Kaijie; Nikaein, Navid

While random access presents a promising solution for efficient uplink channel access, the preamble collision rate can significantly increase when massive number of devices simultaneously access the channel. To address this issue and improve the reliability of the random access, an adaptive packet aggregation method is proposed. With the proposed method, a device does not trigger a random access for every single packet. Instead, it starts a random access when the number of aggregated packets reaches a given threshold. This method reduces the packet collision rate at the expense of an extra latency, which is used to accumulate multiple packets into a single transmission unit. Therefore, the tradeoff between packet loss rate and channel access latency has to be carefully selected. We use semi-Markov model to derive the packet loss rate and channel access latency as functions of packet aggregation number. Hence, the optimal amount of aggregated packets can be found, which keeps the loss rate below the desired value while minimizing the access latency. We also apply for the idea of packet aggregation for power saving, where a device aggregates as many packets as possible until the latency constraint is reached. Simulations are carried out to evaluate our methods. We find that the packet loss rate and/or power consumption are significantly reduced with the proposed method.

Cognitive Self-Scheduled Mechanism for Access Control in Noisy Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario Manzano

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Within the challenging environment of intelligent transportation systems (ITS, networked control systems such as platooning guidance of autonomous vehicles require innovative mechanisms to provide real-time communications. Although several proposals are currently under discussion, the design of a rapid, efficient, flexible, and reliable medium access control mechanism which meets the specific constraints of such real-time communications applications remains unsolved in this highly dynamic environment. However, cognitive radio (CR combines the capacity to sense the radio spectrum with the flexibility to adapt to transmission parameters in order to maximize system performance and has thus become an effective approach for the design of dynamic spectrum access (DSA mechanisms. This paper presents the enhanced noncooperative cognitive division multiple access (ENCCMA proposal combining time division multiple access (TDMA and frequency division multiple access (FDMA schemes with CR techniques to obtain a mechanism fulfilling the requirements of real-time communications. The analysis presented here considers the IEEE WAVE and 802.11p as reference standards; however, the proposed medium access control (MAC mechanism can be adapted to operate on the physical layer of different standards. The mechanism also offers the advantage of avoiding signaling, thus enhancing system autonomy as well as behavior in adverse scenarios.

On the Need of Novel Medium Access Control Schemes for Network Coding enabled Wireless Mesh Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Paramanathan, Achuthan; Pahlevani, Peyman; Roetter, Daniel Enrique Lucani

2013-01-01

that network coding will improve the throughput in such systems, but our novel medium access scheme improves the performance in the cross topology by another 66 % for network coding and 150 % for classical forwarding in theory. These gains translate in a theoretical gain of 33 % of network coding over...

A Lightweight Medium Access Protocol (LMAC) for Wireless Sensor Networks: Reducing Preamble Transmissions and Transceiver State Switches

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Hoesel, L.F.W.; Havinga, Paul J.M.

2004-01-01

In this paper, we present an energy-efficient medium access protocol designed for wireless sensor networks. Although the protocol uses TDMA to give nodes in the WSN the opportunity to communicate collision-free, the network is self-organizing in terms of time slot assignment and synchronization. The

An Adaptive Channel Access Method for Dynamic Super Dense Wireless Sensor Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Lei, Chunyang; Bie, Hongxia; Fang, Gengfa; Zhang, Xuekun

2015-12-03

Super dense and distributed wireless sensor networks have become very popular with the development of small cell technology, Internet of Things (IoT), Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, Vehicular-to-Vehicular (V2V) communications and public safety networks. While densely deployed wireless networks provide one of the most important and sustainable solutions to improve the accuracy of sensing and spectral efficiency, a new channel access scheme needs to be designed to solve the channel congestion problem introduced by the high dynamics of competing nodes accessing the channel simultaneously. In this paper, we firstly analyzed the channel contention problem using a novel normalized channel contention analysis model which provides information on how to tune the contention window according to the state of channel contention. We then proposed an adaptive channel contention window tuning algorithm in which the contention window tuning rate is set dynamically based on the estimated channel contention level. Simulation results show that our proposed adaptive channel access algorithm based on fast contention window tuning can achieve more than 95 % of the theoretical optimal throughput and 0 . 97 of fairness index especially in dynamic and dense networks.

An Adaptive Channel Access Method for Dynamic Super Dense Wireless Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chunyang Lei

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Super dense and distributed wireless sensor networks have become very popular with the development of small cell technology, Internet of Things (IoT, Machine-to-Machine (M2M communications, Vehicular-to-Vehicular (V2V communications and public safety networks. While densely deployed wireless networks provide one of the most important and sustainable solutions to improve the accuracy of sensing and spectral efficiency, a new channel access scheme needs to be designed to solve the channel congestion problem introduced by the high dynamics of competing nodes accessing the channel simultaneously. In this paper, we firstly analyzed the channel contention problem using a novel normalized channel contention analysis model which provides information on how to tune the contention window according to the state of channel contention. We then proposed an adaptive channel contention window tuning algorithm in which the contention window tuning rate is set dynamically based on the estimated channel contention level. Simulation results show that our proposed adaptive channel access algorithm based on fast contention window tuning can achieve more than 95 % of the theoretical optimal throughput and 0 . 97 of fairness index especially in dynamic and dense networks.

Do vehicle grants and vehicle adaptations grants promote transport mobility and community access for children with disabilities in Sweden?

Science.gov (United States)

Sjödin, Linda; Buchanan, Angus; Mundt, Beate; Karlsson, Emelie; Falkmer, Torbjörn

2012-02-01

A vast majority of the journeys made by children with disabilities in Sweden are in the family car, which usually is bought and adapted for the child with governmental subsidies. Despite the important philosophical views about accessible vehicles, little is known about the impact of vehicle adaptations on families' lives. The aim of the study was to investigate parent views about the impact of vehicle grants and vehicle adaptation grants on their children's transport mobility and community access. In total, 434 parents of children with disabilities in Sweden who had received vehicle grants and/or vehicle adaptation grants between 1998-2007 responded to a questionnaire comprising questions with both pre-selected and open-ended answers. A non-responder analysis was performed. Children with disabilities were found to increase their transport mobility and community access in society as vehicle grants and/or vehicle adaptation grants were given to their parents. Their travel patterns and their travel priorities with their family car indicated that family friends and relatives and leisure activities were frequently visited and prioritised destinations. The grants were linked to access to social and family activities, provided environmental gains and led to increased experienced security. The results also showed that the potential to make spontaneous trips had increased substantially and that families experienced feelings of freedom and enhanced community access. The non-responder analysis confirmed these results. According to parents, vehicle grants and vehicle adaptation grants for children with disabilities have a positive impact on the children's transport mobility and community access. © 2011 The Authors. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal © 2011 Occupational Therapy Australia.

'That proves my point': How mediums reconstrue disconfirmation in medium-sitter interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Enoksen, Anette Einan; Dickerson, Paul

2018-04-01

Previous research has examined how the talk of mediums attends to the epistemological status of their readings. Such work has identified that mediums frequently use question-framed propositions that are typically confirmed by the sitter, thereby conferring epistemological status on the medium. This study seeks to investigate what happens when the sitter disconfirms the propositions of the medium. The study focuses on the ways in which such disconfirmation can be responded to such that it is reconstrued as evidence of the psychic nature of the medium's reading. Televised demonstrations of psychic readings involving British and US mediums and their sitters are analysed. The results suggest that mediums rework disconfirmation as proof in several ways: first, by emphasizing the different access that sitter and medium have to knowledge (e.g., about the future); second, as evidence that the medium has access to the actual voice of the deceased (and may therefore mishear what the deceased has said to them); and third, as revealing an important truth that has hitherto been concealed from the sitter. The implications of these findings are considered for cases where speakers bring different and potentially competing, epistemological resources to an interaction. © 2018 The British Psychological Society.

Adaptability and stability of vegetable common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L. accessions from the VIR collection in Crimea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vishnyakova Margarita A.

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Adaptability and stable pod per plant productivity of 20 varieties of vegetable common bean from the collection of the Vavilov Institute (VIR were investigated. The accessions were grown on 8 selective backgrounds: four different patterns and density of planting during two years. The most adaptive accessions, i.e. most tolerant to the different density, having the stable productivity, were identified. The level of affection of accessions with bacterial diseases depending on the density of planting was also determined. The optimal pattern and sowing density had been proposed for breeding nurseries as a selective background for breeding of genotypes with stable productivity.

LAMAN: Load Adaptable MAC for Ad Hoc Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Realp Marc

2005-01-01

Full Text Available In mobile ad hoc radio networks, mechanisms on how to access the radio channel are extremely important in order to improve network efficiency. In this paper, the load adaptable medium access control for ad hoc networks (LAMAN protocol is described. LAMAN is a novel decentralized multipacket MAC protocol designed following a cross-layer approach. Basically, this protocol is a hybrid CDMA-TDMA-based protocol that aims at throughput maximization in multipacket communication environments by efficiently combining contention and conflict-free protocol components. Such combination of components is used to adapt the nodes' access priority to changes on the traffic load while, at the same time, accounting for the multipacket reception (MPR capability of the receivers. A theoretical analysis of the system is developed presenting closed expressions of network throughput and packet delay. By simulations the validity of our analysis is shown and the performances of a LAMAN-based system and an Aloha-CDMA-based one are compared.

Medium access control and hardware prototype designs for low-energy wireless sensor networks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kohvakka, M.

2009-07-01

A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an emerging technology consisting of small, cheap, and ultra-low energy sensor nodes, which cooperatively monitor physical quantities, actuate, and perform data processing tasks. A deployment may comprise thousands of randomly distributed autonomous nodes, which must self-configure and create a multi-hop network topology.This thesis focuses on low-energy WSNs targeting to long network lifetime. The main research problem is the combination of adaptive and scalable multi-hop networking with constrained energy budget, processing power, and communication bandwidth. The research problem is approached by energy-efficient protocols and low-power sensor node platforms. The main contribution of this thesis is an energy-efficient Medium Access Control (MAC) design for TUTWSN (Tampere University of Technology Wireless Sensor Network). The design comprises channel access and networking mechanisms, which specify data exchange, link synchronization, network self-configuration, and neighbor discovery operations. The second outcome are several low-power sensor node platforms, which have been designed and implemented to evaluate the performance of the MAC design and hardware components in real deployments. The third outcome are the performance models and analysis of several MAC designs including TUTWSN, IEEE 802.15.4, and the most essential research proposals.The results and conclusion of this Thesis indicate that it is possible to implement multi-hop WSNs in harsh and dynamic operation conditions with years of lifetime using current low-cost components and batteries. Energy analysis results indicate that the lowest energy consumption is achieved by using simple and high data-rate transceivers. It is also critical to minimize sleep mode power consumption of all components and to use accurate wake-up timers. However, the selection of components constitutes only a minor part of the solution, and an energy-efficient MAC layer design being able to

Cross-layer combining of power control and adaptive modulation with truncated ARQ for cognitive radios

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

CHENG Shi-lun; YANG Zhen

2008-01-01

To maximize throughput and to satisfy users' requirements in cognitive radios, a cross-layer optimization problem combining adaptive modulation and power control at the physical layer and truncated automatic repeat request at the medium access control layer is proposed. Simulation results show the combination of power control, adaptive modulation, and truncated automatic repeat request can regulate transmitter powers and increase the total throughput effectively.

Power adaptive multi-filter carrierless amplitude and phase access scheme for visible light communication network

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Wei; Huang, Zhitong; Li, Haoyue; Ji, Yuefeng

2018-04-01

Visible light communication (VLC) is a promising candidate for short-range broadband access due to its integration of advantages for both optical communication and wireless communication, whereas multi-user access is a key problem because of the intra-cell and inter-cell interferences. In addition, the non-flat channel effect results in higher losses for users in high frequency bands, which leads to unfair qualities. To solve those issues, we propose a power adaptive multi-filter carrierless amplitude and phase access (PA-MF-CAPA) scheme, and in the first step of this scheme, the MF-CAPA scheme utilizing multiple filters as different CAP dimensions is used to realize multi-user access. The character of orthogonality among the filters in different dimensions can mitigate the effect of intra-cell and inter-cell interferences. Moreover, the MF-CAPA scheme provides different channels modulated on the same frequency bands, which further increases the transmission rate. Then, the power adaptive procedure based on MF-CAPA scheme is presented to realize quality fairness. As demonstrated in our experiments, the MF-CAPA scheme yields an improved throughput compared with multi-band CAP access scheme, and the PA-MF-CAPA scheme enhances the quality fairness and further improves the throughput compared with the MF-CAPA scheme.

DESIGN OF CAUCUS MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL (C-MAC PROTOCOL FOR WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS IN SMART GRIDS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

JEETU SHARMA

2017-10-01

Full Text Available A Caucus-based medium access control protocol (C-MAC is proposed to reduce the end to end delay and battery consumption of the sensor nodes deployed in the monitoring of various smart grid regions, such as substation, pole and wires, perimeter security, real time and non-real-time monitoring using wireless sensor networks. The objective is to prolong the network lifetime and to reduce the end to end delay by mitigating the energy-hole problem and by eliminating bottlenecks significantly by using caucus based efficient synchronization techniques in multi-hop square grid topology of the wireless sensor networks (WSNs. The protocol self-reliantly and adaptively schedules node’s wake-up times, decreases idle listening and collisions, increases network throughput, and extends network lifetime. It induces a low duty cycle for adjusting wake-up times of sensor nodes. The appropriate selection of active and sleep time slots and next hop relay nodes are proposed to minimize the data transmission latency and to reduce battery consumption to increase the network lifetime. The uniform and synchronized transmission of the data packets is of prime importance to improve the network performance. Simulation results justify that the proposed C-MAC protocol increases the network lifetime, successful data transmission ratio along-with the reduction in end to end delay. The objective of this paper is to envisage benefits and utilization of C-MAC protocol for WSNs deployed in smart grids and to draw the attention of researchers in this area.

Causes for Adaptation: Access to Forests, Markets and Representation in Eastern Senegal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Papa Faye

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Adaptation is a means of reducing vulnerability. So, understanding causes of vulnerability should help to achieve adaptation. Why, then, are people vulnerable? Why do expected dry spells turn into hunger? Why do mere droughts become disasters? This article shows some of the multiscale processes that make the lives of people in the forests of Eastern Senegal precarious; it outlines processes that reduce forest villagers’ access to resources, lucrative markets and political representation. These are the processes that place villagers at risk when exposed to stressors— climate or otherwise. In this case, the Forest Service applies double standards—favoring urban merchants while subordinating forest villagers—through the making, interpretation, implementation and circumvention of laws and regulations. The wealth of the poor is continuously expropriated by a well-adapted extractive apparatus, enriching urban merchants while leaving villagers incapacitated. These people may lack adaptive capacity or capability or assets or social protections, but those lacks have causes. “Adaptation” without identifying and addressing these root causes is palliative at best. Security requires emancipatory transformations.

The adaptation of cities to climate change: appropriating the tools and accessing financing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Depoues, Vivian; Leseur, Alexia

2015-12-01

Cities and urban areas are particularly affected because of their geographical location and the large share of the population and economic activities they bring together. This Climate Report provides a synthetic and problematized review of the literature on climate change adaptation at the urban scale, the tools and resources available to cities to implement strategies and adaptation actions. It is primarily intended for local officials in French-speaking cities. It provides a checkpoint of current dynamics, questions the real ownership of these resources by local stakeholders and identifies the openings for: - monitoring and evaluation adaptation to climate change; - Understand and use economic analysis as a help to the decision; - Access to funding to implement adaptation actions. This overview of the literature provides elements to understand how cities take ownership of the tools to design, select, monitor and evaluate adaptation projects. It highlights a mismatch between the maturity of the tools inventory and of the guidance available and the actual demand of cities. Except in a few well documented pioneers cases, the process of appropriation of adaptation issues is still at a relatively upstream stage

An Analytical Network Process on Financial Access of the Small and Medium Enterprise in Sharia Banking in Tasikmalaya City

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asep Suryanto

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Small and Medium Enterprise (SME is one of the significant roles in national economic development. It is seemly followed by the rise of employment absorbent and equity in income distribution. The capital constraint and the impedance of banking financial access have become the main problem to the Small and Medium entrepreneurs. The objectives of this research are to identify the main factors as problems of Small and Medium Enterprises in having access to the financial institutions, and also to find out the solutions of the research problems. This research uses qualitative approach i.e. Analytic Network Process (ANP. Through applying this method, it is expected to help the researchers in making measurement and synthesis of some factors regarding on the topic analyzed as well as finding the solution for problems faced by the SMEs. The resources of the data is derived from questionnaires and in-depth interview with experts, practitioners, SMEs and regulators which then analyzed by the structure and hierarchy into homogen clusters of the SMEs problems and solutions, measuring into ratio scale and building synthesis. As the result, it becomes clear what factors impeding the financial access of the SMEs to banks. The results of this research show that the difficulties of SMEs in accessing financial support in Islamic financial institutions are internal problems of Islamic banking i.e. lack of financial assistance given to the SMEs, the functions of Islamic banking as business partners for SMEs is not optimal. Whereas the external problems in the SMEs are the disability in meeting the financial requirements asked by Islamic banking that are collateral and business history. The internal solutions are Islamic banking must give business mentoring to SMEs that have received financial supports to minimalize the bad credits level. The external solution is the government must also socialize Islamic financial mechanism to SMEs as part of education efforts.

Using the Critical Incident Technique to Research Decision Making regarding Access to Training and Development in Medium-Sized Enterprises

Science.gov (United States)

Coetzer, Alan; Redmond, Janice; Sharafizad, Jalleh

2012-01-01

Employees in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) form part of a "disadvantaged" group within the workforce that receives less access to training and development (T&D) than employees in large firms. Prior research into reasons for the relatively low levels of employee participation in training and development has typically…

Delay-aware adaptive sleep mechanism for green wireless-optical broadband access networks

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ruyan; Liang, Alei; Wu, Dapeng; Wu, Dalei

2017-07-01

Wireless-Optical Broadband Access Network (WOBAN) is capacity-high, reliable, flexible, and ubiquitous, as it takes full advantage of the merits from both optical communication and wireless communication technologies. Similar to other access networks, the high energy consumption poses a great challenge for building up WOBANs. To shot this problem, we can make some load-light Optical Network Units (ONUs) sleep to reduce the energy consumption. Such operation, however, causes the increased packet delay. Jointly considering the energy consumption and transmission delay, we propose a delay-aware adaptive sleep mechanism. Specifically, we develop a new analytical method to evaluate the transmission delay and queuing delay over the optical part, instead of adopting M/M/1 queuing model. Meanwhile, we also analyze the access delay and queuing delay of the wireless part. Based on such developed delay models, we mathematically derive ONU's optimal sleep time. In addition, we provide numerous simulation results to show the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism.

Taurine Biosynthesis in a Fish Liver Cell Line (ZFL) Adapted to a Serum-Free Medium.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Chieh-Lun; Watson, Aaron M; Place, Allen R; Jagus, Rosemary

2017-05-25

Although taurine has been shown to play multiple important physiological roles in teleosts, little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying dietary requirements. Cell lines can provide useful tools for deciphering biosynthetic pathways and their regulation. However, culture media and sera contain variable taurine levels. To provide a useful cell line for the investigation of taurine homeostasis, an adult zebrafish liver cell line (ZFL) has been adapted to a taurine-free medium by gradual accommodation to a commercially available synthetic medium, UltraMEM™-ITES. Here we show that ZFL cells are able to synthesize taurine and be maintained in medium without taurine. This has allowed for the investigation of the effects of taurine supplementation on cell growth, cellular amino acid pools, as well as the expression of the taurine biosynthetic pathway and taurine transporter genes in a defined fish cell type. After taurine supplementation, cellular taurine levels increase but hypotaurine levels stay constant, suggesting little suppression of taurine biosynthesis. Cellular methionine levels do not change after taurine addition, consistent with maintenance of taurine biosynthesis. The addition of taurine to cells grown in taurine-free medium has little effect on transcript levels of the biosynthetic pathway genes for cysteine dioxygenase (CDO), cysteine sulfinate decarboxylase (CSAD), or cysteamine dioxygenase (ADO). In contrast, supplementation with taurine causes a 30% reduction in transcript levels of the taurine transporter, TauT. This experimental approach can be tailored for the development of cell lines from aquaculture species for the elucidation of their taurine biosynthetic capacity.

FROM VERBAL TO AUDIOVISUAL MEDIUM: THE CASE OF THE CINEMATIC ADAPTATION OF R. L. STEVENSON’S NOVEL “THE WRONG BOX” Part I

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jadvyga Krūminienė

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The paper attempts at the analysis of the narrational shifts between verbal and audiovisual mediums on the basis of R. L. Stevenson’s novel “The Wrong Box” (1989 and its cinematic adaptation under the same title by Bryan Forbes (1966. The authors approach adaptation as a complex phenomenon that experiences the creative tension between preserving fidelity to the source literary text and striving for filmic originality. Similarly to novels, movies represent an act and art of narration but they use different narrative strategies. In film narratives, deep focus, the length and scale of the shots, editing, montage, lighting, sound design, music, human voice etc. accompany the verbal medium. Modelled after literature, movies demonstrate the specific construal narrative components that are combined into coherent cinematic sequences. When transfering R. L. Stevenson’s novel from fictional medium into cinematic medium, Forbes organises the relations of the narrative elements on an intertextual level thus fostering new expressive means. Such practice allows to project the cinematic narrator as a complex construct also given the possibility of being perceived as a speaking persona through an inventive use of intertitles. In fact, the adaptor is caught up in the farcical narrational game, provoking the viewer to actively participate in it.

Knowledge unbound selected writings on Open Access, 2002-2011

CERN Document Server

Suber, Peter

2016-01-01

Peter Suber has been a leading advocate for open access since 2001 and has worked full time on issues of open access since 2003. As a professor of philosophy during the early days of the internet, he realized its power and potential as a medium for scholarship. As he writes now, "it was like an asteroid crash, fundamentally changing the environment, challenging dinosaurs to adapt, and challenging all of us to figure out whether we were dinosaurs." When Suber began putting his writings and course materials online for anyone to use for any purpose, he soon experienced the benefits of that wider exposure. In 2001, he started a newsletter -- the Free Online Scholarship Newsletter, which later became the SPARC Open Access Newsletter -- in which he explored the implications of open access for research and scholarship. This book offers a selection of some of Suber's most significant and influential writings on open access from 2002 to 2010. In these texts, Suber makes the case for open access to research; answers c...

Adaptation of AMO-FBMC-OQAM in optical access network for accommodating asynchronous multiple access in OFDM-based uplink transmission

Science.gov (United States)

Jung, Sun-Young; Jung, Sang-Min; Han, Sang-Kook

2015-01-01

Exponentially expanding various applications in company with proliferation of mobile devices make mobile traffic exploded annually. For future access network, bandwidth efficient and asynchronous signals converged transmission technique is required in optical network to meet a huge bandwidth demand, while integrating various services and satisfying multiple access in perceived network resource. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is highly bandwidth efficient parallel transmission technique based on orthogonal subcarriers. OFDM has been widely studied in wired-/wireless communication and became a Long term evolution (LTE) standard. Consequently, OFDM also has been actively researched in optical network. However, OFDM is vulnerable frequency and phase offset essentially because of its sinc-shaped side lobes, therefore tight synchronism is necessary to maintain orthogonality. Moreover, redundant cyclic prefix (CP) is required in dispersive channel. Additionally, side lobes act as interference among users in multiple access. Thus, it practically hinders from supporting integration of various services and multiple access based on OFDM optical transmission In this paper, adaptively modulated optical filter bank multicarrier system with offset QAM (AMO-FBMC-OQAM) is introduced and experimentally investigated in uplink optical transmission to relax multiple access interference (MAI), while improving bandwidth efficiency. Side lobes are effectively suppressed by using FBMC, therefore the system becomes robust to path difference and imbalance among optical network units (ONUs), which increase bandwidth efficiency by reducing redundancy. In comparison with OFDM, a signal performance and an efficiency of frequency utilization are improved in the same experimental condition. It enables optical network to effectively support heterogeneous services and multiple access.

Animal Locomotion in Different Mediums

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Wetlands are repositories of unique biodiversity. Wetlandorganisms are well adapted to their habitat, lying at theinterface of aquatic and terrestrial environments. In order tounderstand their adaptations in a better way, it is essential tograsp the basic properties of the medium in which variousorganisms live. This is attempted ...

Advertisement-Based Energy Efficient Medium Access Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Ray, Surjya Sarathi

One of the main challenges that prevents the large-scale deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is providing the applications with the required quality of service (QoS) given the sensor nodes' limited energy supplies. WSNs are an important tool in supporting applications ranging from environmental and industrial monitoring, to battlefield surveillance and traffic control, among others. Most of these applications require sensors to function for long periods of time without human intervention and without battery replacement. Therefore, energy conservation is one of the main goals for protocols for WSNs. Energy conservation can be performed in different layers of the protocol stack. In particular, as the medium access control (MAC) layer can access and control the radio directly, large energy savings is possible through intelligent MAC protocol design. To maximize the network lifetime, MAC protocols for WSNs aim to minimize idle listening of the sensor nodes, packet collisions, and overhearing. Several approaches such as duty cycling and low power listening have been proposed at the MAC layer to achieve energy efficiency. In this thesis, I explore the possibility of further energy savings through the advertisement of data packets in the MAC layer. In the first part of my research, I propose Advertisement-MAC or ADV-MAC, a new MAC protocol for WSNs that utilizes the concept of advertising for data contention. This technique lets nodes listen dynamically to any desired transmission and sleep during transmissions not of interest. This minimizes the energy lost in idle listening and overhearing while maintaining an adaptive duty cycle to handle variable loads. Additionally, ADV-MAC enables energy efficient MAC-level multicasting. An analytical model for the packet delivery ratio and the energy consumption of the protocol is also proposed. The analytical model is verified with simulations and is used to choose an optimal value of the advertisement period

Provably Secure Heterogeneous Access Control Scheme for Wireless Body Area Network.

Science.gov (United States)

Omala, Anyembe Andrew; Mbandu, Angolo Shem; Mutiria, Kamenyi Domenic; Jin, Chunhua; Li, Fagen

2018-04-28

Wireless body area network (WBAN) provides a medium through which physiological information could be harvested and transmitted to application provider (AP) in real time. Integrating WBAN in a heterogeneous Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem would enable an AP to monitor patients from anywhere and at anytime. However, the IoT roadmap of interconnected 'Things' is still faced with many challenges. One of the challenges in healthcare is security and privacy of streamed medical data from heterogeneously networked devices. In this paper, we first propose a heterogeneous signcryption scheme where a sender is in a certificateless cryptographic (CLC) environment while a receiver is in identity-based cryptographic (IBC) environment. We then use this scheme to design a heterogeneous access control protocol. Formal security proof for indistinguishability against adaptive chosen ciphertext attack and unforgeability against adaptive chosen message attack in random oracle model is presented. In comparison with some of the existing access control schemes, our scheme has lower computation and communication cost.

Traffic Adaptive MAC Protocols in Wireless Body Area Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Farhan Masud

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs, every healthcare application that is based on physical sensors is responsible for monitoring the vital signs data of patient. WBANs applications consist of heterogeneous and dynamic traffic loads. Routine patient’s observation is described as low-load traffic while an alarming situation that is unpredictable by nature is referred to as high-load traffic. This paper offers a thematic review of traffic adaptive Medium Access Control (MAC protocols in WBANs. First, we have categorized them based on their goals, methods, and metrics of evaluation. The Zigbee standard IEEE 802.15.4 and the baseline MAC IEEE 802.15.6 are also reviewed in terms of traffic adaptive approaches. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of the protocols is made and their performances are analyzed in terms of delay, packet delivery ratio (PDR, and energy consumption. The literature shows that no review work has been done on traffic adaptive MAC protocols in WBANs. This review work, therefore, could add enhancement to traffic adaptive MAC protocols and will stimulate a better way of solving the traffic adaptivity problem.

Reduced-complexity adaptive multi-channel assignment for shared access points in over-loaded small-cell networks

KAUST Repository

Radaydeh, Redha Mahmoud

2013-06-01

This paper proposes a reduced-complexity downlink multi-channel assignment scheme when feedback links are capacity-limited. The system model treats the case when multiple access points are allocated to serve scheduled users in over-loaded (i.e. dense) pico/femtocell networks. It assumes that the deployed access points can be shared simultaneously and employ isotropic antenna arrays of arbitrary sizes. Moreover, they transmit their data on a common physical channel and can not coordinate their transmissions. On the other hand, each scheduled user can be served by single transmit channel from each active access point at a time, and it lacks coordination with concurrent active users. The scheme operates according to the occupancy of available transmit channels, wherein extensively occupied access points are avoided adaptively, while reducing the load of processing. The operation is linked to a target performance via controlling the observed aggregate interference from the projected set of serving points. Through the analysis, results for the scheduled user outage performance, and the average number of active access points are presented. Numerical and simulations studies clarify the gains of the proposed scheme for different operating conditions. © 2013 IEEE.

Reduced-complexity adaptive multi-channel assignment for shared access points in over-loaded small-cell networks

KAUST Repository

Radaydeh, Redha Mahmoud; Qaraqe, Khalid A.; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

2013-01-01

This paper proposes a reduced-complexity downlink multi-channel assignment scheme when feedback links are capacity-limited. The system model treats the case when multiple access points are allocated to serve scheduled users in over-loaded (i.e. dense) pico/femtocell networks. It assumes that the deployed access points can be shared simultaneously and employ isotropic antenna arrays of arbitrary sizes. Moreover, they transmit their data on a common physical channel and can not coordinate their transmissions. On the other hand, each scheduled user can be served by single transmit channel from each active access point at a time, and it lacks coordination with concurrent active users. The scheme operates according to the occupancy of available transmit channels, wherein extensively occupied access points are avoided adaptively, while reducing the load of processing. The operation is linked to a target performance via controlling the observed aggregate interference from the projected set of serving points. Through the analysis, results for the scheduled user outage performance, and the average number of active access points are presented. Numerical and simulations studies clarify the gains of the proposed scheme for different operating conditions. © 2013 IEEE.

Finite-element time-domain modeling of electromagnetic data in general dispersive medium using adaptive Padé series

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, Hongzhu; Hu, Xiangyun; Xiong, Bin; Zhdanov, Michael S.

2017-12-01

The induced polarization (IP) method has been widely used in geophysical exploration to identify the chargeable targets such as mineral deposits. The inversion of the IP data requires modeling the IP response of 3D dispersive conductive structures. We have developed an edge-based finite-element time-domain (FETD) modeling method to simulate the electromagnetic (EM) fields in 3D dispersive medium. We solve the vector Helmholtz equation for total electric field using the edge-based finite-element method with an unstructured tetrahedral mesh. We adopt the backward propagation Euler method, which is unconditionally stable, with semi-adaptive time stepping for the time domain discretization. We use the direct solver based on a sparse LU decomposition to solve the system of equations. We consider the Cole-Cole model in order to take into account the frequency-dependent conductivity dispersion. The Cole-Cole conductivity model in frequency domain is expanded using a truncated Padé series with adaptive selection of the center frequency of the series for early and late time. This approach can significantly increase the accuracy of FETD modeling.

Directional Medium Access Control (MAC Protocols in Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks: A Survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Tung Chong Wong

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This survey paper presents the state-of-the-art directional medium access control (MAC protocols in wireless ad hoc and sensor networks (WAHSNs. The key benefits of directional antennas over omni-directional antennas are longer communication range, less multipath interference, more spatial reuse, more secure communications, higher throughput and reduced latency. However, directional antennas lead to single-/multi-channel directional hidden/exposed terminals, deafness and neighborhood, head-of-line blocking, and MAC-layer capture which need to be overcome. Addressing these problems and benefits for directional antennas to MAC protocols leads to many classes of directional MAC protocols in WAHSNs. These classes of directional MAC protocols presented in this survey paper include single-channel, multi-channel, cooperative and cognitive directional MACs. Single-channel directional MAC protocols can be classified as contention-based or non-contention-based or hybrid-based, while multi-channel directional MAC protocols commonly use a common control channel for control packets/tones and one or more data channels for directional data transmissions. Cooperative directional MAC protocols improve throughput in WAHSNs via directional multi-rate/single-relay/multiple-relay/two frequency channels/polarization, while cognitive directional MAC protocols leverage on conventional directional MAC protocols with new twists to address dynamic spectrum access. All of these directional MAC protocols are the pillars for the design of future directional MAC protocols in WAHSNs.

Speed regulating Effects of Incentive-based Intelligent Speed Adaptation in the short and medium term

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Agerholm, Niels

Speed regulating Effects of Incentive-based Intelligent Speed Adaptation in the short and medium term Despite massive improvements in vehicles’ safety equipment, more information and safer road network, inappropriate road safety is still causing that more than 250 people are killed and several...... thousands injured each year in Denmark. Until a few years ago the number of fatalities in most countries had decreased while the amount of traffic increased. However, this trend has been replaced by a more uncertain development towards a constant or even somewhat increasing risk. Inappropriate speeding...... is a central cause for the high number of fatalities on the roads. Despite speed limits, speed limit violating driving behaviour is still widespread in Denmark. Traditional solutions to prevent speed violation have been enforcement, information, and enhanced road design. It seems, however, hard to achieve...

Available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable education for indigenous people in Mexico: A statistical review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anne Julia Koester

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The article presents a statistical review of the educational situation of the indigenous people in Mexico. For this reason, it is dissected if the subsystem of indigenous education meets the 4-A criteria. According to the United Nations’ Committee for Educational, Social and Cultural Rights, indigenous education should be available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable. (1999, General Comment no. 13 The aim of the review is to describe the status quo and to visualize duties for institutions and key actors from the field of indigenous as well as intercultural and bilingual education in México. The statistical review of the Mexican case showed that the criteria of a 4-A education for the indigenous Mexicans are not fulfilled. Indigenous education misses to be available due to the fact that the educational subsystem receives much less financial resources than the general educational system and counts with a lower standard of infrastructure. Furthermore, the indigenous education is no sufficiently accessible because there exist discriminative processes, structures and mechanisms that result in indigenous pupils being excluded from participating at educational processes. Also, the indigenous education does not count with a preferable level of acceptability because the missing contextualization of the contents and the teaching makes the indigenous pupils perceive their experiences in school as far from their realities. Moreover, indigenous education lacks adaptability because the existing alternative educational programs do not guarantee an attendance of all the needs of the different social groups of the indigenous people.

Accessibility in the elementary schools of a municipality west of São Paulo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Médice

2015-09-01

Full Text Available This study aimed to identify and describe the architectural barriers in elementary schools, before and after the Law of Guidelines and Bases (LDB. It is a cross-sectional, descriptive research to map the architectural conditions of access in fourteen elementary schools in the municipal schools network in a medium-sized city in the western region of the state of São Paulo. The environments were visited and data collection was performed using a standardized protocol. Data was compared to those established by ABNT-9050 and categorized into appropriate and inappropriate. It was observed that 100% of schools before and after LDB, had no anti-slip flooring, tactile warning and directional; accesses, ramps and stairs had no guides and guideposts; dimensions, grip and slip handrails were inadequate, the toilets had no transition area, mirrors and sinks were not adapted; there was no outside furniture such as drinkers and tailored service counters and adapted libraries. Therefore, this study also has shown that schools installed, pre and post LDB presented several inappropriate items to the ABNT (Brazilian Association of Technical Standards standards.

Expressing Adaptation Strategies Using Adaptation Patterns

Science.gov (United States)

Zemirline, N.; Bourda, Y.; Reynaud, C.

2012-01-01

Today, there is a real challenge to enable personalized access to information. Several systems have been proposed to address this challenge including Adaptive Hypermedia Systems (AHSs). However, the specification of adaptation strategies remains a difficult task for creators of such systems. In this paper, we consider the problem of the definition…

Replacing the Ethernet access mechanism with the real-time access mechanism of Twentenet

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pras, Aiko

1989-01-01

The way in which a Local Area Network access mechanism (Medium Access Control protocol) designed for a specific type of physical service can be used on top of another type of physical service is discussed using a particular example. In the example, an Ethernet physical layer is used to provide

Improving market access opportunities for urban small, medium and micro-enterprises in South Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christian M. Rogerson

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Since the democratic transition of 1994, the promotion of the small, medium and micro-enterprise (SMME economy has been a core focus of South African government policy. With high levels of unemployment and poverty in urban areas, the impact of this policy intervention is most critical for city development. Given South Africa’s chequered history, the national government’s focus is on transforming the prospects for enterprises owned by black South Africans, who were disadvantaged under apartheid. This article examines the range of contemporary policy initiatives to address business constraints on market access and catalyse new market opportunities for black-owned enterprises in urban South Africa. The article concentrates on two themes: 1 building links into private sector supply chains, especially through supplier diversity, and 2 building links into public sector markets through public procurement. It is shown that current policy directions recognise that the national government has a limited capacity to implement SMME improvement and build competitive black-owned SMMEs by itself, which has prompted support for private sector initiatives. In addition, the government is struggling to practice what it preaches and use its own procurement capacity to assist black-owned SMMEs.

Body surface area adapted iopromide 300 mg/ml versus 370 mg/ml contrast medium injection protocol: Influence on quantitative and clinical assessment in combined PET/CT

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Verburg, Frederik A., E-mail: fverburg@ukaachen.de [RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Pauwelsstraße 30, 52074 Aachen (Germany); Maastricht University Medical Center, Department of Nuclear Medicine, P. Debyelaan 25, 6229 HX Maastricht (Netherlands); Apitzsch, Jonas [RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Pauwelsstraße 30, 52074 Aachen (Germany); Lensing, Carina [RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Pauwelsstraße 30, 52074 Aachen (Germany); Kuhl, Christiane K. [RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Pauwelsstraße 30, 52074 Aachen (Germany); Pietsch, Hubertus [Bayer Pharma AG, Müllerstrasse 178, 13353 Berlin (Germany); Mottaghy, Felix M. [RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Pauwelsstraße 30, 52074 Aachen (Germany); Maastricht University Medical Center, Department of Nuclear Medicine, P. Debyelaan 25, 6229 HX Maastricht (Netherlands); Behrendt, Florian F. [RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Pauwelsstraße 30, 52074 Aachen (Germany)

2013-12-01

Purpose: To investigate the quantitative and qualitative differences between combined positron emission tomography and computed X-ray tomography (PET/CT) enhanced with contrast medium with either an iodine concentration 300 mg/ml or 370 mg/ml. Materials and methods: 120 consecutive patients scheduled for F-18-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT were included. The first (second) 60 patients received contrast medium with 300 (370) mg iodine/ml. Intravenous injection protocols were adapted for an identical iodine delivery rate (1.3 mg/s) and body surface area (BSA) adapted iodine dose (22.26 g I/m{sup 2}). Maximum and mean standardized uptake values (SUV{sub max}; SUV{sub mean}) and contrast enhancement (HU) were determined in the ascending aorta, the abdominal aorta, the inferior vena cava, the portal vein, the liver and the right kidney in the venous contrast medium phase. PET data were evaluated visually for the presence of malignancy and image quality. Results: Both media caused significantly higher values for HU, SUV{sub mean} and SUV{sub max} for the enhanced PET/CT than the non-enhanced one (all p < 0.01). There were no significant differences in the degree of increase of HU, SUV{sub mean} and SUV{sub max} between the two contrast media at any anatomic site (all p > 0.05). Visual evaluation of lesions showed no differences between contrast and non-contrast PET/CT or between the two different contrast media (p = 0.77). Conclusion: When using a constant iodine delivery rate and total iodine dose in a BSA adapted injection protocol, there are no quantitative or qualitative differences in either CT or PET between contrast media with an iodine concentration of 300 mg/ml and 370 mg/ml, respectively.

Cross-Cultural adaptation of an instrument to computer accessibility evaluation for students with cerebral palsy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gerusa Ferreira Lourenço

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The specific literature indicates that the successful education of children with cerebral palsy may require the implementation of appropriate assistive technology resources, allowing students to improve their performance and complete everyday tasks more efficiently and independently. To this end, these resources must be selected properly, emphasizing the importance of an appropriate initial assessment of the child and the possibilities of the resources available. The present study aimed to translate and adapt theoretically an American instrument that evaluates computer accessibility for people with cerebral palsy, in order to contextualize it for applicability to Brazilian students with cerebral palsy. The methodology involved the steps of translation and cross-cultural adaptation of this instrument, as well as the construction of a supplementary script for additional use of that instrument in the educational context. Translation procedures, theoretical and technical adaptation of the American instrument and theoretical analysis (content and semantics were carried out with the participation of professional experts of the special education area as adjudicators. The results pointed to the relevance of the proposal of the translated instrument in conjunction with the script built to the reality of professionals involved with the education of children with cerebral palsy, such as occupational therapists and special educators.

Innovation, adaptability, and collaboration: Keys to success for small and medium sized reactors. Cairo, 27 May 2001

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

ElBaradei, M.

2001-01-01

Small and medium sized reactors, within a power output of less than 700 MW(e), are receiving increased consideration in the effort to meet changing market requirements. Smaller plants allow a more incremental investment, which can be used to hedge against demand uncertainty. They are more suitable for standardization and prefabrication, which in turn encourages enhanced quality control and stimulates rapid development of expertise and shorter construction schedules. They provide a better match to grid capacity in developing countries. And they are more easily adapted to a broad range of industrial settings and applications, such as district heating, heavy oil recovery, or the production of hydrogen and other chemical fuels. Sea water desalination is an application for which smaller reactors hold a particular advantage. Nuclear powered desalination is a proven technology. Clearly, we live in an era in which our society faces many difficult economic, environmental and social issues associated with sustainable development and energy demand. Against that backdrop, nuclear power is a mature technology that deserves careful consideration as a contributor to solving some of these issues. The development of innovative small and medium sized reactors will play a key role in helping to match state-of-the-art technology to user needs. An exchange of information and ideas is a step towards further progress

IMPLEMENTING SMALL AND MEDIUM IT PROJECTS IN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENERPRISES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Felix DUMITRESCU

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Information technology is essential nowadays for all companies. Small enterprises are an important part of the economy and this article aims at providing some useful insight in implementing modern IT projects to their benefit. Due to the limited funding available for the IT infrastructure in most start-ups and small businesses, the projects should be adapted to fulfill the needs of the company for the lowest cost. The paper will start by defining small and medium project management theory and outlining the target of the study, small and medium sized companies. Next it will show a number of case studies of IT projects implemented in different types of small companies in Romania. Based on these implementations the article will draw some conclusions relevant to most small companies which need to design or improve their IT infrastructure.

An ultra low-power and traffic-adaptive medium access control protocol for wireless body area network.

Science.gov (United States)

Ullah, Sana; Kwak, Kyung Sup

2012-06-01

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) consists of low-power, miniaturized, and autonomous wireless sensor nodes that enable physicians to remotely monitor vital signs of patients and provide real-time feedback with medical diagnosis and consultations. It is the most reliable and cheaper way to take care of patients suffering from chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Some of the most important attributes of WBAN is low-power consumption and delay. This can be achieved by introducing flexible duty cycling techniques on the energy constraint sensor nodes. Stated otherwise, low duty cycle nodes should not receive frequent synchronization and control packets if they have no data to send/receive. In this paper, we introduce a Traffic-adaptive MAC protocol (TaMAC) by taking into account the traffic information of the sensor nodes. The protocol dynamically adjusts the duty cycle of the sensor nodes according to their traffic-patterns, thus solving the idle listening and overhearing problems. The traffic-patterns of all sensor nodes are organized and maintained by the coordinator. The TaMAC protocol is supported by a wakeup radio that is used to accommodate emergency and on-demand events in a reliable manner. The wakeup radio uses a separate control channel along with the data channel and therefore it has considerably low power consumption requirements. Analytical expressions are derived to analyze and compare the performance of the TaMAC protocol with the well-known beacon-enabled IEEE 802.15.4 MAC, WiseMAC, and SMAC protocols. The analytical derivations are further validated by simulation results. It is shown that the TaMAC protocol outperforms all other protocols in terms of power consumption and delay.

Adapt

Science.gov (United States)

Bargatze, L. F.

2015-12-01

Active Data Archive Product Tracking (ADAPT) is a collection of software routines that permits one to generate XML metadata files to describe and register data products in support of the NASA Heliophysics Virtual Observatory VxO effort. ADAPT is also a philosophy. The ADAPT concept is to use any and all available metadata associated with scientific data to produce XML metadata descriptions in a consistent, uniform, and organized fashion to provide blanket access to the full complement of data stored on a targeted data server. In this poster, we present an application of ADAPT to describe all of the data products that are stored by using the Common Data File (CDF) format served out by the CDAWEB and SPDF data servers hosted at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. These data servers are the primary repositories for NASA Heliophysics data. For this purpose, the ADAPT routines have been used to generate data resource descriptions by using an XML schema named Space Physics Archive, Search, and Extract (SPASE). SPASE is the designated standard for documenting Heliophysics data products, as adopted by the Heliophysics Data and Model Consortium. The set of SPASE XML resource descriptions produced by ADAPT includes high-level descriptions of numerical data products, display data products, or catalogs and also includes low-level "Granule" descriptions. A SPASE Granule is effectively a universal access metadata resource; a Granule associates an individual data file (e.g. a CDF file) with a "parent" high-level data resource description, assigns a resource identifier to the file, and lists the corresponding assess URL(s). The CDAWEB and SPDF file systems were queried to provide the input required by the ADAPT software to create an initial set of SPASE metadata resource descriptions. Then, the CDAWEB and SPDF data repositories were queried subsequently on a nightly basis and the CDF file lists were checked for any changes such as the occurrence of new, modified, or deleted

1 Medium Regiment, (SAHA), SAA

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives · Journal Home > Vol 16, No 4 (1986) >. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads. Username, Password, Remember me, or Register. 1 Medium Regiment, (S.A.H.A.), ...

A Fair Contention Access Scheme for Low-Priority Traffic in Wireless Body Area Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shagufta Henna

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Recently, wireless body area networks (WBANs have attracted significant consideration in ubiquitous healthcare. A number of medium access control (MAC protocols, primarily derived from the superframe structure of the IEEE 802.15.4, have been proposed in literature. These MAC protocols aim to provide quality of service (QoS by prioritizing different traffic types in WBANs. A contention access period (CAPwith high contention in priority-based MAC protocols can result in higher number of collisions and retransmissions. During CAP, traffic classes with higher priority are dominant over low-priority traffic; this has led to starvation of low-priority traffic, thus adversely affecting WBAN throughput, delay, and energy consumption. Hence, this paper proposes a traffic-adaptive priority-based superframe structure that is able to reduce contention in the CAP period, and provides a fair chance for low-priority traffic. Simulation results in ns-3 demonstrate that the proposed MAC protocol, called traffic- adaptive priority-based MAC (TAP-MAC, achieves low energy consumption, high throughput, and low latency compared to the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, and the most recent priority-based MAC protocol, called priority-based MAC protocol (PA-MAC.

Sustainable medium access control: Implementation and evaluation of ODMAC

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fafoutis, Xenofon; Di Mauro, Alessio; Dragoni, Nicola

2013-01-01

Harvesting small-scale ambient energy constitutes a promising source of power for wireless embedded devices. Due to the unpredictable nature of the harvested energy, adaptive radio duty cycling can lead to a long-term sustainable operation. In energy constrained conditions, very low duty cycles...

Screening of faba bean (Vicia faba L. accessions to acidity and aluminium stresses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kiflemariam Y. Belachew

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Background Faba bean is an important starch-based protein crop produced worldwide. Soil acidity and aluminium toxicity are major abiotic stresses affecting its production, so in regions where soil acidity is a problem, there is a gap between the potential and actual productivity of the crop. Hence, we set out to evaluate acidity and aluminium tolerance in a range of faba bean germplasm using solution culture and pot experiments. Methods A set of 30 accessions was collected from regions where acidity and aluminium are or are not problems. The accessions were grown in solution culture and a subset of 10 was grown first in peat and later in perlite potting media. In solution culture, morphological parameters including taproot length, root regrowth and root tolerance index were measured, and in the pot experiments the key measurements were taproot length, plant biomass, chlorophyll concentration and stomatal conductance. Result Responses to acidity and aluminium were apparently independent. Accessions Dosha and NC 58 were tolerant to both stress. Kassa and GLA 1103 were tolerant to acidity showing less than 3% reduction in taproot length. Aurora and Messay were tolerant to aluminium. Babylon was sensitive to both, with up to 40% reduction in taproot length from acidity and no detectable recovery from Al3+ challenge. Discussion The apparent independence of the responses to acidity and aluminium is in agreement with the previous research findings, suggesting that crop accessions separately adapt to H+ and Al3+ toxicity as a result of the difference in the nature of soil parent materials where the accession originated. Differences in rankings between experiments were minor and attributable to heterogeneity of seed materials and the specific responses of accessions to the rooting media. Use of perlite as a potting medium offers an ideal combination of throughput, inertness of support medium, access to leaves for detection of their stress responses, and

The HARNESS Workbench: Unified and Adaptive Access to Diverse HPC Platforms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sunderam, Vaidy S.

2012-03-20

The primary goal of the Harness WorkBench (HWB) project is to investigate innovative software environments that will help enhance the overall productivity of applications science on diverse HPC platforms. Two complementary frameworks were designed: one, a virtualized command toolkit for application building, deployment, and execution, that provides a common view across diverse HPC systems, in particular the DOE leadership computing platforms (Cray, IBM, SGI, and clusters); and two, a unified runtime environment that consolidates access to runtime services via an adaptive framework for execution-time and post processing activities. A prototype of the first was developed based on the concept of a 'system-call virtual machine' (SCVM), to enhance portability of the HPC application deployment process across heterogeneous high-end machines. The SCVM approach to portable builds is based on the insertion of toolkit-interpretable directives into original application build scripts. Modifications resulting from these directives preserve the semantics of the original build instruction flow. The execution of the build script is controlled by our toolkit that intercepts build script commands in a manner transparent to the end-user. We have applied this approach to a scientific production code (Gamess-US) on the Cray-XT5 machine. The second facet, termed Unibus, aims to facilitate provisioning and aggregation of multifaceted resources from resource providers and end-users perspectives. To achieve that, Unibus proposes a Capability Model and mediators (resource drivers) to virtualize access to diverse resources, and soft and successive conditioning to enable automatic and user-transparent resource provisioning. A proof of concept implementation has demonstrated the viability of this approach on high end machines, grid systems and computing clouds.

Adaptive algebraic reconstruction technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu Wenkai; Yin Fangfang

2004-01-01

Algebraic reconstruction techniques (ART) are iterative procedures for reconstructing objects from their projections. It is proven that ART can be computationally efficient by carefully arranging the order in which the collected data are accessed during the reconstruction procedure and adaptively adjusting the relaxation parameters. In this paper, an adaptive algebraic reconstruction technique (AART), which adopts the same projection access scheme in multilevel scheme algebraic reconstruction technique (MLS-ART), is proposed. By introducing adaptive adjustment of the relaxation parameters during the reconstruction procedure, one-iteration AART can produce reconstructions with better quality, in comparison with one-iteration MLS-ART. Furthermore, AART outperforms MLS-ART with improved computational efficiency

Financial planning and access to financing in small and mediumsized companies in the Venezuelan manufacturing sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mary A. Vera-Colina

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The relationship between the presence of financial planning and difficulties regarding access to financing in small and medium-sized companies (SMEs in the Venezuelan manufacturing sector is studied. This is an explicative type research work, designed as non-experimental, crosssectional and correlational field work, applied to a sample of 67 SMEs. A questionnaire was applied and a review was made of the relevant literature, to establish the characteristics of the selected variables, according to the high-medium-low measurement for each of the selected indicators. The preliminary results make it possible to affirm that the financial planning variable demonstrates a medium presence in the companies, with medium and low levels of coordination among their components. Average access to financing is classified as low, marked by a medium-high access to credit from suppliers, medium access in reinvestment of profits and medium-low access to bank credit lines. There is also evidence of financing patterns compatible with the Pecking Order Theory. The conclusion is that there is a weak relationship between the characteristics of financial planning and the levels of access to financing, with the inference that the behavior of these variables is determined by a multiplicity of factors.

What drives individuals to access the internet mostly using a cell phone?

OpenAIRE

Yook, Seungyun; Jung, Yumi

2012-01-01

Mobile Internet users can access content, applications, and services using their cell phones. Recent PEW Internet research shows that more than half of U.S. cell phone owners have smartphones. Among them, some people have adopted a mobile phone and use it as a major Internet access medium; they may use other devices such as a desktop computer, notebook, netbook, or tablet PC, but those are not included in their Internet access medium repertoire. This paper examines who accesses the Internet m...

Adaptive Traffic Control Systems in a medium-sized Scandinavian city

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Agerholm, Niels; Olesen, Anne Vingaard

2018-01-01

Adaptive Traffic Control Systems (ATCS) are aimed at reducing congestion. ATCS adapt to approaching traffic to continuously optimise the traffic flows in question. ATCS have been implemented in many locations, including the Scandinavian countries, with various effects. Due to congestion problems......, and GPS data from a range of cars driving on the ring road formed the basis for the study. The result of ATCS implementation was a significant 17% reduction in transportation time on the ring road in the most congested period, the afternoon peak. Less significant effects were found regarding the morning...

Efficiency optimized control of medium-size induction motor drives

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Abrahamsen, F.; Blaabjerg, Frede; Pedersen, John Kim

2000-01-01

The efficiency of a variable speed induction motor drive can be optimized by adaption of the motor flux level to the load torque. In small drives (<10 kW) this can be done without considering the relatively small converter losses, but for medium-size drives (10-1000 kW) the losses can not be disr......The efficiency of a variable speed induction motor drive can be optimized by adaption of the motor flux level to the load torque. In small drives (... not be disregarded without further analysis. The importance of the converter losses on efficiency optimization in medium-size drives is analyzed in this paper. Based on the experiments with a 90 kW drive it is found that it is not critical if the converter losses are neglected in the control, except...... that the robustness towards load disturbances may unnecessarily be reduced. Both displacement power factor and model-based efficiency optimizing control methods perform well in medium-size drives. The last strategy is also tested on a 22 kW drive with good results....

Small and Medium Enterprises, Job Creation, and Sustainability ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Small and Medium Enterprises, Job Creation, and Sustainability: Maximizing ... job creation, human capital, and green production and technologies will only materialize if ... IWRA/IDRC webinar on climate change and adaptive water management. International Water Resources Association, in close collaboration with IDRC, ...

Virtual Reality as a Medium for Sensorimotor Adaptation Training and Spaceflight Countermeasures

Science.gov (United States)

Madansingh, S.; Bloomberg, J. J.

2015-01-01

With the upcoming shift to extra-long duration missions (1 year) aboard the ISS, sensorimotor adaptations during transitory periods in-and-out of microgravity are more important to understand and prepare for. Advances in virtual reality technology enables everyday adoption of these tools for entertainment and use in training. Experiencing virtual environments (VE) allows for the manipulation of visual flow to elicit automatic motor behavior and produce sensorimotor adaptation (SA). Recently, the ability to train individuals using repeatable and varied exposures to SA challenges has shown success by improving performance during exposure to a novel environment (Batson 2011). This capacity to 'learn to learn' is referred to as sensorimotor adaptive generalizability and, through the use of treadmill training, represents an untapped potential for individualized countermeasures. The goal of this study is to determine the feasibility of present head mounted displays (HMDs) to produce compelling visual flow information and the expected adaptations for use in future SA treadmill-based countermeasures. Participants experience infinite hallways providing congruent (baseline) or incongruent visual information (half or double speed) via HMD while walking on an instrumented treadmill at 1.1m/s. As gait performance approaches baseline levels, an adaptation time constant is derived to establish individual time-to-adapt (TTA). It is hypothesized that decreasing the TTA through SA treadmill training will facilitate sensorimotor adaptation during gravitational transitions. In this way, HMD technology represents a novel platform for SA training using off-the-shelf consumer products for greater training flexibility in astronaut and terrestrial applications alike.

Small and Medium Enterprises and Biopharmaceutical Innovations ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Small and Medium Enterprises and Biopharmaceutical Innovations in Africa: ... through biotechnological processes with links to biological sources especially those of live ... There are more than 500 biopharmaceutical products that have been ... By Country · List All Titles · Free To Read Titles This Journal is Open Access.

Virtual Reality as a Medium for Sensorimotor Adaptation Training and Spaceflight Countermeasures

Science.gov (United States)

Madansingh, S.; Bloomberg, J. J.

2014-01-01

Astronauts experience a profound sensorimotor adaptation during transition to and from the microgravity environment of space. With the upcoming shift to extra-long duration missions (upwards of 1 year) aboard the International Space Station, the immediate risks to astronauts during these transitory periods become more important than ever to understand and prepare for. Recent advances in virtual reality technology enable everyday adoption of these tools for entertainment and use in training. Embedding an individual in a virtual environment (VE) allows the ability to change the perception of visual flow, elicit automatic motor behavior and produce sensorimotor adaptation, not unlike those required during long duration microgravity exposure. The overall goal of this study is to determine the feasibility of present head mounted display technology (HMD) to produce reliable visual flow information and the expected adaptation associated with virtual environment manipulation to be used in future sensorimotor adaptability countermeasures. To further understand the influence of visual flow on gait adaptation during treadmill walking, a series of discordant visual flow manipulations in a virtual environment are proposed. Six healthy participants (3 male and 3 female) will observe visual flow information via HMD (Oculus Rift DK2) while walking on an instrumented treadmill at their preferred walking speed. Participants will be immersed in a series of VE's resembling infinite hallways with different visual characteristics: an office hallway, a hallway with pillars and the hallway of a fictional spacecraft. Participants will perform three trials of 10 min. each, which include walking on the treadmill while receiving congruent or incongruent visual information via the HMD. In the first trial, participants will experience congruent visual information (baseline) where the hallway is perceived to move at the same rate as their walking speed. The final two trials will be randomized

Adaptively loaded SP-offset-QAM OFDM for IM/DD communication systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Jian; Chan, Chun-Kit

2017-09-04

In this paper, we propose adaptively loaded set-partitioned offset quadrature amplitude modulation (SP-offset-QAM) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) for low-cost intensity-modulation direct-detection (IM/DD) communication systems. We compare this scheme with multi-band carrier-less amplitude phase modulation (CAP) and conventional OFDM, and demonstrate >40 Gbit/s transmission over 50-km single-mode fiber. It is shown that the use of SP-QAM formats, together with the adaptive loading algorithm specifically designed to this group of formats, results in significant performance improvement for all these three schemes. SP-offset-QAM OFDM exhibits greatly reduced complexity compared to SP-QAM based multi-band CAP, via parallelized implementation and minimized memory length for spectral shaping. On the other hand, this scheme shows better performance than SP-QAM based conventional OFDM at both back-to-back and after transmission. We also characterize the proposed scheme in terms of enhanced tolerance to fiber intra-channel nonlinearity and the potential to increase the communication security. The studies show that adaptive SP-offset-QAM OFDM is a promising IM/DD solution for medium- and long-reach optical access networks and data center connections.

Improving Inpatient Surveys: Web-Based Computer Adaptive Testing Accessed via Mobile Phone QR Codes.

Science.gov (United States)

Chien, Tsair-Wei; Lin, Weir-Sen

2016-03-02

The National Health Service (NHS) 70-item inpatient questionnaire surveys inpatients on their perceptions of their hospitalization experience. However, it imposes more burden on the patient than other similar surveys. The literature shows that computerized adaptive testing (CAT) based on item response theory can help shorten the item length of a questionnaire without compromising its precision. Our aim was to investigate whether CAT can be (1) efficient with item reduction and (2) used with quick response (QR) codes scanned by mobile phones. After downloading the 2008 inpatient survey data from the Picker Institute Europe website and analyzing the difficulties of this 70-item questionnaire, we used an author-made Excel program using the Rasch partial credit model to simulate 1000 patients' true scores followed by a standard normal distribution. The CAT was compared to two other scenarios of answering all items (AAI) and the randomized selection method (RSM), as we investigated item length (efficiency) and measurement accuracy. The author-made Web-based CAT program for gathering patient feedback was effectively accessed from mobile phones by scanning the QR code. We found that the CAT can be more efficient for patients answering questions (ie, fewer items to respond to) than either AAI or RSM without compromising its measurement accuracy. A Web-based CAT inpatient survey accessed by scanning a QR code on a mobile phone was viable for gathering inpatient satisfaction responses. With advances in technology, patients can now be offered alternatives for providing feedback about hospitalization satisfaction. This Web-based CAT is a possible option in health care settings for reducing the number of survey items, as well as offering an innovative QR code access.

Cellular and physiological effects of medium-chain triglycerides.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wanten, G.J.A.; Naber, A.H.J.

2004-01-01

From a nutritional standpoint, saturated triglycerides with a medium (6 to 12) carbon chain length (MCT) have traditionally been regarded as biologically inert substances, merely serving as a source of fuel calories that is relatively easily accessible for metabolic breakdown compared with long

Adaptive Code Division Multiple Access Protocol for Wireless Network-on-Chip Architectures

Science.gov (United States)

Vijayakumaran, Vineeth

Massive levels of integration following Moore's Law ushered in a paradigm shift in the way on-chip interconnections were designed. With higher and higher number of cores on the same die traditional bus based interconnections are no longer a scalable communication infrastructure. On-chip networks were proposed enabled a scalable plug-and-play mechanism for interconnecting hundreds of cores on the same chip. Wired interconnects between the cores in a traditional Network-on-Chip (NoC) system, becomes a bottleneck with increase in the number of cores thereby increasing the latency and energy to transmit signals over them. Hence, there has been many alternative emerging interconnect technologies proposed, namely, 3D, photonic and multi-band RF interconnects. Although they provide better connectivity, higher speed and higher bandwidth compared to wired interconnects; they also face challenges with heat dissipation and manufacturing difficulties. On-chip wireless interconnects is one other alternative proposed which doesn't need physical interconnection layout as data travels over the wireless medium. They are integrated into a hybrid NOC architecture consisting of both wired and wireless links, which provides higher bandwidth, lower latency, lesser area overhead and reduced energy dissipation in communication. However, as the bandwidth of the wireless channels is limited, an efficient media access control (MAC) scheme is required to enhance the utilization of the available bandwidth. This thesis proposes using a multiple access mechanism such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) to enable multiple transmitter-receiver pairs to send data over the wireless channel simultaneously. It will be shown that such a hybrid wireless NoC with an efficient CDMA based MAC protocol can significantly increase the performance of the system while lowering the energy dissipation in data transfer. In this work it is shown that the wireless NoC with the proposed CDMA based MAC protocol

Workshop AccessibleTV "Accessible User Interfaces for Future TV Applications"

Science.gov (United States)

Hahn, Volker; Hamisu, Pascal; Jung, Christopher; Heinrich, Gregor; Duarte, Carlos; Langdon, Pat

Approximately half of the elderly people over 55 suffer from some type of typically mild visual, auditory, motor or cognitive impairment. For them interaction, especially with PCs and other complex devices is sometimes challenging, although accessible ICT applications could make much of a difference for their living quality. Basically they have the potential to enable or simplify participation and inclusion in their surrounding private and professional communities. However, the availability of accessible user interfaces being capable to adapt to the specific needs and requirements of users with individual impairments is very limited. Although there are a number of APIs [1, 2, 3, 4] available for various platforms that allow developers to provide accessibility features within their applications, today none of them provides features for the automatic adaptation of multimodal interfaces being capable to automatically fit the individual requirements of users with different kinds of impairments. Moreover, the provision of accessible user interfaces is still expensive and risky for application developers, as they need special experience and effort for user tests. Today many implementations simply neglect the needs of elderly people, thus locking out a large portion of their potential users. The workshop is organized as part of the dissemination activity for the European-funded project GUIDE "Gentle user interfaces for elderly people", which aims to address this situation with a comprehensive approach for the realization of multimodal user interfaces being capable to adapt to the needs of users with different kinds of mild impairments. As application platform, GUIDE will mainly target TVs and Set-Top Boxes, such as the emerging Connected-TV or WebTV platforms, as they have the potential to address the needs of the elderly users with applications such as for home automation, communication or continuing education.

Uncoordinated MAC for Adaptive Multi-Beam Directional Networks: Analysis and Evaluation

Science.gov (United States)

2016-04-10

omni-directional and cannot support the desired data rates, number of nodes, or the necessary communications ranges to support emerging applications ...cations: IS-95 and third generation CDMA applications . Prentice Hall PTR, 1999. [3] V. Jain, A. Gupta, and D. P. Agrawal, “On-demand medium access in...of medium access control for wlans with multi-beam access point,” IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun., vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 556–565, 2007. [18] D. Lal, V

Water access, water scarcity, and climate change.

Science.gov (United States)

Mukheibir, Pierre

2010-05-01

This article investigates the approaches of the various discourses operating in the water sector and how they address the issues of scarcity and equitable access under projected climate change impacts. Little synergy exists between the different approaches dealing with these issues. Whilst being a sustainable development and water resources management issue, a holistic view of access, scarcity and the projected impacts of climate change is not prevalent in these discourses. The climate change discourse too does not adequately bridge the gap between these issues. The projected impacts of climate change are likely to exacerbate the problems of scarcity and equitable access unless appropriate adaptation strategies are adopted and resilience is built. The successful delivery of accessible water services under projected climate change impacts therefore lies with an extension of the adaptive water management approach to include equitable access as a key driver.

CAS medium-size nuclear plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vogelweith, L.; Weiss, A.

1977-01-01

CEA has developed a range of pressurized water reactors of the type CAS Compact, which are adapted to civil ship propulsion, or to electric power production, combined possibly with heat production, up to outputs equivalent to 125MW(e). Nuclear plants equipped with these reactors are suitable for medium-size electric networks, especially in developing countries, because they are easily adaptable, owing to their flexibility; they can be installed and used in a variety of ways (on land, floating installation, combination of electric power and other production, etc.); they can be used as training reactors by countries wishing to limit their investment plans before undertaking a wider nuclear development. Examples of two possible realizations are presented: as a floating plant, and as a combined electric and desalting plant. (author)

Learning in an estimated medium-scale DSGE model

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Slobodyan, Sergey; Wouters, R.

2012-01-01

Roč. 36, č. 1 (2012), s. 26-46 ISSN 0165-1889 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GCP402/11/J018 Institutional support: PRVOUK-P23 Keywords : constant-gain adaptive learning * medium-scale DSGE model * DSGE- VAR Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 0.807, year: 2012

Study on the Particular Accounting Practices of Small and Medium Companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristina Nicolaescu

2011-12-01

Full Text Available This article aims to analyse the particularities of small and medium companies in Romania in order to propose a set of practices in accounting terms for these economic entities. To this end has started from the best practice recommendation adopted by the European Commission in November 2008 and guidelines developed by the Small and Medium Practices Committee of the International Federation of Accountants, trying to adapt them to a concrete situation, to the particular situation of small and medium enterprises of Romania. The study features were analysed economic and psycho-social, determined by the mentality of small and medium business owners in Romania and their attitudes about accounting information

Inhabiting Adaptive Architecture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Holger Schnädelbach

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Adaptive Architecture concerns buildings that are specifically designed to adapt to their inhabitants and to their environments. Work in this space has a very long history, with a number of adaptive buildings emerging during the modernist period, such as Rietveld’s Schröder house, Gaudi’s Casa Batlló and Chareau's Maison de Verre. Such early work included manual adaptivity, even if that was motor-assisted. Today, buildings have started to combine this with varying degrees of automation and designed-for adaptivity is commonplace in office buildings and eco homes, where lighting, air conditioning, access and energy generation respond to and influence the behaviour of people, and the internal and external climate.

An Access Control Framework for Reflective Middleware

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Gang Huang; Lian-Shan Sun

2008-01-01

Reflective middleware opens up the implementation details of middleware platform and applications at runtime for improving the adaptability of middleware-based systems. However, such openness brings new challenges to access control of the middleware-based systems.Some users can access the system via reflective entities, which sometimes cannot be protected by access control mechanisms of traditional middleware. To deliver high adaptability securely, reflective middleware should be equipped with proper access control mechanisms for potential access control holes induced by reflection. One reason of integrating these mechanisms in reflective middleware is that one goal of reflective middleware is to equip applications with reflection capabilities as transparent as possible. This paper studies how to design a reflective J2EE middlewarePKUAS with access control in mind. At first, a computation model of reflective system is built to identify all possible access control points induced by reflection. Then a set of access control mechanisms, including the wrapper of MBeans and a hierarchy of Java class loaders, are equipped for controlling the identified access control points. These mechanisms together with J2EE access control mechanism form the access control framework for PKUAS. The paper evaluates the security and the performance overheads of the framework in quality and quantity.

Adaptive interference-aware multichannel assignment for shared overloaded small-cell access points under limited feedback

KAUST Repository

Radaydeh, Redha Mahmoud

2014-02-01

This paper proposes a reduced-complexity multichannel assignment scheme for short-range cellular systems. It treats the scenario when a number of small-cell (e.g., femtocell) access points (APs) can be shared to serve active scheduled users. The APs employ isotropic antenna arrays and operate using an open-access control strategy. To improve the reuse ratio of physical resources, the APs are assumed to occupy a single physical channel, wherein coordination among them is infeasible. On the other hand, to improve the spatial coverage, a scheduled user can be served by a single transmit channel from an AP at a time. For the case of overloaded APs and when the feedback links are capacity limited, the scheme attempts to identify the suitable transmit channels from the deployed APs in an adaptive manner such that certain performance and/or processing load limits are satisfied. The effects of some system and design parameters on the outcomes of the scheme are thoroughly discussed. Novel results for the statistics of the resulting interference power are presented, from which results for some performance measures and processing loads are obtained. Numerical and simulations results are provided to clarify the achieved gains, as compared with related models under different operating conditions. © 2013 IEEE.

Analysis of an Adaptive P-Persistent MAC Scheme for WLAN Providing Delay Fairness

Science.gov (United States)

Yen, Chih-Ming; Chang, Chung-Ju; Chen, Yih-Shen; Huang, Ching Yao

The paper proposes and analyzes an adaptive p-persistent-based (APP) medium access control (MAC) scheme for IEEE 802.11 WLAN. The APP MAC scheme intends to support delay fairness for every station in each access, denoting small delay variance. It differentiates permission probabilities of transmission for stations which are incurred with various packet delays. This permission probability is designed as a function of the numbers of retransmissions and re-backoffs so that stations with larger packet delay are endowed with higher permission probability. Also, the scheme is analyzed by a Markov-chain analysis, where the collision probability, the system throughput, and the average delay are successfully obtained. Numerical results show that the proposed APP MAC scheme can attain lower mean delay and higher mean throughput. In the mean time, simulation results are given to justify the validity of the analysis, and also show that the APP MAC scheme can achieve more delay fairness than conventional algorithms.

ON DISCRETE STRUCTURE OF GEOLOGIC MEDIUM AND CONTINUAL APPROACH TO MODELING ITS MOVEMENTS

OpenAIRE

Sh. A. Mukhamediev

2016-01-01

This paper discusses the structure of a geologic medium represented by accessible lithified rocks and provides an overview of methods used to describe its movements. Two basic opinions are considered in the framework of the discussion: (1) an initially homogeneous and continuous geologic medium acquires the structure composed of blocks in the process of the geologic medium’s deformation/destruction/degradation, and (2) a geologic medium is composed of blocks (and often has hierarchic, active,...

Integration of Intercultural Competence in the Processes of Enterprise Internationalization: Possibilities of the Adaptation of the Model in the Operation of Small and Medium Enterprises

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jolita Vveinhardt

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The article briefly presents the problems identified during the studies carried out by the authors previously, i.e. the problems of intercultural competence and its integration in the processes of internationalization are disclosed. On the basis of the researches carried out the model of integration of intercultural competence in the internationalization processes is adapted, preparing the plan of development of intercultural competence in enterprises. At the end of the article the guidelines for the application of the model for development of internationalization of small and medium enterprises is presented.

Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria Adaptive to Vinasse

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kahar Muzakhar

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Microorganisms identified as phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB adaptive to vinasse were successfully screened from sugarcane soil from an agriculatural estate in Jatiroto. By conducting a screening on Pikovskaya’s agar medium (PAM, we found that five different isolates were detected as PSB (pvk-5a, pvk-5b, pvk-6b, pvk-7a, and pvk-8a. Of the five isolates only three could be grown and were found to be adaptive to vinasse based medium without any nutrients added (pvk-5a, pvk-5b and pvk-7a. The three isolates were characterized as coccus and Gram negative with no endospores detected. We suggest that these three isolates can be used as biofertilizer agent to support organic farming.

A Formal Framework for Adaptive Access Control Models.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Spaccapietra, S.; Rinderle, S.B.; Reichert, M.U.

For several reasons enterprises are frequently subject to organizational change. Respective adaptations may concern business processes, but also other components of an enterprise architecture. In particular, changes of organizational structures often become necessary. The information about

Impact of EU Enlargement on Business Environment of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Slovakia

OpenAIRE

Ján Vravec; Marián Gál; Tomás Sabol

2005-01-01

The paper discusses the impact of EU enlargement on business environment in the Slovak Republic. Integration of Slovakia into EU has significantly influenced operating conditions for small and medium enterprises. Prosperity of small and medium enterprises depends mainly on their ability to adapt themselves to these new conditions.

Characterization of coded random access with compressive sensing based multi user detection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ji, Yalei; Stefanovic, Cedomir; Bockelmann, Carsten

2014-01-01

The emergence of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication requires new Medium Access Control (MAC) schemes and physical (PHY) layer concepts to support a massive number of access requests. The concept of coded random access, introduced recently, greatly outperforms other random access methods...... coded random access with CS-MUD on the PHY layer and show very promising results for the resulting protocol....

Guidelines for Accessibility to Microblogging: an Integral Approach

OpenAIRE

Martín García, Yod Samuel; Álvarez Alba, Laura; Yelmo Garcia, Juan Carlos

2011-01-01

Microblogging is one of the most popular user-generated media, hence its accessibility has a large impact for users. However, the accessibility of this medium is poor in practice, due to the combination of bad practices by different agents ranging from the providers that host microblogging services to prosumers that post contents to them. Here we present an accessibility-oriented model of microblogging services, analyze the impact of its components, and propose guidelines for each of them to ...

A System to Generate SignWriting for Video Tracks Enhancing Accessibility of Deaf People

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Verdú

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Video content has increased much on the Internet during last years. In spite of the efforts of different organizations and governments to increase the accessibility of websites, most multimedia content on the Internet is not accessible. This paper describes a system that contributes to make multimedia content more accessible on the Web, by automatically translating subtitles in oral language to SignWriting, a way of writing Sign Language. This system extends the functionality of a general web platform that can provide accessible web content for different needs. This platform has a core component that automatically converts any web page to a web page compliant with level AA of WAI guidelines. Around this core component, different adapters complete the conversion according to the needs of specific users. One adapter is the Deaf People Accessibility Adapter, which provides accessible web content for the Deaf, based on SignWritting. Functionality of this adapter has been extended with the video subtitle translator system. A first prototype of this system has been tested through different methods including usability and accessibility tests and results show that this tool can enhance the accessibility of video content available on the Web for Deaf people.

Low and medium level radioactive waste repository: the access to information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bueno, Lilian de Oliveira; Vieira, Martha Marques Ferreira; Aquino, Afonso Rodrigues de; Fonseca, Edvaldo Roberto Paiva da; Bellintani, Sandra Aparecida

2009-01-01

The technological option for the nuclear energy and the society welfare must be carried on together. Access to qualified information should be allowed to the ones responsible for the preparation of material related to the project as well as to all the interested parties involved. The aim of this paper is to give some guidelines to be followed during the project implementation to guarantee this access. Complete information should be available to those involved in the project in a common database, a virtual library, where every document might be obtained. Information should be updated continuously, allowing access, through reliable search and storage tools. Every step of the project development should be well documented containing data and any eventual modification. To guarantee an open and participative conduction of the Project, several tools might be employed, according to the development of the project. Some of the suggested strategies refer to: informative and educational materials production; public consulting; interaction groups; meetings with people - mainly residents or inhabitants and specialists and stakeholders. The criteria to identify information to be released should be: novelty, impact and public interest. The rule should be to give information to all interested ones, avoiding hidden intentions. The strategy should be elaborated according to the local inhabitant's profile. Communication should be mainly done in a personal way. The responsibility for providing the information should be under an Informative Committee created specifically for communication of the project, supervised by the General Coordination and the Technical Committees. (author)

Communal farming, climate change adaptation and the media in Zimbabwe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mthokozisi P. Ndhlovu

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Climate change is destroying Zimbabwean communal farmers’ agricultural activities – a source of living for most people. As communal farmers struggle to adapt, the media is expected to assume a fundamental theoretical role of educating and informing them about the appropriate adaptation techniques. Located in Umguza District in Matabeleland North Province, the study explored how communal farmers created meaning out of climate change media content and its influence on their agricultural practices from October 2014 to April 2015. In doing so, the study used the Two-Step Flow theory and Hall’s Encoding and Decoding Model. Entrenched in pragmatism, the study embedded quantitative techniques at different stages. Multistage sampling combining Simple Random Sampling (SRS, purposive and systematic sampling techniques was used to identify the 263 households for semi structured questionnaires, direct observations and in-depth interviews. The findings were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, thematic analysis and pattern matching. The results show that personal observations; print, broadcast and online media; and opinion leaders were the main sources of climate change information. The radio was the most used medium in communicating climate change adaptation though it was the second most accessed after mobile phones. Conservation Agriculture and planting of drought-resistant crops were some of the adaptation techniques communicated in the media. When interacting with media content, communal farmers create their own meaning influenced by their cultural values, resulting in some adopting, rejecting or modifying certain adaptation techniques. The study concludes that opinion leaders are fundamental in communal farmers’ interaction with media but their influence must not be overestimated.

Leaf responses to drought stress in Mediterranean accessions of Solanum lycopersicum: anatomical adaptations in relation to gas exchange parameters.

Science.gov (United States)

Galmés, Jeroni; Ochogavía, Joan Manuel; Gago, Jorge; Roldán, Emilio José; Cifre, Josep; Conesa, Miquel Àngel

2013-05-01

In a previous study, important acclimation to water stress was observed in the Ramellet tomato cultivar (TR) from the Balearic Islands, related to an increase in the water-use efficiency through modifications in both stomatal (g(s)) and mesophyll conductances (g(m)). In the present work, the comparison of physiological and morphological traits between TR accessions grown with and without water stress confirmed that variability in the photosynthetic capacity was mostly explained by differences in the diffusion of CO2 through stomata and leaf mesophyll. Maximization of gm under both treatments was mainly achieved through adjustments in the mesophyll thickness and porosity and the surface area of chloroplasts exposed to intercellular airspace (S(c)). In addition, the lower g(m) /S(c) ratio for a given porosity in drought-acclimated plants suggests that the decrease in gm was due to an increased cell wall thickness. Stomatal conductance was also affected by drought-associated changes in the morphological properties of stomata, in an accession and treatment-dependent manner. The results confirm the presence of advantageous physiological traits in the response to drought stress in Mediterranean accessions of tomato, and relate them to particular changes in the leaf anatomical properties, suggesting specific adaptive processes operating at the leaf anatomical level. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

From Narrative Slave to Movie: Adaptation Theory

OpenAIRE

Fathu Rahman, Dr.,M.Hum.

2017-01-01

Twelve Years a Slave is one of literary works that adapted in movie version with the same title. Twelve Years a Slave is a work was written by Solomon Northup which is based on his journey life when he was become slave for Twelve Years. In 2013, this work was adapted into movie by English film director with the same title. In the process of adapting a literary works into movie, it will be occurs many changes due the differences between two mediums. Although it ...

Access to the Arts through Assistive Technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Frame, Charles

Personnel in the rehabilitation field have come to recognize the possibilities and implications of computers as assistive technology for disabled persons. This manual provides information on how to adapt the Unicorn Board, Touch Talker/Light Talker overlays, the Adaptive Firmware Card setup disk, and Trace-Transparent Access Module (T-TAM) to…

Technology transfer for adaptation

Science.gov (United States)

Biagini, Bonizella; Kuhl, Laura; Gallagher, Kelly Sims; Ortiz, Claudia

2014-09-01

Technology alone will not be able to solve adaptation challenges, but it is likely to play an important role. As a result of the role of technology in adaptation and the importance of international collaboration for climate change, technology transfer for adaptation is a critical but understudied issue. Through an analysis of Global Environment Facility-managed adaptation projects, we find there is significantly more technology transfer occurring in adaptation projects than might be expected given the pessimistic rhetoric surrounding technology transfer for adaptation. Most projects focused on demonstration and early deployment/niche formation for existing technologies rather than earlier stages of innovation, which is understandable considering the pilot nature of the projects. Key challenges for the transfer process, including technology selection and appropriateness under climate change, markets and access to technology, and diffusion strategies are discussed in more detail.

Accessible Website Content Guidelines for Users with Intellectual Disabilities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Karreman, Joyce; van der Geest, Thea; Buursink, Esmee

2007-01-01

Background: The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative has issued guidelines for making websites better and easier to access for people with various disabilities (W3C Web Accessibility Initiative guidelines 1999). - Method: The usability of two versions of a website (a non-adapted site and a site that was

Integrating Adaptive Games in Student-Centered Virtual Learning Environments

Science.gov (United States)

del Blanco, Angel; Torrente, Javier; Moreno-Ger, Pablo; Fernandez-Manjon, Baltasar

2010-01-01

The increasing adoption of e-Learning technology is facing new challenges, such as how to produce student-centered systems that can be adapted to each student's needs. In this context, educational video games are proposed as an ideal medium to facilitate adaptation and tracking of students' performance for assessment purposes, but integrating the…

Introducing an Adaptive Method to Tune Initial Backoff Window ( -ATM in IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tadayon Navid

2010-01-01

Full Text Available IEEE802.11 access protocol uses CSMA/CA in its Medium Access control layer as the main access function, which carries several deficiencies. In these networks, as the number of active stations increases, delay and throughput degrade severely. As far as throughput and service delay are vital elements in Quality of Service (QoS determination, such degradation could lead to intolerable situations and reduce the efficiency of WLANs. Networks (WLANs. Studies proved this problem arises due to constant initial backoff windows size ( , which is an important parameter in determination of network behavior. In this paper, we introduce a new method to tune this parameter adaptively according to changes in channel load. In this method, we do tune this parameter after every transmission using a feedback from transmission channel. Later it will be proven that applying this method in MAC layer enhances network stability; delay trend in all traffic classes exhibits a considerable reduction when compared with simple Enhanced Distributed Coordination Access (EDCA scenarios. Also throughput exhibits a salient improvement in level. In other word, QoS improves. Especially, with the aid of this method, delay variations in all decrease considerably and more smoothen delay trends are achieved.

Overview of medium heterogeneity and transport processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsang, Y.; Tsang, C.F.

1993-11-01

Medium heterogeneity can have significant impact on the behavior of solute transport. Tracer breakthrough curves from transport in a heterogeneous medium are distinctly different from that in a homogeneous porous medium. Usually the shape of the breakthrough curves are highly non-symmetrical with a fast rise at early times and very long tail at late times, and often, they consist of multiple peaks. Moreover, unlike transport in a homogeneous medium where the same transport parameters describe the entire medium, transport through heterogeneous media gives rise to breakthrough curves which have strong spatial dependence. These inherent characteristics of transport in heterogeneous medium present special challenge to the performance assessment of a potential high level nuclear waste repository with respect to the possible release of radio nuclides to the accessible environment. Since an inherently desirable site characteristic for a waste repository is that flow and transport should be slow, then transport measurements in site characterization efforts will necessarily be spatially small and temporally short compare to the scales which are of relevance to performance assessment predictions. In this paper we discuss the role of medium heterogeneity in site characterization and performance assessment. Our discussion will be based on a specific example of a 3D heterogeneous stochastic model of a site generally similar to, the Aespoe Island, the site of the Hard Rock Laboratory in Southern Sweden. For our study, alternative 3D stochastic fields of hydraulic conductivities conditioned on ''point'' measurements shall be generated. Results of stochastic flow and transport simulations would be used to address the issues of (1) the relationship of tracer breakthrough with the structure of heterogeneity, and (2) the inference from small scale testing results to large scale and long term predictions

Adapting Building Design to Access by Individuals with Intellectual Disability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L Castell

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Over the last 15 years, since introductionof the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA(Commonwealth Government of Australia,1992, there has been much discussionabout the extent and nature of buildingaccess for the disabled, particularly inresponse to proposed revisions to theBuilding Code of Australia (BCA and theintroduction of a Premises Standardcovering building access. Much of theargument which contributed to the twoyear delay in submitting a final version ofthese documents for government approvalrelated to the extent of access provisionsand the burden of cost. The final versionsubmitted to government by the AustralianBuilding Codes Board (ABCB (notreleased publicly appears to still containinconsistencies between the DDA and theBCA in several areas such as wayfindingand egress.In the debate preceding submission of thefinal version there appears to have beenlittle reference to access requirements forindividuals with intellectual disability (ID.This may be due to a general lack ofresearch on the topic. Consequently, thispaper uses a combination of theknowledge gained from a limited numberof previous wayfinding studies, literaturedescribing general problems faced bythose with ID and the author’s personalexperience observing others with ID tocreate a list of probable difficulties andsuggested solutions. The paperconcludes with a discussion about theassociated cost implications and benefitsin providing the required access.

Medium-term dynamics of a middle Adriatic barred beach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Postacchini

2017-09-01

Full Text Available In recent years, attention has been paid to beach protection by means of soft and hard defenses. Along the Italian coast of the Adriatic Sea, sandy beaches are the most common landscape feature and around 70 % of the Marche region's coast (central Adriatic is protected by defense structures. The longest free-from-obstacle nearshore area in the region includes the beach of Senigallia, frequently monitored in the last decades and characterized by a multiple bar system, which represents a natural beach defense. The bathymetries surveyed in 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 show long-term stability, confirmed by a good adaptation of an analyzed stretch of the beach to the Dean-type equilibrium profile, though a strong short- to medium-term variability of the wave climate has been observed during the monitored periods. The medium-term dynamics of the beach, which deal with the evolution of submerged bars and are of the order of years or seasons, have been related to the wave climate collected, during the analyzed temporal windows, by a wave buoy located about 40 km off Senigallia. An overall interpretation of the hydrodynamics, sediment characteristics and seabed morphology suggests that the wave climate is fundamental for the morphodynamic changes of the beach in the medium term. These medium-term time ranges during which waves mainly come from NNE/ESE are characterized by a larger/smaller steepness and by a larger/smaller relative wave height, and seem to induce seaward/shoreward bar migration as well as bar smoothing/steepening. Moving southeastward, the bar dimension increases, while the equilibrium profile shape suggests the adaptation to a decreasing sediment size in the submerged beach. This is probably due to the presence of both the harbor jetty and river mouth north of the investigated area.

Mechanism of Interaction between Entrepreneurial Spirit and Growth of Small and Medium Sized Private Enterprises

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Peng XIE

2016-01-01

In the context of government appeal of " mass entrepreneurship and innovation",all areas launched the movement of " mass entrepreneurship" and " grassroots entrepreneurship". As parts of vitality of China’s market economy,small and medium sized private enterprises become grassroots of market competition in talents,funds,and technologies. This paper combined three levels of entrepreneurial spirit and small and medium sized private enterprises,studied acting mechanism of entrepreneurial spirit,discussed competitive power of small and medium sized private enterprises,and recommended that small and medium sized private enterprises should cultivate core competitive power,adapt to external environment,and create external environment support,to realize sound development.

Adaptive ethnography

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Berth, Mette

2005-01-01

This paper focuses on the use of an adaptive ethnography when studying such phenomena as young people's use of mobile media in a learning perspective. Mobile media such as PDAs and mobile phones have a number of affordances which make them potential tools for learning. However, before we begin to...... formal and informal learning contexts. The paper also proposes several adaptive methodological techniques for studying young people's interaction with mobiles.......This paper focuses on the use of an adaptive ethnography when studying such phenomena as young people's use of mobile media in a learning perspective. Mobile media such as PDAs and mobile phones have a number of affordances which make them potential tools for learning. However, before we begin...... to design and develop educational materials for mobile media platforms we must first understand everyday use and behaviour with a medium such as a mobile phone. The paper outlines the research design for a PhD project on mobile learning which focuses on mobile phones as a way to bridge the gap between...

Medium-Energy Nuclear Data Library (MENDLIB): Phase 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siciliano, E.R.; Arthur, E.D.

1987-10-01

This document describes an initial step towards the formation of a computerized on-line data library, which would contain published medium-energy experimental data, and which would serve the basic and applied needs of the medium-energy nuclear physics community. The data emphasized in this project will be from measured charged-particle and meson induced nuclear scattering and reactions; an area for which no such data base presently exists. Access to the data will be through a menu-driven program in a user-friendly environment. The project is divided into three phases: Phase 1 involves compilation of Clinton P. Anderson Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF) data from nucleon and pion induced reactions, Phase 2 includes nucleon and pion data from other medium-energy facilities, and Phase 3 includes electron, light-ion, and possibly kaon and anti-nucleon data. The initial goals, the manner in which they would be pursued, and the resources needed to implement Phase 1 (the pilot phase) are discussed in detail. Possible expansion of Phase 1 to attain the envisioned goals of Phase 2 and 3 are briefly outlined. During all stages of the project, input from the community will be sought via the various facility user groups and the American Physical Society Division of Nuclear Physics. It is proposed that the Applied Nuclear Science Group (T-2) of the Los Alamos National Laboratory oversees the development and implementation of this project, and the LAMPF VAX computers be used as the host computers for on-line access

Studies in tissue culture of some indigenous rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud.) accessions in Ghana

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diawuoh, R.G.

2011-01-01

A study was conducted with the aim of developing separate protocols for callus induction and plant regeneration from different parts of three O. glaberrima accessions indigenous to Ghana. The three O. glaberrima accessions, Guame, N/4 and SARI 1 were assessed for their callus induction and plant regeneration ability from leaf segments, mature dehusked seeds and anthers on different concentrations of plant growth regulators, incorporated into Murashige and Skoog, (1962) (MS) basal medium. For leaf segments, callus was induced on MS supplemented with (0-10) mg/l 2,4-D. Callus induction frequency was significantly (p≤0.05) different among accessions, as well as among the 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) levels tested. Highest callus induction frequency was exhibited at a concentration of 6 mg/l 2,4-D for all accessions tested. Callus obtained was sub-cultured on regeneration medium consisting of MS supplemented with (1:0-5) mg.l NAA:BAP. Plant regeneration was nil. Instead, prolific root formation was observed. For mature dehusked seeds, callus induction medium consisted of MS supplemented with (0-6) mg/l 2,4-D. All tested accessions exhibited highest callus frequency at 4 mg/l 2,4-D. Similarly callus induction frequency was significantly (p≤0.05) different among accessions, as well as among concentrations of 2,4-D tested. Calli obtained were sub-cultured on MS medium supplemented with (0-2.5) mg/l 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and exhibited the highest regeneration frequency on medium containing 2.0 mg/l BAP. However, callus induced on a concentration of 3 mg/l 2,4-D and sub-cultured on a concentration of 2 mg/l BAP gave the best response n terms of shoot proliferation, growth and root development and therefore were considered to be the optimum concentrations for callus induction and plant regeneration respectively. Plantlet regeneration was achieved only in accession N/4 while Guame and SARI 1 exhibited poor regeneration response. Among the three rice

Adaptive DSP Algorithms for UMTS: Blind Adaptive MMSE and PIC Multiuser Detection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Potman, J.

2003-01-01

A study of the application of blind adaptive Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) and Parallel Interference Cancellation (PIC) multiuser detection techniques to Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), the physical layer of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), has been performed as

Auditing the Accessibility of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

Science.gov (United States)

Iniesto, Francisco; McAndrew, Patrick; Minocha, Shailey; Coughlan, Tim

2017-01-01

The outcome from the research being reported in this paper is the design of an accessibility audit to evaluate Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for accessibility and to arrive at solutions and adaptations that can meet user needs. This accessibility audit includes expert-based heuristic evaluations and user-based evaluations of the MOOC platforms and individual courses.

Time Optimized Algorithm for Web Document Presentation Adaptation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pan, Rong; Dolog, Peter

2010-01-01

Currently information on the web is accessed through different devices. Each device has its own properties such as resolution, size, and capabilities to display information in different format and so on. This calls for adaptation of information presentation for such platforms. This paper proposes...... content-optimized and time-optimized algorithms for information presentation adaptation for different devices based on its hierarchical model. The model is formalized in order to experiment with different algorithms.......Currently information on the web is accessed through different devices. Each device has its own properties such as resolution, size, and capabilities to display information in different format and so on. This calls for adaptation of information presentation for such platforms. This paper proposes...

Ionizing radiation-induced bystander mutagenesis and adaptation: Quantitative and temporal aspects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Ying; Zhou Junqing; Baldwin, Joseph; Held, Kathryn D.; Prise, Kevin M.; Redmond, Robert W.; Liber, Howard L.

2009-01-01

This work explores several quantitative aspects of radiation-induced bystander mutagenesis in WTK1 human lymphoblast cells. Gamma-irradiation of cells was used to generate conditioned medium containing bystander signals, and that medium was transferred onto naive recipient cells. Kinetic studies revealed that it required up to 1 h to generate sufficient signal to induce the maximal level of mutations at the thymidine kinase locus in the bystander cells receiving the conditioned medium. Furthermore, it required at least 1 h of exposure to the signal in the bystander cells to induce mutations. Bystander signal was fairly stable in the medium, requiring 12-24 h to diminish. Medium that contained bystander signal was rendered ineffective by a 4-fold dilution; in contrast a greater than 20-fold decrease in the cell number irradiated to generate a bystander signal was needed to eliminate bystander-induced mutagenesis. This suggested some sort of feedback inhibition by bystander signal that prevented the signaling cells from releasing more signal. Finally, an ionizing radiation-induced adaptive response was shown to be effective in reducing bystander mutagenesis; in addition, low levels of exposure to bystander signal in the transferred medium induced adaptation that was effective in reducing mutations induced by subsequent γ-ray exposures.

Medium factors on anaerobic production of rhamnolipids by Pseudomonas aeruginosa SG and a simplifying medium for in situ microbial enhanced oil recovery applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Feng; Zhou, Jidong; Han, Siqin; Ma, Fang; Zhang, Ying; Zhang, Jie

2016-04-01

Aerobic production of rhamnolipid by Pseudomonas aeruginosa was extensively studied. But effect of medium composition on anaerobic production of rhamnolipid by P. aeruginosa was unknown. A simplifying medium facilitating anaerobic production of rhamnolipid is urgently needed for in situ microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). Medium factors affecting anaerobic production of rhamnolipid were investigated using P. aeruginosa SG (Genbank accession number KJ995745). Medium composition for anaerobic production of rhamnolipid by P. aeruginosa is different from that for aerobic production of rhamnolipid. Both hydrophobic substrate and organic nitrogen inhibited rhamnolipid production under anaerobic conditions. Glycerol and nitrate were the best carbon and nitrogen source. The commonly used N limitation under aerobic conditions was not conducive to rhamnolipid production under anaerobic conditions because the initial cell growth demanded enough nitrate for anaerobic respiration. But rhamnolipid was also fast accumulated under nitrogen starvation conditions. Sufficient phosphate was needed for anaerobic production of rhamnolipid. SO4(2-) and Mg(2+) are required for anaerobic production of rhamnolipid. Results will contribute to isolation bacteria strains which can anaerobically produce rhamnolipid and medium optimization for anaerobic production of rhamnolipid. Based on medium optimization by response surface methodology and ions composition of reservoir formation water, a simplifying medium containing 70.3 g/l glycerol, 5.25 g/l NaNO3, 5.49 g/l KH2PO4, 6.9 g/l K2HPO4·3H2O and 0.40 g/l MgSO4 was designed. Using the simplifying medium, 630 mg/l of rhamnolipid was produced by SG, and the anaerobic culture emulsified crude oil to EI24 = 82.5 %. The simplifying medium was promising for in situ MEOR applications.

Considering User's Access Pattern in Multimedia File Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, KyoungWoon; Ryu, YeonSeung; Won, Youjip; Koh, Kern

2002-12-01

Legacy buffer cache management schemes for multimedia server are grounded at the assumption that the application sequentially accesses the multimedia file. However, user access pattern may not be sequential in some circumstances, for example, in distance learning application, where the user may exploit the VCR-like function(rewind and play) of the system and accesses the particular segments of video repeatedly in the middle of sequential playback. Such a looping reference can cause a significant performance degradation of interval-based caching algorithms. And thus an appropriate buffer cache management scheme is required in order to deliver desirable performance even under the workload that exhibits looping reference behavior. We propose Adaptive Buffer cache Management(ABM) scheme which intelligently adapts to the file access characteristics. For each opened file, ABM applies either the LRU replacement or the interval-based caching depending on the Looping Reference Indicator, which indicates that how strong temporally localized access pattern is. According to our experiment, ABM exhibits better buffer cache miss ratio than interval-based caching or LRU, especially when the workload exhibits not only sequential but also looping reference property.

A RCCI operational limits assessment in a medium duty compression ignition engine using an adapted compression ratio

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benajes, Jesús; Pastor, José V.; García, Antonio; Boronat, Vicente

2016-01-01

Highlights: • RCCI with CR 12.75 reaches up to 80% load fulfilling mechanical limits. • Ultra-low levels in NOx and soot emissions are obtained in the whole engine map. • Ultra-high levels of CO and uHC have been measured overall at low load. • RCCI improves fuel consumption from 25% to 80% engine loads comparing with CDC. - Abstract: Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition concept offers an ultra-low nitrogen oxide and soot emissions with a high thermal efficiency. This work investigates the capabilities of this low temperature combustion concept to work on the whole map of a medium duty engine proposing strategies to solve its main challenges. In this sense, an extension to high loads of the concept without exceeding mechanical stress as well as a mitigation of carbon oxide and unburned hydrocarbons emissions at low load together with a fuel consumption penalty have been identified as main Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition drawbacks. For this purpose, a single cylinder engine derived from commercial four cylinders medium-duty engine with an adapted compression ratio of 12.75 is used. Commercial 95 octane gasoline was used as a low reactivity fuel and commercial diesel as a high reactivity fuel. Thus, the study consists of two different parts. Firstly, the work is focused on the development and evaluation of an engine map trying to achieve the maximum possible load without exceeding a pressure rise rate of 15 bar/CAD. The second part holds on improving fuel consumption and carbon oxide and unburned hydrocarbons emissions at low load. Results suggest that it is possible to achieve up to 80% of nominal conventional diesel combustion engine load without overpassing the constraints of pressure rise rate (below 15 bar/CAD) and maximum pressure peak (below 190 bar) while obtaining ultra-low levels of nitrogen oxide and soot emissions. Regarding low load challenges, it has developed a particular methodology sweeping the gasoline-diesel blend together

Architecture and Knowledge-Driven Self-Adaptive Security in Smart Space

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antti Evesti

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Dynamic and heterogeneous smart spaces cause challenges for security because it is impossible to anticipate all the possible changes at design-time. Self-adaptive security is an applicable solution for this challenge. This paper presents an architectural approach for security adaptation in smart spaces. The approach combines an adaptation loop, Information Security Measuring Ontology (ISMO and a smart space security-control model. The adaptation loop includes phases to monitor, analyze, plan and execute changes in the smart space. The ISMO offers input knowledge for the adaptation loop and the security-control model enforces dynamic access control policies. The approach is novel because it defines the whole adaptation loop and knowledge required in each phase of the adaptation. The contributions are validated as a part of the smart space pilot implementation. The approach offers reusable and extensible means to achieve adaptive security in smart spaces and up-to-date access control for devices that appear in the space. Hence, the approach supports the work of smart space application developers.

Time division multiple access for vehicular communications

CERN Document Server

Omar, Hassan Aboubakr

2014-01-01

This brief focuses on medium access control (MAC) in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), and presents VeMAC, a novel MAC scheme based on distributed time division multiple access (TDMA) for VANETs. The performance of VeMAC is evaluated via mathematical analysis and computer simulations in comparison with other existing MAC protocols, including the IEEE 802.11p standard. This brief aims at proposing TDMA as a suitable MAC scheme for VANETs, which can support the quality-of-service requirements of high priority VANET applications.

Informatics and Society: The Challenge of Improving IT Accessibility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bruce Diamond

2005-12-01

Full Text Available Information technology (IT is an important part of society and has assumed an increasing role in education, medicine, commercial, leisure, and sociopolitical applications. However, while progress in developing IT hardware and software has advanced, our understanding of user needs and how these needs can be translated into more accessible and effective system design lags behind. The challenge that we face is rooted in the fact that many individuals across this planet who are differently-abled due to aging, developmental or neurologic conditions or to individual differences in learning, face obstacles in using and accessing IT. The central thesis of this paper is that the effective delivery of IT to the differently-abled is contingent on deriving enough information about user populations to allow for the development and use of personalized interfaces and customized content. To this end, it is proposed that a combination of adaptive hypermedia and cognitive adaptive strategies integrating metadata architecture for representing the results of cognitive and functional assessments be designed and implemented. Keywords: Information technology, accessibility, differently-abled, adaptive hypermedia, informatics

[Access to care for vulnerable populations].

Science.gov (United States)

Geeraert, Jérémy; Rivollier, Elisabeth

2014-11-01

Accessing hospital care is a privilege for a growing proportion of the population in situations of economic and social precarity. It is therefore important that caregivers understand these difficulties in order to adapt their nursing approach.

Xylose utilizing zymomonas mobilis with improved ethanol production in biomass hydrolysate medium

Science.gov (United States)

Caimi, Perry G; Hitz, William D; Stieglitz, Barry; Viitanen, Paul V

2013-07-02

Xylose-utilizing, ethanol producing strains of Zymomonas mobilis with improved performance in medium comprising biomass hydrolysate were isolated using an adaptation process. Independently isolated strains were found to have independent mutations in the same coding region. Mutation in this coding may be engineered to confer the improved phenotype.

Distributed Medium Access Control with SDMA Support for WLANs

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Sheng; Niu, Zhisheng

With simultaneous multi-user transmissions, spatial division multiple access (SDMA) provides substantial throughput gain over the single user transmission. However, its implementation in WLANs with contention-based IEEE 802.11 MAC remains challenging. Problems such as coordinating and synchronizing the multiple users need to be solved in a distributed way. In this paper, we propose a distributed MAC protocol for WLANs with SDMA support. A dual-mode CTS responding mechanism is designed to accomplish the channel estimation and user synchronization required for SDMA. We analytically study the throughput performance of the proposed MAC, and dynamic parameter adjustment is designed to enhance the protocol efficiency. In addition, the proposed MAC protocol does not rely on specific physical layer realizations, and can work on legacy IEEE 802.11 equipment with slight software updates. Simulation results show that the proposed MAC outperforms IEEE 802.11 significantly, and that the dynamic parameter adjustment can effectively track the load variation in the network.

A Priority-Based Adaptive MAC Protocol for Wireless Body Area Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabin Bhandari

2016-03-01

Full Text Available In wireless body area networks (WBANs, various sensors and actuators are placed on/inside the human body and connected wirelessly. WBANs have specific requirements for healthcare and medical applications, hence, standard protocols like the IEEE 802.15.4 cannot fulfill all the requirements. Consequently, many medium access control (MAC protocols, mostly derived from the IEEE 802.15.4 superframe structure, have been studied. Nevertheless, they do not support a differentiated quality of service (QoS for the various forms of traffic coexisting in a WBAN. In particular, a QoS-aware MAC protocol is essential for WBANs operating in the unlicensed Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM bands, because different wireless services like Bluetooth, WiFi, and Zigbee may coexist there and cause severe interference. In this paper, we propose a priority-based adaptive MAC (PA-MAC protocol for WBANs in unlicensed bands, which allocates time slots dynamically, based on the traffic priority. Further, multiple channels are effectively utilized to reduce access delays in a WBAN, in the presence of coexisting systems. Our performance evaluation results show that the proposed PA-MAC outperforms the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC and the conventional priority-based MAC in terms of the average transmission time, throughput, energy consumption, and data collision ratio.

A Priority-Based Adaptive MAC Protocol for Wireless Body Area Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhandari, Sabin; Moh, Sangman

2016-03-18

In wireless body area networks (WBANs), various sensors and actuators are placed on/inside the human body and connected wirelessly. WBANs have specific requirements for healthcare and medical applications, hence, standard protocols like the IEEE 802.15.4 cannot fulfill all the requirements. Consequently, many medium access control (MAC) protocols, mostly derived from the IEEE 802.15.4 superframe structure, have been studied. Nevertheless, they do not support a differentiated quality of service (QoS) for the various forms of traffic coexisting in a WBAN. In particular, a QoS-aware MAC protocol is essential for WBANs operating in the unlicensed Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands, because different wireless services like Bluetooth, WiFi, and Zigbee may coexist there and cause severe interference. In this paper, we propose a priority-based adaptive MAC (PA-MAC) protocol for WBANs in unlicensed bands, which allocates time slots dynamically, based on the traffic priority. Further, multiple channels are effectively utilized to reduce access delays in a WBAN, in the presence of coexisting systems. Our performance evaluation results show that the proposed PA-MAC outperforms the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC and the conventional priority-based MAC in terms of the average transmission time, throughput, energy consumption, and data collision ratio.

Information Quality Aware Data Collection for Adaptive Monitoring of Distribution Grids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kemal, Mohammed Seifu; Olsen, Rasmus Løvenstein; Schwefel, Hans-Peter

2017-01-01

frequency during run time. The data collection system should adapt to changing dynamics of the communication network and electrical grid. This paper first introduces adaptation functionalities for the data collection mechanism. To study and analyse the influence of configuration parameters that can......Abstract. Information from existing smart metering infrastructure, mainly used for billing purposes can also be utilised to monitor and control state of the grid. To add functionalities such as fault detection and real-time state estimation, data from smart meters should be accessed with increased...... be utilised for adaptation, a two-layer smart meter data access infrastructure is presented. An information quality metric, Mismatch Probability (mmPr) is introduced for the quantitative analysis of the two-layer data access system implemented in MATLAB based discrete event simulation study....

[Indigenous peoples' access to health services in Cuiabá, Mato Grosso State, Brazil].

Science.gov (United States)

Gomes, Silvana Cardoso; Esperidião, Monique Azevedo

2017-06-12

This study aimed to evaluate indigenous peoples' access to medium and high-complexity health services in the municipality of Cuiabá, Mato Grosso State, Brazil, through the Casa de Saúde Indígena or Indigenous Peoples' Clinic (CASAI Cuiabá). A single case study with a qualitative approach was conducted at CASAI Cuiabá. Data were obtained from observation of the work routines at CASAI Cuiabá, semi-structured interviews with health professionals and administrators from the Cuiabá Special Indigenous Health District (DSEI) and CASAI Cuiabá, and document analysis. Data analysis used a matrix derived from the theoretical and logical model of accessibility, validated by the Delphi method with a group of experts on indigenous peoples' health. Despite advances achieved by CASAI in improving indigenous peoples' access, there are persistent social, organizational, cultural, and geographic barriers in access to medium and high-complexity health services in Cuiabá. The study highlights the need for specific strategies to improve access to health services by indigenous peoples in Mato Grosso State.

Base station MAC with APRMA protocol for broadband multimedia ATM in micro/pico-cellular mobile networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Le, Khanh Hoang; Nielsen, Søren Nørskov; Dittmann, Lars

1998-01-01

The concept for a wireless ATM access system that enables seamless mobile connectivity to the B-ISDN is presented. It is based on small, low cost and intelligent base stations running a medium access control (MAC) protocol using adaptive packet reservation multiple access (APRMA). Both...

Scalable Lunar Surface Networks and Adaptive Orbit Access, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Innovative network architecture, protocols, and algorithms are proposed for both lunar surface networks and orbit access networks. Firstly, an overlaying...

Diversification and intensification of agricultural adaptation from global to local scales.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Minjie Chen

Full Text Available Smallholder farming systems are vulnerable to a number of challenges, including continued population growth, urbanization, income disparities, land degradation, decreasing farm size and productivity, all of which are compounded by uncertainty of climatic patterns. Understanding determinants of smallholder farming practices is critical for designing and implementing successful interventions, including climate change adaptation programs. We examine two dimensions wherein smallholder farmers may adapt agricultural practices; through intensification (i.e., adopt more practices or diversification (i.e. adopt different practices. We use data on 5314 randomly sampled households located in 38 sites in 15 countries across four regions (East and West Africa, South Asia, and Central America. We estimate empirical models designed to assess determinants of both intensification and diversification of adaptation activities at global scales. Aspects of adaptive capacity that are found to increase intensification of adaptation globally include variables associated with access to information and human capital, financial considerations, assets, household infrastructure and experience. In contrast, there are few global drivers of adaptive diversification, with a notable exception being access to weather information, which also increases adaptive intensification. Investigating reasons for adaptation indicate that conditions present in underdeveloped markets provide the primary impetus for adaptation, even in the context of climate change. We also compare determinants across spatial scales, which reveals a variety of local avenues through which policy interventions can relax economic constraints and boost agricultural adaptation for both intensification and diversification. For example, access to weather information does not affect intensification adaptation in Africa, but is significant at several sites in Bangladesh and India. Moreover, this information leads to

Diversification and intensification of agricultural adaptation from global to local scales

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Minjie; Wichmann, Bruno; Luckert, Marty; Winowiecki, Leigh; Förch, Wiebke

2018-01-01

Smallholder farming systems are vulnerable to a number of challenges, including continued population growth, urbanization, income disparities, land degradation, decreasing farm size and productivity, all of which are compounded by uncertainty of climatic patterns. Understanding determinants of smallholder farming practices is critical for designing and implementing successful interventions, including climate change adaptation programs. We examine two dimensions wherein smallholder farmers may adapt agricultural practices; through intensification (i.e., adopt more practices) or diversification (i.e. adopt different practices). We use data on 5314 randomly sampled households located in 38 sites in 15 countries across four regions (East and West Africa, South Asia, and Central America). We estimate empirical models designed to assess determinants of both intensification and diversification of adaptation activities at global scales. Aspects of adaptive capacity that are found to increase intensification of adaptation globally include variables associated with access to information and human capital, financial considerations, assets, household infrastructure and experience. In contrast, there are few global drivers of adaptive diversification, with a notable exception being access to weather information, which also increases adaptive intensification. Investigating reasons for adaptation indicate that conditions present in underdeveloped markets provide the primary impetus for adaptation, even in the context of climate change. We also compare determinants across spatial scales, which reveals a variety of local avenues through which policy interventions can relax economic constraints and boost agricultural adaptation for both intensification and diversification. For example, access to weather information does not affect intensification adaptation in Africa, but is significant at several sites in Bangladesh and India. Moreover, this information leads to diversification of

Medium-energy charged-particle data for evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pearlstein, S.

1989-01-01

Medium-energy charged particles incident on targets can cause a variety of nuclear reactions. Charged-particle transport calculations require access to a large body of cross-section data, which results in interest in an evaluated charged-particle data library. Developing an evaluated data library can involve several steps. An index to the literature on measurements and theory is useful to locate information relevant to data evaluation. A computerized compilation of measurements facilitates the intercomparison of different experiments and the determination of how well data are known. Nuclear models, based on theory or phenomenological evidence, are compared with experiment and, where validated, are used to fill in regions where experimental data are not available. Finally, the selected data are placed into computer-readable formats for use in transport calculations. Specialized indexes to bibliography help the scientist to keep up with his field and catch up with new subjects of interest. Several indexes are relevant to medium-energy nuclear data. In addition, these data are covered in several reports not issued on a regular basis. The technical area of medium-energy charged-particle data is maturing. From isolated measurements and theories, a comprehensive approach toward establishing a validated data base extending from low to high energies is emerging

Adaptive Sensing and Control for Flexible Transmission in a Turbulent Medium. Adaptive Laser Beam Control Using Return Photon Statistics

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Lukesh, Gordon

2004-01-01

.... Pointing estimates are available after 25 shots. As a prime example of the utility and feasibility, estimates of boresight will be available to adaptively control pointing with a goal of boresight reduction via feedback...

FACTORS AFFECTING ACCESS TO FINANCE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SMEs OF BANGLADESH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammed CHOWDHURY

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study addresses the issues that impede SMEs of Bangladesh in obtaining finance from the financial institutions. To accomplish our goals we collected data from a sample of 86 SMEs to investigate the problems and suggest policy recommendations. We collected data by directly interviewing the respondents with the help of a questionnaire for self-guidance. We also used secondary data for this purpose. Findings revealed that the size and age of the firms, education and skills of the owners, and unfavorable credit terms such as high interest rates, lack of collateral security, corruption by bank officials etc. are some of the biggest hurdles that SMEs in Bangladesh face in getting loans from financial institutions. The limitation is that the study has included one city in its sample population. A nationwide study where there are SMEs in large numbers could lead to better results for this kind of study. The implication is that small businesses, as opposed to the larger ones, face funding obstacles and are discriminated by the financial institutions in granting loans. Built on current literatures and research on SMEs, specially in regard to their ability to access finance, this study captures the information relating to problems identified by SMEs in having access to finance and suggesting the ways and means needed for strengthening the SMEs access to finance for their expansion and growth.

MPTCP Tunnel: An Architecture for Aggregating Bandwidth of Heterogeneous Access Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaolan Liu

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Fixed and cellular networks are two typical access networks provided by operators. Fixed access network is widely employed; nevertheless, its bandwidth is sometimes not sufficient enough to meet user bandwidth requirements. Meanwhile, cellular access network owns unique advantages of wider coverage, faster increasing link speed, more flexible deployment, and so forth. Therefore, it is attractive for operators to mitigate the bandwidth shortage by bundling these two. Actually, there have been existing schemes proposed to aggregate the bandwidth of two access networks, whereas they all have their own problems, like packet reordering or extra latency overhead. To address this problem, we design new architecture, MPTCP Tunnel, to aggregate the bandwidth of multiple heterogeneous access networks from the perspective of operators. MPTCP Tunnel uses MPTCP, which solves the reordering problem essentially, to bundle multiple access networks. Besides, MPTCP Tunnel sets up only one MPTCP connection at play which adapts itself to multiple traffic types and TCP flows. Furthermore, MPTCP Tunnel forwards intact IP packets through access networks, maintaining the end-to-end TCP semantics. Experimental results manifest that MPTCP Tunnel can efficiently aggregate the bandwidth of multiple access networks and is more adaptable to the increasing heterogeneity of access networks than existing mechanisms.

Regulation of Small and Medium-Sized Business Development in Russia: Problems and Solutions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lyudmila Yuryevna Bogachkova

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The authors prove that despite the active state policy carried out since the second half of the 2000s and aimed at supporting small and medium-sized business in the Russian Federation, the current level of development of this economic sector is insufficient. The present paper characterizes the modern structure of small and medium-sized business. The authors show that the main problems hindering its growth are conditioned by low market demand, large tax deductions, numerous administrative barriers, lack of funding and state support. On the basis of the official data of Russian Federal State Statistics Service on theresults of annual surveys of entrepreneurs, the authors revealed the factors that prevented innovation situation in the country have stable negative impact on MSB, while the impact of such factors as imperfect legal and regulatory framework, investment risks, low profitability and inadequate state of technological infrastructure is relatively nonsignificant. The authors describe systemwide and resource measures of state regulation of small and medium-sized business. The system-wide measures include preferential access to production facilities and equipment, special tax regimes, administrative control. The measures of resource support to entrepreneurs consist in subsidizing the lease payments and interest rates on loans for the modernization of production; grant support, the establishment of microfinance organizations and guarantee funds, the development of business support infrastructure. The authors describe the forms of these measures implementation in 2013 and the main directions of improving the state regulation of small and medium-sized business, including the reduction of tax burden and facilitation of taxation procedures, the reduction of administrative barriers and ensuring access of small and medium-sized enterprises to government orders and technological infrastructure.

Expression of a highly basic peroxidase gene in NaCl-adapted tomato cell suspensions.

Science.gov (United States)

Medina, M I; Botella, M A; Quesada, M A; Valpuesta, V

1997-05-05

A tomato peroxidase gene, TPX2, that is only weakly expressed in the roots of young tomato seedlings is highly expressed in tomato suspension cells adapted to high external NaCl concentration. The protein encoded by this gene, with an isolectric point value of approximately 9.6, is found in the culture medium of the growing cells. Our data suggest that the expression of TPX2 in the salt-adapted cells is not the result of the elicitation imposed by the in vitro culture or the presence of high NaCl concentration in the medium.

Measuring and monitoring energy access: Decision-support tools for policymakers in Africa

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hailu, Yohannes G.

2012-01-01

A significant number of African States have adapted energy access targets. In evaluating progress towards these goals, measuring and monitoring energy access becomes relevant. This paper reviews energy access indicators and identifies their utility and challenges in their application. By focusing on Africa, a broader framework for energy access measurement and monitoring is discussed, along with implementation barriers and potential solutions. To demonstrate the utility of energy access decision-support tool in Africa, a scenario analysis in five regional energy pools is conducted using the Energy Spending Model tool. Institutionalizing monitoring and decision-support tools can provide valuable feedback to policymakers aiming to design and implement effective energy access programs serving a growing population in Africa. - Highlights: ► Most African countries have adapted energy access targets. ► To monitor and evaluate performance, monitoring and decision-support tools are required. ► Framework for tool development should consider data, cost, political and other factors. ► Implementation constraints include technical, data, resource and urban/rural issues. ► Electricity Spending Needs model is one decision support tool that ties access targets to investment needs. ► Monitoring tools provide crucial feedback on Africa's energy access progress.

Adaptation funding and development assistance: some FAQs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ayers, Jessica; Huq, Saleemul

2008-11-15

It's becoming ever clearer that development and climate change are intertwined issues. Unsustainable development drives climate change; sustainable development can reduce vulnerability to it. Development issues can constrain capacity to adapt to climate change; climate impacts can be a barrier to development. So adaptation to climate impacts is increasingly seen as part of good development practice – and development to improve the lives and resource access of people facing climate challenges is viewed as a prerequisite for successful adaptation. But when it comes to adaptation funding, confusion and contention remain over the role development institutions play.

Predictors of psychosocial adaptation among people with spinal cord injury or disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Martz, Erin; Livneh, Hanoch; Priebe, Michael; Wuermser, Lisa Ann; Ottomanelli, Lisa

2005-06-01

To examine the influence of disability-related medical and psychologic variables on psychosocial adaptation to spinal cord injury or disorder (SCI/D). A structural equation modeling design linking 3 sets of predictive variables to an outcome measure of adaptation. Two outpatient SCI clinics (1 veteran, 1 civilian) in Texas. Veterans (n=181) and civilians (n=132) with SCI/D. Not applicable. The adaptation outcome was measured by 2 subscales (acknowledgment, adjustment) of the Reactions to Impairment and Disability Inventory (RIDI) and by the Quality of Life Scale. The predictive variables were measured by a demographic questionnaire, 3 subscales (intrusion, re-experiencing, hyperarousal) of the Purdue Posttraumatic Stress Disorder-Revised scale, the McMordie-Templer Death Anxiety Scale, and 3 subscales (anxiety, depression, denial) of the RIDI. Goodness-of-fit indices suggested that a revised model of adaptation was a moderately good fit to the data. The revised model of adaptation indicated that there were medium total effects (direct plus indirect) on psychosocial adaptation by 2 latent variables (disability severity and impact, negative affectivity) and small total effects on psychosocial adaptation by disengagement coping. The latent factor of disengagement coping had the strongest direct effect on adaptation (although not statistically significant). Disability severity and impact had medium indirect effects and negative affectivity had small indirect effects on psychosocial adaptation. All of the aforementioned effects had a negative coefficient. Negative emotional responses (eg, depression, anxiety) to SCI/D, disengagement-type coping (eg, disability denial, avoidance), and the severity and impact of disability were related to lower levels of adaptation to SCI/D.

Improved Information Retrieval Performance on SQL Database Using Data Adapter

Science.gov (United States)

Husni, M.; Djanali, S.; Ciptaningtyas, H. T.; Wicaksana, I. G. N. A.

2018-02-01

The NoSQL databases, short for Not Only SQL, are increasingly being used as the number of big data applications increases. Most systems still use relational databases (RDBs), but as the number of data increases each year, the system handles big data with NoSQL databases to analyze and access data more quickly. NoSQL emerged as a result of the exponential growth of the internet and the development of web applications. The query syntax in the NoSQL database differs from the SQL database, therefore requiring code changes in the application. Data adapter allow applications to not change their SQL query syntax. Data adapters provide methods that can synchronize SQL databases with NotSQL databases. In addition, the data adapter provides an interface which is application can access to run SQL queries. Hence, this research applied data adapter system to synchronize data between MySQL database and Apache HBase using direct access query approach, where system allows application to accept query while synchronization process in progress. From the test performed using data adapter, the results obtained that the data adapter can synchronize between SQL databases, MySQL, and NoSQL database, Apache HBase. This system spends the percentage of memory resources in the range of 40% to 60%, and the percentage of processor moving from 10% to 90%. In addition, from this system also obtained the performance of database NoSQL better than SQL database.

Quantum internet using code division multiple access

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jing; Liu, Yu-xi; Özdemir, Şahin Kaya; Wu, Re-Bing; Gao, Feifei; Wang, Xiang-Bin; Yang, Lan; Nori, Franco

2013-01-01

A crucial open problem inS large-scale quantum networks is how to efficiently transmit quantum data among many pairs of users via a common data-transmission medium. We propose a solution by developing a quantum code division multiple access (q-CDMA) approach in which quantum information is chaotically encoded to spread its spectral content, and then decoded via chaos synchronization to separate different sender-receiver pairs. In comparison to other existing approaches, such as frequency division multiple access (FDMA), the proposed q-CDMA can greatly increase the information rates per channel used, especially for very noisy quantum channels. PMID:23860488

Adaptive web-based educational hypermedia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Bra, P.M.E.; Aroyo, L.M.; Cristea, A.I.; Levene, M.; Poulavassis, A.

2004-01-01

This chapter describes recent and ongoing research to automatically personalize a learning experience through adaptive educational hypermedia. The Web had made it possible to give a very large audience access to the same learning material. Rather than offering several versions of learning material

Adaptive Web-based Educational Hypermedia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Bra, Paul; Aroyo, Lora; Cristea, Alexandra; Levene, Mark; Poulovassilis, Alexandra

2004-01-01

This chapter describes recent and ongoing research to automatically personalize a learning experience through adaptive educational hypermedia. The Web has made it possible to give a very large audience access to the same learning material. Rather than offering several versions of learning material

Parallel Monitors for Self-adaptive Sessions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario Coppo

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The paper presents a data-driven model of self-adaptivity for multiparty sessions. System choreography is prescribed by a global type. Participants are incarnated by processes associated with monitors, which control their behaviour. Each participant can access and modify a set of global data, which are able to trigger adaptations in the presence of critical changes of values. The use of the parallel composition for building global types, monitors and processes enables a significant degree of flexibility: an adaptation step can dynamically reconfigure a set of participants only, without altering the remaining participants, even if the two groups communicate.

Qualitative Analysis of Integration Adapter Modeling

OpenAIRE

Ritter, Daniel; Holzleitner, Manuel

2015-01-01

Integration Adapters are a fundamental part of an integration system, since they provide (business) applications access to its messaging channel. However, their modeling and configuration remain under-represented. In previous work, the integration control and data flow syntax and semantics have been expressed in the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) as a semantic model for message-based integration, while adapter and the related quality of service modeling were left for further studi...

Evaluating mobile centric information access and interaction compatibility for learning websites

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Chipangura, B

2013-11-01

Full Text Available guidelines for One web design, not all websites meet these standards. Research has shown that accessing websites that were designed for desktop computer access on mobile hand held devices results in negative user experience [12]. The reasons... to identify mobile phone accessibility problems of university websites [14, 18]. At organizational level, many universities are struggling with adapting their current desktop-based websites to be accessible on mobile devices [20]. A number...

Power port contrast medium flushing and trapping: impact of temperature, an in vitro experimental study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guiffant G

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Gérard Guiffant,1 Jean Jacques Durussel,1 Patrice Flaud,1 Laurent Royon,1 Pierre Yves Marcy,2 Jacques Merckx1,31University Paris Diderot, Paris, France; 2Radiodiagnosis and Interventional Radiology Department, Caen, France; 3University Teaching Hospital Necker-Enfants Malades, Paris, FrancePurpose: The use of totally implantable venous access devices (TIVADs certified as "high pressure resistant" or "power port" has begun to spread worldwide as a safe procedure for power contrast injection. Owing to the thermo-rheological properties of the contrast media, the primary aim of this work is to present an in vitro experimental impact study concerning the impact of the temperature level on flushing efficiency after contrast medium injection. Moreover, we report experimental data that confirms the role of needle bevel orientation. The secondary aim is to answer the following questions: Is there significant device contrast medium trapping after contrast medium injection? Is saline flushing efficient? And, finally, is it safe to inject contrast medium through an indwelled port catheter?Results: The experimental results show that in addition to hydrodynamics, temperature is a key parameter for the efficiency of device flushing after contrast medium injection. It appears that this is the case when the cavity is incompletely rinsed after three calibrated flushing volumes of 10 mL saline solution, even by using the Huber needle bevel opposite to the port exit. This leads to a potentially important trapped volume of contrast medium in the port, and consequently to the possibility of subsequent salt precipitates and long term trisubstituted benzene nuclei delivery that might impair the solute properties, which may be further injected via the power port later on.Conclusion: We thus suggest, in TIVADS patients, the use of a temporary supplementary intravenous line rather than the port to perform contrast medium injections in daily radiology routine practice

Accessible Geoscience - Digital Fieldwork

Science.gov (United States)

Meara, Rhian

2017-04-01

Accessible Geoscience is a developing field of pedagogic research aimed at widening participation in Geography, Earth and Environmental Science (GEES) subjects. These subjects are often less commonly associated with disabilities, ethnic minorities, low income socio-economic groups and females. While advancements and improvements have been made in the inclusivity of these subject areas in recent years, access and participation of disabled students remains low. While universities are legally obligated to provide reasonable adjustments to ensure accessibility, the assumed incompatibility of GEES subjects and disability often deters students from applying to study these courses at a university level. Instead of making reasonable adjustments if and when they are needed, universities should be aiming to develop teaching materials, spaces and opportunities which are accessible to all, which in turn will allow all groups to participate in the GEES subjects. With this in mind, the Swansea Geography Department wish to enhance the accessibility of our undergraduate degree by developing digital field work opportunities. In the first instance, we intend to digitise three afternoon excursions which are run as part of a 1st year undergraduate module. Each of the field trips will be digitized into English- and Welsh-medium formats. In addition, each field trip will be digitized into British Sign Language (BSL) to allow for accessibility for D/deaf and hard of hearing students. Subtitles will also be made available in each version. While the main focus of this work is to provide accessible fieldwork opportunities for students with disabilities, this work also has additional benefits. Students within the Geography Department will be able to revisit the field trips, to revise and complete associated coursework. The use of digitized field work should not replace opportunities for real field work, but its use by the full cohort of students will begin to "normalize" accessible field

Accessing OSI Managed Objects from ANSAware

OpenAIRE

Genilloud, Guy; Gay, David

1995-01-01

This paper presents a mechanism allowing an ODP compliant distributed system, ANSA, to access OSI network management objects as if they were ANSA objects. It defines a mapping from the OSI object model to the ANSA object model, and it specifies how an adapter implements this mapping.

RODOS database adapter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xie Gang

1995-11-01

Integrated data management is an essential aspect of many automatical information systems such as RODOS, a real-time on-line decision support system for nuclear emergency management. In particular, the application software must provide access management to different commercial database systems. This report presents the tools necessary for adapting embedded SQL-applications to both HP-ALLBASE/SQL and CA-Ingres/SQL databases. The design of the database adapter and the concept of RODOS embedded SQL syntax are discussed by considering some of the most important features of SQL-functions and the identification of significant differences between SQL-implementations. Finally fully part of the software developed and the administrator's and installation guides are described. (orig.) [de

Adaptive spectrum decision framework for heterogeneous dynamic spectrum access networks

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Masonta, M

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Spectrum decision is the ability of a cognitive radio (CR) system to select the best available spectrum band to satisfy dynamic spectrum access network (DSAN) users¿ quality of service (QoS) requirements without causing harmful interference...

iBook – a New Medium?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benjamin Štular

2013-09-01

Full Text Available EXTENDED ABSTRACT:On January 19th 2012 Apple launched iBooks®2 for iPad® - a new application for downloading digital content to the iPad - and the new software (iBooks Author® which allows creating and publishing digital content using the .iba digital format and all-new iTunes® application offering access to a variety of digitised educational content. Our aim was to test the attractiveness of the new Apple releases and the effect of a relatively easy access to the world market of digital content on the promotion of Slovenian cultural heritage. We added three books to the iTunes digital collection which might be of interest to the general public: a re-edition of a scientific monograph by Andrej Pleterski: Mythical Reality of the Carintian Dukes' Stones (Mitska stvarnost knežjega kamna in Slovenian and German version and a non-fiction iBook by Benjamin Štular: Ljubljana in the Middle Ages. Archaeological Research (Srednjeveška Ljubljana. Arheološke raziskave. The digital version of the Andrej Pleterski's book was chosen for the actuality of the topic in Slovenia and Austria. People and politicians in Carinthia were annoyed by the book contents as it was published by the Regional Museum in Klagenfurt in December 2011. While the science in this book is sound it has been abused to meet the current needs of some of the Carinthian politicians. The incident was polemically reflected in the main Slovenian newspapers, too. The non-fiction iBook was selected because of the attractiveness of the theme, besides a lot of multimedia content had already been created and could be easily published to Apple's iBookstore. All three iBooks were posted to iTunes® less than three weeks after the release of the iBooks Author application to create digital content. We wish to present our experience with the applicability of the new medium, users' feedback and access statistics. Guidelines for Apple licenses are presented. The applicability of the new medium and

Peripheral Insertion of a Central Venous Access Device Under Fluoroscopic Guidance Using a Peripherally Accessed System (PAS) Port in the Forearm

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hata, Yasuhiro; Morita, Sojiro; Morita, Yoshitaka; Awatani, Toshihide; Takasaki, Motohiro; Horimi, Tadashi; Ozawa, Zen

1998-01-01

Purpose: We describe the technique, efficacy, and complications of fluoroscopy-guided implantation of a central venous access device using a peripherally accessed system (PAS) port via the forearm. Methods: Beginning in July 1994, 105 central venous access devices were implanted in 104 patients for the long-term infusion of antibiotics or antineoplasmic agents, blood products, or parenteral nutrition. The devices was inserted under fluoroscopic guidance with real-time venography from a peripheral route. Results: All ports were successfully implanted. There were no procedure-related complications. No thrombosis or local infection was observed; however, in six patients catheter-related phlebitis occurred. Conclusion: Fluoroscopy-guided implantation of a central venous access device using a PAS port via the forearm is safe and efficacious, and injection of contrast medium through a peripheral IV catheter before introduction of the catheter helps to avoid catheter-related phlebitis

evaluating the performance of leucaena accessions for agroforestry

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Mgina

The performance of Leucaena accessions on acid soils in eastern coast Tanzania for ... Plant tree parameters assessed were fodder yield and plant stem ... adapted and potential in improving soil fertility and are recommended for agroforestry.

Bridging the Gap: Adaptive Games and Student-Centered VLEs

Science.gov (United States)

Del Blanco, Ángel; Torrente, Javier; Moreno-Ger, Pablo; Fernández-Manjón, Baltasar

The widely used e-learning technology is facing new challenges such as how to produce student-centered systems that can be adapted to the needs of each student. Those objectives should be met in a standard compliant way to simplify general adoption. In this context, educational videogames are proposed as an ideal medium to facilitate adaptation and tracking of the students’ performance for assessment purposes. However, there are still barriers between the gaming and e-learning worlds preventing their mutual interaction. In this paper we propose a middleware to bridge this gap, integrating adaptive educational videogames in e-learning environments with a special focus on the ongoing standardization efforts.

Probabilistic Medium Access Control for Full-Duplex Networks with Half-Duplex Clients

OpenAIRE

Chen, Shih-Ying; Huang, Ting-Feng; Lin, Kate Ching-Ju; Hong, H. -W. Peter; Sabharwal, Ashutosh

2016-01-01

The feasibility of practical in-band full-duplex radios has recently been demonstrated experimentally. One way to leverage full-duplex in a network setting is to enable three-node full-duplex, where a full- duplex access point (AP) transmits data to one node yet simultaneously receives data from another node. Such three-node full-duplex communication however introduces inter-client interference, directly impacting the full-duplex gain. It hence may not always be beneficial to enable three-nod...

Engineering Adaptive Web Applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dolog, Peter

2007-01-01

suit the user profile the most. This paper summarizes the domain engineering framework for such adaptive web applications. The framework provides guidelines to develop adaptive web applications as members of a family. It suggests how to utilize the design artifacts as knowledge which can be used......Information and services on the web are accessible for everyone. Users of the web differ in their background, culture, political and social environment, interests and so on. Ambient intelligence was envisioned as a concept for systems which are able to adapt to user actions and needs....... With the growing amount of information and services, the web applications become natural candidates to adopt the concepts of ambient intelligence. Such applications can deal with divers user intentions and actions based on the user profile and can suggest the combination of information content and services which...

Neuronal medium that supports basic synaptic functions and activity of human neurons in vitro.

Science.gov (United States)

Bardy, Cedric; van den Hurk, Mark; Eames, Tameji; Marchand, Cynthia; Hernandez, Ruben V; Kellogg, Mariko; Gorris, Mark; Galet, Ben; Palomares, Vanessa; Brown, Joshua; Bang, Anne G; Mertens, Jerome; Böhnke, Lena; Boyer, Leah; Simon, Suzanne; Gage, Fred H

2015-05-19

Human cell reprogramming technologies offer access to live human neurons from patients and provide a new alternative for modeling neurological disorders in vitro. Neural electrical activity is the essence of nervous system function in vivo. Therefore, we examined neuronal activity in media widely used to culture neurons. We found that classic basal media, as well as serum, impair action potential generation and synaptic communication. To overcome this problem, we designed a new neuronal medium (BrainPhys basal + serum-free supplements) in which we adjusted the concentrations of inorganic salts, neuroactive amino acids, and energetic substrates. We then tested that this medium adequately supports neuronal activity and survival of human neurons in culture. Long-term exposure to this physiological medium also improved the proportion of neurons that were synaptically active. The medium was designed to culture human neurons but also proved adequate for rodent neurons. The improvement in BrainPhys basal medium to support neurophysiological activity is an important step toward reducing the gap between brain physiological conditions in vivo and neuronal models in vitro.

Access and control of information and intellectual property

Science.gov (United States)

Lang, Gerald S.

1996-03-01

This paper introduces the technology of two pioneering patents for the secure distribution of information and intellectual property. The seminal technology has been used in the control of sensitive material such as medical records and imagery in distributed networks. It lends itself to the implementation of an open architecture access control system that provides local or remote user selective access to digital information stored on any computer system or storage medium, down to the data element, pixel, and sub-pixel levels. Use of this technology is especially suited for electronic publishing, health care records, MIS, and auditing.

Migration from atolls as climate change adaptation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Birk, Thomas Ladegaard Kümmel; Rasmussen, Kjeld

2014-01-01

to migration that reduce the efficacy of positive outcomes to both migrants and their home communities, including high transport costs and problems in gaining access to housing, employment and government services in urban destination areas. If it is accepted that voluntary migration may play a positive role...... that migration currently improves access to financial and social capital, reduces pressure on natural resources and makes island communities less vulnerable to extreme weather events and other shocks — all factors that contribute positively to adaptive capacity. It also shows that there are major barriers...... in adaptation to climate change in exposed atoll communities, addressing some of the barriers to migration seems logical. This may be done by efforts to stimulate migrant income opportunities, by improving migrant living conditions and by improving the transport services to the islands....

Medium Range Flood Forecasting for Agriculture Damage Reduction

Science.gov (United States)

Fakhruddin, S. H. M.

2014-12-01

Early warning is a key element for disaster risk reduction. In recent decades, major advancements have been made in medium range and seasonal flood forecasting. This progress provides a great opportunity to reduce agriculture damage and improve advisories for early action and planning for flood hazards. This approach can facilitate proactive rather than reactive management of the adverse consequences of floods. In the agricultural sector, for instance, farmers can take a diversity of options such as changing cropping patterns, applying fertilizer, irrigating and changing planting timing. An experimental medium range (1-10 day) flood forecasting model has been developed for Bangladesh and Thailand. It provides 51 sets of discharge ensemble forecasts of 1-10 days with significant persistence and high certainty. This type of forecast could assist farmers and other stakeholders for differential preparedness activities. These ensembles probabilistic flood forecasts have been customized based on user-needs for community-level application focused on agriculture system. The vulnerabilities of agriculture system were calculated based on exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Indicators for risk and vulnerability assessment were conducted through community consultations. The forecast lead time requirement, user-needs, impacts and management options for crops were identified through focus group discussions, informal interviews and community surveys. This paper illustrates potential applications of such ensembles for probabilistic medium range flood forecasts in a way that is not commonly practiced globally today.

Study of chromatic adaptation via neutral white matches on different viewing media.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhai, Qiyan; Luo, Ming R

2018-03-19

Two experiments were carried out to study the neutral white and the chromatic adaptation in human vision and color science. After matching neutral whites under different illuminants using both surface and self-luminous colors, the result were used to verify the previous study about the chromatic adaptation. Not all the white illuminants were found neutral even the adaptation time is long. The baseline illuminant of the two-step chromatic adaptation transform was found as the illuminant with the same chromaticity of the neutral white under it and depended on viewing medium in the present study. The results were also used as corresponding colors to derive models of the effective degree of chromatic adaptation, which were found highly associated with the chromaticity of the adapting illuminant.

Production of Mushroom Mycelium as a Protein and Fat Source in Submerged Culture in Medium of Vinasse

Science.gov (United States)

Falanghe, H.

1962-01-01

Of ten mushroom cultures investigated, only Agaricus campestris, Boletus indecisus, and Tricholoma nudum were capable of growing in submerged culture in medium of vinasse with added salts. Higher fermentative efficiencies were found under these conditions than in medium containing molasses or waste sulfite liquor. A. campestris showed a better capacity to produce protein but, since B. indecisus is capable of developing greater mycelium weight, its fermentative efficiencies are comparable. Both microorganisms could be grown in medium of vinasse with greatly varied amounts, producing higher mycelial weight in media with greater vinasse. The capacity of B. indecisus and A. campestris to utilize the noncarbohydrate fraction in total solids, instead of the total carbohydrates when they are in smaller amount, was observed in medium containing vinasse. B. indecisus and A. campestris were easily separated by filtration from the medium, although T. nudum was difficult to separate by this procedure. In experiments with A. campestris, the adaptative capacity of the organism to vinasse was demonstrated. PMID:13962715

Multimedia content classification metrics for content adaptation

OpenAIRE

Fernandes, Rui; Andrade, M.T.

2015-01-01

Multimedia content consumption is very popular nowadays. However, not every content can be consumed in its original format: the combination of content, transport and access networks, consumption device and usage environment characteristics may all pose restrictions to that purpose. One way to provide the best possible quality to the user is to adapt the content according to these restrictions as well as user preferences. This adaptation stage can be best executed if knowledge about the conten...

Multimedia content classification metrics for content adaptation

OpenAIRE

Fernandes, Rui; Andrade, M.T.

2016-01-01

Multimedia content consumption is very popular nowadays. However, not every content can be consumed in its original format: the combination of content, transport and access networks, consumption device and usage environment characteristics may all pose restrictions to that purpose. One way to provide the best possible quality to the user is to adapt the content according to these restrictions as well as user preferences. This adaptation stage can be best executed if knowledge about the conten...

Mesh adaptation technique for Fourier-domain fluorescence lifetime imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soloviev, Vadim Y.

2006-01-01

A novel adaptive mesh technique in the Fourier domain is introduced for problems in fluorescence lifetime imaging. A dynamical adaptation of the three-dimensional scheme based on the finite volume formulation reduces computational time and balances the ill-posed nature of the inverse problem. Light propagation in the medium is modeled by the telegraph equation, while the lifetime reconstruction algorithm is derived from the Fredholm integral equation of the first kind. Stability and computational efficiency of the method are demonstrated by image reconstruction of two spherical fluorescent objects embedded in a tissue phantom

Medium-Based Design: Extending a Medium to Create an Exploratory Learning Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Rick, Jochen; Lamberty, K. K.

2005-01-01

This article introduces "medium-based" design -- an approach to creating "exploratory learning environments" using the method of "extending a medium". First, the characteristics of exploratory learning environments and medium-based design are described and grounded in related work. Particular attention is given to "extending a medium" --…

Factors impacting hunter access to private lands in southeast Minnesota

Science.gov (United States)

Walberg, Eric; Cornicelli, Louis; Fulton, David C.

2018-01-01

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have important socioeconomic and ecological impacts in the United States. Hunting is considered to be important for the effective management of deer and relies on access to privately owned lands. In 2013, we surveyed nonindustrial private landowners in southeast Minnesota and created two logit models to examine factors that impact landowners’ decision to (a) allow public hunting access and (b) post private property. Parcel characteristics were found to impact landowner decisions to allow hunting access, particularly the size of the property and whether it was posted. Hunting access to small properties was more likely to be restricted to family, friends, and neighbors (83%) compared to medium (74%) or large properties (60%). Hunter concerns (e.g., liability) and knowledge about deer management was significant in both models, suggesting there are opportunities to educate landowners about the importance of allowing public hunting access and available liability protections.

Participation of intercellular communication and intracellular signal transduction in the radio-adaptive response of human fibroblastic cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishii, Keiichiro; Hoshi, Yuko; Iwasaki, Toshiyasu; Watanabe, Masami

1997-01-01

To investigate the radio-adaptive response of normal cells to low-dose radiation, we irradiated human embryonic cells with low-dose X-rays and examined the changes in sensitivity to subsequent high-dose X-irradiation. When the cells were irradiated by 200 cGy, the growth ratio of the viable cells five days after the irradiation decreased to 37% of that of the cells which received no X-irradiation. When the cells received a conditioning irradiation of 10 to 20 cGy four hours before the irradiation of 200 cGy, the growth ratio increased significantly to 45-53%, and a peak was reached at a conditioning dose of 13 cGy. Cells blocked off intercellular communication either in Ca 2+ ion-free medium or in TPA added medium during the conditioning irradiation of 13 cGy did not show the improvement of growth ratio. Addition of H-7, as an inhibitor of PKC, to the medium during the conditioning irradiation inhibited the induction of the radio-adaptive response. However, addition of either inhibitor of A kinase, H-89, or inhibitor of G kinase, H-8, failed to inhibit the induction of the radio-adaptive response. These results suggest that: (1) normal cells show an adaptive response to low-dose radiation, (2) intercellular communication may play a role in radio-adaptive responses, (3) the transduction of the signal induced in cells by low-dose X-irradiation via protein kinase C was involved in radio-adaptive responses, not via A kinase nor G kinase. (author)

AN EVALUATION OF FARMERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AND ADAPTATION TO THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN KENYA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hilary K. Ndambiri

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The study was carried out to evaluate how farmers in Kyuso District have perceived and adapted to climate change. Data was collected from 246 farmers from six locations sampled out through a multistage and simple random sampling procedure. The Heckman probit model was fitted to the data to avoid sample selection bias since not every farmer who may perceive climate change responds by adapting. The analysis revealed that 94% of farmers in Kyuso District had a perception that climate was changing and as a result, 85% of these farmers had responded by adapting. In this regard, age of the household head, gender, education, farm experience, household size, distance to the nearest market, access to irrigation water, local agro-ecology, on and off farm income, access to information on climate change through extension services, access to credit, changes in temperature and precipitation were found to have significant influence on the probability of farmers to perceive and/or adapt to climate change. With the level of perception to climate change being more than that of adaptation, the study suggests that more policy efforts should be geared towards helping farmers to adapt to climate change

National strategy for climate change adaptation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2010-01-01

This book expresses the French State's view on the way to deal with the issue of climate change adaptation. After having recalled the ineluctability of some observed changes, the actors involved in this adaptation, and some guideline principles to implement adaptation, a first chapter describes the context: international mobilization, climate data evolution, definition of new criteria and critical thresholds, relationship between adaptation, alleviation and sustainable development, tensions between long and short terms. It discusses the objectives: public security and health, alleviation of inequalities with respect to risks, cost reduction, natural heritage preservation. Nine strategic axes are then identified: to develop knowledge, to strengthen the survey system, to inform, to educate and to make all actors aware, to promote a territory-based approach, to finance adaptation actions, to use regulatory and law instruments, to support voluntary approaches and the dialogue with private actors, to take the overseas peculiarity into account, and to contribute to international exchanges. The next chapters are respectively dealing with transverse approaches (water, risk prevention, health, and biodiversity), sector-based insights (agriculture, energy and industry, transports, building and housing, tourism, banks and insurance companies), medium-based approach (cities, littoral and seas, mountain, forest). The last part deals with the implementation issue

Climate change-related risks and adaptation strategies as perceived in dairy cattle farming systems in Tunisia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hajer Amamou

Full Text Available The perception of risks due to climate change by farmers and the measures they take to address those risks are of paramount importance in policy-making if the implementations of targeted adaptation and mitigation strategies are to be economically and environmentally sustainable. This study focused on Tunisian dairy farmers’ perceptions of the risks and the actions taken to cope with changes attributable to climate change. Using a bottom-up approach, 566 surveys were carried out randomly among dairy farmers throughout Tunisia. A total of 70 diagnostic variables relating to farm characteristics, resources, management, performances and profit, in addition to climate change risk perception and adaptation strategies, were identified and analyzed. Using multivariate statistical analysis, four dairy farming groups were identified. The largest proportions of farmers belonged to the two above-ground dairy systems: without utilized agricultural areas; and with non-dairy utilized agricultural areas (Clusters 1 and 2. A minority of farmers belonged to medium-sized and large farms that specialized in milk production (Clusters 3 and 4 and has access to sufficient land, water and capital resources. In all the clusters, almost all the farmers perceived that the greatest impact of climate change would be on cow performance and forage production. The attitudes of the farmers towards adaptation to climate change are associated with farm typology. They focused mainly on increasing water capacity for livestock and crop production and improving livestock and housing conditions. The knowledge obtained from this study could be helpful for decision-makers and stakeholders in efforts to develop policies for farm management practices that address climate change and can be adapted to the country’s diverse farming systems. Keywords: Dairy farming system, Typology, Adaptation, Climate change

Relational Database Extension Oriented, Self-adaptive Imagery Pyramid Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

HU Zhenghua

2015-06-01

Full Text Available With the development of remote sensing technology, especially the improvement of sensor resolution, the amount of image data is increasing. This puts forward higher requirements to manage huge amount of data efficiently and intelligently. And how to access massive remote sensing data with efficiency and smartness becomes an increasingly popular topic. In this paper, against current development status of Spatial Data Management System, we proposed a self-adaptive strategy for image blocking and a method for LoD(level of detailmodel construction that adapts, with the combination of database storage, network transmission and the hardware of the client. Confirmed by experiments, this imagery management mechanism can achieve intelligent and efficient storage and access in a variety of different conditions of database, network and client. This study provides a feasible idea and method for efficient image data management, contributing to the efficient access and management for remote sensing image data which are based on database technology under network environment of C/S architecture.

Original Research Cross-cultural adaptation, content validation, and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

study which aimed to cross culturally adapt a composite lifestyle cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors ... and a relative lack of access to adequate advice and care. .... meaning different things are distinguished by giving symbols.

Scalable Algorithms for Adaptive Statistical Designs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert Oehmke

2000-01-01

Full Text Available We present a scalable, high-performance solution to multidimensional recurrences that arise in adaptive statistical designs. Adaptive designs are an important class of learning algorithms for a stochastic environment, and we focus on the problem of optimally assigning patients to treatments in clinical trials. While adaptive designs have significant ethical and cost advantages, they are rarely utilized because of the complexity of optimizing and analyzing them. Computational challenges include massive memory requirements, few calculations per memory access, and multiply-nested loops with dynamic indices. We analyze the effects of various parallelization options, and while standard approaches do not work well, with effort an efficient, highly scalable program can be developed. This allows us to solve problems thousands of times more complex than those solved previously, which helps make adaptive designs practical. Further, our work applies to many other problems involving neighbor recurrences, such as generalized string matching.

gge biplot application for adaptability of african yam bean grain yield

African Journals Online (AJOL)

ACSS

However, Ubiaja was most supportive for grain production of AYB. Some of the accessions identified with high yielding, adaptable/stable in the study included. TSs101, TSs111, TSs93, TSs94, TSs57, TSs104B and TSs109. Key Words: Accessions, mega-environment, principal components, Sphenostylis stenocarpa.

Lamb shift of an atom in a dielectric medium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Milonni, P.W.; Schaden, M.; Spruch, L.

1999-01-01

Adapting an approach used by Feynman for the Lamb shift of an isolated atom, we obtain a nonperturbative expression for the Lamb shift of an atom in a dielectric medium, previously calculated perturbatively [P. W. Milonni, J. Mod. Opt. 42, 1191 (1995)]. The separation of the Lamb and Casimir components of the field energy is greatly simplified, and previous nonperturbative results for the Lamb shift [M. Schaden, L. Spruch, and F. Zhou, Phys. Rev. A 57, 1108 (1998)], based on the generalized argument theorem, are obtained much more easily and directly. copyright 1999 The American Physical Society

Performance indicators for SMEs accessing EU funds

OpenAIRE

Popa Adina-Simona

2013-01-01

Being the best supporters of national economies Small and Medium Sized Enterprises are actively searching alternative sources of finance for sustaining their goals and their performances. European Union is sustaining the SMEs access to finance by direct funding: grants from the European Commission and indirect funding: financial intermediaries in the SMEs origin country. Considering the importance of SMEs for national and European economy we will analyze the relationship between the EU fundin...

Enhanced chlorine resistance of tap water-adapted Legionella pneumophila as compared with agar medium-passaged strains.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuchta, J M; States, S J; McGlaughlin, J E; Overmeyer, J H; Wadowsky, R M; McNamara, A M; Wolford, R S; Yee, R B

1985-07-01

Previous studies have shown that bacteria maintained in a low-nutrient "natural" environment such as swimming pool water are much more resistant to disinfection by various chemical agents than strains maintained on rich media. In the present study a comparison was made of the chlorine (Cl2) susceptibility of hot-water tank isolates of Legionella pneumophila maintained in tap water and strains passaged on either nonselective buffered charcoal-yeast extract or selective differential glycine-vancomycin-polymyxin agar medium. Our earlier work has shown that environmental and clinical isolates of L. pneumophila maintained on agar medium are much more resistant to Cl2 than coliforms are. Under the present experimental conditions (21 degrees C, pH 7.6 to 8.0, and 0.25 mg of free residual Cl2 per liter, we found the tap water-maintained L. pneumophila strains to be even more resistant than the agar-passaged isolates. Under these conditions, 99% kill of tap water-maintained strains of L. pneumophila was usually achieved within 60 to 90 min compared with 10 min for agar-passaged strains. Samples from plumbing fixtures in a hospital yielded legionellae which were "super"-chlorine resistant when assayed under natural conditions. After one agar passage their resistance dropped to levels of comparable strains which had not been previously exposed to additional chlorination. These studies more closely approximate natural conditions than our previous work and show that tap water-maintained L. pneumophila is even more resistant to Cl2 than its already resistant agar medium-passaged counterpart.

Autonomous Sensors for Measuring Continuously the Moisture and Salinity of a Porous Medium

Science.gov (United States)

Chavanne, Xavier; Frangi, Jean-Pierre

2017-01-01

The article describes a new field sensor to monitor continuously in situ moisture and salinity of a porous medium via measurements of its dielectric permittivity, conductivity and temperature. It intends to overcome difficulties and biases encountered with sensors based on the same sensitivity principle. Permittivity and conductivity are determined simultaneously by a self-balanced bridge, which measures directly the admittance of sensor electrodes in medium. All electric biases are reduced and their residuals taken into account by a physical model of the instrument, calibrated against reference fluids. Geometry electrode is optimized to obtain a well representative sample of the medium. The sensor also permits acquiring a large amount of data at high frequency (six points every hour, and even more) and to access it rapidly, even in real time, owing to autonomy capabilities and wireless communication. Ongoing developments intend to simplify and standardize present sensors. Results of field trials of prototypes in different environments are presented. PMID:28492471

Autonomous Sensors for Measuring Continuously the Moisture and Salinity of a Porous Medium.

Science.gov (United States)

Chavanne, Xavier; Frangi, Jean-Pierre

2017-05-11

The article describes a new field sensor to monitor continuously in situ moisture and salinity of a porous medium via measurements of its dielectric permittivity, conductivity and temperature. It intends to overcome difficulties and biases encountered with sensors based on the same sensitivity principle. Permittivity and conductivity are determined simultaneously by a self-balanced bridge, which measures directly the admittance of sensor electrodes in medium. All electric biases are reduced and their residuals taken into account by a physical model of the instrument, calibrated against reference fluids. Geometry electrode is optimized to obtain a well representative sample of the medium. The sensor also permits acquiring a large amount of data at high frequency (six points every hour, and even more) and to access it rapidly, even in real time, owing to autonomy capabilities and wireless communication. Ongoing developments intend to simplify and standardize present sensors. Results of field trials of prototypes in different environments are presented.

Performance Issues Related to Web Service Usage for Remote Data Access

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pais, V. F.; Stancalie, V.; Mihailescu, F. A.; Totolici, M. C.

2008-01-01

Web services are starting to be widely used in applications for remotely accessing data. This is of special interest for research based on small and medium scale fusion devices, since scientists participating remotely to experiments are accessing large amounts of data over the Internet. Recent tests were conducted to see how the new network traffic, generated by the use of web services, can be integrated in the existing infrastructure and what would be the impact over existing applications, especially those used in a remote participation scenario

ASEAN Economic Community and Small-Medium Enterprises: an English School Perspective

OpenAIRE

Robertua, Verdinand

2016-01-01

Accounting for 30-60% of GDP of ASEAN member states and the largest source of employment for all economic actors, small medium enterprises is a very important economic actor in Southeast Asia. The SME sector in ASEAN, however, is confronted with a wide-range of structural, financial and other challenges, among which are limited access to finance, technologies and markets. ASEAN has many important roles in developing SMEs. ASEAN institutions can guide, direct, and fund many development program...

eLEARNING - A CHANCE FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISES

OpenAIRE

Ileana Hamburg; Christiane Lindecke; Judith Terstriep

2005-01-01

eLearning through its flexibility and facility of access is seen as a major enabler of lifelong learning (LLL), as a catalyst of change and a chance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to improve their business and to integrate into European market. But so far the eLearning in the context of vocational educational training has been mainly adopted by large enterprises, while only little activity can be observed in SMEs. The question arises what the chances and challenges for SMEs are...

Access to Finance for Female-led Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina

OpenAIRE

Qasim, Qursum

2018-01-01

Female-led Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs), play a vital role as job creators, driving female participation in the economy, and boosting inclusive GDP growth. In addition to the direct economic impact of MSMEs, research shows that female-led enterprises employ more women, and that increased control over resources by women leads to improved health and education outcomes f...

Anirban Mukhopadhyay: Examining migration and adaptation in deltas

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2015-03-10

Mar 10, 2015 ... Marissa Van Epp is a writer based in New York City. ... Afroza Haque: Developing new approaches to adaptation in Himalayan river basins ... Protecting access to water from urban sprawl, climate change in South Asia.

Canadian Light Infantry in Adaptive Dispersed Operations

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-22

adapted the concept to the offence by subdividing the gruppe in a light machine gun support trupp (detachment) and an assault trupp, thus creating the...They include medium and light elements that can be augmented by heavy elements if needed. According to the LO 202, light elements: “ trade a measure...the transportation of electronics equipment, weapons, and limited amounts of ammunition and supplies. All elements are helicopter transportable and

Improving WCDMA netwotk capacity using adaptive sectorisation ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A major problem affecting the capacity of Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) is interference. This work focuses on reducing co-channel interference problem by the application of adaptive sectorisation in nonuniform traffic. It considers an isolated areas of congested traffic called Hot Spots (HS).

Adaptive Technologies for Accommodating Persons with Disabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Berliss, Jane; And Others

1993-01-01

Eight articles review the progress achieved in making library computing technologies and library services accessible to people with disabilities. Adaptive technologies, automated conversion into Braille, and successful programs that demonstrate compliance with the American with Disabilities Act are described. A resource list is included. (EA)

Influence of 2,4-D and picloram on embryogenic competence of three cassava (manihot esculenta crantz) accessions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Elegba, W.

2008-06-01

The influence of 2,4-D and picloram on embryogenic competence of three local cassava accessions namely, Nkabom, Wenchi and ADI 001 was studied. Young leaf lobes of cassava cultured on MS medium supplemented with 4 to 20 mg/L 2,4-D or picloram (initiation medium) resulted in 90 to 100% embryogenic calli formation depending on the accession. The transfer of embryogenic calli to an MS medium supplemented with 0.1 mg/L BAP produced primary embryos. The duration and number of primary embryos produced on the maturation medium depended on the auxin as well as the genotype. picloram decreased the number of days to maturation and produced comparatively more embryos at both the primary and cyclic stages than 2,4-D. However, the optimal concentration required for increased embryo production in picloram was higher (16 mg/L) than 2,4-D ( 8 mg/L). Fragmentation of matured primary somatic embryos and reculture on initiation medium led to cyclic embryo production. Cyclic embryogenesis doubled (with 2,4-D) or tripled (with picloram) the number of embryos produced at the primary stage. However, recycling of embryos through three successive cycles resulted in a slight reduction in the number of embryos produced. The presence of lower concentration of ABA (1 mg/L) in the maturation medium enhanced embryo maturation and plantlet regeneration while increased concentration of ABA (2 or 4 mg/L) decreased embryo production and plantlet regeneration indicating inhibition or dormancy effect of the growth regulator on germination of embryos. Desiccation significantly (P ≤ 0.05) improved plantlet regeneration from both 2,4-D and picloram-induced somatic embryos in all the accessions. However, comparatively high somatic embryos derived from picloram germinated into plantlets than 2,4-D.This study has shown that all three accessions, are embryogenically competent and picloram is a superior auxin to 2,4-D in somatic embryo production and successful regeneration of plantlets. This holds great

Adaptive Multiuser Detectors for DS-CDMA Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul Jean Etienne Jeszensky

2006-02-01

Full Text Available This work makes a review of the main Adaptives Multi-user Detectors (MuD-Adpt for Direct Sequence - Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA systems. The MuD-Adpt based on Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE and Decorrelator (MuD-Dec are focused. Multi-user detectors show great resistance to the near-far effect and combat effectively the Multiple Access Interference (MAI. Comparative numeric results characterize the substantial performance improvement of those detectors in relation to the matched filter conventional receiver (Conv.

Design and Performance Analysis of an Adaptive Receiver for Multicarrier DS-CDMA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Huahui

2007-01-01

Full Text Available An adaptive parallel interference cancelation (APIC scheme is proposed for the multicarrier direct sequence code division multiple access (MC-DS-CDMA system. Frequency diversity inherent in the MC system is exploited through maximal ratio combining, and an adaptive least mean square algorithm is used to estimate the multiple access interference. Theoretical analysis on the bit-error rate (BER of the APIC receiver is presented. Under a unified signal model, the conventional PIC (CPIC is shown to be a special case of the APIC. Hence the BER derivation for the APIC is also applicable to the CPIC. The performance and the accuracy of the theoretical results are examined via simulations under different design parameters, which show that the APIC outperforms the CPIC receiver provided that the adaptive parameters are properly selected.

Accessibility of facilities in hotel capacities for people with disabilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jević Goran

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Given the fact that, only in Europe, there are over 80 million people, with some type of disability, and that these figures will be constantly on the increase according to the projections of World Health Organization, it implies that accessible tourism market, which is now unfortunately neglected, has great potential for future development. The term 'access' implies the absence of barriers in using facilities, and as such, perceived within the tourism and hospitality market mainly entails the accessibility of accommodation facilities for disabled persons. This paper aims at presenting and familiarizing with the term 'disability' as well as highlighting the importance of accessible tourism together with the need to adapt accommodation to people with disabilities. The methods used for data collection are based on the desk research with the use of national and foreign academic literature, primarily in the field of tourism and hospitality. For data processing we mostly relied on the methods of analysis, synthesis and comparison. The paper is organized as follows: the first part is entitled 'Definition and Models of Disability', the second part deals with 'Accessibility and Legislation', whereas the third part tackles 'Accessibility and Hospitality'. Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that disabled persons are faced with serious problems upon choosing and selecting a hotel, which is partly caused by the disrespect for their rights and the lack in adaptability of accommodation facilities as well as the lack of employees' awareness about the needs of people with disabilities.

The impact of a hybrid social marketing intervention on inequities in access, ownership and use of insecticide-treated nets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stallworthy Guy

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background An ITN intervention was initiated in three predominantly rural districts of Eastern Province, Zambia, that lacked commercial distribution and communication infrastructures. Social marketing techniques were used for product and message development. Public sector clinics and village-based volunteers promoted and distributed subsidized ITNs priced at $2.5 per net. A study was conducted to assess the effects of the intervention on inequities in knowledge, access, ownership and use of ITNs. Methods A post-test only quasi-experimental study design was used to compare intervention and comparison districts. A total of 2,986 respondents were interviewed. Survey respondents were grouped into four socio-economic (SES categories: low, medium-low, medium and high. Knowledge, access, ownership and use indicators are compared. Concentration index scores are calculated. Interactions between intervention status and SES help determine how different SES groups benefited from the intervention. Results Although overall use of nets remained relatively low, post-test data show that knowledge, access, ownership and use of mosquito nets was higher in intervention districts. A decline in SES inequity in access to nets occurred in intervention districts, resulting from a disproportionately greater increase in access among the low SES group. Declines in SES inequities in net ownership and use of nets were associated with the intervention. The largest increases in net ownership and use occurred among medium and high SES categories. Conclusion Increasing access to nets among the poorest respondents in rural areas may not lead to increases in net use unless the price of nets is no longer a barrier to their purchase.

The impact of a hybrid social marketing intervention on inequities in access, ownership and use of insecticide-treated nets.

Science.gov (United States)

Agha, Sohail; Van Rossem, Ronan; Stallworthy, Guy; Kusanthan, Thankian

2007-01-29

An ITN intervention was initiated in three predominantly rural districts of Eastern Province, Zambia, that lacked commercial distribution and communication infrastructures. Social marketing techniques were used for product and message development. Public sector clinics and village-based volunteers promoted and distributed subsidized ITNs priced at 2.5 dollars per net. A study was conducted to assess the effects of the intervention on inequities in knowledge, access, ownership and use of ITNs. A post-test only quasi-experimental study design was used to compare intervention and comparison districts. A total of 2,986 respondents were interviewed. Survey respondents were grouped into four socio-economic (SES) categories: low, medium-low, medium and high. Knowledge, access, ownership and use indicators are compared. Concentration index scores are calculated. Interactions between intervention status and SES help determine how different SES groups benefited from the intervention. Although overall use of nets remained relatively low, post-test data show that knowledge, access, ownership and use of mosquito nets was higher in intervention districts. A decline in SES inequity in access to nets occurred in intervention districts, resulting from a disproportionately greater increase in access among the low SES group. Declines in SES inequities in net ownership and use of nets were associated with the intervention. The largest increases in net ownership and use occurred among medium and high SES categories. Increasing access to nets among the poorest respondents in rural areas may not lead to increases in net use unless the price of nets is no longer a barrier to their purchase.

Accessibility Guidelines for Astronomy and Astrophysics Meetings

Science.gov (United States)

Monkiewicz, Jacqueline; Murphy, Nicholas; Diaz-Merced, Wanda Liz; Aarnio, Alicia; Knierman, Karen; AAS Working Group for Accessibility and Disability

2018-01-01

Attendance at meetings and conferences is a critical component of an astronomer's professional life, providing opportunities for presenting one's work, staying current in the field, career networking, and scientific collaboration. Exclusion from these gatherings due to lack of accessibility and accommodation failure is a reality for disabled astronomers, and contributes substantially to low levels of representation in the senior-most levels of the field. We present a preview of the AAS Working Group for Accessibility and Disability's best practice recommendations for meetings accessibility. Applying the principles of universal access and barrier-free design, we model a paradigm of anticipating and removing accessibility barriers in advance, rather than putting the burden of requesting accommodation solely on disabled astronomers and students. We cite several professional and nonprofessional societies identified as meetings accessibility exemplars, and model our guidelines on their best practices. We establish standards for accessibility budgeting, venue choice, publication of policies online, designating point persons, and identifying barriers. We make recommendations for oral and poster presentations, event registration, receptions and banquets, excursions, and other typical conference activities. For meetings which are constrained by fixed budgets and venue choice, we identify a number of low cost/high reward accessibility steps which might still have a large beneficial impact. We likewise provide adapted recommendations for low budget meetings. THIS IS A POSTER LOCATED IN THE AAS BOOTH

Housing accessibility problems for people with Parkinson's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Slaug, B; Iwarsson, S; Ayala, J A; Nilsson, M H

2017-11-01

Promoting accessible housing for all citizens is high on the political agenda. Knowledge is, however, limited regarding housing accessibility problems for people with Parkinson's disease (PD). The objectives were to investigate housing accessibility problems among people with PD at different stages of disease severity and to analyze the potential impact of improved functional ability on accessibility problems. The study included 253 participants with PD (61% men; mean age 70 years). Disease severity was assessed by the Hoehn and Yahr (HY) I-V stages: HY I, n=50; II, n=73, III, n=66; IV-V, n=64. Using the Housing Enabler (HE) instrument, accessibility problems were investigated by combining assessments of the person's functional capacity with assessments of physical barriers in the housing environment into a person-environment fit measure (HE-score). To analyze potential impact of improved functional ability on housing accessibility problems, data simulation was applied. HE-scores differed significantly (Phousing accessibility problems for people with PD. The study also details environmental barriers that need specific attention when providing housing adaptation services. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Collectibility Analysis for Small and Medium Enterprise – Bank BUKOPIN Case

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Deddy P. Koesrindartoto

2012-01-01

Full Text Available In Indonesia, small and medium enterprises (SME have experienced 68% growth in 2008 and47% growth in 2007. The simple structure made it able to respond quickly to changingeconomic conditions and meet local customers’ needs, growing sometimes into large andpowerful corporations or failing within a short time of the firm’s inception. Unfortunately,lack of access to finance has been cited as an important problem for SMEs, being theconstraint in the creation, development or diversification of their economic activities. Lendinginstitution such as banks conduct an intensive assessment (usually called credit scoring tofind out the creditworthiness of applicants in order to mitigate the risk. This paper,“Collectability Analysis in Small and Medium Enterprise”, is purposed for creatingappropriate credit scoring model to support the judgmental analysis approach in small andmedium enterprise, finding out how generic and plafond-specific variables affect thecollectability of the debtors from different plafond level (< Rp. 500 Million and > Rp. 500Million, and providing early detector for the bank to predict about future loan performanceof its debtors, thus the bank can be more careful in selecting qualified debtors.Key words: small and medium enterprises, credit rating, loan plafond, collectability, genericvariables, plafond-specific variables.

Hopping control channel MAC protocol for opportunistic spectrum access networks

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

FU Jing-tuan; JI Hong; MAO Xu

2010-01-01

Opportunistic spectrum access （OSA） is considered as a promising approach to mitigate spectrum scarcity by allowing unlicensed users to exploit spectrum opportunities in licensed frequency bands. Derived from the existing channel-hopping multiple access （CHMA） protocol,we introduce a hopping control channel medium access control （MAC） protocol in the context of OSA networks. In our proposed protocol,all nodes in the network follow a common channel-hopping sequence; every frequency channel can be used as control channel and data channel. Considering primary users＇ occupancy of the channel,we use a primary user （PU） detection model to calculate the channel availability for unlicensed users＇ access. Then,a discrete Markov chain analytical model is applied to describe the channel states and deduce the system throughput. Through simulation,we present numerical results to demonstrate the throughput performance of our protocol and thus validate our work.

Publications | Page 126 | IDRC - International Development ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Social networks, research evidence, and innovation in health policymaking in Burkina Faso (restricted access) ... Impact assessment of adaptation options and strategies for coping with climate ... How do small and medium enterprises grow?

Strategy Development Micro Small And Medium Business Performance In Small And Medium Enterprises Smes Cibaduyut Shoe Bandung

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yoyo Sudaryo

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Indonesias economic fundamentals have not prompted the government to build the economic structures to the existence of Micro. Small and Medium Enterprises SMEs. This sector has been proven to provide jobs and provide opportunities for SMEs to thrive in the community. MSMEs cant be doubted because it proved able to survive and become the economic driving especially after the economic crisis. On the other hand SMEs are also facing many problems the limited working capital human resources is low and less clever mastery of science and technology. Another obstacle faced by SMEs is the relationship with the business outlook is less clear and the vision and mission planning is not yet stable. Provision of information and networking markets ease of access to funding and mentoring and capacity building in information technology are some strategies for improving the competitiveness of SMEs in Indonesia. Therefore it is necessary synergy between all parties especially the government and microfinance institutions. This model is based on the consideration of SMEs as the largest group of economic actors in the Indonesian economy. The method used in this study is a survey explanatory with the technique of data collection through questionnaires interviews and observation. The population of the Small and Medium Industries SMI Shoes Cibaduyut Bandung. Then analyzed with descriptive scoring system and non-parametric statistics through different test average.

Enabling Accessibility Through Model-Based User Interface Development.

Science.gov (United States)

Ziegler, Daniel; Peissner, Matthias

2017-01-01

Adaptive user interfaces (AUIs) can increase the accessibility of interactive systems. They provide personalized display and interaction modes to fit individual user needs. Most AUI approaches rely on model-based development, which is considered relatively demanding. This paper explores strategies to make model-based development more attractive for mainstream developers.

A User-Centered Approach to Adaptive Hypertext Based on an Information Relevance Model

Science.gov (United States)

Mathe, Nathalie; Chen, James

1994-01-01

Rapid and effective to information in large electronic documentation systems can be facilitated if information relevant in an individual user's content can be automatically supplied to this user. However most of this knowledge on contextual relevance is not found within the contents of documents, it is rather established incrementally by users during information access. We propose a new model for interactively learning contextual relevance during information retrieval, and incrementally adapting retrieved information to individual user profiles. The model, called a relevance network, records the relevance of references based on user feedback for specific queries and user profiles. It also generalizes such knowledge to later derive relevant references for similar queries and profiles. The relevance network lets users filter information by context of relevance. Compared to other approaches, it does not require any prior knowledge nor training. More importantly, our approach to adaptivity is user-centered. It facilitates acceptance and understanding by users by giving them shared control over the adaptation without disturbing their primary task. Users easily control when to adapt and when to use the adapted system. Lastly, the model is independent of the particular application used to access information, and supports sharing of adaptations among users.

Reactive and adaptive monitoring to secure aggregation in wireless sensor networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Labraoui, Nabila; Gueroui, Mourad; Aliouat, Makhlouf; Petit, Jonathan

Data aggregation is considered as one of the fundamental distributed data processing procedures for saving the energy and minimizing the medium access layer contention in wireless sensor networks. However, sensor networks are likely to be deployed in an untrusted environment, which make them

A New Regime of SME Finance in Emerging Asia: Enhancing Access to Growth Capital and Policy Implications

OpenAIRE

Shigehiro Shinozaki

2014-01-01

While finance is critical for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to survive and grow, most SMEs suffer from poor access to finance. Given the pronounced global financial uncertainty, stable access to appropriate funding sources has become even more difficult for SMEs to attain. Lessons from the global financial crisis have motivated many countries to consider SME access to finance beyond conventional bank credit and to diversify their domestic financial systems. This paper uses empiric...

A Vertically Flow-Following, Icosahedral Grid Model for Medium-Range and Seasonal Prediction. Part 1: Model Description

Science.gov (United States)

Bleck, Rainer; Bao, Jian-Wen; Benjamin, Stanley G.; Brown, John M.; Fiorino, Michael; Henderson, Thomas B.; Lee, Jin-Luen; MacDonald, Alexander E.; Madden, Paul; Middlecoff, Jacques;

Landscape Influences on Fisher Success: Adaptation Strategies in Closed and Open Access Fisheries in Southern Chile

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tracy Van Holt

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Determinants of fisher success in southern Chile's loco (Concholepas concholepas fishery are examined by comparing fisher success in exclusive access territories that vary in relationship to tree-plantation development, which can affect shellfish quality. The relative importance of fishers' experience and capture technology (traditional measures of fisher success are evaluated against environmental and geospatial characteristics. While knowledge and technology explained variation in catches, this did not translate into higher prices or profit. Fishers succeeded (gained higher prices for locos and had higher monthly incomes from their management areas when they harvested shellfish from closed (exclusive nearshore management areas where the environmental condition produced high quality locos regardless of their fishing experience, technology, and the geospatial features of management areas. Experienced fishers who worked in management areas near tree plantations that fail to produce resources of sufficient quality shifted to offshore fisheries where their experience counted. Offshore fishers working in the congrio (Genypterus chilensis fishery likely exposed themselves to more risk and benefited from their experience and available technology; environmental condition and geospatial factors played little role in their success (price. Closed management areas provided resources to harvest, but may reduce a fisher's ability to adapt to environmental change because success depends on environmental factors outside of a fisher's control. Fishers were not financially rewarded for their experience or their technology in the loco fishery.

Energy-Efficiency Analysis of a Distributed Queuing Medium Access Control Protocol for Biomedical Wireless Sensor Networks in Saturation Conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christos Verikoukis

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The aging population and the high quality of life expectations in our society lead to the need of more efficient and affordable healthcare solutions. For this reason, this paper aims for the optimization of Medium Access Control (MAC protocols for biomedical wireless sensor networks or wireless Body Sensor Networks (BSNs. The hereby presented schemes always have in mind the efficient management of channel resources and the overall minimization of sensors’ energy consumption in order to prolong sensors’ battery life. The fact that the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC does not fully satisfy BSN requirements highlights the need for the design of new scalable MAC solutions, which guarantee low-power consumption to the maximum number of body sensors in high density areas (i.e., in saturation conditions. In order to emphasize IEEE 802.15.4 MAC limitations, this article presents a detailed overview of this de facto standard for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs, which serves as a link for the introduction and initial description of our here proposed Distributed Queuing (DQ MAC protocol for BSN scenarios. Within this framework, an extensive DQ MAC energy-consumption analysis in saturation conditions is presented to be able to evaluate its performance in relation to IEEE 802.5.4 MAC in highly dense BSNs. The obtained results show that the proposed scheme outperforms IEEE 802.15.4 MAC in average energy consumption per information bit, thus providing a better overall performance that scales appropriately to BSNs under high traffic conditions. These benefits are obtained by eliminating back-off periods and collisions in data packet transmissions, while minimizing the control overhead.

Low-Complexity Scheduling and Power Adaptation for Coordinated Cloud-Radio Access Networks

KAUST Repository

Douik, Ahmed; Dahrouj, Hayssam; Al-Naffouri, Tareq Y.; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

2017-01-01

In practical wireless systems, the successful implementation of resource allocation techniques strongly depends on the algorithmic complexity. Consider a cloud-radio access network (CRAN), where the central cloud is responsible for scheduling

Small and Medium Enterprises and Economic Growth in Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taiwo Adewale Muritala

2012-06-01

Full Text Available This paper seeks to investigate Small and Medium Enterprises as a veritable tool in Economic Growth and Development. A survey method was used to gather data from 200 SME/Entrepreneurial officers and Managers from five selected local government in Nigeria namely; Ijebu North, Yewa South, Sagamu, Odeda and Ogun Waterside Local government. Data was collected with a structured questionnaire and analyzed with several descriptive statistics to identify the perception of the roles of SMEs in Nigeria. The results of the study therefore reveals that the most common constraints hindering small and medium scale business growth in Nigeria are lack of financial support, poor management, corruption, lack of training and experience, poor infrastructure, insufficient profits, and low demand for product and services. Hence, it therefore recommends that Government should as matter of urgency assist prospective entrepreneurs to have access to finance and necessary information relating to business opportunities, modern technology, raw materials, market, plant and machinery which would enable them to reduce their operating cost and be more efficient to meet the market competitions.

Micropropagation of Alstroemeria in liquid medium using slow release of medium components

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klerk, de G.J.M.; Brugge, ter J.

2010-01-01

Alstroemeria rhizomes were micropropagated on semi-solid medium (AM) and in liquid medium (LM). In LM, growth was much enhanced (ca. 70%). Adequate gas exchange was crucial. This was obtained by agitation and in static medium by a sufficient large contact area of the explant and the gaseous

Optimal Policy of Cross-Layer Design for Channel Access and Transmission Rate Adaptation in Cognitive Radio Networks

Science.gov (United States)

He, Hao; Wang, Jun; Zhu, Jiang; Li, Shaoqian

2010-12-01

In this paper, we investigate the cross-layer design of joint channel access and transmission rate adaptation in CR networks with multiple channels for both centralized and decentralized cases. Our target is to maximize the throughput of CR network under transmission power constraint by taking spectrum sensing errors into account. In centralized case, this problem is formulated as a special constrained Markov decision process (CMDP), which can be solved by standard linear programming (LP) method. As the complexity of finding the optimal policy by LP increases exponentially with the size of action space and state space, we further apply action set reduction and state aggregation to reduce the complexity without loss of optimality. Meanwhile, for the convenience of implementation, we also consider the pure policy design and analyze the corresponding characteristics. In decentralized case, where only local information is available and there is no coordination among the CR users, we prove the existence of the constrained Nash equilibrium and obtain the optimal decentralized policy. Finally, in the case that the traffic load parameters of the licensed users are unknown for the CR users, we propose two methods to estimate the parameters for two different cases. Numerical results validate the theoretic analysis.

Optimal Policy of Cross-Layer Design for Channel Access and Transmission Rate Adaptation in Cognitive Radio Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiang Zhu

2010-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we investigate the cross-layer design of joint channel access and transmission rate adaptation in CR networks with multiple channels for both centralized and decentralized cases. Our target is to maximize the throughput of CR network under transmission power constraint by taking spectrum sensing errors into account. In centralized case, this problem is formulated as a special constrained Markov decision process (CMDP, which can be solved by standard linear programming (LP method. As the complexity of finding the optimal policy by LP increases exponentially with the size of action space and state space, we further apply action set reduction and state aggregation to reduce the complexity without loss of optimality. Meanwhile, for the convenience of implementation, we also consider the pure policy design and analyze the corresponding characteristics. In decentralized case, where only local information is available and there is no coordination among the CR users, we prove the existence of the constrained Nash equilibrium and obtain the optimal decentralized policy. Finally, in the case that the traffic load parameters of the licensed users are unknown for the CR users, we propose two methods to estimate the parameters for two different cases. Numerical results validate the theoretic analysis.

Farmers’ Perceptions about Adaptation Practices to Climate Change and Barriers to Adaptation: A Micro-Level Study in Ghana

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francis Ndamani

2015-08-01

Full Text Available This study analyzed the farmer-perceived importance of adaptation practices to climate change and examined the barriers that impede adaptation. Perceptions about causes and effects of long-term changes in climatic variables were also investigated. A total of 100 farmer-households were randomly selected from four communities in the Lawra district of Ghana. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires and focus group discussions (FGDs. The results showed that 87% of respondents perceived a decrease in rainfall amount, while 82% perceived an increase in temperature over the past 10 years. The study revealed that adaptation was largely in response to dry spells and droughts (93.2% rather than floods. About 67% of respondents have adjusted their farming activities in response to climate change. Empirical results of the weighted average index analysis showed that farmers ranked improved crop varieties and irrigation as the most important adaptation measures. It also revealed that farmers lacked the capacity to implement the highly ranked adaptation practices. The problem confrontation index analysis showed that unpredictable weather, high cost of farm inputs, limited access to weather information, and lack of water resources were the most critical barriers to adaptation. This analysis of adaptation practices and constraints at farmer level will help facilitate government policy formulation and implementation.

Nyx: Adaptive mesh, massively-parallel, cosmological simulation code

Science.gov (United States)

Almgren, Ann; Beckner, Vince; Friesen, Brian; Lukic, Zarija; Zhang, Weiqun

2017-12-01

Nyx code solves equations of compressible hydrodynamics on an adaptive grid hierarchy coupled with an N-body treatment of dark matter. The gas dynamics in Nyx use a finite volume methodology on an adaptive set of 3-D Eulerian grids; dark matter is represented as discrete particles moving under the influence of gravity. Particles are evolved via a particle-mesh method, using Cloud-in-Cell deposition/interpolation scheme. Both baryonic and dark matter contribute to the gravitational field. In addition, Nyx includes physics for accurately modeling the intergalactic medium; in optically thin limits and assuming ionization equilibrium, the code calculates heating and cooling processes of the primordial-composition gas in an ionizing ultraviolet background radiation field.

Wheelchair accessibility to public buildings in Istanbul.

Science.gov (United States)

Evcil, A Nilay

2009-03-01

Accessibility to public environment is the human right and basic need of each citizen and is one of the fundamental considerations for urban planning. The aim of this study is to determine the compliance of public buildings in central business districts (CBD) of Istanbul, Turkey, to wheelchair accessibility to the guidelines of the instrument and identify architectural barriers faced by wheelchair users. This is a descriptive study of 26 public buildings in CBD of Istanbul. The instrument used is the adapted Useh, Moyo and Munyonga questionnaire to collect the data from direct observation and measurement. Descriptive statistics of simple percentages and means are used to explain the compliance to the guidelines of the instrument and wheelchair accessibility. The descriptive survey results indicate that wheelchair users experience many accessibility problems in public environment of the most urbanised city (cultural capital of Europe in 2010) in a developing country. It is found that the major architectural barrier is the public transportation items with the lowest mean compliance (25%). Beside this, the most compliant to the instrument is entrance to building items with 79% as mean percentage. It is also found that there is an intention to improve accessibility when building construction period is investigated. This article describes the example of the compliance of public buildings accessibility when the country has legislation, but lacking regulations about accessibility for the wheelchair users.

Physiological and morphological adaptations of herbaceous perennial legumes allow differential access to sources of varyingly soluble phosphate.

Science.gov (United States)

Pang, Jiayin; Yang, Jiyun; Lambers, Hans; Tibbett, Mark; Siddique, Kadambot H M; Ryan, Megan H

2015-08-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the capacity of three perennial legume species to access sources of varyingly soluble phosphorus (P) and their associated morphological and physiological adaptations. Two Australian native legumes with pasture potential (Cullen australasicum and Kennedia prostrata) and Medicago sativa cv. SARDI 10 were grown in sand under two P levels (6 and 40 µg P g(-1) ) supplied as Ca(H2 PO4 )2 ·H2 O (Ca-P, highly soluble, used in many fertilizers) or as one of three sparingly soluble forms: Ca10 (OH)2 (PO4 )6 (apatite-P, found in relatively young soils; major constituent of rock phosphate), C6 H6 O24 P6 Na12 (inositol-P, the most common form of organic P in soil) and FePO4 (Fe-P, a poorly-available inorganic source of P). All species grew well with soluble P. When 6 µg P g(-1) was supplied as sparingly soluble P, plant dry weight (DW) and P uptake were very low for C. australasicum and M. sativa (0.1-0.4 g DW) with the exception of M. sativa supplied with apatite-P (1.5 g). In contrast, K. prostrata grew well with inositol-P (1.0 g) and Fe-P (0.7 g), and even better with apatite-P (1.7 g), similar to that with Ca-P (1.9 g). Phosphorus uptake at 6 µg P g(-1) was highly correlated with total root length, total rhizosphere carboxylate content and total rhizosphere acid phosphatase (EC 3.1.3.2) activity. These findings provide strong indications that there are opportunities to utilize local Australian legumes in low P pasture systems to access sparingly soluble soil P and increase perennial legume productivity, diversity and sustainability. © 2014 Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society.

Determinants of Urban Poverty: The Case of Medium Sized City in Pakistan

OpenAIRE

Masood Sarwar Awan; Nasir Iqbal

2010-01-01

Urban poverty, which is distinct from rural poverty due to demographic, economic and political aspects remain hitherto unexplored, at the city level in Pakistan. We have examined the determinants of urban poverty in Sargodha, a medium-size city of Pakistan. The analysis is based on the survey of 330 households. Results suggest that employment in public sector, investment in human capital and access to public amenities reduce poverty while employment in informal sector, greater household size ...

SmartMIMO: An Energy-Aware Adaptive MIMO-OFDM Radio Link Control for Next-Generation Wireless Local Area Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wim Dehaene

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Multiantenna systems and more particularly those operating on multiple input and multiple output (MIMO channels are currently a must to improve wireless links spectrum efficiency and/or robustness. There exists a fundamental tradeoff between potential spectrum efficiency and robustness increase. However, multiantenna techniques also come with an overhead in silicon implementation area and power consumption due, at least, to the duplication of part of the transmitter and receiver radio front-ends. Although the area overhead may be acceptable in view of the performance improvement, low power consumption must be preserved for integration in nomadic devices. In this case, it is the tradeoff between performance (e.g., the net throughput on top of the medium access control layer and average power consumption that really matters. It has been shown that adaptive schemes were mandatory to avoid that multiantenna techniques hamper this system tradeoff. In this paper, we derive smartMIMO: an adaptive multiantenna approach which, next to simply adapting the modulation and code rate as traditionally considered, decides packet-per-packet, depending on the MIMO channel state, to use either space-division multiplexing (increasing spectrum efficiency, space-time coding (increasing robustness, or to stick to single-antenna transmission. Contrarily to many of such adaptive schemes, the focus is set on using multiantenna transmission to improve the link energy efficiency in real operation conditions. Based on a model calibrated on an existing reconfigurable multiantenna transceiver setup, the link energy efficiency with the proposed scheme is shown to be improved by up to 30% when compared to nonadaptive schemes. The average throughput is, on the other hand, improved by up to 50% when compared to single-antenna transmission.

SmartMIMO: An Energy-Aware Adaptive MIMO-OFDM Radio Link Control for Next-Generation Wireless Local Area Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dehaene Wim

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Multiantenna systems and more particularly those operating on multiple input and multiple output (MIMO channels are currently a must to improve wireless links spectrum efficiency and/or robustness. There exists a fundamental tradeoff between potential spectrum efficiency and robustness increase. However, multiantenna techniques also come with an overhead in silicon implementation area and power consumption due, at least, to the duplication of part of the transmitter and receiver radio front-ends. Although the area overhead may be acceptable in view of the performance improvement, low power consumption must be preserved for integration in nomadic devices. In this case, it is the tradeoff between performance (e.g., the net throughput on top of the medium access control layer and average power consumption that really matters. It has been shown that adaptive schemes were mandatory to avoid that multiantenna techniques hamper this system tradeoff. In this paper, we derive smartMIMO: an adaptive multiantenna approach which, next to simply adapting the modulation and code rate as traditionally considered, decides packet-per-packet, depending on the MIMO channel state, to use either space-division multiplexing (increasing spectrum efficiency, space-time coding (increasing robustness, or to stick to single-antenna transmission. Contrarily to many of such adaptive schemes, the focus is set on using multiantenna transmission to improve the link energy efficiency in real operation conditions. Based on a model calibrated on an existing reconfigurable multiantenna transceiver setup, the link energy efficiency with the proposed scheme is shown to be improved by up to 30% when compared to nonadaptive schemes. The average throughput is, on the other hand, improved by up to 50% when compared to single-antenna transmission.

Mobile devices and weak ties: a study of vision impairments and workplace access in Bangalore.

Science.gov (United States)

Pal, Joyojeet; Lakshmanan, Meera

2015-07-01

To explore ways in which social and economic interactions are changed by access to mobile telephony. This is a mixed-methods study of mobile phone use among 52 urban professionals with vision impairments in Bangalore, India. Interviews and survey results indicated that mobile devices, specifically those with adaptive technology software, play a vital role as multi-purpose devices that enable people with disabilities to navigate economically and socially in an environment where accessibility remains a significant challenge. We found that mobile devices play a central role in enabling and sustaining weak ties, but also that these weak ties have important gender-specific implications. We found that women have less access to weak ties than men, which impacts women's access to assistive technology (AT). This has potential implications for women's sense of safety and independence, both of which are strongly related to AT access. Implications for Rehabilitation Adaptive technologies increase individuals' ability to keep in contact with casual connections or weak ties through phone calls or social media. Men tend to have stronger access to weak ties than women in India due to cultural impediments to independent access to public spaces. Weak ties are an important source of assistive technology (AT) due to the high rate of resale of used AT, typically through informal networks.

Interventional radiology in the provision and maintenance of long-term central venous access

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lyon, S.M.; Given, M.; Marshall, N.L.

2008-01-01

Establishing and maintaining venous access forms an increasing proportion of the workload in interventional radiology. Several patient groups require medium-term to long-term venous catheters for a variety of purposes, including chemotherapy, long-term antimicrobials, parenteral nutrition, short-term access for haemodialysis or exhausted haemodialysis. Often, these catheters are required for treatment and frequent blood testing, which can quickly exhaust the peripheral veins. Venous access devices include implantable catheters (ports), tunnelled catheters and peripherally inserted central catheters, which have different functions, advantages and limitations. Imaging-guided placement is the preferred method of insertion in many institutions because of higher success rates and radiologists are well suited to address catheter complications.

Early Patient Access to Medicines: Health Technology Assessment Bodies Need to Catch Up with New Marketing Authorization Methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Leyens, Lada; Brand, Angela

National and international medicines agencies have developed innovative methods to expedite promising new medicines to the market and facilitate early patient access. Some of these approval pathways are the conditional approval and the adaptive pathways by the European Medicines Agency (EMA); the Promising Innovative Medicine (PIM) designation and the Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS) by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), as well as the Fast Track, Breakthrough or Accelerated Approval methods by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, at least in Europe, these methods cannot achieve the goal of improving timely access for patients to new medicines on their own; the reimbursement process also has to become adaptive and flexible. In the past 2 years, the effective access (national patient access) to newly approved oncology drugs ranged from 1 to 30 months, with an extremely high variability between European countries. The goal of early patient access in Europe can only be achieved if the national health technology assessment bodies, such as NICE (ENG), HAS (FR), G-BA (DE) or AIFA (IT), provide harmonized, transparent, flexible, conditional and adaptive methods that adopt the level of evidence accepted by the medicines agencies. The efforts from medicines agencies are welcome but will be in vain if health technology assessments do not follow with similar initiatives, and the European 'postcode' lottery will continue. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

A review of accessibility of administrative healthcare databases in the Asia-Pacific region.

Science.gov (United States)

Milea, Dominique; Azmi, Soraya; Reginald, Praveen; Verpillat, Patrice; Francois, Clement

2015-01-01

We describe and compare the availability and accessibility of administrative healthcare databases (AHDB) in several Asia-Pacific countries: Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Thailand, and Malaysia. The study included hospital records, reimbursement databases, prescription databases, and data linkages. Databases were first identified through PubMed, Google Scholar, and the ISPOR database register. Database custodians were contacted. Six criteria were used to assess the databases and provided the basis for a tool to categorise databases into seven levels ranging from least accessible (Level 1) to most accessible (Level 7). We also categorised overall data accessibility for each country as high, medium, or low based on accessibility of databases as well as the number of academic articles published using the databases. Fifty-four administrative databases were identified. Only a limited number of databases allowed access to raw data and were at Level 7 [Medical Data Vision EBM Provider, Japan Medical Data Centre (JMDC) Claims database and Nihon-Chouzai Pharmacy Claims database in Japan, and Medicare, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL), HealthLinQ, Victorian Data Linkages (VDL), SA-NT DataLink in Australia]. At Levels 3-6 were several databases from Japan [Hamamatsu Medical University Database, Medi-Trend, Nihon University School of Medicine Clinical Data Warehouse (NUSM)], Australia [Western Australia Data Linkage (WADL)], Taiwan [National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD)], South Korea [Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA)], and Malaysia [United Nations University (UNU)-Casemix]. Countries were categorised as having a high level of data accessibility (Australia, Taiwan, and Japan), medium level of accessibility (South Korea), or a low level of accessibility (Thailand, China, Malaysia, and Singapore). In some countries, data may be available but accessibility was restricted

A review of accessibility of administrative healthcare databases in the Asia-Pacific region

Science.gov (United States)

Milea, Dominique; Azmi, Soraya; Reginald, Praveen; Verpillat, Patrice; Francois, Clement

2015-01-01

Objective We describe and compare the availability and accessibility of administrative healthcare databases (AHDB) in several Asia-Pacific countries: Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Thailand, and Malaysia. Methods The study included hospital records, reimbursement databases, prescription databases, and data linkages. Databases were first identified through PubMed, Google Scholar, and the ISPOR database register. Database custodians were contacted. Six criteria were used to assess the databases and provided the basis for a tool to categorise databases into seven levels ranging from least accessible (Level 1) to most accessible (Level 7). We also categorised overall data accessibility for each country as high, medium, or low based on accessibility of databases as well as the number of academic articles published using the databases. Results Fifty-four administrative databases were identified. Only a limited number of databases allowed access to raw data and were at Level 7 [Medical Data Vision EBM Provider, Japan Medical Data Centre (JMDC) Claims database and Nihon-Chouzai Pharmacy Claims database in Japan, and Medicare, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL), HealthLinQ, Victorian Data Linkages (VDL), SA-NT DataLink in Australia]. At Levels 3–6 were several databases from Japan [Hamamatsu Medical University Database, Medi-Trend, Nihon University School of Medicine Clinical Data Warehouse (NUSM)], Australia [Western Australia Data Linkage (WADL)], Taiwan [National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD)], South Korea [Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA)], and Malaysia [United Nations University (UNU)-Casemix]. Countries were categorised as having a high level of data accessibility (Australia, Taiwan, and Japan), medium level of accessibility (South Korea), or a low level of accessibility (Thailand, China, Malaysia, and Singapore). In some countries, data may be available but

Transformable Menu Component for Mobile Device Applications: Working with both Adaptive and Adaptable User Interfaces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Glavinic

2008-08-01

Full Text Available Using a learning system in a mobile environmentis not effective if barriers are not overcome in theinteraction with targeted users. For that purpose all mobileservices, including m-learning ones, demand specialattention being paid to interaction with the user. Whilemobile device applications are becoming more powerful,their development process must utilize the concepts ofuniversal access and universal usability. This paperdescribes the model of both adaptable and adaptive mobileuser interface, through the introduction of a transformablemenu component capable to be personalized to eachindividual user with respect to her/his preferences andinteraction style. We discuss the use of customization andadaptation techniques, with the aim to both enhance mobileHCI and to increase user satisfaction, particularly whenworking with graphically rich m-learning applications.

Public access management as an adaptive wildlife management tool

Science.gov (United States)

Ouren, Douglas S.; Watts, Raymond D.

2005-01-01

Wildlife populations across the United States are benefiting from improved wildlife management techniques. However, these benefits also create new challenges including overpopulation, disease, increased winter kill, and forage degradation. These issues have become the challenges for natural resource managers and landowners. Specifically, elk (Cervus elaphus) populations in the Gunnison River Valley of Colorado are growing and causing increased resource damage on public and private lands. On public lands elk threaten sage grouse habitat and compete with domestic livestock for available forage; on private lands they diminish available livestock forage. Management of elk and elk habitat in this area is a shared responsibility of the NPS (Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Curecanti National Recreation Area), BLM (Uncompahgre Field Office), USFS (Gunnison National Forest), and the CDOW (Colorado Division of Wildlife). All of these agencies participate in this research and adaptive management project.

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Finance : Improving Access to Finance for Women-Owned Business in India

OpenAIRE

International Finance Corporation

2017-01-01

Lending to women-owned micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as a distinct segment is still unexplored when compared to lending to MSMEs in India. Due to a lack of segmental focus and, perhaps, due to a higher perception of risk, formal financial institutions have made little effort to better understand this segment. There is a lack of awareness among bankers of the potential business opportunity presented by this segment. One reason for this is the lack of data that will help present ...

Power port contrast medium flushing and trapping: impact of temperature, an in vitro experimental study.

Science.gov (United States)

Guiffant, Gérard; Durussel, Jean Jacques; Flaud, Patrice; Royon, Laurent; Marcy, Pierre Yves; Merckx, Jacques

2013-01-01

The use of totally implantable venous access devices (TIVADs) certified as "high pressure resistant" or "power port" has begun to spread worldwide as a safe procedure for power contrast injection. Owing to the thermo-rheological properties of the contrast media, the primary aim of this work is to present an in vitro experimental impact study concerning the impact of the temperature level on flushing efficiency after contrast medium injection. Moreover, we report experimental data that confirms the role of needle bevel orientation. The secondary aim is to answer the following questions: Is there significant device contrast medium trapping after contrast medium injection? Is saline flushing efficient? And, finally, is it safe to inject contrast medium through an indwelled port catheter? The experimental results show that in addition to hydrodynamics, temperature is a key parameter for the efficiency of device flushing after contrast medium injection. It appears that this is the case when the cavity is incompletely rinsed after three calibrated flushing volumes of 10 mL saline solution, even by using the Huber needle bevel opposite to the port exit. This leads to a potentially important trapped volume of contrast medium in the port, and consequently to the possibility of subsequent salt precipitates and long term trisubstituted benzene nuclei delivery that might impair the solute properties, which may be further injected via the power port later on. We thus suggest, in TIVADS patients, the use of a temporary supplementary intravenous line rather than the port to perform contrast medium injections in daily radiology routine practice.

Stability and adaptability of early maturing sugarcane clones by AMMI analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edson Perez Guerra

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Stability and adaptability of 14 early maturing sugarcane clones were evaluated at 11 locations in the State ofParaná, in the plant cane and ratoon cycles, by the AMMI method. By AMMI2, 59.44% cumulative variance was explained inplant cane and 54.22% in ratoon cane by the first two principal components of tons of pol per hectare (TPH. For genotypeRB966928 the TPH was medium to high, phenotypic stability high and adaptability general, recommending this early maturingclone with wide adaptability for northern Paraná. The genotype-environment interaction was lowest in Paranavaí andMandaguaçú (most stable locations, where the ranking of genotypes was more reliable than the means of the environmentstested.

An end-to-end secure patient information access card system.

Science.gov (United States)

Alkhateeb, A; Singer, H; Yakami, M; Takahashi, T

2000-03-01

The rapid development of the Internet and the increasing interest in Internet-based solutions has promoted the idea of creating Internet-based health information applications. This will force a change in the role of IC cards in healthcare card systems from a data carrier to an access key medium. At the Medical Informatics Department of Kyoto University Hospital we are developing a smart card patient information project where patient databases are accessed via the Internet. Strong end-to-end data encryption is performed via Secure Socket Layers, transparent to transmit patient information. The smart card is playing the crucial role of access key to the database: user authentication is performed internally without ever revealing the actual key. For easy acceptance by healthcare professionals, the user interface is integrated as a plug-in for two familiar Web browsers, Netscape Navigator and MS Internet Explorer.

NASA Access Mechanism - Graphical user interface information retrieval system

Science.gov (United States)

Hunter, Judy F.; Generous, Curtis; Duncan, Denise

1993-01-01

Access to online information sources of aerospace, scientific, and engineering data, a mission focus for NASA's Scientific and Technical Information Program, has always been limited by factors such as telecommunications, query language syntax, lack of standardization in the information, and the lack of adequate tools to assist in searching. Today, the NASA STI Program's NASA Access Mechanism (NAM) prototype offers a solution to these problems by providing the user with a set of tools that provide a graphical interface to remote, heterogeneous, and distributed information in a manner adaptable to both casual and expert users. Additionally, the NAM provides access to many Internet-based services such as Electronic Mail, the Wide Area Information Servers system, Peer Locating tools, and electronic bulletin boards.

NASA access mechanism: Graphical user interface information retrieval system

Science.gov (United States)

Hunter, Judy; Generous, Curtis; Duncan, Denise

1993-01-01

Access to online information sources of aerospace, scientific, and engineering data, a mission focus for NASA's Scientific and Technical Information Program, has always been limited to factors such as telecommunications, query language syntax, lack of standardization in the information, and the lack of adequate tools to assist in searching. Today, the NASA STI Program's NASA Access Mechanism (NAM) prototype offers a solution to these problems by providing the user with a set of tools that provide a graphical interface to remote, heterogeneous, and distributed information in a manner adaptable to both casual and expert users. Additionally, the NAM provides access to many Internet-based services such as Electronic Mail, the Wide Area Information Servers system, Peer Locating tools, and electronic bulletin boards.

Models of thermal transfer by radiation and by conduction, in any geometry, in multiphase multicomponent medium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeanne, T.

1990-03-01

A conduction model and a radiation model are proposed for the calculation of heat transfer. A multiphase multicomponent medium is considered. The conduction model allows the calculation of heat exchanges between two configurations. The heat flow from each component can be obtained. This model is well adapted to the calculation of thermal shocks in an ensemble of materials. The radiation model shows how the radiative transfers can be calculated in a cylinder composed of two opaque surfaces, with the same axis of rotation, and separated by a transparent medium. The form factors are obtained from Herman and Nusselt methods. The parts of the face-to-face surfaces which are seen and not seen are evaluated [fr

Airport Surface Access and Mobile Apps

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luis Martin-Domingo

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Airport Surface Access faces two main opposite issues: (1 cars, being the main transport mode, contribute to the increasing level of congestion and pollution of cities; and (2 simultaneously, parking fees are one important source of airports commercial revenue, creating a dilemma for airports when facing the problem. Following the recent trend of air passengers travelling with Smartphone (78% in 2013, the purpose of this paper is to monitor the adoption of mobile Applications (Apps by airports and to analyze if the information and functions provided in those Apps can help to overcome the above two issues. Design/methodology/approach: 31 iPhone App of some of the largest European airports were evaluated in the lab using the evaluation model of Destinations Mobile Applications (Scolari and Fernández-Cavia 2014 adapted for for the Airport Surface Access on Airport Apps Findings and Originality/value: The Apps evaluated provided a very limited functionality to help passengers to plan and book their trips to/from the airports on public transports and gave high priority to parking information and services. Originality/value: Although Airport Surface Access has been a widely researched, the originality of this paper is the analysis of airport mobile Apps as a potential tool for airports to deal with the surface airport access problems.Access, Airports, Mobile Internet, Commercial Revenues

Assessment of Deafblind Access to Manual Language Systems (ADAMLS)

Science.gov (United States)

Blaha, Robbie; Carlson, Brad

2007-01-01

This document presents the Assessment of Deafblind Access to Manual Language Systems (ADAMLS), a resource for educational teams who are responsible for developing appropriate adaptations and strategies for children who are deafblind who are candidates for learning manual language systems. The assessment tool should be used for all children with a…

Multi-level adaptive simulation of transient two-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media

KAUST Repository

Chueh, C.C.

2010-10-01

An implicit pressure and explicit saturation (IMPES) finite element method (FEM) incorporating a multi-level shock-type adaptive refinement technique is presented and applied to investigate transient two-phase flow in porous media. Local adaptive mesh refinement is implemented seamlessly with state-of-the-art artificial diffusion stabilization allowing simulations that achieve both high resolution and high accuracy. Two benchmark problems, modelling a single crack and a random porous medium, are used to demonstrate the robustness of the method and illustrate the capabilities of the adaptive refinement technique in resolving the saturation field and the complex interaction (transport phenomena) between two fluids in heterogeneous media. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

Barriers to adapt eCommerce by rural microenterprises in Sweden : a case study

OpenAIRE

Sandberg, Karl W; Håkansson, Fredrik

2014-01-01

Research has shown that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are rapidly adopting the e-commerce. However, there is nearly no research into how microenterprises are adopting eCommerce. Present paper focus on microenterprise adaption of eCommerce in terms of barriers in relation to already known research on SMEs. A case study, carried out by 12 microenterprises to find out barriers to adapt eCommerce had been done. The empirical results show that the microenterprises share most of the bar...

Access Nature[TM]: 45 Fun, Hands-On Activities for Everyone!

Science.gov (United States)

Almeras, Bethe Gilbert; Heath, David

"Access Nature" is an outdoor science curriculum that focuses on habitats. This curriculum targets students ages 6-14 and aims to develop environmental awareness, environmental leadership skills, and outdoor knowledge and skills. Specific adaptations for disabled students are also considered. Contents include: (1) "Introduction to…

GALE: a generic open source extensible adaptation engine

Science.gov (United States)

De Bra, Paul; Knutov, Evgeny; Smits, David; Stash, Natalia; Ramos, Vinicius F. C.

2013-06-01

This paper motivates and describes GALE, the Generic Adaptation Language and Engine that came out of the GRAPPLE EU FP7 project. The main focus of the paper is the extensible nature of GALE. The purpose of this description is to illustrate how a single core adaptation engine can be used for different types of adaptation, applied to different types of information items and documents. We illustrate the adaptive functionality on some examples of hypermedia documents. In April 2012, David Smits defended the world's first adaptive PhD thesis on this topic. The thesis, available for download and direct adaptive access at http://gale.win.tue.nl/thesis, shows that a single source of information can serve different audiences and at the same time also allows more freedom of navigation than is possible in any paper or static hypermedia document. The same can be done for course texts, hyperfiction, encyclopedia, museum, or other cultural heritage websites, etc. We explain how to add functionality to GALE if desired, to adapt the system's behavior to whatever the application requires. This stresses our main objective: to provide a technological base for adaptive (hypermedia) system researchers on which they can build extensions for the specific research they have in mind.

Cross-Layer Framework for Fine-Grained Channel Access in Next Generation High-Density WiFi Networks

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

ZHAO Haitao; ZHANG Shaojie; Emiliano Garcia-Palacios

2016-01-01

Densely deployed WiFi networks will play a crucial role in providing the capacity for next generation mobile internet.However,due to increasing interference,overlapped channels in WiFi networks and throughput efficiency degradation,densely deployed WiFi networks is not a guarantee to obtain higher throughput.An emergent challenge is how to efficiently utilize scarce spectrum resources,by matching physical layer resources to traffic demand.In this aspect,access control allocation strategies play a pivotal role but remain too coarse-grained.As a solution,this research proposes a flexible framework for fine-grained channel width adaptation and multi-channel access in WiFi networks.This approach,named SFCA (Subcarrier Fine-grained Channel Access),adopts DOFDM (Discontinuous Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) at the PHY layer.It allocates the frequency resource with a subcarrier granularity,which facilitates the channel width adaptation for multi-channel access and thus brings more flexibility and higher frequency efficiency.The MAC layer uses a frequencytime domain backoff scheme,which combines the popular time-domain BEB scheme with a frequency-domain backoff to decrease access collision,resulting in higher access probability for the contending nodes.SFCA is compared with FICA (an established access scheme) showing significant outperformance.Finally we present results for next generation 802.11 ac WiFi networks.

One4All Cooperative Media Access Strategy in Infrastructure Based Distributed Wireless Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Qi; Fitzek, Frank H.P.; Iversen, Villy Bæk

2008-01-01

a cooperative cluster using their short-range air interface and one device contends the channel for all the devices within the cluster. This strategy reduces the number of mobile devices involved in the collision process for the wireless medium resulting in larger throughput, smaller access delay, and less...

Analytical evaluation of adaptive-modulation-based opportunistic cognitive radio in nakagami-m fading channels

KAUST Repository

Chen, Yunfei; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Tang, Liang; Khan, Fahdahmed

2012-01-01

The performance of adaptive modulation for cognitive radio with opportunistic access is analyzed by considering the effects of spectrum sensing, primary user (PU) traffic, and time delay for Nakagami- m fading channels. Both the adaptive continuous rate scheme and the adaptive discrete rate scheme are considered. Numerical examples are presented to quantify the effects of spectrum sensing, PU traffic, and time delay for different system parameters. © 1967-2012 IEEE.

Analytical evaluation of adaptive-modulation-based opportunistic cognitive radio in nakagami-m fading channels

KAUST Repository

Chen, Yunfei

2012-09-01

The performance of adaptive modulation for cognitive radio with opportunistic access is analyzed by considering the effects of spectrum sensing, primary user (PU) traffic, and time delay for Nakagami- m fading channels. Both the adaptive continuous rate scheme and the adaptive discrete rate scheme are considered. Numerical examples are presented to quantify the effects of spectrum sensing, PU traffic, and time delay for different system parameters. © 1967-2012 IEEE.

Towards a Low Cost Adaptation of Educational Games for People with Disabilities

OpenAIRE

Torrente, Javier; Del Blanco, Angel; Serrano-Laguna, Angel; Vallejo-Pinto, Jose Angel; Moreno-Ger, Pablo; Fernandez-Manjon, Baltasar

2014-01-01

In this paper we analyze how to increase the level of accessibility in videogames by adding support for it in game authoring software. This approach can reduce the effort required to make a game accessible for people with disabilities, resulting in significant savings. A case study is presented to support the approach based on the eAdventure educational game authoring platform, which allows semi-automatic adaptation of the games. The game, "My First Day At Work", was made accessible for stude...

THE IMPACT OF MICROCREDIT ON WOMENOWNED SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES: EVIDENCE FROM KENYA

OpenAIRE

Clemencia Osa Ouma; Charles M. Rambo

2013-01-01

Microcredit is a crucial tool for economic empowerment of women. In Kenya, the microcredit industry has supported more than 3 million small and medium enterprises for close to 30 years. Kenya Women Finance Trust is a leading microcredit institution dealing exclusively with financing needs of women. However, whether the services provided by the institution have spurred growth among women-owned enterprises remains undocumented. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of access to m...

Web accessibility and open source software.

Science.gov (United States)

Obrenović, Zeljko

2009-07-01

A Web browser provides a uniform user interface to different types of information. Making this interface universally accessible and more interactive is a long-term goal still far from being achieved. Universally accessible browsers require novel interaction modalities and additional functionalities, for which existing browsers tend to provide only partial solutions. Although functionality for Web accessibility can be found as open source and free software components, their reuse and integration is complex because they were developed in diverse implementation environments, following standards and conventions incompatible with the Web. To address these problems, we have started several activities that aim at exploiting the potential of open-source software for Web accessibility. The first of these activities is the development of Adaptable Multi-Interface COmmunicator (AMICO):WEB, an infrastructure that facilitates efficient reuse and integration of open source software components into the Web environment. The main contribution of AMICO:WEB is in enabling the syntactic and semantic interoperability between Web extension mechanisms and a variety of integration mechanisms used by open source and free software components. Its design is based on our experiences in solving practical problems where we have used open source components to improve accessibility of rich media Web applications. The second of our activities involves improving education, where we have used our platform to teach students how to build advanced accessibility solutions from diverse open-source software. We are also partially involved in the recently started Eclipse projects called Accessibility Tools Framework (ACTF), the aim of which is development of extensible infrastructure, upon which developers can build a variety of utilities that help to evaluate and enhance the accessibility of applications and content for people with disabilities. In this article we briefly report on these activities.

THE ROLE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN THE REGIONALIZATION PROCESS – CASE STUDY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

AMALIA VENERA TODORUȚ

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The study presents a short economic incursion concerning the role of small and medium enterprises in the complex regionalization process of Romania and the impact of this sector on the economic development of the regions, as generating new value. In this paper I have approached aspects related to the problematic of regionalization within the new economic context, which is marked by major turbulence with medium and long-term effects. The development disparities are a reality and, therefore, the interventions of the regional development process is designed to reduce these disparities. Through the case study presented, based on the scientific investigations in the field of small and medium enterprises, I have shown which the analyzed economic disparities are, using the following indicators: the grand domestic product per inhabitant, the number of small and medium enterprises on regions, the number of SMEs in economic sectors and development regions, the average number of employees in SMEs, the share of the turnover in SMEs at the regional level. I have also presented several factors that contribute to eliminate the disparities and develop the regions, focusing on the importance of the innovation and creation process, the development of the human resource, the specialization of regions, infrastructure and accessibility.

Health Information System Role-Based Access Control Current Security Trends and Challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

de Carvalho Junior, Marcelo Antonio; Bandiera-Paiva, Paulo

2018-01-01

This article objective is to highlight implementation characteristics, concerns, or limitations over role-based access control (RBAC) use on health information system (HIS) using industry-focused literature review of current publishing for that purpose. Based on the findings, assessment for indication of RBAC is obsolete considering HIS authorization control needs. We have selected articles related to our investigation theme "RBAC trends and limitations" in 4 different sources related to health informatics or to the engineering technical field. To do so, we have applied the following search query string: "Role-Based Access Control" OR "RBAC" AND "Health information System" OR "EHR" AND "Trends" OR "Challenges" OR "Security" OR "Authorization" OR "Attacks" OR "Permission Assignment" OR "Permission Relation" OR "Permission Mapping" OR "Constraint". We followed PRISMA applicable flow and general methodology used on software engineering for systematic review. 20 articles were selected after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria resulting contributions from 10 different countries. 17 articles advocate RBAC adaptations. The main security trends and limitations mapped were related to emergency access, grant delegation, and interdomain access control. Several publishing proposed RBAC adaptations and enhancements in order to cope current HIS use characteristics. Most of the existent RBAC studies are not related to health informatics industry though. There is no clear indication of RBAC obsolescence for HIS use.

Adaptive Behavior for Mobile Robots

Science.gov (United States)

Huntsberger, Terrance

2009-01-01

The term "System for Mobility and Access to Rough Terrain" (SMART) denotes a theoretical framework, a control architecture, and an algorithm that implements the framework and architecture, for enabling a land-mobile robot to adapt to changing conditions. SMART is intended to enable the robot to recognize adverse terrain conditions beyond its optimal operational envelope, and, in response, to intelligently reconfigure itself (e.g., adjust suspension heights or baseline distances between suspension points) or adapt its driving techniques (e.g., engage in a crabbing motion as a switchback technique for ascending steep terrain). Conceived for original application aboard Mars rovers and similar autonomous or semi-autonomous mobile robots used in exploration of remote planets, SMART could also be applied to autonomous terrestrial vehicles to be used for search, rescue, and/or exploration on rough terrain.

Usable and accessible websites in SMEs. Challenges for the future

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Castillo-Díaz, Ph. D.

2010-01-01

Full Text Available In an increasingly competitive environment in which Internet occupies a prominent place, transferring a brand from the offline to the online environment has become a vital issue for companies. Usability and accessibility have become crucial to enable adequate online brand communication. Ensuring websites are usable and accessible will facilitate web navigation, will improve the company’s image, and will favour loyalty towards the brand.This article presents the results of an investigation measuring the extent to what small and medium enterprises (SMEs employ usability and accessibility as supporting pillars of brand in the online environment to communicate with their audiences. The results indicate that usability is in fact taken into account by SMEs, but it is seen more as a technological element than as a promotion tool for the brand. Accessibility, on the other hand, is of secondary concern in the design of websites analysed, since they are not certified by any standard and are not fully accessible. Thus, it can be argued that the concern to transmit the brand online is incipient but, currently, SMEs do not take advantage of all the potential offered by the Web.

Determinants of climate change adaptive strategies among small ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Identified adaptation strategies used by farmers to mitigate the effect of climate change included planting beside the river(86%), planting disease and pest resistant crop (73%) and changes on planting and harvesting dates(63%). Results of Tobit regression analysis showed that level of education, farm size and access to ...

Adaptive Modulation for a Downlink Multicast Channel in OFDMA Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Haibo; Schwefel, Hans-Peter; Toftegaard, Thomas Skjødeberg

2007-01-01

In this paper we focus on adaptive modulation strategies for multicast service in orthogonal frequency division multiple access systems. A reward function has been defined as the optimization target, which includes both the average user throughput and bit error rate. We also developed an adaptive...... modulation strategy, namely local best reward strategy, to maximize this reward function. The performance of different modulation strategies are compared in different SNR distribution scenarios, and the optimum strategy in each scenario is suggested....

Investigating the Small and Medium Enterprise Landscape of Accra, Ghana: Prospects and Barriers to Economic Development

Science.gov (United States)

2012-02-01

these challenges to accessing capital. Social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility consciousness (CSR) is embedded within the...the future, AHR hopes to provide services that cover areas including Employment Law, Social Marketing, Research and Development, Social ... Entrepreneurship and Public Sector Branding to its clients. AHR is fits the definition of a Small and Medium Enterprise as defined by USAID; they have 6

Contribution of radiation-induced, nitric oxide-mediated bystander effect to radiation-induced adaptive response.

Science.gov (United States)

Matsumoto, H.; Ohnishi, T.

There has been a recent upsurge of interest in radiation-induced adaptive response and bystander effect which are specific modes in stress response to low-dose low-dose rate radiation Recently we found that the accumulation of inducible nitric oxide NO synthase iNOS in wt p53 cells was induced by chronic irradiation with gamma rays followed by acute irradiation with X-rays but not by each one resulting in an increase in nitrite concentrations of medium It is suggested that the accumulation of iNOS may be due to the depression of acute irradiation-induced p53 functions by pre-chronic irradiation In addition we found that the radiosensitivity of wt p53 cells against acute irradiation with X-rays was reduced after chronic irradiation with gamma rays This reduction of radiosensitivity of wt p53 cells was nearly completely suppressed by the addition of NO scavenger carboxy-PTIO to the medium This reduction of radiosensitivity of wt p53 cells is just radiation-induced adaptive response suggesting that NO-mediated bystander effect may considerably contribute to adaptive response induced by radiation

Wavefront measurement using computational adaptive optics.

Science.gov (United States)

South, Fredrick A; Liu, Yuan-Zhi; Bower, Andrew J; Xu, Yang; Carney, P Scott; Boppart, Stephen A

2018-03-01

In many optical imaging applications, it is necessary to correct for aberrations to obtain high quality images. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) provides access to the amplitude and phase of the backscattered optical field for three-dimensional (3D) imaging samples. Computational adaptive optics (CAO) modifies the phase of the OCT data in the spatial frequency domain to correct optical aberrations without using a deformable mirror, as is commonly done in hardware-based adaptive optics (AO). This provides improvement of image quality throughout the 3D volume, enabling imaging across greater depth ranges and in highly aberrated samples. However, the CAO aberration correction has a complicated relation to the imaging pupil and is not a direct measurement of the pupil aberrations. Here we present new methods for recovering the wavefront aberrations directly from the OCT data without the use of hardware adaptive optics. This enables both computational measurement and correction of optical aberrations.

Analysis of farmers’ adaptation to weather extremes in West African Sudan Savanna

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Boansi

2017-06-01

Full Text Available There have been recent incidences of weather extremes in the West African Sudan Savanna and farmers have responded through implementation of relevant adaptation strategies. For a deeper insight into farmers’ adaptation to climatic shocks, this study documents farmers’ perception of recent changes in the local climate, and identifies factors that influence the number and choice of strategies implemented. Interdependencies among strategies are explored and joint and marginal probabilities of adoption estimated. Upper East Ghana and Southwest Burkina Faso are used as the case study regions. These regions were selected due to extreme reliance of inhabitants on agriculture for sustenance, and their recent exposure to weather extremes. Through estimation of a Poisson regression and multivariate probit model to identify the major factors that influence the number and choice of strategies adopted, we discover that, limited access to credit, markets, and extension services, smaller cropland area, and low level of mechanization could impede effective adaptation to weather extremes. To enhance farmers’ adaptive capacity, policy makers and various stakeholders need to contribute towards improving farmers’ access to credit, markets, and extension services, and implement measures to promote mechanization.

Pullman transportation plan : a transportation and access plan for Pullman National Monument and the surrounding neighborhood

Science.gov (United States)

2017-09-01

The Pullman Transportation Plan provides a holistic set of recommendations to improve access to and from Pullman National Monument and its surrounding neighborhoods for both visitors and residents. In this plan, we identify short-, medium-, and long-...

Accessibility on the agenda of social and educational inclusion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tatiane Negrini

2010-10-01

Full Text Available The present paper aims at unveiling the route of the proposed legal accessibility, seeking to develop a reflection inside the devices that support the process of social inclusion and education. Thus, studies in the area were used, also making reference to policies oriented for accessibility. So the research does not aspire to the exhaustion of the subject, but rather, it provides clues to a discussion of both to include accessibility in the scope of Special Education. There is a rescue on the law of accessibility including the Law No. 7405 of November 12, 1985, Law No. 10,048 of November 8, 2000, Law No. 10,098 of December 19, 2000 and Decree No. 5296 of 2 December 2004. Moreover, the ideas are on discussion according the current proposal of inclusive education, which refers to the access of everyone into the educational environment. Note that there are consistent policies regarding accessibility, however, in regard to the school environment, the barriers are not restricted only to the architectural features, or communications infrastructure. It has to agree, too, curricular and attitudinal adaptations as well as an assessment about the training.

A randomized controlled trial of culturally adapted motivational interviewing for Hispanic heavy drinkers: Theory of Adaptation and Study Protocol

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Christina S.; Colby, Suzanne M.; Magill, Molly; Almeida, Joanna; Tavares, Tonya; Rohsenow, Damaris J.

2016-01-01

Background The NIH Strategic Plan prioritizes health disparities research for socially disadvantaged Hispanics, to reduce the disproportionate burden of alcohol-related negative consequences compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Cultural adaptation of evidence-based treatments, such as motivational interviewing (MI), can improve access and response to alcohol treatment. However, the lack of rigorous clinical trials designed to test the efficacy and theoretical underpinnings of cultural adaptation has made proof of concept difficult. Objective The CAMI2 (Culturally Adapted Motivational Interviewing) study design and its theoretical model, is described to illustrate how MI adapted to social and cultural factors (CAMI) can be discriminated against non-adapted MI. Methods and Design CAMI2, a large, 12 month randomized prospective trial, examines the efficacy of CAMI and MI among heavy drinking Hispanics recruited from the community (n=257). Outcomes are reductions in heavy drinking days (Time Line Follow-Back) and negative consequences of drinking among Hispanics (Drinkers Inventory of Consequences). A second aim examines perceived acculturation stress as a moderator of treatment outcomes in the CAMI condition. Summary The CAMI2 study design protocol is presented and the theory of adaptation is presented. Findings from the trial described may yield important recommendations on the science of cultural adaptation and improve MI dissemination to Hispanics with alcohol risk. PMID:27565832

Unstructured Adaptive Meshes: Bad for Your Memory?

Science.gov (United States)

Biswas, Rupak; Feng, Hui-Yu; VanderWijngaart, Rob

2003-01-01

This viewgraph presentation explores the need for a NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) parallel benchmark for problems with irregular dynamical memory access. This benchmark is important and necessary because: 1) Problems with localized error source benefit from adaptive nonuniform meshes; 2) Certain machines perform poorly on such problems; 3) Parallel implementation may provide further performance improvement but is difficult. Some examples of problems which use irregular dynamical memory access include: 1) Heat transfer problem; 2) Heat source term; 3) Spectral element method; 4) Base functions; 5) Elemental discrete equations; 6) Global discrete equations. Nonconforming Mesh and Mortar Element Method are covered in greater detail in this presentation.

Proteomic analysis of the adaptative response of Mucor spp. to cheese environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Morin-Sardin, Stéphanie; Jany, Jean-Luc; Artigaud, Sébastien; Pichereau, Vianney; Bernay, Benoît; Coton, Emmanuel; Madec, Stéphanie

2017-02-10

In the cheese industry context, Mucor species exhibit an ambivalent behavior as some species are essential "technological" organisms of some cheeses while others can be spoiling agents. Previously, we observed that cheese "technological" species exhibited higher optimal growth rates on cheese related matrices than on synthetic media. This growth pattern combined with morphological differences raise the question of their adaptation to cheese. In this study, using a comparative proteomic approach, we described the metabolic pathways of three Mucor strains considered as "technological" or "contaminant" in the cheese environment (M. lanceolatus UBOCC-A-109153, M. racemosus UBOCC-A-109155, M. circinelloides CBS 277-49) as well as a non-cheese related strain (M. endophyticus CBS 385-95). Overall, 15.8 to 19.0% of the proteomes showed a fold change ≥1.6 in Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) versus Cheese Agar (CA), a cheese mimicking-medium. The 289 differentially expressed proteins identified by LC MS-MS analysis were mostly assigned to energy and amino-acid metabolisms in PDA whereas a higher diversity of biological processes was observed for cheese related strains in CA. Surprisingly, the vast majority (72.9%) of the over-accumulated proteins were different according to the considered medium and strain. These results strongly suggest that the observed better adaptative response of "technological" strains to cheese environment is mediated by species-specific proteins. The Mucor genus consists of a multitude of poorly known species. In the food context, few species are known for their positive role in the production of various food products, including cheese, while others are spoiling agents. The present study focused on the analysis of morphological and proteome differences of various Mucor spp. representative strains known as either positively (hereafter referred as "technological") or negatively (hereafter referred as "contaminant") associated with cheese or non-related to

Adaptive BDDC Deluxe Methods for H(curl)

KAUST Repository

Zampini, Stefano

2017-03-17

The work presents numerical results using adaptive BDDC deluxe methods for preconditioning the linear systems arising from finite element discretizations of the time-domain, quasi-static approximation of the Maxwell’s equations. The provided results, obtained using the BDDC implementation of the PETSc library, show that these methods are poly-logarithmic in the polynomial degree of the Nédélec elements of first and second kind, and robust with respect to arbitrary distributions of the magnetic permeability and the conductivity of the medium.

Medium-size nuclear plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vogelweith, L.; Lavergne, J.C.; Martinot, G.; Weiss, A.

1977-01-01

CEA (TECHNICATOME) has developed a range of pressurized water reactors of the type ''CAS compact'' which are adapted to civil ship propulsion, or to electric power production, combined possibly with heat production, up to outputs equivalent to 125 MWe. Nuclear plants equipped with these reactors are suitable to medium-size electric networks. Among the possible realizations, two types of plants are mentioned as examples: 1) Floating electron-nuclear plants; and 2) Combined electric power and desalting plants. The report describes the design characteristics of the different parts of a 125 MWe unit floating electro-nuclear plant: nuclear steam system CAS 3 G, power generating plant, floating platform for the whole plant. The report gives attention to the different possibilities according to site conditions (the plant can be kept floating, in a natural or artificial basin, it can be put aground, ...) and to safety and environment factors. Such unit can be used in places where there is a growing demand in electric power and fresh water. The report describes how the reactor, the power generating plant and multiflash distillation units of an electric power-desalting plant can be combined: choice of the ratio water output/electric power output, thermal cycle combination, choice of the gain ratio, according to economic considerations, and to desired goal of water output. The report analyses also some technical options, such as: choice of the extraction point of steam used as heat supply of the desalting station (bleeding a condensation turbine, or recovering steam at the exhaust of a backpressure turbine), design making the system safe. Lastly, economic considerations are dealt with: combining the production of fresh water and electric power provides usually a much better energy balance and a lower cost for both products. Examples are given of some types of installations which combine medium-size reactors with fresh water stations yielding from 10000 to 120000 m 3 per day

An Adaptive Handover Prediction Scheme for Seamless Mobility Based Wireless Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Safa Sadiq

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We propose an adaptive handover prediction (AHP scheme for seamless mobility based wireless networks. That is, the AHP scheme incorporates fuzzy logic with AP prediction process in order to lend cognitive capability to handover decision making. Selection metrics, including received signal strength, mobile node relative direction towards the access points in the vicinity, and access point load, are collected and considered inputs of the fuzzy decision making system in order to select the best preferable AP around WLANs. The obtained handover decision which is based on the calculated quality cost using fuzzy inference system is also based on adaptable coefficients instead of fixed coefficients. In other words, the mean and the standard deviation of the normalized network prediction metrics of fuzzy inference system, which are collected from available WLANs are obtained adaptively. Accordingly, they are applied as statistical information to adjust or adapt the coefficients of membership functions. In addition, we propose an adjustable weight vector concept for input metrics in order to cope with the continuous, unpredictable variation in their membership degrees. Furthermore, handover decisions are performed in each MN independently after knowing RSS, direction toward APs, and AP load. Finally, performance evaluation of the proposed scheme shows its superiority compared with representatives of the prediction approaches.

Holographic fluorescence microscopy with incoherent digital holographic adaptive optics.

Science.gov (United States)

Jang, Changwon; Kim, Jonghyun; Clark, David C; Lee, Seungjae; Lee, Byoungho; Kim, Myung K

2015-01-01

Introduction of adaptive optics technology into astronomy and ophthalmology has made great contributions in these fields, allowing one to recover images blurred by atmospheric turbulence or aberrations of the eye. Similar adaptive optics improvement in microscopic imaging is also of interest to researchers using various techniques. Current technology of adaptive optics typically contains three key elements: a wavefront sensor, wavefront corrector, and controller. These hardware elements tend to be bulky, expensive, and limited in resolution, involving, for example, lenslet arrays for sensing or multiactuator deformable mirrors for correcting. We have previously introduced an alternate approach based on unique capabilities of digital holography, namely direct access to the phase profile of an optical field and the ability to numerically manipulate the phase profile. We have also demonstrated that direct access and compensation of the phase profile are possible not only with conventional coherent digital holography, but also with a new type of digital holography using incoherent light: selfinterference incoherent digital holography (SIDH). The SIDH generates a complex—i.e., amplitude plus phase—hologram from one or several interferograms acquired with incoherent light, such as LEDs, lamps, sunlight, or fluorescence. The complex point spread function can be measured using guide star illumination and it allows deterministic deconvolution of the full-field image. We present experimental demonstration of aberration compensation in holographic fluorescence microscopy using SIDH. Adaptive optics by SIDH provides new tools for improved cellular fluorescence microscopy through intact tissue layers or other types of aberrant media.

Access to Justice and Labor Law Reform in Asia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asri Wijayanti

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The existence of national labor law system guarantees fair is one of legal reform to achieve access to justice. This study aims to analyze whether the system of labor law has given capacity to achieve access to justice as the basis for implementing international labor relations in Asia. The method of this study is a normative legal research with statute approach. The findings support that there was an inconsistency on the substance of the legal structures that affect the low legal culture. The substance of the national labor law systems have not adapted the comprehensive International Labor Organization (ILO conventions. Less robust system of national labor laws affect access to justice in the weak field of labor in the region. How To Cite: Wijayanti, A. (2016. Access to Justice and Labor Law Reform in Asia. Rechtsidee, 3(1, 17-26. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.21070/jihr.v3i1.144

Optimizing Input/Output Using Adaptive File System Policies

Science.gov (United States)

Madhyastha, Tara M.; Elford, Christopher L.; Reed, Daniel A.

1996-01-01

Parallel input/output characterization studies and experiments with flexible resource management algorithms indicate that adaptivity is crucial to file system performance. In this paper we propose an automatic technique for selecting and refining file system policies based on application access patterns and execution environment. An automatic classification framework allows the file system to select appropriate caching and pre-fetching policies, while performance sensors provide feedback used to tune policy parameters for specific system environments. To illustrate the potential performance improvements possible using adaptive file system policies, we present results from experiments involving classification-based and performance-based steering.

History-based Adaptive Modulation for a Downlink Multicast Channel in OFDMA systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Haibo; Schwefel, Hans-Peter; Toftegaard, Thomas Skjødeberg

2008-01-01

In this paper we investigated the adaptive modulation strategies for Multicast service in orthogonal frequency division multiple access systems. We defined a Reward function as the performance optimization target and developed adaptive modulation strategies to maximize this Reward function....... The proposed optimization algorithm varied the instantaneous BER constraint of each mobile Multicast receiver according to its individual cumulated BER, which resulted in a significant Reward gain....

Assessment of Business Information Access Problems in Uganda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Constant Okello-Obura

2007-09-01

Full Text Available Effective utilization of quality business information is crucial in attaining long-term and sustainable economic growth of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs. It is established that SMEs in northern Uganda operate in a business environment that is characterized by fragmented and incomplete information. It is a situation where an awareness of markets, technology, policies, regulations and finance is limited because businesses fail to receive timely business information. This article reports a portion of the results of a larger study using a descriptive design with survey research and other techniques. The study examined the problems SMEs in northern Uganda face in accessing business information; identified problems information providers face in providing business information to the SMEs in the region and attempted to establish whether SMEs in northern Uganda use public libraries in accessing business information as should be expected. The study’s respondents included the SMEs, information providers and business policy makers with the response rate of 87.3%; 72% and 85% respectively. The article proposes strategic interventions for business information to be accessed by the SMEs. It concludes that there is a need for Uganda and, in particular, northern Uganda to develop a strategy for business information access by the SMEs

Proteins associated with adaptation of cultured tobacco cells to NaCl

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singh, N.K.; Handa, A.K.; Hasegawa, P.M.; Bressan, R.A.

1985-01-01

Cultured tobacco cells (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv Wisconsin 38) adapted to grow in medium containing high levels of NaCl or polyethylene glycol (PEG) produce several new or enhanced polypeptide bands on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyarylamide gel electrophoresis. The intensities of some of the polypeptide bands increase with increasing levels of NaCl adaptation, while the intensities of other polypeptide bands are reduced. Synthesis of 26-kilodalton polypeptide(s) occurs at two different periods during culture growth of NaCl adapted cells. Unadapted cells also incorporate 35 S into a 26-kilodalton polypeptide during the later stage of culture growth beginning at midlog phase. The 26-kilodalton polypeptides from adapted and unadapted cells have similar partial proteolysis peptide maps and are immunologically cross-reactive. During adaptation to NaCl, unadapted cells synthesize and accumulate a major 26-kilodalton polypeptide, and the beginning of synthesis corresponds to the period of osmotic adjustment and culture growth. From their results, the authors suggest an involvement of the 26-kilodalton polypeptide in the adaptation of cultured tobacco cells to NaCl and water stress. 38 references, 11 figures, 2 tables

On Sustaining Dynamic Adaptation of Context-Aware Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boudjemaa Boudaa

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The modern human is getting more and more mobile having access to online services by using mobile cutting-edge computational devices. In the last decade, the field of context-aware services had led to emerge several works. However, most of the proposed approaches have not provided clear adaptation strategies in case of unforeseen contexts. Dealing with this last at runtime is also another crucial need that has been ignored in their proposals. This paper aims to propose a generic dynamic adaptation process as a phase in a model-driven development life-cycle for context-aware services using the MAPE-K control loop to meet the runtime adaptation. This process is validated by implementing an illustrative application on FraSCAti platform. The main benefit of the proposed process is to sustain the self-reconfiguration of such services at model and code levels by enabling successive dynamic adaptations depending on the changing context.

Performance Analysis and Optimization of an Adaptive Admission Control Scheme in Cognitive Radio Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shunfu Jin

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In cognitive radio networks, if all the secondary user (SU packets join the system without any restrictions, the average latency of the SU packets will be greater, especially when the traffic load of the system is higher. For this, we propose an adaptive admission control scheme with a system access probability for the SU packets in this paper. We suppose the system access probability is inversely proportional to the total number of packets in the system and introduce an Adaptive Factor to adjust the system access probability. Accordingly, we build a discrete-time preemptive queueing model with adjustable joining rate. In order to obtain the steady-state distribution of the queueing model exactly, we construct a two-dimensional Markov chain. Moreover, we derive the formulas for the blocking rate, the throughput, and the average latency of the SU packets. Afterwards, we provide numerical results to investigate the influence of the Adaptive Factor on different performance measures. We also give the individually optimal strategy and the socially optimal strategy from the standpoints of the SU packets. Finally, we provide a pricing mechanism to coordinate the two optimal strategies.

Livelihoods, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in Morogoro, Tanzania

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paavola, Jouni

2008-01-01

This article examines farmers' livelihood responses and vulnerability to climate variability and other stressors in Morogoro, Tanzania, to understand their implications for adaptation to climate change by agricultural households in developing world more generally. In Morogoro, agricultural households have extended cultivation, intensified agriculture, diversified livelihoods and migrated to gain access to land, markets and employment as a response to climatic and other stressors. Some of these responses have depleted and degraded natural resources such as forest, soil and water resources, which will complicate their living with climate change in the future. This will be particularly problematic to vulnerable groups such as women, children and pastoralists who have limited access to employment, markets and public services. In this light, fair adaptation to climate change by agricultural households in Morogoro and elsewhere in developing countries requires several complementary responses. Adaptation efforts should involve effective governance of natural resources because they function as safety nets to vulnerable groups. In addition, strengthening of national markets by infrastructure investments and institutional reforms is needed to give incentives to intensification and diversification in agriculture. Market participation also demands enhancement of human capital by public programs on health, education and wellbeing

Relation between radio-adaptive response and cell to cell communication

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keiichiro Ishii

1996-01-01

Ionizing radiation has been considered to cause severe damages to DNA and do harm to cells in proportion to the dose, however low it might be. In 1984, Wolff et al. showed that human peripheral lymphocytes adapted to the low-dose radiation from 3 H-TdR added in culture medium and became resistant to the subsequent irradiation with high-doses of X-rays. This response, which is called radio-adaptive response, is also induced by X-rays and gamma-rays in human lymphocytes and Chinese hamster V79 cells. However, the mechanisms of and conditions for adaptive responses to radiation have not been clarified. With an objective of clarifying the conditions for adaptive responses of cells to radiation, we examined how the cell to cell communication is involved in the adaptive responses. We irradiated normal human embryo-derived (HE) cells and cancer cells (HeLa) in culture at high density with low-dose X-ray and examined their radio-adaptive responses by measuring the changes in sensitivity to subsequent high-dose X-ray irradiation using the Trypan Blue dye-exclusion test method. We also conducted experiments to examine the effects of Ca 2+ ions and Phorbol 12-Myristate 13-Acetate (TPA) which are supposed to be involved in cell to cell communication. (author)

How Bioethics is Complementing Human Rights in Realizing Health Access for Clinical Trial Participants: The Case of Formative PrEP Access in South Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Jerome

2015-06-11

Following the demise of apartheid, human rights in South Africa are now constitutionally enshrined.The right to health in South Africa's Constitution has been credited with transforming the lives of millions of people by triggering programmatic reforms in HIV treatment and the prevention of mother to child transmission (MTCT) of HIV.However, a constitutionally enshrined right to health offers no guarantee that clinical trial participants will enjoy post-trial access to beneficial interventions. Using access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in South Africa as an example, this paper argues that adherence to bioethics norms could realize the right to health for trial participants following the end of a clinical trial. Copyright 2015 Singh. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

A re-conceptualization of access for 21st century healthcare.

Science.gov (United States)

Fortney, John C; Burgess, James F; Bosworth, Hayden B; Booth, Brenda M; Kaboli, Peter J

2011-11-01

Many e-health technologies are available to promote virtual patient-provider communication outside the context of face-to-face clinical encounters. Current digital communication modalities include cell phones, smartphones, interactive voice response, text messages, e-mails, clinic-based interactive video, home-based web-cams, mobile smartphone two-way cameras, personal monitoring devices, kiosks, dashboards, personal health records, web-based portals, social networking sites, secure chat rooms, and on-line forums. Improvements in digital access could drastically diminish the geographical, temporal, and cultural access problems faced by many patients. Conversely, a growing digital divide could create greater access disparities for some populations. As the paradigm of healthcare delivery evolves towards greater reliance on non-encounter-based digital communications between patients and their care teams, it is critical that our theoretical conceptualization of access undergoes a concurrent paradigm shift to make it more relevant for the digital age. The traditional conceptualizations and indicators of access are not well adapted to measure access to health services that are delivered digitally outside the context of face-to-face encounters with providers. This paper provides an overview of digital "encounterless" utilization, discusses the weaknesses of traditional conceptual frameworks of access, presents a new access framework, provides recommendations for how to measure access in the new framework, and discusses future directions for research on access.

Genotipagem de polimorfismos associados com sistemas de macho-esterilidade em acessos de cebola adaptados ao Brasil Genotyping of polymorphisms associated with male-sterility systems in onion accessions adapted for cultivation in Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Francisco Ragassi

2012-09-01

Full Text Available A produção em escala comercial de sementes híbridas de cebola (Allium cepa tem sido conduzida com o emprego de dois sistemas de macho-esterilidade do tipo genética-citoplasmática (CMS-S e CMS-T em associação ao citoplasma normal (macho-fértil. No entanto, a análise molecular desses diferentes tipos citoplasmáticos ainda não está disponível para um grande número de acessos de cebola adaptados para cultivo em regiões tropicais. Além de adaptação às condições edafoclimáticas do Brasil, muitos desses acessos apresentam tolerância a doenças, sendo de potencial valor como genitores de híbridos. O presente trabalho visou identificar os tipos citoplasmáticos de acessos de cebola de diferentes grupos morfoagronômicos de interesse para o melhoramento genético no Brasil, usando a reação da polimerase em cadeia (PCR com 'primers' específicos para regiões polimórficas do genoma mitocondrial de cebola. Foi observada, nos 66 acessos amostrados, a presença dos três principais tipos de citoplasma descritos para cebola (S, N e T. Foi constatada maior frequência do citoplasma S (56% seguido do citoplasma T (25,8%. Em 18,2% das amostras, foi encontrado exclusivamente o citoplasma N. Essa caracterização pode ser útil para guiar a escolha de materiais genéticos dentro dos programas de melhoramento com objetivo de desenvolver cultivares híbridas adaptadas às condições tropicais.The synthesis of onion (Allium cepa hybrids relies upon the use of two genetic-cytoplasmic male-sterility systems, CMS-S and CMS-T, in association to the normal male-fertile (N cytoplasm. However, the molecular phenotyping of male-sterility-inducing and normal cytoplasms of many onion accessions adapted for cultivation under tropical conditions is not available. Some of these accessions were reported as presenting tolerance to diseases and adaptation to tropical and subtropical regions. Therefore, these accessions are potential sources of parental

Adaptive Cost-Based Task Scheduling in Cloud Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammed A. S. Mosleh

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Task execution in cloud computing requires obtaining stored data from remote data centers. Though this storage process reduces the memory constraints of the user’s computer, the time deadline is a serious concern. In this paper, Adaptive Cost-based Task Scheduling (ACTS is proposed to provide data access to the virtual machines (VMs within the deadline without increasing the cost. ACTS considers the data access completion time for selecting the cost effective path to access the data. To allocate data access paths, the data access completion time is computed by considering the mean and variance of the network service time and the arrival rate of network input/output requests. Then the task priority is assigned to the removed tasks based data access time. Finally, the cost of data paths are analyzed and allocated based on the task priority. Minimum cost path is allocated to the low priority tasks and fast access path are allocated to high priority tasks as to meet the time deadline. Thus efficient task scheduling can be achieved by using ACTS. The experimental results conducted in terms of execution time, computation cost, communication cost, bandwidth, and CPU utilization prove that the proposed algorithm provides better performance than the state-of-the-art methods.

Supporting Student Learning in Computer Science Education via the Adaptive Learning Environment ALMA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandra Gasparinatou

2015-10-01

Full Text Available This study presents the ALMA environment (Adaptive Learning Models from texts and Activities. ALMA supports the processes of learning and assessment via: (1 texts differing in local and global cohesion for students with low, medium, and high background knowledge; (2 activities corresponding to different levels of comprehension which prompt the student to practically implement different text-reading strategies, with the recommended activity sequence adapted to the student’s learning style; (3 an overall framework for informing, guiding, and supporting students in performing the activities; and; (4 individualized support and guidance according to student specific characteristics. ALMA also, supports students in distance learning or in blended learning in which students are submitted to face-to-face learning supported by computer technology. The adaptive techniques provided via ALMA are: (a adaptive presentation and (b adaptive navigation. Digital learning material, in accordance with the text comprehension model described by Kintsch, was introduced into the ALMA environment. This material can be exploited in either distance or blended learning.

Open access to Water Indicators for Climate Change Adaptation: proof-of-concept for the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S)

Science.gov (United States)

Lottle, Lorna; Arheimer, Berit; Gyllensvärd, Frida; Dejong, Fokke; Ludwig, Fulco; Hutjes, Ronald; Martinez, Bernat

2017-04-01

Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) is still in the development phase and will combine observations of the climate system with the latest science to develop authoritative, quality-assured information about the past, current and future states of the climate and climate dependent sectors in Europe and worldwide. C3S will provide key indicators on climate change drivers and selected sectorial impacts. The aim of these indicators will be to support adaptation and mitigation. This presentation will show one service already operational as a proof-of-concept of this future climate service. The project "Service for Water Indicators in Climate Change Adaptation" (SWICCA) has developed a sectorial information service for water management. It offers readily available climate-impact data, for open access from the web-site http://swicca.climate.copernicus.eu/. The development is user-driven with the overall goal to speed up the workflow in climate-change adaptation of water management across Europe. The service is co-designed by consultant engineers and agencies in 15 case-studies spread out over the continent. SWICCA has an interactive user-interface, which shows maps and graphs, and facilitates data download in user-friendly formats. In total, more than 900 open dataset are given for various hydrometeorological (and a few socioeconomical) variables, model ensembles, resolutions, time-periods and RCPs. The service offers more than 40 precomputed climate impact indicators (CIIs) and transient time-series of 4 essential climate variables ECVs) with high spatial and temporal resolution. To facilitate both near future and far future assessments, SWICCA provides the indicators for different time ranges; normally, absolute values are given for a reference period (e.g. 1971-2000) and the expected future changes for different 30-year periods, such as early century (2011-2040), mid-century (2041-2070) and end-century (2071-2100). An ensemble of model results is always given to

A novel asynchronous access method with binary interfaces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Torres-Solis Jorge

2008-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Traditionally synchronous access strategies require users to comply with one or more time constraints in order to communicate intent with a binary human-machine interface (e.g., mechanical, gestural or neural switches. Asynchronous access methods are preferable, but have not been used with binary interfaces in the control of devices that require more than two commands to be successfully operated. Methods We present the mathematical development and evaluation of a novel asynchronous access method that may be used to translate sporadic activations of binary interfaces into distinct outcomes for the control of devices requiring an arbitrary number of commands to be controlled. With this method, users are required to activate their interfaces only when the device under control behaves erroneously. Then, a recursive algorithm, incorporating contextual assumptions relevant to all possible outcomes, is used to obtain an informed estimate of user intention. We evaluate this method by simulating a control task requiring a series of target commands to be tracked by a model user. Results When compared to a random selection, the proposed asynchronous access method offers a significant reduction in the number of interface activations required from the user. Conclusion This novel access method offers a variety of advantages over traditionally synchronous access strategies and may be adapted to a wide variety of contexts, with primary relevance to applications involving direct object manipulation.

Sweden's Future Climate in the short- and medium-term perspective. Basis for development of climate adaptation tools; Sveriges framtida klimat paa kort och medellaang sikt. Underlag foer utveckling av verktyg foer klimatanpassning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Carlsen, Henrik; Parmhed, Oskar

2008-12-15

This report studies two questions - how the actual amount of greenhouse gas emissions has changed over time in comparison with previous assumptions and what will happen to Sweden's climate from short and medium term perspectives given the future development of the climate in general. The content of this report shall be used as the basis for continued work in the development of climate adaptation tools that can be used primarily in Sweden. The first section of this report presents the development of actual greenhouse gas emissions in recent years. Eight years have passed since IPCC published its emissions scenarios (SRES) and for this reason a comparison between the emissions levels from the report and the experimental data from observations made in recent years is well due. Measurements show that current levels of emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels exceed the average of the SRES families as a whole. Among other implications, this means that emission levels are significantly higher than the levels assumed in the climate scenarios of the Swedish Commission on Climate and Vulnerability (Klimat- och saarbarhetsutredningen). There is little support from the experimental data to indicate that this rate of increase will subside. In addition, studies are indicating that the increased emissions are not solely attributable to a rise in population levels and increased wealth (GNP/capita). Another aspect is that the carbon intensity, measured as the amount of carbon dioxide per unit production price, has been declining since 2000. This is entirely contrary to the assumptions made in all of the emissions scenarios in SRES that carbon dioxide efficiency would continue to increase. The report therefore concludes that work with climate adaptation in Sweden must take into consideration to a greater extent than is currently done today the consequences of emissions levels that are in line with or exceed the highest SRES levels. The second section of this report takes

The Optimization of the Data Packet Length in Adaptive Radio Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anatolii P. Voiter

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Background. Development of methods and means of the adaptive management of the radio networks bandwidth with competitive access to the radio channel. Objective. The aim of the paper is to determine the packet length effect on the effective radio networks transmission rate with taking into account the parameters, formats, and procedures of the physical and link levels at using the MAC protocol with a rigid strategy of competitive access to the radio channel. Methods. The goal is achieved by creating and analyzing the mathematical model of the effective transmission rate in radio networks. The model is described by the equation for the effective transmission rate, which is the function of both the probability of the conflict-free transmission of the MAC protocol and the coefficient of the data packet size deviation from the optimal for LLC protocol. Results. It is proved that there is the optimal deviation of the data packet length for each MAC protocol traffic intensity value, which provides the most effective transfer rate. This makes the possibility for adaptive management of the radio bandwidth by applying a pre-calculated deviation of the data packet size in dependence on the traffic intensity. Conclusions. The proposed mathematical model is the tool for calculation of both the radio bandwidth network capacity and the optimal deviation of the data packet length at adaptive management of competitive access to a radio channel with a rigid strategy at conditions of the significant fluctuation in traffic intensity.

Cloud Computing: The Level of Awareness Amongst Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Developing Economies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yeboah-Boateng, Ezer Osei; Essandoh, Kofi Asare

2013-01-01

Cloud computing services are being touted as a major enabler for small businesses lately. This new paradigm is seen to offer unique opportunities to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) worldwide and developing economies are no exception. It presents SMEs access to similar technologies available...... indicated that a slight majority of the respondents were familiar with cloud computing on the individual level but the level of awareness amongst the larger SME industry was low to medium. The finding therefore recommends education and sensitization on cloud computing in order to increase awareness...... to their larger counterparts and those in the developed world which inherently creates innovativeness, increases competitive advantage and impacts their operations and processes. This paper seeks to determine the level of awareness and familiarity with this emerging computing paradigm. The results of the study...

DETERMINANTS OF ADAPTATION TO DEFORESTATION AMONG FARMERS IN MADAGALI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S.B. Mustapha

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The study examined the determinants of adaptation to deforestation among farmers in Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa state, Nigeria. Structured interview schedule were used to obtain information from 200 respondents selected through simple random sampling techniques. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive (frequencies and percentages and inferential (chi-square test statistics. The result indicated that majority (84% of the respondents were male with 21-40 years of age representing 58.50%. The study also showed that most (45% of the respondents had attained post primary education with majority (80% having 6 and above years of farming experience. The respondents perceived fuel wood extraction as the major (42% cause of deforestation in the study area. The result showed that the most (30.50% frequently employed adaptation strategy against deforestation was reducing quantity of fire wood consumption. The study further showed that the factors which significantly influenced adaptation to deforestation among the respondents were age, farming experience and educational status with X2=9.216, 8.697 and 11.238 at P<0.05 respectively. While those factors which did not influence adaptation to deforestation among the respondents were gender, access to agricultural credit and access to extension services with X2=1.286, 7.923 and 5.862 at P<0.05 respectively. The major constraints faced by respondents in adaptation to deforestation were lack of capital and lack of accessible alternative energy. The study recommends that awareness campaign should be mounted to increase the level of knowledge of respondents on the significance of adaptation to deforestation. Respondents should also be encouraged towards establishment of adaptation cooperative societies in order to take advantage of some government policies and programmes.

Tracer transfer in consolidated porous medium and fractured porous medium: experimentations and modelling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dalla Costa, C.

2007-07-01

We try to identify and model physical and chemical mechanisms governing the water flow and the solute transport in fractured consolidated porous medium. An original experimental device was built. The 'cube' consists of an idealized fractured medium reproduced by piling up consolidated porous cubes of 5 cm edge. Meanwhile, columns of the homogeneous consolidated porous medium are studied. The same anionic tracing technique is used in both cases. Using a system analysis approach, we inject concentration pulses in the device to obtain breakthrough curves. After identifying the mass balance and the residence time, we fit the CD and the MIM models to the experimental data. The MIM model is able to reproduce experimental curves of the homogeneous consolidated porous medium better than the CD model. The mobile water fraction is in accordance with the porous medium geometry. The study of the flow rate influence highlights an interference dispersion regime. It was not possible to highlight the observation length influence in this case. On the contrary, we highlight the effect of the observation scale on the fractured and porous medium, comparing the results obtained on a small 'cube' and a big 'cube'. The CD model is not satisfactory in this case. Even if the MIM model can fit the experimental breakthrough curves, it was not possible to obtain unique parameters for the set of experiments. (author)

Strategic management in micro, small and medium-sized businesses in relation to financial success of the enterprise

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Monika Švárová

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Small and medium sized enterprises play an essential role in the economy of the Czech Republic as a report of development of small and medium-sized enterprises and its support from 2010 announces. They are the source of development of towns, regions and the state itself. Small and medium-sized enterprises represent 99.84 % of the whole business subjects. Statistic data underline this position- they indicate that small and medium-sized enterprises employ 2/3 employees. Therefore, occupying small and medium-sized enterprises are to be taken as priority.Strategic management on the level of small and medium-sized enterprises is, as number of authors write, diverse. Small enterprises including micro have less access to capital, they have no money for employing specialists in the field, and they solve administration primarily. The aim of this follow-up GAJU project contribution concerned on process analysis of small and medium-sized enterprises is to summarize the gained results from the view of comparison of the level of strategic management in small and medium-sized enterprises.Nowadays, numbers of enterprises are thinking about whether they are able to remain in the market as an established company, they explore the possibility of improving its position. There is a question for small and medium-sized enterprises management- can strategic management be used as an instrument for increasing competitiveness? The results show that SMEs with a clearly defined strategy show better results of financial health (IN99 and ROA than companies without a defined strategy. In terms of business focus, we were able to demonstrate positive relationship between strategy and finance only for companies in the construction industry, on the significance level of 0.05. Compared to manufacturers and service-providing companies where this relation is not statistically significant.

Accessibility and sustainability: the experiences of hospitality in Brasilia

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Donária Coelho Duarte

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The article reflects on the relationship between accessibility and Sustainability focusing on People with Disabilities or Reduced Mobility (PWDRM - including people with some sensory or motor disability and people in the so called "third age". It analyses the prospect of tourism in Brazil in the coming years, based on the current preparation scenario for holding mega sporting events - among them FIFA 2014 World Cup - in opposition to the global economic crisis. It highlights the PWDRM as a segment with high potential growth, since it is provided public infrastructure and tourism facilities for their best care. The article focuses on the PWDRM as tourists, discussing how it is ocurring Brasilia Hospitality Industry adapting process to fully adressing the needs of these people. It study also the economic integration and social inclusion of PWDRM as employees of these organizations. Among the data collected in the field research, it emphasizes that from the 29 hotels surveyed, 23 declare having PWDRM adapted facilities, of which 20 have adapted their facilities only due to law requirements. The majority (26 hotels appear to be concerned or already prepared for a potential increase in demand and 21 respondents consider that there is a growing demand from senior guests. Finally, suggestions are made looking for a better accessibility and sustainability in the Brasilia Hospitality Sector and is encouraged a deeper research. Further research is recommended in the subject.

Robust Adaptive Synchronization of Ring Configured Uncertain Chaotic FitzHugh–Nagumo Neurons under Direction-Dependent Coupling

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Muhammad Iqbal

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This paper exploits the dynamical modeling, behavior analysis, and synchronization of a network of four different FitzHugh–Nagumo (FHN neurons with unknown parameters linked in a ring configuration under direction-dependent coupling. The main purpose is to investigate a robust adaptive control law for the synchronization of uncertain and perturbed neurons, communicating in a medium of bidirectional coupling. The neurons are assumed to be different and interconnected in a ring structure. The strength of the gap junctions is taken to be different for each link in the network, owing to the inter-neuronal coupling medium properties. Robust adaptive control mechanism based on Lyapunov stability analysis is employed and theoretical criteria are derived to realize the synchronization of the network of four FHN neurons in a ring form with unknown parameters under direction-dependent coupling and disturbances. The proposed scheme for synchronization of dissimilar neurons, under external electrical stimuli, coupled in a ring communication topology, having all parameters unknown, and subject to directional coupling medium and perturbations, is addressed for the first time as per our knowledge. To demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed strategy, simulation results are provided.

Robust Adaptive Synchronization of Ring Configured Uncertain Chaotic FitzHugh–Nagumo Neurons under Direction-Dependent Coupling

Science.gov (United States)

Iqbal, Muhammad; Rehan, Muhammad; Hong, Keum-Shik

2018-01-01

This paper exploits the dynamical modeling, behavior analysis, and synchronization of a network of four different FitzHugh–Nagumo (FHN) neurons with unknown parameters linked in a ring configuration under direction-dependent coupling. The main purpose is to investigate a robust adaptive control law for the synchronization of uncertain and perturbed neurons, communicating in a medium of bidirectional coupling. The neurons are assumed to be different and interconnected in a ring structure. The strength of the gap junctions is taken to be different for each link in the network, owing to the inter-neuronal coupling medium properties. Robust adaptive control mechanism based on Lyapunov stability analysis is employed and theoretical criteria are derived to realize the synchronization of the network of four FHN neurons in a ring form with unknown parameters under direction-dependent coupling and disturbances. The proposed scheme for synchronization of dissimilar neurons, under external electrical stimuli, coupled in a ring communication topology, having all parameters unknown, and subject to directional coupling medium and perturbations, is addressed for the first time as per our knowledge. To demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed strategy, simulation results are provided. PMID:29535622

Application of Medium and Seasonal Flood Forecasts for Agriculture Damage Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Fakhruddin, Shamsul; Ballio, Francesco; Menoni, Scira

2015-04-01

Early warning is a key element for disaster risk reduction. In recent decades, major advancements have been made in medium range and seasonal flood forecasting. This progress provides a great opportunity to reduce agriculture damage and improve advisories for early action and planning for flood hazards. This approach can facilitate proactive rather than reactive management of the adverse consequences of floods. In the agricultural sector, for instance, farmers can take a diversity of options such as changing cropping patterns, applying fertilizer, irrigating and changing planting timing. An experimental medium range (1-10 day) and seasonal (20-25 days) flood forecasting model has been developed for Thailand and Bangladesh. It provides 51 sets of discharge ensemble forecasts of 1-10 days with significant persistence and high certainty and qualitative outlooks for 20-25 days. This type of forecast could assist farmers and other stakeholders for differential preparedness activities. These ensembles probabilistic flood forecasts have been customized based on user-needs for community-level application focused on agriculture system. The vulnerabilities of agriculture system were calculated based on exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Indicators for risk and vulnerability assessment were conducted through community consultations. The forecast lead time requirement, user-needs, impacts and management options for crops were identified through focus group discussions, informal interviews and community surveys. This paper illustrates potential applications of such ensembles for probabilistic medium range and seasonal flood forecasts in a way that is not commonly practiced globally today.

Unlocking the Potential of Web Localizers as Contributors to Image Accessibility: What Do Evaluation Tools Have to Offer?

OpenAIRE

Rodriguez Vazquez, Silvia

2015-01-01

Creating appropriate text alternatives to render images accessible in the web is a shared responsibility among all actors involved in the web development cycle, including web localization professionals. However, they often lack the knowledge needed to correctly transfer image accessibility across different website language versions. In this paper, we provide insight into translators' performance as regards their accessibility achievements during text alternatives adaptation from English into ...

Bank Finance For Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises In Sri Lanka: Issues And Policy Reforms

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Gamage Pandula

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Access to bank finance is necessary to create an economic environment that enables Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs to grow and prosper. The SMEs in Sri Lanka, however, face significant constraints to access bank finance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the access to bank finance and related issues in the SME sector of Sri Lanka. The paper is exploratory in nature and reviews the bank financing situation for SMEs in Sri Lanka, as well as provides an overview of constraints faced by the banks (supply-side and SMEs (demand-side. The paper also highlights some good practices in SME lending from international experience and outlines some recommendations to help overcome the constraints faced by the banks and SMEs. The recommendations discussed in this paper may be of importance to policymakers, not only in Sri Lanka, but in many other developing countries in a similar stage of economic growth.

The Interstellar Medium

CERN Document Server

Lequeux, James

2005-01-01

Describing interstellar matter in our galaxy in all of its various forms, this book also considers the physical and chemical processes that are occurring within this matter. The first seven chapters present the various components making up the interstellar matter and detail the ways that we are able to study them. The following seven chapters are devoted to the physical, chemical and dynamical processes that control the behaviour of interstellar matter. These include the instabilities and cloud collapse processes that lead to the formation of stars. The last chapter summarizes the transformations that can occur between the different phases of the interstellar medium. Emphasizing methods over results, "The Interstellar Medium" is written for graduate students, for young astronomers, and also for any researchers who have developed an interest in the interstellar medium.

Testlet-Based Multidimensional Adaptive Testing.

Science.gov (United States)

Frey, Andreas; Seitz, Nicki-Nils; Brandt, Steffen

2016-01-01

Multidimensional adaptive testing (MAT) is a highly efficient method for the simultaneous measurement of several latent traits. Currently, no psychometrically sound approach is available for the use of MAT in testlet-based tests. Testlets are sets of items sharing a common stimulus such as a graph or a text. They are frequently used in large operational testing programs like TOEFL, PISA, PIRLS, or NAEP. To make MAT accessible for such testing programs, we present a novel combination of MAT with a multidimensional generalization of the random effects testlet model (MAT-MTIRT). MAT-MTIRT compared to non-adaptive testing is examined for several combinations of testlet effect variances (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5) and testlet sizes (3, 6, and 9 items) with a simulation study considering three ability dimensions with simple loading structure. MAT-MTIRT outperformed non-adaptive testing regarding the measurement precision of the ability estimates. Further, the measurement precision decreased when testlet effect variances and testlet sizes increased. The suggested combination of the MTIRT model therefore provides a solution to the substantial problems of testlet-based tests while keeping the length of the test within an acceptable range.

Testlet-based Multidimensional Adaptive Testing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreas Frey

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Multidimensional adaptive testing (MAT is a highly efficient method for the simultaneous measurement of several latent traits. Currently, no psychometrically sound approach is available for the use of MAT in testlet-based tests. Testlets are sets of items sharing a common stimulus such as a graph or a text. They are frequently used in large operational testing programs like TOEFL, PISA, PIRLS, or NAEP. To make MAT accessible for such testing programs, we present a novel combination of MAT with a multidimensional generalization of the random effects testlet model (MAT-MTIRT. MAT-MTIRT compared to non-adaptive testing is examined for several combinations of testlet effect variances (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and testlet sizes (3 items, 6 items, 9 items with a simulation study considering three ability dimensions with simple loading structure. MAT-MTIRT outperformed non-adaptive testing regarding the measurement precision of the ability estimates. Further, the measurement precision decreased when testlet effect variances and testlet sizes increased. The suggested combination of the MTIRT model therefore provides a solution to the substantial problems of testlet-based tests while keeping the length of the test within an acceptable range.

New ways to access the transverse spin content of the nucleon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beiyad, M El; Pire, B; Szymanowski, L; Wallon, S

2011-01-01

We first describe a new way to access the chiral odd transversity parton distribution in the proton through the photoproduction of lepton pairs. The basic ingredient is the interference of the usual Bethe-Heitler or Drell-Yan amplitudes with the amplitude of a process, where the photon couples to quarks through its chiral-odd distribution amplitude, which is normalized to the magnetic susceptibility of the QCD vacuum. We also show how the chiral-odd transversity generalized parton distributions (GPDs) of the nucleon can be accessed experimentally through the exclusive electro - or photoproduction process of a meson pair with a large invariant mass and when the final nucleon has a small transverse momentum. We calculate perturbatively the scattering amplitude at leading order, both in the high energy domain which may be accessed in electron-ion colliders and in the medium energy range. Estimated rates are encouraging.

Adaptive random walks on the class of Web graphs

Science.gov (United States)

Tadić, B.

2001-09-01

We study random walk with adaptive move strategies on a class of directed graphs with variable wiring diagram. The graphs are grown from the evolution rules compatible with the dynamics of the world-wide Web [B. Tadić, Physica A 293, 273 (2001)], and are characterized by a pair of power-law distributions of out- and in-degree for each value of the parameter β, which measures the degree of rewiring in the graph. The walker adapts its move strategy according to locally available information both on out-degree of the visited node and in-degree of target node. A standard random walk, on the other hand, uses the out-degree only. We compute the distribution of connected subgraphs visited by an ensemble of walkers, the average access time and survival probability of the walks. We discuss these properties of the walk dynamics relative to the changes in the global graph structure when the control parameter β is varied. For β≥ 3, corresponding to the world-wide Web, the access time of the walk to a given level of hierarchy on the graph is much shorter compared to the standard random walk on the same graph. By reducing the amount of rewiring towards rigidity limit β↦βc≲ 0.1, corresponding to the range of naturally occurring biochemical networks, the survival probability of adaptive and standard random walk become increasingly similar. The adaptive random walk can be used as an efficient message-passing algorithm on this class of graphs for large degree of rewiring.

Rural livelihoods and household adaptation to extreme flooding in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Science.gov (United States)

Motsholapheko, M. R.; Kgathi, D. L.; Vanderpost, C.

Adaptation to flooding is now widely adopted as an appropriate policy option since flood mitigation measures largely exceed the capability of most developing countries. In wetlands, such as the Okavango Delta, adaptation is more appropriate as these systems serve as natural flood control mechanisms. The Okavango Delta system is subject to annual variability in flooding with extreme floods resulting in adverse impacts on rural livelihoods. This study therefore seeks to improve the general understanding of rural household livelihood adaptation to extreme flooding in the Okavango Delta. Specific objectives are: (1) to assess household access to forms of capital necessary for enhanced capacity to adapt, (2) to assess the impacts of extreme flooding on household livelihoods, and (3) to identify and assess household livelihood responses to extreme flooding. The study uses the sustainable livelihood and the socio-ecological frameworks to analyse the livelihood patterns and resilience to extreme flooding. Results from a survey of 623 households in five villages, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and review of literature, indicate that access to natural capital was generally high, but low for financial, physical, human and social capital. Households mainly relied on farm-based livelihood activities, some non-farm activities, limited rural trade and public transfers. In 2004 and 2009, extreme flooding resulted in livelihood disruptions in the study areas. The main impacts included crop damage, household displacement, destruction of household property, livestock drowning and mud-trapping, the destruction of public infrastructure and disruption of services. The main household coping strategies were labour switching to other livelihood activities, temporary relocation to less affected areas, use of canoes for early harvesting or evacuation and government assistance, particularly for the most vulnerable households. Household adaptive strategies included

Incidence of Deformation and Fracture of Twisted File Adaptive Instruments after Repeated Clinical Use

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Gianluca Gambarini

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate the incidence of deformation and fracture of twisted file adaptive nickel-titanium instruments after repeated clinical use and to identify and check whether the three instruments within the small/medium sequence showed similar or different visible signs of metal fatigue. Material and Methods: One-hundred twenty twisted file adaptive (TFA packs were collected after clinically used to prepare three molars and were inspected for deformations and fracture. Results: The overall incidence of deformation was 22.2%, which was not evenly distributed within the instruments: 15% for small/medium (SM1 (n = 18, 38.33% for SM2 (n = 46 and 13.33% for the SM3 instruments (n = 16. The defect rate of SM2 instruments was statistically higher than the other two (P < 0.001. The fracture rate was 0.83% (n = 3, being two SM2 instruments and one SM3. Conclusions: It was observed a very low defect rate after clinical use of twisted file adaptive rotary instruments. The untwisting of flutes was significantly more frequent than fracture, which might act as prevention for breakage. The results highlight the fact that clinicians should be aware that instruments within a sequence might be differently subjected to intracanal stress.

Adapting to climate change by water management organisations: Enablers and barriers

Science.gov (United States)

Azhoni, Adani; Jude, Simon; Holman, Ian

2018-04-01

Climate change will be particularly experienced though the medium of water. Water organisations, that are managing societal and ecological needs for water, are therefore likely to experience the impact the most. This study reviews the current literature regarding adaptation to climate change by water management organisations and associated barriers. Literature on adaptive capacity is growing and a general consensus is emerging on the determinants of adaptive capacity, although variations exist regarding how it is to be evaluated, enhanced and applied to policy making due to its dynamic, contextual and latent nature. Since adaptive capacity is hard to measure and successful adaptation difficult to define, some studies focus on the existence of adaptation attributes of organisations. Studies reporting successful adaptation are minimal and barriers of adaptation are being discovered as adaptation research transitions into implementation. But the root causes of these barriers are often overlooked and the interconnectedness of the barriers is poorly addressed. Increasingly, combining top-down and bottom-up approaches to adaptation is being recommended due to the limitations of each. However, knowledge regarding how organisations operating at different scales can enhance adaptive capacity of other organisations operating at another scale is lacking due to the few studies of inter-organisational networks across scales. Social networks among actors are recognised as a key factor to enable adaptation. However, network studies generally focus on individual actors and rarely between public agencies/organisations. Moreover, the current literature is inadequate to understand the relationship between adaptation enabling characteristics, barriers and adaptation manifestation. The review demonstrates that research on understanding the emergence and sustenance of barriers is urgently required. Addressing these knowledge gaps will help to improve the design of adaptation strategies

Concept medium programme

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bjerrum, Peter

2005-01-01

The present essay is an attempt to determine the architectural project of the 21st century in relation to a modern conception of space as the medium of architecture, and of sociality as its program......The present essay is an attempt to determine the architectural project of the 21st century in relation to a modern conception of space as the medium of architecture, and of sociality as its program...

Object oriented programming techniques applied to device access and control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goetz, A.; Klotz, W.D.; Meyer, J.

1992-01-01

In this paper a model, called the device server model, has been presented for solving the problem of device access and control faced by all control systems. Object Oriented Programming techniques were used to achieve a powerful yet flexible solution. The model provides a solution to the problem which hides device dependancies. It defines a software framework which has to be respected by implementors of device classes - this is very useful for developing groupware. The decision to implement remote access in the root class means that device servers can be easily integrated in a distributed control system. A lot of the advantages and features of the device server model are due to the adoption of OOP techniques. The main conclusion that can be drawn from this paper is that 1. the device access and control problem is adapted to being solved with OOP techniques, 2. OOP techniques offer a distinct advantage over traditional programming techniques for solving the device access problem. (J.P.N.)

SMES' SECTOR ACCESS TO FINANCE: AN OVERVIEW

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Roman Angela

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Through their contribution to the creation of added value and new jobs, the small and medium enterprises (SMEs have a significant role in the economic and social development of a country. However, these enterprises are facing numerous obstacles that limit their performance, growth and development. Among the difficulties faced by SMEs, the access to finance is often reported as a major obstacle to the deployment and expansion of their activity. The access to finance is crucial for efficient allocation of financial resources and entrepreneurial development, which explains the major interest given to this subject both by the academic literature and the policy makers. The paper aims to highlight the difficulties faced by SMEs in securing financing resources, emphasizing the differences between countries and also between SMEs and large enterprises. Knowing the difficulties in SMEs financing is essential for policy makers in order to design and implement appropriate measures, which will help to improve the access to financing for these enterprises. Thus, another issue addressed, synthetically, in this paper aims the measures taken by public authorities in order to support the access to financing for SMEs. The research methodology used in this paper starts with a literature review in order to highlight the importance of the subject addressed in our research. The analysis conducted in this paper is based on data and statistics provided mainly by the World Bank surveys, by certain empirical studies and by the National Council of Small and Medium Sized Private Enterprises in Romania. Based on the methodology used, the paper indicates the difficulties in SMEs financing and the crucial importance of enhancing the public authorities concerns regarding their alleviation, especially by adopting measures focused on increasing financial development, which would ensure greater availability of financing for businesses and thus economic growth. The limited

Determinants of farmers’ adaptation to climate change: A micro level analysis in Ghana

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francis Ndamani

2016-06-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT This study analyzed socio-economic factors that influence farmers’ adaptation to climate change in agriculture. Perceptions regarding long-term changes in climate variables and the rate of occurrence of weather extremes were also investigated. Additionally, farmers’ perceived barriers to the use of adaptation practices were identified and ranked. A total of 100 farm-households were randomly selected from four communities in the Lawra district of Ghana and data were collected through semi-structured questionnaires, focused group discussions and field observations. A logistic regression model and weighted average index were used to analyze the data. The results showed that 87 % of respondents perceived a decrease in rainfall amount, while 82 % perceived an increase in temperature over the past 10 years. Results of the weighted average index indicate that dry spell and drought have a higher annual rate of occurrence than flood. Empirical results of the logistic regression model showed that education, household size, annual household income, access to information, credit and membership of farmer-based organization are the most important factors that influence farmers’ adaptation to climate change. The main constraints on adaptation include unpredictability of weather, high farm input cost, lack of access to timely weather information and water resources. The policy implication of this study is that governments should mainstream barriers to, and choice factors of, adaptation practices to climate change related projects and programs.

Promouvoir la recherche-action participative sur l'adaptation aux ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

8, mars 2010 : conservation de la biodiversité et adaptation au changement climatique en Afrique Centrale; la nécessaire synergie. Download PDF. Papers. Cofcca (Congo Basin Forests ... New website will help record vital life events to improve access to services for all. A new website and resource library will help improve ...

Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions ASSAR Intro Presentation

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Mark New

adaptation? • Where are the knowledge and capacity gaps in accessing, contextualizing and acting on climate information? • What new approaches can be developed to lead to more effective shaping and communication of climate messages? Understanding the governance context across scales will help to identify barriers ...

M-Adapting Low Order Mimetic Finite Differences for Dielectric Interface Problems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McGregor, Duncan A. [Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States); Gyrya, Vitaliy [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Manzini, Gianmarco [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2016-03-07

We consider a problem of reducing numerical dispersion for electromagnetic wave in the domain with two materials separated by a at interface in 2D with a factor of two di erence in wave speed. The computational mesh in the homogeneous parts of the domain away from the interface consists of square elements. Here the method construction is based on m-adaptation construction in homogeneous domain that leads to fourth-order numerical dispersion (vs. second order in non-optimized method). The size of the elements in two domains also di ers by a factor of two, so as to preserve the same value of Courant number in each. Near the interface where two meshes merge the mesh with larger elements consists of degenerate pentagons. We demonstrate that prior to m-adaptation the accuracy of the method falls from second to rst due to breaking of symmetry in the mesh. Next we develop m-adaptation framework for the interface region and devise an optimization criteria. We prove that for the interface problem m-adaptation cannot produce increase in method accuracy. This is in contrast to homogeneous medium where m-adaptation can increase accuracy by two orders.

Story Maps as an Effective Social Medium for Data Synthesis, Communication, and Dissemination

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, D. J.; Verrill, A.; Artz, M.; Deming, R.

2014-12-01

The story map is a new medium for sharing not only data, but also photos, videos, sounds, and maps, as a way to tell a specific and compelling story by way of that content. It is emerging as a popular and effective social media too. The user may employ some fairly sophisticated cartographic functionality without advanced training in cartography or GIS. Story maps are essentially web map applications built from web maps, which in turn are built from web-accessible data (including OGC WMS, WFS). This paper will emphasize the approaches and technologies of web-based GIS to tell "stories" about important connections among scientists, resource managers, and policy makers focused on oceans and coasts within the US; and how combining the new medium of "intelligent Web maps" with text, multimedia content, and intuitive user experiences has a great potential to synthesize the data, and it primary interpretative message in order to inform, educate, and inspire about a wide variety of ocean science and policy issues.

An Anonymous Access Authentication Scheme Based on Proxy Ring Signature for CPS-WMNs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tianhan Gao

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Access security and privacy have become a bottleneck for the popularization of future Cyber-Physical System (CPS networks. Furthermore, users’ need for privacy-preserved access during movement procedure is more urgent. To address the anonymous access authentication issue for CPS Wireless Mesh Network (CPS-WMN, a novel anonymous access authentication scheme based on proxy ring signature is proposed. A hierarchical authentication architecture is presented first. The scheme is then achieved from the aspect of intergroup and intragroup anonymous mutual authentication through proxy ring signature mechanism and certificateless signature mechanism, respectively. We present a formal security proof of the proposed protocol with SVO logic. The simulation and performance analysis demonstrate that the proposed scheme owns higher efficiency and adaptability than the typical one.

Radioimmunoassay of h-TSH - methodological suggestions for dealing with medium to large numbers of samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahlstedt, J.

1977-01-01

The article deals with practical aspects of establishing a TSH-RIA for patients, with particular regard to predetermined quality criteria. Methodological suggestions are made for medium to large numbers of samples with the target of reducing monotonous precision working steps by means of simple aids. The quality criteria required are well met, while the test procedure is well adapted to the rhythm of work and may be carried out without loss of precision even with large numbers of samples. (orig.) [de

Internet Access and Usage in Improving Students' Self-Directed Learning in Indonesia Open University

Science.gov (United States)

Rahardjo, Djoko; Sumardjo; Lubis, Djuara P.; Harijati, Sri Ir.

2016-01-01

Internet is well known nowadays, however higher distance education students who live in remote rural areas still have not been able to take advantages of this medium optimally for their learning process. For accessing the internet the students have to be available with the minimum prerequisites: the existence of adequate devices and the sufficient…

Tattoo: a multifaceted medium of communication

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christian Wymann

2010-11-01

Full Text Available This article suggests the systems theoretical distinction of form/medium as a useful tool for distinguishing social phenomena that might look as if they stem from the same process. This is shown to be the case for the tattoo and tattooing. The tattoo is conceived as a medium of communication through which different forms of communication emerge. Tattooing is one of these forms of communication that shapes the medium in a particular way. The current article sheds a special light on its intricate, communicational constellation, for which the concept of parallax is suggested. Law, medicine and cosmetics as other forms of communication use the medium of tattoo in their own way as well. The form/medium distinction allows us to grasp these different forms of communication, while it shows that they share the tattoo as medium. The article’s ultimate goal is to illustrate that the tattoo figures as a multifaceted medium of communication.

Local timber firm looking forward to develop on medium term

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BUCS Lorant

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This article intends to outline the challenges faced by a local timber company in struggle to resist on medium-term on the market. There will be revealed the challenges the company is facing, and also the ways to adapt to the changing world of timber industry. There will be presented a short history of the founding and the evolution of the company on the local and international market, pointing out the relevant events which have marked the life of the company during the years. There will also be presented a short review of the competition on the market and the marketing strategy and policies which the company is using to be able to face the new challenges.

49 CFR 1544.229 - Fingerprint-based criminal history records checks (CHRC): Unescorted access authority, authority...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... within a security identification display area (SIDA), as described in § 1542.205 of this chapter... within a security identification display area (SIDA), as described in § 1542.205 of this chapter. (iii..., 2002, report the conviction to the aircraft operator and surrender the SIDA access medium to the issuer...

Differences in EDTA-assisted metal phytoextraction between metallicolous and non-metallicolous accessions of Rumex acetosa L

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barrutia, Oihana, E-mail: oihana.barrutia@ehu.e [Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of the Basque Country/EHU, P. O. Box 644, E-48080 Bilbao (Spain); Garbisu, Carlos; Hernandez-Allica, Javier [NEIKER-Tecnalia, Basque Institute of Agricultural Research and Development, c/ Berreaga 1, E-48160 Derio (Spain); Garcia-Plazaola, Jose Ignacio; Becerril, Jose Maria [Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of the Basque Country/EHU, P. O. Box 644, E-48080 Bilbao (Spain)

2010-05-15

Two common sorrel (Rumex acetosa) accessions, one from a Zn-Pb contaminated site (CS accession) and the other from an uncontaminated site (UCS accession), were hydroponically exposed to a mixture of heavy metals (Pb{sup 2+} + Zn{sup 2+} + Cd{sup 2+}) with and without EDTA at an equimolar rate. The metallicolous CS accession showed a higher tolerance to metal treatment in the absence of the chelating agent, whereas the UCS accession was especially tolerant to EDTA treatment alone. Combination of metal and EDTA treatment resulted in a higher Pb accumulation in shoots of both accessions although plants hardly showed phytotoxic symptoms. Cd and Zn uptake was not augmented by EDTA addition to the polymetallic medium. Chelant-assisted Pb accumulation was 70% higher in the CS accession than in the UCS accession, despite the fact that the former accession evapotranspired less water than the UCS accession. These results support the existence of a non-selective apoplastic transport of metal chelates by R. acetosa roots, not related to transpiration stream. - A partial intolerance of plants to a certain chelating agent can contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms and pathways of metal chelates uptake.

Differences in EDTA-assisted metal phytoextraction between metallicolous and non-metallicolous accessions of Rumex acetosa L

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barrutia, Oihana; Garbisu, Carlos; Hernandez-Allica, Javier; Garcia-Plazaola, Jose Ignacio; Becerril, Jose Maria

2010-01-01

Two common sorrel (Rumex acetosa) accessions, one from a Zn-Pb contaminated site (CS accession) and the other from an uncontaminated site (UCS accession), were hydroponically exposed to a mixture of heavy metals (Pb 2+ + Zn 2+ + Cd 2+ ) with and without EDTA at an equimolar rate. The metallicolous CS accession showed a higher tolerance to metal treatment in the absence of the chelating agent, whereas the UCS accession was especially tolerant to EDTA treatment alone. Combination of metal and EDTA treatment resulted in a higher Pb accumulation in shoots of both accessions although plants hardly showed phytotoxic symptoms. Cd and Zn uptake was not augmented by EDTA addition to the polymetallic medium. Chelant-assisted Pb accumulation was 70% higher in the CS accession than in the UCS accession, despite the fact that the former accession evapotranspired less water than the UCS accession. These results support the existence of a non-selective apoplastic transport of metal chelates by R. acetosa roots, not related to transpiration stream. - A partial intolerance of plants to a certain chelating agent can contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms and pathways of metal chelates uptake.

Media Access Time-Rearrangement of Wireless LAN for a Multi-Radio Collocated Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Sang-Heon; Kim, Chul; Park, Sang Kyu

With the advent of new Radio Access Technologies (RATs), it is inevitable that several RATs will co-exist, especially in the license-exempt band. In this letter, we present an in-depth adaptation of the proactive time-rearrangement (PATRA) scheme for IEEE 802.11 WLAN. The PATRA is a time division approach for reducing interference from a multi-radio device. Because IEEE 802.11 is based on carrier sensing and contention mechanism, it is the most suitable candidate to adapt the PATRA.

Analysis of combined conduction and radiation heat transfer in presence of participating medium by the development of hybrid method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahapatra, S.K.; Dandapat, B.K.; Sarkar, A.

2006-01-01

The current study addresses the mathematical modeling aspects of coupled conductive and radiative heat transfer in the presence of absorbing, emitting and isotropic scattering gray medium within two-dimensional square enclosure. A blended method where the concepts of modified differential approximation employed by combining discrete ordinate method and spherical harmonics method, has been developed for modeling the radiative transport equation. The gray participating medium is bounded by isothermal walls of two-dimensional enclosure which are considered to be opaque, diffuse and gray. The effect of various influencing parameters i.e., radiation-conduction parameter, surface emissivity, single scattering albedo and optical thickness has been illustrated. The adaptability of the present method has also been addressed

Commercial cinema: a medium for development communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Riber, J; Smith, S

1985-01-01

concerns about family planning. Understanding audience expectations in a commercial cinema context is the key to successfully adapting this medium for social development messages. Although some foreign technical assistance was provided, the success of the 2 films described depended on how their themes were adapted to the traditional feature film format. To date, commercial cinema has been an underutilized medium for development messages. WIF's experiences demonstrate how effective, well-conceived social messages can be presented in a commercial cinema context. It is hoped this will encourage other to use this widely available channel of mass communication.

Radioactive Mapping Contaminant of Alpha on The Air in Space of Repair of Hot Cell and Medium Radioactivity Laboratory in Radio metallurgy Installation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yusuf-Nampira; Endang-Sukesi; S-Wahyuningsih; R-Budi-Santoso

2007-01-01

Hot cell and space of acid laboratory medium activity in Radio metallurgy Installation are used for the examination preparation of fuel nuclear post irradiation. The sample examined is dangerous radioactive material representing which can disseminate passing air stream. The dangerous material spreading can be pursued by arranging air stream from laboratory space to examination space. To know the performance the air stream arrangement is hence conducted by radioactive mapping contaminant of alpha in laboratory / space of activity place, for example, medium activity laboratory and repair space. This mapping radioactivity contaminant is executed with the measurement level of the radioactivity from sample air taken at various height with the distance of 1 m, various distance and from potential source as contaminant spreading access. The mapping result indicate that a little spreading of radioactive material happened from acid cupboard locker to laboratory activity up to distance of 3 m from acid cupboard locker and spreading of radioactive contaminant from goods access door of the hot cell 104 to repair space reach the distance of 2 m from goods door access. Level of the radioactive contamination in the space was far under maximum limitation allowed (20 Bq / m 3 ). (author)

Adaptive Dynamic Process Scheduling on Distributed Memory Parallel Computers

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Wei Shu

1994-01-01

Full Text Available One of the challenges in programming distributed memory parallel machines is deciding how to allocate work to processors. This problem is particularly important for computations with unpredictable dynamic behaviors or irregular structures. We present a scheme for dynamic scheduling of medium-grained processes that is useful in this context. The adaptive contracting within neighborhood (ACWN is a dynamic, distributed, load-dependent, and scalable scheme. It deals with dynamic and unpredictable creation of processes and adapts to different systems. The scheme is described and contrasted with two other schemes that have been proposed in this context, namely the randomized allocation and the gradient model. The performance of the three schemes on an Intel iPSC/2 hypercube is presented and analyzed. The experimental results show that even though the ACWN algorithm incurs somewhat larger overhead than the randomized allocation, it achieves better performance in most cases due to its adaptiveness. Its feature of quickly spreading the work helps it outperform the gradient model in performance and scalability.

Credit Surety Fund: A credit innovation for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in the Philippines

OpenAIRE

Maningo, Gary V.

2016-01-01

Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises are a backbone of the Philippine economy. One factor that hinders the growth of these enterprises is their difficulty in accessing finance from banks and other financial institutions. The Credit Surety Fund (CSF) was established to help these enterprises and other organizations become creditworthy and bankable. The CSF is a credit guarantee program initiated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas that enables enterprises and cooperatives to gain easier a...

[Evaluation of the actions increasing health accessibility for deaf pregnant patients].

Science.gov (United States)

Equy, V; Derore, A; Vassort, N; Mongourdin, B; Sergent, F

2012-10-01

Deafness concerns about 7% of the French population. In this context, the clinic of obstetrics and gynecology of Grenoble teaching hospital established two adaptation actions in the pregnant signing-deaf patient's management: a partnership with French Sign Language interpreters from the deaf patient reception and care unit, and sign language training for nine professionals. The aim of this study is to evaluate this patient management and to propose some potential improvements. This descriptive study is made through information from both numeric and paper files of 22 deaf pregnant patients. A significant adaptation of patient management during scheduled consultations and hospitalisation in the clinic is observed, whereas adaptation rate is weak for emergency situations. The patient management adaptation turns out to be perfectible, through the anticipation of the entire pregnancy consultation schedule. In emergency situations, the creation of a sign language interpreter on-call duty would greatly improve the health care access of these patients. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

The Anatomy of Medium-Scale Farm Growth in Zambia: What Are the Implications for the Future of Smallholder Agriculture?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicholas Sitko

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Lost in the debates about the appropriate scale of production to promote agricultural growth in Africa is the rapid expansion of medium-scale farmers. Using Zambia as a case study, this article explores the causes and consequences of this middle-tier transformation on the future of small-scale agriculture. Combining political economic analysis with household survey data, this article examines the relationships between the growth in medium-scale farmers and changing conditions of land access, inequality, and alienation for small-scale farmers. Growth of medium-scale farmers is associated with high land inequality and rapid land alienation in high potential agricultural areas. This growth is shown to be partially driven by wage earner investment in land acquisition and is leading to substantial under-utilization of agricultural land. These processes are both limiting agricultural growth potential and foreclosing future options for an inclusive agricultural development strategy.

Adaptation and Preadaptation of Salmonella enterica to Bile

Science.gov (United States)

Hernández, Sara B.; Cota, Ignacio; Ducret, Adrien; Aussel, Laurent; Casadesús, Josep

2012-01-01

Bile possesses antibacterial activity because bile salts disrupt membranes, denature proteins, and damage DNA. This study describes mechanisms employed by the bacterium Salmonella enterica to survive bile. Sublethal concentrations of the bile salt sodium deoxycholate (DOC) adapt Salmonella to survive lethal concentrations of bile. Adaptation seems to be associated to multiple changes in gene expression, which include upregulation of the RpoS-dependent general stress response and other stress responses. The crucial role of the general stress response in adaptation to bile is supported by the observation that RpoS− mutants are bile-sensitive. While adaptation to bile involves a response by the bacterial population, individual cells can become bile-resistant without adaptation: plating of a non-adapted S. enterica culture on medium containing a lethal concentration of bile yields bile-resistant colonies at frequencies between 10−6 and 10−7 per cell and generation. Fluctuation analysis indicates that such colonies derive from bile-resistant cells present in the previous culture. A fraction of such isolates are stable, indicating that bile resistance can be acquired by mutation. Full genome sequencing of bile-resistant mutants shows that alteration of the lipopolysaccharide transport machinery is a frequent cause of mutational bile resistance. However, selection on lethal concentrations of bile also provides bile-resistant isolates that are not mutants. We propose that such isolates derive from rare cells whose physiological state permitted survival upon encountering bile. This view is supported by single cell analysis of gene expression using a microscope fluidic system: batch cultures of Salmonella contain cells that activate stress response genes in the absence of DOC. This phenomenon underscores the existence of phenotypic heterogeneity in clonal populations of bacteria and may illustrate the adaptive value of gene expression fluctuations. PMID:22275872

Effective medium theory for anisotropic metamaterials

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Xiujuan

2015-01-20

Materials with anisotropic material parameters can be utilized to fabricate many fascinating devices, such as hyperlenses, metasolids, and one-way waveguides. In this study, we analyze the effects of geometric anisotropy on a two-dimensional metamaterial composed of a rectangular array of elliptic cylinders and derive an effective medium theory for such a metamaterial. We find that it is possible to obtain a closed-form analytical solution for the anisotropic effective medium parameters, provided the aspect ratio of the lattice and the eccentricity of the elliptic cylinder satisfy certain conditions. The derived effective medium theory not only recovers the well-known Maxwell-Garnett results in the quasi-static regime, but is also valid beyond the long-wavelength limit, where the wavelength in the host medium is comparable to the size of the lattice so that previous anisotropic effective medium theories fail. Such an advance greatly broadens the applicable realm of the effective medium theory and introduces many possibilities in the design of structures with desired anisotropic material characteristics. A real sample of a recently theoretically proposed anisotropic medium, with a near-zero index to control the flux, is achieved using the derived effective medium theory, and control of the electromagnetic waves in the sample is clearly demonstrated.

Adapting the Revised Self-Leadership Questionnaire to the Portuguese Context

Science.gov (United States)

Marques-Quinteiro, Pedro; Curral, Luis Alberto; Passos, Ana Margarida

2012-01-01

This study aimed to adapt the Revised Self-Leadership Questionnaire (RSLQ) (Houghton and Neck in J Manag Psychol 17(8):672-691, 2002) for the Portuguese population. 720 professionals, and university and post-graduate students participated in this study. The RSLQ factorial structure was accessed through exploratory and multi group confirmatory…

On Buffer-Aided Multiple-Access Relay Channel

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Rongkuan; Popovski, Petar; Wang, Gang

2016-01-01

This letter treats uplink scenario where M user equipments (UEs) send to a base station (BS), possibly via a common relay station (RS) that is equipped with a buffer. This is a multiple-access relay channel aided by a buffer. We devise a protocol in which the transmission mode is selected...... entirely at the BS, while simultaneously a number of UEs sends new messages to the BS. The results show that the adaptive selection of direct and buffer-aided relay transmissions leads to significant average throughput gains....

An equivalent fluid/equivalent medium approach for the numerical simulation of coastal landslides propagation: theory and case studies

OpenAIRE

P. Mazzanti; F. Bozzano

2009-01-01

Coastal and subaqueous landslides can be very dangerous phenomena since they are characterised by the additional risk of induced tsunamis, unlike their completely-subaerial counterparts. Numerical modelling of landslides propagation is a key step in forecasting the consequences of landslides. In this paper, a novel approach named Equivalent Fluid/Equivalent Medium (EFEM) has been developed. It adapts common numerical models and software that were originally designed for subaerial landslides i...

Enhancing Sensing and Channel Access in Cognitive Radio Networks

KAUST Repository

Hamza, Doha R.

2014-06-18

Cognitive radio technology is a promising technology to solve the wireless spectrum scarcity problem by intelligently allowing secondary, or unlicensed, users access to the primary, licensed, users\\' frequency bands. Cognitive technology involves two main tasks: 1) sensing the wireless medium to assess the presence of the primary users and 2) designing secondary spectrum access techniques that maximize the secondary users\\' benefits while maintaining the primary users\\' privileged status. On the spectrum sensing side, we make two contributions. First, we maximize a utility function representing the secondary throughput while constraining the collision probability with the primary below a certain value. We optimize therein the channel sensing time, the sensing decision threshold, the channel probing time, together with the channel sensing order for wideband primary channels. Second, we design a cooperative spectrum sensing technique termed sensing with equal gain combining whereby cognitive radios simultaneously transmit their sensing results to the fusion center over multipath fading reporting channels. The proposed scheme is shown to outperform orthogonal reporting systems in terms of achievable secondary throughput and to be robust against phase and synchronization errors. On the spectrum access side, we make four contributions. First, we design a secondary scheduling scheme with the goal of minimizing the secondary queueing delay under constraints on the average secondary transmit power and the maximum tolerable primary outage probability. Second, we design another secondary scheduling scheme based on the spectrum sensing results and the primary automatic repeat request feedback. The optimal medium access probabilities are obtained via maximizing the secondary throughput subject to constraints that guarantee quality of service parameters for the primary. Third, we propose a three-message superposition coding scheme to maximize the secondary throughput without

A Survey on Content Adaptation Systems towards Energy Consumption Awareness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohd Norasri Ismail

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The availability of heterogeneous devices has rapidly changed the way people access the World Wide Web that includes rich content applications such as video streaming, 3D games, video conferencing, and mobile TV. However, most of these devices' (i.e., mobile phone, PDA, smartphone, and tablet capabilities differ in terms of built-in software and library (what they can display, display size (how the content appears, and battery supply (how long the content can be displayed. In order for the digital contents to fit the target device, content adaptation is required. There have been many projects focused on energy-aware-based content adaptation that have been designed with different goals and approaches. This paper reviews some of the representative content adaptation solutions that have been proposed during the last few years, in relation to energy consumption focusing on wireless multimedia streaming in mobile devices. Also, this paper categorizes the research work according to different classifications of multimedia content adaptation requirements. In addition, we discuss some energy-related challenges content adaptation systems.

Investigation of the Effect of Cultural Adaptation on International Joint Venture Performance

OpenAIRE

ÖZORHON, Beliz; ALTUN, Hasan

2017-01-01

Internationaljoint ventures (IJVs) have a great importance as a strategic alternative inglobal competition. Cultural differences between partners from differentcountries may cause lower performance levels in such ventures. The majorobjective of this study is to investigate the influence of national andorganizational culture adaptation of partnerson the IJV performance. In this respect, a questionnaire survey wasadministered to medium to large scale contractors,thgat are members of the Turkish...

Aggravation of cold-induced injury in Vero-B4 cells by RPMI 1640 medium – Identification of the responsible medium components

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Pless-Petig Gesine

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In modern biotechnology, there is a need for pausing cell lines by cold storage to adapt large-scale cell cultures to the variable demand for their products. We compared various cell culture media/solutions for cold storage of Vero-B4 kidney cells, a cell line widely used in biotechnology. Results Cold storage in RPMI 1640 medium, a recommended cell culture medium for Vero-B4 cells, surprisingly, strongly enhanced cold-induced cell injury in these cells in comparison to cold storage in Krebs-Henseleit buffer or other cell culture media (DMEM, L-15 and M199. Manufacturer, batch, medium supplements and the most likely components with concentrations outside the range of the other media/solutions (vitamin B12, inositol, biotin, p-aminobenzoic acid did not cause this aggravation of cold-induced injury in RPMI 1640. However, a modified Krebs-Henseleit buffer with a low calcium concentration (0.42 mM, a high concentration of inorganic phosphate (5.6 mM, and glucose (11.1 mM; i.e. concentrations as in RPMI 1640 evoked a cell injury and loss of metabolic function corresponding to that observed in RPMI 1640. Deferoxamine improved cell survival and preserved metabolic function in modified Krebs-Henseleit buffer as well as in RPMI 1640. Similar Ca2+ and phosphate concentrations did not increase cold-induced cell injury in the kidney cell line LLC-PK1, porcine aortic endothelial cells or rat hepatocytes. However, more extreme conditions (Ca2+ was nominally absent and phosphate concentration raised to 25 mM as in the organ preservation solution University of Wisconsin solution also increased cold-induced injury in rat hepatocytes and porcine aortic endothelial cells. Conclusion These data suggest that the combination of low calcium and high phosphate concentrations in the presence of glucose enhances cold-induced, iron-dependent injury drastically in Vero-B4 cells, and that a tendency for this pathomechanism also exists in other cell types.

The ends of adaptation: comparative media, digital culture, and performance

OpenAIRE

Dicecco, Nico

2015-01-01

The starting point of this dissertation is a history of ideas tacitly organized around the conception of adaptation as a formal object—which is to say as a specific kind of intertext defined by its incorporation of material drawn from one or more precursor works. Within this framework, scholars have struggled against a set of recurrent methodological pitfalls having to do with the relative importance of medium specificity, the place and purpose of aesthetic evaluation, and the perennial reapp...

Communicating climate change adaptation information using web-based platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Karali

2017-07-01

Full Text Available To facilitate progress in climate change adaptation policy and practice, it is important not only to ensure the production of accurate, comprehensive and relevant information, but also the easy, timely and affordable access to it. This can contribute to better-informed decisions and improve the design and implementation of adaptation policies and other relevant initiatives. Web-based platforms can play an important role in communicating and distributing data, information and knowledge that become constantly available, reaching out to a large group of potential users. Indeed in the last decade there has been an extensive increase in the number of platforms developed for this purpose in many fields including climate change adaptation. This short paper concentrates on the web-based adaptation platforms developed in Europe. It provides an overview of the recently emerged landscape, examines the basic characteristics of a set of platforms that operate at national, transnational and European level, and discusses some of the key challenges related to their development, maintenance and overall management. Findings presented in this short paper are discussed in greater detailed in the Technical Report of the European Environment Agency Overview of climate change adaptation platforms in Europe.

Communicating climate change adaptation information using web-based platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Karali, Eleni; Mattern, Kati

2017-07-01

To facilitate progress in climate change adaptation policy and practice, it is important not only to ensure the production of accurate, comprehensive and relevant information, but also the easy, timely and affordable access to it. This can contribute to better-informed decisions and improve the design and implementation of adaptation policies and other relevant initiatives. Web-based platforms can play an important role in communicating and distributing data, information and knowledge that become constantly available, reaching out to a large group of potential users. Indeed in the last decade there has been an extensive increase in the number of platforms developed for this purpose in many fields including climate change adaptation. This short paper concentrates on the web-based adaptation platforms developed in Europe. It provides an overview of the recently emerged landscape, examines the basic characteristics of a set of platforms that operate at national, transnational and European level, and discusses some of the key challenges related to their development, maintenance and overall management. Findings presented in this short paper are discussed in greater detailed in the Technical Report of the European Environment Agency Overview of climate change adaptation platforms in Europe.

Modified Cooperative Access with Relay’s Data (MCARD based Directional Antenna for multi-rate WLANs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmed Magdy

2014-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper, for multi-rate wireless local area networks (WLANs, a modified protocol in Medium Access Control (MAC, called Modified Cooperative Access with Relay’s Data (MCARD based Directional Antenna using half wave length dipole in Uniform Circular Array (UCA topology is proposed. MCARD gives remote stations chance to send their information by using intermediate stations (relays to Access Point (AP at a higher data rate based practical antenna. As can be seen under MCARD, a relay station transmits its information before forwarding information from the source station because it uses directional antenna. Analytical results and simulations show that MCARD can significantly improve system quality of service (QOS in terms of throughput under different channel conditions.

ACCESS TO A COMPUTER SYSTEM. BETWEEN LEGAL PROVISIONS AND TECHNICAL REALITY

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Maxim DOBRINOIU

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, on a rise of cybersecurity incidents and a very complex IT&C environment, the national legal systems must adapt in order to properly address the new and modern forms of criminality in cyberspace. The illegal access to a computer system remains one of the most important cyber-related crimes due to its popularity but also from the perspective as being a door opened to computer data and sometimes a vehicle for other tech crimes. In the same time, the information society services slightly changed the IT paradigm and represent the new interface between users and systems. Is true that services rely on computer systems, but accessing services goes now beyond the simple accessing computer systems as commonly understood by most of the legislations. The article intends to explain other sides of the access related to computer systems and services, with the purpose to advance possible legal solutions to certain case scenarios.

DIY Adapted Repurposed Tool (ART) Kit-A Recipe for Success

Science.gov (United States)

Schoonover, Judith; Schwind, Deborah B.

2018-01-01

Every individual should be provided with opportunities to self-express through participation in art activities. In order to provide independent exploration and creativity during art, it may be necessary to adapt art tools, modify how the activity is accomplished, and examine the environment to determine the best methods to provide access. Simple…

Adaptive Modulation and Coding for LTE Wireless Communication

Science.gov (United States)

Hadi, S. S.; Tiong, T. C.

2015-04-01

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the new upgrade path for carrier with both GSM/UMTS networks and CDMA2000 networks. The LTE is targeting to become the first global mobile phone standard regardless of the different LTE frequencies and bands use in other countries barrier. Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) is used to increase the network capacity or downlink data rates. Various modulation types are discussed such as Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). Spatial multiplexing techniques for 4×4 MIMO antenna configuration is studied. With channel station information feedback from the mobile receiver to the base station transmitter, adaptive modulation and coding can be applied to adapt to the mobile wireless channels condition to increase spectral efficiencies without increasing bit error rate in noisy channels. In High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) in Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), AMC can be used to choose modulation types and forward error correction (FEC) coding rate.

Associations with rhizosphere bacteria can confer an adaptive advantage to plants.

Science.gov (United States)

Haney, Cara H; Samuel, Buck S; Bush, Jenifer; Ausubel, Frederick M

Host-associated microbiomes influence host health. However, it is unclear whether genotypic variations in host organisms influence the microbiome in ways that have adaptive consequences for the host. Here, we show that wild accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana differ in their ability to associate with the root-associated bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens , with consequences for plant fitness. In a screen of 196 naturally occurring Arabidopsis accessions we identified lines that actively suppress Pseudomonas growth under gnotobiotic conditions. We planted accessions that support disparate levels of fluorescent Pseudomonads in natural soils; 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing revealed that accession-specific differences in the microbial communities were largely limited to a subset of Pseudomonadaceae species. These accession-specific differences in Pseudomonas growth resulted in enhanced or impaired fitness that depended on the host's ability to support Pseudomonas growth, the specific Pseudomonas strains present in the soil and the nature of the stress. We suggest that small host-mediated changes in a microbiome can have large effects on host health.

Adaptation-induced Tourism for Consumers of Literature on Screen: the Experience of Jane Austen Fans

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maddalena Pennacchia

2015-03-01

Full Text Available My aim in this article is that of starting to relate the expanding research field of adaptation studies to the subject area of film-induced tourism. Adaptations are a specific typology of films: that is, films whose story was not originally intended for the screen but, more often than not, for the written page, and has, therefore, been ‘translated’ into a new medium. The phenomenon of adaptation has been at the center of a heated debate for a few years now, but the specific link between adaptation and tourism has not yet been studied in its own right. In my article I question why and how adaptations of literary texts for the screen can induce a desire to visit film locations (actual geographical places in readers who are also inclined to enjoy the experience of “literature on screen”. In order to do this, I focus on the case study of adaptations from Jane Austen’s novels and on a specific kind of tourists, the so called ‘Janeites’, or Austen fans.

Genotyping by Sequencing and Genome–Environment Associations in Wild Common Bean Predict Widespread Divergent Adaptation to Drought

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Andrés J. Cortés

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Drought will reduce global crop production by >10% in 2050 substantially worsening global malnutrition. Breeding for resistance to drought will require accessing crop genetic diversity found in the wild accessions from the driest high stress ecosystems. Genome–environment associations (GEA in crop wild relatives reveal natural adaptation, and therefore can be used to identify adaptive variation. We explored this approach in the food crop Phaseolus vulgaris L., characterizing 86 geo-referenced wild accessions using genotyping by sequencing (GBS to discover single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs. The wild beans represented Mesoamerica, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador/Northern Peru and Andean groupings. We found high polymorphism with a total of 22,845 SNPs across the 86 accessions that confirmed genetic relationships for the groups. As a second objective, we quantified allelic associations with a bioclimatic-based drought index using 10 different statistical models that accounted for population structure. Based on the optimum model, 115 SNPs in 90 regions, widespread in all 11 common bean chromosomes, were associated with the bioclimatic-based drought index. A gene coding for an ankyrin repeat-containing protein and a phototropic-responsive NPH3 gene were identified as potential candidates. Genomic windows of 1 Mb containing associated SNPs had more positive Tajima’s D scores than windows without associated markers. This indicates that adaptation to drought, as estimated by bioclimatic variables, has been under natural divergent selection, suggesting that drought tolerance may be favorable under dry conditions but harmful in humid conditions. Our work exemplifies that genomic signatures of adaptation are useful for germplasm characterization, potentially enhancing future marker-assisted selection and crop improvement.

Golf in the United States: an evolution of accessibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Parziale, John R

2014-09-01

Golf affords physical and psychological benefits to persons who are physically challenged. Advances in adaptive technology, changes in golf course design, and rules modifications have enabled persons with neurological, musculoskeletal, and other impairments to play golf at a recreational, elite amateur, or professional level. The Americans with Disabilities Act has been cited in both federal and US Supreme Court rulings that have improved access for physically challenged golfers. Medical specialties, including physiatry, have played an important role in this process. This article reviews the history of golf's improvements in accessibility, and provides clinicians and physically challenged golfers with information that will facilitate participation in the sport. Copyright © 2014 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Accessibility to health services by persons with disabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Castro, Shamyr Sulyvan; Lefèvre, Fernando; Lefèvre, Ana Maria Cavalcanti; Cesar, Chester Luiz Galvão

2011-02-01

To analyze the difficulties in accessibility to health services experienced by persons with disabilities. A qualitative study was performed with individuals who reported having a certain type of disability (paralysis or amputation of limbs; low vision, unilateral or total blindness; low hearing, unilateral or total deafness). A total of 25 individuals (14 women) were interviewed in the city of São Paulo, Southeastern Brazil, between June and August 2007, responding to questions about transportation and accessibility to health services. Collective Subject Discourse was the methodology used to analyze results and analyses were performed with the Qualiquantisoft software. The analysis of discourses on transportation to health services revealed a diversity in terms of the user going to the service alone or accompanied; using a private car, public transportation or ambulance or walking; and requiring different times to arrive at the service. With regard to the difficulties in accessibility to health services, there were reports of delayed service, problems with parking, and lack of ramps, elevators, wheelchairs, doctors and adapted toilets. Individuals with a certain type of disability used various means of transportation, requiring someone to accompany them in some cases. Problems with accessibility to health services were reported by persons with disabilities, contradicting the principle of equity, a precept of the Brazilian Unified Health System.

Student Modelling in Adaptive E-Learning Systems

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Clemens Bechter

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Most e-Learning systems provide web-based learning so that students can access the same online courses via the Internet without adaptation, based on each student's profile and behavior. In an e-Learning system, one size does not fit all. Therefore, it is a challenge to make e-Learning systems that are suitably “adaptive”. The aim of adaptive e-Learning is to provide the students the appropriate content at the right time, means that the system is able to determine the knowledge level, keep track of usage, and arrange content automatically for each student for the best learning result. This study presents a proposed system which includes major adaptive features based on a student model. The proposed system is able to initialize the student model for determining the knowledge level of a student when the student registers for the course. After a student starts learning the lessons and doing many activities, the system can track information of the student until he/she takes a test. The student’s knowledge level, based on the test scores, is updated into the system for use in the adaptation process, which combines the student model with the domain model in order to deliver suitable course contents to the students. In this study, the proposed adaptive e-Learning system is implemented on an “Introduction to Java Programming Language” course, using LearnSquare software. After the system was tested, the results showed positive feedback towards the proposed system, especially in its adaptive capability.

Provisioning of adaptability to variable topologies for routing schemes in MANETs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jiang, Shengming; Liu, Yaoda; Jiang, Yuming

2004-01-01

.g., low, medium, and high mobility) have been proposed in the,literature. However, since a mobile node should not be limited to operate in a particular MANET assumed by-a routing scheme, an important issue is how to enable, a mobile node to achieve routing performance as high as possible when it roams...... in the dynamic source routing protocol to provide the adaptability to variable topologies caused by mobility through computer simulation in NS-2....

Shielding analysis of the IEM cell offset adapter plate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Simons, R.L.

1995-01-01

The adapter plate for the Interim Examination and Maintenance (IEM) cell ten foot ceiling valve was modified so that the penetration through the valve is offset to the north side of the steel plate. The modifications required that the shielding effectiveness be evaluated for several operating conditions. The highest gamma ray dose rate (51 mrem/hr) occurs when a Core Component Container (CCC) with six high burn-up driver fuel assemblies is transferred into or out of Solid Waste Cask (SWC). The neutron dose rate at the same source location is 2.5 mrem/hr. The total dose rate during the transfer is less than the 200 mrem/hr limit. If the ten foot ceiling valve is closed, the dose rate with twelve DFA in the cell will be less than 0.1 mrem/hr. However, with the ceiling valve open the dose rate will be as high as 12 mrem/hr. The latter condition will require controlled access to the area around the offset adapter plate when the ceiling valve is open. It was found that gaps in the shield block around the SWC floor valve will allow contact dose rates as high as 350 mrem/hr during the transfer of a fully loaded CCC. Although this situation does not pertain to the offset adapter plate, it will require controlled access around the SWC valve during the transfer of a fully loaded CCC

Adaptation and heterogeneity of Escherichia coli MC1000 growing in complex environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Puentes-Téllez, Pilar; Hansen, Martin Asser; Sørensen, Søren

2013-01-01

In a study aiming to assess bacterial evolution in complex growth media, we evaluated the long-term adaptive response of Escherichia coli MC1000 in Luria-Bertani (LB) medium. Seven parallel populations were founded and followed over 150 days in sequential batch cultures under three different oxygen...... conditions (defined environments), and 19 evolved forms were isolated. The emergence of forms with enhanced fitness was evident in competition experiments of all evolved forms versus the ancestral strain. The evolved forms were then subjected to phenotypic and genomic analyses relative to the ancestor...... in galR, a repressor of the galactose operon. Concomitantly, the new forms revealed enhanced growth on galactose as well as galactose-containing disaccharides. This response was likely driven by the LB medium....

Repeated exposure to immobilization or two different footshock intensities reveals differential adaptation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.

Science.gov (United States)

Rabasa, Cristina; Muñoz-Abellán, Cristina; Daviu, Núria; Nadal, Roser; Armario, Antonio

2011-05-03

Factors involved in adaptation to repeated stress are not well-characterized. For instance, acute footshock (FS) of high intensity appears to be less severe than immobilization (IMO) in light of the speed of post-stress recovery of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and other physiological variables. However, repeated exposure to IMO consistently resulted in reduction of the HPA response to the same stressor (adaptation), whereas failure to adapt has been usually reported after FS. Thus, in the present work we directly compared the activation of HPA axis and other physiological changes in response to both acute and repeated exposure to IMO and two intensities of FS (medium and high) in adult male rats. Control rats were exposed to the FS boxes but they did not receive shocks. Daily repeated exposure to IMO resulted in significant adaptation of the overall ACTH and corticosterone responses to the stressor. Such a reduction was also observed with repeated exposure to FS boxes and FS-medium, whereas repeated exposure to FS-high only resulted in a small reduction of the corticosterone response during the post-stress period. This suggests that some properties of FS-high make adaptation to it difficult. Interestingly, overall changes in food intake and body weight gain throughout the week of exposure to the stressors reveal a greater impact of IMO than FS-high, indicating that factors other than the intensity of a stressor, at least when evaluated in function of the above physiological variables, can influence HPA adaptation. Since FS exposure is likely to cause more pain than IMO, activation of nociceptive signals above a certain level may negatively affect HPA adaptation to repeated stressors. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

27 CFR 19.914 - Medium plants.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 27 Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Medium plants. 19.914... OF THE TREASURY LIQUORS DISTILLED SPIRITS PLANTS Distilled Spirits For Fuel Use Permits § 19.914 Medium plants. Any person wishing to establish a medium plant shall make application for and obtain in...

Dual Energy CT Angiography of Peripheral Arterial Disease: Feasibility of Using Lower Contrast Medium Volume.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdulrahman Almutairi

Full Text Available One of the main drawbacks associated with Dual Energy Computed Tomography Angiography (DECTA is the risk of developing contrast medium-induced nephropathy (CIN. The aim of the present study was firstly, to design an optimal CT imaging protocol by determining the feasibility of using a reduced contrast medium volume in peripheral arterial DECTA, and secondly, to compare the results with those obtained from using routine contrast medium volume.Thirty four patients underwent DECTA for the diagnosis of peripheral arterial disease. They were randomly divided into two groups: Group 1 (routine contrast volume group with n = 17, injection rate 4-5 ml/s, and 1.5 ml/kg of contrast medium, and Group 2 ((low contrast volume group, with n = 17, injection rate 4-5ml/s, and contrast medium volume 0.75 ml/kg. A fast kilovoltage-switching 64-slice CT scanner in the dual-energy mode was employed for the study. A total of 6 datasets of monochromatic images at 50, 55, 60, 65, 70 and 75 keV levels were reconstructed with adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR at 50%. A 4-point scale was the tool for qualitative analysis of results. The two groups were compared and assessed quantitatively for image quality on the basis of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR and contrast-to-noise-ratio (CNR. Radiation and contrast medium doses were also compared.The overall mean CT attenuation and mean noise for all lower extremity body parts was significantly lower for the low volume contrast group (p<0.001, and varied significantly between groups (p = 0.001, body parts (p<0.001 and keVs (p<0.001. The interaction between group body parts was significant with CT attenuation and CNR (p = 0.002 and 0.003 respectively, and marginally significant with SNR (p = 0.047, with minimal changes noticed between the two groups. Group 2 (low contrast volume group displayed the lowest image noise between 65 and 70 keV, recorded the highest SNR and CNR at 65 keV, and produced significantly lower

Disparities in Geographic Accessibility of National Cancer Institute Cancer Centers in the United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Yanqing; Fu, Cong; Onega, Tracy; Shi, Xun; Wang, Fahui

2017-11-11

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Centers form the backbone of the cancer care system in the United States since their inception in the early 1970s. Most studies on their geographic accessibility used primitive measures, and did not examine the disparities across urbanicity or demographic groups. This research uses an advanced accessibility method, termed "2-step floating catchment area (2SFCA)" and implemented in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to capture the degree of geographic access to NCI Cancer Centers by accounting for competition intensity for the services and travel time between residents and the facilities. The results indicate that urban advantage is pronounced as the average accessibility is highest in large central metro areas, declines to large fringe metro, medium metro, small metro, micropolitan and noncore rural areas. Population under the poverty line are disproportionally concentrated in lower accessibility areas. However, on average Non-Hispanic White have the lowest geographic accessibility, followed by Hispanic, Non-Hispanic Black and Asian, and the differences are statistically significant. The "reversed racial disadvantage" in NCI Cancer Center accessibility seems counterintuitive but is consistent with an influential prior study; and it is in contrast to the common observation of co-location of concentration of minority groups and people under the poverty line.

Transitions in optimal adaptive strategies for populations in fluctuating environments

Science.gov (United States)

Mayer, Andreas; Mora, Thierry; Rivoire, Olivier; Walczak, Aleksandra M.

2017-09-01

Biological populations are subject to fluctuating environmental conditions. Different adaptive strategies can allow them to cope with these fluctuations: specialization to one particular environmental condition, adoption of a generalist phenotype that compromises between conditions, or population-wise diversification (bet hedging). Which strategy provides the largest selective advantage in the long run depends on the range of accessible phenotypes and the statistics of the environmental fluctuations. Here, we analyze this problem in a simple mathematical model of population growth. First, we review and extend a graphical method to identify the nature of the optimal strategy when the environmental fluctuations are uncorrelated. Temporal correlations in environmental fluctuations open up new strategies that rely on memory but are mathematically challenging to study: We present analytical results to address this challenge. We illustrate our general approach by analyzing optimal adaptive strategies in the presence of trade-offs that constrain the range of accessible phenotypes. Our results extend several previous studies and have applications to a variety of biological phenomena, from antibiotic resistance in bacteria to immune responses in vertebrates.

Evaluation of Insulin Medium or Chondrogenic Medium on Proliferation and Chondrogenesis of ATDC5 Cells

OpenAIRE

Yao, Yongchang; Zhai, Zhichen; Wang, Yingjun

2014-01-01

Background. The ATDC5 cell line is regarded as an excellent cell model for chondrogenesis. In most studies with ATDC5 cells, insulin medium (IM) was used to induce chondrogenesis while chondrogenic medium (CM), which was usually applied in chondrogenesis of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), was rarely used for ATDC5 cells. This study was mainly designed to investigate the effect of IM, CM, and growth medium (GM) on chondrogenesis of ATDC5 cells. Methods. ATDC5 cells were, respectively, cultured ...

Modifications to Langley 0.3-m TCT adaptive wall software for heavy gas test medium, phase 1 studies

Science.gov (United States)

Murthy, A. V.

1992-01-01

The scheme for two-dimensional wall adaptation with sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) as test gas in the NASA Langley Research Center 0.3-m Transonic Cryogenic Tunnel (0.3-m TCT) is presented. A unified version of the wall adaptation software has been developed to function in a dual gas operation mode (nitrogen or SF6). The feature of ideal gas calculations for nitrogen operation is retained. For SF6 operation, real gas properties have been computed using the departure function technique. Installation of the software on the 0.3-m TCT ModComp-A computer and preliminary validation with nitrogen operation were found to be satisfactory. Further validation and improvements to the software will be undertaken when the 0.3-m TCT is ready for operation with SF6 gas.

Production of inactivated influenza H5N1 vaccines from MDCK cells in serum-free medium.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alan Yung-Chih Hu

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Highly pathogenic influenza viruses pose a constant threat which could lead to a global pandemic. Vaccination remains the principal measure to reduce morbidity and mortality from such pandemics. The availability and surging demand for pandemic vaccines needs to be addressed in the preparedness plans. This study presents an improved high-yield manufacturing process for the inactivated influenza H5N1 vaccines using Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK cells grown in a serum-free (SF medium microcarrier cell culture system. PRINCIPAL FINDING: The current study has evaluated the performance of cell adaptation switched from serum-containing (SC medium to several commercial SF media. The selected SF medium was further evaluated in various bioreactor culture systems for process scale-up evaluation. No significant difference was found in the cell growth in different sizes of bioreactors studied. In the 7.5 L bioreactor runs, the cell concentration reached to 2.3 × 10(6 cells/mL after 5 days. The maximum virus titers of 1024 Hemagglutinin (HA units/50 µL and 7.1 ± 0.3 × 10(8 pfu/mL were obtained after 3 days infection. The concentration of HA antigen as determined by SRID was found to be 14.1 µg/mL which was higher than those obtained from the SC medium. A mouse immunogenicity study showed that the formalin-inactivated purified SF vaccine candidate formulated with alum adjuvant could induce protective level of virus neutralization titers similar to those obtained from the SC medium. In addition, the H5N1 viruses produced from either SC or SF media showed the same antigenic reactivity with the NIBRG14 standard antisera. CONCLUSIONS: The advantages of this SF cell-based manufacturing process could reduce the animal serum contamination, the cost and lot-to-lot variation of SC medium production. This study provides useful information to manufacturers that are planning to use SF medium for cell-based influenza vaccine production.

SPECIAL REPORT - The KC EMPOWER Project: Designing More Accessible STEM Learning Activities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bob Hirshon

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The overall purpose of the Kinetic City (KC Empower project was to examine how informal science activities can be made accessible for students with disabilities. The premise of this project was that all students, including those with disabilities, are interested in and capable of engaging in science learning experiences, if these experiences are accessible to them. Drawing on resources from Kinetic City, a large collection of science experiments, games, and projects developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, the project researched and adapted five afterschool science activities guided by universal design for learning principles.

Design a platform of open Access to scientific information management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander Mackenzie Rivero

2016-08-01

Full Text Available This present research is based on the creation of a proposed open source platform for the management of scientific information in the National Agricultural Research Institute (INIA, which will allow the creation of a network of distributed knowledge specialized in agricultural science and technology , to ensure security and data integrity, access levels, open source, adapted to new needs, accessible from any location, ruled by international regulations and standards, ensuring access regardless of used operating system. By using the WAN data network installed in the institution. Making the agricultural sector information held by the institution available and accesible with the power of Internet broadcast. Thus the institution has a tool that integrates information currently scattered throughout the country agricultural sector. This research is framed within the modality of feasible project, also is based on a documentary and descriptive design.

Design of pulse waveform for waveform division multiple access UWB wireless communication system.

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, Zhendong; Wang, Zhirui; Liu, Xiaohui; Wu, Zhilu

2014-01-01

A new multiple access scheme, Waveform Division Multiple Access (WDMA) based on the orthogonal wavelet function, is presented. After studying the correlation properties of different categories of single wavelet functions, the one with the best correlation property will be chosen as the foundation for combined waveform. In the communication system, each user is assigned to different combined orthogonal waveform. Demonstrated by simulation, combined waveform is more suitable than single wavelet function to be a communication medium in WDMA system. Due to the excellent orthogonality, the bit error rate (BER) of multiuser with combined waveforms is so close to that of single user in a synchronous system. That is to say, the multiple access interference (MAI) is almost eliminated. Furthermore, even in an asynchronous system without multiuser detection after matched filters, the result is still pretty ideal and satisfactory by using the third combination mode that will be mentioned in the study.

Pions in the nuclear medium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chanfray, G.

1996-07-01

We discuss various aspects of pion physics in the nuclear medium. We first study s-wave pion-nucleus interaction in connection with chiral symmetry restoration and quark condensate in the nuclear medium. We then address the question of p-wave pion-nucleus interaction and collective pionic modes in nuclei and draw the consequences for in medium ππ correlations especially in the scalar-isoscalar channel. We finally discuss the modification of the rho meson mass spectrum at finite density and/or temperature in connection with relativistic heavy ion collisions

Biophotonic applications of eigenchannels in a scattering medium (Conference Presentation)

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Moonseok; Choi, Wonjun; Choi, Youngwoon; Yoon, Changhyeong; Choi, Wonshik

2016-03-01

When waves travel through disordered media such as ground glass and skin tissues, they are scattered multiple times. Most of the incoming energy bounces back at the superficial layers and only a small fraction can penetrate deep inside. This has been a limiting factor for the working depth of various optical techniques. We present a systematic method to enhance wave penetration to the scattering media. Specifically, we measured the reflection matrix of a disordered medium with wide angular coverage for each orthogonal polarization states. From the reflection matrix, we identified reflection eigenchannels of the medium, and shaped the incident wave into the reflection eigenchannel with smallest eigenvalue, which we call anti-reflection mode. This makes reflectance reduced and wave penetration increased as a result of the energy conservation. We demonstrated transmission enhancement by more than a factor of 3 by the coupling of the incident waves to the anti-reflection modes. Based on the uneven distribution of eigenvalues of reflection eigenchannels, we further developed an iterative feedback control method for finding and coupling light to anti-reflection modes. Since this adaptive control method can keep up with sample perturbation, it promotes the applicability of exploiting reflection eigenchannels. Our approach of delivering light deep into the scattering media will contribute to enhancing the sensitivity of detecting objects hidden under scattering layers, which is universal problem ranging from geology to life science.

“Medium-Scale” Forestland Grabbing in the Southwestern Highlands of Ethiopia: Impacts on Local Livelihoods and Forest Conservation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tola Gemechu Ango

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Tropical forest provides a crucial portion of sustenance in many rural communities, although it is increasingly under pressure from appropriations of various scales. This study investigated the impacts of medium-scale forestland grabbing on local livelihoods and forest conservation in the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Data were generated through interviews, discussions and document review. The results indicate that state transfer of part of the forestland since the late 1990s to investors for coffee production created in situ displacement- a situation where farmers remained in place but had fully or partially lost access to forest- that disrupted farmers’ livelihoods and caused conflicts between them and the investors. Court cases about the appropriated land and related imprisonment, inflicted financial and opportunity costs on farmers. Farmers considered the livelihood opportunities created by the companies insufficient to compensate for loss of forest access. Companies’ technology transfers to farmers and contributions to foreign currency earnings from coffee exports have not yet materialized. Forest conservation efforts have been negatively affected by deforestation caused by conversion to coffee plantations and by farmers’ efforts to secure rights to forestland by more intensive use. The medium-scale forestland grabbing has been detrimental to farmers’ livelihoods and forest conservation in a way that recalls criticism of large- and mega-scale land grabbing since 2007–2008. The overall failure to achieve the objectives of transferring forestland to investors highlights a critical need to shift institutional supports to smallholders’ informal forest access and management practices for better development and conservation outcomes.

Strengthening the abilities of French-speaking NGOs. Post-2012 climate stakes. Adaptation - Energy - Deforestation, France - Africa - Canada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Creach, Morgane; Margot, Stephanie; Connor, Richard; Angerand, Sylvain

2007-10-01

The first part of this report discusses the possibilities of an international response to face the challenge of adaptation to climate change (presentation of the main notions, discussion of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and international stakes about adaptation). The second part discusses the perspectives of access to energy in African countries: description of the African energy context, applications of existing mechanisms of struggle against climate change to the field of energy, stakes for post-2012 negotiations. The next part addresses the stakes of the avoided deforestation: definitions and key figures, direct and underlying causes of deforestation and assessment of the cost for slowing down or stopping it, stakes and struggle of interests about the 'avoided deforestation'. The last part reports the 'post-2012 climate stakes' workshop which addressed these same topics (access to energy in African countries, adaptation to climate change, avoided deforestation)

Optical recording medium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andriech, A.; Bivol, V.; Tridukh, G.; Tsiuleanu, D.

2002-01-01

The invention relates of the micro- and optoelectronics, computer engineering ,in particular, to tjhe optical information media and may be used in hilography. Summary of the invention consists in that the optical image recording medium, containing a dielectric substrates, onto one surface of which there are placed in series a transparent electricity conducting layer, a photo sensitive recording layer of chalcogenic glass and a thin film electrode of aluminium, is provided with an optically transparent protective layer, applied into the thin film electrode. The result of the invention consists in excluding the dependence of chemical processes course into the medium upon environmental conditions

A comparison of Frequency Domain Multiple Access (FDMA) and Time Domain Multiple Access (TDMA) approaches to satellite service for low data rate Earth stations

Science.gov (United States)

Stevens, G.

1983-01-01

A technological and economic assessment is made of providing low data rate service to small earth stations by satellite at Ka-band. Various Frequency Domain Multiple Access (FDMA) and Time Domain Multiple Access (TDMA) scenarios are examined and compared on the basis of cost to the end user. Very small stations (1 to 2 meters in diameter) are found not to be viable alternatives to available terrestrial services. However, medium size (3 to 5 meters) earth stations appear to be very competitive if a minimum throughput of about 1.5 Mbs is maintained. This constrains the use of such terminals to large users and shared use by smaller users. No advantage was found to the use of FDMA. TDMA had a slight advantage from a total system viewpoint and a very significant advantage in the space segment (about 1/3 the required payload weight for an equivalent capacity).

SAGE - MULTIDIMENSIONAL SELF-ADAPTIVE GRID CODE

Science.gov (United States)

Davies, C. B.

1994-01-01

acceptable since it makes possible an overall and local error reduction through grid redistribution. SAGE includes the ability to modify the adaption techniques in boundary regions, which substantially improves the flexibility of the adaptive scheme. The vectorial approach used in the analysis also provides flexibility. The user has complete choice of adaption direction and order of sequential adaptions without concern for the computational data structure. Multiple passes are available with no restraint on stepping directions; for each adaptive pass the user can choose a completely new set of adaptive parameters. This facility, combined with the capability of edge boundary control, enables the code to individually adapt multi-dimensional multiple grids. Zonal grids can be adapted while maintaining continuity along the common boundaries. For patched grids, the multiple-pass capability enables complete adaption. SAGE is written in FORTRAN 77 and is intended to be machine independent; however, it requires a FORTRAN compiler which supports NAMELIST input. It has been successfully implemented on Sun series computers, SGI IRIS's, DEC MicroVAX computers, HP series computers, the Cray YMP, and IBM PC compatibles. Source code is provided, but no sample input and output files are provided. The code reads three datafiles: one that contains the initial grid coordinates (x,y,z), one that contains corresponding flow-field variables, and one that contains the user control parameters. It is assumed that the first two datasets are formatted as defined in the plotting software package PLOT3D. Several machine versions of PLOT3D are available from COSMIC. The amount of main memory is dependent on the size of the matrix. The standard distribution medium for SAGE is a 5.25 inch 360K MS-DOS format diskette. It is also available on a .25 inch streaming magnetic tape cartridge in UNIX tar format or on a 9-track 1600 BPI ASCII CARD IMAGE format magnetic tape. SAGE was developed in 1989, first

Adaptive Watermarking Algorithm in DCT Domain Based on Chaos

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenhao Wang

2013-05-01

Full Text Available In order to improve the security, robustness and invisibility of the digital watermarking, a new adaptive watermarking algorithm is proposed in this paper. Firstly, this algorithm uses chaos sequence, which Logistic chaotic mapping produces, to encrypt the watermark image. And then the original image is divided into many sub-blocks and discrete cosine transform (DCT.The watermark information is embedded into sub-blocks medium coefficients. With the features of Human Visual System (HVS and image texture sufficiently taken into account during embedding, the embedding intensity of watermark is able to adaptively adjust according to HVS and texture characteristic. The watermarking is embedded into the different sub-blocks coefficients. Experiment results haven shown that the proposed algorithm is robust against the attacks of general image processing methods, such as noise, cut, filtering and JPEG compression, and receives a good tradeoff between invisible and robustness, and better security.

Numerical Tools for Multicomponent, Multiphase, Reactive Processes: Flow of CO{sub 2} in Porous Medium

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Khattri, Sanjay Kumar

2006-07-01

porous medium. We verify our simulator by comparing our results against available results. We analyze impact of fluid movement on long term CO{sub 2} migration at the Utsira. We analyze how flow of medium fluids affects important parameters such as the pH and evolution of CO{sub 2} saturation. The author's contributions to the paper include mesh generation in the Utsira formation, development of geometrical and lithological models, coupling of the Accrete and Athena code. Paper E: Control Volume Finite Difference On Adaptive Meshes. It is shown that discrete system formed on the adaptive meshes is not only more accurate but are also well conditioned compared to the one formed on the uniform meshes. Paper F: Grid Generation and Adaptation by Functionals Paper reviews various functionals for grid generation and adaptation. It is a well known fact that accuracy of a numerical simulation and quality of the grid are strongly related. In this article, we review various functionals for generating high quality structured quadrilateral meshes in two dimensional domains. Analysis of Winslow and Modified Liao functionals are presented. Numerical experiments are also reported to support our theoretical analysis. We demonstrate use of the Area functional for generating adaptive quadrilateral meshes. Paper G: CO{sub 2} storage in the Utsira Formation-ATHENA 3D reactive transport simulations Article presents 3D simulation of CO{sub 2} sequestration/deposition at the Utsira formation. Our model consists of fourteen chemical and sixteen mineral species. We present 1000 years simulation of CO{sub 2} deposition. In this work, the author prepared the geometrical model of the Utsira formation. He coupled the ACCRETE geochemistry module and the Athena simulator. Paper H: Numerical convergence on adaptive grids for control volume methods The article presents convergence of the Finite Volume Method on uniform and adaptive meshes. We also analyse convergence of the method in various norms on

Numerical Tools for Multicomponent, Multiphase, Reactive Processes: Flow of CO{sub 2} in Porous Medium

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Khattri, Sanjay Kumar

2006-07-01

porous medium. We verify our simulator by comparing our results against available results. We analyze impact of fluid movement on long term CO{sub 2} migration at the Utsira. We analyze how flow of medium fluids affects important parameters such as the pH and evolution of CO{sub 2} saturation. The author's contributions to the paper include mesh generation in the Utsira formation, development of geometrical and lithological models, coupling of the Accrete and Athena code. Paper E: Control Volume Finite Difference On Adaptive Meshes. It is shown that discrete system formed on the adaptive meshes is not only more accurate but are also well conditioned compared to the one formed on the uniform meshes. Paper F: Grid Generation and Adaptation by Functionals Paper reviews various functionals for grid generation and adaptation. It is a well known fact that accuracy of a numerical simulation and quality of the grid are strongly related. In this article, we review various functionals for generating high quality structured quadrilateral meshes in two dimensional domains. Analysis of Winslow and Modified Liao functionals are presented. Numerical experiments are also reported to support our theoretical analysis. We demonstrate use of the Area functional for generating adaptive quadrilateral meshes. Paper G: CO{sub 2} storage in the Utsira Formation-ATHENA 3D reactive transport simulations Article presents 3D simulation of CO{sub 2} sequestration/deposition at the Utsira formation. Our model consists of fourteen chemical and sixteen mineral species. We present 1000 years simulation of CO{sub 2} deposition. In this work, the author prepared the geometrical model of the Utsira formation. He coupled the ACCRETE geochemistry module and the Athena simulator. Paper H: Numerical convergence on adaptive grids for control volume methods The article presents convergence of the Finite Volume Method on uniform and adaptive meshes. We also analyse convergence of the method in various norms

Collaborative Manufacturing for Small-Medium Enterprises

Science.gov (United States)

Irianto, D.

2016-02-01

Manufacturing systems involve decisions concerning production processes, capacity, planning, and control. In a MTO manufacturing systems, strategic decisions concerning fulfilment of customer requirement, manufacturing cost, and due date of delivery are the most important. In order to accelerate the decision making process, research on decision making structure when receiving order and sequencing activities under limited capacity is required. An effective decision making process is typically required by small-medium components and tools maker as supporting industries to large industries. On one side, metal small-medium enterprises are expected to produce parts, components or tools (i.e. jigs, fixture, mold, and dies) with high precision, low cost, and exact delivery time. On the other side, a metal small- medium enterprise may have weak bargaining position due to aspects such as low production capacity, limited budget for material procurement, and limited high precision machine and equipment. Instead of receiving order exclusively, a small-medium enterprise can collaborate with other small-medium enterprise in order to fulfill requirements high quality, low manufacturing cost, and just in time delivery. Small-medium enterprises can share their best capabilities to form effective supporting industries. Independent body such as community service at university can take a role as a collaboration manager. The Laboratory of Production Systems at Bandung Institute of Technology has implemented shared manufacturing systems for small-medium enterprise collaboration.

Adaptive multimodal interaction in mobile augmented reality: A conceptual framework

Science.gov (United States)

Abidin, Rimaniza Zainal; Arshad, Haslina; Shukri, Saidatul A'isyah Ahmad

2017-10-01

Recently, Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology in many mobile applications. Mobile AR was defined as a medium for displaying information merged with the real world environment mapped with augmented reality surrounding in a single view. There are four main types of mobile augmented reality interfaces and one of them are multimodal interfaces. Multimodal interface processes two or more combined user input modes (such as speech, pen, touch, manual gesture, gaze, and head and body movements) in a coordinated manner with multimedia system output. In multimodal interface, many frameworks have been proposed to guide the designer to develop a multimodal applications including in augmented reality environment but there has been little work reviewing the framework of adaptive multimodal interface in mobile augmented reality. The main goal of this study is to propose a conceptual framework to illustrate the adaptive multimodal interface in mobile augmented reality. We reviewed several frameworks that have been proposed in the field of multimodal interfaces, adaptive interface and augmented reality. We analyzed the components in the previous frameworks and measure which can be applied in mobile devices. Our framework can be used as a guide for designers and developer to develop a mobile AR application with an adaptive multimodal interfaces.

Properties of the nuclear medium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baldo, M; Burgio, G F

2012-01-01

We review our knowledge on the properties of the nuclear medium that have been studied, over many years, on the basis of many-body theory, laboratory experiments and astrophysical observations. Throughout the presentation particular emphasis is placed on the possible relationship and links between the nuclear medium and the structure of nuclei, including the limitations of such an approach. First we consider the realm of phenomenological laboratory data and astrophysical observations and the hints they can give on the characteristics that the nuclear medium should possess. The analysis is based on phenomenological models, that however have a strong basis on physical intuition and an impressive success. More microscopic models are also considered, and it is shown that they are able to give invaluable information on the nuclear medium, in particular on its equation of state. The interplay between laboratory experiments and astrophysical observations is particularly stressed, and it is shown how their complementarity enormously enriches our insights into the structure of the nuclear medium. We then introduce the nucleon–nucleon interaction and the microscopic many-body theory of nuclear matter, with a critical discussion about the different approaches and their results. The Landau–Fermi liquid theory is introduced and briefly discussed, and it is shown how fruitful it can be in discussing the macroscopic and low-energy properties of the nuclear medium. As an illustrative example, we discuss neutron matter at very low density, and it is shown how it can be treated within the many-body theory. The general bulk properties of the nuclear medium are reviewed to indicate at which stage of our knowledge we stand, taking into account the most recent developments both in theory and experiments. A section is dedicated to the pairing problem. The connection with nuclear structure is then discussed, on the basis of the energy density functional method. The possibility of

Channel access schemes and fiber optic configurations for integrated-services local area networks. Ph.D. Thesis

Science.gov (United States)

Nassehi, M. Mehdi

1987-01-01

Local Area Networks are in common use for data communications and have enjoyed great success. Recently, there is a growing interest in using a single network to support many applications in addition to traditional data traffic. These additional applications introduce new requirements in terms of volume of traffic and real-time delivery of data which are not met by existing networks. To satisfy these requirements, a high-bandwidth tranmission medium, such as fiber optics, and a distributed channel access scheme for the efficient sharing of the bandwidth among the various applications are needed. As far as the throughput-delay requirements of the various application are concerned, a network structure along with a distributed channel access are proposed which incorporate appropriate scheduling policies for the transmission of outstanding messages on the network. A dynamic scheduling policy was devised which outperforms all existing policies in terms of minimizing the expected cost per message. A broadcast mechanism was devised for the efficient dissemination of all relevant information. Fiber optic technology is considered for the high-bandwidth transmisison medium.

Managed Entry Agreements for Pharmaceuticals in the Context of Adaptive Pathways in Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Bouvy, Jacoline C; Sapede, Claudine; Garner, Sarah

2018-01-01

As per the EMA definition, adaptive pathways is a scientific concept for the development of medicines which seeks to facilitate patient access to promising medicines addressing high unmet need through a prospectively planned approach in a sustainable way. This review reports the findings of activities undertaken by the ADAPT-SMART consortium to identify enablers and explore the suitability of managed entry agreements for adaptive pathways products in Europe. We found that during 2006-2016 outcomes-based managed entry agreements were not commonly used for products with a conditional marketing authorization or authorized under exceptional circumstances. The barriers and enablers to develop workable managed entry agreements models for adaptive pathways products were discussed through interviews and a multi-stakeholder workshop with a number of recommendations made in this paper.

Managed Entry Agreements for Pharmaceuticals in the Context of Adaptive Pathways in Europe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacoline C. Bouvy

2018-03-01

Full Text Available As per the EMA definition, adaptive pathways is a scientific concept for the development of medicines which seeks to facilitate patient access to promising medicines addressing high unmet need through a prospectively planned approach in a sustainable way. This review reports the findings of activities undertaken by the ADAPT-SMART consortium to identify enablers and explore the suitability of managed entry agreements for adaptive pathways products in Europe. We found that during 2006–2016 outcomes-based managed entry agreements were not commonly used for products with a conditional marketing authorization or authorized under exceptional circumstances. The barriers and enablers to develop workable managed entry agreements models for adaptive pathways products were discussed through interviews and a multi-stakeholder workshop with a number of recommendations made in this paper.

Adaptive heterogeneous multi-robot teams

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parker, L.E.

1998-11-01

This research addresses the problem of achieving fault tolerant cooperation within small- to medium-sized teams of heterogeneous mobile robots. The author describes a novel behavior-based, fully distributed architecture, called ALLIANCE, that utilizes adaptive action selection to achieve fault tolerant cooperative control in robot missions involving loosely coupled, largely independent tasks. The robots in this architecture possess a variety of high-level functions that they can perform during a mission, and must at all times select an appropriate action based on the requirements of the mission, the activities of other robots, the current environmental conditions, and their own internal states. Since such cooperative teams often work in dynamic and unpredictable environments, the software architecture allows the team members to respond robustly and reliably to unexpected environmental changes and modifications in the robot team that may occur due to mechanical failure, the learning of new skills, or the addition or removal of robots from the team by human intervention. After presenting ALLIANCE, the author describes in detail the experimental results of an implementation of this architecture on a team of physical mobile robots performing a cooperative box pushing demonstration. These experiments illustrate the ability of ALLIANCE to achieve adaptive, fault-tolerant cooperative control amidst dynamic changes in the capabilities of the robot team.

Financing innovative small and medium-sized enterprises in times of crisis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dejan ERIC

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME in general and particularly innovative ones are becoming an increasingly important factor on the road to achieving smart, sustainable and comprehensive development. Because of their propensity to innovative undertaking and risk, SMEs contribute significantly to economic growth but are generally less productive and pay the cost of high rates of death and lower rates of profitability. Financing SMEs is risky and uncertain and for innovative SMEs it is even more difficult to access financing. When financing innovative activities, investors perceive high risks and it is even more emphasized in times of crisis when there is an increase in the cost of capital. Institutional support and governmental programmes have an important role in closing financial gap that innovative SMEs are faced with. Because the survival and development of SMEs is to a great extant determined by their ability to access favorable financing, the main objective of this paper is to provide policy recommendations for promoting availability of financing to innovative SMEs in order to foster economic recovery and more dynamic development of Serbia. The recommendations are to emerge from analyzes and evaluation of currently available sources of finance for innovative SMEs.

Spatial Impact of the Road Infrastructure Development in Romania. An Accessibility Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

TITUS MAN

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This paper compares the spatial structure of accessibility in Romania before and after the implementation of some major national and/or European road infrastructure projects. This study suggests a new index for accessibility measurement by combining gravity-based models with Place Rank and adapting it to the Romanian system of settlements. Based on the GIS estimation of travel time, this index evaluates not only the geographical position of a specific community relative to the road network, but also the level of accessibility of rural and urban communities to the social services located in central places. The GIS-based maps indicate the existing disparities (between well-connected and isolated regions in terms of accessibility to the central places and the impact of new infrastructure projects on these disparities. The resulting maps can be used as efficient tools for transport planning and development at different scales (international, national, regional and local.

Selective Adaptive Parallel Interference Cancellation for Multicarrier DS-CDMA Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmed El-Sayed El-Mahdy

2013-07-01

Full Text Available In this paper, Selective Adaptive Parallel Interference Cancellation (SA-PIC technique is presented for Multicarrier Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (MC DS-CDMA scheme. The motivation of using SA-PIC is that it gives high performance and at the same time, reduces the computational complexity required to perform interference cancellation. An upper bound expression of the bit error rate (BER for the SA-PIC under Rayleigh fading channel condition is derived. Moreover, the implementation complexities for SA-PIC and Adaptive Parallel Interference Cancellation (APIC are discussed and compared. The performance of SA-PIC is investigated analytically and validated via computer simulations.

Microfluidic Adaptation of Density-Gradient Centrifugation for Isolation of Particles and Cells

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuxi Sun

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Density-gradient centrifugation is a label-free approach that has been extensively used for cell separations. Though elegant, this process is time-consuming (>30 min, subjects cells to high levels of stress (>350 g and relies on user skill to enable fractionation of cells that layer as a narrow band between the density-gradient medium and platelet-rich plasma. We hypothesized that microfluidic adaptation of this technique could transform this process into a rapid fractionation approach where samples are separated in a continuous fashion while being exposed to lower levels of stress (<100 g for shorter durations of time (<3 min. To demonstrate proof-of-concept, we designed a microfluidic density-gradient centrifugation device and constructed a setup to introduce samples and medium like Ficoll in a continuous, pump-less fashion where cells and particles can be exposed to centrifugal force and separated via different outlets. Proof-of-concept studies using binary mixtures of low-density polystyrene beads (1.02 g/cm3 and high-density silicon dioxide beads (2.2 g/cm3 with Ficoll–Paque (1.06 g/cm3 show that separation is indeed feasible with >99% separation efficiency suggesting that this approach can be further adapted for separation of cells.

“Future Directions”: m-government computer systems accessed via cloud computing – advantages and possible implementations

OpenAIRE

Daniela LIŢAN

2015-01-01

In recent years, the activities of companies and Public Administration had been automated and adapted to the current information system. Therefore, in this paper, I will present and exemplify the benefits of m-government computer systems development and implementation (which can be accessed from mobile devices and which are specific to the workflow of Public Administrations) starting from the “experience” of e-government systems implementation in the context of their access and usage through ...

THE POSSIBILITY OF USING INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE IN MICRO-CREDIT FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES

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I. N. Klyukin

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose of the study. Increasing the availability of funding for small and medium-sized enterprises of the industrial sector put among the most important tasks of economic development as the leading developed countries, and developing countries. In connection with the above, the purpose of this article is to study the micro-credit as an efficient mechanism to stimulate the development of small and medium-sized industrial enterprises and analyzing the possibility of using foreign experience in improving the process of micro-credit to stimulate their development.Research Methodology. The study was conducted on the material of publications on various aspects of the microcredit industry small and medium businesses, including international experience in micro-credit for small and medium-sized industrial enterprises.The article analyzes the functioning of the various models and micro-technologies, disclosed interoperability of commercial banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs in the framework of country-specific microcredit models, and formulated the immediate tasks and activities of the government and regulatory authorities of the Russian Federation aimed at improving the financing of small and medium-sized industrial enterprises.Sounding the findings suggest that the funds to support small and medium-sized industrial enterprises should be more actively attract private investment in the implementation of industrial and innovative development of their projects. In this case, the intensification of financial-credit and investment support to small and medium-sized industrial enterprises, integration and optimization of the different sources of financial resources create favorable conditions for their access to financial and credit resources, and improvement of financial and credit support mechanisms will enhance their responsibility for use granted resources and contribute to their development. At the same time, the main focus of the use of public

Agent Based Framework Architecture for Supporting Content Adaptation for Mobile Government

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hasan Omar Al-Sakran

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Rapid spread of smart mobile technology that supports internet access is transforming the way governments provide services to their citizens. Mobile devices have different capabilities based on the manufacturers and models. This paper proposes a new framework for adapting the content of M-government services using mobile agent technology. The framework is based on a mediation architecture that uses multiple mobile agents and XML as semi-structure mediation language. The flexibility of the mediation and XML provide an adaptive environment to stream data based on the capabilities of the device sending the query to the system.

Is adaptation. Truly an adaptation? Is adaptation. Truly an adaptation?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thais Flores Nogueira Diniz

2008-04-01

Full Text Available The article begins by historicizing film adaptation from the arrival of cinema, pointing out the many theoretical approaches under which the process has been seen: from the concept of “the same story told in a different medium” to a comprehensible definition such as “the process through which works can be transformed, forming an intersection of textual surfaces, quotations, conflations and inversions of other texts”. To illustrate this new concept, the article discusses Spike Jonze’s film Adaptation. according to James Naremore’s proposal which considers the study of adaptation as part of a general theory of repetition, joined with the study of recycling, remaking, and every form of retelling. The film deals with the attempt by the scriptwriter Charles Kaufman, cast by Nicholas Cage, to adapt/translate a non-fictional book to the cinema, but ends up with a kind of film which is by no means what it intended to be: a film of action in the model of Hollywood productions. During the process of creation, Charles and his twin brother, Donald, undergo a series of adventures involving some real persons from the world of film, the author and the protagonist of the book, all of them turning into fictional characters in the film. In the film, adaptation then signifies something different from itstraditional meaning. The article begins by historicizing film adaptation from the arrival of cinema, pointing out the many theoretical approaches under which the process has been seen: from the concept of “the same story told in a different medium” to a comprehensible definition such as “the process through which works can be transformed, forming an intersection of textual surfaces, quotations, conflations and inversions of other texts”. To illustrate this new concept, the article discusses Spike Jonze’s film Adaptation. according to James Naremore’s proposal which considers the study of adaptation as part of a general theory of repetition

Questions for Parents to Ask about School Adaptations. PHP-c91

Science.gov (United States)

PACER Center, 2004

2004-01-01

A child with a disability who has an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or Section 504 Accommodation Plan may need extra help and support to participate in school. It takes thoughtful planning to choose adaptations, based on a child's disability, to help the child learn or have access to learning. Appropriate accommodations vary with…

Implementation of RLS-based Adaptive Filterson nVIDIA GeForce Graphics Processing Unit

OpenAIRE

Hirano, Akihiro; Nakayama, Kenji

2011-01-01

This paper presents efficient implementa- tion of RLS-based adaptive filters with a large number of taps on nVIDIA GeForce graphics processing unit (GPU) and CUDA software development environment. Modification of the order and the combination of calcu- lations reduces the number of accesses to slow off-chip memory. Assigning tasks into multiple threads also takes memory access order into account. For a 4096-tap case, a GPU program is almost three times faster than a CPU program.

BIFIDUM-MEDIUM FOR ISOLATION AND CULTIVATION OF BIFIDOBACTERIA

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L. V. Domotenko

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The comparative evaluation of Bifidum-medium quality (the nutrient medium for cultivation and selection bifidobacteria, dry and Blaurock medium has been performed. It was shown that Bifidum-medium supports the typical growth of the main types of bifidobacteria: Bifidobacterium bifidum, B. breve, B. adolescentis, B. infantis, B. longum. The comparable results for the efficacy and the activity accumulation of acid were obtained in the study of probiotic «bifidumbacterin » using both media. In studies of faecal material the medium concentration of bifidobacteria was found 8.15 lg CFU/g on Bifidum-medium and 6.68 lg CFU/g on Blaurock medium.

Adapting agriculture to climate change: a review

Science.gov (United States)

Anwar, Muhuddin Rajin; Liu, De Li; Macadam, Ian; Kelly, Georgina

2013-07-01

The agricultural sector is highly vulnerable to future climate changes and climate variability, including increases in the incidence of extreme climate events. Changes in temperature and precipitation will result in changes in land and water regimes that will subsequently affect agricultural productivity. Given the gradual change of climate in the past, historically, farmers have adapted in an autonomous manner. However, with large and discrete climate change anticipated by the end of this century, planned and transformational changes will be needed. In light of these, the focus of this review is on farm-level and farmers responses to the challenges of climate change both spatially and over time. In this review of adapting agriculture to climate change, the nature, extent, and causes of climate change are analyzed and assessed. These provide the context for adapting agriculture to climate change. The review identifies the binding constraints to adaptation at the farm level. Four major priority areas are identified to relax these constraints, where new initiatives would be required, i.e., information generation and dissemination to enhance farm-level awareness, research and development (R&D) in agricultural technology, policy formulation that facilitates appropriate adaptation at the farm level, and strengthening partnerships among the relevant stakeholders. Forging partnerships among R&D providers, policy makers, extension agencies, and farmers would be at the heart of transformational adaptation to climate change at the farm level. In effecting this transformational change, sustained efforts would be needed for the attendant requirements of climate and weather forecasting and innovation, farmer's training, and further research to improve the quality of information, invention, and application in agriculture. The investment required for these would be highly significant. The review suggests a sequenced approach through grouping research initiatives into short

Medium-Ring Effects on the Endo/Exo Selectivity of the Organocatalytic Intramolecular Diels-Alder Reaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Hooper, Joel F; James, Natalie C; Bozkurt, Esra; Aviyente, Viktorya; White, Jonathan M; Holland, Mareike C; Gilmour, Ryan; Holmes, Andrew B; Houk, K N

2015-12-18

The intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction has been used as a powerful method to access the tricyclic core of the eunicellin natural products from a number of 9-membered-ring precursors. The endo/exo selectivity of this reaction can be controlled through a remarkable organocatalytic approach, employing MacMillan's imidazolidinone catalysts, although the mechanistic origin of this selectivity remains unclear. We present a combined experimental and density functional theory investigation, providing insight into the effects of medium-ring constraints on the organocatalyzed intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction to form the isobenzofuran core of the eunicellins.

World Wide Webs: Crossing the Digital Divide through Promotion of Public Access

Science.gov (United States)

Coetzee, Liezl

“As Bill Gates and Steve Case proclaim the global omnipresence of the Internet, the majority of non-Western nations and 97 per cent of the world's population remain unconnected to the net for lack of money, access, or knowledge. This exclusion of so vast a share of the global population from the Internet sharply contradicts the claims of those who posit the World Wide Web as a ‘universal' medium of egalitarian communication.” (Trend 2001:2)

Planning adaptation for food and farming: lessons from 40 year's research

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reid, Hannah; Chambwera, Muyeye; Murray, Laurel

2012-05-15

Local farmers and pastoralists in poor countries have long coped with droughts, floods and variable rainfall patterns. This first-hand experience is invaluable for those working on climate change adaptation policies, but how do we access it? The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has 40 years' experience working alongside vulnerable communities to help inform regional, national and global policies. Our research has shown that measures to increase climate change resilience must view food, energy, water and waste management systems as interconnected and mutually dependent. This holistic approach must also be applied to economic analysis on adaptation planning. Similarly, it is vital to use traditional knowledge and management skills, which can further support adaptation planning. Taking these lessons into account, we can then address the emerging policy challenges that we face.

The final girl on the freeway: Adaptation and appropriation of a fairy tale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Kloda

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Fairy tales and their adaptations transgress established social, cultural and temporal boundaries. This paper examines Matthew Bright’s Freeway (1996, an adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood that deliberately mirrors this transgression by setting the film within the generic type of horror cinema. In choosing this mode, Bright partly restores the fairy tale to its original purpose, once existing as a folktale full of high melodrama, but goes further, criticising the text of ‘known pattern’ and overhauling it to a story in which an innocent female under attack restores her own equilibrium: in effect, deploying the ‘final girl’ trope that is common in slasher movies. Freeway uses its adaptive status to radically reinterpret the source text, fomenting its oppositional assault through a genre most suited to subversion. Through textual analysis, the paper examines how Bright harnesses the potential of the cinematographic medium through a double interaction, one that not only allows a coded opening of the internal, intertextual space of the adaptation, but also an antagonistic encounter rooted in the context of horror cinema.

A universal data access and protocol integration mechanism for smart home

Science.gov (United States)

Shao, Pengfei; Yang, Qi; Zhang, Xuan

2013-03-01

With the lack of standardized or completely missing communication interfaces in home electronics, there is no perfect solution to address every aspect in smart homes based on existing protocols and technologies. In addition, the central control unit (CCU) of smart home system working point-to-point between the multiple application interfaces and the underlying hardware interfaces leads to its complicated architecture and unpleasant performance. A flexible data access and protocol integration mechanism is required. The current paper offers a universal, comprehensive data access and protocol integration mechanism for a smart home. The universal mechanism works as a middleware adapter with unified agreements of the communication interfaces and protocols, offers an abstraction of the application level from the hardware specific and decoupling the hardware interface modules from the application level. Further abstraction for the application interfaces and the underlying hardware interfaces are executed based on adaption layer to provide unified interfaces for more flexible user applications and hardware protocol integration. This new universal mechanism fundamentally changes the architecture of the smart home and in some way meets the practical requirement of smart homes more flexible and desirable.

Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the Rating Scale for Countertransference (RSCT to American English

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rafael Mondrzak

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction: The Rating Scale for Countertransference (RSCT - originally, Escala para Avaliação de Contratransferência (EACT - is a self-administered instrument comprising questions that assess 23 feelings (divided into three blocs, closeness, distance, and indifference that access conscious countertransferential emotions and sentiments. This paper describes the process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the RSCT into American English. Methods: This study employed the guidelines proposed by the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR Task Force for Translation and Cultural Adaptation which define 10 steps for translation and cross-cultural adaptation of self-report instruments. Additionally, semantic equivalence tools were employed to select the final versions of terms used. The author of the RSCT gave permission for translation and took part in the process. The instrument is available for use free of charge. Results: Analysis of the back-translation showed that just seven of the 23 terms needed to be adjusted to arrive at the final version in American English. Conclusions: This study applied rigorous standards to construct a version of the RSCT in American English. This version of the RSCT translated and adapted into American English should be of great use for accessing and researching countertransferential feelings that are part of psychodynamic treatment.

Interaction Problems Accessing E-Learning Environments in Multi-Touch Mobile Devices: A Case Study in TelEduc

Science.gov (United States)

da Silva, André Constantino; Freire, Fernanda Maria Pereira; de Arruda, Alan Victor Pereira; da Rocha, Heloísa Vieira

2013-01-01

e-Learning environments offer content, such text, audio, video, animations, using the Web infrastructure and they are designed to users interacting with keyboard, mouse and a medium-sized screen. Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, have enough computation power to render Web pages, allowing browsing the Internet and access e-Learning…

Accessing Wireless Sensor Networks Via Dynamically Reconfigurable Interaction Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Cecília Gomes

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs technology is already perceived as fundamental for science across many domains, since it provides a low cost solution for environment monitoring. WSNs representation via the service concept and its inclusion in Web environments, e.g. through Web services, supports particularly their open/standard access and integration. Although such Web enabled WSNs simplify data access, network parameterization and aggregation, the existing interaction models and run-time adaptation mechanisms available to clients are still scarce. Nevertheless, applications increasingly demand richer and more flexible accesses besides the traditional client/server. For instance, applications may require a streaming model in order to avoid sequential data requests, or the asynchronous notification of subscribed data through the publish/subscriber. Moreover, the possibility to automatically switch between such models at runtime allows applications to define flexible context-based data acquisition. To this extent, this paper discusses the relevance of the session and pattern abstractions on the design of a middleware prototype providing richer and dynamically reconfigurable interaction models to Web enabled WSNs.

Intelligent and Adaptive Educational-Learning Systems Achievements and Trends

CERN Document Server

2013-01-01

The Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies book series encompasses the topics of knowledge, intelligence, innovation and sustainability. The aim of the series is to make available a platform for the publication of books on all aspects of single and multi-disciplinary research on these themes in order to make the latest results available in a readily-accessible form.  This book is devoted to the “Intelligent and Adaptive Educational-Learning Systems”. It privileges works that highlight key achievements and outline trends to inspire future research.  After a rigorous revision process twenty manuscripts were accepted and organized into four parts as follows: ·     Modeling: The first part embraces five chapters oriented to: 1) shape the affective behavior; 2) depict the adaptive learning curriculum; 3) predict learning achievements; 4) mine learner models to outcome optimized and adaptive e-learning objects; 5) classify learning preferences of learners. ·     Content: The second part encompas...

Low Access Delay Anti-Collision Algorithm for Reader in RFID systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Galiotto, Carlo; Marchetti, Nicola; Prasad, Neeli R.

2010-01-01

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a technology which is spreading more and more as a medium to identify, locate and track assets through the productive chain. As all the wireless communication devices sharing the same transmission channel, RFID readers and tags experience collisions whenever...... deployed over the same area. In this work, the RFID reader collision problem is studied and a centralized scheduling-based algorithm is proposed as possible candidate solution, especially for those scenarios involving static or low mobility readers. Taking into account the circuitry limitations of the tags......, which do not allow to use frequency or code division multiple access schemes in the RFID systems, this paper proposes an algorithm aiming to prevent the readers collisions, while keeping the access delay of the readers to the channel possibly low. The simulation results show that this algorithm performs...

QCD sum rules for D mesons. In-medium effects, chiral symmetry aspects and higher orders

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Buchheim, Thomas

2017-04-11

Heavy open flavor mesons can serve as probes of hot and dense, strongly interacting matter in heavy-ion collisions suitable to mimic the extreme conditions shortly after the big-bang or in compact stars. Thus, the thorough theoretical investigation of medium modifications of D mesons is of utmost importance for the interpretation of the experimental data. Even at finite thermodynamic parameters, such as temperature and density, the non-perturbative framework of QCD sum rules allows for the determination of hadronic properties which are not accessible in perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD). By virtue of the separation of scales, long-range effects of hadrons are related to quark and gluon degrees of freedom, where features of the hadron spectrum are linked to condensates parameterizing the complex QCD ground state. This thesis furnishes the conception and calculus of QCD sum rules with emphasis on in-medium effects which are inevitable when addressing such effects in higher order contributions. In this regard, the notion and implications of medium-specific condensates are elucidated. Motivated by the significant numerical impact of four-quark condensates to the ρ meson sum rule we evaluate, for the first time, the corresponding in-medium mass-dimension 6 terms for D mesons tentatively employing the factorization hypothesis. Four-quark condensates containing heavy-quark operators may be included into the sum rule analysis utilizing the in-medium heavy-quark expansion made available here. Particular quark condensates are potential order parameters of chiral symmetry breaking, which is the mass generating mechanism of QCD giving the essential mass fraction to light hadrons. The interplay of altered spectral properties with changing in-medium QCD condensates, i. e. the chiral order parameters, can be studied with chiral partner sum rules. Although, introduced for light spin-1 mesons we foster their generalization to spin-0 open charm mesons demonstrating their

QCD sum rules for D mesons. In-medium effects, chiral symmetry aspects and higher orders

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buchheim, Thomas

2017-01-01

Heavy open flavor mesons can serve as probes of hot and dense, strongly interacting matter in heavy-ion collisions suitable to mimic the extreme conditions shortly after the big-bang or in compact stars. Thus, the thorough theoretical investigation of medium modifications of D mesons is of utmost importance for the interpretation of the experimental data. Even at finite thermodynamic parameters, such as temperature and density, the non-perturbative framework of QCD sum rules allows for the determination of hadronic properties which are not accessible in perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD). By virtue of the separation of scales, long-range effects of hadrons are related to quark and gluon degrees of freedom, where features of the hadron spectrum are linked to condensates parameterizing the complex QCD ground state. This thesis furnishes the conception and calculus of QCD sum rules with emphasis on in-medium effects which are inevitable when addressing such effects in higher order contributions. In this regard, the notion and implications of medium-specific condensates are elucidated. Motivated by the significant numerical impact of four-quark condensates to the ρ meson sum rule we evaluate, for the first time, the corresponding in-medium mass-dimension 6 terms for D mesons tentatively employing the factorization hypothesis. Four-quark condensates containing heavy-quark operators may be included into the sum rule analysis utilizing the in-medium heavy-quark expansion made available here. Particular quark condensates are potential order parameters of chiral symmetry breaking, which is the mass generating mechanism of QCD giving the essential mass fraction to light hadrons. The interplay of altered spectral properties with changing in-medium QCD condensates, i. e. the chiral order parameters, can be studied with chiral partner sum rules. Although, introduced for light spin-1 mesons we foster their generalization to spin-0 open charm mesons demonstrating their

NORADAPT. Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in Norway; NORADAPT. Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in Norway. Sluttrapport

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oort, Bob van; Hovelsrud, Grete K.; Dannevig, Halvor; Bybraaten, Stine

2012-10-15

In NORADAPT, researchers from CICERO Center for Climate Research, Western Norway Research Institute, Eastern Norway Research Institute and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute worked in close cooperation with 8 selected municipalities, with the aim to help municipalities assess their vulnerability to climate change and develop adaptation strategies in collaboration with the research group. This report presents climate scenarios for all project municipalities and interprets the expected changes from the figures produced for each municipality. The report refers to socioeconomic scenarios which were developed as part of the project, describes progress throughout the project period and summarizes the main findings of the project through a summary of the final conference at Losby Gods 24-25 October 2011. The project has shown that municipalities are able to put climate change on the agenda, utilize scientific knowledge and implement adaptation measures, but that this depends on several factors, such as capacity, knowledge and involvement in local government, access to relevant knowledge and policy measures, and clear guidance and supervision from regional and national authorities. (Author)

Deaf adolescents in a hearing world: a review of factors affecting psychosocial adaptation.

Science.gov (United States)

Brice, Patrick J; Strauss, Gillie

2016-01-01

Adolescence has long been viewed as a time of rapid change in many domains including physical, cognitive, and social. Adolescents must adapt based on developing skills and needs and acclimate to growing environmental pressures. Deaf adolescents are often faced with the additional challenge of managing these adaptations in a hearing world, where communication and access to information, especially about their social world, are incomplete at best and nonexistent at worst. This article discusses the research on several factors that influence a deaf adolescent's adaptation, including quality of life, self-concept, and identity development. Gaps in our knowledge are pointed out with suggestions for future research programs that can facilitate optimal development in adolescents who are deaf.

Which benefits and limits derive from ESA membership for European Countries owning ;medium-sized; space agencies?

Science.gov (United States)

Petroni, Giorgio; Bigliardi, Barbara; Galati, Francesco; Petroni, Alberto

2018-01-01

This study investigates the benefits and limits deriving from membership with ESA of six medium-sized space agencies in terms of strengthening and development (or not) of space technologies, as well as their contribution to the growth of productive activities and to the increase of services for citizens. This research contributes to the more general issue of the usefulness of space activities, not only for scientific or military-political purposes but also for economic and social development. Results show that, on the one hand, the membership with ESA has allowed smaller Countries to access space programs, to develop advanced technologies and to support the growth of their firms in some significant markets, but, on the other hand, the membership has also limited the access to space to few companies, without encouraging the broad dissemination of technological knowledge.

Displacement and resettlement: Lessons from Colombo | IDRC ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2016-11-17

Nov 17, 2016 ... ... significant differences in how residents adapted to their new environment. ... They now find themselves in what they see as a different culture and a less safe environment. ... in Indian cities, particularly in small and medium-sized centres. ... Copyright · Open access policy · Privacy policy · Research ethics ...

Plant Explants Grown on Medium Supplemented with Fe3O4 Nanoparticles Have a Significant Increase in Embryogenesis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Inese Kokina

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Development of nanotechnology leads to the increasing release of nanoparticles in the environment that results in accumulation of different NPs in living organisms including plants. This can lead to serious changes in plant cultures which leads to genotoxicity. The aims of the present study were to detect if iron oxide NPs pass through the flax cell wall, to compare callus morphology, and to estimate the genotoxicity in Linum usitatissimum L. callus cultures induced by different concentrations of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Two parallel experiments were performed: experiment A, where flax explants were grown on medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/l, 1 mg/l, and 1.5 mg/l Fe3O4 NPs for callus culture obtaining, and experiment B, where calluses obtained from basal MS medium were transported into medium supplemented with concentrations of NPs identical to experiment A. Obtained results demonstrate similarly in both experiments that 25 nm Fe3O4 NPs pass into callus cells and induce low toxicity level in the callus cultures. Nevertheless, calluses from experiment A showed 100% embryogenesis in comparison with experiment B where 100% rhizogenesis was noticed. It could be associated with different stress levels and adaptation time for explants and calluses that were transported into medium with Fe3O4 NPs supplementation.

Parallel 3D Mortar Element Method for Adaptive Nonconforming Meshes

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Huiyu; Mavriplis, Catherine; VanderWijngaart, Rob; Biswas, Rupak

2004-01-01

High order methods are frequently used in computational simulation for their high accuracy. An efficient way to avoid unnecessary computation in smooth regions of the solution is to use adaptive meshes which employ fine grids only in areas where they are needed. Nonconforming spectral elements allow the grid to be flexibly adjusted to satisfy the computational accuracy requirements. The method is suitable for computational simulations of unsteady problems with very disparate length scales or unsteady moving features, such as heat transfer, fluid dynamics or flame combustion. In this work, we select the Mark Element Method (MEM) to handle the non-conforming interfaces between elements. A new technique is introduced to efficiently implement MEM in 3-D nonconforming meshes. By introducing an "intermediate mortar", the proposed method decomposes the projection between 3-D elements and mortars into two steps. In each step, projection matrices derived in 2-D are used. The two-step method avoids explicitly forming/deriving large projection matrices for 3-D meshes, and also helps to simplify the implementation. This new technique can be used for both h- and p-type adaptation. This method is applied to an unsteady 3-D moving heat source problem. With our new MEM implementation, mesh adaptation is able to efficiently refine the grid near the heat source and coarsen the grid once the heat source passes. The savings in computational work resulting from the dynamic mesh adaptation is demonstrated by the reduction of the the number of elements used and CPU time spent. MEM and mesh adaptation, respectively, bring irregularity and dynamics to the computer memory access pattern. Hence, they provide a good way to gauge the performance of computer systems when running scientific applications whose memory access patterns are irregular and unpredictable. We select a 3-D moving heat source problem as the Unstructured Adaptive (UA) grid benchmark, a new component of the NAS Parallel

Photonic-resonant left-handed medium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shen Jianqi

2006-01-01

A new scheme to realize simultaneously negative permittivity and permeability in a coherent atomic vapor medium (photonic-resonant material) via a coherent driving mechanism is suggested. It is verified that the atomic system coherently driven by a strong optical field will give rise to a negative refractive index in certain probe frequency ranges. One of the most remarkable features of the present scheme is such that a slab fabricated by the left-handed vapor medium is an ideal candidate for designing perfect lenses since the photonic-resonant atomic vapor cannot only exhibit an isotropic negative refractive index, but also provide a good impedance match at the air-medium interfaces

DYNAMIC DEFORMATION THE VISCOELASTIC TWOCOMPONENT MEDIUM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. S. Polenov

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Summary. In the article are scope harmonious warping of the two-component medium, one component which are represent viscoelastic medium, hereditary properties which are described by the kernel aftereffect Abel integral-differential ratio BoltzmannVolterr, while second – compressible liquid. Do a study one-dimensional case. Use motion equation of two-component medium at movement. Look determination system these equalization in the form of damped wave. Introduce dimensionless coefficient. Combined equations happen to homogeneous system with complex factor relatively waves amplitude in viscoelastic component and in fluid. As a result opening system determinant receive biquadratic equation. Elastic operator express through kernel aftereffect Abel for space Fourier. With the help transformation and symbol series biquadratic equation reduce to quadratic equation. Come to the conclusion that in two-component viscoelastic medium exist two mode sonic waves. As a result solution of quadratic equation be found description advance of waves sonic in viscoelastic two-component medium, which physical-mechanical properties represent complex parameter. Velocity determination advance of sonic waves, attenuation coefficient, mechanical loss tangent, depending on characteristic porous medium and circular frequency formulas receive. Graph dependences of description advance of waves sonic from the temperature logarithm and with the fractional parameter γ are constructed.

The Influence of Adaptation and Standardization of the Marketing Mix on Performance: a Meta-Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vinícius Andrade Brei

2011-07-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the relationship between strategies of standardization and adaptation of the marketing mix and performance in an international context. We carried out a meta-analysis on a sample of 23 studies published between 1992 and 2010. The sample was analyzed based on measures of the effect size (ES – or the strength of the relation (Wolf, 1986 – between standardization/adaptation and performance. The results suggest the existence of a medium strength (ES ranging from .133 to .209 for the relationship considered. The results support the existence of a positive impact of both marketing mix adaptation and standardization on performance. However, our results suggest that companies should slightly emphasize the marketing mix adaptation (ES mean = .168 instead of standardizing it (ES mean = .134 when entering in a new international market. Results also indicate that, among the adaptation choices, price (ES = .209 should be the first element of the marketing mix to be adapted, followed by promotion (ES = .155, product (ES = .154, and distribution (ES = .141. Finally, we suggest some new research paths, such as the use of quantitative methods to compare degrees of adaptation to be applied to different segments, regions, and sectors, among other suggestions.

Degradation testing of Mg alloys in Dulbecco's modified eagle medium: Influence of medium sterilization.

Science.gov (United States)

Marco, Iñigo; Feyerabend, Frank; Willumeit-Römer, Regine; Van der Biest, Omer

2016-05-01

This work studies the in vitro degradation of Mg alloys for bioabsorbable implant applications under near physiological conditions. For this purpose, the degradation behaviour of Mg alloys in Dulbecco's modified eagle medium (DMEM) which is a commonly used cell culture medium is analysed. Unfortunately, DMEM can be contaminated by microorganisms, acidifying the medium and accelerating the Mg degradation process by dissolution of protective degradation layers, such as (Mgx,Cay)(PO4)z. In this paper the influence of sterilization by applying UV-C radiation and antibiotics (penicillin/streptomycin) is analysed with two implant material candidates: Mg-Gd and Mg-Ag alloys; and pure magnesium as well as Mg-4Y-3RE as a reference. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Choice of Scottish Gaelic-Medium and Welsh-Medium Education at the Primary and Secondary School Stages: Parent and Pupil Perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

O'Hanlon, Fiona

2015-01-01

Results are presented of a comparative study of the reasons for parental choice of Scottish Gaelic-medium and Welsh-medium primary education in the year 2000 and of the reasons for pupils' decisions to continue with Gaelic or Welsh-medium education at secondary school in 2007. Parents in both contexts cited the quality of Celtic-medium education…

Does the public deserve free access to climate system science?

Science.gov (United States)

Grigorov, Ivo

2010-05-01

Some time ago it was the lack of public access to medical research data that really stirred the issue and gave inertia for legislation and a new publishing model that puts tax payer-funded medical research in the hands of those who fund it. In today's age global climate change has become the biggest socio-economic challenge, and the same argument resonates: climate affects us all and the publicly-funded science quantifying it should be freely accessible to all stakeholders beyond academic research. Over the last few years the ‘Open Access' movement to remove as much as possible subscription, and other on-campus barriers to academic research has rapidly gathered pace, but despite significant progress, the climate system sciences are not among the leaders in providing full access to their publications and data. Beyond the ethical argument, there are proven and tangible benefits for the next generation of climate researchers to adapt the way their output is published. Through the means provided by ‘open access', both data and ideas can gain more visibility, use and citations for the authors, but also result in a more rapid exchange of knowledge and ideas, and ultimately progress towards a sought solution. The presentation will aim to stimulate discussion and seek progress on the following questions: Should free access to climate research (& data) be mandatory? What are the career benefits of using ‘open access' for young scientists? What means and methods should, or could, be incorporated into current European graduate training programmes in climate research, and possible ways forward?

Medium Modifications of Hadrons in Photon Induced Reactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schadmand, S.

2004-01-01

Indications for in-medium modifications of hadron properties are reported from photoabsorption and meson production experiments. Strong medium modifications are observed in inclusive photoabsorption experiments and theoretical models investigate the in-medium dynamics of baryon resonances and their coupling to mesons. Recent experiments study the in-medium behavior of scalar and vector mesons where theoretical models expect in-medium modifications of the meson spectral functions that might be connected to partial restoration of chiral symmetry

Wireless Adaptive Therapeutic TeleGaming in a Pervasive Computing Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, James F.; Szturm, Tony; Borkowski, Maciej; Lockery, Dan; Ramanna, Sheela; Shay, Barbara

engaging interactive gaming will motivate patients to complete the rehabilitation process. Adaptivity is seen as a way to make action games more accessible to those who have physical and cognitive impairments. The telegaming system connects to the internet and implements a feed-and-forward mechanism that transmits gaming session tables after each gaming session to a remote registry accessible to therapists and researchers. The contribution of this chapter is the introduction of a framework for wireless telegaming useful in therapeutic rehabilitation.

A Cellular Bonding and Adaptive Load Balancing Based Multi-Sim Gateway for Mobile Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks

OpenAIRE

Francesco Beritelli; Aurelio La Corte; Corrado Rametta; Francesco Scaglione

2018-01-01

As it is well known, the QoS(quality of service) provided by mobile Internet access point devices is far from the QoS level offered by the common ADSL modem-router due to several reasons: in fact, mobile Internet access networks are not designed to support real-time data traffic because of several drawbacks concerning the wireless medium such as resource sharing, traffic congestion, radio link coverage etc., which impact directly such parameters as delay, jitter, and packet loss rate that are...

Partenariat pour l'adaptation des populations vulnérables à la ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Projet Partenariat Multi-acteurs pour l'Adaptation des Populations Vulnérables à la Salinisation des sols induite par les Changements Climatiques au Sénégal : rapport final (18 mars 2009 - 31 mars 2012). Download PDF ... New website will help record vital life events to improve access to services for all. A new website and ...

Mapping of moveout in a TTI medium

KAUST Repository

Stovas, A.; Alkhalifah, Tariq Ali

2012-01-01

To compute moveout in a transversely isotropic medium with tilted symmetry axis is a very complicated problem. We propose to split this problem into two parts. First, to compute the moveout in a corresponding VTI medium. Second, to map the computed moveout to a TTI medium.

Fractional diffusion equation for heterogeneous medium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Polo L, M. A.; Espinosa M, E. G.; Espinosa P, G.; Del Valle G, E.

2011-11-01

The asymptotic diffusion approximation for the Boltzmann (transport) equation was developed in 1950 decade in order to describe the diffusion of a particle in an isotropic medium, considers that the particles have a diffusion infinite velocity. In this work is developed a new approximation where is considered that the particles have a finite velocity, with this model is possible to describe the behavior in an anomalous medium. According with these ideas the model was obtained from the Fick law, where is considered that the temporal term of the current vector is not negligible. As a result the diffusion equation of fractional order which describes the dispersion of particles in a highly heterogeneous or disturbed medium is obtained, i.e., in a general medium. (Author)

Optical illusions induced by rotating medium

Science.gov (United States)

Zang, XiaoFei; Huang, PengCheng; Zhu, YiMing

2018-03-01

Different from the traditional single-function electromagnetic wave rotators (rotate the electromagnetic wavefronts), we propose that rotating medium can be extended to optical illusions such as breaking the diffraction limit and overlapping illusion. Furthermore, the homogeneous but anisotropic rotating medium is simplified by homogeneous and isotropic positive-index materials according to the effective medium theory, which is helpful for future device fabrication. Finite element simulations for the two-dimensional case are performed to demonstrate these properties.

Mesons in the nuclear Medium

CERN Document Server

Kotulla, M

2006-01-01

We discuss recent experimental results on the modification of hadron properties in a nuclear medium. Particular emphasis is placed on an $\\omega$ production experiment performed by the CBELSA/TAPS collaboration at the ELSA accelerator. The data shows a smaller $\\omega$ meson mass together with a significant increase of its width in the nuclear medium.

Cellular plasticity enables adaptation to unforeseen cell-cycle rewiring challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Katzir, Yair; Stolovicki, Elad; Stern, Shay; Braun, Erez

2012-01-01

The fundamental dynamics of the cell cycle, underlying cell growth and reproduction, were previously found to be robust under a wide range of environmental and internal perturbations. This property was commonly attributed to its network structure, which enables the coordinated interactions among hundreds of proteins. Despite significant advances in deciphering the components and autonomous interactions of this network, understanding the interfaces of the cell cycle with other major cellular processes is still lacking. To gain insight into these interfaces, we used the process of genome-rewiring in yeast by placing an essential metabolic gene HIS3 from the histidine biosynthesis pathway, under the exclusive regulation of different cell-cycle promoters. In a medium lacking histidine and under partial inhibition of the HIS3p, the rewired cells encountered an unforeseen multitasking challenge; the cell-cycle regulatory genes were required to regulate the essential histidine-pathway gene in concert with the other metabolic demands, while simultaneously driving the cell cycle through its proper temporal phases. We show here that chemostat cell populations with rewired cell-cycle promoters adapted within a short time to accommodate the inhibition of HIS3p and stabilized a new phenotypic state. Furthermore, a significant fraction of the population was able to adapt and grow into mature colonies on plates under such inhibiting conditions. The adapted state was shown to be stably inherited across generations. These adaptation dynamics were accompanied by a non-specific and irreproducible genome-wide transcriptional response. Adaptation of the cell-cycle attests to its multitasking capabilities and flexible interface with cellular metabolic processes and requirements. Similar adaptation features were found in our previous work when rewiring HIS3 to the GAL system and switching cells from galactose to glucose. Thus, at the basis of cellular plasticity is the emergence of a yet

Data Requirements for Developing Adaptations to Climate Variability and Change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Basher, Reid E.

1999-01-01

An extensive foundation of high quality data and information on the climate and on the biological, environmental and social systems affected by climate is required in order to understand the climate impact processes involved, to develop new adaptation practices, and to subsequently implement these practices. Experience of the impacts of current and past variability of climate and sea level is a prime source of information. Many practices are in use to reduce climate impacts, for example in engineering design, agricultural risk management and climate prediction services, though their roles as adaptations to climate change are not widely appreciated. While there are good data sets on some factors and in some regions, in many cases the databases are inadequate and there are few data sets on adaptation-specific quantities such as vulnerability, resilience and adaptation effectiveness. Current international action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) pays little attention to adaptation and its information requirements. Furthermore there are trends toward reduced data gathering and to restrictions on access to data sets, especially arising from cost and commercialisation pressures. To effectively respond to the changes in climate that are now inevitable, governments will need to more clearly identify adaptation as a central feature of climate change policy and make a renewed shared commitment to collecting and freely exchanging the necessary data. 12 refs

An FPGA-based DS-CDMA multiuser demodulator employing adaptive multistage parallel interference cancellation

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xinhua; Song, Zhenyu; Zhan, Yongjie; Wu, Qiongzhi

2009-12-01

Since the system capacity is severely limited, reducing the multiple access interfere (MAI) is necessary in the multiuser direct-sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) system which is used in the telecommunication terminals data-transferred link system. In this paper, we adopt an adaptive multistage parallel interference cancellation structure in the demodulator based on the least mean square (LMS) algorithm to eliminate the MAI on the basis of overviewing various of multiuser dectection schemes. Neither a training sequence nor a pilot signal is needed in the proposed scheme, and its implementation complexity can be greatly reduced by a LMS approximate algorithm. The algorithm and its FPGA implementation is then derived. Simulation results of the proposed adaptive PIC can outperform some of the existing interference cancellation methods in AWGN channels. The hardware setup of mutiuser demodulator is described, and the experimental results based on it demonstrate that the simulation results shows large performance gains over the conventional single-user demodulator.

Knocking out the MFE-2 gene of Candida bombicola leads to improved medium-chain sophorolipid production.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Bogaert, Inge N A; Sabirova, Julia; Develter, Dirk; Soetaert, Wim; Vandamme, Erick J

2009-06-01

The nonpathogenic yeast Candida bombicola synthesizes sophorolipids. These biosurfactants are composed of the disaccharide sophorose linked to a long-chain hydroxy fatty acid and have potential applications in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and cleaning industries. In order to expand the range of application, a shift of the fatty acid moiety towards medium-chain lengths would be recommendable. However, the synthesis of medium-chain sophorolipids by C. bombicola is a challenging objective. First of all, these sophorolipids can only be obtained by fermentations on unconventional carbon sources, which often have a toxic effect on the cells. Furthermore, medium-chain substrates are partially metabolized in the beta-oxidation pathway. In order to redirect unconventional substrates towards sophorolipid synthesis, the beta-oxidation pathway was blocked on the genome level by knocking out the multifunctional enzyme type 2 (MFE-2) gene. The total gene sequence of the C. bombicola MFE-2 (6033 bp) was cloned (GenBank accession number EU371724), and the obtained nucleotide sequence was used to construct a knock-out cassette. Several knock-out mutants with the correct geno- and phenotype were evaluated in a fermentation on 1-dodecanol. All mutants showed a 1.7-2.9 times higher production of sophorolipids, indicating that in those strains the substrate is redirected towards the sophorolipid synthesis.

Selection of culture medium and conditions for the production of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

defined medium–A, defined medium-B, synthetic medium, rich medium and industrial medium) showed that the synthetic medium yielded maximum yeast biomass (12.8 g/LDCW) followed by rich medium (11.7 g/L DCW) and defined medium B ...

Sequential low and medium frequency ultrasound assists biodegradation of wheat chaff by white rot fungal enzymes.

Science.gov (United States)

Oliver, Christine M; Mawson, Raymond; Melton, Laurence D; Dumsday, Geoff; Welch, Jessica; Sanguansri, Peerasak; Singh, Tanoj K; Augustin, Mary Ann

2014-10-13

The consequences of ultrasonic pre-treatment using low (40 kHz) and medium (270 kHz) frequency (40 kHz followed by 270 kHz) on the degradation of wheat chaff (8 g 100ml(-1) acetate buffer, pH 5) were evaluated. In addition, the effects of the ultrasonic pre-treatment on the degradation of the wheat chaff when subsequently exposed to enzyme extracts from two white rot fungi (Phanerochaete chrysosporium and Trametes sp.) were investigated. Pre-treatment by sequential low and medium frequency ultrasound had a disruptive effect on the lignocellulosic matrix. Analysis of the phenolic-derived volatiles after enzymatic hydrolysis showed that biodegradation with the enzyme extract obtained from P. chrysosporium was more pronounced compared to that of the Trametes sp. The efficacy of the ultrasonic pre-treatment was attributed to increased enzyme accessibility of the cellulose fibrils due to sonication-induced disruption of the plant surface structure, as shown by changes in the microstructure. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adaptation of the children of migrant workers to the new social and cultural space: pedagogical help and support

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nataliia Sabat

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The article substantiates the value of the pedagogic help and support in the adaptation of migrants to the new circumstances of social and cultural space. The basic needs of the children from the specified category are characterized, and if we meet these needs will have the successful adaptation. The essence of information, instrumental emotional support was revealed. It was proven that the school serves the important medium to conduct such activities as the usual environment where a child with a family of migrants stays, talks, feels comfortable. The necessity of the cooperation between the teachers, educators, social educator and psychologist, administration is emphasized in helping the children of migrant workers in the process of adapting to the new social and cultural space.Key words: children of migrants, adaptation, educational help, pedagogic support, social and cultural space.

Genetic Adaptation to Growth Under Laboratory Conditions in Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Knöppel

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Experimental evolution under controlled laboratory conditions is becoming increasingly important to address various evolutionary questions, including, for example, the dynamics and mechanisms of genetic adaptation to different growth and stress conditions. In such experiments, mutations typically appear that increase the fitness under the conditions tested (medium adaptation, but that are not necessarily of interest for the specific research question. Here, we have identified mutations that appeared during serial passage of E. coli and S. enterica in four different and commonly used laboratory media and measured the relative competitive fitness and maximum growth rate of 111 genetically re-constituted strains, carrying different single and multiple mutations. Little overlap was found between the mutations that were selected in the two species and the different media, implying that adaptation occurs via different genetic pathways. Furthermore, we show that commonly occurring adaptive mutations can generate undesired genetic variation in a population and reduce the accuracy of competition experiments. However, by introducing media adaptation mutations with large effects into the parental strain that was used for the evolution experiment, the variation (standard deviation was decreased 10-fold, and it was possible to measure fitness differences between two competitors as small as |s| < 0.001.

Amniocar as a proliferative medium for mesenchymal cells

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. V. Chestkov

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Objectives. To develop the Amniocar nutrient medium that contains fetal calf serum (FCS and growth factors cocktail for mass cultivation of human fibroblasts. To study proliferative activity of the medium on cultures of HUVEC cells of mesenchymal origin and mesenchymal stromal cells, as well as on cell culture of human amniotic fluid.Materials and methods. Determination of the rate of accumulation of the cellular mass and cell morphology in the course of cultivation of cells of various histogenesis in the Amniocar medium and nutrient medium that contains 10 % of FCS.Results. It has been demonstrated that the Amniocar medium is prevalent as compared to the standard DMEM medium with 10 % of FCS by 2 to 5 times for cultivation of skin fibroblasts, HUVEC, and mesenchymal stem cells. The Amniocar medium increased the quantity of endothelial cells that enter mitosis and maintained the culture of HUVEC cells with prolonged passaging in vitro. Clonal cultivation of human amniotic fluid cells in the Amniocar medium secured development of colonies of both fibroblast and epithelial type.Conclusions. Proliferative Amniocar medium is efficient for mass cultivation of various cells of mesenchymal origin and can be used for diagnostic purposes in medical genetics, oncology, etc.

Radon in geological medium

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hricko, J [GEOCOMPLEX, a.s., Bratislava (Slovakia)

1996-12-31

The paper presented deals with behavior of the radon in geological medium and with some results of the radon survey in Bratislava and Kosice regions. 1) The a{sub v} has been detected in the holes 0.80 m deep. The density of observations - 3 reference areas (one represents 20 stations) per 1 km{sup 2}. The radon risk maps in 1:25000 and 1:50000 scales have been compiled. The 56.8% of the project area lies in low radon risk, 37.6% in medium radon risk and 5.6% in high radon risk. Follow-up monitoring of the equivalent volume radon activity (EVRA) at the flats, located in the areas with high radon risk of the surface layer, has showed values several times higher than Slovak limits (Marianka, Raca, Vajnory). The evidence that neotectonic is excellent medium for rising up emanation to the subsurface layer, is shown on the map. The tectonic zone of Liscie udolie in Bratislava-Karlova Ves area has been clearly detected by profile radon survey (a{sub v} > 50 kBq/m{sup 3}). 2) At present, northern half of the area of Kosice in question was covered by radon survey. The low and medium radon risks have been observed here, while localities with high radon risk are small in extent. The part of radon risk and soil permeability map from northern Kosice area is shown. (J.K.) 3 figs., 2 refs.

Radon in geological medium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hricko, J.

1995-01-01

The paper presented deals with behavior of the radon in geological medium and with some results of the radon survey in Bratislava and Kosice regions. 1) The a v has been detected in the holes 0.80 m deep. The density of observations - 3 reference areas (one represents 20 stations) per 1 km 2 . The radon risk maps in 1:25000 and 1:50000 scales have been compiled. The 56.8% of the project area lies in low radon risk, 37.6% in medium radon risk and 5.6% in high radon risk. Follow-up monitoring of the equivalent volume radon activity (EVRA) at the flats, located in the areas with high radon risk of the surface layer, has showed values several times higher than Slovak limits (Marianka, Raca, Vajnory). The evidence that neotectonic is excellent medium for rising up emanation to the subsurface layer, is shown on the map. The tectonic zone of Liscie udolie in Bratislava-Karlova Ves area has been clearly detected by profile radon survey (a v > 50 kBq/m 3 ). 2) At present, northern half of the area of Kosice in question was covered by radon survey. The low and medium radon risks have been observed here, while localities with high radon risk are small in extent. The part of radon risk and soil permeability map from northern Kosice area is shown. (J.K.) 3 figs., 2 refs

The Peroxisomal Enzyme L-PBE Is Required to Prevent the Dietary Toxicity of Medium-Chain Fatty Acids

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jun Ding

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Specific metabolic pathways are activated by different nutrients to adapt the organism to available resources. Although essential, these mechanisms are incompletely defined. Here, we report that medium-chain fatty acids contained in coconut oil, a major source of dietary fat, induce the liver ω-oxidation genes Cyp4a10 and Cyp4a14 to increase the production of dicarboxylic fatty acids. Furthermore, these activate all ω- and β-oxidation pathways through peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR α and PPARγ, an activation loop normally kept under control by dicarboxylic fatty acid degradation by the peroxisomal enzyme L-PBE. Indeed, L-pbe−/− mice fed coconut oil overaccumulate dicarboxylic fatty acids, which activate all fatty acid oxidation pathways and lead to liver inflammation, fibrosis, and death. Thus, the correct homeostasis of dicarboxylic fatty acids is a means to regulate the efficient utilization of ingested medium-chain fatty acids, and its deregulation exemplifies the intricate relationship between impaired metabolism and inflammation.

Subband Adaptive Array for DS-CDMA Mobile Radio

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tran Xuan Nam

2004-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a novel scheme of subband adaptive array (SBAA for direct-sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA. The scheme exploits the spreading code and pilot signal as the reference signal to estimate the propagation channel. Moreover, instead of combining the array outputs at each output tap using a synthesis filter and then despreading them, we despread directly the array outputs at each output tap by the desired user's code to save the synthesis filter. Although its configuration is far different from that of 2D RAKEs, the proposed scheme exhibits relatively equivalent performance of 2D RAKEs while having less computation load due to utilising adaptive signal processing in subbands. Simulation programs are carried out to explore the performance of the scheme and compare its performance with that of the standard 2D RAKE.

ADNP-CSMA Random Multiple Access protocol application with the function of monitoring in Ad Hoc network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhan Gang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In Ad Hoc networks,the net work of mobile nodes exchange information with their wireless transceiver equipment,the network throughput is in increased,compared to other such multiple hops network.Moreover along with the rapid development of modern information,communication business also will be increase.However,the access and adaptive of previous CSMA protocol are insufficient.According to these properties,this paper presents a kind of adaptive dual clock with monitoring function P-CSMA random multiple access protocol(ADNP-CSMA,and discusses two kinds of P-CSMA.ACK with monitoring function is introduced to maintain the stability of the whole system,and the introduction of dual clock mechanism reduces the channel of idle period.It calculate the system throughput expression through the method of average period,and the simulation results show that the system is constant in the case of high load throughput.

Physical processes in the interstellar medium

CERN Document Server

Spitzer, Lyman

2008-01-01

Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium discusses the nature of interstellar matter, with a strong emphasis on basic physical principles, and summarizes the present state of knowledge about the interstellar medium by providing the latest observational data. Physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium are treated, with frequent references to observational results. The overall equilibrium and dynamical state of the interstellar gas are described, with discussions of explosions produced by star birth and star death and the initial phases of cloud collapse leading to star formation.

Probing the mechanisms of drug release from amorphous solid dispersions in medium-soluble and medium-insoluble carriers.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Dajun D; Lee, Ping I

2015-08-10

The objective of the current study is to mechanistically differentiate the dissolution and supersaturation behaviors of amorphous drugs from amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs) based on medium-soluble versus medium-insoluble carriers under nonsink dissolution conditions through a direct head-to-head comparison. ASDs of indomethacin (IND) were prepared in several polymers which exhibit different solubility behaviors in acidic (pH1.2) and basic (pH7.4) dissolution media. The selected polymers range from water-soluble (e.g., PVP and Soluplus) and water-insoluble (e.g., ethylcellulose and Eudragit RL PO) to those only soluble in an acidic or basic dissolution medium (e.g., Eudragit E100, Eudragit L100, and HPMCAS). At 20wt.% drug loading, DSC and powder XRD analysis confirmed that the majority of incorporated IND was present in an amorphous state. Our nonsink dissolution results confirm that whether the carrier matrix is medium soluble determines the release mechanism of amorphous drugs from ASD systems which has a direct impact on the rate of supersaturation generation, thus in turn affecting the evolution of supersaturation in amorphous systems. For example, under nonsink dissolution conditions, the release of amorphous IND from medium-soluble carriers is governed by a dissolution-controlled mechanism leading to an initial surge of supersaturation followed by a sharp decline in drug concentration due to rapid nucleation and crystallization. In contrast, the dissolution of IND ASD from medium-insoluble carriers is more gradual as drug release is regulated by a diffusion-controlled mechanism by which drug supersaturation is built up gradually and sustained over an extended period of time without any apparent decline. Since several tested carrier polymers can be switched from soluble to insoluble by simply changing the pH of the dissolution medium, the results obtained here provide unequivocal evidence of the proposed transition of kinetic solubility profiles from the

Sky coverage modeling for the whole sky for laser guide star multiconjugate adaptive optics.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Lianqi; Andersen, David; Ellerbroek, Brent

2012-06-01

The scientific productivity of laser guide star adaptive optics systems strongly depends on the sky coverage, which describes the probability of finding natural guide stars for the tip/tilt wavefront sensor(s) to achieve a certain performance. Knowledge of the sky coverage is also important for astronomers planning their observations. In this paper, we present an efficient method to compute the sky coverage for the laser guide star multiconjugate adaptive optics system, the Narrow Field Infrared Adaptive Optics System (NFIRAOS), being designed for the Thirty Meter Telescope project. We show that NFIRAOS can achieve more than 70% sky coverage over most of the accessible sky with the requirement of 191 nm total rms wavefront.

ADAPTATION OF THE OBTAINED in vitro Gentiana lutea L. PLANTS TO ex vitro AND in situ CONDITIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

О. Yu.

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The objective of the research was to develop the technology of introduction of the obtained by microclonal propagation Gentiana lutea L. plants into conditions in situ. Methods of cultivation of plant objects in vitro were used. There were chosen optimal conditions for rooting G. lutea shoots obtained through microclonal propagation in vitro: МS/2 medium with twice decreased concentration of NH4NO3 without vitamins and sucrose supplemented with 3 g/l of mannite and 0.05 mg/l kinetin, and agar (4 mg/l in combination with perlite (16 g/l used as a maintaining substrate; or the nutrient medium (MS/2 without vitamins and smaller concentration of N4NO3 with gradual decrease of carbohydrates from 10 g/l to 2 g/l, and further rooting experimental shoots in tap water. Rooted plants were adapted to conditions ex vitro through planting them into flowerpots with soil and gradual changing hothouse regime for exposed one. The share of adapted to in situ conditions plants (21% after a year of planting proves the suggested method to be efficient and promising. There was suggested this technology is the most efficient ones for revival of disturbed G. lutea populations that includes repatriation of rooted and adapted to ex vitro conditions plants obtained through microclonal propagation in vitro.

Accessibility of Catering Service Venues and Adolescent Drinking in Beijing, China.

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Lu, Shijun; Du, Songming; Ren, Zhoupeng; Zhao, Jing; Chambers, Christina; Wang, Jinfeng; Ma, Guansheng

2015-06-26

This study assessed the association between accessibility of catering service venues and adolescents' alcohol use over the previous 30 days. The data were collected from cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2014, 2223 students at 27 high schools in Chaoyang and Xicheng districts, Beijing using self-administered questionnaires to collect the adolescents information on socio-demographic characteristics and recent alcohol experiences. The accessibility of, and proximity to, catering service venues were summarized by weights, which were calculated by multiplication of the type-weight and the distance-weight. All sampled schools were categorized into three subgroups (low, middle, and high geographic density) based on the tertile of nearby catering service venues, and a multi-level logistic regression analysis was performed to explore variance between the school levels. Considering the setting characteristics, the catering service venues weighted value was found to account for 8.6% of the school level variance of adolescent alcohol use. The odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of drinking over the past 30-days among adolescents with medium and high accessibility of catering service venues were 1.17 (0.86, 1.57) and 1.47 (1.06, 2.02), respectively (p catering service venues around schools in China. Results suggest that the greater accessibility of catering service venues around schools is associated with a growing risk of recent drinking.

Antimicrobial use and antimicrobial susceptibility in Escherichia coli on small- and medium-scale pig farms in north-eastern Thailand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Ström

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Intensification of livestock production seen in many low- and middle-income countries is often believed to be associated with increased use of antimicrobials, and may hence contribute to the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. The aim of this study was to map antimicrobial use on small- (n = 25 and medium-scale (n = 27 pig farms in north-eastern Thailand, and to compare antimicrobial susceptibility of commensal Escherichia coli isolated from sows on these farms. Methods Information regarding pig husbandry and antimicrobial treatment regimens was obtained by the use of semi-structured questionnaires. Faecal samples were collected from three healthy sows at each farm, and Escherichia coli was cultured and analysed for antimicrobial susceptibility using the broth microdilution method. Multilevel regression models were used to compare antimicrobial susceptibility between isolates from small- and medium-scale farms. Results All farms included in the study administered antimicrobials to their sows. Small-scale farmers most commonly (64% decided themselves when to give antimicrobials and the majority (60% bought the medicines at the local store or pharmacy, whereas farmers on medium-scale farms always discussed antimicrobial treatment with a veterinarian. Medium-scale farms used a greater diversity of antimicrobials than small-scale farms and did also administer antimicrobials in feed to a higher extent. High levels of antimicrobial resistance to several critically important antimicrobials for human medicine (including ciprofloxacin, streptomycin and ampicillin were found in isolates from both small- and medium-scale farms. Resistance levels were significantly (P < 0.05 higher in isolates from medium-scale farms for several of the antimicrobials tested, as well as the level of multidrug-resistance (P = 0.026. Conclusion The routines regarding access and administration of antimicrobials differed between the small- and

Physiological genomics of response to soil drying in diverse Arabidopsis accessions.

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Des Marais, David L; McKay, John K; Richards, James H; Sen, Saunak; Wayne, Tierney; Juenger, Thomas E

2012-03-01

Arabidopsis thaliana, like many species, is characterized by abundant genetic variation. This variation is rapidly being cataloged at the sequence level, but careful dissection of genetic variation in whole-organism responses to stresses encountered in the natural environment are lacking; this functional variation can be exploited as a natural mutant screen to determine gene function. Here, we document physiological and transcriptomic response to soil drying in 17 natural accessions of Arabidopsis. By imposing ecologically realistic stress conditions, we found that acclimation in Arabidopsis involved a strong signature of increased investment in photosynthesis, carbohydrate turnover, and root growth. Our results extend previous work in the Columbia accession suggesting that abscisic acid signaling pathways play an important role in drought stress response. We also identified several mechanisms, including an increase in leaf nitrogen concentration and upregulation of two-component signaling relays, that were common to most natural accessions but had not been identified in studies using only the Columbia accession. Principal component analysis reveals strong correlations between suites of genes and specific physiological responses to stress. The functional variants we identified may represent adaptive mutations in natural habitats and useful variants for agronomic improvement of crop species.

Climate change perceptions and local adaptation strategies of hazard-prone rural households in Bangladesh

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G.M. Monirul Alam

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Adaptation is a key strategy that can alleviate the severity of climate change impacts on agriculture and food production. Adaptation strategies are unlikely to be effective without an understanding of the farmers’ perceptions of climate change. This paper explores the local knowledge of adaptation in response to the perceived impacts of climate change and climatic hazards using a survey of 380 resource-poor riverbank erosion-prone households in Bangladesh. The results indicate that the respondents’ perceptions of changes in the climate and of extreme climatic events are similar to the observed climate data. Households have recognized the impacts on their livelihood and resources, resulting in an increased sense of vulnerability. To build resilience, households have undertaken a range of farming and non-farming adaptation strategies, which vary significantly among the farming groups. The important adaptation strategies include adopting new crop varieties, changing planting time, homestead gardening, planting trees and migration. Improved access to finance and to information about appropriate strategies appears to be crucial to support adaptation processes locally and thus to enhance the resilience of vulnerable households.

Effective medium theory for anisotropic metamaterials