This paper proposes a framework based completely on Java technology. The advantages brought about by the use of Java in network management answer some critical problems existing in current systems. With this work we address several factors concerning interoperability and security in heterogeneous network environments. Specifically, we present a manager application and a multithreaded agent engine that make use of a lightweight communication mechanism for message exchange. A MIB parser is introduced to accelerate handling of incoming management requests, and the RSA public-key cryptosystem is implemented to provide both encryption and authentication features. Results, measured in terms of response time, compare favourably with other published work and standard management frameworks.
A protocol adapter ideally suited to enable enterprises to gradually transition from SOAP Web Services to RESTful HTTP Web Services without impacting existing clients is presented in this paper. The inherent advantage of such a transition is the visibility of RESTful HTTP messages to Web intermediaries such as caches. In contrast, SOAP messages are opaque, which disables Web intermediaries. While both approaches can use HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for message transfer, the paradigms contrast sharply. SOAP uses an interface specific approach whereas RESTful HTTP uses a Uniform Interface approach. SOAP marks up its payload with eXtensible Markup Language (XML) whereas in certain situations RESTful HTTP requires no XML. We present the disadvantages of the SOAP approach and outline how ...
Today, component oriented middlewares are used to design, develop and deploy easily distributed applications, by ensuring the heterogeneity, interoperability, and reuse of the software modules, and the separation between the business code encapsulated in the components and the system code managed by the containers. Several standards answer this definition such as: CCM (CORBA Component Model), EJB (Enterprise Java Beans) and .Net. However these standards offer a limited and fixed number of system services, removing any possibility to add system services or to reconfigure dynamically the middleware. Our works propose mechanisms to add and to adapt dynamically the system services, based on a reconfiguration language which is dynamically adaptable to the need of the reconfiguration, and on a tool of dynamic reconfiguration, a prototype was achieved for the OpenCCM platform, that is an implementation of the ...
Page 1. Software Vulnerabilities in Java Fred Long October 2005 CERT ... iii Abstract Java is essentially a safe language with good security features. ...
We propose behavior-oriented services as a new paradigm of communication in mobile human networks. Our study is motivated by the tight user-network coupling in future mobile societies. In such a paradigm, messages are sent to inferred behavioral profiles, instead of explicit IDs. Our paper provides a systematic framework in providing such services. First, user behavioral profiles are constructed based on traces collected from two large wireless networks, and their spatio-temporal stability is analyzed. The implicit relationship discovered between mobile users could be utilized to provide a service for message delivery and discovery in various network environments. As an example application, we provide a detailed design of such a service in challenged opportunistic network architecture, named CSI. We provide a fully distributed solution using behavioral profile ...
BackgroundSelf-management of asthma may improve asthma outcomes. The Internet has been suggested as a tool for the monitoring and self-management of asthma....Full Text Available
The open source Scala language is a Java--based dynamic scripting, functional programming language. Moreover, this highly scalable scripting language lends itself well to building Cloud--based/deliverable Software as a Service (SaaS) online applications. Written by Lift Scala web framework founder and lead Dave Pollak, Beginning Scala takes a down--to--earth approach to teaching Scala that leads you through simple examples that can be combined to build complex, scalable systems and applications. This book introduces you to the Scala programming language and then guides you through Scala constr
Comparison of programming languages is a common topic of discussion among software engineers. Few languages ever become sufficiently popular that they are used by more than a few people or find their niche in research or education; but professional programmers can easily use dozens of different languages during their career. Multiple programming languages are designed, specified, and implemented every year in order to keep up with the changing programming paradigms, hardware evolution, etc. In this paper we present a comparative study between ten programming languages: Haskell, Java, Perl, C++, AspectJ, COBOL, Ruby, PHP, Bash Scripts, and Scheme; with respect of the following criteria: Secure programming practices, web applications development, web services design and composition, object oriented-based abstraction, reflection, aspect-orientation, functional programming, declarative programming, batch scripting, and user interface prototype ...
The development of the Java Programming Language by Sun Microsystems has provided a new tool for the development of Internet based applications. Our preliminary work has shown how Java can be used to...Full Text Available
The Superconducting super Collider Laboratory is a complex of particle accelerators being built in Ellis County, Texas. It will have a dedicated global communications network that will deliver control messages and provide for general data acquisition. This network will connect thousands of computer nodes over a very large geographic area. In order to meet the demanding availability requirements being levied on the system, it will need comprehensive network management. A large number of the computer nodes are embedded systems that traditionally do not support network management services. This presents unique challenges to standard network management practices. The Simple Network Management Protocol, SNMP, is widely accepted by industry as a tool to manage network devices. In this paper the authors examine the performance characteristics and usefulness of an SNMP agent in a real-time environment.
Information Technology Glossary of Terms. Applets: Programs that run inside net browsers, usually in Java and typically involving modestly interactive ...
... such as discovery, capabilities registration, lookup, and a ... Java- based toolkit for creating ... Multisensor, Multisource Information Fusion: Architectures ...
... Producers and their Impacts on Women in Central Java, IndonesiaActions basées sur des scénarios visant à élever ... impact sur les femmes dans le centre de Java, en IndonésieInvestigación-acción basada en...
Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for determining a bisection bandwidth for a multi-node data communications network that include: partitioning nodes in the network into a first sub-network and a second sub-network in dependence upon a topology of the network; sending, by each node in the first sub-network to a destination node in the second sub-network, a first message having a predetermined message size; receiving, by each node in the first sub-network from a source node in the second sub-network, a second message; measuring, by each node in the first sub-network, the elapsed communications time between the sending of the first message and the receiving of the second message; selecting the longest elapsed communications time; and calculating the bisection bandwidth for the network in dependence upon the number of the nodes in the first sub-network, the predetermined ...
A critical factor in the advancement of biomedical research is the ease with which data can be integrated, redistributed and analyzed both within and across domains. This paper summarizes the Biomedical Information Core Infrastructure built by National Cancer Institute Center for Bioinformatics in America (NCICB). The main product from the Core Infrastructure is caCORE--cancer Common Ontologic Reference Environment, which is the infrastructure backbone supporting data management and application development at NCICB. The paper explains the structure and function of caCORE: (1) Enterprise Vocabulary Services (EVS). They provide controlled vocabulary, dictionary and thesaurus services, and EVS produces the NCI Thesaurus and the NCI Metathesaurus; (2) The Cancer Data Standards Repository (caDSR). It provides a metadata registry for common data elements. (3) Cancer Bioinformatics Infrastructure Objects (caBIO). They provide ...
IMPORTANT REMINDER If you have just come back from one of the regions identified by the WHO as being infected with SARS, it is essential to monitor your state of health for ten days after your return. The syndrome manifests itself in the rapid onset of a high fever combined with respiratory problems (coughing, breathlessness, breathing difficulty). Should these signs appear, you must contact the CERN Medical Service as quickly as possible on number 73802 or 73186 during normal working hours, and the fire brigade at all other times on number 74444, indicating that you have just returned from one of the WHO-identified areas with recent local transmission.China: Beijing, Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region), Guangdong Province, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi Province, Tianjin ProvinceTaiwan:TaipeiMoreover, until further notice the CERN Management requests that all trips to these various regions of the world be reduced to a strict minimum and then only with the consent ...
... the open source OpenMap Java toolkit from BBN ... 2001), Handbook of Multisensor Data Fusion ... Oxenham (2002), Sensor Registration Using Airlanes ...
The goal of this effort Composability, Provability, Reusability (CPR) for Survivability is to address the problem of composition of survivable systems. The particular objective of this project is to construct a formal specification of the Java Virtual Mac...
... In 1982 an acousto-optic spectrum analyzer incorporated ... the OPTIMP is the optically controlled optical ... switch that changes the intensity reflectance ...
Overview Package Class Use Tree Deprecated Index Help PREV CLASS NEXT CLASS FRAMES NO FRAMES SUMMARY: INNER | FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD DETAIL: FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD gov.nih.nci.dc.bean Class ImageIDParseBean java.lang.Object | +--java.util.Dictionary
Web portals are nowadays very popular. This type of web sites let users to share information, request advice or help in a particular field, and furthermore allow them to create and extend sites content. Combined with instant messaging systems, used to send messages or files instantaneously to a user or a group of users, and with various kinds of chat programs, which connect two or more individuals simulating a conversation, it is now possible to create "web communities". In this paper we present the opensource tools used to create the "Grid Support Community" of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Italy.
The author attempts to clear up the causal 'paradox' often associated with the existence of tacyons. This leads to a discussion of the nature of tachyon messages and the problems involved in their interpretation. (W.D.L.).
We present a quantum secure direct communication scheme achieved by swapping quantum entanglement. In this scheme a set of ordered Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) pairs is used as a quantum information channel for sending secret messages directly. After insuring the safety of the quantum channel, the sender Alice encodes the secret messages directly by applying a series local operations on her particle sequences according to their stipulation. Using three EPR pairs, three bits of secret classical information can be faithfully transmitted from Alice to remote Bob without revealing any information to a potential eavesdropper. By both Alice and Bob's GHZ state measurement results, Bob is able to read out the encoded secret messages directly. The protocol is completely secure if perfect quantum channel is used, because there is not a transmission of the qubits carrying the secret message between Alice and Bob ...
... keyboards, door knobs and counter tops, such surfaces should be cleaned with common household disinfectants regularly and after increased crowd contact. ...
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The DataAccessBean is similar to the Data Access Object (DAO) interface in that the DataAccessBean interface is meant to encapsulate the implementation details of the DynamicJavaBean that accesses persistent storage devices such as RDBMS, flat text file databases, etc.
Overview Package Class Use Tree Deprecated Index Help PREV CLASS NEXT CLASS FRAMES NO FRAMES SUMMARY: INNER | FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD DETAIL: FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD gov.nih.nci.dc.database Class SearchCriteria java.lang.Object |
BackgroundMany three-dimensional (3D) images are routinely collected in biomedical research and a number of digital atlases with associated anatomical and other information have...Full Text Available
This thesis - Resource Management in Broadband Communication Networks - deals with different ways of optimizing the available resources of data- or telecommunication networks. Especially topics like optimal routing, load balancing and fast recovery of routes in case of link failures are covered. The first part gives a brief description of some of the existing protocols for routing and controlling resources, such as RSVP, OSPF, BGP, PNNI, etc. The remaining part concerns the following two fundamentally different approaches to resource management etc.: - Software agents - Simulated ants In the beginning of the part concerning software agents a description of what exactly constitutes software agents, according to the scientists and according to the organization, FIPA is given. After this, the main results from the IMPACT project are presented. The IMPACT project is an EU-project that aimed at developing a demonstration platform, where software agents handled virtually all aspects of ...
The Multiple Address Processing Unit (MAPU) of the AN/TGC-26 tape relay center was originally designed to process ACP 127 message format. With the advent of JANAP 128 as a standardized message format a pressing need was felt for a MAPU modification to all...
We present a framework for designing efficient distributed data structures for multi-dimensional data. Our structures, which we call skip-webs, extend and improve previous randomized distributed data structures, including skipnets and skip graphs. Our framework applies to a general class of data querying scenarios, which include linear (one-dimensional) data, such as sorted sets, as well as multi-dimensional data, such as d-dimensional octrees and digital tries of character strings defined over a fixed alphabet. We show how to perform a query over such a set of n items spread among n hosts using O(log n / log log n) messages for one-dimensional data, or O(log n) messages for fixed-dimensional data, while using only O(log n) space per host. We also show how to make such structures dynamic so as to allow for insertions and deletions in O(log n) messages for quadtrees, octrees, and digital tries, and O(log n / log log n) ...
College students are more at-risk for developing a gambling problem than the general adult U.S. population. Information behavior and information seeking theories, as well as empirical evidence, indicate that one resource that may provide guidance for students dealing with this issue is the college counseling center website (CCW). This study addressed the presence and nature of problem gambling messages on CCWs. As a random sample, 203 CCWs were selected to assess how frequently they provided any information about problem gambling, as well as the specific types of communications CCWs offered on this topic. Results showed that CCWs rarely included any messages about problem gambling. Specifically, only 15% of all CCWs contained information about problem gambling. Furthermore, messages about problem gambling were presented significantly less frequently than messages involving alcohol abuse, substance ...
Experimental results show that certain message passing algorithms, namely, Survey Propagation, are very effective in finding satisfying assignments for random satisfiable 3CNF formulas which are considered hard for other SAT heuristics. Unfortunately, rigorous understanding of this phenomena is still lacking. In this paper we make a modest step towards providing rigorous explanation for the effectiveness of message passing algorithms. We analyze the performance of Warning Propagation, a popular message passing algorithm that is simpler than Survey Propagation. We show that for 3CNF formulas drawn from a certain distribution over random satisfiable 3CNF formulas, commonly referred to as the planted-assignment distribution, running Warning Propagation in the standard way (run message passing until convergence, simplify the formula according to the resulting assignment, and satisfy the remaining ...
Despite the high practical relevance, prior research does not provide a clear picture whether the effectiveness of new product preannouncements is contingent upon order of entry and whether the message content of preannouncements for pioneering products should be different from those for followers. Drawing on diffusion research, the authors examine how preannouncements that focus on risk reduction and the product?s relative advantage influence the relationship between preannouncement intensity and new product success, taking into account order of entry. A cross-industry study investigating 151 new product launches shows that for pioneers, a message focus aimed at reducing perceived product risk positively influences preannouncement effectiveness. Furthermore, a relative advantage focus neg...
Based on the idea of dense coding of three-photon entangled state and qubit transmission in blocks, we present a multiparty controlled quantum secret direct communication scheme by using Greenberger Horne Zeilinger state. In the present scheme, the sender transmits three bits of secret message to the receiver directly and the secret message can only be recovered by the receiver under the permission of all the controllers. All three-photon entangled states are used to transmit the secret message except those chosen for eavesdropping check and the present scheme has a high source capacity because Greenberger Horne Zeilinger state forms a large Hilbert space.
The Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ) is silent on multiprocessor issues. It attempts not to preclude multiprocessor implementations but provides no direct support. Many areas of the RTSJ leave an implementation considerable freedom on how it provides the defined functionality. One such area is the asynchronous event handling (AEH) model. Events are fired and associated handlers are scheduled for execution in response; handlers have defined scheduling parameters and deadlines. The primary goal of the AEH model is to support a lightweight real-time concurrency model. Hence handlers, in general, do not have dedicated threads. Rather, the implementation is responsible for ensuring that all handlers meet their deadlines. Typically real-time threads are assigned to execute handlers by the...
BackgroundThis study focuses on the role of an Internet-based group for people who have an autoimmune liver disease, primary biliary cirrhosis. Primary biliary...Full Text Available
...Year nine students will be taught the importance of mateship in a bid to reduce risky behaviour and save lives as part of a school-based intervention program to be introduced in Queensland. 24.11.10 Safe sex saves schoolies from chlamydia The safe-sex message is failing to get ...
Using a theoretical framework of social support, and content analysis, the content and pattern of support in messages posted in a 4-week period on a commercial health network for individuals concerned...Full Text Available
Localized mRNA provides spatial and temporal protein expression essential to cell development and physiology. To explore the mechanisms involved, considerable effort has been spent in establishing new...Full Text Available
BackgroundWebsites of many rogue sellers of medications are accessible through links in email spam messages or via web search engines. This study examined...Full Text Available
We present a deterministic secure direct communication scheme via entanglement swapping, where a set of ordered maximally entangled three-particle states (GHZ states), initially shared by three spatially separated parties, Alice, Bob and Charlie, functions as a quantum information channel. After ensuring the safety of the quantum channel, Alice and Bob apply a series of local operations on their respective particles according to the tripartite stipulation and the secret message they both want to send to Charlie. By three of Alice, Bob and Charlie's Bell measurement results, Charlie is able to infer the secret messages directly. The secret messages are faithfully transmitted from Alice and Bob to Charlie via initially shared pairs of GHZ states without revealing any information to a potential eavesdropper. Since there is no transmission of the qubits carrying the secret message between any two of them in ...
A controlled bidirectional quantum secret direct communication scheme is proposed by using a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state. In the scheme, two users can exchange their secret messages simultaneously with a set of devices under the control of a third party. The security of the scheme is analysed and confirmed.
This article addresses the problem of how to ensure consistency in messages communicating public health recommendations on environmental health and on child health. The World Health Organization states...Full Text Available
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has put a high priority on the use of existing dynamic message signs (DMS) to provide travel time estimates to the public. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has three DMS in the Portland metropolitan ...
We propose a simultaneous quantum secure direct communication scheme between one party and other three parties via four-particle GHZ states and swapping quantum entanglement. In the scheme, three spatially separated senders, Alice, Bob and Charlie, transmit their secret messages to a remote receiver Diana by performing a series of local operations on their respective particles according to the quadripartite stipulation. From Alice, Bob, Charlie and Diana's Bell measurement results, Diana can infer the secret messages. If a perfect quantum channel is used, the secret messages are faithfully transmitted from Alice, Bob and Charlie to Diana via initially shared pairs of four-particle GHZ states without revealing any information to a potential eavesdropper. As there is no transmission of the qubits carrying the secret message in the public channel, it is completely secure for the direct secret ...
We analyse the capacity of a simultaneous quantum secure direct communication scheme between the central party and other M parties via M+1-particle GHZ states and swapping quantum entanglement. It is shown that the encoding scheme should be secret if other M parties wants to transmit M+1 bit classical messages to the centre party secretly. However, when the encoding scheme is announced publicly, we prove that the capacity of the scheme in transmitting the secret messages is 2 bits, no matter how large M is.
This is an inquiry-based module created specifically for use with the PhET simulation Geometric Optics. It includes a lesson plan for teaching about convex lenses, step-by-step student directions, and a set of Power Point "clicker" questions for use as warm-up questions or informal assessment. This resource is part of a larger collection of interactive Java simulations for students of physics, developed by the Physics Education Technology project at the University of Colorado.
... directed the transformation of designated Service operational headquarters into effective and scalable Joint Task Force headquarters capable of ...
At the end of 2005, Robert D. Felner was riding high. A well-paid dean at the University of Louisville, he had just secured a $694,000 earmarked grant from the U.S. Department of Education to create an elaborate research center to help Kentucky's public schools. The grant proposal, which Mr. Felner had labored over for months, made some impressive promises. On paper this all seemed plausible: From 1996 until 2003, Mr. Felner directed the University of Rhode Island's education school, where he helped create a well-regarded statewide research center. To put it gently, Mr. Felner did not duplicate that feat at Louisville. By the spring of 2008, all but $96,000 of the grant had been spent, but none of the tasks listed in Mr. Felner's proposal had been accomplished. Late in May 2008, he told his colleagues that he had been hired as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, effective August 1. During his final weeks at Louisville, Mr. Felner pressed his luck one last time. Even ...
Collective graphical models exploit inter-instance associative dependence to output more accurate labelings. However existing models support very limited kind of associativity which restricts accuracy gains. This paper makes two major contributions. First, we propose a general collective inference framework that biases data instances to agree on a set of {\\em properties} of their labelings. Agreement is encouraged through symmetric clique potentials. We show that rich properties leads to bigger gains, and present a systematic inference procedure for a large class of such properties. The procedure performs message passing on the cluster graph, where property-aware messages are computed with cluster specific algorithms. This provides an inference-only solution for domain adaptation. Our experiments on bibliographic information extraction illustrate significant test error reduction over unseen domains. Our second major contribution consists of ...
A sequential problem in decentralized detection is considered. Two observers can make repeated noisy observations of a binary hypothesis on the state of the environment. At any time, observer 1 can stop and send a final binary message to observer 2 or it may continue to take more measurements. Every time observer 1 postpones its final message to observer 2, it incurs a penalty. Observer 2's operation under two different scenarios is explored. In the first scenario, observer 2 waits to receive the final message from observer 1 and then starts taking measurements of its own. It is then faced with a stopping problem on whether to stop and declare a decision on the hypothesis or to continue taking measurements. In the second scenario, observer 2 starts taking measurements from the beginning. It is then faced with a different stopping problem. At any time, observer 2 can decide whether to stop and declare a decision on the ...
The practice of medical tourism depends on successfully informing potential patients about procedure options, treatment facilities, tourism opportunities, travel arrangements, and destination countries. The promotion of medical tourism includes a wide range of marketing materials such as flyers, booklets, and websites. Yet, there is a paucity of knowledge about the dissemination, content, and reception of these promotional materials. Drawing on a thematic content analysis of the promotional print material distributed at the first medical tourism trade show in Canada in 2009, the main purpose of this article is to identify and understand the messages and images that companies use to market India as a global destination. While researchers and news media frequently cite low cost procedures as...
This study validates a research model that examines usage of instant messaging (IM) from the aspect of online social support. Drawing on the social capital theory, this study postulates that IM usage is indirectly affected by social support via the mediation of the following six dimensions of social capital: commitment, reciprocity, shared codes and language, shared narratives, centrality, and network ties. The model tests data obtained from business organizations in Taiwan, and the results suggest that the indirect influence of social support on IM usage through shared codes and language is significant, and the indirect influence of social support on IM usage through centrality is also significant. Managerial implications and limitations of the empirical findings are provided.
The CleverFarm project started out to build an integrated monitoring system for wind farms, where all information would be available and could be used across the wind farm for maintenance and component health assessments. This would enable wind farm operators to prioritise their efforts, since they have a good view of the farm status from home. A large emphasis was placed on the integration of condition monitoring approaches in the central system, enabling estimates of the remaining lifetime of components, especially in the nacelle. During the 3,5 years of the project, software and hardware was developed and installed in two wind farms in Denmark and Germany. The connected hardware included two different condition monitoring systems based on vibration sensors from Gram&Juhl and ISET, plus a camera system developed by Overspeed. Additionally, short-term predictions of the wind farm output were delivered by DMI and Risoes Prediktor system throughout the period of the project. All ...
(1) Most ancillary services needed for real-time control of the transmission grid and to meet operating criteria can be competitively supplied and competitively procured. (2) The independent service operator (ISO) must directly control the generators and loads, which supply ancillary services. (3) Comparability of access to ancillary services is achievable through the ISO-based competitive market structure.
The Data Acquisition System for the CDMS II dark matter experiment was designed and built when the experiment moved to its new underground installation at the Soudan Lab. The combination of remote operation and increased data load necessitated a completely new design. Elements of the original LabView system remained as stand-alone diagnostic programs, but the main data processing moved to a VME-based system with custom electronics for signal conditioning, trigger formation and buffering. The data rate was increased 100-fold and the automated cryogenic system was linked to the data acquisition. A modular server framework with associated user interfaces was implemented in Java to allow control and monitoring of the entire experiment remotely.
Summary: SHAP (simple high-throughput annotation pipeline) is a lightweight and scalable sequence annotation pipeline capable of supporting research efforts that generate or utilize large volumes of DNA sequence data. The software provides Grid capable analysis, relational storage and Web-based full-text searching of annotation results. Implemented in Java, SHAP recognizes the limited resources of many smaller research groups. Availability: Source code is freely available under GPLv3 at External Link Not Shown. Contact: matt.demaere@unsw.edu.au; r.cavicchioli@unsw.edu.au
Discover Ext JS, one of today's most powerful and highly regarded JavaScript frameworks, with perhaps the best set of GUI widgets around, and a whole host of components that make developing client--side applications a breeze. Using a pragmatic approach, you'll dissect seven full--fledged applications, covering *How Ext JS allows you to create these applications with a slick user interface with a minimum of effort*How the other parts of Ext JS aside from the GUI widgets provide many of the capabilities modern applications need, such as Ajax and data mechanisms *How other technologies such as Ge
Technology developments in semiconductor fabrication along with a rapid expansion of the market for portable devices, such as PDAs and mobile phones, make the energy consumption of embedded systems a major problem. Indeed the need to provide an increasing number of computational intensive applications and at the same time to maximize the battery life of portable devices can be seen as incompatible trends. System simulation is a flexible and convenient method for analyzinging and exploring the performance of a system or sub-system. At the same time, the increasing use of computational intensive applications strengthens the need to maximize the battery life of portable devices. As a consequence, the simulation of embedded systems for energy consumption estimation is becoming essential in order to study and explore the influence of system design choices on the system energy consumption. The original publications presented in the second part of this thesis propose several frameworks for ...
Introduction: Selective dissemination of information (SDI) services regularly alert users to new information on their chosen topics. This type of service can increase a user's ability to...Full Text Available
BackgroundMany interventions found to be effective in health services research studies fail to translate into meaningful patient care outcomes across multiple contexts. Health services...Full Text Available
... 2010-10-01 false Child mental health. 1304.24 Section 1304.24 Public...HUMAN DEVELOPMENT SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES THE ADMINISTRATION...AGENCIES Early Childhood Development and Health Services § 1304.24 Child...
42 Public Health 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Health benefits plan: Supplemental health services. 417.102 Section 417.102 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF...
We present a scheme for three-party simultaneous quantum secure direct communication by using EPR pairs. In the scheme, three legitimate parties can simultaneously exchange their secret messages. It is also proved to be secure against the intercept-and-resend attack, the disturbance attack and the entangled-and-measure attack.
Recently, Wang et al. proposed a three-party simultaneous quantum secure direct communication (3P-SQSDC) scheme with EPR pairs, which enables three involved parties to exchange their secret messages simultaneously by using an EPR pair. This work proposed an enhancement on Wang et al.'s scheme. With the enhancement, the communications in the improved 3P-SQSDC can be paralleled and thus improves the protocol efficiency.
ABSTRACT Extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model, this study postulates a model of online social support. The model is empirically tested using data from undergraduates in Taiwan regarding their usage of instant messaging (IM). The test results indicate that all model paths are significant, except that the path between online social support and facilitating conditions is insignificant. This study offers limitations and implications.
Femtocell is emerging as a key technology to secure the coverage and capacity in indoor environments. However the deployment of a new femtocell layer may originate undesired interference to the whole system. This paper investigates spectrum resource coordination and interference management for the femtocell networks. A resource coordination scheme based on broadcasting resource coordination request messages by the femto mobile is proposed to reduce the system interference.
The Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen (EBNA I) present in latently infected cells is encoded in a 2-kilobase exon contained in the BamHI K viral genomic fragment. This exon is, however, found within...Full Text Available
Abstract Telecare has become an increasingly common medical service in recent years. However, new service must be close to the market and be market-driven to have a high likelihood of success. This article analyzes the business model of a telecardiology service managed by a general hospital. The methodology of the article is as follows: (1) initially it describes the elements of the service based on the ontology of the business model, (2) then it transfers these elements into the choices for business model dynamic loops and examines their validity, and (3) finally provides an empirical financial analysis of the service to assess the profit-making possibilities.
... WHS- Washington Headquarters Service. ... US Military (ie, Army, Navy, Air Force) service publications ... Strike Group to Fight in the Joint Task Force. ...
... WHS- Washington Headquarters Service. ... ie, Army, Navy, Air Force) service publications ... The Case of the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force. ...
Currently many service providers offer their services on a private and proprietary hard- and software infrastructure. These infrastructures often share many similarities. Hence we believe a generic service management architecture, that allows service providers to offer a large array of different services on a single infrastructure or multiple providers to offer their services cooperatively, would provide many advantages over current silo-based approaches. Additionally, by allowing the distributed service management components to cooperate in a peer-to-peer overlay network, scalability and resilience of the system could be greatly improved. In this paper we propose an optimal algorithm, based on an integer linear programming (ILP) formulation, and several heuristics to support such a generi...
... Joint Meritorious Award to DLA," Dimnsions Vol. ... recently the Defense Finance Accounting Services (DFAS ... gmbAt Service SUoDort Field Manual. ...
In many online systems, individuals provide services for each other. Typically, the recipient of the service obtains a benefit while the provider of the service incurs a cost. Assuming that benefit exceeds cost, provision of the service increases social welfare and should therefore be encouraged -- but the individuals providing the service gain no (immediate) benefit from providing the service and hence have an incentive to withhold service. This paper studies the design of a system to encourage provision of service; the emphasis is on how the system designer should choose a protocol -- a supply of tokens and suggested strategies -- to maximize social welfare. In choosing this protocol, the system designer must take into account that agents are self-interested, and hence will comply with the protocol if and only if it is ...
May 25, 2007 ... This form will generate a bibliography of cost estimating references. The form will search the NASA Technical Report Service (NTRS) database ...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of consumer demand for patient-oriented pharmacy services. Data, collected via a self-administered questionnaire distributed to 300 households,...Full Text Available
18 months service for FERS; 60 months service for CSRS employees. the period covered by your accrued, donated, and advanced sick leave & accrued and ...
Web Services and mobile data services are the newest trends in information systems engineering in wired and wireless domains, respectively. Web Services have a broad range of service distributions while mobile phones have large and expanding user base. To address the confluence of Web Services and pervasive mobile devices and communication environments, a basic mobile Web Service provider was developed for smart phones. The performance of this Mobile Host was also analyzed in detail. Further analysis of the Mobile Host to provide proper QoS and to check Mobile Host's feasibility in the P2P networks, identified the necessity of a mediation framework. The paper describes the research conducted with the Mobile Host, identifies the tasks of the mediation framework and then discusses the feasible realization details of such a mobile Web Services ...
This paper analyzes the diffusion of mobile telecommunications services in Vietnam and examines how telecommunications regulation and potential substitute/complement services affect the growth of the number of mobile telephone subscribers. Using a logistic diffusion model, it is found that fixed telephone services are a complement while data services have a negative relation to mobile telephone services in Vietnam. As for regulation, the policy of introducing competition has been found to be the most effective in influencing the adoption of mobile services. Another important result is that the estimated potential market is roughly 76% of the total population. The findings suggest that suitable regulation that guarantees competition in the mobile telecommunications market in a developing co...
Abstract We provide the first firm-level evidence of the impact of the trade in producer services (-offshoring-) on the labour market. Using a new data set from the UK that measures trade in services at the firm level, we find no evidence that importing intermediate services is associated with job losses or greater worker turnover. Using regression to control for observable differences between firms that import service inputs and those that do not, we show that firms that start importing intermediate services experience faster employment growth than equivalent firms that do not. This seems likely to be the result of positive demand shocks, which cause a simultaneous increase in employment, output, and use of imported service inputs.
First generation biofuels provide a number of ecosystem services (e.g., fuel, climate regulation) but they also compromise other ecosystem services (e.g., food, freshwater services) which are of paramount value to human wellbeing. However, this knowledge is fragmented and little is known about how the ecosystem services provided and/or compromised by biofuels link to human wellbeing. In fact, whether biofuels production and use can have a negative or positive impact on the environment and society depends on several interconnected factors. This paper provides a critical review of the drivers, impacts and tradeoffs of biofuel production and use. In particular, it rationalizes the evidence coming from diverse academic disciplines and puts it into perspective by employing the ecosystem service...
The difficulty in information communication and sharing are major problems for forest fire monitoring and early warning in China. As authors, we applied web service technology to a personal digital assistant (PDA) forest fire monitoring system and propose the framework of a monitoring system based on service-oriented architecture (SOA). At the same time, we describe the composition and function of web services from a server side and a client side. The method for developing a web service invocation engine on the PDA is introduced in detail. Finally, an example of a fire danger rating and fire weather services system are established, based on the Beijing Forest Fire Control System. The results show that the PDA forest fire monitoring system based on web services can effectively take advantag...
This paper presents the concept of a biological inspired reconfigurable hardware cell architecture which supports self-organisation and self-healing. Two fundamental processes in biology, namely fertilization-to-birth and cell self-healing have inspired the development of this cell architecture. In biology as well as in our hardware cell architecture it is the DNA which enables these processes. We propose a platform based on the electronic DNA (eDNA) and show through simulation, its capabilities as a new generation of robust reconfigurable hardware platforms. We have created a Java based simulator to simulate our self-organisation and self-healing algorithms and the results obtained from this looks promising.
Ethnopharmacological relevance: Ethnobotanically driven drug-discovery programs include data related to many aspects of the preparation of botanical medicines, from initial plant collection to chemical extraction and fractionation. The Traditional Medicine Collection Tracking System (TM-CTS) was created to organize and store data of this type for an international collaborative project involving the systematic evaluation of commonly used Traditional Chinese Medicinal plants. Materials and methods: The system was developed using domain-driven design techniques, and is implemented using Java, Hibernate, PostgreSQL, Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT), and Apache Tomcat. Results: The TM-CTS relational database schema contains over 70 data types, comprising over 500 data fields. Th...
Summary: Protein features are often displayed along the linear sequence of amino acids that make up that protein, but in reality these features occupy a position in the folded proteins 3D space. Mapping sequence features to known or predicted protein structures is useful when trying to deduce the function of those features and when evaluating sequence or structural predictions. To facilitate this goal, we developed PDBpaint, a simple tool that displays protein sequence features gathered from bioinformatics resources on top of protein structures, which are displayed in an interactive window (using the Jmol Java viewer). PDBpaint can be used either with existing protein structures or with novel structures provided by the user. The current version of PDBpaint allows the visualization of annot...
...comAbstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), once thought to be a rare tumor in North America, is a rapidly increasing type of cancer in recent years in the United States. Current treatment modalities to halt the disease progression are only marginally effective. The mainstay treatment ...In addition, NM was shown to down-regulate urokinase plasminogen activator (by fibrin zymography) and up-regulate tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (by reverse zymography) in another HCC cell line, Sk-Hep-1. MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities were further modulated by cytokines, inducers and inhibitors, including NM. In ... Our results suggest that NM is an excellent candidate for therapeutic use in the treatment HCC by inhibiting critical parameters in cancer development and progression, such as proliferation, invasion and metastasis, and by inducing apoptosis. Last update: 2 September 2011 JavaScript seems ...
Until recent years, those involved in the design, operation and regulation of nuclear power systems devoted more resources to forward movement than to the back end of the fuel cycle. Now, though, concerted thought and international cooperation have been devoted to the question of nuclear waste management. The expert consensus is that sufficient knowledge exists to make e.g. disposal decisions with an acceptable level of confidence. In the first phases of research, decision processes were adapted to the tasks at hand. However, at some point in each nuclearized country, there came a time when waste management implied finding repository sites. At that time management abruptly entered the social sphere - where unfortunate experience has shown time and time again that classical decision processes are not adapted to facilitating societal acceptance of management solutions. This paper recounts the various management frameworks that have been tested in a number of countries in the goal of ...
In this paper, we address the problem of K-out-of-L exclusion, a generalization of the mutual exclusion problem, in which there are $\\ell$ units of a shared resource, and any process can request up to $\\mathtt k$ units ($1\\leq\\mathtt k\\leq\\ell$). We propose the first deterministic self-stabilizing distributed K-out-of-L exclusion protocol in message-passing systems for asynchronous oriented tree networks which assumes bounded local memory for each process.
This report details an investigation into the efficacy of two approaches to solving the radiation diffusion equation within a radiation hydrodynamic simulation. Because leading-edge scientific computing platforms have evolved from large single-node vector processors to parallel aggregates containing tens to thousands of individual CPU's, the ability of an algorithm to maintain high compute efficiency when distributed over a large array of nodes is critically important. The viability of an algorithm thus hinges upon the tripartite question of numerical accuracy, total time to solution, and parallel efficiency.
In source coding, either with or without side information at the decoder, the ultimate performance can be achieved by means of random binning. Structured binning into cosets of performing channel codes has been successfully employed in practical applications. In this letter it is formally shown that various convolutional- and turbo-syndrome decoding algorithms proposed in literature lead in fact to the same estimate. An equivalent implementation is also delineated by directly tackling syndrome decoding as a maximum a posteriori probability problem and solving it by means of iterative message-passing. This solution takes advantage of the exact same structures and algorithms used by the conventional channel decoder for the code according to which the syndrome is formed.
The ubiquitous presence of mobile communication devices and the continuous development of mo- bile data applications, which results in high level of mobile devices' activity and exchanged data, often transparent to the user, makes privacy preservation an important feature of mobile telephony systems. We present a formal analysis of the UMTS Authentication and Key Agreement protocol, using the applied pi-calculus and the ProVerif tool. We formally verify the model with respect to privacy properties. We show a linkability attack which makes it possible, for individuals with low-cost equipment, to trace UMTS subscribers. The attack exploits information leaked by poorly designed error messages.
In this paper, we proposed a novel quantum secure direct communication scheme with one-time pad in stabilizer formalism. Based on the reuse of qubit sequence, an efficient secure communication of secret messages without first producing a shared secret key can be achieved. One hence may find that the amount of private key needed for quantum communication is smaller than that in the general case. Therefore, the present protocol which is feasible with the present-day techniques may be applied to quantum communication with short-length encoding.
The capability of nodes to broadcast their message to the entire wireless network when nodes employ cooperation is considered. We employ an asymptotic analysis using an extended random network setting and show that the broadcast performance strongly depends on the path loss exponent of the medium. In particular, as the size of the random network grows, the probability of broadcast in a one-dimensional network goes to zero for path loss exponents larger than one, and goes to a nonzero value for path loss exponents less than one. In two-dimensional networks, the same behavior is observed for path loss exponents above and below two, respectively.
Remotely-fielded unattended sensor networks generally must operate at very low power--in the milliwatt or microwatt range--and thus have extremely limited communications bandwidth. Such sensors might be asleep most of the time to conserve power, waking only occasionally to transmit a few bits. RFID tags for tracking or material control have similarly tight bandwidth constraints, and emerging nanotechnology devices will be even more limited. Since transmitted data is subject to spoofing, and since sensors might be located in uncontrolled environments vulnerable to physical tampering, the high-consequence data generated by such systems must be protected by cryptographically sound authentication mechanisms; but such mechanisms are often lacking in current sensor networks. One reason for this undesirable situation is that standard authentication methods become impractical or impossible when bandwidth is severely constrained; if messages are small, a standard digital ...
Because of heightened media coverage, a 24-hour news cycle and the potential miscommunication of health messages across all levels of government during the onset of the H1N1 influenza outbreak in spring 2009, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) decided to evaluate its H1N1 influenza A communications system. IDPH wanted to confirm its disease information and instructions were helping stakeholders prepare for and respond to a novel influenza outbreak. In addition, the time commitment involved in preparing, issuing, monitoring, updating, and responding to H1N1 federal guidelines/updates and media stories became a heavy burden for IDPH staff. The process and results of the H1N1 messaging survey represent a best practice that other health departments and emergency management agencies can replicate to improve coordination efforts with stakeholder groups during both emergency preparedness and response phases. Importantly, the H1N1 survey ...
Purpose - To study the optimization of a randomized control problem in an M/G/1 queue in which a removable and unreliable server may provide two phases of heterogeneous service to arriving customers. Design/methodology/approach - Arriving customers follow a Poisson process and require the first essential service (FES). As soon as FES of a customer is completed, the customer may leave the system or opt for the second optional service (SOS). The service times of FES channel and SOS channel are assumed to be general distribution functions. The server requires a startup time with random length before starting service. When the server is working, he may meet unpredictable breakdowns but is immediately repaired. The inter-breakdown time and repair time of the removable server are exponentially r...
Managing service quality is vital to retain customer satisfaction and augment revenues for any business organization. Often it is difficult to assess service quality due to lack of quantifiable measures and limited data. In this paper, we present a hybrid approach based on SERVQUAL and fuzzy TOPSIS for evaluating service quality of urban transportation systems. The proposed approach consists of three steps. The first step involves development of a SERVQUAL based questionnaire to collect data for measuring transportation service quality. The participants provide linguistic assessments to rate the service quality criteria and the alternatives. In step 2, the linguistic ratings are combined through fuzzy TOPSIS to generate an overall performance score for each alternative. The alternative wit...
Understanding Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) documentation and coding rules is challenging for most physicians. To accurately bill for clinical services, physicians must learn a system that may initially seem daunting, but is in fact governed by a small number of straightforward rules. The Evaluation and Management (E/M) guidelines for all service codes specify 3 components: history, examination, and medical decision-making, each with a defined set of elements or characteristics. Service coding is based on the level of care supported by the number of history and examination elements and the complexity of decision-making. This article will clarify the guidelines for outpatient clinical services and suggest a practical method of selecting appropriate E/M codes. Because physicians must often choose between billing codes 99213 and 99214 for a visit by an established ...
OBJECTIVE: To use Medicaid claims data to construct patient origin-based market areas for dental services and compare constructed market areas with those based on the practice county. DATA SOURCES:...Full Text Available
BackgroundHIV/AIDS is a major public health concern in Uganda. There is widespread consensus that weak health systems hamper the effective provision of HIV/AIDS services. In recent...Full Text Available
Goals of workThe goal of this study was to evaluate, at a population level, the association between specialized palliative care services (SPCS) and short- and long-term caregiver...Full Text Available
The objectives of this study were to evaluate the current fitness of an area ambulance service based in Belfast and to quantify the physiological demands of accident and emergency work. From a total...Full Text Available
BackgroundObtaining comprehensive health outcomes and health services utilization data on stroke patients has been difficult. This research grew out of a memorandum...Full Text Available
Officers receive service-specific education and undergo experiences within their components that provide the expert knowledge that enables them to operate in their respective military departments. Given the Department of Defense (DoD) emphasis on service ...
BackgroundRestrictions on the nonurgent use of hospital services were imposed in March 2003 to control an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Toronto, Ont. We...Full Text Available
Distributed denial of service attacks are often considered a security problem. While this may be the way to view the problem with today's Internet, new network architectures attempting to address the issue should view it as a scalability problem. In addition, they need to address the problem based on a rigorous foundation.
The goal of community-based services for frail older patients is to help them achieve the greatest degree of functional ability and independence. The services available include case management, geriatric...Full Text Available
Scoping studies have been used across a range of disciplines for a wide variety of purposes. However, their value is increasingly limited by a lack of definition and clarity of purpose. The UK's Service...Full Text Available
ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to determine the contribution of distance to hospitals with cardiac interventional services (CIS) to county age-adjusted myocardial infarction...Full Text Available
42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false 2-Health Professions Recruitment Program for Indians J Subdivision J Public Health PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES...
... values and unless special precautions and equipment are used, it would be very difficult to service and maintain operational jet-fuel systems with ...
... If the terminal classes were to be information sources ... current credibility of inputs by classes of terminals; the most ... the stochastic queue lengths. ...
Repair and maintenance for equipment used in the Belchatow brown coal mine and organizational models of repair services in the mine are discussed. Maintenance of earthmoving equipment, spreaders, bucket wheel excavators, loaders and other coal handling equipment, belt conveyors and drive systems for belt conveyors is discussed. Repair shops in the mine also manufacture about 35% of spare parts and elements for equipment used in the mine. Reliability of mining equipment, repairs and repair capacity of the shops are discussed. Organizational models of repair services, equipment used by these services and repair personnel are described. Effects of repair services on operation of the mine are evaluated.
digital libraries, which was identified as a national challenge in the Information ... The linkages between the many digital libraries and information services are ...
However, market based pricing does not apply where the pricing requirements for specific services or .... Market based pricing only applies to the extent ...
The purpose of this presentation is to provide an in-depth discussion of the possible evolution of unbundling of services in a competitive environment. The author discusses unbundling from both a technical/engineering and an economic perspective. The main thrust of the talk is threefold: (a) that in the long run the potential for unbundling of services is extremely large from an engineering perspective; (b) that the form of the initial industry structure will have an important impact on the extent of service unbundling; and (c) that unbundling of wholesale related services is where most of the initial demand will be. (A) Engineering Perspectives on Unbundling: A large proportion of ancillary services can be provided in a competitive framework with current technologies. The author discusses those that current technologies may not facilitate such a decentralized approach. (B) The ...
By the year 2000, the Postal Service aims to reduce its diesel transport by around 15000 vehicles. The advisory service, Detecon, is reviewing alternatives for postal deliveries as part of the ''Post 2000'' initiative. One such system is an electric-powered vehicle with a zinc-air battery from the Israeli firm Electric Fluid Limited (EFL). (orig.)
A century of technical development put steam turbines on a high level regarding efficiency and reliability. This procedure is still ongoing. The technological-commercial point of view - influenced intensively by liberalisation of the energy-market - makes great demands on field services. Well suited concepts in service and modernization are the solutions, as shown in NPP Emsland upgrade.
This standard describes requirements and provides guidelines for the control of activities to be exercised during procurement of items and services which affect the quality of nuclear power plants. These requirements and guidelines apply to procurement activities for items and services such as designing, purchasing, fabricating, handling, shipping, storage, cleaning, constructing, erecting, installing, inspecting, testing, maintaining, repairing, initial fueling, refueling, and modifying.
Requirements and guidelines are provided for the control of activities to be exercised during procurement of items and services which affect the quality of nuclear facilities. These requirements and guidelines apply to procurement activities for items and services such as designing, purchasing, fabricating, handling, shipping, storing, cleaning, constructing, erecting, installing, inspecting, texting, maintaining and modifying.
The Health Physics, Safety and Medical Services Report for Harwell Laboratory for 1989 includes data on the monitoring of the working environment, personnel monitoring, radiological incidents, disposal of radioactive waste and protection of the public. Work on emergency planning, non-radiological health and safety, occupational hygiene, operations support is also discussed. Finally the medical services available and the medical examinations performed are described. (UK).
... Most of the received offers were ecolabelled cleaning products and were not more expensive than conventional products. Case 3: The procurement of sustainable cleaning services 104kB Eight cooperating municipalities in the Netherlands needed a new contractor for cleaning services. They wanted to use SPP criteria as well as finding a social employment organisation. SPP criteria for cleaning services were used to set minimum requirements in ...
42 Public Health 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Health benefits plan: Basic health services. 417.101 Section 417.101 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND...
The rapid pace of competitive change in the generation sector has pushed electric utilities to rethink the concept of being obligated to serve all customers and with this change, the notion of measuring customer profitability is also being redefined. Traditionally, uniform services were provided to all customers. Rates were based on each customer classes` contribution to average costs, and consequently return was equally allocated across all customer segments. Profitability was defined strictly on an aggregate basis. The increasing demand for choice by electric customers will require electricity providers to redefine if not who they serve, than certainly how they provide differentiated services tailored to specific customer segments. Utilities are beginning to analyze the value, or profitability, of offering these services. Aggregate data no longer provides an accurate assessment of how resources should be allocated most ...
Home economics is a dynamic field that imparts knowledge intended to help people adapt to their environment by making effective use of human and material resources. Hence, the profession values global concerns for the environment, human rights, health, and well-being. In Nigeria, home economics teachers must also consider the role they play in programs such as family life education, poverty alleviation, and universal basic education. In particular, home economics is one of the subjects through which core messages of the country's Population and Family Life Education program are to be integrated at the secondary school level. In this article, the author discusses the outcomes of this program and provides recommendations for teachers teaching this subject. (Contains 1 table and 1 resource.)
A Real-Time Operating System(RTOS) is an Operating System(OS) intended for real-time applications. Benchmarking is a point of reference by which something can be measured. The QNX is a Real Time Operating System(RTOS) developed by QSSL(QNX Software Systems Ltd.) in Canada. The ELMSYS is the brand name of commercially available Personal Computer(PC) for applications such as Cabinet Operator Module(COM) of Digital Plant Protection System(DPPS) and COM of Digital Engineered Safety Features Actuation System(DESFAS). The ELMSYS PC Hardware is being qualified by KTL(Korea Testing Lab.) for use as a Cabinet Operator Module(COM). The QNX RTOS is being dedicated by Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). This paper describes the outline and benchmarking test results on Context Switching, Message Passing, Synchronization and Deadline Violation of QNX RTOS under the ELMSYS PC platform
Modern HENP experiments such as CMS and Atlas involve as many as 2000 collaborators around the world. Collaborations this large will be unable to meet often enough to support working closely together. Many of the tools currently available for collaboration focus on heavy-weight applications such as videoconferencing tools. While these are important, there is a more basic need for tools that support connecting physicists to work together on an ad hoc or continuous basis. Tools that support the day-to-day connectivity and underlying needs of a group of collaborators are important for providing light-weight, non-intrusive, and flexible ways to work collaboratively. Some example tools include messaging, file-sharing, and shared plot viewers. An important component of the environment is a scalable underlying communication framework. In this paper we will describe our current progress on building a dynamic and ad hoc collaboration environment and our vision for its ...
Objectification theory contends that women are socialized to view their body as an object to be evaluated by others (Fredickson and Roberts 1997). In contrast, pregnancy may be a time that women are more attuned to their body?s functionality. Extending objectification theory, we investigate relationships among body surveillance, awareness and appreciation of body functionality, depressive symptoms, and prenatal health behaviors among an on-line sample of 156 predominantly White, middle-class pregnant women from throughout the U.S recruited through maternity stores, message boards, listservs, and snowballing techniques. We examine whether higher levels of awareness and appreciation of body functionality may attenuate, and thereby possibly protect women from the negative effects of high body...
In this paper, we present a very important primitive called Information Checking Protocol (ICP) which plays an important role in constructing statistical Verifiable Secret Sharing (VSS) and Weak Secret Sharing (WSS) protocols. Informally, ICP is a tool for authenticating messages in the presence of computationally unbounded corrupted parties. Here we extend the basic bare-bone definition of ICP, introduced by Rabin et al. and then present an ICP that attains the best communication complexity and round complexity among all the existing ICPs in the literature. We also show that our ICP satisfies several interesting properties such as linearity property which is an important requirement in many applications of ICP. Though not presented in this paper, we can design communication and round efficient statistical (i.e involves negligible error probability in computation) VSS and Multiparty Computation (MPC) protocol using our new ICP.
This analysis of the June 8, 1976 California Nuclear Initiative was prepared by the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. The defeat of Proposition 15 in the California election was successful for several reasons. A record 70 percent of the voters in California went to the polls and 97 percent of those voted on the nuclear issue with the results showing defeat by two-to-one. Apparently, the voters perceived the Nuclear Initiative as being too drastic. The campaign for defeat of the initiative stressed the consequences of closing down existing plants and closing off the nuclear option in California, namely: higher costs, job losses, and less-desirable alternatives. The campaign waged for the Initiative seems to have suffered from weak management and lack of consistent messages.
The content of the courseware for this CD-ROM on Foundry Operations is designed to teach college engineering students and practicing engineers the conepts of foundry operations involving: mold-making, charging of blast furnace and cupola furnace, metal melting, pouring of molten metal into mold to make castings, and computation of mold-metal interface forces. There is an interactivity between students and this instructional program through animation and robot application. Students are able to input data into the software and get a response. For an example, if wrong data are put into calculating the mold-metal interface forces, the molten metal will run over the mold, showing a negative response. Messages will flag and will indicate what to do to correct the situation.
In this paper an efficient quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) scheme with authentication is presented, which is based on quantum entanglement and polarized single photons. The present protocol uses Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) pairs and polarized single photons in batches. A particle of the EPR pairs is retained in the sender's station, and the other is transmitted forth and back between the sender and the receiver, similar to the ``ping-pong'' QSDC protocol. According to the shared information beforehand, these two kinds of quantum states are mixed and then transmitted via a quantum channel. The EPR pairs are used to transmit secret messages and the polarized single photons used for authentication and eavesdropping check. Consequently, because of the dual contributions of the polarized single photons, no classical information is needed. The intrinsic efficiency and total efficiency are both 1 in this scheme as almost all of the instances are useful and ...
As a partial solution to the problem of increasing foreign petroleum imports,urban congestion, and air pollution from automobiles, NREL researchers have successfully demonstrated a transportation concept called Transit-On-Demand (TOD). TOD uses the global positioning system (GPS) to locate all vehicles in a fleet, two-way communications between the vehicles and a central computer-server, and advanced dispatching and routing software to control the movement of vehicles within the fleet. Reducing the vehicle-miles-travelled (VMTs) through implementing efficient transportation systems such as TOD, results in less energy being required for transportation and a decrease in the amount of required imported petroleum. Through development of an advanced world wide web site and use of the new Java{trademark} Internet programming language, the demonstration allows visitors to the web site to see updates of vehicle position on a map every 20 seconds,while effectively ...
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspects domestic and imported meat and poultry food products to assure the public that they are safe, wholesome, not economically adulterated and properly labeled. The Service also monitors the activities of meat and poultry plants and related activities in allied industries, and establishes standards and approves labels for meat and poultry products. As part of its responsibility, shortly after the Chernobyl accident occurred, FSIS developed a plan to assess this accident's impact on domestically produced and imported meat and poultry
We present the results obtained from tests and studies carried out on the model of tube bundles for a PGV-1000 horizontal steam generator that were conducted for experimentally substantiating the design service life of a steam generator tube bundle intended for use at new nuclear power stations equipped with a PGV-1000MKP steam generator. Measures taken to minimize the incipience and development of local corrosion damage to the heat-transfer tubes and ensure their design service life are substantiated and confirmed.
This document defines the services the Waste Sampling and Characterization Facility (WSCF) shall provide Effluent Monitoring (EM) throughout the calendar year for analysis. The internal memo contained in Appendix A identifies the samples Em plans to submit for analysis in CY-1995. Analysis of effluent (liquid and air discharges) and environmental (air, liquid, animal, and vegetative) samples is required using standard laboratory procedures, in accordance with regulatory and control requirements. This report describes regulatory reporting requirements and WSCF services and data quality objectives.
This student manual, part of a small-engine repair series on servicing fuel systems, is designed for use by special needs students in Texas. The manual explains in pictures and short sentences, written on a low reading level, the job of servicing two-piece flo-jet carburetors. Along with the steps of this repair job, specific safety and caution information is frequently noted. To reinforce consistency in material presented to the slow learners, the pictures and written words correspond exactly with the pictures and wording on a corresponding audiovisual presentation. A progress chart for rating the students is included in the manual. (KC)
The Dental Investigation Service, USAFSAM, Brooks AFB, has outlined the need for a vacuum unit to be used in the Air Force dental clinics. The unit must be capable of effectively picking up mercury and at the same time not redistribute mercury vapors throughout the dental clinic during normal operations or mercury-spill situations. The Dental Investigation Service selected the MRS-3, Minuteman Mercury Recovery System, product of American Cleaning Equipment Corporation as the mercury vacuum to be used for T E. The USAF OEHL/ECH was requested by the Dental Investigation Service to perform the T E on the MRS-3 for possible health hazards due to exposures of mercury vapors.
This article discusses the Daya Bay nuclear power plant in-core flux thimble tube in-service inspection method and strategy. High light of the multiple frequency eddy current technology adopted including frequency and probe choice, standard design, data acquisition process are involved. The wear defect-growing trends are studied on base of the history data, which contribute to the in-service inspection strategy decision. (authors)
Huntsville, Alabama Utilities has successfully provided services for over 53 years. However, the quality of service demands from customers are changing every day! Part of this demand is due to updated digital appliances, home and business computers, and automated systems. A quality program was initiated in 1992 as a result of an internal assessment. The Malcolm Baldrige approach was selected which includes seven areas: (1) Leadership; (2) Information and Analysis; (3) Strategic Planning; (4) Human Resource Utilization; (5) Quality Assurance of Products and Services: (6) Quality Results: (7) Customer Satisfaction. Training for and implementation of the Quality program is discussed in detail.
Results are summarized of a study on concrete component aging and its significance relative to continued service of nuclear power plants (NPPs) beyond the initial period for which they were granted operating licenses. Progress is presented of a second study being conducted to identify and provide acceptance criteria for structural safety issues which the USNRC staff will need to address when applications are submitted for continued service of NPPs. Major activities under this program include: development of a materials property data base, establishment of structural component assessment and repair procedures, and development of a methodology for determination of structural reliability. 19 refs., 5 figs., 3 tabs.
Ubiquitous computing based on small mobile devices using wireless communication links is becoming very attractive. The computational power and storage capacities provided allow the execution of sophisticated applications. Due to the fact that sharing of information is a central problem for distributed applications, the development of self organizing middleware services providing high level interfaces for information managing is essential. ADS is a directory service for mobile ad-hoc networks dealing with local and nearby information as well as providing access to distant information. The approach discussed throughout this paper is based upon the concept of information markets.
If you are a FERS employee (the current retirement system), you lose your sick leave if you do not return to Federal service. If you separate from the Federal ...
Lake Unit AL-05P, for public review and comment. These four CBRS units are located in Baldwin and Mobile Counties, Alabama. We invite the public to review and comment on the draft...
As competition in the service industry grows, delivering high-quality service to meet customers' needs and expectations becomes paramount. In order to achieve a thorough understanding of customers, companies are increasingly adopting Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiatives. However, CRM does not have the process vision necessary to cope with complex and cross-functional processes. This problem is better handled by Business Process Management (BPM) initiatives, which, by their turn, struggle to built-in customer intelligence in their systems. Based upon systems theory, we discuss the roles of CRM and BPM in an integrated approach to deliver customer fulfillment. As the evolution of service-oriented approaches requires us to consider both customer interactions and experiences as k...
Denturism, an organized movement by dental laboratory technicians to increase their control over the provision of denture services to the public, has generated a great deal of controversy among members...Full Text Available
This paper presents an innovative way in which university education can help pre-service teachers become better problem-solvers. The central idea is to use the ?Technology Fair?? as a means for promoting pre-service teachers pedagogical content knowledge about technological problem solving skills. This innovation is supported with results from a study carried out in autumn 2004. The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of a procedure of working with primary school children to complete and present a technology fair project, on the educational value and meanings attached to problem solving skills by pre-service teachers. Pre-tests, mid-test and post-tests were administered to the pre-service teachers before, during, and after the preparation of the technology fair, respectiv...
... P ) FERS 4 ... i 25. Opportunity for better fringe benefits 1 outside of the Federal Sector (eg, sick leave, _ annual leave, health or life insurance) .... ...
The long-term health consequences of war service remain unclear, despite burgeoning scientific interest. A longitudinal cohort study of a random sample of Australian Vietnam veterans was designed to assess veterans' postwar physical and mental health 36 years after the war (2005-2006) and to examine its relation to Army service, combat, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) assessed 14 years previously (1990-1993). Prevalences in veterans (n = 450) were compared with those in the Australian general population. Veterans' Army service and data from the first assessments were evaluated using multivariate logistic regression prediction modeling. Veterans' general health and some health risk factors were poorer and medical consultation rates were higher than Australian population expectatio...
... Title : The Numerical Weather Prediction System at the Italian Air Force Weather Service: Impact of Non-Conventional Observations and Increased ...
Applying for AAO scheduled time Applying for AAT service time Applying for Gemini Time Travel and Accommodation AAT Schedule UKST Schedule Instrument capabilities and...
The spectre of exclusionary medical service provision, restricted clinic access and physician targeting in sectarian-divided Iraq underscores the crucial and timely need for qualitative research into the inter-relationship between conflict, identity and health. In response, this paper provides a critical ethnography of obstetric service provision and patient access during Shia-Sunni hostilities in Gilgit Town, capital of Pakistans Northern Areas (2005). I analyse how services were embedded in and constrained by sectarian affiliation in ways that detrimentally impacted Sunni women patients and hospital staff, resulting in profoundly diminished clinic access, reduced physician coverage and a higher observed incidence of maternal morbidity and mortality. The paper first situates obstetric med...
This paper addresses the unique structural requirements for successful conversion of tankers for floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) or floating storage and offloading (FSO) service. A description is given of the steps undertaken during two recent and very different conversions of a highly optimized 1980s VLCC to FPSO service, and a typical robust 1970s ULCC to FSO service. The paper describes the steps needed for ensuring the FPSO or FSO requirements are successfully met during conversion of the two tankers - each having its own history, e.g. date of build, original design, material choices, class society, voyage history and repairs. Firstly, the paper describes the procedure and results of an early initial structural assessment procedure on the basis of an American Bureau o...
The purpose of this statement of work (SOW) is to establish laboratory analytical criteria and requirements for radioactive airborne emissions measurement sample and/or analysis activities.
This program deals with solid waste disposal with topics/services covering: Reusable Building Materials and Large Household Items Exchange, Beneficial Use Determination, Biosolids, Certification, Compost Facil...
Programs & Services Technical Resources Land Use Soils Water Snow Survey & Water Supply Water Management Water Quality Watersheds Wetlands Air Plants & Animals Energy Climate...
... f(i, k, α) if node k is the terminal node for ... under which the mean service rate at queue (i, k ... occur frequently in studies of stability in stochastic networks ...
Four low activation alloy classes, two austenitic and two ferritic, have been incorporated into the MOTA-1B experiment in the FFTF reactor to provide an early assessment of the suitability of such alloys for reactor service.
Recent Reviews in Carcinogenesis is a service of the International Cancer Research Data Bank (ICRDB) Program of the National Cancer Institute, intended to facilitate and promote the exchange of information between cancer scientists. It contains abstracts ...
BackgroundHealth service databases of administrative type can be a useful tool for the study of progression of a disease, but the data reported in such sources could be affected...Full Text Available
voluntarily provided by you. Network Traffic Logs In the course of ensuring network security and consistent service for all users, the University employs software programs to...
Apr 7, 2011 ... You cannot be in any type of pay status (e.g., annual leave, sick leave, .... Retirement System (FERS) and the Civil Service Retirement System ...
Divergence betyveen aircraft engine emission regulations pro- posed by EPA and ICAO is discussed Every engine, upon entering service, requires a certificate ...
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Mangroves are disappearing rapidly worldwide despite their well documented biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide. Failure to link ecological processes and their societal benefits has...Full Text Available
Apr 18, 2011 ... TOA period, sick leave may be granted for the period of ..... civil service retirement under the CSRS and FERS retirement programs. ...
Jan 31, 2006 ... Sick leave accrues at the rate of 1 hour for each 20 hour in a pay status. ... FERS: All periods of service are used in determining the FERS ...
... of China Lake Naval Weapons Center, California. ... Figure 4: The Space-Based Laser cleaning ... of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Space 2001 ...
Skip Over Navigation Links U.S. Department of Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health NIH...Turning Discovery into Health For Employees Staff Directory En Español...
Space Network Ku-band service. ... Completed GLAST mission schedule and budget assessment .... Utilize Ku band SN link (TDRSS) for science data return ...
... content of the environment) are significant factors affecting the useful service life of adhesive bonded plastic composite sandwich panels at 650 F ...
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MCrAlY coatings are widely used on hot section components of gas turbines to provide hot corrosion and/or oxidation protection by formation of an oxide layer on the surface. As the protective oxide scale exfoliates during service, aluminum from the coating diffuses outward for reformation of the protective scale. Aluminum may also diffuse inward due to the differences in composition between the coating and the substrate. Thus, the coatings degrade due to oxidation, oxide scale spallation, and inward and outward diffusion of aluminum. Service life of these coatings is controlled by the aluminum content in the coating, operating temperature and start- shutdown cycles. In-service degradation of CoCrAlY and CoNiCrAlY coatings is presented. A procedure to predict the remaining service life of coatings under oxidizing conditions is discussed. (orig.) 12 refs.
ObjectivesCoastal ecosystems in developing countries supply a diverse range of services to local communities and national economies, including fish production, protection against floods and storms and support to tourism. Multiple drivers of change are influencing the status of the ecosystems, most of which are anthropogenic (Brown et al., 2006). Managing coastal ecosystems requires recognition of the diverse range of uses and users, and coordination between structures and processes, many of which are curr [continued...]DescriptionCommitment to the management of coastal ecosystems through addressing both ecological and social objectives already exists in East and Southern Africa (Glavovic 2006; Gustavson et al. 2009). More understanding, however, of the ecosystem services of priority to the poor and to poverty alleviation would strengthen the capacity of these initiatives to deliver on poverty alleviation and resource sustainability. The coastal ...
pumped storage plants; but these must be built as well since there is no correspondence with the pump and turbine operating times governed by normal network ...
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The Systems Development Group and the Pharmacy Service of the Washington D.C. VAMC are involved in automating the administrative and clinical data requirements of a satellite out-patient pharmacy....Full Text Available
within the United States for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Photo Credit: USFWS/Steve Hillebrand Kenai National Wildlife...
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade services designed to assist businesses to effectively operate in global markets, were described. The goal of the Department is to give strategic targeted information that extends beyond export opportunities to include market access, investment, strategic alliances, technology transfer and competitiveness issues. These services constitute the Department`s Trade Commissioner Service, a network of 600 officers, deployed in 128 embassies and consulates worldwide to support Canadian business development initiatives across 16 sectors of the government`s International Trade Business Plan (ITBP). The Trade Commissioner Service programs include the WIN exporters database, a trade inquiries sourcing team, International Financial Institutions (IFI) projects, and the Program for Export Market Development (PEMD). A series of Sectoral Advisory Groups on ...
This paper presents a new mathematical model for designing distribution networks in a supply chain system considering service level constraint optimizing strategic decisions (location), tactical decisions (inventory), and assigning decisions. In real-world cases, demand, traveling time or any parameters in classical models may change over the period of time. So, considering uncertainty yields more flexibility for the results and the proposed model. In our study, environmental uncertainty is described by discrete scenarios. In this model, we have service level constraint in order to prevent inventory lost in distribution centers (DCs). Also, we assume that customer's demand is stochastic with Poisson distribution function and DCs have coverage radius constraints thus any DC cannot service a...
The report gives results of a second survey of the flue gas desulfurization (FGD) system on Unit 1 of Arizona Public Service Co.'s Cholla Station. The FGD system, commercially available in December 1973, uses a limestone slurry in two parallel scrubbing m...
The transfer function concept is well known as an additional method to evaluate the impulse test of power transformers in the test laboratory. Another application for the transfer function method is monitoring of transformers in service. Thereby, Off-line and On-line monitoring can be realized. Both kinds of monitoring are demonstrated with on-site measurements on a power transformer in service.
meyer r.m. & o’brien-pallas l.l. (2010)Nursing services delivery theory: an open system approach. Journal of Advanced Nursing66(12), 2828–2838.AimThis...Full Text Available
... The structure comprises piled foundations supporting a steel frame, and is clad in both masonry and rainscreen cladding systems. The hotel is adjacent to the recently redeveloped bus station in the centre of Norwich. Related Services Structural Design Go View all Services Find Projects Sector All Sectors Buildings & Infrastructure Environment Natural Resources Transportation Sub Sector All Sub-Sectors Country All Countries Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina ...
... Further complications resulted from the requirement to use existing piled foundations and columns which had originally been designed to accommodate a six-storey office block. The hotel bedroom configurations and planning constraints were different from thos Related Services Structural Design Go View all Services Find Projects Sector All Sectors Buildings & Infrastructure Environment Natural Resources Transportation Sub Sector All Sub-Sectors Country All Countries Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Australia Azerbaijan ...
The concept of forestry-service enterprise used in the joint study (1997-7999) by the TTS-Institute and the Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) refers to enterprises and co-operatives (including forest workers operating as entrepreneurs) offering services in the fields of silviculture, basic forest improvement, planning and wood-harvesting sector. Companies practicing large-scale wood-conversion and traditional forestry-machine and road haulage contractors are not included in this approach. It can be estimated that there is a total of 450 such entrepreneurs in the country Those engaged in only a minor degree in providing forestry services are not included in the figure. The nation-wide research material was collected in the form of a mail questionnaire addressed to forestry-service entrepreneurs (n=320) in the spring of 1998. Almost all forestry-service entrepreneurs provide ...
Background:Timely access to publicly funded health services is a priority issue across the healthcare continuum in Canada. The purpose of this study was to examine wait list management...Full Text Available
BackgroundEffectiveness of services for patients diagnosed with severe mental illness (SMI) may improve when treatment plans are needs based. A regional Cumulative Needs for Care...Full Text Available
Leveraging the potential power of even small handheld devices able to communicate wirelessly requires dedicated support. In particular, collaborative applications need sophisticated assistance in terms of querying and exchanging different kinds of data. Using a concrete example from the domain of mobile learning, the general need for information dissemination is motivated. Subsequently, and driven by infrastructural conditions, realization strategies of an appropriate middleware service are discussed.
Using histopathologic diagnoses made on necropsy material from 3,024 military working dogs (MWDs) who died from 1968 to 1973, we analyzed the effect of military service in the Republic of Vietnam on testicular pathology. Among 1,048 MWDs that died in Vietnam and had no reported developmental risk factors for testicular disease, significant excesses of testicular hemorrhage, epididymitis/orchitis, sperm granuloma, testicular degeneration, and seminoma were evident. Among 126 MWDs with prior Vietnam service who died at other duty stations outside Vietnam from 1968 to 1973, significant excesses of testicular degeneration and seminoma were likewise evident. Among 136 MWDs with prior Vietnam service that later died from 1974 to 1980, seminoma continued to be diagnosed in significant excess. In each instance, the odds ratio for the association between Vietnam service and seminoma was 2.0 or greater. Analysis ...
The European Union (EU) market integration is leading to increasingly monopolistic electricity market infrastructures, which has opened a debate on the regulation of these so-called power exchanges. In this paper, we start by stating that there are two types of power exchanges in Europe, i.e. 'merchant' and 'cost-of-service regulated' power exchanges. We then discuss how regulation can be used to better align their incentives with the main power exchange tasks. We conclude that adopting the cost-of-service regulated model for all power exchanges in Europe could be counterproductive in the current context, but that regulation can help ensure that the benefits of the EU market integration materialize. Promising regulatory actions include tempering the reinforced market power of power exchanges, and quality-of-service regulation for the ongoing cooperation among power exchanges to organize trade across borders. - Research ...
We analyzed the effects of the Colorado Medicaid Capitation Program on the duration and services of over 21,000 outpatient mental health episodes for young children. The study spanned a three year period before and after capitation was implemented, and compared episodes of outpatient care for children from 14 capitated Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs) with those from three CMHCs that remained fee-for-service. Proportional hazards regressions revealed that capitation resulted in an increase in outpatient episode duration, over and above similar effects for the comparison fee-for-service episodes. The hypothesis that there were longer capitated episodes for children who were hospitalized was not supported. Children with behavioral and anxiety disorders had longer capitated episodes. Service intensity decreased over time in the managed care sites. Changes in case mix may have had an impact on ...
The movement from traditional regulatory hearings to negotiated settlements represents both a departure from cost of service regulation and a relaxation of regulatory oversight. Under negotiation parties are able to renegotiate inclusions in their cost of service while simultaneously creating a profit margin for the regulated firm where none existed under the cost of service outcome of a traditional hearing. This paper constructs a model to illustrate the existence of positive gains to pipeline and shipper from the re-allocation of expenses through time in the regulated pipeline services market in Canada. Behaviour consistent with the model is observable in anecdotal and econometric evidence gathered from the library of the National Energy Board of Canada, responsible for pipeline toll regulation in Canada. Empirical investigation by into settlement procedures in the Florida electricity market reveals ...
ObjectivesThe expected result of the proposed research will be a complete technique for taking the decision maker through the complex process of determining what type types of flexibly delivered public transport service - if any - suits their requirements, and what service characteristics are best adapted to the constraints of their operating environment. To summarise, the objectives are to:~%~ Investigate the various factors which influence the development of an appropriate public transport system for ar [continued...]DescriptionCurrently, many statutory authorities and public transport operators are experimenting with or considering flexibly delivered public transport systems, now generally referred to as Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) services, mainly with a view to improving social inclusion in rural and urban areas that are difficult to cover by conventional public transport. Statutory authorities may have some ...
Any mine that uses haultrucks has a dispatching system of some sort, even if it is only a very basic and simple arrangement. The larger, more complex operations have found that, if properly applied, automated computerised dispatching improves the productivity of the equipment as well as improving overall control and reporting. However, not every mine can justify going this far; in these cases a computerised monitoring and reporting system with manual dispatching can still give considerable benefits. Wenco International Mining Systems of Vancouver supplies its computerised system to three different specification levels to suit most open pit mining operations. The article describes the 3 PMCSs (Production Monitoring and Control System) available: PMCS 1000, for monitoring and reporting only; PMCS 2000, for dispatching to maximise production; and PMCS 3000, for dispatching with optimised product quality and production. The major components of the PMCS are: mobile data terminals fitted to ...
Today some scientists are concerned that present budget considerations in Washington will make it impossible for the US to maintain its preeminence in important areas of science and technology. In the private sector there has been a demise of substantive R & D efforts through most of the major industries. For DOE a lack of future support for science and technology would be an important issue because this could impact DOE`s abilities to solve problems in its major areas of concern, national security, energy, environment. In fact some scientists maintain that were the present trend to continue unabated it could lead to a national security issue. Preeminence in science and technology plays a critical role in our nation`s position as the leader of world democracy. In contrast with this point of view of gloom and doom, however, in this presentation I hope to bring to you what I see as an exciting message of good news. Today I will list the important opportunities ...
The ALICE heavy-ion particle physics experiment is currently being built at CERN near Geneva. It will use a PC cluster of 900 dual-processor machines for the last stages of the data readout process and a network of 400 microcomputers for the configuration and control of the cluster nodes. One of the most important objectives to be achieved in such experiments is to guarantee the utilized devices are running correctly during the experiment life-time. A second aspect is the extremely high availability and reliability requirements of the applications being run, the so called high level trigger (HLT). The SysMES framework is a scalable, decentralized, fault tolerant, dynamic, rule based tool set for the monitoring of networks of target systems and applications. The management algorithms consist of the following steps: system and application monitoring, recognition of undesirable states, event (message) generation, local event handling on the target, event forwarding to ...
This paper describes TENT, a system designed for integrating the various tools and parts of a CFD simulation system (CFD - Computational Fluid Dynamics) and the simulation code itself in one interactive simulation environment. Initially the system was intended to be a TEstbed for Numerical Turbine simulation but it turned out that the approach was general enough to be suitable for more complex simulation tasks in the field of aircraft simulation. The paper will give a brief description of a CFD simulation system and its component interactions, which are the basis for describing the Component Architecture based on CORBA. This includes the control architecture using an event model and data flow considerations. Because most CFD codes use parallelization techniques based on Message Passing, a so called MIMD Object Abstraction is described in order to abstract the parallel computation threads to a single CORBA conform instance. The main goal for TENT is realizing a ...
A transient stability program was developed for the Taiwan Power Company, which has a high proportion of nuclear generation in its power system. This program offers a new territory to investigate nuclear plant effects on the power system transient stability. This program also provides a high speed tool for the Taipower system operational planning. A generalized procedure of synchronous machine modeling for a large-scale stability study is presented. The merits and weaknesses of machine modeling can be comprehended through each item of this procedure. Three types of nonlinear synchronous machine modeling implemented into this stability program are derived by following this procedure. A robust subroutine was derived to perform the fourth order Runge-Kutta integration method, making the software programming neat and systematical. For simulating the nuclear plant influence on the system, this program implemented an additional four functions: load-limit operation simulated by a low-value ...
A transient stability program was developed for the Taiwan Power Company, which has a high proportion of nuclear generation in its power system. This program offers a new territory to investigate nuclear plant effects on the power system transient stability. This program also provides a high speed tool for the Taipower system operational planning. A generalized procedure of synchronous machine modeling for a large-scale stability study is presented. The merits and weaknesses of machine modeling can be comprehended through each item of this procedure. Three types of nonlinear synchronous machine modeling implemented into this stability program are derived by following this procedure. A robust subroutine was derived to perform the fourth order Runge-Kutta integration method, making the software programming neat and systematical. For simulating the nuclear plant influence on the system, this program implemented an additional four functions: load-limit operation simulated by a low-value ...
This paper addresses the major issues beginning teachers face in their first postings to rural areas in Australia. The issues go beyond pedagogy. Beginning teachers need to understand social factors affecting rural communities so they can link lessons to the realities experienced by students. Geographic isolation affects the provision of education in terms of time taken to travel, cost, terrain, and technology. Rural communities have groups that are socially isolated from each other and from the staff in schools. In order to teach effectively, teachers need to be aware of the social context of the community in which they live and work. Teachers in rural areas suffer from professional isolation and often confront teaching situations for which they have had little formal preparation. Communities in remote places often move quickly to adopt technological means to overcome their isolation. Teachers in rural areas need to identify and promote the media skills of students, not only to be ...
This paper examines the global impacts of a policy that internalizes the external costs (related to air pollution damage, excluding climate costs) of electricity generation using a combined energy systems and macroeconomic model. Starting point are estimates of the monetary damage costs for SO{sub 2}, NO {sub X} , and PM per kWh electricity generated, taking into account the fuel type, sulfur content, removal technology, generation efficiency, and population density. Internalizing these externalities implies that clean and advanced technologies increase their share in global electricity production. Particularly, advanced coal power plants, natural gas combined cycles, natural gas fuel cells, wind and biomass technologies gain significant market shares at the expense of traditional coal- and gas-fired plants. Global carbon dioxide emissions are lowered by 3% to 5%. Sulfur dioxide emissions drop significantly below the already low level. The policy increases the costs of electricity ...
This paper examines the global impacts of a policy that internalizes the external costs (related to air pollution damage, excluding climate costs) of electricity generation using a combined energy systems and macroeconomic model. Starting point are estimates of the monetary damage costs for SO{sub 2}, NOX, and PM per kWh electricity generated, taking into account the fuel type, sulfur content, removal technology, generation efficiency, and population density. Internalizing these externalities implies that clean and advanced technologies increase their share in global electricity production. Particularly, advanced coal power plants, natural gas combined cycles, natural gas fuel cells, wind and biomass technologies gain significant market shares at the expense of traditional coal- and gas-fired plants. Global carbon dioxide emissions are lowered by 3% to 5%. Sulfur dioxide emissions drop significantly below the already low level. The policy increases the costs of electricity production ...
We consider a Mobile Ad-hoc NETwork (MANET) formed by n agents that move at speed V according to the Manhattan Random-Way Point model over a square region of side length L. The resulting stationary (agent) spatial probability distribution is far to be uniform: the average density over the "central zone" is asymptotically higher than that over the "suburb". Agents exchange data iff they are at distance at most R within each other. We study the flooding time of this MANET: the number of time steps required to broadcast a message from one source agent to all agents of the network in the stationary phase. We prove the first asymptotical upper bound on the flooding time. This bound holds with high probability, it is a decreasing function of R and V, and it is tight for a wide and relevant range of the network parameters (i.e. L, R and V). A consequence of our result is that flooding over the sparse and highly-disconnected suburb can be as fast as flooding over the dense ...
A model-base expert system is presented for the processing of alarm messages in power networks' control centers. This alarm processor, called GESTAL, generates concise diagnoses identifying the causes(s) of network disturbances and describing the operation of the protection and alarm systems which operate to isolate faulty components. Essentially, the alarm processor is an agenda driven expert system which is composed of a model of the power network's alarm and protection systems as well as several sets of rules. Based on the nextwork model, graph structures are constructed which represent relationships between alarms as they are received. These graph structures are then analysed in order to diagnose the disturbances(s). The alarm processor has been developed using the ART 3.0 programming language in a Symbolics Lisp-machine environment. Background material on expert systems, electric power networks, and alarm processing software is included, as ...
BACKGROUND: : Skills related to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) use by lay responders decay rapidly after training, and efforts are required to maintain competence among trainees. We examined whether repeated viewing of a reminder video on a mobile phone would be an effective means of maintaining CPR and AED skills in lay responders. METHODS: : In a single-blind case-control study, 75 male students received training in CPR and AED use. They were allocated either to the control or to the video-reminded group, who received a memory card containing a video clip about CPR and AED use for their mobile phone, which they were repeatedly encouraged to watch by SMS text message. CPR and AED skills were assessed in scenario format by examiners immediately and 3 months after initial training. RESULTS: : Three months after initial training, the video-reminded group showed more accurate airway opening (PCPR after defibrillation ...
As the Electric Power Industry is actively preparing for a restructured future where retail wheeling is practiced ideally and efficiently in a competitive market-based environment, concerns may arise legitimately on how system reliability and integrity can be ensured in an environment where markets have an enhanced role. As these concerns may be justified, at least for a transition period, this paper presents a proposal which outlines how the generally accepted requisite capacity, energy, and ancillary services standards may be satisfied through market reliance and minimal coordination by a Reliability Monitoring and Ancillary Services Managing Entity or Independent System Operator. A Strawman detailing one -- and by no means the only -- future scenario inspired by the recent NEPOOL restructuring discussions in New England is presented to demonstrate that market-based competition and flexibility are compatible with a reliable Power System.
In the insurance industry, spreadsheets have emerged as an invaluable tool to for product pricing, because it is relatively straightforward to create and maintain complex pricing models using Excel. In fact, Excel is often preferred to "hard-code" whenever there are frequent changes to the calculations and business logic which under-pin the pricing of an insurance product. However, problems arise as soon as spreadsheets are deployed to end-users: version control, security of intellectual property, and ensuring correct usage are obvious issues; frequently, integration with other systems is also a requirement. Zurich Financial Services Group is a leading financial services provider; several possible solutions to these problems have been evaluated, and EASA has been selected as the preferred technology. Other spreadsheet collaboration approaches which were considered include Excel Services, and/or custom-built software; ...
Purpose - The service-dominant (S-D) logic views supply chains as value co-creation networks. These networks promote knowledge growth amongst network members via resource deployment and coordination. The exchange of knowledge and utilization of operant resources among the network members leads to co-created service offerings and value proposals for the end-users, with the ultimate goal of transforming end-user experiences to perceptions of superior value-in-use. The purpose of this paper is to develop an illustration of the value co-creation concept and use this illustration as guide to examine the research gaps that are yet to be tapped in the area where supply chain networks and S-D logic intersects. Design/methodology/approach - The literature on S-D logic is reviewed and research gaps ...
This report describes the status of nuclear safety and radiation protection in the facilities of the AREVA group and gives information on radiation protection in the service operations, as observed through the inspection programs and analyses carried out by the General Inspectorate in 2007. Having been submitted to the group's Supervisory Board, this report is sent to the bodies representing the personnel. Content: 1 - A look back at 2007 by the AREVA General Inspector: Visible progress in 2007, Implementation of the Nuclear Safety Charter, Notable events; 2 - Status of nuclear safety and radiation protection in the nuclear facilities and service operations: Personnel radiation protection, Event tracking, Service operations, Criticality control, Radioactive waste and effluent management; 3 - Performance improvement actions; 4 - Description of the General Inspectorate; 5 - Glossary.
Papers and presentations were made by all participating countries and provided a wide range of perspectives on the use of the ASSET methodology. Generally, the views expressed were positive, however, there were comments on areas were the service could be improved or enhanced. The workshop was divided into three task groups to analyze the self-assessments conducted at Krsko NPP, Slovenia; Dukovany NPP, Czech Republic; and Balakovo NPP, Russian Federation. In addition, they were asked to comment on the recommendations on the ASSET service made by the Consultants' Meeting of 26-30 August 1996 on ''Performance of the IAEA programme on Operational Safety Services''. A presentation was made by Mr. B. Thomas to remind delegates of the ASSET methodologies, and Mr. V. Sivokon demonstrated the latest developments of computer software available for assisting in the plant Self-Assessment process. Refs, figs, tabs.
This study aimed to explore the impact of perceived service quality and self-concept on consumer attitude and purchase process using channel type (physical and Internet) as a segmentation variable. From the perspective of consumer behaviour, this study attempted to estimate a relational model and perform an empirical validation using female cosmetics and skincare products as an example. It was discovered that the influence of perceived service quality and self-concept on consumer attitude, purchase intention and behaviour, satisfaction, and loyalty varied with channel type. The analysis result revealed that physical stores presented higher levels of agreement with all research perspectives than Internet stores. However, only two relational paths have a higher influencing effect in physical...
The tremendous growth of wireless technologies has introduced the potential of continuous service adaptation to the users' needs by giving them the ability to be able to select and access the proper network based on different criteria. Moreover, next generation wireless networks have been designed to provide support for multimedia services, with different traffic characteristics and different Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees. However, the expansion of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) networks poses new research era in the decision of the access network selection. In this paper, the existing access network selection schemes are classified into three categories: the network-centric, the user-centric and the collaborative sche...
Integrated femtocell/macrocell networks, comprising a conventional cellular network overlaid with femtocells, offer an economically appealing way to improve coverage, quality of service, and access network capacity. The key element to successful femtocells/macrocell integration lies in its self-organizing capability. Provisioning of quality of service is the main technical challenge of the femtocell/macrocell integrated networks, while the main administrative challenge is the choice of the proper evolutionary path from the existing macrocellular networks to the integrated network. In this article, we introduce three integrated network architectures which, while increasing the access capacity, they also reduce the deployment and operational costs. Then, we discuss a number of technical issues, which are key to making such integration a reality, and we offer possible approaches to their solution. These issues include efficient frequency and ...
Smart metering is required by the EU and will be implemented in Germany during the next few years, but customers are not much interested in ''intelligent meters''. Displays and information services may ensure higher acceptance and additional use and provide an incentive for saving energy. In a pilot programme in BAvaria, Eon tested the customers' reaction to such a system. Smart metering technology and long-wave services were combined into an overall system that helps customers save energy. (orig.)
ContextCost advantage has been one of the primary drivers of successful offshoring engagements of Indian software and services companies. However, the emphasis has shifted to the ability of the vendors to provide high quality over cost advantage in delivering software products and services. Meeting high quality requirements of the clients is a challenge due to the very nature of development and delivery of software through offshoring. ObjectiveThe objective of this research paper is to identify and evaluate the key determinants of quality in the case of software projects delivered through offshoring model. MethodA detailed survey was conducted among project managers/project leaders (leads) of a leading midsize Indian IT services company to evaluate the relationship of the determinants on t...
A growing concern about the consumer behavior in Internet economy has spurred the study of Material Flow, resulting in a unique type of consumer behavioral analysis. This research proposes an enhanced conceptual model for Personalized Material Flow Services for consumer behavior. In the era of Internet information technology, customer?s taste tends to be personalized for their market demand. It is observed that there are number of ?Long Tail? phenomena in several successful e-commerce business cases. However, the Long Tail phenomenon is an open question for our research in terms of its role in e-commerce marketing. In the proposed model-X-Party Personalized Material Flow Services, three elements are discussed. They are ?providing?, ?locating? and ?obtaining? based on X-Party Material Flow ...
Background: As the global population ages, support for family caregivers who provide the bulk of care to community-dwelling older people is becoming ever more important. However, in many countries, homecare-service practitioners currently do not follow a systematic approach to assessing and responding to caregiver needs. Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of caregivers and practitioners who took part in a field test of the Family Caregivers Support Agreement (FCSA) tool, a modified version of the Carers Outcome Agreement Tool (COAT) initially developed as the result of an Anglo-Swedish study. Both the COAT and the FCSA are designed to facilitate partnerships between caregivers and practitioners so that needs assessment and subsequent support services are negot...
Objectives: The purpose of this work was to study the genetic determinants responsible for extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) resistance of Salmonella isolated from Dutch poultry, poultry meat and hospitalized humans. Methods: Thirty-four ESBL-resistant Salmonella isolates from The Netherlands were tested towards 21 antimicrobial agents. PCR and sequencing were used to determine the underlying genetic determinants responsible for the ESBL phenotypes. The transferability of the ESBL phenotypes was tested by conjugation to a susceptible Salmonella enterica serovar Dublin and plasmid purification, restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) were employed to further characterize a subset of the isolates. Results: A great genetic diversity was seen among the isolates. The bla(TEM-52) gene was most predominant and was found among Salmonella enterica serovars Blockley, Thomson, London, Enteritidis phage type 14b, Paratyphi B, Virchow and ...
The NGDRS has facilitated 85% of cores, cuttings, and other data identified available for transfer to the public sector. Over 12 million linear feet of cores and cuttings, in addition to large numbers of paleontological samples and are now available for public use. To date, with industry contributions for program operations and data transfers, the NGDRS project has realized a 6.5 to 1 return on investment to Department of Energy funds. Large-scale transfers of seismic data have been evaluated, but based on the recommendation of the NGDRS steering committee, cores have been given priority because of the vast scale of the seismic data problem relative to the available funding. The rapidly changing industry conditions have required that the primary core and cuttings preservation strategy evolve as well. Additionally, the NGDRS clearinghouse is evaluating the viability of transferring seismic data covering the western shelf of the Florida Gulf Coast. AGI remains actively involved in ...
The NGDRS has facilitated 85% of cores, cuttings, and other data identified available for transfer to the public sector. Over 12 million linear feet of cores and cuttings, in addition to large numbers of paleontological samples and are now available for public use. To date, with industry contributions for program operations and data transfers, the NGDRS project has realized a 6.5 to 1 return on investment to Department of Energy funds. Large-scale transfers of seismic data have been evaluated, but based on the recommendation of the NGDRS steering committee, cores have been given priority because of the vast scale of the seismic data problem relative to the available funding. The rapidly changing industry conditions have required that the primary core and cuttings preservation strategy evolve as well. Additionally, the NGDRS clearinghouse is evaluating the viability of transferring seismic data covering the western shelf of the Florida Gulf Coast. AGI remains actively involved in ...
A study was made for the purpose of electrification of unelectrified zones of the mountainous areas in developing countries using extremely small hydroelectric power facilities. The target for this project is a development of a micro hydroelectric power system with a size of about 5kW, which is estimated regarding that 1 village has 80 houses and each house needs electricity of 60W. In the study, the low-head system using a weir of irrigation channels in Subang pref. of West Java state was selected by the evaluation of access, stability of flow rate, natural conditions, etc. The hydroelectric power plant is of a flow-in method in which water is taken from the left bank and is injected/discharged to the downstream of the left bank. As the hybrid complementary power source, hybrid battery with a two-hour charging time at peak and a capacity of 3.5kWh was considered. When estimating the construction cost of the hybrid micro hydroelectric power system and equalizing by ...
The traditional process for developing large-scale simulations is cumbersome, time consuming, costly, and in some cases, inadequate. The topics of software components and component-based software engineering are being explored by software professionals in academic and industrial settings. A component is a well-delineated, relatively independent, and replaceable part of a software system that performs a specific function. Many researchers have addressed the potential to derive a component-based approach to simulations in general, and a few have focused on military simulations in particular. In a component-based approach, functional or logical blocks of the simulation entities are represented as coherent collections of components satisfying explicitly defined interface requirements. A simulation is a top-level aggregate comprised of a collection of components that interact with each other in the context of a simulated environment. A component may represent a simulation artifact, an ...
One of the requirements for a federated information system is interoperability, the ability of one computer system to access and use the resources of another system. This feature is particularly important in biomedical research systems, which need to coordinate a variety of disparate types of data. In order to meet this need, the National Cancer Institute Center for Bioinformatics (NCICB) has created the cancer Common Ontologic Representation Environment (caCORE), an interoperability infrastructure based on Model Driven Architecture. The caCORE infrastructure provides a mechanism to create interoperable biomedical information systems. Systems built using the caCORE paradigm address both aspects of interoperability: the ability to access data (syntactic interoperability) and understand the data once retrieved (semantic interoperability). This infrastructure consists of an integrated set of three major components: a controlled terminology service (Enterprise ...
One of the requirements for a federated information system is interoperability, the ability of one computer system to access and use the resources of another system. This feature is particularly...Full Text Available
are you exchanging data or metadata through specific agreements with a defined number of partners? or are you intending to make data or metadata available in a more "open" environment, with the expectation that it may be used by a potentially unlimited number of services? ...
This presentation outlined the corporate history of the Ohmega Group, a small company from Gaspe, Quebec which offers consulting services to the automation and telecommunication sector. It was created in 1982 and has been involved with the wind power industry since 1996. The main services provided by Ohmega Group include electrical and mechanical construction and maintenance services. This paper also reviewed the benefits of using Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems in the wind power industry to monitor, control and collect data from wind turbines. The Ohmega Group has provided consulting services to Cartier Wind Energy Inc., a company that was awarded several wind turbine projects by Hydro-Quebec Distribution. The Ohmega Group applied the SCADA system at the Baie des Sables, Anse a Valleau and Carleton wind turbine arrays. The typical architecture of SCADA systems on a wind farm ...
PURPOSECost-sharing, intended to control the “over-use” of healthcare resources, may also reduce utilization of necessary services. The influence...Full Text Available
OBJECTIVE: The objective was to define and characterize the costs associated with trauma care at a level I trauma center. Once the costs were identified, attending physician-led teams were designed...Full Text Available
Polyethylene gas piping is expected to be in service for times on the order of 50 years depending on service conditions. Therefore research research on piping materials and pipes has two principal objectives: (a) developing methods for predicting when a pipe will fail and (b) improving the material for piping. The prediction of long time failure hinges on the development of short time test methods which relate to long time failure. The improvement in the behavior of current materials also hinges on the use of test methods of short duration relative to the anticipated life time of the pipe in service. One of the primary criterion for an acceptable test method is that it produces the same type of failure as is observed after long time failure in service. It has been found that P.E. pipe material fails in a brittle mode after long periods of time. The failure mode is called brittle because there is little ...
BackgroundIn 1998, the U.K. National Health Service Information for Health Strategy proposed the implementation of a National electronic Library for Health...Full Text Available
BackgroundDespite having the largest population in Africa, Nigeria has no accurate population based data to plan and evaluate eye care services. A national survey was undertaken...Full Text Available
Objectives:The supermarket industry now services many customers through online food shopping over the Internet. The Internet shopping process offers a novel opportunity...Full Text Available
This Mini-Computer-Assisted Nursing Management System allows nursing to control staffing costs and more effectively relate staffing to patient care requirements. Nursing resources are prospectively...Full Text Available
BackgroundCharacterizing infectious disease burden in Africa is important for prioritizing and targeting limited resources for curative and preventive services and monitoring the...Full Text Available
A century of technical development put steam turbines on a high level regarding efficiency and reliability. This procedure is still ongoing. The technological-commercial point of view - influenced intensively by liberalisation of the energy-market - makes great demands on field services. Well suited concepts in service and modernization are the solutions, as shown in NPP Emsland upgrade. [German] Ein Jahrhundert technischer Entwick lung brachte Dampfturbinen auf ein hohes Niveau bezueglich Effizienz und Zuverlaessigkeit. Dieser Vorgang ist auch in der heutigen Zeit nicht ab geschlossen. Die technologisch-wirtschaftliche Betrachtungs weise '' von der Liberalisierung des Strommarktes intensiv beeinflusst '' stellt dementsprechend hohe Anforderungen auch an den Kraftwerksservice. Massgeschneiderte Modernisierungs- und Servicekonzepte sind die Antwort, wie das Beispiel Kernkraftwerk Emsland zeigt. (orig.)
The Space Task Group in its study of future directions in space, with ..... almost $6 billion and a peak civil service and contractor work force of 420000 people. ..... space organizations permitting assumptions of primary or joint responsibility for ...
A HydroSele S seal from James Walker has provided more than two years maintenance-free service at the large Entracque pumped-storage hydroelectric scheme in Italy.
For the last four years, scientists at the USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory have been searching for alternative soil and crop management practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon and nitrogen sequestration. ¿If we can redu...
Over the past 10 years, the Peruvian National Tuberculosis (TB) Program, the National Reference Laboratory (NRL), Socios en Salud, and US partners have worked to strengthen the national TB laboratory...Full Text Available
This issue of Barrages newsletter comprises three articles. The first article treats of the quality approach relative to the organization of the inspections of big and medium size dams. It summarizes the improvements of this approach added in 2003 after analysis of the experience feedback. The second article presents the conclusions of the decennial and annual inspections of dams in exploitation. Only the observations requiring a special follow-up are reported. The last article summarizes the activities of the control services for the third quarter of 2003: decennial and annual visits, important facts, administrative instructions, studies, projects and works, organization of services, technical studies etc.. (J.S.)
This document defines analytical services the Waste Sampling and Characterization Facility (WSCF) shall provide the Environmental Compliance Program (ECP) throughout calendar year (CY) 2000. Two organizations within ECP are responsible for monitoring liquid and gaseous effluents and the environment immediately around facilities that contain or may contain radioactive and hazardous materials. Monitoring & Reporting (M&R), of Fluor Hanford Environmental Services, is responsible for effluent monitoring data, and Environmental Monitoring & Investigations (EMI), of Waste Management Technical Services, Inc., for near-facility environmental monitoring data. These organizations serve numerous projects, some of which are managed by other companies such as CH2M HILL and Bechtel Hanford, Inc. Monitoring data are collected and evaluated to determine their state of compliance with applicable federal and state regulations ...
This paper examines the current military working dogs (MWD) program, its historical roots, and the possibility for expansion of the program. Current service MWD programs will be discussed, as well as possible models for change. The primary focus is on the...
ObjectivesTo examine the strength of the volume–outcome relationship among paramedics, a group of providers that has not been previously studied in this context. By identifying...Full Text Available
IntroductionResearch is an essential tool in facing the challenges of scaling up interventions and improving access to services. As in many other countries, the translation of research...Full Text Available
This document was requested by the Washington State Department of Ecology. Based on the State Underground Injection Control Program, as described in the Washington Administrative Code, French drains and reverse wells are being registered as Class V wells. Information on out-of-service French drains, out-of-service reverse wells, and out-of-service cribs that are deeper than their largest surface dimension is also provided. The data for this submittal were taken from the Waste Information Database System (WIDS) and the Hanford Environmental Compliance Record (HECR) database. The current definition used in WIDS for an ''inactive facility'' is one that either no longer receives waste or plans to in the future. The facilities listed in WIDS as inactive have all been listed as ''out-of-service.'' Information concerning the deactivation ...
Background In May 2000, AstraZeneca launched a Web service for asthma patients and health-care providers called LinkMedica, which includes an asthma diary for...Full Text Available
BackgroundQuality of Life measurements are necessary tools for effectively evaluating health services. In the population of patients afflicted with war-related blindness in Iran,...Full Text Available
ObjectiveThe authors present an Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) server, designed and developed as a proof of concept of the revised prEN13606:2005 European standard concerning...Full Text Available
Prospects for using new structural materials instead of Grade 08Kh18N10T steel for making heat-transfer tubes for horizontal steam generators with the purpose to increase their service life from 30?40 to 60 or more years are considered.
This program focused on practice-level service change as a means of improving patient care and developing leadership skills of 19 general practitioners (GPs) and aimed to: promote and support change...Full Text Available
May 1, 2011 ... Onboard Systems Record Unique Videos of Space Missions ... Corporation, An artist's rendering of LCROSS launching toward the Moon .... Station (ISS) as part of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. ...
The evolution of drug resistant bacteria is a severe public health problem, both in hospitals and in the community. Currently, some countries aim at concentrating highly specialized services in large...Full Text Available
retirement of the Dean H. Mitchell Station Installation of three new flue gas desulfurization systems (FGD) at Schahfer 14, Schahfer 15, and Michigan City 12 Upgrades to...
This document is a biography of the renowned nuclear chemist, Glenn T. Seaborg. It covers his career over the presidential terms of Franklin Roosevelt through George Bush. It contains many personnel accounts of historic events. Photographs of Seaborg and the various Presidents are presented.
The 2010 leave year ends with pay period 201101 (ending January 1, 2011). ... The agencies must also ensure that FERS employees receive the appropriate Agency Automatic (1%) ... Voluntary Leave Transfer Program/Advance Sick Leave ...
Service, Alaska Regional Office Prince William Sound, photo: Mandy Lindeberg Office of Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (EVOS) Damage Assessment and Restoration About NOAA Fisheries' EVOS...
Jun 28, 2000 ... Right now, my biggest project is working with students. ... RE: [Joni- JoniHarbottle/stilwellMiddleSchool] I have 2 dogs, ... you have to go through the military or any other special services to be the payload scientist? ...
...Programme Manager Interests Multilevel Statistical Modelling Geography of Health and Health Care Geographical Data Analysis Census Data Analysis Health Services Research (in particular Research Design, Statistical Analysis and Epidemiology) people/mgould.html Homepage | Contacts | Site Map | Privacy Statement | Webmaster | ...
This article explores the effects of reimbursement and utilization control policies on utilization patterns and spending for physician and hospital outpatient services under state Medicaid programs....Full Text Available
Background:The aim of present study is to determine the long-term results of patients who undergo pars plana vitrectomy after retained nucleus into the vitreous.Setting:Service...Full Text Available
This is a description of the preliminary local design specifications of the Central Computing Network Security Controller. The external interface to the Central Computing Network is not described, but the functions and services to be provided are included as justification for the local design.
Have a question about CPR? Click Here To Ask The Doctor Learn CPR is a free public service supported by the University of Washington School of Medicine . Learn the basics of CPR - cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The American Heart Association issued updated ...
RESUME: Cet article propose une tude du r le croissant que joue l valuation dans la gouvernance des services domicile en Europe. L introduction de quasi march s dans plusieurs pays europ ens va de pair avec un processus d autonomisation de la fonction d valuation qui devient un v ritable outil de r gulation de la concurrence. Une analyse compar e des situations en Belgique, France et Royaume Uni, tant de la demande que de l offre de services, met en vidence les tensions r currentes dans les objectifs de l valuation (qualit des services, ma trise des budgets sociaux, cr ation d emploi), la faible prise en compte de la qualit de l emploi ainsi que les limites des dispositifs standardis s d valuation au regard de la rh torique du libre choix de l usager (consommateur).
In the information age, information utilities like libraries are as sensitive to the stresses of change as any other organization. This article is a case study of a small, specialized medical library...Full Text Available
In this paper the authors show the means putting in place for examination of steam generators tubes. These means (eddy current probes, ultrasonic testing) associated with a knowledge on degradation phenomena allow mapping controlled tubes and limiting undesirable obturations.
BackgroundSurveillance data allow for analysis, providing public health officials and policy-makers with a basis for long-term priorities and timely information on possible outbreaks...Full Text Available
The Clinical Summary is a Web-based application for accessing the clinical database at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The application has been developed to give physicians in our health care community...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe Government has invested £7 million (approx. $11.5 million) to connect all Primary Care Practices in Scotland to the National Health Service...Full Text Available
BackgroundDuring the past 2 decades, there has been a rapid proliferation of "health examination center (HEC)" across China. The effects of their services on public's health have...Full Text Available
Previous studies have documented diagnostic bias and noted that its reduction could eliminate misdiagnosis and improve mental health service delivery. Few studies have investigated clinicians'...Full Text Available
Objectives. Thousands of Louisiana residents were asked to boil water because of widespread disruptions in electricity and natural gas services after Hurricane Rita. We sought to assess...Full Text Available
Between 50 and 70% of patients with a terminal illness indicate a preference to remain at home for as long as possible until their death. Nevertheless, a much smaller percentage actually die at home...Full Text Available
Special Operations Forces (SOF) within a Joint Task Force are controlled by a Joint Special Operations Task Force (JSOTF). Presently, JSOTF headquarters are formed around the core of the Theater Special Operations Command (TSOC), a service SOF headquarter...
The Fifteenmile Basin Habitat Improvement Project is an ongoing multi-agency effort to improve habitat in the Fifteenmile drainage and increase production of the depressed wild, winter steelhead run. Cooperating agencies include the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, USDA Forest Service. USDA Soil Conservation Service and Bonneville Power Administration. in consultation with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is administering project work on state and private lands and the U.S.D.A. Forest Service is administering project work on National Forest land. Project work on the Forest has been sub-divided into four components; (1) Ramsey Creek, (2) Eightmile Creek, (3) Fifteenmile Creek, and (4) Fivemile Creek. Forest Service activities in the Fifteenmile basin during 1988 involved habitat improvement work on Ramsey Creek, continuation of physical and ...
Presentation of electromagnetic sources constituted by various radio transmitters contributing to different radio communication services in the environment. Results of a measures campaign to assess the electromagnetic field in the close neighbourhood of various stations. Analysis by frequency domains. (author)
Recent years have seen closer links developing between general practitioners and mental health specialists. A study was undertaken in Manchester to determine the effects of a new community mental health...Full Text Available
Ever-changing audio technology requires that National Library Service NLS always be aware of developments and prepare carefully for any systematic changes that may be desired or required. Usefulness, cost effectiveness, thoughtful stewardship, and educate...
BackgroundChina has had no effective and systematic information system to provide guidance for strengthening PHC (Primary Health Care) or account to citizens on progress. We report...Full Text Available
Will the aging of Canada's population bankrupt the health care system? In this issue (see pages 1555 to 1560) Dr. Marie Demers reports that the increase in physician service costs for elderly people...Full Text Available
BACKGROUND. In recognition of the emotional problems which frequently underlie somatic complaints, practices increasingly offer counselling as part of their services to patients. In an inner city practice,...Full Text Available
This report consists of an executive summary; eight sections dealing with various processes for coal liquefaction and research and development engineering services; and a glossary. An abstract was prepared for each of the eight sections. (EJH)
You receive an annuity if eligible -- requires 18 months service for FERS; and 60 ... You may use up to 104 hours of your accrued sick leave to care for sick family ...
The changes envisaged in the Management's draft plan will focus the resources of the Laboratory on the LHC project and its completion. One of CERN's largest areas of spending is in Industrial Service Contracts, which currently amount to nearly 15% of the CERN budget. At present more than 2000 people have access to CERN through such contracts, although the nature of the contracts means that expenditure is not only on labour but also on materials. The revised cost to completion of the LHC has caused understandable concern that savings in Industrial Services will give rise to job losses at CERN, and rumours of '500 lay-offs' appeared in some newspaper reports. These reports were based on misunderstanding and speculation rather than the actual plan being prepared at CERN. The current proposal regarding expenditure on Industrial Services - which is supported by the findings of Task Force 3 - is to redirect about CHF170 M to the ...
This report describes Northern Indiana Public Service Co. project efforts to develop an automated energy distribution and reliability system. The purpose of this project was to implement a database-driven GIS solution that would manage all of the company's gas, electric, and landbase objects.
Public health activities, especially infectious disease control, depend on effective teamwork. We present the results of a pilot audit questionnaire aimed at assessing the quality of public health services...Full Text Available
The purpose of the study was to investigate the adequacy of educational services available for the implementation of the ideals of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) in Southern Nigeria. Using the multistage sampling technique, 800 primary school teachers were selected from the three geo political zones in Southern Nigeria as participants in the study. However, 1457 usable copies of the questionnaire administered to participants were used for the final study. The researchers collected and analyzed data to (1) Ascertain how free the UBE was in Southern Nigeria and (2) to determine if educational services were adequately provided for the implementation of the programme. Results of data analysis suggest that the UBE was not entirely free as parents still buy books and report cards for their children in primary schools. Also, educational services were not adequately provided in the schools. Recommendations were made to ...
Sep 9, 2009 ... You are here: GES DISC Home Geomorphology from Space By Location Landforms by Location: Asia. Info. Landforms by Location: Asia. KEY, ASIA ...
US Army casualty deaths in the Republic of Vietnam were analyzed to provide information on wound ballistics that may be used by interested branches of the services on the subjects of casualty reduction, wounding, mechanisms, and evaluation of hostile weap...
BackgroundSocial isolation affects a significant proportion of older people and is associated with poor health outcomes. The current evidence base regarding the effectiveness of...Full Text Available
Geothermal energy is one of the more promising renewable energy technologies because it is environmentally benign and, unlike most renewable energy sources, can provide base power. This report provides an assessment of the research and development (R&D) work underway in geothermal energy in the following countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom. While the R&D work underway in the US exceeds the R&D efforts of the other countries, the lead is eroding. This erosion is due to reductions in federal government funding for geothermal energy R&D and the decline of the US petroleum industry. This erosion of R&D leadership is hindering commercialization of US geothermal energy products and services. In comparison, the study countries are promoting the commercialization of their geothermal energy products and services. As a result, some of these countries, in particular Japan, will probably ...
BackgroundErrors have been the concern of providers and consumers of health care services. However, consumers' perception of medical errors in developing countries is rarely explored....Full Text Available
Studies of the associations between air pollution and hospital admissions and emergency room use are reviewed, including studies of air pollution episodes, time-series analyses, and cross-sectional...Full Text Available
Most hospitals today are quickly developing special programs and services that are designed to compete for physicians and patients, and ultimately fill unoccupied beds. In an attempt to attract physicians...Full Text Available
separation and arrival planning to the Air Traffic Service Providers (ATSP). ... a safe, highly efficient flow of traffic from enroute into TRACON airspace that reliably ..... AGARD Lecture Series 200 Presentation, Madrid, Spain, Paris, France, and ...
...2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Use of Federal Supply Schedules. 8.404 Section 8.404 Federal...REGULATION ACQUISITION PLANNING REQUIRED SOURCES OF SUPPLIES AND SERVICES Federal Supply Schedules 8.404 Use of Federal Supply...
...false Priorities for use of Government supply sources. 208.002 Section 208...ACQUISITION PLANNING REQUIRED SOURCES OF SUPPLIES AND SERVICES 208.002 Priorities for use of Government supply sources. (a)(1)(v)...
...8Eligibility Criteria: Emotional/Behavioral Disorders Guidance for Paragraph...at-risk for emotional/behavioral disorders and their parents to help...Evaluation Team for Emotional/behavioral Disorders: Psychologist,...
...2010-10-01 false Standards for health information technology to protect electronic health information...DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS, IMPLEMENTATION...
...standards and implementation specifications for exchanging electronic health information. 170.205 Section 170.205 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY...
...false Additional requirements for health plans. 162.925 Section 162.925 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES ADMINISTRATIVE...925 Additional requirements for health plans. (a) General rules....
...dates of the implementation of the standard unique health identifier for health care providers. 162.404 Section 162.404 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES ADMINISTRATIVE DATA...
...2010-10-01 false Special rules relating to group health plans. 146.145 Section 146.145 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO HEALTH CARE ACCESS REQUIREMENTS FOR THE GROUP HEALTH...
...discrimination against participants and beneficiaries based on a health factor. 146.121 Section 146.121 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO HEALTH CARE ACCESS REQUIREMENTS FOR THE GROUP HEALTH...
42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false 8-Health Professions Pregraduate Scholarship Program for Indians J Subdivision J Public Health PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF...
42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false 3-Health Professions Preparatory Scholarship Program for Indians J Subdivision J Public Health PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF...
The Atomic Energy commission of Syria (AECS) is nominated by Syrian legislation as the regulatory authority in respect of radiation protection and safety and security of radioactive sources. In addition AECS is providing a wide range of Technical Services (TS) through its various departments. In this paper, the cooperation and coordination between the regulatory authority and the providers of technical services in Syria are described. The adjustment of the regulatory programme as to make maximal use of the available technical resources is presented. It was shown that this relationship does not jeopardize the effective independency of the regulatory authority which is maintained by keeping the regulatory decisions based on pure regulatory considerations. (author)
The report gives results of an analysis of the effect of the availability of a flue gas desulfurization system on the ability of an individual power plant to generate electricity at its rated capacity. (The availability of anything is the fraction of time it is capable of service, whether or not it is actually in service.) Also analyzed are its effects on a power generating system (a group of several coal-, oil-, and gas- fired power plants plus nuclear and hydroelectric plants).
All sections of the third edition of this well-known textbook have been revised and enlarged in consequence of the change-over to SI units. Numerous examples and illustrations have been included or replaced by new ones. The book considers the latest research results as well as the constructive developments of industrial steam turbine construction. On a scientific basis, this plain book imparts basic knowledge of the design, calculation, execution, condensation and performance in service of steam turbines of all types. The well-founded introduction, together with many calculated examples addresses the student as well as the engineer.
This document defines the services the Waste Sampling and Characterization Facility (WSCF) shall provide the Effluent and Environmental Monitoring Program (EEM) throughout the calendar year for analysis. The purpose of the EEM Program is to monitor liquid and gaseous effluents, and the environment immediately around the facilities which may contain radioactive and hazardous materials. Monitoring data are collected, evaluated, and reported to determine their degree of compliance with applicable federal and state regulations and permits.
A self contained continuous power generation system as described at INTELEC 1979, was successfully commissioned and put into service in a major communications centre at Cardiff in Wales. The objective was to provide all telecommunications equipment and electrical building engineering services from a dual fuel enginegenerating plant, and to recover waste heat energy to heat or cool the building. The plant, which is fully automatic, comprises five 1300kW engines using natural gas or diesel oil, and associated waste heat boiler and chiller systems. This paper reviews the functioning of the plant during its first three years of operation.
The achievement of governmental transformation through the use of electronically delivered services is a worthy goal that requires significant planning and research to achieve. In order to reach transformational paradigm shifts in governmental operation, it will first be necessary to understand and optimize present governmental e-Service provisions. Of these, the revenue function of taxation is paramount. This paper describes factors related to the use and acceptance by accounting professionals of information technology intended to facilitate electronic tax filing systems. Though tested in the context of governmental tax management systems in Turkey, our findings on the use and acceptance of e-Tax systems are relevant and applicable to a great number of nations and contexts as the ongoing ...
Steam generator tube denting is primarily caused by build-up of corrosion products at the tubesheet and the tube support plates. The mechanism of dent growth and the identification of tubes which should be removed from service have been studied. The practical outcome has been to prevent in-service tube leaks and to avoid unnecessary plugging of large numbers of tubes. A finite element study of tubesheet deformation (of pulled leaking tubes from reactors) was undertaken. Profilometry results for characterizing dents are given. Although several modifications have been made the high resolution profilometry system performance and the results obtained have proved satisfactory. (U.K.).
The quality of the end product from andrology services continues to lack consistency and in some cases fails to meet the needs of the end users (patients or clinicians). Results of external quality assessment (EQA) schemes continue to show unacceptably wide variation for the results of a single specimen. Some laboratories are able to show that the results of semen analyses relate to both natural and assisted pregnancy and are therefore useful in the management of the infertile couple, whereas others claim that their value is limited to the identification of severe male factor infertility. With wide variation in standardisation of methodology, levels of staff training and quality assurance, it is entirely understandable that such discrepancies persist. The following article proposes that Qu...
This article examines the interplay between globalising and localising forces occurring in a child welfare reform project in South Korea. Focusing especially on care and education services for children and families provided by the Korean 'Dream Start' programme, which provides comprehensive health, parental involvement and welfare services to low-income children and their families, I discuss its involvement in the process of 'glocalisation'. Drawing on Foucaultian ideas, I conducted a critical discourse analysis of the policy documents of Dream Start. The article concludes by discussing local resistance to the creation of a cosmopolitan child and the dual qualities of inclusion/exclusion inscribed in the Dream Start project.
To support the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI), a study was performed to investigate power system alternatives for the rover vehicles and servicers that were subsequently generated for each of these rovers and servicers, candidate power sources incorporating various power generation and energy storage technologies were identified. The technologies were those believed most appropriate to the SEI missions, and included solar, electrochemical, and isotope systems. The candidates were characterized with respect to system mass, deployed area, and volume. For each of the missions a preliminary selection was made. Results of this study depict the available power sources in light of mission requirements as they are currently defined.
This document provides guidance for modeling and inspecting energy-efficient property in commercial buildings for certification of the energy and power cost savings related to Section 179D of the Internal Revenue Code enacted in Section 1331 of the 2005 Energy Policy Act and noted in Internal Revenue Service Notice 2006-52. Specifically, Section 179D provides federal tax deductions for energy-efficient property related to a commercial building's envelope; interior lighting; heating, ventilating, and air conditioning; and service hot water systems.
This document provides guidance for modeling and inspecting energy-efficient property in commercial buildings for certification of the energy and power cost savings related to Section 179D of the Internal Revenue Code enacted in Section 1331 of the 2005 Energy Policy Act and noted in Internal Revenue Service Notice 2006-52. Specifically, Section 179D provides federal tax deductions for energy-efficient property related to a commercial building's envelope; interior lighting; heating, ventilating, and air conditioning; and service hot water systems.
In order to improve the capacity and service life of cathodes, the effect of carboxy-methyl cellulose, soot, silica gel and fibres was examined. Structural tests and electrical and electro-chemical measurements are used for this. The additives can affect crystallization in the manufacturing stage of the electrodes and can increase the storage capacity for water and the electronic conductivity. They act to stabilize the mass in cyclic operation. Soot additive has little effect on the properties of the electrode, but the other substances increase the service life or the use of the mass. (LU).
Due mainly to competitive pressures, the practice of offering electric and telephone service under contracts or special tariffs negotiated individually between a utility and its customers has increased in importance in recent years. Moreover, the practice is likely to become still more widespread in the future. This creates questions of public policy that are of interest to regulators and ratepayers alike such as how to supervise the practice, how to encourage utilities to compete while preventing cross-subsidization and anticompetitive behavior, and how the practice will ultimately affect utilities and ratepayers. This report sheds light on the topic by describing approaches that have been taken by the various regulatory commissions and by providing a framework for analyzing such contractors.
The effect of aging on the microstructure and tensile properties of a type 316LN stainless steel/Alloy 800 joint, welded with 16-8-2 stainless steel consumable, has been studied to characterize and evaluate the joint for long-term elevated temperature service. The joint was subjected to accelerated againg heat treatments at 873 K up to 5000 h to simulate long-term service exposures. Analysis of the results from this investigation shows that this joint has adequate stability of microstructure and tensile properties even after prolonged exposure at elevated temperatures. (orig.)
Marketing-led enterprise change management initiated by a major UK contractor is explored in this paper as a contrast to procurement-led changes to projects driven by clients. Procurement-led initiatives try to induce changes to behaviour through market governance. Relationship marketing and management proactively change organizational behaviour, the enterprise taking responsibility for its own destiny. Investment and resource allocation, and organizational behaviour have posed constraints, particularly concerning service continuity in construction. Overcoming these constraints offers opportunities for delivering service improvements and adding value for clients and yielding further increases in repeat business and increasing profitability. Relationship marketing is the conceptual starting...
Although there is service experience of Alloy 800 as tubing for superheaters in conventional and nuclear (HTR) power stations and in PWR heat exchangers, there is no corresponding service experience in sodium-cooled fast reactor steam generators. However, some limited experimental studies have been made of corrosion behaviour, and of possible structure modifications and effects on mechanical properties which occur during exposure of this material to a high temperature sodium environment, and these are summarised in the paper. It is concluded that further work needs to be done before Alloy 800 can be confidently endorsed for use as tubing in fast reactor steam generators. (author).
With the prevalence and development of GNSS technologies, location-based vehicle services (LBVS) have experienced a rapid growth in recent years. However, location is a sensitive and private piece of information, so the design and development of such services just take the clients' privacy concerns into account. In this paper, we propose a new electronic toll pricing system based on group signatures, which provides a strong guarantee for the clients' anonymity within groups. Our system achieves a balance between privacy and the communication overhead imposed upon the users.
Since the first commercial operation in 1983, Wolsung unit 1 has experienced several aging phenomena, especially in pressure tubes and feeder pipes. In case of pressure tubes, in-service inspections (ISI) revealed that a major portion of inspected tubes was in contact with calandria tubes. The likelihood of blister formation was a safety concern because it is a potential threat to pressure tube integrity. Wolsung unit 1 was, therefore, subjected to the SLAR (Spacer Location And Reposition) work to separate the contacted pressure tubes from calandria tubes. In this paper, experience of in-service inspection to the pressure tubes will be discussed including the irradiation creep elongation and CIGAR (Channel Inspection and Gauging Apparatus for Reactors) examination of pressure tubes. On the other hand, the problem of wall thinning in the feeder pipes became of great concern since 1996. Inspections, in compliance with CSA N285.4, were conducted ...
Since the first commercial operation in 1983, Wolsung unit 1 has experienced several aging phenomena, especially in pressure tubes and feeder pipes. In case of pressure tubes, in-service inspections (ISI) revealed that a major portion of inspected tubes was in contact with calandria tubes. The likelihood of blister formation was a safety concern because it is a potential threat to pressure tube integrity. Wolsung unit 1 was, therefore, subjected to the SLAR (Spacer Location And Reposition) work to separate the contacted pressure tubes from calandria tubes. In this paper, experience of in-service inspection to the pressure tubes will be discussed including the irradiation creep elongation and CIGAR (Channel Inspection and Gauging Apparatus for Reactors) examination of pressure tubes. On the other hand, the problem of wall thinning in the feeder pipes became of great concern since 1996. Inspections, in compliance with CSA N285.4, were conducted ...
The study investigated the impact of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme on the phenomenon of female trafficking in South-South Nigeria. To this end, six research questions were raised. These revolved around: (i) resource situation and adequacy of training provided for repatriated trafficked victims in the service provider centre; (ii) efforts in the formal education sector of the UBE to curb female trafficking; and (iii) parents and female students' disposition toward female trafficking. The design of the study was descriptive survey. The sample was 420 female students and their parents as well as 100 teachers in the formal segment of the UBE programme and 130 repatriated trafficked victims in a service provider centre. Four sets of instruments were utilised to generate data for the study. The first was quantitative designed to elicit information on the resource situation of the service provider centre and the ...
The evaluation of possible manufacture-based defects in turbine shafts and housings for component serviceability relevance is of particular interest not only in post-manufacturing NDT but also in evaluation of NDT results obtained by in-service inspections of components with long service lives. The results discussed in the paper are summarized as follows: Most of the examined natural defects in the forgings and castings behave like cracks under the simulated operating conditions and hence may well be evaluated by fracture mechanical methods for their serviceability relevance determined by crack propagation under fatigue, creep and creep-fatigue stress. The empirical correlation of true defect size and US testing results (echo signal, echodynamics, attenuation) permits improved determination of true defect sizes in the turbine components. Care has to be taken to select the proper testing and evaluation ...
As a first step an attempt was made to integrate a personnel information facility into a system for optimising materials flow. The two systems developed did not reach a workable stage because the synthetic language would have required an input on the part of the personnel operating the system beyond what could reasonably be expected. The research in the second stage consisted in developing and testing a module with which language storage services could be built up on the basis of digitalised speech and controlled via the in-house telephone network. In language storage services users may feed in data or interrogate. Services of this kind can readily be integrated into available telephone installations working on the pulse selection principle. The low cost of the hardware involved means the system can be built up with modest investment while offering high effectiveness. 6 refs., 2 figs.
A procedure and correlations are presented for predicting Charpy-impact energy, tensile flow stress, fracture toughness J-R curve, and J{sub IC} of aged cast stainless steels from known material information. The ``saturation`` impact strength and fracture toughness of a specific cast stainless steel, i.e., the minimum value that would be achieved for the material after long-term service, is estimated from the chemical composition of the steel. Mechanical properties as a function of time and temperature of reactor service are estimated from impact energy and flow stress of the unaged material and the kinetics of embrittlement, which are also determined from chemical composition. The J{sub IC} values are determined from the estimated J-R curve and flow stress. Examples of estimating mechanical properties of cast stainless steel components during reactor service are presented. A common ``lower-bound`` J-R curve for cast ...
The UNITIL Companies have identified the need to undertake new economic development initiatives and to respond to an increasingly competitive energy marketplace. The economy of UNITIL`s service areas and New England generally have suffered from the perception that energy prices, and electricity prices in particular, are very high and non-competitive. However, opportunities now exist for more competitive priced electricity services to be made available to meet the needs of economic development. The introduction of Energy Bank{trademark} was designed to meet this objective through a competitively priced, market-based option for new or expanding industrial loads. The Energy Bank{trademark} is priced at about 5 cents/kWh, a rate 40% below the regional average industrial rate. As Energy Bank{trademark} grows, it will yield substantial benefits to all customers in UNITIL`s service areas, through increased local economic activity, ...
The structural acceptance criteria contained herein for the evaluation of existing underground double-shell waste storage tanks located at the Hanford Site is part of the Life Management/Aging Management Program of the Tank Waste Remediation System. The purpose of the overall life management program is to ensure that confinement of the waste is maintained over the required service life of the tanks. Characterization of the present condition of the tanks, understanding and characterization of potential degradation mechanisms, and development of tank structural acceptance criteria based on previous service and projected use are prerequisites to assessing tank integrity, to projecting the length of tank service, and to developing and applying prudent fixes or repairs. The criteria provided herein summarize the requirements for the analysis and structural qualification of the existing double-shell tanks for continued operation. ...
Steam generators (SG) are the weak link of nuclear power plants, their service life is shorter than the service life of other NPP components. This paper is dedicated to a statistical analysis of SG damages and failures. Heat exchanging tubes (HET) are the most damaged elements in SG, there are on average 286 plugged or repaired tubes in each operating SG. The usually mechanisms of tube failure are the following: denting, corrosion at tube outside, pitting, fretting, and circular crack propagation. Most of damages are located in the transition zone above a tube plate. This study shows that the factors that are involved in the SG HET fault probability are: - design features of SG and secondary equipment elements (high pressure feed heaters (HPFH), low pressure feed heater (LPFH)), - water chemistry at different points of condensate feed pipe, composition and density of deposits on HET surface, efficiency of mechanical and chemical washing, - the ...
Helically coiled tubes of steam generators (SG) in FBR are boundaries between sodium and water/steam. Therefore, to assure the integrity of tubes, it is necessary to inspect the tubes nondestructively for in service or after a sodium-water reaction accident. In order to make it possible to conduct in-service inspection of SG tubes, we have studied on eddy current probes and probe inserting methods. As for the probe inserting method, IHI designed a fluid driving type which consists of a model probe and signal cable with float balls and driven by air pressure force. Presented in this paper is the authors' report, which describes the fluid driving type as an effective method to insert an eddy current probe into helically coiled tubes. The outline of the test results is as follows: 1. It was possible to insert the probe into 65 meter length helically coiled tubes. 2. We could detected, as anticipated, a defect (outer circumferential wall thinning ...
This study examines, in general, the transformation of the role of the Brazilian state to intervener in supervisory of the services, through the delegation of responsibility for the exploitation of public services to private enterprise, and the creation of regulatory agencies. The study pointing to the necessity of a legal and regulatory stable scenario in the regulation of these services, as enables of private investment mechanisms and, as a consequence of sustainable economic development. The success of the neo liberal state model is examined, specifically in relation to the market of pipeline gas distribution, showing the environmental, economic and social benefits that brought in this sector, the private investment and stability so far reasonably observed in this segment. The work also indicating, in general, the risks and issues most relevant, from the investor and markets point of view, to attract and maintain ...
The insulating oil used in a transformer is a critical component, as its service life is typically 20 years with possibly little or no maintenance. Partial discharges (PD), thermal overloads and static discharges continually subject the oil to chemical deterioration during its operating life. To ensure equipment reliability during service, it is important that the initial quality of the new insulating oil should meet the required acceptance specifications and preferably be pre-tested before use. Accelerated aging tests have been devised to determine the life expectancy of oil in service by using forced air or oxygen flow into the oil, the presence of a copper catalyst, and at elevated temperatures. The more important standards relating to transformer application are discussed and highlights of the more important aspects of the oxidation chemistry of hydrocarbons are included. The ultimate aim of the project is the ...
Under severe operating conditions, such as starved lubrication, performance, service life, and reliability of rolling element bearings depend on the chemical and physical interactions between the contacting surfaces, the lubricant components, and the atmosphere. The IMKT{sup 1}, PI{sup 2}, and the imt{sup 3} have been cooperating on systematic investigations of interfacial interactions in high speed grease lubricated ball bearings. These include long time tests with complete bearings lubricated with greases of different composition under defined operating conditions, conducted at the IMKT, and chemical and physical characterizations of the running surfaces at the PI and imt. At the PI, in particular the chemical nature of the boundary layers has been investigated with time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS). The imt has been involved in the investigations by measuring the physical/mechanical properties of interacting surfaces at the ...
Previous laboratory tests of elastomer O-rings in coal liquefaction solvents conducted at L'Garde, Inc., indicated that certain ethylenepropylenediene monomer (EPDM) compounds provided the best performance when a backup ring was used to limit swelling. Before service testing in a pump at the Wilsonville, Alabama, Advanced Coal Liquefaction Research and Development Facility, tests of six selected elastomers in the appropriate Wilsonville-produced solvent were conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The ORNL tests measured the elastomers' changes in cross section, weight, density, and relative flexibility. Although two perfluoroelastomers showed less degradation of most properties during these tests, it was decided to proceed with service testing of two EPDM elastomers because of their much lower cost. 5 refs., 14 figs., 7 tabs.
In the present political climate, politicians are singling out children's programs and services for budget cuts. The need for teacher education programs to prepare early childhood teachers as children's advocates is becoming ever more evident. For years, the National Association for the Education of Young Children has called for greater involvement of early childhood educators as advocates for programs and services that promote children's health and education. In teacher education programs, however, this call has largely gone unheeded. The purpose of this article is to discuss the importance of involving teacher candidates in advocacy activities and policy research, the obstacles that teacher educators can face when incorporating advocacy components into their teacher education courses and programs, and resources and strategies they can use. This discussion builds upon a motivation-obstacles-resources framework developed for adoption of ...
The CAMDU 6 reactor has an international reputation as one of the world's best performing and safe reactors. CANDU 6 reactors are consistently ranked in the world's top 10 for annual and lifetime performance. Six CANDU 6 units are currently in operation in four continents; in Quebec, New Brunswick, South Korea, Argentina and Romania. There are another two CANDU 6 units currently under construction at wolsong, in Korea which ore scheduled to go into service in 1998 and 1999 respectively. A second CANDU 6 unit is currently being considered for Romania. The construction of two CANDU 6 units at Qinshan, in China, is now underway. The performance of the four first-generation CANDU 6 plants, which have now been in service for 15 years, continue to show very good performance, with capacity factors on average since in-service of over 85%. The annual capacity factor of 10.21% during 1997 has been achieved by the Wolsong-1 unit in ...
This manual describes the use of the Xyce Parallel Electronic Simulator. Xyce has been designed as a SPICE-compatible, high-performance analog circuit simulator, and has been written to support the simulation needs of the Sandia National Laboratories electrical designers. This development has focused on improving capability over the current state-of-the-art in the following areas: (1) Capability to solve extremely large circuit problems by supporting large-scale parallel computing platforms (up to thousands of processors). Note that this includes support for most popular parallel and serial computers. (2) Improved performance for all numerical kernels (e.g., time integrator, nonlinear and linear solvers) through state-of-the-art algorithms and novel techniques. (3) Device models which are specifically tailored to meet Sandia's needs, including some radiation-aware devices (for Sandia users only). (4) Object-oriented code design and implementation using modern coding practices ...
This manual describes the use of the Xyce Parallel Electronic Simulator. Xyce has been designed as a SPICE-compatible, high-performance analog circuit simulator, and has been written to support the simulation needs of the Sandia National Laboratories electrical designers. This development has focused on improving capability over the current state-of-the-art in the following areas: (1) Capability to solve extremely large circuit problems by supporting large-scale parallel computing platforms (up to thousands of processors). Note that this includes support for most popular parallel and serial computers; (2) Improved performance for all numerical kernels (e.g., time integrator, nonlinear and linear solvers) through state-of-the-art algorithms and novel techniques. (3) Device models which are specifically tailored to meet Sandia's needs, including some radiation-aware devices (for Sandia users only); and (4) Object-oriented code design and implementation using modern coding ...
The growing concern of the population with regards to the problem of atmospheric pollution has induced a change in the role of air quality monitoring networks, especially those monitoring air pollution in large cities which suffer from summer smog. The population is no longer satisfied with real-time measurements but wants to be warmed of high pollutants concentrations in advance. Some countries have been forecasting air pollution, and especially ozone, for a large number of years. Although most of them use statistical models based on the analyses of past conditions which induced high pollution episodes, some predict ozone levels using only their knowledge of the meteorological situation. Nowadays two trends appear regarding ozone forecasting: either very basic statistical methods, such as regression, or more sophisticated ones, such as neural networks. The paper then reviews several behaviours common to most forecasting models: the uncertainly due to the great dependence upon the ...
The minimization of the environmental footprint is the underlying principle of companies involved in sustainable development. At the same time, those companies seek to contribute to the economic and social development of the communities in which they have a presence. The evidence linking sustainable development and value creation are examined in this report targeted to the investment community, which is part of an overall leadership initiative undertaken by the Conference Board of Canada. The benchmarks of companies committed to sustainable development have, on the whole, been matched or exceeded, as shown by recent evidence based on the performance of seven prominent funds and indices managed in Canada, the United States, and western Europe. They are: the Domini Social Equity Fund (American focus), the EcoValue 21{sup TM} (American focus), the Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index (international focus), Storebrand Scudder Environmental Value Fund (European focus), the Jantzi Social ...
Objective: To assess the efficacy, prospects and future of conservative management of beta thalassemia major patients in a developing country. Design: Patients registered at IHBTS were studied over a period of three years. They consented to being managed on moderate transfusion regimen, aiming to maintain a pre-transfusion haemoglobin(Hgb) level of 9.0 plus minus 1.0 g per dL. We studied their transfusion requirements, status for transfusion transmitted infections (TTls), serum ferritin levels and complications developing as a result of iron overload. Subjects: Initially all registered patients were included in this study. Sporadic patients as well as dropouts occurring due to any reason, (patients concurrently seeking treatment at other centres as well, or complying poorly to advised chelation therapy) were excluded from the study. The data presented here conforms to a cohort of 60 regular patients who adhered best to our selection criteria. Main Outcome Measures: 1) The study ...
The purpose of the workshop was to determine the status of the field, to define instrumental and computational requirements, and to establish minimum specifications required by possible users. The most important message sent by implementers was the remainder that CMT is a tool. It solves a wide spectrum of scientific problems and is complementary to other microscopy techniques, with certain important advantages that the other methods do not have. High-resolution CMT can be used non-invasively and non-destructively to study a variety of hierarchical three-dimensional microstructures, which in turn control body function. X-ray computed microtomography can also be used at the frontiers of physics, in the study of granular systems, for example. With high-resolution CMT, for example, three-dimensional pore geometries and topologies of soils and rocks can be obtained readily and implemented directly in transport models. In turn, these geometries can be used to calculate ...
Policy strategies for the promotion of electricity from renewable energy sources differ significantly among the Member States of the European Union with respect to the amount of additional installed capacity as well as concerning the country-specific support costs. The present report aims to assess the effectiveness and the economic efficiency of the support policies in the EU based on both historical experiences and prospective model-based analysis. The main message of the investigation is that the most effective policy instruments tend to be cost-efficient at the same time. In particular, feed-in tariff systems were identified as a successful instrument for supporting renewable energies in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, whereas quota systems still have to prove themselves in practice. (orig.) [German] Bezueglich des Erfolges bei der Foerderung erneuerbarer Energietraeger im Stromsektor bestehen deutliche Unterschiede zwischen den Mitgliedsstaaten der ...
ADP-ribosylation factors (ARFs) are small guanine nucleotide-binding proteins that enhance the enzymatic activities of cholera toxin. Two ARF cDNAs, ARF1 and ARF3, were cloned from a human cerebellum library. Based on deduced amino acid sequences and patterns of hybridization of cDNA and oligonucleotide probes with mammalian brain poly(A)"+ RNA, human ARF1 is the homologue of bovine ARF1. Human ARF3, which differs from bovine ARF1 and bovine ARF2, appears to represent a newly identified third type of ARF. Hybridization patterns of human ARF cDNA and clone-specific oligonucleotides with poly(A)"+ RNA are consistent with the presence of at least two, and perhaps four, separate ARF messages in human brain. In vitro translation of ARF1, ARF2, and ARF3 produced proteins that behaved, by SDS/PAGE, similar to a purified soluble brain ARF. Deduced amino acid sequences of human ARF1 and ARF3 contain regions, similar to those in other G proteins, that are believed to be ...
The Soldier Information Requirements Technology Demonstration (SIREQ TD) project is an experimentation program to identify technologies that significantly enhance the performance of our future soldiers. One of the study series involved a 2 x 2 factorial comparison of the benefits of digital maps over paper maps, and the use of radios vs. no radios. Thirty-two Canadian regular force infantry soldiers performed force-on-force tactical assault missions in wooded terrain, with each soldier participating in all four test conditions. The radios were configured to operate in 4 subnets: 1 channel for each of the 2 Assault Groups (4 soldiers on a channel); a Section Commander/2IC channel; and an all-users channel. Note that in the no-radio conditions soldiers still operated the press-to-talk switch to allow recording of communications, but the speaker volume was set to zero. All communications were date/time stamped, identified as to the user and channel, and the audio was digitally recorded ...
Screening of a human placenta lambdagt11 library has led to the isolation of the cDNA for the human ..beta../sub 1/-adrenergic receptor (..beta../sub 1/AR). Used as the probe was the human genomic clone termed G-21. This clone, which contains an intronless gene for a putative receptor, was previously isolated by virtue of its cross hybridization with the human ..beta../sub 2/-adrenergic receptor (..beta../sub 2/AR). The 2.4-kilobase cDNA for the human ..beta../sub 1/AR encodes a protein of 477 amino acid residues that is 69% homologous with the avian ..beta..AR but only 54% homologous with the human ..beta../sub 2/AR. This suggests that the avian gene encoding ..beta..AR and the human gene encoding ..beta../sub 1/AR evolved from a common ancestral gene. RNA blot analysis indicates a message of 2.5 kilobases in rat tissues, with a pattern of tissue distribution consistent with ..beta../sub 1/AR binding. This pattern is quite distinct from the pattern obtained when ...
We verified and corrected inaccuracies in descriptive profile information on military working dogs (MWDs) that died from 1965 to 1980 and were reported in the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Registry of Veterinary Pathology. Using other available military records, we determined which dogs served in Vietnam. Identified were 3,895 MWDs with a unique identity tattoo that served in Vietnam, of which 2,389 served exclusively with U.S. military forces and died in Vietnam. Another 479 Vietnam veteran MWDs completed their service elsewhere. This overall effort resulted in signalment corrections, generally age at death, in 21% of the Registry MWD accessions during the study period. The improved definition and characterization of the Vietnam cohort will lead to greater precision in epidemiologic investigations of the health effects from the Vietnam experience in U.S. military working dogs. PMID:7885593
Purpose - To sustain competitive advantage, it is necessary to understand consumers and their psychological fears and deliver them a service solution which is best under existing conditions so as to ensure consumer loyalty and retention. This paper seeks to conceptualise and operationalise customer relationship management (CRM) through two component model (operational CRM (OCRM) and analytical CRM (ACRM)), particularly in the healthcare sector. Design/methodology/approach - The relationship between OCRM, based on three patient-staff constructs (physicians, nurses and support staff) and ACRM based on four constructs (satisfaction, repatronization, recommendation and organizational performance) was analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (AMOS). The data for the model were collected from...
Traffic characterization is an important means for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to adapt and to optimize their networks to the requirements of the customers. Most network measurements are performed in the backbone of these ISPs, showing both, residential and business Internet traffic. However, the traffic characteristics of business and home users differ significantly. Therefore, we have performed measurements of home users at a broadband wireless access service provider in order to reflect only home user traffic characteristics. In this paper, we present the results of these measurements, showing daily traffic fluctuations, flow statistics as well as application distributions. The results show a difference to backbone traffic characteristics. Furthermore, we observed a shift from web...
This study is related to the use of thermoplastic liners to control corrosion of new and rehabilitated pipelines carrying aggressive hydrocarbon products. The aim is to investigate the technical and safety issues involved in introducing a thermoplastic liner into an existing carbon steel pipeline for aggressive hydrocarbon service at temperatures up to 150 C and internal pressures up to 34 MPa (5,000 psi). The principle objective is to provide design data for thermoplastic lined pipelines. The scope combines the use of liner insertion techniques with thermoplastic materials widely used in onshore pipelines and demonstrates the effectiveness of thermoplastic linings. The results indicate that thermoplastic liners can be used to control corrosion of pipelines in aggressive hydrocarbon environments.
Alloy 800 has been used for steam generator (SG) tubing for more than 30 years, primarily in CANDU reactors worldwide and in reactors in Germany. Extensive laboratory testing and in-service experience suggest that the Alloy 800 tubing has excellent resistance to corrosion-related degradation under appropriate operating conditions. In planning refurbishment of nuclear plants stations, a key concern is the longevity of existing SGs up to the 60-year lifetime of the refurbished plant. The paper reviews an existing methodology based on the concept of the improvement factor, and refines its estimation based on data specific to CANDU operating conditions. The paper presents a more advanced Bayesian probabilistic approach to estimate the degradation free lifetime distribution of Alloy 800 tubing, which is used to quantify the probability of degradation during the service life and to evaluate the impact of potential occurrences of degradation on ...
Alloy 800 has been used for steam generator (SG) tubing for more than 30 years, primarily in CANDU reactors worldwide and in reactors in Germany. Extensive laboratory testing and in-service experience suggest that the Alloy 800 tubing has excellent resistance to corrosion-related degradation under appropriate operating conditions. In planning refurbishment of nuclear plants stations, a key concern is the longevity of existing SGs up to the 60-year lifetime of the refurbished plant. The paper reviews an existing methodology based on the concept of the improvement factor, and refines its estimation based on data specific to CANDU operating conditions. The paper presents a more advanced Bayesian probabilistic approach to estimate the degradation free lifetime distribution of Alloy 800 tubing, which is used to quantify the probability of degradation during the service life and to evaluate the impact of potential occurrences of degradation on ...
In 1996 the actions of EDF in the domain of environment have recorded FF 4 billions (FF 3.5 billion in 1995), representing about 2% of the EDF's turnover. The EDF keeps on its efforts for reducing the impact of its activities upon environment. Several applications of an environment protective electricity generation are promoted by the company. The company brings services and technical solutions to its clients which meet their energy needs and conserving at the same time the life conditions. Furthermore, EDF participates in the activity of numerous national and international organisms, intervening in the environmental questions, in decision making, participating in studies and actions and following continually the direction of a durable economic and social development. The report is structured in three chapters: 1. an industrial responsibility; 2. services and techniques for environment; 3. action towards a durable development.
The long-term support required from Canada in the operation and maintenance of overseas CANDU nuclear generating stations after commercial operation has commenced is described, with reference entirely to the KANUPP reactor. This includes: technical support to station staff to increase plant reliability and maintainability; assistance with plant improvements; procurement of spares and consumables; and assistance with training programmes. This technical support may be provided by a small number of Canadian staff actually resident at the power station; by short-term visits of Canadian specialists to site and by technical and procurement services provided from Canada. Examples of technical problems experienced are given, showing typical services required from Canada.
This report describes operations at SunLine Transit Agency for their newest prototype fuel cell bus and five compressed natural gas (CNG) buses. In May 2010, SunLine began operating its sixth-generation hydrogen fueled bus, an Advanced Technology (AT) fuel cell bus that incorporates the latest design improvements to reduce weight and increase reliability and performance. The agency is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to evaluate the bus in revenue service. This report provides the early data results and implementation experience of the AT fuel cell bus since it was placed in service.
It is concluded that the Department paid out over $16 million in the past two years for FTS service charges on telephone calls bearing no relationship to official Departmental business. When one adds in the costs of compensation paid to Departmental and contractor employees for the worktime spent making unauthorized FTS calls, the total costs to the Department due to FTS abuse exceeded $28 million for the fiscal years 1983 and 1984. These cost figures, moreover, fail to account for the effect of an annual loss of an estimated 40,000 man-days on the Department's productivity. It is recommended that the Assistant Secretary review the system to identify possible restrictions on usage of the lines by employees and to consider additional recording and accounting procedures to track FTS usage, especially when the lines are used for calls to telephones outside the FTS network.
Buses, operating within a Florence (Italy) municipal transportation system, and equipped with Otto cycle engines, were selected for retrofitting taking into account the suitability of each vehicle`s specific routing and service requirements. Cost benefit analyses indicated that it wouldn`t be economically feasible to retrofit buses equipped with diesel engines. A computerized refuelling system was set up at the fleet`s central service station which was hooked up to the natural gas utility`s supply line. This paper tables the cost benefit analysis data comparing gasoline and methane operation and reflecting the cost savings which are expected to be accrued through this methanization program over a span of 14 years.
An industrial design of turbodrill with oil-filled gear reducer has been made and has passed comprehensive field tests. In its energy characteristics, durability and operating properties, it is acceptable for broad introduction into drilling practice. In all regions of drilling, the use of the reducer increases the drilling per drill bit, and with sufficient depth, the run velocity of drilling. In certain regions (for example, West Siberia) it is possible to increase the mechanical velocity by high torque at the reducer outlet. The inter-repair service life of the oil-filled reducers for West Siberia and Tatariya exceeds on the average 100 hours. For wells with high face temperatures (over 1502)C) it reaches 42.6 hours. Further increase in the service life is associated with an increase in the thermoresistance, primarily, of the lubricator assembly. The design of the oil-filled reducer makes it possible to repair it in the existing turbine ...
Executive Order 12333, {open_quotes}United States Intelligence Activities,{close_quotes} (1) designates the Department`s intelligence element as a member of the Intelligence Community, and (2) states that no agency within the Intelligence community shall sponsor, contract for or conduct research on human subjects except in accordance with guidelines issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. The Federal policy for the Protection of Human Subjects, which was based on Department of Health and Human Services regulations, was promulgated in Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations Part 745 by the Department of Energy. The purpose of this inspection was to review the internal control procedures used by the Office of Nonproliferation and National Security to manage selected intelligence and intelligence-related projects that involve human subject research.
This paper addresses the problem of partitioning a local service region into nonoverlapping work areas in which pickups and deliveries are made throughout the day. For a fleet of homogeneous vehicles, a given set of customers, and expected demand for service, the objective is to find the least number of work areas or clusters that satisfy a variety of geometric and capacity constraints. Using rectangles as the basic shape, each cluster must have an aspect ratio that falls within certain bounds, as well as meet load and time requirements dictated by the capacity of a vehicle and the working hours in a day, respectively. The latter requirement presents a unique hurdle because travel times are a function of the actual routes followed by the drivers, and are not known, even in a probabilistic ...
To determine the proportion of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients receiving preventive health care according to US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations compared with a community-based population sample, with emphasis on dyslipidemia testing, given the increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in RA patients. Patients with RA (ICD-9 code 714.0 at ?2 office visits with a rheumatologist) and a primary care physician (PCP) at the Geisinger Health System (GHS) were identified through electronic health records. The records were searched back from 3/31/08 for the length of time required to satisfy each outcome measure. Percentages were compared with population testing rates using the Pearson Chi-square test. Eight hundred and thirty-one RA patients were compared to 169,476 subjects...
Implementing any new business software can be an intimidating prospect and this paper is intended to offer some insight in to how to approach this challenge with some fundamental rules for success. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) had undergone an original ERP implementation of HRMS, Oracle Advanced Benefits, Worker Self Service, Manager Self Service, Project Accounting, Financials and PO, and recently completed a project to implement Oracle Payroll, Time and Labor and Accrual Plans. This paper will describe some of the important lessons that can be applied to any implementation as a whole, and then specifically how this knowledge was applied to the design and deployment of Oracle Accrual Plans for LANL. Finally, detail on the functionality available in Oracle Accrual Plans will be described, as well as the detailed setups.that were utilized at LANL.
This paper analyzes the F-policy M/M/1/K queueing system with working vacation and an exponential startup time. The F-policy deals with the issue of controlling arrivals to a queueing system, and the server requires a startup time before allowing customers to enter the system. For the queueing systems with working vacation, the server can still provide service to customers rather than completely stop the service during a vacation period. The matrix-analytic method is applied to develop the steady-state probabilities, and then obtain several system characteristics. We construct the expected cost function and formulate an optimization problem to find the minimum cost. The direct search method and Quasi-Newton method are implemented to determine the optimal system capacity K, the optimal thre...
Details of a 1 day conference designed to create more efficient interactions between the gas supply and electricity systems in Ontario and new models for gas supply and the electricity system were presented. Market efficiency, generators' perspectives on critical gas issues, an overview of the North American gas and an outline of issues concerning Ontario were discussed. A natural gas industry forecast and issues concerning marketers and producers were presented. The terms on which gas is bought and sold were discussed. Regulatory tools, cost allocation and issues relating to unbundling were also presented. Infrastructure needs were reviewed, as well as basic market structures. It was suggested that appropriate commercial service options need to be developed and approved, including cross-utility services.
In today's maturing consumer markets, emphasis is shifting from straightforward sales to a more holistic approach to customer life cycle management, with a stronger emphasis on how sales are generated and service provided all along the customer journey. Effectively managing these different marketing, sales and service channels poses a significant challenge. Companies need new strategies, structures, processes and tools to deliver customer value across all channels. A multi-channel, integrative customer model that delivers customer value and significant return on investment (ROI) requires both a strong understanding of customer preferences and behaviours and a robust IT architecture that supports the overarching customer relationship management (CRM) strategy. Even those organizations that ...
Purpose - Customer relationship management (CRM) indicates a comprehensive strategy and an interactive process intended to achieve an optimum balance between corporate investment and the satisfaction of customer needs to generate the maximum profit. E-CRM refers to CRM using internet technology plus a database, OLAP, data warehouse, data mining, etc. In order to gain an understanding of the efficiency of implementing an e-CRM system within the library context, to develop theoretically and empirically an evaluation process for the e-CRM system and survey its impact on service quality, a pilot scheme was initiated in 2004. The pilot scheme was to design and implement an e-CRM prototype system for a particular academic library in Taiwan and to survey the system's performances. This paper aims...
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to interview Paula Kaufman, Dean of Libraries, to help better understand return on investment (ROI) and the increasing importance of demonstrating our value, as libraries, as librarians, indeed, as public service librarians. Design/methodology/approach - During 2007, a small project team was assembled to develop a model that would calculate a return on investment to an institution for its library. The team consisted of Chrysanne Lowe and Kira Cooper from Elsevier, Paula Kaufman from UIUC, Judy Luther of Informed Strategies, and Dr Carol Tenopir from the Center for Information and Communication Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Findings - The results of this groundbreaking study were reported early this year in a white paper entitled, ...
A Health Care Establishment (HCE) is an establishment where medical services are rendered. The above services are provided by the health care personnel. The infrastructure of a HCE may include Information Technology (IT) equipment that stores and processes HC information. Previously, IT equipment consisted solely of stand-alone systems, whereas in recent years, the trend has been towards computer networks and distributed systems in HCEs. The spread of distributed information technology in HCEs have necessitated the implementation of Security in HCISs, to assure confidentiality, integrity and availability of HCE information. This paper discusses the issues of Security and Network Security in Health Care Information Systems (HCISs). It also suggests a method in establishing Network Security Guidelines and describes Principles for the provision of Network Security in HCEs. PMID:10163736
The ultrasonic inspection pig system was described as being under development. This system was said to adopt the unique wheel type ultrasonic sensor which does not need couplant. This pig was designed to detect external corrosion in long-distance pipelines without interruption of the gas service. The wall-thickness measurement performance test and the travel performance test of the inspection pig in the test line confirmed that these performances satisfied the development specifications. However, the effect induced by the inner surface properties of the pipe and the influence of the pipe`s performance over long distances and for a long period of time still needed to be verified in an actual gas pipeline, and while the pipeline was actually in service. Improvements to the prototype model of the inspection pig were expected to include combinations of inspection pigs, with increases in battery and memory capacities to permit them to cope with in ...
A Health Care Establishment (HCE) is an establishment where medical services are rendered. These services are provided by the health care personnel. The infrastructure of a HCE may include Information Technology (IT) equipment that stores and processes HC information. The spread of distributed information technology in HCEs have necessitated the implementation of Network Security in Health Care Information System (HCISs), to assure confidentiality, integrity and availability of HC information being transmitted across HC networks. This paper presents a road map in implementing Network Security guidelines for the provision of Network Security in HCEs, work carried out within the Secure Environment for Information Systems in Medicine (SEISMED) project under the Advanced Informatics in Medicine (AIM) programme. PMID:8591295
A study was made of employee exposure to oil sludge and vapors during oil-sludge removal and maintenance activities at the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company's Ballast Water Treatment Facility, Valdez, Alaska. Total hydrocarbons, except benzene, toluene, and xylene, showed concentrations from 371 to 1228mg/m3. Of eight maintenance workers, five reported headache, dizziness, or nausea when working without a respirator. The authors conclude that workers were potentially exposed to benzene vapors and total hydrocarbon vapors exceeding the evaluation criteria for these substances. The authors recommend the use of respiratory protection measures to reduce exposures during work operations.
The document provides: An overview of CCS technology including what plant equipment is novel and what is currently in use within the CCS or other industries; An in depth guide to carbon dioxide to broaden the readers understanding of the material and its health and safety issues; Key design features of plant and pipelines for carbon dioxide service including experience gained from the industrial gases sector; and Key operational information for plant and pipelines for carbon dioxide service including experience gained from the industrial gases sector to ensure that your operating practices take into account the latest operational experiences from carbon dioxide plant. 45 figs., 18 tabs.
Objective: To reduce mental health symptoms and high-risk behaviors and increase social support and service utilization among street-living youth, the authors conducted a pilot study to assess the feasibility of the social enterprise intervention (SEI) at a homeless youth agency. Method: Convenience sampling was used to recruit 16 street-living youth from the agency. SEI participants received 7 months of vocational and small business training and service referrals. A comparison sample of 12 agency youth was used. Results: Findings from independent sample t tests demonstrate that SEI participants displayed significant improvements at 9 months in life satisfaction, family contact, peer support, and depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Preliminary findings suggest that the SEI was feasible within the agency setting and associated with higher mental health and social outcomes. (Contains 3 figures and 3 tables.)
Purpose - Mobile phones have provided an opportunity for banking institutions to introduce new services to the public. The latest service, which is now available in Malaysian banking institutions, is the mobile phone credit card. The purpose of this paper is to provide a preliminary investigation of the factors that determine whether Malaysia's bank customers will use the new mobile phone credit card technology. Design/methodology/approach - This paper extends the applicability of the technology acceptance model (TAM) to mobile phone credit cards and includes "perceived credibility (PC)", the "amount of information about mobile phone credit cards (AIMCs)" and "perceived expressiveness (PE)", in addition to "perceived usefulness (PU)" and "perceived ease of use (PEOU)". Findings - The resul...
I. S. Kirbis, P. Maxwell, M. S. Flear, K. Miller and M. Ibrahim External quality control for immunocytochemistry on cytology samples: a review of UK NEQAS ICC (cytology module) results Objective:- To date, external quality control for immunocytochemistry on cytology samples is provided only by the United Kingdom national external quality assessment service for immunocytochemistry and in situ hybridisation (UK NEQAS ICC & ISH). For the purpose of this study a retrospective analysis of a comprehensive collection of quality-related data regarding immunocytochemistry on cytology samples collected through this service was analysed. Methods:- The quality of immunocytochemical reactions, using on-line collected data, was analysed for the last 23 UK NEQAS ICC cytology module external quality asses...
A continuous gas laser may be operated reliably with an increased pressure level and current level without significant cathode sputtering. This increases the service life and the specific power of the laser. The design eliminates the formation of arcs in operational conditions, which also has a positive influence on laser operation. The proposed laser is used successfully in modern interferometry, in geodesy and in materials analysis. The laser design is characterized by the presence of separation rings inside the coaxial cathode. The separation rings are fastened to the anode. The anode is a perforated tube that is connected to two final protective rings. Electrodes from the housing pass through the final rings. In order to increase laser power, two or more lasers of such design are used and are positioned on the same axis in a single housing.
The foundation conducts an environmental monitoring and surveillance program over an area covering much of the upper Snake River Plain and provide environmental education and support services related to INEL natural resource issues. Also, the foundation, with its university affiliates, conducts ecological and radioecological research on the Idaho National Environmental Research Park. This research benefits major DOE-ID programs including waste management, environmental restoration, spent nuclear fuels, and land management issues. Major accomplishments during CY1995 can be divided into five categories: environmental surveillance program, environmental education, environmental services and support, ecological risk assessment, and research benefitting the DOE-ID mission.
The potential material class for use at 600"0C and more, e.g. for steam turbines with improved thermal efficiency, are austenitic steels. Using these steels with welded joints, it is to be considered that, by superposition of weld residual stresses and service stresses, extensive creep strains - and in the worst case crack formation - can occur locally. To assess the influence of these effects on service behaviour, different material states of CrNi-steels and Incoloy 800 were investigated with respect to strength, ductility and, especially, to crack and creep crack growth in the temperature range around 600"0C. It is shown that creep embrittlement, not microstructural changes as effected by weld heat input, causes heat affected zone (HAZ)-reheat cracking. Creep embrittlement can be avoided by special design and fabrication rules. (orig.).
Graphical Business Process Modelling Languages (BPML) like Role Activity Diagrams (RAD) provide ease and flexibility for modelling business behaviour. However, these languages show limited applicability in terms of enactment over distributed systems paradigms like Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based grid computing. This paper investigates RAD modelling of a Scientific Publishing Process (SPP) for Digital Libraries (DL) and tries to determine the suitability of Pi-Calculus based formal approaches to enact SOA based grid computing. In order to achieve this purpose, the Pi-Calculus based formal transformation from a RAD model of SPP for DL draws attention towards a number of challenging issues including issues that require particular design considerations for appropriate enactment in a SOA based grid system.
The ISI (In-Service Inspection) system has been developed so as to maintain the structural integrity of heat transfer tubes in the primary pressurized water cooler in the HTTR (High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor). This system consists of eddy current probes, ultra-sonic probes, insertion and extraction units, positioning unit and so on. Verification and performance tests of the developed ISI system were carried out using mock-up heat transfer tubes in the primary pressurized water cooler. The constitution of the system, R and D results of the inspection probes, and verification and performance test results of the ISI system for heat transfer tubes are described in this paper. (author)
The ISI (In-Service Inspection) system has been developed so as to maintain the structural integrity of heat transfer tubes in the primary pressurized water cooler in the HTTR (High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor). This system consists of eddy current probes, ultra-sonic probes, insertion and extraction units, positioning unit and so on. Verification and performance tests of the developed ISI system were carried out using mock-up heat transfer tubes in the primary pressurized water cooler. The constitution of the system, R and D results of the inspection probes, and verification and performance test results of the ISI system for heat transfer tubes are described in this paper. (author)
...Cummins Turbo Technologies launches new family of turbochargers for smaller diesel engines at IAA Hannover, public service, publicservice.co.uk Cummins Turbo Technologies ...launches new family of turbochargers for smaller diesel engines at IAA Hannover Cummins Turbo Technologies launches new family of turbochargers for smaller diesel engines at IAA ...Facebook Delicious Cummins Turbo Technologies launches new family of turbochargers for smaller diesel engines at IAA Hannover Cummins Turbo Technologies, a global engineering leader ...turbocharger technology, launched a new range of diesel turbochargers specifically designed for diesel engines from 2 -5 litre capacity today at IAA Hannover. Cummins ...
The new Code Case to substitute the allowable crack angle for a circumferential surface crack in 'Rules on Fitness-for-Service (FFS)' published from The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME). Until now, the angle of a circumferential surface crack was limited below 60deg. This is the limitation with consideration to the stability of the crack if the deep crack penetrates wall of the pipe. Therefore, a long crack (such like an SCC) was obliged to repair or replace even if it was shallow enough. Weld Overlay (WOL) repair in which strength of the original piping is ignored is also inapplicable for the same reason. In order to solve this irrationality, the new Code Case applying to the crack stability assessment when the crack angle exceeds 60deg was established, and allowable crack depth according to the crack angle were defined in it. (author)
In a nutshell, the existing Internet provides to us content in the forms of videos, emails and information served up in web pages. With Cloud Computing, the next generation of Internet will allow us to "buy" IT services from a web portal, drastic expanding the types of merchandise available beyond those on e-commerce sites such as eBay and Taobao. We would be able to rent from a virtual storefront the basic necessities to build a virtual data center: such as CPU, memory, storage, and add on top of that the middleware necessary: web application servers, databases, enterprise server bus, etc. as the platform(s) to support the applications we would like to either rent from an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) or develop ourselves. Together this is what we call as "IT as a Service," or ITaaS, bundled to us the end users as a virtual data center.
With the introduction of competition and diversification into retail utility services, rate-making methods are being rethought. Rates that are strictly cost-based may be too slow in responding to changes within the utility industry. And the advent of independent power production as a significant source of energy calls for greater flexibility in pricing of wholesale utility services as well. Various deregulation or reregulation plans have been formulated, including both price cap and price floor proposals. Some regulatory authorities have embraced market-based pricing over cost-based methods as the best solution to pricing problems. This article addresses Federal Energy Regulatory Commission response to market-based rates.
Purpose - The article discusses how care programmes and integrated care pathways can be linked, finding ways to improve healthcare process professional and logistical quality from a supply chain and a network point-of-view. Design/methodology/approach - The authors argue that owing to cost containment goals and increasing healthcare demand, healthcare services systems are challenged to improve service quality, whilst at the same time finding ways to improve delivery processes. It explores if the combination of two instruments, care programmes and integrated care pathways, can meet both goals. This combination is illustrated by an example from the Institute of Mental Health Care Eindhoven en de Kempen. Findings - Analysis suggests that care programmes can be combined with integrated care pa...
In this paper, the question of whether the new distribution system for the electricity supply industry can deliver a better service to customers, is discussed. In particular it discusses the requirement of customers for low cost and efficiency, with particular reference to Victoria in general and Solaris in particular. Solaris comprises the amalgamation of five ex-Municipal Electricity Undertakings and one distribution part of the former State Electricity Commission. Despite not having a set of objectives, a strategy, a common culture, appropriate processes or systems, key account management skills, marketing and customer service expertise, commercial financial expertise, commercial treasury expertise and strategic skill, it has been able to develop a business plan and strategy to satisfy the shareholder (the government), improve customer communication facilities, set up human resource management mechanisms and liaison with the community. The ...
The marketing strategy developed for use in international markets by the S. M. Group International of Longueuil, Quebec, a company with interest and well-developed expertise in the environmental and energy sector, was described. The strategy is designed to aid in the selection of countries or regions of interest, in determining the sector of activity to be emphasized, in selecting a local partner or local business representatives, and in making contact locally with the people responsible for the development banks in the target countries in an effort to create awareness of the company. The company also tries, wherever possible, to promote its services to local governmental agencies through the industrial cooperation program of CIDA. Since development banks have a very conservative behaviour, past performances and constant provision of high quality services are of prime importance.
The primary goal of this study was to assess the association between the full birth weight distribution and prevalence of specific developmental disabilities and related measures of health and special education services utilization in US children. Using data from the 1997?2005 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) Sample Child Core, we identified 87,578 children 3?17?years of age with parent-reported information on birth weight. We estimated the prevalences of DDs (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], autism, cerebral palsy, hearing impairment, learning disability without mental retardation, mental retardation, seizures, stuttering/stammering, and other developmental delay) and several indicators of health services utilization within a range of birth weight categories. We cal...
The high-nickel austenitic alloy 800 (in both the mill-annealed and the solution-treated grades) has several attractive properties that make it a good candidate for service attractive properties that make it a good candidate for service at elevated temperatures in corrosive environments. One such property is creep resistance. This report analyzes the elevated-temperature creep behavior of the mill-annealed grade, generally referred to simply as alloy 800. (The solution-treated grade is known as alloy 800H). Available data over the temperature range from 538 to 760/sup 0/C were collected and evaluated to yield mathematically approximations for creep-rupture and strain-time behavior for use in design calculations. However, the creep behavior of this material is extremely complex, and the analysis presented here contains substantial uncertainties. All results in this report should be considered preliminary because of limited data currently ...
Stemming from their unique combination of elevated strength, low density, and good overall corrosion resistance, beta titanium alloys have become attractive candidate materials for critical, high-stress, components in corrosive services. An overview of the comparative corrosion resistance of beta alloys to conventional alpha and alpha/beta titanium alloys in common industrial and aerospace service environments generally reveals attractive behavior depending on the environment and alloy composition and, in some cases, alloy condition. Expanded performance windows are especially noted for the molybdenum-rich beta alloys, particularly in regard to resisting reducing acids, stress corrosion, and high temperature localized chloride attack, along with hydrogen and oxidation resistance. Where applicable, implications of this enhanced corrosion performance on current and perspective beta alloy applications are also noted.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine potential new uses of return on investment (ROI) in alternative methods for library assessment and valuation. Design/methodology/approach - Uses examples of recent uses of ROI by libraries to identify potential new applications of ROI in library assessment and valuation. Findings - ROI investment has historically been used by libraries for the assessment of past performance of library organizations in a reactive/defensive nature or for assessing the value of customer services. ROI has not been widely used as a proactive assessment tool, to introspectively assess administrative or other internal services, or as an offensive assessment and valuation tool, especially for intangible performance assessment and valuation. Originality/value - New ...
We provide an efficient computational approach to solve the mixed integer programming (MIP) model developed by Tarim and Kingsman [8] for solving a stochastic lot-sizing problem with service level constraints under the static-dynamic uncertainty strategy. The effectiveness of the proposed method hinges on three novelties: (i) the proposed relaxation is computationally efficient and provides an optimal solution most of the time, (ii) if the relaxation produces an infeasible solution, then this solution yields a tight lower bound for the optimal cost, and (iii) it can be modified easily to obtain a feasible solution, which yields an upper bound. In case of infeasibility, the relaxation approach is implemented at each node of the search tree in a branch-and-bound procedure to efficiently sear...
Alloy 800 has been used for steam generator (SG) tubing for more than 30 years, primarily in CANDU reactors and in reactors in Germany. Extensive laboratory testing and in-service experience suggest that the Alloy 800 tubing has excellent resistance to corrosion-related degradation under specified and appropriate operating conditions. In planning refurbishment of CANDU stations, a key concern is the longevity of existing SGs up to the 60 year lifetime of the refurbished plant. The paper reviews an existing methodology based on the concept of the improvement factor, and estimates it based on experimental data specific to CANDU operating conditions. The paper presents a more advanced probabilistic approach to estimate the degradation free lifetime distribution of Alloy 800 tubing, which is used to quantify the probability of degradation during the service life and to evaluate the impact of potential occurrences of degradation on reliability of SG ...
Alloy 800 has been used for steam generator (SG) tubing for more than 30 years, primarily in CANDU reactors and in reactors in Germany. Extensive laboratory testing and in-service experience suggest that the Alloy 800 tubing has excellent resistance to corrosion-related degradation under specified and appropriate operating conditions. In planning refurbishment of CANDU stations, a key concern is the longevity of existing SGs up to the 60 year lifetime of the refurbished plant. The paper reviews an existing methodology based on the concept of the improvement factor, and estimates it based on experimental data specific to CANDU operating conditions. The paper presents a more advanced probabilistic approach to estimate the degradation free lifetime distribution of Alloy 800 tubing, which is used to quantify the probability of degradation during the service life and to evaluate the impact of potential occurrences of degradation on reliability of SG ...
This article describes acoustic methods used in the in-service inspection of the dams and peripheral concrete structures of the Toktogul, Kurpsai, and Bratsk hydroelectric and pumped storage plants. The tests were conducted to assess the compression strength, elasticity, and tensile strength of the concretes. Comparative evaluations against drill core studies proved the acoustic methods to be sufficiently accurate in predicting aging behavior and loss of mechanical and physical integrity in the concretes.
The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics reports on activities undertaken in the study of global climate change. Some of these activities are a part of the overall International Geosphere Biosphere Program but others predate that program. The organization has been solely responsible for five of ten permanent global data services and jointly responsible for three others. Workshops and meetings devoted to issues of global change are also reported.
The National Radiological Protection Board is to carry out a survey of doses received by patients from the diagnostic use of X-rays, beginning in June 1977, and carried out at over 100 National Health Service hospitals. Details are given of the reasons for carrying out the survey and the survey objectives. The survey working methods are discussed, together with methods of calculation of the genetically significant dose. The radiation doses will be measured by a thermoluminescent dosimeter developed specially for the survey. (U.K.).
This 2001 edition of the guide to UK renewable companies and equipment and service providers presents summaries of the different industry sectors covering wind power, photovoltaics, solar water heating, geothermal heat pump, hydroelectric power, marine current and wave technology, bioenergy, power generation from landfill gas, energy from waste, and cogeneration. A UK company classification listing and index is provided along with listing of UK organisations and companies and an index of advertisers.
If geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) are to make a significant mark in the market, we believe that it will be through energy service pricing contracts offered by retailcos. The benefits of GHPs are ideally suited to energy service pricing (ESP) contractual arrangements; however, few retailcos are thoroughly familiar with the benefits of GHPs. Many of the same barriers that have prevented GHPs from reaching their full potential in the current market environment remain in place for retailcos. A lack of awareness, concerns over the actual efficiencies of GHPs, perceptions of extremely high first costs, unknown records for maintenance costs, etc. have all contributed to limited adoption of GHP technology. These same factors are of concern to retailcos as they contemplate long term customer contracts. The central focus of this project was the creation of models, using actual GHP operating data and the experience of seasoned professionals, to simulate the ...
The Department of Energy has used its seldom-used statutory authority and filed comments with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission urging support for Public Service Company of Indiana's request that the FERC allow it to sell up to 450 megawatts of firm power to eligible wholesale purchasers at negotiated or market-based rates in exchange for open transmission access for other generators.