Classification,Hazards and Countermeasures of Agricultural Environmental Pollution Emergencies

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Xiaoming; CHUAI; Haixia; ZHOU; Jianping; ZHAO; Shubo; CHENG; Jiang; YU

2013-01-01

Agricultural environmental pollution emergencies have become a hot research topic because of the high incidence and influence depth.This paper introduces classification and features of agricultural environmental pollution emergencies:by pollutant type,it falls into organic pollution emergencies and inorganic pollution emergencies;by the approach of entering agricultural environment,it falls into water resource agricultural environmental pollution emergencies and non-water resource agricultural environmental pollution emergencies.Hazards of agricultural environmental pollution emergencies are analyzed from 4 perspectives:personal security,indirect loss,ecological environment and social stability.In view of the hazards,countermeasures are given to deal with the pollution emergencies as(i)establishing a risk evaluation mechanism for agricultural environment;(ii)enhancing the capacity of handling agricultural environmental pollution emergencies;(iii)introducing new management concepts for environmental emergencies,and cultivating keen emergency management consciousness.

Cancer: an emergent property of disturbed resource-rich environments? Ecology meets personalized medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Ducasse, Hugo; Arnal, Audrey; Vittecoq, Marion; Daoust, Simon P; Ujvari, Beata; Jacqueline, Camille; Tissot, Tazzio; Ewald, Paul; Gatenby, Robert A; King, Kayla C; Bonhomme, François; Brodeur, Jacques; Renaud, François; Solary, Eric; Roche, Benjamin; Thomas, Frédéric

2015-07-01

For an increasing number of biologists, cancer is viewed as a dynamic system governed by evolutionary and ecological principles. Throughout most of human history, cancer was an uncommon cause of death and it is generally accepted that common components of modern culture, including increased physiological stresses and caloric intake, favor cancer development. However, the precise mechanisms for this linkage are not well understood. Here, we examine the roles of ecological and physiological disturbances and resource availability on the emergence of cancer in multicellular organisms. We argue that proliferation of 'profiteering phenotypes' is often an emergent property of disturbed, resource-rich environments at all scales of biological organization. We review the evidence for this phenomenon, explore it within the context of malignancy, and discuss how this ecological framework may offer a theoretical background for novel strategies of cancer prevention. This work provides a compelling argument that the traditional separation between medicine and evolutionary ecology remains a fundamental limitation that needs to be overcome if complex processes, such as oncogenesis, are to be completely understood.

The secret gardener: vegetation and the emergence of biogeomorphic patterns in tidal environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Da Lio, Cristina; D'Alpaos, Andrea; Marani, Marco

2013-01-01

The presence and continued existence of tidal morphologies, and in particular of salt marshes, is intimately connected with biological activity, especially with the presence of halophytic vegetation. Here, we review recent contributions to tidal biogeomorphology and identify the presence of multiple competing stable states arising from a two-way feedback between biomass productivity and topographic elevation. Hence, through the analysis of previous and new results on spatially extended biogeomorphological systems, we show that multiple stable states constitute a unifying framework explaining emerging patterns in tidal environments from the local to the system scale. Furthermore, in contrast with traditional views we propose that biota in tidal environments is not just passively adapting to morphological features prescribed by sediment transport, but rather it is 'The Secret Gardener', fundamentally constructing the tidal landscape. The proposed framework allows to identify the observable signature of the biogeomorphic feedbacks underlying tidal landscapes and to explore the response and resilience of tidal biogeomorphic patterns to variations in the forcings, such as the rate of relative sea-level rise.

The emergence and workings of a process view in public education policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grønbæk Pors, Justine; Ratner, Helene Gad

2017-01-01

This article presents a study of Danish primary education policy with the purpose of exploring what is put at stake when contemporary management discourses describe the object of management as fluid and emergent processes rather than as entities, persons and things. The article examines how...... such a process view of organisation allows policy makers to imagine innovative change, but also how a process view interacts in particular ways with financial pressures and become entangled to increased performance measurements. We conclude that in this particular case, a conception of the object of management...

Students’ Views about the Problem Based Collaborative Learning Environment Supported By Dynamic Web Technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erhan ÜNAL

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to design a problem based collaborative learning environment supported by dynamic web technologies and examine students’ views about this learning environment. The study was designed as a qualitative research. 36 students who took Object Oriented Programming I-II course from a public university at the department of computer programming participated in the study. During the research process, the Object Oriented Programming I-II course was designed with incorporating different dynamic web technologies (Edmodo, Google Services, and Mind42 and Nelson (1999’s collaborative problem solving method. At the end of the course, there were focus group interviews in regards to the students’ views on a learning environment supported by dynamic web technologies and collaborative problem solving method. At the end of the focus group interviews, 4 themes were obtained from the students’ views, including positive aspects of the learning environment, difficulties faced in the learning environment, advantages of the learning environment, and skills gained as a result of the project. The results suggest that problem based collaborative learning methods and dynamic web technologies can be used in learning environments in community colleges.

Andean rural children's views of the environment: A qualitative study

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Maurial, Mahia

Andean rural children's drawings and narratives about their crops and the immediate biological environment are rich tools to understand local views of the environment. Children's drawings and narratives were collected and linked to interviews as well as participant observation gathered from parents, leaders and teachers. The research sites are the community of Willca and the school of Mayu. Fieldwork was completed in 1998. In the conceptual framework I distinguish between two dissimilar knowledges, school knowledge and local knowledge. These knowledges produce two dissimilar views of the environment. I further analyze relationships of knowledge and power and argue that school knowledge overpowers local knowledge. Concomitantly, I studied set of ideas associated with two knowledges aforementioned: superacion (surpass) and regeneration (Apffel-Marglin 1995). Although these ideas coexist in peoples' minds they are not linked or effectively connected. In order to link local knowledge and school knowledge together, I propose the integration of environmental studies and art education to enhance a local sense of place (Blandy et. al 1993) in Andean and other schools. This will contribute to grassroots educational policy.

A comparison between digital images viewed on a picture archiving and communication system diagnostic workstation and on a PC-based remote viewing system by emergency physicians.

Science.gov (United States)

Parasyn, A; Hanson, R M; Peat, J K; De Silva, M

1998-02-01

Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) make possible the viewing of radiographic images on computer workstations located where clinical care is delivered. By the nature of their work this feature is particularly useful for emergency physicians who view radiographic studies for information and use them to explain results to patients and their families. However, the high cost of PACS diagnostic workstations with fuller functionality places limits on the number of and therefore the accessibility to workstations in the emergency department. This study was undertaken to establish how well less expensive personal computer-based workstations would work to support these needs of emergency physicians. The study compared the outcome of observations by 5 emergency physicians on a series of radiographic studies containing subtle abnormalities displayed on both a PACS diagnostic workstation and on a PC-based workstation. The 73 digitized radiographic studies were randomly arranged on both types of workstation over four separate viewing sessions for each emergency physician. There was no statistical difference between a PACS diagnostic workstation and a PC-based workstation in this trial. The mean correct ratings were 59% on the PACS diagnostic workstations and 61% on the PC-based workstations. These findings also emphasize the need for prompt reporting by a radiologist.

Occurrence of antibiotics as emerging contaminant substances in aquatic environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Milić, Nataša; Milanović, Maja; Letić, Nevena Grujić; Sekulić, Maja Turk; Radonić, Jelena; Mihajlović, Ivana; Miloradov, Mirjana Vojinović

2013-01-01

The occurrence of pharmaceutical residues in the environment has become a subject of growing concern. Due to the constant input of the emerging contaminants in the surface water via wastewater which leads to the long-term adverse effects on the aquatic and terrestrial organisms, special attention is being paid to their presence in the aquatic environment. Most of the emerging substances, especially pharmaceuticals, could not be completely removed using the wastewater treatment. Pharmaceuticals are usually water soluble and poorly degradable. They can pass through all natural filtrations and then reach the groundwater and, finally, the drinking water. The trace levels of antibiotics could have a negative impact on the environment and public health because of their inherent bioactivity. This article is an overview of the presence of the antibiotic residual concentrations, methods and levels of detection and possible risks to both health and environment.

Enhancing Student Self-Worth in the Primary School Learning Environment: Teachers' Views and Students' Views

Science.gov (United States)

Cushman, Penni; Cowan, Jackie

2010-01-01

This paper reports the findings from a study of teachers and students' views regarding self-worth in the primary school learning environment. The revised New Zealand curriculum recognises the importance of self-worth in students' motivation and ability to learn. While the need to enhance self-worth in the classroom has been well established in the…

Designing Science Learning Environments That Support Emerging Bilingual Students to Problematize Electrical Phenomena

Science.gov (United States)

Suarez, Enrique A.

This dissertation investigates how emerging bilingual students make sense of natural phenomena through engaging in certain epistemic practices of science, and the elements of the learning environment that created those opportunities. Specifically, the dissertation focuses on how emerging bilingual students problematized electrical phenomena, like electric flow and electrical resistance, and how the design features of the environment (e.g., sequencing of activities, linguistic practices) may have supported students as they made sense of phenomena. The first study describes how for students presented and evaluated mechanistic models of electric flow, focusing specifically on how students identified and negotiated a disagreement between their explanatory models. The results from this study highlight the complexity of students' disagreements, not only because of the epistemological aspects related to presenting and evaluating knowledge, but also due to interpersonal dynamics and the discomfort associated with disagreeing with another person. The second study focuses on the design features of the learning environment that supported emerging bilingual students' investigations of electrical phenomena. The findings from this study highlight how a carefully designed set of activities, with the appropriate material resources (e.g., experimental tools), could support students to problematize electrical resistance. The third study describes how emerging bilingual students engaged in translanguaging practices and the contextual features of the learning environment that created and hindered opportunities for translanguaging. The findings from this study identify and articulate how emerging bilingual students engaged in translanguaging practices when problematizing electrical resistance, and strengthen the perspective that, in order to be equitable for emerging bilingual students, science learning environments need to act as translanguaging spaces. This dissertation makes three

Face learning and the emergence of view-independent face recognition: an event-related brain potential study.

Science.gov (United States)

Zimmermann, Friederike G S; Eimer, Martin

2013-06-01

Recognizing unfamiliar faces is more difficult than familiar face recognition, and this has been attributed to qualitative differences in the processing of familiar and unfamiliar faces. Familiar faces are assumed to be represented by view-independent codes, whereas unfamiliar face recognition depends mainly on view-dependent low-level pictorial representations. We employed an electrophysiological marker of visual face recognition processes in order to track the emergence of view-independence during the learning of previously unfamiliar faces. Two face images showing either the same or two different individuals in the same or two different views were presented in rapid succession, and participants had to perform an identity-matching task. On trials where both faces showed the same view, repeating the face of the same individual triggered an N250r component at occipito-temporal electrodes, reflecting the rapid activation of visual face memory. A reliable N250r component was also observed on view-change trials. Crucially, this view-independence emerged as a result of face learning. In the first half of the experiment, N250r components were present only on view-repetition trials but were absent on view-change trials, demonstrating that matching unfamiliar faces was initially based on strictly view-dependent codes. In the second half, the N250r was triggered not only on view-repetition trials but also on view-change trials, indicating that face recognition had now become more view-independent. This transition may be due to the acquisition of abstract structural codes of individual faces during face learning, but could also reflect the formation of associative links between sets of view-specific pictorial representations of individual faces. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multi-view 3D Human Pose Estimation in Complex Environment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hofmann, K.M.; Gavrila, D.M.

2012-01-01

We introduce a framework for unconstrained 3D human upper body pose estimation from multiple camera views in complex environment. Its main novelty lies in the integration of three components: single-frame pose recovery, temporal integration and model texture adaptation. Single-frame pose recovery

NIOSH Mobile Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Work Environment Laboratory

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Federal Laboratory Consortium — The NIOSH Mobile Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Work Environment Laboratory is a 2005 Wheeled Coach Type III ambulance mounted on a Ford E-450 cut-away van chassis....

Consumer opinions of emergency room medical care.

Science.gov (United States)

McMillan, J R; Younger, M S; DeWine, L C

1984-12-01

If hospital management is to adapt successfully to an increasingly competitive environment, and to retain a viable emergency department, it well be necessary to objectively and accurately assess the hospital's image in the community served. Knowledge of the consumers' views is an essential input into the formulation of strategic plans. This article reports on a study in which consumer opinions on 15 dimensions of emergency room health care were obtained from 723 respondents using a mail questionnaire. Findings reveal that consumers view the emergency room as being more expensive than other health care providers. Except for being available or convenient, little or no advantage is perceived for the emergency room over the personal physician. Even though the emergency room has specialized staff and equipment, consumers do not believe patients receive better or faster treatment in an emergency room than would be obtained in a physician's office. Unless changed, these perceptions will diminish the role of the emergency room in the delivery of health care services.

Online MOS Capacitor Characterization in LabVIEW Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chinmay K Maiti

2009-08-01

Full Text Available We present an automated evaluation procedure to characterize MOS capacitors involving high-k gate dielectrics. Suitability of LabVIEW environment for online web-based semiconductor device characterization is demonstrated. Developed algorithms have been successfully applied to automate the MOS capacitor measurements for Capacitance-Voltage, Conductance-Voltage and Current-Voltage characteristics. Implementation of the algorithm for use as a remote internet-based characterization tool where the client and server communicate with each other via web services is also shown.

Simulations of embodied evolving semiosis: Emergent semantics in artificial environments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rocha, L.M.; Joslyn, C.

1998-02-01

As we enter this amazing new world of artificial and virtual systems and environments in the context of human communities, we are interested in the development of systems and environments which have the capacity to grow and evolve their own meanings in the context of this community of interaction. In this paper the authors analyze the necessary conditions to achieve systems and environments with these properties: (1) a coupled interaction between a system and its environment; (2) an environment with sufficient initial richness and structure to allow for; (3) embodied emergent classification of that environment system coupling; and (4) which is subject to pragmatic selection.

Emerging pollutants in the environment : A challenge for water resource management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Geissen, V.; Mol, J.G.J.; Klumpp, Erwin; Umlauf, Günter; Nadal, M.; Ploeg, van der M.J.; Zee, van der S.E.A.T.M.; Ritsema, C.J.

2015-01-01

A significant number of emerging pollutants (EPs) resulting from point and diffuse pollution is present in the aquatic environment. These are chemicals that are not commonly monitored but have the potential to enter the environment and cause adverse ecological and human health effects. According to

Dominant Modes in Light Nuclei - Ab Initio View of Emergent Symmetries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Draayer, J P; Dytrych, T; Launey, K D; Dreyfuss, A C; Langr, D

2015-01-01

An innovative symmetry-guided concept is discussed with a focus on emergent symmetry patterns in complex nuclei. In particular, the ab initio symmetry-adapted no-core shell model (SA-NCSM), which capitalizes on exact as well as partial symmetries that underpin the structure of nuclei, provides remarkable insight into how simple symmetry patterns emerge in the many-body nuclear dynamics from first principles. This ab initio view is complemented by a fully microscopic no-core symplectic shell-model framework (NCSpM), which, in turn, informs key features of the primary physics responsible for the emergent phenomena of large deformation and alpha-cluster substructures in studies of the challenging Hoyle state in Carbon-12 and enhanced collectivity in intermediate-mass nuclei. Furthermore, by recognizing that deformed configurations often dominate the low-energy regime, the SA-NCSM provides a strategy for determining the nature of bound states of nuclei in terms of a relatively small subspace of the symmetry-reorganized complete model space, which opens new domains of nuclei for ab initio investigations, namely, the intermediate-mass region, including isotopes of Ne, Mg, and Si

Criteria for the Transition to Adulthood, Developmental Features of Emerging Adulthood, and Views of the Future Among Greek Studying Youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Galanaki, Evangelia; Leontopoulou, Sophie

2017-08-01

This study investigated emerging adulthood and transition to adulthood in Greece, a highly underresearched issue in this country. Participants were 784 university students aged 17.5-27.5 years. Criteria for the transition to adulthood, developmental features of emerging adulthood, perceived adult status, views of the future (optimism), and sociodemographic variables were assessed. The results support the existence of emerging adulthood as a distinct life period in Greece. More than two thirds of the sample were self-perceived emerging adults. Most prevalent criteria were Norm compliance and Family capacities. Developmental features of emerging adulthood ranked high, especially Identity exploration, Experimentation/possibilities, and Feeling "in-between". Statistically significant variations emerged as a function of gender, age, living arrangement, job experience, and perceived adult status. Views of the future were cautiously optimistic. Similarities with existing data and differences related to the specific characteristics of the Southern European context are discussed.

SoundView: an auditory guidance system based on environment understanding for the visually impaired people.

Science.gov (United States)

Nie, Min; Ren, Jie; Li, Zhengjun; Niu, Jinhai; Qiu, Yihong; Zhu, Yisheng; Tong, Shanbao

2009-01-01

Without visual information, the blind people live in various hardships with shopping, reading, finding objects and etc. Therefore, we developed a portable auditory guide system, called SoundView, for visually impaired people. This prototype system consists of a mini-CCD camera, a digital signal processing unit and an earphone, working with built-in customizable auditory coding algorithms. Employing environment understanding techniques, SoundView processes the images from a camera and detects objects tagged with barcodes. The recognized objects in the environment are then encoded into stereo speech signals for the blind though an earphone. The user would be able to recognize the type, motion state and location of the interested objects with the help of SoundView. Compared with other visual assistant techniques, SoundView is object-oriented and has the advantages of cheap cost, smaller size, light weight, low power consumption and easy customization.

Ambient versus traditional environment in pediatric emergency department.

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, Patricia S; Green, Jeanette

2015-01-01

We sought to examine the effect of exposure to an ambient environment in a pediatric emergency department. We hypothesized that passive distraction from ambient lighting in an emergency department would lead to reduction in patient pain and anxiety and increased caregiver satisfaction with services. Passive distraction has been associated with lower anxiety and pain in patients and affects perception of wait time. A pediatric ED was designed that optimized passive distraction techniques using colorful ambient lighting. Participants were nonrandomly assigned to either an ambient ED environment or a traditional ED environment. Entry and exit questionnaires assessed caregiver expectations and experiences. Pain ratings were obtained with age-appropriate scales, and wait times were recorded. A total of 70 participants were assessed across conditions, that is, 40 in the ambient ED group and 30 in the traditional ED group. Caregivers in the traditional ED group expected a longer wait, had higher anxiety pretreatment, and felt more scared than those in the ambient ED group. Caregivers in the ambient ED group felt more included in the care of their child and rated quality of care higher than caregivers in the traditional ED group. Pain ratings and administrations of pain medication were lower in the ambient ED group. Mean scores for the ambient ED group were in the expected direction on several items measuring satisfaction with ED experiences. Results were suggestive of less stress in caregivers, less pain in patients, and higher satisfaction levels in the ambient ED group. © The Author(s) 2015.

Children's views on research without prior consent in emergency situations: a UK qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Roper, Louise; Sherratt, Frances C; Young, Bridget; McNamara, Paul; Dawson, Angus; Appleton, Richard; Crawley, Esther; Frith, Lucy; Gamble, Carrol; Woolfall, Kerry

2018-06-09

We explored children's views on research without prior consent (RWPC) and sought to identify ways of involving children in research discussions. Qualitative interview study. Participants were recruited through a UK children's hospital and online advertising. 16 children aged 7-15 years with a diagnosis of asthma (n=14) or anaphylaxis (n=2) with recent (<12 months) experience of emergency care. Children were keen to be included in medical research and viewed RWPC as acceptable in emergency situations if trial interventions were judged safe. Children trusted that doctors would know about their trial participation and act in their best interests. All felt that children should be informed about the research following their recovery and involved in discussions with a clinician or their parent(s) about the use of data already collected as well as continued participation in the trial (if applicable). Participants suggested methods to inform children about their trial participation including an animation. Children supported, and were keen to be involved in, clinical trials in emergency situations. We present guidance and an animation that practitioners and parents might use to involve children in trial discussions following their recovery. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Contributions of the emergent literacy environment to literacy outcomes for young children who are deaf.

Science.gov (United States)

Easterbrooks, Susan R; Lederberg, Amy R; Connor, Carol M

2010-01-01

Specific characteristics of early literacy environments support hearing children's emergent literacy. The researchers investigated these characteristics' role in emergent literacy in young deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children, using the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (ELLCO; M. W. Smith, Dickinson, Sangeorge, & Anastasopoulos, 2002). Eighteen self-contained classrooms of preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade DHH children (N = 40) were studied. Hierarchical linear analysis was used to examine study participants' classroom environment and growth in emergent literacy skills. Correlations suggested that classroom environment was more closely related to vocabulary and phonological awareness in DHH children than in typically hearing children. Major differences among classrooms were also indicated. However, growth in children's skills did not correlate strongly with attributes captured by the ELLCO. This suggests that classrooms promoting emergent literacy skills acquisition in DHH children may differ from classrooms of typically developing hearing children.

Students' Views about the Problem Based Collaborative Learning Environment Supported by Dynamic Web Technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Ünal, Erhan; Çakir, Hasan

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to design a problem based collaborative learning environment supported by dynamic web technologies and to examine students' views about this learning environment. The study was designed as a qualitative research. Some 36 students who took an Object Oriented Programming I-II course at the department of computer…

Pupils' Views on an ICT-Based Learning Environment in Health Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Räihä, Teija; Tossavainen, Kerttu; Enkenberg, Jorma; Turunen, Hannele

2014-01-01

This paper presents a study that examined pupils' views on an ICT-based learning environment in health learning. The study was a part of the wider European Network of Health Promoting Schools programme (ENHPS; since 2008, Schools for Health in Europe, SHE) in Finland, and particularly its sub-project, From Puijo to the World with Health Lunch,…

Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources. General Directorate for the Environment - Order No. 48/93/DGL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-01-01

This order provides for the organisation of emergency responses within the General Directorate for the Environment, also in compliance with the 1986 IAEA Convention on Notification of a Nuclear Accident to which Portugal is a Party. A Technical Emergency Group, set up within the DGA ensures in co-operation with the national Civil Protection Service, a permanent connection with the international emergency network set up for this purpose by the IAEA, and provides support services to national health protection bodies with a view to establishing preventive and protection measures in the context of nuclear emergencies. (NEA)

A Case Study of Different Types of Arguments Emerging from Explorations in an Interactive Computerized Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Lavy, Ilana

2006-01-01

This paper presents a description of the different types of arguments that emerged as two students, working in a computerized environment, engaged in an investigation of several number theory concepts. The emerging arguments are seen as a result of the influence of the computerized environment together with collaborative learning. Using…

Viewing medium affects arm motor performance in 3D virtual environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Subramanian, Sandeep K; Levin, Mindy F

2011-06-30

2D and 3D virtual reality platforms are used for designing individualized training environments for post-stroke rehabilitation. Virtual environments (VEs) are viewed using media like head mounted displays (HMDs) and large screen projection systems (SPS) which can influence the quality of perception of the environment. We estimated if there were differences in arm pointing kinematics when subjects with and without stroke viewed a 3D VE through two different media: HMD and SPS. Two groups of subjects participated (healthy control, n=10, aged 53.6 ± 17.2 yrs; stroke, n=20, 66.2 ± 11.3 yrs). Arm motor impairment and spasticity were assessed in the stroke group which was divided into mild (n=10) and moderate-to-severe (n=10) sub-groups based on Fugl-Meyer Scores. Subjects pointed (8 times each) to 6 randomly presented targets located at two heights in the ipsilateral, middle and contralateral arm workspaces. Movements were repeated in the same VE viewed using HMD (Kaiser XL50) and SPS. Movement kinematics were recorded using an Optotrak system (Certus, 6 markers, 100 Hz). Upper limb motor performance (precision, velocity, trajectory straightness) and movement pattern (elbow, shoulder ranges and trunk displacement) outcomes were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVAs. For all groups, there were no differences in endpoint trajectory straightness, shoulder flexion and shoulder horizontal adduction ranges and sagittal trunk displacement between the two media. All subjects, however, made larger errors in the vertical direction using HMD compared to SPS. Healthy subjects also made larger errors in the sagittal direction, slower movements overall and used less range of elbow extension for the lower central target using HMD compared to SPS. The mild and moderate-to-severe sub-groups made larger RMS errors with HMD. The only advantage of using the HMD was that movements were 22% faster in the moderate-to-severe stroke sub-group compared to the SPS. Despite the similarity in

Viewing medium affects arm motor performance in 3D virtual environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Subramanian Sandeep K

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background 2D and 3D virtual reality platforms are used for designing individualized training environments for post-stroke rehabilitation. Virtual environments (VEs are viewed using media like head mounted displays (HMDs and large screen projection systems (SPS which can influence the quality of perception of the environment. We estimated if there were differences in arm pointing kinematics when subjects with and without stroke viewed a 3D VE through two different media: HMD and SPS. Methods Two groups of subjects participated (healthy control, n = 10, aged 53.6 ± 17.2 yrs; stroke, n = 20, 66.2 ± 11.3 yrs. Arm motor impairment and spasticity were assessed in the stroke group which was divided into mild (n = 10 and moderate-to-severe (n = 10 sub-groups based on Fugl-Meyer Scores. Subjects pointed (8 times each to 6 randomly presented targets located at two heights in the ipsilateral, middle and contralateral arm workspaces. Movements were repeated in the same VE viewed using HMD (Kaiser XL50 and SPS. Movement kinematics were recorded using an Optotrak system (Certus, 6 markers, 100 Hz. Upper limb motor performance (precision, velocity, trajectory straightness and movement pattern (elbow, shoulder ranges and trunk displacement outcomes were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVAs. Results For all groups, there were no differences in endpoint trajectory straightness, shoulder flexion and shoulder horizontal adduction ranges and sagittal trunk displacement between the two media. All subjects, however, made larger errors in the vertical direction using HMD compared to SPS. Healthy subjects also made larger errors in the sagittal direction, slower movements overall and used less range of elbow extension for the lower central target using HMD compared to SPS. The mild and moderate-to-severe sub-groups made larger RMS errors with HMD. The only advantage of using the HMD was that movements were 22% faster in the moderate-to-severe stroke sub

A User-Centric View of Intelligent Environments: User Expectations, User Experience and User Role in Building Intelligent Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eija Kaasinen

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Our everyday environments are gradually becoming intelligent, facilitated both by technological development and user activities. Although large-scale intelligent environments are still rare in actual everyday use, they have been studied for quite a long time, and several user studies have been carried out. In this paper, we present a user-centric view of intelligent environments based on published research results and our own experiences from user studies with concepts and prototypes. We analyze user acceptance and users’ expectations that affect users’ willingness to start using intelligent environments and to continue using them. We discuss user experience of interacting with intelligent environments where physical and virtual elements are intertwined. Finally, we touch on the role of users in shaping their own intelligent environments instead of just using ready-made environments. People are not merely “using” the intelligent environments but they live in them, and they experience the environments via embedded services and new interaction tools as well as the physical and social environment. Intelligent environments should provide emotional as well as instrumental value to the people who live in them, and the environments should be trustworthy and controllable both by regular users and occasional visitors. Understanding user expectations and user experience in intelligent environments, and providing users with tools to influence the environments can help to shape the vision of intelligent environments into meaningful, acceptable and appealing service entities for all those who live and act in them.

The value of the pre-hospital learning environment as part of the emergency nursing programme

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Sonett van Wyk

2015-06-01

Conclusion: The research findings support the value and continuation of utilising the pre-hospital clinical learning environment for placing post-basic emergency nursing students when enrolled in the emergency nursing programme.

Detection, Occurrence and Fate of Emerging Contaminants in Agricultural Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Cassada, David A.; Bartelt–Hunt, Shannon L.; Li, Xu; D’Alessio, Matteo; Zhang, Yun; Zhang, Yuping; Sallach, J. Brett

2018-01-01

A total of 59 papers published in 2015 were reviewed ranging from detailed descriptions of analytical methods, to fate and occurrence studies, to ecological effects and sampling techniques for a wide variety of emerging contaminants likely to occur in agricultural environments. New methods and studies on veterinary pharmaceuticals, steroids, antibiotic resistance genes in agricultural environments continue to expand our knowledge base on the occurrence and potential impacts of these compounds. This review is divided into the following sections: Introduction, Analytical Methods, Steroid Hormones, Pharmaceutical Contaminants, Transformation Products, and “Antibiotic Resistance, Drugs, Bugs and Genes”. PMID:27620078

Review article: Staff perception of the emergency department working environment: Integrative review of the literature

Science.gov (United States)

Abraham, Louisa; Greenslade, Jaimi; Thom, Ogilvie; Carlstrom, Eric; Wallis, Marianne; Crilly, Julia

2016-01-01

Abstract Employees in EDs report increasing role overload because of critical staff shortages, budgetary cuts and increased patient numbers and acuity. Such overload could compromise staff satisfaction with their working environment. This integrative review identifies, synthesises and evaluates current research around staff perceptions of the working conditions in EDs. A systematic search of relevant databases, using MeSH descriptors ED/EDs, Emergency room/s, ER/s, or A&E coupled with (and) working environment, working condition/s, staff perception/s, as well as reference chaining was conducted. We identified 31 key studies that were evaluated using the mixed methods assessment tool (MMAT). These comprised 24 quantitative‐descriptive studies, four mixed descriptive/comparative (non‐randomised controlled trial) studies and three qualitative studies. Studies included varied widely in quality with MMAT scores ranging from 0% to 100%. A key finding was that perceptions of working environment varied across clinical staff and study location, but that high levels of autonomy and teamwork offset stress around high pressure and high volume workloads. The large range of tools used to assess staff perception of working environment limits the comparability of the studies. A dearth of intervention studies around enhancing working environments in EDs limits the capacity to recommend evidence‐based interventions to improve staff morale. © 2016 The Authors. Emergency Medicine Australasia published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine PMID:26784282

Emergence of microbial networks as response to hostile environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dario eMadeo

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The majority of microorganisms live in complex communities under varying conditions. One pivotal question in evolutionary biology is the emergence of cooperative traits and their sustainment in altered environments or in the presence of free-riders. Co-occurrence patterns in the spatial distribution of biofilms can help define species' identities, and systems biology tools are revealing networks of interacting microorganisms. However, networks of inter-dependencies involving micro-organisms in the planktonic phase may be just as important, with the added complexity that they are not bounded in space. An integrated approach linking imaging, ``Omics'' and modeling has the potential to enable new hypothesis and working models. In order to understand how cooperation can emerge and be maintained without abilities like memory or recognition we use evolutionary game theory as the natural framework to model cell-cell interactions arising from evolutive decisions. We consider a finite population distributed in a spatial domain (biofilm, and divided into two interacting classes with different traits. This interaction can be weighted by distance, and produces physical connections between two elements allowing them to exchange finite amounts of energy and matter. Available strategies to each individual of one class in the population are the propensities or ``willingness'' to connect any individual of the other class. Following evolutionary game theory, we propose a mathematical model which explains the patterns of connections which emerge when individuals are able to find connection strategies that asymptotically optimize their fitness. The process explains the formation of a network for efficiently exchanging energy and matter among individuals and thus ensuring their survival in hostile environments.

Five-year forward view: lessons from emergency care at the extremes of age.

Science.gov (United States)

Minhas, J S; Minhas, D; Coats, T; Banerjee, J; Roland, D

2018-03-01

Objective The progressive rise in demand on NHS emergency care resources is partly attributable to increases in attendances of children and older people. A quality gap exists in the care provision for the old and the young. The Five Year Forward View suggested new models of care but that the "answer is not one-size-fits-all". This article discusses the urgent need for person-centred outcome measures to bridge the gap that exists between demand and provision. Design This review is based on evidence gathered from literature searching across several platforms using a variety of search terms to account for the obvious heterogeneity, drawing on key 'think-tank' evidence. Settings Qualitative and quantitative studies examining approaches to caring for individuals at the extremes of age. Participants Individuals at the extremes of age (infants and older people). Main Outcome Measures Understanding similarities and disparities in the care of individuals at the extremes of age in an emergency and non-emergency context. Results There exists several similarities and disparities in the care of individuals at the extremes of age. The increasing burden of health disease on the economy must acknowledge the challenges that exist in managing patients in emergency settings at the extremes of age and build systems to acknowledge the traits these individuals exhibit. Conclusion Commissioners of services must optimise the models of care delivery by appreciating the similarities and differences between care requirements in these two large groups seeking emergency care.

Nurses' views of forensic care in emergency departments and their attitudes, and involvement of family members.

Science.gov (United States)

Linnarsson, Josefin Rahmqvist; Benzein, Eva; Årestedt, Kristofer

2015-01-01

To describe Nurses' views of forensic care provided for victims of violence and their families in EDs, to identify factors associated with Nurses' attitudes towards families in care and to investigate if these attitudes were associated with the involvement of patients' families in care. Interpersonal violence has serious health consequences for individuals and family members. Emergency departments provide care for victims of violence, and nurses play a key role in forensic care. However, there is limited knowledge of their views and their involvement of family members. A cross-sectional design was used with a sample of all registered nurses (n = 867) in 28 emergency departments in Sweden. A self-report questionnaire, including the instrument Families' Importance in Nursing Care - Nurses' Attitudes, was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics, multiple linear regression and ordinal regression were used to analyse data. Four hundred and fifty-seven nurses completed the questionnaire (53%). Most nurses provided forensic care, but few had specific education for this task. Policy documents and routines existed for specific patient groups. Most nurses involved family members in care although education and policy documents rarely included them. Being a woman, policy documents and own experience of a critically ill family member were associated with a positive attitude towards family. A positive attitude towards family members was associated with involving patients' families in care. Many emergency department nurses provided forensic care without having specific education, and policy documents only concerned women and children. Nurses' positive attitude to family members was not reflected in policies or education. These results can inspire clinical forensic care interventions in emergency departments. Educational efforts for nurses and policies for all groups of victims of violence are needed. Emergency departments may need to rethink how family members are included

Managing the Transition to College: Family Functioning, Emotion Coping, and Adjustment in Emerging Adulthood

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Vanessa Kahen; Gans, Susan E.; Kerr, Sandra; LaValle, William

2010-01-01

Using a self-reported assessment of 320 first-time college students, we tested the hypothesis that one's ability to manage emotion moderates the relationship between family environment and college adjustment. Results add to growing evidence that the way one views one's whole family environment during the emerging adulthood years is linked to one's…

Effect of the business environment on market orientation and performance in an emerging country

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

József Berács

2010-11-01

Full Text Available In the paper the relationship between market orientation and performance, and the effect of the business environment on these two factors in an emerging economy, in Hungary, was investigated. In a research conducted at 572 firms we found that both market orientation and the business environment have an effect on business performance, albeit in a different manner. The three components of the market orientation construct (customer orientation, competitor orientation, interfunctional coordination have a positive effect on performance. Contrary to that, environmental variables (technological turbulence, market turbulence, competitive intensity, buyer power etc. proved to have a signficant impact only on the finance-based performance measures. The results provide unambiguous evidence that the environment has a strong effect on market orientation, indicating that the market orientation scale developed by Narver and Slater is a proper tool to describe the transitional processes in an emerging economy characterized by high turbulence

A survey of the knowledge, use, and adoption of emerging technologies by academics in an Open Distance Learning environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B Chimbo

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The realisation of the advantages offered by e-learning accompanied by the use of various emerging information technologies has resulted in a noticeable shift by academia towards e-learning. An analysis of the use, knowledge and adoption of emerging technologies by academics in an Open Distance Learning (ODL environment at the University of South Africa (UNISA was undertaken in this study. The aim of the study was to evaluate the use, knowledge and adoption of emerging e-learning technologies by the academics from the selected schools. The academics in the Schools of Arts, Computing and Science were purposively selected in order to draw on views of academics from different teaching and educational backgrounds. Questionnaires were distributed both electronically and manually. The results showed that academics in all the Schools were competent at the use of information technology tools and applications such as emailing, word-processing, Internet, myUnisa (UNISA’s online teaching platform, and Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel. An evaluation of the awareness of different emerging technological tools showed that most academics were aware of Open Access Technologies, Social Networking Sites, Blogs, Video Games and Microblogging Platforms. While the level of awareness was high for these technologies, the use by the academics was low. At least 62.3% of the academics indicated willingness to migrate to online teaching completely and also indicated the need for further training on new technologies. A comparison of the different schools showed no statistically significant difference in the use, knowledge and willingness to adopt technology amongst the academics.

The Obesogenic Quality of the Home Environment: Associations with Diet, Physical Activity, TV Viewing, and BMI in Preschool Children.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephanie Schrempft

Full Text Available The home environment is thought to play a key role in early weight trajectories, although direct evidence is limited. There is general agreement that multiple factors exert small individual effects on weight-related outcomes, so use of composite measures could demonstrate stronger effects. This study therefore examined whether composite measures reflecting the 'obesogenic' home environment are associated with diet, physical activity, TV viewing, and BMI in preschool children.Families from the Gemini cohort (n = 1096 completed a telephone interview (Home Environment Interview; HEI when their children were 4 years old. Diet, physical activity, and TV viewing were reported at interview. Child height and weight measurements were taken by the parents (using standard scales and height charts and reported at interview. Responses to the HEI were standardized and summed to create four composite scores representing the food (sum of 21 variables, activity (sum of 6 variables, media (sum of 5 variables, and overall (food composite/21 + activity composite/6 + media composite/5 home environments. These were categorized into 'obesogenic risk' tertiles.Children in 'higher-risk' food environments consumed less fruit (OR; 95% CI = 0.39; 0.27-0.57 and vegetables (0.47; 0.34-0.64, and more energy-dense snacks (3.48; 2.16-5.62 and sweetened drinks (3.49; 2.10-5.81 than children in 'lower-risk' food environments. Children in 'higher-risk' activity environments were less physically active (0.43; 0.32-0.59 than children in 'lower-risk' activity environments. Children in 'higher-risk' media environments watched more TV (3.51; 2.48-4.96 than children in 'lower-risk' media environments. Neither the individual nor the overall composite measures were associated with BMI.Composite measures of the obesogenic home environment were associated as expected with diet, physical activity, and TV viewing. Associations with BMI were not apparent at this age.

[Humanization through the art of environment of children's emergency in a hospital].

Science.gov (United States)

Ullán, Ana M; Fernández, Esperanza; Belver, Manuel H

2011-09-01

This article aims to present and discuss a case-study of human betterment through the arts applied to a children's hospital. The experience related to the betterment of these environments took place in the Children's Emergency Service of the University Hospital in Salamanca. After describing the context of the case-study some attention will be devoted to the phases of the process, emphasizing those aspects linked to children's care culture and their families as well as the symbolic dimension of the space and the participation of different professionals in the experience. The case-study is assessed from different standpoints but special importance is given to parents' opinions. 51 parents of children in the emergency unit were interweaved during a month. Parents valued positively the service and stated that artists' intervention had been beneficial for the children's emotional state. The article concludes with a debate about the meaning of the hospital environment and the quality associated with its physical premises.

KYPO: A Tool for Collaborative Study of Cyberattacks in Safe Cloud Environment

OpenAIRE

Eichler Zdenek; Ošlejšek Radek; Toth Dalibor

2015-01-01

This paper introduces the KYPO -- a cloud-based virtual environment faithfully simulating real networks and enabling users to study cyber attacks as well as to train users in isolated and controlled environment. Particularly, the paper focuses on the user environment and visualizations, providing views and interactions improving the understanding of processes emerged during experiments. Web user interface of the KYPO system supports several collaboration modes enabling the participants to exp...

Environment monitoring using LabVIEW

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hawtree, J.

1995-01-01

A system has been developed for electronically recording and monitoring temperature, humidity, and other environmental variables at the Silicon Detector Facility located in Lab D. The data is collected by LabVIEW software, which runs in the background on an Apple Macintosh. The software is completely portable between Macintosh, MS Windows, and Sun platforms. The hardware includes a Macintosh with 8 MB of RAM; an external ADC-1 analog-to-digital converter that uses a serial port; LabVIEW software; temperature sensors; humidity sensors; and other voltage/current sensing devices. ADC values are converted to ASCII strings and entered into files which are read over Ethernet. Advantages include automatic logging, automatic recovery after power interruptions, and the availability of stand-alone applications for other locations with inexpensive software and hardware

The effect of viewing a virtual environment through a head-mounted display on balance.

Science.gov (United States)

Robert, Maxime T; Ballaz, Laurent; Lemay, Martin

2016-07-01

In the next few years, several head-mounted displays (HMD) will be publicly released making virtual reality more accessible. HMD are expected to be widely popular at home for gaming but also in clinical settings, notably for training and rehabilitation. HMD can be used in both seated and standing positions; however, presently, the impact of HMD on balance remains largely unknown. It is therefore crucial to examine the impact of viewing a virtual environment through a HMD on standing balance. To compare static and dynamic balance in a virtual environment perceived through a HMD and the physical environment. The visual representation of the virtual environment was based on filmed image of the physical environment and was therefore highly similar. This is an observational study in healthy adults. No significant difference was observed between the two environments for static balance. However, dynamic balance was more perturbed in the virtual environment when compared to that of the physical environment. HMD should be used with caution because of its detrimental impact on dynamic balance. Sensorimotor conflict possibly explains the impact of HMD on balance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Personal emergency call system based on human vital and system technical parameters in a Smart Home environment].

Science.gov (United States)

Hampicke, M; Schadow, B; Rossdeutscher, W; Fellbaum, K; Boenick, U

2002-11-01

Progress in microtechnology and radio transmission technology has enabled the development of highly reliable emergency-call systems. The present article describes systems that have been specially designed to improve the safety and independence of handicapped and elderly persons living at home. For such persons immediate help in an emergency situation is of crucial importance. The technical state of the art of emergency-call systems specially developed for use by the elderly, is briefly discussed, in particular the well-known radio emergency-call button, with the aid of which an alarm can be activated manually. This system, however, does not offer adequate safety in all emergency situations. Alternative or complementary systems designed to automatically trigger an alarm on the basis of the recording and evaluation of so-called vital parameters, are therefore proposed. In addition, in a smart-home environment with networked devices, further parameters--so-called environment parameters can be used. It is found that the identification of an emergency situation becomes more reliable as the number of parameters employed increases.

Effects of emergence time and early social rearing environment on behaviour of Atlantic salmon: Consequences for juvenile fitness and smolt migration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Martin Hage; Johnsson, Jörgen I.; Winberg, Svante

2015-01-01

-reared separately or in co-culture for four months to test effects of social rearing environment on behavioural traits. Twenty fish from each of the six treatment groups were then subjected to three individual-based behavioural tests: basal locomotor activity, boldness, and escape response. Following behavioural...... suggested to be coupled with individual behavioural traits. Here, we further investigate the link between timing of spawning nest emergence and behaviour of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), test effects of social rearing environment on behavioural traits in fish with different emergence times, and assess...... characterization, the fish were released into a near-natural experimental stream. Results showed differences in escape behaviour between emergence groups in a net restraining test, but the social rearing environment did not affect individual behavioural expression. Emergence time and social environment had...

Priority Substances and Emerging Organic Pollutants in Portuguese Aquatic Environment: A Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Ribeiro, Cláudia; Ribeiro, Ana Rita; Tiritan, Maria Elizabeth

Aquatic environments are among the most noteworthy ecosystems regarding chemical pollution due to the anthropogenic pressure. In 2000, the European Commission implemented the Water Framework Directive, with the aim of progressively reducing aquatic chemical pollution of the European Union countries. Therefore, the knowledge about the chemical and ecological status is imperative to determine the overall quality of water bodies. Concerning Portugal, some studies have demonstrated the presence of pollutants in the aquatic environment but an overall report is not available yet. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review about the occurrence of priority substances included in the Water Framework Directive and some classes of emerging organic pollutants that have been found in Portuguese aquatic environment. The most frequently studied compounds comprise industrial compounds, natural and synthetic estrogens, phytoestrogens, phytosterols, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and personal care products. Concentration of these pollutants ranged from few ng L(-1) to higher values such as 30 μg L(-1) for industrial compounds in surface waters and up to 106 μg L(-1) for the pharmaceutical ibuprofen in wastewaters. Compounds already banned in Europe such as atrazine, alkylphenols and alkylphenol polyethoxylates are still found in surface waters, nevertheless their origin is still poorly understood. Beyond the contamination of the Portuguese aquatic environment by priority substances and emerging organic pollutants, this review also highlights the need of more research on other classes of pollutants and emphasizes the importance of extending this research to other locations in Portugal, which have not been investigated yet.

Requirements for reflection in the critical care environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Celia J. Filmalter

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Background: Reflection is recognised as an important method for practice development. The importance of reflection is well documented in the literature, but the requirements for reflection remain unclear. Objectives: To explore and describe the requirements for reflection in the critical care environment as viewed by educators of qualified critical care nurses. Method: A focus group interview was conducted to explore and describe the views of educators of qualified critical care nurses regarding requirements for reflection in the critical care environment. Results: The themes that emerged from the focus group were buy-in from stakeholders –management, facilitators and critical care nurses, and the need to create an environment where reflection can occur. Conclusion: Critical care nurses should be allowed time to reflect on their practice and be supported by peers as well as a facilitator in a non-intimidating way to promote emancipatorypractice development.

Environment and Urban Tourism: AN Emergent System in Rhetorical Place Identity Definitions

Science.gov (United States)

Mura, Marina

Within the systemic framework of Environmental Psychology (Bechtel and Churchman, 2002) and following Urry (2002) and Pearce's approaches (2005), the aim of this research is to investigate within the context of urban tourism which world views emerge from a Discourse Analysis (Edwards, Potter, 1993). of the speech of native and non-native Sardinian residents. It addresses the issue of how social-physical diversity might be preserved (the problem of tourism sustainability, Di Castri, Balaji, 2002). In this regard, forty in-depth narrative interviews of inhabitants with short- and long-term residential experience in Cagliari (Italy) were conducted and examined (Discourse Analysis). It was found that the native and non-native's rhetorical devices expressed similar representations of urban places, but in diverse relationship to social and place identity. Their environmental transitions were based on the tourist gaze, or the functional view and heritage pride. This displays some basic central dimensions of sustainable tourism.

Psychosocial work environment and burnout among emergency medical and nursing staff.

Science.gov (United States)

Escribà-Agüir, V; Martín-Baena, D; Pérez-Hoyos, S

2006-11-01

The prevalence of burnout syndrome is increasing among doctors and nurses. The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between the psychosocial work environment and burnout syndrome among emergency medical and nursing staff in Spain. A secondary aim was to determine if the effect of this psychosocial work environment on burnout was different for doctors and nurses. A cross-sectional survey was carried out by means of a mail questionnaire among 945 emergency doctors and nursing staff of Spain. The outcome variable was three dimensions of burnout syndrome [emotional exhaustion (EE), personal accomplishment (PA), depersonalisation (DP)]. The explanatory variable was that psychosocial work environment evaluated according to Karasek and Johnson's demand-control model. The adjusted odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated by logistical regression. The probability of high EE was greater among those exposed to high psychological demands, OR 4.66 (2.75-7.90), low job control, OR 1.65 (1.04-2.63), and low supervisors' social support, OR 1.64 (1.01-2.59). Emotional exhaustion dimension was negatively influenced by low control only among doctors. Those exposed to low job control had a higher risk of low PA, OR 2.55 (1.66-3.94). There was no evidence of negative effect of psychosocial risk factors on the DP. Prevalence of EE and PA was higher among doctors and nurses. The presence of risk factors derived from work organisation within the work place (psychosocial risk factors) increases the probability of presenting burnout syndrome and, above all, EE.

Emergency management in nuclear power plants: a regulatory view

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shukla, Vikas; Chander, Vipin; Vijayan, P.; Nair, P.S.; Krishnamurthy, P.R.

2011-01-01

The nuclear power plants in India adopts a high level of defence in depth concept in design and operates at highest degree of safety, however the possibility of nuclear accidents cannot be ruled out. The safety and regulatory review of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) in India are carried out by Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). Section 33 of Atomic Energy (Radiation Protection) Rules-2004 provides the basic requirements of emergency preparedness aspects for a nuclear facility. Prior to the issuance of a license for the operation of NPPs, AERB ensures that the site specific emergency response manuals are in place and tested. The emergency response plan includes the emergency response organization, their responsibilities, the detailed scheme of emergency preparedness, response, facilities, equipments, coordination and support of various organizations and other technical aspects. These emergency preparedness plans are tested at periodic interval to check the overall effectiveness. The plant and site emergency exercise is handled by the plant authorities as per the site emergency plan. The events with off-site consequences are handled by the district authorities according to the off-site emergency plan. In off-site emergency exercises, observers from AERB and other associated organizations participate. Observations of the participants are discussed in the feedback session of the exercise for their disposition. This paper reviews the current level of emergency planning and preparedness, statistics of emergency exercises conducted and their salient findings. The paper highlights improvement in the emergency management programme over the years including development of advance technical support systems. The major challenges in off-site emergency management programme such as industrial growth and increase in population within the sterilized zone, frequent transfer of district officials and the floating population around the NPPs are outlined. The areas for improvement in

Effect of viewing angle on arm reaching while standing in a virtual environment: potential for virtual rehabilitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Ustinova, K I; Perkins, J; Szostakowski, L; Tamkei, L S; Leonard, W A

2010-02-01

Functional arm movements, such as reaching while standing, are planned and executed according to our perception of body position in space and are relative to environmental objects. The angle under which the environment is observed is one component used in creating this perception. This suggests that manipulation of viewing angle may modulate whole body movement to affect performance. We tested this by comparing its effect on reaching in a virtually generated environment. Eleven young healthy individuals performed forward and lateral reaches in the virtual environment, presented on a flat screen in third-person perspective. Participants saw a computer-generated model (avatar) of themselves standing in a courtyard facing a semi-circular hedge with flowers. The image was presented in five different viewing angles ranging from seeing the avatar from behind (0 degrees), to viewing from overhead (90 degrees). Participants attempted to touch the furthest flower possible without losing balance or stepping. Kinematic data were collected to analyze endpoint displacement, arm-postural coordination and center of mass (COM) displacement. Results showed that reach distance was greatest with angular perspectives of approximately 45-77.5 degrees , which are larger than those used in analogous real world situations. Larger reaches were characterized by increased involvement of leg and trunk body segments, altered inter-segmental coordination, and decreased inter-segmental movement time lag. Thus a viewing angle can be a critical visuomotor variable modulating motor coordination of the whole body and related functional performance. These results can be used in designing virtual reality games, in ergonomic design, teleoperation training, and in designing virtual rehabilitation programs that re-train functional movement in vulnerable individuals. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Emerging pollutants in the environment: present and future challenges in biomonitoring, ecological risks and bioremediation

OpenAIRE

Gavrilescu, M.; Demnerová, K.; Aamand, J.; Agathos, S.; Fava, F.

2015-01-01

Emerging pollutants reach the environment from various anthropogenic sources and are distributed throughout environmental matrices. Although great advances have been made in the detection and analysis of trace pollutants during recent decades, due to the continued development and refinement of specific techniques, a wide array of undetected contaminants of emerging environmental concern need to be identified and quantified in various environmental components and biological tissues. These poll...

Extending an emergency classification expert system to the real-time environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greene, K.R.; Robinson, A.H.

1990-01-01

The process of determining emergency action level (EAL) during real or simulated emergencies at the Trojan nuclear power plant was automated in 1988 with development of the EM-CLASS expert system. This system serves to replace the manual flip-chart method of determining the EAL. While the task of performing the classification is more reliable when using EM-CLASS, it still takes as long to determine the appropriate EAL with EM-CLASS as it does with the flowchart tracing method currently in use. During a plant emergency, an environment will exist where there are not enough resources to complete all of the desired tasks. To change this condition, some tasks must be accomplished with greater efficiency. The EM-CLASS application may be improved by taking advantage of the fact that most of the responses to the questions in the emergency classification procedure, EP-001, are available directly from plant measurements. This information could be passed to the expert system electronically. A prototype demonstration of a real-time emergency classification expert system has been developed. It repetitively performs the consultation, acquiring the necessary data electronically when possible and from the user when electronic data are unavailable. The expert system is being tested with scenarios from the drills and graded exercises that have taken place at the Trojan nuclear power plant. The goal of this project is to install the system on the plant simulator and/or the plant computer

Multi-Objective Emergency Material Vehicle Dispatching and Routing under Dynamic Constraints in an Earthquake Disaster Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jincheng Jiang

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Emergency material vehicle dispatching and routing (EMVDR is an important task in emergency relief after large-scale earthquake disasters. However, EMVDR is subject to dynamic disaster environment, with uncertainty surrounding elements such as the transportation network and relief materials. Accurate and dynamic emergency material dispatching and routing is difficult. This paper proposes an effective and efficient multi-objective multi-dynamic-constraint emergency material vehicle dispatching and routing model. Considering travel time, road capacity, and material supply and demand, the proposed EMVDR model is to deliver emergency materials from multiple emergency material depositories to multiple disaster points while satisfying the objectives of maximizing transport efficiency and minimizing the difference of material urgency degrees among multiple disaster points at any one time. Furthermore, a continuous-time dynamic network flow method is developed to solve this complicated model. The collected data from Ludian earthquake were used to conduct our experiments in the post-quake and the results demonstrate that: (1 the EMVDR model adapts to the dynamic disaster environment very well; (2 considering the difference of material urgency degree, the material loss ratio is −10.7%, but the variance of urgency degree decreases from 2.39 to 0.37; (3 the EMVDR model shows good performance in time and space, which allows for decisions to be made nearly in real time. This paper can provide spatial decision-making support for emergency material relief in large-scale earthquake disasters.

Associations of perceived neighborhood physical and social environments with physical activity and television viewing in African American men and women

Science.gov (United States)

Strong, Larkin L.; Reitzel, Lorraine R.; Wetter, David W.; McNeill, Lorna H.

2013-01-01

Purpose Few studies have assessed how attributes of neighborhood environments contribute to sedentary, in addition to active, behaviors. This study investigated associations of perceived social and physical aspects of neighborhood environments with television (TV) viewing and physical activity (PA) in African American adults. Design Cross-sectional analysis of self-reported survey. Setting Large mega-church in Houston, TX. Subjects 1,374 African American men and women. Measures Outcomes included log-transformed daily TV viewing and participation in medium/high levels of PA, measured by the short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Neighborhood perceptions were assessed with the Social Cohesion and Trust and the Neighborhood Problems scales. Analysis Multivariable models that controlled for clustering within neighborhoods. Results Reporting more neighborhood problems was significantly associated with greater log-transformed TV viewing in women (β=0.017, SE=0.006, p=0.003), and social cohesion was positively associated with PA in women (OR=1.06, 95% CI=1.02, 1.11, p=0.006). Concerns about litter and walking after dark, and a lack of places to shop were associated with increased TV viewing among women, and concerns about traffic and walking after dark were associated with reduced PA among men. Conclusion Physical and social neighborhood conditions were associated with TV viewing and PA, particularly in women. Neighborhood-based strategies to reduce sedentary behaviors and enhance PA should include attention to social as well as physical aspects of neighborhood environments. PMID:23398134

Associations of perceived neighborhood physical and social environments with physical activity and television viewing in African-American men and women.

Science.gov (United States)

Strong, Larkin L; Reitzel, Lorraine R; Wetter, David W; McNeill, Lorna H

2013-01-01

Few studies have assessed how attributes of neighborhood environments contribute to sedentary, in addition to active, behaviors. This study investigated associations of perceived social and physical aspects of neighborhood environments with television (TV) viewing and physical activity (PA) in African-American adults. Cross-sectional analysis of self-reported survey. Large mega-church in Houston, Texas. A total of 1374 African-American men and women. Outcomes included log-transformed daily TV viewing and participation in medium/high levels of PA, measured by the short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Neighborhood perceptions were assessed with the Social Cohesion and Trust and the Neighborhood Problems scales. Multivariable models that controlled for clustering within neighborhoods. Reporting more neighborhood problems was significantly associated with greater log-transformed TV viewing in women (β = .017, SE = .006, p = .003), and social cohesion was positively associated with PA in women (odds ratio = 1.06, 95% confidence interval = 1.02, 1.11, p = .006). Concerns about litter and walking after dark and a lack of places to shop were associated with increased TV viewing among women, and concerns about traffic and walking after dark were associated with reduced PA among men. Physical and social neighborhood conditions were associated with TV viewing and PA, particularly in women. Neighborhood-based strategies to reduce sedentary behaviors and enhance PA should include attention to social as well as physical aspects of neighborhood environments.

DYNAMICS OF VIEWS ON ETHICS OF PEDAGOGICAL DIAGNOSTICS IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oleksandr Kolgatin

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Didactical demands for pedagogical diagnostics and its realisation specific characters in information and communication learning environment of university are analysed. The questions of ethics and information security of pedagogical diagnostics are considered. Ethic aspects, connected with using of the automated pedagogical diagnostic systems, are underlined. Results of survey of students about their view points on issues of security of pedagogical diagnostics data are discussed.

Measurement system for high-sensitivity LIBS analysis using ICCD camera in LabVIEW environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zaytsev, S M; Popov, A M; Zorov, N B; Labutin, T A

2014-01-01

A measurement system based on ultrafast (up to 10 ns time resolution) intensified CCD detector ''Nanogate-2V'' (Nanoscan, Russia) was developed for high-sensitivity analysis by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometry (LIBS). LabVIEW environment provided a high level of compatibility with variety of electronic instruments and an easy development of user interface, while Visual Studio environment was used for creation of LabVIEW compatible dll library with the use of ''Nanogate-2V'' SDK. The program for camera management and laser-induced plasma spectra registration was created with the use of Call Library Node in LabVIEW. An algorithm of integration of the second device ADC ''PCI-9812'' (ADLINK) to the measurement system was proposed and successfully implemented. This allowed simultaneous registration of emission and acoustic signals under laser ablation. The measured resolving power of spectrometer-ICCD system was equal to 12000 at 632 nm. An electron density of laser plasma was estimated with the use of H-α Balmer line. Steel spectra obtained at different delays were used for selection of the optimal conditions for manganese analytical signal registration. The feature of accumulation of spectra from several laser pulses was shown. The accumulation allowed reliable observation of silver signal at 328.07 nm in the LIBS spectra of soil (C Ag = 4.5 ppm). Finally, the correlation between acoustic and emission signals of plasma was found. Thus, technical possibilities of the developed LIBS system were demonstrated both for plasma diagnostics and analytical measurements

Magnet status and registered nurse views of the work environment and nursing as a career.

Science.gov (United States)

Ulrich, Beth T; Buerhaus, Peter I; Donelan, Karen; Norman, Linda; Dittus, Robert

2009-01-01

To compare how registered nurses view the work environment and the nursing shortage based on the Magnet status of their organizations. The upsurge in organizations pursuing and obtaining Magnet recognition provides increased opportunities to investigate whether and how registered nurses who are employed in Magnet organizations and organizations pursuing Magnet status perceive differences in the nursing shortage, hospitals' responses to the shortage, characteristics of the work environment, and professional relationships. A nationally representative sample of registered nurses licensed to practice in the United States was surveyed. The views of registered nurses who worked in Magnet organizations, organizations in the process of applying for Magnet status, and non-Magnet organizations were analyzed as independent groups. Significant differences were found. Although there is a clear Magnet difference, there are also identifiable differences that occur during the pursuit of Magnet recognition. Many organizations in the process of applying for Magnet status rated higher than Magnet organizations, indicating that there is much to do to maintain the comparative advantages for Magnet hospitals.

The right view from the wrong location: depth perception in stereoscopic multi-user virtual environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Pollock, Brice; Burton, Melissa; Kelly, Jonathan W; Gilbert, Stephen; Winer, Eliot

2012-04-01

Stereoscopic depth cues improve depth perception and increase immersion within virtual environments (VEs). However, improper display of these cues can distort perceived distances and directions. Consider a multi-user VE, where all users view identical stereoscopic images regardless of physical location. In this scenario, cues are typically customized for one "leader" equipped with a head-tracking device. This user stands at the center of projection (CoP) and all other users ("followers") view the scene from other locations and receive improper depth cues. This paper examines perceived depth distortion when viewing stereoscopic VEs from follower perspectives and the impact of these distortions on collaborative spatial judgments. Pairs of participants made collaborative depth judgments of virtual shapes viewed from the CoP or after displacement forward or backward. Forward and backward displacement caused perceived depth compression and expansion, respectively, with greater compression than expansion. Furthermore, distortion was less than predicted by a ray-intersection model of stereo geometry. Collaboration times were significantly longer when participants stood at different locations compared to the same location, and increased with greater perceived depth discrepancy between the two viewing locations. These findings advance our understanding of spatial distortions in multi-user VEs, and suggest a strategy for reducing distortion.

Radiological protection of the environment, including non-human species-views from the global nuclear industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saint-Pierre, S.; RPWG

2008-01-01

This paper updates the WNA key messages on the RP of the environment. This paper shows that the chronology of views (2000-2008) leads to a recognition that the current RP system has provided adequate protection of people and of the environment. In early 2000s, doubts were raised on the adequacy of the RP system. Next (2002-2005), the international community forged the view that the current RP system has in practice provided appropriate standards of environmental protection, but also acknowledged that the system needs further development to fill a 'conceptual gap'. In 2005, the IAEA plan of activities on the RP of the environment formalized international developments and conditioned the future revision (if any) of current standards. During 2006-2008, ICRP issued new guidance on RP of non-human species which offers little on an assessment framework of practical use and on a compelling case for such assessments. This guidance, based on the new ICRP concept of Reference Animals and Plants, falls short in terms of environmental protection approach. A milestone study on the RP of non-human species is the SENES independent overview (2007) which 'confirmed that both people and nature have been adequately protected from radioactive releases from all kinds of nuclear sites, old and new'. This overview covers case studies for nuclear sites including some that had experienced major accidents. It derives that the earlier acknowledgement on the 'conceptual gap' appears no longer valid or at the very least, that the gap (if any) is extremely small. The RP of the environment is part of the on-going revision of the current IAEA Basic Safety Standards (BSS). We emphasize that the recently published BSS draft 1.0 in July 2008 covers (with adequacy) RP of the environment through general provisions (free of provisions to non-human species) on the assessment of environmental impact. (author)

Emerging pollutants in the environment: present and future challenges in biomonitoring, ecological risks and bioremediation.

Science.gov (United States)

Gavrilescu, Maria; Demnerová, Kateřina; Aamand, Jens; Agathos, Spiros; Fava, Fabio

2015-01-25

Emerging pollutants reach the environment from various anthropogenic sources and are distributed throughout environmental matrices. Although great advances have been made in the detection and analysis of trace pollutants during recent decades, due to the continued development and refinement of specific techniques, a wide array of undetected contaminants of emerging environmental concern need to be identified and quantified in various environmental components and biological tissues. These pollutants may be mobile and persistent in air, water, soil, sediments and ecological receptors even at low concentrations. Robust data on their fate and behaviour in the environment, as well as on threats to ecological and human health, are still lacking. Moreover, the ecotoxicological significance of some emerging micropollutants remains largely unknown, because satisfactory data to determine their risk often do not exist. This paper discusses the fate, behaviour, (bio)monitoring, environmental and health risks associated with emerging chemical (pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptors, hormones, toxins, among others) and biological (bacteria, viruses) micropollutants in soils, sediments, groundwater, industrial and municipal wastewaters, aquaculture effluents, and freshwater and marine ecosystems, and highlights new horizons for their (bio)removal. Our study aims to demonstrate the imperative need to boost research and innovation for new and cost-effective treatment technologies, in line with the uptake, mode of action and consequences of each emerging contaminant. We also address the topic of innovative tools for the evaluation of the effects of toxicity on human health and for the prediction of microbial availability and degradation in the environment. Additionally, we consider the development of (bio)sensors to perform environmental monitoring in real-time mode. This needs to address multiple species, along with a more effective exploitation of specialised microbes or enzymes

Advancing cancer control research in an emerging news media environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Katherine C; Niederdeppe, Jeff; Blake, Kelly D; Cappella, Joseph N

2013-12-01

Cancer is both highly feared and highly newsworthy, and there is a robust body of research documenting the content and effects of cancer news coverage on health behaviors and policy. Recent years have witnessed ongoing, transformative shifts in American journalism alongside rapid advances in communication technology and the public information environment. These changes create a pressing need to consider a new set of research questions, sampling strategies, measurement techniques, and theories of media effects to ensure continued relevance and adaptation of communication research to address critical cancer control concerns. This paper begins by briefly reviewing what we know about the role of cancer news in shaping cancer-related beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and policies. We then outline challenges and opportunities, both theoretical and methodological, posed by the rapidly changing news media environment and the nature of audience engagement. We organize our discussion around three major shifts associated with the emerging news media environment as it relates to health communication: 1) speed and dynamism of news diffusion, 2) increased narrowcasting of media content for specialized audiences, and 3) broadened participation in shaping media content. In so doing, we articulate a set of questions for future theory and research, in an effort to catalyze innovative communication scholarship to improve cancer prevention and control.

Emergency medicine: an operations management view.

Science.gov (United States)

Soremekun, Olan A; Terwiesch, Christian; Pines, Jesse M

2011-12-01

Operations management (OM) is the science of understanding and improving business processes. For the emergency department (ED), OM principles can be used to reduce and alleviate the effects of crowding. A fundamental principle of OM is the waiting time formula, which has clear implications in the ED given that waiting time is fundamental to patient-centered emergency care. The waiting time formula consists of the activity time (how long it takes to complete a process), the utilization rate (the proportion of time a particular resource such a staff is working), and two measures of variation: the variation in patient interarrival times and the variation in patient processing times. Understanding the waiting time formula is important because it presents the fundamental parameters that can be managed to reduce waiting times and length of stay. An additional useful OM principle that is applicable to the ED is the efficient frontier. The efficient frontier compares the performance of EDs with respect to two dimensions: responsiveness (i.e., 1/wait time) and utilization rates. Some EDs may be "on the frontier," maximizing their responsiveness at their given utilization rates. However, most EDs likely have opportunities to move toward the frontier. Increasing capacity is a movement along the frontier and to truly move toward the frontier (i.e., improving responsiveness at a fixed capacity), we articulate three possible options: eliminating waste, reducing variability, or increasing flexibility. When conceptualizing ED crowding interventions, these are the major strategies to consider. © 2011 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Emerge - A Python environment for the modeling of subsurface transfers

Science.gov (United States)

Lopez, S.; Smai, F.; Sochala, P.

2014-12-01

The simulation of subsurface mass and energy transfers often relies on specific codes that were mainly developed using compiled languages which usually ensure computational efficiency at the expense of relatively long development times and relatively rigid software. Even if a very detailed, possibly graphical, user-interface is developed the core numerical aspects are rarely accessible and the smallest modification will always need a compilation step. Thus, user-defined physical laws or alternative numerical schemes may be relatively difficult to use. Over the last decade, Python has emerged as a popular and widely used language in the scientific community. There already exist several libraries for the pre and post-treatment of input and output files for reservoir simulators (e.g. pytough). Development times in Python are considerably reduced compared to compiled languages, and programs can be easily interfaced with libraries written in compiled languages with several comprehensive numerical libraries that provide sequential and parallel solvers (e.g. PETSc, Trilinos…). The core objective of the Emerge project is to explore the possibility to develop a modeling environment in full Python. Consequently, we are developing an open python package with the classes/objects necessary to express, discretize and solve the physical problems encountered in the modeling of subsurface transfers. We heavily relied on Python to have a convenient and concise way of manipulating potentially complex concepts with a few lines of code and a high level of abstraction. Our result aims to be a friendly numerical environment targeting both numerical engineers and physicist or geoscientists with the possibility to quickly specify and handle geometries, arbitrary meshes, spatially or temporally varying properties, PDE formulations, boundary conditions…

The Comprehensive Emergent Literacy Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leigh Rohde

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The early skills of Emergent Literacy include the knowledge and abilities related to the alphabet, phonological awareness, symbolic representation, and communication. However, existing models of emergent literacy focus on discrete skills and miss the perspective of the surrounding environment. Early literacy skills, including their relationship to one another, and the substantial impact of the setting and context, are critical in ensuring that children gain all of the preliminary skills and awareness they will need to become successful readers and writers. Research findings over the last few decades have led to a fuller understanding of all that emergent literacy includes, resulting in a need for a new, more comprehensive model. A new model, described in this article, strives to explain how emergent literacy can be viewed as an interactive process of skills and context rather than a linear series of individual components. Early literacy learning opportunities are more likely to happen when teachers have a solid knowledge base of emergent literacy and child development. Research has shown that preschool teachers with limited knowledge about literacy development are significantly less able to provide such experiences for children. Teachers will be better able to facilitate all of the components of emergent literacy if they have access to, and understanding of, a model that describes the components, their interactions, and the importance of environmental factors in supporting children.

Emergency Medical Rescue in a Radiation Environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Briesmeister, L.; Ellington, Y.; Hollis, R.; Kunzman, J.; McNaughton, M.; Ramsey, G.; Somers, B.; Turner, A.; Finn, J.

1999-01-01

Previous experience with emergency medical rescues in the presence of radiation or contamination indicates that the training provided to emergency responders is not always appropriate. A new course developed at Los Alamos includes specific procedures for emergency response in a variety of radiological conditions

Seed source may determine field-specific germination and emergence: the source by planting environment interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Farm environmental characteristics and management practices can result in within-cultivar differences in seed quality. Transgenerational plasticity (effects of the farm environment on offspring, or TGP) can be important in germination and emergence dynamics. We chose two commonly-used cultivars (Lod...

Astronaut Curtis L. Brown, Jr., pilot, works with his life raft during emergency bailout training

Science.gov (United States)

1996-01-01

STS-77 TRAINING VIEW --- Astronaut Curtis L. Brown, Jr., pilot, works with his life raft during emergency bailout training for crew members in the Johnson Space Centers (JSC) Weightless Environment Training Facility (WET-F). Brown will join five other astronauts for nine days aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour next month.

Hierarchical Linked Views

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Erbacher, Robert; Frincke, Deb

2007-07-02

Coordinated views have proven critical to the development of effective visualization environments. This results from the fact that a single view or representation of the data cannot show all of the intricacies of a given data set. Additionally, users will often need to correlate more data parameters than can effectively be integrated into a single visual display. Typically, development of multiple-linked views results in an adhoc configuration of views and associated interactions. The hierarchical model we are proposing is geared towards more effective organization of such environments and the views they encompass. At the same time, this model can effectively integrate much of the prior work on interactive and visual frameworks. Additionally, we expand the concept of views to incorporate perceptual views. This is related to the fact that visual displays can have information encoded at various levels of focus. Thus, a global view of the display provides overall trends of the data while focusing in on individual elements provides detailed specifics. By integrating interaction and perception into a single model, we show how one impacts the other. Typically, interaction and perception are considered separately, however, when interaction is being considered at a fundamental level and allowed to direct/modify the visualization directly we must consider them simultaneously and how they impact one another.

An Emergent Framework: Views of Mathematical Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchez, Wendy B.; Lischka, Alyson E.; Edenfield, Kelly W.; Gammill, Rebecca

2015-01-01

The findings reported in this paper were generated from a case study of teacher leaders at a state-level mathematics conference. Investigation focused on how participants viewed the mathematical processes of communication, connections, representations, problem solving, and reasoning and proof. Purposeful sampling was employed to select nine…

Environment and biology of the Kara Sea: a general view for contamination studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Miquel, J C

2001-01-01

The recent revelation that over the past 30 years there has been a history of dumping waste including high-level radioactive wastes in the shallow Kara Sea has caused wide-spread concern. The potential impact of these contaminants and other non-nuclear pollutants in the Arctic ecosystem and on human health need to be assessed and, thus, a better insight gained on radioecological processes in cold waters. The present paper proposes a general view on the biology and the environment of the Kara Sea, as a basic tool for the experimental and modelling assessments of the impact of these contaminants.

Flow-structure-seabed interactions in coastal and marine environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sumer, B. Mutlu

2014-01-01

Flow–structure–seabed interaction in coastal and marine environments is a rapidly growing area of research and applications. In this vision paper, this area is discussed with a view of identifying its state of the art and current research challenges. The discussion draws attention to key issues......, among other areas, as an emerging branch of Marine Civil Engineering. Predictions of the field development for the forthcoming years are also briefly outlined....

Tracking Student Mistreatment Data to Improve the Emergency Medicine Clerkship Learning Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joseph B. House

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Introduction Medical student mistreatment is a prevalent and significant challenge for medical schools across the country, associated with negative emotional and professional consequences for students. The Association of American Medical Colleges and Liaison Committee on Medical Education have increasingly emphasized the issue of mistreatment in recent years, and medical schools are tasked with creating a positive learning climate. Methods The authors describe the efforts of an emergency department (ED to improve its clerkship learning environment, using a multifaceted approach for collecting mistreatment data and relaying them to educators and clerkship leadership. Data are gathered through end-of-rotation evaluations, teaching evaluations, and an online reporting system available to medical students. Mistreatment data are then relayed to the ED during semi-annual meetings between clerkship leadership and medical school assistant deans, and through annual mistreatment reports provided to department chairs. Results Over a two-year period, students submitted a total of 56 narrative comments related to mistreatment or unprofessional behavior during their emergency medicine (EM clerkship. Of these comments, 12 were submitted in 2015–16 and 44 were submitted in 2016–17. The most frequently observed themes were students feeling ignored or marginalized by faculty (14 comments; students being prevented from speaking or working with patients and/or attending faculty (11 comments; and students being treated in an unprofessional manner by staff (other than faculty, 8 comments. Conclusion This article details an ED’s efforts to improve its EM clerkship learning environment by tracking mistreatment data and intentionally communicating the results to educators and clerkship leadership. Continued mistreatment data collection and faculty development will be necessary for these efforts to have a measurable effect on the learning environment.

Side-View Face Recognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Santemiz, P.; Spreeuwers, Lieuwe Jan; Veldhuis, Raymond N.J.

2010-01-01

Side-view face recognition is a challenging problem with many applications. Especially in real-life scenarios where the environment is uncontrolled, coping with pose variations up to side-view positions is an important task for face recognition. In this paper we discuss the use of side view face

Combining TerraSAR-X and Landsat Images for Emergency Response in Urban Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shiran Havivi

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Rapid damage mapping following a disaster event, especially in an urban environment, is critical to ensure that the emergency response in the affected area is rapid and efficient. This work presents a new method for mapping damage assessment in urban environments. Based on combining SAR and optical data, the method is applicable as support during initial emergency planning and rescue operations. The study focuses on the urban areas affected by the Tohoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami event in Japan that occurred on 11 March 2011. High-resolution TerraSAR-X (TSX images of before and after the event, and a Landsat 5 image before the event were acquired. The affected areas were analyzed with the SAR data using only one interferometric SAR (InSAR coherence map. To increase the damage mapping accuracy, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI was applied. The generated map, with a grid size of 50 m, provides a quantitative assessment of the nature and distribution of the damage. The damage mapping shows detailed information about the affected area, with high overall accuracy (89%, and high Kappa coefficient (82% and, as expected, it shows total destruction along the coastline compared to the inland region.

Application of DICOM Standard in LabVIEW Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dušan KONIAR

2008-01-01

Full Text Available DICOM is the world standard for picture archiving and communication in medicine. Development system LabVIEW based on graphical programming is primary designed for virtual instrumentation, it offers many tools and operators for image processing and analysis, but it does not directly support the work with DICOM standard. The article deals with possibility of importing native DICOM files to LabVIEW and work with them.

A systematic review of the effectiveness of training in emergency obstetric care in low-resource environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Lonkhuijzen, L.; Dijkman, A.; van Roosmalen, J.; Zeeman, G.; Scherpbier, A.

Background Training of healthcare workers can play an important role in improving quality of care, and reducing maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity. Objectives To assess the effectiveness of training programmes aimed at improving emergency obstetric care in low-resource environments.

Laying a Firm Foundation: Embedding Evidence-Based Emergent Literacy Practices Into Early Intervention and Preschool Environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Terrell, Pamela; Watson, Maggie

2018-04-05

As part of this clinical forum on curriculum-based intervention, the goal of this tutorial is to share research about the importance of language and literacy foundations in natural environments during emergent literacy skill development, from infancy through preschool. Following an overview of intervention models in schools by Powell (2018), best practices at home, in child care, and in preschool settings are discussed. Speech-language pathologists in these settings will be provided a toolbox of best emergent literacy practices. A review of published literature in speech-language pathology, early intervention, early childhood education, and literacy was completed. Subsequently, an overview of the impact of early home and preschool literacy experiences are described. Research-based implementation of best practice is supported with examples of shared book reading and child-led literacy embedded in play within the coaching model of early intervention. Finally, various aspects of emergent literacy skill development in the preschool years are discussed. These include phonemic awareness, print/alphabet awareness, oral language skills, and embedded/explicit literacy. Research indicates that rich home literacy environments and exposure to rich oral language provide an important foundation for the more structured literacy environments of school. Furthermore, there is a wealth of evidence to support a variety of direct and indirect intervention practices in the home, child care, and preschool contexts to support and enhance all aspects of oral and written literacy. Application of this "toolbox" of strategies should enable speech-language pathologists to address the prevention and intervention of literacy deficits within multiple environments during book and play activities. Additionally, clinicians will have techniques to share with parents, child care providers, and preschool teachers for evidence-based literacy instruction within all settings during typical daily

Accounting for derivative contracts in an energy environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewthwaite, T.; Majid, H.; Swingler, N.

1999-01-01

This chapter reviews the latest developments in the accounting for derivative contracts in the energy environment, covering the US accounting and disclosure requirements and the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) 133 Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities, and the Emerging Issues Task Force Consensus (EITF) 98-10 accounting for energy trading and risk management activities. UK accounting and disclosure requirements and the international point of view are discussed. Three different types of hedges are described

Accounting for derivative contracts in an energy environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lewthwaite, T.; Majid, H.; Swingler, N. [Arthur Andersen (United Kingdom)

1999-07-01

This chapter reviews the latest developments in the accounting for derivative contracts in the energy environment, covering the US accounting and disclosure requirements and the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) 133 Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities, and the Emerging Issues Task Force Consensus (EITF) 98-10 accounting for energy trading and risk management activities. UK accounting and disclosure requirements and the international point of view are discussed. Three different types of hedges are described.

Exaggerated supine oblique view of the cervical spine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abel, M.S.

1982-01-01

The technique of the 60 degree supine oblique view is described together with anatomic skeletal studies of this projection. The view is convenient for emergency room radiography and useful in other clinical radiography. The view separates widely the anterior and posterior portions of the vertebrae in a side to side projection. This makes for an elongated but detailed view of the articular processes, pedicles, and intervertebral foramina. In the cadavar specimen and clinically the view is shown to be useful in delineating fracture deformities of the articular process and visualizing constriction of the intervertebral foramen superiorly. Encroachment of the foramen superiorly is likely to compromise the emerging nerve root in this area

Effect of viewing distance on 3D fatigue caused by viewing mobile 3D content

Science.gov (United States)

Mun, Sungchul; Lee, Dong-Su; Park, Min-Chul; Yano, Sumio

2013-05-01

With an advent of autostereoscopic display technique and increased needs for smart phones, there has been a significant growth in mobile TV markets. The rapid growth in technical, economical, and social aspects has encouraged 3D TV manufacturers to apply 3D rendering technology to mobile devices so that people have more opportunities to come into contact with many 3D content anytime and anywhere. Even if the mobile 3D technology leads to the current market growth, there is an important thing to consider for consistent development and growth in the display market. To put it briefly, human factors linked to mobile 3D viewing should be taken into consideration before developing mobile 3D technology. Many studies have investigated whether mobile 3D viewing causes undesirable biomedical effects such as motion sickness and visual fatigue, but few have examined main factors adversely affecting human health. Viewing distance is considered one of the main factors to establish optimized viewing environments from a viewer's point of view. Thus, in an effort to determine human-friendly viewing environments, this study aims to investigate the effect of viewing distance on human visual system when exposing to mobile 3D environments. Recording and analyzing brainwaves before and after watching mobile 3D content, we explore how viewing distance affects viewing experience from physiological and psychological perspectives. Results obtained in this study are expected to provide viewing guidelines for viewers, help ensure viewers against undesirable 3D effects, and lead to make gradual progress towards a human-friendly mobile 3D viewing.

The Resource-Based View and The Concept of Value: The Role of Emergence in Value Creation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luis Armando Luján Salazar

2017-02-01

Full Text Available This theoretical paper deals with the concept of value. It asserts that value is the only and necessary condition in the resource-based view (RBV. It also argues that no resource or strategy is valuable per se: it is related to a configuration of resources, routines, and embedded assets. For example, concerning the RBV attribute of imitation, we can ask to what extent a valuable resource is independent of the rest of resources, and by extension, to what extent a configuration of resources is rare by itself. This paper discusses the emergence of value and it is embeddedness in a configuration of resources. Revising the concept of value could challenge the other main conditions in the RBV: rarity and cost of imitation, impossibility to replace with strategic substitutes. If the relations of these attributes with the rest of the resources are taken into account, we might have a better understanding of how value emerges and how a firm’s resources and capabilities are related with the creation of value.

The "Emerging" and "Emergent" Present: A View on the Indeterminate Nature of Mathematics Lessons

Science.gov (United States)

Roth, Wolff-Michael; Maheux, Jean-François

2014-01-01

The notion of emergence has considerable currency in mathematics education. However, the notion tends to be used in a descriptive way rather than being theorized and developed as a phenomenon sui generis. The purpose of this article is to contribute to building a theory of "emergence." After providing an exemplifying description and…

Reductive and Emergent Views on Motor Learning in Rehabilitation Practice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Dijk, Ludger; van der Sluis, Corry; Bongers, Raoul M.

2017-01-01

To allow different views on motor learning to inform rehabilitation research, the authors aimed to explicate a frequently missed yet fundamental difference in starting point of such views. By considering how rehabilitation in practice answers the question of what parts an activity consists of,

How Do the Faculty Members Go for Trolls? A View from An Emerging Country

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elif Bugra KUZU DEMIR

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on the findings of an exploratory, qualitative phenomenological study and investigates opinions and evaluations of faculty members about trolls encountered in social media and mass medium. The research was carried out in Anadolu University in Turkey. A total of 18 faculty members from 9 faculties in 12 different departments responded to 4 interview questions. Faculty members' views on trolls were elicited through 2 rounds of semi-structured focus group interviews. Findings were based on content analyses of interview transcripts. Results are presented in four categories which emerged from perceptions, strategies, incidences and feelings. Trolls’ aims and their success in doing so when it comes to the research group are discussed. This research concludes that purity, hazard and intelligence of trolls are still dubious facts for the Anadolu University faculty members.

Central presbycusis: an emerging view.

Science.gov (United States)

Gates, George A

2012-07-01

Age-related dysfunction of the central auditory system (central presbycusis) is common but rarely looked for by those who provide aural rehabilitation. Patients who complain of difficulty hearing in noise--the key symptom of central presbycusis--are generally disadvantaged with conventional rehabilitation. This symptom should be documented with commercially available speech-in-noise tests, which use materials that are uncomplicated to administer. Those patients who perform poorly on such tests should have a customized rehabilitation program aimed at optimizing their remaining communication abilities. Otolaryngologists who provide auditory rehabilitation may wish to consider expanding their practices to meet the communication needs of older patients with central presbycusis. Central presbycusis is an emerging area for basic and clinical research in auditory neurotology, particularly in the relation of cognitive dysfunction to impaired auditory processing.

A resource-based view of internationalization in emerging economies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hein Roelfsema; Martijn A. Boermans

2012-01-01

Chapter 2 in Impacts of Emerging Economies and Firms on International Business. One of the most remarkable phenomena of recent times is that a large number of firms from emerging economies have come to define and dominate new markets and enter the class of global innovation leaders. Firms that once

On the ontological emergence from quantum regime

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Luty, Damian [Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan (Poland)

2014-07-01

There are several views on the relation between quantum physics and theory of relativity (especially General Relativity, GR). A popular perspective is this: GR with its macroscopic gravitational effects will turn out to be a limit of a more fundamental theory which should consider discrete physics and not deal with continuity (like theory of relativity). Thus, GR will emerge from a more basic theory, which should be quantum-like. One could call this an epistemic emergence view towards fundamental theories. The question is, given that scientific realism is valid: should emergence be a fundamental notion in our ontological view about the evolving, physical Universe? Is there an ontological emergence fully compatible with the notion of fundamentality? I argue that if we want to defend ontological emergence (from quantum to macroscopic regime) as something fundamental, we will arrive at the position of metaphysics of dispositions (and I argue, why this is undesirable), or conclude, that we cannot square fully fundamental ontology with the notion of emergence, and that we have to accept an ontological pluralism relativised to a certain scale. I defend the latter proposition, showing, that epistemic emergence doesn't entail (logically) ontological emergence.

Emerging contaminants in the environment: Risk-based analysis for better management.

Science.gov (United States)

Naidu, Ravi; Arias Espana, Victor Andres; Liu, Yanju; Jit, Joytishna

2016-07-01

Emerging contaminants (ECs) are chemicals of a synthetic origin or deriving from a natural source that has recently been discovered and for which environmental or public health risks are yet to be established. This is due to limited available information on their interaction and toxicological impacts on receptors. Several types of ECs exist such as antibiotics, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, personal care products, effluents, certain naturally occurring contaminants and more recently nanomaterials. ECs may derive from a known source, for example released directly to the aquatic environment from direct discharges such as those from wastewater treatment plants. Although in most instances the direct source cannot be identified, ECs have been detected in virtually every country's natural environment and as a consequence they represent a global problem. There is very limited information on the fate and transport of ECs in the environment and their toxicological impact. This lack of information can be attributed to limited financial resources and the lack of analytical techniques for detecting their effects on ecosystems and human health on their own or as mixture. We do not know how ECs interact with each other or various contaminants. This paper presents an overview of existing knowledge on ECs, their fate and transport and a risk-based analysis for ECs management and complementary strategies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emerging technologies to measure neighborhood conditions in public health: implications for interventions and next steps.

Science.gov (United States)

Schootman, M; Nelson, E J; Werner, K; Shacham, E; Elliott, M; Ratnapradipa, K; Lian, M; McVay, A

2016-06-23

Adverse neighborhood conditions play an important role beyond individual characteristics. There is increasing interest in identifying specific characteristics of the social and built environments adversely affecting health outcomes. Most research has assessed aspects of such exposures via self-reported instruments or census data. Potential threats in the local environment may be subject to short-term changes that can only be measured with more nimble technology. The advent of new technologies may offer new opportunities to obtain geospatial data about neighborhoods that may circumvent the limitations of traditional data sources. This overview describes the utility, validity and reliability of selected emerging technologies to measure neighborhood conditions for public health applications. It also describes next steps for future research and opportunities for interventions. The paper presents an overview of the literature on measurement of the built and social environment in public health (Google Street View, webcams, crowdsourcing, remote sensing, social media, unmanned aerial vehicles, and lifespace) and location-based interventions. Emerging technologies such as Google Street View, social media, drones, webcams, and crowdsourcing may serve as effective and inexpensive tools to measure the ever-changing environment. Georeferenced social media responses may help identify where to target intervention activities, but also to passively evaluate their effectiveness. Future studies should measure exposure across key time points during the life-course as part of the exposome paradigm and integrate various types of data sources to measure environmental contexts. By harnessing these technologies, public health research can not only monitor populations and the environment, but intervene using novel strategies to improve the public health.

Next generation intelligent environments ambient adaptive systems

CERN Document Server

Nothdurft, Florian; Heinroth, Tobias; Minker, Wolfgang

2016-01-01

This book covers key topics in the field of intelligent ambient adaptive systems. It focuses on the results worked out within the framework of the ATRACO (Adaptive and TRusted Ambient eCOlogies) project. The theoretical background, the developed prototypes, and the evaluated results form a fertile ground useful for the broad intelligent environments scientific community as well as for industrial interest groups. The new edition provides: Chapter authors comment on their work on ATRACO with final remarks as viewed in retrospective Each chapter has been updated with follow-up work emerging from ATRACO An extensive introduction to state-of-the-art statistical dialog management for intelligent environments Approaches are introduced on how Trust is reflected during the dialog with the system.

Pharmaceutical products as emerging contaminant in water: relevance for developing nations and identification of critical compounds for Indian environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Chinnaiyan, Prakash; Thampi, Santosh G; Kumar, Mathava; Mini, K M

2018-04-17

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are contaminants of emerging concern and have been detected worldwide in water bodies in trace concentrations. Most of these emerging contaminants are not regulated in water quality standards except a few in the developed countries. In the case of developing countries, research in this direction is at a nascent stage. For the effective management of Pharmaceutical contaminants (PC) in developing countries, the relevance of PCs as an emerging contaminant has to be analyzed followed by regular monitoring of the environment. Considering the resource constraints, this could be accomplished by identifying the priority compounds which is again region specific and dependent on consumption behavior and pattern. In this work, relevance of pharmaceutical compound as emerging contaminant in water for a developing country like India is examined by considering the data pertaining to pharmaceutical consumption data. To identify the critical Pharmaceutical Contaminants to be monitored in the Indian environment, priority compounds from selected prioritization methods were screened with the compounds listed in National List of Essential Medicine (NLEM), India. Further, information on the number of publications on the compound as an emerging contaminant, data on monitoring studies in India and the number of brands marketing the compound in India were also analyzed. It is found that out of 195 compounds from different prioritization techniques, only 77 compounds were found relevant to India based on NLEM sorting.

Perspectives on Emerging/Novel Computing Paradigms and Future Aerospace Workforce Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Noor, Ahmed K.

2003-01-01

The accelerating pace of the computing technology development shows no signs of abating. Computing power reaching 100 Tflop/s is likely to be reached by 2004 and Pflop/s (10(exp 15) Flop/s) by 2007. The fundamental physical limits of computation, including information storage limits, communication limits and computation rate limits will likely be reached by the middle of the present millennium. To overcome these limits, novel technologies and new computing paradigms will be developed. An attempt is made in this overview to put the diverse activities related to new computing-paradigms in perspective and to set the stage for the succeeding presentations. The presentation is divided into five parts. In the first part, a brief historical account is given of development of computer and networking technologies. The second part provides brief overviews of the three emerging computing paradigms grid, ubiquitous and autonomic computing. The third part lists future computing alternatives and the characteristics of future computing environment. The fourth part describes future aerospace workforce research, learning and design environments. The fifth part lists the objectives of the workshop and some of the sources of information on future computing paradigms.

Evaluating legacy contaminants and emerging chemicals in marine environments using adverse outcome pathways and biological effects-directed analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Hutchinson, Thomas H; Lyons, Brett P; Thain, John E; Law, Robin J

2013-09-30

Natural and synthetic chemicals are essential to our daily lives, food supplies, health care, industries and safe sanitation. At the same time protecting marine ecosystems and seafood resources from the adverse effects of chemical contaminants remains an important issue. Since the 1970s, monitoring of persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals using analytical chemistry has provided important spatial and temporal trend data in three important contexts; relating to human health protection from seafood contamination, addressing threats to marine top predators and finally providing essential evidence to better protect the biodiversity of commercial and non-commercial marine species. A number of regional conventions have led to controls on certain PBT chemicals over several years (termed 'legacy contaminants'; e.g. cadmium, lindane, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs] and polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs]). Analytical chemistry plays a key role in evaluating to what extent such regulatory steps have been effective in leading to reduced emissions of these legacy contaminants into marine environments. In parallel, the application of biomarkers (e.g. DNA adducts, CYP1A-EROD, vitellogenin) and bioassays integrated with analytical chemistry has strengthened the evidence base to support an ecosystem approach to manage marine pollution problems. In recent years, however,the increased sensitivity of analytical chemistry, toxicity alerts and wider environmental awareness has led to a focus on emerging chemical contaminants (defined as chemicals that have been detected in the environment, but which are currently not included in regulatory monitoring programmes and whose fate and biological impacts are poorly understood). It is also known that natural chemicals (e.g. algal biotoxins) may also pose a threat to marine species and seafood quality. Hence complex mixtures of legacy contaminants, emerging chemicals and natural biotoxins in marine ecosystems represent

Evaluating legacy contaminants and emerging chemicals in marine environments using adverse outcome pathways and biological effects-directed analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hutchinson, Thomas H.; Lyons, Brett P.; Thain, John E.; Law, Robin J.

2013-01-01

Natural and synthetic chemicals are essential to our daily lives, food supplies, health care, industries and safe sanitation. At the same time protecting marine ecosystems and seafood resources from the adverse effects of chemical contaminants remains an important issue. Since the 1970s, monitoring of persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals using analytical chemistry has provided important spatial and temporal trend data in three important contexts; relating to human health protection from seafood contamination, addressing threats to marine top predators and finally providing essential evidence to better protect the biodiversity of commercial and non-commercial marine species. A number of regional conventions have led to controls on certain PBT chemicals over several years (termed ‘legacy contaminants’; e.g. cadmium, lindane, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs] and polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs]). Analytical chemistry plays a key role in evaluating to what extent such regulatory steps have been effective in leading to reduced emissions of these legacy contaminants into marine environments. In parallel, the application of biomarkers (e.g. DNA adducts, CYP1A-EROD, vitellogenin) and bioassays integrated with analytical chemistry has strengthened the evidence base to support an ecosystem approach to manage marine pollution problems. In recent years, however, the increased sensitivity of analytical chemistry, toxicity alerts and wider environmental awareness has led to a focus on emerging chemical contaminants (defined as chemicals that have been detected in the environment, but which are currently not included in regulatory monitoring programmes and whose fate and biological impacts are poorly understood). It is also known that natural chemicals (e.g. algal biotoxins) may also pose a threat to marine species and seafood quality. Hence complex mixtures of legacy contaminants, emerging chemicals and natural biotoxins in marine ecosystems represent

Mapping the radioactive contamination in urban environments after nuclear emergencies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaiser, Jan Christian; Proehl, Gerhard; Woda, Clemens

2008-01-01

Full text: In the event of a nuclear emergency in an urban environment a reliable overview on the radioactive contamination is crucial for decision making. To assess the radiological situation both measurements of the gamma dose or dose rate (GDR) and results from urban dispersion and deposition models are used. Measurements may arrive from various sources like car-borne detectors or man-borne radiation-sensitive materials embedded in cell phones, flash memory devices or RFID chips. The measurements depend strongly on the detector environment. To account for this dependence each signal is multiplied by a location factor, which quantifies the deviation of the recorded signal from the hypothetical signal of a reference surface of infinitely extended lawn. Furthermore, the data originate from geo-referenced points or lines but do not provide full spatial information. We present here two approaches to produce maps of the reference GDR or surface contamination in urban areas, which are implemented in the Inhabited Areas Monitoring Module (IAMM) as part of the European decision support systems RODOS and ARGOS. Immediately after the accident, a few measurements are combined with the predictions of urban models using data assimilation. If enough measurements are available they are regionalised with geo-statistical interpolation algorithms like inverse distance weighting or kriging. Both approaches are demonstrated in hypothetical scenarios based on the explosion of a radioactive dispersion device. (author)

Implementing VMware Horizon View 5.2

CERN Document Server

Ventresco, Jason

2013-01-01

A step-by-step tutorial covering all components of the View Horizon suite in detail, to ensure that you can utilize all features of the platform, and discover all of the possible ways that it can be used within your own environment.If you are a newcomer in system administration, and you wish to implement a small to midsized Horizon View environment, then this book is for you. It will also benefit individuals who wish to administrate and manage Horizon View more efficiently or are studying for the VCP5-DT.

Drupal 7 Views Cookbook

CERN Document Server

Green, J Ayen

2012-01-01

This is a cookbook containing plenty of easy-to-follow practical recipes with screenshots that will help you in mastering the Drupal Views module. Drupal 7 Views Cookbook is for developers or technically proficient users who are fairly comfortable with the concepts behind websites and the Drupal environment.

Assessing offshore emergency evacuation behavior in a virtual environment using a Bayesian Network approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Musharraf, Mashrura; Smith, Jennifer; Khan, Faisal; Veitch, Brian; MacKinnon, Scott

2016-01-01

In the performance influencing factor (PIF) hierarchy, person-based influencing factors reside in the top level along with machine-based, team-based, organization-based and situation/stressor-based factors. Though person-based PIFs like morale, motivation, and attitude (MMA) play an important role in shaping performance, it is nearly impossible to assess such PIFs directly. However, it is possible to measure behavioral indicators (e.g. compliance, use of information) that can provide insight regarding the state of the unobservable person-based PIFs. One common approach to measuring these indicators is to carry out a self-reported questionnaire survey. Significant work has been done to make such questionnaires reliable, but the potential validity problem associated with any questionnaire is that the data are subjective and thus may bear a limited relationship to reality. This paper describes the use of a virtual environment to measure behavioral indicators, which in turn can be used as proxies to assess otherwise unobservable PIFs like MMA. A Bayesian Network (BN) model is first developed to define the relationship between person-based PIFs and measurable behavioral indicators. The paper then shows how these indicators can be measured using evidence collected from a virtual environment of an offshore petroleum installation. A study that focused on emergency evacuation scenarios was done with 36 participants. The participants were first assessed using a multiple choice test. They were then assessed based on their observed performance during simulated offshore emergency evacuation conditions. A comparison of the two assessments demonstrates the potential benefits and challenges of using virtual environments to assess behavioral indicators, and thus the person-based PIFs. - Highlights: • New approach to use virtual environment as measure of behavioral indicators. • New model to study morale, motivation, and attitude. • Bayesian Network model to define the

Emerging and Reemerging Neglected Tropical Diseases: a Review of Key Characteristics, Risk Factors, and the Policy and Innovation Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Bryan A.; Cuomo, Raphael; Hafen, Ryan; Brouwer, Kimberly C.; Lee, Daniel E.

2014-01-01

SUMMARY In global health, critical challenges have arisen from infectious diseases, including the emergence and reemergence of old and new infectious diseases. Emergence and reemergence are accelerated by rapid human development, including numerous changes in demographics, populations, and the environment. This has also led to zoonoses in the changing human-animal ecosystem, which are impacted by a growing globalized society where pathogens do not recognize geopolitical borders. Within this context, neglected tropical infectious diseases have historically lacked adequate attention in international public health efforts, leading to insufficient prevention and treatment options. This subset of 17 infectious tropical diseases disproportionately impacts the world's poorest, represents a significant and underappreciated global disease burden, and is a major barrier to development efforts to alleviate poverty and improve human health. Neglected tropical diseases that are also categorized as emerging or reemerging infectious diseases are an even more serious threat and have not been adequately examined or discussed in terms of their unique risk characteristics. This review sets out to identify emerging and reemerging neglected tropical diseases and explore the policy and innovation environment that could hamper or enable control efforts. Through this examination, we hope to raise awareness and guide potential approaches to addressing this global health concern. PMID:25278579

Carbon Oxides Gases for Occupancy Counting and Emergency Control in Fog Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kairong Duan

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The information of human occupancy plays a crucial role in building management. For instance, fewer people, less demand for heat and electricity supply, and vice versa. Moreover, when there is a fire in a building, it is convenient to know how many persons in a single room there are in order to plan a more efficient rescue strategy. However, currently most buildings have not installed adequate devices that can be used to count the number of people, and the most popular embedded fire alarm system triggers a warning only when a fire breaks out with plenty of smoke. In view of this constraint, in this paper we propose a carbon oxides gases based warning system to detect potential fire breakouts and to estimate the number of people in the proximity. In order to validate the efficiency of the devised system, we simulate its application in the Fog Computing environment. Furthermore, we also improve the iFogSim by giving data analytics capacity to it. Based on this framework, energy consumption, latency, and network usage of the designed system obtained from iFogSim are compared with those obtained from Cloud environment.

Dynamic registration of an optical see-through HMD into a wide field-of-view rotorcraft flight simulation environment

Science.gov (United States)

Viertler, Franz; Hajek, Manfred

2015-05-01

To overcome the challenge of helicopter flight in degraded visual environments, current research considers headmounted displays with 3D-conformal (scene-linked) visual cues as most promising display technology. For pilot-in-theloop simulations with HMDs, a highly accurate registration of the augmented visual system is required. In rotorcraft flight simulators the outside visual cues are usually provided by a dome projection system, since a wide field-of-view (e.g. horizontally > 200° and vertically > 80°) is required, which can hardly be achieved with collimated viewing systems. But optical see-through HMDs do mostly not have an equivalent focus compared to the distance of the pilot's eye-point position to the curved screen, which is also dependant on head motion. Hence, a dynamic vergence correction has been implemented to avoid binocular disparity. In addition, the parallax error induced by even small translational head motions is corrected with a head-tracking system to be adjusted onto the projected screen. For this purpose, two options are presented. The correction can be achieved by rendering the view with yaw and pitch offset angles dependent on the deviating head position from the design eye-point of the spherical projection system. Furthermore, it can be solved by implementing a dynamic eye-point in the multi-channel projection system for the outside visual cues. Both options have been investigated for the integration of a binocular HMD into the Rotorcraft Simulation Environment (ROSIE) at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen. Pros and cons of both possibilities with regard on integration issues and usability in flight simulations will be discussed.

Decoupled Multicamera Sensing for Flexible View Generation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vivek K. Singh

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Any sensing paradigm has three important components, namely, the actor, the sensor, and the environment. Traditionally, the sensors have been attached to either the actor or the environment. This restricts the kind of sensing that can be undertaken. We study a newer decoupled sensing paradigm, which separates the sensors from both the actor and the environment and tremendously increases the flexibility with which the scenes can be viewed. For example, instead of showing just one view, “how the environment sees the actor” or “how the actor sees the environment,” a viewer can choose to see either one or both of these views and even choose to see the scene from any desired position in any desired direction. We describe a methodology using mobile autonomous sensors to undertake such decoupled sensing and study the feasible number as well as the placement of such sensors. Also, we describe how the sensors can coordinate their movements around a moving actor so as to continue capturing the required views with minimum overall cost. The practical results obtained demonstrate the viability of the proposed approach.

Modeling views in the layered view model for XML using UML

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rajugan, R.; Dillon, T.S.; Chang, E.; Feng, L.

In data engineering, view formalisms are used to provide flexibility to users and user applications by allowing them to extract and elaborate data from the stored data sources. Conversely, since the introduction of Extensible Markup Language (XML), it is fast emerging as the dominant standard for

Meaning Emergence in the Ecology of Dialogical Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Trasmundi Sarah Bro

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This article is an empirically based theoretical contribution to the investigation of meaningmaking in the ecology of human interaction and interactivity. It presents an ecological perspective on meaning-making that pivots on how agents pick up information directly in their organism-environment-system; i.e. as an activity that does not presuppose inner cognitive operations. We pursue this line of thought by presenting an analysis of how a doctor and a nurse make a decision about a specific medical procedure (catheterisation based on meaning-making activity. As we do not see meaning as a linguistic (symbolic or a cognitive (representational phenomenon external to an agent/user, but as emergent in coordinated interaction, we zoom in on how the practitioners recalibrate the organism-environmentsystem by shift ing between a multi-agentive mode and an individual mode. We use Cognitive Event Analysis to investigate how the agents oscillate between being a multi-agent-system with shared, tightly coordinated agency and a loosely coupled dialogical system where the individuals bring forth an understanding based on their professional backgrounds and expertise. On this view, an ecological approach to meaning-making takes a starting point in how local interaction is constrained by previous events, emergent affordances in the environment, and real-time inter-bodily dynamics. Accordingly, meaning-making is seen as a joint activity emerging from the system’s coordinative actions rather than as a result of individual interpretation of symbolic content.

The workplace window view

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lottrup, Lene Birgitte Poulsen; Stigsdotter, Ulrika K.; Meilby, Henrik

2015-01-01

Office workers’ job satisfaction and ability to work are two important factors for the viability and competitiveness of most companies, and existing studies in contexts other than workplaces show relationships between a view of natural elements and, for example, student performance...... satisfaction, and that high view satisfaction was related to high work ability and high job satisfaction. Furthermore, the results indicated that job satisfaction mediated the effect of view satisfaction on work ability. These findings show that a view of a green outdoor environment at the workplace can...... be an important asset in workforce work ability and job satisfaction....

Environment Canada's new on-line reporting system for environmental emergency plans under CEPA, Sections 199 and 200

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rudin-Brown, P.

2003-01-01

One of the objectives of Canada's Environmental Emergencies program is to reduce the frequency, severity and consequences of spill events by promoting preventative measures and emergency preparedness. The program also offers advice on response methods and advancing science and technology. This paper from a poster session announces that the E2 program is expected to be administered online by late 2003. The compiled database is expected to serve as a useful statistical reference for the public, decision makers, and first responders. Users will be able to access information regarding controlled substances. In particular, sections 199 and 200 of the Environmental Emergency regulations in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) require that any person in Canada who manages a listed substance in large quantities provide Environment Canada with information on the quantity of the substance, the facility location, and prepare a contingency plan

Health and the Built Environment: Exploring Foundations for a New Interdisciplinary Profession

Science.gov (United States)

Kent, Jennifer; Thompson, Susan

2012-01-01

The supportive role of the built environment for human health is a growing area of interdisciplinary research, evidence-based policy development, and related practice. Nevertheless, despite closely linked origins, the contemporary professions of public health and urban planning largely operate within the neoliberal framework of academic, political, and policy silos. A reinvigorated relationship between the two is fundamental to building and sustaining an effective “healthy built environment profession.” A recent comprehensive review of the burgeoning literature on healthy built environments identified an emergent theme which we have termed “Professional Development.” This literature relates to the development of relationships between health and built environment professionals. It covers case studies illustrating good practice models for policy change, as well as ways professionals can work to translate research into policy. Intertwined with this empirical research is a dialogue on theoretical tensions emerging as health and built environment practitioners and researchers seek to establish mutual understanding and respect. The nature of evidence required to justify policy change, for example, has surfaced as an area of asynchrony between accepted disciplinary protocols. Our paper discusses this important body of research with a view to initiating and supporting the ongoing development of an interdisciplinary profession of healthy planning. PMID:23028393

Authoring multimedia in the CMIF environment

OpenAIRE

Hardman, Lynda; Rossum, Guido; Bulterman, Dick

1993-01-01

textabstractWe present the user interface to the CMIF authoring environment for constructing and playing multimedia presentations. Within the environment an author constructs a presentation in terms of its structure and additional synchronization constraints, from which the actual timing information is derived. The CMIF authoring environment presents three main views of a multimedia presentation: a hierarchy view for manipulating and viewing a presentation’s hierarchical structure; a channel ...

Individual-Environment Interactions in Swimming: The Smallest Unit for Analysing the Emergence of Coordination Dynamics in Performance?

Science.gov (United States)

Guignard, Brice; Rouard, Annie; Chollet, Didier; Hart, John; Davids, Keith; Seifert, Ludovic

2017-08-01

Displacement in competitive swimming is highly dependent on fluid characteristics, since athletes use these properties to propel themselves. It is essential for sport scientists and practitioners to clearly identify the interactions that emerge between each individual swimmer and properties of an aquatic environment. Traditionally, the two protagonists in these interactions have been studied separately. Determining the impact of each swimmer's movements on fluid flow, and vice versa, is a major challenge. Classic biomechanical research approaches have focused on swimmers' actions, decomposing stroke characteristics for analysis, without exploring perturbations to fluid flows. Conversely, fluid mechanics research has sought to record fluid behaviours, isolated from the constraints of competitive swimming environments (e.g. analyses in two-dimensions, fluid flows passively studied on mannequins or robot effectors). With improvements in technology, however, recent investigations have focused on the emergent circular couplings between swimmers' movements and fluid dynamics. Here, we provide insights into concepts and tools that can explain these on-going dynamic interactions in competitive swimming within the theoretical framework of ecological dynamics.

Emerging semantics to link phenotype and environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anne E. Thessen

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Understanding the interplay between environmental conditions and phenotypes is a fundamental goal of biology. Unfortunately, data that include observations on phenotype and environment are highly heterogeneous and thus difficult to find and integrate. One approach that is likely to improve the status quo involves the use of ontologies to standardize and link data about phenotypes and environments. Specifying and linking data through ontologies will allow researchers to increase the scope and flexibility of large-scale analyses aided by modern computing methods. Investments in this area would advance diverse fields such as ecology, phylogenetics, and conservation biology. While several biological ontologies are well-developed, using them to link phenotypes and environments is rare because of gaps in ontological coverage and limits to interoperability among ontologies and disciplines. In this manuscript, we present (1 use cases from diverse disciplines to illustrate questions that could be answered more efficiently using a robust linkage between phenotypes and environments, (2 two proof-of-concept analyses that show the value of linking phenotypes to environments in fishes and amphibians, and (3 two proposed example data models for linking phenotypes and environments using the extensible observation ontology (OBOE and the Biological Collections Ontology (BCO; these provide a starting point for the development of a data model linking phenotypes and environments.

MODELING OF PATTERN FORMING PROCESS OF AUTOMATIC RADIO DIRECTION FINDER OF PHASE VHF IN THE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT OF LabVIEW APPLIED PROGRAMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. K. Aslanov

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In the article is developed the model demonstrating the forming process of pattern of antenna system of aerodrome quasidopler automatic radiodirection-finder station in the development environment of LabVIEW applied programs of National Instrument company. 

Conflict management style, supportive work environments and the experience of work stress in emergency nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Johansen, Mary L; Cadmus, Edna

2016-03-01

To examine the conflict management style that emergency department (ED) nurses use to resolve conflict and to determine whether their style of managing conflict and a supportive work environment affects their experience of work stress. Conflict is a common stressor that is encountered as nurses strive to achieve patient satisfaction goals while delivering quality care. How a nurse perceives support may impact work stress levels and how they deal with conflict. A correlational design examined the relationship between supportive work environment, and conflict management style and work stress in a sample of 222 ED nurses using the expanded nurse work stress scale; the survey of perceived organisational support; and the Rahim organisational conflict inventory-II. Twenty seven percent of nurses reported elevated levels of work stress. A supportive work environment and avoidant conflict management style were significant predictors of work stress. Findings suggest that ED nurses' perception of a supportive work environment and their approach to resolving conflict may be related to their experience of work stress. Providing opportunities for ED nurses in skills training in constructive conflict resolution may help to reduce work stress and to improve the quality of patient care. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Nurse-physician teamwork in the emergency department: impact on perceptions of job environment, autonomy, and control over practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Ajeigbe, David O; McNeese-Smith, Donna; Leach, Linda Searle; Phillips, Linda R

2013-03-01

Teamwork is essential to safety. Few studies focus on teamwork between nurses and physicians in emergency departments (EDs). The aim of this study was to examine differences between staff in the interventional group EDs (IGEDs) and control group EDs (CGEDs) on perception of job environment, autonomy, and control over practice. This was a comparative cross-sectional study of the impact of teamwork on perceptions of job environment, autonomy, and control over practice by registered nurses and physicians (MDs) in EDs. Staff in the IGEDs showed significant differences compared with staff who worked in the CGEDs on staff perception of job environment, autonomy, and control over practice. Active teamwork practice was associated with increased perceptions of a positive job environment, autonomy, and control over practice of both nurses and physicians.

Protecting your business: from emergency planning to crisis management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramsay, C.G.

1999-01-01

The forthcoming UK Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) regulations under the European Community's Seveso II Directive will impose a new formal requirement to test emergency plans. This might be approached as an added burden on industry to demonstrate safe operation, or can be viewed alternatively as an opportunity to improve crisis management systems and thereby decrease the risks to the business. Crisis is by nature an ambiguous and complex environment, demanding endless initiative, inventiveness, communication, co-ordination and learning. Because large-scale crises threatening the entire business are not frequent, learning from experience must be replaced by competence-assurance based on systems thinking, on risk assessment, on wide scenario simulations and on rigorous training. This paper discusses the benefits from various types of testing of emergency plans and from a business approach to continuous improvement in crisis management capability. (Copyright (c) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam. All rights reserved.)

Senior doctor triage (SDT), a qualitative study of clinicians' views on senior doctors' involvement in triage and early assessment of emergency patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Abdulwahid, Maysam Ali; Turner, Janette; Mason, Suzanne M

2018-07-01

Despite the focus during the last decade on introducing interventions such as senior doctor initial assessment or senior doctor triage (SDT) to reduce emergency department (ED) crowding, there has been little attempt to identify the views of emergency healthcare professionals on such interventions. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of SDT from the perspective of emergency hospital staff. A secondary aim of this study was to develop a definition of SDT based on the interview findings and the available literature on this process. Qualitative semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with participants of different backgrounds including senior doctors, nurses, paramedics and ED managers. Textual data were analysed using a template analysis approach. 27 participants from 13 EDs across England were interviewed. SDT was viewed as a safety mechanism and a measure to control patient flow. The most prominent positive aspect was the ability to initiate early investigations and treatment. Various shortcomings of SDT were described such as the lack of standardisation of the process and its cost implications. Participants identified a number of barriers to this process including insufficient resources and exit block, and called for solutions focused on these issues. A proposed definition of an 'ideal' SDT was developed where it is described as a systematic brief assessment of patients arriving at the ED by a senior doctor-led team, which takes place in a dedicated unit. The aim of this assessment is to facilitate early investigation and management of patients, early patient disposition and guide junior staff to deliver safe and high-quality clinical care. This is the first national study to explore the opinions of various emergency and managerial staff on the SDT model. It revealed variable interpretations of this model and what it can and cannot offer. This has led to a standard definition of the SDT process, which can be useful for clinicians and

The Regional Environmental Emergency Team (REET)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maddock, M.

2001-01-01

This paper outlined the approach taken in Ontario to set up the Regional Environmental Emergency Team (REET) teams and the progress made in developing partnerships and coordination in response to environmental emergencies in Ontario. Environment Canada has been involved with the Ontario Regional Environmental Emergency Team (REET) Program for the past decade in order to review emergency response roles and responsibilities. REET is designed to enhance communication between emergency response agencies, foster recognition of the various responsibilities involved in an environmental emergency response and to increase the basic understanding of emergency response techniques and procedures within the emergency response community. During emergency response situations REET operates as a flexible and expandable multi-disciplinary and multi-agency team that provides comprehensive and coordinated environmental advice, information and assistance. The Ontario REET program currently consists of 18 area teams throughout the province with informal partnerships with Environment Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Emergency Measures Ontario and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. The program was inspired in 1970 and continues to provide an appropriate forum for environmental emergency planning and response. 6 refs., 1 fig

Facebook as a learning environment for teaching medical emergencies in dental practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Alshiekhly, Ulla; Arrar, Rebal; Barngkgei, Imad; Dashash, Mayssoon

2015-01-01

Social media can be part of the formal education of health professsionals and in their lifelong learning activities. The effectiveness of Facebook, an online social medium, application for educational purposes was evaluated in this study. It was used to serve as a teaching medium of a course in medical emergencies in dental practice (MEDP). Syrian dental students were invited to join a Facebook group "Medical emergencies in dental practice" during the second semester of the academic year 2013-2014. The group privacy settings were changed from an open group to a closed group after the registration period. Administrators of the group published 61 posts during the course period, which extended for one month. Students' progress in learning was evaluated using self-assessment questionnaires administered to the students before and after the course. These questionnaires also queried their opinions regarding the use of Facebook as an educational modality. Qualitative statistics, Wilcoxon signed ranks and Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to analyze the data. Out of 388 students registered in this course, 184 completed it. Two-third of students agreed that Facebook was useful in education. Their impressions of this course were 17.4% as excellent, 52.2% as very good. P values of the self-assessment questions of Wilcoxon signed ranks test were Facebook as a social medium provides a unique learning environment. It allows students to discuss topics more openly in a flexible setting with less rigid time and place constraints. In the light of this study it was found that Facebook may be useful in teaching medical emergencies in dental practice in its theoretical aspect.

Prioritizing research for trace pollutants and emerging contaminants in the freshwater environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Murray, Kyle E., E-mail: Kyle.Murray@utsa.ed [Center for Water Research, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249-0663 (United States); Thomas, Sheeba M [San Antonio River Authority, San Antonio, TX (United States); Bodour, Adria A [Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment (AFCEE), Brooks City-Base, TX (United States)

2010-12-15

Organic chemicals have been detected at trace concentrations in the freshwater environment for decades. Though the term trace pollutant indicates low concentrations normally in the nanogram or microgram per liter range, many of these pollutants can exceed an acceptable daily intake (ADI) for humans. Trace pollutants referred to as emerging contaminants (ECs) have recently been detected in the freshwater environment and may have adverse human health effects. Analytical techniques continue to improve; therefore, the number and frequency of detections of ECs are increasing. It is difficult for regulators to restrict use of pollutants that are a human health hazard; scientists to improve treatment techniques for higher priority pollutants; and the public to modify consumption patterns due to the vast number of ECs and the breadth of literature on the occurrence, use, and toxicity. Hence, this paper examines literature containing occurrence and toxicity data for three broad classes of trace pollutants and ECs (industrials, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs)), and assesses the relevance of 71 individual compounds. The evaluation indicates that widely used industrials (BPF) and PPCPs (AHTN, HHCB, ibuprofen, and estriol) occur frequently in samples from the freshwater environment but toxicity data were not available; thus, it is important to establish their ADI. Other widely used industrials (BDE-47, BDE-99) and pesticides (benomyl, carbendazim, aldrin, endrin, ethion, malathion, biphenthrin, and cypermethrin) have established ADI values but occurrence in the freshwater environment was not well documented. The highest priority pollutants for regulation and treatment should include industrials (PFOA, PFOS and DEHP), pesticides (diazinon, methoxychlor, and dieldrin), and PPCPs (EE2, carbamazepine, {beta}E2, DEET, triclosan, acetaminophen, and E1) because they occur frequently in the freshwater environment and pose a human health hazard at

Prioritizing research for trace pollutants and emerging contaminants in the freshwater environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murray, Kyle E.; Thomas, Sheeba M.; Bodour, Adria A.

2010-01-01

Organic chemicals have been detected at trace concentrations in the freshwater environment for decades. Though the term trace pollutant indicates low concentrations normally in the nanogram or microgram per liter range, many of these pollutants can exceed an acceptable daily intake (ADI) for humans. Trace pollutants referred to as emerging contaminants (ECs) have recently been detected in the freshwater environment and may have adverse human health effects. Analytical techniques continue to improve; therefore, the number and frequency of detections of ECs are increasing. It is difficult for regulators to restrict use of pollutants that are a human health hazard; scientists to improve treatment techniques for higher priority pollutants; and the public to modify consumption patterns due to the vast number of ECs and the breadth of literature on the occurrence, use, and toxicity. Hence, this paper examines literature containing occurrence and toxicity data for three broad classes of trace pollutants and ECs (industrials, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs)), and assesses the relevance of 71 individual compounds. The evaluation indicates that widely used industrials (BPF) and PPCPs (AHTN, HHCB, ibuprofen, and estriol) occur frequently in samples from the freshwater environment but toxicity data were not available; thus, it is important to establish their ADI. Other widely used industrials (BDE-47, BDE-99) and pesticides (benomyl, carbendazim, aldrin, endrin, ethion, malathion, biphenthrin, and cypermethrin) have established ADI values but occurrence in the freshwater environment was not well documented. The highest priority pollutants for regulation and treatment should include industrials (PFOA, PFOS and DEHP), pesticides (diazinon, methoxychlor, and dieldrin), and PPCPs (EE2, carbamazepine, βE2, DEET, triclosan, acetaminophen, and E1) because they occur frequently in the freshwater environment and pose a human health hazard at

Emerging Market Firms’ Acquisitions in Advanced Markets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stucchi, Tamara

2012-01-01

markets. These antecedents can influence emerging market firms’ capacities to absorb or exploit technological and/or marketing advantages in advanced markets. In order to be successful, emerging market firms have to undertake those upmarket acquisitions that best “fit” their antecedents. Four mutually......This study draws upon the resource-based view and the institution-based view of the firm to provide a comprehensive overview of how different resource-, institution- and industry-based antecedents affect the motivations guiding the acquisitions that emerging market firms undertake in advanced...... exclusive acquisition strategies are derived, which are then illustrated using examples of Indian firms’ acquisitions in advanced markets....

Emergency Planning and Preparedness in Belgium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Degueldre, D.; Maris, M.

1998-01-01

The present Belgian nuclear emergency planning and preparedness is based on experience cumulated since the early eighties. This paper describes the organisation, actuation process, the emergency planning zones and the applicable intervention guidance levels. The role of AVN as on-site inspector, nuclear emergency adviser and emergency assessor is explained as well as its human and technical resources. Finally the paper presents briefly the experience feedback on emergency exercises and training in Belgium as well as AVN's views on some debatable topics. (author)

Blended learning in paediatric emergency medicine: preliminary analysis of a virtual learning environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Spedding, Ruth; Jenner, Rachel; Potier, Katherine; Mackway-Jones, Kevin; Carley, Simon

2013-04-01

Paediatric emergency medicine (PEM) currently faces many competing educational challenges. Recent changes to the working patterns have made the delivery of effective teaching to trainees extremely difficult. We developed a virtual learning environment, on the basis of socioconstructivist principles, which allows learning to take place regardless of time or location. The aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of a blended e-learning approach for PEM training. We evaluated the experiences of ST3 trainees in PEM using a multimodal approach. We classified and analysed message board discussions over a 6-month period to look for evidence of practice change and learning. We conducted semistructured qualitative interviews with trainees approximately 5 months after they completed the course. Trainees embraced the virtual learning environment and had positive experiences of the blended approach to learning. Socioconstructivist learning did take place through the use of message boards on the virtual learning environment. Despite their initial unfamiliarity with the online learning system, the participants found it easy to access and use. The participants found the learning relevant and there was an overlap between shop floor learning and the online content. Clinical discussion was often led by trainees on the forums and these were described as enjoyable and informative. A blended approach to e-learning in basic PEM is effective and enjoyable to trainees.

Global Environment Facility |

Science.gov (United States)

environment Countries pledge US$4.1 billion to the Global Environment Facility Ringtail lemur mom with two of paradise Nations rally to protect global environment Countries pledge US$4.1 billion to the Global Environment Facility Stockholm, Sweden birds-eye view Events GEF-7 Replenishment Trung Truong Son Landscapes

What happened when Scottish women were given advance supplies of emergency contraception? A survey and qualitative study of women's views and experiences.

Science.gov (United States)

Ziebland, Sue; Wyke, Sally; Seaman, Pete; Fairhurst, Karen; Walker, Jeremy; Glasier, Anna

2005-04-01

The Lothian Emergency Contraception Project in Scotland was a radical intervention in which women aged 16-29 were given 5 packs of emergency contraception (EC) to keep at home. We use survey and qualitative interview data to describe how women used the project packs and their views of advance supplies. The women's accounts suggest that concerns that eased access to emergency contraception will lead to repeated use and risky sex appear to be largely unfounded. Women were pleased to be offered the packs, which were reported as having practical advantages and also sparing them the difficulty of negotiating a sometimes awkward consultation. Respondents explained how they used their packs of EC and in their accounts used justifications, repetition and distancing to emphasise that they would not take risks with contraception or sexually transmitted infections. We interpret the data in the light of the observation that EC has an anomalous role in contraception and the work of applied linguists Candlin and Lucas who have demonstrated the difficulties inherent in the family planning consultation.

Young children's emergent science competencies in family and school contexts: A case study

Science.gov (United States)

Andrews, Kathryn Jean

's emergent science competencies were a result of his experiences both in the home and classroom. His science experiences at home often involved engaging in conversation with his parents about the world around him and was driven by the things he was interested in or wondered about. He enjoyed daily family activities like cooking, playing, and building models with his dad. These experiences contributed to his naive conceptions of science. By contrast, his science experiences in school were also collaborative but less facilitated by Mrs. Young. His wide range of experiences at home and in the classroom illustrated that doing, learning, knowing, and demonstrating knowledge are intertwined and not easily distinguished from each other. Nathan's emergent science competencies were fueled by a child-environment loop. The child-environment loop is a concept that captures the reciprocal nature between a child's curiosities and his or her environment. As his curiosities were met, new questions and activity were produced. As a result, Nathan's activity continually influenced the environment in which his emergent science competencies emerged. Likewise, the changing environment contributed to new curiosities, interest, and science competencies. Findings extend current research of informal science learning by illustrating how family learning contributed to a child's naive scientific views through the development of non-spontaneous concepts. Findings also extend current research by illustrating how a child with a solid foundation of spontaneous concepts might be unable to further develop non-spontaneous concepts in a classroom where learning took a similar form (working with others and talking about ideas) as learning in the classroom was less mediated. Main implications of this project include a call for research and practice to more aggressively contribute to a learning progressions approach to provide a map of educational opportunities that neither under- or overestimate children

Research Trends in Emerging Contaminants on the Aquatic Environments of Tanzania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Miraji

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The continuity for discovery and production of new chemicals, allied products, and uses has currently resulted into generation of recent form of contaminants known as Emerging Contaminants (ECs. Once in the aquatic environment ECs are carcinogenic and cause other threats to both human’s and animals’ health. Due to their effects this study was aimed at investigating research trends of ECs in Tanzania. Findings revealed that USA and EU countries were leading in ECs researches, little followed by Asia, South Africa, and then Zambia. Only few guidelines from USA-EPA, WHO, Canada, and Australia existed. Neither published guidelines nor regulations for ECs existed in Tanzania; rather only the occurrence of some disinfection by-products and antibiotics was, respectively, reported in Arusha and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. As these reports had a limited coverage of ECs, henceforth, these findings constitute the first-line reference materials for ECs research in Tanzania which shall be useful for future monitoring and regulation planning.

Research Trends in Emerging Contaminants on the Aquatic Environments of Tanzania

Science.gov (United States)

Miraji, H.; Othman, O. C.; Ngassapa, F. N.; Mureithi, E. W.

2016-01-01

The continuity for discovery and production of new chemicals, allied products, and uses has currently resulted into generation of recent form of contaminants known as Emerging Contaminants (ECs). Once in the aquatic environment ECs are carcinogenic and cause other threats to both human's and animals' health. Due to their effects this study was aimed at investigating research trends of ECs in Tanzania. Findings revealed that USA and EU countries were leading in ECs researches, little followed by Asia, South Africa, and then Zambia. Only few guidelines from USA-EPA, WHO, Canada, and Australia existed. Neither published guidelines nor regulations for ECs existed in Tanzania; rather only the occurrence of some disinfection by-products and antibiotics was, respectively, reported in Arusha and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. As these reports had a limited coverage of ECs, henceforth, these findings constitute the first-line reference materials for ECs research in Tanzania which shall be useful for future monitoring and regulation planning. PMID:26998381

Variation of linear and circular polarization persistence for changing field of view and collection area in a forward scattering environment

Science.gov (United States)

van der Laan, John D.; Wright, Jeremy B.; Scrymgeour, David A.; Kemme, Shanalyn A.; Dereniak, Eustace L.

2016-05-01

We present experimental and simulation results for a laboratory-based forward-scattering environment, where 1 μm diameter polystyrene spheres are suspended in water to model the optical scattering properties of fog. Circular polarization maintains its degree of polarization better than linear polarization as the optical thickness of the scattering environment increases. Both simulation and experiment quantify circular polarization's superior persistence, compared to that of linear polarization, and show that it is much less affected by variations in the field of view and collection area of the optical system. Our experimental environment's lateral extent was physically finite, causing a significant difference between measured and simulated degree of polarization values for incident linearly polarized light, but not for circularly polarized light. Through simulation we demonstrate that circular polarization is less susceptible to the finite environmental extent as well as the collection optic's limiting configuration.

Emerging Diseases in a Changing European Environment (EDEN – general presentation and DDNI team’s contribution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MARINOV Mihai

2006-09-01

Full Text Available . In recent years, several vector-borne, parasitic or zoonotic diseases have (re-emerged and spread in Europe with major health, ecological, socio-economical and political consequences. Most of these outbreaks are linked to global and local changes resulting from climate change, human-induced landscape changes or the activities of human populations. Since 2004, Danube Delta National Institute has joined to a very ambitious project, what tries to understand the mechanism of the viruses’ transmission, to know which environment factors induce the emergence of viruses. The project will develop and co-coordinate at the European level a set of generic methods, tools and skills such as predictive emergence and spread models, early warning, surveillance and monitoring tools and scenarios, which can be used by decision makers for risk assessment, decision support for intervention and public health policies both at the EU and at the national or regional level. EDEN project integrates research in 47 leading institutes from 24 countries with the combined experience and skills to reach the project’s common goals. Danube Delta National Institute is involved in EDEN – West Nile Virus sub-project, where, together with Cantacuzino Institute, represents Romania in EDEN consortium.

Real Time Implementation of PID and Fuzzy PD Controllers for DC-Servo Motor Based on Lab View Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Safaa M. Z. Al-Ubaidi

2012-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an implementation of conventional PID (CPID controller using Ziegler-Nichols rules and fuzzy PD (FPD controller for position servo motor control based on Lab View (Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench Environment through Data Acquisition (DAQ Device PCI- 6521 of National Instrument's and Data Acquisition Accessory Board Model (CB-68LP.CPID controller is perhaps the most well-known and most widely used in industrial applications. However, it has been known that CPID controller generally don’t work well for non-linear systems, higher order and time-delayed linear system and particularly complex and vague system. To overcome these difficulties, this paper proposes to use the FPD controller for a servo motor system instead of CPID. The parameters of servo motor used are completely unknown. The FPD structure has two-input single-output and fairly similar characteristic to its conventional counterpart and provides good performance. Simple rules base are used for FPD (nine rules only. Performance evaluation was carried out via a comparison study for the proposed control scheme and other existing control scheme, such as CPID controller. The critical point for this experiment on position system is a steady state error and settling time.  The performance showing that the FPD has less settling time and zero steady state error over its CPID. The algorithms of FPD and CPID controllers are implemented using PID, Fuzzy Logic and simulation toolkits of the Lab View environment.

Emergence of Habitable Environments in Icy World Interiors

Science.gov (United States)

Neveu, Marc

2016-07-01

Finding habitable worlds is a key driver of solar system exploration. Many solar system missions seek environments providing liquid water, energy, and nutrients, the three ingredients necessary to sustain life [1]. Such environments include hydrothermal systems, spatially confined systems where hot aqueous fluid circulates through rock by convection. Hydrothermal activity may be widespread in the solar system. Most solar system worlds larger than 200 km in radius are icy moons and dwarf planets, likely composed of an icy, cometary mantle surrounding a rocky, chondritic core [2]. By improving an icy world evolution code [3] to include the effects of core fracturing and hydrothermal circulation, I show that several icy moons and dwarf planets likely have undergone extensive water-rock interaction [4,5]. This supports observations of aqueous products on their surfaces [6,7]. I simulated the alteration of chondritic rock [8] by pure water or fluid of cometary composition [9] to show that aqueous alteration feeds back on geophysical evolution: it modifies the fluid antifreeze content, affecting its persistence over geological timescales; and the distribution of radionuclides, whose decay is a chief heat source on dwarf planets [10]. Hydrothermal circulation also efficiently transports heat from the core into the ocean, thereby increasing ocean persistence [4]. Thus, these coupled geophysical-geochemical models provide a comprehensive picture of icy world evolution and the emergence of liquid environments in chemical disequilibrium with underlying rock in their interiors. Habitable settings also require a suitable supply of bioessential elements; but what constitutes "suitable"? I sought to quantify the bulk elemental composition of hydrothermal microbial communities, collected in hot spring sediments and mats at Yellowstone National Park, USA. To do so, one must minimize the contribution of non-biological material to the samples analyzed. This was achieved using a

Use of a virtual learning environment for training in maxillofacial emergencies: impact on the knowledge and attitudes of staff in accident and emergency departments.

Science.gov (United States)

Elledge, Ross; McAleer, Sean; Thakar, Meera; Begum, Fathema; Singhota, Sanjeet; Grew, Nicholas

2016-02-01

Many graduates will take up junior roles in accident and emergency (A&E) departments to which a large proportion of patients present with facial injuries caused by interpersonal violence. However, it is widely recognised that undergraduates and postgraduates have few opportunities for training in oral and maxillofacial surgery. We aimed to assess the impact of a specifically designed maxillofacial emergencies virtual learning environment (VLE) on the knowledge and confidence of junior doctors in two A&E departments. They were given free access to the VLE for one month, and were asked to complete multiple choice questions and to rate their confidence to deal with 10 common situations on visual analogue scales (VAS) at baseline and one month after training. A total of 29 doctors agreed to pilot the website, 21 (72%) completed both sets of questions, and 18 (62%) completed both VAS assessments. The mean (SD) multiple choice score improved from 10 (2.52) to 13 (3.56) out of a maximum of 20 (p=0.004) and the mean (SD) VAS improved from 29.2 (19.2) mm to 45.7 (16.6) mm out of a maximum of 100 mm (p=0.007). This was a small pilot study with limited numbers, but it showed improvements in the knowledge of maxillofacial emergencies and in confidence, although the latter remained low. Further work is needed to examine how these brief educational interventions affect the attitudes of frontline staff to maxillofacial emergencies. Copyright © 2015 The British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Journey to a safe environment: fall prevention in an emergency department at a level I trauma center.

Science.gov (United States)

Alexander, Danette; Kinsley, Terry L; Waszinski, Christine

2013-07-01

Predicting which patients will fall is a challenging task, especially in the often unpredictable setting of an emergency department of a Level I Trauma Center. Unfortunately, there is a great potential for falls to occur in this environment. Fall risk assessment tools used in inpatient settings do not adequately capture the risk factors of patients presenting to the emergency department. The ability to accurately identify patients at risk for falling at the point of entry is the first step toward preventing patient harm. Once patients are identified as at risk for a fall, the next challenge is to be sure that they do not fall. We created the KINDER1 Fall Risk Assessment Tool for use in the emergency department. This instrument was specifically designed for the rapid identification of patients at risk for a fall as well as the re-evaluation of patients for fall risk throughout their stay in the emergency department. Once we had an appropriate assessment tool, our next challenge was for staff to consistently apply fall prevention interventions. Performing a mini-root cause analysis on each fall showed trends and in turn led to the design and implementation of specific fall prevention interventions to motivate the nursing staff to focus on fall prevention that the ED nursing leadership used to select change strategies. With improved identification of fall risk patients and consistent application of innovative prevention strategies, we were able to show a trend toward reduction of falls and fall-related injuries in our emergency department. Copyright © 2013 Emergency Nurses Association. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Emergency Contraception: a survey of Hospital Emergency Departments Staffs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marco Bo

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The World Health Organization defines emergency contraception (EC as a means to prevent unwanted pregnancy. In countries where EC is dispensed behind the counter, emergency departments are a preferred point of care for its prescription and dispensing. In light of this situation and as no studies on emergency contraception in emergency departments in Italy have been conducted to date, this study was designed with a view to analyze the responses of emergency room physicians in relation to their prescribing habits and knowledge about the drug and in relation to frequency and profile of women arriving for care at hospital emergency departments in Piedmont and requesting prescription for the morning-after pill. This cross-sectional survey involved 29 hospital emergency departments in Piedmont where no gynecologists are on active duty. The survey instrument was a 24-item questionnaire. Analysis of responses revealed that in the physicians’ opinion the vast majority of requests came from Italian nationals (97% ranging in age from 18 to 30 years (76%, single and not cohabiting with a partner (60%, and nulliparous (64.0%. Women mostly request EC for first-time and the most common reasons were condom breakage or slippage. Just over half the physicians (52% stated that emergency contraception prescription was not an appropriate part of care provided at an emergency department and 72% stated they felt uneasy about prescribing emergency contraception. The survey also revealed gaps in physician knowledge about the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of emergency contraception pills.

Emergency Contraception: a survey of Hospital Emergency Departments Staffs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marco Bo

2011-03-01

Full Text Available The World Health Organization defines emergency contraception (EC as a means to prevent unwanted pregnancy. In countries where EC is dispensed behind the counter, emergency departments are a preferred point of care for its prescription and dispensing. In light of this situation and as no studies on emergency contraception in emergency departments in Italy have been conducted to date, this study was designed with a view to analyze the responses of emergency room physicians in relation to their prescribing habits and knowledge about the drug and in relation to frequency and profile of women arriving for care at hospital emergency departments in Piedmont and requesting prescription for the morning-after pill. This cross-sectional survey involved 29 hospital emergency departments in Piedmont where no gynecologists are on active duty. The survey instrument was a 24-item questionnaire. Analysis of responses revealed that in the physicians’ opinion the vast majority of requests came from Italian nationals (97% ranging in age from 18 to 30 years (76%, single and not cohabiting with a partner (60%, and nulliparous (64.0%. Women mostly request EC for first-time and the most common reasons were condom breakage or slippage. Just over half the physicians (52% stated that emergency contraception prescription was not an appropriate part of care provided at an emergency department and 72% stated they felt uneasy about prescribing emergency contraception. The survey also revealed gaps in physician knowledge about the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of emergency contraception pills.

[System design of small intellectualized ultrasound hyperthermia instrument in the LabVIEW environment].

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Feng; Bai, Jingfeng; Chen, Yazhu

2005-08-01

Small-scale intellectualized medical instrument has attracted great attention in the field of biomedical engineering, and LabVIEW (Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench) provides a convenient environment for this application due to its inherent advantages. The principle and system structure of the hyperthermia instrument are presented. Type T thermocouples are employed as thermotransducers, whose amplifier consists of two stages, providing built-in ice point compensation and thus improving work stability over temperature. Control signals produced by specially designed circuit drive the programmable counter/timer 8254 chip to generate PWM (Pulse width modulation) wave, which is used as ultrasound radiation energy control signal. Subroutine design topics such as inner-tissue real time feedback temperature control algorithm, water temperature control in the ultrasound applicator are also described. In the cancer tissue temperature control subroutine, the authors exert new improvments to PID (Proportional Integral Differential) algorithm according to the specific demands of the system and achieve strict temperature control to the target tissue region. The system design and PID algorithm improvement have experimentally proved to be reliable and excellent, meeting the requirements of the hyperthermia system.

Study on Korean Radiological Emergency System-Care System- and National Nuclear Emergency Preparedness System Development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Akhmad Khusyairi; Yudi Pramono

2008-01-01

Care system; Radiological Emergency Supporting System. Environmental radiology level is the main aspect that should be concerned deal with the utilization of nuclear energy. The usage of informational technology in nuclear area gives significant contribution to anticipate and to protect human and environment. Since 1960, South Korea has developed environment monitoring system as the effort to protect the human and environment in the radiological emergency condition. Indonesia has possessed several nuclear installations and planned to build and operate nuclear power plants (PLTN) in the future. Therefore, Indonesia has to prepare the integrated system, technically enables to overcome the radiological emergency. Learning from the practice in South Korea, the system on the radiological emergency should be prepared and applied in Indonesia. However, the government regulation draft on National Radiological Emergency System, under construction, only touches the management aspect, not the technical matters. Consequently, when the regulation is implemented, it will need an additional regulation on technical aspect including the consideration on the system (TSS), the organization of operator and the preparation of human resources development of involved institution. For that purpose, BAPETEN should have a typical independence system in regulatory frame work. (author)

The Use of Emergency Medication Kits in Community Palliative Care: An Exploratory Survey of Views of Current Practice in Australian Home-Based Palliative Care Services.

Science.gov (United States)

Bullen, Tracey; Rosenberg, John P; Smith, Bradley; Maher, Kate

2015-09-01

Improving symptom management for palliative care patients has obvious benefits for patients and advantages for the clinicians, as workload demands and work-related stress can be reduced when the emergent symptoms of patients are managed in a timely manner. The use of emergency medication kits (EMKs) can provide such timely symptom relief. The purpose of this study was to conduct a survey of a local service to examine views on medication management before and after the implementation of an EMK and to conduct a nationwide prevalence survey examining the use of EMKs in Australia. Most respondents from community palliative care services indicated that EMKs were not being supplied to palliative care patients but believed such an intervention could improve patient care. © The Author(s) 2014.

The emergence and workings of a process view in public education policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grønbæk Pors, Justine; Ratner, Helene Gad

2017-01-01

such a process view of organisation allows policy makers to imagine innovative change, but also how a process view interacts in particular ways with financial pressures and become entangled to increased performance measurements. We conclude that in this particular case, a conception of the object of management...... as processes is utilised to stabilise a belief that undoing organisational structures and categories offer an almost limitless resource for a simultaneous improvement of performance and reduction of expenses....

Appropriating the Environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Meyer, Jan-Henrik

2011-01-01

Environmental policy has become an important area of European Union (EU) policy making, even though it had not originally been foreseen in the Treaty of Rome. Its emergence in the early 1970s can be understood as a result of a transfer of the novel policy idea of the environment to the European...... of the environment as a political concept emerging in the context of international organizations at the time. Secondly, an analysis of the first Environmental Action Programme of 1973 will be used to show how the EC conceptualized the environment, including the definition of problems and potential remedies. Thirdly...... level. This paper thus inquires into the emergence of a European environmental policy from a diffusion of ideas perspective. Rather than focusing on multi-level policy making it seeks to trace the diffusion of environmental ideas from the level of international organizations to the European Communities...

Analysis of Eocene depositional environments - Preliminary TM and TIMS results, Wind River Basin, Wyoming

Science.gov (United States)

Stucky, Richard K.; Krishtalka, Leonard; Redline, Andrew D.; Lang, Harold R.

1987-01-01

Both Landsat TM and aircraft Thermal IR Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) data have been used to map the lithofacies of the Wind River Basin's Eocene physical and biological environments. Preliminary analyses of these data have furnished maps of a fault contact boundary and a complex network of fluvial ribbon channel sandstones. The synoptic view thereby emerging for Eocene fluvial facies clarifies the relationships of ribbon channel sandstones to fossil-bearing overbank/floodplain facies and certain peleosols. The utility of TM and TIMS data is thereby demonstrated.

Users' behavior in ExsiteView. Internet-based multi-agent technique for building management; Gebruikersgedrag centraal bij ExsiteView. Internetgebaseerde multi-agenttechniek voor gebouwbeheer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wortel, W.; Van der Velden, J.A.P.; Zeiler, W. [Kropman Installatietechniek, Rijswijk (Netherlands)

2006-05-15

Within the ExsiteView project attention is paid to internet-based multi-agent techniques for an optimal control of climate installations in the built environment. It is expected that by means of this technique energy consumption in the built environment can be reduced, focusing on the behavior of the users of the building and its facilities. The aim of the ExsiteView project is to realize innovative forms of building management systems and remote control. Sub-projects are InsiteView, EcoView and Smart. [Dutch] Binnen het ExsiteView-project wordt specifiek onderzoek verricht naar internetgebaseerde multi-agenttechniek voor optimale besturing tijdens de beheerfase van de klimaatinstallaties in de gebouwde omgeving. De verwachting is dat met de nieuwe techniek het gebruik van energie in de gebouwde omgeving vooral gedurende de gebruiksfase sterk beperkt kan blijven. Kenmerkend hierbij is de aandacht voor het gedrag van de gebruiker. Het doel van het ExsiteView project is innovatieve vormen van gebouwbeheer en besturing op afstand te realiseren. Onderdelen van dit project zijn InsiteView, EcoView en Smart.

The economic role of the Emergency Department in the health care continuum: applying Michael Porter's five forces model to Emergency Medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Pines, Jesse M

2006-05-01

Emergency Medicine plays a vital role in the health care continuum in the United States. Michael Porters' five forces model of industry analysis provides an insight into the economics of emergency care by showing how the forces of supplier power, buyer power, threat of substitution, barriers to entry, and internal rivalry affect Emergency Medicine. Illustrating these relationships provides a view into the complexities of the emergency care industry and offers opportunities for Emergency Departments, groups of physicians, and the individual emergency physician to maximize the relationship with other market players.

New Views on Dark Matter from Emergent Gravity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sun Sichun

2018-01-01

Full Text Available We discuss a scenario that apparent dark matter comes from the induced gravity in the (3+1- dimensional spacetime, which can be embedded into one higher dimensional flat spacetime. The stress tensor of dark energy and dark matter is identified with the Brown-York stress tensor on the hypersurface, and we find an interesting constraint relation between the dark matter and dark energy density parameter and baryonic density parameter. Our approach may show a new understanding for Verlinde’s emergent gravity from higher dimensions. We also comment on some phenomenological implications, including gravitational wave solutions and MOND limit.

ARC Code TI: BigView

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — BigView allows for interactive panning and zooming of images of arbitrary size on desktop PCs running linux. Additionally, it can work in a multi-screen environment...

Using the Technology: Introducing Point of View Video Glasses Into the Simulated Clinical Learning Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Metcalfe, Helene; Jonas-Dwyer, Diana; Saunders, Rosemary; Dugmore, Helen

2015-10-01

The introduction of learning technologies into educational settings continues to grow alongside the emergence of innovative technologies into the healthcare arena. The challenge for health professionals such as medical, nursing, and allied health practitioners is to develop an improved understanding of these technologies and how they may influence practice and contribute to healthcare. For nurse educators to remain contemporary, there is a need to not only embrace current technologies in teaching and learning but to also ensure that students are able to adapt to this changing pedagogy. One recent technological innovation is the use of wearable computing technology, consisting of video recording with the capability of playback analysis. The authors of this article discuss the introduction of the use of wearable Point of View video glasses by a cohort of nursing students in a simulated clinical learning laboratory. Of particular interest was the ease of use of the glasses, also termed the usability of this technology, which is central to its success. Students' reflections were analyzed together with suggestions for future use.

Radiation emergency planning in Poland

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Niewodniczanski, J [National Atomic Energy Agency, Warsaw (Poland)

1996-08-01

The paper presents a schematic outline of the radiation emergency policy in Poland, rather from the point of view of logistics of the problem than discussing details of existing or proposed procedures. (author). 5 refs, 1 fig.

Developments in radiological protection of the environment and a commentary on its implications for new build of nuclear reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brownless, George; Lazo, Ted

2008-01-01

Full text: Development of radiological protection of non-human biota continues to be the focus of much interest and differing views amongst the radiological protection community. To nurture discussion of these developments, the Nuclear Energy Agency's Committee on Radiological Protection and Public Health is taking the lead in organising coverage of a spectrum of views on the topic at the International Conference on Radioecology and Radioactivity in the Environment (Bergen, 2008), with the aim of assisting the international community to construct a consensual, fit-for-purpose approach. To support discussion of these views, the session will also include scientific presentations and reports from implementers. This paper will report on these developments, based principally on the session at the Conference but also other activities in which NEA participates, to provide an up-to-date summary in this area including progress in developing understanding of how radiological protection of the environment will be implemented for the three exposure situations - planned, existing and emergency - set out in the new ICRP general recommendations. Furthermore, given the NEA's mandate across the civil nuclear energy field, the paper will give a commentary on how developments in radiological protection of the environment may interplay with new build of nuclear power plants. (author)

Consciousness viewed in the framework of brain phase space dynamics, criticality, and the Renormalization Group

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Werner, Gerhard

2013-01-01

The topic of this paper will be addressed in three stages: I will first review currently prominent theoretical conceptualizations of the neurobiology of consciousness and, where appropriate, identify ill-advised and flawed notions in theoretical neuroscience that may impede viewing consciousness as a phenomenon in the physics of brain. In this context, I will also introduce relevant facts that tend not to receive adequate attention in much of the current consciousness discourse. Next, I will review the evidence that accrued in the last decade that identifies the resting brain as being in a state of criticality. In the framework of state phase dynamics of statistical physics, this observational evidence also entails that the resting brain is poised at the brink of a second order phase transition. On this basis, I will in the third stage propose applying the framework of the Renormalization Group to viewing consciousness as a phenomenon in statistical physics. In physics, concepts of phase space transitions and the Renormalization Group are powerful tools for interpreting phenomena involving many scales of length and time in complex systems. The significance of these concepts lies in their accounting for the emergence of different levels of new collective behaviors in complex systems, each level with its distinct macroscopic physics, organization, and laws, as a new pattern of reality. In this framework, I propose to view subjectivity as the symbolic description of the physical brain state of consciousness that emerges as one of the levels of phase transitions of the brain-body-environment system, along the trajectory of Renormalization Group Transformations

IMPORTANCE AND VULNERABILITY OF TRUE AND FAIR VIEW IN THE ROMANIAN ACCOUNTING ENVIRONMENT – CASE STUDY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matis Dumitru

2012-07-01

Full Text Available This empirical study comprises items related to the operationalization of the concept True and Fair View in day to day accounting issues in Romanian accounting environment, demarche based on which we were interested in assessing the vulnerability of the concept and also the importance attributed by Romanian practitioners. If the vulnerability is high and the importance attributed low, the concept True and Fair View `s importance as an overall basis of accounting is limited, fact that will affect the quality of accounting information. The categories approached were chosen based on their implication related to the operationalization of the concept. The company’s financial directors are responsible for ensuring that the financial statements give True and Fair View and in the same manner the expert accountants must consider it important in order to prepare the financial statements in accordance to its requirements and finally the financial auditors must assess its existence, otherwise if this principle is neglected the companies would consequently present spurious results of their activity. All the categories above asserted that the concept doesn’t have only a symbolic role at the national level and their implication in achieving its requirements can be characterized by a proactive attitude. When it comes to assessing the potential vulnerability of TFV, our respondents agreed that items like legislative ambiguity and accounting estimates have the potential to affect TFV construct in the practical side of accounting.

Emergency Nurses' Perspectives: Factors Affecting Caring.

Science.gov (United States)

Enns, Carol L; Sawatzky, Jo-Ann V

2016-05-01

Caring is a universal phenomenon. However, as a result of higher patient acuity and staff shortages within the chaotic ED environment, caring behaviors may be in peril. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the meaning of caring from the perspective of emergency nurses. Exploring nurses' perspectives of caring is central to improving staffing and retention issues in this unique work environment. As part of a larger study, a subsample of emergency nurses who work in public hospitals in Manitoba, Canada (n = 17) were interviewed. A qualitative descriptive design was used to gain insight into the caring perspectives of nurses by asking them, "What does caring meaning to you?" and "What affects caring in your practice in the emergency department?" Emerging themes were extracted through analysis of audio tapes and transcripts. Advocacy and holistic care emerged as major themes in the meaning of caring for emergency nurses. Caring was affected by a number of factors, including workload, lack of time, staffing issues, shift work, and lack of self-care. However, lack of management support was the most consistent hindrance to caring identified by study participants. Caring continues to be a unifying concept in nursing; however, influencing factors continue to undermine caring for emergency nurses. Caring is not subsidiary to nursing; it is the central core of nursing. Therefore, fostering a caring working environment is essential for nurses to practice holistic nursing care. It is also imperative to job satisfaction and the retention of emergency nurses. Copyright © 2016 Emergency Nurses Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning experiences on role-emerging placements: an exploration from the students' perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Dancza, Karina; Warren, Alison; Copley, Jodie; Rodger, Sylvia; Moran, Monica; McKay, Elizabeth; Taylor, Ann

2013-12-01

Occupational therapy educators are challenged to provide students with practical experiences which prepare them for ever changing health-care contexts on graduation. Role-emerging placements have been widely used internationally to help meet this challenge, but research into the learning experiences of students during these innovative placements is limited. This research investigated the enablers and barriers to learning from the perspectives of students on such placements from two European universities. Two separate qualitative studies tracked 10 final year students. Interviews explored their learning experiences prior to, during and after an eight- or 10-week role-emerging placement in a range of settings. Four themes emerged, which were (1) adapting to less doing, more thinking and planning; (2) understanding the complexity of collaboration and making it work; (3) emotional extremes; and (4) realising and using the occupational therapy perspective. These placements presented a 'roller coaster' of authentic learning experiences which created the opportunity for students to use occupation in practice and develop skills for collaborative working in an interprofessional environment. Whereas students viewed their role-emerging placement experiences positively, challenges included the emotional responses of students and placement pace. Findings suggest the need for supportive student placement experiences in both established and role-emerging areas to prepare students for a range of opportunities in an uncertain future. © 2013 Occupational Therapy Australia.

'What the hell is water?' How to use deliberate clinical inertia in common emergency department situations.

Science.gov (United States)

Egerton-Warburton, Diana; Cullen, Louise; Keijzers, Gerben; Fatovich, Daniel M

2018-06-01

Appropriate deliberate clinical inertia refers to the art of doing nothing as a positive clinical response. It includes shared decision-making to improve patient care with the use of clinical judgement. We discuss common clinical scenarios where the use of deliberate clinical inertia can occur. The insertion of peripheral intravenous cannulae, investigating patients with suspected renal colic and the investigation of low risk chest pain are all opportunities for the thoughtful clinician to 'stand there' and use effective patient communication to avoid low value tests and procedures. Awareness is key to identifying these opportunities to practice deliberate clinical inertia, as many of the situations may be so much a part of our environment that they are hidden in plain view. © 2018 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine.

Side-View Face Recognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Santemiz, P.; Spreeuwers, Lieuwe Jan; Veldhuis, Raymond N.J.; van den Biggelaar, Olivier

As a widely used biometrics, face recognition has many advantages such as being non-intrusive, natural and passive. On the other hand, in real-life scenarios with uncontrolled environment, pose variation up to side-view positions makes face recognition a challenging work. In this paper we discuss

Students' Views About Potentially Offering Physics Courses Online

Science.gov (United States)

Ramlo, Susan E.

2016-06-01

Nationally, many public universities have started to move into the online course and program market that is most often associated with for-profit institutions of higher education. Administrators in public universities make statements regarding benefits to students' desire for flexibility and profit margins related to online courses. But do students attending a large public university want to take courses online especially science courses perceived to be difficult such as freshmen-level physics courses? This study took place at a large, public, Midwestern university and involved students enrolled in the first semester of a face-to-face, flipped physics course for engineering technology majors. Statements were collected from comments about online courses made by the university's administration and students in the course. Twenty students sorted 45 statements. Two student views emerged with one rejecting online courses in general and the other primarily rejecting online math, science, and technology courses, including physics. Students' descriptions of their previous online course experiences were used to inform the analyses and to assist in describing the two views that emerged in conjunction with the distinguishing statements. Consensus among the two views is also discussed. Overall, the results indicate a potential divergence between student views and what university administrators believe students want.

Nursing students' views of sociocultural factors in clinical learning: a qualitative content analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Dadgaran, Ideh; Parvizy, Soroor; Peyrovi, Hamid

2013-06-01

The aim of this study is description of nursing students' views of sociocultural factors in clinical learning. A qualitative content analysis was conducted to describe nursing students' views of sociocultural factors in clinical learning. The participants consisted of 21 nursing students. Semi-structured and interactive interviews were used to collect data. All the interviews were recorded and transcribed, and then, they were analyzed using Qualitative Content Analysis and Max Qualitative Data Analysis 2010. From the transcripts, a remarkable number of primary themes, main themes, and sub-themes emerged. The main themes consisted of elements related to "society and culture", "family", "staff", and "classmates". The themes encompassed a spectrum of facilitators of and impediments to clinical learning. The findings showed that the administrators of nursing education should coordinate with faculty and staff by adopting interactive and participatory solutions, including the establishment of clinical learning teams and the transformation of hospitals into suitable sociocultural environments for education. © 2012 The Authors. Japan Journal of Nursing Science © 2012 Japan Academy of Nursing Science.

Are further education opportunities for emergency care technicians ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background. A recent review of emergency care education and training in South Africa resulted in the creation of a new 2-year, 240-credit National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level 6 Emergency Care Technician (ECT) qualification. The National Department of Health (NDoH) view ECTs as 'mid-level workers' in the ...

Advanced LabVIEW Labs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jones, Eric D.

1999-01-01

In the world of computer-based data acquisition and control, the graphical interface program LabVIEW from National Instruments is so ubiquitous that in many ways it has almost become the laboratory standard. To date, there have been approximately fifteen books concerning LabVIEW, but Professor Essick's treatise takes on a completely different tack than all of the previous discussions. In the more standard treatments of the ways and wherefores of LabVIEW such as LabVIEW Graphical Programming: Practical Applications in Instrumentation and Control by Gary W. Johnson (McGraw Hill, NY 1997), the emphasis has been instructing the reader how to program LabVIEW to create a Virtual Instrument (VI) on the computer for interfacing to a particular instruments. LabVIEW is written in ''G'' a graphical programming language developed by National Instruments. In the past the emphasis has been on training the experimenter to learn ''G''. Without going into details here, ''G'' incorporates the usual loops, arithmetic expressions, etc., found in many programming languages, but in an icon (graphical) environment. The net result being that LabVIEW contains all of the standard methods needed for interfacing to instruments, data acquisition, data analysis, graphics, and also methodology to incorporate programs written in other languages into LabVIEW. Historically, according to Professor Essick, he developed a series of experiments for an upper division laboratory course for computer-based instrumentation. His observation was that while many students had the necessary background in computer programming languages, there were students who had virtually no concept about writing a computer program let alone a computer- based interfacing program. Thus the beginnings of a concept for not only teaching computer- based instrumentation techniques, but aiso a method for the beginner to experience writing a com- puter program. Professor Essick saw LabVIEW as the ''perfect environment in which to

Instant VMware view virtualization how-to

CERN Document Server

Geddam, Ramesh

2013-01-01

Filled with practical, step-by-step instructions and clear explanations for the most important and useful tasks.This is a Packt Instant How-to guide, which provides concise and clear recipes for getting started with setting up the VDI in different environments.Instant VMware View 5 Virtualization How-to is for architects, solution providers, consultants, engineers, and anyone planning to design and implement a solution based on VMware View 5.

Multi-View Multi-Instance Learning Based on Joint Sparse Representation and Multi-View Dictionary Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Bing; Yuan, Chunfeng; Xiong, Weihua; Hu, Weiming; Peng, Houwen; Ding, Xinmiao; Maybank, Steve

2017-12-01

In multi-instance learning (MIL), the relations among instances in a bag convey important contextual information in many applications. Previous studies on MIL either ignore such relations or simply model them with a fixed graph structure so that the overall performance inevitably degrades in complex environments. To address this problem, this paper proposes a novel multi-view multi-instance learning algorithm (MIL) that combines multiple context structures in a bag into a unified framework. The novel aspects are: (i) we propose a sparse -graph model that can generate different graphs with different parameters to represent various context relations in a bag, (ii) we propose a multi-view joint sparse representation that integrates these graphs into a unified framework for bag classification, and (iii) we propose a multi-view dictionary learning algorithm to obtain a multi-view graph dictionary that considers cues from all views simultaneously to improve the discrimination of the MIL. Experiments and analyses in many practical applications prove the effectiveness of the M IL.

Study of developing nuclear fabrication facility's integrated emergency response manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Taeh Yeong; Cho, Nam Chan; Han, Seung Hoon; Moon, Jong Han; Lee, Jin Hang; Min, Guem Young; Han, Ji Ah

2016-01-01

Public begin to pay attention to emergency management. Thus, public's consensus on having high level of emergency management system up to advanced country's is reached. In this social atmosphere, manual is considered as key factor to prevent accident or secure business continuity. Therefore, we first define possible crisis at KEPCO Nuclear Fuel (hereinafter KNF) and also make a 'Reaction List' for each crisis situation at the view of information-design. To achieve it, we analyze several country's crisis response manual and then derive component, indicate duties and roles at the information-design point of view. From this, we suggested guideline to make 'Integrated emergency response manual(IERM)'. The manual we used before have following few problems; difficult to applicate at the site, difficult to deliver information. To complement these problems, we searched manual elements from the view of information-design. As a result, we develop administrative manual. Although, this manual could be thought as fragmentary manual because it confined specific several agency/organization and disaster type

Radionuclide diagnosis of emergency states

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishmukhametov, A.I.

1985-01-01

Solution of emergency state radionuclide diagnostics from the technical point of view is provided by the application of the mobile quick-operating equipment in combination with computers, by the use of radionuclides with acceptable for emergency medicine characteristics and by development of radionuclide investigation data propcessing express-method. Medical developments include the study of acute disease and injury radioisotope semiotics, different indication diagnostic value determining, comparison of the results, obtained during radionuclide investigation, with clinicolaboratory and instrumental data, separation of methodical complex series

ARCHER, a new Monte Carlo software tool for emerging heterogeneous computing environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu, X. George; Liu, Tianyu; Su, Lin; Du, Xining; Riblett, Matthew; Ji, Wei; Gu, Deyang; Carothers, Christopher D.; Shephard, Mark S.; Brown, Forrest B.; Kalra, Mannudeep K.; Liu, Bob

2015-01-01

Highlights: • A fast Monte Carlo based radiation transport code ARCHER was developed. • ARCHER supports different hardware including CPU, GPU and Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor. • Code is benchmarked again MCNP for medical applications. • A typical CT scan dose simulation only takes 6.8 s on an NVIDIA M2090 GPU. • GPU and coprocessor-based codes are 5–8 times faster than the CPU-based codes. - Abstract: The Monte Carlo radiation transport community faces a number of challenges associated with peta- and exa-scale computing systems that rely increasingly on heterogeneous architectures involving hardware accelerators such as GPUs and Xeon Phi coprocessors. Existing Monte Carlo codes and methods must be strategically upgraded to meet emerging hardware and software needs. In this paper, we describe the development of a software, called ARCHER (Accelerated Radiation-transport Computations in Heterogeneous EnviRonments), which is designed as a versatile testbed for future Monte Carlo codes. Preliminary results from five projects in nuclear engineering and medical physics are presented

Re-emergence of Chikungunya in India: Molecular studies

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Re-emergence of Chikungunya in India: Molecular studies · PowerPoint Presentation · CHIKUNGUNYA virus · Slide 4 · Slide 5 · CHIKV Genotypes · Slide 7 · In view of long absence of CHIK epidemics, it was postulated that CHIK virus has disappeared from India and South-East Asia. Serological surveys supported this view.

Immersive viewing engine

Science.gov (United States)

Schonlau, William J.

2006-05-01

An immersive viewing engine providing basic telepresence functionality for a variety of application types is presented. Augmented reality, teleoperation and virtual reality applications all benefit from the use of head mounted display devices that present imagery appropriate to the user's head orientation at full frame rates. Our primary application is the viewing of remote environments, as with a camera equipped teleoperated vehicle. The conventional approach where imagery from a narrow field camera onboard the vehicle is presented to the user on a small rectangular screen is contrasted with an immersive viewing system where a cylindrical or spherical format image is received from a panoramic camera on the vehicle, resampled in response to sensed user head orientation and presented via wide field eyewear display, approaching 180 degrees of horizontal field. Of primary interest is the user's enhanced ability to perceive and understand image content, even when image resolution parameters are poor, due to the innate visual integration and 3-D model generation capabilities of the human visual system. A mathematical model for tracking user head position and resampling the panoramic image to attain distortion free viewing of the region appropriate to the user's current head pose is presented and consideration is given to providing the user with stereo viewing generated from depth map information derived using stereo from motion algorithms.

The Emergency Vehicle Routing Problem with Uncertain Demand under Sustainability Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jin Qin

2017-02-01

Full Text Available The reasonable utilization of limited resources is critical to realize the sustainable developments. In the initial 72-h crucial rescue period after the disaster, emergency supplies have always been insufficient and the demands in the affected area have always been uncertain. In order to improve timeliness, utilization and sustainability of emergency service, the allocation of the emergency supplies and the emergency vehicle routes should be determined simultaneously. Assuming the uncertain demands follow normal distribution, an optimization model for the emergency vehicle routing, by considering the insufficient supplies and the uncertain demands, is developed. The objective function is applied to minimize the total costs, including the penalty costs induced by more or less supplies than the actual demands at all demand points, as well as the constraints of the time windows and vehicle load capacity taken into account. In more details, a solution method for the model, based on the genetic algorithm, is proposed, which solves the problem in two stages. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the efficiency and validity of the proposed model and algorithm.

Did Life Emerge in Thermo-Acidic Conditions?

Science.gov (United States)

Holmes, D. S.

2017-12-01

There is widespread, but not unanimous, agreement that life emerged in hot conditions by exploiting redox and pH disequilibria found on early earth. Although there are several hypotheses to explain the postulated pH disequilibria, few of these consider that life evolved at very low pH (biological evolution. This presentation will evaluate the pros and cons of the hypothesis that the early evolution of life occurred in thermo-acidic conditions. Such environments are thought to have been abundant on early earth and were probably rich in hydrogen and soluble metals including iron and sulfur that could have served as sources and sinks of electrons. Extant thermo-acidophiles thrive in such conditions. Low pH environments are rich in protons that are the major drivers of energy conservation by coupling to phosphorylation in virtually all organisms on earth; this may be a "biochemical fossil" reflecting the use of protons (low pH) in primitive energy conservation. It has also been proposed that acidic conditions favored the evolution of an RNA world with expanded catalytic activities. On the other hand, the idea that life emerged in thermo-acidic conditions can be challenged because of the proposed difficulties of folding and stabilizing proteins simultaneously exposed to high temperature and low pH. In addition, although thermo-acidophiles root to the base of the phylogenetic tree of life, consistent with the proposition that they evolved early, yet there are problems of interpretation of their subsequent evolution that cloud this simplistic phylogenetic view. We propose solutions to these problems and hypothesize that life evolved in thermo-acidic conditions.

Emergent/quantum gravity: macro/micro structures of spacetime

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu, B L

2009-01-01

Emergent gravity views spacetime as an entity emergent from a more complete theory of interacting fundamental constituents valid at much finer resolution or higher energies, usually assumed to be above the Planck energy. In this view general relativity is an effective theory valid only at long wavelengths and low energies. We describe the tasks of emergent gravity from any ('top-down') candidate theory for the microscopic structure of spacetime (quantum gravity), namely, identifying the conditions and processes or mechanisms whereby the familiar macroscopic spacetime described by general relativity and matter content described by quantum field theory both emerge with high probability and reasonable robustness. We point out that this task may not be so easy as commonly conjured (as implied in the 'theory of everything') because there are emergent phenomena which cannot simply be deduced from a given micro-theory. Going in the opposite direction ('bottom-up') is the task of quantum gravity, i.e., finding a theory for the microscopic structure of spacetime, which, in this new view, cannot come from quantizing the metric or connection forms because they are the collective variables which are meaningful only for the macroscopic theory (valid below the Planck energy). This task looks very difficult or almost impossible because it entails reconstructing lost information. We point out that the situation may not be so hopeless if we ask the right questions and have the proper tools for what we want to look for. We suggest pathways to move 'up' (in energy) from the given macroscopic conditions of classical gravity and quantum field theory to the domain closer to the micro-macro interface where spacetime emerged and places to look for clues or tell-tale signs at low energy where one could infer indirectly some salient features of the micro-structure of spacetime.

Relationship between pre-natal factors, the perinatal environment, motor development in the first year of life and the timing of first deciduous tooth emergence.

Science.gov (United States)

Żądzińska, Elżbieta; Sitek, Aneta; Rosset, Iwona

2016-01-01

The emergence of deciduous teeth, despite being genetically determined, shows significant correlation with the pre-natal environment, maternal factors, method of infant feeding and also family socioeconomic status. However, reported results are often contradictory and rarely concern healthy, full-term children. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of pre-natal and maternal factors as well as the method of infant feeding on the timing of first deciduous tooth emergence in healthy, full-term infants and to examine the relationship between the psychomotor development rate and the age at first tooth. The database contained 480 records for healthy, term-born children (272 boys and 208 girls born at 37-42 weeks of gestation) aged 9-54 months. Multiple regression analysis and multi-factor analysis of variance were used to identify significant explanatory variables for the age at first tooth. The onset of deciduous tooth emergence is negatively correlated with birth weight and maternal smoking during pregnancy and positively correlated with breastfeeding and the age at which the child begins to sit up unaided. These factors have an additive effect on the age at first tooth. An earlier onset of tooth emergence in children exposed to maternal smoking during pregnancy seems to provide further evidence for disturbed foetal development in a smoke-induced hypoxic environment.

Understanding the Environments of Emerging Markets: The Social Costs of Institutional Voids

NARCIS (Netherlands)

S.B. Rodrigues (Suzana)

2013-01-01

textabstractDuring the past decade, emerging markets have had extraordinarily high growth rates compared to developed countries. Many agree that a distinctive characteristic of emerging markets is their rhythm of growth. Over the past thirty years, emerging markets have been encouraged to shape

VMware view security essentials

CERN Document Server

Langenhan, Daniel

2013-01-01

A practical and fast-paced guide that gives you all the information you need to secure your virtual environment.This book is a ""how-to"" for the novice, a ""reference guide"" for the advanced user, and a ""go to"" for the experienced user in all the aspects of VMware View desktop virtualization security.

DCE. Future IHEP's computing environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zheng Guorui; Liu Xiaoling

1995-01-01

IHEP'S computing environment consists of several different computing environments established on IHEP computer networks. In which, the BES environment supported HEP computing is the main part of IHEP computing environment. Combining with the procedure of improvement and extension of BES environment, the authors describe development of computing environments in outline as viewed from high energy physics (HEP) environment establishment. The direction of developing to distributed computing of the IHEP computing environment based on the developing trend of present distributed computing is presented

National Energy Board Emergency Management Program : annex to Natural Resources Canada Civil Emergency Plan no. 004

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lever, G.; LeMay, R.

2006-01-01

As a matter of primary public interest, safety is included in the National Energy Board's (NEB) mandate. The Board is responsible for ensuring companies involved with energy development and pipelines comply with regulations concerning the safety of employees, the public, and the environment. The purpose of the NEB's Emergency Management Program is to establish a prompt and coordinated response to an emergency which occurs at any facility or operation regulated by the NEB; promote safety and security and assure compliance with regulatory requirements in order to protect the public, workers, property and the environment during the life cycle of facilities and operations; and, have a documented set of procedures that accomplish these objectives. The Board ensures that companies identify and manage the potential hazards associated with their facilities; conduct a risk analysis of those hazards; and, manage the risks in order to protect the public and personnel, the security of the facilities and the environment. All companies under the Board's jurisdiction are responsible for developing and maintaining an Emergency Response and Preparedness Program for all aspects of their operations. In the event an emergency occurs, the regulated company is responsible for responding to the emergency and coordinating emergency response activities. Typically, the NEB responds on site to incidents that result in death or serious injury; involve a significant release of hydrocarbons; could result in potential or real impact due to loss of service; pose imminent threats identified by Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada or other agencies; attract significant media attention, or on the advice of Natural Resources Canada or other federal Agencies. The first part of this document described the initial response check list while the second part outlined the Emergency response framework. 2 tabs., 3 figs., 15 appendices

How market environment may constrain global franchising in emerging markets

OpenAIRE

Baena Graciá, Verónica

2011-01-01

Although emerging markets are some of the fastest growing economies in the world and represent countries that are experiencing a substantial economic transformation, little is known about the factors influencing country selection for expansion in those markets. In an attempt to enhance the knowledge that managers and scholars have on franchising expansion, the present study examines how market conditions may constrain international diffusion of franchising in emerging markets. They are: i) ge...

Nurse burnout and the working environment.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Mahony, Nuria

2011-09-01

This article examines levels of burnout experienced by emergency nurses and the characteristics of their work environment to determine if there is a relationship between the two. A literature review of recent articles on emergency nurses' burnout and contributing factors was undertaken. A quantitative study, in which nurses were asked to indicate the extent of their agreement with a series of statements on burnout and the working environment, was then undertaken, and the results were analysed to ascertain the extent to which the two topic are related. The results indicate that 52 per cent of nurses in an emergency department in Ireland experience high levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation, which are significantly related to the nature of their work environment. Improvements to the environment and to education are required to reduce the risk of nurses developing burnout in the future.

CMSMAP : oil, chemical, search and rescue, and marine emergency response crisis management system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, E.L.; Howlett, E.; Galagan, C.; Giguere, T.; Wee, F.; Chong, J.

2002-01-01

This paper describes a newly developed Crisis Management System (CMS) which makes it possible to view oil and chemical spills on the seafloor. The CMS is designed to run in a network environment, so that multiple stations can be used cooperatively to respond to a spill incident. It was developed by the Maritime and Port Authority in Singapore and represents a singular integration of a ship's bridge simulator hardware and software. It incorporates numerical models and emergency response software. The CMS is installed in a specifically designed building at the Singapore Polytechnic University, and is integrated with two shipping bridge simulators. One user interface has access to models dealing with oil spills, chemical spills, search and rescues, marine emergencies, and nuclear disasters. The interface is linked to a response management system. The entire system is used to train response personnel to marine emergencies. The histories and costs of planned response activities are described and logged for reference purposes. Estimates of damages associated with spills can be obtained. Alternative response plans can also be determined. Further research in 2002 will focus on developing real time response. 3 refs., 6 figs

Experiences and findings from the operators' point of view 'Emergency protection training'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grauf, E.

1992-01-01

To exercise in-plant emergency measures, under special marginal conditions, proves to be as useful and necessary as the training of design basis accidents. The strating phase which is particularly difficult for shift personnel, because it is labour-intensive, has to be exercised and considered with special attention and close to reality. That is the only way to detect weak spots and to get rid of them if necessary also in hardware installations, by well-aimed measures, such as modification of organizational sequences, optimization of emergency procedures. (orig.) [de

Emerging and Future Computing Paradigms and Their Impact on the Research, Training, and Design Environments of the Aerospace Workforce

Science.gov (United States)

Noor, Ahmed K. (Compiler)

2003-01-01

The document contains the proceedings of the training workshop on Emerging and Future Computing Paradigms and their impact on the Research, Training and Design Environments of the Aerospace Workforce. The workshop was held at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, March 18 and 19, 2003. The workshop was jointly sponsored by Old Dominion University and NASA. Workshop attendees came from NASA, other government agencies, industry and universities. The objectives of the workshop were to a) provide broad overviews of the diverse activities related to new computing paradigms, including grid computing, pervasive computing, high-productivity computing, and the IBM-led autonomic computing; and b) identify future directions for research that have high potential for future aerospace workforce environments. The format of the workshop included twenty-one, half-hour overview-type presentations and three exhibits by vendors.

OPERATION EMERGENCE.

Science.gov (United States)

MELBO, IRVING R.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EMERGING ENVIRONMENT FOR THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN CALIFORNIA IS CONSIDERED. CERTAIN WORLD REVOLUTIONS HAVE AFFECTED CONTEMPORARY LIFE. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION BROUGHT WITH IT INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY, RESEARCH, HIGHER STANDARDS OF LIVING, LONGER LIFE SPANS, AND CATEGORIZATION OF NATIONS INTO HAVES AND HAVE NOTS.…

Emergent sensing of complex environments by mobile animal groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Berdahl, Andrew; Torney, Colin J; Ioannou, Christos C; Faria, Jolyon J; Couzin, Iain D

2013-02-01

The capacity for groups to exhibit collective intelligence is an often-cited advantage of group living. Previous studies have shown that social organisms frequently benefit from pooling imperfect individual estimates. However, in principle, collective intelligence may also emerge from interactions between individuals, rather than from the enhancement of personal estimates. Here, we reveal that this emergent problem solving is the predominant mechanism by which a mobile animal group responds to complex environmental gradients. Robust collective sensing arises at the group level from individuals modulating their speed in response to local, scalar, measurements of light and through social interaction with others. This distributed sensing requires only rudimentary cognition and thus could be widespread across biological taxa, in addition to being appropriate and cost-effective for robotic agents.

Developing automated analytical methods for scientific environments using LabVIEW.

Science.gov (United States)

Wagner, Christoph; Armenta, Sergio; Lendl, Bernhard

2010-01-15

The development of new analytical techniques often requires the building of specially designed devices, each requiring its own dedicated control software. Especially in the research and development phase, LabVIEW has proven to be one highly useful tool for developing this software. Yet, it is still common practice to develop individual solutions for different instruments. In contrast to this, we present here a single LabVIEW-based program that can be directly applied to various analytical tasks without having to change the program code. Driven by a set of simple script commands, it can control a whole range of instruments, from valves and pumps to full-scale spectrometers. Fluid sample (pre-)treatment and separation procedures can thus be flexibly coupled to a wide range of analytical detection methods. Here, the capabilities of the program have been demonstrated by using it for the control of both a sequential injection analysis - capillary electrophoresis (SIA-CE) system with UV detection, and an analytical setup for studying the inhibition of enzymatic reactions using a SIA system with FTIR detection.

Deliberative ecological economics: emergence and research issues

OpenAIRE

Zografos, Christos; Howarth, Richard B.

2010-01-01

We discuss the recent emergence of "deliberative ecological economics", a field that highlights the potential of deliberation for improving environmental governance. We locate the emergence of this literature in the long concern in ecological economics over the policy implications of limited views of human action and its encounter with deliberative democracy scholarship and the model of communicative rationality as an alternative to utilitarianism. Considering criticisms over methods used and...

Deliberative ecological economics : emergence and research issues

OpenAIRE

Zografos, Christos

2010-01-01

We discuss the recent emergence of "deliberative ecological economics", a field that highlights the potential of deliberation for improving environmental governance. We locate the emergence of this literature in the long concern in ecological economics over the policy implications of limited views of human action and its encounter with deliberative democracy scholarship and the model of communicative rationality as an alternative to utilitarianism. Considering criticisms over methods used and...

Online Decision Support System (IRODOS) - an emergency preparedness tool for handling offsite nuclear emergency

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vinod Kumar, A.; Oza, R.B.; Chaudhury, P.; Suri, M.; Saindane, S.; Singh, K.D.; Bhargava, P.; Sharma, V.K.

2009-01-01

A real time online decision support system as a nuclear emergency response system for handling offsite nuclear emergency at the Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) has been developed by Health, Safety and Environment Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) under the frame work of 'Indian Real time Online Decision Support System 'IRODOS'. (author)

Indicators of healthy work environments--a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindberg, Per; Vingård, Eva

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to systematically review the scientific literature and search for indicators of healthy work environments. A number of major national and international databases for scientific publication were searched for research addressing indicators of healthy work environments. Altogether 19,768 publications were found. After excluding duplicates, non-relevant publications, or publications that did not comply with the inclusion criteria 24 peer-reviewed publications remained to be included in this systematic review. Only one study explicitly addressing indicators of healthy work environments was found. That study suggested that the presence of stress management programs in an organization might serve as indicator of a 'good place to work', as these organizations were more likely to offer programs that encouraged employee well-being, safety and skill development than those without stress management programs. The other 23 studies either investigated employee's views of what constitute a healthy workplace or were guidelines for how to create such a workplace. Summarizing, the nine most pronounced factors considered as important for a healthy workplace that emerged from these studies were, in descending order: collaboration/teamwork: growth and development of the individual; recognition; employee involvement; positive, accessible and fair leader; autonomy and empowerment; appropriate staffing; skilled communication; and safe physical work.

A collaborative virtual environment for training of security agents in nuclear emergencies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fernandes, Sara I.; Passos, Cláudio A.; Silva, Marcio H.; Carvalho, Paulo Victor R.; Legey, Ana Paula; Mol, Antonio Carlos; Machado, Daniel M.; Cotelli, André; Rocha, Tiago L., E-mail: mol@ien.gov.br [Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear (IEN/CNEN-RJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Departamento de Realidade Virtual

2017-07-01

In face the recently observed security menaces related to terrorist actions and natural disasters, there is a need for a major qualification and training of the agents responsible for avoid any problems regarding to abnormal conditions. In the conventional training procedures, however, field simulations are associated to logistical and operational constraints regarded to the execution of the tests which can expose the user to risk. On the other hand, the use of virtual simulations provides an alternative to such limitations besides of promote the qualifying of professionals with a great reliability. For this reason, this paper proposes the development of a collaborative virtual environment that will be used to prepare the security agents on identifying individuals suspected of carrying radioactive materials. The development of the virtual environment consisted on modeling using Autodesk 3ds Max, where the scene itself and the scene objects were modeled besides the terrain creation and basic features programming using the Game Engine Unity 3D. In the Engine Game were included radiation detectors and avatars. The security agents were able to communicate to each other by means of auxiliary external tools like a headset software that makes possible the communication, coordination and cooperation required for an effective collaboration. Experimental tests of the virtual simulations were performed with the participation of CNEN radiological protection agents and collaborators. The tests have shown that the proposed method can contribute to improve the training results of the basic collaborative skills required for a CNEN agent in an emergency situation without the need to expose him to any kind of risk. In face of that, we hope that it can contribute to minimize the demand for qualified security professionals. (author)

A collaborative virtual environment for training of security agents in nuclear emergencies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fernandes, Sara I.; Passos, Cláudio A.; Silva, Marcio H.; Carvalho, Paulo Victor R.; Legey, Ana Paula; Mol, Antonio Carlos; Machado, Daniel M.; Cotelli, André; Rocha, Tiago L.

2017-01-01

In face the recently observed security menaces related to terrorist actions and natural disasters, there is a need for a major qualification and training of the agents responsible for avoid any problems regarding to abnormal conditions. In the conventional training procedures, however, field simulations are associated to logistical and operational constraints regarded to the execution of the tests which can expose the user to risk. On the other hand, the use of virtual simulations provides an alternative to such limitations besides of promote the qualifying of professionals with a great reliability. For this reason, this paper proposes the development of a collaborative virtual environment that will be used to prepare the security agents on identifying individuals suspected of carrying radioactive materials. The development of the virtual environment consisted on modeling using Autodesk 3ds Max, where the scene itself and the scene objects were modeled besides the terrain creation and basic features programming using the Game Engine Unity 3D. In the Engine Game were included radiation detectors and avatars. The security agents were able to communicate to each other by means of auxiliary external tools like a headset software that makes possible the communication, coordination and cooperation required for an effective collaboration. Experimental tests of the virtual simulations were performed with the participation of CNEN radiological protection agents and collaborators. The tests have shown that the proposed method can contribute to improve the training results of the basic collaborative skills required for a CNEN agent in an emergency situation without the need to expose him to any kind of risk. In face of that, we hope that it can contribute to minimize the demand for qualified security professionals. (author)

Transient or permanent fisheye views

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jakobsen, Mikkel Rønne; Hornbæk, Kasper

2012-01-01

Transient use of information visualization may support specific tasks without permanently changing the user interface. Transient visualizations provide immediate and transient use of information visualization close to and in the context of the user’s focus of attention. Little is known, however......, about the benefits and limitations of transient visualizations. We describe an experiment that compares the usability of a fisheye view that participants could call up temporarily, a permanent fisheye view, and a linear view: all interfaces gave access to source code in the editor of a widespread...... programming environment. Fourteen participants performed varied tasks involving navigation and understanding of source code. Participants used the three interfaces for between four and six hours in all. Time and accuracy measures were inconclusive, but subjective data showed a preference for the permanent...

75 FR 47825 - Emergency Exemption; Issuance of Emergency Permit to Rehabilitate Sea Turtles Affected by the...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-08-09

...] Emergency Exemption; Issuance of Emergency Permit to Rehabilitate Sea Turtles Affected by the Deepwater... threaten the Gulf of Mexico environment and its inhabitants, including five sea turtle species. We, the U.S...) permit, to aid sea turtles affected by the oil spill. ADDRESSES: Documents and other information...

40 CFR 52.274 - California air pollution emergency plan.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false California air pollution emergency plan. 52.274 Section 52.274 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS California § 52.274 California air pollution emergency plan. (a) Since the...

The Emerging World Order

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

PETER COLLECOTT

2014-05-01

Full Text Available It is common ground amongst almost all commentators that the world has changed radically over the past 25 years – the 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall heralded the ending of the Cold War, the reunification of a tragically divided Europe, and the acceleration of the process of globalisation which has its only comparable period in the decades leading up to the First World War in 1914. When analyzing the Emerging World Order it is important to cover more than Brazil economy or any other individual BRICs or other Emerging Powers. Instead, our analysis will provide a global view about the economic and political global power structures which are evolving and forming before our eyes, and then to talk about the challenges these emerging realities pose for us in Europe, and in the West in general.

Strategic aspects of nuclear and radiological emergency management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahier, B.

2010-01-01

Emergency situations demand that actions be taken by responsible organisations in a timely and effective manner to mitigate consequences for the population, infrastructure and the environment, and to support the return of affected areas to normal social and economic activity to the extent possible. To deliver an effective response over the emergency management time-line, it is necessary to make, maintain and exercise adequate plans and arrangements in advance of an emergency situation. These must contain appropriate elements and resources for preparedness, response and assistance to identified threats, recognize and include all implicated partners, and take account of international interfaces. Effective management of complex emergency situations that can lead to a wide range of consequences and involve multiple organisations at the local, national and international levels also requires anticipation of the range of decision-making needs, an understanding of the interactions between response organisations and a model for their co-ordination. Experience from managing emergency situations has shown that the integration of these factors into emergency preparedness and response arrangements should be based on a guiding strategic vision. Emergency response is a dynamic process that develops in time from a situation of little information to one of potentially overwhelming information. Within this context, emergency response organisations must be able to respond in an appropriate and timely manner at any point along the emergency management time-line. This will be facilitated by an overarching framework to guide the decision-making process. To contribute to work in this area, the NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters (WPNEM) reviewed its collective experience to extract key themes that could form a strategy for improving decision-making in emergency management. This focused on the NEA International Nuclear

Examining pre-service teacher views on the implementation of screen-based writing instruction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mehmet Tok

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Today, as new technological developments continue to emerge, education, like many other fields, is going through major changes. Technological developments are causing changes to many common concepts. In particular, studies that benefit from technology in the field of education are becoming increasingly widespread, opening the door for the emergence of new teaching methods by abandoning traditional ones. New technologies, and computers in particular, can benefit the teaching of writing, the most complex of the four basic language skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening. This study aims to explore pre-service teachers' views on screen-based writing practices via a course they attended. A qualitative case study method (holistic single-case design was employed to explore pre-service teachers’ views. The study participants were selected using a purposeful sampling method among 4th year students majoring in Turkish Language Teaching at a major state university. The study group consisted of sixty-two pre-service teachers who were enrolled in the “Written Expression” I and II courses in the 2013-2014 education year. The study was conducted both in Fall and Spring semesters. All writing activities were conducted in a digital environment. The study results revealed that a majority (77% of the pre-service teachers favored continuation of the screen-based writing instruction. The study supported that digital literacy is important and the advantages of screen-based writing instruction outweighed its disadvantages. Screen-based writing activities should be integrated into the courses and instruction materials of pre-service Turkish teachers’ education programs.

40 CFR 52.1477 - Nevada air pollution emergency plan.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Nevada air pollution emergency plan. 52.1477 Section 52.1477 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS (CONTINUED) Nevada § 52.1477 Nevada air pollution emergency plan. Section 6.1.5 of...

Preparing Teachers for Emerging Blended Learning Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Oliver, Kevin M.; Stallings, Dallas T.

2014-01-01

Blended learning environments that merge learning strategies, resources, and modes have been implemented in higher education settings for nearly two decades, and research has identified many positive effects. More recently, K-12 traditional and charter schools have begun to experiment with blended learning, but to date, research on the effects of…

Emergence in Dynamical Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Collier

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Emergence is a term used in many contexts in current science; it has become fashionable. It has a traditional usage in philosophy that started in 1875 and was expanded by J. S. Mill (earlier, under a different term and C. D. Broad. It is this form of emergence that I am concerned with here. I distinguish it from uses like ‘computational emergence,’ which can be reduced to combinations of program steps, or its application to merely surprising new features that appear in complex combinations of parts. I will be concerned specifically with ontological emergence that has the logical properties required by Mill and Broad (though there might be some quibbling about the details of their views. I restrict myself to dynamical systems that are embodied in processes. Everything that we can interact with through sensation or action is either dynamical or can be understood in dynamical terms, so this covers all comprehensible forms of emergence in the strong (nonreducible sense I use. I will give general dynamical conditions that underlie the logical conditions traditionally assigned to emergence in nature.The advantage of this is that, though we cannot test logical conditions directly, we can test dynamical conditions. This gives us an empirical and realistic form of emergence, contrary those who say it is a matter of perspective.

The Comprehensive Emergent Literacy Model

OpenAIRE

Leigh Rohde

2015-01-01

The early skills of Emergent Literacy include the knowledge and abilities related to the alphabet, phonological awareness, symbolic representation, and communication. However, existing models of emergent literacy focus on discrete skills and miss the perspective of the surrounding environment. Early literacy skills, including their relationship to one another, and the substantial impact of the setting and context, are ...

Virtual navigation performance: the relationship to field of view and prior video gaming experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Richardson, Anthony E; Collaer, Marcia L

2011-04-01

Two experiments examined whether learning a virtual environment was influenced by field of view and how it related to prior video gaming experience. In the first experiment, participants (42 men, 39 women; M age = 19.5 yr., SD = 1.8) performed worse on a spatial orientation task displayed with a narrow field of view in comparison to medium and wide field-of-view displays. Counter to initial hypotheses, wide field-of-view displays did not improve performance over medium displays, and this was replicated in a second experiment (30 men, 30 women; M age = 20.4 yr., SD = 1.9) presenting a more complex learning environment. Self-reported video gaming experience correlated with several spatial tasks: virtual environment pointing and tests of Judgment of Line Angle and Position, mental rotation, and Useful Field of View (with correlations between .31 and .45). When prior video gaming experience was included as a covariate, sex differences in spatial tasks disappeared.

Mathematics and God’s Point of View1

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Król Zbigniew

2016-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper the final stages of the historical process of the emergence of actual infinity in mathematics are considered. The application of God’s point of view – i.e. the possibility to create mathematics from a divine perspective, i.e. from the point of view of an eternal, timeless, omniscience and unlimited subject of cognition – is one of the main factors in this process. Nicole Oresme is the first man who systematically used actual infinity in mathematical reasoning, constructions and proofs in geometry.

Safety in urban environment and emergency notice boards

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Confortini, Claudia; Tira, Maurizio

2008-01-01

Reliable and safe urban system conditions have to be a crucial goal of ordinary planning activities. Among planning goals, priority must be given to indications relating to the safety levels to be achieved and to the amount of resources to be directed towards reducing the vulnerability of urban systems and therefore of the measures to be taken. Uban vulnerability cannot in fact be reduced to the sum of the vulnerability of single buildings or to the physical vulnerability of its various components. This research work consists of identifying those urban sub-areas that are important for safety in relation to natural risks, ambits that should be highlighted by means of permanent emergency notice boards/billboards. What are the hazard notices relating to all natural hazards and related risks? Where are they located? Are they clear and straightforward so that all residents and visitors are able to understand them, as it is already the case for road signs (or at least it should be)? What urban sub-areas are worth highlighting in relation to natural risks, acting for example as escape routes or meeting points? How is information for the public managed in order that people are immediately, easily and regularly notified? What is the relation of such signals to ordinary traffic signals? Research into the state of the art of permanent notice boards/billboards of this type, currently distinguished only by sporadic and local initiatives, aims at carrying out a census of and recognizing urban elements already considered as important for reducing the vulnerability of the urban system to different natural calamities and at providing new highlights as regards the identification of new ones. The next step is to work out a decision and common-language strategy for planning these elements and for their adequate signposting, so as to be able to live in the urban environment with awareness, safety and confidence, including with respect to more remote and therefore often neglected

Recruiting and consenting into a peripartum trial in an emergency setting: a qualitative study of the experiences and views of women and healthcare professionals.

Science.gov (United States)

Lawton, Julia; Snowdon, Claire; Morrow, Susan; Norman, Jane E; Denison, Fiona C; Hallowell, Nina

2016-04-11

Recruiting and consenting women to peripartum trials can be challenging as the women concerned may be anxious, in pain, and exhausted; there may also be limited time for discussion and decision-making to occur. To address these potential difficulties, we undertook a qualitative evaluation of the internal pilot of a trial (Got-it) involving women who had a retained placenta (RP). We explored the experiences and views of women and staff about the information and consent pathway used within the pilot, in order to provide recommendations for use in future peripartum trials involving recruitment in emergency situations. In-depth interviews were undertaken with staff (n = 27) and participating women (n = 22). Interviews were analysed thematically. The accounts of women and staff were compared to identify differences and similarities in their views about recruitment and consent procedures. Women and staff regarded recruitment as having been straightforward and facilitated by the use of simplified (verbal and written) summaries of trial information. Both parties, however, conveyed discordant views about whether fully informed consent had been obtained. These differences in perspectives appeared to arise from the different factors and considerations impinging on women and staff at the time of recruitment. While staff placed emphasis on promoting understanding in the emergency situation of RP by imparting information in clear and succinct ways, women highlighted the experiential realities of their pre- and post-birthing situations, and how these had led to quick decisions being made without full engagement with the potential risks of trial participation. To facilitate informed consent, women suggested that trial information should be given during the antenatal period, and, in doing so, articulated a rights-based discourse. Staff, however, voiced opposition to this approach by emphasising a duty of care to all pregnant women, and raising concerns about causing undue

Quality Air Force in an Emergency. Leadership Principles and Concepts for Emergency Response Forces

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Byrd, David

1996-01-01

... during a crisis. He proposes that senior leaders view quality concepts and principles as a way of creating an environment to spark the highest performance by their subordinates and not as giving up authority or control...

Emergency medical service providers' experiences with traffic congestion.

Science.gov (United States)

Griffin, Russell; McGwin, Gerald

2013-02-01

The population's migration from urban to suburban areas has resulted in a more dispersed population and has increased traffic flow, possibly resulting in longer emergency response times. Although studies have examined the effect of response times on time to definitive care and survival, no study has addressed the possible causes of slowed response time from the point of view of emergency medical services (EMS) first responders. To assess the variables most commonly associated with increased emergency response time as described by the opinions and views of EMS first responders. A total of 500 surveys were sent to randomly selected individuals registered as first responders with the Alabama Department of Public Health, and 112 surveys were returned completed. The survey included questions regarding roadway design, response to emergency calls, in-vehicle technology aimed at decreasing travel time, and public education regarding emergency response. Respondents reported traveling on city streets most often during emergency calls, and encountering traffic more often on interstates and national highways. Traffic congestion, on average, resulted in nearly 10min extra response time. Most agreed that the most effective in-vehicle technology for reducing response time was a pre-emptive green light device; however, very few reported availability of this device in their emergency vehicles. Public education regarding how to react to approaching emergency vehicles was stated as having the greatest potential impact on reducing emergency response time. The results of the survey suggest that the best methods for reducing emergency response times are those that are easy to implement (e.g., public education). Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Metrology/viewing system for next generation fusion reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spampinato, P.T.; Barry, R.E.; Chesser, J.B.; Menon, M.M.; Dagher, M.A.

1997-01-01

Next generation fusion reactors require accurate measuring systems to verify sub-millimeter alignment of plasma-facing components in the reactor vessel. A metrology system capable of achieving such accuracy must be compatible with the vessel environment of high gamma radiation, high vacuum, elevated temperature, and magnetic field. This environment requires that the system must be remotely deployed. A coherent, frequency modulated laser radar system is being integrated with a remotely operated deployment system to meet these requirements. The metrology/viewing system consists of a compact laser transceiver optics module which is linked through fiber optics to the laser source and imaging units that are located outside of the harsh environment. The deployment mechanism is a telescopic-mast positioning system. This paper identifies the requirements for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor metrology and viewing system, and describes a remotely operated precision ranging and surface mapping system

Google maps for crowdsourced emergency routing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nedkov, S.; Zlatanova, S.

2012-01-01

Gathering infrastructure data in emergency situations is challenging. The affected by a disaster areas are often large and the needed observations numerous. Spaceborne remote sensing techniques cover large areas but they are of limited use as their field of view may be blocked by clouds, smoke,

Virtual interface environment workstations

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, S. S.; Wenzel, E. M.; Coler, C.; Mcgreevy, M. W.

1988-01-01

A head-mounted, wide-angle, stereoscopic display system controlled by operator position, voice and gesture has been developed at NASA's Ames Research Center for use as a multipurpose interface environment. This Virtual Interface Environment Workstation (VIEW) system provides a multisensory, interactive display environment in which a user can virtually explore a 360-degree synthesized or remotely sensed environment and can viscerally interact with its components. Primary applications of the system are in telerobotics, management of large-scale integrated information systems, and human factors research. System configuration, research scenarios, and research directions are described.

On emergence: a neo-psychoanalytic essay on change and science.

Science.gov (United States)

Whitehead, Clay C

2011-01-01

The neo-psychoanalytic paradigm re-establishes the connection between psychodynamics and evolution. This allows us to transcend the limitations of dualistic metapsychology, and to make seminal contributions to traditional science. The new paradigm employs the concept of emergence, the potential for change in the evolutionary and clinical process. Emergence is described as originating with the Big Bang, but also is reflected at much higher levels, for example, biochemistry, or the capacity of the evolved mind to produce insights in psychotherapy. The constraints of dualistic theories are examined. A neuron-based view of change illustrates the evolution of traditional science as well as the neuron, itself. The new mind paradigm recognizes individual, familial, communitarian, and global reciprocal influences mediated by culture and illustrated by the extended mind and the democratic spirit. Thus both traditional and psychodynamic sciences are undergoing revolutionary changes in their common efforts to better understand the mechanisms of knowledge, relationship and consciousness. The boundaries of the self and the consultation suite are also expanded in this view. Following a survey of invagination, the work is concluded by an application of emergence theory to the creationist controversy and Freud's views of religion.

40 CFR 52.2227 - Prevention of air pollution emergency episodes.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Prevention of air pollution emergency episodes. 52.2227 Section 52.2227 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS (CONTINUED) Tennessee § 52.2227 Prevention of air pollution emergency...

40 CFR 52.1934 - Prevention of air pollution emergency episodes.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Prevention of air pollution emergency episodes. 52.1934 Section 52.1934 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS (CONTINUED) Oklahoma § 52.1934 Prevention of air pollution emergency...

Unsatisfied basic needs of older patients in emergency care environments - obstacles to an active role in decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Nydén, Kristoffer; Petersson, Martin; Nyström, Maria

2003-03-01

Little attention is paid in Emergency Care Units (ECUs) in Sweden to the special needs of older people. The aim of this study was thus to analyse older people's basic needs in the emergency care environment. The study was carried out with a life-world interpretative approach, and the theoretical framework for interpretation was Abraham Maslow's theory of motivation and personality. Seven informants aged between 65 and 88 years, with various experiences of being patients with urgent as well as non-urgent health-related problems, were interviewed about their experiences of ECU care. Their basic needs at the lower levels of Maslow's hierarchy were well-represented in the data. Higher needs, such as desire to know and understand, appeared to be totally neglected. Safety needs dominated the whole situation. Our conclusion is that standards of care must be developed in Sweden to make older patients feel safer and more secure in ECUs. Furthermore, the principles of nursing care for older patients need to be defined in order to encourage them to take an active part in their own health process.

A View Indoors, Indoor Environment Division's e-Article Series

Science.gov (United States)

The Indoor Environments Division has created partnership with public and private sector entities to help encourage the public to take action to minimize their risk and mitigate indoor air quality problems.

The Nuclear Emergency Assistance Team, an Institution for Nuclear Emergency Relief

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boldyreff, P.; Kiefer, H.; Krause, H.; Zuehlke, K. [Gesellschaft fuer Kernforschung mbH, Karlsruhe, Federal Republic of Germany (Germany)

1969-10-15

The design of nuclear facilities is to exclude serious damage to the environment, even in case of the MCA (maximum credible accident). Although the likelihood of accidents exceeding the expected consequences of the MCA is extremely small, it is deemed reasonable to take general precautions against such accidents. Precautions of this type are customary also in the conventional field, and in this case they are to be implemented in part through the Nuclear Emergency Assistance Team. If the internal safety provisions of a nuclear facility are unable to prevent an impermissible leakage of radioactivity as the result of a major accident there is, at present, no possibility of decisively curbing the spread of activity throughout the environment in the first few hours after the accident. Hence the measures taken by the authorities as a result of the emission and immediately following upon it will have to be restricted to the protection of the population: analysis of intensity and pattern of distribution of activity, instructions.to seek closed shelters, or prohibition of the consumption of certain foodstuffs, distribution of blocking agents, etc. It is the purpose of the Nuclear Emergency Assistance Team to bring relief in the phase following the end of the emission. This may comprise the following steps: exact investigation of the external scope of the damage, in particular assessment of the contamination of ground, persons, and material; rapid personnel decontamination; securing and shielding radiation sources; fixing contamination and removing it immediately where this is deemed urgent for reasons of traffic or to keep the drinking water free from contamination; external containment of the source of danger; support in limiting the damage within the facility. In addition to these tasks of emergency protection, the Nuclear Emergency Assistance Team can take action also in disturbances within the facility which have no influence on the environment and where the operator

Medical emergencies in dental practice.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Wilson, M H

2009-06-01

Serious medical emergencies are fortunately a rare occurrence in the dental practice environment; however, if an emergency situation is encountered a delay in treatment may result in potentially avoidable consequences. The risk of mortality or serious morbidity can be reduced by ensuring that basic emergency equipment and medications are in place, and that the dental team is appropriately trained in basic life support measures. This article aims to provide an overview of the basic emergency medications and equipment that should be present in dental practices, and to discuss specific responses to some of the more common adverse medical events that can present while providing dental treatment.

40 CFR 52.1639 - Prevention of air pollution emergency episodes.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Prevention of air pollution emergency episodes. 52.1639 Section 52.1639 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS (CONTINUED) New Mexico § 52.1639 Prevention of air pollution emergency...

40 CFR 52.11 - Prevention of air pollution emergency episodes.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Prevention of air pollution emergency episodes. 52.11 Section 52.11 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS General Provisions § 52.11 Prevention of air pollution emergency episodes. ...

The learning environment as a mediating variable between self-directed learning readiness and academic performance of a sample of saudi nursing and medical emergency students.

Science.gov (United States)

Alotaibi, Khaled N

2016-01-01

There has been some ground-breaking research on self-directed learning (SDL) in nursing education which reveals the superiority of SDL to traditional learning methods in terms of students' academic performance and the development of positive attitudes toward the learning process on the part of both students and teachers. The relationship between students' self-directed learning readiness (SDLR) and students' academic performance, and the mediating role of students' perceptions of the learning environment needs further investigation. In this study, it is proposed that students' perceptions of their learning environment could enhance their SDLR and thus boost their academic performance (in terms of their GPA). A descriptive design was used to examine the relationships between the domains of SDLR, which are self-management, desire to learn and self-control and students' perceptions of the learning environment (SPLE) and students' GPA. A survey involving 342 [Corrected] Saudi students from nursing and emergency medical services undergraduate programs in King Saud University was used for this research. The results showed that SDLR level positively influenced students' academic performance positively, and that students' perceptions of their learning environment played a significant role in determining their level of SDLR and academic performance. It is recommended that nursing and emergency medical services educators provide a supportive learning environment in terms of good teaching, clear goals and standards, appropriate assessment, appropriate workload, and emphasis on independence to encourage students to engage in the process of SDL which can, in turn, enhance their academic performance. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Traumatic injuries: organization and ergonomics of imaging in the emergency environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wintermark, Max; Schnyder, Pierre [Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital, Lausanne (Switzerland); Poletti, Pierre-Alexandre; Becker, Christoph D. [Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital, Geneva (Switzerland)

2002-05-01

Management of trauma patients relies on a simple but obvious concept: Time is life. This is a challenge to the emergency radiologist in his evaluation of the radiological admission survey of severe trauma patients, since the latter need a quick and thorough survey of craniocerebral, cervical, thoracic, abdominal, and limb lesions. This article reviews the architectural design and the management strategies required to fulfill this purpose. Whereas plain films and ultrasonography have precise but limited indications, multislice spiral CT (MSCT) shows an increasingly preponderant role in the imaging evaluation of trauma patients, as demonstrated through three examples (aortic, spine, and craniocerebral trauma). Multislice CT affords a comprehensive assessment of trauma patients' injuries and allows for their categorization according to the severity of traumatic lesions. With respect to the MSCT data volume, the emergency radiologists have to modify the strategies in their examination reading and result transmission, with a growing role attributed to two- and three-dimensional reconstructions. The emergency radiologist's role is thus of prime importance in the management of trauma patients, and this all the more so since development of interventional radiology affords therapeutic procedures alternative to surgery. Trauma radiology and emergency radiology on the whole will assert themselves as consistent and thorough areas of subspecialization. (orig.)

Traumatic injuries: organization and ergonomics of imaging in the emergency environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wintermark, Max; Schnyder, Pierre; Poletti, Pierre-Alexandre; Becker, Christoph D.

2002-01-01

Management of trauma patients relies on a simple but obvious concept: Time is life. This is a challenge to the emergency radiologist in his evaluation of the radiological admission survey of severe trauma patients, since the latter need a quick and thorough survey of craniocerebral, cervical, thoracic, abdominal, and limb lesions. This article reviews the architectural design and the management strategies required to fulfill this purpose. Whereas plain films and ultrasonography have precise but limited indications, multislice spiral CT (MSCT) shows an increasingly preponderant role in the imaging evaluation of trauma patients, as demonstrated through three examples (aortic, spine, and craniocerebral trauma). Multislice CT affords a comprehensive assessment of trauma patients' injuries and allows for their categorization according to the severity of traumatic lesions. With respect to the MSCT data volume, the emergency radiologists have to modify the strategies in their examination reading and result transmission, with a growing role attributed to two- and three-dimensional reconstructions. The emergency radiologist's role is thus of prime importance in the management of trauma patients, and this all the more so since development of interventional radiology affords therapeutic procedures alternative to surgery. Trauma radiology and emergency radiology on the whole will assert themselves as consistent and thorough areas of subspecialization. (orig.)

Emergency preparedness at Ignalina NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kairys, A.

1998-01-01

Brief review of Ignalina NPP safety upgrading and personnel preparedness to act in cases of accidents is presented. Though great activities are performed in enhancing the plant operation safety, the Ignalina NPP management pays a lot of attention to preparedness for emergency elimination and take measures to stop emergency spreading. A new Ignalina NPP emergency preparedness plan was drawn up and became operational. It is the main document to carry out organizational, technical, medical, evacuation and other activities to protect plant personnel, population, the plant and the environment from accident consequences. Great assistance was rendered by Swedish experts in drawing this new emergency preparedness plan. The plan consists of 3 parts: general part, operative part and appendixes. The plan is applied to the Ignalina NPP personnel, Special and Fire Brigade and also to other contractor organizations personnel carrying out works at Ignalina NPP. There are set the following emergency classes: incident, emergency situation, alert, local emergency, general emergency. Separate intervention level corresponds to each emergency class. Overview of personnel training to act in case of an emergency is also presented

Applications of LabVIEW programming in a glovebox environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Evans, M.E.; Peralta, G.; Gray, D.

1995-01-01

When dealing with neutron radiation one of the keys to reducing worker exposure is to have as much distance and shielding between the radiation and the radiation worker as possible. Using a PC to control a process from a remote location allows the distance between the radiation worker and the radiation source to be increase. Increasing the distance at which radiation worker can control a process allows more shielding to be placed around the glovebox. There are many commercial packages that allow controlling remote processes with a PC. This paper shows how flexible the LabVIEW Graphical Programming Language can be in implementing the remote control of glovebox process

Occurrence and removal of emerging contaminants in wastewaters

OpenAIRE

Janna, Hussein

2011-01-01

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University. Over the past decade, the occurrence and removal of emerging contaminants in the environment has received much attention. Both natural and synthetic progestogens, which are hormones, and also benzotriazoles are two examples of such emerging contaminants. Sewage treatment works are recognised as one of the main routes of these compounds to the environment. Low concentrations (nanograms per lit...

Interaction Between Physical Environment, Social Environment, and Child Characteristics in Determining Physical Activity at Child Care

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gubbels, J.S.; Kremers, S.P.J.; Kann, D.H.H. van; Stafleu, A.; Candel, M.J.J.M.; Dagnelie, P.C.; Thijs, C.; Vries, N.K.de

2011-01-01

Objective: To investigate the association between the child-care environment and physical activity of 2- and 3-year-olds. Based on an ecological view of environmental influences on health behavior, we hypothesized that the social and physical environment, as well as child characteristics (age and

RFID Technologies : emerging issues and challenges

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lieshout, M.J. van; Kool, L.

2007-01-01

In this paper we will present the results of a technology and policy assessment we have performed on emerging issues and policy challenges of RFID technologies. RFID is a basic component of the future internet of things. A balanced view on opportunities and threats, on drivers and barriers is needed

Vaccination of Non-Domestic Animals against Emerging Virus Infections

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J.D.W. Philippa (Joost)

2007-01-01

markdownabstract__Abstract__ Since the 1980's, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases have made an enormous impact on public and animal health, food supply, economies, and the environment. An estimated 75% of emerging infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic (pathogens of non-human

Emergency Preparedness and Response. Working to Protect People, Society and the Environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2013-01-01

The IEC develops safety standards and guidelines relating to preparedness for, and response to, nuclear or radiological incidents and emergencies, independently of the cause, and technical documents and training materials for the application of those standards. The IEC also provides training and services to assist Member States in strengthening and maintaining their regional, national, local and on-site response capabilities. An extra resource to the IAEA's response system is foreseen through the Response and Assistance Network (RANET), which represents a network of registered national capabilities in different EPR areas. Its objectives are the provision of requested international assistance, the harmonization of emergency assistance capabilities and the relevant exchange of information and feedback of experience. Important components of the global emergency response system are the notification and reporting arrangements and secure and reliable communication systems operated around the clock by the IEC. States and international organizations report events and submit requests for assistance to the IAEA through the Unified System for Information Exchange on Incidents and Emergencies (USIE) web site, by phone or by fax. Member States (and a few non-Member States) have nominated competent authorities and National Warning Points who are able to receive, convey and quickly provide authoritative information on incidents and emergencies

The emerging educator as leader and action researcher

OpenAIRE

Thomas G. Ryan

2009-01-01

The 320 pre-service educators in this inquiry were viewed as emerging classroom teachers who were leading while grappling with new personal experiences which informed and guided each during the pre-service year. The written account evidence supported our resulting inferences, discussion and conclusions and demonstrated the leadership required within pre-service. It was the analysis and synthesis of practicum reflections that illuminated core beliefs, attitudes and needs of emerging action res...

Attitudes of prehospital emergency care professionals toward refusal of treatment: A regional survey in Turkey.

Science.gov (United States)

Erbay, Hasan; Alan, Sultan; Kadioglu, Selim

2014-08-01

Prehospital emergency medicine is a specific field of emergency medicine. The basic approach of prehospital emergency medicine is to provide patients with medical intervention at the scene of the incident. This special environment causes health professionals to encounter various problems. One of the most important problems in this field is ethics, in particular questions involving refusal of treatment and the processes associated with it. The objective of this study is to identify emergency health professionals' views regarding refusal of treatment. This study was conducted with 356 health professionals who were on active duty in prehospital emergency health services. The data were collected through a form which included 10 statements. The participants were asked to indicate their level of agreement with the statements given by rating them between 0 and 10. Before conducting the research, permission was received from the local ethics committee. Participants were given written information about the purpose of the study. Participants were assured that their participation was voluntary. The healthcare professionals with fewer years of experience in the profession and female participants adopted an attitude of giving priority to providing care. Young participants, in general, respected patient autonomy. However, paradoxically, when it comes to emergency medical cases, they expressed an opinion closer to paternalism. This study has found that prehospital emergency health professionals generally respect the patient's right to refuse treatment; however, they do not prioritize this right when there is a life-threatening situation or when the person does not have decision-making capacity. In these cases, prehospital emergency health professionals tended to adopt a more paternalistic approach. © The Author(s) 2013.

Signalling crosstalk in plants: emerging issues.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Jane E; McAinsh, Martin R

2004-01-01

The Oxford English Dictionary defines crosstalk as 'unwanted transfer of signals between communication channels'. How does this definition relate to the way in which we view the organization and function of signalling pathways? Recent advances in the field of plant signalling have challenged the traditional view of a signalling transduction cascade as isolated linear pathways. Instead the picture emerging of the mechanisms by which plants transduce environmental signals is of the interaction between transduction chains. The manner in which these interactions occur (and indeed whether the transfer of these signals is 'unwanted' or beneficial) is currently the topic of intense research.

Ethical issues in the response to Ebola virus disease in US emergency departments: a position paper of the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Emergency Nurses Association and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Venkat, Arvind; Wolf, Lisa; Geiderman, Joel M; Asher, Shellie L; Marco, Catherine A; McGreevy, Jolion; Derse, Arthur R; Otten, Edward J; Jesus, John E; Kreitzer, Natalie P; Escalante, Monica; Levine, Adam C

2015-03-01

The 2014 outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa has presented a significant public health crisis to the international health community and challenged US emergency departments to prepare for patients with a disease of exceeding rarity in developed nations. With the presentation of patients with Ebola to US acute care facilities, ethical questions have been raised in both the press and medical literature as to how US emergency departments, emergency physicians, emergency nurses and other stakeholders in the healthcare system should approach the current epidemic and its potential for spread in the domestic environment. To address these concerns, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Emergency Nurses Association and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine developed this joint position paper to provide guidance to US emergency physicians, emergency nurses and other stakeholders in the healthcare system on how to approach the ethical dilemmas posed by the outbreak of EVD. This paper will address areas of immediate and potential ethical concern to US emergency departments in how they approach preparation for and management of potential patients with EVD. Copyright © 2015 Emergency Nurses Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Nursing home nurses' experiences of resident transfers to the emergency department: no empathy for our work environment difficulties.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, Hsiu-Hsin; Tsai, Yun-Fang; Huang, Hsiu-Li

2016-03-01

To explore the experiences of nursing home nurses when they transfer residents from nursing homes to the emergency department in Taiwan. The transfer of residents between nursing homes and emergency departments challenges continuity of care. Understanding nursing home nurses' experiences during these transfers may help to improve residents' continuity of care. However, few empirical data are available on these nurses' transfer experiences worldwide, and none could be found in Asian countries. Qualitative descriptive study. Data were collected from August 2012-June 2013 in audiotaped, individual, in-depth interviews with 25 nurses at five nursing homes in Taiwan. Interview transcripts were analysed by constant comparative analysis. Analysis of interview transcripts revealed that the core theme of nursing home nurses' transfer experience was discontinuity in nursing home to emergency department transitions. This core theme comprised three themes: discontinuity in family involvement, discontinuity in medical resources and expectations, and discontinuity in nurses' professional role. Nursing home nurses need a working environment that is better connected to residents' family members and more immediate and/or easier access to acute care for residents. Communication between nurses and residents' family could be improved by using text messages or social media by mobile phones, which are widely used in Taiwan and worldwide. To improve access to acute care, we suggest developing a real-time telehealth transfer system tailored to the medical culture and policies of each country. This system should facilitate communication among nursing home staff, family members and hospital staff. Our findings on nurses' experiences during transfer of nursing home residents to the emergency department can be used to design more effective transfer policies such as telemedicine systems in Taiwan and other Asian countries or in those with large populations of Chinese immigrants. © 2016 John

Emergency management in health: key issues and challenges in the UK.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Andrew C K; Phillips, Wendy; Challen, Kirsty; Goodacre, Steve

2012-10-19

Emergency planning in the UK has grown considerably in recent years, galvanised by the threat of terrorism. However, deficiencies in NHS emergency planning were identified and the evidence-base that underpins it is questionable. Inconsistencies in terminologies and concepts also exist. Different models of emergency management exist internationally but the optimal system is unknown. This study examines the evidence-base and evidence requirements for emergency planning in the UK health context. The study involved semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and opinion leaders. Purposive sampling was used to obtain a breadth of views from various agencies involved in emergency planning and response. Interviews were then analysed using a grounded approach using standard framework analysis techniques. We conducted 17 key informant interviews. Interviewees identified greater gaps in operational than technical aspects of emergency planning. Social and behavioural knowledge gaps were highlighted with regards to how individuals and organisations deal with risk and behave in emergencies. Evidence-based approaches to public engagement and for developing community resilience to disasters are lacking. Other gaps included how knowledge was developed and used. Conflicting views with regards to the optimal configuration and operation of the emergency management system were voiced. Four thematic categories for future research emerged:(i) Knowledge-base for emergency management: Further exploration is needed of how knowledge is acquired, valued, disseminated, adopted and retained.(ii) Social and behavioural issues: Greater understanding of how individuals approach risk and behave in emergencies is required.(iii) Organisational issues in emergencies: Several conflicting organisational issues were identified; value of planning versus plans, flexible versus standardized procedures, top-down versus bottom-up engagement, generic versus specific planning, and reactive versus

Classrooms with nature views: Evidence of differing student perceptions and behaviors

Science.gov (United States)

J.A. Benfield; G.N. Rainbolt; P.A. Bell; G.H. Donovan

2015-01-01

Viewing peaceful natural environments has been shown to restore cognitive abilities and reduce physiological arousal. As such, visual access to the natural environment is becoming more commonplace in built environments. One exception to that trend is in educational settings where windowless classrooms are used to reduce outside distractions. The current study examines...

Study of developing nuclear fabrication facility's integrated emergency response manual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Taeh Yeong; Cho, Nam Chan; Han, Seung Hoon; Moon, Jong Han; Lee, Jin Hang [KEPCO, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Min, Guem Young; Han, Ji Ah [Dongguk Univ., Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-05-15

Public begin to pay attention to emergency management. Thus, public's consensus on having high level of emergency management system up to advanced country's is reached. In this social atmosphere, manual is considered as key factor to prevent accident or secure business continuity. Therefore, we first define possible crisis at KEPCO Nuclear Fuel (hereinafter KNF) and also make a 'Reaction List' for each crisis situation at the view of information-design. To achieve it, we analyze several country's crisis response manual and then derive component, indicate duties and roles at the information-design point of view. From this, we suggested guideline to make 'Integrated emergency response manual(IERM)'. The manual we used before have following few problems; difficult to applicate at the site, difficult to deliver information. To complement these problems, we searched manual elements from the view of information-design. As a result, we develop administrative manual. Although, this manual could be thought as fragmentary manual because it confined specific several agency/organization and disaster type.

The emergent Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics

Science.gov (United States)

Hollowood, Timothy J.

2014-05-01

We introduce a new and conceptually simple interpretation of quantum mechanics based on reduced density matrices of sub-systems from which the standard Copenhagen interpretation emerges as an effective description of macroscopically large systems. This interpretation describes a world in which definite measurement results are obtained with probabilities that reproduce the Born rule. Wave function collapse is seen to be a useful but fundamentally unnecessary piece of prudent book keeping which is only valid for macro-systems. The new interpretation lies in a class of modal interpretations in that it applies to quantum systems that interact with a much larger environment. However, we show that it does not suffer from the problems that have plagued similar modal interpretations like macroscopic superpositions and rapid flipping between macroscopically distinct states. We describe how the interpretation fits neatly together with fully quantum formulations of statistical mechanics and that a measurement process can be viewed as a process of ergodicity breaking analogous to a phase transition. The key feature of the new interpretation is that joint probabilities for the ergodic subsets of states of disjoint macro-systems only arise as emergent quantities. Finally we give an account of the EPR-Bohm thought experiment and show that the interpretation implies the violation of the Bell inequality characteristic of quantum mechanics but in a way that is rather novel. The final conclusion is that the Copenhagen interpretation gives a completely satisfactory phenomenology of macro-systems interacting with micro-systems.

The emergent Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hollowood, Timothy J

2014-01-01

We introduce a new and conceptually simple interpretation of quantum mechanics based on reduced density matrices of sub-systems from which the standard Copenhagen interpretation emerges as an effective description of macroscopically large systems. This interpretation describes a world in which definite measurement results are obtained with probabilities that reproduce the Born rule. Wave function collapse is seen to be a useful but fundamentally unnecessary piece of prudent book keeping which is only valid for macro-systems. The new interpretation lies in a class of modal interpretations in that it applies to quantum systems that interact with a much larger environment. However, we show that it does not suffer from the problems that have plagued similar modal interpretations like macroscopic superpositions and rapid flipping between macroscopically distinct states. We describe how the interpretation fits neatly together with fully quantum formulations of statistical mechanics and that a measurement process can be viewed as a process of ergodicity breaking analogous to a phase transition. The key feature of the new interpretation is that joint probabilities for the ergodic subsets of states of disjoint macro-systems only arise as emergent quantities. Finally we give an account of the EPR–Bohm thought experiment and show that the interpretation implies the violation of the Bell inequality characteristic of quantum mechanics but in a way that is rather novel. The final conclusion is that the Copenhagen interpretation gives a completely satisfactory phenomenology of macro-systems interacting with micro-systems. (paper)

Integrated protection of humans and the environment: a view from Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Sakai, K

2018-01-01

Six and a half years after the accident at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, an area of existing exposure situation remains. One of the main concerns of people is the higher level of ionising radiation than before the accident, although this is not expected to have any discernible health effect. Since the accident, several 'abnormalities' in environmental organisms have been reported. It is still not clear if these abnormalities were induced by radiation. It appears that the impact of the released radioactivity has not been sufficient to threaten the maintenance of biological diversity, the conservation of species, or the health and status of natural habitats, which are the focus in environmental protection. This highlights a difference between the protection of humans and protection of the environment (individuals for humans and populations/species for the environment). The system for protection of the environment has been developed with a similar approach as the system for protection of humans. Reference Animals and Plants (RAPs) were introduced to connect exposure and doses in a way similar to that for Reference Male and Reference Female. RAPs can also be used as a tool to associate the level of radiation (dose rate) with the biological effects on an organism. A difference between the protection of humans and that of the environment was identified: an effect on humans is measured in terms of dose, and an effect on the environment is measured in terms of dose rate. In other words, protection criteria for humans are expressed in term of dose (as dose limits, dose constraints, and reference levels), whereas those for the environment are expressed in terms of dose rate (as derived consideration reference levels).

The nuclear spread: a Third World view

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kapur, A.

1980-01-01

The view of the Third World of nuclear power and international relations is contrasted with that of the superpowers. Aspects considered include the Non-Proliferation Treaty, factors for and against proliferation, regional and international environments, vertical versus horizontal proliferation. (U.K.)

Robot Vision to Monitor Structures in Invisible Fog Environments Using Active Imaging Technology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Seungkyu; Park, Nakkyu; Baik, Sunghoon; Choi, Youngsoo; Jeong, Kyungmin [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-05-15

Active vision is a direct visualization technique using a highly sensitive image sensor and a high intensity illuminant. Range-gated imaging (RGI) technique providing 2D and 3D images is one of emerging active vision technologies. The RGI technique extracts vision information by summing time sliced vision images. In the RGI system, objects are illuminated for ultra-short time by a high intensity illuminant and then the light reflected from objects is captured by a highly sensitive image sensor with the exposure of ultra-short time. The RGI system provides 2D and 3D image data from several images and it moreover provides clear images from invisible fog and smoke environment by using summing of time-sliced images. Nowadays, the Range-gated (RG) imaging is an emerging technology in the field of surveillance for security applications, especially in the visualization of invisible night and fog environment. Although RGI viewing was discovered in the 1960's, this technology is, nowadays, more and more applicable by virtue of the rapid development of optical and sensor technologies, such as highly sensitive imaging sensor and ultra-short pulse laser light. In contrast to passive vision systems, this technology enables operation even in harsh environments like fog and smoke. During the past decades, several applications of this technology have been applied in target recognition and in harsh environments, such as fog, underwater vision. Also, this technology has been demonstrated 3D imaging based on range-gated imaging. In this paper, a robot system to monitor structures in invisible fog environment is developed using an active range-gated imaging technique. The system consists of an ultra-short pulse laser device and a highly sensitive imaging sensor. The developed vision system is carried out to monitor objects in invisible fog environment. The experimental result of this newly approach vision system is described in this paper. To see invisible objects in fog

Robot Vision to Monitor Structures in Invisible Fog Environments Using Active Imaging Technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Seungkyu; Park, Nakkyu; Baik, Sunghoon; Choi, Youngsoo; Jeong, Kyungmin

2014-01-01

Active vision is a direct visualization technique using a highly sensitive image sensor and a high intensity illuminant. Range-gated imaging (RGI) technique providing 2D and 3D images is one of emerging active vision technologies. The RGI technique extracts vision information by summing time sliced vision images. In the RGI system, objects are illuminated for ultra-short time by a high intensity illuminant and then the light reflected from objects is captured by a highly sensitive image sensor with the exposure of ultra-short time. The RGI system provides 2D and 3D image data from several images and it moreover provides clear images from invisible fog and smoke environment by using summing of time-sliced images. Nowadays, the Range-gated (RG) imaging is an emerging technology in the field of surveillance for security applications, especially in the visualization of invisible night and fog environment. Although RGI viewing was discovered in the 1960's, this technology is, nowadays, more and more applicable by virtue of the rapid development of optical and sensor technologies, such as highly sensitive imaging sensor and ultra-short pulse laser light. In contrast to passive vision systems, this technology enables operation even in harsh environments like fog and smoke. During the past decades, several applications of this technology have been applied in target recognition and in harsh environments, such as fog, underwater vision. Also, this technology has been demonstrated 3D imaging based on range-gated imaging. In this paper, a robot system to monitor structures in invisible fog environment is developed using an active range-gated imaging technique. The system consists of an ultra-short pulse laser device and a highly sensitive imaging sensor. The developed vision system is carried out to monitor objects in invisible fog environment. The experimental result of this newly approach vision system is described in this paper. To see invisible objects in fog

Preparation of emergency care centre exercises

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schnadt, H.; Miska, H.

2011-01-01

Setup and operation of emergency care centres (sometimes also addressed as emergency reception centres) are part of emergency response in the environs of nuclear power plants. The preparation of an exercise scenario for such a centre is very demanding on the responsible agency. Therefore, a computer code has been developed which helps to translate the exercise objectives into instructions for figurants which simulate the affected population. These instructions are intended to steer a determined flow of people through the emergency care centre by providing fictitious radiological readings and by injecting the demand for additional actions of response personnel by statements and questions. (orig.)

Contrasting Views of Business Students' Writing Needs in an EFL Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Bacha, Nahla Nola; Bahous, Rima

2008-01-01

This paper reports on a study of business student and faculty views at the Lebanese American University as to the students' language proficiency levels, writing in particular, and what the specific writing needs are in order for students to be effective in their course work. The role of the English and business faculty is also investigated.…

40 CFR 355.12 - What quantities of extremely hazardous substances trigger emergency planning requirements?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... EMERGENCY PLANNING AND NOTIFICATION Emergency Planning Who Must Comply § 355.12 What quantities of extremely... 40 Protection of Environment 27 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What quantities of extremely hazardous substances trigger emergency planning requirements? 355.12 Section 355.12 Protection of Environment...

The safety implications of emerging software paradigms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suski, G.J.; Persons, W.L.; Johnson, G.L.

1994-10-01

This paper addresses some of the emerging software paradigms that may be used in developing safety-critical software applications. Paradigms considered in this paper include knowledge-based systems, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and fuzzy systems. It presents one view of the software verification and validation activities that should be associated with each paradigm. The paper begins with a discussion of the historical evolution of software verification and validation. Next, a comparison is made between the verification and validation processes used for conventional and emerging software systems. Several verification and validation issues for the emerging paradigms are discussed and some specific research topics are identified. This work is relevant for monitoring and control at nuclear power plants

Childhood temperament: passive gene-environment correlation, gene-environment interaction, and the hidden importance of the family environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn; Kao, Karen; Swann, Gregory; Goldsmith, H Hill

2013-02-01

Biological parents pass on genotypes to their children, as well as provide home environments that correlate with their genotypes; thus, the association between the home environment and children's temperament can be genetically (i.e., passive gene-environment correlation) or environmentally mediated. Furthermore, family environments may suppress or facilitate the heritability of children's temperament (i.e., gene-environment interaction). The sample comprised 807 twin pairs (mean age = 7.93 years) from the longitudinal Wisconsin Twin Project. Important passive gene-environment correlations emerged, such that home environments were less chaotic for children with high effortful control, and this association was genetically mediated. Children with high extraversion/surgency experienced more chaotic home environments, and this correlation was also genetically mediated. In addition, heritability of children's temperament was moderated by home environments, such that effortful control and extraversion/surgency were more heritable in chaotic homes, and negative affectivity was more heritable under crowded or unsafe home conditions. Modeling multiple types of gene-environment interplay uncovered the complex role of genetic factors and the hidden importance of the family environment for children's temperament and development more generally.

Factors Influencing Postsecondary STEM Students' Views of the Public Communication of an Emergent Technology: a Cross-National Study from Five Universities

Science.gov (United States)

Gardner, Grant E.; Jones, M. Gail; Albe, Virginie; Blonder, Ron; Laherto, Antti; Macher, Daniel; Paechter, Manuela

2017-10-01

Recent efforts in the science education community have highlighted the need to integrate research and theory from science communication research into more general science education scholarship. These synthesized research perspectives are relatively novel but serve an important need to better understand the impacts that the advent of rapidly emerging technologies will have on a new generation of scientists and engineers including their formal communication with engaged citizenry. This cross-national study examined postsecondary science and engineering students' ( n = 254 from five countries: Austria, Finland, France, Israel, and USA) perspectives on the role of science communication in their own formal science and engineering education. More broadly, we examined participants' understanding of their perceived responsibilities of communicating science and engineering to the general public when an issue contains complex social and ethical implications (SEI). The study is contextualized in the emergent technology of nanotechnology for which SEI are of particular concern and for which the general public often perceives conflicting risks and benefits. Findings indicate that student participants' hold similar views on the need for their own training in communication as future scientists and engineers. When asked about the role that ethics and risk perception plays in research, development, and public communication of nanotechnology, participants demonstrate similar trajectories of perspectives that are, however, often anchored in very different levels of beginning concern. Results are discussed in the context of considerations for science communication training within formal science education curricula globally.

A state-stewardship view on executive compensation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Liang, Hao; Renneboog, Luc; Li Sun, Sunny; Choi, J.; Powers, M.; Zhang, X.

2016-01-01

We take a state-stewardship view on the corporate governance model and executive compensation policies in economies with strong political involvement. In such a highly politically-oriented institutional environment, the business elites are not just professional managers but are also de facto

Focusing on the Environment to Improve Youth Participation: Experiences and Perspectives of Occupational Therapists.

Science.gov (United States)

Anaby, Dana; Law, Mary; Teplicky, Rachel; Turner, Laura

2015-10-23

The environment plays a key role in supporting children's participation and can serve as a focus of intervention. This study aimed to elicit the perceptions and experiences of occupational therapists who had applied the PREP approach--Pathways and Resources for Engagement and Participation. PREP is a novel 12-week intervention for youth with physical disabilities, aimed at improving participation in leisure community-based activities by modifying aspects of the environment. Using a qualitative post-intervention only design, 12 therapists took part in individual semi-structured interviews, in which the therapists reflected on their experience using PREP to enable participation. A thematic analysis was conducted. Four themes emerged from the data; two of which were informative in nature, describing elements of the PREP intervention that target multi-layered composition of the environment and use strategies that involve leveraging resources and problem solving. The two remaining themes were reflective in nature, illustrating a new take on the Occupational Therapy role and re-positioning the concept of participation in therapy practices. Results emphasize aspects of the environment that can serve as effective targets of intervention, guided by the PREP approach. Findings can broaden the scope and focus of occupational therapy practice by redefining views on participation and the environment.

Virtual View Image over Wireless Visual Sensor Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gamantyo Hendrantoro

2011-12-01

Full Text Available In general, visual sensors are applied to build virtual view images. When number of visual sensors increases then quantity and quality of the information improves. However, the view images generation is a challenging task in Wireless Visual Sensor Network environment due to energy restriction, computation complexity, and bandwidth limitation. Hence this paper presents a new method of virtual view images generation from selected cameras on Wireless Visual Sensor Network. The aim of the paper is to meet bandwidth and energy limitations without reducing information quality. The experiment results showed that this method could minimize number of transmitted imageries with sufficient information.

Emergency Physicians, Beware of the Consent Standard of Care

OpenAIRE

Moore, Gregory P.; Matlock, Aaron G.; Kiley, John L.; Percy, Katherine D.

2018-01-01

Many emergency physicians view informed consent as a necessary component of treatments or procedures to be performed on their patients. When such procedures are necessary, often there is a discussion of risks, benefits and alternatives with forms signed to validate the discussion. Two Wisconsin emergency department medical-legal cases have expanded liability of the duty of informed consent. These cases have focused on withholding medication and diagnostic tests.

Department of Energy Emergency Management Functional Requirements Study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1987-05-01

This Study, the Emergency Management Functional Requirements Study (EMFRS), identifies the physical environment, information resources, and equipment required in the DOE Headquarters Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to support the DOE staff in managing an emergency. It is the first step toward converting the present Forrestal EOC into a practical facility that will function well in each of the highly diverse types of emergencies in which the Department could be involved. 2 figs

Radiological protection of the environment from the Swedish point of view

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holm, Lars-Erik; Hubbard, Lynn; Larsson, Carl-Magnus; Sundell-Bergman, Synnoeve

2002-01-01

The current system of radiological protection is aimed at protecting human health, and largely neglects both the effects of radiation on the environment and the managerial aspects of environmental protection. The Swedish Radiation Protection Act was revised in 1988 and includes environmental protection as one of its aims. In practice, little guidance had been given in the regulations based on the Act until 1998, when the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority (SSI) formulated environmental aims in its regulations concerning protection of human health and the environment in connection to the final management of spent nuclear fuel and waste. These regulations focus on protection of biodiversity and biological resources, based on ecosystem characterisation. In a broader perspective, the Swedish Parliament established 15 national environmental quality objectives in 1999, covering all aspects of protecting the environment, including the effects of radiation. This paper reviews the background for radiological protection of the environment from both an international and a Swedish perspective, describing the aims and current activities in establishing a system for assessing environmental effects and their consequences that can be used in decision-making. Such activities are largely a result of the European Union research project FASSET (Framework for Assessment of Environmental Impact), carried out under the 5th Framework Programme of the Union. This work is complemented at the Swedish national level by government support to initiate a national environmental monitoring and assessment programme for characterising the radiation environment, which will provide the foundation for decision-making. (review)

The International Marketing Environment: Textbook Content versus Educators' Views

Science.gov (United States)

Leonidou, Leonidas C.; Kaminarides, John S.; Panayides, Photis

2007-01-01

The article analyzes the content of 18 international marketing academic textbooks with regard to factors comprising the global marketing environment. Three broad categories of factors are identified, the macro (i.e., physical, demographic, and socio-cultural), meso (i.e., economic, political-legal, and technological), and micro (i.e.,…

Time of flight imaging through scattering environments (Conference Presentation)

Science.gov (United States)

Le, Toan H.; Breitbach, Eric C.; Jackson, Jonathan A.; Velten, Andreas

2017-02-01

Light scattering is a primary obstacle to imaging in many environments. On small scales in biomedical microscopy and diffuse tomography scenarios scattering is caused by tissue. On larger scales scattering from dust and fog provide challenges to vision systems for self driving cars and naval remote imaging systems. We are developing scale models for scattering environments and investigation methods for improved imaging particularly using time of flight transient information. With the emergence of Single Photon Avalanche Diode detectors and fast semiconductor lasers, illumination and capture on picosecond timescales are becoming possible in inexpensive, compact, and robust devices. This opens up opportunities for new computational imaging techniques that make use of photon time of flight. Time of flight or range information is used in remote imaging scenarios in gated viewing and in biomedical imaging in time resolved diffuse tomography. In addition spatial filtering is popular in biomedical scenarios with structured illumination and confocal microscopy. We are presenting a combination analytical, computational, and experimental models that allow us develop and test imaging methods across scattering scenarios and scales. This framework will be used for proof of concept experiments to evaluate new computational imaging methods.

Analytical strategies for assessing ionophores in the environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Martin; Bjørklund, E.; Krogh, K A

2009-01-01

Ionophores are antiparasitic compounds used worldwide as prophylactic chemotherapeutics and growth promoters in livestock production. Several reports have revealed that ionophores are emerging environmental contaminants occurring in the environment in ......Ionophores are antiparasitic compounds used worldwide as prophylactic chemotherapeutics and growth promoters in livestock production. Several reports have revealed that ionophores are emerging environmental contaminants occurring in the environment in ...

Financial Intermediation In Agriculture In Nigeria: Emerging Role Of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

) - an NGO, with the Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (NACRDB) - a public sector finance agency in agricultural financing with a view to determining the emerging roles of NGOs in Nigeria's agricultural landscape ...

Dungeness Power Station off-site emergency plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-01-01

This off-site Emergency Plan in the event of an accidental release of radioactivity at the Dungeness Nuclear power station sets out the necessary management and coordination processes between Nuclear Electric, operators of the site, the emergency services and relevant local authorities. The objectives promoting the aim are identified and the activities which will be undertaken to protect the public and the environment in the event of an emergency are outlined. (UK)

Emergence and Evolution

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bullwinkle, Tammy J; Ibba, Michael

2013-01-01

ancestor and as such they provide insights into the evolution and development of the extant genetic code. Although the aaRSs have long been viewed as a highly conserved group of enzymes, findings within the last couple of decades have started to demonstrate how diverse and versatile these enzymes really...... are. Beyond their central role in translation, aaRSs and their numerous homologs have evolved a wide array of alternative functions both inside and outside translation. Current understanding of the emergence of the aaRSs, and their subsequent evolution into a functionally diverse enzyme family...

The emerging educator as leader and action researcher

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas G. RYAN

2009-06-01

Full Text Available The 320 pre-service educators in this inquiry were viewed as emerging classroom teacherswho were leading while grappling with new personal experiences which informed andguided each during the pre-service year. The written account evidence supported ourresulting inferences, discussion and conclusions and demonstrated the leadership requiredwithin pre-service. It was the analysis and synthesis of practicum reflections thatilluminated core beliefs, attitudes and needs of emerging action researchers as theydeveloped a professional and personal understanding of leadership, teaching and self.

A Novel Petri Nets-Based Modeling Method for the Interaction between the Sensor and the Geographic Environment in Emerging Sensor Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Feng; Xu, Yuetong; Chou, Jarong

2016-01-01

The service of sensor device in Emerging Sensor Networks (ESNs) is the extension of traditional Web services. Through the sensor network, the service of sensor device can communicate directly with the entity in the geographic environment, and even impact the geographic entity directly. The interaction between the sensor device in ESNs and geographic environment is very complex, and the interaction modeling is a challenging problem. This paper proposed a novel Petri Nets-based modeling method for the interaction between the sensor device and the geographic environment. The feature of the sensor device service in ESNs is more easily affected by the geographic environment than the traditional Web service. Therefore, the response time, the fault-tolerant ability and the resource consumption become important factors in the performance of the whole sensor application system. Thus, this paper classified IoT services as Sensing services and Controlling services according to the interaction between IoT service and geographic entity, and classified GIS services as data services and processing services. Then, this paper designed and analyzed service algebra and Colored Petri Nets model to modeling the geo-feature, IoT service, GIS service and the interaction process between the sensor and the geographic enviroment. At last, the modeling process is discussed by examples. PMID:27681730

A Novel Petri Nets-Based Modeling Method for the Interaction between the Sensor and the Geographic Environment in Emerging Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feng Zhang

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The service of sensor device in Emerging Sensor Networks (ESNs is the extension of traditional Web services. Through the sensor network, the service of sensor device can communicate directly with the entity in the geographic environment, and even impact the geographic entity directly. The interaction between the sensor device in ESNs and geographic environment is very complex, and the interaction modeling is a challenging problem. This paper proposed a novel Petri Nets-based modeling method for the interaction between the sensor device and the geographic environment. The feature of the sensor device service in ESNs is more easily affected by the geographic environment than the traditional Web service. Therefore, the response time, the fault-tolerant ability and the resource consumption become important factors in the performance of the whole sensor application system. Thus, this paper classified IoT services as Sensing services and Controlling services according to the interaction between IoT service and geographic entity, and classified GIS services as data services and processing services. Then, this paper designed and analyzed service algebra and Colored Petri Nets model to modeling the geo-feature, IoT service, GIS service and the interaction process between the sensor and the geographic enviroment. At last, the modeling process is discussed by examples.

Model Design on Emergency Power Supply of Electric Vehicle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuanliang Zhao

2017-01-01

Full Text Available According to the mobile storage characteristic of electric vehicles, an emergency power supply model about the electric vehicles is presented through analyzing its storage characteristic. The model can ensure important consumer loss minimization during power failure or emergency and can make electric vehicles cost minimization about running, scheduling, and vindicating. In view of the random dispersion feature in one area, an emergency power supply scheme using the electric vehicles is designed based on the K-means algorithm. The purpose is to improve the electric vehicles initiative gathering ability and reduce the electric vehicles gathering time. The study can reduce the number of other emergency power supply equipment and improve the urban electricity reliability.

Predict the emergence - Application to competencies in job offers

OpenAIRE

Abboud , Yacine; Boyer , Anne; Brun , Armelle

2015-01-01

International audience; —Predicting the emergence of an event enables to anticipate and make decisions upstream. For instance, in the employment sector, it becomes necessary to anticipate the emergence of competencies requirements to help job seekers, education and training organization to better match the needs of the job market. Several approaches address the competencies mining with ontologies, we adopt a different point of view by using pattern mining. We propose a new methodology to pred...

Emerging Power Europe

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zank, Wolfgang

2016-01-01

the only one to influence matters on a global scale besides, the US. Of particular importance in this context has been the growing attractiveness of the EU market and the considerable “soft power” which the EU exerts in some parts of the world. The paper reconstructs the most important steps of Europe......Many observers posit that a shift in global power has taken place the last many years, away from the West to “emerging powers”, in particular the BRICS. In contrast to this view, this paper accepts Moravcsik’s view that it has been the EU which has developed into the “second superpower”, being......’s rise, with emphasis on the “expansionist” character of the EU. Internal developments in the EU have been crucial for its growing external influence. The “expansionism” of the EU and its system has until recently been peaceful. In the case of Ukraine, however, another (regional) power has applied...

Coordination and carrying out of environment radioactivity measurement programmes in a radiological emergency situation, exploitation and restitution of results - Assessment of IRSN's actions and perspectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dubiau, Ph.

2010-01-01

After having recalled the content of the interdepartmental 'measurement directive' which defines the legal framework of radioactivity measurements in case of a radiological emergency situation, this report described the actions performed by the IRSN (Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire, the French Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety Institute) and concerning these measurements. It discusses how the measurement strategy is defined depending on the accident characteristics and on the environment. It discusses how measurement results are interpreted, and evokes some constraints and limits for this strategy during the emergency phase. A laboratory vehicle is briefly presented which enables sample preparation and measurement by various analysis techniques

Useful field of view test.

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, Joanne M; Owsley, Cynthia

2014-01-01

The useful field of view test was developed to reflect the visual difficulties that older adults experience with everyday tasks. Importantly, the useful field of view test (UFOV) is one of the most extensively researched and promising predictor tests for a range of driving outcomes measures, including driving ability and crash risk as well as other everyday tasks. Currently available commercial versions of the test can be administered using personal computers; these measure the speed of visual processing for rapid detection and localization of targets under conditions of divided visual attention and in the presence and absence of visual clutter. The test is believed to assess higher-order cognitive abilities, but performance also relies on visual sensory function because in order for targets to be attended to, they must be visible. The format of the UFOV has been modified over the years; the original version estimated the spatial extent of useful field of view, while the latest version measures visual processing speed. While deficits in the useful field of view are associated with functional impairments in everyday activities in older adults, there is also emerging evidence from several research groups that improvements in visual processing speed can be achieved through training. These improvements have been shown to reduce crash risk, and can have a positive impact on health and functional well-being, with the potential to increase the mobility and hence the independence of older adults. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel

Future Research on Cyber-Physical Emergency Management Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fang-Jing Wu

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Cyber-physical systems that include human beings and vehicles in a built environment, such as a building or a city, together with sensor networks and decision support systems have attracted much attention. In emergencies, which also include mobile searchers and rescuers, the interactions among civilians and the environment become much more diverse, and the complexity of the emergency response also becomes much greater. This paper surveys current research on sensor-assisted evacuation and rescue systems and discusses the related research issues concerning communication protocols for sensor networks, as well as several other important issues, such as the integrated asynchronous control of large-scale emergency response systems, knowledge discovery for rescue and prototyping platforms. Then, we suggest directions for further research.

Hanford Emergency Response Plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wagoner, J.D.

1994-04-01

The Hanford Emergency Response Plan for the US Department of Energy (DOE), Richland Operations Office (RL), incorporates into one document an overview of the emergency management program for the Hanford Site. The program has been developed in accordance with DOE orders, and state and federal regulations to protect worker and public health and safety and the environment in the event of an emergency at or affecting the Hanford Site. This plan provides a description of how the Hanford Site will implement the provisions of DOE 5500 series and other applicable Orders in terms of overall policies and concept of operations. It should be used as the basis, along with DOE Orders, for the development of specific contractor and RL implementing procedures

Hanford Emergency Response Plan

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wagoner, J.D.

1994-04-01

The Hanford Emergency Response Plan for the US Department of Energy (DOE), Richland Operations Office (RL), incorporates into one document an overview of the emergency management program for the Hanford Site. The program has been developed in accordance with DOE orders, and state and federal regulations to protect worker and public health and safety and the environment in the event of an emergency at or affecting the Hanford Site. This plan provides a description of how the Hanford Site will implement the provisions of DOE 5500 series and other applicable Orders in terms of overall policies and concept of operations. It should be used as the basis, along with DOE Orders, for the development of specific contractor and RL implementing procedures.

Emerging Water Contaminants: Technical, Legal and Policy Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Deeb, R. A.; Kresic, N.; Laugier, M. C.; Kavanaugh, M. C.

2002-12-01

Approximately 120 new chemicals are created each year due to ever-improving industry and technology markets. Releases of new contaminants into the environment can occur during production, use and disposal of these chemicals thereby leading to potential contamination of water supply sources. Very few emerging contaminants are regulated. In addition, knowledge gaps regarding emerging contaminants include lack health effects, occurrence (either because these compounds are not measured or because concentrations are below detection limits of readily available analytical techniques) and fate and transport in the environment especially with regards to mobility and persistence. The sources of these compounds are numerous. One source is treated wastewater, which is re-injected into groundwater aquifers for indirect potable reuse purposes. Emerging compounds of concern can be classified in various classes. This presentation will focus on contaminants, which have emerged in the last 10 years including pharmaceuticals (antibiotics/drugs), personal care products (polycyclic musks), pesticides/herbicides, industrial solvents (1,4-dioxane), gasoline additives (MTBE), disinfection byproducts such as NDMA (N-nitrosodimethylamine), and inorganic compounds such as perchlorate and arsenic. This presentation will present technical, legal and legislative challenges posed by the presence of these contaminants in water. Background information including chemical's history of use, sources in the environments, nationwide occurrence, physical and chemical properties, behavior in the environment and technologies for removal from soil and water will be presented. In addition, case studies on MTBE, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, 1,4-dioxane, arsenic and NDMA will be discussed.

Increased risk environment for emergency general surgery in the context of regionalization and specialization.

Science.gov (United States)

Beecher, S; O'Leary, D P; McLaughlin, R

2015-09-01

The pressures on tertiary hospitals with increased volume and complexity related to regionalization and specialization has impacted upon availability of operating theatres with consequent displacement of emergencies to high risk out of hours settings. A retrospective review of an electronic emergency theatre list prospectively maintained database was performed over a two year period. Data gathered included type of operation performed, Time to Theatre (TTT), operation start time and length of stay (LOS). Of 7041 emergency operations 25% were performed out of hours. 2949 patient had general surgical emergency procedures with 910 (30%) performed out of hours. 53% of all emergency laparotomies and 54% of appendicectomies were out of hours. 57% of cases operated on out of hours had been awaiting surgery during the day. Mean TTT was shorter for those admitted at the weekend compared to those admitted during the week (15.6 vs 24.9 h) (p emergency surgery is performed out of hours in a way unfavorable to good clinical outcomes. It is of concern that more than half of the most life threating procedures involving laparotomy, take place out of hours. Regionalization needs to be accompanied by infrastructure planning to accommodate emergency surgery. Copyright © 2015 IJS Publishing Group Limited. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmental monitoring in emergency situations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1966-01-01

This manual gives technical guidance on emergency monitoring procedures to those who would have to assess the situation after an accident leading to the uncontrolled release of radioactive substances to the environment. Its aim is to draw attention to the important factors that should be considered in formulating emergency plans. The seven annexes contain inventories of fission products and possible releases; dispersion, deposition and dose-exposure relationships for airborne releases; α-, β- and γ-radiation surveys; information on sample collection and field evaluation; and brief descriptions of the environmental monitoring procedures adopted in previous emergencies (Windscale 1957, AERE Harwell 1961 and NRTS Idaho 1961).

Trust and Compliance Management Models in Emerging Outsourcing Environments

OpenAIRE

Pasic , Aljosa; Bareño , Juan; Gallego-Nicasio , Beatriz; Torres , Rubén; Fernandez , Daniel

2010-01-01

International audience; Businesses today have more than ever a sharp focus on reducing capital and operational expenses. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) and adoption of shared service models have all increased on a global scale. This results in an emerging complexity and volatility of business relationships. As the future internet of services evolves towards dynamic "service marketplaces", where shared services are discovered, negotiated and choreograph...

Institutional planning for radiation emergencies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keil, E.R.

1986-01-01

Persons providing health care pride themselves on their ability to handle emergencies. This pride is born of the daily experience of caring for the sick and injured. Emergencies include traumatic injuries, sudden changes in health status, and various minor disturbances in the physical environment inside the hospital. The effectiveness of this ability is unquestioned in limited-scale problems. However, survey experience of the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH) reveals weaknesses when health care organizations are faced with larger scale problems such as earthquakes and plane crashes. One may speculate that a massive emergency such as occurred at Chernobyl would overwhelm this ability. Based on the same survey experience, JCAH believes that health care organizations can plan and train to prepare for large-scale emergencies in a careful and systematic manner. Through such study and practice, their existing confidence and ability to deal with limited emergencies can be explained

Unlikely Optimists, Skeptics, and Believers: Understanding Adolescents' Prospective Relationship Views

Science.gov (United States)

Halpern-Meekin, Sarah

2012-01-01

Attitudes formed in adolescence create a foundation for family-formation decisions in adulthood. Drawing on qualitative interviews with fifty American adolescents, this article details five relationship-relevant factors that emerge in the teens' discussions of their relationship views. These are personal communication style, divorce acceptance,…

Environment and Growth

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Horii, Ryo; Ikefuji, Masako

. In a less developed country, this link, which we call “limits to growth,” emerges as the “poverty-environment trap,” which explains the persistent international inequality both in terms of income and environment. This link also threatens the sustainability of the world’s economic growth, particularly when...... the emission of greenhouse gases raises the risk of natural disasters. Stronger environmental policies are required to overcome this link. While there is a trade-off between the environment and growth in the short run, we show that an appropriate policy can improve both in the long run....

[Job perception, work conditions and burnout in emergency workers].

Science.gov (United States)

Argentero, P; Setti, I

2008-01-01

The psychological syndrome of burnout in the helping professions has received much attention. Numerous studies have investigated the risk factors involved and their negative consequences for those whose work brings them into contact with people in states of physical and psychological suffering. In particular, emergency workers like police officers, fire-fighters and ambulance personnel who witness critical events are at high risk of developing negative psychological effects. Despite the ample literature investigating burnout in single emergency worker categories, currently there are few studies that deal with this topic from a comparative point of view, i.e. comparing the conditions of wellbeing of emergency workers across different organizations. The main aim of this pilot study was to compare different categories of emergency workers (83 ambulance workers, 42 operators of 118--free local health emergency service, 112 fire-fighters and 61 police officers) in order to identify which present a condition of wellbeing and which, on the contrary, may foster the burnout syndrome. Subjects were administered the Organizational Checkup System (OCS) to evaluate subjects' risk of burnout and their perception of their own work role and of their organizational environment. The second aim of this paper was to compare subjects on the basis of the main socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age and work seniority) in order to verify the presence of meaningful differences due, not just to the specific work category, but also to different subjective variables. The findings showed a condition of wellbeing, e.g. a high level of Energy and Involvement, in police officers as compared to 118 operators, who instead displayed a psychological state of burnout. Concerning the perception of organizational characteristics, fire-fighters displayed significant Control on tasks performed and good Social Integration in their work team. Furthermore, we noted the alignment of personal and

Zoonosis emergence linked to agricultural intensification and environmental change.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Bryony A; Grace, Delia; Kock, Richard; Alonso, Silvia; Rushton, Jonathan; Said, Mohammed Y; McKeever, Declan; Mutua, Florence; Young, Jarrah; McDermott, John; Pfeiffer, Dirk Udo

2013-05-21

A systematic review was conducted by a multidisciplinary team to analyze qualitatively best available scientific evidence on the effect of agricultural intensification and environmental changes on the risk of zoonoses for which there are epidemiological interactions between wildlife and livestock. The study found several examples in which agricultural intensification and/or environmental change were associated with an increased risk of zoonotic disease emergence, driven by the impact of an expanding human population and changing human behavior on the environment. We conclude that the rate of future zoonotic disease emergence or reemergence will be closely linked to the evolution of the agriculture-environment nexus. However, available research inadequately addresses the complexity and interrelatedness of environmental, biological, economic, and social dimensions of zoonotic pathogen emergence, which significantly limits our ability to predict, prevent, and respond to zoonotic disease emergence.

Viewing nature scenes positively affects recovery of autonomic function following acute-mental stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Daniel K; Barton, Jo L; Gladwell, Valerie F

2013-06-04

A randomized crossover study explored whether viewing different scenes prior to a stressor altered autonomic function during the recovery from the stressor. The two scenes were (a) nature (composed of trees, grass, fields) or (b) built (composed of man-made, urban scenes lacking natural characteristics) environments. Autonomic function was assessed using noninvasive techniques of heart rate variability; in particular, time domain analyses evaluated parasympathetic activity, using root-mean-square of successive differences (RMSSD). During stress, secondary cardiovascular markers (heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure) showed significant increases from baseline which did not differ between the two viewing conditions. Parasympathetic activity, however, was significantly higher in recovery following the stressor in the viewing scenes of nature condition compared to viewing scenes depicting built environments (RMSSD; 50.0 ± 31.3 vs 34.8 ± 14.8 ms). Thus, viewing nature scenes prior to a stressor alters autonomic activity in the recovery period. The secondary aim was to examine autonomic function during viewing of the two scenes. Standard deviation of R-R intervals (SDRR), as change from baseline, during the first 5 min of viewing nature scenes was greater than during built scenes. Overall, this suggests that nature can elicit improvements in the recovery process following a stressor.

Ethical issues in the response to Ebola virus disease in United States emergency departments: a position paper of the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Emergency Nurses Association, and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Venkat, Arvind; Asher, Shellie L; Wolf, Lisa; Geiderman, Joel M; Marco, Catherine A; McGreevy, Jolion; Derse, Arthur R; Otten, Edward J; Jesus, John E; Kreitzer, Natalie P; Escalante, Monica; Levine, Adam C

2015-05-01

The 2014 outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa has presented a significant public health crisis to the international health community and challenged U.S. emergency departments (EDs) to prepare for patients with a disease of exceeding rarity in developed nations. With the presentation of patients with Ebola to U.S. acute care facilities, ethical questions have been raised in both the press and medical literature as to how U.S. EDs, emergency physicians (EPs), emergency nurses, and other stakeholders in the health care system should approach the current epidemic and its potential for spread in the domestic environment. To address these concerns, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Emergency Nurses Association, and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine developed this joint position paper to provide guidance to U.S. EPs, emergency nurses, and other stakeholders in the health care system on how to approach the ethical dilemmas posed by the outbreak of EVD. This paper will address areas of immediate and potential ethical concern to U.S. EDs in how they approach preparation for and management of potential patients with EVD. © 2015 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Construction materials, monuments and environment

Science.gov (United States)

Prikryl, R.; Siegesmund, S.; Török, A.; Brimblecombe, P.; Gomez-Heras, M.

2012-04-01

Construction materials (natural stone, aggregates, bricks, cement, lime, mortar, etc.) form a wide and heterogeneous group both from the genetic and technological point of view. These materials deserve attention from the scientific community due to their long-term use, importance for society and sensitivity to the environment. Most geomaterials have also been used in important monuments designated as a part of the World Cultural Heritage and/or make part of national monuments. Despite of the wide-ranges of studies and our rapidly increasing understanding of material behaviour, our knowledge is still rather limited in many aspects. This concerns the characterisation of traditional raw materials, the knowledge of their processing and use, and/or durability and compatibility assessment. The exploitation and sustainable use of these materials are also new and emerging challenges in the modern society. The use of local materials for monuments can be considered as a part of our cultural and technological heritage, which has, however, significantly deteriorated during the past several decades. This paper summarizes the general topics related to a modern analysis of traditional construction materials derived from the Earth, and on the characteristic aspects of the behaviour of these materials on selected monuments.

Generic emergence of classical features in quantum Darwinism

Science.gov (United States)

Brandão, Fernando G. S. L.; Piani, Marco; Horodecki, Paweł

2015-08-01

Quantum Darwinism posits that only specific information about a quantum system that is redundantly proliferated to many parts of its environment becomes accessible and objective, leading to the emergence of classical reality. However, it is not clear under what conditions this mechanism holds true. Here we prove that the emergence of classical features along the lines of quantum Darwinism is a general feature of any quantum dynamics: observers who acquire information indirectly through the environment have effective access at most to classical information about one and the same measurement of the quantum system. Our analysis does not rely on a strict conceptual splitting between a system-of-interest and its environment, and allows one to interpret any system as part of the environment of any other system. Finally, our approach leads to a full operational characterization of quantum discord in terms of local redistribution of correlations.

40 CFR 264.227 - Emergency repairs; contingency plans.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 25 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Emergency repairs; contingency plans... FACILITIES Surface Impoundments § 264.227 Emergency repairs; contingency plans. (a) A surface impoundment... days after detecting the problem. (c) As part of the contingency plan required in subpart D of this...

Parenting and Preschooler TV Viewing in Low-Income Mexican Americans: Development of the Parenting Practices Regarding TV Viewing (PPRTV) Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Darcy A; Johnson, Susan L; Vandewater, Elizabeth A; Schmiege, Sarah J; Boles, Richard E; Lev, Jerusha; Tschann, Jeanne M

2016-01-01

To develop and test a comprehensive, culturally based measure of parenting practices regarding television (TV) viewing in low-income Mexican-American mothers of preschoolers. Low-income Mexican-American female primary caregivers of preschoolers were recruited in urban safety-net pediatric clinics during the 2013 to 2014 academic year. Items on parenting practices regarding TV viewing were developed from a prior scale, review of the literature, and results from semistructured interviews. Items were administered by phone, and analyses included evaluation of the factor structure and psychometric properties of a 40-item measure of parenting practices regarding TV viewing (PPRTV). Using exploratory factor analysis, a 7-factor model emerged as the best fit for the data representing the following domains of parenting practices: time restriction, behavioral control, instructive practices, coviewing, planful restriction, reactive content restriction, and commercial endorsement. Internal reliabilities were acceptable (Cronbach's alpha >.75). Correlations among the resulting subscales were small to moderate (rs = 0.01-0.43). Subscales were correlated with child TV viewing amounts: time restriction (-0.14, p TV use. Results of such work will be important to informing the design of interventions aiming to ensure healthy screen media habits in young children.

Display conditions that influence wayfinding in virtual environments

Science.gov (United States)

Browse, Roger A.; Gray, Derek W. S.

2006-02-01

As virtual environments may be used in training and evaluation for critical real navigation tasks, it is important to investigate the factors influencing navigational performance in virtual environments. We have carried out controlled experiments involving two visual factors known to induce or sustain vection, the illusory perception of self-motion. The first experiment had subjects navigate mazes with either a narrow or wide field of view. We measured the percentage of wrong turns, the total time taken for each attempt, and we examined subjects' drawings of the mazes. We found that a wide field of view can have a substantial effect on navigational abilities, even when the wide field of view does not offer any additional clues to the task, and really only provides a larger view of blank walls on the sides. The second experiment evaluated the effect of perspective accuracy in the scene by comparing the use of displays that were corrected for changing head position against those that were not corrected. The perspective corrections available through headtracking did not appear have any influence on navigational abilities. Another component of our study suggests that during navigation in a virtual environment, memory for directions may not be as effective as it could be with supplemental symbolic representations.

Emerging pollutants in the environment: A challenge for water resource management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Violette Geissen

2015-03-01

A combination of regulations and management measures with respect to use/emissions of EPs into the environment, as well as to their occurrence in the environment are fundamental to reach an efficient water resource management.

Developing competitive advantage through startups and venture capital in emerging markets: A view from Israel.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander Maune

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This article presents an examination of the emergence and co-evolution of startups and venture capital that led to the transformation of Israel into a Start-Up and Innovation Nation since its inception in 1948. Throughout, the co-evolution of startups and venture capital was considered a critical linkage between venture capital emergence and startup intensive cluster. The article also examined the three phased evolutionary model of 1969 to 2000. A discursive approach of related relevant literature was used. The study found out that the co-evolution of startups and venture capital, policy targeting and a network of a number of other factors as will be discussed in the three phased evolutionary model were critical to the emergence and change of the Israeli high-technology industry into a high-technology startup intensive industry. Israel has become the second largest world market for venture capital with more than 240 venture capitals since 1992. Israel has also become the lead in research and development attracting more than 270 multinational companies with more than 250 establishing research centers and employing over 108 000 in the country. The study also found that Israel leads other nations in per capita startups, engineers, scientists and technicians. This article will be critical for policy formulation and implementation especially in Emerging Markets. This article may lead to a shift in strategy in many emerging countries. This article will also help expand the academic knowledge by filling the existing gaps within the body of knowledge. Therefore, the article has academic, economic and policy value.

A Chinese view of the Western nursing metaparadigm.

Science.gov (United States)

Kao, Hsueh-Fen Sabrina; Reeder, Francelyn M; Hsu, Min-Tao; Cheng, Su-Fen

2006-06-01

The purpose of this article is to reveal Chinese-rooted meanings present within the Western nursing metaparadigm and to illustrate some similarities with Rogers's Science of Unitary Human Beings. Confucian and Taoist beliefs have the potential to illuminate the basic constructs inherent in holistic nursing. The Western nursing metaparadigm of four concepts--person, nursing, health, and environment--was explored through the lens of a Chinese worldview and led to the presentation of a broadened view for an integrated model of nursing. Asian and Western worldviews of human beings and health are not mutually exclusive. The Chinese holistic worldview of Taoism and Confucianism resonates theoretically and cosmically with the dynamic nature of the human-environment mutual relationship basic to Rogers' unitary view. This strong, theoretical link, when elaborated for its similarities and implications, can broaden the knowledge base to guide contemporary nursing practice, education, and research, particularly relevant for holistic nursing.

[Anthropocene and Emerging viral diseases].

Science.gov (United States)

Chastel, C

2016-08-01

We propose to bring together the new geologic concept of Anthropocene and its consequences on our environment with the observed increasing emergence of new viruses - a pathogen for both humans and animals, mainly since the mid of the twentieth century.

The state of emergency obstetric care services in Nairobi informal settlements and environs: Results from a maternity health facility survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saliku Teresa

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Maternal mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa remains a challenge with estimates exceeding 1,000 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in some countries. Successful prevention of maternal deaths hinges on adequate and quality emergency obstetric care. In addition to skilled personnel, there is need for a supportive environment in terms of essential drugs and supplies, equipment, and a referral system. Many household surveys report a reasonably high proportion of women delivering in health facilities. However, the quality and adequacy of facilities and personnel are often not assessed. The three delay model; 1 delay in making the decision to seek care; 2 delay in reaching an appropriate obstetric facility; and 3 delay in receiving appropriate care once at the facility guided this project. This paper examines aspects of the third delay by assessing quality of emergency obstetric care in terms of staffing, skills equipment and supplies. Methods We used data from a survey of 25 maternity health facilities within or near two slums in Nairobi that were mentioned by women in a household survey as places that they delivered. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Kenya Medical Research Institute. Permission was also sought from the Ministry of Health and the Medical Officer of Health. Data collection included interviews with the staff in-charge of maternity wards using structured questionnaires. We collected information on staffing levels, obstetric procedures performed, availability of equipment and supplies, referral system and health management information system. Results Out of the 25 health facilities, only two met the criteria for comprehensive emergency obstetric care (both located outside the two slums while the others provided less than basic emergency obstetric care. Lack of obstetric skills, equipment, and supplies hamper many facilities from providing lifesaving emergency obstetric procedures. Accurate estimation of burden

Seeing is (Not) Believing: How Viewing Pornography Shapes the Religious Lives of Young Americans

Science.gov (United States)

Perry, Samuel L.; Hayward, George M.

2017-01-01

Pornography has become increasingly accessible in the United States, and particularly for younger Americans. While some research considers how pornography use affects the sexual and psychological health of adolescents and emerging adults, sociologists have given little attention to how viewing pornography may shape young Americans’ connection to key social and cultural institutions, like religion. This article examines whether viewing pornography may actually have a secularizing effect, reducing young Americans’ personal religiosity over time. To test for this, we use data from three waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion. Fixed-effects regression models show that more frequent pornography viewing diminishes religious service attendance, importance of religious faith, prayer frequency, and perceived closeness to God, while increasing religious doubts. These effects hold regardless of gender. The effects of viewing pornography on importance of faith, closeness to God, and religious doubts are stronger for teenagers compared to emerging adults. In light of the rapidly growing availability and acceptance of pornography for young Americans, our findings suggest that scholars must consider how increasingly pervasive pornography consumption may shape both the religious lives of young adults and also the future landscape of American religion more broadly. PMID:28546649

The emerging educator as leader and action researcher

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas G. Ryan

2009-06-01

Full Text Available The 320 pre-service educators in this inquiry were viewed as emerging classroom teachers who were leading while grappling with new personal experiences which informed and guided each during the pre-service year. The written account evidence supported our resulting inferences, discussion and conclusions and demonstrated the leadership required within pre-service. It was the analysis and synthesis of practicum reflections that illuminated core beliefs, attitudes and needs of emerging action researchers as they developed a professional and personal understanding of leadership, teaching and self

A new view of the bacterial cytosol environment.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benjamin P Cossins

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The cytosol is the major environment in all bacterial cells. The true physical and dynamical nature of the cytosol solution is not fully understood and here a modeling approach is applied. Using recent and detailed data on metabolite concentrations, we have created a molecular mechanical model of the prokaryotic cytosol environment of Escherichia coli, containing proteins, metabolites and monatomic ions. We use 200 ns molecular dynamics simulations to compute diffusion rates, the extent of contact between molecules and dielectric constants. Large metabolites spend ∼80% of their time in contact with other molecules while small metabolites vary with some only spending 20% of time in contact. Large non-covalently interacting metabolite structures mediated by hydrogen-bonds, ionic and π stacking interactions are common and often associate with proteins. Mg(2+ ions were prominent in NIMS and almost absent free in solution. Κ(+ is generally not involved in NIMSs and populates the solvent fairly uniformly, hence its important role as an osmolyte. In simulations containing ubiquitin, to represent a protein component, metabolite diffusion was reduced owing to long lasting protein-metabolite interactions. Hence, it is likely that with larger proteins metabolites would diffuse even more slowly. The dielectric constant of these simulations was found to differ from that of pure water only through a large contribution from ubiquitin as metabolite and monatomic ion effects cancel. These findings suggest regions of influence specific to particular proteins affecting metabolite diffusion and electrostatics. Also some proteins may have a higher propensity for associations with metabolites owing to their larger electrostatic fields. We hope that future studies may be able to accurately predict how binding interactions differ in the cytosol relative to dilute aqueous solution.

Natural crayfish clone as emerging model for various biological ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Journal of Biosciences; Volume 36; Issue 2. Marmorkrebs: Natural crayfish clone as emerging model for various biological disciplines. Günter Vogt. Mini-review Volume 36 Issue 2 June 2011 pp 377-382. Fulltext. Click here to view fulltext PDF. Permanent link:

Technologies for dealing with information overload : an engineers' point of view

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Calders, T.G.K.; Fletcher, G.H.L.; Kamiran, F.; Pechenizkiy, M.; Strother, J.B.; Ulijn, J.M.; Fazal, Z.

2012-01-01

In this chapter, we provide an overview of the technological side of the information overload problem. We discuss the challenges and opportunities offered by the ever-growing and emerging stream of information from an engineering point of view. More concretely, we survey storage and querying

Nuclear emergency preparedness in the Netherlands

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dal, A.H.; Molhoek, W.; Leest, A.M.M.; Moen, J.E.T.; Sonderen, J.F. van; Aldenkamp, F.J.

1997-01-01

The Dutch organisation for nuclear emergency management has been described in previous papers. Briefly, the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment (VROM) and the Ministry of the Interior (BIZA) coordinate the input of all other Ministries and agencies at the government level, and provide the general strategy for dealing with the situation at hand. Any indication of a possible nuclear incident may alert the organization. Signals indicating, such incidents are continuously collected by the Emergency Management Department a VROM in the Hague. An expert group is permanently available for the evaluation of serious warnings, either via bilateral or other international contacts (IAEA, EC, neighbouring countries) or through the Dutch early warning monitoring network via the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). The chairman of this evaluation group has the authority to decide whether to start up the National Organization for Nuclear Emergency Management. Its start means the installation of a Policy Team of Cabinet Ministers or their representatives, and the involvement of many authorities and organizations at the national, provincial and local levels

An Instructional Method for the AutoCAD Modeling Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohler, James L.

1997-01-01

Presents a command organizer for AutoCAD to aid new uses in operating within the 3-D modeling environment. Addresses analyzing the problem, visualization skills, nonlinear tools, a static view of a dynamic model, the AutoCAD organizer, environment attributes, and control of the environment. Contains 11 references. (JRH)

New Emergency control center of Slovenske Elektrarne Bohunice NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pecko, E.

2012-01-01

Emergency preparedness of nuclear power plant and operation assurance in case of a possible emergency calls to have devices for emergency response with equipment for rapid detection and continuous evaluation of anticipated events. Chief executive body designated to manage a nuclear power plant during major events is the emergency committee (EC). Emergency Committee is a part of the Emergency Response Organization (ERO). The following centers are on alert to ensure the activities of the ERO - Emergency Response office: - control room (CR) and emergency control room (ECR); - emergency management center (EMC); - Monitoring Centre (MC); - emergency backup control center (EBCC); - congregations of civil protection (CP) and CP shelters; - communications with warning and notification system (VARVYR). From a historical and practical point of view in the vicinity of Jaslovske Bohunice has been set up a joint emergency control center. The center was located on the territory of the former already inoperative V1 NPP. V1 NPP is currently integrated into the organizational structure of JAVYS. Operating Bohunice V2 NPP plant is a designated part of the Slovenske Elektrarne, a. s., whose majority owner is an Italian operator ENEL. In terms of various relevant factors, it was decided to build a new emergency management center on the territory of operating V2 NPP, meet the current standards.

Sick of Health Care Politics? Comparing Views of Quality of Care Between Democrats and Republicans.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, Kirstin W; Blendon, Robert J; Benson, John M

Improving the quality of care delivered by the U.S. health care system is a topic of important policy and political debate. Although public opinion surveys have shown concerns regarding the state of quality of care nationally, the majority of Americans are satisfied with the quality of care they personally receive. Studies have shown that Republicans and Democrats may differ in these views. We used a 2012 national survey of 1,508 American adults that captured perceptions of quality, political party, medical experiences, and self-reported interactions with the health care system due to an illness to examine these differences. Regardless of having a recent illness or hospitalization, Democrats generally expressed greater concerns about the country's state of health care quality relative to Republicans. Partisan differences also emerged when identifying the most important problems contributing to quality-of-care deficiencies in the nation. However, partisan differences were nonexistent on measures related to self-reported experiences with quality of care. Although their individual experiences with quality of care do not differ, Republicans and Democrats differ in their views on national quality-of-care issues. This may have implications for efforts to improve quality of care in the current polarized healthcare environment.

The Prefrontal Cortex Activity and Psychological Effects of Viewing Forest Landscapes in Autumn Season.

Science.gov (United States)

Joung, Dawou; Kim, Geonwoo; Choi, Yoonho; Lim, HyoJin; Park, Soonjoo; Woo, Jong-Min; Park, Bum-Jin

2015-06-26

Recently reported research indicate that forest environments have physiological and psychological relaxing effects compared to urban environments. However, some researchers claim that the stress of the subjects from being watched by others during measurements can affect the measurement result in urban experiments conducted in the center of a street. The present study was conducted to determine whether forest environments have physiological and psychological relaxing effects, using comparison of viewing a forest area with viewing an urban area from the roof of an urban building without being watched by others. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) measurement was performed on subjects while they viewed scenery for 15 min at each experimental site (urban and forest areas). Subjective assessments were performed after the NIRS measurement was complete. Total hemoglobin and oxyhemoglobin concentrations were significantly lower in the forest area than in the urban area. For semantic differential in subjective assessments, feelings of "comfortable", "natural", and "soothed" were significantly higher in the forest area than in the urban area, and for profile of mood states, negative emotions were significantly lower in the forest area than in the urban area. The results of physiological and psychological measurements show that viewing the forest enabled effective relaxation.

Radiation Emergency Planning in Petroleum Industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El-Shinawy, R.M.K.; El-Naggar, M.A.; Abdel-Fattah, A.T.; Gomaa, A.M.

2001-01-01

Similar to all industrial activities utilizing radiation sources, or dealing with radioactive materials in its operations, petroleum industry requires the organization of a Radiation Emergency Plan. This plan should be based on a comprehensive and subtle understanding of the extensive multidisciplinary operations involved in petroleum processing and the dangers that threaten human health, environment and property; both from ordinary emergency situations common to petroleum industry activities and also from radiation emergency events. Radiation emergencies include radiological source accidents involving occurrence of high dose exposures. Radioactive contamination or spill are also major problems that may cause low dose exposures and environmental radioactive contamination. The simultaneous occurrence of other industrial emergency events such as fires or structural collapses will add to the seriousness of the emergency situation. The essential aspects of Radiation Emergency Planning include notification, assessment of situation, foresight, definition of roles and responsibilities including health safety and environmental concepts. An important contribution to the Emergency Planning is the proper intelligent medical response. Another essential parameter is the training of personnel that will undertake the responsibility of executing the emergency procedures according to the various emergency situations. The main features of the radiation Emergency Plan in Petroleum industry is presented in the text

IAEA emergency response network ERNET. Emergency preparedness and response. Date effective: 1 December 2002

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-04-01

The Parties to the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency have undertaken to co-operate among themselves and with the IAEA in facilitating the prompt provision of assistance in the event of a nuclear accident or radiological emergency, and in minimizing the consequences and in protecting life, property and the environment from the effects of any radioactive releases. As part of the IAEA strategy for supporting such co-operation, the Secretariat of the IAEA is establishing a global Emergency Response Network (ERNET) of teams suitably qualified to respond rapidly, on a regional basis, to nuclear accidents or radiological emergencies. This manual sets out the criteria and requirements to be met by ERNET teams. It is intended for use by institutions in Member States in developing, applying and maintaining their emergency response capabilities and in implementing quality assurance programmes within the context of ERNET. The manual is worded on the assumption that a State Competent Authority designated as the body responsible for reacting to nuclear accidents or radiological emergencies which occur outside the jurisdiction of that State will be the State Contact Point for receiving requests for assistance from the IAEA under the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency

IAEA emergency response network ERNET. Emergency preparedness and response. Date effective: 1 December 2000

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-12-01

The Parties to the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency have undertaken to co-operate among themselves and with the IAEA in facilitating the prompt provision of assistance in the event of a nuclear accident or radiological emergency, and in minimizing the consequences and in protecting life, property and the environment from the effects of any radioactive releases. As part of the IAEA strategy for supporting such co-operation, the Secretariat of the IAEA is establishing a global Emergency Response Network (ERNET) of teams suitably qualified to respond rapidly, on a regional basis, to nuclear accidents or radiological emergencies. This manual sets out the criteria and requirements to be met by ERNET teams. It is intended for use by institutions in Member States in developing, applying and maintaining their emergency response capabilities and in implementing quality assurance programmes within the context of ERNET. The manual is worded on the assumption that a State Competent Authority designated as the body responsible for reacting to nuclear accidents or radiological emergencies which occur outside the jurisdiction of that State will be the State Contact Point for receiving requests for assistance from the IAEA under the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency

40 CFR 355.11 - To what substances do the emergency planning requirements of this subpart apply?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... PLANNING AND NOTIFICATION Emergency Planning Who Must Comply § 355.11 To what substances do the emergency... 40 Protection of Environment 27 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false To what substances do the emergency planning requirements of this subpart apply? 355.11 Section 355.11 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL...

Early urban impact on Mediterranean coastal environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaniewski, David; Van Campo, Elise; Morhange, Christophe; Guiot, Joël; Zviely, Dov; Shaked, Idan; Otto, Thierry; Artzy, Michal

2013-12-18

A common belief is that, unlike today, ancient urban areas developed in a sustainable way within the environmental limits of local natural resources and the ecosystem's capacity to respond. This long-held paradigm is based on a weak knowledge of the processes underpinning the emergence of urban life and the rise of an urban-adapted environment in and beyond city boundaries. Here, we report a 6000-year record of environmental changes around the port city of Akko (Acre), Israel, to analyse ecological processes and patterns stemming from the emergence and growth of urban life. We show that early urban development deeply transformed pre-existing ecosystems, swiftly leading to an urban environment already governed by its own ecological rules and this, since the emergence of the cities.

Early urban impact on Mediterranean coastal environments

Science.gov (United States)

Kaniewski, David; van Campo, Elise; Morhange, Christophe; Guiot, Joël; Zviely, Dov; Shaked, Idan; Otto, Thierry; Artzy, Michal

2013-12-01

A common belief is that, unlike today, ancient urban areas developed in a sustainable way within the environmental limits of local natural resources and the ecosystem's capacity to respond. This long-held paradigm is based on a weak knowledge of the processes underpinning the emergence of urban life and the rise of an urban-adapted environment in and beyond city boundaries. Here, we report a 6000-year record of environmental changes around the port city of Akko (Acre), Israel, to analyse ecological processes and patterns stemming from the emergence and growth of urban life. We show that early urban development deeply transformed pre-existing ecosystems, swiftly leading to an urban environment already governed by its own ecological rules and this, since the emergence of the cities.

Modulation for emergent networks: serotonin and dopamine.

Science.gov (United States)

Weng, Juyang; Paslaski, Stephen; Daly, James; VanDam, Courtland; Brown, Jacob

2013-05-01

In autonomous learning, value-sensitive experiences can improve the efficiency of learning. A learning network needs be motivated so that the limited computational resources and the limited lifetime are devoted to events that are of high value for the agent to compete in its environment. The neuromodulatory system of the brain is mainly responsible for developing such a motivation system. Although reinforcement learning has been extensively studied, many existing models are symbolic whose internal nodes or modules have preset meanings. Neural networks have been used to automatically generate internal emergent representations. However, modeling an emergent motivational system for neural networks is still a great challenge. By emergent, we mean that the internal representations emerge autonomously through interactions with the external environments. This work proposes a generic emergent modulatory system for emergent networks, which includes two subsystems - the serotonin system and the dopamine system. The former signals a large class of stimuli that are intrinsically aversive (e.g., stress or pain). The latter signals a large class of stimuli that are intrinsically appetitive (e.g., pleasure or sweet). We experimented with this motivational system for two settings. The first is a visual recognition setting to investigate how such a system can learn through interactions with a teacher, who does not directly give answers, but only punishments and rewards. The second is a setting for wandering in the presence of a friend and a foe. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The technical bases for government emergency plans

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Champion, D.; Herviou, K.

2006-01-01

Despite technical and organisational existing arrangements to prevent human and equipment failures, the occurrence of a severe accident inducing an important release of radioactive or toxic products could not be totally excluded. Public authorities are responsible for the development of emergency plans which main objective is the protection of the population in case of accident. The efficiency of emergency plans assumes they have been established before the occurrence of any accident, taking into account specificities of the installation and its environment. On the basis of the list of possible events likely to induce releases into the environment, some 'envelope' scenarios are selected and their consequences are assessed- The comparison of the consequences to reference levels for which protective actions are recommended gives the area where actions may be required. This approach is applied for the different nuclear facilities in France. Examples are given in the article on the definition of emergency plans technical basis for nuclear power plants, other nuclear facilities and transportation of radioactive materials. (authors)

AECB emergency response plan - in brief

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-10-01

The AECB's mission is to ensure that the use of nuclear energy in Canada does not pose undue risk to health, safety, security and the environment. The mission applies before, during and after emergencies

Lightweight UDP Pervasive Protocol in Smart Home Environment Based on Labview

Science.gov (United States)

Kurniawan, Wijaya; Hannats Hanafi Ichsan, Mochammad; Rizqika Akbar, Sabriansyah; Arwani, Issa

2017-04-01

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) technology in a reliable environment was not a problem, but not in an environment where the entire Smart Home network connected locally. Currently employing pervasive protocols using TCP technology, when data transmission is sent, it would be slower because they have to perform handshaking process in advance and could not broadcast the data. On smart home environment, it does not need large size and complex data transmission between monitoring site and monitoring center required in Smart home strain monitoring system. UDP (User Datagram Protocol) technology is quick and simple on data transmission process. UDP can broadcast messages because the UDP did not require handshaking and with more efficient memory usage. LabVIEW is a programming language software for processing and visualization of data in the field of data acquisition. This paper proposes to examine Pervasive UDP protocol implementations in smart home environment based on LabVIEW. UDP coded in LabVIEW and experiments were performed on a PC and can work properly.

Development of nuclear emergency exercise programme (NEEP) in Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shin, H. K.; Kim, J. Y.; Kim, M. K.; Kim, S. H.

2011-01-01

The nuclear emergency exercise programme (NEEP) is a PC-based application intended for design and planning emergency preparedness and response (EP and R) exercises for a potential nuclear emergency in Korea. The application programme allows EP and R staff to create and edit exercise scenarios based on information customised for a specific nuclear power plant's emergency plans. NEEP includes the following features: (1) step-by-step guide to developing new exercise scenario according to emergency alarm level and potential accident type, (2) database of specific plant's field exercise scenarios that can be easily modified by users, (3) generating master scenario events list and messages of exercise participants and (4) allowing the quantitative evaluation of exercise participants from the view of exercise objectives and evaluator guides. NEEP also features tools for queries, reports and visualisation that can be used to create documentation during the scenario planning and exercise evaluation processes. (authors)

The value of the pre-hospital learning environment as part of the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Results: Four major themes were identified: an unpredictable environment, role players in emergency medical services, team work, and competencies. Conclusion: The research findings support the value and continuation of utilising the prehospital clinical learning environment for placing post-basic emergency nursing ...

40 CFR 1.47 - Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Office of Solid Waste and Emergency... ORGANIZATION AND GENERAL INFORMATION Headquarters § 1.47 Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. The Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER), under the supervision of the Assistant...

Architectural contextualism and emerging hybrid morphologies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Komez, E.

2012-01-01

Infrastructure networks have always been the primary feature of urbanism. As any aspects of urban environments, the understanding of infrastructure networks and their practices have witnessed changes due to the shifts first to modernist ideal and then to the globalized world view. In oppose to the

Los Alamos National Laboratory emergency management plan. Revision 1

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ramsey, G.F.

1998-07-15

The Laboratory has developed this Emergency Management Plan (EMP) to assist in emergency planning, preparedness, and response to anticipated and actual emergencies. The Plan establishes guidance for ensuring safe Laboratory operation, protection of the environment, and safeguarding Department of Energy (DOE) property. Detailed information and specific instructions required by emergency response personnel to implement the EMP are contained in the Emergency Management Plan Implementing Procedure (EMPIP) document, which consists of individual EMPIPs. The EMP and EMPIPs may be used to assist in resolving emergencies including but not limited to fires, high-energy accidents, hazardous material releases (radioactive and nonradioactive), security incidents, transportation accidents, electrical accidents, and natural disasters.

Reactor Emergency Action Level Monitor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Touchton, R.A.

1987-01-01

The Reactor Emergency Action Level Monitor (REALM) Expert System is designed to provide assistance in the identification of a nuclear power plant emergency situation and the determination of its severity. REALM has been developed to operate in a real-time processing environment. REALM embodies a hybrid architecture utilizing both rule-based reasoning and object-oriented programming techniques borrowed from the Artificial Intelligence discipline of Computer Sciences. The rulebase consists of event-based rules and symptom-based rules. The symptom-based rules go beyond the current EAL structure to address the more problematic scenarios and entail a more symbolic representation of the plant information. The results to date have been encouraging that expert system technology can provide improved emergency decision-making capability in nuclear power plants

The prefect facing emergency situation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Masse, H.

2006-01-01

In the field of emergency procedures regarding the protection of life, property and the environment, the 'prefet' of a department is the only public authority both representative of the state and accountable. In France laws and regulations have been in recent years revised in order to modernize emergency situations management. The 'prefet' of the Drome 'department', Henri MASSE, presents a summary of recent developments and explains how his services are organised in order to be able to handle emergency situations. He also focuses on his experience of handling the specific difficulties of nuclear risks, his department sheltering numerous nuclear facilities: EURODIF Pierrelatte nuclear fuel enrichment plant, EDF Tricastin nuclear power plant, AREVA Valence FBFC nuclear fuel manufacturing unit, etc. (author)

Selected Approaches to the Business Environment Evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Helena Chládková

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This paper contains views of managers on the quality of business environment and also reflects the results of the World Bank, which annually assesses the conditions for doing business in different countries, including the Czech Republic. The business environment of the Czech Republic was evaluated based upon the results of the World Bank, which assesses conditions for doing business in various parts of the world. Secondly, views of SME managers on the quality of the business environment were presented. The World Bank’s „Doing Business 2011“ report puts the Czech Republic in the 63rd place (out of 183 examined countries when it comes to the quality of the business environment. The Czech Republic improved its score in two categories (Property Registration and Ending a Business compared to the same evaluation conducted in 2010. SME managers evaluated the business environment with SWOT Analysis. „Technical and technological development along with increase in demand for innovated products made by new technologies“ was perceived as the most significant opportunity (82% while „Competition and rivalry in the industry“ was identified as the most significant threat by almost all respondents (92% in their 2010 evaluation.

Expert views on societal responses to different applications of nanotechnology: a comparative analysis of experts in countries with different economic and regulatory environments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gupta, Nidhi, E-mail: guptanidhi12@gmail.com; Fischer, Arnout R. H., E-mail: arnout.fischer@wur.nl [Wageningen University, Marketing and Consumer Behaviour Group (Netherlands); George, Saji, E-mail: saji_george@nyp.gov.sg [Nanyang Polytechnic, Centre for Sustainable Nanotechnology, School of Chemical and Life Sciences (Singapore); Frewer, Lynn J., E-mail: lynn.frewer@newcastle.ac.uk [Newcastle University, School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (United Kingdom)

2013-08-15

The introduction of different applications of nanotechnology will be informed by expert views regarding which (types of) application will be most societally acceptable. Previous research in Northern Europe has indicated that experts believe that various factors will be influential, predominant among these being public perceptions of benefit, need and consumer concern about contact with nanomaterials. These factors are thought by experts to differentiate societal acceptance and rejection of nanotechnology applications. This research utilises a larger sample of experts (N = 67) drawn from Northern America, Europe, Australasia, India and Singapore to examine differences in expert opinion regarding societal acceptance of different applications of nanotechnology within different technological environments, consumer cultures and regulatory regimes. Perceived risk and consumer concerns regarding contact with nano-particles are thought by all experts to drive rejection, and perceived benefits to influence acceptance, independent of country. Encapsulation and delivery of nutrients in food was thought to be the most likely to raise societal concerns, while targeted drug delivery was thought most likely to be accepted. Lack of differentiation between countries suggests that expert views regarding social acceptance may be homogenous, independent of local contextual factors.

Expert views on societal responses to different applications of nanotechnology: a comparative analysis of experts in countries with different economic and regulatory environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gupta, Nidhi; Fischer, Arnout R. H.; George, Saji; Frewer, Lynn J.

2013-01-01

The introduction of different applications of nanotechnology will be informed by expert views regarding which (types of) application will be most societally acceptable. Previous research in Northern Europe has indicated that experts believe that various factors will be influential, predominant among these being public perceptions of benefit, need and consumer concern about contact with nanomaterials. These factors are thought by experts to differentiate societal acceptance and rejection of nanotechnology applications. This research utilises a larger sample of experts (N = 67) drawn from Northern America, Europe, Australasia, India and Singapore to examine differences in expert opinion regarding societal acceptance of different applications of nanotechnology within different technological environments, consumer cultures and regulatory regimes. Perceived risk and consumer concerns regarding contact with nano-particles are thought by all experts to drive rejection, and perceived benefits to influence acceptance, independent of country. Encapsulation and delivery of nutrients in food was thought to be the most likely to raise societal concerns, while targeted drug delivery was thought most likely to be accepted. Lack of differentiation between countries suggests that expert views regarding social acceptance may be homogenous, independent of local contextual factors

Functional consequences of trust in the construction supply chain: a multi-dimensional view

OpenAIRE

Manu, E; Ankrah, N; Chinyio, EA; Proverbs, D

2016-01-01

Trust is often linked to the emergence of cooperative behaviours that contribute to successful project outcomes. However, some have questioned the functional relevance of trust in contractual relations, arguing that control-induced cooperation can emerge from enforcement of contracts. These mixed views are further complicated by the multi-dimensional nature of trust, as different trust dimensions could have varying functional consequences. The aim of this study was to provide some clarity on ...

NativeView: Our Land, Our People, Our Future

Science.gov (United States)

Bennett, T.

2006-05-01

The objective of this discussion is to (1) discuss the chasm between the breadth of Tribal land and resource to be sustained compared to the finite number of Tribal people trained in the sciences; (2) illustrate the need for integrating scientific knowledge with cultural knowledge; and (3) discuss the emergence of NativeView as Tribal College (TCUs) initiative leading the integration of geoscience and geospatial technology (GIS, Remote Sensing) with cultural knowledge to meet the growing needs of indigenous communities. It's about our land, our people and the need for highly trained individuals to sustainable and manage our resources for the future. There is a tremendous gap between total acreage of land owned or managed and the level of education obtained by indigenous people. In the United States today, American Indians and Alaskan Natives account for less than one percent of the total population, yet are responsible for more than five percent of the total land area. In North Dakota, there are over 54 thousand American Indians responsible for more than 3.8 million acres of Tribal Land. In contrast, less than 15 percent of indigenous people finish a Bachelor's degree of any kind and far fewer finish a science degree that would help them become more effective and responsible land managers. This poses an important dilemma. How will the Tribes meet (1) the resource needs of a growing population, (2) the demand for a skilled workforce, and (3) resource management goals in ways that contribute to Tribal infrastructure and equate to sustainable resource management? The integration of geoscience and geospatial technologies into the curriculum of Tribal Colleges (TCU's) has quietly emerged as one of the leading initiatives across Indian Country. These skills are widely recognized as a vehicle to empower our constituents in the sciences, in the cultural values and the traditional land ethic that defines us as a people. NativeView has taken the lead in working with the

Ethics, genetics and dynamics: an emerging systematic approach to radiation protection of the environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pentreath, R.J.

2004-01-01

There is now a general consensus of opinion that an explicit approach is necessary to demonstrate radiation protection of the environment, and that this approach needs to be developed in a systematic way. The framework that is emerging links ethical and moral issues (anthropocentric, biocentric, and ecocentric) to broad-based principles and objectives of environmental protection (sustainable development, maintaining biological diversity, and habitat protection) and then links these, in turn, to the needs of current environmental management practices, such as environmental exploitation, pollution control, and nature conservation. The relevance of this to radiation is that its effects (such as causing early mortality, morbidity, reduced reproductive success, as well as resulting in observable (scorable) cytogenetic damage) are those that may have a bearing on these same environmental management practices. The devise that would appear to be most useful to bridge the gap between our disparate data on radiation effects and the needs of environmental management, is that of adding to the concept of Reference Man in the shape of a small set of Reference Animals and Plants. This approach has now been adopted by the ICRP, adding new dynamics--the motive forces, both moral and physical--to the subject. The way is now clear for rapid progress to be made on a number of fronts

New views on American colonization: critical tests from South America

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O'Rourke, Dennis

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The traditional view of colonization of the Americas as a migration across Beringia and subsequent dispersal southward following the last glacial maximum is being increasingly questioned. In North America, archaeological links to Siberia are tenuous and genetic data are more consistent with an earlier entry of people into the Americas, from Central rather than Northeast Siberia. An entry of populations into the Americas prior to the last glacial maximum forces a reconsideration not only of timing, but also geographic points of entry and speed of dispersal, based on ecological theory. A number of emerging alternative hypotheses on the colonization of the Americas predict early entry and dispersal of people into South America - earlier than, or coeval with, initial dispersal in North America. The study of genetic, morphological, and archaeological variation across South America is critical to testing these new, alternative hypotheses of Native American origins. I will review the evidence for emerging, alternative views of American Colonization, and suggest ways in which data from South American populations and prehistory will be crucial in testing them.

Nuclear energy and global warming: a new economic view

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rokhshad Hejazi

2009-01-01

This paper tries to state energy situation and then energy policy globally in economic view and then offer the practical solution. Besides above questions, the most important questions that will be answered are: What is the energy position, in economic view? and what is the most important priority among environmental issues? According to present conditions and environmental challenges what is the way map for energy supply? Is the priority for environment and energy with an economic sight, in present and future, same as the past? (Author)

Logistics engineering education from the point of view environment

Science.gov (United States)

Bányai, Ágota

2010-05-01

A new field of MSc programme offered by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Informatics of the University of Miskolc is represented by the programme in logistics engineering. The Faculty has always laid great emphasis on assigning processes connected with environment protection and globalisation issues the appropriate weight in its programmes. This is based on the fact that the Faculty has initiated and been involved in a great number of research and development projects with a substantial emphasis on the fundamental principles of sustainable development. The objective of the programme of logistics engineering is to train engineers who, in possession of the science, engineering, economic, informatics and industrial, transportation technological knowledge related to the professional field of logistics, are able to analyse, design, organise, and control logistics processes and systems (freight transportation, materials handling, storage, commissioning, loading, purchasing, distribution and waste management) as well as to design and develop machinery and equipment as the elements of logistic systems and also to be involved in their manufacture and quality control and are able to control their operation. The programme prepares its students for performing the logistics management tasks in a company, for creative participation in solving research and development problems in logistics and for pursuing logistics studies in doctoral programmes. There are several laboratories available for practice-oriented training. The 'Integrated Logistics Laboratory' consists of various fixed and mobile, real industrial, i.e. not model-level equipment, the integration of which in one system facilitates not only the presentation, examination and development of the individual self-standing facilities, but the study of their interaction as well in terms of mechatronics, engineering, control engineering, informatics, identification technology and logistics. The state

Reinventing spatial planning in a borderless Europe : Emergent themes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Waterhout, B.; Faludi, A.K.F.; Stead, D.; Zonneveld, W.; Milder, J.; Nadin, V.

2009-01-01

This paper is a follow-up to the Chicago Round Table ‘Emergent Research Themes on European Territorial Governance’ in 2008 questioning the view of EU territory as the sum of mutually exclusive territories under nation-state control and pointing out the existence of overlapping jurisdictions. Themes

Emergent mechanics, quantum and un-quantum

Science.gov (United States)

Ralston, John P.

2013-10-01

There is great interest in quantum mechanics as an "emergent" phenomenon. The program holds that nonobvious patterns and laws can emerge from complicated physical systems operating by more fundamental rules. We find a new approach where quantum mechanics itself should be viewed as an information management tool not derived from physics nor depending on physics. The main accomplishment of quantum-style theory comes in expanding the notion of probability. We construct a map from macroscopic information as data" to quantum probability. The map allows a hidden variable description for quantum states, and efficient use of the helpful tools of quantum mechanics in unlimited circumstances. Quantum dynamics via the time-dependent Shroedinger equation or operator methods actually represents a restricted class of classical Hamiltonian or Lagrangian dynamics, albeit with different numbers of degrees of freedom. We show that under wide circumstances such dynamics emerges from structureless dynamical systems. The uses of the quantum information management tools are illustrated by numerical experiments and practical applications

Emerging Market Multinational Companies and Internationalization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Estrin, Saul; Nielsen, Bo B.; Nielsen, Sabina

2017-01-01

We develop a multilevel theoretical framework for investigating the role of home country urbanization for emerging market multinational companies' (EMNCs) international expansion. We propose that more urbanized home environments directly increase EMNC's proclivity to internationalize and moderate...

Emerging Entrepreneurial Universities in University Reforms: The moderating role of personalities and the social/economic environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

József Berács

2014-06-01

Full Text Available University education, research and other services are increasingly becoming private goods as opposed to the traditional public goods concept. This trend is a highly debated process, and its consequences for universities are unquestionable. One of the consequences may be the diffusion of entrepreneurship in the higher education sector. The aim of the present paper is to highlight some of the characteristics of this process. Starting with the classics of entrepreneurship literature, Schumpeter defined the entrepreneur as somebody who goes against the stream. A new combination of production factors is the soul of entrepreneurship, and of any changes such as university reforms. Earlier research by Clark shed light on the environment of emerging entrepreneurial universities, which happened to be mainly new, relatively small universities. He found five indicators that are components of entrepreneurial universities. Taking this concept as a point of departure, we extended it in two directions. First, we go back to the economics literature and collect several other indicators/statements about entrepreneurship that are also worth considering in higher education. Second, we present a number of successful entrepreneurial cases of large top universities, looking for other indicators. Summarising these indicators in a table, two reforms of the Corvinus University of Budapest and its predecessors are discussed. Both of the reform processes lasted about five years, and there was a gap of approximately 20 years between the two processes. We would expect this to be successful, as a university needs to be reformed every 20 years, but this was not the case. We come to the surprising conclusion that, at least in case of the Corvinus University of Budapest, the two reforms in the socialist period were more entrepreneurial than the reforms we are experiencing now in a market economy environment. The explanation for this situation is twofold: the general socioeconomic

Qualitative Research on Emergency Medicine Physicians

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Paltved, Charlotte; Musaeus, Peter

2012-01-01

Aim: This study aims to systematically review the qualitative research studying Emergency Medicine (EM) physicians in Emergency Departments (ED). Background: Qualitative research aims to study complex social phenomena. EM is a highly complex medical and social environment that can be investigated...... with qualitative research. Methods: Electronic databases of English peer-reviewed articles were searched from 1971 to 2012 using Medline through PubMed and PsychINFO. This search was supplemented with hand-searches of Academic Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medicine Journal from 1999 to 2012 and cross references...... and training, communication, professional roles, and organizational factors, and into 12 sub-themes. Conclusion: The strength of qualitative research is its ability to grasp and operationalize complex relations within EM. Although qualitative research methodologies have gained in rigour in recent years and few...

Evaluation of viewing experiences induced by a curved three-dimensional display

Science.gov (United States)

Mun, Sungchul; Park, Min-Chul; Yano, Sumio

2015-10-01

Despite an increased need for three-dimensional (3-D) functionality in curved displays, comparisons pertinent to human factors between curved and flat panel 3-D displays have rarely been tested. This study compared stereoscopic 3-D viewing experiences induced by a curved display with those of a flat panel display by evaluating subjective and objective measures. Twenty-four participants took part in the experiments and viewed 3-D content with two different displays (flat and curved 3-D display) within a counterbalanced and within-subject design. For the 30-min viewing condition, a paired t-test showed significantly reduced P300 amplitudes, which were caused by engagement rather than cognitive fatigue, in the curved 3-D viewing condition compared to the flat 3-D viewing condition at P3 and P4. No significant differences in P300 amplitudes were observed for 60-min viewing. Subjective ratings of realness and engagement were also significantly higher in the curved 3-D viewing condition than in the flat 3-D viewing condition for 30-min viewing. Our findings support that curved 3-D displays can be effective for enhancing engagement among viewers based on specific viewing times and environments.

Orthographic Software Modelling: A Novel Approach to View-Based Software Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Atkinson, Colin

The need to support multiple views of complex software architectures, each capturing a different aspect of the system under development, has been recognized for a long time. Even the very first object-oriented analysis/design methods such as the Booch method and OMT supported a number of different diagram types (e.g. structural, behavioral, operational) and subsequent methods such as Fusion, Kruchten's 4+1 views and the Rational Unified Process (RUP) have added many more views over time. Today's leading modeling languages such as the UML and SysML, are also oriented towards supporting different views (i.e. diagram types) each able to portray a different facets of a system's architecture. More recently, so called enterprise architecture frameworks such as the Zachman Framework, TOGAF and RM-ODP have become popular. These add a whole set of new non-functional views to the views typically emphasized in traditional software engineering environments.

Emergency preparedness in the future

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Desrosiers, A.E.

1983-03-01

This speech discusses safety issues facing nuclear power generation in terms of their contribution to increased costs of construction. The view is advanced that improvements in regulatory methods could be achieved by improvements in probabilistic risk assessment. The major deficiency in risk assessment is that the consequence assessments are not realistic and accident consequences not well understood. It is demonstrated that realistic modelling of evacuation times and other emergency preparedness capabilities can significantly reduce the calculated risk of operating nuclear power plants

The State of the World Environment, 1987. United Nations Environment Programme.

Science.gov (United States)

United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi (Kenya).

One of the main activities assigned to the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is to review the world environmental situation to insure that emerging environmental problems of wide international significance receive appropriate and adequate consideration by governments. Accordingly, UNEP has assessed the state of…

Using Google Street View for systematic observation of the built environment: analysis of spatio-temporal instability of imagery dates.

Science.gov (United States)

Curtis, Jacqueline W; Curtis, Andrew; Mapes, Jennifer; Szell, Andrea B; Cinderich, Adam

2013-12-03

Recently, Google Street View (GSV) has been examined as a tool for remotely conducting systematic observation of the built environment. Studies have found it offers benefits over in-person audits, including efficiency, safety, cost, and the potential to expand built environment research to larger areas and more places globally. However, one limitation has been the lack of documentation on the date of imagery collection. In 2011, Google began placing a date stamp on images which now enables investigation of this concern. This study questions the spatio-temporal stability in the GSV date stamp. Specifically, is the imagery collected contemporaneously? If not, how frequently and where is imagery from different time periods woven together to represent environmental conditions in a particular place. Furthermore, how much continuity exists in imagery for a particular time period? Answering these questions will provide guidance on the use of GSV as a tool for built environment audits. GSV was used to virtually "drive" five sites that are a part of the authors' ongoing studies. Each street in the sites was "driven" one mouse-click at a time while observing the date stamp on each image. Every time the date stamp changed, this "disruption" was marked on the map. Every street segment in the site was coded by the date the imagery for that segment was collected. Spatial query and descriptive statistics were applied to understand the spatio-temporal patterns of imagery dates. Spatio-temporal instability is present in the dates of GSV imagery. Of the 353 disruptions, 82.4% occur close to (<25 m) intersections. The remainder occurs inconsistently in other locations. The extent of continuity for a set of images collected with the same date stamp ranged from 3.13 m to 3373.06 m, though the majority of continuous segments were less than 400 m. GSV offers some benefits over traditional built environment audits. However, this investigation empirically identifies a previously

Emerging and continuing trends in psychotherapy: views from an editor's eye.

Science.gov (United States)

Gelso, Charles J

2011-06-01

It is proposed that six major trends in psychotherapy have continued or emerged over the course of the author's editorship of Psychotherapy, the past seven years. These trends are (a) the increasing integration of techniques and the therapeutic relationship; (b) increasing focus on theoretical integration; (c) increasing efforts at research-practice integration; (d) increases in more specific, integrative reviews; (e) integration of biological, neuroscience understandings; and (f) integration of diversity and cultural considerations into psychotherapy. Each trend is described and its impact on the field is discussed. Cautions about each trend are also noted. The six trends are discussed in the context of integration.

Decision-making support system based on MAS for emergency response to nuclear accidents of marine pressurized-water reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Dengke; Zhang Dafa; Jiang Wei; Chen Yonghong

2007-01-01

Emergency decision-making to Marine Pressurized-Water Reactor (MPWR) was severely restricted by the complex environment. To enhance the emergency decision-making ability of MPWR, reducing the effect of emergencies, an emergency Decision-making Support System (DSS) which based on Multi-agent System (MAS) was presented. In the system, the HLA/RTI was used as the support environment, and the structure and the Control Agent (SCA), Analyse Agent (AA), Countermeasure Agent (CA), Evaluation Agent (EVA) and Environment Agent (ENA) were designed. The MAS were with the characteristics of autonomy, reactivity and initiative, which were fully used in the system to make effective decision for emergencies. (authors)

Free points of view by Academicians on the environment and sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bach, J.F.; Dercourt, J.; Meyer, D.; Amatore, Ch.; Castaing, B.; Cossart, P.; Encrenaz, P.; Faugeras, O.; Ghys, E.; Korn, H.

2009-01-01

A first set of contributions deals with climate evolutions. The authors (all members of the French Academie des Sciences) address the greenhouse effect explanation, its measurement and its consequences in France, the question whether there is a climate change due to human activities, the effect of global warming on our everyday life, the existence of important temperature changes and extreme climatic events in the past, and the credibility of mathematical models for the prediction of possible climate changes and of their consequences. A second set deals with the environment and oceans. The authors address sea level rise and its consequences for some low coastal regions and for France, and sea water acidification. A third set of articles deals with the environment and energies. The authors address the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in France, the benefits and drawbacks of the use of bio-fuels mixed with fossil fuels, the share of wind energy in France, the perspective of the use of oil and natural gas in Europe, the perspectives of carbon capture and storage, the development of the photovoltaic sector in France. The next set of contributions deals with the environment, demography, water, food and health. The authors address the consequences of demographic evolutions, the impact of population increase on water shortage and on environment degradation, the issue of water shortage in France during the next decades and the possible consequences for the French food industry, and the possible impacts of problems related to climate change on health. A last article deals with the environment and biodiversity. It discusses the possible impacts of environmental changes on biodiversity, and the facts already noticed in France

Environment, Health, and Safety | NREL

Science.gov (United States)

-Wide Environmental Assessment 2014 (DOE/EA-1914). Final EA and FONSI Appendices. Natural and Cultural property, and the environment. View the Environmental Stewardship, Health, Safety, and Quality Management Environmental Assessment 2014. Final EA and FONSI Appendices. Download the National Wind Technology Center Site

Serious Games as Experiments for Emergency Management Research : A Review

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Ruijven, T.W.J.

2011-01-01

Serious games and virtual environments are increasingly used for emergency management training and research. The development of these technologies seems to contribute to a solution to some problems in the existing literature on emergency management which is mainly based on case study research.

Current views on risk communication and their implications for crisis and reputation management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gutteling, Jan M.

2001-01-01

Organizations prepare for crisis communication by designing, implementing, and evaluating procedures, scenarios, and emergency measures. In addition to crisis communication, risk communication is a concern for many organizations as well. Risk communication is viewed as an interactive, multi-actor

Some aspects of research relevant to environment radiochemistry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Shi; Ma Mingxie

1997-01-01

The authors suggest some research aspects relevant to environmental radiochemistry from the view point of environmental protection and radiation protection: the migration behavior of radionuclides, their interaction with environment medium and their speciation in environment. The status and prospect of these aspects and the relationship between them are discussed

Virtual Learning Environments: A View from the Theory of Conceptual Fields

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iralí Araque

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The inclusion of communication and information technologies for formative purposes has given way to virtual learning environments, which, backed by constructivist theories, provide a theoretical and methodological framework, thus contributing to the cognitive development of students at university level, evidenced in the development of their learning schemes. The theory of conceptual fields offers an analysis of the elements of schemas and the process of knowledge construction. In this sense, the present work had as objective to raise some elements, such as teaching methodology, didactic strategies, materials and resources for learning, teacher and student roles, which should be considered in the design of virtual learning environments, in the light of the theory of conceptual fields, so as to enhance the construction of knowledge and where the emphasis of the educational process lies on learning rather than teaching. The methodology used is a documentary study, type descriptive, based on the review and bibliographical analysis of constructivist theories, as well as researchers related to the design and construction of virtual learning environments. The results show that conceptual fields theory is an excellent option to consider, as a constructivist theory, in order to consolidate the process of knowledge construction, from the individual to the collective.

Topological network entanglement as order parameter for the emergence of geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diamantini, M Cristina; Trugenberger, Carlo A

2017-01-01

We show that, in discrete models of quantum gravity, emergent geometric space can be viewed as the entanglement pattern in a mixed quantum state of the ‘universe’, characterized by a universal topological network entanglement. As a concrete example we analyze the recently proposed model in which geometry emerges due to the condensation of 4-cycles in random regular bipartite graphs, driven by the combinatorial Ollivier–Ricci curvature. Using this model we show that the emergence of geometric order decreases the entanglement entropy of random configurations. The lowest geometric entanglement entropy is realized in four dimensions. (paper)

A REAL-TIME DATA ACQUISITION APPORACH OF ENVIROMENTAL ERGONOMIC PARAMETER USING LabVIEW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZULFADLI ZAILAN

2016-04-01

Full Text Available A safe and comfort workstation can increase the performances of the worker. Environment parameter is one of the factor that need to be monitor and display to create a safe and comfort work station. An acquisition system that can monitored and display these environment parameter need to be developed. In this paper, an acquisition system is developed to monitored and display three environment parameter which is sound, light and temperature. An acquisition system consists of sensor, data acquisition (DAQ, power supply board, computer and LabVIEW. Sensor will captured the environment parameter then DAQ convert the signal gained from sensor into computer. All the data from sensor and DAQ then will be program by using LabVIEW. An acquisition system has been test and able to captured all three environment data and test is conducted in the lab scale. It is hoped that with this acquisition system, a safe and comfort workstation can be provided to a worker and eventually can increase workers performance and decrease worker’s medical cost due to low accident and health problem among workers.

On the emergence theme of physics

CERN Document Server

Carroll, Robert

2010-01-01

The book surveys mathematical relations between classical and quantum mechanics, gravity, time and thermodynamics from various points of view and many sources (with appropriate attribution). The emergence theme is developed with an emphasis on the meaning via mathematics. A background theme of Bohemian mechanics and connections to the quantum equivalence principle of Matone et al. is also developed in great detail. Some original work relating the quantum potential and Ricci flow is also included.

Hand hygiene in emergency medical services.

Science.gov (United States)

Teter, Jonathan; Millin, Michael G; Bissell, Rick

2015-01-01

Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) affect millions of patients annually (World Health Organization. Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Healthcare. Geneva: WHO Press; 2009). Hand hygiene compliance of clinical staff has been identified by numerous studies as a major contributing factor to HAIs around the world. Infection control and hand hygiene in the prehospital environment can also contribute to patient harm and spread of infections. Emergency medical services (EMS) practitioners are not monitored as closely as hospital personnel in terms of hand hygiene training and compliance. Their ever-changing work environment is less favorable to traditional hospital-based aseptic techniques and education. This study aimed to determine the current state of hand hygiene practices among EMS providers and to provide recommendations for improving practices in the emergency health services environment. This study was a prospective, observational prevalence study and survey, conducted over a 2-month period. We selected participants from visits to three selected hospital emergency departments in the mid-Atlantic region. There were two data components to the study: a participant survey and hand swabs for pathogenic cultures. This study recruited a total sample of 62 participants. Overall, the study revealed that a significant number of EMS providers (77%) have a heavy bacterial load on their hands after patient care. All levels of providers had a similar distribution of bacterial load. Survey results revealed that few providers perform hand hygiene before (34%) or in between patients (24%), as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. This study demonstrates that EMS providers are potential vectors of microorganisms if proper hand hygiene is not performed properly. Since EMS providers treat a variety of patients and operate in a variety of environments, providers may be exposed to potentially pathogenic organisms, serving as vectors for the exposure of

Emergency protection and nuclear power station remote monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nowak, K.; Wolf, H.

1986-01-01

The States of the Federal Republic of Germany are planning emergency protection measures for the environment of nuclear power stations based on their statutory duty of care. In this connection the paper explains to what extent remote monitoring of nuclear power stations practised by the Federal Supervisory Authorities may support the design and implementation of emergency protection measures. (orig.) [de

An Organization-based View of Strategy and an Integrative Framework of Strategic Management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Xin

Just like scholars distinguish two types of firm’s external environment, i.e., competitive and institutional, we make a distinction between two types of firm’s internal environment, i.e., resources and organization. Based on this distinction, we propose an organization-based view of strategy (OBV...

SEEDLING PRODUCTION OF Hymenaea courbaril L. IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS, RECIPIENTS AND SUBSTRATE COMPOSITIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Luiz Sandes de Carvalho Filho

2003-01-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT: The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of two environments, differentsubstrate mixtures and two recipient sizes on emergence and seedling development of Hymenaeacourbaril L. Two environments (full sun and environment protected with 50% black screen, foursubstrate mixtures [soil; soil + bovine manure (2:1; soil + sand (1:1 and soil + sand + bovinemanure (1:2:1] and two recipient sizes (11x18cm and 15x20cm plastic bags were tested.Emergency started 20 days after sowing and prolonged till 180 days. Seed emergency reached41% at full sun and 26% in environment protected with 50% black screen. The substrate mixturesoil + sand + bovine manure (1:2:1 can be used for Hymenaea courbaril seedling production in15x20cm plastic bags and full sun environment.

Emergence Unites Ecology and Society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ronald L. Trosper

2005-06-01

Full Text Available The effort to combine analysis of ecosystems and social systems requires a firm theoretical basis. When humans are present in an ecosystem, their actions affect emergent structures; this paper examines forms of emergence that account for the presence of humans. Humans monitor and regulate ecosystems based on their cultural systems. Cultural systems consist of concepts linked in complicated ways that can form consistent world views, can contain inconsistencies, and may or may not accurately model the properties of a social-ecological system. Consequently, human monitoring and regulating processes will differ, depending on cultural systems. Humans, as agents, change or maintain pre-existing material and cultural emergent structures. The presentation is illustrated with a case study of fire-prone forests. The paper shows that explicit attention to emergence serves very well in unifying the following requirements for social-ecological analysis: coherent and observable definitions of sustainability; ways to link ecological and social phenomena; ways to understand cultural reasons for stability and instability in dynamic social-ecological systems; and ways to include human self-evaluation and culture within dynamic models of social-ecological systems. Analysis of cultural emergent structures clarifies many differences in assumptions among the fields of economics, sociology, political science, ecology, and ecological economics. Because it can be readily applied to empirical questions, the framework provides a good way to organize policy analysis that is not dominated by one or another discipline.

Conceptualizing Productive Interactivity in Emergent Narratives

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bevensee, Sebastian Hurup; Schoenau-Fog, Henrik

2013-01-01

Contemporary projects examining how to design for emergence in virtual environments have suggested very applicable and plausible design-oriented material. However, authors of such works cannot avoid influencing the experience by providing pre-written narrative material which can become trivial fo...

The consumer quality index (CQ-index in an accident and emergency department: development and first evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bos Nanne

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Assessment of patients’ views are essential to provide a patient-centred health service and to evaluating quality of care. As no standardized and validated system for measuring patients’ experiences in accident and emergency departments existed, we have developed the Consumer Quality index for the accident and emergency department (CQI A&E. Methods Qualitative research has been undertaken to determine the content validity of the CQI A&E. In order to assess psychometric characteristics an 84-item questionnaire was sent to 653 patients who had attended a large A&E in the Netherlands. Also, fifty importance questions were added to determine relevance of the questions and for future calculations of improvement scores. Exploratory factor analysis was applied to detect the domains of the questionnaire. Results Survey data of 304 (47% patients were used for the analysis. The first exploratory factor analysis resulted in three domains based on 13 items: ‘Attitude of the healthcare professionals’, ‘Environment and impression of the A&E’ and ‘Respect for and explanation to the patient’. The first two had an acceptable internal consistency. The second analysis, included 24 items grouped into 5 domains: ‘Attitude of the healthcare professionals’, ‘Information and explanation’, ‘Environment of the A&E’,’Leaving the A&E’ and ‘General information and rapidity of care’. All factors were internal consistent. According to the patients, the three most important aspects in healthcare performance in the A&E were: trust in the competence of the healthcare professionals, hygiene in the A&E and patients’ health care expectations. In general, the highest improvement scores concerned patient information. Conclusions The Consumer Quality index for the accident and emergency department measures patients’ experiences of A&E healthcare performance. Preliminary psychometric characteristics are sufficient to justify

Radiological emergencies the first response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-11-01

This national training course about radiological emergencies first answer include: Targets and preparation for emergency response in case of a nuclear or radiological accident. Operations center, action guide for fire fighting, medical coverage, forensic test, first aid, basic instrumentation for radiation, safety equipment, monitoring radiation, gamma rays, personnel exposed protection , radiation exposure rate, injury and illness for radiation, cancer risk, contamination, decontamination and treatment, markers, personnel dosimetry, training, medical and equipment transportation, shielded and tools. Psychological, physical (health and illness), economical (agriculture and industry) and environment impacts. Terrorist attacks, security belts. Support and international agreements (IAEA)

Nanopatents and their impact on the medical environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Lacour, Stéphanie

2011-01-01

The nano-medical field is seen, by governments as well as the business sector as a very promising one. The process of converting basic research in nanomedecine into commercially viable products has already begun, even if it might be long and difficult. Part of the difficulties that could occur comes from regulatory and safety issues. Some of them are also coming from patent uncertainty in the global nanotechnology field. Indeed, the rush towards patents in the nanotechnology arena has already begun. Nanopatents are about to alter the legal landscape of the innovation economy, of research and development, and of industry--no doubt to an unprecedented extent because of the scope covered by these technologies. From a global point of view, the very delineation of the scope of nanotechnologies confronts patent law with complex problems of definition. The emergence and characteristics of this technology are also giving rise to a reassessment of the criteria for patentability that could be prejudicial to innovation. In the medical environment, this issue is even exacerbated in the real challenges which pharmaceutical companies are running up against.

Information technology and emergency management: preparedness and planning in US states.

Science.gov (United States)

Reddick, Christopher

2011-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of information technology (IT) on emergency preparedness and planning by analysing a survey of US state government departments of emergency management. The research results show that there has been a significant impact of IT on emergency planning. IT has proven to be effective for all phases of emergency management, but especially for the response phase. There are numerous technologies used in emergency management, ranging from the internet, Geographic Information Systems and wireless technologies to more advanced hazard analysis models. All were generally viewed as being effective. Lack of financial resources and support from elected officials is a perennial problem in public administration, and was found to be prevalent in this study of IT and emergency management. There was evidence that state governments rating high on a performance index were more likely to use IT for emergency management. © 2011 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2011.

Exploring adolescent views of body image: the influence of media.

Science.gov (United States)

Spurr, Shelley; Berry, Lois; Walker, Keith

2013-01-01

The purpose of this article is to present findings from two parallel qualitative studies that used focus groups to explore adolescent views of psychological wellness and healthy bodies. Nine focus groups were held with 46 adolescents aged 16-19 years from two Mid-Western Canadian high schools. Both studies were designed with an interpretive humanist perspective and then a 6-step thematic approach was used to analyze the data. Common themes emerging in the focus group discussions in both studies included the negative impact of media on adolescent body image and pressure to conform to the Western views of physical appearance. These findings illustrate the need for nurses to understand the influence of the media on adolescents' views of their body image and to incorporate protocols for assessment, education, and counseling of adolescents on the healthy usage of media into their pediatric clinical practice. Through consistent participation in the development and implementation of health policies, nurses play a critical role in supporting adolescents to develop healthy views of body image.

77 FR 43481 - Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency With Respect to Somalia

Science.gov (United States)

2012-07-24

... Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency With Respect to Somalia #0; #0; #0; Presidential Documents... Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency With Respect to Somalia By the authority vested in me as... Somalia declared in Executive Order 13536 of April 12, 2010, in view of United Nations Security Council...

The relation between open-field and emergence tests in a hyperactive mouse model.

Science.gov (United States)

Lalonde, R; Strazielle, C

2009-12-01

The relation between open-field and emergence tests was examined in mice with idiopathic hypertension. Spontaneous hypertensive mice (SHM) crossed more segments and reared more often in the open-field than normotensive controls at both age levels. In contrast, grooming episodes decreased only in the older SHM cohort. While young SHM emerged more quickly from a toy object only partially, complete emergence was faster only in the older SHM cohort. In the entire series, open-field segments were inversely correlated with 2- and 4-paw emergence latencies. There was also an inverse correlation between rears and 2-paw emergence but a positive correlation between grooming episodes and both types of emergence. In view of its association with open-field activity, the emergence test may have value in screening potential ADHD therapies.

The State of Leadership Education in Emergency Medical Services: A Multi-national Qualitative Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Leggio, William Joseph

2014-10-01

This study investigated how leadership is learned in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) from a multi-national perspective by interviewing EMS providers from multiple nations working in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A phenomenological, qualitative methodology was developed and 19 EMS providers from multiple nations were interviewed in June 2013. Interview questions focused on how participants learned EMS leadership as an EMS student and throughout their careers as providers. Data were analyzed to identify themes, patterns, and codes to be used for final analysis to describe findings. Emergency Medical Services leadership is primarily learned from informal mentoring and on-the-job training in less than supportive environments. Participants described learning EMS leadership during their EMS education. A triangulation of EMS educational resources yielded limited results beyond being a leader of patient care. The only course that yielded results from triangulation was EMS Management. The need to develop EMS leadership courses was supported by the findings. Findings also supported the need to include leadership education as part of continuing medical education and training. Emergency Medical Services leadership education that prepares students for the complexities of the profession is needed. Likewise, the need for EMS leadership education and training to be part of continuing education is supported. Both are viewed as a way to advance the EMS profession. A need for further research on the topic of EMS leadership is recognized, and supported, with a call for action on suggested topics identified within the study.

Emergent web intelligence advanced information retrieval

CERN Document Server

Badr, Youakim; Abraham, Ajith; Hassanien, Aboul-Ella

2010-01-01

Web Intelligence explores the impact of artificial intelligence and advanced information technologies representing the next generation of Web-based systems, services, and environments, and designing hybrid web systems that serve wired and wireless users more efficiently. Multimedia and XML-based data are produced regularly and in increasing way in our daily digital activities, and their retrieval must be explored and studied in this emergent web-based era. 'Emergent Web Intelligence: Advanced information retrieval, provides reviews of the related cutting-edge technologies and insights. It is v

The emergency plan implementing procedures for HANARO facility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Jong Tai; Khang, Byung Oui; Lee, Goan Yup; Lee, Moon [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea)

1999-04-01

The radiological emergency plan implementing procedures of HANARO (High-flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor) facility is prepared based on the Korea Atomic Law, the Civil Defence Law, Disaster Protection Law and the emergency related regulatory guides such as Guidance for Evolution of Radiation Emergency Plans in Nuclear Research Facilities (KAERI/TR-956/98, Feb.1998) and the emergency plan of HANARO. These procedures is also prepared to ensure adequate response activities to the rediological events which would cause a significant risk to the KAERI staffs and the public nea to the site. Periodic trainning and exercise for the reactor operators and emergency staffs will reduce accident risks and the release of radioactivities to the environment. 61 refs., 81 tabs. (Author)

The 2010 amendments to the environmental emergency regulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dowdall, E.; Ketcheson, K.; Shrives, J.; Hradecky, K.

2009-01-01

This presentation gave notice of amendments to the Environmental Emergency Regulations, pursuant to section 200 of the 1999 Canadian Environmental Protection Act. At the time of publication, the Regulations required the development and implementation of environmental emergency plans for 174 substances with associated thresholds that, if released to the environment, could harm human health or environmental quality. Substances of concern, including CEPA toxic substances are reviewed regularly by the Environmental Emergencies Division of Environment Canada to determine whether they should be added to the Regulations. An evaluation of substances has been completed and, as a result, 33 new substances have been proposed to be added to the Regulations. Thirty are known CEPA toxics and the other 3 are substances of concern, notably acetic acid, ammonium nitrate and styrene. These substances of concern are considered to pose an unacceptable level of risk from their release and would require environmental emergency planning. This paper also identified the substances from the Chemicals Management Plan that have been evaluated using environmental criteria and have been found to be candidates for possible future addition to the Regulations. The process used to determine regulated threshold quantities was also described. 5 refs., 5 tabs.

Assessment of Evacuation Protective Action Strategies For Emergency Preparedness Plan

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Joomyung; Jae, Moosung [Hanyang Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Ahn, Kwangil [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2013-10-15

This report which studies about evacuation formation suggests some considerable factors to reduce damage of radiological accidents. Additional details would be required to study in depth and more elements should be considered for updating emergency preparedness. However, this methodology with sensitivity analysis could adapt to specific plant which has total information such as geological data, weather data and population data. In this point of view the evacuation study could be contribute to set up emergency preparedness plan and propose the direction to enhance protective action strategies. In radiological emergency, residents nearby nuclear power plant should perform protective action that is suggested by emergency preparedness plan. The objective of emergency preparedness plan is that damages, such as casualties and environmental damages, due to radioactive accident should be minimized. The recent PAR study includes a number of subjects to improve the quality of protective action strategies. For enhancing protective action strategies, researches that evaluate many factors related with emergency response scenario are essential parts to update emergency preparedness plan. Evacuation is very important response action as protective action strategy.

Assessment of Evacuation Protective Action Strategies For Emergency Preparedness Plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Joomyung; Jae, Moosung; Ahn, Kwangil

2013-01-01

This report which studies about evacuation formation suggests some considerable factors to reduce damage of radiological accidents. Additional details would be required to study in depth and more elements should be considered for updating emergency preparedness. However, this methodology with sensitivity analysis could adapt to specific plant which has total information such as geological data, weather data and population data. In this point of view the evacuation study could be contribute to set up emergency preparedness plan and propose the direction to enhance protective action strategies. In radiological emergency, residents nearby nuclear power plant should perform protective action that is suggested by emergency preparedness plan. The objective of emergency preparedness plan is that damages, such as casualties and environmental damages, due to radioactive accident should be minimized. The recent PAR study includes a number of subjects to improve the quality of protective action strategies. For enhancing protective action strategies, researches that evaluate many factors related with emergency response scenario are essential parts to update emergency preparedness plan. Evacuation is very important response action as protective action strategy

Does the Environment Exacerbate Effects of Stress on Black ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

the food environment have emerged as two potentially important influences on black women's ... Keywords: black women, USA, stress, environment, diet, obesity, non-communicable .... In this sample we found no association between ei-.

Mixed methods research: a design for emergency care research?

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Simon; Porter, Jo; Endacott, Ruth

2011-08-01

This paper follows previous publications on generic qualitative approaches, qualitative designs and action research in emergency care by this group of authors. Contemporary views on mixed methods approaches are considered, with a particular focus on the design choice and the amalgamation of qualitative and quantitative data emphasising the timing of data collection for each approach, their relative 'weight' and how they will be mixed. Mixed methods studies in emergency care are reviewed before the variety of methodological approaches and best practice considerations are presented. The use of mixed methods in clinical studies is increasing, aiming to answer questions such as 'how many' and 'why' in the same study, and as such are an important and useful approach to many key questions in emergency care.

Visual Stability of Objects and Environments Viewed through Head-Mounted Displays

Science.gov (United States)

Ellis, Stephen R.; Adelstein, Bernard D.

2015-01-01

Virtual Environments (aka Virtual Reality) is again catching the public imagination and a number of startups (e.g. Oculus) and even not-so-startup companies (e.g. Microsoft) are trying to develop display systems to capitalize on this renewed interest. All acknowledge that this time they will get it right by providing the required dynamic fidelity, visual quality, and interesting content for the concept of VR to take off and change the world in ways it failed to do so in past incarnations. Some of the surprisingly long historical background of the technology that the form of direct simulation that underlies virtual environment and augmented reality displays will be briefly reviewed. An example of a mid 1990's augmented reality display system with good dynamic performance from our lab will be used to illustrate some of the underlying phenomena and technology concerning visual stability of virtual environments and objects during movement. In conclusion some idealized performance characteristics for a reference system will be proposed. Interestingly, many systems more or less on the market now may actually meet many of these proposed technical requirements. This observation leads to the conclusion that the current success of the IT firms trying to commercialize the technology will depend on the hidden costs of using the systems as well as the development of interesting and compelling content.

Emerging contaminants: strategies for the assessment of emerging groundwater contaminants 

OpenAIRE

Stuart, Marianne; Lapworth, Dan; Manamsa, Katya; Crane, Emily; White, Debbie

2016-01-01

Emerging contaminants in groundwater are important. An increasing range of compounds is being detected Urban areas show impact of sewage and industrial wastewater. Some ECs are probably no threat to drinking water at such µg/L concentrations, e.g. caffeine. Others may prove to be in the future. There is little information on their impact on other groundwater receptors in the environment. We are still far from understanding which of these compounds could be important

Emergence of advance waves in a steady-state universe

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hobart, R.H.

1979-10-01

In standard Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics advanced waves from any source are absolutely canceled by the advanced waves from the absorber responding to that source. The present work shows this cancellation fails over cosmic distances in a steady-state universe. A test of the view proposed earlier, in a paper which assumed failure of cancellation ad hoc, that zero-point fluctuations of the electromagnetic field are such emergent advanced waves, is posed. The view entails anomalous slowing of spontaneous transition rates at longer emission wavelengths; available data go against this, furnishing additional argument against the suspect assumption that the universe is steady-state.

Emergence of advance waves in a steady-state universe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hobart, R.H.

1979-01-01

In standard Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics advanced waves from any source are absolutely canceled by the advanced waves from the absorber responding to that source. The present work shows this cancellation fails over cosmic distances in a steady-state universe. A test of the view proposed earlier, in a paper which assumed failure of cancellation ad hoc, that zero-point fluctuations of the electromagnetic field are such emergent advanced waves, is posed. The view entails anomalous slowing of spontaneous transition rates at longer emission wavelengths; available data go against this, furnishing additional argument against the suspect assumption that the universe is steady-state

Radionuclide speciation in the environment: a review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moulin, V.; Moulin, C.

2001-01-01

Speciation determination is of prime importance to explain and evaluate the mobility, the toxicity and the risk resulting from the presence of trace elements in natural systems, in particular in the case of radionuclides, in the framework of environment and waste management purposes. The present paper will then focus more specifically on the physico-chemical speciation of radionuclides, and more particularly of actinides, in the environment, with emphasis on the behavior in solution: from a chemical point of view (with important ligands including colloidal phases) using experimental data and speciation calculations, as well as from a more technical point of view (with analytical methods for in situ speciation determination and thermodynamic data determination). A review of recent papers (mainly from CEA) is presented. (orig.)

Acceptance and commitment therapy as a treatment for problematic internet pornography viewing.

Science.gov (United States)

Twohig, Michael P; Crosby, Jesse M

2010-09-01

Despite the prevalence of problematic Internet pornography viewing and the breadth of intervention approaches to potentially address it, no studies to address this problem have been reported to date. An emerging treatment approach, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), holds promise as a treatment for Internet pornography viewing because of its focus on processes hypothesized to underlie this maladaptive behavior. In the first experiment on the treatment of problematic Internet pornography viewing, 6 adult males who reported that their Internet pornography viewing was affecting their quality of life were treated in eight 1.5-hour sessions of ACT for problematic pornography viewing. The effects of the intervention were assessed in a multiple-baseline-across-participants design with time viewing pornography as the dependent variable. Treatment resulted in an 85% reduction in viewing at posttreatment with results being maintained at 3-month follow-up (83% reduction). Increases were seen on measures of quality of life, and reductions were seen on measures of OCD and scrupulosity. Weekly measures of ACT-consistent processes showed reductions that corresponded with reductions in viewing. Large reductions were seen on a measure of psychological flexibility, and minor reductions were seen on measures of thought-action fusion and thought control. Overall, results suggest the promise of ACT as a treatment for problematic Internet pornography viewing and the value of future randomized trials of this approach.

A Nuclear Scale System Based on LabVIEW

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Shixing; Gu Qindong

2009-01-01

Nuclear mass scales measure the weight of materials which absorb and attenuate the nuclear radiation when the low energy γ-ray through it and is a non-contact continuous measurement device with simple structure and reliable operation. LabVIEW as a graphical programming language is a standard data acquisition and instrument control software. Based on the principle of nuclear mass scale measuring system, monitoring software for nuclear scale system is designed using LabVIEW programming environment. Software architecture mainly composed of three basic modules which include the monitoring software, databases and Web services. It achieves measurement data acquisition, status monitoring, and data management and has networking functions. (authors)

Ecology and man's environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Al-Naqeeb, R

1975-01-01

A new and exciting discipline of human ecology is in the making. It has not, perhaps fortunately, found its bearings yet and remains to date overly dependent upon the limitations of sociology, biology, engineering and the sciences for its general theory, approaches, and philosophy. A new discipline with a world view and focussed on the human being and his habitat will hopefully emerge from a rich dialectic among scientists, humanists and policy makers educated and experienced in a variety of fields and committed to man's welfare. This new discipline and its practitioner must always be open to the revelations their knowledge will bring to man through the environmental processes. The implications of public policy, science and technology of industrial and post-industrial nations are all in need of considered re-examination by us all. Since their early application in these western societies we have witnessed the general downgrading of the world's environment. An ungrading in social priorities for the development of adequate housing, jobs, medical care and education which is almost always lower in rank than they should be is needed. The role of local groups, involving a well-informed and participating citizenship, in this process of changing priorities will always remain of prime importance, but no long-range goal in a rapidly-changing landscape is possible without broad national and local planning which contains ways and means of implementation.

A peer-led approach to promoting health education in schools: The views of peers

OpenAIRE

Frantz, JM

2015-01-01

Peer-led health promotion strategies in schools have been found to be effective in promoting healthy behaviours amongst youth. This study aimed to evaluate the views of the peer educators in implementing a health education programme using a qualitative approach. Informal discussions and eight in-depth interviews were used to explore the views of the 10 peer educators. Information from the interviews was transcribed verbatim, analysed, and coded thematically. The themes that emerged from the a...

Communication between nurses and physicians: strategies to surviving in the emergency department trenches.

Science.gov (United States)

Abourbih, Daniel; Armstrong, Sherry; Nixon, Kirsty; Ackery, Alun D

2015-02-01

The emergency department (ED) is a challenging and stressful work environment where communication lapses can lead to negative health outcomes. This article offers strategies to Emergency Medicine residents, nurses and staff physicians on how to improve communication to optimize patient care. © 2014 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine.

Alternatives to Antibiotics in Animal Agriculture: An Ecoimmunological View

OpenAIRE

Sang, Yongming; Blecha, Frank

2014-01-01

Ecological immunology (or ecoimmunology) is a new discipline in animal health and immunology that extends immunologists’ views into a natural context where animals and humans have co-evolved. Antibiotic resistance and tolerance (ART) in bacteria are manifested in antibiosis-surviving subsets of resisters and persisters. ART has emerged though natural evolutionary consequences enriched by human nosocomial and agricultural practices, in particular, wide use of antibiotics that overwhelms other ...

Viewing experience of 3DTV: An exploration of the feeling of sickness and presence in a shopping mall.

Science.gov (United States)

Obrist, Marianna; Wurhofer, Daniela; Meneweger, Thomas; Grill, Thomas; Tscheligi, Manfred

2013-02-01

The adoption and deployment of 3DTV can be seen as a major step in the history of television, comparable to the transition from analogue to digital and standard to high definition TV. Although 3D is expected to emerge from the cinema to peoples' home, there is still a lack of knowledge on how people (future end users) perceive 3DTV and how this influences their viewing experience as well as their acceptance of 3DTV. Within this paper, findings from a three-day field evaluation study on people's 3DTV experiences, focusing on the feeling of sickness and presence, are presented. Contrary to the traditional controlled laboratory setting, the study was conducted in the public setting of a shopping center and involved 700 participants. The study revealed initial insights on users' feeling of presence and sickness when watching 3DTV content. Results from this explorative study show that most of the participants reported symptoms of sickness after watching 3DTV with an effect of gender and age on the reported feeling of sickness. Our results further suggest that the users' previous experience with 3D content has an influence on how realistic people rate the viewing experience and how involved they feel. The particularities of the study environment, a shopping mall, are reflected in our findings and future research directions and action points for investigating people's viewing experiences of 3DTV are summarized.

Ontario Hydro's transportation of radioactive material and emergency response plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karmali, N.

1993-01-01

Ontario Hydro has been transporting radioactive material for almost 30 years without any exposure to the public or release to the environment. However, there have been three accidents involving Hydro's shipments of radioactive material. In addition to the quality packaging and shipping program, Ontario Hydro has an Emergency Response Plan and capability to deal with an accident involving a shipment of radioactive material. The Corporation's ability to respond, to effectively control and contain the situation, site remediation, and to provide emergency public information in the event of a road accident minimizes the risk to the public and the environment. This emphasizes their commitment to worker safety, public safety and impact to the environment. Response capability is mandated under various legislation and regulations in Canada

Acquisition, compression and rendering of depth and texture for multi-view video

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Morvan, Y.

2009-01-01

Three-dimensional (3D) video and imaging technologies is an emerging trend in the development of digital video systems, as we presently witness the appearance of 3D displays, coding systems, and 3D camera setups. Three-dimensional multi-view video is typically obtained from a set of synchronized

["Hormone bomb": risks of emergency contraception from the perspective of pharmacy attendants in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil].

Science.gov (United States)

Brandão, Elaine Reis; Cabral, Cristiane da Silva; Ventura, Miriam; Paiva, Sabrina Pereira; Bastos, Luiza Lena; Oliveira, Naira Villas Boas Vidal de; Szabo, Iolanda

2016-09-19

This study focused on views towards emergency contraception among pharmacy attendants in Greater Metropolitan Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The empirical material came from a socio-anthropological study with 20 semi-structured interviews of pharmacy attendants of both sexes (8 females and 12 males). The interviews showed negative views of emergency contraception, emphasizing its potential health risks. Interviews considered emergency contraception a "hormone bomb" that can harm the female reproductive organs and other organ systems. The pharmacy attendants highlighted the risks of "uncontrolled" or "indiscriminate" use, especially by adolescents and young women. Since they considered it "dangerous" to women's bodies, they assigned the responsibility for orientation and counseling on use of the method to gynecologists rather than to pharmacists. The article discusses the need to expand the public debate on emergency contraception in Brazil to include pharmacists and pharmacy attendants, in addition to health professionals in general and teachers.

Global Innovation in Emerging Economies | IDRC - International ...

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

2010-12-21

Dec 21, 2010 ... Book cover Global Innovation in Emerging Economies ... These trends are occurring in a dynamic business environment that consists of ... They have both managerial and policy implications for the companies and the ...

Examining Motivation in Online Distance Learning Environments: Complex, Multifaceted, and Situation-Dependent

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maggie Hartnett

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Existing research into motivation in online environments has tended to use one of two approaches. The first adopts a trait-like model that views motivation as a relatively stable, personal characteristic of the learner. Research from this perspective has contributed to the notion that online learners are, on the whole, intrinsically motivated. The alternative view concentrates on the design of online learning environments to encourage optimal learner motivation. Neither approach acknowledges a contemporary view of motivation that emphasises the situated, mutually constitutive relationship of the learner and the learning environment. Using self-determination theory (SDT as a framework, this paper explores the motivation to learn of preservice teachers in two online distance-learning contexts. In this study, learners were found to be not primarily intrinsically motivated. Instead, student motivation was found to be complex, multifaceted, and sensitive to situational conditions.

System model for evaluation of an emergency response plan for a nuclear power plant based on an assessment of nuclear emergency exercises

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva, Marcos Vinicius C.; Medeiros, Jose A.C.C.

2011-01-01

Nuclear power plants are designed and built with systems dedicated to provide a high degree of protection to its workers, the population living in their neighborhoods and the environment. Among the requirements for ensuring safety there are the existence of the nuclear emergency plan. Due to the relationship between the actions contemplated in the emergency plan and the nuclear emergency exercise, it becomes possible to assess the quality of the nuclear emergency plan, by means of emergency exercise evaluation, The techniques used in this work aim at improving the evaluation method of a nuclear emergency exercise through the use of performance indicators in the evaluation of the structures, actions and procedures involved. The proposed model enables comparisons between different moments of an emergency plan directed to a nuclear power plant as well as comparisons between plans dedicated to different facilities. (author)

System model for evaluation of an emergency response plan for a nuclear power plant based on an assessment of nuclear emergency exercises

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Silva, Marcos Vinicius C.; Medeiros, Jose A.C.C. [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (PEN/COPPE/UFRJ), RJ (Brazil). Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-Graduacao de Engenharia. Programa de Engenharia Nuclear

2011-07-01

Nuclear power plants are designed and built with systems dedicated to provide a high degree of protection to its workers, the population living in their neighborhoods and the environment. Among the requirements for ensuring safety there are the existence of the nuclear emergency plan. Due to the relationship between the actions contemplated in the emergency plan and the nuclear emergency exercise, it becomes possible to assess the quality of the nuclear emergency plan, by means of emergency exercise evaluation, The techniques used in this work aim at improving the evaluation method of a nuclear emergency exercise through the use of performance indicators in the evaluation of the structures, actions and procedures involved. The proposed model enables comparisons between different moments of an emergency plan directed to a nuclear power plant as well as comparisons between plans dedicated to different facilities. (author)

A seamless ubiquitous emergency medical service for crisis situations.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Bor-Shing

2016-04-01

In crisis situations, a seamless ubiquitous communication is necessary to provide emergency medical service to save people's lives. An excellent prehospital emergency medicine provides immediate medical care to increase the survival rate of patients. On their way to the hospital, ambulance personnel must transmit real-time and uninterrupted patient information to the hospital to apprise the physician of the situation and provide options to the ambulance personnel. In emergency and crisis situations, many communication channels can be unserviceable because of damage to equipment or loss of power. Thus, data transmission over wireless communication to achieve uninterrupted network services is a major obstacle. This study proposes a mobile middleware for cognitive radio (CR) for improving the wireless communication link. CRs can sense their operating environment and optimize the spectrum usage so that the mobile middleware can integrate the existing wireless communication systems with a seamless communication service in heterogeneous network environments. Eventually, the proposed seamless mobile communication middleware was ported into an embedded system, which is compatible with the actual network environment without the need for changing the original system architecture. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reflections on the perspectives of the global economy from the point of view of emerging economies

OpenAIRE

Maria Luiza Falc, o Silva; Joaquim Pinto de Andrade; Thomas S. Torrance

2000-01-01

Recently a number of emerging economies, with high inflation and various kinds of imbalances have experienced what has come to be referred to as dollarization - the phenomenon of currency substitution where the dollar gradually replaces the national currency in the performance of its fundamental functions. The phenomenon is most commonly encountered as a component of the exchange-rate-based stabilization programs implemented in a number of emerging economies in Latin America, Asia and the Mid...

Medical emergencies in the dental surgery. Part 1: Preparation of the office and basic management.

Science.gov (United States)

Malamed, Stanley F

2015-12-01

Medical emergencies can and do happen in the dental surgery. In the 20- to 30-year practice lifetime of the typical dentist, he/she will encounter between five and seven emergency situations. Being prepared in advance of the emergency increases the likelihood of a successful outcome. PURPOSE OF THE PAPER: To prepare members of the dental office staff to be able to promptly recognize and efficiently manage those medical emergency situations that can occur in the dental office environment. Preparation of the dental office to promptly recognize and efficiently manage medical emergencies is predicated on successful implementation of the following four steps: basic life support for ALL members of the dental office staff; creation of a dental office emergency team; activation of emergency medial services (EMS) when indicated; and basic emergency drugs and equipment. The basic emergency algorithm (P->C->A->B->D) is designed for implementation in all emergency situations. Prompt implementation of the basic emergency management protocol can significantly increase the likelihood of a successful result when medical emergencies occur in the dental office environment.

Psychosocial care for seriously injured children and their families: a qualitative study among emergency department nurses and physicians.

Science.gov (United States)

Alisic, Eva; Conroy, Rowena; Magyar, Joanne; Babl, Franz E; O'Donnell, Meaghan L

2014-09-01

Approximately one in five children who sustain a serious injury develops persistent stress symptoms. Emergency Department nurses and physicians have a pivotal role in psychosocial care for seriously injured children. However, little is known about staff's views on this role. Our aim was to investigate Emergency Department staff's views on psychosocial care for seriously injured children. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 nurses and physicians working in an Australian Paediatric Emergency Department. We used purposive sampling to obtain a variety of views. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and major themes were derived in line with the summative analysis method. We also mapped participants' strategies for child and family support on the eight principles of Psychological First Aid (PFA). Five overarching themes emerged: (1) staff find psychosocial issues important but focus on physical care; (2) staff are aware of individual differences but have contrasting views on vulnerability; (3) parents have a central role; (4) staff use a variety of psychosocial strategies to support children, based on instinct and experience but not training; and (5) staff have individually different wishes regarding staff- and self-care. Staff elaborated most on strategies related to the PFA elements 'contact and engagement', 'stabilization', 'connection with social supports' and least on 'informing about coping'. The strong notion of individual differences in views suggests a need for training in psychosocial care for injured children and their families. In addition, further research on paediatric traumatic stress and psychosocial care in the ED will help to overcome the current paucity of the literature. Finally, a system of peer support may accommodate wishes regarding staff care. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

From Deficit to Diversity: How Teachers of Recently Arrived Emergent Bilinguals Negotiate Ideological and Pedagogical Change

Science.gov (United States)

Ascenzi-Moreno, Laura

2017-01-01

Although the number and diversity of emergent bilingual students is rising, this population is viewed as homogeneous rather than vibrant and eclectic. This case study explores how two secondary teachers of English as a new language uncover the diversity of their recently arrived emergent bilingual population by implementing translanguaging…

The Influence of Explicit Nature of Science and Argumentation Instruction on Preservice Primary Teachers' Views of Nature of Science

Science.gov (United States)

McDonald, Christine V.

2010-01-01

There exists a general consensus in the science education literature around the goal of enhancing learners' views of nature of science (NOS). An extensive body of research in the field has highlighted the effectiveness of explicit NOS instructional approaches in improving learners' NOS views. Emerging research has suggested that engaging learners…

Optimized maritime emergency resource allocation under dynamic demand.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenfen Zhang

Full Text Available Emergency resource is important for people evacuation and property rescue when accident occurs. The relief efforts could be promoted by a reasonable emergency resource allocation schedule in advance. As the marine environment is complicated and changeful, the place, type, severity of maritime accident is uncertain and stochastic, bringing about dynamic demand of emergency resource. Considering dynamic demand, how to make a reasonable emergency resource allocation schedule is challenging. The key problem is to determine the optimal stock of emergency resource for supplier centers to improve relief efforts. This paper studies the dynamic demand, and which is defined as a set. Then a maritime emergency resource allocation model with uncertain data is presented. Afterwards, a robust approach is developed and used to make sure that the resource allocation schedule performs well with dynamic demand. Finally, a case study shows that the proposed methodology is feasible in maritime emergency resource allocation. The findings could help emergency manager to schedule the emergency resource allocation more flexibly in terms of dynamic demand.

40 CFR 267.55 - What is the role of the emergency coordinator?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 26 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What is the role of the emergency... STANDARDIZED PERMIT Contingency Plan and Emergency Procedures § 267.55 What is the role of the emergency... familiar with all aspects of the facility's contingency plan, all operations and activities at the facility...

Undergraduate physiotherapy education in Malawi--the views of students on disability.

Science.gov (United States)

Amosun, S; Kambalametore, S; Maart, S; Ferguson, G

2013-06-01

The College of Medicine in Malawi offers an undergraduate physiotherapy programme which started in 2010. The programme aims at training competent physiotherapists who can address the needs of people with disabilities. Therefore it is important to ensure that the perceptions of physiotherapy students towards disability are appropriate. The study explored the views of the first cohort of physiotherapy students (n=19) in the pre-medical class in the College of Medicine, University of Malawi, on disability. An audit of the views of premedical physiotherapy students was carried out in 2010 using the Q methodology. Two independent factors emerged which captured the views of 19 students on disability. Most of the views expressed suggest that the students empathised with people with disabilities. Participants perceived that people with disabilities can have a good quality of life like everyone else, and are as intelligent as people without disabilities. However, some participants also expressed some discomfort when around people with disabilities. While there was consensus on some positive views, the negative viewpoints have the potential to act as a barrier to the rehabilitation of people with disabilities. The curriculum should ensure that the positive views are reinforced throughout the training programme, while the negative viewpoints are reversed.

The Effect of Emergency Department Overcrowding on Efficiency of Emergency Medicine Residents’ Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anita Sabzghabaei

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Creating a calm and stress-free environment affects education significantly. The effects of the emergency department overcrowding (EDO on the training of emergency medicine residents (EMR is a highly debated subject. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of EDO on efficiency of EMR’s education. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the effects of overcrowding on EMR’s education in the resuscitation room and acute care unit. Data collection was done using a questionnaire, which was filled out by the second year EMRs.  The crowding level was calculated based on the national emergency department overcrowding scale (NEDOCS. The relationship between the two studied variables was evaluated using independent sample t-test and SPSS 21 statistical software. Results: 130 questionnaires were filled out during 61 shifts. 47 (77.05% shifts were overcrowded. The attend’s ability to teach was not affected by overcrowding in the resuscitation room (p=0.008. The similar results were seen regarding the attend’s training ability in the acute care unit. Conclusion: It seems that the emergency department overcrowding has no effect on the quality of education to the EMRs.

What Does It Take to Produce Interpretation? Informational, Peircean, and Code-Semiotic Views on Biosemiotics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brier, Soren; Joslyn, Cliff A.

2013-04-01

This paper presents a critical analysis of code-semiotics, which we see as the latest attempt to create paradigmatic foundation for solving the question of the emergence of life and consciousness. We view code semiotics as a an attempt to revise the empirical scientific Darwinian paradigm, and to go beyond the complex systems, emergence, self-organization, and informational paradigms, and also the selfish gene theory of Dawkins and the Peircean pragmaticist semiotic theory built on the simultaneous types of evolution. As such it is a new and bold attempt to use semiotics to solve the problems created by the evolutionary paradigm’s commitment to produce a theory of how to connect the two sides of the Cartesian dualistic view of physical reality and consciousness in a consistent way.

View Synthesis for Advanced 3D Video Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2009-02-01

Full Text Available Interest in 3D video applications and systems is growing rapidly and technology is maturating. It is expected that multiview autostereoscopic displays will play an important role in home user environments, since they support multiuser 3D sensation and motion parallax impression. The tremendous data rate cannot be handled efficiently by representation and coding formats such as MVC or MPEG-C Part 3. Multiview video plus depth (MVD is a new format that efficiently supports such advanced 3DV systems, but this requires high-quality intermediate view synthesis. For this, a new approach is presented that separates unreliable image regions along depth discontinuities from reliable image regions, which are treated separately and fused to the final interpolated view. In contrast to previous layered approaches, our algorithm uses two boundary layers and one reliable layer, performs image-based 3D warping only, and was generically implemented, that is, does not necessarily rely on 3D graphics support. Furthermore, different hole-filling and filtering methods are added to provide high-quality intermediate views. As a result, high-quality intermediate views for an existing 9-view auto-stereoscopic display as well as other stereo- and multiscopic displays are presented, which prove the suitability of our approach for advanced 3DV systems.

View Synthesis for Advanced 3D Video Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Müller Karsten

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Interest in 3D video applications and systems is growing rapidly and technology is maturating. It is expected that multiview autostereoscopic displays will play an important role in home user environments, since they support multiuser 3D sensation and motion parallax impression. The tremendous data rate cannot be handled efficiently by representation and coding formats such as MVC or MPEG-C Part 3. Multiview video plus depth (MVD is a new format that efficiently supports such advanced 3DV systems, but this requires high-quality intermediate view synthesis. For this, a new approach is presented that separates unreliable image regions along depth discontinuities from reliable image regions, which are treated separately and fused to the final interpolated view. In contrast to previous layered approaches, our algorithm uses two boundary layers and one reliable layer, performs image-based 3D warping only, and was generically implemented, that is, does not necessarily rely on 3D graphics support. Furthermore, different hole-filling and filtering methods are added to provide high-quality intermediate views. As a result, high-quality intermediate views for an existing 9-view auto-stereoscopic display as well as other stereo- and multiscopic displays are presented, which prove the suitability of our approach for advanced 3DV systems.

Scientific explanation in school: An enactive view

Science.gov (United States)

Ibrahim-Didi, Khadeeja

This study explores explanation-in-action, a corollary to an enactive orientation to cognition. Explanation, understood this way is identified as a semiotic, perceptually driven activity, where the interactions that arise between students that enable the engagement to continue indicate a certain tentative coherence of meaning that is brought forth in interaction in a constraining environment. Challenging summary state views of explanation as statement, this study explores the evolution of scientific explanation in two Grade Eight Maldivian classrooms. Enactivism, understood across different embodied cognitive systems, reconfigures the discourse on explanation by re-orienting the form in which explanation is understood. The notion of explanation-in-action as a topological function implicates the boundary of the cognitive system in the action. Further, it also recognizes that embedding boundaries and the dynamics that create the boundaries can constrain the explanation that occurs in different domains. In effect, the study calls for reconfiguring validation as in-action---as the constraining dynamic feature that emerges in the ongoing explanation-in-action. In the study I pay attention to the different boundaries of some systemic configurations in the classroom. I consider how the boundary conditions create the possibility for signification, and therefore, explanation. This research suggests that in explaining-in-action students are able to draw on the enabling possibilities of personal boundaries and the constraining social boundaries to further structure their explaining in ways that are local to the task at hand.

Crisis and the Emergence of Illicit Markets: A Pragmatist View on Economic Action outside the Law

OpenAIRE

Dewey, M.

2014-01-01

Although illicit exchange has also been an organized, silent, and ever-present response to harsh economic crisis, only protest and social movements have captured scholars’ attention. In order to fill this void, this paper analyzes the emergence of illegal markets under situations of social breakdown. I claim that an illicit market emerging under socio-economic crisis conditions might be understood as the result of a constant valuation process and the intervention of what Herbert Mead called “...

Emerging Multinational Companies and Strategic Fit

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gammeltoft, Peter; Filatotchev, Igor; Hobdari, Bersant

2012-01-01

There is an increasing awareness in international business that institutional factors need to be better incorporated into the understanding of international investments decisions of multinational companies. This applies equally to outward foreign direct investment by emerging economy firms...... has been suggested in terms of integrating various theoretical frameworks however and developing a more holistic understanding of these new investment flows. In this Editorial we propose that outward FDI from emerging economies can be better understood by analyzing them within a broad institutional...... which considers flows of outward investment from emerging economies as framed by institutional pressures at the firm level towards achieving fit between the environment, strategies, structures, resources and practices of the firm. For the multinational firm this fit must be attained along multiple...

Patient satisfaction with physiotherapy in the emergency department.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheppard, Lorraine A; Anaf, Sophie; Gordon, Jane

2010-10-01

This research aims to explore patient satisfaction with ED physiotherapy within the Australian context by providing a qualitative perspective with in-depth exploration of the factors underlying patients' satisfaction. The physiotherapist was part of the Emergency Department Allied Health Team of social worker and occupational therapist. A qualitative, interpretive, field-based study using face-to-face interviews were carried out post-physiotherapy treatment within the emergency department, followed-up 2-3 weeks later with telephone interviews. Twenty two participants took part in the face-to-face interviews and 15 in the follow-up interviews. Of the 22 participants who took part in the initial interviews 19 were over 65 years of age, with a mean age of 78 years. Within the category 'Physiotherapy in the emergency department' the themes were; expectations, bedside manner, physiotherapy management (i.e. assessment, advice, hands-on, exercise, follow-up/referral) and satisfaction. The physiotherapist at the Australian emergency department appeared to make an impact on patients' experiences in the emergency department through his thorough subjective assessment of the patients' home environment, coping skills and social supports, his assessment of functional mobility, his provision of exercises, advice and hands-on treatment, as well as his involvement in organising follow-up or referral to other services. The physiotherapist's bedside manner shaped patients' perceptions throughout their assessment and treatment, reassuring and comforting patients within the emergency environment. Participants were satisfied with the experience of attending the physiotherapist in the emergency department and commented the blend of skills of the physiotherapists enhanced the service provision and self reported patient outcomes. Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

AN INFORMATION SERVICE MODEL FOR REMOTE SENSING EMERGENCY SERVICES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Z. Zhang

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a method on the semantic access environment, which can solve the problem about how to identify the correct natural disaster emergency knowledge and return to the demanders. The study data is natural disaster knowledge text set. Firstly, based on the remote sensing emergency knowledge database, we utilize the sematic network to extract the key words in the input documents dataset. Then, using the semantic analysis based on words segmentation and PLSA, to establish the sematic access environment to identify the requirement of users and match the emergency knowledge in the database. Finally, the user preference model was established, which could help the system to return the corresponding information to the different users. The results indicate that semantic analysis can dispose the natural disaster knowledge effectively, which will realize diversified information service, enhance the precision of information retrieval and satisfy the requirement of users.

Resident involvement in civilian tactical emergency medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramirez, Mario Luis; Slovis, Corey M

2010-07-01

Tactical emergency medicine services (TEMS) has emerged as a specialized niche within the field of emergency medicine. With increasing demand for physician participation in civilian tactical teams, there will be efforts by residents to become involved at earlier points in their clinical training. This article discusses resident involvement with a civilian TEMS unit and provides five maxims for emergency physicians to better understand the difference between working in the emergency department or with emergency medical services vs. in a TEMS environment. Differences between TEMS and other trauma life support models, institutional and political barriers likely to be encountered by the resident, the value of preventive medicine and the role of the physician in long-term tactical operations, opportunities for subspecialty growth, and the role of operational security are all discussed in detail. Tactical emergency medicine is a specialty that utilizes the full array of the emergency physician's skill set. It is also a field that is ripe for continued expansion, but the resident looking to become involved with a team should be aware of the requirements necessary to do so and the obstacles likely to be encountered along the way. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Essays on an Emerging Financial Market : A case study of Suriname

NARCIS (Netherlands)

D.S. Bodeutsch (Denice)

2015-01-01

markdownabstractAbstract Stock markets in emerging economies are often viewed as a source of financial development and ultimately economic growth. Well-operating or efficient stock markets may contribute to the development of a country’s financial sector through increase in savings, efficient

Using online analytical processing to manage emergency department operations.

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, Bradley D; Asplin, Brent R

2004-11-01

The emergency department (ED) is a unique setting in which to explore and evaluate the utility of information technology to improve health care operations. A potentially useful software tool in managing this complex environment is online analytical processing (OLAP). An OLAP system has the ability to provide managers, providers, and researchers with the necessary information to make decisions quickly and effectively by allowing them to examine patterns and trends in operations and patient flow. OLAP software quickly summarizes and processes data acquired from a variety of data sources, including computerized ED tracking systems. It allows the user to form a comprehensive picture of the ED from both system-wide and patient-specific perspectives and to interactively view the data using an approach that meets his or her needs. This article describes OLAP software tools and provides examples of potential OLAP applications for care improvement projects, primarily from the perspective of the ED. While OLAP is clearly a helpful tool in the ED, it is far more useful when integrated into the larger continuum of health information systems across a hospital or health care delivery system.

Complexities of emergency communication: clinicians' perceptions of communication challenges in a trilingual emergency department.

Science.gov (United States)

Pun, Jack Kh; Chan, Engle Angela; Murray, Kristen A; Slade, Diana; Matthiessen, Christian Mim

2017-11-01

To understand the challenges that clinicians face in communicating with patients and other clinicians within a Hong Kong trilingual emergency department. Effective communication has long been recognised as fundamental to the delivery of quality health care, especially in high-risk and time-constrained environments such as emergency departments. The issue of effective communication is particularly relevant in Hong Kong emergency departments, due to the high volume of patients and the linguistic complexity of this healthcare context. In Hong Kong, emergency department clinicians are native speakers of Chinese, but have received their medical training in English. The clinicians read and record virtually all of their medical documentation in English, yet they communicate verbally with patients in Cantonese and Mandarin. In addition, communication between clinicians occurs in spoken Cantonese, mixed with medical English. Thus, medical information is translated numerous times within one patient journey. This complex linguistic environment creates the potential for miscommunication. A mixed-methods design consisting of a quantitative survey with a sequential qualitative interview. Data were collected in a survey from a purposive sample of 58 clinicians and analysed through descriptive statistics. Eighteen of the clinicians were then invited to take part in semi-structured interviews, the data from which were then subjected to a manifest content analysis. Nearly half of the clinicians surveyed believed that medical information may be omitted or altered through repeated translation in a trilingual emergency department. Eighty-three per cent of clinicians stated that there are communication problems at triage. Over 40% said that they have difficulties in documenting medical information. Around 50% believed that long work hours reduced their ability to communicate effectively with patients. In addition, 34% admitted that they rarely or never listen to patients during a

An embodied view of octopus neurobiology.

Science.gov (United States)

Hochner, Binyamin

2012-10-23

Octopuses have a unique flexible body and unusual morphology, but nevertheless they are undoubtedly a great evolutionary success. They compete successfully with vertebrates in their ecological niche using a rich behavioral repertoire more typical of an intelligent predator which includes extremely effective defensive behavior--fast escape swimming and an astonishing ability to adapt their shape and color to their environment. The most obvious characteristic feature of an octopus is its eight long and flexible arms, but these pose a great challenge for achieving the level of motor and sensory information processing necessary for their behaviors. First, coordinating motion is a formidable task because of the infinite degrees of freedom that have to be controlled; and second, it is hard to use body coordinates in this flexible animal to represent sensory information in a central control system. Here I will review experimental results suggesting that these difficulties, arising from the animal's morphology, have imposed the evolution of unique brain/body/behavior relationships best explained as intelligent behavior which emerges from the octopus's embodied organization. The term 'intelligent embodiment' comes from robotics and refers to an approach to designing autonomous robots in which the behavior emerges from the dynamic physical and sensory interactions of the agent's materials, morphology and environment. Consideration of the unusual neurobiology of the octopus in the light of its unique morphology suggests that similar embodied principles are instrumental for understanding the emergence of intelligent behavior in all biological systems. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring emergency nurse practitioners' perceptions of their role.

Science.gov (United States)

Bagley, Sue

2018-02-21

Since the 1980s, the emergency nurse practitioner (ENP) role has evolved as increasing socioeconomic pressures and changing government policy have led to new working practices in emergency departments. Similarly, a lack of consensus regarding educational support for ENPs and the regulation of ENP training, mean that variations remain in the scope of practice, role description and academic requirements for ENPs. To explore ENPs' perceptions of their changing role, including their educational requirements and whether their training needs are being met. This qualitative phenomenological study examined the views of six ENPs using semi-structured interviews. The study identified four themes: inadequate protected time for continuing professional development (CPD); importance of senior medical support in role expansion and CPD; inconsistent educational preparation for expanded roles; and the ENPs' perceived reasons for role expansion. Although all the participants stated that it was challenging to find time for CPD when working in busy clinical environments, this was regarded as less important than the positive effect of senior medical support for advanced roles. Over the past three decades, the ENP role has become well established, which has led to increased confidence, and the development of collaborative ways of working, among ENPs and their colleagues. However, while ENPs have embraced the challenges of their changing role, educational support has not been consistent. There are still disparities in ENPs' scope of practice, expectations of the role between services, and the educational preparation required to undertake the role. ©2018 RCN Publishing Company Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers.

Fast response system for vacuum volume emergency separation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gubrienko, K.I.; Lastochkin, Yu.A.

1982-01-01

A system which allows to separate vacuum systems of the magnetic-optic beam channels connected with the accelerator has been worked out for case of emergency environment break through the extraction ''window''. The system, consisting of two valve - gate devices and a control unit, allows one in the emergency case to separate more than 20 m long volume from the accelerator without any pressure changes in the latter one

Emergency medicine: what keeps me, what might lose me? A narrative study of consultant views in Wales.

Science.gov (United States)

James, Ffion; Gerrard, Frances

2017-07-01

EDs are currently under intense pressure due to increased patient demand. There are major issues with retention of senior personnel, making the specialty a less attractive choice for junior doctors. This study aims to explore what attracted EM consultants to their career and keeps them there. It is hoped this can inform recruitment strategies to increase the popularity of EM to medical students and junior doctors, many of whom have very limited EM exposure. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 consultants from Welsh EDs using a narrative approach. Three main themes emerged that influenced the career choice of the consultants interviewed: (1) early exposure to positive EM role models; (2) non-hierarchical team structure; (3) suitability of EM for flexible working. The main reason for consultants leaving was the pressure of work impacting on patient care. The study findings suggest that EM consultants in post are positive about their careers despite the high volume of consultant attrition. This study reinforces the need for dedicated undergraduate EM placements to stimulate interest and encourage medical student EM aspirations. Consultants identified that improving the physical working environment, including organisation, would increase their effectiveness and the attractiveness of EM as a long-term career. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

A Study of Visual Descriptors for Outdoor Navigation Using Google Street View Images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Fernández

2016-01-01

Full Text Available A comparative analysis between several methods to describe outdoor panoramic images is presented. The main objective consists in studying the performance of these methods in the localization process of a mobile robot (vehicle in an outdoor environment, when a visual map that contains images acquired from different positions of the environment is available. With this aim, we make use of the database provided by Google Street View, which contains spherical panoramic images captured in urban environments and their GPS position. The main benefit of using these images resides in the fact that it permits testing any novel localization algorithm in countless outdoor environments anywhere in the world and under realistic capture conditions. The main contribution of this work consists in performing a comparative evaluation of different methods to describe images to solve the localization problem in an outdoor dense map using only visual information. We have tested our algorithms using several sets of panoramic images captured in different outdoor environments. The results obtained in the work can be useful to select an appropriate description method for visual navigation tasks in outdoor environments using the Google Street View database and taking into consideration both the accuracy in localization and the computational efficiency of the algorithm.

A U.S. utility's view of the enrichment and uranium market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cleveland, J.M.

1986-01-01

The author maintains that utility managers' view of the uranium and enrichment market is a result of their perceived environment. As responsible utility managers, it is their responsibility to change the environment by having a forward vision, empowering cooperation, maintaining high integrity and having an entrepreneurial philosophy. It is their obligation to deal with each other, as well as with the uninformed non-nuclear world, in this positive manner

[Emerging infectious diseases: complex, unpredictable processes].

Science.gov (United States)

Guégan, Jean-François

2016-01-01

In the light of a double approach, at first empirical, later theoretical and comparative, illustrated by the example of the Buruli ulcer and its mycobacterial agent Mycobacterium ulcerans on which I focused my research activity these last ten years by studying determinants and factors of emerging infectious or parasitic diseases, the complexity of events explaining emerging diseases will be presented. The cascade of events occurring at various levels of spatiotemporal scales and organization of life, which lead to the numerous observed emergences, nowadays requires better taking into account the interactions between host(s), pathogen(s) and the environment by including the behavior of both individuals and the population. In numerous research studies on emerging infectious diseases, microbial hazard is described rather than infectious disease risk, the latter resulting from the confrontation between an association of threatening phenomena, or hazards, and a susceptible population. Beyond, the theme of emerging infectious diseases and its links with global environmental and societal changes leads to reconsider some well-established knowledge in infectiology and parasitology. © Société de Biologie, 2017.

The butterfly effect: parasite diversity, environment, and emerging disease in aquatic wildlife.

Science.gov (United States)

Adlard, Robert D; Miller, Terrence L; Smit, Nico J

2015-04-01

Aquatic wildlife is increasingly subjected to emerging diseases often due to perturbations of the existing dynamic balance between hosts and their parasites. Accelerating changes in environmental factors, together with anthropogenic translocation of hosts and parasites, act synergistically to produce hard-to-predict disease outcomes in freshwater and marine systems. These outcomes are further complicated by the intimate links between diseases in wildlife and diseases in humans and domestic animals. Here, we explore the interactions of parasites in aquatic wildlife in terms of their biodiversity, their response to environmental change, their emerging diseases, and the contribution of humans and domestic animals to parasitic disease outcomes. This work highlights the clear need for interdisciplinary approaches to ameliorate disease impacts in aquatic wildlife systems. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Raising the bar of care for older people in Ontario emergency departments.

Science.gov (United States)

Flynn, Doris Splinter; Jennings, Jane; Moghabghab, Rola; Nancekivell, Tracy; Tsang, Clara; Cleland, Michelle; Shipman-Vokner, Karen

2010-09-01

To describe the role of geriatric emergency management nurses as a catalyst for culture change in emergency department processes with the goal to improve care and outcomes of older people. The changing context and literature has called for a culture change within emergency department care to integrate principles of older people care into care delivery. There is a paucity of reports describing how geriatric emergency care models bring about a broader change in culture within the entire emergency department. The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care in Canada established a programme to place geriatric emergency management nurses into emergency departments with the goal to improve delivery of care through development of unique, site-appropriate solutions. Geriatric emergency management nurses incorporate capacity building into their role to develop and strengthen the skills, instincts, abilities, process and resources of the emergency department. Care processes focus on areas of staffing, mobilization, comfort, medication, hygiene, nutrition/hydration, cognition, environment, equipment and stimulation. Multi-modal educational strategies and advocacy promote appropriate person-centred care. Improved communication among care providers at key patient transition points remains a priority system-level improvement. Geriatric emergency management nurses work collaboratively with the emergency department team to facilitate change in the way that emergency department care is provided to the older person experiencing health emergencies. Known strategies that have been effective in improving outcomes for older people within the hospital and residential care setting can be generalized into emergency department care. Further research into the effectiveness of these strategies in this environment is recommended. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The Experience of Fluid Temporality in Adaptive Lighting Environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Kjell Yngve; Søndergaard, Karin; Kongshaug, Jesper

2013-01-01

The paper presents research on the experiential qualities emerging from the performative engagement within adaptive lighting environments. Being performatively engaged in an environment, where the lighting is continuously adapting, opens an experiential position with fuid temporality, and opens...... of adaptive lighting environments through the lighting research and designs of the four authors....

Technological considerations in emergency instrument preparedness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Selby, J.M.

1976-01-01

Emergency preparedness has been emphasized during the development of the nuclear industry. Existing instrumentation technology has been effectively applied to minimizing the probability of accidents. Radiological instrumentation provided for the measurement of ambient radiation levels or routine releases of radioactive material is usually adequate to provide an early warning that an accident is occurring. In contrast, radiological instrumentation capable of providing a reasonable measure of the source term which could be involved in a severe accident has not received enough attention. In emergency planning the capability should be established for identifying as promptly as possible the need for evasive action out in the plant environs and for minimizing the consequences of an accident in terms of resultant human exposure. Therefore instrumentation is required to measure the source term no matter where the point of release might be, together with instrumentation for obtaining meteorological data sufficient to establish the path of the release in the environment

Cyanobacterial Farming for Environment Friendly Sustainable Agriculture Practices: Innovations and Perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jainendra Pathak

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Sustainable supply of food and energy without posing any threat to environment is the current demand of our society in view of continuous increase in global human population and depletion of natural resources of energy. Cyanobacteria have recently emerged as potential candidates who can fulfill abovementioned needs due to their ability to efficiently harvest solar energy and convert it into biomass by simple utilization of CO2, water and nutrients. During conversion of radiant energy into chemical energy, these biological systems produce oxygen as a by-product. Cyanobacterial biomass can be used for the production of food, energy, biofertilizers, secondary metabolites of nutritional, cosmetics, and medicinal importance. Therefore, cyanobacterial farming is proposed as environment friendly sustainable agricultural practice which can produce biomass of very high value. Additionally, cyanobacterial farming helps in decreasing the level of greenhouse gas, i.e., CO2, and it can be also used for removing various contaminants from wastewater and soil. However, utilization of cyanobacteria for resolving the abovementioned problems is subjected to economic viability. In this review, we provide details on different aspects of cyanobacterial system that can help in developing sustainable agricultural practices. We also describe different large-scale cultivation systems for cyanobacterial farming and discuss their merits and demerits in terms of economic profitability.

Health promotion in Swedish schools: school managers' views.

Science.gov (United States)

Persson, Louise; Haraldsson, Katarina

2017-04-01

Schools are recognized worldwide as settings for health promotion, and leadership has a bearing on schools' ability to be health promoting. School managers have a great influence on what is prioritized in school, which in turn affects students' school performance and health. There is lack of research into school managers' views on health promotion, and what they consider to be central to health promotion. The aim was therefore to examine school managers' views about what health promotion in schools include. An explorative design, qualitative content analysis, was performed. In-depth interviews were conducted with all 13 school managers of a middle-sized municipality in central Sweden. The analysis had both manifest and latent content and three categories: 'Organization and Collaboration', 'Optimize the arena' and 'Strengthen the individual', and 10 subcategories emerged. The theme, 'Opportunities for learning and a good life', describes the latent content of these categories. Taking into account the views of school managers are important because these views help form a more complete picture of how school managers work with health promotion and what is needed to enhance health promotion to improve students' opportunities for learning and a good life. The Ottawa Charter for Health promotion is thereby transformed into practice. © The Author (2013). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Craniux: a LabVIEW-based modular software framework for brain-machine interface research.

Science.gov (United States)

Degenhart, Alan D; Kelly, John W; Ashmore, Robin C; Collinger, Jennifer L; Tyler-Kabara, Elizabeth C; Weber, Douglas J; Wang, Wei

2011-01-01

This paper presents "Craniux," an open-access, open-source software framework for brain-machine interface (BMI) research. Developed in LabVIEW, a high-level graphical programming environment, Craniux offers both out-of-the-box functionality and a modular BMI software framework that is easily extendable. Specifically, it allows researchers to take advantage of multiple features inherent to the LabVIEW environment for on-the-fly data visualization, parallel processing, multithreading, and data saving. This paper introduces the basic features and system architecture of Craniux and describes the validation of the system under real-time BMI operation using simulated and real electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals. Our results indicate that Craniux is able to operate consistently in real time, enabling a seamless work flow to achieve brain control of cursor movement. The Craniux software framework is made available to the scientific research community to provide a LabVIEW-based BMI software platform for future BMI research and development.

Craniux: A LabVIEW-Based Modular Software Framework for Brain-Machine Interface Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alan D. Degenhart

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents “Craniux,” an open-access, open-source software framework for brain-machine interface (BMI research. Developed in LabVIEW, a high-level graphical programming environment, Craniux offers both out-of-the-box functionality and a modular BMI software framework that is easily extendable. Specifically, it allows researchers to take advantage of multiple features inherent to the LabVIEW environment for on-the-fly data visualization, parallel processing, multithreading, and data saving. This paper introduces the basic features and system architecture of Craniux and describes the validation of the system under real-time BMI operation using simulated and real electrocorticographic (ECoG signals. Our results indicate that Craniux is able to operate consistently in real time, enabling a seamless work flow to achieve brain control of cursor movement. The Craniux software framework is made available to the scientific research community to provide a LabVIEW-based BMI software platform for future BMI research and development.

Multi-view video segmentation and tracking for video surveillance

Science.gov (United States)

Mohammadi, Gelareh; Dufaux, Frederic; Minh, Thien Ha; Ebrahimi, Touradj

2009-05-01

Tracking moving objects is a critical step for smart video surveillance systems. Despite the complexity increase, multiple camera systems exhibit the undoubted advantages of covering wide areas and handling the occurrence of occlusions by exploiting the different viewpoints. The technical problems in multiple camera systems are several: installation, calibration, objects matching, switching, data fusion, and occlusion handling. In this paper, we address the issue of tracking moving objects in an environment covered by multiple un-calibrated cameras with overlapping fields of view, typical of most surveillance setups. Our main objective is to create a framework that can be used to integrate objecttracking information from multiple video sources. Basically, the proposed technique consists of the following steps. We first perform a single-view tracking algorithm on each camera view, and then apply a consistent object labeling algorithm on all views. In the next step, we verify objects in each view separately for inconsistencies. Correspondent objects are extracted through a Homography transform from one view to the other and vice versa. Having found the correspondent objects of different views, we partition each object into homogeneous regions. In the last step, we apply the Homography transform to find the region map of first view in the second view and vice versa. For each region (in the main frame and mapped frame) a set of descriptors are extracted to find the best match between two views based on region descriptors similarity. This method is able to deal with multiple objects. Track management issues such as occlusion, appearance and disappearance of objects are resolved using information from all views. This method is capable of tracking rigid and deformable objects and this versatility lets it to be suitable for different application scenarios.

Technological Factors, User Characteristics and Didactic Strategies in Educational Virtual Environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Natsis, Antonios; Vrellis, Ioannis; Papachristos, Nikiforos

2012-01-01

Technological factors, user characteristics and didactic strategies do not function consistently across Educational Virtual Environments. This study investigates the impact of viewing condition and didactic strategy on attention allocation, suspension of disbelief, spatial presence, and learning...... outcomes in an Educational Virtual Environment concerning ancient Greek pottery. Our results show that the viewing condition does not affect attention allocation, suspension of disbelief, and spatial presence. Learning outcomes are better in the monoscopic viewing condition. Didactic strategy has an impact...... on suspension of disbelief and learning outcomes. Domain specific interest associates with higher level of attention allocation and spatial presence, while spatial presence is not related to learning outcomes. More research is needed in order to identify the role of each one of the above factors in Educational...

Internet-based surveillance systems for monitoring emerging infectious diseases.

Science.gov (United States)

Milinovich, Gabriel J; Williams, Gail M; Clements, Archie C A; Hu, Wenbiao

2014-02-01

Emerging infectious diseases present a complex challenge to public health officials and governments; these challenges have been compounded by rapidly shifting patterns of human behaviour and globalisation. The increase in emerging infectious diseases has led to calls for new technologies and approaches for detection, tracking, reporting, and response. Internet-based surveillance systems offer a novel and developing means of monitoring conditions of public health concern, including emerging infectious diseases. We review studies that have exploited internet use and search trends to monitor two such diseases: influenza and dengue. Internet-based surveillance systems have good congruence with traditional surveillance approaches. Additionally, internet-based approaches are logistically and economically appealing. However, they do not have the capacity to replace traditional surveillance systems; they should not be viewed as an alternative, but rather an extension. Future research should focus on using data generated through internet-based surveillance and response systems to bolster the capacity of traditional surveillance systems for emerging infectious diseases. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emergency response and radiation monitoring systems in Russian regions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arutyunyan, R.; Osipiyants, I.; Kiselev, V.; Ogar, K; Gavrilov, S.

2008-01-01

Full text: Preparedness of the emergency response system to elimination of radiation incidents and accidents is one of the most important elements of ensuring safe operation of nuclear power facilities. Routine activities on prevention of emergency situations along with adequate, efficient and opportune response actions are the key factors reducing the risks of adverse effects on population and environment. Both high engineering level and multiformity of the nuclear branch facilities make special demands on establishment of response system activities to eventual emergency situations. First and foremost, while resolving sophisticated engineering and scientific problems emerging during the emergency response process, one needs a powerful scientific and technical support system.The emergency response system established in the past decade in Russian nuclear branch provides a high efficiency of response activities due to the use of scientific and engineering potential and experience of the involved institutions. In Russia the responsibility for population protection is imposed on regional authority. So regional emergence response system should include up-to-date tools of radiation monitoring and infrastructure. That's why new activities on development of radiation monitoring and emergency response system were started in the regions of Russia. The main directions of these activities are: 1) Modernization of the existing and setting-up new facility and territorial automatic radiation monitoring systems, including mobile radiation surveillance kits; 2) Establishment of the Regional Crisis Centres and Crisis Centres of nuclear and radiation hazardous facilities; 3) Setting up communication systems for transfer, acquisition, processing, storage and presentation of data for participants of emergency response at the facility, regional and federal levels; 4) Development of software and hardware systems for expert support of decision-making on protection of personnel, population

Emerging contaminants in groundwater

OpenAIRE

Lapworth, Dan; Stuart, Marianne; Hart, Alwyn; Crane, Emily; Baran, Nicole

2011-01-01

The term ‘emerging contaminants’ (ECs) is used to cover not only newly developed compounds but also includes newly discovered compounds in the environment (often due to analytical developments), and compounds that have been recently categorised as contaminants. ECs include a huge array of different compounds (and their metabolites) that are used by society for a range of purposes and include; pharmaceuticals, pesticides, personal care products, veterinary medicines, engineered nano-materials,...

Open Manufacturing: Impacts of Resource Based View and Servitisation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yang, Cheng; Johansen, John

2010-01-01

The environment of manufacturing has faced significant changes in the past decade. Meanwhile, the traditional focus of manufacturing strategy is also impacted by resource-based view and servitisation. Thus, no matter from a practical or theoretical perspective, it is time to rethink what kind...... of view we can have on manufacturing. In this paper, the literature is reviewed firstly to track the evolution of theories on manufacturing strategy and to investigate new views on manufacturing from a theoretical perspective. This is followed by three case studies, which are used to explore how...... manufacturing is used from a practical perspective. The usages of manufacturing are classified into three groups and their relationships are discussed further. Based on these findings and inspired by open source software (OSS) and open innovation, a new paradigm on manufacturing termed as “open manufacturing...

Aerobic lineage of the oxidative stress response protein rubrerythrin emerged in an ancient microaerobic, (hyperthermophilic environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan Pablo Cardenas

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Rubrerythrins (RBRs are non-heme di-iron proteins belonging to the ferritin-like superfamily (FLSF. They are involved in oxidative stress defense as peroxide scavengers in a wide range of organisms. The vast majority of RBRs, including classical forms of this protein, contain a C-terminal rubredoxin-like domain involved in electron transport that is used during catalysis in anaerobic conditions. Rubredoxin is an ancient and large protein family of short length (<100 residues that contains a Fe-S center involved in electron transfer. However, functional forms of the enzyme lacking the rubredoxin-like domain have been reported (e.g., sulerythrin and ferriperoxin. In this study, phylogenomic evidence is presented that suggests that a complete lineage of rubrerythrins, lacking the rubredoxin-like domain, arose in an ancient microaerobic and (hyperthermophilic environments in the ancestors of the Archaea Thermoproteales and Sulfolobales. This lineage (termed the aerobic-type lineage subsequently evolved to become adapted to environments with progressively lower temperatures and higher oxygen concentrations via the acquisition of two co-localized genes, termed DUF3501 and RFO, encoding a conserved protein of unknown function and a predicted Fe-S oxidoreductase respectively. Proposed Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT events from these archaeal ancestors to Bacteria expanded the opportunities for further evolution of this RBR including adaption to lower temperatures. The second lineage (termed the cyanobacterial lineage is proposed to have evolved in cyanobacterial ancestors, maybe in direct response to the production of oxygen via oxygenic photosynthesis during the Great Oxygen Event (GOE. It is hypothesized that both lineages of RBR emerged in a largely anaerobic world with whiffs of oxygen and that their subsequent independent evolutionary trajectories allowed microorganisms to transition from this anaerobic world to an aerobic one.

Plastic pollutants in water environment

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