WorldWideScience

Sample records for globus metacomputing toolkit

  1. A resource management architecture for metacomputing systems.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Czajkowski, K.; Foster, I.; Karonis, N.; Kesselman, C.; Martin, S.; Smith, W.; Tuecke, S.

    1999-08-24

    Metacomputing systems are intended to support remote and/or concurrent use of geographically distributed computational resources. Resource management in such systems is complicated by five concerns that do not typically arise in other situations: site autonomy and heterogeneous substrates at the resources, and application requirements for policy extensibility, co-allocation, and online control. We describe a resource management architecture that addresses these concerns. This architecture distributes the resource management problem among distinct local manager, resource broker, and resource co-allocator components and defines an extensible resource specification language to exchange information about requirements. We describe how these techniques have been implemented in the context of the Globus metacomputing toolkit and used to implement a variety of different resource management strategies. We report on our experiences applying our techniques in a large testbed, GUSTO, incorporating 15 sites, 330 computers, and 3600 processors.

  2. Application experiences with the Globus toolkit.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brunett, S.

    1998-06-09

    The Globus grid toolkit is a collection of software components designed to support the development of applications for high-performance distributed computing environments, or ''computational grids'' [14]. The Globus toolkit is an implementation of a ''bag of services'' architecture, which provides application and tool developers not with a monolithic system but rather with a set of stand-alone services. Each Globus component provides a basic service, such as authentication, resource allocation, information, communication, fault detection, and remote data access. Different applications and tools can combine these services in different ways to construct ''grid-enabled'' systems. The Globus toolkit has been used to construct the Globus Ubiquitous Supercomputing Testbed, or GUSTO: a large-scale testbed spanning 20 sites and included over 4000 compute nodes for a total compute power of over 2 TFLOPS. Over the past six months, we and others have used this testbed to conduct a variety of application experiments, including multi-user collaborative environments (tele-immersion), computational steering, distributed supercomputing, and high throughput computing. The goal of this paper is to review what has been learned from these experiments regarding the effectiveness of the toolkit approach. To this end, we describe two of the application experiments in detail, noting what worked well and what worked less well. The two applications are a distributed supercomputing application, SF-Express, in which multiple supercomputers are harnessed to perform large distributed interactive simulations; and a tele-immersion application, CAVERNsoft, in which the focus is on connecting multiple people to a distributed simulated world.

  3. Monitoring the grid with the Globus Toolkit MDS4

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schopf, Jennifer M; Pearlman, Laura; Miller, Neill; Kesselman, Carl; Foster, Ian; D'Arcy, Mike; Chervenak, Ann

    2006-01-01

    The Globus Toolkit Monitoring and Discovery System (MDS4) defines and implements mechanisms for service and resource discovery and monitoring in distributed environments. MDS4 is distinguished from previous similar systems by its extensive use of interfaces and behaviors defined in the WS-Resource Framework and WS-Notification specifications, and by its deep integration into essentially every component of the Globus Toolkit. We describe the MDS4 architecture and the Web service interfaces and behaviors that allow users to discover resources and services, monitor resource and service states, receive updates on current status, and visualize monitoring results. We present two current deployments to provide insights into the functionality that can be achieved via the use of these mechanisms

  4. OGSA Globus Toolkits evaluation activity at CERN

    CERN Document Server

    Chen, D; Foster, D; Kalyaev, V; Kryukov, A; Lamanna, M; Pose, V; Rocha, R; Wang, C

    2004-01-01

    An Open Grid Service Architecture (OGSA) Globus Toolkit 3 (GT3) evaluation group is active at CERN since GT3 was available in early beta version (Spring 2003). This activity focuses on the evaluation of the technology as promised by the OGSA/OGSI paradigm and on GT3 in particular. The goal is to study this new technology and its implications with the goal to provide useful input for the large grid initiatives active in the LHC Computing Grid (LCG) project. A particular effort has been devoted to investigate performance and deployment issues, having in mind the LCG requirements, in particular scalability and robustness.

  5. BioBlend.objects: metacomputing with Galaxy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leo, Simone; Pireddu, Luca; Cuccuru, Gianmauro; Lianas, Luca; Soranzo, Nicola; Afgan, Enis; Zanetti, Gianluigi

    2014-10-01

    BioBlend.objects is a new component of the BioBlend package, adding an object-oriented interface for the Galaxy REST-based application programming interface. It improves support for metacomputing on Galaxy entities by providing higher-level functionality and allowing users to more easily create programs to explore, query and create Galaxy datasets and workflows. BioBlend.objects is available online at https://github.com/afgane/bioblend. The new object-oriented API is implemented by the galaxy/objects subpackage. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

  6. A metacomputing environment for demanding applications: design, implementation, experiments and business benefit

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Meliones, A.N.; Varvarigou, T.A.; Tsagronis, P.; Emmen, A.; Barosan, I.

    1999-01-01

    The paper describes the design, implementation, and use of a commercial metacomputing environment for computationally intensive loosely-coupled parallel applications. Much weight has been laid on practical and commercialisation aspects, and on business benefit. This distinguishes this work from many

  7. Management of Globus Pharyngeus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Kortequee

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Globus pharyngeus is a common ENT condition. This paper reviews the current evidence on globus and gives a rational guide to the management of patients with globus. The aetiology of globus is still unclear though most ENT surgeons believe that reflux whether acidic or not plays a significant role. Though proton pump inhibitors are used extensively in practice, there is little evidence to support their efficacy. Most patients with globus can be discharged after simple office investigations. The role of pepsin-induced laryngeal injury is an exciting concept that needs further study. Given the benign nature of globus pharyngeus, in most cases, reassurance rather than treatment or extensive investigation with rigid oesophagoscopy or contrast swallows is all that is needed. We need more research into the aetiology of globus.

  8. Globus File Transfer Services | High-Performance Computing | NREL

    Science.gov (United States)

    installed on the systems at both ends of the data transfer. The NREL endpoint is nrel#globus. Click Login on the Globus web site. On the login page select "Globus ID" as the login method and click Login to the Globus website. From the Manage Data drop down menu, select Transfer Files. Then click Get

  9. Gastropharyngeal and gastroesophageal reflux in globus and hoarseness

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Smit, C. F.; van Leeuwen, J. A.; Mathus-Vliegen, L. M.; Devriese, P. P.; Semin, A.; Tan, J.; Schouwenburg, P. F.

    2000-01-01

    The role of gastropharyngeal reflux in patients with globus pharyngeus and hoarseness remains unclear. To evaluate patients with complaints of globus, hoarseness, or globus and hoarseness combined for the presence of gastropharyngeal and gastroesophageal reflux. Prospective clinical cohort study of

  10. Globus Identity, Access, and Data Management: Platform Services for Collaborative Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ananthakrishnan, R.; Foster, I.; Wagner, R.

    2016-12-01

    Globus is software-as-a-service for research data management, developed at, and operated by, the University of Chicago. Globus, accessible at www.globus.org, provides high speed, secure file transfer; file sharing directly from existing storage systems; and data publication to institutional repositories. 40,000 registered users have used Globus to transfer tens of billions of files totaling hundreds of petabytes between more than 10,000 storage systems within campuses and national laboratories in the US and internationally. Web, command line, and REST interfaces support both interactive use and integration into applications and infrastructures. An important component of the Globus system is its foundational identity and access management (IAM) platform service, Globus Auth. Both Globus research data management and other applications use Globus Auth for brokering authentication and authorization interactions between end-users, identity providers, resource servers (services), and a range of clients, including web, mobile, and desktop applications, and other services. Compliant with important standards such as OAuth, OpenID, and SAML, Globus Auth provides mechanisms required for an extensible, integrated ecosystem of services and clients for the research and education community. It underpins projects such as the US National Science Foundation's XSEDE system, NCAR's Research Data Archive, and the DOE Systems Biology Knowledge Base. Current work is extending Globus services to be compliant with FEDRAMP standards for security assessment, authorization, and monitoring for cloud services. We will present Globus IAM solutions and give examples of Globus use in various projects for federated access to resources. We will also describe how Globus Auth and Globus research data management capabilities enable rapid development and low-cost operations of secure data sharing platforms that leverage Globus services and integrate them with local policy and security.

  11. Epiglottic cyst as an etiological factor of globus sensation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Polat, Bahtiyar; Karahatay, Serdar; Gerek, Mustafa

    2015-09-01

    Globus is a subjective complaint that describes a sensation of a lump or a foreign body in the throat. Despite being a well-known and common clinical condition, the etiological factors have not been definitely elucidated yet. The study was set up to ascertain the relationship between epiglottic cysts and globus sensation. All patients undergoing investigation and treatments for globus sensation were included in the study. Patients with epiglottic cysts but no other possible causes of globus sensation were constituted the series of patients. Patients were asked to assess the levels of complaint before and after the carbon dioxide (CO2) laser excisions of the cysts. Epiglottic cysts were found in 10 (5.4%) of the 182 patients. Three of these 10 patients who had concomitant diseases or conditions that may cause globus sensation and one patient who refused the surgery were excluded from the study. All the remaining six patients reported relief of the globus sensation after the CO2 laser excisions of the cysts. Our results, obtained from this limited series, indicated that epiglottic cysts may be considered as one of the etiological factors of globus sensation.

  12. Radiologic evaluation of the globus symptom using videotape recorder

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Myeong Jin; Chung, Tae Sub; Lee, Jong Tae; Yoo, Hyung Sik; Suh, Jung Ho; Chang, Tae Young; Park, In Yong

    1988-01-01

    The authors examined barium swallow in 213 patients with globus symptom and 79 patients with vague gastric problems without globus symptom. Abnormal findings were more frequently detected on videorecording than on conventional esophagogram. Radiologic findings were transient cricopharyngeal indentation (CPI), residual barium collection and delayed clearing from hypopharynx (RB), laryngeal penetration of barium, barium retention in vallecula and or pyriform sinuses. Among them residual barium in hypopharynx was more frequently detected in patients with globus symptom than in patients without globus symptom. Globus symptom was more frequent in adult women, but age and sex difference did not affect the incidence of the abnormal radiologic findings. Cricopharyngeal indentation was most frequently seen at the level of C5-6 interspace and had a tendency of moving upward gradually during the indentation in about half of the cases. Most of the CPI was seen in early phase of swallowing and was visible within 1 sec. Residual barium collection was mostly seen in C6 or C6-7 level. RB had no cause and effect relationship with CPI, and it was not secondary result of obstructive effect of CPI. The authors think that videotape recording can be a useful method for evaluation of globus symptom. The residual barium collection in hypopharynx can be a significant finding in globus symptom

  13. A GridFTP transport driver for Globus XIO

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kettimuthu, R.; Wantao, L.; Link, J.; Bresnahan, J.

    2008-01-01

    GridFTP is a high-performance, reliable data transfer protocol optimized for high-bandwidth wide-area networks. Based on the Internet FTP protocol, it defines extensions for high-performance operation and security. The Globus implementation of GridFTP provides a modular and extensible data transfer system architecture suitable for wide area and high-performance environments. GridFTP is the de facto standard in projects requiring secure, robust, high-speed bulk data transport. For example, the high energy physics community is basing its entire tiered data movement infrastructure for the Large Hadron Collider computing Grid on GridFTP; the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory routinely uses GridFTP to move 1 TB a day during production runs; and GridFTP is the recommended data transfer mechanism to maximize data transfer rates on the TeraGrid. Commonly used GridFTP clients include globus-url-copy, uberftp, and the Globus Reliable File Transfer service. In this paper, we present a Globus XIO based client to GridFTP that provides a simple Open/Close/Read/Write (OCRW) interface to the users. Such a client greatly eases the addition of GridFTP support to third-party programs, such as SRB and MPICH-G2. Further, this client provides an easier and familiar interface for applications to efficiently access remote files. We compare the performance of this client with that of globus-url-copy on multiple endpoints in the TeraGrid infrastructure. We perform both memory-to-memory and disk-to-disk transfers and show that the performance of this OCRW client is comparable to that of globus-url-copy. We also show that our GridFTP client significantly outperforms the GPFS WAN on the TeraGrid.

  14. Neurokinin-1 receptor activation in globus pallidus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lei Chen

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available The undecapeptide substance P has been demonstrated to modulate neuronal activity in a number of brain regions by acting on neurokinin-1 receptors. Anatomical studies revealed a moderate level of neurokinin-1 receptor in rat globus pallidus. To determine the electrophysiological effects of neurokinin-1 receptor activation in globus pallidus, whole-cell patch-clamp recordings were performed in the present study. Under current-clamp recordings, neurokinin-1 receptor agonist, [Sar9, Met(O211] substance P (SM-SP at 1 μM, depolarized globus pallidus neurons and increased their firing rate. Consistently, SM-SP induced an inward current under voltage-clamp recording. The depolarization evoked by SM-SP persisted in the presence of tetrodotoxin, glutamate and GABA receptor antagonists, indicating its direct postsynaptic effects. The neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist, SR140333B, could block SM-SP-induced depolarization. Further experiments showed that suppression of potassium conductance was the predominant ionic mechanism of SM-SP-induced depolarization. To determine if neurokinin-1 receptor activation exerts any effects on GABAergic and glutamatergic neurotransmission, the action of SM-SP on synaptic currents was studied. SM-SP significantly increased the frequency of spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents, but only induced a transient increase in the frequency of miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents. No change was observed in both spontaneous and miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents. Based on the direct excitatory effects of SM-SP on pallidal neurons, we hypothesize that neurokinin-1 receptor activation in globus pallidus may be involved in the beneficial effect of substance P in Parkinson’s disease.

  15. Globus Online: Climate Data Management for Small Teams

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ananthakrishnan, R.; Foster, I.

    2013-12-01

    Large and highly distributed climate data demands new approaches to data organization and lifecycle management. We need, in particular, catalogs that can allow researchers to track the location and properties of large numbers of data files, and management tools that can allow researchers to update data properties and organization during their research, move data among different locations, and invoke analysis computations on data--all as easily as if they were working with small numbers of files on their desktop computer. Both catalogs and management tools often need to be able to scale to extremely large quantities of data. When developing solutions to these problems, it is important to distinguish between the needs of (a) large communities, for whom the ability to organize published data is crucial (e.g., by implementing formal data publication processes, assigning DOIs, recording definitive metadata, providing for versioning), and (b) individual researchers and small teams, who are more frequently concerned with tracking the diverse data and computations involved in what highly dynamic and iterative research processes. Key requirements in the latter case include automated data registration and metadata extraction, ease of update, close-to-zero management overheads (e.g., no local software install); and flexible, user-managed sharing support, allowing read and write privileges within small groups. We describe here how new capabilities provided by the Globus Online system address the needs of the latter group of climate scientists, providing for the rapid creation and establishment of lightweight individual- or team-specific catalogs; the definition of logical groupings of data elements, called datasets; the evolution of catalogs, dataset definitions, and associated metadata over time, to track changes in data properties and organization as a result of research processes; and the manipulation of data referenced by catalog entries (e.g., replication of a dataset to

  16. An Extended Design of the "Grid-Enabled SEE++ System" Based on Globus Toolkit 4 and gLite Conference

    CERN Document Server

    Schreiner, W.; Buchberger, M.; Kaltofen, T.

    2006-01-01

    "Grid-Enabled SEE++" based on the SEE++ software system for the biomechanical 3D simulation of the human eye and its muscles. SEE++ simulates the common eye muscle surgery techniques in a graphic interactive way that is familiar to an experienced surgeon. The goal of "Grid-Enabled SEE++" is to adapt and to extend SEE++ in several steps and to develop an efficient grid-based tool for "Evidence Based Medicine", which supports the surgeons in choosing optimal surgery techniques for the treatments of different syndromes of strabismus. In our previous work, we combined the SEE++ software with the Globus (pre-Web Service) middleware and developed a parallel version of the simulation of the "Hess-Lancaster test" (typical medical examination). By this, we demonstrated how a noticeable speedup can be achieved in SEE++ by the exploitation of the computational power of the Grid. Furthermore, we reported the prototype implementation of a medical database component for "Grid-Enabled SEE++". Finally, we designed a so calle...

  17. Esophageal Sensorimotor Function and Psychological Factors Each Contribute to Symptom Severity in Globus Patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rommel, Nathalie; Van Oudenhove, Lukas; Arts, Joris; Caenepeel, Philip; Tack, Jan; Pauwels, Ans

    2016-10-01

    Altered upper esophageal sphincter (UES) and esophageal body (EB) sensorimotor function and psychosocial factors may both be involved in symptom generation in globus, but their common impact is not yet assessed. The aim of the study is (1) to compare UES and EB sensitivity and compliance of globus patients with healthy controls (HC); (2) to study the association of globus symptom severity (GSS) with UES and EB sensitivity and compliance, UES motor function and psychosocial factors. In 58 globus patients, GSS, somatization, and anxiety disorders were determined using validated questionnaires. In 26 HC and 42/58 patients, UES and EB sensitivity and compliance were assessed twice using barostat measurements. UES function of 27 globus patients was evaluated using high-resolution manometry. Bivariate correlations and a general linear model tested the association of these factors with GSS. UES and EB compliance did not differ between globus patients and HC. Upon repeated distension, UES habituation was seen in both groups, whereas EB sensitization (23.3±1.3 vs. 19.5±1.5 mm Hg, Pdisorder (t=3.04, P=0.004), and post-traumatic stress severity (ρ=0.40, P=0.005) were associated with GSS. UES compliance and somatization were independently associated with GSS. A trend (P=0.061) was found for the association of GSS with change in EB compliance. UES compliance, change in EB compliance, and somatization explain 40% of the variance in GSS. This indicates that globus is a complex disorder of the brain-gut axis rather than a "psychosomatic" disorder or a peripheral esophageal disorder.

  18. Hyperintense globus pallidus on T1-weighted MR imaging in acute kernicterus: is it common or rare?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Coskun, Abdulhakim; Yikilmaz, Ali; Karahan, Okkes Ibrahim; Manav, Ali [Erciyes University Medical School, Department of Radiology, Kayseri (Turkey); Kumandas, Sefer [Erciyes University Medical School, Department of Neuropediatry, Kayseri (Turkey); Akcakus, Mustafa [Erciyes University Medical School, Department of Neonatalogy, Kayseri (Turkey)

    2005-06-01

    Globus pallidus involvement is a well-known magnetic resonance (MR) imaging finding of acute kernicterus. However, it is not clear how early the involvement of globus pallidus occurs and whether or not it is seen in every case. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the globus pallidus involvement in 13 neonates with acute kernicterus by MR imaging. Thirteen neonates who were admitted with jaundice, encephalopathy and indirect hyperbilirubinemia (mean, 37.0 mg/dl) were prospectively evaluated with cranial MR imaging. Pathological signal changes were noted concerning the globus pallidus. Eight of the 13 patients demonstrated bilateral, symmetric increased signal intensity in the globus pallidus on T1-weighted MR imaging. These lesions were not apparent on T2-weighted images. Multiple parenchymal punctuate T1 hyperintense lesions were detected in one patient without globus pallidus involvement. This appearance was consistent with hemorrhage. The MR imaging findings of the other four patients showed no evidence of abnormality. The symmetric involvement of globus pallidus seen as hyperintense on T1-weighted MR imaging is a common and characteristic finding of acute kernicterus. (orig.)

  19. Hyperintense globus pallidus on T1-weighted MR imaging in acute kernicterus: is it common or rare?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Coskun, Abdulhakim; Yikilmaz, Ali; Karahan, Okkes Ibrahim; Manav, Ali; Kumandas, Sefer; Akcakus, Mustafa

    2005-01-01

    Globus pallidus involvement is a well-known magnetic resonance (MR) imaging finding of acute kernicterus. However, it is not clear how early the involvement of globus pallidus occurs and whether or not it is seen in every case. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the globus pallidus involvement in 13 neonates with acute kernicterus by MR imaging. Thirteen neonates who were admitted with jaundice, encephalopathy and indirect hyperbilirubinemia (mean, 37.0 mg/dl) were prospectively evaluated with cranial MR imaging. Pathological signal changes were noted concerning the globus pallidus. Eight of the 13 patients demonstrated bilateral, symmetric increased signal intensity in the globus pallidus on T1-weighted MR imaging. These lesions were not apparent on T2-weighted images. Multiple parenchymal punctuate T1 hyperintense lesions were detected in one patient without globus pallidus involvement. This appearance was consistent with hemorrhage. The MR imaging findings of the other four patients showed no evidence of abnormality. The symmetric involvement of globus pallidus seen as hyperintense on T1-weighted MR imaging is a common and characteristic finding of acute kernicterus. (orig.)

  20. Globus Platform-as-a-Service for Collaborative Science Applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ananthakrishnan, Rachana; Chard, Kyle; Foster, Ian; Tuecke, Steven

    2015-02-01

    Globus, developed as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for research data management, also provides APIs that constitute a flexible and powerful Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to which developers can outsource data management activities such as transfer and sharing, as well as identity, profile and group management. By providing these frequently important but always challenging capabilities as a service, accessible over the network, Globus PaaS streamlines web application development and makes it easy for individuals, teams, and institutions to create collaborative applications such as science gateways for science communities. We introduce the capabilities of this platform and review representative applications.

  1. New results from Globus-M spherical tokamak

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gusev, V.K.

    2002-01-01

    New results from Globus-M spherical tokamak (ST) are presented. Reported are the achievements of high plasma current of 0.36 MA and high toroidal magnetic field of 0.55 T. Plasma column stability in Globus-M is conserved at low edge safety factors and high plasma densities. Achieved lowest safety factor was q(cyl) 19 m -3 . New methods of density increase are discussed. Low-density boarder of operational space is investigated. Runaway electrons properties and conditions of their generation are investigated. Results look promising for STs. Plasma-wall interaction study was performed. Silicon probes were installed into vacuum vessel. They were exposed to boronization, first, and then deposited film interacted with plasma. Discussed are film properties. Briefly described are new diagnostic tools installed on tokamak. Status and preliminary results obtained with auxiliary heating systems are shown. (author)

  2. The increased risk of globus pharyngeus in patients with chronic thyroiditis: a case control study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karahatay, S; Ayan, A; Aydin, U; Ince, S; Emer, O; Alagoz, E

    2015-12-01

    A correlation between globus pharyngeus and thyroid gland inflammation has been mentioned in previous studies. However, the potential risk of globus pharyngeus in chronic thyroiditis patients has not been shown so far. The aim of this study is to investigate a possible association between chronic thyroiditis and globus pharyngeus. The study was performed in an ultrasound (US) center of a tertiary health care institution. Ninety-two patients who were under examination for suspected thyroid pathologies or undergoing follow-up for a previously diagnosed thyroid disease were enrolled in the study. The patients were divided into two groups according to the existence of globus symptoms. Subsequently, all patients underwent high-resolution thyroid ultrasounds. The patients whose ultrasound findings were suggestive of chronic thyroiditis constituted the second subgroup. The demographic data of the patients and other ultrasound findings including the volume of the thyroid glands and nodules, if any, were noted as well. Sixty-seven female (73%) and 25 male (27%) patients were enrolled in the study. Thirty-two (35%) of the 92 patients constituted the globus pharyngeus group according to their responses to the questionnaire and the US findings were concordant with chronic thyroiditis in 36 (39%) patients. The correlation between chronic thyroiditis and globus sensation was significant (p = 0.004), and the odds ratio was calculated as 3.7 (95% CI = 1.5-9.11). Other parameters including age, sex, thyroid volume and nodule status were not significantly related to globus pharyngeus in this particular patient series. In the presented study, the risk of globus pharyngeus occurrence was calculated as 3.7-fold higher in patients with chronic thyroiditis. Being a preliminary report, it is necessary to confirm this finding and understand the pathophysiological mechanism via further investigations with a larger patient series.

  3. Association between swallow perception and esophageal bolus clearance in patients with globus sensation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Chien-Lin; Yi, Chih-Hsun; Liu, Tso-Tsai

    2013-04-01

    Globus sensation is common, but its pathogenesis is not yet clear. Our purpose was to investigate subjective perception of swallowing and esophageal motility by combined multichannel intraluminal impedance and manometry (MII-EM) for patients with globus sensation. Combined MII-EM was performed for 25 globus patients and 15 healthy controls. Swallows were abnormal if hypocontractivity or simultaneous contractions occurred. Esophageal bolus transit was incomplete if bolus exit was not found at one or more of all measurement sites. Perception of each swallow was assessed by use of a standardized scoring system, and was enhanced if the score was >1. Few globus patients reported enhanced perception during viscous or solid swallows. Incomplete bolus transit and enhanced perception occurred similarly between viscous and solid boluses. Agreement between enhanced perception and proximal bolus clearance was greater during solid swallows (κ = 0.45, 95 % CI: 0.32-0.58) than during viscous swallows (κ = 0.13, 95 % CI: 0-0.25) (P perception and total bolus clearance was greater during solid swallows (κ = 0.46, 95 % CI: 0.34-0.58) than during viscous swallows (κ = 0.11, 95 % CI: 0-0.22) (P perception is uncommon in patients with globus sensation, although there is a significant association between enhanced esophageal perception and solid bolus clearance. Application of a solid bolus may help better delineation of the interrelationship between the subjective perception of bolus passage and the objective measurement of bolus clearance.

  4. Pathophysiology and treatment of patients with globus sensation ―from the viewpoint of esophageal motility dysfunction―

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manabe, Noriaki; Tsutsui, Hideaki; Kusunoki, Hiroaki; Hata, Jiro; Haruma, Ken

    2014-01-01

    "Globus sensation" is often described as the sensation of a lump in the throat associated with dry swallowing or the need for dry swallowing, which disappears completely during eating or drinking and for which no organic cause can be established. Due to the uncertain etiology of "globus sensation", it remains difficult to establish standard treatment strategies for affected patients. Lately most attention has been focused on gastroesophageal reflux disease and several reports have indicated that there is a close relationship between esophageal acid reflux and globus sensation. Nowadays, empirical therapy with a high dose of a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) is considered to be indicated for patients with globus sensation, after excluding organic diseases such as pharyngeal cancer, Zenker's diverticulum, or thyroid enlargement. If patients are nonresponsive to PPI therapy, evaluation of esophageal motility should be done. In our recent study, 47.9% had abnormal esophageal motility, with the most common esophageal motility abnormality being an ineffective esophageal motility in PPI-resistant patients with globus sensation. This suggests that prokinetics alone or adding prokinetics to PPI should be the treatment to be considered, although few studies have investigated the efficacy of prokinetics in the treatment of patients with globus sensation. If patients without any esophageal motility dysfunctions are nonresponsive to PPI therapy, either cognitive-behavioral therapy, anti-depressants, or gabapentin could be helpful, although further well-designed, randomized controlled large-scale studies will be necessary to determine the effectiveness of each treatment strategy on patients with globus sensation. PMID:26081369

  5. Tribal Green Building Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    This Tribal Green Building Toolkit (Toolkit) is designed to help tribal officials, community members, planners, developers, and architects develop and adopt building codes to support green building practices. Anyone can use this toolkit!

  6. [Use of high frequency cinematography in diagnosis of globus sensation].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alberty, J; Oelerich, M

    1996-09-01

    Globus pharyngis is a frequent symptom in patients who consult an otolaryngologist. In many cases, routine diagnostic work-up including history, clinical examination, and barium swallow fail to revealing the underlying pathogenesis. In a retrospective study, we present 51 selected patients suffering from globus pharyngis of unknown origin who were investigated by high-speed cineradiography in a standardized manner. Twenty-four of the patients enrolled in the study (47.1%) showed functional and/or structural swallowing disorders. In 13 cases (25.5%) dyskinesias of the superior esophagus sphincter muscle were found. Five of these patients (9.8%) also had an inconstant hypopharyngeal diverticulum. Six cases (11.8%) showed laryngeal penetration or tracheal aspiration. In four cases (7.8%) functional disorders of pharyngeal, and in three cases (5.9%) functional disorders of oral bolus transport were found. Furthermore one hypopharyngeal web (1.9%) and two benign tumors (3.9%) were detected. In many cases, varying combinations of these findings occurred. Using high-speed cineradiography for evaluation of globus pharyngis results in an increased incidence of pathologic findings, and thus is an important method for interdisciplinary diagnostic work up of patients suffering from this symptom.

  7. A prospective cohort-study of 122 adult patients presenting to an otolaryngologist's office with globus pharyngeus

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rasmussen, Eva Rye; Schnack, Didde Traerup; Ravn, Andreas Tomaas

    2018-01-01

    OBJECTIVES: To investigate the epidemiology of globus pharyngeus in adult patients presenting to the otolaryngologist's office. Also the predictors of persisting symptoms, prevalence of anxiety and the effect of clinical assessment were analyzed. DESIGN: This was a prospective cohort study. Follow......-up was done using a postal questionnaire. SETTING: One otolaryngologists' office comprising three medical doctors. PARTICIPANTS: 122 consecutive globus patients presenting to one otolaryngology office in a one-year period. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Globus incidence, gender- and age-distribution, predictors...... of persisting symptoms and the patient's health related concerns. RESULTS: 3.8% of first-time visits were regarding globus. The mean age was 48 years [range 20-88 y] and a female predominance was found (ratio 1.49). 84% experienced anxiety, mainly due to fear of cancer. The most common pathological findings...

  8. Changes in globus pallidus with (pre)term kernicterus

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    P. Govaert (Paul); R.M.C. Swarte (Renate); S.G.F. Robben (Simon); I.F.M. de Coo (René); N. Weisglas-Kuperus (Nynke); M. Sinaasappel (Maarten); J. Barkovich (James); Y.B. de Rijke (Yolanda); M.H. Lequin (Maarten)

    2003-01-01

    textabstractOBJECTIVE: We report serial magnetic resonance (MR) and sonographic behavior of globus pallidus in 5 preterm and 3 term infants with kernicterus and describe the clinical context in very low birth weight preterm infants. On the basis of this information, we suggest

  9. Integration of Globus Online with the ATLAS PanDA Workload Management System

    CERN Document Server

    Contreras, C; The ATLAS collaboration; Maeno, T; Nilsson, P; Potekhin, M

    2012-01-01

    The PanDA Workload Management System is the basis for distributed production and analysis for the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. In this role, it relies on sophisticated dynamic data movement facilities developed in ATLAS. In certain scenarios, such as small research teams in ATLAS Tier-3 sites and non-ATLAS Virtual Organizations, the overhead of installation and operation of these components makes their use not very cost effective. Globus Online is an emerging new tool from the Globus Alliance, which already proved popular within the research community. It provides the users with fast and robust file transfer capabilities that can also be managed from a Web interface, and in addition to grid sites, can have individual workstations and laptops serving as data transmission endpoints. We will describe the integration of the Globus Online functionality into the PanDA suite of software, in order to give more flexibility in choosing the method of data transfer to ATLAS Tier-3 and OSG users.

  10. Integration of Globus Online with the ATLAS PanDA Workload Management System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Contreras, C; Deng, W; Maeno, T; Potekhin, M; Nilsson, P

    2012-01-01

    The PanDA Workload Management System is the basis for distributed production and analysis for the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. In this role, it relies on sophisticated dynamic data movement facilities developed in ATLAS. In certain scenarios, such as small research teams in ATLAS Tier-3 sites and non-ATLAS Virtual Organizations, the overhead of installation and operation of these components makes their use not very cost effective. Globus Online is an emerging new tool from the Globus Alliance, which already proved popular within the research community. It provides the users with fast and robust file transfer capabilities that can also be managed from a Web interface, and in addition to grid sites, can have individual workstations and laptops serving as data transmission endpoints. We will describe the integration of the Globus Online functionality into the PanDA suite of software, in order to give more flexibility in choosing the method of data transfer to ATLAS Tier-3 and Open Science Grid (OSG) users.

  11. Bilateral haemorrhagic infarction of the globus pallidus after cocaine and alcohol intoxication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Renard, Dimitri; Brunel, Hervé; Gaillard, Nicolas

    2009-06-01

    Cocaine is a risk factor for both ischemic and haemorrhagic stroke. We present the case of a 31-year-old man with bilateral ischemia of the globus pallidus after excessive alcohol and intranasal cocaine use. Drug-related globus pallidus infarctions are most often associated with heroin. Bilateral basal ganglia infarcts after the use of cocaine, without concurrent heroin use, have never been reported. In our patient, transient cardiac arrhythmia or respiratory dysfunction related to cocaine and/or ethanol use were the most likely causes of cerebral hypoperfusion.

  12. Clinical significance of the globus pallidus signal intensity ratio in patients with liver cirrhosis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Iwasa, Motoh; Kawamura, Noriko; Hiranuma, Kiyohiko [Kuwana Municipal Hospital, Mie (Japan)] [and others

    1996-11-01

    The object of this study was to evaluate the clinical value of the globus pallidus signal intensity ratio for the subclinical detection of hepatic encephalopathy. This study comprised 25 patients with liver cirrhosis without overt hepatic encephalopathy. There was a high frequency (56%) of patients exhibiting increased signal in the globus pallidus. The pallidal signal was related to the severity of the liver disease. The auditory brain stem reaction was not correlated with the pallidal intensity and laboratory parameters. During the follow-up study, 3 out of 5 patients presenting overt hepatic encephalopathy showed strong pallidal signals. The results of this investigation suggest that abnormal globus pallidus signal may constitute a useful method for the subclinical detection of hepatic encepalopathy. (author)

  13. Clinical significance of the globus pallidus signal intensity ratio in patients with liver cirrhosis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iwasa, Motoh; Kawamura, Noriko; Hiranuma, Kiyohiko

    1996-01-01

    The object of this study was to evaluate the clinical value of the globus pallidus signal intensity ratio for the subclinical detection of hepatic encephalopathy. This study comprised 25 patients with liver cirrhosis without overt hepatic encephalopathy. There was a high frequency (56%) of patients exhibiting increased signal in the globus pallidus. The pallidal signal was related to the severity of the liver disease. The auditory brain stem reaction was not correlated with the pallidal intensity and laboratory parameters. During the follow-up study, 3 out of 5 patients presenting overt hepatic encephalopathy showed strong pallidal signals. The results of this investigation suggest that abnormal globus pallidus signal may constitute a useful method for the subclinical detection of hepatic encepalopathy. (author)

  14. Deploying HEP applications using Xen and Globus Virtual Workspaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Agarwal, A; Desmarais, R; Gable, I; Grundy, D; P-Brown, D; Seuster, R; Vanderster, D C; Sobie, R; Charbonneau, A; Enge, R

    2008-01-01

    The deployment of HEP applications in heterogeneous grid environments can be challenging because many of the applications are dependent on specific OS versions and have a large number of complex software dependencies. Virtual machine monitors such as Xen could be used to package HEP applications, complete with their execution environments, to run on resources that do not meet their operating system requirements. Our previous work has shown HEP applications running within Xen suffer little or no performance penalty as a result of virtualization. However, a practical strategy is required for remotely deploying, booting, and controlling virtual machines on a remote cluster. One tool that promises to overcome the deployment hurdles using standard grid technology is the Globus Virtual Workspaces project. We describe strategies for the deployment of Xen virtual machines using Globus Virtual Workspace middleware that simplify the deployment of HEP applications

  15. Perl Template Toolkit

    CERN Document Server

    Chamberlain, Darren; Cross, David; Torkington, Nathan; Diaz, tatiana Apandi

    2004-01-01

    Among the many different approaches to "templating" with Perl--such as Embperl, Mason, HTML::Template, and hundreds of other lesser known systems--the Template Toolkit is widely recognized as one of the most versatile. Like other templating systems, the Template Toolkit allows programmers to embed Perl code and custom macros into HTML documents in order to create customized documents on the fly. But unlike the others, the Template Toolkit is as facile at producing HTML as it is at producing XML, PDF, or any other output format. And because it has its own simple templating language, templates

  16. JAVA Stereo Display Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edmonds, Karina

    2008-01-01

    This toolkit provides a common interface for displaying graphical user interface (GUI) components in stereo using either specialized stereo display hardware (e.g., liquid crystal shutter or polarized glasses) or anaglyph display (red/blue glasses) on standard workstation displays. An application using this toolkit will work without modification in either environment, allowing stereo software to reach a wider audience without sacrificing high-quality display on dedicated hardware. The toolkit is written in Java for use with the Swing GUI Toolkit and has cross-platform compatibility. It hooks into the graphics system, allowing any standard Swing component to be displayed in stereo. It uses the OpenGL graphics library to control the stereo hardware and to perform the rendering. It also supports anaglyph and special stereo hardware using the same API (application-program interface), and has the ability to simulate color stereo in anaglyph mode by combining the red band of the left image with the green/blue bands of the right image. This is a low-level toolkit that accomplishes simply the display of components (including the JadeDisplay image display component). It does not include higher-level functions such as disparity adjustment, 3D cursor, or overlays all of which can be built using this toolkit.

  17. Globus Nexus: A Platform-as-a-Service Provider of Research Identity, Profile, and Group Management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chard, Kyle; Lidman, Mattias; McCollam, Brendan; Bryan, Josh; Ananthakrishnan, Rachana; Tuecke, Steven; Foster, Ian

    2016-03-01

    Globus Nexus is a professionally hosted Platform-as-a-Service that provides identity, profile and group management functionality for the research community. Many collaborative e-Science applications need to manage large numbers of user identities, profiles, and groups. However, developing and maintaining such capabilities is often challenging given the complexity of modern security protocols and requirements for scalable, robust, and highly available implementations. By outsourcing this functionality to Globus Nexus, developers can leverage best-practice implementations without incurring development and operations overhead. Users benefit from enhanced capabilities such as identity federation, flexible profile management, and user-oriented group management. In this paper we present Globus Nexus, describe its capabilities and architecture, summarize how several e-Science applications leverage these capabilities, and present results that characterize its scalability, reliability, and availability.

  18. Globus Nexus: A Platform-as-a-Service provider of research identity, profile, and group management

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chard, Kyle; Lidman, Mattias; McCollam, Brendan; Bryan, Josh; Ananthakrishnan, Rachana; Tuecke, Steven; Foster, Ian

    2016-03-01

    Globus Nexus is a professionally hosted Platform-as-a-Service that provides identity, profile and group management functionality for the research community. Many collaborative e-Science applications need to manage large numbers of user identities, profiles, and groups. However, developing and maintaining such capabilities is often challenging given the complexity of modern security protocols and requirements for scalable, robust, and highly available implementations. By outsourcing this functionality to Globus Nexus, developers can leverage best-practice implementations without incurring development and operations overhead. Users benefit from enhanced capabilities such as identity federation, flexible profile management, and user-oriented group management. In this paper we present Globus Nexus, describe its capabilities and architecture, summarize how several e-Science applications leverage these capabilities, and present results that characterize its scalability, reliability, and availability.

  19. Toolkit Design for Interactive Structured Graphics

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Bederson, Benjamin B; Grosjean, Jesse; Meyer, Jon

    2003-01-01

    .... We compare hand-crafted custom code to polylithic and monolithic toolkit-based solutions. Polylithic toolkits follow a design philosophy similar to 3D scene graphs supported by toolkits including Java3D and OpenInventor...

  20. Plasma heating and fuelling in the Globus-M spherical tokamak

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gusev, V.K.; Barsukov, A.G.; Belyakov, V.A.

    2005-01-01

    The results of the last two years of plasma investigations at Globus-M are presented. Described are improvements helping to achieve high performance OH plasmas, which are used as the target for auxiliary heating and fuelling experiments. Increased energy content, high beta poloidal and good confinement are reported. Experiments on NBI plasma heating with a wide range of plasma parameters were performed. Some results are presented and analyzed. Experiments on RF plasma heating in the frequency range of fundamental ion cyclotron harmonics are described. In some experiments which were performed for the first time in spherical tokamaks, promising results were achieved. Noticeable ion heating was recorded at low launched power and a high concentration of hydrogen minority in deuterium plasmas. Simulations of RF wave absorption are briefly discussed. Described also are modification of the plasma gun and test-stand experiments. Fuelling experiments performed at Globus-M are discussed. (author)

  1. Role of transnasal flexible laryngo-oesophagoscopy (TNFLO) in investigating patients with globus symptoms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohammed, H; Coates, M; Masterson, L; Chan, W Y; Hassan, Y; Nassif, R

    2017-12-01

    To explore the rationale for investigating patients presenting with globus symptoms. In this regard, we also assess the efficacy and safety of transnasal flexible laryngo-oesophagoscopy (TNFLO). A prospective study in a head and neck cancer centre of patients with persistent globus symptoms with normal flexible nasoendoscopy/indirect mirror laryngoscopy and failure of first-line medical treatment. The role of TNFLO in investigating these patients was assessed. A total of 218 patients were recruited in this study. Positive findings included upper aerodigestive cancers in two patients, other pathologies included reflux (four patients), cricopharyngeus-related pathologies (19 patients), candida (five patients). There were only five re-referrals of patients who were discharged following normal examination with TNFLO. In nine patients, TNFLO could not be completed and they went on to have other diagnostic procedures CONCLUSION: This article is the largest to date in the UK to assess the role of TNFLO in investigating patients with globus symptoms. TNFLO is equal to rigid endoscopy as a diagnostic tool. However, it is superior in terms of image clarity, ability to record video images and safety. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  2. The role of transnasal oesophagoscopy in the management of globus pharyngeus and non-progressive dysphagia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanyaolu, L N; Jemah, A; Stew, B; Ingrams, D R

    2016-01-01

    Introduction Transnasal oesophagoscopy is a relatively new method of examining the upper aerodigestive tract via the nasal passage as an outpatient procedure without the need for sedation. It has been shown to be a well tolerated, safe and accurate technique, that can therefore be used in the investigation of patients thought to have globus pharyngeus and other non sinister causes of dysphagia. Methods A total of 150 consecutive patients undergoing transnasal oesophagoscopy were analysed retrospectively. Results The main indications for this procedure were non-progressive dysphagia (n=68, 45%) and globus pharyngeus (n=60, 40%). Transnasal oesophagoscopy was normal in 65% of patients and 42% of patients were discharged from clinic at the same appointment with no further investigation. The most common positive findings were laryngeal erythema (13%) and oesophagitis (10%). Conclusions Transnasal oesophagoscopy is a useful adjunct to the management of patients with the symptoms of globus pharyngeus and non-progressive dysphagia.

  3. Business/Employers Influenza Toolkit

    Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

    This podcast promotes the "Make It Your Business To Fight The Flu" toolkit for Businesses and Employers. The toolkit provides information and recommended strategies to help businesses and employers promote the seasonal flu vaccine. Additionally, employers will find flyers, posters, and other materials to post and distribute in the workplace.

  4. Are Subthalamicus Nucleus, Internal, Globus Pallidus and Thalamus Involved in Thinking?

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Minks, E.; Jurák, Pavel; Chládek, Jan; Hummelová, Z.

    2015-01-01

    Roč. 86, e4 (2015), s. 46 ISSN 0022-3050. [Annual Meeting of the Association-of-British-Neurologists (ABN). 10.09.2015, London] Institutional support: RVO:68081731 Keywords : Subthalamicus Nucleus * Globus Pallidus * Involving Thinking Subject RIV: BH - Optics, Masers, Lasers

  5. NGS QC Toolkit: a toolkit for quality control of next generation sequencing data.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ravi K Patel

    Full Text Available Next generation sequencing (NGS technologies provide a high-throughput means to generate large amount of sequence data. However, quality control (QC of sequence data generated from these technologies is extremely important for meaningful downstream analysis. Further, highly efficient and fast processing tools are required to handle the large volume of datasets. Here, we have developed an application, NGS QC Toolkit, for quality check and filtering of high-quality data. This toolkit is a standalone and open source application freely available at http://www.nipgr.res.in/ngsqctoolkit.html. All the tools in the application have been implemented in Perl programming language. The toolkit is comprised of user-friendly tools for QC of sequencing data generated using Roche 454 and Illumina platforms, and additional tools to aid QC (sequence format converter and trimming tools and analysis (statistics tools. A variety of options have been provided to facilitate the QC at user-defined parameters. The toolkit is expected to be very useful for the QC of NGS data to facilitate better downstream analysis.

  6. Plasma jet source parameter optimisation and experiments on injection into Globus-M spherical tokamak

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gusev, V.K.; Petrov, Yu.V.; Sakharov, N.V.; Semenov, A.A.; Voronin, A.V.

    2005-01-01

    Results of theoretical and experimental research on the plasma sources and injection of plasma and gas jet produced by the modified source into tokamak Globus-M are presented. An experimental test stand was developed for investigation of intense plasma jet generation. Optimisation of pulsed coaxial accelerator parameters by means of analytical calculations is performed with the aim of achieving the highest flow velocity at limited coaxial electrode length and discharge current. The optimal parameters of power supply to generate a plasma jet with minimal impurity contamination and maximum flow velocity were determined. A comparison of experimental and calculation results is made. Plasma jet parameters are measured, such as: impurity species content, pressure distribution across the jet, flow velocity, plasma density, etc. Experiments on the interaction of a higher kinetic energy plasma jet with the magnetic field and plasma of the Globus-M tokamak were performed. Experimental results on plasma and gas jet injection into different Globus-M discharge phases are presented and discussed. Results are presented on the investigation of plasma jet injection as the source for discharge breakdown, plasma current startup and initial density rise. (author)

  7. Wetland Resources Action Planning (WRAP) toolkit

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bunting, Stuart W.; Smith, Kevin G.; Lund, Søren

    2013-01-01

    The Wetland Resources Action Planning (WRAP) toolkit is a toolkit of research methods and better management practices used in HighARCS (Highland Aquatic Resources Conservation and Sustainable Development), an EU-funded project with field experiences in China, Vietnam and India. It aims to communi......The Wetland Resources Action Planning (WRAP) toolkit is a toolkit of research methods and better management practices used in HighARCS (Highland Aquatic Resources Conservation and Sustainable Development), an EU-funded project with field experiences in China, Vietnam and India. It aims...... to communicate best practices in conserving biodiversity and sustaining ecosystem services to potential users and to promote the wise-use of aquatic resources, improve livelihoods and enhance policy information....

  8. [Detection of a higher incidence of pathologic somatic findings in globus sensation by use of high frequency cinematography].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hannig, C; Wuttge-Hannig, A; Bockmeyer, M

    1987-07-01

    Since December 1984 303 patients have undergone examination in our Multidisciplinary Consultation Service for Swallowing Disorders; 117 of them were suffering from typical globus symptoms. We were able to increase the yield of detection of organic lesions by use of the technique of 35 mm film cineradiography with a rate of 50 frames/s. Frame-by-frame analysis and computer-assisted evaluation showed that 80% of the patients with globus symptoms suffered from one or more underlying organic diseases, which could often be treated later with success. We found an increased incidence of early hypopharyngeal diverticula, webs, and motility disorders of the upper esophageal sphincter often associated with gastro-esophageal reflux or weakness of the pharyngeal wall. Cineradiography proved to be a very important tool in the analysis of the pharyngeal swallow in globus pharyngis.

  9. Supporting LGBT Communities: Police ToolKit

    OpenAIRE

    Vasquez del Aguila, Ernesto; Franey, Paul

    2013-01-01

    This toolkit provides police forces with practical educational tools, which can be used as part of a comprehensive LGBT strategy centred on diversity, equality, and non-discrimination. These materials are based on lessons learned through real life policing experiences with LGBT persons. The Toolkit is divided into seven scenarios where police awareness of LGBT issues has been identified as important. The toolkit employs a practical, scenario-based, problem-solving approach to help police offi...

  10. Toolkit Design for Interactive Structured Graphics

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Bederson, Benjamin B; Grosjean, Jesse; Meyer, Jon

    2003-01-01

    .... We describe Jazz (a polylithic toolkit) and Piccolo (a monolithic toolkit), each of which we built to support interactive 2D structured graphics applications in general, and Zoomable User Interface applications in particular...

  11. Business/Employers Influenza Toolkit

    Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

    2011-09-06

    This podcast promotes the "Make It Your Business To Fight The Flu" toolkit for Businesses and Employers. The toolkit provides information and recommended strategies to help businesses and employers promote the seasonal flu vaccine. Additionally, employers will find flyers, posters, and other materials to post and distribute in the workplace.  Created: 9/6/2011 by Office of Infectious Diseases, Office of the Director (OD).   Date Released: 9/7/2011.

  12. Solar Integration National Dataset Toolkit | Grid Modernization | NREL

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solar Integration National Dataset Toolkit Solar Integration National Dataset Toolkit NREL is working on a Solar Integration National Dataset (SIND) Toolkit to enable researchers to perform U.S . regional solar generation integration studies. It will provide modeled, coherent subhourly solar power data

  13. The Reconstruction Toolkit (RTK), an open-source cone-beam CT reconstruction toolkit based on the Insight Toolkit (ITK)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rit, S; Vila Oliva, M; Sarrut, D; Brousmiche, S; Labarbe, R; Sharp, G C

    2014-01-01

    We propose the Reconstruction Toolkit (RTK, http://www.openrtk.org), an open-source toolkit for fast cone-beam CT reconstruction, based on the Insight Toolkit (ITK) and using GPU code extracted from Plastimatch. RTK is developed by an open consortium (see affiliations) under the non-contaminating Apache 2.0 license. The quality of the platform is daily checked with regression tests in partnership with Kitware, the company supporting ITK. Several features are already available: Elekta, Varian and IBA inputs, multi-threaded Feldkamp-David-Kress reconstruction on CPU and GPU, Parker short scan weighting, multi-threaded CPU and GPU forward projectors, etc. Each feature is either accessible through command line tools or C++ classes that can be included in independent software. A MIDAS community has been opened to share CatPhan datasets of several vendors (Elekta, Varian and IBA). RTK will be used in the upcoming cone-beam CT scanner developed by IBA for proton therapy rooms. Many features are under development: new input format support, iterative reconstruction, hybrid Monte Carlo / deterministic CBCT simulation, etc. RTK has been built to freely share tomographic reconstruction developments between researchers and is open for new contributions.

  14. Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit | Grid Modernization | NREL

    Science.gov (United States)

    Integration National Dataset Toolkit Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit The Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit is an update and expansion of the Eastern Wind Integration Data Set and Western Wind Integration Data Set. It supports the next generation of wind integration studies. WIND

  15. Neurobehavioural Changes in a Patient with Bilateral Lesions of the Globus Pallidus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Haaxma

    1993-01-01

    Full Text Available This study has characterized the long-term neurobehavioural changes in a woman who, following the intake of an unidentified substance, sustained subtotal bilateral lesions of the globus pallidus and small lesions at selective sites adjacent to it. Associated with these lesions was a significantly reduced blood flow in multiple frontal cortical regions, most prominently in area 10, the anterior cingulate and the supplementary motor cortex. Her cognitive deficits were generally consistent with those found in patients with frontal lobe dysfunction but some deficits, i.e. in visual memory and learning, were more compatible with temporal lobe dysfunction. Incapacitating personality or obsessive compulsive changes as reported by others with similar lesions were absent and she could live independently. The cognitive changes are consistent with the view that the globus pallidus has important functions in mediating how internal representations of stimulus input are converted into various forms of action, for example, in planning solutions to problems and in working memory.

  16. A qualitative study of clinic and community member perspectives on intervention toolkits: "Unless the toolkit is used it won't help solve the problem".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Melinda M; Howk, Sonya; Spurlock, Margaret; McGinnis, Paul B; Cohen, Deborah J; Fagnan, Lyle J

    2017-07-18

    Intervention toolkits are common products of grant-funded research in public health and primary care settings. Toolkits are designed to address the knowledge translation gap by speeding implementation and dissemination of research into practice. However, few studies describe characteristics of effective intervention toolkits and their implementation. Therefore, we conducted this study to explore what clinic and community-based users want in intervention toolkits and to identify the factors that support application in practice. In this qualitative descriptive study we conducted focus groups and interviews with a purposive sample of community health coalition members, public health experts, and primary care professionals between November 2010 and January 2012. The transdisciplinary research team used thematic analysis to identify themes and a cross-case comparative analysis to explore variation by participant role and toolkit experience. Ninety six participants representing primary care (n = 54, 56%) and community settings (n = 42, 44%) participated in 18 sessions (13 focus groups, five key informant interviews). Participants ranged from those naïve through expert in toolkit development; many reported limited application of toolkits in actual practice. Participants wanted toolkits targeted at the right audience and demonstrated to be effective. Well organized toolkits, often with a quick start guide, with tools that were easy to tailor and apply were desired. Irrespective of perceived quality, participants experienced with practice change emphasized that leadership, staff buy-in, and facilitative support was essential for intervention toolkits to be translated into changes in clinic or public -health practice. Given the emphasis on toolkits in supporting implementation and dissemination of research and clinical guidelines, studies are warranted to determine when and how toolkits are used. Funders, policy makers, researchers, and leaders in primary care and

  17. Motor function in a patient with bilateral lesions of the globus pallidus

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haaxma, R; vanBoxtel, A; Brouwer, WH; Goeken, LNH; vanderGon, JJD; Colebatch, JG; Martin, A; Brooks, DJ; Noth, J; Marsden, CD

    1995-01-01

    This study describes the long-term motor deficits of a patient who, after a toxic encephalopathy, sustained extensive bilateral damage to both segments of the globus pallidus (GP) and the right substantia nigra (SN). There were no signs of lesions of the pyramidal tracts or of other motor

  18. Energy retrofit analysis toolkits for commercial buildings: A review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Sang Hoon; Hong, Tianzhen; Piette, Mary Ann; Taylor-Lange, Sarah C.

    2015-01-01

    Retrofit analysis toolkits can be used to optimize energy or cost savings from retrofit strategies, accelerating the adoption of ECMs (energy conservation measures) in buildings. This paper provides an up-to-date review of the features and capabilities of 18 energy retrofit toolkits, including ECMs and the calculation engines. The fidelity of the calculation techniques, a driving component of retrofit toolkits, were evaluated. An evaluation of the issues that hinder effective retrofit analysis in terms of accessibility, usability, data requirement, and the application of efficiency measures, provides valuable insights into advancing the field forward. Following this review the general concepts were determined: (1) toolkits developed primarily in the private sector use empirically data-driven methods or benchmarking to provide ease of use, (2) almost all of the toolkits which used EnergyPlus or DOE-2 were freely accessible, but suffered from complexity, longer data input and simulation run time, (3) in general, there appeared to be a fine line between having too much detail resulting in a long analysis time or too little detail which sacrificed modeling fidelity. These insights provide an opportunity to enhance the design and development of existing and new retrofit toolkits in the future. - Highlights: • Retrofit analysis toolkits can accelerate the adoption of energy efficiency measures. • A comprehensive review of 19 retrofit analysis toolkits was conducted. • Retrofit toolkits have diverse features, data requirement and computing methods. • Empirical data-driven, normative and detailed energy modeling methods are used. • Identified immediate areas for improvement for retrofit analysis toolkits

  19. SIGKit: Software for Introductory Geophysics Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kruse, S.; Bank, C. G.; Esmaeili, S.; Jazayeri, S.; Liu, S.; Stoikopoulos, N.

    2017-12-01

    The Software for Introductory Geophysics Toolkit (SIGKit) affords students the opportunity to create model data and perform simple processing of field data for various geophysical methods. SIGkit provides a graphical user interface built with the MATLAB programming language, but can run even without a MATLAB installation. At this time SIGkit allows students to pick first arrivals and match a two-layer model to seismic refraction data; grid total-field magnetic data, extract a profile, and compare this to a synthetic profile; and perform simple processing steps (subtraction of a mean trace, hyperbola fit) to ground-penetrating radar data. We also have preliminary tools for gravity, resistivity, and EM data representation and analysis. SIGkit is being built by students for students, and the intent of the toolkit is to provide an intuitive interface for simple data analysis and understanding of the methods, and act as an entrance to more sophisticated software. The toolkit has been used in introductory courses as well as field courses. First reactions from students are positive. Think-aloud observations of students using the toolkit have helped identify problems and helped shape it. We are planning to compare the learning outcomes of students who have used the toolkit in a field course to students in a previous course to test its effectiveness.

  20. Mean diffusivity of globus pallidus associated with verbal creativity measured by divergent thinking and creativity‐related temperaments in young healthy adults

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taki, Yasuyuki; Sekiguchi, Atsushi; Hashizume, Hiroshi; Nouchi, Rui; Sassa, Yuko; Kotozaki, Yuka; Miyauchi, Carlos Makoto; Yokoyama, Ryoichi; Iizuka, Kunio; Nakagawa, Seishu; Nagase, Tomomi; Kunitoki, Keiko; Kawashima, Ryuta

    2015-01-01

    Abstract Recent investigations revealed mean diffusivity (MD) in gray matter and white matter areas is correlated with individual cognitive differences in healthy subjects and show unique properties and sensitivity that other neuroimaging tools donot have. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the MD in the dopaminergic system is associated with individual differences in verbal creativity measured by divergent thinking (VCDT) and novelty seeking based on prior studies suggesting associations between these and dopaminergic functions. We examined this issue in a large sample of right‐handed healthy young adults. We used analyses of MD and a psychological measure of VCDT, as well as personality measures of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Our results revealed associations between higher VCDT and lower MD in the bilateral globus pallidus. Furthermore, not only higher novelty seeking, but also lower harm avoidance, higher self‐directedness, and higher self‐transcendence were robustly associated with lower MD in the right globus pallidus, whereas higher persistence was associated with lower MD in the left globus pallidus. These personality variables were also associated with VCDT. The globus pallidus receives the dopaminergic input from the substantia nigra and plays a key role in motivation which is critically linked to dopamine. These results suggested the MD in the globus pallidus, underlie the association between VCDT and multiple personalities in TCI including novelty seeking. Hum Brain Mapp 36:1808–1827, 2015. © 2015 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. PMID:25627674

  1. Network Science Research Laboratory (NSRL) Discrete Event Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-01-01

    ARL-TR-7579 ● JAN 2016 US Army Research Laboratory Network Science Research Laboratory (NSRL) Discrete Event Toolkit by...Laboratory (NSRL) Discrete Event Toolkit by Theron Trout and Andrew J Toth Computational and Information Sciences Directorate, ARL...Research Laboratory (NSRL) Discrete Event Toolkit 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) Theron Trout

  2. Measuring employee satisfaction in new offices - the WODI toolkit

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Maarleveld, M.; Volker, L.; van der Voordt, Theo

    2009-01-01

    Purpose: This paper presents a toolkit to measure employee satisfaction and perceived labour productivity as affected by different workplace strategies. The toolkit is being illustrated by a case study of the Dutch Revenue Service.
    Methodology: The toolkit has been developed by a review of

  3. Sierra toolkit computational mesh conceptual model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baur, David G.; Edwards, Harold Carter; Cochran, William K.; Williams, Alan B.; Sjaardema, Gregory D.

    2010-01-01

    The Sierra Toolkit computational mesh is a software library intended to support massively parallel multi-physics computations on dynamically changing unstructured meshes. This domain of intended use is inherently complex due to distributed memory parallelism, parallel scalability, heterogeneity of physics, heterogeneous discretization of an unstructured mesh, and runtime adaptation of the mesh. Management of this inherent complexity begins with a conceptual analysis and modeling of this domain of intended use; i.e., development of a domain model. The Sierra Toolkit computational mesh software library is designed and implemented based upon this domain model. Software developers using, maintaining, or extending the Sierra Toolkit computational mesh library must be familiar with the concepts/domain model presented in this report.

  4. Videofluoroscopy of the pharynx and esophagus in patients with globus pharyngis. Comparison with static radiography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schober, E.; Schima, W.; Pokieser, P.

    1995-01-01

    The symptom is associated with a multitude of pharyngoesophageal abnormalities. Our study compares the diagnostic yield of videofluoroscopy to that of static radiography in patients suffering from globus pharnygis. A total of 150 consecutive patients complaining of a lump in the throat, but without evidence of dysphagia, were studied in a standardized fashion with both methods. Videofluoroscopy combined with static radiography revealed morphological or functional abnormalities in 75% of our patients. The combination of the two methods yielded significantly more abnormalities in the pharynx and esophagus than videofluoroscopy or static radiography alone. Esophageal motor disorders, pharyngoesophageal sphincter dysfunction and pharyngeal residue of contrast material proved to be the most common abnormalities. In conclusion, videofluoroscopy combined with static radiography is mandatory in the radiological assessment of patients suffering from the globus sensation. (orig.) [de

  5. Transportation librarian's toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    2007-12-01

    The Transportation Librarians Toolkit is a product of the Transportation Library Connectivity pooled fund study, TPF- 5(105), a collaborative, grass-roots effort by transportation libraries to enhance information accessibility and professional expert...

  6. Kernicterus with abnormal high-signal changes bilaterally in the globus pallidus: A case report.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Culleton, S

    2018-04-01

    Kernicterus is a relatively rare consequence of hyperbilirubinemia. There is an important role for MRI imaging for this entity in the appropriate clinical context as there are distinct signal changes in the globus pallidus. A case report and image findings are presented

  7. A Statistical Toolkit for Data Analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Donadio, S.; Guatelli, S.; Mascialino, B.; Pfeiffer, A.; Pia, M.G.; Ribon, A.; Viarengo, P.

    2006-01-01

    The present project aims to develop an open-source and object-oriented software Toolkit for statistical data analysis. Its statistical testing component contains a variety of Goodness-of-Fit tests, from Chi-squared to Kolmogorov-Smirnov, to less known, but generally much more powerful tests such as Anderson-Darling, Goodman, Fisz-Cramer-von Mises, Kuiper, Tiku. Thanks to the component-based design and the usage of the standard abstract interfaces for data analysis, this tool can be used by other data analysis systems or integrated in experimental software frameworks. This Toolkit has been released and is downloadable from the web. In this paper we describe the statistical details of the algorithms, the computational features of the Toolkit and describe the code validation

  8. A Modular Toolkit for Distributed Interactions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julien Lange

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available We discuss the design, architecture, and implementation of a toolkit which supports some theories for distributed interactions. The main design principles of our architecture are flexibility and modularity. Our main goal is to provide an easily extensible workbench to encompass current algorithms and incorporate future developments of the theories. With the help of some examples, we illustrate the main features of our toolkit.

  9. Using Globus GridFTP to Transfer and Share Big Data | Poster

    Science.gov (United States)

    By Ashley DeVine, Staff Writer, and Mark Wance, Guest Writer; photo by Richard Frederickson, Staff Photographer Transferring big data, such as the genomics data delivered to customers from the Center for Cancer Research Sequencing Facility (CCR SF), has been difficult in the past because the transfer systems have not kept pace with the size of the data. However, the situation is changing as a result of the Globus GridFTP project.

  10. Integrated Systems Health Management (ISHM) Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Venkatesh, Meera; Kapadia, Ravi; Walker, Mark; Wilkins, Kim

    2013-01-01

    A framework of software components has been implemented to facilitate the development of ISHM systems according to a methodology based on Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM). This framework is collectively referred to as the Toolkit and was developed using General Atomics' Health MAP (TM) technology. The toolkit is intended to provide assistance to software developers of mission-critical system health monitoring applications in the specification, implementation, configuration, and deployment of such applications. In addition to software tools designed to facilitate these objectives, the toolkit also provides direction to software developers in accordance with an ISHM specification and development methodology. The development tools are based on an RCM approach for the development of ISHM systems. This approach focuses on defining, detecting, and predicting the likelihood of system functional failures and their undesirable consequences.

  11. New results from the Globus-M spherical tokamak

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gusev, V.K.; Ananiev, A.S.; Amoskov, V.M.

    2003-01-01

    New results from the Globus-M spherical tokamak are presented. High plasma current of 0.36 MA, high toroidal magnetic field of 0.55 T and other important plasma characteristics were achieved. Described are the operational space and plasma stability limits in the OH regime. The factors limiting operational space (MHD instabilities, runaway electrons, etc.) are discussed. New experiments on plasma fuelling are described. First results of experiments with a coaxial plasma gun injector are presented. Initial results of a plasma - wall interaction study are outlined. First results obtained with new diagnostic tools installed on the tokamak are presented. An auxiliary heating system test was performed. Preliminary results of simulations and experiments are given. (author)

  12. Globus pallidus MR signal abnormalities in children with chronic liver disease and/or porto-systemic shunting

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hanquinet, Sylviane; Anooshiravani, Mehrak; Merlini, Laura; Morice, Claire; Cousin, Vladimir; McLin, Valerie A.; Courvoisier, Delphine S.

    2017-01-01

    Detection of subclinical hepatic encephalopathy in children is difficult. We aimed to assess the changes in imaging of the central nervous system in children with chronic liver disease using MR imaging, diffusion, and "1H -spectroscopy. Forty three children with chronic liver disease and/or porto-systemic shunting (111.4±56.9 months) and 24 controls (72.0±51.8 months) underwent brain MRI/spectroscopy on a 1.5T to examine T1, T2, ADC, Cho/Cr, ml/Cr, Glx/Cr ratio spectroscopy in the globus pallidus. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to the ratios of globus pallidus/putamen T1 signal: isointense (i), hyperintense (h), much more hyperintense (h+). The relationship with clinical and biological data was analyzed. T1 signal intensity and ml/Cr were significantly different between controls and group h+ (p=0.001). ADC did not differ significantly between groups. Age correlated strongly with the presence of a T1 signal ratio (p > 0.001). There was no correlation between imaging findings and biological parameters. In children with chronic liver disease and/or porto-systemic shunting, the presence of a hyperintense T1 signal in the globus pallidus correlated strongly with age. Biological and clinical parameters were not predictive of these changes. MRI may become a useful screening tool for hepatic encephalopathy in children. (orig.)

  13. Globus pallidus MR signal abnormalities in children with chronic liver disease and/or porto-systemic shunting

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hanquinet, Sylviane; Anooshiravani, Mehrak; Merlini, Laura [University Hospital of Geneva, Department of Pediatric Radiology, Geneva (Switzerland); Morice, Claire; Cousin, Vladimir; McLin, Valerie A. [University Hospital of Geneva, Swiss Center for Liver Disease in Children, Geneva (Switzerland); Courvoisier, Delphine S. [University Hospital of Geneva, Division of Quality of Care, Geneva (Switzerland)

    2017-10-15

    Detection of subclinical hepatic encephalopathy in children is difficult. We aimed to assess the changes in imaging of the central nervous system in children with chronic liver disease using MR imaging, diffusion, and {sup 1}H -spectroscopy. Forty three children with chronic liver disease and/or porto-systemic shunting (111.4±56.9 months) and 24 controls (72.0±51.8 months) underwent brain MRI/spectroscopy on a 1.5T to examine T1, T2, ADC, Cho/Cr, ml/Cr, Glx/Cr ratio spectroscopy in the globus pallidus. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to the ratios of globus pallidus/putamen T1 signal: isointense (i), hyperintense (h), much more hyperintense (h+). The relationship with clinical and biological data was analyzed. T1 signal intensity and ml/Cr were significantly different between controls and group h+ (p=0.001). ADC did not differ significantly between groups. Age correlated strongly with the presence of a T1 signal ratio (p > 0.001). There was no correlation between imaging findings and biological parameters. In children with chronic liver disease and/or porto-systemic shunting, the presence of a hyperintense T1 signal in the globus pallidus correlated strongly with age. Biological and clinical parameters were not predictive of these changes. MRI may become a useful screening tool for hepatic encephalopathy in children. (orig.)

  14. Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.1

    CERN Document Server

    Benito, Andrés Del Río

    2013-01-01

    A practical guide into the architecture and features that make up the services and components of the ESB Toolkit.This book is for experienced BizTalk developers, administrators, and architects, as well as IT managers and BizTalk business analysts. Knowledge and experience with the Toolkit is not a requirement.

  15. Pathological bolus exposure may define gastro-esophageal reflux better than pathological acid exposure in patients with globus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sinn, Dong Hyun; Kim, Beom Jin; Son, Hee Jung; Kim, Jae J; Rhee, Jong Chul; Rhee, Poong-Lyul

    2012-01-01

    Conventionally, pathological acid exposure (PAE), defined by acid reflux only, is used to identify gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD). However, weak acid reflux or non-acid reflux also induces reflux symptoms. Defining abnormal reflux based on all reflux episodes may better identify GERD and would be more useful among patients with atypical GERD symptoms, such as globus. Impedance-pHmetry results of 31 globus patients, off acid suppressants, were analysed. A median of 24 episodes of reflux were observed. Of the reflux episodes, 54% were non-acid reflux and 50% reached the proximal extent. PAE was observed in 6 patients (19%). For 5 patients (16%) without PAE, there was evidence of increased bolus exposure compared to normal controls (an intraesophageal bolus exposure for more than 1.4% of the recording time, defined as pathological bolus exposure, PBE). When GERD was defined by PAE or esophagitis, the prevalence of GERD was 29%. When GERD was defined by PBE, PAE or esophagitis, the prevalence was 42%. PBE identified 13% of the patients who otherwise would have been missed. A significant proportion of patients without PAE had evidence of PBE. PBE may be a more useful definition for identifying patients with abnormal increase in reflux in patients with globus. Further studies are warranted.

  16. An Industrial Physics Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cummings, Bill

    2004-03-01

    Physicists possess many skills highly valued in industrial companies. However, with the exception of a decreasing number of positions in long range research at large companies, job openings in industry rarely say "Physicist Required." One key to a successful industrial career is to know what subset of your physics skills is most highly valued by a given industry and to continue to build these skills while working. This combination of skills from both academic and industrial experience becomes your "Industrial Physics Toolkit" and is a transferable resource when you change positions or companies. This presentation will describe how one builds and sells your own "Industrial Physics Toolkit" using concrete examples from the speaker's industrial experience.

  17. Deep Brain Stimulation of the internal globus pallidus in refractory Tourette Syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smeets, A Y J M; Duits, A A; Plantinga, B R; Leentjens, A F G; Oosterloo, M; Visser-Vandewalle, V; Temel, Y; Ackermans, L

    2016-03-01

    Deep Brain Stimulation in psychiatric disorders is becoming an increasingly performed surgery. At present, seven different targets have been stimulated in Tourette Syndrome, including the internal globus pallidus. We describe the effects on tics and comorbid behavioral disorders of Deep Brain Stimulation of the anterior internal globus pallidus in five patients with refractory Tourette Syndrome. This study was performed as an open label study with follow-up assessment between 12 and 38 months. Patients were evaluated twice, one month before surgery and at long-term follow-up. Primary outcome was tic severity, assessed by several scales. Secondary outcomes were comorbid behavioral disorders, mood and cognition. The final position of the active contacts of the implanted electrodes was investigated and side effects were reported. Three males and two females were included with a mean age of 41.6 years (SD 9.7). The total post-operative score on the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale was significantly lower than the pre-operative score (42.2±4.8 versus 12.8±3.8, P=0.043). There was also a significant reduction on the modified Rush Video-Based Tic Rating Scale (13.0±2.0 versus 7.0±1.6, P=0.041) and in the total number of video-rated tics (259.6±107.3 versus 49.6±24.8, P=0.043). No significant difference on the secondary outcomes was found, however, there was an improvement on an individual level for obsessive-compulsive behavior. The final position of the active contacts was variable in our sample and no relationship between position and stimulation effects could be established. Our study suggests that Deep Brain Stimulation of the anterior internal globus pallidus is effective in reducing tic severity, and possibly also obsessive-compulsive behavior, in refractory Tourette patients without serious adverse events or side-effects. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. CRISPR-Cas9 Toolkit for Actinomycete Genome Editing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tong, Yaojun; Robertsen, Helene Lunde; Blin, Kai

    2018-01-01

    engineering approaches for boosting known and discovering novel natural products. In order to facilitate the genome editing for actinomycetes, we developed a CRISPR-Cas9 toolkit with high efficiency for actinomyces genome editing. This basic toolkit includes a software for spacer (sgRNA) identification......, a system for in-frame gene/gene cluster knockout, a system for gene loss-of-function study, a system for generating a random size deletion library, and a system for gene knockdown. For the latter, a uracil-specific excision reagent (USER) cloning technology was adapted to simplify the CRISPR vector...... construction process. The application of this toolkit was successfully demonstrated by perturbation of genomes of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) and Streptomyces collinus Tü 365. The CRISPR-Cas9 toolkit and related protocol described here can be widely used for metabolic engineering of actinomycetes....

  19. More than Just Fun and Games: BSG and Glo-Bus as Strategic Education Instruments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karriker, Joy H.; Aaron, Joshua R.

    2014-01-01

    Simulations like the BSG and Glo-Bus allow students the opportunity to practice their integrated, strategic management skills in a relatively risk-free environment or "live case." We review these games and address their strengths, along with the challenges associated with their classroom application. Because of their sound designs and…

  20. WS-VLAM: A GT4 based workflow management system

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wibisono, A.; Vasyunin, D.; Korkhov, V.; Zhao, Z.; Belloum, A.; de Laat, C.; Adriaans, P.; Hertzberger, B.

    2007-01-01

    Generic Grid middleware, e.g., Globus Toolkit 4 (GT4), provides basic services for scientific workflow management systems to discover, store and integrate workflow components. Using the state of the art Grid services can advance the functionality of workflow engine in orchestrating distributed Grid

  1. Hydropower Regulatory and Permitting Information Desktop (RAPID) Toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Levine, Aaron L [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2017-12-19

    Hydropower Regulatory and Permitting Information Desktop (RAPID) Toolkit presentation from the WPTO FY14-FY16 Peer Review. The toolkit is aimed at regulatory agencies, consultants, project developers, the public, and any other party interested in learning more about the hydropower regulatory process.

  2. Pyradi: an open-source toolkit for infrared calculation and data processing

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Willers, CJ

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available of such a toolkit facilitates and increases productivity during subsequent tool development: “develop once and use many times”. The concept of an extendible toolkit lends itself naturally to the open-source philosophy, where the toolkit user-base develops...

  3. The self-describing data sets file protocol and Toolkit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Borland, M.; Emery, L.

    1995-01-01

    The Self-Describing Data Sets (SDDS) file protocol continues to be used extensively in commissioning the Advanced Photon Source (APS) accelerator complex. SDDS protocol has proved useful primarily due to the existence of the SDDS Toolkit, a growing set of about 60 generic commandline programs that read and/or write SDDS files. The SDDS Toolkit is also used extensively for simulation postprocessing, giving physicists a single environment for experiment and simulation. With the Toolkit, new SDDS data is displayed and subjected to complex processing without developing new programs. Data from EPICS, lab instruments, simulation, and other sources are easily integrated. Because the SDDS tools are commandline-based, data processing scripts are readily written using the user's preferred shell language. Since users work within a UNIX shell rather than an application-specific shell or GUI, they may add SDDS-compliant programs and scripts to their personal toolkits without restriction or complication. The SDDS Toolkit has been run under UNIX on SUN OS4, HP-UX, and LINUX. Application of SDDS to accelerator operation is being pursued using Tcl/Tk to provide a GUI

  4. Implementing a user-driven online quality improvement toolkit for cancer care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luck, Jeff; York, Laura S; Bowman, Candice; Gale, Randall C; Smith, Nina; Asch, Steven M

    2015-05-01

    Peer-to-peer collaboration within integrated health systems requires a mechanism for sharing quality improvement lessons. The Veterans Health Administration (VA) developed online compendia of tools linked to specific cancer quality indicators. We evaluated awareness and use of the toolkits, variation across facilities, impact of social marketing, and factors influencing toolkit use. A diffusion of innovations conceptual framework guided the collection of user activity data from the Toolkit Series SharePoint site and an online survey of potential Lung Cancer Care Toolkit users. The VA Toolkit Series site had 5,088 unique visitors in its first 22 months; 5% of users accounted for 40% of page views. Social marketing communications were correlated with site usage. Of survey respondents (n = 355), 54% had visited the site, of whom 24% downloaded at least one tool. Respondents' awareness of the lung cancer quality performance of their facility, and facility participation in quality improvement collaboratives, were positively associated with Toolkit Series site use. Facility-level lung cancer tool implementation varied widely across tool types. The VA Toolkit Series achieved widespread use and a high degree of user engagement, although use varied widely across facilities. The most active users were aware of and active in cancer care quality improvement. Toolkit use seemed to be reinforced by other quality improvement activities. A combination of user-driven tool creation and centralized toolkit development seemed to be effective for leveraging health information technology to spread disease-specific quality improvement tools within an integrated health care system. Copyright © 2015 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.

  5. Rikkunshito improves globus sensation in patients with proton-pump inhibitor-refractory laryngopharyngeal reflux.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tokashiki, Ryoji; Okamoto, Isaku; Funato, Nobutoshi; Suzuki, Mamoru

    2013-08-21

    To investigate the effect of rikkunshito on laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) symptoms and gastric emptying in patients with proton-pump inhibitor (PPI)-refractory LPR. In total, 22 patients with LPR were enrolled. Following a 2-wk treatment with PPI monotherapy, PPI-refractory LPR patients were randomly divided into two treatment groups (rikkunshito alone or rikkunshito plus the PPI, lansoprazole). LPR symptoms were assessed using a visual analog scale (VAS) score, gastrointestinal symptoms were assessed using the gastrointestinal symptom rating scale (GSRS), and gastric emptying was assessed using the radio-opaque marker method prior to and 4 wk following treatments. The 4-wk treatment with rikkunshito alone and with rikkunshito plus the PPI significantly decreased the globus sensation VAS scores. The VAS score for sore throat was significantly decreased following treatment with rikkunshito plus PPI but not by rikkunshito alone. Neither treatment significantly changed the GSRS scores. Rikkunshito improved delayed gastric emptying. We found a significant positive correlation between improvements in globus sensation and in gastric emptying (r² = 0.4582, P sensation in patients with PPI-refractory LPR, in part, because of stimulation of gastric emptying. Thus, rikkunshito is an effective treatment for PPI-refractory LPR.

  6. A data grid prototype for distributed data production in CMS

    CERN Document Server

    Hafeez, M; Stockinger, H E

    2001-01-01

    The CMS experiment at CERN is setting up a grid infrastructure required to fulfil the needs imposed by Terabyte scale productions for the next few years. The goal is to automate the production and at the same time allow the users to interact with the system, if required, to make decisions which would optimise performance. We present the architecture, design and functionality of our first working objectivity file replication prototype. The middle-ware of choice is the Globus toolkit that provides promising functionality. Our results prove the ability of the Globus toolkit to be used as an underlying technology for a world-wide Data Grid. The required data management functionality includes high speed file transfers, secure access to remote files, selection and synchronisation of replicas and managing the meta information. The whole system is expected to be flexible enough to incorporate site specific policies. The data management granularity is the file rather than the object level. The first prototype is curre...

  7. The CMS Integration Grid Testbed

    CERN Document Server

    Graham, G E; Aziz, Shafqat; Bauerdick, L.A.T.; Ernst, Michael; Kaiser, Joseph; Ratnikova, Natalia; Wenzel, Hans; Wu, Yu-jun; Aslakson, Erik; Bunn, Julian; Iqbal, Saima; Legrand, Iosif; Newman, Harvey; Singh, Suresh; Steenberg, Conrad; Branson, James; Fisk, Ian; Letts, James; Arbree, Adam; Avery, Paul; Bourilkov, Dimitri; Cavanaugh, Richard; Rodriguez, Jorge Luis; Kategari, Suchindra; Couvares, Peter; DeSmet, Alan; Livny, Miron; Roy, Alain; Tannenbaum, Todd; Graham, Gregory E.; Aziz, Shafqat; Ernst, Michael; Kaiser, Joseph; Ratnikova, Natalia; Wenzel, Hans; Wu, Yujun; Aslakson, Erik; Bunn, Julian; Iqbal, Saima; Legrand, Iosif; Newman, Harvey; Singh, Suresh; Steenberg, Conrad; Branson, James; Fisk, Ian; Letts, James; Arbree, Adam; Avery, Paul; Bourilkov, Dimitri; Cavanaugh, Richard; Rodriguez, Jorge; Kategari, Suchindra; Couvares, Peter; Smet, Alan De; Livny, Miron; Roy, Alain; Tannenbaum, Todd

    2003-01-01

    The CMS Integration Grid Testbed (IGT) comprises USCMS Tier-1 and Tier-2 hardware at the following sites: the California Institute of Technology, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the University of California at San Diego, and the University of Florida at Gainesville. The IGT runs jobs using the Globus Toolkit with a DAGMan and Condor-G front end. The virtual organization (VO) is managed using VO management scripts from the European Data Grid (EDG). Gridwide monitoring is accomplished using local tools such as Ganglia interfaced into the Globus Metadata Directory Service (MDS) and the agent based Mona Lisa. Domain specific software is packaged and installed using the Distrib ution After Release (DAR) tool of CMS, while middleware under the auspices of the Virtual Data Toolkit (VDT) is distributed using Pacman. During a continuo us two month span in Fall of 2002, over 1 million official CMS GEANT based Monte Carlo events were generated and returned to CERN for analysis while being demonstrated at SC2002. ...

  8. The 2016 ACCP Pharmacotherapy Didactic Curriculum Toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwinghammer, Terry L; Crannage, Andrew J; Boyce, Eric G; Bradley, Bridget; Christensen, Alyssa; Dunnenberger, Henry M; Fravel, Michelle; Gurgle, Holly; Hammond, Drayton A; Kwon, Jennifer; Slain, Douglas; Wargo, Kurt A

    2016-11-01

    The 2016 American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Educational Affairs Committee was charged with updating and contemporizing ACCP's 2009 Pharmacotherapy Didactic Curriculum Toolkit. The toolkit has been designed to guide schools and colleges of pharmacy in developing, maintaining, and modifying their curricula. The 2016 committee reviewed the recent medical literature and other documents to identify disease states that are responsive to drug therapy. Diseases and content topics were organized by organ system, when feasible, and grouped into tiers as defined by practice competency. Tier 1 topics should be taught in a manner that prepares all students to provide collaborative, patient-centered care upon graduation and licensure. Tier 2 topics are generally taught in the professional curriculum, but students may require additional knowledge or skills after graduation (e.g., residency training) to achieve competency in providing direct patient care. Tier 3 topics may not be taught in the professional curriculum; thus, graduates will be required to obtain the necessary knowledge and skills on their own to provide direct patient care, if required in their practice. The 2016 toolkit contains 276 diseases and content topics, of which 87 (32%) are categorized as tier 1, 133 (48%) as tier 2, and 56 (20%) as tier 3. The large number of tier 1 topics will require schools and colleges to use creative pedagogical strategies to achieve the necessary practice competencies. Almost half of the topics (48%) are tier 2, highlighting the importance of postgraduate residency training or equivalent practice experience to competently care for patients with these disorders. The Pharmacotherapy Didactic Curriculum Toolkit will continue to be updated to provide guidance to faculty at schools and colleges of pharmacy as these academic pharmacy institutions regularly evaluate and modify their curricula to keep abreast of scientific advances and associated practice changes. Access the

  9. Land surface Verification Toolkit (LVT)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, Sujay V.

    2017-01-01

    LVT is a framework developed to provide an automated, consolidated environment for systematic land surface model evaluation Includes support for a range of in-situ, remote-sensing and other model and reanalysis products. Supports the analysis of outputs from various LIS subsystems, including LIS-DA, LIS-OPT, LIS-UE. Note: The Land Information System Verification Toolkit (LVT) is a NASA software tool designed to enable the evaluation, analysis and comparison of outputs generated by the Land Information System (LIS). The LVT software is released under the terms and conditions of the NASA Open Source Agreement (NOSA) Version 1.1 or later. Land Information System Verification Toolkit (LVT) NOSA.

  10. Pybel: a Python wrapper for the OpenBabel cheminformatics toolkit

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Morley Chris

    2008-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Scripting languages such as Python are ideally suited to common programming tasks in cheminformatics such as data analysis and parsing information from files. However, for reasons of efficiency, cheminformatics toolkits such as the OpenBabel toolkit are often implemented in compiled languages such as C++. We describe Pybel, a Python module that provides access to the OpenBabel toolkit. Results Pybel wraps the direct toolkit bindings to simplify common tasks such as reading and writing molecular files and calculating fingerprints. Extensive use is made of Python iterators to simplify loops such as that over all the molecules in a file. A Pybel Molecule can be easily interconverted to an OpenBabel OBMol to access those methods or attributes not wrapped by Pybel. Conclusion Pybel allows cheminformaticians to rapidly develop Python scripts that manipulate chemical information. It is open source, available cross-platform, and offers the power of the OpenBabel toolkit to Python programmers.

  11. An open source toolkit for medical imaging de-identification

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rodriguez Gonzalez, David; Carpenter, Trevor; Wardlaw, Joanna; Hemert, Jano I. van

    2010-01-01

    Medical imaging acquired for clinical purposes can have several legitimate secondary uses in research projects and teaching libraries. No commonly accepted solution for anonymising these images exists because the amount of personal data that should be preserved varies case by case. Our objective is to provide a flexible mechanism for anonymising Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) data that meets the requirements for deployment in multicentre trials. We reviewed our current de-identification practices and defined the relevant use cases to extract the requirements for the de-identification process. We then used these requirements in the design and implementation of the toolkit. Finally, we tested the toolkit taking as a reference those requirements, including a multicentre deployment. The toolkit successfully anonymised DICOM data from various sources. Furthermore, it was shown that it could forward anonymous data to remote destinations, remove burned-in annotations, and add tracking information to the header. The toolkit also implements the DICOM standard confidentiality mechanism. A DICOM de-identification toolkit that facilitates the enforcement of privacy policies was developed. It is highly extensible, provides the necessary flexibility to account for different de-identification requirements and has a low adoption barrier for new users. (orig.)

  12. End-To-End Solution for Integrated Workload and Data Management using GlideinWMS and Globus Online

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mhashilkar, Parag; Miller, Zachary; Weiss, Cathrin; Kettimuthu, Rajkumar; Garzoglio, Gabriele; Holzman, Burt; Duan, Xi; Lacinski, Lukasz

    2012-01-01

    Grid computing has enabled scientific communities to effectively share computing resources distributed over many independent sites. Several such communities, or Virtual Organizations (VO), in the Open Science Grid and the European Grid Infrastructure use the GlideinWMS system to run complex application work-flows. GlideinWMS is a pilot-based workload management system (WMS) that creates an on-demand, dynamically-sized overlay Condor batch system on Grid resources. While the WMS addresses the management of compute resources, however, data management in the Grid is still the responsibility of the VO. In general, large VOs have resources to develop complex custom solutions, while small VOs would rather push this responsibility to the infrastructure. The latter requires a tight integration of the WMS and the data management layers, an approach still not common in modern Grids. In this paper we describe a solution developed to address this shortcoming in the context of Center for Enabling Distributed Peta-scale Science (CEDPS) by integrating GlideinWMS with Globus Online (GO). Globus Online is a fast, reliable file transfer service that makes it easy for any user to move data. The solution eliminates the need for the users to provide custom data transfer solutions in the application by making this functionality part of the GlideinWMS infrastructure. To achieve this, GlideinWMS uses the file transfer plug-in architecture of Condor. The paper describes the system architecture and how this solution can be extended to support data transfer services other than Globus Online when used with Condor or GlideinWMS.

  13. Veterinary Immunology Committee Toolkit Workshop 2010: Progress and plans

    Science.gov (United States)

    The Third Veterinary Immunology Committee (VIC) Toolkit Workshop took place at the Ninth International Veterinary Immunology Symposium (IVIS) in Tokyo, Japan on August 18, 2020. The Workshop built on previous Toolkit Workshops and covered various aspects of reagent development, commercialisation an...

  14. TRSkit: A Simple Digital Library Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nelson, Michael L.; Esler, Sandra L.

    1997-01-01

    This paper introduces TRSkit, a simple and effective toolkit for building digital libraries on the World Wide Web. The toolkit was developed for the creation of the Langley Technical Report Server and the NASA Technical Report Server, but is applicable to most simple distribution paradigms. TRSkit contains a handful of freely available software components designed to be run under the UNIX operating system and served via the World Wide Web. The intended customer is the person that must continuously and synchronously distribute anywhere from 100 - 100,000's of information units and does not have extensive resources to devote to the problem.

  15. Major Cognitive Changes and Micrographia following Globus Pallidus Infarct

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sarah Nelson

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Importance. Globus pallidus (GP lesions are well known to cause motor deficits but are less commonly—and perhaps not conclusively—associated with cognitive problems. Observations. We present a 45-year-old male with no significant neurological or psychological problems who after suffering a GP infarct was subsequently found to have substantial cognitive problems and micrographia. Formal neuropsychological testing was not possible due to lack of patient follow-up. Conclusions and Relevance. Despite the conflicting literature on the association of GP lesions and cognitive deficits, our patient demonstrated significant neuropsychological changes following his stroke. In addition, evidence of micrographia likely adds to the literature on the localization of this finding. Our case thus suggests that neuropsychological testing may be beneficial after GP strokes.

  16. Communities and Spontaneous Urban Planning: A Toolkit for Urban ...

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

    State-led urban planning is often absent, which creates unsustainable environments and hinders the integration of migrants. Communities' prospects of ... This toolkit is expected to be a viable alternative for planning urban expansion wherever it cannot be carried out through traditional means. The toolkit will be tested in ...

  17. A case study for cloud based high throughput analysis of NGS data using the globus genomics system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krithika Bhuvaneshwar

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Next generation sequencing (NGS technologies produce massive amounts of data requiring a powerful computational infrastructure, high quality bioinformatics software, and skilled personnel to operate the tools. We present a case study of a practical solution to this data management and analysis challenge that simplifies terabyte scale data handling and provides advanced tools for NGS data analysis. These capabilities are implemented using the “Globus Genomics” system, which is an enhanced Galaxy workflow system made available as a service that offers users the capability to process and transfer data easily, reliably and quickly to address end-to-endNGS analysis requirements. The Globus Genomics system is built on Amazon's cloud computing infrastructure. The system takes advantage of elastic scaling of compute resources to run multiple workflows in parallel and it also helps meet the scale-out analysis needs of modern translational genomics research.

  18. Design-based learning in classrooms using playful digital toolkits

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Scheltenaar, K.J.; van der Poel, J.E.C.; Bekker, Tilde

    2015-01-01

    The goal of this paper is to explore how to implement Design Based Learning (DBL) with digital toolkits to teach 21st century skills in (Dutch) schools. It describes the outcomes of a literature study and two design case studies in which such a DBL approach with digital toolkits was iteratively

  19. An Overview of the Geant4 Toolkit

    CERN Document Server

    Apostolakis, John

    2007-01-01

    Geant4 is a toolkit for the simulation of the transport of radiation trough matter. With a flexible kernel and choices between different physics modeling choices, it has been tailored to the requirements of a wide range of applications. With the toolkit a user can describe a setup's or detector's geometry and materials, navigate inside it, simulate the physical interactions using a choice of physics engines, underlying physics cross-sections and models, visualise and store results. Physics models describing electromagnetic and hadronic interactions are provided, as are decays and processes for optical photons. Several models, with different precision and performance are available for many processes. The toolkit includes coherent physics model configurations, which are called physics lists. Users can choose an existing physics list or create their own, depending on their requirements and the application area. A clear structure and readable code, enable the user to investigate the origin of physics results. App...

  20. The Lean and Environment Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    This Lean and Environment Toolkit assembles practical experience collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and partner companies and organizations that have experience with coordinating Lean implementation and environmental management.

  1. Frontal lobe syndrome from bilateral globus pallidus lesions a complication of Wernicke's encephalopathy

    OpenAIRE

    Arruda, Walter Oleschko

    1991-01-01

    A 38 year-old man developed the classical clinical picture of Wernicke's encephalopathy as a consequence of prolonged total parenteral nutrition. As a late complication he developed a frontal lobe syndrome. Bilateral globus pallidus lesions were observed in the CT-scan examination. Some aspects related to the cortical syndromes caused by subcortical lesions are discussed. Relata-se um caso de encefalopatia de Wernicke que ocorreu em paciente masculino de 38 anos, como complicação de alimen...

  2. High Signal Intensity in the Dentate Nucleus and Globus Pallidus on Unenhanced T1-Weighted MR Images: Comparison between Gadobutrol and Linear Gadolinium-Based Contrast Agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moser, F G; Watterson, C T; Weiss, S; Austin, M; Mirocha, J; Prasad, R; Wang, J

    2018-02-01

    In view of the recent observations that gadolinium deposits in brain tissue after intravenous injection, our aim of this study was to compare signal changes in the globus pallidus and dentate nucleus on unenhanced T1-weighted MR images in patients receiving serial doses of gadobutrol, a macrocyclic gadolinium-based contrast agent, with those seen in patients receiving linear gadolinium-based contrast agents. This was a retrospective analysis of on-site patients with brain tumors. Fifty-nine patients received only gadobutrol, and 60 patients received only linear gadolinium-based contrast agents. Linear gadolinium-based contrast agents included gadoversetamide, gadobenate dimeglumine, and gadodiamide. T1 signal intensity in the globus pallidus, dentate nucleus, and pons was measured on the precontrast portions of patients' first and seventh brain MRIs. Ratios of signal intensity comparing the globus pallidus with the pons (globus pallidus/pons) and dentate nucleus with the pons (dentate nucleus/pons) were calculated. Changes in the above signal intensity ratios were compared within the gadobutrol and linear agent groups, as well as between groups. The dentate nucleus/pons signal ratio increased in the linear gadolinium-based contrast agent group ( t = 4.215, P linear gadolinium-based contrast agent group ( t = 2.931, P linear gadolinium-based contrast agents. © 2018 by American Journal of Neuroradiology.

  3. Lean and Information Technology Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    The Lean and Information Technology Toolkit is a how-to guide which provides resources to environmental agencies to help them use Lean Startup, Lean process improvement, and Agile tools to streamline and automate processes.

  4. Outage Risk Assessment and Management (ORAM) thermal-hydraulics toolkit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Denny, V.E.; Wassel, A.T.; Issacci, F.; Pal Kalra, S.

    2004-01-01

    A PC-based thermal-hydraulic toolkit for use in support of outage optimization, management and risk assessment has been developed. This mechanistic toolkit incorporates simple models of key thermal-hydraulic processes which occur during an outage, such as recovery from or mitigation of outage upsets; this includes heat-up of water pools following loss of shutdown cooling, inadvertent drain down of the RCS, boiloff of coolant inventory, heatup of the uncovered core, and reflux cooling. This paper provides a list of key toolkit elements, briefly describes the technical basis and presents illustrative results for RCS transient behavior during reflux cooling, peak clad temperatures for an uncovered core and RCS response to loss of shutdown cooling. (author)

  5. Cinfony – combining Open Source cheminformatics toolkits behind a common interface

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hutchison Geoffrey R

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Open Source cheminformatics toolkits such as OpenBabel, the CDK and the RDKit share the same core functionality but support different sets of file formats and forcefields, and calculate different fingerprints and descriptors. Despite their complementary features, using these toolkits in the same program is difficult as they are implemented in different languages (C++ versus Java, have different underlying chemical models and have different application programming interfaces (APIs. Results We describe Cinfony, a Python module that presents a common interface to all three of these toolkits, allowing the user to easily combine methods and results from any of the toolkits. In general, the run time of the Cinfony modules is almost as fast as accessing the underlying toolkits directly from C++ or Java, but Cinfony makes it much easier to carry out common tasks in cheminformatics such as reading file formats and calculating descriptors. Conclusion By providing a simplified interface and improving interoperability, Cinfony makes it easy to combine complementary features of OpenBabel, the CDK and the RDKit.

  6. BaBar MC production on the Canadian grid using a web services approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agarwal, A.; Armstrong, P.; Desmarais, R.; Gable, I.; Popov, S.; Ramage, S.; Schaffer, S.; Sobie, C.; Sobie, R.; Sulivan, T.; Vanderster, D.; Mateescu, G.; Podaima, W.; Charbonneau, A.; Impey, R.; Viswanathan, M.; Quesnel, D.

    2008-07-01

    The present paper highlights the approach used to design and implement a web services based BaBar Monte Carlo (MC) production grid using Globus Toolkit version 4. The grid integrates the resources of two clusters at the University of Victoria, using the ClassAd mechanism provided by the Condor-G metascheduler. Each cluster uses the Portable Batch System (PBS) as its local resource management system (LRMS). Resource brokering is provided by the Condor matchmaking process, whereby the job and resource attributes are expressed as ClassAds. The important features of the grid are automatic registering of resource ClassAds to the central registry, ClassAds extraction from the registry to the metascheduler for matchmaking, and the incorporation of input/output file staging. Web-based monitoring is employed to track the status of grid resources and the jobs for an efficient operation of the grid. The performance of this new grid for BaBar jobs, and the existing Canadian computational grid (GridX1) based on Globus Toolkit version 2 is found to be consistent.

  7. The CMS integration grid testbed

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Graham, Gregory E.

    2004-08-26

    The CMS Integration Grid Testbed (IGT) comprises USCMS Tier-1 and Tier-2 hardware at the following sites: the California Institute of Technology, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the University of California at San Diego, and the University of Florida at Gainesville. The IGT runs jobs using the Globus Toolkit with a DAGMan and Condor-G front end. The virtual organization (VO) is managed using VO management scripts from the European Data Grid (EDG). Gridwide monitoring is accomplished using local tools such as Ganglia interfaced into the Globus Metadata Directory Service (MDS) and the agent based Mona Lisa. Domain specific software is packaged and installed using the Distribution After Release (DAR) tool of CMS, while middleware under the auspices of the Virtual Data Toolkit (VDT) is distributed using Pacman. During a continuous two month span in Fall of 2002, over 1 million official CMS GEANT based Monte Carlo events were generated and returned to CERN for analysis while being demonstrated at SC2002. In this paper, we describe the process that led to one of the world's first continuously available, functioning grids.

  8. BaBar MC production on the Canadian grid using a web services approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Agarwal, A; Armstrong, P; Desmarais, R; Gable, I; Popov, S; Ramage, S; Schaffer, S; Sobie, C; Sobie, R; Sulivan, T; Vanderster, D; Mateescu, G; Podaima, W; Charbonneau, A; Impey, R; Viswanathan, M; Quesnel, D

    2008-01-01

    The present paper highlights the approach used to design and implement a web services based BaBar Monte Carlo (MC) production grid using Globus Toolkit version 4. The grid integrates the resources of two clusters at the University of Victoria, using the ClassAd mechanism provided by the Condor-G metascheduler. Each cluster uses the Portable Batch System (PBS) as its local resource management system (LRMS). Resource brokering is provided by the Condor matchmaking process, whereby the job and resource attributes are expressed as ClassAds. The important features of the grid are automatic registering of resource ClassAds to the central registry, ClassAds extraction from the registry to the metascheduler for matchmaking, and the incorporation of input/output file staging. Web-based monitoring is employed to track the status of grid resources and the jobs for an efficient operation of the grid. The performance of this new grid for BaBar jobs, and the existing Canadian computational grid (GridX1) based on Globus Toolkit version 2 is found to be consistent

  9. Adoption of a SAML-XACML Profile for Authorization Interoperability across Grid Middleware in OSG and EGEE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garzoglio, G; Chadwick, K; Dykstra, D; Hesselroth, T; Levshina, T; Sharma, N; Timm, S; Bester, J; Martin, S; Groep, D; Koeroo, O; Salle, M; Verstegen, A; Gu, J; Sim, A

    2011-01-01

    The Authorization Interoperability activity was initiated in 2006 to foster interoperability between middleware and authorization infrastructures deployed in the Open Science Grid (OSG) and the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) projects. This activity delivered a common authorization protocol and a set of libraries that implement that protocol. In addition, a set of the most common Grid gateways, or Policy Enforcement Points (Globus Toolkit v4 Gatekeeper, GridFTP, dCache, etc.) and site authorization services, or Policy Decision Points (LCAS/LCMAPS, SCAS, GUMS, etc.) have been integrated with these libraries. At this time, various software providers, including the Globus Toolkit v5, BeStMan, and the Site AuthoriZation service (SAZ), are integrating the authorization interoperability protocol with their products. In addition, as more and more software supports the same protocol, the community is converging on LCMAPS as a common module for identity attribute parsing and authorization call-out. This paper presents this effort, discusses the status of adoption of the common protocol and projects the community work on authorization in the near future.

  10. Adoption of a SAML-XACML profile for authorization interoperability across grid middleware in OSG and EGEE

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Garzoglio, G. [Fermilab; Bester, J. [Argonne; Chadwick, K. [Fermilab; Dykstra, D. [Fermilab; Groep, D. [NIKHEF, Amsterdam; Gu, J. [LBL, Berkeley; Hesselroth, T. [Fermilab; Koeroo, O. [NIKHEF, Amsterdam; Levshina, T. [Fermilab; Martin, S. [Argonne; Salle, M. [NIKHEF, Amsterdam; Sharma, N. [Fermilab; Sim, A. [LBL, Berkeley; Timm, S. [Fermilab; Verstegen, A. [NIKHEF, Amsterdam

    2011-01-01

    The Authorization Interoperability activity was initiated in 2006 to foster interoperability between middleware and authorization infrastructures deployed in the Open Science Grid (OSG) and the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) projects. This activity delivered a common authorization protocol and a set of libraries that implement that protocol. In addition, a set of the most common Grid gateways, or Policy Enforcement Points (Globus Toolkit v4 Gatekeeper, GridFTP, dCache, etc.) and site authorization services, or Policy Decision Points (LCAS/LCMAPS, SCAS, GUMS, etc.) have been integrated with these libraries. At this time, various software providers, including the Globus Toolkit v5, BeStMan, and the Site AuthoriZation service (SAZ), are integrating the authorization interoperability protocol with their products. In addition, as more and more software supports the same protocol, the community is converging on LCMAPS as a common module for identity attribute parsing and authorization call-out. This paper presents this effort, discusses the status of adoption of the common protocol and projects the community work on authorization in the near future.

  11. chemf: A purely functional chemistry toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Höck, Stefan; Riedl, Rainer

    2012-12-20

    Although programming in a type-safe and referentially transparent style offers several advantages over working with mutable data structures and side effects, this style of programming has not seen much use in chemistry-related software. Since functional programming languages were designed with referential transparency in mind, these languages offer a lot of support when writing immutable data structures and side-effects free code. We therefore started implementing our own toolkit based on the above programming paradigms in a modern, versatile programming language. We present our initial results with functional programming in chemistry by first describing an immutable data structure for molecular graphs together with a couple of simple algorithms to calculate basic molecular properties before writing a complete SMILES parser in accordance with the OpenSMILES specification. Along the way we show how to deal with input validation, error handling, bulk operations, and parallelization in a purely functional way. At the end we also analyze and improve our algorithms and data structures in terms of performance and compare it to existing toolkits both object-oriented and purely functional. All code was written in Scala, a modern multi-paradigm programming language with a strong support for functional programming and a highly sophisticated type system. We have successfully made the first important steps towards a purely functional chemistry toolkit. The data structures and algorithms presented in this article perform well while at the same time they can be safely used in parallelized applications, such as computer aided drug design experiments, without further adjustments. This stands in contrast to existing object-oriented toolkits where thread safety of data structures and algorithms is a deliberate design decision that can be hard to implement. Finally, the level of type-safety achieved by Scala highly increased the reliability of our code as well as the productivity of

  12. High kinetic energy plasma jet generation and its injection into the Globus-M spherical tokamak

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Voronin, A.V.; Gusev, V.K.; Petrov, Yu.V.; Sakharov, N.V.; Abramova, K.B.; Sklyarova, E.M.; Tolstyakov, S.Yu.

    2005-01-01

    Progress in the theoretical and experimental development of the plasma jet source and injection of hydrogen plasma and neutral gas jets into the Globus-M spherical tokamak is discussed. An experimental test bed is described for investigation of intense plasma jets that are generated by a double-stage plasma gun consisting of an intense source for neutral gas production and a conventional pulsed coaxial accelerator. A procedure for optimizing the accelerator parameters so as to achieve the maximum possible flow velocity with a limited discharge current and a reasonable length of the coaxial electrodes is presented. The calculations are compared with experiment. Plasma jet parameters, among them pressure distribution across the jet, flow velocity, plasma density, etc, were measured. Plasma jets with densities of up to 10 22 m -3 , total numbers of accelerated particles (1-5) x 10 19 , and flow velocities of 50-100 km s -1 were successfully injected into the plasma column of the Globus-M tokamak. Interferometric and Thomson scattering measurements confirmed deep jet penetration and a fast density rise ( 19 to 1 x 10 19 ) did not result in plasma degradation

  13. Concurrent Presentation of Burning Mouth Syndrome and Globus Pharyngis in Enugu, Nigeria: A Ten-year Clinical Evaluation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chukwuneke, Felix; Akpe, James; Okoye, Linda; Ekwueme, Christian; Obiakor, Anthonia; Amobi, Emmanuel; Egbunike, Doris

    2014-01-01

    To review 22 patients with globus pharyngis among a group of 39 patients who presented with burning mouth syndrome and to highlight the clinical presentation and treatment outcome of these oropharyngeal symptoms, often ignored by practicing oral surgeons. We carried out a retrospective review of 39 patients with burning mouth syndrome seen at oral surgery units of three specialist hospitals in Enugu, Nigeria between 2001 and 2010. The focus was on the 22 of these patients with burning mouth syndrome and globus pharyngis (the persistent sensation of having phlegm, a pill or some other sort of obstruction in the throat when there is none). Relevant information included patients' oral habits and dental status, past medical history, sociodemographic data, onset of symptoms and treatment outcome. Amongst the 22 patients, 8 (36.4%) were males while 14 (63.6%) were females, giving a male to female ratio of 1:1.8. Of the 8 male patients, 3 (37.5%) were retrenched workers, 2 (25%) were drug addicts, 2 (25%) had a history of psychiatric problems and 1 (12.5%) had post-radiation therapy due to diagnosis of adenocystic carcinoma. Amongst the 14 female patients, 6 (42.8%) were divorcees, 3 (21.4%) were unemployed and unmarried, 2 (14.3%) had menopausal problems, 2 (14.3%) had dental prostheses and 1 (7.2%) had a history of mental disorder. Globus pharyngis can present at the same time in some individuals with burning mouth syndrome. The emotional aetiological factor in this unusual ailment calls for proper examinations and a multidisciplinary approach in the management of patients who presented with burning mouth syndrome, especially with a history of depression.

  14. Provider perceptions of an integrated primary care quality improvement strategy: The PPAQ toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beehler, Gregory P; Lilienthal, Kaitlin R

    2017-02-01

    The Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) model of integrated primary care is challenging to implement with high fidelity. The Primary Care Behavioral Health Provider Adherence Questionnaire (PPAQ) was designed to assess provider adherence to essential model components and has recently been adapted into a quality improvement toolkit. The aim of this pilot project was to gather preliminary feedback on providers' perceptions of the acceptability and utility of the PPAQ toolkit for making beneficial practice changes. Twelve mental health providers working in Department of Veterans Affairs integrated primary care clinics participated in semistructured interviews to gather quantitative and qualitative data. Descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis were used to analyze data. Providers identified several positive features of the PPAQ toolkit organization and structure that resulted in high ratings of acceptability, while also identifying several toolkit components in need of modification to improve usability. Toolkit content was considered highly representative of the (PCBH) model and therefore could be used as a diagnostic self-assessment of model adherence. The toolkit was considered to be high in applicability to providers regardless of their degree of prior professional preparation or current clinical setting. Additionally, providers identified several system-level contextual factors that could impact the usefulness of the toolkit. These findings suggest that frontline mental health providers working in (PCBH) settings may be receptive to using an adherence-focused toolkit for ongoing quality improvement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  15. Knowledge information management toolkit and method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hempstead, Antoinette R.; Brown, Kenneth L.

    2006-08-15

    A system is provided for managing user entry and/or modification of knowledge information into a knowledge base file having an integrator support component and a data source access support component. The system includes processing circuitry, memory, a user interface, and a knowledge base toolkit. The memory communicates with the processing circuitry and is configured to store at least one knowledge base. The user interface communicates with the processing circuitry and is configured for user entry and/or modification of knowledge pieces within a knowledge base. The knowledge base toolkit is configured for converting knowledge in at least one knowledge base from a first knowledge base form into a second knowledge base form. A method is also provided.

  16. Globus Pallidus Interna Deep Brain Stimulation in a Patient with Medically Intractable Meige Syndrome

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dae-Woong Bae

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Medical therapies in patients with Meige syndrome, including botulinum toxin injection, have been limited because of incomplete response or adverse side effects. We evaluated a patient with Meige syndrome who was successfully treated with deep brain stimulation (DBS in the globus pallidus interna (GPi. This case report and other previous reports suggest that bilateral GPi DBS may be an effective treatment for medically refractory Meige syndrome, without significant adverse effects.

  17. Kekule.js: An Open Source JavaScript Chemoinformatics Toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Chen; Jin, Xi; Dong, Ying; Chen, Ming

    2016-06-27

    Kekule.js is an open-source, object-oriented JavaScript toolkit for chemoinformatics. It provides methods for many common tasks in molecular informatics, including chemical data input/output (I/O), two- and three-dimensional (2D/3D) rendering of chemical structure, stereo identification, ring perception, structure comparison, and substructure search. Encapsulated widgets to display and edit chemical structures directly in web context are also supplied. Developed with web standards, the toolkit is ideal for building chemoinformatics applications over the Internet. Moreover, it is highly platform-independent and can also be used in desktop or mobile environments. Some initial applications, such as plugins for inputting chemical structures on the web and uses in chemistry education, have been developed based on the toolkit.

  18. Validation of Power Output for the WIND Toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    King, J.; Clifton, A.; Hodge, B. M.

    2014-09-01

    Renewable energy integration studies require wind data sets of high quality with realistic representations of the variability, ramping characteristics, and forecast performance for current wind power plants. The Wind Integration National Data Set (WIND) Toolkit is meant to be an update for and expansion of the original data sets created for the weather years from 2004 through 2006 during the Western Wind and Solar Integration Study and the Eastern Wind Integration Study. The WIND Toolkit expands these data sets to include the entire continental United States, increasing the total number of sites represented, and it includes the weather years from 2007 through 2012. In addition, the WIND Toolkit has a finer resolution for both the temporal and geographic dimensions. Three separate data sets will be created: a meteorological data set, a wind power data set, and a forecast data set. This report describes the validation of the wind power data set.

  19. HP advances Grid Strategy for the adaptive enterprise

    CERN Multimedia

    2003-01-01

    "HP today announced plans to further enable its enterprise infrastructure technologies for grid computing. By leveraging open grid standards, HP plans to help customers simplify the use and management of distributed IT resources. The initiative will integrate industry grid standards, including the Globus Toolkit and Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA), across HP's enterprise product lines" (1 page).

  20. ARC Code TI: Crisis Mapping Toolkit

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Crisis Mapping Toolkit (CMT) is a collection of tools for processing geospatial data (images, satellite data, etc.) into cartographic products that improve...

  1. Sealed radioactive sources toolkit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mac Kenzie, C.

    2005-09-01

    The IAEA has developed a Sealed Radioactive Sources Toolkit to provide information to key groups about the safety and security of sealed radioactive sources. The key groups addressed are officials in government agencies, medical users, industrial users and the scrap metal industry. The general public may also benefit from an understanding of the fundamentals of radiation safety

  2. The ECVET toolkit customization for the nuclear energy sector

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ceclan, Mihail; Ramos, Cesar Chenel; Estorff, Ulrike von [European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Petten (Netherlands). Inst. for Energy and Transport

    2015-04-15

    As part of its support to the introduction of ECVET in the nuclear energy sector, the Institute for Energy and Transport (IET) of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission (EC), through the ECVET Team of the European Human Resources Observatory for the Nuclear energy sector (EHRO-N), developed in the last six years (2009-2014) a sectorial approach and a road map for ECVET implementation in the nuclear energy sector. In order to observe the road map for the ECVET implementation, the toolkit customization for nuclear energy sector is required. This article describes the outcomes of the toolkit customization, based on ECVET approach, for nuclear qualifications design. The process of the toolkit customization took into account the fact that nuclear qualifications are mostly of higher levels (five and above) of the European Qualifications Framework.

  3. The ECVET toolkit customization for the nuclear energy sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ceclan, Mihail; Ramos, Cesar Chenel; Estorff, Ulrike von

    2015-01-01

    As part of its support to the introduction of ECVET in the nuclear energy sector, the Institute for Energy and Transport (IET) of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission (EC), through the ECVET Team of the European Human Resources Observatory for the Nuclear energy sector (EHRO-N), developed in the last six years (2009-2014) a sectorial approach and a road map for ECVET implementation in the nuclear energy sector. In order to observe the road map for the ECVET implementation, the toolkit customization for nuclear energy sector is required. This article describes the outcomes of the toolkit customization, based on ECVET approach, for nuclear qualifications design. The process of the toolkit customization took into account the fact that nuclear qualifications are mostly of higher levels (five and above) of the European Qualifications Framework.

  4. Multimethod evaluation of the VA's peer-to-peer Toolkit for patient-centered medical home implementation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luck, Jeff; Bowman, Candice; York, Laura; Midboe, Amanda; Taylor, Thomas; Gale, Randall; Asch, Steven

    2014-07-01

    Effective implementation of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) in primary care practices requires training and other resources, such as online toolkits, to share strategies and materials. The Veterans Health Administration (VA) developed an online Toolkit of user-sourced tools to support teams implementing its Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) medical home model. To present findings from an evaluation of the PACT Toolkit, including use, variation across facilities, effect of social marketing, and factors influencing use. The Toolkit is an online repository of ready-to-use tools created by VA clinic staff that physicians, nurses, and other team members may share, download, and adopt in order to more effectively implement PCMH principles and improve local performance on VA metrics. Multimethod evaluation using: (1) website usage analytics, (2) an online survey of the PACT community of practice's use of the Toolkit, and (3) key informant interviews. Survey respondents were PACT team members and coaches (n = 544) at 136 VA facilities. Interview respondents were Toolkit users and non-users (n = 32). For survey data, multivariable logistic models were used to predict Toolkit awareness and use. Interviews and open-text survey comments were coded using a "common themes" framework. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) guided data collection and analyses. The Toolkit was used by 6,745 staff in the first 19 months of availability. Among members of the target audience, 80 % had heard of the Toolkit, and of those, 70 % had visited the website. Tools had been implemented at 65 % of facilities. Qualitative findings revealed a range of user perspectives from enthusiastic support to lack of sufficient time to browse the Toolkit. An online Toolkit to support PCMH implementation was used at VA facilities nationwide. Other complex health care organizations may benefit from adopting similar online peer-to-peer resource libraries.

  5. Antenna toolkit

    CERN Document Server

    Carr, Joseph

    2006-01-01

    Joe Carr has provided radio amateurs and short-wave listeners with the definitive design guide for sending and receiving radio signals with Antenna Toolkit 2nd edition.Together with the powerful suite of CD software, the reader will have a complete solution for constructing or using an antenna - bar the actual hardware! The software provides a simple Windows-based aid to carrying out the design calculations at the heart of successful antenna design. All the user needs to do is select the antenna type and set the frequency - a much more fun and less error prone method than using a con

  6. Terrain-Toolkit

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wang, Qi; Kaul, Manohar; Long, Cheng

    2014-01-01

    , as will be shown, is used heavily for query processing in spatial databases; and (3) they do not provide the surface distance operator which is fundamental for many applications based on terrain data. Motivated by this, we developed a tool called Terrain-Toolkit for terrain data which accepts a comprehensive set......Terrain data is becoming increasingly popular both in industry and in academia. Many tools have been developed for visualizing terrain data. However, we find that (1) they usually accept very few data formats of terrain data only; (2) they do not support terrain simplification well which...

  7. An Overview of the GEANT4 Toolkit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Apostolakis, John; CERN; Wright, Dennis H.

    2007-01-01

    Geant4 is a toolkit for the simulation of the transport of radiation through matter. With a flexible kernel and choices between different physics modeling choices, it has been tailored to the requirements of a wide range of applications. With the toolkit a user can describe a setup's or detector's geometry and materials, navigate inside it, simulate the physical interactions using a choice of physics engines, underlying physics cross-sections and models, visualize and store results. Physics models describing electromagnetic and hadronic interactions are provided, as are decays and processes for optical photons. Several models, with different precision and performance are available for many processes. The toolkit includes coherent physics model configurations, which are called physics lists. Users can choose an existing physics list or create their own, depending on their requirements and the application area. A clear structure and readable code, enable the user to investigate the origin of physics results. Application areas include detector simulation and background simulation in High Energy Physics experiments, simulation of accelerator setups, studies in medical imaging and treatment, and the study of the effects of solar radiation on spacecraft instruments

  8. The development of an artificial organic networks toolkit for LabVIEW.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ponce, Hiram; Ponce, Pedro; Molina, Arturo

    2015-03-15

    Two of the most challenging problems that scientists and researchers face when they want to experiment with new cutting-edge algorithms are the time-consuming for encoding and the difficulties for linking them with other technologies and devices. In that sense, this article introduces the artificial organic networks toolkit for LabVIEW™ (AON-TL) from the implementation point of view. The toolkit is based on the framework provided by the artificial organic networks technique, giving it the potential to add new algorithms in the future based on this technique. Moreover, the toolkit inherits both the rapid prototyping and the easy-to-use characteristics of the LabVIEW™ software (e.g., graphical programming, transparent usage of other softwares and devices, built-in programming event-driven for user interfaces), to make it simple for the end-user. In fact, the article describes the global architecture of the toolkit, with particular emphasis in the software implementation of the so-called artificial hydrocarbon networks algorithm. Lastly, the article includes two case studies for engineering purposes (i.e., sensor characterization) and chemistry applications (i.e., blood-brain barrier partitioning data model) to show the usage of the toolkit and the potential scalability of the artificial organic networks technique. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  9. PsyToolkit: a software package for programming psychological experiments using Linux.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stoet, Gijsbert

    2010-11-01

    PsyToolkit is a set of software tools for programming psychological experiments on Linux computers. Given that PsyToolkit is freely available under the Gnu Public License, open source, and designed such that it can easily be modified and extended for individual needs, it is suitable not only for technically oriented Linux users, but also for students, researchers on small budgets, and universities in developing countries. The software includes a high-level scripting language, a library for the programming language C, and a questionnaire presenter. The software easily integrates with other open source tools, such as the statistical software package R. PsyToolkit is designed to work with external hardware (including IoLab and Cedrus response keyboards and two common digital input/output boards) and to support millisecond timing precision. Four in-depth examples explain the basic functionality of PsyToolkit. Example 1 demonstrates a stimulus-response compatibility experiment. Example 2 demonstrates a novel mouse-controlled visual search experiment. Example 3 shows how to control light emitting diodes using PsyToolkit, and Example 4 shows how to build a light-detection sensor. The last two examples explain the electronic hardware setup such that they can even be used with other software packages.

  10. NOAA Weather and Climate Toolkit (WCT)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The NOAA Weather and Climate Toolkit is an application that provides simple visualization and data export of weather and climatological data archived at NCDC. The...

  11. A User Interface Toolkit for a Small Screen Device.

    OpenAIRE

    UOTILA, ALEKSI

    2000-01-01

    The appearance of different kinds of networked mobile devices and network appliances creates special requirements for user interfaces that are not met by existing widget based user interface creation toolkits. This thesis studies the problem domain of user interface creation toolkits for portable network connected devices. The portable nature of these devices places great restrictions on the user interface capabilities. One main characteristic of the devices is that they have small screens co...

  12. Geant4 - A Simulation Toolkit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-01-01

    Geant4 is a toolkit for simulating the passage of particles through matter. It includes a complete range of functionality including tracking, geometry, physics models and hits. The physics processes offered cover a comprehensive range, including electromagnetic, hadronic and optical processes, a large set of long-lived particles, materials and elements, over a wide energy range starting, in some cases, from 250 eV and extending in others to the TeV energy range. it has been designed and constructed to expose the physics models utilized, to handle complex geometries, and to enable its easy adaptation for optimal use in different sets of applications. The toolkit is the result of a worldwide collaboration of physicists and software engineers. It has been created exploiting software engineering and object-oriented technology and implemented in the C++ programming language. It has been used in applications in particle physics, nuclear physics, accelerator design, space engineering and medical physics

  13. GEANT4 A Simulation toolkit

    CERN Document Server

    Agostinelli, S; Amako, K; Apostolakis, John; Araújo, H M; Arce, P; Asai, M; Axen, D A; Banerjee, S; Barrand, G; Behner, F; Bellagamba, L; Boudreau, J; Broglia, L; Brunengo, A; Chauvie, S; Chuma, J; Chytracek, R; Cooperman, G; Cosmo, G; Degtyarenko, P V; Dell'Acqua, A; De Paola, G O; Dietrich, D D; Enami, R; Feliciello, A; Ferguson, C; Fesefeldt, H S; Folger, G; Foppiano, F; Forti, A C; Garelli, S; Giani, S; Giannitrapani, R; Gibin, D; Gómez-Cadenas, J J; González, I; Gracía-Abríl, G; Greeniaus, L G; Greiner, W; Grichine, V M; Grossheim, A; Gumplinger, P; Hamatsu, R; Hashimoto, K; Hasui, H; Heikkinen, A M; Howard, A; Hutton, A M; Ivanchenko, V N; Johnson, A; Jones, F W; Kallenbach, Jeff; Kanaya, N; Kawabata, M; Kawabata, Y; Kawaguti, M; Kelner, S; Kent, P; Kodama, T; Kokoulin, R P; Kossov, M; Kurashige, H; Lamanna, E; Lampen, T; Lara, V; Lefébure, V; Lei, F; Liendl, M; Lockman, W; Longo, F; Magni, S; Maire, M; Mecking, B A; Medernach, E; Minamimoto, K; Mora de Freitas, P; Morita, Y; Murakami, K; Nagamatu, M; Nartallo, R; Nieminen, P; Nishimura, T; Ohtsubo, K; Okamura, M; O'Neale, S W; O'Ohata, Y; Perl, J; Pfeiffer, A; Pia, M G; Ranjard, F; Rybin, A; Sadilov, S; Di Salvo, E; Santin, G; Sasaki, T; Savvas, N; Sawada, Y; Scherer, S; Sei, S; Sirotenko, V I; Smith, D; Starkov, N; Stöcker, H; Sulkimo, J; Takahata, M; Tanaka, S; Chernyaev, E; Safai-Tehrani, F; Tropeano, M; Truscott, P R; Uno, H; Urbàn, L; Urban, P; Verderi, M; Walkden, A; Wander, W; Weber, H; Wellisch, J P; Wenaus, T; Williams, D C; Wright, D; Yamada, T; Yoshida, H; Zschiesche, D

    2003-01-01

    Geant4 is a toolkit for simulating the passage of particles through matter. It includes a complete range of functionality including tracking, geometry, physics models and hits. The physics processes offered cover a comprehensive range, including electromagnetic, hadronic and optical processes, a large set of long-lived particles, materials and elements, over a wide energy range starting, in some cases, from 250 eV and extending in others to the TeV energy range. It has been designed and constructed to expose the physics models utilised, to handle complex geometries, and to enable its easy adaptation for optimal use in different sets of applications. The toolkit is the result of a worldwide collaboration of physicists and software engineers. It has been created exploiting software engineering and object-oriented technology and implemented in the C++ programming language. It has been used in applications in particle physics, nuclear physics, accelerator design, space engineering and medical physics.

  14. Geant4 - A Simulation Toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wright, Dennis H

    2002-08-09

    GEANT4 is a toolkit for simulating the passage of particles through matter. it includes a complete range of functionality including tracking, geometry, physics models and hits. The physics processes offered cover a comprehensive range, including electromagnetic, hadronic and optical processes, a large set of long-lived particles, materials and elements, over a wide energy range starting, in some cases, from 250 eV and extending in others to the TeV energy range. it has been designed and constructed to expose the physics models utilized, to handle complex geometries, and to enable its easy adaptation for optimal use in different sets of applications. The toolkit is the result of a worldwide collaboration of physicists and software engineers. It has been created exploiting software engineering and object-oriented technology and implemented in the C++ programming language. It has been used in applications in particle physics, nuclear physics, accelerator design, space engineering and medical physics.

  15. Field tests of a participatory ergonomics toolkit for Total Worker Health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nobrega, Suzanne; Kernan, Laura; Plaku-Alakbarova, Bora; Robertson, Michelle; Warren, Nicholas; Henning, Robert

    2017-04-01

    Growing interest in Total Worker Health ® (TWH) programs to advance worker safety, health and well-being motivated development of a toolkit to guide their implementation. Iterative design of a program toolkit occurred in which participatory ergonomics (PE) served as the primary basis to plan integrated TWH interventions in four diverse organizations. The toolkit provided start-up guides for committee formation and training, and a structured PE process for generating integrated TWH interventions. Process data from program facilitators and participants throughout program implementation were used for iterative toolkit design. Program success depended on organizational commitment to regular design team meetings with a trained facilitator, the availability of subject matter experts on ergonomics and health to support the design process, and retraining whenever committee turnover occurred. A two committee structure (employee Design Team, management Steering Committee) provided advantages over a single, multilevel committee structure, and enhanced the planning, communication, and teamwork skills of participants. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Field tests of a participatory ergonomics toolkit for Total Worker Health

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kernan, Laura; Plaku-Alakbarova, Bora; Robertson, Michelle; Warren, Nicholas; Henning, Robert

    2018-01-01

    Growing interest in Total Worker Health® (TWH) programs to advance worker safety, health and well-being motivated development of a toolkit to guide their implementation. Iterative design of a program toolkit occurred in which participatory ergonomics (PE) served as the primary basis to plan integrated TWH interventions in four diverse organizations. The toolkit provided start-up guides for committee formation and training, and a structured PE process for generating integrated TWH interventions. Process data from program facilitators and participants throughout program implementation were used for iterative toolkit design. Program success depended on organizational commitment to regular design team meetings with a trained facilitator, the availability of subject matter experts on ergonomics and health to support the design process, and retraining whenever committee turnover occurred. A two committee structure (employee Design Team, management Steering Committee) provided advantages over a single, multilevel committee structure, and enhanced the planning, communication, and team-work skills of participants. PMID:28166897

  17. Newnes electronics toolkit

    CERN Document Server

    Phillips, Geoff

    2013-01-01

    Newnes Electronics Toolkit brings together fundamental facts, concepts, and applications of electronic components and circuits, and presents them in a clear, concise, and unambiguous format, to provide a reference book for engineers. The book contains 10 chapters that discuss the following concepts: resistors, capacitors, inductors, semiconductors, circuit concepts, electromagnetic compatibility, sound, light, heat, and connections. The engineer's job does not end when the circuit diagram is completed; the design for the manufacturing process is just as important if volume production is to be

  18. A Qualitative Evaluation of Web-Based Cancer Care Quality Improvement Toolkit Use in the Veterans Health Administration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bowman, Candice; Luck, Jeff; Gale, Randall C; Smith, Nina; York, Laura S; Asch, Steven

    2015-01-01

    Disease severity, complexity, and patient burden highlight cancer care as a target for quality improvement (QI) interventions. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) implemented a series of disease-specific online cancer care QI toolkits. To describe characteristics of the toolkits, target users, and VHA cancer care facilities that influenced toolkit access and use and assess whether such resources were beneficial for users. Deductive content analysis of detailed notes from 94 telephone interviews with individuals from 48 VHA facilities. We evaluated toolkit access and use across cancer types, participation in learning collaboratives, and affiliation with VHA cancer care facilities. The presence of champions was identified as a strong facilitator of toolkit use, and learning collaboratives were important for spreading information about toolkit availability. Identified barriers included lack of personnel and financial resources and complicated approval processes to support tool use. Online cancer care toolkits are well received across cancer specialties and provider types. Clinicians, administrators, and QI staff may benefit from the availability of toolkits as they become more reliant on rapid access to strategies that support comprehensive delivery of evidence-based care. Toolkits should be considered as a complement to other QI approaches.

  19. Overview and Meteorological Validation of the Wind Integration National Dataset toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Draxl, C. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Hodge, B. M. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Clifton, A. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); McCaa, J. [3TIER by VAisala, Seattle, WA (United States)

    2015-04-13

    The Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit described in this report fulfills these requirements, and constitutes a state-of-the-art national wind resource data set covering the contiguous United States from 2007 to 2013 for use in a variety of next-generation wind integration analyses and wind power planning. The toolkit is a wind resource data set, wind forecast data set, and wind power production and forecast data set derived from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) numerical weather prediction model. WIND Toolkit data are available online for over 116,000 land-based and 10,000 offshore sites representing existing and potential wind facilities.

  20. Practical computational toolkits for dendrimers and dendrons structure design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinho, Nuno; Silva, Liana C.; Florindo, Helena F.; Brocchini, Steve; Barata, Teresa; Zloh, Mire

    2017-09-01

    Dendrimers and dendrons offer an excellent platform for developing novel drug delivery systems and medicines. The rational design and further development of these repetitively branched systems are restricted by difficulties in scalable synthesis and structural determination, which can be overcome by judicious use of molecular modelling and molecular simulations. A major difficulty to utilise in silico studies to design dendrimers lies in the laborious generation of their structures. Current modelling tools utilise automated assembly of simpler dendrimers or the inefficient manual assembly of monomer precursors to generate more complicated dendrimer structures. Herein we describe two novel graphical user interface toolkits written in Python that provide an improved degree of automation for rapid assembly of dendrimers and generation of their 2D and 3D structures. Our first toolkit uses the RDkit library, SMILES nomenclature of monomers and SMARTS reaction nomenclature to generate SMILES and mol files of dendrimers without 3D coordinates. These files are used for simple graphical representations and storing their structures in databases. The second toolkit assembles complex topology dendrimers from monomers to construct 3D dendrimer structures to be used as starting points for simulation using existing and widely available software and force fields. Both tools were validated for ease-of-use to prototype dendrimer structure and the second toolkit was especially relevant for dendrimers of high complexity and size.

  1. The Populist Toolkit

    OpenAIRE

    Ylä-Anttila, Tuukka Salu Santeri

    2017-01-01

    Populism has often been understood as a description of political parties and politicians, who have been labelled either populist or not. This dissertation argues that it is more useful to conceive of populism in action: as something that is done rather than something that is. I propose that the populist toolkit is a collection of cultural practices, which politicians and citizens use to make sense of and do politics, by claiming that ‘the people’ are opposed by a corrupt elite – a powerful cl...

  2. Videofluoroscopy of the pharynx and esophagus in patients with globus pharyngis. Comparison with static radiography; Die radiologische Abklaerung des Globus pharyngis. Vergleich der diagnostischen Wertigkeit von konventionellem Roentgen mit der Videokinematographie

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schober, E. [Abt. Roentgen fuer Konservative Faecher, Universitaetsklinik fuer Radiodiagnostik, Wien (Austria); Schima, W. [Abt. Roentgen fuer Konservative Faecher, Universitaetsklinik fuer Radiodiagnostik, Wien (Austria); Pokieser, P. [Abt. Roentgen fuer Chirurgische Faecher, Universitaetsklinik fuer Radiodiagnostik, Wien (Austria)

    1995-10-01

    The symptom is associated with a multitude of pharyngoesophageal abnormalities. Our study compares the diagnostic yield of videofluoroscopy to that of static radiography in patients suffering from globus pharnygis. A total of 150 consecutive patients complaining of a lump in the throat, but without evidence of dysphagia, were studied in a standardized fashion with both methods. Videofluoroscopy combined with static radiography revealed morphological or functional abnormalities in 75% of our patients. The combination of the two methods yielded significantly more abnormalities in the pharynx and esophagus than videofluoroscopy or static radiography alone. Esophageal motor disorders, pharyngoesophageal sphincter dysfunction and pharyngeal residue of contrast material proved to be the most common abnormalities. In conclusion, videofluoroscopy combined with static radiography is mandatory in the radiological assessment of patients suffering from the globus sensation. (orig.) [Deutsch] Unsere Studie vergleicht die diagnostische Wertigkeit des konventionellen Roentgens mit jener der Videokineamtographie von Pharynx und Oesophagus bei der Abklaerung des Globusgefuehls. Wir haben 150 konsekutive Patienten mit Globusgefuehl, jedoch ohne Dysphagie mit beiden Methoden nach einem standardisierten Protokoll untersucht. Mittels der Kombination von konventionellem Roentgen mit der Videokinematographie fanden sich bei 75% der Patienten pathologische Veraenderungen. Durch die Kombination beider Methoden konnten signifikant mehr morphologische und funktionelle Stoerungen des Pharynx sowie Oesophagus aufgezeigt werden, als mit der alleinigen konventionellen Technik oder der alleinigen Videokinematographie. Die haeufigsten pathologischen Veraenderungen in unserem Kollektiv waren Oesophagusmotilitaetsstoerungen, eine Dyskinesie des pharyngooesophagealen Sphinkters sowie eine abnorme pharyngeale Kontrastmittelretention. Unsere Ergebnisse belegen eindeutig, dass die radiologische

  3. Left globus pallidus abnormality in never-medicated patients with schizophrenia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Early, T.S.; Reiman, E.M.; Raichle, M.E.; Spitznagel, E.L.

    1987-01-01

    Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder characterized by onset in young adulthood, the occurrence of hallucinations and delusions, and the development of enduring psychosocial disability. The pathophysiology of this disorder remains unknown. Studies of cerebral blood flow and metabolism designed to identify brain abnormalities in schizophrenia have been limited by inadequate methods of anatomical localization and the possibility of persistent medication effects. The authors have now used positron emission tomography and a validated method of anatomical localization in an attempt to identify abnormalities of regional cerebral blood flow in newly diagnosed never-medicated patients with schizophrenia. An exploratory study of 5 patients and 10 normal control subjects identified abnormally high blood flow in the left globus pallidus of patients with schizophrenia. A replication study of 5 additional patients and 10 additional control subjects confirmed this finding. No other abnormalities were found

  4. Adenosine A2A Receptor Modulates the Activity of Globus Pallidus Neurons in Rats

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hui-Ling Diao

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available The globus pallidus is a central nucleus in the basal ganglia motor control circuit. Morphological studies have revealed the expression of adenosine A2A receptors in the globus pallidus. To determine the modulation of adenosine A2A receptors on the activity of pallidal neurons in both normal and parkinsonian rats, in vivo electrophysiological and behavioral tests were performed in the present study. The extracellular single unit recordings showed that micro-pressure administration of adenosine A2A receptor agonist, CGS21680, regulated the pallidal firing activity. GABAergic neurotransmission was involved in CGS21680-induced modulation of pallidal neurons via a PKA pathway. Furthermore, application of two adenosine A2A receptor antagonists, KW6002 or SCH442416, mainly increased the spontaneous firing of pallidal neurons, suggesting that endogenous adenosine system modulates the activity of pallidal neurons through adenosine A2A receptors. Finally, elevated body swing test (EBST showed that intrapallidal microinjection of adenosine A2A receptor agonist/antagonist induced ipsilateral/contralateral-biased swing, respectively. In addition, the electrophysiological and behavioral findings also revealed that activation of dopamine D2 receptors by quinpirole strengthened KW6002/SCH442416-induced excitation of pallidal activity. Co-application of quinpirole with KW6002 or SCH442416 alleviated biased swing in hemi-parkinsonian rats. Based on the present findings, we concluded that pallidal adenosine A2A receptors may be potentially useful in the treatment of Parkinson's disease.

  5. A toolkit for promoting healthy ageing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jeroen Knevel; Aly Gruppen

    2016-01-01

    This toolkit therefore focusses on self-management abilities. That means finding and maintaining effective, positive coping methods in relation to our health. We included many common and frequently discussed topics such as drinking, eating, physical exercise, believing in the future, resilience,

  6. Fragment Impact Toolkit (FIT)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shevitz, Daniel Wolf [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Key, Brian P. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Garcia, Daniel B. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

    2017-09-05

    The Fragment Impact Toolkit (FIT) is a software package used for probabilistic consequence evaluation of fragmenting sources. The typical use case for FIT is to simulate an exploding shell and evaluate the consequence on nearby objects. FIT is written in the programming language Python and is designed as a collection of interacting software modules. Each module has a function that interacts with the other modules to produce desired results.

  7. Web-based Toolkit for Dynamic Generation of Data Processors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patel, J.; Dascalu, S.; Harris, F. C.; Benedict, K. K.; Gollberg, G.; Sheneman, L.

    2011-12-01

    All computation-intensive scientific research uses structured datasets, including hydrology and all other types of climate-related research. When it comes to testing their hypotheses, researchers might use the same dataset differently, and modify, transform, or convert it to meet their research needs. Currently, many researchers spend a good amount of time performing data processing and building tools to speed up this process. They might routinely repeat the same process activities for new research projects, spending precious time that otherwise could be dedicated to analyzing and interpreting the data. Numerous tools are available to run tests on prepared datasets and many of them work with datasets in different formats. However, there is still a significant need for applications that can comprehensively handle data transformation and conversion activities and help prepare the various processed datasets required by the researchers. We propose a web-based application (a software toolkit) that dynamically generates data processors capable of performing data conversions, transformations, and customizations based on user-defined mappings and selections. As a first step, the proposed solution allows the users to define various data structures and, in the next step, can select various file formats and data conversions for their datasets of interest. In a simple scenario, the core of the proposed web-based toolkit allows the users to define direct mappings between input and output data structures. The toolkit will also support defining complex mappings involving the use of pre-defined sets of mathematical, statistical, date/time, and text manipulation functions. Furthermore, the users will be allowed to define logical cases for input data filtering and sampling. At the end of the process, the toolkit is designed to generate reusable source code and executable binary files for download and use by the scientists. The application is also designed to store all data

  8. User's manual for the two-dimensional transputer graphics toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellis, Graham K.

    1988-01-01

    The user manual for the 2-D graphics toolkit for a transputer based parallel processor is presented. The toolkit consists of a package of 2-D display routines that can be used for the simulation visualizations. It supports multiple windows, double buffered screens for animations, and simple graphics transformations such as translation, rotation, and scaling. The display routines are written in occam to take advantage of the multiprocessing features available on transputers. The package is designed to run on a transputer separate from the graphics board.

  9. A toolkit for detecting technical surprise.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Trahan, Michael Wayne; Foehse, Mark C.

    2010-10-01

    The detection of a scientific or technological surprise within a secretive country or institute is very difficult. The ability to detect such surprises would allow analysts to identify the capabilities that could be a military or economic threat to national security. Sandia's current approach utilizing ThreatView has been successful in revealing potential technological surprises. However, as data sets become larger, it becomes critical to use algorithms as filters along with the visualization environments. Our two-year LDRD had two primary goals. First, we developed a tool, a Self-Organizing Map (SOM), to extend ThreatView and improve our understanding of the issues involved in working with textual data sets. Second, we developed a toolkit for detecting indicators of technical surprise in textual data sets. Our toolkit has been successfully used to perform technology assessments for the Science & Technology Intelligence (S&TI) program.

  10. Commercial Building Energy Saver: An energy retrofit analysis toolkit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hong, Tianzhen; Piette, Mary Ann; Chen, Yixing; Lee, Sang Hoon; Taylor-Lange, Sarah C.; Zhang, Rongpeng; Sun, Kaiyu; Price, Phillip

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • Commercial Building Energy Saver is a powerful toolkit for energy retrofit analysis. • CBES provides benchmarking, load shape analysis, and model-based retrofit assessment. • CBES covers 7 building types, 6 vintages, 16 climates, and 100 energy measures. • CBES includes a web app, API, and a database of energy efficiency performance. • CBES API can be extended and integrated with third party energy software tools. - Abstract: Small commercial buildings in the United States consume 47% of the total primary energy of the buildings sector. Retrofitting small and medium commercial buildings poses a huge challenge for owners because they usually lack the expertise and resources to identify and evaluate cost-effective energy retrofit strategies. This paper presents the Commercial Building Energy Saver (CBES), an energy retrofit analysis toolkit, which calculates the energy use of a building, identifies and evaluates retrofit measures in terms of energy savings, energy cost savings and payback. The CBES Toolkit includes a web app (APP) for end users and the CBES Application Programming Interface (API) for integrating CBES with other energy software tools. The toolkit provides a rich set of features including: (1) Energy Benchmarking providing an Energy Star score, (2) Load Shape Analysis to identify potential building operation improvements, (3) Preliminary Retrofit Analysis which uses a custom developed pre-simulated database and, (4) Detailed Retrofit Analysis which utilizes real-time EnergyPlus simulations. CBES includes 100 configurable energy conservation measures (ECMs) that encompass IAQ, technical performance and cost data, for assessing 7 different prototype buildings in 16 climate zones in California and 6 vintages. A case study of a small office building demonstrates the use of the toolkit for retrofit analysis. The development of CBES provides a new contribution to the field by providing a straightforward and uncomplicated decision

  11. New MRI findings in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: high signal in the globus pallidus on T 1-weighted images

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Priester, J.A. de; Wilmink, J.T.; Jansen, G.H.; Kruijk, J.R. de

    1999-01-01

    We report a 49-year-old woman with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). In addition to typical high-signal lesions on proton-density and T 2-weighted images there was high signal in the globus pallidus bilaterally on T 1-weighted images. The latter feature has not been described previously and probably due to deposition of prion protein, as found at autopsy. (orig.)

  12. Texas Team: Academic Progression and IOM Toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reid, Helen; Tart, Kathryn; Tietze, Mari; Joseph, Nitha Mathew; Easley, Carson

    The Institute of Medicine (IOM) Future of Nursing report, identified eight recommendations for nursing to improve health care for all Americans. The Texas Team for Advancing Health Through Nursing embraced the challenge of implementing the recommendations through two diverse projects. One group conducted a broad, online survey of leadership, practice, and academia, focusing on the IOM recommendations. The other focused specifically on academic progression through the use of CABNET (Consortium for Advancing Baccalaureate Nursing Education in Texas) articulation agreements. The survey revealed a lack of knowledge and understanding of the IOM recommendations, prompting development of an online IOM toolkit. The articulation agreements provide a clear pathway for students to the RN-to-BSN degree students. The toolkit and articulation agreements provide rich resources for implementation of the IOM recommendations.

  13. LAIT: a local ancestry inference toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hui, Daniel; Fang, Zhou; Lin, Jerome; Duan, Qing; Li, Yun; Hu, Ming; Chen, Wei

    2017-09-06

    Inferring local ancestry in individuals of mixed ancestry has many applications, most notably in identifying disease-susceptible loci that vary among different ethnic groups. Many software packages are available for inferring local ancestry in admixed individuals. However, most of these existing software packages require specific formatted input files and generate output files in various types, yielding practical inconvenience. We developed a tool set, Local Ancestry Inference Toolkit (LAIT), which can convert standardized files into software-specific input file formats as well as standardize and summarize inference results for four popular local ancestry inference software: HAPMIX, LAMP, LAMP-LD, and ELAI. We tested LAIT using both simulated and real data sets and demonstrated that LAIT provides convenience to run multiple local ancestry inference software. In addition, we evaluated the performance of local ancestry software among different supported software packages, mainly focusing on inference accuracy and computational resources used. We provided a toolkit to facilitate the use of local ancestry inference software, especially for users with limited bioinformatics background.

  14. ECCE Toolkit: Prototyping Sensor-Based Interaction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea Bellucci

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Building and exploring physical user interfaces requires high technical skills and hours of specialized work. The behavior of multiple devices with heterogeneous input/output channels and connectivity has to be programmed in a context where not only the software interface matters, but also the hardware components are critical (e.g., sensors and actuators. Prototyping physical interaction is hindered by the challenges of: (1 programming interactions among physical sensors/actuators and digital interfaces; (2 implementing functionality for different platforms in different programming languages; and (3 building custom electronic-incorporated objects. We present ECCE (Entities, Components, Couplings and Ecosystems, a toolkit for non-programmers that copes with these issues by abstracting from low-level implementations, thus lowering the complexity of prototyping small-scale, sensor-based physical interfaces to support the design process. A user evaluation provides insights and use cases of the kind of applications that can be developed with the toolkit.

  15. Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit; NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Draxl, Caroline; Hodge, Bri-Mathias

    2015-07-14

    A webinar about the Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit was presented by Bri-Mathias Hodge and Caroline Draxl on July 14, 2015. It was hosted by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. The toolkit is a grid integration data set that contains meteorological and power data at a 5-minute resolution across the continental United States for 7 years and hourly power forecasts.

  16. Harness: Heterogeneous Adaptable Reconfigurable Networked Systems -- U.S. Department of Energy Grant DE-FG02-99ER25379 Final Project Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vaidy Sunderam

    2003-07-02

    Issues in reconfigurability and adaptability in heterogeneous distributed systems for high-performance computing are the focus of the work funded by this grant. Our efforts are part of an ongoing research project in metacomputing and are a follow on to the DOE funded PVM system that has witnessed over a decade of use at numerous institutions worldwide. The current project, termed Harness, investigates novel methodologies and tools for distributed metacomputing, focusing on dynamically reconfigurable software frameworks. During the first phase, we defined the metacomputing architecture embodied in Harness and developed prototype subsystems as proof of concept exercises. Subsequently, we designed and developed a complete software framework manifesting the Harness architecture, and also developed several tools and subsystems that demonstrated the viability and effectiveness of our proposed model for next generation metacomputing. We then used this substrate to emulate multiple programming environments on Harness, and conducted performance evaluation and tuning exercises. The main research results from these efforts include the establishment of software metacomputing systems as viable and cost-effective alternatives to MPPs; the demonstration of dynamic and reconfigurable platforms as effective methods of tailoring parallel computing environments; the development of methodologies to construct plugin modules for component-based distributed systems; contributions to performance modeling and optimization in emulated software environments; and software architectures for multi- and mixed-paradigm parallel distributed computing. Details and specifics on these and other results have been reported in numerous publications, and are manifested in software systems, all of which may be accessed at or via the website http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/harness/

  17. Designing a ticket to ride with the Cognitive Work Analysis Design Toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Read, Gemma J M; Salmon, Paul M; Lenné, Michael G; Jenkins, Daniel P

    2015-01-01

    Cognitive work analysis has been applied in the design of numerous sociotechnical systems. The process used to translate analysis outputs into design concepts, however, is not always clear. Moreover, structured processes for translating the outputs of ergonomics methods into concrete designs are lacking. This paper introduces the Cognitive Work Analysis Design Toolkit (CWA-DT), a design approach which has been developed specifically to provide a structured means of incorporating cognitive work analysis outputs in design using design principles and values derived from sociotechnical systems theory. This paper outlines the CWA-DT and describes its application in a public transport ticketing design case study. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations of the process provide promising early evidence that the toolkit fulfils the evaluation criteria identified for its success, with opportunities for improvement also highlighted. The Cognitive Work Analysis Design Toolkit has been developed to provide ergonomics practitioners with a structured approach for translating the outputs of cognitive work analysis into design solutions. This paper demonstrates an application of the toolkit and provides evaluation findings.

  18. FY17Q4 Ristra project: Release Version 1.0 of a production toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hungerford, Aimee L. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Daniel, David John [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

    2017-09-21

    The Next Generation Code project will release Version 1.0 of a production toolkit for multi-physics application development on advanced architectures. Features of this toolkit will include remap and link utilities, control and state manager, setup, visualization and I/O, as well as support for a variety of mesh and particle data representations. Numerical physics packages that operate atop this foundational toolkit will be employed in a multi-physics demonstration problem and released to the community along with results from the demonstration.

  19. Development of a Multimedia Toolkit for Engineering Graphics Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Moudar Zgoul

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper focuses upon the development of a multimedia toolkit to support the teaching of Engineering Graphics Course. The project used different elements for the toolkit; animations, videos and presentations which were then integrated in a dedicated internet website. The purpose of using these elements is to assist the students building and practicing the needed engineering skills at their own pace as a part of an e-Learning solution. Furthermore, this kit allows students to repeat and view the processes and techniques of graphical construction, and visualization as much as needed, allowing them to follow and practice on their own.

  20. AutoMicromanager: A microscopy scripting toolkit for LABVIEW and other programming environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ashcroft, Brian Alan; Oosterkamp, Tjerk

    2010-11-01

    We present a scripting toolkit for the acquisition and analysis of a wide variety of imaging data by integrating the ease of use of various programming environments such as LABVIEW, IGOR PRO, MATLAB, SCILAB, and others. This toolkit is designed to allow the user to quickly program a variety of standard microscopy components for custom microscopy applications allowing much more flexibility than other packages. Included are both programming tools as well as graphical user interface classes allowing a standard, consistent, and easy to maintain scripting environment. This programming toolkit allows easy access to most commonly used cameras, stages, and shutters through the Micromanager project so the scripter can focus on their custom application instead of boilerplate code generation.

  1. AutoMicromanager: a microscopy scripting toolkit for LABVIEW and other programming environments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ashcroft, Brian Alan; Oosterkamp, Tjerk

    2010-11-01

    We present a scripting toolkit for the acquisition and analysis of a wide variety of imaging data by integrating the ease of use of various programming environments such as LABVIEW, IGOR PRO, MATLAB, SCILAB, and others. This toolkit is designed to allow the user to quickly program a variety of standard microscopy components for custom microscopy applications allowing much more flexibility than other packages. Included are both programming tools as well as graphical user interface classes allowing a standard, consistent, and easy to maintain scripting environment. This programming toolkit allows easy access to most commonly used cameras, stages, and shutters through the Micromanager project so the scripter can focus on their custom application instead of boilerplate code generation.

  2. Windows forensic analysis toolkit advanced analysis techniques for Windows 7

    CERN Document Server

    Carvey, Harlan

    2012-01-01

    Now in its third edition, Harlan Carvey has updated "Windows Forensic Analysis Toolkit" to cover Windows 7 systems. The primary focus of this edition is on analyzing Windows 7 systems and on processes using free and open-source tools. The book covers live response, file analysis, malware detection, timeline, and much more. The author presents real-life experiences from the trenches, making the material realistic and showing the why behind the how. New to this edition, the companion and toolkit materials are now hosted online. This material consists of electronic printable checklists, cheat sheets, free custom tools, and walk-through demos. This edition complements "Windows Forensic Analysis Toolkit, 2nd Edition", (ISBN: 9781597494229), which focuses primarily on XP. It includes complete coverage and examples on Windows 7 systems. It contains Lessons from the Field, Case Studies, and War Stories. It features companion online material, including electronic printable checklists, cheat sheets, free custom tools, ...

  3. New MRI findings in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: high signal in the globus pallidus on T 1-weighted images

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Priester, J.A. de; Wilmink, J.T. [Dept. of Radiology, University Hospital Maastricht (Netherlands); Jansen, G.H. [Department of Neuropathology, University Hospital Utrecht (Netherlands); Kruijk, J.R. de [Department of Neurology, University Hospital Maastricht (Netherlands)

    1999-04-01

    We report a 49-year-old woman with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). In addition to typical high-signal lesions on proton-density and T 2-weighted images there was high signal in the globus pallidus bilaterally on T 1-weighted images. The latter feature has not been described previously and probably due to deposition of prion protein, as found at autopsy. (orig.) With 3 figs., 11 refs.

  4. VIDE: The Void IDentification and Examination toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sutter, P. M.; Lavaux, G.; Hamaus, N.; Pisani, A.; Wandelt, B. D.; Warren, M.; Villaescusa-Navarro, F.; Zivick, P.; Mao, Q.; Thompson, B. B.

    2015-03-01

    We present VIDE, the Void IDentification and Examination toolkit, an open-source Python/C++ code for finding cosmic voids in galaxy redshift surveys and N-body simulations, characterizing their properties, and providing a platform for more detailed analysis. At its core, VIDE uses a substantially enhanced version of ZOBOV (Neyinck 2008) to calculate a Voronoi tessellation for estimating the density field and performing a watershed transform to construct voids. Additionally, VIDE provides significant functionality for both pre- and post-processing: for example, VIDE can work with volume- or magnitude-limited galaxy samples with arbitrary survey geometries, or dark matter particles or halo catalogs in a variety of common formats. It can also randomly subsample inputs and includes a Halo Occupation Distribution model for constructing mock galaxy populations. VIDE uses the watershed levels to place voids in a hierarchical tree, outputs a summary of void properties in plain ASCII, and provides a Python API to perform many analysis tasks, such as loading and manipulating void catalogs and particle members, filtering, plotting, computing clustering statistics, stacking, comparing catalogs, and fitting density profiles. While centered around ZOBOV, the toolkit is designed to be as modular as possible and accommodate other void finders. VIDE has been in development for several years and has already been used to produce a wealth of results, which we summarize in this work to highlight the capabilities of the toolkit. VIDE is publicly available at http://bitbucket.org/cosmicvoids/vide_public and http://www.cosmicvoids.net.

  5. The Customer Flow Toolkit: A Framework for Designing High Quality Customer Services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals, Albany.

    This document presents a toolkit to assist staff involved in the design and development of New York's one-stop system. Section 1 describes the preplanning issues to be addressed and the intended outcomes that serve as the framework for creation of the customer flow toolkit. Section 2 outlines the following strategies to assist in designing local…

  6. BAT - The Bayesian Analysis Toolkit

    CERN Document Server

    Caldwell, Allen C; Kröninger, Kevin

    2009-01-01

    We describe the development of a new toolkit for data analysis. The analysis package is based on Bayes' Theorem, and is realized with the use of Markov Chain Monte Carlo. This gives access to the full posterior probability distribution. Parameter estimation, limit setting and uncertainty propagation are implemented in a straightforward manner. A goodness-of-fit criterion is presented which is intuitive and of great practical use.

  7. A Geospatial Decision Support System Toolkit, Phase II

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — We propose to build and commercialize a working prototype Geospatial Decision Support Toolkit (GeoKit). GeoKit will enable scientists, agencies, and stakeholders to...

  8. The Visualization Toolkit (VTK): Rewriting the rendering code for modern graphics cards

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanwell, Marcus D.; Martin, Kenneth M.; Chaudhary, Aashish; Avila, Lisa S.

    2015-09-01

    The Visualization Toolkit (VTK) is an open source, permissively licensed, cross-platform toolkit for scientific data processing, visualization, and data analysis. It is over two decades old, originally developed for a very different graphics card architecture. Modern graphics cards feature fully programmable, highly parallelized architectures with large core counts. VTK's rendering code was rewritten to take advantage of modern graphics cards, maintaining most of the toolkit's programming interfaces. This offers the opportunity to compare the performance of old and new rendering code on the same systems/cards. Significant improvements in rendering speeds and memory footprints mean that scientific data can be visualized in greater detail than ever before. The widespread use of VTK means that these improvements will reap significant benefits.

  9. Heart Failure: Self-care to Success: Development and evaluation of a program toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bryant, Rebecca

    2017-08-17

    The Heart Failure: Self-care to Success toolkit was developed to assist NPs in empowering patients with heart failure (HF) to improve individual self-care behaviors. This article details the evolution of this toolkit for NPs, its effectiveness with patients with HF, and recommendations for future research and dissemination strategies.

  10. Marine Debris and Plastic Source Reduction Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Many plastic food service ware items originate on college and university campuses—in cafeterias, snack rooms, cafés, and eateries with take-out dining options. This Campus Toolkit is a detailed “how to” guide for reducing plastic waste on college campuses.

  11. Matlab based Toolkits used to Interface with Optical Design Software for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

    Science.gov (United States)

    Howard, Joseph

    2007-01-01

    The viewgraph presentation provides an introduction to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The first part provides a brief overview of Matlab toolkits including CodeV, OSLO, and Zemax Toolkits. The toolkit overview examines purpose, layout, how Matlab gets data from CodeV, function layout, and using cvHELP. The second part provides examples of use with JWST, including wavefront sensitivities and alignment simulations.

  12. Guide to Using the WIND Toolkit Validation Code

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lieberman-Cribbin, W.; Draxl, C.; Clifton, A.

    2014-12-01

    In response to the U.S. Department of Energy's goal of using 20% wind energy by 2030, the Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit was created to provide information on wind speed, wind direction, temperature, surface air pressure, and air density on more than 126,000 locations across the United States from 2007 to 2013. The numerical weather prediction model output, gridded at 2-km and at a 5-minute resolution, was further converted to detail the wind power production time series of existing and potential wind facility sites. For users of the dataset it is important that the information presented in the WIND Toolkit is accurate and that errors are known, as then corrective steps can be taken. Therefore, we provide validation code written in R that will be made public to provide users with tools to validate data of their own locations. Validation is based on statistical analyses of wind speed, using error metrics such as bias, root-mean-square error, centered root-mean-square error, mean absolute error, and percent error. Plots of diurnal cycles, annual cycles, wind roses, histograms of wind speed, and quantile-quantile plots are created to visualize how well observational data compares to model data. Ideally, validation will confirm beneficial locations to utilize wind energy and encourage regional wind integration studies using the WIND Toolkit.

  13. Innovations and Challenges of Implementing a Glucose Gel Toolkit for Neonatal Hypoglycemia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hammer, Denise; Pohl, Carla; Jacobs, Peggy J; Kaufman, Susan; Drury, Brenda

    2018-05-24

    Transient neonatal hypoglycemia occurs most commonly in newborns who are small for gestational age, large for gestational age, infants of diabetic mothers, and late preterm infants. An exact blood glucose value has not been determined for neonatal hypoglycemia, and it is important to note that poor neurologic outcomes can occur if hypoglycemia is left untreated. Interventions that separate mothers and newborns, as well as use of formula to treat hypoglycemia, have the potential to disrupt exclusive breastfeeding. To determine whether implementation of a toolkit designed to support staff in the adaptation of the practice change for management of newborns at risk for hypoglycemia, that includes 40% glucose gel in an obstetric unit with a level 2 nursery will decrease admissions to the Intermediate Care Nursery, and increase exclusive breastfeeding. This descriptive study used a retrospective chart review for pre/postimplementation of the Management of Newborns at Risk for Hypoglycemia Toolkit (Toolkit) using a convenience sample of at-risk newborns in the first 2 days of life to evaluate the proposed outcomes. Following implementation of the Toolkit, at-risk newborns had a clinically but not statistically significant 6.5% increase in exclusive breastfeeding and a clinically but not statistically significant 5% decrease in admissions to the Intermediate Care Nursery. The Toolkit was designed for ease of staff use and to improve outcomes for the at-risk newborn. Future research includes replication at other level 2 and level 1 obstetric centers and investigation into the number of 40% glucose gel doses that can safely be administered.

  14. Integrated System Health Management Development Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Figueroa, Jorge; Smith, Harvey; Morris, Jon

    2009-01-01

    This software toolkit is designed to model complex systems for the implementation of embedded Integrated System Health Management (ISHM) capability, which focuses on determining the condition (health) of every element in a complex system (detect anomalies, diagnose causes, and predict future anomalies), and to provide data, information, and knowledge (DIaK) to control systems for safe and effective operation.

  15. Configuration monitoring tool for large-scale distributed computing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu, Y.; Graham, G.; Lu, X.; Afaq, A.; Kim, B.J.; Fisk, I.

    2004-01-01

    The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will likely use a grid system to achieve much of its offline processing need. Given the heterogeneous and dynamic nature of grid systems, it is desirable to have in place a configuration monitor. The configuration monitoring tool is built using the Globus toolkit and web services. It consists of an information provider for the Globus MDS, a relational database for keeping track of the current and old configurations, and client interfaces to query and administer the configuration system. The Grid Security Infrastructure (GSI), together with EDG Java Security packages, are used for secure authentication and transparent access to the configuration information across the CMS grid. This work has been prototyped and tested using US-CMS grid resources

  16. Configuration monitoring tool for large-scale distributed computing

    CERN Document Server

    Wu, Y; Fisk, I; Graham, G; Kim, B J; Lü, X

    2004-01-01

    The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will likely use a grid system to achieve much of its offline processing need. Given the heterogeneous and dynamic nature of grid systems, it is desirable to have in place a configuration monitor. The configuration monitoring tool is built using the Globus toolkit and web services. It consists of an information provider for the Globus MDS, a relational database for keeping track of the current and old configurations, and client interfaces to query and administer the configuration system. The Grid Security Infrastructure (GSI), together with EDG Java Security packages, are used for secure authentication and transparent access to the configuration information across the CMS grid. This work has been prototyped and tested using US-CMS grid resources.

  17. pypet: A Python Toolkit for Data Management of Parameter Explorations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyer, Robert; Obermayer, Klaus

    2016-01-01

    pypet (Python parameter exploration toolkit) is a new multi-platform Python toolkit for managing numerical simulations. Sampling the space of model parameters is a key aspect of simulations and numerical experiments. pypet is designed to allow easy and arbitrary sampling of trajectories through a parameter space beyond simple grid searches. pypet collects and stores both simulation parameters and results in a single HDF5 file. This collective storage allows fast and convenient loading of data for further analyses. pypet provides various additional features such as multiprocessing and parallelization of simulations, dynamic loading of data, integration of git version control, and supervision of experiments via the electronic lab notebook Sumatra. pypet supports a rich set of data formats, including native Python types, Numpy and Scipy data, Pandas DataFrames, and BRIAN(2) quantities. Besides these formats, users can easily extend the toolkit to allow customized data types. pypet is a flexible tool suited for both short Python scripts and large scale projects. pypet's various features, especially the tight link between parameters and results, promote reproducible research in computational neuroscience and simulation-based disciplines.

  18. The Liquid Argon Software Toolkit (LArSoft): Goals, Status and Plan

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pordes, Rush [Fermilab; Snider, Erica [Fermilab

    2016-08-17

    LArSoft is a toolkit that provides a software infrastructure and algorithms for the simulation, reconstruction and analysis of events in Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LArTPCs). It is used by the ArgoNeuT, LArIAT, MicroBooNE, DUNE (including 35ton prototype and ProtoDUNE) and SBND experiments. The LArSoft collaboration provides an environment for the development, use, and sharing of code across experiments. The ultimate goal is to develop fully automatic processes for reconstruction and analysis of LArTPC events. The toolkit is based on the art framework and has a well-defined architecture to interface to other packages, including to GEANT4 and GENIE simulation software and the Pandora software development kit for pattern recognition. It is designed to facilitate and support the evolution of algorithms including their transition to new computing platforms. The development of the toolkit is driven by the scientific stakeholders involved. The core infrastructure includes standard definitions of types and constants, means to input experiment geometries as well as meta and event- data in several formats, and relevant general utilities. Examples of algorithms experiments have contributed to date are: photon-propagation; particle identification; hit finding, track finding and fitting; electromagnetic shower identification and reconstruction. We report on the status of the toolkit and plans for future work.

  19. Automated prototyping tool-kit (APT)

    OpenAIRE

    Nada, Nader; Shing, M.; Berzins, V.; Luqi

    2002-01-01

    Automated prototyping tool-kit (APT) is an integrated set of software tools that generate source programs directly from real-time requirements. The APT system uses a fifth-generation prototyping language to model the communication structure, timing constraints, 1/0 control, and data buffering that comprise the requirements for an embedded software system. The language supports the specification of hard real-time systems with reusable components from domain specific component libraries. APT ha...

  20. Integrating existing software toolkits into VO system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cui, Chenzhou; Zhao, Yong-Heng; Wang, Xiaoqian; Sang, Jian; Luo, Ze

    2004-09-01

    Virtual Observatory (VO) is a collection of interoperating data archives and software tools. Taking advantages of the latest information technologies, it aims to provide a data-intensively online research environment for astronomers all around the world. A large number of high-qualified astronomical software packages and libraries are powerful and easy of use, and have been widely used by astronomers for many years. Integrating those toolkits into the VO system is a necessary and important task for the VO developers. VO architecture greatly depends on Grid and Web services, consequently the general VO integration route is "Java Ready - Grid Ready - VO Ready". In the paper, we discuss the importance of VO integration for existing toolkits and discuss the possible solutions. We introduce two efforts in the field from China-VO project, "gImageMagick" and "Galactic abundance gradients statistical research under grid environment". We also discuss what additional work should be done to convert Grid service to VO service.

  1. Energy Savings Performance Contract Energy Sales Agreement Toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    None

    2017-08-14

    FEMP developed the Energy Savings Performance Contracting Energy Sales Agreement (ESPC ESA) Toolkit to provide federal agency contracting officers and other acquisition team members with information that will facilitate the timely execution of ESPC ESA projects.

  2. XPIWIT--an XML pipeline wrapper for the Insight Toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartschat, Andreas; Hübner, Eduard; Reischl, Markus; Mikut, Ralf; Stegmaier, Johannes

    2016-01-15

    The Insight Toolkit offers plenty of features for multidimensional image analysis. Current implementations, however, often suffer either from a lack of flexibility due to hard-coded C++ pipelines for a certain task or by slow execution times, e.g. caused by inefficient implementations or multiple read/write operations for separate filter execution. We present an XML-based wrapper application for the Insight Toolkit that combines the performance of a pure C++ implementation with an easy-to-use graphical setup of dynamic image analysis pipelines. Created XML pipelines can be interpreted and executed by XPIWIT in console mode either locally or on large clusters. We successfully applied the software tool for the automated analysis of terabyte-scale, time-resolved 3D image data of zebrafish embryos. XPIWIT is implemented in C++ using the Insight Toolkit and the Qt SDK. It has been successfully compiled and tested under Windows and Unix-based systems. Software and documentation are distributed under Apache 2.0 license and are publicly available for download at https://bitbucket.org/jstegmaier/xpiwit/downloads/. johannes.stegmaier@kit.edu Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  3. Development and formative evaluation of the e-Health Implementation Toolkit (e-HIT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mair Frances

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT or e-Health is seen as essential for a modern, cost-effective health service. However, there are well documented problems with implementation of e-Health initiatives, despite the existence of a great deal of research into how best to implement e-Health (an example of the gap between research and practice. This paper reports on the development and formative evaluation of an e-Health Implementation Toolkit (e-HIT which aims to summarise and synthesise new and existing research on implementation of e-Health initiatives, and present it to senior managers in a user-friendly format. Results The content of the e-HIT was derived by combining data from a systematic review of reviews of barriers and facilitators to implementation of e-Health initiatives with qualitative data derived from interviews of "implementers", that is people who had been charged with implementing an e-Health initiative. These data were summarised, synthesised and combined with the constructs from the Normalisation Process Model. The software for the toolkit was developed by a commercial company (RocketScience. Formative evaluation was undertaken by obtaining user feedback. There are three components to the toolkit - a section on background and instructions for use aimed at novice users; the toolkit itself; and the report generated by completing the toolkit. It is available to download from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/pcph/research/ehealth/documents/e-HIT.xls Conclusions The e-HIT shows potential as a tool for enhancing future e-Health implementations. Further work is needed to make it fully web-enabled, and to determine its predictive potential for future implementations.

  4. PAGANI Toolkit: Parallel graph-theoretical analysis package for brain network big data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Du, Haixiao; Xia, Mingrui; Zhao, Kang; Liao, Xuhong; Yang, Huazhong; Wang, Yu; He, Yong

    2018-05-01

    The recent collection of unprecedented quantities of neuroimaging data with high spatial resolution has led to brain network big data. However, a toolkit for fast and scalable computational solutions is still lacking. Here, we developed the PArallel Graph-theoretical ANalysIs (PAGANI) Toolkit based on a hybrid central processing unit-graphics processing unit (CPU-GPU) framework with a graphical user interface to facilitate the mapping and characterization of high-resolution brain networks. Specifically, the toolkit provides flexible parameters for users to customize computations of graph metrics in brain network analyses. As an empirical example, the PAGANI Toolkit was applied to individual voxel-based brain networks with ∼200,000 nodes that were derived from a resting-state fMRI dataset of 624 healthy young adults from the Human Connectome Project. Using a personal computer, this toolbox completed all computations in ∼27 h for one subject, which is markedly less than the 118 h required with a single-thread implementation. The voxel-based functional brain networks exhibited prominent small-world characteristics and densely connected hubs, which were mainly located in the medial and lateral fronto-parietal cortices. Moreover, the female group had significantly higher modularity and nodal betweenness centrality mainly in the medial/lateral fronto-parietal and occipital cortices than the male group. Significant correlations between the intelligence quotient and nodal metrics were also observed in several frontal regions. Collectively, the PAGANI Toolkit shows high computational performance and good scalability for analyzing connectome big data and provides a friendly interface without the complicated configuration of computing environments, thereby facilitating high-resolution connectomics research in health and disease. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  5. NNCTRL - a CANCSD toolkit for MATLAB(R)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nørgård, Peter Magnus; Ravn, Ole; Poulsen, Niels Kjølstad

    1996-01-01

    A set of tools for computer-aided neuro-control system design (CANCSD) has been developed for the MATLAB environment. The tools can be used for construction and simulation of a variety of neural network based control systems. The design methods featured in the toolkit are: direct inverse control...

  6. Signal intensity at unenhanced T1-weighted magnetic resonance in the globus pallidus and dentate nucleus after serial administrations of a macrocyclic gadolinium-based contrast agent in children

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rossi Espagnet, Maria Camilla; Bernardi, Bruno; Figa-Talamanca, Lorenzo [Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesu, IRCCS, Neuroradiology Unit, Imaging Department, Rome (Italy); Pasquini, Luca [Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesu, IRCCS, Neuroradiology Unit, Imaging Department, Rome (Italy); University Sapienza, Neuroradiology Unit, Azienda Ospedaliera Sant' Andrea, Rome (Italy); Toma, Paolo [Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesu, IRCCS, Department of Imaging, Rome (Italy); Napolitano, Antonio [Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesu, IRCCS, Enterprise Risk Management, Medical Physics Department, Rome (Italy)

    2017-09-15

    Few studies have been conducted on the relations between T1-weighted signal intensity changes in the pediatric brain following gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA) exposure. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of multiple administrations of a macrocyclic GBCA on signal intensity in the globus pallidus and dentate nucleus of the pediatric brain on unenhanced T1-weighted MR images. This retrospective study included 50 patients, mean age: 8 years (standard deviation: 4.8 years), with normal renal function exposed to ≥6 administrations of the same macrocyclic GBCA (gadoterate meglumine) and a control group of 59 age-matched GBCA-naive patients. The globus pallidus-to-thalamus signal intensity ratio and dentate nucleus-to-pons signal intensity ratio were calculated from unenhanced T1-weighted images for both patients and controls. A mixed linear model was used to evaluate the effects on signal intensity ratios of the number of GBCA administrations, the time interval between administrations, age, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. T-test analyses were performed to compare signal intensity ratio differences between successive administrations and baseline MR signal intensity ratios in patients compared to controls. P-values were considered significant if <0.05. A significant effect of the number of GBCA administrations on relative signal intensities globus pallidus-to-thalamus (F[8]=3.09; P=0.002) and dentate nucleus-to-pons (F[8]=2.36; P=0.021) was found. The relative signal intensities were higher at last MR examination than at baseline (P<0.001). Quantitative analysis evaluation of globus pallidus:thalamus and dentate nucleus:pons of the pediatric brain demonstrated an increase after serial administrations of macrocyclic GBCA. Further research is necessary to fully understand GBCA pharmacokinetic in children. (orig.)

  7. Ethnography in design: Tool-kit or analytic science?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bossen, Claus

    2002-01-01

    The role of ethograpyh in system development is discussed through the selective application of an ethnographic easy-to-use toolkit, Contextual design, by a computer firm in the initial stages of the development of a health care system....

  8. The nursing human resource planning best practice toolkit: creating a best practice resource for nursing managers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vincent, Leslie; Beduz, Mary Agnes

    2010-05-01

    Evidence of acute nursing shortages in urban hospitals has been surfacing since 2000. Further, new graduate nurses account for more than 50% of total nurse turnover in some hospitals and between 35% and 60% of new graduates change workplace during the first year. Critical to organizational success, first line nurse managers must have the knowledge and skills to ensure the accurate projection of nursing resource requirements and to develop proactive recruitment and retention programs that are effective, promote positive nursing socialization, and provide early exposure to the clinical setting. The Nursing Human Resource Planning Best Practice Toolkit project supported the creation of a network of teaching and community hospitals to develop a best practice toolkit in nursing human resource planning targeted at first line nursing managers. The toolkit includes the development of a framework including the conceptual building blocks of planning tools, manager interventions, retention and recruitment and professional practice models. The development of the toolkit involved conducting a review of the literature for best practices in nursing human resource planning, using a mixed method approach to data collection including a survey and extensive interviews of managers and completing a comprehensive scan of human resource practices in the participating organizations. This paper will provide an overview of the process used to develop the toolkit, a description of the toolkit contents and a reflection on the outcomes of the project.

  9. The globus pallidus sends reward-related signals to the lateral habenula.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hong, Simon; Hikosaka, Okihide

    2008-11-26

    As a major output station of the basal ganglia, the globus pallidus internal segment (GPi) projects to the thalamus and brainstem nuclei thereby controlling motor behavior. A less well known fact is that the GPi also projects to the lateral habenula (LHb) which is often associated with the limbic system. Using the monkey performing a saccade task with positionally biased reward outcomes, we found that antidromically identified LHb-projecting neurons were distributed mainly in the dorsal and ventral borders of the GPi and that their activity was strongly modulated by expected reward outcomes. A majority of them were excited by the no-reward-predicting target and inhibited by the reward-predicting target. These reward-dependent modulations were similar to those in LHb neurons but started earlier than those in LHb neurons. These results suggest that GPi may initiate reward-related signals through its effects on the LHb, which then influences the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems.

  10. Research standardization tools: pregnancy measures in the PhenX Toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malinowski, Ann Kinga; Ananth, Cande V; Catalano, Patrick; Hines, Erin P; Kirby, Russell S; Klebanoff, Mark A; Mulvihill, John J; Simhan, Hyagriv; Hamilton, Carol M; Hendershot, Tabitha P; Phillips, Michael J; Kilpatrick, Lisa A; Maiese, Deborah R; Ramos, Erin M; Wright, Rosalind J; Dolan, Siobhan M

    2017-09-01

    Only through concerted and well-executed research endeavors can we gain the requisite knowledge to advance pregnancy care and have a positive impact on maternal and newborn health. Yet the heterogeneity inherent in individual studies limits our ability to compare and synthesize study results, thus impeding the capacity to draw meaningful conclusions that can be trusted to inform clinical care. The PhenX Toolkit (http://www.phenxtoolkit.org), supported since 2007 by the National Institutes of Health, is a web-based catalog of standardized protocols for measuring phenotypes and exposures relevant for clinical research. In 2016, a working group of pregnancy experts recommended 15 measures for the PhenX Toolkit that are highly relevant to pregnancy research. The working group followed the established PhenX consensus process to recommend protocols that are broadly validated, well established, nonproprietary, and have a relatively low burden for investigators and participants. The working group considered input from the pregnancy experts and the broader research community and included measures addressing the mode of conception, gestational age, fetal growth assessment, prenatal care, the mode of delivery, gestational diabetes, behavioral and mental health, and environmental exposure biomarkers. These pregnancy measures complement the existing measures for other established domains in the PhenX Toolkit, including reproductive health, anthropometrics, demographic characteristics, and alcohol, tobacco, and other substances. The preceding domains influence a woman's health during pregnancy. For each measure, the PhenX Toolkit includes data dictionaries and data collection worksheets that facilitate incorporation of the protocol into new or existing studies. The measures within the pregnancy domain offer a valuable resource to investigators and clinicians and are well poised to facilitate collaborative pregnancy research with the goal to improve patient care. To achieve this

  11. pypet: A Python Toolkit for Data Management of Parameter Explorations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert Meyer

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available pypet (Python parameter exploration toolkit is a new multi-platform Python toolkit for managing numerical simulations. Sampling the space of model parameters is a key aspect of simulations and numerical experiments. pypet is designed to allow easy and arbitrary sampling of trajectories through a parameter space beyond simple grid searches.pypet collects and stores both simulation parameters and results in a single HDF5 file.This collective storage allows fast and convenient loading of data for further analyses.pypet provides various additional features such as multiprocessing and parallelization of simulations, dynamic loading of data, integration of git version control, and supervision of experiments via the electronic lab notebook Sumatra. pypet supports a rich set of data formats, including native Python types, Numpy and Scipy data, Pandas DataFrames, and BRIAN(2 quantities. Besides these formats, users can easily extend the toolkit to allow customized data types. pypet is a flexible tool suited for both short Python scripts and large scale projects. pypet's various features, especially the tight link between parameters and results, promote reproducible research in computational neuroscience and simulation-based disciplines.

  12. BRDF profile of Tyvek and its implementation in the Geant4 simulation toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nozka, Libor; Pech, Miroslav; Hiklova, Helena; Mandat, Dusan; Hrabovsky, Miroslav; Schovanek, Petr; Palatka, Miroslav

    2011-02-28

    Diffuse and specular characteristics of the Tyvek 1025-BL material are reported with respect to their implementation in the Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation toolkit. This toolkit incorporates the UNIFIED model. Coefficients defined by the UNIFIED model were calculated from the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) profiles measured with a scatterometer for several angles of incidence. Results were amended with profile measurements made by a profilometer.

  13. Building Emergency Contraception Awareness among Adolescents. A Toolkit for Schools and Community-Based Organizations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simkin, Linda; Radosh, Alice; Nelsesteun, Kari; Silverstein, Stacy

    This toolkit presents emergency contraception (EC) as a method to help adolescent women avoid pregnancy and abortion after unprotected sexual intercourse. The sections of this toolkit are designed to help increase your knowledge of EC and stay up to date. They provide suggestions for increasing EC awareness in the workplace, whether it is a school…

  14. Reversibility of hyperintense globus pallidus on T 1-weighted MRI following surgery for a portosystemic shunt in an 8-year-old girl

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ikeda, Shinji; Sera, Yoshihisa; Yoshida, Mituhiro; Ohshiro, Hajime; Uchino, Shinichiro; Seguchi, Sasa; Endo, Fumio

    1999-01-01

    An 8-year-old Japanese girl with a portosystemic shunt had shown hyperammonaemia since she was 3 years of age. MRI of her brain showed bilateral hyperintense globus pallidus. A portosystemic shunt was evident on US and angiography. She underwent surgical banding of the shunt, after which the lesion and clinical symptoms disappeared. (orig.)

  15. Increasing signal intensity within the dentate nucleus and globus pallidus on unenhanced T1W magnetic resonance images in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: correlation with cumulative dose of a macrocyclic gadolinium-based contrast agent, gadobutrol

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stojanov, Dragan A. [University of Nis, Faculty of Medicine, Nis (Serbia); Clinical Center Nis, Center for Radiology, Nis (Serbia); Aracki-Trenkic, Aleksandra [Clinical Center Nis, Center for Radiology, Nis (Serbia); Vojinovic, Slobodan; Ljubisavljevic, Srdjan [University of Nis, Faculty of Medicine, Nis (Serbia); Clinical Center Nis, Clinic for Neurology, Nis (Serbia); Benedeto-Stojanov, Daniela [University of Nis, Faculty of Medicine, Nis (Serbia)

    2016-03-15

    To evaluate correlation between cumulative dose of gadobutrol and signal intensity (SI) within dentate nucleus and globus pallidus on unenhanced T1-weighted images in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Dentate nucleus-to-pons and globus pallidus-to-thalamus SI ratios, and renal and liver functions, were evaluated after multiple intravenous administrations of 0.1 mmol/kg gadobutrol at 27, 96-98, and 168 weeks. We compared SI ratios based on the number of administrations, total amount of gadobutrol administered, and time between injections. Globus pallidus-to-thalamus (p = 0.025) and dentate nucleus-to-pons (p < 0.001) SI ratios increased after multiple gadobutrol administrations, correlated with the number of administrations (ρ = 0.263, p = 0.046, respectively) and depended on the length of administration (p = 0.017, p = 0.037, respectively). Patients receiving gadobutrol at 27 weeks showed the greatest increase in both SI ratios (p = 0.006; p = 0.014, respectively, versus 96-98 weeks). GGT increased at the end of the study (p = 0.004). In patients with RRMS, SI within the dentate nucleus and globus pallidus increased on unenhanced T1-weighted images after multiple gadobutrol injections. Administration of the same total amount of gadobutrol over a shorter period caused greater SI increase. (orig.)

  16. Guest editors' introduction to the 4th issue of Experimental Software and Toolkits (EST-4)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brand, van den M.G.J.; Kienle, H.M.; Mens, K.

    2014-01-01

    Experimental software and toolkits play a crucial role in computer science. Elsevier’s Science of Computer Programming special issues on Experimental Software and Toolkits (EST) provide a means for academic tool builders to get more visibility and credit for their work, by publishing a paper along

  17. Numerical relativity in spherical coordinates with the Einstein Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mewes, Vassilios; Zlochower, Yosef; Campanelli, Manuela; Ruchlin, Ian; Etienne, Zachariah B.; Baumgarte, Thomas W.

    2018-04-01

    Numerical relativity codes that do not make assumptions on spatial symmetries most commonly adopt Cartesian coordinates. While these coordinates have many attractive features, spherical coordinates are much better suited to take advantage of approximate symmetries in a number of astrophysical objects, including single stars, black holes, and accretion disks. While the appearance of coordinate singularities often spoils numerical relativity simulations in spherical coordinates, especially in the absence of any symmetry assumptions, it has recently been demonstrated that these problems can be avoided if the coordinate singularities are handled analytically. This is possible with the help of a reference-metric version of the Baumgarte-Shapiro-Shibata-Nakamura formulation together with a proper rescaling of tensorial quantities. In this paper we report on an implementation of this formalism in the Einstein Toolkit. We adapt the Einstein Toolkit infrastructure, originally designed for Cartesian coordinates, to handle spherical coordinates, by providing appropriate boundary conditions at both inner and outer boundaries. We perform numerical simulations for a disturbed Kerr black hole, extract the gravitational wave signal, and demonstrate that the noise in these signals is orders of magnitude smaller when computed on spherical grids rather than Cartesian grids. With the public release of our new Einstein Toolkit thorns, our methods for numerical relativity in spherical coordinates will become available to the entire numerical relativity community.

  18. A toolkit for promoting healthy ageing

    OpenAIRE

    Knevel, Jeroen; Gruppen, Aly

    2016-01-01

    This toolkit therefore focusses on self-management abilities. That means finding and maintaining effective, positive coping methods in relation to our health. We included many common and frequently discussed topics such as drinking, eating, physical exercise, believing in the future, resilience, preventing loneliness and social participation. Besides some concise background information, we offer you a great diversity of exercises per theme which can help you discuss, assess, change or strengt...

  19. Using stakeholder perspectives to develop an ePrescribing toolkit for NHS Hospitals: a questionnaire study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Lisa; Cresswell, Kathrin; Slee, Ann; Slight, Sarah P; Coleman, Jamie; Sheikh, Aziz

    2014-10-01

    To evaluate how an online toolkit may support ePrescribing deployments in National Health Service hospitals, by assessing the type of knowledge-based resources currently sought by key stakeholders. Questionnaire-based survey of attendees at a national ePrescribing symposium. 2013 National ePrescribing Symposium in London, UK. Eighty-four delegates were eligible for inclusion in the survey, of whom 70 completed and returned the questionnaire. Estimate of the usefulness and type of content to be included in an ePrescribing toolkit. Interest in a toolkit designed to support the implementation and use of ePrescribing systems was high (n = 64; 91.4%). As could be expected given the current dearth of such a resource, few respondents (n = 2; 2.9%) had access or used an ePrescribing toolkit at the time of the survey. Anticipated users for the toolkit included implementation (n = 62; 88.6%) and information technology (n = 61; 87.1%) teams, pharmacists (n = 61; 87.1%), doctors (n = 58; 82.9%) and nurses (n = 56; 80.0%). Summary guidance for every stage of the implementation (n = 48; 68.6%), planning and monitoring tools (n = 47; 67.1%) and case studies of hospitals' experiences (n = 45; 64.3%) were considered the most useful types of content. There is a clear need for reliable and up-to-date knowledge to support ePrescribing system deployments and longer term use. The findings highlight how a toolkit may become a useful instrument for the management of knowledge in the field, not least by allowing the exchange of ideas and shared learning.

  20. Development of a Human Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK Toolkit for Environmental Pollutants

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patricia Ruiz

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK models can be used to determine the internal dose and strengthen exposure assessment. Many PBPK models are available, but they are not easily accessible for field use. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR has conducted translational research to develop a human PBPK model toolkit by recoding published PBPK models. This toolkit, when fully developed, will provide a platform that consists of a series of priority PBPK models of environmental pollutants. Presented here is work on recoded PBPK models for volatile organic compounds (VOCs and metals. Good agreement was generally obtained between the original and the recoded models. This toolkit will be available for ATSDR scientists and public health assessors to perform simulations of exposures from contaminated environmental media at sites of concern and to help interpret biomonitoring data. It can be used as screening tools that can provide useful information for the protection of the public.

  1. 77 FR 73022 - U.S. Environmental Solutions Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-12-07

    ... relevant to reducing air pollution from oil and natural gas production and processing. The Department of... environmental officials and foreign end-users of environmental technologies that will outline U.S. approaches to.... technologies. The Toolkit will support the President's National Export Initiative by fostering export...

  2. Developing Mixed Reality Educational Applications: The Virtual Touch Toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mateu, Juan; Lasala, María José; Alamán, Xavier

    2015-08-31

    In this paper, we present Virtual Touch, a toolkit that allows the development of educational activities through a mixed reality environment such that, using various tangible elements, the interconnection of a virtual world with the real world is enabled. The main goal of Virtual Touch is to facilitate the installation, configuration and programming of different types of technologies, abstracting the creator of educational applications from the technical details involving the use of tangible interfaces and virtual worlds. Therefore, it is specially designed to enable teachers to themselves create educational activities for their students in a simple way, taking into account that teachers generally lack advanced knowledge in computer programming and electronics. The toolkit has been used to develop various educational applications that have been tested in two secondary education high schools in Spain.

  3. Developing Mixed Reality Educational Applications: The Virtual Touch Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mateu, Juan; Lasala, María José; Alamán, Xavier

    2015-01-01

    In this paper, we present Virtual Touch, a toolkit that allows the development of educational activities through a mixed reality environment such that, using various tangible elements, the interconnection of a virtual world with the real world is enabled. The main goal of Virtual Touch is to facilitate the installation, configuration and programming of different types of technologies, abstracting the creator of educational applications from the technical details involving the use of tangible interfaces and virtual worlds. Therefore, it is specially designed to enable teachers to themselves create educational activities for their students in a simple way, taking into account that teachers generally lack advanced knowledge in computer programming and electronics. The toolkit has been used to develop various educational applications that have been tested in two secondary education high schools in Spain. PMID:26334275

  4. The Automatic Parallelisation of Scientific Application Codes Using a Computer Aided Parallelisation Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ierotheou, C.; Johnson, S.; Leggett, P.; Cross, M.; Evans, E.; Jin, Hao-Qiang; Frumkin, M.; Yan, J.; Biegel, Bryan (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    The shared-memory programming model is a very effective way to achieve parallelism on shared memory parallel computers. Historically, the lack of a programming standard for using directives and the rather limited performance due to scalability have affected the take-up of this programming model approach. Significant progress has been made in hardware and software technologies, as a result the performance of parallel programs with compiler directives has also made improvements. The introduction of an industrial standard for shared-memory programming with directives, OpenMP, has also addressed the issue of portability. In this study, we have extended the computer aided parallelization toolkit (developed at the University of Greenwich), to automatically generate OpenMP based parallel programs with nominal user assistance. We outline the way in which loop types are categorized and how efficient OpenMP directives can be defined and placed using the in-depth interprocedural analysis that is carried out by the toolkit. We also discuss the application of the toolkit on the NAS Parallel Benchmarks and a number of real-world application codes. This work not only demonstrates the great potential of using the toolkit to quickly parallelize serial programs but also the good performance achievable on up to 300 processors for hybrid message passing and directive-based parallelizations.

  5. The Best Ever Alarm System Toolkit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kasemir, Kay; Chen, Xihui; Danilova, Ekaterina N.

    2009-01-01

    Learning from our experience with the standard Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) alarm handler (ALH) as well as a similar intermediate approach based on script-generated operator screens, we developed the Best Ever Alarm System Toolkit (BEAST). It is based on Java and Eclipse on the Control System Studio (CSS) platform, using a relational database (RDB) to store the configuration and log actions. It employs a Java Message Service (JMS) for communication between the modular pieces of the toolkit, which include an Alarm Server to maintain the current alarm state, an arbitrary number of Alarm Client user interfaces (GUI), and tools to annunciate alarms or log alarm related actions. Web reports allow us to monitor the alarm system performance and spot deficiencies in the alarm configuration. The Alarm Client GUI not only gives the end users various ways to view alarms in tree and table, but also makes it easy to access the guidance information, the related operator displays and other CSS tools. It also allows online configuration to be simply modified from the GUI. Coupled with a good 'alarm philosophy' on how to provide useful alarms, we can finally improve the configuration to achieve an effective alarm system.

  6. A Genetic Toolkit for Dissecting Dopamine Circuit Function in Drosophila

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tingting Xie

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Summary: The neuromodulator dopamine (DA plays a key role in motor control, motivated behaviors, and higher-order cognitive processes. Dissecting how these DA neural networks tune the activity of local neural circuits to regulate behavior requires tools for manipulating small groups of DA neurons. To address this need, we assembled a genetic toolkit that allows for an exquisite level of control over the DA neural network in Drosophila. To further refine targeting of specific DA neurons, we also created reagents that allow for the conversion of any existing GAL4 line into Split GAL4 or GAL80 lines. We demonstrated how this toolkit can be used with recently developed computational methods to rapidly generate additional reagents for manipulating small subsets or individual DA neurons. Finally, we used the toolkit to reveal a dynamic interaction between a small subset of DA neurons and rearing conditions in a social space behavioral assay. : The rapid analysis of how dopaminergic circuits regulate behavior is limited by the genetic tools available to target and manipulate small numbers of these neurons. Xie et al. present genetic tools in Drosophila that allow rational targeting of sparse dopaminergic neuronal subsets and selective knockdown of dopamine signaling. Keywords: dopamine, genetics, behavior, neural circuits, neuromodulation, Drosophila

  7. X-CSIT: a toolkit for simulating 2D pixel detectors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joy, A.; Wing, M.; Hauf, S.; Kuster, M.; Rüter, T.

    2015-04-01

    A new, modular toolkit for creating simulations of 2D X-ray pixel detectors, X-CSIT (X-ray Camera SImulation Toolkit), is being developed. The toolkit uses three sequential simulations of detector processes which model photon interactions, electron charge cloud spreading with a high charge density plasma model and common electronic components used in detector readout. In addition, because of the wide variety in pixel detector design, X-CSIT has been designed as a modular platform so that existing functions can be modified or additional functionality added if the specific design of a detector demands it. X-CSIT will be used to create simulations of the detectors at the European XFEL, including three bespoke 2D detectors: the Adaptive Gain Integrating Pixel Detector (AGIPD), Large Pixel Detector (LPD) and DePFET Sensor with Signal Compression (DSSC). These simulations will be used by the detector group at the European XFEL for detector characterisation and calibration. For this purpose, X-CSIT has been integrated into the European XFEL's software framework, Karabo. This will further make it available to users to aid with the planning of experiments and analysis of data. In addition, X-CSIT will be released as a standalone, open source version for other users, collaborations and groups intending to create simulations of their own detectors.

  8. Local Safety Toolkit: Enabling safe communities of opportunity

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Holtmann, B

    2010-08-31

    Full Text Available remain inadequate to achieve safety. The Local Safety Toolkit supports a strategy for a Safe South Africa through the implementation of a model for a Safe Community of Opportunity. The model is the outcome of work undertaken over the course of the past...

  9. The connectome viewer toolkit: an open source framework to manage, analyze, and visualize connectomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gerhard, Stephan; Daducci, Alessandro; Lemkaddem, Alia; Meuli, Reto; Thiran, Jean-Philippe; Hagmann, Patric

    2011-01-01

    Advanced neuroinformatics tools are required for methods of connectome mapping, analysis, and visualization. The inherent multi-modality of connectome datasets poses new challenges for data organization, integration, and sharing. We have designed and implemented the Connectome Viewer Toolkit - a set of free and extensible open source neuroimaging tools written in Python. The key components of the toolkit are as follows: (1) The Connectome File Format is an XML-based container format to standardize multi-modal data integration and structured metadata annotation. (2) The Connectome File Format Library enables management and sharing of connectome files. (3) The Connectome Viewer is an integrated research and development environment for visualization and analysis of multi-modal connectome data. The Connectome Viewer's plugin architecture supports extensions with network analysis packages and an interactive scripting shell, to enable easy development and community contributions. Integration with tools from the scientific Python community allows the leveraging of numerous existing libraries for powerful connectome data mining, exploration, and comparison. We demonstrate the applicability of the Connectome Viewer Toolkit using Diffusion MRI datasets processed by the Connectome Mapper. The Connectome Viewer Toolkit is available from http://www.cmtk.org/

  10. The Connectome Viewer Toolkit: an open source framework to manage, analyze and visualize connectomes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephan eGerhard

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Advanced neuroinformatics tools are required for methods of connectome mapping, analysis and visualization. The inherent multi-modality of connectome datasets poses new challenges for data organization, integration and sharing. We have designed and implemented the Connectome Viewer Toolkit --- a set of free and extensible open-source neuroimaging tools written in Python. The key components of the toolkit are as follows: 1. The Connectome File Format is an XML-based container format to standardize multi-modal data integration and structured metadata annotation. 2. The Connectome File Format Library enables management and sharing of connectome files. 3. The Connectome Viewer is an integrated research and development environment for visualization and analysis of multi-modal connectome data. The Connectome Viewer's plugin architecture supports extensions with network analysis packages and an interactive scripting shell, to enable easy development and community contributions. Integration with tools from the scientific Python community allows the leveraging of numerous existing libraries for powerful connectome data mining, exploration and comparison. We demonstrate the applicability of the Connectome Viewer Toolkit using Diffusion MRI datasets processed by the Connectome Mapper. The Connectome Viewer Toolkit is available from http://www.cmtk.org/.

  11. The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit

    CERN Document Server

    Kimball, Ralph; Thornthwaite, Warren; Mundy, Joy; Becker, Bob

    2011-01-01

    A thorough update to the industry standard for designing, developing, and deploying data warehouse and business intelligence systemsThe world of data warehousing has changed remarkably since the first edition of The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit was published in 1998. In that time, the data warehouse industry has reached full maturity and acceptance, hardware and software have made staggering advances, and the techniques promoted in the premiere edition of this book have been adopted by nearly all data warehouse vendors and practitioners. In addition, the term "business intelligence" emerge

  12. National eHealth strategy toolkit

    CERN Document Server

    2012-01-01

    Worldwide the application of information and communication technologies to support national health-care services is rapidly expanding and increasingly important. This is especially so at a time when all health systems face stringent economic challenges and greater demands to provide more and better care especially to those most in need. The National eHealth Strategy Toolkit is an expert practical guide that provides governments their ministries and stakeholders with a solid foundation and method for the development and implementation of a national eHealth vision action plan and monitoring fram

  13. Effects of a Short Video-Based Resident-as-Teacher Training Toolkit on Resident Teaching.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ricciotti, Hope A; Freret, Taylor S; Aluko, Ashley; McKeon, Bri Anne; Haviland, Miriam J; Newman, Lori R

    2017-10-01

    To pilot a short video-based resident-as-teacher training toolkit and assess its effect on resident teaching skills in clinical settings. A video-based resident-as-teacher training toolkit was previously developed by educational experts at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. Residents were recruited from two academic hospitals, watched two videos from the toolkit ("Clinical Teaching Skills" and "Effective Clinical Supervision"), and completed an accompanying self-study guide. A novel assessment instrument for evaluating the effect of the toolkit on teaching was created through a modified Delphi process. Before and after the intervention, residents were observed leading a clinical teaching encounter and scored using the 15-item assessment instrument. The primary outcome of interest was the change in number of skills exhibited, which was assessed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Twenty-eight residents from two academic hospitals were enrolled, and 20 (71%) completed all phases of the study. More than one third of residents who volunteered to participate reported no prior formal teacher training. After completing two training modules, residents demonstrated a significant increase in the median number of teaching skills exhibited in a clinical teaching encounter, from 7.5 (interquartile range 6.5-9.5) to 10.0 (interquartile range 9.0-11.5; P<.001). Of the 15 teaching skills assessed, there were significant improvements in asking for the learner's perspective (P=.01), providing feedback (P=.005), and encouraging questions (P=.046). Using a resident-as-teacher video-based toolkit was associated with improvements in teaching skills in residents from multiple specialties.

  14. Educator Toolkits on Second Victim Syndrome, Mindfulness and Meditation, and Positive Psychology: The 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jon Smart

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Burnout, depression, and suicidality among residents of all specialties have become a critical focus of attention for the medical education community. Methods: As part of the 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, resident participants from 31 programs collaborated in the Educator Toolkit workgroup. Over a seven-month period leading up to the summit, this workgroup convened virtually in the Wellness Think Tank, an online resident community, to perform a literature review and draft curricular plans on three core wellness topics. These topics were second victim syndrome, mindfulness and meditation, and positive psychology. At the live summit event, the workgroup expanded to include residents outside the Wellness Think Tank to obtain a broader consensus of the evidence-based toolkits for these three topics. Results: Three educator toolkits were developed. The second victim syndrome toolkit has four modules, each with a pre-reading material and a leader (educator guide. In the mindfulness and meditation toolkit, there are three modules with a leader guide in addition to a longitudinal, guided meditation plan. The positive psychology toolkit has two modules, each with a leader guide and a PowerPoint slide set. These toolkits provide educators the necessary resources, reading materials, and lesson plans to implement didactic sessions in their residency curriculum. Conclusion: Residents from across the world collaborated and convened to reach a consensus on high-yield—and potentially high-impact—lesson plans that programs can use to promote and improve resident wellness. These lesson plans may stand alone or be incorporated into a larger wellness curriculum.

  15. Educator Toolkits on Second Victim Syndrome, Mindfulness and Meditation, and Positive Psychology: The 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Arlene S; Smart, Jon; Zdradzinski, Michael; Roth, Sarah; Gende, Alecia; Conroy, Kylie; Battaglioli, Nicole

    2018-03-01

    Burnout, depression, and suicidality among residents of all specialties have become a critical focus of attention for the medical education community. As part of the 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, resident participants from 31 programs collaborated in the Educator Toolkit workgroup. Over a seven-month period leading up to the summit, this workgroup convened virtually in the Wellness Think Tank, an online resident community, to perform a literature review and draft curricular plans on three core wellness topics. These topics were second victim syndrome, mindfulness and meditation, and positive psychology. At the live summit event, the workgroup expanded to include residents outside the Wellness Think Tank to obtain a broader consensus of the evidence-based toolkits for these three topics. Three educator toolkits were developed. The second victim syndrome toolkit has four modules, each with a pre-reading material and a leader (educator) guide. In the mindfulness and meditation toolkit, there are three modules with a leader guide in addition to a longitudinal, guided meditation plan. The positive psychology toolkit has two modules, each with a leader guide and a PowerPoint slide set. These toolkits provide educators the necessary resources, reading materials, and lesson plans to implement didactic sessions in their residency curriculum. Residents from across the world collaborated and convened to reach a consensus on high-yield-and potentially high-impact-lesson plans that programs can use to promote and improve resident wellness. These lesson plans may stand alone or be incorporated into a larger wellness curriculum.

  16. A data Grid prototype for distributed data production in CMS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hafeez, Mehnaz; Samar, Asad; Stockinger, Heinz

    2001-01-01

    The CMS experiment at CERN is setting up a Grid infrastructure required to fulfill the needs imposed by Terabyte scale productions for the next few years. The goal is to automate the production and at the same time allow the users to interact with the system, if required, to make decisions which would optimize performance. We present the architecture, design and functionality of our first working Objectivity file replication prototype. The middle-ware of choice is the Globus toolkit that provides promising functionality. Our results prove the ability of the Globus toolkit to be used as an underlying technology for a world-wide Data Grid. The required data management functionality includes high speed file transfers, secure access to remote files, selection and synchronization of replicas and managing the meta information. The whole system is expected to be flexible enough to incorporate site specific policies. The data management granularity is the file rather than the object level. The first prototype is currently in use for the High Level Trigger (HLT) production (autumn 2000). Owing to these efforts, CMS is one of the pioneers to use the Data Grid functionality in a running production system. The project can be viewed as an evaluator of different strategies, a test for the capabilities of middle-ware tools and a provider of basic Grid functionalities

  17. Developing Mixed Reality Educational Applications: The Virtual Touch Toolkit

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan Mateu

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we present Virtual Touch, a toolkit that allows the development of educational activities through a mixed reality environment such that, using various tangible elements, the interconnection of a virtual world with the real world is enabled. The main goal of Virtual Touch is to facilitate the installation, configuration and programming of different types of technologies, abstracting the creator of educational applications from the technical details involving the use of tangible interfaces and virtual worlds. Therefore, it is specially designed to enable teachers to themselves create educational activities for their students in a simple way, taking into account that teachers generally lack advanced knowledge in computer programming and electronics. The toolkit has been used to develop various educational applications that have been tested in two secondary education high schools in Spain.

  18. ProtoMD: A prototyping toolkit for multiscale molecular dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Somogyi, Endre; Mansour, Andrew Abi; Ortoleva, Peter J.

    2016-05-01

    ProtoMD is a toolkit that facilitates the development of algorithms for multiscale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. It is designed for multiscale methods which capture the dynamic transfer of information across multiple spatial scales, such as the atomic to the mesoscopic scale, via coevolving microscopic and coarse-grained (CG) variables. ProtoMD can be also be used to calibrate parameters needed in traditional CG-MD methods. The toolkit integrates 'GROMACS wrapper' to initiate MD simulations, and 'MDAnalysis' to analyze and manipulate trajectory files. It facilitates experimentation with a spectrum of coarse-grained variables, prototyping rare events (such as chemical reactions), or simulating nanocharacterization experiments such as terahertz spectroscopy, AFM, nanopore, and time-of-flight mass spectroscopy. ProtoMD is written in python and is freely available under the GNU General Public License from github.com/CTCNano/proto_md.

  19. SlideToolkit: an assistive toolset for the histological quantification of whole slide images.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bastiaan G L Nelissen

    Full Text Available The demand for accurate and reproducible phenotyping of a disease trait increases with the rising number of biobanks and genome wide association studies. Detailed analysis of histology is a powerful way of phenotyping human tissues. Nonetheless, purely visual assessment of histological slides is time-consuming and liable to sampling variation and optical illusions and thereby observer variation, and external validation may be cumbersome. Therefore, within our own biobank, computerized quantification of digitized histological slides is often preferred as a more precise and reproducible, and sometimes more sensitive approach. Relatively few free toolkits are, however, available for fully digitized microscopic slides, usually known as whole slides images. In order to comply with this need, we developed the slideToolkit as a fast method to handle large quantities of low contrast whole slides images using advanced cell detecting algorithms. The slideToolkit has been developed for modern personal computers and high-performance clusters (HPCs and is available as an open-source project on github.com. We here illustrate the power of slideToolkit by a repeated measurement of 303 digital slides containing CD3 stained (DAB abdominal aortic aneurysm tissue from a tissue biobank. Our workflow consists of four consecutive steps. In the first step (acquisition, whole slide images are collected and converted to TIFF files. In the second step (preparation, files are organized. The third step (tiles, creates multiple manageable tiles to count. In the fourth step (analysis, tissue is analyzed and results are stored in a data set. Using this method, two consecutive measurements of 303 slides showed an intraclass correlation of 0.99. In conclusion, slideToolkit provides a free, powerful and versatile collection of tools for automated feature analysis of whole slide images to create reproducible and meaningful phenotypic data sets.

  20. Graph algorithms in the titan toolkit.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    McLendon, William Clarence, III; Wylie, Brian Neil

    2009-10-01

    Graph algorithms are a key component in a wide variety of intelligence analysis activities. The Graph-Based Informatics for Non-Proliferation and Counter-Terrorism project addresses the critical need of making these graph algorithms accessible to Sandia analysts in a manner that is both intuitive and effective. Specifically we describe the design and implementation of an open source toolkit for doing graph analysis, informatics, and visualization that provides Sandia with novel analysis capability for non-proliferation and counter-terrorism.

  1. Applications toolkit for accelerator control and analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Borland, M.

    1997-01-01

    The Advanced Photon Source (APS) has taken a unique approach to creating high-level software applications for accelerator operation and analysis. The approach is based on self-describing data, modular program toolkits, and scripts. Self-describing data provide a communication standard that aids the creation of modular program toolkits by allowing compliant programs to be used in essentially arbitrary combinations. These modular programs can be used as part of an arbitrary number of high-level applications. At APS, a group of about 70 data analysis, manipulation, and display tools is used in concert with about 20 control-system-specific tools to implement applications for commissioning and operations. High-level applications are created using scripts, which are relatively simple interpreted programs. The Tcl/Tk script language is used, allowing creating of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and a library of algorithms that are separate from the interface. This last factor allows greater automation of control by making it easy to take the human out of the loop. Applications of this methodology to operational tasks such as orbit correction, configuration management, and data review will be discussed

  2. Towards 100,000 CPU Cycle-Scavenging by Genetic Algorithms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Globus, Al; Biegel, Bryan A. (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    We examine a web-centric design using standard tools such as web servers, web browsers, PHP, and mySQL. We also consider the applicability of Information Power Grid tools such as the Globus (no relation to the author) Toolkit. We intend to implement this architecture with JavaGenes running on at least two cycle-scavengers: Condor and United Devices. JavaGenes, a genetic algorithm code written in Java, will be used to evolve multi-species reactive molecular force field parameters.

  3. Aplicación de Multicast IPv6 Seguro a Servicios de Información en Entornos Grid

    OpenAIRE

    Trejo, Natalia Bibiana

    2008-01-01

    Los Servicios de Información constituyen piezas fundamentales de la infraestructura de los sistemas Grid. Estos servicios tienen por objetivo realizar el descubrimiento inicial y posterior monitorización de la disponibilidad y estado de los recursos y servicios puestos a disposición por los participantes de las llamadas organizaciones Virtuales. El servicio de información utilizado por sistemas Grid basados en el middleware Globus Toolkit 4, se conoce como Sistema de Monitorización y Descubri...

  4. TUX-INTERO: A Portal for secure interoperation of Grids

    OpenAIRE

    Shashi Bhanwar; Seema Bawa

    2010-01-01

    In this paper, we propose TUX-INTERO - a portlet-based Grid portal for integrating existing grid technologies under a common interface and providing reliable services to the users. We have developed a prototype of TUX-INTERO - a grid portal using portlet technology. The paper presents design and development of TUXINTERO. The requirements for the portal, its design and technology choices lead to the utilization of Globus Toolkit as middleware for connecting global resources, SUN N1 GE6 and Con...

  5. EasyInterface: A toolkit for rapid development of GUIs for research prototype tools

    OpenAIRE

    Doménech, Jesús; Genaim, Samir; Johnsen, Einar Broch; Schlatte, Rudolf

    2017-01-01

    In this paper we describe EasyInterface, an open-source toolkit for rapid development of web-based graphical user interfaces (GUIs). This toolkit addresses the need of researchers to make their research prototype tools available to the community, and integrating them in a common environment, rapidly and without being familiar with web programming or GUI libraries in general. If a tool can be executed from a command-line and its output goes to the standard output, then in few minutes one can m...

  6. Enhanced energy efficiency by means of low temperature differences. Subcritical CO{sub 2} cascade in Globus Handelshof Saarbruecken-Guedingen; Hohe Energieeffizienz durch kleine Temperaturdifferenzen. Unterkritische CO{sub 2}-Kaskade im Globus Handelshof Saarbruecken-Guedingen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schmid, Wolfgang [Wolfgang Schmid Pressebuero fuer Technische Gebaeudeausruestung, Muenchen (Germany)

    2011-06-15

    Green coldness is on the advance for the most German grocery chains. Especially, in the course of the R22 exit, more and more shopping centers opt for natural refrigerants or for a cascade solution with CO{sub 2} for the deep freezing and R404a for a normal refrigeration and air conditioning. Elektro-Kaeltebau Moersch GmbH (Saarburg, Federal Republic of Germany) is one of the green refrigeration system builders from the first hour in the implementation of energy-efficient and climate friendly refrigeration plants in the food sector. One of the current projects is the incorporation of a CO{sub 2}/R404A cascade during the operation in the Globus Handelshof in Saarbruecken-Guedingen (Federal Republic of Germany).

  7. NeuroPigPen: A Scalable Toolkit for Processing Electrophysiological Signal Data in Neuroscience Applications Using Apache Pig.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sahoo, Satya S; Wei, Annan; Valdez, Joshua; Wang, Li; Zonjy, Bilal; Tatsuoka, Curtis; Loparo, Kenneth A; Lhatoo, Samden D

    2016-01-01

    The recent advances in neurological imaging and sensing technologies have led to rapid increase in the volume, rate of data generation, and variety of neuroscience data. This "neuroscience Big data" represents a significant opportunity for the biomedical research community to design experiments using data with greater timescale, large number of attributes, and statistically significant data size. The results from these new data-driven research techniques can advance our understanding of complex neurological disorders, help model long-term effects of brain injuries, and provide new insights into dynamics of brain networks. However, many existing neuroinformatics data processing and analysis tools were not built to manage large volume of data, which makes it difficult for researchers to effectively leverage this available data to advance their research. We introduce a new toolkit called NeuroPigPen that was developed using Apache Hadoop and Pig data flow language to address the challenges posed by large-scale electrophysiological signal data. NeuroPigPen is a modular toolkit that can process large volumes of electrophysiological signal data, such as Electroencephalogram (EEG), Electrocardiogram (ECG), and blood oxygen levels (SpO2), using a new distributed storage model called Cloudwave Signal Format (CSF) that supports easy partitioning and storage of signal data on commodity hardware. NeuroPigPen was developed with three design principles: (a) Scalability-the ability to efficiently process increasing volumes of data; (b) Adaptability-the toolkit can be deployed across different computing configurations; and (c) Ease of programming-the toolkit can be easily used to compose multi-step data processing pipelines using high-level programming constructs. The NeuroPigPen toolkit was evaluated using 750 GB of electrophysiological signal data over a variety of Hadoop cluster configurations ranging from 3 to 30 Data nodes. The evaluation results demonstrate that the toolkit

  8. A flexible open-source toolkit for lava flow simulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mossoux, Sophie; Feltz, Adelin; Poppe, Sam; Canters, Frank; Kervyn, Matthieu

    2014-05-01

    Lava flow hazard modeling is a useful tool for scientists and stakeholders confronted with imminent or long term hazard from basaltic volcanoes. It can improve their understanding of the spatial distribution of volcanic hazard, influence their land use decisions and improve the city evacuation during a volcanic crisis. Although a range of empirical, stochastic and physically-based lava flow models exists, these models are rarely available or require a large amount of physical constraints. We present a GIS toolkit which models lava flow propagation from one or multiple eruptive vents, defined interactively on a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). It combines existing probabilistic (VORIS) and deterministic (FLOWGO) models in order to improve the simulation of lava flow spatial spread and terminal length. Not only is this toolkit open-source, running in Python, which allows users to adapt the code to their needs, but it also allows users to combine the models included in different ways. The lava flow paths are determined based on the probabilistic steepest slope (VORIS model - Felpeto et al., 2001) which can be constrained in order to favour concentrated or dispersed flow fields. Moreover, the toolkit allows including a corrective factor in order for the lava to overcome small topographical obstacles or pits. The lava flow terminal length can be constrained using a fixed length value, a Gaussian probability density function or can be calculated based on the thermo-rheological properties of the open-channel lava flow (FLOWGO model - Harris and Rowland, 2001). These slope-constrained properties allow estimating the velocity of the flow and its heat losses. The lava flow stops when its velocity is zero or the lava temperature reaches the solidus. Recent lava flows of Karthala volcano (Comoros islands) are here used to demonstrate the quality of lava flow simulations with the toolkit, using a quantitative assessment of the match of the simulation with the real lava flows. The

  9. The SpeX Prism Library Analysis Toolkit: Design Considerations and First Results

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burgasser, Adam J.; Aganze, Christian; Escala, Ivana; Lopez, Mike; Choban, Caleb; Jin, Yuhui; Iyer, Aishwarya; Tallis, Melisa; Suarez, Adrian; Sahi, Maitrayee

    2016-01-01

    Various observational and theoretical spectral libraries now exist for galaxies, stars, planets and other objects, which have proven useful for classification, interpretation, simulation and model development. Effective use of these libraries relies on analysis tools, which are often left to users to develop. In this poster, we describe a program to develop a combined spectral data repository and Python-based analysis toolkit for low-resolution spectra of very low mass dwarfs (late M, L and T dwarfs), which enables visualization, spectral index analysis, classification, atmosphere model comparison, and binary modeling for nearly 2000 library spectra and user-submitted data. The SpeX Prism Library Analysis Toolkit (SPLAT) is being constructed as a collaborative, student-centered, learning-through-research model with high school, undergraduate and graduate students and regional science teachers, who populate the database and build the analysis tools through quarterly challenge exercises and summer research projects. In this poster, I describe the design considerations of the toolkit, its current status and development plan, and report the first published results led by undergraduate students. The combined data and analysis tools are ideal for characterizing cool stellar and exoplanetary atmospheres (including direct exoplanetary spectra observations by Gemini/GPI, VLT/SPHERE, and JWST), and the toolkit design can be readily adapted for other spectral datasets as well.This material is based upon work supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant No. NNX15AI75G. SPLAT code can be found at https://github.com/aburgasser/splat.

  10. Toolkit for healthcare facility design evaluation - some case studies

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    De Jager, Peta

    2007-10-01

    Full Text Available themes in approach. Further study is indicated, but preliminary research shows that, whilst these toolkits can be applied to the South African context, there are compelling reasons for them to be adapted. This paper briefly outlines these three case...

  11. Toolkit for healthcare facility design evaluation - some case studies.

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    De Jager, Peta

    2007-10-01

    Full Text Available themes in approach. Further study is indicated, but preliminary research shows that, whilst these toolkits can be applied to the South African context, there are compelling reasons for them to be adapted. This paper briefly outlines these three case...

  12. New Careers in Nursing Scholar Alumni Toolkit: Development of an Innovative Resource for Transition to Practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mauro, Ann Marie P; Escallier, Lori A; Rosario-Sim, Maria G

    2016-01-01

    The transition from student to professional nurse is challenging and may be more difficult for underrepresented minority nurses. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Careers in Nursing (NCIN) program supported development of a toolkit that would serve as a transition-to-practice resource to promote retention of NCIN alumni and other new nurses. Thirteen recent NCIN alumni (54% male, 23% Hispanic/Latino, 23% African Americans) from 3 schools gave preliminary content feedback. An e-mail survey was sent to a convenience sample of 29 recent NCIN alumni who evaluated the draft toolkit using a Likert scale (poor = 1; excellent = 5). Twenty NCIN alumni draft toolkit reviewers (response rate 69%) were primarily female (80%) and Hispanic/Latino (40%). Individual chapters' mean overall rating of 4.67 demonstrated strong validation. Mean scores for overall toolkit content (4.57), usability (4.5), relevance (4.79), and quality (4.71) were also excellent. Qualitative comments were analyzed using thematic content analysis and supported the toolkit's relevance and utility. A multilevel peer review process was also conducted. Peer reviewer feedback resulted in a 6-chapter document that offers resources for successful transition to practice and lays the groundwork for continued professional growth. Future research is needed to determine the ideal time to introduce this resource. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. RGtk2: A Graphical User Interface Toolkit for R

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Duncan Temple Lang

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Graphical user interfaces (GUIs are growing in popularity as a complement or alternative to the traditional command line interfaces to R. RGtk2 is an R package for creating GUIs in R. The package provides programmatic access to GTK+ 2.0, an open-source GUI toolkit written in C. To construct a GUI, the R programmer calls RGtk2 functions that map to functions in the underlying GTK+ library. This paper introduces the basic concepts underlying GTK+ and explains how to use RGtk2 to construct GUIs from R. The tutorial is based on simple and pratical programming examples. We also provide more complex examples illustrating the advanced features of the package. The design of the RGtk2 API and the low-level interface from R to GTK+ are discussed at length. We compare RGtk2 to alternative GUI toolkits for R.

  14. Recrystallized graphite utilization as the first wall material in Globus-M spherical tokamak

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gusev, V.; Novokhatsky, A.N.; Petrov, Y.V.; Sakharov, N.V.; Terukov, E.I.; Trapeznikova, I.N.; Denisov, E.A.; Kurdumov, A.A.; Kompaniec, T.N.; Lebedev, V.M.; Litunovstkii, N.V.; Mazul, I.

    2007-01-01

    Full text of publication follows: Globus-M spherical tokamak, built at A.F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in 1999 is the first Russian spherical tokamak and has the broad area of research in controlled fusion [1]. Besides small aspect ratio (A=1.5) the distinguishing feature of the tokamak is the powerful energy supply system and auxiliary heating, which give opportunity to reach high specific power deposition up to few W/cm 3 . The utmost plasma current density and B/R ratio among spherical tokamaks allow operation in the range of high plasma densities ∼ 10 20 m -3 . This feature results in big power density loads to the first wall due to small plasma-wall spacing. The area of the first wall amour was gradually increased during few years since 2003, and nowadays reaches almost 90% of the inner vessel surface faced to plasma. Plasma facing protecting tiles are manufactured from recrystallized graphite doped by different elements (Ti, Si, B). Additionally the plasma facing surface was protected by films deposited during boronization. The tendency of short time and long time scale plasma parameters variation are discussed including the plasma performance improvement with increase of protected area. Technology of tiles preparation before installation into the tokamak vessel is briefly described, as well as technology of plasma facing armor preparation before the plasma experiments. Few protecting tiles doped by different elements which were exposed to plasma fluxes of dissimilar power densities for a long time were extracted from the vacuum vessel. The analysis of tiles material (RGT-91) to hold (accumulate) deuterium was made. The distribution of absorbed deuterium concentration along poloidal coordinate was measured. The elementary composition of the films deposited on the tiles was studied by Rutherford back scattering technique and by nuclear resonance reaction method. Other modern methods of surface and structural analysis of material exposed to prolonged

  15. Recrystallized graphite utilization as the first wall material in Globus-M spherical tokamak

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gusev, V.; Novokhatsky, A.N.; Petrov, Y.V.; Sakharov, N.V.; Terukov, E.I.; Trapeznikova, I.N. [A.F. IOFFE Physico-technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg (Russian Federation); Denisov, E.A.; Kurdumov, A.A.; Kompaniec, T.N. [St. Petersburg State Univ., Research Institute of Physics (Russian Federation); Lebedev, V.M. [B.P. Konstantinov Nuclear Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Science, Gatchina (Russian Federation); Litunovstkii, N.V. [D.V. Efremov Institute of Electrophysical Apparatus, St.Petersburg (Russian Federation); Mazul, I. [Development of Plasma Facing Materials and Components Laboratory, EFREMOV INSTITUTE, St Petersbourg (Russian Federation)

    2007-07-01

    Full text of publication follows: Globus-M spherical tokamak, built at A.F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in 1999 is the first Russian spherical tokamak and has the broad area of research in controlled fusion [1]. Besides small aspect ratio (A=1.5) the distinguishing feature of the tokamak is the powerful energy supply system and auxiliary heating, which give opportunity to reach high specific power deposition up to few W/cm{sup 3}. The utmost plasma current density and B/R ratio among spherical tokamaks allow operation in the range of high plasma densities {approx} 10{sup 20} m{sup -3}. This feature results in big power density loads to the first wall due to small plasma-wall spacing. The area of the first wall amour was gradually increased during few years since 2003, and nowadays reaches almost 90% of the inner vessel surface faced to plasma. Plasma facing protecting tiles are manufactured from recrystallized graphite doped by different elements (Ti, Si, B). Additionally the plasma facing surface was protected by films deposited during boronization. The tendency of short time and long time scale plasma parameters variation are discussed including the plasma performance improvement with increase of protected area. Technology of tiles preparation before installation into the tokamak vessel is briefly described, as well as technology of plasma facing armor preparation before the plasma experiments. Few protecting tiles doped by different elements which were exposed to plasma fluxes of dissimilar power densities for a long time were extracted from the vacuum vessel. The analysis of tiles material (RGT-91) to hold (accumulate) deuterium was made. The distribution of absorbed deuterium concentration along poloidal coordinate was measured. The elementary composition of the films deposited on the tiles was studied by Rutherford back scattering technique and by nuclear resonance reaction method. Other modern methods of surface and structural analysis of material

  16. A methodological toolkit for field assessments of artisanally mined alluvial diamond deposits

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chirico, Peter G.; Malpeli, Katherine C.

    2014-01-01

    This toolkit provides a standardized checklist of critical issues relevant to artisanal mining-related field research. An integrated sociophysical geographic approach to collecting data at artisanal mine sites is outlined. The implementation and results of a multistakeholder approach to data collection, carried out in the assessment of Guinea’s artisanally mined diamond deposits, also are summarized. This toolkit, based on recent and successful field campaigns in West Africa, has been developed as a reference document to assist other government agencies or organizations in collecting the data necessary for artisanal diamond mining or similar natural resource assessments.

  17. Penetration Tester's Open Source Toolkit

    CERN Document Server

    Faircloth, Jeremy

    2011-01-01

    Great commercial penetration testing tools can be very expensive and sometimes hard to use or of questionable accuracy. This book helps solve both of these problems. The open source, no-cost penetration testing tools presented do a great job and can be modified by the user for each situation. Many tools, even ones that cost thousands of dollars, do not come with any type of instruction on how and in which situations the penetration tester can best use them. Penetration Tester's Open Source Toolkit, Third Edition, expands upon existing instructions so that a professional can get the most accura

  18. Google Web Toolkit for Ajax

    CERN Document Server

    Perry, Bruce

    2007-01-01

    The Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is a nifty framework that Java programmers can use to create Ajax applications. The GWT allows you to create an Ajax application in your favorite IDE, such as IntelliJ IDEA or Eclipse, using paradigms and mechanisms similar to programming a Java Swing application. After you code the application in Java, the GWT's tools generate the JavaScript code the application needs. You can also use typical Java project tools such as JUnit and Ant when creating GWT applications. The GWT is a free download, and you can freely distribute the client- and server-side code you c

  19. The Knowledge Translation Toolkit: Bridging the Know–Do Gap: A ...

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

    2011-06-06

    Jun 6, 2011 ... It presents the theories, tools, and strategies required to encourage and enable ... Toolkit: Bridging the Know–Do Gap: A Resource for Researchers ... violence, and make digital platforms work for inclusive development.

  20. Developing Climate Resilience Toolkit Decision Support Training Sectio

    Science.gov (United States)

    Livezey, M. M.; Herring, D.; Keck, J.; Meyers, J. C.

    2014-12-01

    The Climate Resilience Toolkit (CRT) is a Federal government effort to address the U.S. President's Climate Action Plan and Executive Order for Climate Preparedness. The toolkit will provide access to tools and products useful for climate-sensitive decision making. To optimize the user experience, the toolkit will also provide access to training materials. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been building a climate training capability for 15 years. The target audience for the training has historically been mainly NOAA staff with some modified training programs for external users and stakeholders. NOAA is now using this climate training capacity for the CRT. To organize the CRT training section, we collaborated with the Association of Climate Change Officers to determine the best strategy and identified four additional complimentary skills needed for successful decision making: climate literacy, environmental literacy, risk assessment and management, and strategic execution and monitoring. Developing the climate literacy skills requires knowledge of climate variability and change, as well as an introduction to the suite of available products and services. For the development of an environmental literacy category, specific topics needed include knowledge of climate impacts on specific environmental systems. Climate risk assessment and management introduces a process for decision making and provides knowledge on communication of climate information and integration of climate information in planning processes. The strategic execution and monitoring category provides information on use of NOAA climate products, services, and partnership opportunities for decision making. In order to use the existing training modules, it was necessary to assess their level of complexity, catalog them, and develop guidance for users on a curriculum to take advantage of the training resources to enhance their learning experience. With the development of this CRT

  1. The DLESE Evaluation Toolkit Project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buhr, S. M.; Barker, L. J.; Marlino, M.

    2002-12-01

    The Evaluation Toolkit and Community project is a new Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) collection designed to raise awareness of project evaluation within the geoscience education community, and to enable principal investigators, teachers, and evaluators to implement project evaluation more readily. This new resource is grounded in the needs of geoscience educators, and will provide a virtual home for a geoscience education evaluation community. The goals of the project are to 1) provide a robust collection of evaluation resources useful for Earth systems educators, 2) establish a forum and community for evaluation dialogue within DLESE, and 3) disseminate the resources through the DLESE infrastructure and through professional society workshops and proceedings. Collaboration and expertise in education, geoscience and evaluation are necessary if we are to conduct the best possible geoscience education. The Toolkit allows users to engage in evaluation at whichever level best suits their needs, get more evaluation professional development if desired, and access the expertise of other segments of the community. To date, a test web site has been built and populated, initial community feedback from the DLESE and broader community is being garnered, and we have begun to heighten awareness of geoscience education evaluation within our community. The web site contains features that allow users to access professional development about evaluation, search and find evaluation resources, submit resources, find or offer evaluation services, sign up for upcoming workshops, take the user survey, and submit calendar items. The evaluation resource matrix currently contains resources that have met our initial review. The resources are currently organized by type; they will become searchable on multiple dimensions of project type, audience, objectives and evaluation resource type as efforts to develop a collection-specific search engine mature. The peer review

  2. A survey exploring National Health Service ePrescribing Toolkit use and perceived usefulness amongst English hospitals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kathrin Cresswell

    2017-06-01

    Conclusions: Interactive elements and learning lessons from early adopter sites that had accumulated experiences of implementing systems was viewed as the most helpful aspect of the ePrescribing Toolkit. The Toolkit now needs to be further developed to facilitate the continuing implementation/optimisation of ePrescribing and other health information technology across the NHS.

  3. Implementation of the Good School Toolkit in Uganda: a quantitative process evaluation of a successful violence prevention program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knight, Louise; Allen, Elizabeth; Mirembe, Angel; Nakuti, Janet; Namy, Sophie; Child, Jennifer C; Sturgess, Joanna; Kyegombe, Nambusi; Walakira, Eddy J; Elbourne, Diana; Naker, Dipak; Devries, Karen M

    2018-05-09

    The Good School Toolkit, a complex behavioural intervention designed by Raising Voices a Ugandan NGO, reduced past week physical violence from school staff to primary students by an average of 42% in a recent randomised controlled trial. This process evaluation quantitatively examines what was implemented across the twenty-one intervention schools, variations in school prevalence of violence after the intervention, factors that influence exposure to the intervention and factors associated with students' experience of physical violence from staff at study endline. Implementation measures were captured prospectively in the twenty-one intervention schools over four school terms from 2012 to 2014 and Toolkit exposure captured in the student (n = 1921) and staff (n = 286) endline cross-sectional surveys in 2014. Implementation measures and the prevalence of violence are summarised across schools and are assessed for correlation using Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient. Regression models are used to explore individual factors associated with Toolkit exposure and with physical violence at endline. School prevalence of past week physical violence from staff against students ranged from 7% to 65% across schools at endline. Schools with higher mean levels of teacher Toolkit exposure had larger decreases in violence during the study. Students in schools categorised as implementing a 'low' number of program school-led activities reported less exposure to the Toolkit. Higher student Toolkit exposure was associated with decreased odds of experiencing physical violence from staff (OR: 0.76, 95%CI: 0.67-0.86, p-valueEffectiveness of the Toolkit may be increased by further targeting and supporting teachers' engagement with girls and students with mental health difficulties. The trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov , NCT01678846, August 24th 2012.

  4. Patient-Centered Personal Health Record and Portal Implementation Toolkit for Ambulatory Clinics: A Feasibility Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nahm, Eun-Shim; Diblasi, Catherine; Gonzales, Eva; Silver, Kristi; Zhu, Shijun; Sagherian, Knar; Kongs, Katherine

    2017-04-01

    Personal health records and patient portals have been shown to be effective in managing chronic illnesses. Despite recent nationwide implementation efforts, the personal health record and patient portal adoption rates among patients are low, and the lack of support for patients using the programs remains a critical gap in most implementation processes. In this study, we implemented the Patient-Centered Personal Health Record and Patient Portal Implementation Toolkit in a large diabetes/endocrinology center and assessed its preliminary impact on personal health record and patient portal knowledge, self-efficacy, patient-provider communication, and adherence to treatment plans. Patient-Centered Personal Health Record and Patient Portal Implementation Toolkit is composed of Patient-Centered Personal Health Record and Patient Portal Implementation Toolkit-General, clinic-level resources for clinicians, staff, and patients, and Patient-Centered Personal Health Record and Patient Portal Implementation Toolkit Plus, an optional 4-week online resource program for patients ("MyHealthPortal"). First, Patient-Centered Personal Health Record and Patient Portal Implementation Toolkit-General was implemented, and all clinicians and staff were educated about the center's personal health record and patient portal. Then general patient education was initiated, while a randomized controlled trial was conducted to test the preliminary effects of "MyHealthPortal" using a small sample (n = 74) with three observations (baseline and 4 and 12 weeks). The intervention group showed significantly greater improvement than the control group in patient-provider communication at 4 weeks (t56 = 3.00, P = .004). For other variables, the intervention group tended to show greater improvement; however, the differences were not significant. In this preliminary study, Patient-Centered Personal Health Record and Patient Portal Implementation Toolkit showed potential for filling the gap in the current

  5. Using features of local densities, statistics and HMM toolkit (HTK for offline Arabic handwriting text recognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    El Moubtahij Hicham

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an analytical approach of an offline handwritten Arabic text recognition system. It is based on the Hidden Markov Models (HMM Toolkit (HTK without explicit segmentation. The first phase is preprocessing, where the data is introduced in the system after quality enhancements. Then, a set of characteristics (features of local densities and features statistics are extracted by using the technique of sliding windows. Subsequently, the resulting feature vectors are injected to the Hidden Markov Model Toolkit (HTK. The simple database “Arabic-Numbers” and IFN/ENIT are used to evaluate the performance of this system. Keywords: Hidden Markov Models (HMM Toolkit (HTK, Sliding windows

  6. Computational Chemistry Toolkit for Energetic Materials Design

    Science.gov (United States)

    2006-11-01

    industry are aggressively engaged in efforts to develop multiscale modeling and simulation methodologies to model and analyze complex phenomena across...energetic materials design. It is hoped that this toolkit will evolve into a collection of well-integrated multiscale modeling methodologies...Experimenta Theoreticala This Work 1-5-Diamino-4- methyl- tetrazolium nitrate 8.4 41.7 47.5 1-5-Diamino-4- methyl- tetrazolium azide 138.1 161.6

  7. Risk assessment of chemicals in foundries: The International Chemical Toolkit pilot-project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ribeiro, Marcela G.; Filho, Walter R.P.

    2006-01-01

    In Brazil, problems regarding protection from hazardous substances in small-sized enterprises are similar to those observed in many other countries. Looking for a simple tool to assess and control such exposures, FUNDACENTRO has started in 2005 a pilot-project to implement the International Chemical Control Toolkit. During the series of visits to foundries, it was observed that although many changes have occurred in foundry technology, occupational exposures to silica dust and metal fumes continue to occur, due to a lack of perception of occupational exposure in the work environment. After introducing the Chemical Toolkit concept to the foundry work group, it was possible to show that the activities undertaken to improve the management of chemicals, according to its concept, will support companies in fulfilling government legislations related to chemical management, occupational health and safety, and environmental impact. In the following meetings, the foundry work group and FUNDACENTRO research team will identify 'inadequate work situations'. Based on the Chemical Toolkit, improvement measures will be proposed. Afterwards, a survey will verify the efficency of those measures in the control of hazards and consequently on the management of chemicals. This step is now in course

  8. Field trials of a novel toolkit for evaluating 'intangible' values-related dimensions of projects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burford, Gemma; Velasco, Ismael; Janoušková, Svatava; Zahradnik, Martin; Hak, Tomas; Podger, Dimity; Piggot, Georgia; Harder, Marie K

    2013-02-01

    A novel toolkit has been developed, using an original approach to develop its components, for the purpose of evaluating 'soft' outcomes and processes that have previously been generally considered 'intangible': those which are specifically values based. This represents a step-wise, significant, change in provision for the assessment of values-based achievements that are of absolutely key importance to most civil society organisations (CSOs) and values-based businesses, and fills a known gap in evaluation practice. In this paper, we demonstrate the significance and rigour of the toolkit by presenting an evaluation of it in three diverse scenarios where different CSOs use it to co-evaluate locally relevant outcomes and processes to obtain results which are both meaningful to them and potentially comparable across organisations. A key strength of the toolkit is its original use of a prior generated, peer-elicited 'menu' of values-based indicators which provides a framework for user CSOs to localise. Principles of participatory, process-based and utilisation-focused evaluation are embedded in this toolkit and shown to be critical to its success, achieving high face-validity and wide applicability. The emerging contribution of this next-generation evaluation tool to other fields, such as environmental values, development and environmental sustainable development, shared values, business, education and organisational change is outlined. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Toolkit for local decision makers aims to strengthen environmental sustainability

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Murambadoro, M

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Members of the South African Risk and Vulnerability Atlas were involved in a meeting aimed at the development of a toolkit towards improved integration of climate change into local government's integrated development planning (IDP) process....

  10. Open source tools and toolkits for bioinformatics: significance, and where are we?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stajich, Jason E; Lapp, Hilmar

    2006-09-01

    This review summarizes important work in open-source bioinformatics software that has occurred over the past couple of years. The survey is intended to illustrate how programs and toolkits whose source code has been developed or released under an Open Source license have changed informatics-heavy areas of life science research. Rather than creating a comprehensive list of all tools developed over the last 2-3 years, we use a few selected projects encompassing toolkit libraries, analysis tools, data analysis environments and interoperability standards to show how freely available and modifiable open-source software can serve as the foundation for building important applications, analysis workflows and resources.

  11. The IGUANA interactive graphics toolkit with examples from CMS and D0

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alverson, G.; Osborne, I.; Taylor, L.; Tuura, L.

    2001-01-01

    IGUANA (Interactive Graphics for User ANAlysis) is a C++ toolkit for developing graphical user interfaces and high performance 2-D and 3-D graphics applications, such as data browsers and detector and event visualisation programs. The IGUANA strategy is to use freely available software (e.g. Qt, SoQt, OpenInventor, OpenGL, HEPVis) and package and extend it to provide a general-purpose and experiment-independent toolkit. The authors describe the evaluation and choices of publicly available GUI/graphics software and the additional functionality currently provided by IGUANA. The authors demonstrate the use of IGUANA with several applications built for CMS and D0

  12. Toolkit for Conceptual Modeling (TCM): User's Guide and Reference

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dehne, F.; Wieringa, Roelf J.

    1997-01-01

    The Toolkit for Conceptual Modeling (TCM) is a suite of graphical editors for a number of graphical notation systems that are used in software specification methods. The notations can be used to represent the conceptual structure of the software - hence the name of the suite. This manual describes

  13. Improving safety on rural local and tribal roads safety toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-08-01

    Rural roadway safety is an important issue for communities throughout the country and presents a challenge for state, local, and Tribal agencies. The Improving Safety on Rural Local and Tribal Roads Safety Toolkit was created to help rural local ...

  14. PEA: an integrated R toolkit for plant epitranscriptome analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhai, Jingjing; Song, Jie; Cheng, Qian; Tang, Yunjia; Ma, Chuang

    2018-05-29

    The epitranscriptome, also known as chemical modifications of RNA (CMRs), is a newly discovered layer of gene regulation, the biological importance of which emerged through analysis of only a small fraction of CMRs detected by high-throughput sequencing technologies. Understanding of the epitranscriptome is hampered by the absence of computational tools for the systematic analysis of epitranscriptome sequencing data. In addition, no tools have yet been designed for accurate prediction of CMRs in plants, or to extend epitranscriptome analysis from a fraction of the transcriptome to its entirety. Here, we introduce PEA, an integrated R toolkit to facilitate the analysis of plant epitranscriptome data. The PEA toolkit contains a comprehensive collection of functions required for read mapping, CMR calling, motif scanning and discovery, and gene functional enrichment analysis. PEA also takes advantage of machine learning technologies for transcriptome-scale CMR prediction, with high prediction accuracy, using the Positive Samples Only Learning algorithm, which addresses the two-class classification problem by using only positive samples (CMRs), in the absence of negative samples (non-CMRs). Hence PEA is a versatile epitranscriptome analysis pipeline covering CMR calling, prediction, and annotation, and we describe its application to predict N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modifications in Arabidopsis thaliana. Experimental results demonstrate that the toolkit achieved 71.6% sensitivity and 73.7% specificity, which is superior to existing m6A predictors. PEA is potentially broadly applicable to the in-depth study of epitranscriptomics. PEA Docker image is available at https://hub.docker.com/r/malab/pea, source codes and user manual are available at https://github.com/cma2015/PEA. chuangma2006@gmail.com. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

  15. The Virtual Physiological Human ToolKit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cooper, Jonathan; Cervenansky, Frederic; De Fabritiis, Gianni; Fenner, John; Friboulet, Denis; Giorgino, Toni; Manos, Steven; Martelli, Yves; Villà-Freixa, Jordi; Zasada, Stefan; Lloyd, Sharon; McCormack, Keith; Coveney, Peter V

    2010-08-28

    The Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) is a major European e-Science initiative intended to support the development of patient-specific computer models and their application in personalized and predictive healthcare. The VPH Network of Excellence (VPH-NoE) project is tasked with facilitating interaction between the various VPH projects and addressing issues of common concern. A key deliverable is the 'VPH ToolKit'--a collection of tools, methodologies and services to support and enable VPH research, integrating and extending existing work across Europe towards greater interoperability and sustainability. Owing to the diverse nature of the field, a single monolithic 'toolkit' is incapable of addressing the needs of the VPH. Rather, the VPH ToolKit should be considered more as a 'toolbox' of relevant technologies, interacting around a common set of standards. The latter apply to the information used by tools, including any data and the VPH models themselves, and also to the naming and categorizing of entities and concepts involved. Furthermore, the technologies and methodologies available need to be widely disseminated, and relevant tools and services easily found by researchers. The VPH-NoE has thus created an online resource for the VPH community to meet this need. It consists of a database of tools, methods and services for VPH research, with a Web front-end. This has facilities for searching the database, for adding or updating entries, and for providing user feedback on entries. Anyone is welcome to contribute.

  16. Business plans--tips from the toolkit 6.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steer, Neville

    2010-07-01

    General practice is a business. Most practices can stay afloat by having appointments, billing patients, managing the administration processes and working long hours. What distinguishes the high performance organisation from the average organisation is a business plan. This article examines how to create a simple business plan that can be applied to the general practice setting and is drawn from material contained in The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' 'General practice management toolkit'.

  17. Testing Video and Social Media for Engaging Users of the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Green, C. J.; Gardiner, N.; Niepold, F., III; Esposito, C.

    2015-12-01

    We developed a custom video production stye and a method for analyzing social media behavior so that we may deliberately build and track audience growth for decision-support tools and case studies within the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit. The new style of video focuses quickly on decision processes; its 30s format is well-suited for deployment through social media. We measured both traffic and engagement with video using Google Analytics. Each video included an embedded tag, allowing us to measure viewers' behavior: whether or not they entered the toolkit website; the duration of their session on the website; and the number pages they visited in that session. Results showed that video promotion was more effective on Facebook than Twitter. Facebook links generated twice the number of visits to the toolkit. Videos also increased Facebook interaction overall. Because most Facebook users are return visitors, this campaign did not substantially draw new site visitors. We continue to research and apply these methods in a targeted engagement and outreach campaign that utilizes the theory of social diffusion and social influence strategies to grow our audience of "influential" decision-makers and people within their social networks. Our goal is to increase access and use of the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit.

  18. Globus pallidus high-signal lesions: A predominant MRI finding in children with neurofibromatosis type 1

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arif Khan

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Lesions of the brain, recognized as unidentified bright objects (UBOs, are commonly observed as areas of increased T2-weighted signal intensity on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI in children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1. Identification of these lesions is not currently encompassed in the National Institute of Health (NIH diagnostic criteria for NF1. Objective: We aimed to determine the prevalence of UBOs in children with NF1 and identify areas of the brain that are commonly affected by these lesions, allowing us to evaluate whether UBOs should be included in the diagnostic criteria for the diagnosis of NF1. Materials and Methods: We reviewed the cranial MRI scans of 22 children who had been diagnosed with sporadic or familial NF1 in accordance with the criteria established by NIH. UBOs were present in 81% of the children with NF1. Results: These lesions have a predilection for specific areas of the brain, including the globus pallidus (72%, cerebellum (66%, brainstem (27% and cerebral hemispheres (16%. The prevalence of UBOs identified varied significantly with age and sex; they were infrequent in children less than 4 years of age but were common in those aged between 4 and 12 years of age. UBOs were more commonly seen in males (66.6% compared with females (33.3%. Repeat MRI scan on a subset of these patients with UBOs did not show any significant changes despite a worsening in clinical symptoms. Conclusion and Discussion: We have shown that UBOs are a common finding in children with NF1, and are most prevalent between the ages of 4 and 12 years. Many sites of the brain are affected by these lesions, most notably the globus pallidus and the cerebellum. Further research must be conducted to elucidate the significance of UBOs in patients with NF1 and whether these lesions have any utility in the clinical detection of NF1.

  19. Transition Toolkit 3.0: Meeting the Educational Needs of Youth Exposed to the Juvenile Justice System. Third Edition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Heather Griller; Mathur, Sarup; Brock, Leslie; O'Cummings, Mindee; Milligan, DeAngela

    2016-01-01

    The third edition of the National Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Neglected or Delinquent Children and Youth's (NDTAC's) "Transition Toolkit" provides updated information on existing policies, practices, strategies, and resources for transition that build on field experience and research. The "Toolkit" offers…

  20. A GIS Software Toolkit for Monitoring Areal Snow Cover and Producing Daily Hydrologic Forecasts using NASA Satellite Imagery, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Aniuk Consulting, LLC, proposes to create a GIS software toolkit for monitoring areal snow cover extent and producing streamflow forecasts. This toolkit will be...

  1. GENFIT - a generic track-fitting toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rauch, Johannes [Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Germany); Schlueter, Tobias [Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen (Germany)

    2014-07-01

    GENFIT is an experiment-independent track-fitting toolkit, which combines fitting algorithms, track representations, and measurement geometries into a modular framework. We report on a significantly improved version of GENFIT, based on experience gained in the Belle II, PANDA, and FOPI experiments. Improvements concern the implementation of additional track-fitting algorithms, enhanced implementations of Kalman fitters, enhanced visualization capabilities, and additional implementations of measurement types suited for various kinds of tracking detectors. The data model has been revised, allowing for efficient track merging, smoothing, residual calculation and alignment.

  2. NBII-SAIN Data Management Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burley, Thomas E.; Peine, John D.

    2009-01-01

    percent of the cost of a spatial information system is associated with spatial data collection and management (U.S. General Accounting Office, 2003). These figures indicate that the resources (time, personnel, money) of many agencies and organizations could be used more efficiently and effectively. Dedicated and conscientious data management coordination and documentation is critical for reducing such redundancy. Substantial cost savings and increased efficiency are direct results of a pro-active data management approach. In addition, details of projects as well as data and information are frequently lost as a result of real-world occurrences such as the passing of time, job turnover, and equipment changes and failure. A standardized, well documented database allows resource managers to identify issues, analyze options, and ultimately make better decisions in the context of adaptive management (National Land and Water Resources Audit and the Australia New Zealand Land Information Council on behalf of the Australian National Government, 2003). Many environmentally focused, scientific, or natural resource management organizations collect and create both spatial and non-spatial data in some form. Data management appropriate for those data will be contingent upon the project goal(s) and objectives and thus will vary on a case-by-case basis. This project and the resulting Data Management Toolkit, hereafter referred to as the Toolkit, is therefore not intended to be comprehensive in terms of addressing all of the data management needs of all projects that contain biological, geospatial, and other types of data. The Toolkit emphasizes the idea of connecting a project's data and the related management needs to the defined project goals and objectives from the outset. In that context, the Toolkit presents and describes the fundamental components of sound data and information management that are common to projects involving biological, geospatial, and other related data

  3. A Software Toolkit to Study Systematic Uncertainties of the Physics Models of the Geant4 Simulation Package

    Science.gov (United States)

    Genser, Krzysztof; Hatcher, Robert; Kelsey, Michael; Perdue, Gabriel; Wenzel, Hans; Wright, Dennis H.; Yarba, Julia

    2017-10-01

    The Geant4 simulation toolkit is used to model interactions between particles and matter. Geant4 employs a set of validated physics models that span a wide range of interaction energies. These models rely on measured cross-sections and phenomenological models with the physically motivated parameters that are tuned to cover many application domains. To study what uncertainties are associated with the Geant4 physics models we have designed and implemented a comprehensive, modular, user-friendly software toolkit that allows the variation of one or more parameters of one or more Geant4 physics models involved in simulation studies. It also enables analysis of multiple variants of the resulting physics observables of interest in order to estimate the uncertainties associated with the simulation model choices. Based on modern event-processing infrastructure software, the toolkit offers a variety of attractive features, e.g. flexible run-time configurable workflow, comprehensive bookkeeping, easy to expand collection of analytical components. Design, implementation technology, and key functionalities of the toolkit are presented in this paper and illustrated with selected results.

  4. The Identification of Potential Resilient Estuary-based Enterprises to Encourage Economic Empowerment in South Africa: a Toolkit Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rebecca Bowd

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available It has been argued that ecosystem services can be used as the foundation to provide economic opportunities to empower the disadvantaged. The Ecosystem Services Framework (ESF approach for poverty alleviation, which balances resource conservation and human resource use, has received much attention in the literature. However, few projects have successfully achieved both conservation and economic objectives. This is partly due to there being a hiatus between theory and practice, due to the absence of tools that help make the transition between conceptual frameworks and theory, to practical integration of ecosystem services into decision making. To address this hiatus, an existing conceptual framework for analyzing the robustness of social-ecological systems was translated into a practical toolkit to help understand the complexity of social-ecological systems (SES. The toolkit can be used by a diversity of stakeholders as a decision making aid for assessing ecosystem services supply and demand and associated enterprise opportunities. The toolkit is participatory and combines both a generic "top-down" scientific approach with a case-specific "bottom-up" approach. It promotes a shared understanding of the utilization of ecosystem services, which is the foundation of identifying resilient enterprises. The toolkit comprises four steps: (i ecosystem services supply and demand assessment; (ii roles identification; (iii enterprise opportunity identification; and (vi enterprise risk assessment, and was tested at two estuary study sites. Implementation of the toolkit requires the populating of preprogrammed Excel worksheets through the holding of workshops that are attended by stakeholders associated with the ecosystems. It was concluded that for an enterprise to be resilient, it must be resilient at an external SES level,which the toolkit addresses, and at an internal business functioning level, e.g., social dynamics among personnel, skills, and literacy

  5. The doctor-patient relationship as a toolkit for uncertain clinical decisions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diamond-Brown, Lauren

    2016-06-01

    Medical uncertainty is a well-recognized problem in healthcare, yet how doctors make decisions in the face of uncertainty remains to be understood. This article draws on interdisciplinary literature on uncertainty and physician decision-making to examine a specific physician response to uncertainty: using the doctor-patient relationship as a toolkit. Additionally, I ask what happens to this process when the doctor-patient relationship becomes fragmented. I answer these questions by examining obstetrician-gynecologists' narratives regarding how they make decisions when faced with uncertainty in childbirth. Between 2013 and 2014, I performed 21 semi-structured interviews with obstetricians in the United States. Obstetricians were selected to maximize variation in relevant physician, hospital, and practice characteristics. I began with grounded theory and moved to analytical coding of themes in relation to relevant literature. My analysis renders it evident that some physicians use the doctor-patient relationship as a toolkit for dealing with uncertainty. I analyze how this process varies for physicians in different models of care by comparing doctors' experiences in models with continuous versus fragmented doctor-patient relationships. My key findings are that obstetricians in both models appealed to the ideal of patient-centered decision-making to cope with uncertain decisions, but in practice physicians in fragmented care faced a number of challenges to using the doctor-patient relationship as a toolkit for decision-making. These challenges led to additional uncertainties and in some cases to poor outcomes for doctors and/or patients; they also raised concerns about the reproduction of inequality. Thus organization of care delivery mitigates the efficacy of doctors' use of the doctor-patient relationship toolkit for uncertain decisions. These findings have implications for theorizing about decision-making under conditions of medical uncertainty, for understanding

  6. Evaluating Teaching Development Activities in Higher Education: A Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kneale, Pauline; Winter, Jennie; Turner, Rebecca; Spowart, Lucy; Hughes, Jane; McKenna, Colleen; Muneer, Reema

    2016-01-01

    This toolkit is developed as a resource for providers of teaching-related continuing professional development (CPD) in higher education (HE). It focuses on capturing the longer-term value and impact of CPD for teachers and learners, and moving away from immediate satisfaction measures. It is informed by the literature on evaluating higher…

  7. Development of an evidence-informed leisure time physical activity resource for adults with spinal cord injury: the SCI Get Fit Toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arbour-Nicitopoulos, K P; Martin Ginis, K A; Latimer-Cheung, A E; Bourne, C; Campbell, D; Cappe, S; Ginis, S; Hicks, A L; Pomerleau, P; Smith, K

    2013-06-01

    To systematically develop an evidence-informed leisure time physical activity (LTPA) resource for adults with spinal cord injury (SCI). Canada. The Appraisal of Guidelines, Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II protocol was used to develop a toolkit to teach and encourage adults with SCI how to make smart and informed choices about being physically active. A multidisciplinary expert panel appraised the evidence and generated specific recommendations for the content of the toolkit. Pilot testing was conducted to refine the toolkit's presentation. Recommendations emanating from the consultation process were that the toolkit be a brief, evidence-based resource that contains images of adults with tetraplegia and paraplegia, and links to more detailed online information. The content of the toolkit should include the physical activity guidelines (PAGs) for adults with SCI, activities tailored to manual and power chair users, the benefits of LTPA, and strategies to overcome common LTPA barriers for adults with SCI. The inclusion of action plans and safety tips was also recommended. These recommendations have resulted in the development of an evidence-informed LTPA resource to assist adults with SCI in meeting the PAGs. This toolkit will have important implications for consumers, health care professionals and policy makers for encouraging LTPA in the SCI community.

  8. The advanced computational testing and simulation toolkit (ACTS)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Drummond, L.A.; Marques, O.

    2002-01-01

    During the past decades there has been a continuous growth in the number of physical and societal problems that have been successfully studied and solved by means of computational modeling and simulation. Distinctively, a number of these are important scientific problems ranging in scale from the atomic to the cosmic. For example, ionization is a phenomenon as ubiquitous in modern society as the glow of fluorescent lights and the etching on silicon computer chips; but it was not until 1999 that researchers finally achieved a complete numerical solution to the simplest example of ionization, the collision of a hydrogen atom with an electron. On the opposite scale, cosmologists have long wondered whether the expansion of the Universe, which began with the Big Bang, would ever reverse itself, ending the Universe in a Big Crunch. In 2000, analysis of new measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation showed that the geometry of the Universe is flat, and thus the Universe will continue expanding forever. Both of these discoveries depended on high performance computer simulations that utilized computational tools included in the Advanced Computational Testing and Simulation (ACTS) Toolkit. The ACTS Toolkit is an umbrella project that brought together a number of general purpose computational tool development projects funded and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). These tools, which have been developed independently, mainly at DOE laboratories, make it easier for scientific code developers to write high performance applications for parallel computers. They tackle a number of computational issues that are common to a large number of scientific applications, mainly implementation of numerical algorithms, and support for code development, execution and optimization. The ACTS Toolkit Project enables the use of these tools by a much wider community of computational scientists, and promotes code portability, reusability, reduction of duplicate efforts

  9. The advanced computational testing and simulation toolkit (ACTS)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Drummond, L.A.; Marques, O.

    2002-05-21

    During the past decades there has been a continuous growth in the number of physical and societal problems that have been successfully studied and solved by means of computational modeling and simulation. Distinctively, a number of these are important scientific problems ranging in scale from the atomic to the cosmic. For example, ionization is a phenomenon as ubiquitous in modern society as the glow of fluorescent lights and the etching on silicon computer chips; but it was not until 1999 that researchers finally achieved a complete numerical solution to the simplest example of ionization, the collision of a hydrogen atom with an electron. On the opposite scale, cosmologists have long wondered whether the expansion of the Universe, which began with the Big Bang, would ever reverse itself, ending the Universe in a Big Crunch. In 2000, analysis of new measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation showed that the geometry of the Universe is flat, and thus the Universe will continue expanding forever. Both of these discoveries depended on high performance computer simulations that utilized computational tools included in the Advanced Computational Testing and Simulation (ACTS) Toolkit. The ACTS Toolkit is an umbrella project that brought together a number of general purpose computational tool development projects funded and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). These tools, which have been developed independently, mainly at DOE laboratories, make it easier for scientific code developers to write high performance applications for parallel computers. They tackle a number of computational issues that are common to a large number of scientific applications, mainly implementation of numerical algorithms, and support for code development, execution and optimization. The ACTS Toolkit Project enables the use of these tools by a much wider community of computational scientists, and promotes code portability, reusability, reduction of duplicate efforts

  10. Measuring acceptance of an assistive social robot: a suggested toolkit

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Heerink, M.; Kröse, B.; Evers, V.; Wielinga, B.

    2009-01-01

    The human robot interaction community is multidisciplinary by nature and has members from social science to engineering backgrounds. In this paper we aim to provide human robot developers with a straightforward toolkit to evaluate users' acceptance of assistive social robots they are designing or

  11. Pydpiper: A Flexible Toolkit for Constructing Novel Registration Pipelines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miriam eFriedel

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Using neuroimaging technologies to elucidate the relationship between genotype and phenotype and brain and behavior will be a key contribution to biomedical research in the twenty-first century. Among the many methods for analyzing neuroimaging data, image registration deserves particular attention due to its wide range of applications. Finding strategies to register together many images and analyze the differences between them can be a challenge, particularly given that different experimental designs require different registration strategies. Moreover, writing software that can handle different types of image registration pipelines in a flexible, reusable and extensible way can be challenging. In response to this challenge, we have created Pydpiper, a neuroimaging registration toolkit written in Python. Pydpiper is an open-source, freely available pipeline framework that provides multiple modules for various image registration applications. Pydpiper offers five key innovations. Specifically: (1 a robust file handling class that allows access to outputs from all stages of registration at any point in the pipeline; (2 the ability of the framework to eliminate duplicate stages; (3 reusable, easy to subclass modules; (4 a development toolkit written for non-developers; (5 four complete applications that run complex image registration pipelines ``out-of-the-box.'' In this paper, we will discuss both the general Pydpiper framework and the various ways in which component modules can be pieced together to easily create new registration pipelines. This will include a discussion of the core principles motivating code development and a comparison of Pydpiper with other available toolkits. We also provide a comprehensive, line-by-line example to orient users with limited programming knowledge and highlight some of the most useful features of Pydpiper. In addition, we will present the four current applications of the code.

  12. Pydpiper: a flexible toolkit for constructing novel registration pipelines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Friedel, Miriam; van Eede, Matthijs C; Pipitone, Jon; Chakravarty, M Mallar; Lerch, Jason P

    2014-01-01

    Using neuroimaging technologies to elucidate the relationship between genotype and phenotype and brain and behavior will be a key contribution to biomedical research in the twenty-first century. Among the many methods for analyzing neuroimaging data, image registration deserves particular attention due to its wide range of applications. Finding strategies to register together many images and analyze the differences between them can be a challenge, particularly given that different experimental designs require different registration strategies. Moreover, writing software that can handle different types of image registration pipelines in a flexible, reusable and extensible way can be challenging. In response to this challenge, we have created Pydpiper, a neuroimaging registration toolkit written in Python. Pydpiper is an open-source, freely available software package that provides multiple modules for various image registration applications. Pydpiper offers five key innovations. Specifically: (1) a robust file handling class that allows access to outputs from all stages of registration at any point in the pipeline; (2) the ability of the framework to eliminate duplicate stages; (3) reusable, easy to subclass modules; (4) a development toolkit written for non-developers; (5) four complete applications that run complex image registration pipelines "out-of-the-box." In this paper, we will discuss both the general Pydpiper framework and the various ways in which component modules can be pieced together to easily create new registration pipelines. This will include a discussion of the core principles motivating code development and a comparison of Pydpiper with other available toolkits. We also provide a comprehensive, line-by-line example to orient users with limited programming knowledge and highlight some of the most useful features of Pydpiper. In addition, we will present the four current applications of the code.

  13. Plasma formation and first OH experiments in GLOBUS-M tokamak

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gusev, V.K.; Aleksandrov, S.V.; Burtseva, T.A.

    2001-01-01

    The paper reports results of experimental campaigns on plasma ohmic heating, performed during 1999-2000 on the spherical tokamak Globus-M. Later experimental results with tokamak fed by thyristor rectifiers are presented in detail. The toroidal magnetic field and plasma pulse duration in these experiments were significantly increased. The method of stray magnetic field compensation is described. The technology of vacuum vessel conditioning, including boronization of the vessel performed at the end of the experiments, is briefly discussed. Also discussed is the influence of ECR preioniziation on the breakdown conditions. Experimental data on plasma column formation and current ramp-up in different regimes of operation with the magnetic flux of the central solenoid (CS) limited to ∼100 mVs are presented. Ramp-up of the plasma current of 0.25 MA for the time interval ∼0.03 s with about 0.02 s flat-top at the toroidal field (TF) strength of 0.35 T allows the conclusion that power supplies, control system and wall conditioning work well. The same conclusion can be drawn from observation of plasma density behavior the density is completely controlled with external gas puff and the influence of the wall is negligible after boronization. The magnetic flux consumption efficiency is discussed. The results of magnetic equilibrium simulations are presented and compared with experiment. (author)

  14. The PyRosetta Toolkit: a graphical user interface for the Rosetta software suite.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adolf-Bryfogle, Jared; Dunbrack, Roland L

    2013-01-01

    The Rosetta Molecular Modeling suite is a command-line-only collection of applications that enable high-resolution modeling and design of proteins and other molecules. Although extremely useful, Rosetta can be difficult to learn for scientists with little computational or programming experience. To that end, we have created a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for Rosetta, called the PyRosetta Toolkit, for creating and running protocols in Rosetta for common molecular modeling and protein design tasks and for analyzing the results of Rosetta calculations. The program is highly extensible so that developers can add new protocols and analysis tools to the PyRosetta Toolkit GUI.

  15. An Ethical Toolkit for Food Companies: Reflection on its Use

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Deblonde, M.K.; Graaff, R.; Brom, F.W.A.

    2007-01-01

    Nowadays many debates are going on that relate to the agricultural and food sector. It looks as if present technological and organizational developments within the agricultural and food sector are badly geared to societal needs and expectations. In this article we briefly present a toolkit for moral

  16. Toolkit for US colleges/schools of pharmacy to prepare learners for careers in academia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haines, Seena L; Summa, Maria A; Peeters, Michael J; Dy-Boarman, Eliza A; Boyle, Jaclyn A; Clifford, Kalin M; Willson, Megan N

    2017-09-01

    The objective of this article is to provide an academic toolkit for use by colleges/schools of pharmacy to prepare student pharmacists/residents for academic careers. Through the American Association of Colleges of Pharmac (AACP) Section of Pharmacy Practice, the Student Resident Engagement Task Force (SRETF) collated teaching materials used by colleges/schools of pharmacy from a previously reported national survey. The SRETF developed a toolkit for student pharmacists/residents interested in academic pharmacy. Eighteen institutions provided materials; five provided materials describing didactic coursework; over fifteen provided materials for an academia-focused Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPE), while one provided materials for an APPE teaching-research elective. SRETF members created a syllabus template and sample lesson plan by integrating submitted resources. Submissions still needed to complete the toolkit include examples of curricular tracks and certificate programs. Pharmacy faculty vacancies still exist in pharmacy education. Engaging student pharmacists/residents about academia pillars of teaching, scholarship and service is critical for the future success of the academy. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  17. A Toolkit For Storage Qos Provisioning For Data-Intensive Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renata Słota

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes a programming toolkit developed in the PL-Grid project, named QStorMan, which supports storage QoS provisioning for data-intensive applications in distributed environments. QStorMan exploits knowledge-oriented methods for matching storage resources to non-functional requirements, which are defined for a data-intensive application. In order to support various usage scenarios, QStorMan provides two interfaces, such as programming libraries or a web portal. The interfaces allow to define the requirements either directly in an application source code or by using an intuitive graphical interface. The first way provides finer granularity, e.g., each portion of data processed by an application can define a different set of requirements. The second method is aimed at legacy applications support, which source code can not be modified. The toolkit has been evaluated using synthetic benchmarks and the production infrastructure of PL-Grid, in particular its storage infrastructure, which utilizes the Lustre file system.

  18. Srijan: a graphical toolkit for sensor network macroprogramming

    OpenAIRE

    Pathak , Animesh; Gowda , Mahanth K.

    2009-01-01

    International audience; Macroprogramming is an application development technique for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) where the developer specifies the behavior of the system, as opposed to that of the constituent nodes. In this proposed demonstration, we would like to present Srijan, a toolkit that enables application development for WSNs in a graphical manner using data-driven macroprogramming. It can be used in various stages of application development, viz. i) specification of application ...

  19. Mocapy++ - a toolkit for inference and learning in dynamic Bayesian networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Paluszewski, Martin; Hamelryck, Thomas Wim

    2010-01-01

    Background Mocapy++ is a toolkit for parameter learning and inference in dynamic Bayesian networks (DBNs). It supports a wide range of DBN architectures and probability distributions, including distributions from directional statistics (the statistics of angles, directions and orientations...

  20. Parvalbumin+ Neurons and Npas1+ Neurons Are Distinct Neuron Classes in the Mouse External Globus Pallidus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hernández, Vivian M; Hegeman, Daniel J; Cui, Qiaoling; Kelver, Daniel A; Fiske, Michael P; Glajch, Kelly E; Pitt, Jason E; Huang, Tina Y; Justice, Nicholas J; Chan, C Savio

    2015-08-26

    Compelling evidence suggests that pathological activity of the external globus pallidus (GPe), a nucleus in the basal ganglia, contributes to the motor symptoms of a variety of movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Recent studies have challenged the idea that the GPe comprises a single, homogenous population of neurons that serves as a simple relay in the indirect pathway. However, we still lack a full understanding of the diversity of the neurons that make up the GPe. Specifically, a more precise classification scheme is needed to better describe the fundamental biology and function of different GPe neuron classes. To this end, we generated a novel multicistronic BAC (bacterial artificial chromosome) transgenic mouse line under the regulatory elements of the Npas1 gene. Using a combinatorial transgenic and immunohistochemical approach, we discovered that parvalbumin-expressing neurons and Npas1-expressing neurons in the GPe represent two nonoverlapping cell classes, amounting to 55% and 27% of the total GPe neuron population, respectively. These two genetically identified cell classes projected primarily to the subthalamic nucleus and to the striatum, respectively. Additionally, parvalbumin-expressing neurons and Npas1-expressing neurons were distinct in their autonomous and driven firing characteristics, their expression of intrinsic ion conductances, and their responsiveness to chronic 6-hydroxydopamine lesion. In summary, our data argue that parvalbumin-expressing neurons and Npas1-expressing neurons are two distinct functional classes of GPe neurons. This work revises our understanding of the GPe, and provides the foundation for future studies of its function and dysfunction. Until recently, the heterogeneity of the constituent neurons within the external globus pallidus (GPe) was not fully appreciated. We addressed this knowledge gap by discovering two principal GPe neuron classes, which were identified by their nonoverlapping expression of the

  1. Parvalbumin+ Neurons and Npas1+ Neurons Are Distinct Neuron Classes in the Mouse External Globus Pallidus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hernández, Vivian M.; Hegeman, Daniel J.; Cui, Qiaoling; Kelver, Daniel A.; Fiske, Michael P.; Glajch, Kelly E.; Pitt, Jason E.; Huang, Tina Y.; Justice, Nicholas J.

    2015-01-01

    Compelling evidence suggests that pathological activity of the external globus pallidus (GPe), a nucleus in the basal ganglia, contributes to the motor symptoms of a variety of movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Recent studies have challenged the idea that the GPe comprises a single, homogenous population of neurons that serves as a simple relay in the indirect pathway. However, we still lack a full understanding of the diversity of the neurons that make up the GPe. Specifically, a more precise classification scheme is needed to better describe the fundamental biology and function of different GPe neuron classes. To this end, we generated a novel multicistronic BAC (bacterial artificial chromosome) transgenic mouse line under the regulatory elements of the Npas1 gene. Using a combinatorial transgenic and immunohistochemical approach, we discovered that parvalbumin-expressing neurons and Npas1-expressing neurons in the GPe represent two nonoverlapping cell classes, amounting to 55% and 27% of the total GPe neuron population, respectively. These two genetically identified cell classes projected primarily to the subthalamic nucleus and to the striatum, respectively. Additionally, parvalbumin-expressing neurons and Npas1-expressing neurons were distinct in their autonomous and driven firing characteristics, their expression of intrinsic ion conductances, and their responsiveness to chronic 6-hydroxydopamine lesion. In summary, our data argue that parvalbumin-expressing neurons and Npas1-expressing neurons are two distinct functional classes of GPe neurons. This work revises our understanding of the GPe, and provides the foundation for future studies of its function and dysfunction. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Until recently, the heterogeneity of the constituent neurons within the external globus pallidus (GPe) was not fully appreciated. We addressed this knowledge gap by discovering two principal GPe neuron classes, which were identified by their nonoverlapping

  2. GeoDataspaces: Simplifying Data Management Tasks with Globus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malik, T.; Chard, K.; Tchoua, R. B.; Foster, I.

    2014-12-01

    Data and its management are central to modern scientific enterprise. Typically, geoscientists rely on observations and model output data from several disparate sources (file systems, RDBMS, spreadsheets, remote data sources). Integrated data management solutions that provide intuitive semantics and uniform interfaces, irrespective of the kind of data source are, however, lacking. Consequently, geoscientists are left to conduct low-level and time-consuming data management tasks, individually, and repeatedly for discovering each data source, often resulting in errors in handling. In this talk we will describe how the EarthCube GeoDataspace project is improving this situation for seismologists, hydrologists, and space scientists by simplifying some of the existing data management tasks that arise when developing computational models. We will demonstrate a GeoDataspace, bootstrapped with "geounits", which are self-contained metadata packages that provide complete description of all data elements associated with a model run, including input/output and parameter files, model executable and any associated libraries. Geounits link raw and derived data as well as associating provenance information describing how data was derived. We will discuss challenges in establishing geounits and describe machine learning and human annotation approaches that can be used for extracting and associating ad hoc and unstructured scientific metadata hidden in binary formats with data resources and models. We will show how geounits can improve search and discoverability of data associated with model runs. To support this model, we will describe efforts related towards creating a scalable metadata catalog that helps to maintain, search and discover geounits within the Globus network of accessible endpoints. This talk will focus on the issue of creating comprehensive personal inventories of data assets for computational geoscientists, and describe a publishing mechanism, which can be used to

  3. Accelerator physics analysis with an integrated toolkit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holt, J.A.; Michelotti, L.; Satogata, T.

    1992-08-01

    Work is in progress on an integrated software toolkit for linear and nonlinear accelerator design, analysis, and simulation. As a first application, ''beamline'' and ''MXYZPTLK'' (differential algebra) class libraries, were used with an X Windows graphics library to build an user-friendly, interactive phase space tracker which, additionally, finds periodic orbits. This program was used to analyse a theoretical lattice which contains octupoles and decapoles to find the 20th order, stable and unstable periodic orbits and to explore the local phase space structure

  4. A patient and public involvement (PPI) toolkit for meaningful and flexible involvement in clinical trials - a work in progress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bagley, Heather J; Short, Hannah; Harman, Nicola L; Hickey, Helen R; Gamble, Carrol L; Woolfall, Kerry; Young, Bridget; Williamson, Paula R

    2016-01-01

    Funders of research are increasingly requiring researchers to involve patients and the public in their research. Patient and public involvement (PPI) in research can potentially help researchers make sure that the design of their research is relevant, that it is participant friendly and ethically sound. Using and sharing PPI resources can benefit those involved in undertaking PPI, but existing PPI resources are not used consistently and this can lead to duplication of effort. This paper describes how we are developing a toolkit to support clinical trials teams in a clinical trials unit. The toolkit will provide a key 'off the shelf' resource to support trial teams with limited resources, in undertaking PPI. Key activities in further developing and maintaining the toolkit are to: ● listen to the views and experience of both research teams and patient and public contributors who use the tools; ● modify the tools based on our experience of using them; ● identify the need for future tools; ● update the toolkit based on any newly identified resources that come to light; ● raise awareness of the toolkit and ● work in collaboration with others to either develop or test out PPI resources in order to reduce duplication of work in PPI. Background Patient and public involvement (PPI) in research is increasingly a funder requirement due to the potential benefits in the design of relevant, participant friendly, ethically sound research. The use and sharing of resources can benefit PPI, but available resources are not consistently used leading to duplication of effort. This paper describes a developing toolkit to support clinical trials teams to undertake effective and meaningful PPI. Methods The first phase in developing the toolkit was to describe which PPI activities should be considered in the pathway of a clinical trial and at what stage these activities should take place. This pathway was informed through review of the type and timing of PPI activities within

  5. A graphical user interface (GUI) toolkit for the calculation of three-dimensional (3D) multi-phase biological effective dose (BED) distributions including statistical analyses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kauweloa, Kevin I; Gutierrez, Alonso N; Stathakis, Sotirios; Papanikolaou, Niko; Mavroidis, Panayiotis

    2016-07-01

    A toolkit has been developed for calculating the 3-dimensional biological effective dose (BED) distributions in multi-phase, external beam radiotherapy treatments such as those applied in liver stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and in multi-prescription treatments. This toolkit also provides a wide range of statistical results related to dose and BED distributions. MATLAB 2010a, version 7.10 was used to create this GUI toolkit. The input data consist of the dose distribution matrices, organ contour coordinates, and treatment planning parameters from the treatment planning system (TPS). The toolkit has the capability of calculating the multi-phase BED distributions using different formulas (denoted as true and approximate). Following the calculations of the BED distributions, the dose and BED distributions can be viewed in different projections (e.g. coronal, sagittal and transverse). The different elements of this toolkit are presented and the important steps for the execution of its calculations are illustrated. The toolkit is applied on brain, head & neck and prostate cancer patients, who received primary and boost phases in order to demonstrate its capability in calculating BED distributions, as well as measuring the inaccuracy and imprecision of the approximate BED distributions. Finally, the clinical situations in which the use of the present toolkit would have a significant clinical impact are indicated. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. RISMC Toolkit and Methodology Research and Development Plan for External Hazards Analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Coleman, Justin Leigh [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

    2016-03-01

    This report includes the description and development plan for a Risk Informed Safety Margins Characterization (RISMC) toolkit and methodology that will evaluate multihazard risk in an integrated manner to support the operating nuclear fleet.

  7. RISMC Toolkit and Methodology Research and Development Plan for External Hazards Analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Coleman, Justin Leigh

    2016-01-01

    This report includes the description and development plan for a Risk Informed Safety Margins Characterization (RISMC) toolkit and methodology that will evaluate multihazard risk in an integrated manner to support the operating nuclear fleet.

  8. DUL Radio: A light-weight, wireless toolkit for sketching in hardware

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brynskov, Martin; Lunding, Rasmus; Vestergaard, Lasse Steenbock

    2011-01-01

    -mobile prototyping where fast reaction is needed (e.g. in controlling sound). The target audiences include designers, students, artists etc. with minimal programming and hardware skills. This presentation covers our motivations for creating the toolkit, specifications, test results, comparison to related products...

  9. Development of a System Analysis Toolkit for Sensitivity Analysis, Uncertainty Propagation, and Estimation of Parameter Distribution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heo, Jaeseok; Kim, Kyung Doo

    2015-01-01

    Statistical approaches to uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis are very important in estimating the safety margins for an engineering design application. This paper presents a system analysis and optimization toolkit developed by Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), which includes multiple packages of the sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification algorithms. In order to reduce the computing demand, multiple compute resources including multiprocessor computers and a network of workstations are simultaneously used. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) was also developed within the parallel computing framework for users to readily employ the toolkit for an engineering design and optimization problem. The goal of this work is to develop a GUI framework for engineering design and scientific analysis problems by implementing multiple packages of system analysis methods in the parallel computing toolkit. This was done by building an interface between an engineering simulation code and the system analysis software packages. The methods and strategies in the framework were designed to exploit parallel computing resources such as those found in a desktop multiprocessor workstation or a network of workstations. Available approaches in the framework include statistical and mathematical algorithms for use in science and engineering design problems. Currently the toolkit has 6 modules of the system analysis methodologies: deterministic and probabilistic approaches of data assimilation, uncertainty propagation, Chi-square linearity test, sensitivity analysis, and FFTBM

  10. Development of a System Analysis Toolkit for Sensitivity Analysis, Uncertainty Propagation, and Estimation of Parameter Distribution

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Heo, Jaeseok; Kim, Kyung Doo [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2015-05-15

    Statistical approaches to uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis are very important in estimating the safety margins for an engineering design application. This paper presents a system analysis and optimization toolkit developed by Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), which includes multiple packages of the sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification algorithms. In order to reduce the computing demand, multiple compute resources including multiprocessor computers and a network of workstations are simultaneously used. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) was also developed within the parallel computing framework for users to readily employ the toolkit for an engineering design and optimization problem. The goal of this work is to develop a GUI framework for engineering design and scientific analysis problems by implementing multiple packages of system analysis methods in the parallel computing toolkit. This was done by building an interface between an engineering simulation code and the system analysis software packages. The methods and strategies in the framework were designed to exploit parallel computing resources such as those found in a desktop multiprocessor workstation or a network of workstations. Available approaches in the framework include statistical and mathematical algorithms for use in science and engineering design problems. Currently the toolkit has 6 modules of the system analysis methodologies: deterministic and probabilistic approaches of data assimilation, uncertainty propagation, Chi-square linearity test, sensitivity analysis, and FFTBM.

  11. Margins of safety provided by COSHH Essentials and the ILO Chemical Control Toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Rachael M; Nicas, Mark

    2006-03-01

    COSHH Essentials, developed by the UK Health and Safety Executive, and the Chemical Control Toolkit (Toolkit) proposed by the International Labor Organization, are 'control banding' approaches to workplace risk management intended for use by proprietors of small and medium-sized businesses. Both systems group chemical substances into hazard bands based on toxicological endpoint and potency. COSSH Essentials uses the European Union's Risk-phrases (R-phrases), whereas the Toolkit uses R-phrases and the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals. Each hazard band is associated with a range of airborne concentrations, termed exposure bands, which are to be attained by the implementation of recommended control technologies. Here we analyze the margin of safety afforded by the systems and, for each hazard band, define the minimal margin as the ratio of the minimum airborne concentration that produced the toxicological endpoint of interest in experimental animals to the maximum concentration in workplace air permitted by the exposure band. We found that the minimal margins were always occupational exposure limits, we argue that the minimal margins are better indicators of health protection. Further, given the small margins observed, we feel it is important that revisions of these systems provide the exposure bands to users, so as to permit evaluation of control technology capture efficiency.

  12. Designing a Portable and Low Cost Home Energy Management Toolkit

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Keyson, D.V.; Al Mahmud, A.; De Hoogh, M.; Luxen, R.

    2013-01-01

    In this paper we describe the design of a home energy and comfort management system. The system has three components such as a smart plug with a wireless module, a residential gateway and a mobile app. The combined system is called a home energy management and comfort toolkit. The design is inspired

  13. Report of the Los Alamos accelerator automation application toolkit workshop

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clout, P.; Daneels, A.

    1990-01-01

    A 5 day workshop was held in November 1988 at Los Alamos National Laboratory to address the viability of providing a toolkit optimized for building accelerator control systems. The workshop arose from work started independently at Los Alamos and CERN. This paper presents the discussion and the results of the meeting. (orig.)

  14. Design Optimization Toolkit: Users' Manual

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aguilo Valentin, Miguel Alejandro [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Computational Solid Mechanics and Structural Dynamics

    2014-07-01

    The Design Optimization Toolkit (DOTk) is a stand-alone C++ software package intended to solve complex design optimization problems. DOTk software package provides a range of solution methods that are suited for gradient/nongradient-based optimization, large scale constrained optimization, and topology optimization. DOTk was design to have a flexible user interface to allow easy access to DOTk solution methods from external engineering software packages. This inherent flexibility makes DOTk barely intrusive to other engineering software packages. As part of this inherent flexibility, DOTk software package provides an easy-to-use MATLAB interface that enables users to call DOTk solution methods directly from the MATLAB command window.

  15. Livermore Big Artificial Neural Network Toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    2016-07-01

    LBANN is a toolkit that is designed to train artificial neural networks efficiently on high performance computing architectures. It is optimized to take advantages of key High Performance Computing features to accelerate neural network training. Specifically it is optimized for low-latency, high bandwidth interconnects, node-local NVRAM, node-local GPU accelerators, and high bandwidth parallel file systems. It is built on top of the open source Elemental distributed-memory dense and spars-direct linear algebra and optimization library that is released under the BSD license. The algorithms contained within LBANN are drawn from the academic literature and implemented to work within a distributed-memory framework.

  16. Sierra Toolkit Manual Version 4.48.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sierra Toolkit Team

    2018-03-01

    This report provides documentation for the SIERRA Toolkit (STK) modules. STK modules are intended to provide infrastructure that assists the development of computational engineering soft- ware such as finite-element analysis applications. STK includes modules for unstructured-mesh data structures, reading/writing mesh files, geometric proximity search, and various utilities. This document contains a chapter for each module, and each chapter contains overview descriptions and usage examples. Usage examples are primarily code listings which are generated from working test programs that are included in the STK code-base. A goal of this approach is to ensure that the usage examples will not fall out of date. This page intentionally left blank.

  17. Grid infrastructure for automatic processing of SAR data for flood applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kussul, Natalia; Skakun, Serhiy; Shelestov, Andrii

    2010-05-01

    executed by different resources of the Grid system. The resulting geospatial services are available in various OGC standards such as KML and WMS. Currently, the Grid infrastructure integrates the resources of several geographically distributed organizations, in particular: Space Research Institute NASU-NSAU (Ukraine) with deployed computational and storage nodes based on Globus Toolkit 4 (htpp://www.globus.org) and gLite 3 (http://glite.web.cern.ch) middleware, access to geospatial data and a Grid portal; Institute of Cybernetics of NASU (Ukraine) with deployed computational and storage nodes (SCIT-1/2/3 clusters) based on Globus Toolkit 4 middleware and access to computational resources (approximately 500 processors); Center of Earth Observation and Digital Earth Chinese Academy of Sciences (CEODE-CAS, China) with deployed computational nodes based on Globus Toolkit 4 middleware and access to geospatial data (approximately 16 processors). We are currently adding new geospatial services based on optical satellite data, namely MODIS. This work is carried out jointly with the CEODE-CAS. Using workflow patterns that were developed for SAR data processing we are building new workflows for optical data processing.

  18. RAVE-a Detector-independent vertex reconstruction toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Waltenberger, Wolfgang [Institute of High Energy Physics, Austrian Academy of Sciences A-1050 Vienna (Austria)], E-mail: walten@hephy.oeaw.ac.at; Mitaroff, Winfried; Moser, Fabian [Institute of High Energy Physics, Austrian Academy of Sciences A-1050 Vienna (Austria)

    2007-10-21

    A detector-independent toolkit for vertex reconstruction (RAVE) is being developed, along with a standalone framework (VERTIGO) for testing, analyzing and debugging. The core algorithms represent state of the art for geometric vertex finding and fitting by both linear (Kalman filter) and robust estimation methods. Main design goals are ease of use, flexibility for embedding into existing software frameworks, extensibility, and openness. The implementation is based on modern object-oriented techniques, is coded in C++ with interfaces for Java and Python, and follows an open-source approach. A beta release is available.

  19. Tips from the toolkit: 1 - know yourself.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steer, Neville

    2010-01-01

    High performance organisations review their strategy and business processes as part of usual business operations. If you are new to the field of general practice, do you have a career plan for the next 5-10 years? If you are an experienced general practitioner, are you using much the same business model and processes as when you started out? The following article sets out some ideas you might use to have a fresh approach to your professional career. It is based on The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' 'General practice management toolkit'.

  20. RAVE-a Detector-independent vertex reconstruction toolkit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Waltenberger, Wolfgang; Mitaroff, Winfried; Moser, Fabian

    2007-01-01

    A detector-independent toolkit for vertex reconstruction (RAVE) is being developed, along with a standalone framework (VERTIGO) for testing, analyzing and debugging. The core algorithms represent state of the art for geometric vertex finding and fitting by both linear (Kalman filter) and robust estimation methods. Main design goals are ease of use, flexibility for embedding into existing software frameworks, extensibility, and openness. The implementation is based on modern object-oriented techniques, is coded in C++ with interfaces for Java and Python, and follows an open-source approach. A beta release is available

  1. FATES: a flexible analysis toolkit for the exploration of single-particle mass spectrometer data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sultana, Camille M.; Cornwell, Gavin C.; Rodriguez, Paul; Prather, Kimberly A.

    2017-04-01

    Single-particle mass spectrometer (SPMS) analysis of aerosols has become increasingly popular since its invention in the 1990s. Today many iterations of commercial and lab-built SPMSs are in use worldwide. However, supporting analysis toolkits for these powerful instruments are outdated, have limited functionality, or are versions that are not available to the scientific community at large. In an effort to advance this field and allow better communication and collaboration between scientists, we have developed FATES (Flexible Analysis Toolkit for the Exploration of SPMS data), a MATLAB toolkit easily extensible to an array of SPMS designs and data formats. FATES was developed to minimize the computational demands of working with large data sets while still allowing easy maintenance, modification, and utilization by novice programmers. FATES permits scientists to explore, without constraint, complex SPMS data with simple scripts in a language popular for scientific numerical analysis. In addition FATES contains an array of data visualization graphic user interfaces (GUIs) which can aid both novice and expert users in calibration of raw data; exploration of the dependence of mass spectral characteristics on size, time, and peak intensity; and investigations of clustered data sets.

  2. The PRIDE (Partnership to Improve Diabetes Education) Toolkit: Development and Evaluation of Novel Literacy and Culturally Sensitive Diabetes Education Materials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolff, Kathleen; Chambers, Laura; Bumol, Stefan; White, Richard O; Gregory, Becky Pratt; Davis, Dianne; Rothman, Russell L

    2016-02-01

    Patients with low literacy, low numeracy, and/or linguistic needs can experience challenges understanding diabetes information and applying concepts to their self-management. The authors designed a toolkit of education materials that are sensitive to patients' literacy and numeracy levels, language preferences, and cultural norms and that encourage shared goal setting to improve diabetes self-management and health outcomes. The Partnership to Improve Diabetes Education (PRIDE) toolkit was developed to facilitate diabetes self-management education and support. The PRIDE toolkit includes a comprehensive set of 30 interactive education modules in English and Spanish to support diabetes self-management activities. The toolkit builds upon the authors' previously validated Diabetes Literacy and Numeracy Education Toolkit (DLNET) by adding a focus on shared goal setting, addressing the needs of Spanish-speaking patients, and including a broader range of diabetes management topics. Each PRIDE module was evaluated using the Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM) instrument to determine the material's cultural appropriateness and its sensitivity to the needs of patients with low literacy and low numeracy. Reading grade level was also assessed using the Automated Readability Index (ARI), Coleman-Liau, Flesch-Kincaid, Fry, and SMOG formulas. The average reading grade level of the materials was 5.3 (SD 1.0), with a mean SAM of 91.2 (SD 5.4). All of the 30 modules received a "superior" score (SAM >70%) when evaluated by 2 independent raters. The PRIDE toolkit modules can be used by all members of a multidisciplinary team to assist patients with low literacy and low numeracy in managing their diabetes. © 2015 The Author(s).

  3. A universal postprocessing toolkit for accelerator simulation and data analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Borland, M.

    1998-01-01

    The Self-Describing Data Sets (SDDS) toolkit comprises about 70 generally-applicable programs sharing a common data protocol. At the Advanced Photon Source (APS), SDDS performs the vast majority of operational data collection and processing, most data display functions, and many control functions. In addition, a number of accelerator simulation codes use SDDS for all post-processing and data display. This has three principle advantages: first, simulation codes need not provide customized post-processing tools, thus simplifying development and maintenance. Second, users can enhance code capabilities without changing the code itself, by adding SDDS-based pre- and post-processing. Third, multiple codes can be used together more easily, by employing SDDS for data transfer and adaptation. Given its broad applicability, the SDDS file protocol is surprisingly simple, making it quite easy for simulations to generate SDDS-compliant data. This paper discusses the philosophy behind SDDS, contrasting it with some recent trends, and outlines the capabilities of the toolkit. The paper also gives examples of using SDDS for accelerator simulation

  4. Making Schools the Model for Healthier Environments Toolkit: What It Is

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2012

    2012-01-01

    Healthy students perform better. Poor nutrition and inadequate physical activity can affect not only academic achievement, but also other factors such as absenteeism, classroom behavior, ability to concentrate, self-esteem, cognitive performance, and test scores. This toolkit provides information to help make schools the model for healthier…

  5. Audit: Automated Disk Investigation Toolkit

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Umit Karabiyik

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Software tools designed for disk analysis play a critical role today in forensics investigations. However, these digital forensics tools are often difficult to use, usually task specific, and generally require professionally trained users with IT backgrounds. The relevant tools are also often open source requiring additional technical knowledge and proper configuration. This makes it difficult for investigators without some computer science background to easily conduct the needed disk analysis. In this paper, we present AUDIT, a novel automated disk investigation toolkit that supports investigations conducted by non-expert (in IT and disk technology and expert investigators. Our proof of concept design and implementation of AUDIT intelligently integrates open source tools and guides non-IT professionals while requiring minimal technical knowledge about the disk structures and file systems of the target disk image.

  6. Falling Less in Kansas: Development of a Fall Risk Reduction Toolkit

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Teresa S. Radebaugh

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Falls are a serious health risk for older adults. But for those living in rural and frontier areas of the USA, the risks are higher because of limited access to health care providers and resources. This study employed a community-based participatory research approach to develop a fall prevention toolkit to be used by residents of rural and frontier areas without the assistance of health care providers. Qualitative data were gathered from both key informant interviews and focus groups with a broad range of participants. Data analysis revealed that to be effective and accepted, the toolkit should be not only evidence based but also practical, low-cost, self-explanatory, and usable without the assistance of a health care provider. Materials must be engaging, visually interesting, empowering, sensitive to reading level, and appropriate for low-vision users. These findings should be useful to other researchers developing education and awareness materials for older adults in rural areas.

  7. Evidence-based Metrics Toolkit for Measuring Safety and Efficiency in Human-Automation Systems

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — APRIL 2016 NOTE: Principal Investigator moved to Rice University in mid-2015. Project continues at Rice with the same title (Evidence-based Metrics Toolkit for...

  8. A Software Toolkit to Study Systematic Uncertainties of the Physics Models of the Geant4 Simulation Package

    CERN Document Server

    Genser, Krzysztof; Perdue, Gabriel; Wenzel, Hans; Yarba, Julia; Kelsey, Michael; Wright, Dennis H

    2016-01-01

    The Geant4 toolkit is used to model interactions between particles and matter. Geant4 employs a set of validated physics models that span a wide range of interaction energies. These models are tuned to cover a large variety of possible applications. This raises the critical question of what uncertainties are associated with the Geant4 physics model, or group of models, involved in a simulation project. To address the challenge, we have designed and implemented a comprehen- sive, modular, user-friendly software toolkit that allows the variation of one or more parameters of one or more Geant4 physics models involved in simulation studies. It also enables analysis of multiple variants of the resulting physics observables of interest in order to estimate the uncertain- ties associated with the simulation model choices. Key functionalities of the toolkit are presented in this paper and are illustrated with selected results.

  9. STAR: Software Toolkit for Analysis Research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doak, J.E.; Prommel, J.M.; Whiteson, R.; Hoffbauer, B.L.; Thomas, T.R.; Helman, P.

    1993-01-01

    Analyzing vast quantities of data from diverse information sources is an increasingly important element for nonproliferation and arms control analysis. Much of the work in this area has used human analysts to assimilate, integrate, and interpret complex information gathered from various sources. With the advent of fast computers, we now have the capability to automate this process thereby shifting this burden away from humans. In addition, there now exist huge data storage capabilities which have made it possible to formulate large integrated databases comprising many thereabouts of information spanning a variety of subjects. We are currently designing a Software Toolkit for Analysis Research (STAR) to address these issues. The goal of STAR is to Produce a research tool that facilitates the development and interchange of algorithms for locating phenomena of interest to nonproliferation and arms control experts. One major component deals with the preparation of information. The ability to manage and effectively transform raw data into a meaningful form is a prerequisite for analysis by any methodology. The relevant information to be analyzed can be either unstructured text structured data, signals, or images. Text can be numerical and/or character, stored in raw data files, databases, streams of bytes, or compressed into bits in formats ranging from fixed, to character-delimited, to a count followed by content The data can be analyzed in real-time or batch mode. Once the data are preprocessed, different analysis techniques can be applied. Some are built using expert knowledge. Others are trained using data collected over a period of time. Currently, we are considering three classes of analyzers for use in our software toolkit: (1) traditional machine learning techniques, (2) the purely statistical system, and (3) expert systems

  10. MX: A beamline control system toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lavender, William M.

    2000-06-01

    The development of experimental and beamline control systems for two Collaborative Access Teams at the Advanced Photon Source has resulted in the creation of a portable data acquisition and control toolkit called MX. MX consists of a set of servers, application programs and libraries that enable the creation of command line and graphical user interface applications that may be easily retargeted to new and different kinds of motor and device controllers. The source code for MX is written in ANSI C and Tcl/Tk with interprocess communication via TCP/IP. MX is available for several versions of Unix, Windows 95/98/NT and DOS. It may be downloaded from the web site http://www.imca.aps.anl.gov/mx/.

  11. Technologies and tools for high-performance distributed computing. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Karonis, Nicholas T.

    2000-05-01

    In this project we studied the practical use of the MPI message-passing interface in advanced distributed computing environments. We built on the existing software infrastructure provided by the Globus Toolkit{trademark}, the MPICH portable implementation of MPI, and the MPICH-G integration of MPICH with Globus. As a result of this project we have replaced MPICH-G with its successor MPICH-G2, which is also an integration of MPICH with Globus. MPICH-G2 delivers significant improvements in message passing performance when compared to its predecessor MPICH-G and was based on superior software design principles resulting in a software base that was much easier to make the functional extensions and improvements we did. Using Globus services we replaced the default implementation of MPI's collective operations in MPICH-G2 with more efficient multilevel topology-aware collective operations which, in turn, led to the development of a new timing methodology for broadcasts [8]. MPICH-G2 was extended to include client/server functionality from the MPI-2 standard [23] to facilitate remote visualization applications and, through the use of MPI idioms, MPICH-G2 provided application-level control of quality-of-service parameters as well as application-level discovery of underlying Grid-topology information. Finally, MPICH-G2 was successfully used in a number of applications including an award-winning record-setting computation in numerical relativity. In the sections that follow we describe in detail the accomplishments of this project, we present experimental results quantifying the performance improvements, and conclude with a discussion of our applications experiences. This project resulted in a significant increase in the utility of MPICH-G2.

  12. Methodology for the development of a taxonomy and toolkit to evaluate health-related habits and lifestyle (eVITAL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Walsh Carolyn O

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Chronic diseases cause an ever-increasing percentage of morbidity and mortality, but many have modifiable risk factors. Many behaviors that predispose or protect an individual to chronic disease are interrelated, and therefore are best approached using an integrated model of health and the longevity paradigm, using years lived without disability as the endpoint. Findings This study used a 4-phase mixed qualitative design to create a taxonomy and related online toolkit for the evaluation of health-related habits. Core members of a working group conducted a literature review and created a framing document that defined relevant constructs. This document was revised, first by a working group and then by a series of multidisciplinary expert groups. The working group and expert panels also designed a systematic evaluation of health behaviors and risks, which was computerized and evaluated for feasibility. A demonstration study of the toolkit was performed in 11 healthy volunteers. Discussion In this protocol, we used forms of the community intelligence approach, including frame analysis, feasibility, and demonstration, to develop a clinical taxonomy and an online toolkit with standardized procedures for screening and evaluation of multiple domains of health, with a focus on longevity and the goal of integrating the toolkit into routine clinical practice. Trial Registration IMSERSO registry 200700012672

  13. An evaluation capacity building toolkit for principal investigators of undergraduate research experiences: A demonstration of transforming theory into practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rorrer, Audrey S

    2016-04-01

    This paper describes the approach and process undertaken to develop evaluation capacity among the leaders of a federally funded undergraduate research program. An evaluation toolkit was developed for Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering(1) Research Experiences for Undergraduates(2) (CISE REU) programs to address the ongoing need for evaluation capacity among principal investigators who manage program evaluation. The toolkit was the result of collaboration within the CISE REU community with the purpose being to provide targeted instructional resources and tools for quality program evaluation. Challenges were to balance the desire for standardized assessment with the responsibility to account for individual program contexts. Toolkit contents included instructional materials about evaluation practice, a standardized applicant management tool, and a modulated outcomes measure. Resulting benefits from toolkit deployment were having cost effective, sustainable evaluation tools, a community evaluation forum, and aggregate measurement of key program outcomes for the national program. Lessons learned included the imperative of understanding the evaluation context, engaging stakeholders, and building stakeholder trust. Results from project measures are presented along with a discussion of guidelines for facilitating evaluation capacity building that will serve a variety of contexts. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  14. The Python ARM Radar Toolkit (Py-ART, a Library for Working with Weather Radar Data in the Python Programming Language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jonathan J Helmus

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The Python ARM Radar Toolkit is a package for reading, visualizing, correcting and analysing data from weather radars. Development began to meet the needs of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility and has since expanded to provide a general-purpose framework for working with data from weather radars in the Python programming language. The toolkit is built on top of libraries in the Scientific Python ecosystem including NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib, and makes use of Cython for interfacing with existing radar libraries written in C and to speed up computationally demanding algorithms. The source code for the toolkit is available on GitHub and is distributed under a BSD license.

  15. phylo-node: A molecular phylogenetic toolkit using Node.js.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Halloran, Damien M

    2017-01-01

    Node.js is an open-source and cross-platform environment that provides a JavaScript codebase for back-end server-side applications. JavaScript has been used to develop very fast and user-friendly front-end tools for bioinformatic and phylogenetic analyses. However, no such toolkits are available using Node.js to conduct comprehensive molecular phylogenetic analysis. To address this problem, I have developed, phylo-node, which was developed using Node.js and provides a stable and scalable toolkit that allows the user to perform diverse molecular and phylogenetic tasks. phylo-node can execute the analysis and process the resulting outputs from a suite of software options that provides tools for read processing and genome alignment, sequence retrieval, multiple sequence alignment, primer design, evolutionary modeling, and phylogeny reconstruction. Furthermore, phylo-node enables the user to deploy server dependent applications, and also provides simple integration and interoperation with other Node modules and languages using Node inheritance patterns, and a customized piping module to support the production of diverse pipelines. phylo-node is open-source and freely available to all users without sign-up or login requirements. All source code and user guidelines are openly available at the GitHub repository: https://github.com/dohalloran/phylo-node.

  16. Innovations in oral health: A toolkit for interprofessional education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dolce, Maria C; Parker, Jessica L; Werrlein, Debra T

    2017-05-01

    The integration of oral health competencies into non-dental health professions curricula can serve as an effective driver for interprofessional education (IPE). The purpose of this report is to describe a replicable oral-health-driven IPE model and corresponding online toolkit, both of which were developed as part of the Innovations in Oral Health (IOH): Technology, Instruction, Practice, and Service programme at Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, USA. Tooth decay is a largely preventable disease that is connected to overall health and wellness, and it affects the majority of adults and a fifth of children in the United States. To prepare all health professionals to address this problem, the IOH model couples programming from the online resource Smiles for Life: A National Oral Health Curriculum with experiential learning opportunities designed for undergraduate and graduate students that include simulation-learning (technology), hands-on workshops and didactic sessions (instruction), and opportunities for both cooperative education (practice) and community-based learning (service). The IOH Toolkit provides the means for others to replicate portions of the IOH model or to establish a large-scale IPE initiative that will support the creation of an interprofessional workforce-one equipped with oral health competencies and ready for collaborative practice.

  17. An adaptive toolkit for image quality evaluation in system performance test of digital breast tomosynthesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Guozhi; Petrov, Dimitar; Marshall, Nicholas; Bosmans, Hilde

    2017-03-01

    Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is a relatively new diagnostic imaging modality for women. Currently, various models of DBT systems are available on the market and the number of installations is rapidly increasing. EUREF, the European Reference Organization for Quality Assured Breast Screening and Diagnostic Services, has proposed a preliminary Guideline - protocol for the quality control of the physical and technical aspects of digital breast tomosynthesis systems, with an ultimate aim of providing limiting values guaranteeing proper performance for different applications of DBT. In this work, we introduce an adaptive toolkit developed in accordance with this guideline to facilitate the process of image quality evaluation in DBT performance test. This toolkit implements robust algorithms to quantify various technical parameters of DBT images and provides a convenient user interface in practice. Each test is built into a separate module with configurations set corresponding to the European guideline, which can be easily adapted to different settings and extended with additional tests. This toolkit largely improves the efficiency for image quality evaluation of DBT. It is also going to evolve with the development of protocols in quality control of DBT systems.

  18. Open Drug Discovery Toolkit (ODDT): a new open-source player in the drug discovery field.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wójcikowski, Maciej; Zielenkiewicz, Piotr; Siedlecki, Pawel

    2015-01-01

    There has been huge progress in the open cheminformatics field in both methods and software development. Unfortunately, there has been little effort to unite those methods and software into one package. We here describe the Open Drug Discovery Toolkit (ODDT), which aims to fulfill the need for comprehensive and open source drug discovery software. The Open Drug Discovery Toolkit was developed as a free and open source tool for both computer aided drug discovery (CADD) developers and researchers. ODDT reimplements many state-of-the-art methods, such as machine learning scoring functions (RF-Score and NNScore) and wraps other external software to ease the process of developing CADD pipelines. ODDT is an out-of-the-box solution designed to be easily customizable and extensible. Therefore, users are strongly encouraged to extend it and develop new methods. We here present three use cases for ODDT in common tasks in computer-aided drug discovery. Open Drug Discovery Toolkit is released on a permissive 3-clause BSD license for both academic and industrial use. ODDT's source code, additional examples and documentation are available on GitHub (https://github.com/oddt/oddt).

  19. SwingStates: adding state machines to the swing toolkit

    OpenAIRE

    Appert , Caroline; Beaudouin-Lafon , Michel

    2006-01-01

    International audience; This article describes SwingStates, a library that adds state machines to the Java Swing user interface toolkit. Unlike traditional approaches, which use callbacks or listeners to define interaction, state machines provide a powerful control structure and localize all of the interaction code in one place. SwingStates takes advantage of Java's inner classes, providing programmers with a natural syntax and making it easier to follow and debug the resulting code. SwingSta...

  20. The RAVE/VERTIGO vertex reconstruction toolkit and framework

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waltenberger, W.; Mitaroff, W.; Moser, F.; Pflugfelder, B.; Riedel, H. V.

    2008-07-01

    A detector-independent toolkit for vertex reconstruction (RAVE1) is being developed, along with a standalone framework (VERTIGO2) for testing, analyzing and debugging. The core algorithms represent state-of-the-art for geometric vertex finding and fitting by both linear (Kalman filter) and robust estimation methods. Main design goals are ease of use, flexibility for embedding into existing software frameworks, extensibility, and openness. The implementation is based on modern object-oriented techniques, is coded in C++ with interfaces for Java and Python, and follows an open-source approach. A beta release is available.

  1. The Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) toolkit (Presentation)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Caroline Draxl: NREL

    2014-01-01

    Regional wind integration studies require detailed wind power output data at many locations to perform simulations of how the power system will operate under high penetration scenarios. The wind datasets that serve as inputs into the study must realistically reflect the ramping characteristics, spatial and temporal correlations, and capacity factors of the simulated wind plants, as well as being time synchronized with available load profiles.As described in this presentation, the WIND Toolkit fulfills these requirements by providing a state-of-the-art national (US) wind resource, power production and forecast dataset.

  2. An expanded framework for the advanced computational testing and simulation toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Marques, Osni A.; Drummond, Leroy A.

    2003-11-09

    The Advanced Computational Testing and Simulation (ACTS) Toolkit is a set of computational tools developed primarily at DOE laboratories and is aimed at simplifying the solution of common and important computational problems. The use of the tools reduces the development time for new codes and the tools provide functionality that might not otherwise be available. This document outlines an agenda for expanding the scope of the ACTS Project based on lessons learned from current activities. Highlights of this agenda include peer-reviewed certification of new tools; finding tools to solve problems that are not currently addressed by the Toolkit; working in collaboration with other software initiatives and DOE computer facilities; expanding outreach efforts; promoting interoperability, further development of the tools; and improving functionality of the ACTS Information Center, among other tasks. The ultimate goal is to make the ACTS tools more widely used and more effective in solving DOE's and the nation's scientific problems through the creation of a reliable software infrastructure for scientific computing.

  3. A framework for a teaching toolkit in entrepreneurship education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fellnhofer, Katharina

    2017-01-01

    Despite mounting interest in entrepreneurship education (EE), innovative approaches such as multimedia, web-based toolkits including entrepreneurial storytelling have been largely ignored in the EE discipline. Therefore, this conceptual contribution introduces eight propositions as a fruitful basis for assessing a 'learning-through-real-multimedia-entrepreneurial-narratives' pedagogical approach. These recommendations prepare the grounds for a future, empirical investigation of this currently under-researched topic, which could be essential for multiple domains including academic, business and society.

  4. REST: a toolkit for resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data processing.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiao-Wei Song

    Full Text Available Resting-state fMRI (RS-fMRI has been drawing more and more attention in recent years. However, a publicly available, systematically integrated and easy-to-use tool for RS-fMRI data processing is still lacking. We developed a toolkit for the analysis of RS-fMRI data, namely the RESting-state fMRI data analysis Toolkit (REST. REST was developed in MATLAB with graphical user interface (GUI. After data preprocessing with SPM or AFNI, a few analytic methods can be performed in REST, including functional connectivity analysis based on linear correlation, regional homogeneity, amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF, and fractional ALFF. A few additional functions were implemented in REST, including a DICOM sorter, linear trend removal, bandpass filtering, time course extraction, regression of covariates, image calculator, statistical analysis, and slice viewer (for result visualization, multiple comparison correction, etc.. REST is an open-source package and is freely available at http://www.restfmri.net.

  5. A new open-source Python-based Space Weather data access, visualization, and analysis toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Larquier, S.; Ribeiro, A.; Frissell, N. A.; Spaleta, J.; Kunduri, B.; Thomas, E. G.; Ruohoniemi, J.; Baker, J. B.

    2013-12-01

    Space weather research relies heavily on combining and comparing data from multiple observational platforms. Current frameworks exist to aggregate some of the data sources, most based on file downloads via web or ftp interfaces. Empirical models are mostly fortran based and lack interfaces with more useful scripting languages. In an effort to improve data and model access, the SuperDARN community has been developing a Python-based Space Science Data Visualization Toolkit (DaViTpy). At the center of this development was a redesign of how our data (from 30 years of SuperDARN radars) was made available. Several access solutions are now wrapped into one convenient Python interface which probes local directories, a new remote NoSQL database, and an FTP server to retrieve the requested data based on availability. Motivated by the efficiency of this interface and the inherent need for data from multiple instruments, we implemented similar modules for other space science datasets (POES, OMNI, Kp, AE...), and also included fundamental empirical models with Python interfaces to enhance data analysis (IRI, HWM, MSIS...). All these modules and more are gathered in a single convenient toolkit, which is collaboratively developed and distributed using Github and continues to grow. While still in its early stages, we expect this toolkit will facilitate multi-instrument space weather research and improve scientific productivity.

  6. A Teacher Tablet Toolkit to meet the challenges posed by 21st ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The course, as outcome, is presented as a Teacher Tablet Toolkit, designed to meet the challenges inherent to the 21st century rural technology enhanced teaching and learning environment. The paper documents and motivates design decisions, derived from literature and adapted through three iterations of a Design ...

  7. A toolkit for computerized operating procedure of complex industrial systems with IVI-COM technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhou Yangping; Dong Yujie; Huang Xiaojing; Ye Jingliang; Yoshikawa, Hidekazu

    2013-01-01

    A human interface toolkit is proposed to help the user develop computerized operating procedure of complex industrial system such as Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). Coupled with a friendly graphical interface, this integrated tool includes a database, a procedure editor and a procedure executor. A three layer hierarchy is adopted to express the complexity of operating procedure, which includes mission, process and node. There are 10 kinds of node: entrance, exit, hint, manual input, detector, actuator, data treatment, branch, judgment and plug-in. The computerized operating procedure will sense and actuate the actual industrial systems with the interface based on IVI-COM (Interchangeable Virtual Instrumentation-Component Object Model) technology. A prototype system of this human interface toolkit has been applied to develop a simple computerized operating procedure for a simulated NPP. (author)

  8. PS1-29: Resources to Facilitate Multi-site Collaboration: the PRIMER Research Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greene, Sarah; Thompson, Ella; Baldwin, Laura-Mae; Neale, Anne Victoria; Dolor, Rowena

    2010-01-01

    repository: www.ResearchToolkit.org, which is comprised of over 120 distinct resources. Conclusions: We are disseminating the ResearchToolkit website via academic and media channels, and identifying options for making it a sustainable resource. Given the dynamic nature of the research enterprise, maintenance and accuracy of a web-based resource is challenging. Still, the positive response to the toolkit suggests that there is high interest in sustaining it. We will demonstrate the Toolkit as part of this conference.

  9. The MOLGENIS toolkit: rapid prototyping of biosoftware at the push of a button.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swertz, Morris A; Dijkstra, Martijn; Adamusiak, Tomasz; van der Velde, Joeri K; Kanterakis, Alexandros; Roos, Erik T; Lops, Joris; Thorisson, Gudmundur A; Arends, Danny; Byelas, George; Muilu, Juha; Brookes, Anthony J; de Brock, Engbert O; Jansen, Ritsert C; Parkinson, Helen

    2010-12-21

    There is a huge demand on bioinformaticians to provide their biologists with user friendly and scalable software infrastructures to capture, exchange, and exploit the unprecedented amounts of new *omics data. We here present MOLGENIS, a generic, open source, software toolkit to quickly produce the bespoke MOLecular GENetics Information Systems needed. The MOLGENIS toolkit provides bioinformaticians with a simple language to model biological data structures and user interfaces. At the push of a button, MOLGENIS' generator suite automatically translates these models into a feature-rich, ready-to-use web application including database, user interfaces, exchange formats, and scriptable interfaces. Each generator is a template of SQL, JAVA, R, or HTML code that would require much effort to write by hand. This 'model-driven' method ensures reuse of best practices and improves quality because the modeling language and generators are shared between all MOLGENIS applications, so that errors are found quickly and improvements are shared easily by a re-generation. A plug-in mechanism ensures that both the generator suite and generated product can be customized just as much as hand-written software. In recent years we have successfully evaluated the MOLGENIS toolkit for the rapid prototyping of many types of biomedical applications, including next-generation sequencing, GWAS, QTL, proteomics and biobanking. Writing 500 lines of model XML typically replaces 15,000 lines of hand-written programming code, which allows for quick adaptation if the information system is not yet to the biologist's satisfaction. Each application generated with MOLGENIS comes with an optimized database back-end, user interfaces for biologists to manage and exploit their data, programming interfaces for bioinformaticians to script analysis tools in R, Java, SOAP, REST/JSON and RDF, a tab-delimited file format to ease upload and exchange of data, and detailed technical documentation. Existing databases

  10. Object Toolkit Version 4.3 User’s Manual

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-12-31

    and with Nascap-2k. See the EPIC and Nascap-2k manuals for instructions. Most of the difficulties that users have encountered with Object Toolkit are...4/icond). 12.3 Importing Components From a NX I-DEAS TMG ASCII VUFF File Users of the NX I-DEAS TMG thermal analysis program can import the ASCII...2k user interface. The meaning of these properties is discussed in the Nascap-2k User’s Manual . Figure 36. Detector Properties Dialog Box. 15.5

  11. The MOLGENIS toolkit : rapid prototyping of biosoftware at the push of a button

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Swertz, Morris A.; Dijkstra, Martijn; Adamusiak, Tomasz; van der Velde, Joeri K.; Kanterakis, Alexandros; Roos, Erik T.; Lops, Joris; Thorisson, Gudmundur A.; Arends, Danny; Byelas, George; Muilu, Juha; Brookes, Anthony J.; de Brock, Engbert O.; Jansen, Ritsert C.; Parkinson, Helen

    2010-01-01

    Background: There is a huge demand on bioinformaticians to provide their biologists with user friendly and scalable software infrastructures to capture, exchange, and exploit the unprecedented amounts of new *omics data. We here present MOLGENIS, a generic, open source, software toolkit to quickly

  12. Peer support for families of children with complex needs: Development and dissemination of a best practice toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schippke, J; Provvidenza, C; Kingsnorth, S

    2017-11-01

    Benefits of peer support interventions for families of children with disabilities and complex medical needs have been described in the literature. An opportunity to create an evidence-informed resource to synthesize best practices in peer support for program providers was identified. The objective of this paper is to describe the key activities used to develop and disseminate the Peer Support Best Practice Toolkit. This project was led by a team of knowledge translation experts at a large pediatric rehabilitation hospital using a knowledge exchange framework. An integrated knowledge translation approach was used to engage stakeholders in the development process through focus groups and a working group. To capture best practices in peer support, a rapid evidence review and review of related resources were completed. Case studies were also included to showcase practice-based evidence. The toolkit is freely available online for download and is structured into four sections: (a) background and models of peer support, (b) case studies of programs, (c) resources, and (d) rapid evidence review. A communications plan was developed to disseminate the resource and generate awareness through presentations, social media, and champion engagement. Eight months postlaunch, the peer support website received more than 2,400 webpage hits. Early indicators suggest high relevance of this resource among stakeholders. The toolkit format was valuable to synthesize and share best practices in peer support. Strengths of the work include the integrated approach used to develop the toolkit and the inclusion of both the published research literature and experiential evidence. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  13. Proceedings of the Military Operational Medicine Research Program Return to Duty (RTD) Toolkit Expert Panel Workshop, 16-17 February 2017

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-07-10

    Laboratory 2Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education United States Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory Aircrew Health and Performance Division...excluded from the RTD Toolkit Manual, 2) to identify any additional tasks and clinical assessments for inclusion in the RTD Toolkit Manual, and 3) to agree...for Science and Education through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel

  14. NASA Space Radiation Program Integrative Risk Model Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Myung-Hee Y.; Hu, Shaowen; Plante, Ianik; Ponomarev, Artem L.; Sandridge, Chris

    2015-01-01

    NASA Space Radiation Program Element scientists have been actively involved in development of an integrative risk models toolkit that includes models for acute radiation risk and organ dose projection (ARRBOD), NASA space radiation cancer risk projection (NSCR), hemocyte dose estimation (HemoDose), GCR event-based risk model code (GERMcode), and relativistic ion tracks (RITRACKS), NASA radiation track image (NASARTI), and the On-Line Tool for the Assessment of Radiation in Space (OLTARIS). This session will introduce the components of the risk toolkit with opportunity for hands on demonstrations. The brief descriptions of each tools are: ARRBOD for Organ dose projection and acute radiation risk calculation from exposure to solar particle event; NSCR for Projection of cancer risk from exposure to space radiation; HemoDose for retrospective dose estimation by using multi-type blood cell counts; GERMcode for basic physical and biophysical properties for an ion beam, and biophysical and radiobiological properties for a beam transport to the target in the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory beam line; RITRACKS for simulation of heavy ion and delta-ray track structure, radiation chemistry, DNA structure and DNA damage at the molecular scale; NASARTI for modeling of the effects of space radiation on human cells and tissue by incorporating a physical model of tracks, cell nucleus, and DNA damage foci with image segmentation for the automated count; and OLTARIS, an integrated tool set utilizing HZETRN (High Charge and Energy Transport) intended to help scientists and engineers study the effects of space radiation on shielding materials, electronics, and biological systems.

  15. J-TEXT-EPICS: An EPICS toolkit attempted to improve productivity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zheng, Wei; Zhang, Ming; Zhang, Jing; Zhuang, Ge

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: • Tokamak control applications can be developed in very short period with J-TEXT-EPICS. • J-TEXT-EPICS enables users to build control applications with device-oriented functions. • J-TEXT-EPICS is fully compatible with EPICS Channel Access protocol. • J-TEXT-EPICS can be easily extended by plug-ins and drivers. -- Abstract: The Joint Texas Experimental Tokamak (J-TEXT) team has developed a new software toolkit for building Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) control applications called J-TEXT-EPICS. It aims to improve the development efficiency of control applications. With device-oriented features, it can be used to set or obtain the configuration or status of a device as well as invoke methods on a device. With its modularized design, its functions can be easily extended. J-TEXT-EPICS is completely compatible with the original EPICS Channel Access protocol and can be integrated into existing EPICS control systems smoothly. It is fully implemented in C number sign, thus it will benefit from abundant resources in.NET Framework. The J-TEXT control system is build with this toolkit. This paper presents the design and implementation of J-TEXT EPICS as well as its application in the J-TEXT control system

  16. The RAVE/VERTIGO vertex reconstruction toolkit and framework

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Waltenberger, W; Mitaroff, W; Moser, F; Pflugfelder, B; Riedel, H V [Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute of High Energy Physics, A-1050 Vienna (Austria)], E-mail: walten@hephy.oeaw.ac.at

    2008-07-15

    A detector-independent toolkit for vertex reconstruction (RAVE{sup 1}) is being developed, along with a standalone framework (VERTIGO{sup 2}) for testing, analyzing and debugging. The core algorithms represent state-of-the-art for geometric vertex finding and fitting by both linear (Kalman filter) and robust estimation methods. Main design goals are ease of use, flexibility for embedding into existing software frameworks, extensibility, and openness. The implementation is based on modern object-oriented techniques, is coded in C++ with interfaces for Java and Python, and follows an open-source approach. A beta release is available.

  17. Needs assessment: blueprint for a nurse graduate orientation employer toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cylke, Katherine

    2012-01-01

    Southern Nevada nurse employers are resistant to hiring new graduate nurses (NGNs) because of their difficulties in making the transition into the workplace. At the same time, employers consider nurse residencies cost-prohibitive. Therefore, an alternative strategy was developed to assist employers with increasing the effectiveness of existing NGN orientation programs. A needs assessment of NGNs, employers, and nursing educators was completed, and the results were used to develop a toolkit for employers.

  18. Formal verification an essential toolkit for modern VLSI design

    CERN Document Server

    Seligman, Erik; Kumar, M V Achutha Kiran

    2015-01-01

    Formal Verification: An Essential Toolkit for Modern VLSI Design presents practical approaches for design and validation, with hands-on advice for working engineers integrating these techniques into their work. Building on a basic knowledge of System Verilog, this book demystifies FV and presents the practical applications that are bringing it into mainstream design and validation processes at Intel and other companies. The text prepares readers to effectively introduce FV in their organization and deploy FV techniques to increase design and validation productivity. Presents formal verific

  19. A toolkit for integrated deterministic and probabilistic assessment for hydrogen infrastructure.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Groth, Katrina M.; Tchouvelev, Andrei V.

    2014-03-01

    There has been increasing interest in using Quantitative Risk Assessment [QRA] to help improve the safety of hydrogen infrastructure and applications. Hydrogen infrastructure for transportation (e.g. fueling fuel cell vehicles) or stationary (e.g. back-up power) applications is a relatively new area for application of QRA vs. traditional industrial production and use, and as a result there are few tools designed to enable QRA for this emerging sector. There are few existing QRA tools containing models that have been developed and validated for use in small-scale hydrogen applications. However, in the past several years, there has been significant progress in developing and validating deterministic physical and engineering models for hydrogen dispersion, ignition, and flame behavior. In parallel, there has been progress in developing defensible probabilistic models for the occurrence of events such as hydrogen release and ignition. While models and data are available, using this information is difficult due to a lack of readily available tools for integrating deterministic and probabilistic components into a single analysis framework. This paper discusses the first steps in building an integrated toolkit for performing QRA on hydrogen transportation technologies and suggests directions for extending the toolkit.

  20. Evolving the US Climate Resilience Toolkit to Support a Climate-Smart Nation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tilmes, C.; Niepold, F., III; Fox, J. F.; Herring, D.; Dahlman, L. E.; Hall, N.; Gardiner, N.

    2015-12-01

    Communities, businesses, resource managers, and decision-makers at all levels of government need information to understand and ameliorate climate-related risks. Likewise, climate information can expose latent opportunities. Moving from climate science to social and economic decisions raises complex questions about how to communicate the causes and impacts of climate variability and change; how to characterize and quantify vulnerabilities, risks, and opportunities faced by communities and businesses; and how to make and implement "win-win" adaptation plans at local, regional, and national scales. A broad coalition of federal agencies launched the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit (toolkit.climate.gov) in November 2014 to help our nation build resilience to climate-related extreme events. The site's primary audience is planners and decision makers in business, resource management, and government (at all levels) who seek science-based climate information and tools to help them in their near- and long-term planning. The Executive Office of the President assembled a task force of dozens of subject experts from across the 13 agencies of the U.S. Global Change Research Program to guide the site's development. The site's ongoing evolution is driven by feedback from the target audience. For example, based on feedback, climate projections will soon play a more prominent role in the site's "Climate Explorer" tool and case studies. The site's five-step adaptation planning process is being improved to better facilitate people getting started and to provide clear benchmarks for evaluating progress along the way. In this session, we will share lessons learned from a series of user engagements around the nation and evidence that the Toolkit couples climate information with actionable decision-making processes in ways that are helping Americans build resilience to climate-related stressors.

  1. Decision support toolkit for integrated analysis and design of reclaimed water infrastructure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Eun Jung; Criddle, Craig S; Geza, Mengistu; Cath, Tzahi Y; Freyberg, David L

    2018-05-01

    Planning of water reuse systems is a complex endeavor. We have developed a software toolkit, IRIPT (Integrated Urban Reclaimed Water Infrastructure Planning Toolkit) that facilitates planning and design of reclaimed water infrastructure for both centralized and hybrid configurations that incorporate satellite treatment plants (STPs). The toolkit includes a Pipeline Designer (PRODOT) that optimizes routing and sizing of pipelines for wastewater capture and reclaimed water distribution, a Selector (SelWTP) that assembles and optimizes wastewater treatment trains, and a Calculator (CalcBenefit) that estimates fees, revenues, and subsidies of alternative designs. For hybrid configurations, a Locator (LocSTP) optimizes siting of STPs and associated wastewater diversions by identifying manhole locations where the flowrates are sufficient to ensure that wastewater extracted and treated at an adjacent STP can generate the revenue needed to pay for treatment and delivery to customers. Practical local constraints are also applied to screen and identify STP locations. Once suitable sites are selected, System Integrator (ToolIntegrator) identifies a set of centralized and hybrid configurations that: (1) maximize reclaimed water supply, (2) maximize reclaimed water supply while also ensuring a financial benefit for the system, and (3) maximize the net financial benefit for the system. The resulting configurations are then evaluated by an Analyst (SANNA) that uses monetary and non-monetary criteria, with weights assigned to appropriate metrics by a decision-maker, to identify a preferred configuration. To illustrate the structure, assumptions, and use of IRIPT, we apply it to a case study for the city of Golden, CO. The criteria weightings provided by a local decision-maker lead to a preference for a centralized configuration in this case. The Golden case study demonstrates that IRIPT can efficiently analyze centralized and hybrid water reuse configurations and rank them

  2. The Sense-It App: A Smartphone Sensor Toolkit for Citizen Inquiry Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharples, Mike; Aristeidou, Maria; Villasclaras-Fernández, Eloy; Herodotou, Christothea; Scanlon, Eileen

    2017-01-01

    The authors describe the design and formative evaluation of a sensor toolkit for Android smartphones and tablets that supports inquiry-based science learning. The Sense-it app enables a user to access all the motion, environmental and position sensors available on a device, linking these to a website for shared crowd-sourced investigations. The…

  3. BIT: Biosignal Igniter Toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    da Silva, Hugo Plácido; Lourenço, André; Fred, Ana; Martins, Raúl

    2014-06-01

    The study of biosignals has had a transforming role in multiple aspects of our society, which go well beyond the health sciences domains to which they were traditionally associated with. While biomedical engineering is a classical discipline where the topic is amply covered, today biosignals are a matter of interest for students, researchers and hobbyists in areas including computer science, informatics, electrical engineering, among others. Regardless of the context, the use of biosignals in experimental activities and practical projects is heavily bounded by the cost, and limited access to adequate support materials. In this paper we present an accessible, albeit versatile toolkit, composed of low-cost hardware and software, which was created to reinforce the engagement of different people in the field of biosignals. The hardware consists of a modular wireless biosignal acquisition system that can be used to support classroom activities, interface with other devices, or perform rapid prototyping of end-user applications. The software comprehends a set of programming APIs, a biosignal processing toolbox, and a framework for real time data acquisition and postprocessing. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Modeling the tagged-neutron UXO identification technique using the Geant4 toolkit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhou, Y.; Zhu, X.; Wang, Y.; Mitra, S.

    2012-01-01

    It is proposed to use 14 MeV neutrons tagged by the associated particle neutron time-of-flight technique (APnTOF) to identify the fillers of unexploded ordnances (UXO) by characterizing their carbon, nitrogen and oxygen contents. To facilitate the design and construction of a prototype system, a preliminary simulation model was developed, using the Geant4 toolkit. This work established the toolkit environment for (a) generating tagged neutrons, (b) their transport and interactions within a sample to induce emission and detection of characteristic gamma-rays, and (c) 2D and 3D-image reconstruction of the interrogated object using the neutron and gamma-ray time-of-flight information. Using the modeling, this article demonstrates the novelty of the tagged-neutron approach for extracting useful signals with high signal-to-background discrimination of an object-of-interest from that of its environment. Simulations indicated that an UXO filled with the RDX explosive, hexogen (C 3 H 6 O 6 N 6 ), can be identified to a depth of 20 cm when buried in soil. (author)

  5. A software toolkit for implementing low-cost virtual reality training systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Louka, Michael N.

    1999-04-01

    VR is a powerful technology for implementing training systems but better tools are needed to achieve wider usage and acceptance for desktop computer-based training applications. A need has been identified for a software tool kit to support the efficient implementation of well-structured desktop VR training systems. A powerful toolkit for implementing scalable low-cost VR training applications is described in this report (author) (ml)

  6. Does the Good Schools Toolkit Reduce Physical, Sexual and Emotional Violence, and Injuries, in Girls and Boys equally? A Cluster-Randomised Controlled Trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Devries, Karen M; Knight, Louise; Allen, Elizabeth; Parkes, Jenny; Kyegombe, Nambusi; Naker, Dipak

    2017-10-01

    We aimed to investigate whether the Good School Toolkit reduced emotional violence, severe physical violence, sexual violence and injuries from school staff to students, as well as emotional, physical and sexual violence between peers, in Ugandan primary schools. We performed a two-arm cluster randomised controlled trial with parallel assignment. Forty-two schools in one district were allocated to intervention (n = 21) or wait-list control (n = 21) arms in 2012. We did cross-sectional baseline and endline surveys in 2012 and 2014, and the Good School Toolkit intervention was implemented for 18 months between surveys. Analyses were by intention to treat and are adjusted for clustering within schools and for baseline school-level proportions of outcomes. The Toolkit was associated with an overall reduction in any form of violence from staff and/or peers in the past week towards both male (aOR = 0.34, 95%CI 0.22-0.53) and female students (aOR = 0.55, 95%CI 0.36-0.84). Injuries as a result of violence from school staff were also lower in male (aOR = 0.36, 95%CI 0.20-0.65) and female students (aOR = 0.51, 95%CI 0.29-0.90). Although the Toolkit seems to be effective at reducing violence in both sexes, there is some suggestion that the Toolkit may have stronger effects in boys than girls. The Toolkit is a promising intervention to reduce a wide range of different forms of violence from school staff and between peers in schools, and should be urgently considered for scale-up. Further research is needed to investigate how the intervention could engage more successfully with girls.

  7. The Python ARM Radar Toolkit (Py-ART), a Library for Working with Weather Radar Data in the Python Programming Language

    OpenAIRE

    Helmus, Jonathan J; Collis, Scott M

    2016-01-01

    The Python ARM Radar Toolkit is a package for reading, visualizing, correcting and analysing data from weather radars. Development began to meet the needs of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility and has since expanded to provide a general-purpose framework for working with data from weather radars in the Python programming language. The toolkit is built on top of libraries in the Scientific Python ecosystem including NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib, and makes use of Cy...

  8. WING/WORLD: An Open Experimental Toolkit for the Design and Deployment of IEEE 802.11-Based Wireless Mesh Networks Testbeds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniele Miorandi

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Wireless Mesh Networks represent an interesting instance of light-infrastructure wireless networks. Due to their flexibility and resiliency to network failures, wireless mesh networks are particularly suitable for incremental and rapid deployments of wireless access networks in both metropolitan and rural areas. This paper illustrates the design and development of an open toolkit aimed at supporting the design of different solutions for wireless mesh networking by enabling real evaluation, validation, and demonstration. The resulting testbed is based on off-the-shelf hardware components and open-source software and is focused on IEEE 802.11 commodity devices. The software toolkit is based on an “open” philosophy and aims at providing the scientific community with a tool for effective and reproducible performance analysis of WMNs. The paper describes the architecture of the toolkit, and its core functionalities, as well as its potential evolutions.

  9. TMVA(Toolkit for Multivariate Analysis) new architectures design and implementation.

    CERN Document Server

    Zapata Mesa, Omar Andres

    2016-01-01

    Toolkit for Multivariate Analysis(TMVA) is a package in ROOT for machine learning algorithms for classification and regression of the events in the detectors. In TMVA, we are developing new high level algorithms to perform multivariate analysis as cross validation, hyper parameter optimization, variable importance etc... Almost all the algorithms are expensive and designed to process a huge amount of data. It is very important to implement the new technologies on parallel computing to reduce the processing times.

  10. Multimodal Virtual Environments: MAGIC Toolkit and Visual-Haptic Interaction Paradigms

    Science.gov (United States)

    1998-01-01

    devices are exoskeletal in nature. They could be flexible, such as a glove or a suit worn by the user, or they could be rigid, such as jointed linkages...effectiveness of using force control need to be investigated. The MAGIC Toolkit can be used to develop sensory tasks for rehabilitative medicine...display. Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation, San Diego, CA, May 1994. [4] J. E. Colgate, P. E. Grafing, and M. C. Stanley

  11. Mini-grid Policy Tool-kit. Policy and business frameworks for successful mini-grid roll-outs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Franz, Michael; Hayek, Niklas; Peterschmidt, Nico; Rohrer, Michael; Kondev, Bozhil; Adib, Rana; Cader, Catherina; Carter, Andrew; George, Peter; Gichungi, Henry; Hankins, Mark; Kappiah, Mahama; Mangwengwende, Simbarashe E.

    2014-01-01

    The Mini-grid Policy Tool-kit is for policy makers to navigate the mini-grid policy design process. It contains information on mini-grid operator models, the economics of mini-grids, and necessary policy and regulation that must be considered for successful implementation. The publication specifically focuses on Africa. Progress on extending the electricity grid in many countries has remained slow because of high costs of gird-extension and limited utility/state budgets for electrification. Mini-grids provide an affordable and cost-effective option to extend needed electricity services. Putting in place the right policy for min-grid deployment requires considerable effort but can yield significant improvement in electricity access rates as examples from Kenya, Senegal and Tanzania illustrate. The tool-kit is available in English, French and Portuguese

  12. Supporting safe driving with arthritis: developing a driving toolkit for clinical practice and consumer use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vrkljan, Brenda H; Cranney, Ann; Worswick, Julia; O'Donnell, Siobhan; Li, Linda C; Gélinas, Isabelle; Byszewski, Anna; Man-Son-Hing, Malcolm; Marshall, Shawn

    2010-01-01

    We conducted a series of focus groups to explore the information needs of clinicians and consumers related to arthritis and driving. An open coding analysis identified common themes across both consumer and clinician-based focus groups that underscored the importance of addressing driving-related concerns and the challenges associated with assessing safety. The results revealed that although driving is critical for maintaining independence and community mobility, drivers with arthritis experience several problems that can affect safe operation of a motor vehicle. Findings from this study are part of a broader research initiative that will inform the development of the Arthritis and Driving toolkit. This toolkit outlines strategies to support safe mobility for people with arthritis and will be an important resource in the coming years given the aging population.

  13. Modeling Laterality of the Globus Pallidus Internus in Patients With Parkinson's Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharim, Justin; Yazdi, Daniel; Baohan, Amy; Behnke, Eric; Pouratian, Nader

    2017-04-01

    Neurosurgical interventions such as deep brain stimulation surgery of the globus pallidus internus (GPi) play an important role in the treatment of medically refractory Parkinson's disease (PD), and require high targeting accuracy. Variability in the laterality of the GPi across patients with PD has not been well characterized. The aim of this report is to identify factors that may contribute to differences in position of the motor region of GPi. The charts and operative reports of 101 PD patients following deep brain stimulation surgery (70 males, aged 11-78 years) representing 201 GPi were retrospectively reviewed. Data extracted for each subject include age, gender, anterior and posterior commissures (AC-PC) distance, and third ventricular width. Multiple linear regression, stepwise regression, and relative importance of regressors analysis were performed to assess the predictive ability of these variables on GPi laterality. Multiple linear regression for target vs. third ventricular width, gender, AC-PC distance, and age were significant for normalized linear regression coefficients of 0.333 (p laterality of 0.19 mm per mm of ventricular width, 0.11 mm per mm of AC-PC distance, 0.017 mm per year in age, and 0.54 mm increase for male gender. This variability highlights the limitations of indirect targeting alone, and argues for the continued use of MRI as well as intraoperative physiological testing to account for such factors that contribute to patient-specific variability in GPi localization. © 2016 International Neuromodulation Society.

  14. Properties of Neurons in External Globus Pallidus Can Support Optimal Action Selection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bogacz, Rafal; Martin Moraud, Eduardo; Abdi, Azzedine; Magill, Peter J.; Baufreton, Jérôme

    2016-01-01

    The external globus pallidus (GPe) is a key nucleus within basal ganglia circuits that are thought to be involved in action selection. A class of computational models assumes that, during action selection, the basal ganglia compute for all actions available in a given context the probabilities that they should be selected. These models suggest that a network of GPe and subthalamic nucleus (STN) neurons computes the normalization term in Bayes’ equation. In order to perform such computation, the GPe needs to send feedback to the STN equal to a particular function of the activity of STN neurons. However, the complex form of this function makes it unlikely that individual GPe neurons, or even a single GPe cell type, could compute it. Here, we demonstrate how this function could be computed within a network containing two types of GABAergic GPe projection neuron, so-called ‘prototypic’ and ‘arkypallidal’ neurons, that have different response properties in vivo and distinct connections. We compare our model predictions with the experimentally-reported connectivity and input-output functions (f-I curves) of the two populations of GPe neurons. We show that, together, these dichotomous cell types fulfil the requirements necessary to compute the function needed for optimal action selection. We conclude that, by virtue of their distinct response properties and connectivities, a network of arkypallidal and prototypic GPe neurons comprises a neural substrate capable of supporting the computation of the posterior probabilities of actions. PMID:27389780

  15. Application of the SHARP Toolkit to Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor Challenge Problems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shemon, E. R. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Nuclear Engineering Division; Yu, Y. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Nuclear Engineering Division; Kim, T. K. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Nuclear Engineering Division

    2017-09-30

    The Simulation-based High-efficiency Advanced Reactor Prototyping (SHARP) toolkit is under development by the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) Campaign of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy. To better understand and exploit the benefits of advanced modeling simulations, the NEAMS Campaign initiated the “Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) Challenge Problems” task, which include the assessment of hot channel factors (HCFs) and the demonstration of zooming capability using the SHARP toolkit. If both challenge problems are resolved through advanced modeling and simulation using the SHARP toolkit, the economic competitiveness of a SFR can be significantly improved. The efforts in the first year of this project focused on the development of computational models, meshes, and coupling procedures for multi-physics calculations using the neutronics (PROTEUS) and thermal-hydraulic (Nek5000) components of the SHARP toolkit, as well as demonstration of the HCF calculation capability for the 100 MWe Advanced Fast Reactor (AFR-100) design. Testing the feasibility of the SHARP zooming capability is planned in FY 2018. The HCFs developed for the earlier SFRs (FFTF, CRBR, and EBR-II) were reviewed, and a subset of these were identified as potential candidates for reduction or elimination through high-fidelity simulations. A one-way offline coupling method was used to evaluate the HCFs where the neutronics solver PROTEUS computes the power profile based on an assumed temperature, and the computational fluid dynamics solver Nek5000 evaluates the peak temperatures using the neutronics power profile. If the initial temperature profile used in the neutronics calculation is reasonably accurate, the one-way offline method is valid because the neutronics power profile has weak dependence on small temperature variation. In order to get more precise results, the proper temperature profile for initial neutronics calculations was obtained from the

  16. Between structures and norms : Assessing tax increment financing for the Dutch spatial planning toolkit

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Root, Liz; Van Der Krabben, Erwin; Spit, Tejo

    2015-01-01

    The aim of the paper is to assess the institutional (mis)fit of tax increment financing for the Dutch spatial planning financial toolkit. By applying an institutionally oriented assessment framework, we analyse the interconnectivity of Dutch municipal finance and spatial planning structures and

  17. Numerical study of the elastic-plastic cyclic deformation of the ''GLOBUS-M'' compact tokamak central solenoid

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bykov, V.; Kavin, A.; Krivchenkov, Y.; Panin, A.

    1996-01-01

    The ''GLOBUS-M'' is a compact resistive tokamak with a central solenoid (CS) wound around the inner portion of the toroidal field coils. The magnetic field at the solenoid axis amounts to 8.3 T. The CS incorporates two layers of conductor (CuCr copper alloy) baked into insulation. The solenoid is designed to sustain 80,000 energizing. During each loading cycle the solenoid is subjected to the radial forces accompanied with the vertical compression. The most loaded region has been considered and modeled with the use of 2D axisymmetric finite element (FE) model. The model includes two conductor turns baked into insulation compound, copper cooling tubes and solder. The stress analysis shows that there is some plastic deformation in the copper tube and solder during loading and there is some back plastic deformation in the solder during unloading. The reloading does not cause any change in the solenoid stress-strain state in comparison with the case of loading. The number of cycles to failure has been simulated for all metallic components of the solenoid

  18. The Student Writing Toolkit: Enhancing Undergraduate Teaching of Scientific Writing in the Biological Sciences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dirrigl, Frank J., Jr.; Noe, Mark

    2014-01-01

    Teaching scientific writing in biology classes is challenging for both students and instructors. This article offers and reviews several useful "toolkit" items that improve student writing. These include sentence and paper-length templates, funnelling and compartmentalisation, and preparing compendiums of corrections. In addition,…

  19. Analýza marketingové strategie společnosti GLOBUS ČR se zaměřením na nepotravinářskou část sortimentu

    OpenAIRE

    Falcmanová, Klára

    2012-01-01

    The bachelor's thesis is about the analysis of the marketing environment in retail in the Czech Republic. The thesis is concentrated on the influence of marketing environment on GLOBUS ČR and its marketing strategy. The first chapter is theoretical and describes marketing environment and marketing mix, SWOT analysis and market segmentation. In the second chapter are defined the forms and possibilities of marketing communication in the retail environment. The third chapter is practical and the...

  20. Childhood Laryngeal Dystonia Following Bilateral Globus Pallidus Abnormality: A Case Study and Review of Literature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Javad Saeedi Borujeni

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction:Dystonia is a disorder of movement caused by various etiologies. Laryngeal dystonia is caused by the spasm of laryngeal muscles. It is a disorder caused by vocal fold movement in which excessive adduction or abduction of the vocal folds occurs during speech. The pathophysiology of this type of dystonia is not fully known. Some researchers have suggested that basal ganglia structures and their connections with cortical areas have been involved in the pathogenesis of dystonia. Case Report:In this paper a 7.5-year-old boy suffering from laryngeal dystonia with bilateral lesions in Globus Pallidus is presented. The patient also suffered from swallowing problems, monotone voice, vocal tremor, hypersensitivity of gag reflex, and stuttering. Drug treatment failed to cure him; therefore, he was referred to rehabilitation therapy.  Conclusion:In conclusion, special attention should be brought upon laryngeal dystonia, especially in patients showing Extra-pyramidal symptoms and/or abnormalities of the basal ganglia. In children, laryngeal dystonia may be potentially fatal. Lack of consideration for this condition during rehabilitation therapy can lead to serious consequences for a child.

  1. Optimal MRI methods for direct stereotactic targeting of the subthalamic nucleus and globus pallidus

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'Gorman, Ruth L.; Shmueli, Karin; Ashkan, Keyoumars; Selway, Richard P.; Samuel, Michael; Lythgoe, David J.; Shahidiani, Asal; Wastling, Stephen J.; Footman, Michelle; Jarosz, Jozef

    2011-01-01

    Reliable identification of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and globus pallidus interna (GPi) is critical for deep brain stimulation (DBS) of these structures. The purpose of this study was to compare the visibility of the STN and GPi with various MRI techniques and to assess the suitability of each technique for direct stereotactic targeting. MR images were acquired from nine volunteers with T2- and proton density-weighted (PD-W) fast spin echo, susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI), phase-sensitive inversion recovery and quantitative T1, T2 and T2 * mapping sequences. Contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR) for the STN and GPi were calculated for all sequences. Targeting errors on SWI were evaluated on magnetic susceptibility maps. The sequences demonstrating the best conspicuity of DBS target structures (SWI and T2*) were then applied to ten patients with movement disorders, and the CNRs for these techniques were assessed. SWI offers the highest CNR for the STN, but standard PD-W images provide the best CNR for the pallidum. Susceptibility maps indicated that the GPi margins may be shifted slightly on SWI, although no shifts were seen for the STN. SWI may improve the visibility of the STN on pre-operative MRI, potentially improving the accuracy of direct stereotactic targeting. (orig.)

  2. Study of Globus-M Tokamak Poloidal System and Plasma Position Control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dokuka, V. N.; Korenev, P. S.; Mitrishkin, Yu. V.; Pavlova, E. A.; Patrov, M. I.; Khayrutdinov, R. R.

    2017-12-01

    In order to provide efficient performance of tokamaks with vertically elongated plasma position, control systems for limited and diverted plasma configuration are required. The accuracy, stability, speed of response, and reliability of plasma position control as well as plasma shape and current control depend on the performance of the control system. Therefore, the problem of the development of such systems is an important and actual task in modern tokamaks. In this study, the measured signals from the magnetic loops and Rogowski coils are used to reconstruct the plasma equilibrium, for which linear models in small deviations are constructed. We apply methods of the H∞-optimization theory to the synthesize control system for vertical and horizontal position of plasma capable to working with structural uncertainty of the models of the plant. These systems are applied to the plasma-physical DINA code which is configured for the tokamak Globus-M plasma. The testing of the developed systems applied to the DINA code with Heaviside step functions have revealed the complex dynamics of plasma magnetic configurations. Being close to the bifurcation point in the parameter space of unstable plasma has made it possible to detect an abrupt change in the X-point position from the top to the bottom and vice versa. Development of the methods for reconstruction of plasma magnetic configurations and experience in designing plasma control systems with feedback for tokamaks provided an opportunity to synthesize new digital controllers for plasma vertical and horizontal position stabilization. It also allowed us to test the synthesized digital controllers in the closed loop of the control system with the DINA code as a nonlinear model of plasma.

  3. Prototypic and Arkypallidal Neurons in the Dopamine-Intact External Globus Pallidus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdi, Azzedine; Mallet, Nicolas; Mohamed, Foad Y.; Sharott, Andrew; Dodson, Paul D.; Nakamura, Kouichi C.; Suri, Sana; Avery, Sophie V.; Larvin, Joseph T.; Garas, Farid N.; Garas, Shady N.; Vinciati, Federica; Morin, Stéphanie; Bezard, Erwan

    2015-01-01

    Studies in dopamine-depleted rats indicate that the external globus pallidus (GPe) contains two main types of GABAergic projection cell; so-called “prototypic” and “arkypallidal” neurons. Here, we used correlative anatomical and electrophysiological approaches in rats to determine whether and how this dichotomous organization applies to the dopamine-intact GPe. Prototypic neurons coexpressed the transcription factors Nkx2-1 and Lhx6, comprised approximately two-thirds of all GPe neurons, and were the major GPe cell type innervating the subthalamic nucleus (STN). In contrast, arkypallidal neurons expressed the transcription factor FoxP2, constituted just over one-fourth of GPe neurons, and innervated the striatum but not STN. In anesthetized dopamine-intact rats, molecularly identified prototypic neurons fired at relatively high rates and with high regularity, regardless of brain state (slow-wave activity or spontaneous activation). On average, arkypallidal neurons fired at lower rates and regularities than prototypic neurons, and the two cell types could be further distinguished by the temporal coupling of their firing to ongoing cortical oscillations. Complementing the activity differences observed in vivo, the autonomous firing of identified arkypallidal neurons in vitro was slower and more variable than that of prototypic neurons, which tallied with arkypallidal neurons displaying lower amplitudes of a “persistent” sodium current important for such pacemaking. Arkypallidal neurons also exhibited weaker driven and rebound firing compared with prototypic neurons. In conclusion, our data support the concept that a dichotomous functional organization, as actioned by arkypallidal and prototypic neurons with specialized molecular, structural, and physiological properties, is fundamental to the operations of the dopamine-intact GPe. PMID:25926446

  4. Clinical Trial of a Home Safety Toolkit for Alzheimer’s Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kathy J. Horvath

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This randomized clinical trial tested a new self-directed educational intervention to improve caregiver competence to create a safer home environment for persons with dementia living in the community. The sample included 108 patient/caregiver dyads: the intervention group (n=60 received the Home Safety Toolkit (HST, including a new booklet based on health literacy principles, and sample safety items to enhance self-efficacy to make home safety modifications. The control group (n=48 received customary care. Participants completed measures at baseline and at twelve-week follow-up. Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA was used to test for significant group differences. All caregiver outcome variables improved in the intervention group more than in the control. Home safety was significant at P≤0.001, caregiver strain at P≤0.001, and caregiver self-efficacy at P=0.002. Similarly, the care receiver outcome of risky behaviors and accidents was lower in the intervention group (P≤0.001. The self-directed use of this Home Safety Toolkit activated the primary family caregiver to make the home safer for the person with dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT or related disorder. Improving the competence of informal caregivers is especially important for patients with DAT in light of all stakeholders reliance on their unpaid care.

  5. Holmes’ Tremor with Shoulder Pain Treated by Deep Brain Stimulation of Unilateral Ventral Intermediate Thalamic Nucleus and Globus Pallidus Internus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sabri Aydın

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available A 21-year-old male was admitted with severe right arm and hand tremors after a thalamic hemorrhage caused by a traffic accident. He was also suffering from agonizing pain in his right shoulder that manifested after the tremor. Neurologic examination revealed a disabling, severe, and irregular kinetic and postural tremor in the right arm during target-directed movements. There was also an irregular ipsilateral rest tremor and dystonic movements in the distal part of the right arm. The amplitude was moderate at rest and extremely high during kinetic and intentional movements. The patient underwent left globus pallidum internus and ventral intermediate thalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation. The patient improved by more than 80% as rated by the Fahn-Tolosa-Marin Tremor Rating Scale and Visual Analog Scale six months after surgery.

  6. A Toolkit to Study Sensitivity of the Geant4 Predictions to the Variations of the Physics Model Parameters

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fields, Laura [Fermilab; Genser, Krzysztof [Fermilab; Hatcher, Robert [Fermilab; Kelsey, Michael [SLAC; Perdue, Gabriel [Fermilab; Wenzel, Hans [Fermilab; Wright, Dennis H. [SLAC; Yarba, Julia [Fermilab

    2017-08-21

    Geant4 is the leading detector simulation toolkit used in high energy physics to design detectors and to optimize calibration and reconstruction software. It employs a set of carefully validated physics models to simulate interactions of particles with matter across a wide range of interaction energies. These models, especially the hadronic ones, rely largely on directly measured cross-sections and phenomenological predictions with physically motivated parameters estimated by theoretical calculation or measurement. Because these models are tuned to cover a very wide range of possible simulation tasks, they may not always be optimized for a given process or a given material. This raises several critical questions, e.g. how sensitive Geant4 predictions are to the variations of the model parameters, or what uncertainties are associated with a particular tune of a Geant4 physics model, or a group of models, or how to consistently derive guidance for Geant4 model development and improvement from a wide range of available experimental data. We have designed and implemented a comprehensive, modular, user-friendly software toolkit to study and address such questions. It allows one to easily modify parameters of one or several Geant4 physics models involved in the simulation, and to perform collective analysis of multiple variants of the resulting physics observables of interest and comparison against a variety of corresponding experimental data. Based on modern event-processing infrastructure software, the toolkit offers a variety of attractive features, e.g. flexible run-time configurable workflow, comprehensive bookkeeping, easy to expand collection of analytical components. Design, implementation technology, and key functionalities of the toolkit are presented and illustrated with results obtained with Geant4 key hadronic models.

  7. Economic evaluation of the Good School Toolkit: an intervention for reducing violence in primary schools in Uganda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greco, Giulia; Knight, Louise; Ssekadde, Willington; Namy, Sophie; Naker, Dipak; Devries, Karen

    2018-01-01

    This paper presents the cost and cost-effectiveness of the Good School Toolkit (GST), a programme aimed at reducing physical violence perpetrated by school staff to students in Uganda. The effectiveness of the Toolkit was tested with a cluster randomised controlled trial in 42 primary schools in Luwero District, Uganda. A full economic costing evaluation and cost-effectiveness analysis were conducted alongside the trial. Both financial and economic costs were collected retrospectively from the provider's perspective to estimate total and unit costs. The total cost of setting up and running the Toolkit over the 18-month trial period is estimated at US$397 233, excluding process monitor (M&E) activities. The cost to run the intervention is US$7429 per school annually, or US$15 per primary school pupil annually, in the trial intervention schools. It is estimated that the intervention has averted 1620 cases of past-week physical violence during the 18-month implementation period. The total cost per case of violence averted is US$244, and the annual implementation cost is US$96 per case averted during the trial. The GST is a cost-effective intervention for reducing violence against pupils in primary schools in Uganda. It compares favourably against other violence reduction interventions in the region.

  8. Development of an Online Toolkit for Measuring Commercial Building Energy Efficiency Performance -- Scoping Study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Na

    2013-03-13

    This study analyzes the market needs for building performance evaluation tools. It identifies the existing gaps and provides a roadmap for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a toolkit with which to optimize energy performance of a commercial building over its life cycle.

  9. A Grassroots Remote Sensing Toolkit Using Live Coding, Smartphones, Kites and Lightweight Drones.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K Anderson

    Full Text Available This manuscript describes the development of an android-based smartphone application for capturing aerial photographs and spatial metadata automatically, for use in grassroots mapping applications. The aim of the project was to exploit the plethora of on-board sensors within modern smartphones (accelerometer, GPS, compass, camera to generate ready-to-use spatial data from lightweight aerial platforms such as drones or kites. A visual coding 'scheme blocks' framework was used to build the application ('app', so that users could customise their own data capture tools in the field. The paper reports on the coding framework, then shows the results of test flights from kites and lightweight drones and finally shows how open-source geospatial toolkits were used to generate geographical information system (GIS-ready GeoTIFF images from the metadata stored by the app. Two Android smartphones were used in testing-a high specification OnePlus One handset and a lower cost Acer Liquid Z3 handset, to test the operational limits of the app on phones with different sensor sets. We demonstrate that best results were obtained when the phone was attached to a stable single line kite or to a gliding drone. Results show that engine or motor vibrations from powered aircraft required dampening to ensure capture of high quality images. We demonstrate how the products generated from the open-source processing workflow are easily used in GIS. The app can be downloaded freely from the Google store by searching for 'UAV toolkit' (UAV toolkit 2016, and used wherever an Android smartphone and aerial platform are available to deliver rapid spatial data (e.g. in supporting decision-making in humanitarian disaster-relief zones, in teaching or for grassroots remote sensing and democratic mapping.

  10. A Grassroots Remote Sensing Toolkit Using Live Coding, Smartphones, Kites and Lightweight Drones.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, K; Griffiths, D; DeBell, L; Hancock, S; Duffy, J P; Shutler, J D; Reinhardt, W J; Griffiths, A

    2016-01-01

    This manuscript describes the development of an android-based smartphone application for capturing aerial photographs and spatial metadata automatically, for use in grassroots mapping applications. The aim of the project was to exploit the plethora of on-board sensors within modern smartphones (accelerometer, GPS, compass, camera) to generate ready-to-use spatial data from lightweight aerial platforms such as drones or kites. A visual coding 'scheme blocks' framework was used to build the application ('app'), so that users could customise their own data capture tools in the field. The paper reports on the coding framework, then shows the results of test flights from kites and lightweight drones and finally shows how open-source geospatial toolkits were used to generate geographical information system (GIS)-ready GeoTIFF images from the metadata stored by the app. Two Android smartphones were used in testing-a high specification OnePlus One handset and a lower cost Acer Liquid Z3 handset, to test the operational limits of the app on phones with different sensor sets. We demonstrate that best results were obtained when the phone was attached to a stable single line kite or to a gliding drone. Results show that engine or motor vibrations from powered aircraft required dampening to ensure capture of high quality images. We demonstrate how the products generated from the open-source processing workflow are easily used in GIS. The app can be downloaded freely from the Google store by searching for 'UAV toolkit' (UAV toolkit 2016), and used wherever an Android smartphone and aerial platform are available to deliver rapid spatial data (e.g. in supporting decision-making in humanitarian disaster-relief zones, in teaching or for grassroots remote sensing and democratic mapping).

  11. Benchmarking the Collocation Stand-Alone Library and Toolkit (CSALT)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hughes, Steven; Knittel, Jeremy; Shoan, Wendy; Kim, Youngkwang; Conway, Claire; Conway, Darrel J.

    2017-01-01

    This paper describes the processes and results of Verification and Validation (VV) efforts for the Collocation Stand Alone Library and Toolkit (CSALT). We describe the test program and environments, the tools used for independent test data, and comparison results. The VV effort employs classical problems with known analytic solutions, solutions from other available software tools, and comparisons to benchmarking data available in the public literature. Presenting all test results are beyond the scope of a single paper. Here we present high-level test results for a broad range of problems, and detailed comparisons for selected problems.

  12. LBTool: A stochastic toolkit for leave-based key updates

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yuksel, Ender; Nielson, Hanne Riis; Nielson, Flemming

    2012-01-01

    Quantitative techniques have been successfully employed in verification of information and communication systems. However, the use of such techniques are still rare in the area of security. In this paper, we present a toolkit that implements transient analysis on a key update method for wireless...... sensor networks. The analysis aims to find out the probability of a network key being compromised at a specific time point, which result in fluctuations over time for a specific key update method called Leave-based key update. For such a problem, the use of current tools is limited in many ways...

  13. The Multiple-Patient Simulation Toolkit: Purpose, Process, and Pilot.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beroz, Sabrina; Sullivan, Nancy; Kramasz, Vanessa; Morgan, Patricia

    Educating nursing students to safely care for multiple patients has become an important but challenging focus for nurse educators. New graduate nurses are expected to manage care for multiple patients in a complex and multifaceted health care system. With patient safety as a priority, multiple-patient assignments are necessary in order for nursing students to learn how to effectively prioritize and delegate care. The purpose of this project was the construction of an adaptable and flexible template for the development of multiple-patient simulations. Through utilization, the template moved to a toolkit adding an operational guide, sample-populated template, and bibliography.

  14. The Populist Toolkit : Finnish Populism in Action 2007–2016

    OpenAIRE

    Ylä-Anttila, Tuukka

    2017-01-01

    Populism has often been understood as a description of political parties and politicians, who have been labelled either populist or not. This dissertation argues that it is more useful to conceive of populism in action: as something that is done rather than something that is. I propose that the populist toolkit is a collection of cultural practices, which politicians and citizens use to make sense of and do politics, by claiming that ‘the people’ are opposed by a corrupt elite – a powerful cl...

  15. The interactive learning toolkit: technology and the classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lukoff, Brian; Tucker, Laura

    2011-04-01

    Peer Instruction (PI) and Just-in-Time-Teaching (JiTT) have been shown to increase both students' conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills. However, the time investment for the instructor to prepare appropriate conceptual questions and manage student JiTT responses is one of the main implementation hurdles. To overcome this we have developed the Interactive Learning Toolkit (ILT), a course management system specifically designed to support PI and JiTT. We are working to integrate the ILT with a fully interactive classroom system where students can use their laptops and smartphones to respond to ConcepTests in class. The goal is to use technology to engage students in conceptual thinking both in and out of the classroom.

  16. Logic Models for Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation: Workshop Toolkit. REL 2015-057

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shakman, Karen; Rodriguez, Sheila M.

    2015-01-01

    The Logic Model Workshop Toolkit is designed to help practitioners learn the purpose of logic models, the different elements of a logic model, and the appropriate steps for developing and using a logic model for program evaluation. Topics covered in the sessions include an overview of logic models, the elements of a logic model, an introduction to…

  17. Distinct Developmental Origins Manifest in the Specialized Encoding of Movement by Adult Neurons of the External Globus Pallidus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dodson, Paul D.; Larvin, Joseph T.; Duffell, James M.; Garas, Farid N.; Doig, Natalie M.; Kessaris, Nicoletta; Duguid, Ian C.; Bogacz, Rafal; Butt, Simon J.B.; Magill, Peter J.

    2015-01-01

    Summary Transcriptional codes initiated during brain development are ultimately realized in adulthood as distinct cell types performing specialized roles in behavior. Focusing on the mouse external globus pallidus (GPe), we demonstrate that the potential contributions of two GABAergic GPe cell types to voluntary action are fated from early life to be distinct. Prototypic GPe neurons derive from the medial ganglionic eminence of the embryonic subpallium and express the transcription factor Nkx2-1. These neurons fire at high rates during alert rest, and encode movements through heterogeneous firing rate changes, with many neurons decreasing their activity. In contrast, arkypallidal GPe neurons originate from lateral/caudal ganglionic eminences, express the transcription factor FoxP2, fire at low rates during rest, and encode movements with robust increases in firing. We conclude that developmental diversity positions prototypic and arkypallidal neurons to fulfil distinct roles in behavior via their disparate regulation of GABA release onto different basal ganglia targets. PMID:25843402

  18. The Medical Imaging Interaction Toolkit: challenges and advances : 10 years of open-source development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nolden, Marco; Zelzer, Sascha; Seitel, Alexander; Wald, Diana; Müller, Michael; Franz, Alfred M; Maleike, Daniel; Fangerau, Markus; Baumhauer, Matthias; Maier-Hein, Lena; Maier-Hein, Klaus H; Meinzer, Hans-Peter; Wolf, Ivo

    2013-07-01

    The Medical Imaging Interaction Toolkit (MITK) has been available as open-source software for almost 10 years now. In this period the requirements of software systems in the medical image processing domain have become increasingly complex. The aim of this paper is to show how MITK evolved into a software system that is able to cover all steps of a clinical workflow including data retrieval, image analysis, diagnosis, treatment planning, intervention support, and treatment control. MITK provides modularization and extensibility on different levels. In addition to the original toolkit, a module system, micro services for small, system-wide features, a service-oriented architecture based on the Open Services Gateway initiative (OSGi) standard, and an extensible and configurable application framework allow MITK to be used, extended and deployed as needed. A refined software process was implemented to deliver high-quality software, ease the fulfillment of regulatory requirements, and enable teamwork in mixed-competence teams. MITK has been applied by a worldwide community and integrated into a variety of solutions, either at the toolkit level or as an application framework with custom extensions. The MITK Workbench has been released as a highly extensible and customizable end-user application. Optional support for tool tracking, image-guided therapy, diffusion imaging as well as various external packages (e.g. CTK, DCMTK, OpenCV, SOFA, Python) is available. MITK has also been used in several FDA/CE-certified applications, which demonstrates the high-quality software and rigorous development process. MITK provides a versatile platform with a high degree of modularization and interoperability and is well suited to meet the challenging tasks of today's and tomorrow's clinically motivated research.

  19. Effect of an educational toolkit on quality of care: a pragmatic cluster randomized trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shah, Baiju R; Bhattacharyya, Onil; Yu, Catherine H Y; Mamdani, Muhammad M; Parsons, Janet A; Straus, Sharon E; Zwarenstein, Merrick

    2014-02-01

    Printed educational materials for clinician education are one of the most commonly used approaches for quality improvement. The objective of this pragmatic cluster randomized trial was to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational toolkit focusing on cardiovascular disease screening and risk reduction in people with diabetes. All 933,789 people aged ≥40 years with diagnosed diabetes in Ontario, Canada were studied using population-level administrative databases, with additional clinical outcome data collected from a random sample of 1,592 high risk patients. Family practices were randomly assigned to receive the educational toolkit in June 2009 (intervention group) or May 2010 (control group). The primary outcome in the administrative data study, death or non-fatal myocardial infarction, occurred in 11,736 (2.5%) patients in the intervention group and 11,536 (2.5%) in the control group (p = 0.77). The primary outcome in the clinical data study, use of a statin, occurred in 700 (88.1%) patients in the intervention group and 725 (90.1%) in the control group (p = 0.26). Pre-specified secondary outcomes, including other clinical events, processes of care, and measures of risk factor control, were also not improved by the intervention. A limitation is the high baseline rate of statin prescribing in this population. The educational toolkit did not improve quality of care or cardiovascular outcomes in a population with diabetes. Despite being relatively easy and inexpensive to implement, printed educational materials were not effective. The study highlights the need for a rigorous and scientifically based approach to the development, dissemination, and evaluation of quality improvement interventions. http://www.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01411865 and NCT01026688.

  20. Development of a toolkit in Silverlight to detect physiognomies in real time - doi: 10.4025/actascitechnol.v35i1.13713

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcelo Cabral Ghilardi

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Security demands, forensic practices and the identification of criminals require the detection and recognition of iris and fingerprints and of faces in videos and photographs. Moreover, there is an increasing need for multiple forms of human-machine interaction. Control devices by body stimulus are a need and a trend. For example, currently some computers, laptops, phones and video games provide interaction from their cameras, not only for face detection but also for body movements and the detection of objects. Most devices are Internet accessed, which creates an even greater range of possibilities. These technological trends have prompted the development a toolkit for detecting faces in real time. The choice of Silverlight framework for the development of this toolkit provides these applications with instruments that could be implemented in a web browser. This toolkit may be used for other purposes, such as face and iris recognition, body movement and the monitoring of premises. An application was developed as example and proof of concept.  

  1. An open-source LabVIEW application toolkit for phasic heart rate analysis in psychophysiological research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duley, Aaron R; Janelle, Christopher M; Coombes, Stephen A

    2004-11-01

    The cardiovascular system has been extensively measured in a variety of research and clinical domains. Despite technological and methodological advances in cardiovascular science, the analysis and evaluation of phasic changes in heart rate persists as a way to assess numerous psychological concomitants. Some researchers, however, have pointed to constraints on data analysis when evaluating cardiac activity indexed by heart rate or heart period. Thus, an off-line application toolkit for heart rate analysis is presented. The program, written with National Instruments' LabVIEW, incorporates a variety of tools for off-line extraction and analysis of heart rate data. Current methods and issues concerning heart rate analysis are highlighted, and how the toolkit provides a flexible environment to ameliorate common problems that typically lead to trial rejection is discussed. Source code for this program may be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society Web archive at www.psychonomic.org/archive/.

  2. SwingStates: Adding state machines to Java and the Swing toolkit

    OpenAIRE

    Appert , Caroline; Beaudouin-Lafon , Michel

    2008-01-01

    International audience; This article describes SwingStates, a Java toolkit designed to facilitate the development of graphical user interfaces and bring advanced interaction techniques to the Java platform. SwingStates is based on the use of finite-state machines specified directly in Java to describe the behavior of interactive systems. State machines can be used to redefine the behavior of existing Swing widgets or, in combination with a new canvas widget that features a rich graphical mode...

  3. A simulation toolkit for electroluminescence assessment in rare event experiments

    CERN Document Server

    Oliveira, C A B; Veenhof, R; Biagi, S; Monteiro, C M B; Santos, J M F dos; Ferreira, A L; Veloso, J F C A

    2011-01-01

    A good understanding of electroluminescence is a prerequisite when optimising double-phase noble gas detectors for Dark Matter searches and high-pressure xenon TPCs for neutrinoless double beta decay detection. A simulation toolkit for calculating the emission of light through electron impact on neon, argon, krypton and xenon has been developed using the Magboltz and Garfield programs. Calculated excitation and electroluminescence efficiencies, electroluminescence yield and associated statistical fluctuations are presented as a function of electric field. Good agreement with experiment and with Monte Carlo simulations has been obtained.

  4. The MicroAnalysis Toolkit: X-ray Fluorescence Image Processing Software

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Webb, S. M.

    2011-01-01

    The MicroAnalysis Toolkit is an analysis suite designed for the processing of x-ray fluorescence microprobe data. The program contains a wide variety of analysis tools, including image maps, correlation plots, simple image math, image filtering, multiple energy image fitting, semi-quantitative elemental analysis, x-ray fluorescence spectrum analysis, principle component analysis, and tomographic reconstructions. To be as widely useful as possible, data formats from many synchrotron sources can be read by the program with more formats available by request. An overview of the most common features will be presented.

  5. Definition and implementation of a SAML-XACML profile for authorization interoperability across grid middleware in OSG and EGEE

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Garzoglio, Gabriele; Alderman, Ian; Altunay, Mine; Anathakrishnan, Rachana; Bester, Joe; Chadwick, Keith; Ciaschini, Vincenzo; Demchenko, Yuri; Ferraro, Andrea; Forti, Alberto; Groep, David; /Fermilab /NIKHEF, Amsterdam /Brookhaven /Amsterdam U. /SWITCH, Zurich /Bergen U. /INFN, CNAF /Argonne /Wisconsin U., Madison

    2009-04-01

    In order to ensure interoperability between middleware and authorization infrastructures used in the Open Science Grid (OSG) and the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) projects, an Authorization Interoperability activity was initiated in 2006. The interoperability goal was met in two phases: first, agreeing on a common authorization query interface and protocol with an associated profile that ensures standardized use of attributes and obligations; and second, implementing, testing, and deploying, on OSG and EGEE, middleware that supports the interoperability protocol and profile. The activity has involved people from OSG, EGEE, the Globus Toolkit project, and the Condor project. This paper presents a summary of the agreed-upon protocol, profile and the software components involved.

  6. Evaluating Complex Interventions and Health Technologies Using Normalization Process Theory: Development of a Simplified Approach and Web-Enabled Toolkit

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    May, Carl R

    2011-09-30

    Abstract Background Normalization Process Theory (NPT) can be used to explain implementation processes in health care relating to new technologies and complex interventions. This paper describes the processes by which we developed a simplified version of NPT for use by clinicians, managers, and policy makers, and which could be embedded in a web-enabled toolkit and on-line users manual. Methods Between 2006 and 2010 we undertook four tasks. (i) We presented NPT to potential and actual users in multiple workshops, seminars, and presentations. (ii) Using what we discovered from these meetings, we decided to create a simplified set of statements and explanations expressing core constructs of the theory (iii) We circulated these statements to a criterion sample of 60 researchers, clinicians and others, using SurveyMonkey to collect qualitative textual data about their criticisms of the statements. (iv) We then reconstructed the statements and explanations to meet users\\' criticisms, embedded them in a web-enabled toolkit, and beta tested this \\'in the wild\\'. Results On-line data collection was effective: over a four week period 50\\/60 participants responded using SurveyMonkey (40\\/60) or direct phone and email contact (10\\/60). An additional nine responses were received from people who had been sent the SurveyMonkey form by other respondents. Beta testing of the web enabled toolkit produced 13 responses, from 327 visits to http:\\/\\/www.normalizationprocess.org. Qualitative analysis of both sets of responses showed a high level of support for the statements but also showed that some statements poorly expressed their underlying constructs or overlapped with others. These were rewritten to take account of users\\' criticisms and then embedded in a web-enabled toolkit. As a result we were able translate the core constructs into a simplified set of statements that could be utilized by non-experts. Conclusion Normalization Process Theory has been developed through

  7. Evaluating complex interventions and health technologies using normalization process theory: development of a simplified approach and web-enabled toolkit

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Murray Elizabeth

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Normalization Process Theory (NPT can be used to explain implementation processes in health care relating to new technologies and complex interventions. This paper describes the processes by which we developed a simplified version of NPT for use by clinicians, managers, and policy makers, and which could be embedded in a web-enabled toolkit and on-line users manual. Methods Between 2006 and 2010 we undertook four tasks. (i We presented NPT to potential and actual users in multiple workshops, seminars, and presentations. (ii Using what we discovered from these meetings, we decided to create a simplified set of statements and explanations expressing core constructs of the theory (iii We circulated these statements to a criterion sample of 60 researchers, clinicians and others, using SurveyMonkey to collect qualitative textual data about their criticisms of the statements. (iv We then reconstructed the statements and explanations to meet users' criticisms, embedded them in a web-enabled toolkit, and beta tested this 'in the wild'. Results On-line data collection was effective: over a four week period 50/60 participants responded using SurveyMonkey (40/60 or direct phone and email contact (10/60. An additional nine responses were received from people who had been sent the SurveyMonkey form by other respondents. Beta testing of the web enabled toolkit produced 13 responses, from 327 visits to http://www.normalizationprocess.org. Qualitative analysis of both sets of responses showed a high level of support for the statements but also showed that some statements poorly expressed their underlying constructs or overlapped with others. These were rewritten to take account of users' criticisms and then embedded in a web-enabled toolkit. As a result we were able translate the core constructs into a simplified set of statements that could be utilized by non-experts. Conclusion Normalization Process Theory has been developed through

  8. Building Management Information Systems to Coordinate Citywide Afterschool Programs: A Toolkit for Cities. Executive Summary

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kingsley, Chris

    2012-01-01

    This executive summary describes highlights from the report, "Building Management Information Systems to Coordinate Citywide Afterschool Programs: A Toolkit for Cities." City-led efforts to build coordinated systems of afterschool programming are an important strategy for improving the health, safety and academic preparedness of children…

  9. An evaluation of a toolkit for the early detection, management, and control of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae: a survey of acute hospital trusts in England.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coope, C M; Verlander, N Q; Schneider, A; Hopkins, S; Welfare, W; Johnson, A P; Patel, B; Oliver, I

    2018-03-09

    Following hospital outbreaks of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE), Public Health England published a toolkit in December 2013 to promote the early detection, management, and control of CPE colonization and infection in acute hospital settings. To examine awareness, uptake, implementation and usefulness of the CPE toolkit and identify potential barriers and facilitators to its adoption in order to inform future guidance. A cross-sectional survey of National Health Service (NHS) acute trusts was conducted in May 2016. Descriptive analysis and multivariable regression models were conducted, and narrative responses were analysed thematically and informed using behaviour change theory. Most (92%) acute trusts had a written CPE plan. Fewer (75%) reported consistent compliance with screening and isolation of CPE risk patients. Lower prioritization and weaker senior management support for CPE prevention were associated with poorer compliance. Awareness of the CPE toolkit was high and all trusts with patients infected or colonized with CPE had used the toolkit either as provided (32%), or to inform (65%) their own local CPE plan. Despite this, many respondents (80%) did not believe that the CPE toolkit guidance offered an effective means to prevent CPE or was practical to follow. CPE prevention and control requires robust IPC measures. Successful implementation can be hindered by a complex set of factors related to their practical execution, insufficient resources and a lack of confidence in the effectiveness of the guidance. Future CPE guidance would benefit from substantive user involvement, processes for ongoing feedback, and regular guidance updates. Copyright © 2018 The Healthcare Infection Society. All rights reserved.

  10. Advanced processing and simulation of MRS data using the FID appliance (FID-A)-An open source, MATLAB-based toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simpson, Robin; Devenyi, Gabriel A; Jezzard, Peter; Hennessy, T Jay; Near, Jamie

    2017-01-01

    To introduce a new toolkit for simulation and processing of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) data, and to demonstrate some of its novel features. The FID appliance (FID-A) is an open-source, MATLAB-based software toolkit for simulation and processing of MRS data. The software is designed specifically for processing data with multiple dimensions (eg, multiple radiofrequency channels, averages, spectral editing dimensions). It is equipped with functions for importing data in the formats of most major MRI vendors (eg, Siemens, Philips, GE, Agilent) and for exporting data into the formats of several common processing software packages (eg, LCModel, jMRUI, Tarquin). This paper introduces the FID-A software toolkit and uses examples to demonstrate its novel features, namely 1) the use of a spectral registration algorithm to carry out useful processing routines automatically, 2) automatic detection and removal of motion-corrupted scans, and 3) the ability to perform several major aspects of the MRS computational workflow from a single piece of software. This latter feature is illustrated through both high-level processing of in vivo GABA-edited MEGA-PRESS MRS data, as well as detailed quantum mechanical simulations to generate an accurate LCModel basis set for analysis of the same data. All of the described processing steps resulted in a marked improvement in spectral quality compared with unprocessed data. Fitting of MEGA-PRESS data using a customized basis set resulted in improved fitting accuracy compared with a generic MEGA-PRESS basis set. The FID-A software toolkit enables high-level processing of MRS data and accurate simulation of in vivo MRS experiments. Magn Reson Med 77:23-33, 2017. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  11. Midwives in medical student and resident education and the development of the medical education caucus toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Radoff, Kari; Nacht, Amy; Natch, Amy; McConaughey, Edie; Salstrom, Jan; Schelling, Karen; Seger, Suzanne

    2015-01-01

    Midwives have been involved formally and informally in the training of medical students and residents for many years. Recent reductions in resident work hours, emphasis on collaborative practice, and a focus on midwives as key members of the maternity care model have increased the involvement of midwives in medical education. Midwives work in academic settings as educators to teach the midwifery model of care, collaboration, teamwork, and professionalism to medical students and residents. In 2009, members of the American College of Nurse-Midwives formed the Medical Education Caucus (MECA) to discuss the needs of midwives teaching medical students and residents; the group has held a workshop annually over the last 4 years. In 2014, MECA workshop facilitators developed a toolkit to support and formalize the role of midwives involved in medical student and resident education. The MECA toolkit provides a roadmap for midwives beginning involvement and continuing or expanding the role of midwives in medical education. This article describes the history of midwives in medical education, the development and growth of MECA, and the resulting toolkit created to support and formalize the role of midwives as educators in medical student and resident education, as well as common challenges for the midwife in academic medicine. This article is part of a special series of articles that address midwifery innovations in clinical practice, education, interprofessional collaboration, health policy, and global health. © 2015 by the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

  12. Improving primary care for persons with spinal cord injury: Development of a toolkit to guide care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milligan, James; Lee, Joseph; Hillier, Loretta M; Slonim, Karen; Craven, Catharine

    2018-05-07

    To identify a set of essential components for primary care for patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) for inclusion in a point-of-practice toolkit for primary care practitioners (PCP) and identification of the essential elements of SCI care that are required in primary care and those that should be the focus of specialist care. Modified Delphi consensus process; survey methodology. Primary care. Three family physicians, six specialist physicians, and five inter-disciplinary health professionals completed surveys. Importance of care elements for inclusion in the toolkit (9-point scale: 1 = lowest level of importance, 9 = greatest level of importance) and identification of most responsible physician (family physician, specialist) for completing key categories of care. Open-ended comments were solicited. There was consensus between the respondent groups on the level of importance of various care elements. Mean importance scores were highest for autonomic dysreflexia, pain, and skin care and lowest for preventive care, social issues, and vital signs. Although, there was agreement across all respondents that family physicians should assume responsibility for assessing mental health, there was variability in who should be responsible for other care categories. Comments were related to the need for shared care approaches and capacity building and lack of knowledge and specialized equipment as barriers to optimal care. This study identified important components of SCI care to be included in a point-of-practice toolkit to facilitate primary care for persons with SCI.

  13. The Special Educator's Toolkit: Everything You Need to Organize, Manage, and Monitor Your Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Golden, Cindy

    2012-01-01

    Overwhelmed special educators: Reduce your stress and support student success with this practical toolkit for whole-classroom organization. A lifesaver for special educators in any K-12 setting, this book-and-CD set will help teachers expertly manage everything, from schedules and paperwork to student supports and behavior plans. Cindy Golden, a…

  14. UniSchooLabs Toolkit: Tools and Methodologies to Support the Adoption of Universities’ Remote and Virtual Labs in Schools

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Augusto Chioccariello

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available The UniSchooLabs project aims at creating an infrastructure supporting web access to remote/virtual labs and associated educational resources to engage learners with hands-on and minds-on activities in science, technology and math in schools. The UniSchooLabs tool-kit supports the teacher in selecting a remote or virtual lab and developing a lab activity based on an inquiry model template. While working with the toolkit the teacher has access to three main features: a a catalogue of available online laboratories; b an archive of activities created by other users; c a tool for creating new activities or reusing existing ones.

  15. College Access and Success for Students Experiencing Homelessness: A Toolkit for Educators and Service Providers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dukes, Christina

    2013-01-01

    This toolkit serves as a comprehensive resource on the issue of higher education access and success for homeless students, including information on understanding homeless students, assisting homeless students in choosing a school, helping homeless students pay for application-related expenses, assisting homeless students in finding financial aid…

  16. Serious games at the UNHCR with ARLearn, a toolkit for mobile and virtual reality applications

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gonsalves, Atish; Ternier, Stefaan; De Vries, Fred; Specht, Marcus

    2013-01-01

    Gonsalves, A., Ternier, S., De Vries, F., & Specht, M. (2012, 16-18 October). Serious games at the UNHCR with ARLearn, a toolkit for mobile and virtual reality applications. Presentation given at the 11th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning (mLearn 2012), Helsinki, Finland.

  17. Cyber security awareness toolkit for national security: an approach to South Africa's cyber security policy implementation

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Phahlamohlaka, LJ

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to propose an approach that South Africa could follow in implementing its proposed cyber security policy. The paper proposes a Cyber Security Awareness Toolkit that is underpinned by key National Security imperatives...

  18. Increased signal intensities in the dentate nucleus and globus pallidus on unenhanced T1-weighted images: evidence in children undergoing multiple gadolinium MRI exams

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hu, Houchun H.; Pokorney, Amber; Towbin, Richard B.; Miller, Jeffrey H. [Phoenix Children' s Hospital, Department of Medical Imaging and Radiology, Phoenix, AZ (United States)

    2016-10-15

    Recent reports have suggested residual gadolinium deposition in the brain in subjects undergoing multiple contrast-enhanced MRI exams. These findings have raised some concerns regarding gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA) usage and retention in brain tissues. To summarize findings of hyperintense brain structures on precontrast T1-weighted images in 21 children undergoing multiple GBCA MRI exams. This retrospective study involved 21 patients, each of whom received multiple MRI examinations (range: 5-37 exams) with GBCA over the course of their medical treatment (duration from first to most recent exam: 1.2-12.9 years). The patients were between 0.9 and 14.4 years of age at the time of their first GBCA exam. Regions of interest were drawn in the dentate nucleus and the globus pallidus on 2-D fast spin echo images acquired at 1.5 T. The signal intensities of these two structures were normalized by that of the corpus callosum genu. Signal intensity ratios from these patients were compared to control patients of similar ages who have never received GBCA. Signal intensity ratios increased between the first and the most recent MRI exam in all 21 patients receiving GBCA, with an increase of 18.6%±12.7% (range: 0.5% to 47.5%) for the dentate nucleus and 12.4%±7.4% (range: -1.2% to 33.7%) for the globus pallidus (P<0.0001). Signal intensity ratios were also higher in GBCA patients than in controls (P<0.01). The degree of signal intensity enhancement did not correlate with statistical significance to the cumulative number or volume of GBCA administrations each patient received, the patient's age or the elapsed time between the first and most recent GBCA MRI exams. These results in children are consistent with recent findings in adults, suggesting possible gadolinium deposition in the brain. (orig.)

  19. Cyber security awareness toolkit for national security: An approach to South Africa’s cybersecurity policy implementation

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Phahlamohlaka, LJ

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to propose an approach that South Africa could follow in implementing its proposed Cyber security policy. The paper proposes a Cyber Security Awareness Toolkit that is underpinned by key National Security imperatives as well...

  20. Urban Teacher Academy Project Toolkit: A Guide to Developing High School Teaching Career Academies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berrigan, Anne; Schwartz, Shirley

    There is an urgent need not only to attract more people into the teaching profession but also to build a more diverse, highly qualified, and culturally sensitive teaching force that can meet the needs of a rapidly changing school-age population. This Toolkit takes best practices from high school teacher academies around the United States and…

  1. Software Toolkits: Practical Aspects of the Internet of Things—A Survey

    OpenAIRE

    Wang, Feng; Hu, Liang; Zhou, Jin; Wu, Yang; Hu, Jiejun; Zhao, Kuo

    2015-01-01

    The Internet of Things (IoT) is neither science fiction nor industry hype; rather it is based on solid technological advances and visions of network ubiquity that are zealously being realized. The paper serves to provide guidance regarding the practical aspects of the IoT. Such guidance is largely missing in the current literature in which the focus has been more on research problems and less on issues describing how to set up an IoT system and what software toolkits are required. This paper ...

  2. An interactive toolkit to extract phenological time series data from digital repeat photography

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seyednasrollah, B.; Milliman, T. E.; Hufkens, K.; Kosmala, M.; Richardson, A. D.

    2017-12-01

    Near-surface remote sensing and in situ photography are powerful tools to study how climate change and climate variability influence vegetation phenology and the associated seasonal rhythms of green-up and senescence. The rapidly-growing PhenoCam network has been using in situ digital repeat photography to study phenology in almost 500 locations around the world, with an emphasis on North America. However, extracting time series data from multiple years of half-hourly imagery - while each set of images may contain several regions of interest (ROI's), corresponding to different species or vegetation types - is not always straightforward. Large volumes of data require substantial processing time, and changes (either intentional or accidental) in camera field of view requires adjustment of ROI masks. Here, we introduce and present "DrawROI" as an interactive web-based application for imagery from PhenoCam. DrawROI can also be used offline, as a fully independent toolkit that significantly facilitates extraction of phenological data from any stack of digital repeat photography images. DrawROI provides a responsive environment for phenological scientists to interactively a) delineate ROIs, b) handle field of view (FOV) shifts, and c) extract and export time series data characterizing image color (i.e. red, green and blue channel digital numbers for the defined ROI). The application utilizes artificial intelligence and advanced machine learning techniques and gives user the opportunity to redraw new ROIs every time an FOV shift occurs. DrawROI also offers a quality control flag to indicate noisy data and images with low quality due to presence of foggy weather or snow conditions. The web-based application significantly accelerates the process of creating new ROIs and modifying pre-existing ROI in the PhenoCam database. The offline toolkit is presented as an open source R-package that can be used with similar datasets with time-lapse photography to obtain more data for

  3. OpenDBDDAS Toolkit: Secure MapReduce and Hadoop-like Systems

    KAUST Repository

    Fabiano, Enrico

    2015-06-01

    The OpenDBDDAS Toolkit is a software framework to provide support for more easily creating and expanding dynamic big data-driven application systems (DBDDAS) that are common in environmental systems, many engineering applications, disaster management, traffic management, and manufacturing. In this paper, we describe key features needed to implement a secure MapReduce and Hadoop-like system for high performance clusters that guarantees a certain level of privacy of data from other concurrent users of the system. We also provide examples of a secure MapReduce prototype and compare it to another high performance MapReduce, MR-MPI.

  4. Agent-based models in economics a toolkit

    CERN Document Server

    Fagiolo, Giorgio; Gallegati, Mauro; Richiardi, Matteo; Russo, Alberto

    2018-01-01

    In contrast to mainstream economics, complexity theory conceives the economy as a complex system of heterogeneous interacting agents characterised by limited information and bounded rationality. Agent Based Models (ABMs) are the analytical and computational tools developed by the proponents of this emerging methodology. Aimed at students and scholars of contemporary economics, this book includes a comprehensive toolkit for agent-based computational economics, now quickly becoming the new way to study evolving economic systems. Leading scholars in the field explain how ABMs can be applied fruitfully to many real-world economic examples and represent a great advancement over mainstream approaches. The essays discuss the methodological bases of agent-based approaches and demonstrate step-by-step how to build, simulate and analyse ABMs and how to validate their outputs empirically using the data. They also present a wide set of applications of these models to key economic topics, including the business cycle, lab...

  5. The Exoplanet Characterization ToolKit (ExoCTK)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stevenson, Kevin; Fowler, Julia; Lewis, Nikole K.; Fraine, Jonathan; Pueyo, Laurent; Valenti, Jeff; Bruno, Giovanni; Filippazzo, Joseph; Hill, Matthew; Batalha, Natasha E.; Bushra, Rafia

    2018-01-01

    The success of exoplanet characterization depends critically on a patchwork of analysis tools and spectroscopic libraries that currently require extensive development and lack a centralized support system. Due to the complexity of spectroscopic analyses and initial time commitment required to become productive, there are currently a limited number of teams that are actively advancing the field. New teams with significant expertise, but without the proper tools, face prohibitively steep hills to climb before they can contribute. As a solution, we are developing an open-source, modular data analysis package in Python and a publicly facing web interface focused primarily on atmospheric characterization of exoplanets and exoplanet transit observation planning with JWST. The foundation of these software tools and libraries exist within pockets of the exoplanet community. Our project will gather these seedling tools and grow a robust, uniform, and well maintained exoplanet characterization toolkit.

  6. Use of Remote Sensing Data to Enhance the National Weather Service (NWS) Storm Damage Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jedlovec, Gary; Molthan, Andrew; White, Kris; Burks, Jason; Stellman, Keith; Smith, Matthew

    2012-01-01

    SPoRT is improving the use of near real-time satellite data in response to severe weather events and other diasters. Supported through NASA s Applied Sciences Program. Planned interagency collaboration to support NOAA s Damage Assessment Toolkit, with spinoff opportunities to support other entities such as USGS and FEMA.

  7. High and low frequency stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus induce prolonged changes in subthalamic and globus pallidus neurons

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hagar eLavian

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available High frequency stimulation (HFS of the subthalamic nucleus (STN is widely used to treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease but the mechanism of this therapy is unclear. Using a rat brain slice preparation maintaining the connectivity between the STN and one of its target nuclei, the globus pallidus (GP, we investigated the effects of high and low frequency stimulation (HFS 100 Hz, LFS 10 Hz on activity of single neurons in the STN and GP. Both HFS and LFS caused changes in firing frequency and pattern of subthalamic and pallidal neurons. These changes were of synaptic origin, as they were abolished by glutamate and GABA antagonists. Both HFS and LFS also induced a long-lasting reduction in firing frequency in STN neurons possibly contending a direct causal link between HFS and the outcome DBS. In the GP both HFS and LFS induced either a long-lasting depression, or less frequently, a long-lasting excitation. Thus, in addition to the intrinsic activation of the stimulated neurons, long-lasting stimulation of the STN may trigger prolonged biochemical processes.

  8. TU-F-17A-01: BEST IN PHYSICS (JOINT IMAGING-THERAPY) - An Automatic Toolkit for Efficient and Robust Analysis of 4D Respiratory Motion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wei, J; Yuan, A; Li, G

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: To provide an automatic image analysis toolkit to process thoracic 4-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) and extract patient-specific motion information to facilitate investigational or clinical use of 4DCT. Methods: We developed an automatic toolkit in MATLAB to overcome the extra workload from the time dimension in 4DCT. This toolkit employs image/signal processing, computer vision, and machine learning methods to visualize, segment, register, and characterize lung 4DCT automatically or interactively. A fully-automated 3D lung segmentation algorithm was designed and 4D lung segmentation was achieved in batch mode. Voxel counting was used to calculate volume variations of the torso, lung and its air component, and local volume changes at the diaphragm and chest wall to characterize breathing pattern. Segmented lung volumes in 12 patients are compared with those from a treatment planning system (TPS). Voxel conversion was introduced from CT# to other physical parameters, such as gravity-induced pressure, to create a secondary 4D image. A demon algorithm was applied in deformable image registration and motion trajectories were extracted automatically. Calculated motion parameters were plotted with various templates. Machine learning algorithms, such as Naive Bayes and random forests, were implemented to study respiratory motion. This toolkit is complementary to and will be integrated with the Computational Environment for Radiotherapy Research (CERR). Results: The automatic 4D image/data processing toolkit provides a platform for analysis of 4D images and datasets. It processes 4D data automatically in batch mode and provides interactive visual verification for manual adjustments. The discrepancy in lung volume calculation between this and the TPS is <±2% and the time saving is by 1–2 orders of magnitude. Conclusion: A framework of 4D toolkit has been developed to analyze thoracic 4DCT automatically or interactively, facilitating both investigational

  9. TU-F-17A-01: BEST IN PHYSICS (JOINT IMAGING-THERAPY) - An Automatic Toolkit for Efficient and Robust Analysis of 4D Respiratory Motion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wei, J [City College of New York, New York, NY (United States); Yuan, A; Li, G [Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY (United States)

    2014-06-15

    Purpose: To provide an automatic image analysis toolkit to process thoracic 4-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) and extract patient-specific motion information to facilitate investigational or clinical use of 4DCT. Methods: We developed an automatic toolkit in MATLAB to overcome the extra workload from the time dimension in 4DCT. This toolkit employs image/signal processing, computer vision, and machine learning methods to visualize, segment, register, and characterize lung 4DCT automatically or interactively. A fully-automated 3D lung segmentation algorithm was designed and 4D lung segmentation was achieved in batch mode. Voxel counting was used to calculate volume variations of the torso, lung and its air component, and local volume changes at the diaphragm and chest wall to characterize breathing pattern. Segmented lung volumes in 12 patients are compared with those from a treatment planning system (TPS). Voxel conversion was introduced from CT# to other physical parameters, such as gravity-induced pressure, to create a secondary 4D image. A demon algorithm was applied in deformable image registration and motion trajectories were extracted automatically. Calculated motion parameters were plotted with various templates. Machine learning algorithms, such as Naive Bayes and random forests, were implemented to study respiratory motion. This toolkit is complementary to and will be integrated with the Computational Environment for Radiotherapy Research (CERR). Results: The automatic 4D image/data processing toolkit provides a platform for analysis of 4D images and datasets. It processes 4D data automatically in batch mode and provides interactive visual verification for manual adjustments. The discrepancy in lung volume calculation between this and the TPS is <±2% and the time saving is by 1–2 orders of magnitude. Conclusion: A framework of 4D toolkit has been developed to analyze thoracic 4DCT automatically or interactively, facilitating both investigational

  10. Information contained within the large scale gas injection test (Lasgit) dataset exposed using a bespoke data analysis tool-kit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bennett, D.P.; Thomas, H.R.; Cuss, R.J.; Harrington, J.F.; Vardon, P.J.

    2012-01-01

    Document available in extended abstract form only. The Large Scale Gas Injection Test (Lasgit) is a field scale experiment run by the British Geological Survey (BGS) and is located approximately 420 m underground at SKB's Aespoe Hard Rock Laboratory (HRL) in Sweden. It has been designed to study the impact on safety of gas build up within a KBS-3V concept high level radioactive waste repository. Lasgit has been in almost continuous operation for approximately seven years and is still underway. An analysis of the dataset arising from the Lasgit experiment with particular attention to the smaller scale features and phenomenon recorded has been undertaken in parallel to the macro scale analysis performed by the BGS. Lasgit is a highly instrumented, frequently sampled and long-lived experiment leading to a substantial dataset containing in excess of 14.7 million datum points. The data is anticipated to include a wealth of information, including information regarding overall processes as well as smaller scale or 'second order' features. Due to the size of the dataset coupled with the detailed analysis of the dataset required and the reduction in subjectivity associated with measurement compared to observation, computational analysis is essential. Moreover, due to the length of operation and complexity of experimental activity, the Lasgit dataset is not typically suited to 'out of the box' time series analysis algorithms. In particular, the features that are not suited to standard algorithms include non-uniformities due to (deliberate) changes in sample rate at various points in the experimental history and missing data due to hardware malfunction/failure causing interruption of logging cycles. To address these features a computational tool-kit capable of performing an Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) on long-term, large-scale datasets with non-uniformities has been developed. Particular tool-kit abilities include: the parameterization of signal variation in the dataset

  11. Source Materials for the Healthy Communities Toolkit: A Resource Guide for Community and Faith-Based Organizations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Acosta, Joie; Chandra, Anita; Williams, Malcolm; Davis, Lois M

    2011-01-01

    The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act places significant emphasis on the role of community-based health promotion initiatives; within this focus, community and faith-based organizations (CFBOs) are seen as critical partners for improving community well-being. This article describes a report that provides the content for a toolkit that will prepare community and faith-based organizations to take advantage of opportunities presented in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and engage faith and community leaders in promoting health in their communities. This includes key facts and figures about health topics, handouts for community groups, and web links for resources and other information in the following areas: healthcare reform; community health centers and development of the community health workforce; promotion of healthy families; mental health; violence and trauma; prevention of teen and unintended pregnancy and HIV/AIDS; and chronic disease prevention. The report also includes recommendations for testing the content of the toolkit with communities and considerations for its implementation.

  12. TENCompetence Learning Design Toolkit, Runtime component, ccsi_v3_2_10c_v1_4

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sharples, Paul; Popat, Kris; Llobet, Lau; Santos, Patricia; Hernández-Leo, Davinia; Miao, Yongwu; Griffiths, David; Beauvoir, Phillip

    2010-01-01

    Sharples, P., Popat, K., Llobet, L., Santos, P., Hernandez-Leo, D., Miao, Y., Griffiths, D. & Beauvoir, P. (2009) TENCompetence Learning Design Toolkit, Runtime component, ccsi_v3_2_10c_v1_4 This release is composed of three files corresponding to CopperCore Service Integration (CCSI) v3.2-10cv1.4,

  13. How to create an interface between UrQMD and Geant4 toolkit

    CERN Document Server

    Abdel-Waged, Khaled; Uzhinskii, V.V.

    2012-01-01

    An interface between the UrQMD-1.3cr model (version 1.3 for cosmic air showers) and the Geant4 transport toolkit has been developed. Compared to the current Geant4 (hybrid) hadronic models, this provides the ability to simulate at the microscopic level hadron, nucleus, and anti-nucleus interactions with matter from 0 to 1 TeV with a single transport code. This document provides installation requirements and instructions, as well as class and member function descriptions of the software.

  14. Evaluating the parent-adolescent communication toolkit: Usability and preliminary content effectiveness of an online intervention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Toombs, Elaine; Unruh, Anita; McGrath, Patrick

    2018-01-01

    This study aimed to assess the Parent-Adolescent Communication Toolkit, an online intervention designed to help improve parent communication with their adolescents. Participant preferences for two module delivery systems (sequential and unrestricted module access) were identified. Usability assessment of the PACT intervention was completed using pre-test and posttest comparisons. Usability data, including participant completion and satisfaction ratings were examined. Parents ( N  =   18) of adolescents were randomized to a sequential or unrestricted chapter access group. Parent participants completed pre-test measures, the PACT intervention and posttest measures. Participants provided feedback for the intervention to improve modules and provided usability ratings. Adolescent pre- and posttest ratings were evaluated. Usability ratings were high and parent feedback was positive. The sequential module access groups rated the intervention content higher and completed more content than the unrestricted chapter access group, indicating support for the sequential access design. Parent mean posttest communication scores were significantly higher ( p  Communication Toolkit has potential to improve parent-adolescent communication but further effectiveness assessment is required.

  15. Microgrid Design Toolkit (MDT) User Guide Software v1.2.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Eddy, John P. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    2017-08-01

    The Microgrid Design Toolkit (MDT) supports decision analysis for new ("greenfield") microgrid designs as well as microgrids with existing infrastructure. The current version of MDT includes two main capabilities. The first capability, the Microgrid Sizing Capability (MSC), is used to determine the size and composition of a new, grid connected microgrid in the early stages of the design process. MSC is focused on developing a microgrid that is economically viable when connected to the grid. The second capability is focused on designing a microgrid for operation in islanded mode. This second capability relies on two models: the Technology Management Optimization (TMO) model and Performance Reliability Model (PRM).

  16. Development of a Tailored Methodology and Forensic Toolkit for Industrial Control Systems Incident Response

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-06-01

    for industrial control systems ,” in Proceedings of the VDE Kongress, 2004. [15] K. Stouffer et al., “Special publication 800-82: Guide to industrial...TAILORED METHODOLOGY AND FORENSIC TOOLKIT FOR INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEMS INCIDENT RESPONSE by Nicholas B. Carr June 2014 Thesis Co...CONTROL SYSTEMS INCIDENT RESPONSE 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 6. AUTHOR(S) Nicholas B. Carr 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) Naval

  17. Immediate recovery of neurological function in response to deep brain stimulation of the globus pallidus internus in a patient with idiopathic camptocormia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. Madrazo

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Camptocormia is a major disabling abnormality characterized by severe forward flexion of the thoracolumbar spine. We report here on the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation (DBS for the management of a case of untreatable idiopathic camptocormia. The patient, a 51-year-old male, with an 11-year-long history of radicular pain. Camptocormia symptomatology initiated 4 years ago. Preoperative muscle electrodiagnostic testing was within normal limits. Myopathy was ruled out. In the standing position myokymic discharges were recorded. Under local anesthesia and stereotactic control, electrodes for DBS were placed bilaterally in the globus pallidus internus. Patient's symptoms disappeared immediately following DBS. This response cannot be attributed to the surgical procedure itself. When stimulators were turned “off” accidentally, the patient returned immediately to his pre-surgery condition. Erect posture and walking were restored when stimulators were back “on”.

  18. University of Central Florida and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities: Blended Learning Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    EDUCAUSE, 2014

    2014-01-01

    The Blended Learning Toolkit supports the course redesign approach, and interest in its openly available clearinghouse of online tools, strategies, curricula, and other materials to support the adoption of blended learning continues to grow. When the resource originally launched in July 2011, 20 AASCU [American Association of State Colleges and…

  19. An interactive RADIANCE toolkit for customizable CT dose monitoring and reporting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cook, Tessa S; Sundaram, Anand; Boonn, William W; Kim, Woojin

    2013-08-01

    The need for tools to monitor imaging-related radiation has grown dramatically in recent years. RADIANCE, a freely available open-source dose-monitoring tool, was developed in response to the need for an informatics solution in this realm. A number of open-source as well as commercial solutions have since been developed to enable radiology practices to monitor radiation dose parameters for modalities ranging from computed tomography to radiography to fluoroscopy. However, it is not sufficient to simply collect this data; it is equally important to be able to review it in the appropriate context. Most of the currently available dose-monitoring solutions have some type of reporting capability, such as a real-time dashboard or a static report. Previous versions of RADIANCE have included a real-time dashboard with pre-set screens that plot effective dose estimates according to different criteria, as well as monthly scorecards to summarize dose estimates for individuals within a radiology practice. In this work, we present the RADIANCE toolkit, a customizable reporting solution that allows users to generate reports of interest to them, summarizing a variety of metrics that can be grouped according to useful parameters. The output of the toolkit can be used for real-time dose monitoring or scheduled reporting, such as to a quality assurance committee. Making dose parameter data more accessible and more meaningful to the user promotes dose reduction efforts such as regular protocol review and optimization, and ultimately improves patient care by decreasing unnecessary radiation exposure.

  20. An assessment toolkit to increase the resilience of NWE catchments to periods of drought

    Science.gov (United States)

    La Jeunesse, Isabelle; Larrue, Corinne

    2013-04-01

    In many North Western Europe (NWE) areas the balance between water demand and availability is under pressure, thus under water scarcity. In addition, NWE areas are adversely affected by changes in the hydrological cycle and precipitation patterns, thus droughts periods. Over the past thirty years, droughts have dramatically increased and NWE are not immune. The summer of 2003 caused 10 billion euro damage to agriculture. In April 2012 the South West of the UK has moved to environmental drought status. Water scarcity and drought problems in the EU are increasing: 11% of the European population and 17% of its territory have been affected to date. Climate change is likely to exacerbate these adverse impacts. 50% of the NWE area are planned to be affected in 2050. Although the problems caused by drought in NWE are currently not overwhelmingly visible early action should be taken to reduce costs and prevent damage. Adapting to drought in NWE is the transnational challenge of the DROP (governance in DROught adaPtation) project. The Commission's recent "Blue Print on European Waters" states that existing policies are good but the problem lays in implementation. So the future challenge for NWE regions is to improve the implementation, meaning both governance and measures. The problem of drought is relatively new in comparison with flooding for these Regions. This demands another approach with the interaction of different stakeholders. NWE countries have proven strategies for flood prevention; no such strategies exist for drought adaptation. To do this, DROP combines science, practitioners and decisions makers, realizing the science-policy window. Thus, the aim of the DROP project is to increase the resilience of NWE catchments to periods of drought. To tackle these issues DROP will develop a governance toolkit to be used by NWE regional water authorities and will test a few pilot measures on drought adaptation. The objectives of the project are 1) to promote the use of a

  1. Long-Term Clinical Outcome of Internal Globus Pallidus Deep Brain Stimulation for Dystonia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hye Ran Park

    Full Text Available GPi (Internal globus pallidus DBS (deep brain stimulation is recognized as a safe, reliable, reversible and adjustable treatment in patients with medically refractory dystonia.This report describes the long-term clinical outcome of 36 patients implanted with GPi DBS at the Neurosurgery Department of Seoul National University Hospital.Nine patients with a known genetic cause, 12 patients with acquired dystonia, and 15 patients with isolated dystonia without a known genetic cause were included. When categorized by phenomenology, 29 patients had generalized, 5 patients had segmental, and 2 patients had multifocal dystonia. Patients were assessed preoperatively and at defined follow-up examinations postoperatively, using the Burke-Fahn-Marsden dystonia rating scale (BFMDRS for movement and functional disability assessment. The mean follow-up duration was 47 months (range, 12-84.The mean movement scores significantly decreased from 44.88 points preoperatively to 26.45 points at 60-month follow up (N = 19, P = 0.006. The mean disability score was also decreased over time, from 11.54 points preoperatively to 8.26 points at 60-month follow up, despite no statistical significance (N = 19, P = 0.073. When analyzed the movement and disability improvement rates at 12-month follow up point, no significant difference was noted according to etiology, disease duration, age at surgery, age of onset, and phenomenology. However, the patients with DYT-1 dystonia and isolated dystonia without a known genetic cause showed marked improvement.GPi DBS is a safe and efficient therapeutic method for treatment of dystonia patients to improve both movement and disability. However, this study has some limitations caused by the retrospective design with small sample size in a single-center.

  2. Deep brain stimulation of the antero-medial globus pallidus interna for Tourette syndrome.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Perminder S Sachdev

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: We have previously reported the results of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS of the antero-medial globus pallidus interna (GPi for severe Tourette Syndrome (TS in 11 patients. We extend this case series to 17 patients and a longer follow-up to a maximum of 46 months. METHODS: 17 patients (14 male; mean age 29.1 years, range 17-51 years with severe and medically intractable TS were implanted with Medtronic quadripolar electrodes bilaterally in the antero-medial GPi. The primary outcome measure was the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS. Secondary outcome measures included the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Gilles de la Tourette Quality of Life Scale and Global Assessment of Functioning. Follow up was at one month, three months and finally at a mean 24.1 months (range 8-46 months following surgery. RESULTS: Overall, there was a 48.3% reduction in motor tics and a 41.3% reduction in phonic tics at one month, and this improvement was maintained at final follow-up. 12 out of 17 (70.6% patients had a>50% reduction in YGTSS score at final follow up. Only 8 patients required ongoing pharmacotherapy for tics post-surgery. Patients improved significantly on all secondary measures. Adverse consequences included lead breakage in 4 patients, infection (1, transient anxiety (2, dizziness (1, poor balance (1 and worsening of stuttering (1. CONCLUSIONS: This case series provides further support that antero-medial GPi DBS is an effective and well tolerated treatment for a subgroup of severe TS, with benefits sustained up to 4 years.

  3. Nuclear fragmentation reactions in extended media studied with Geant4 toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pshenichnov, Igor, E-mail: pshenich@fias.uni-frankfurt.d [Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, J.-W. Goethe University, 60438 Frankfurt am Main (Germany); Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Science, 117312 Moscow (Russian Federation); Botvina, Alexander [Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, J.-W. Goethe University, 60438 Frankfurt am Main (Germany); Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Science, 117312 Moscow (Russian Federation); Mishustin, Igor [Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, J.-W. Goethe University, 60438 Frankfurt am Main (Germany); Kurchatov Institute, Russian Research Center, 123182 Moscow (Russian Federation); Greiner, Walter [Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, J.-W. Goethe University, 60438 Frankfurt am Main (Germany)

    2010-03-15

    It is well-known from numerous experiments that nuclear multifragmentation is a dominating mechanism for production of intermediate mass fragments in nucleus-nucleus collisions at energies above 100AMeV. In this paper we investigate the validity and performance of the Fermi break-up model and the statistical multifragmentation model implemented as parts of the Geant4 toolkit. We study the impact of violent nuclear disintegration reactions on the depth-dose profiles and yields of secondary fragments for beams of light and medium-weight nuclei propagating in extended media. Implications for ion-beam cancer therapy and shielding from cosmic radiation are discussed.

  4. Nuclear fragmentation reactions in extended media studied with Geant4 toolkit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pshenichnov, Igor; Botvina, Alexander; Mishustin, Igor; Greiner, Walter

    2010-01-01

    It is well-known from numerous experiments that nuclear multifragmentation is a dominating mechanism for production of intermediate mass fragments in nucleus-nucleus collisions at energies above 100AMeV. In this paper we investigate the validity and performance of the Fermi break-up model and the statistical multifragmentation model implemented as parts of the Geant4 toolkit. We study the impact of violent nuclear disintegration reactions on the depth-dose profiles and yields of secondary fragments for beams of light and medium-weight nuclei propagating in extended media. Implications for ion-beam cancer therapy and shielding from cosmic radiation are discussed.

  5. Toward a VPH/Physiome ToolKit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garny, Alan; Cooper, Jonathan; Hunter, Peter J

    2010-01-01

    The Physiome Project was officially launched in 1997 and has since brought together teams from around the world to work on the development of a computational framework for the modeling of the human body. At the European level, this effort is focused around patient-specific solutions and is known as the Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) Initiative.Such modeling is both multiscale (in space and time) and multiphysics. This, therefore, requires careful interaction and collaboration between the teams involved in the VPH/Physiome effort, if we are to produce computer models that are not only quantitative, but also integrative and predictive.In that context, several technologies and solutions are already available, developed both by groups involved in the VPH/Physiome effort, and by others. They address areas such as data handling/fusion, markup languages, model repositories, ontologies, tools (for simulation, imaging, data fitting, etc.), as well as grid, middleware, and workflow.Here, we provide an overview of resources that should be considered for inclusion in the VPH/Physiome ToolKit (i.e., the set of tools that addresses the needs and requirements of the Physiome Project and VPH Initiative) and discuss some of the challenges that we are still facing.

  6. Adding Impacts and Mitigation Measures to OpenEI's RAPID Toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vogel, Erin

    2017-05-01

    The Open Energy Information platform hosts the Regulatory and Permitting Information Desktop (RAPID) Toolkit to provide renewable energy permitting information on federal and state regulatory processes. One of the RAPID Toolkit's functions is to help streamline the geothermal permitting processes outlined in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This is particularly important in the geothermal energy sector since each development phase requires separate land analysis to acquire exploration, well field drilling, and power plant construction permits. Using the Environmental Assessment documents included in RAPID's NEPA Database, the RAPID team identified 37 resource categories that a geothermal project may impact. Examples include impacts to geology and minerals, nearby endangered species, or water quality standards. To provide federal regulators, project developers, consultants, and the public with typical impacts and mitigation measures for geothermal projects, the RAPID team has provided overview webpages of each of these 37 resource categories with a sidebar query to reference related NEPA documents in the NEPA Database. This project is an expansion of a previous project that analyzed the time to complete NEPA environmental review for various geothermal activities. The NEPA review not only focused on geothermal projects within the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service managed lands, but also projects funded by the Department of Energy. Timeline barriers found were: extensive public comments and involvement; content overlap in NEPA documents, and discovery of impacted resources such as endangered species or cultural sites.

  7. The Montage Image Mosaic Toolkit As A Visualization Engine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berriman, G. Bruce; Lerias, Angela; Good, John; Mandel, Eric; Pepper, Joshua

    2018-01-01

    The Montage toolkit has since 2003 been used to aggregate FITS images into mosaics for science analysis. It is now finding application as an engine for image visualization. One important reason is that the functionality developed for creating mosaics is also valuable in image visualization. An equally important (though perhaps less obvious) reason is that Montage is portable and is built on standard astrophysics toolkits, making it very easy to integrate into new environments. Montage models and rectifies the sky background to a common level and thus reveals faint, diffuse features; it offers an adaptive image stretching method that preserves the dynamic range of a FITS image when represented in PNG format; it provides utilities for creating cutouts of large images and downsampled versions of large images that can then be visualized on desktops or in browsers; it contains a fast reprojection algorithm intended for visualization; and it resamples and reprojects images to a common grid for subsequent multi-color visualization.This poster will highlight these visualization capabilities with the following examples:1. Creation of down-sampled multi-color images of a 16-wavelength Infrared Atlas of the Galactic Plane, sampled at 1 arcsec when created2. Integration into web-based image processing environment: JS9 is an interactive image display service for web browsers, desktops and mobile devices. It exploits the flux-preserving reprojection algorithms in Montage to transform diverse images to common image parameters for display. Select Montage programs have been compiled to Javascript/WebAssembly using the Emscripten compiler, which allows our reprojection algorithms to run in browsers at close to native speed.3. Creation of complex sky coverage maps: an multicolor all-sky map that shows the sky coverage of the Kepler and K2, KELT and TESS projects, overlaid on an all-sky 2MASS image.Montage is funded by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number ACI-1642453. JS

  8. Integrating surgical robots into the next medical toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lai, Fuji; Entin, Eileen

    2006-01-01

    Surgical robots hold much promise for revolutionizing the field of surgery and improving surgical care. However, despite the potential advantages they offer, there are multiple barriers to adoption and integration into practice that may prevent these systems from realizing their full potential benefit. This study elucidated some of the most salient considerations that need to be addressed for integration of new technologies such as robotic systems into the operating room of the future as it evolves into a complex system of systems. We conducted in-depth interviews with operating room team members and other stakeholders to identify potential barriers in areas of workflow, teamwork, training, clinical acceptance, and human-system interaction. The findings of this study will inform an approach for the design and integration of robotics and related computer-assisted technologies into the next medical toolkit for "computer-enhanced surgery" to improve patient safety and healthcare quality.

  9. canvasDesigner: A versatile interactive high-resolution scientific multi-panel visualization toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Baohong; Zhao, Shanrong; Neuhaus, Isaac

    2018-05-03

    We present a bioinformatics and systems biology visualization toolkit harmonizing real time interactive exploring and analyzing of big data, full-fledged customizing of look-n-feel, and producing multi-panel publication-ready figures in PDF format simultaneously. Source code and detailed user guides are available at http://canvasxpress.org, https://baohongz.github.io/canvasDesigner, and https://baohongz.github.io/canvasDesigner/demo_video.html. isaac.neuhaus@bms.com, baohong.zhang@pfizer.com, shanrong.zhao@pfizer.com. Supplementary materials are available at https://goo.gl/1uQygs.

  10. Testability, Test Automation and Test Driven Development for the Trick Simulation Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Penn, John

    2014-01-01

    This paper describes the adoption of a Test Driven Development approach and a Continuous Integration System in the development of the Trick Simulation Toolkit, a generic simulation development environment for creating high fidelity training and engineering simulations at the NASA Johnson Space Center and many other NASA facilities. It describes the approach, and the significant benefits seen, such as fast, thorough and clear test feedback every time code is checked into the code repository. It also describes an approach that encourages development of code that is testable and adaptable.

  11. eVITAL: A Preliminary Taxonomy and Electronic Toolkit of Health-Related Habits and Lifestyle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luis Salvador-Carulla

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Objectives. To create a preliminary taxonomy and related toolkit of health-related habits (HrH following a person-centered approach with a focus on primary care. Methods. From 2003–2009, a working group (n=6 physicians defined the knowledge base, created a framing document, and selected evaluation tools using an iterative process. Multidisciplinary focus groups (n=29 health professionals revised the document and evaluation protocol and participated in a feasibility study and review of the model based on a demonstration study with 11 adult volunteers in Antequera, Spain. Results. The preliminary taxonomy contains 6 domains of HrH and 1 domain of additional health descriptors, 3 subdomains, 43 dimensions, and 141 subdimensions. The evaluation tool was completed by the 11 volunteers. The eVITAL toolkit contains history and examination items for 4 levels of engagement: self-assessment, basic primary care, extended primary care, and specialty care. There was positive feedback from the volunteers and experts, but concern about the length of the evaluation. Conclusions. We present the first taxonomy of HrH, which may aid the development of the new models of care such as the personal contextual factors of the International Classification of Functioning (ICF and the positive and negative components of the multilevel person-centered integrative diagnosis model.

  12. Modelling toolkit for simulation of maglev devices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peña-Roche, J.; Badía-Majós, A.

    2017-01-01

    A stand-alone App1 has been developed, focused on obtaining information about relevant engineering properties of magnetic levitation systems. Our modelling toolkit provides real time simulations of 2D magneto-mechanical quantities for superconductor (SC)/permanent magnet structures. The source code is open and may be customised for a variety of configurations. Ultimately, it relies on the variational statement of the critical state model for the superconducting component and has been verified against experimental data for YBaCuO/NdFeB assemblies. On a quantitative basis, the values of the arising forces, induced superconducting currents, as well as a plot of the magnetic field lines are displayed upon selection of an arbitrary trajectory of the magnet in the vicinity of the SC. The stability issues related to the cooling process, as well as the maximum attainable forces for a given material and geometry are immediately observed. Due to the complexity of the problem, a strategy based on cluster computing, database compression, and real-time post-processing on the device has been implemented.

  13. Security Assessment Simulation Toolkit (SAST) Final Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meitzler, Wayne D.; Ouderkirk, Steven J.; Hughes, Chad O.

    2009-11-15

    The Department of Defense Technical Support Working Group (DoD TSWG) investment in the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Security Assessment Simulation Toolkit (SAST) research planted a technology seed that germinated into a suite of follow-on Research and Development (R&D) projects culminating in software that is used by multiple DoD organizations. The DoD TSWG technology transfer goal for SAST is already in progress. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), the Defense-wide Information Assurance Program (DIAP), the Marine Corps, Office Of Naval Research (ONR) National Center For Advanced Secure Systems Research (NCASSR) and Office Of Secretary Of Defense International Exercise Program (OSD NII) are currently investing to take SAST to the next level. PNNL currently distributes the software to over 6 government organizations and 30 DoD users. For the past five DoD wide Bulwark Defender exercises, the adoption of this new technology created an expanding role for SAST. In 2009, SAST was also used in the OSD NII International Exercise and is currently scheduled for use in 2010.

  14. A cosmology forecast toolkit — CosmoLib

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Huang, Zhiqi, E-mail: zqhuang@cita.utoronto.ca [CEA, Institut de Physique Théorique, Orme des Merisiers, Saint-Aubin, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cédex (France)

    2012-06-01

    The package CosmoLib is a combination of a cosmological Boltzmann code and a simulation toolkit to forecast the constraints on cosmological parameters from future observations. In this paper we describe the released linear-order part of the package. We discuss the stability and performance of the Boltzmann code. This is written in Newtonian gauge and including dark energy perturbations. In CosmoLib the integrator that computes the CMB angular power spectrum is optimized for a l-by-l brute-force integration, which is useful for studying inflationary models predicting sharp features in the primordial power spectrum of metric fluctuations. As an application, CosmoLib is used to study the axion monodromy inflation model that predicts cosine oscillations in the primordial power spectrum. In contrast to the previous studies by Aich et al. and Meerburg et al., we found no detection or hint of the osicllations. We pointed out that the CAMB code modified by Aich et al. does not have sufficient numerical accuracy. CosmoLib and its documentation are available at http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/∼zqhuang/CosmoLib.

  15. Effect of subthalamic nucleus or globus pallidus interna stimulation on oculomotor function in patients with Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fridley, Jared; Adams, Gareth; Sun, Ping; York, Michelle; Atassi, Farah; Lai, Eugene; Simpson, Richard; Viswanathan, Ashwin; Yoshor, Daniel

    2013-01-01

    Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of either the globus pallidus interna (GPi) or subthalamic nucleus (STN) is similarly effective for treating somatomotor manifestations of Parkinson's disease (PD), but differences in how stimulation of each target affects oculomotor function are poorly understood. We sought to determine if stimulation of the STN, but not the GPi, affects oculomotor function in PD patients. Nineteen PD patients with DBS implants (8 bilateral GPi, 9 bilateral STN and 2 unilateral STN) were studied. Testing was performed with stimulation on, then off. Somatomotor function was tested using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) motor exam. For oculomotor testing, patients performed pro- and antisaccade tasks while monitored with an infrared eye tracker. Saccadic latency, saccadic intrusions, and square-wave jerks (SWJs) were measured for each trial. As expected, UPDRS motor scores improved with both GPi and STN stimulation. With GPi stimulation, there was no significant difference in oculomotor function with stimulation on or off. However, with STN stimulation on, there was a significant increase in the mean number of SWJs/s, as well as a significant decrease in latency for both pro- and antisaccade tasks. Stimulation of either GPi or STN had similar effects on somatomotor function, but only STN stimulation significantly altered oculomotor function. Copyright © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  16. Gadolinium Accumulation in the Deep Cerebellar Nuclei and Globus Pallidus After Exposure to Linear but Not Macrocyclic Gadolinium-Based Contrast Agents in a Retrospective Pig Study With High Similarity to Clinical Conditions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boyken, Janina; Frenzel, Thomas; Lohrke, Jessica; Jost, Gregor; Pietsch, Hubertus

    2018-05-01

    The aim of this retrospective study was to determine the gadolinium (Gd) concentration in different brain areas in a pig cohort that received repeated administration of Gd-based contrast agents (GBCAs) at standard doses over several years, comparable with a clinical setting. Brain tissue was collected from 13 Göttingen mini pigs that had received repeated intravenous injections of gadopentetate dimeglumine (Gd-DTPA; Magnevist) and/or gadobutrol (Gadovist). The animals have been included in several preclinical imaging studies since 2008 and received cumulative Gd doses ranging from 7 to 129 mmol per animal over an extended period. Two animals with no history of administration of GBCA were included as controls. Brain autopsies were performed not earlier than 8 and not later than 38 months after the last GBCA application. Tissues from multiple brain areas including cerebellar and cerebral deep nuclei, cerebellar and cerebral cortex, and pons were analyzed for Gd using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Of the 13 animals, 8 received up to 48 injections of gadobutrol and Gd-DTPA and 5 received up to 29 injections of gadobutrol only. In animals that had received both Gd-DTPA and gadobutrol, a median (interquartile range) Gd concentration of 1.0 nmol/g tissue (0.44-1.42) was measured in the cerebellar nuclei and 0.53 nmol/g (0.29-0.62) in the globus pallidus. The Gd concentration in these areas in gadobutrol-only animals was 50-fold lower with median concentrations of 0.02 nmol/g (0.01-0.02) for cerebellar nuclei and 0.01 nmol/g (0.01-0.01) for globus pallidus and was comparable with control animals with no GBCA history. Accordingly, in animals that received both GBCAs, the amount of residual Gd correlated with the administered dose of Gd-DTPA (P ≤ 0.002) but not with the total Gd dose, consisting of Gd-DTPA and gadobutrol. The Gd concentration in cortical tissue and in the pons was very low (≤0.07 nmol/g tissue) in all animals analyzed. Multiple exposure

  17. Plug-and-play paper-based toolkit for rapid prototyping of microfluidics and electronics towards point-of-care diagnostic solutions

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Smith, S

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available We present a plug-and-play toolkit for the rapid assembly of paper-based microfluidic and electronic components for quick prototyping of paper-based components towards point-of-care diagnostic solutions. Individual modules, each with a specific...

  18. VaST: A variability search toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sokolovsky, K. V.; Lebedev, A. A.

    2018-01-01

    Variability Search Toolkit (VaST) is a software package designed to find variable objects in a series of sky images. It can be run from a script or interactively using its graphical interface. VaST relies on source list matching as opposed to image subtraction. SExtractor is used to generate source lists and perform aperture or PSF-fitting photometry (with PSFEx). Variability indices that characterize scatter and smoothness of a lightcurve are computed for all objects. Candidate variables are identified as objects having high variability index values compared to other objects of similar brightness. The two distinguishing features of VaST are its ability to perform accurate aperture photometry of images obtained with non-linear detectors and handle complex image distortions. The software has been successfully applied to images obtained with telescopes ranging from 0.08 to 2.5 m in diameter equipped with a variety of detectors including CCD, CMOS, MIC and photographic plates. About 1800 variable stars have been discovered with VaST. It is used as a transient detection engine in the New Milky Way (NMW) nova patrol. The code is written in C and can be easily compiled on the majority of UNIX-like systems. VaST is free software available at http://scan.sai.msu.ru/vast/.

  19. Upgrading the safety toolkit: Initiatives of the accident analysis subgroup

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'Kula, K.R.; Chung, D.Y.

    1999-01-01

    Since its inception, the Accident Analysis Subgroup (AAS) of the Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) has been a leading organization promoting development and application of appropriate methodologies for safety analysis of US Department of Energy (DOE) installations. The AAS, one of seven chartered by the EFCOG Safety Analysis Working Group, has performed an oversight function and provided direction to several technical groups. These efforts have been instrumental toward formal evaluation of computer models, improving the pedigree on high-use computer models, and development of the user-friendly Accident Analysis Guidebook (AAG). All of these improvements have improved the analytical toolkit for best complying with DOE orders and standards shaping safety analysis reports (SARs) and related documentation. Major support for these objectives has been through DOE/DP-45

  20. Managing Fieldwork Data with Toolbox and the Natural Language Toolkit

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stuart Robinson

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper shows how fieldwork data can be managed using the program Toolbox together with the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK for the Python programming language. It provides background information about Toolbox and describes how it can be downloaded and installed. The basic functionality of the program for lexicons and texts is described, and its strengths and weaknesses are reviewed. Its underlying data format is briefly discussed, and Toolbox processing capabilities of NLTK are introduced, showing ways in which it can be used to extend the functionality of Toolbox. This is illustrated with a few simple scripts that demonstrate basic data management tasks relevant to language documentation, such as printing out the contents of a lexicon as HTML.

  1. A Cas9-based toolkit to program gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Apel, Amanda Reider; d'Espaux, Leo; Wehrs, Maren

    2017-01-01

    of these parts via a web-based tool, that automates the generation of DNA fragments for integration. Our system builds upon existing gene editing methods in the thoroughness with which the parts are standardized and characterized, the types and number of parts available and the ease with which our methodology...... can be used to perform genetic edits in yeast. We demonstrated the applicability of this toolkit by optimizing the expression of a challenging but industrially important enzyme, taxadiene synthase (TXS). This approach enabled us to diagnose an issue with TXS solubility, the resolution of which yielded...

  2. A Web-Based Toolkit to Provide Evidence-Based Resources About Crystal Methamphetamine for the Australian Community: Collaborative Development of Cracks in the Ice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Champion, Katrina Elizabeth; Chapman, Cath; Newton, Nicola Clare; Brierley, Mary-Ellen; Stapinski, Lexine; Kay-Lambkin, Frances; Nagle, Jack; Teesson, Maree

    2018-03-20

    The use of crystal methamphetamine (ice) and the associated harms for individuals, families, and communities across Australia has been the subject of growing concern in recent years. The provision of easily accessible, evidence-based, and up-to-date information and resources about crystal methamphetamine for the community is a critical component of an effective public health response. This paper aims to describe the codevelopment process of the Web-based Cracks in the Ice Community Toolkit, which was developed to improve access to evidence-based information and resources about crystal methamphetamine for the Australian community. Development of the Cracks in the Ice Community Toolkit was conducted in collaboration with community members across Australia and with experts working in the addiction field. The iterative process involved the following: (1) consultation with end users, including community members, crystal methamphetamine users, families and friends of someone using crystal methamphetamine, health professionals, and teachers (n=451) via a cross-sectional Web-based survey to understand information needs; (2) content and Web development; and (3) user testing of a beta version of the Web-based toolkit among end users (n=41) and experts (n=10) to evaluate the toolkit's acceptability, relevance, and appeal. Initial end user consultation indicated that the most commonly endorsed reasons for visiting a website about crystal methamphetamine were "to get information for myself" (185/451, 41.0%) and "to find out how to help a friend or a family member" (136/451, 30.2%). Community consultation also revealed the need for simple information about crystal methamphetamine, including what it is, its effects, and when and where to seek help or support. Feedback on a beta version of the toolkit was positive in terms of content, readability, layout, look, and feel. Commonly identified areas for improvement related to increasing the level of engagement and personal connection

  3. OpenMSI Arrayed Analysis Toolkit: Analyzing Spatially Defined Samples Using Mass Spectrometry Imaging

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    de Raad, Markus [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); de Rond, Tristan [Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Rübel, Oliver [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Keasling, Jay D. [Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Joint BioEnergy Inst. (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Technical Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby (Denmark); Northen, Trent R. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); USDOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Walnut Creek, CA (United States); Bowen, Benjamin P. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); USDOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Walnut Creek, CA (United States)

    2017-05-03

    Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) has primarily been applied in localizing biomolecules within biological matrices. Although well-suited, the application of MSI for comparing thousands of spatially defined spotted samples has been limited. One reason for this is a lack of suitable and accessible data processing tools for the analysis of large arrayed MSI sample sets. In this paper, the OpenMSI Arrayed Analysis Toolkit (OMAAT) is a software package that addresses the challenges of analyzing spatially defined samples in MSI data sets. OMAAT is written in Python and is integrated with OpenMSI (http://openmsi.nersc.gov), a platform for storing, sharing, and analyzing MSI data. By using a web-based python notebook (Jupyter), OMAAT is accessible to anyone without programming experience yet allows experienced users to leverage all features. OMAAT was evaluated by analyzing an MSI data set of a high-throughput glycoside hydrolase activity screen comprising 384 samples arrayed onto a NIMS surface at a 450 μm spacing, decreasing analysis time >100-fold while maintaining robust spot-finding. The utility of OMAAT was demonstrated for screening metabolic activities of different sized soil particles, including hydrolysis of sugars, revealing a pattern of size dependent activities. Finally, these results introduce OMAAT as an effective toolkit for analyzing spatially defined samples in MSI. OMAAT runs on all major operating systems, and the source code can be obtained from the following GitHub repository: https://github.com/biorack/omaat.

  4. GRHydro: a new open-source general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics code for the Einstein toolkit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mösta, Philipp; Haas, Roland; Ott, Christian D; Reisswig, Christian; Mundim, Bruno C; Faber, Joshua A; Noble, Scott C; Bode, Tanja; Löffler, Frank; Schnetter, Erik

    2014-01-01

    We present the new general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) capabilities of the Einstein toolkit, an open-source community-driven numerical relativity and computational relativistic astrophysics code. The GRMHD extension of the toolkit builds upon previous releases and implements the evolution of relativistic magnetized fluids in the ideal MHD limit in fully dynamical spacetimes using the same shock-capturing techniques previously applied to hydrodynamical evolution. In order to maintain the divergence-free character of the magnetic field, the code implements both constrained transport and hyperbolic divergence cleaning schemes. We present test results for a number of MHD tests in Minkowski and curved spacetimes. Minkowski tests include aligned and oblique planar shocks, cylindrical explosions, magnetic rotors, Alfvén waves and advected loops, as well as a set of tests designed to study the response of the divergence cleaning scheme to numerically generated monopoles. We study the code’s performance in curved spacetimes with spherical accretion onto a black hole on a fixed background spacetime and in fully dynamical spacetimes by evolutions of a magnetized polytropic neutron star and of the collapse of a magnetized stellar core. Our results agree well with exact solutions where these are available and we demonstrate convergence. All code and input files used to generate the results are available on http://einsteintoolkit.org. This makes our work fully reproducible and provides new users with an introduction to applications of the code. (paper)

  5. EvoBuild: A Quickstart Toolkit for Programming Agent-Based Models of Evolutionary Processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wagh, Aditi; Wilensky, Uri

    2018-04-01

    Extensive research has shown that one of the benefits of programming to learn about scientific phenomena is that it facilitates learning about mechanisms underlying the phenomenon. However, using programming activities in classrooms is associated with costs such as requiring additional time to learn to program or students needing prior experience with programming. This paper presents a class of programming environments that we call quickstart: Environments with a negligible threshold for entry into programming and a modest ceiling. We posit that such environments can provide benefits of programming for learning without incurring associated costs for novice programmers. To make this claim, we present a design-based research study conducted to compare programming models of evolutionary processes with a quickstart toolkit with exploring pre-built models of the same processes. The study was conducted in six seventh grade science classes in two schools. Students in the programming condition used EvoBuild, a quickstart toolkit for programming agent-based models of evolutionary processes, to build their NetLogo models. Students in the exploration condition used pre-built NetLogo models. We demonstrate that although students came from a range of academic backgrounds without prior programming experience, and all students spent the same number of class periods on the activities including the time students took to learn programming in this environment, EvoBuild students showed greater learning about evolutionary mechanisms. We discuss the implications of this work for design research on programming environments in K-12 science education.

  6. IBiSA_Tools: A Computational Toolkit for Ion-Binding State Analysis in Molecular Dynamics Trajectories of Ion Channels.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kota Kasahara

    Full Text Available Ion conduction mechanisms of ion channels are a long-standing conundrum. Although the molecular dynamics (MD method has been extensively used to simulate ion conduction dynamics at the atomic level, analysis and interpretation of MD results are not straightforward due to complexity of the dynamics. In our previous reports, we proposed an analytical method called ion-binding state analysis to scrutinize and summarize ion conduction mechanisms by taking advantage of a variety of analytical protocols, e.g., the complex network analysis, sequence alignment, and hierarchical clustering. This approach effectively revealed the ion conduction mechanisms and their dependence on the conditions, i.e., ion concentration and membrane voltage. Here, we present an easy-to-use computational toolkit for ion-binding state analysis, called IBiSA_tools. This toolkit consists of a C++ program and a series of Python and R scripts. From the trajectory file of MD simulations and a structure file, users can generate several images and statistics of ion conduction processes. A complex network named ion-binding state graph is generated in a standard graph format (graph modeling language; GML, which can be visualized by standard network analyzers such as Cytoscape. As a tutorial, a trajectory of a 50 ns MD simulation of the Kv1.2 channel is also distributed with the toolkit. Users can trace the entire process of ion-binding state analysis step by step. The novel method for analysis of ion conduction mechanisms of ion channels can be easily used by means of IBiSA_tools. This software is distributed under an open source license at the following URL: http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~ktkshr/ibisa_tools/.

  7. Perspectives of healthcare providers and HIV-affected individuals and couples during the development of a Safer Conception Counseling Toolkit in Kenya: stigma, fears, and recommendations for the delivery of services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mmeje, Okeoma; Njoroge, Betty; Akama, Eliud; Leddy, Anna; Breitnauer, Brooke; Darbes, Lynae; Brown, Joelle

    2016-01-01

    Reproduction is important to many HIV-affected individuals and couples and healthcare providers (HCPs) are responsible for providing resources to help them safely conceive while minimizing the risk of sexual and perinatal HIV transmission. In order to fulfill their reproductive goals, HIV-affected individuals and their partners need access to information regarding safer methods of conception. The objective of this qualitative study was to develop a Safer Conception Counseling Toolkit that can be used to train HCPs and counsel HIV-affected individuals and couples in HIV care and treatment clinics in Kenya. We conducted a two-phased qualitative study among HCPs and HIV-affected individuals and couples from eight HIV care and treatment sites in Kisumu, Kenya. We conducted in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) to assess the perspectives of HCPs and HIV-affected individuals and couples in order to develop and refine the content of the Toolkit. Subsequently, IDIs were conducted among HCPs who were trained using the Toolkit and FGDs among HIV-affected individuals and couples who were counseled with the Toolkit. HIV-related stigma, fears, and recommendations for delivery of safer conception counseling were assessed during the discussions. One hundred and six individuals participated in FGDs and IDIs; 29 HCPs, 49 HIV-affected women and men, and 14 HIV-serodiscordant couples. Participants indicated that a safer conception counseling and training program for HCPs is needed and that routine provision of safer conception counseling may promote maternal and child health by enhancing reproductive autonomy among HIV-affected couples. They also reported that the Toolkit may help dispel the stigma and fears associated with reproduction in HIV-affected couples, while supporting them in achieving their reproductive goals. Additional research is needed to evaluate the Safer Conception Toolkit in order to support its implementation and use in HIV care and

  8. Eucalyptus Cloud to Remotely Provision e-Governance Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sreerama Prabhu Chivukula

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Remote rural areas are constrained by lack of reliable power supply, essential for setting up advanced IT infrastructure as servers or storage; therefore, cloud computing comprising an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS is well suited to provide such IT infrastructure in remote rural areas. Additional cloud layers of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS can be added above IaaS. Cluster-based IaaS cloud can be set up by using open-source middleware Eucalyptus in data centres of NIC. Data centres of the central and state governments can be integrated with State Wide Area Networks and NICNET together to form the e-governance grid of India. Web service repositories at centre, state, and district level can be built over the national e-governance grid of India. Using Globus Toolkit, we can achieve stateful web services with speed and security. Adding the cloud layer over the e-governance grid will make a grid-cloud environment possible through Globus Nimbus. Service delivery can be in terms of web services delivery through heterogeneous client devices. Data mining using Weka4WS and DataMiningGrid can produce meaningful knowledge discovery from data. In this paper, a plan of action is provided for the implementation of the above proposed architecture.

  9. Improving the fundamentals of care for older people in the acute hospital setting: facilitating practice improvement using a Knowledge Translation Toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiechula, Rick; Kitson, Alison; Marcoionni, Danni; Page, Tammy; Zeitz, Kathryn; Silverston, Heidi

    2009-12-01

    This paper reports on a structured facilitation program where seven interdisciplinary teams conducted projects aimed at improving the care of the older person in the acute sector. Aims  To develop and implement a structured intervention known as the Knowledge Translation (KT) Toolkit to improve the fundamentals of care for the older person in the acute care sector. Three hypotheses were tested: (i) frontline staff can be facilitated to use existing quality improvement tools and techniques and other resources (the KT Toolkit) in order to improve care of older people in the acute hospital setting; (ii) fundamental aspects of care for older people in the acute hospital setting can be improved through the introduction and use of specific evidence-based guidelines by frontline staff; and (iii) innovations can be introduced and improvements made to care within a 12-month cycle/timeframe with appropriate facilitation. Methods  Using realistic evaluation methodology the impact of a structured facilitation program (the KT Toolkit) was assessed with the aim of providing a deeper understanding of how a range of tools, techniques and strategies may be used by clinicians to improve care. The intervention comprised three elements: the facilitation team recruited for specific knowledge, skills and expertise in KT, evidence-based practice and quality and safety; the facilitation, including a structured program of education, ongoing support and communication; and finally the components of the toolkit including elements already used within the study organisation. Results  Small improvements in care were shown. The results for the individual projects varied from clarifying issues of concern and planning ongoing activities, to changing existing practices, to improving actual patient outcomes such as reducing functional decline. More importantly the study described how teams of clinicians can be facilitated using a structured program to conduct practice improvement activities

  10. A population-based randomized controlled trial of the effect of combining a pedometer with an intervention toolkit on physical activity among individuals with low levels of physical activity or fitness

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Christina Bjørk; Severin, Maria; Hansen, Andreas Wolff

    2012-01-01

    To examine if receiving a pedometer along with an intervention toolkit is associated with increased physical activity, aerobic fitness and better self-rated health among individuals with low levels of physical activity or fitness.......To examine if receiving a pedometer along with an intervention toolkit is associated with increased physical activity, aerobic fitness and better self-rated health among individuals with low levels of physical activity or fitness....

  11. Water Security Toolkit User Manual: Version 1.3 | Science ...

    Science.gov (United States)

    User manual: Data Product/Software The Water Security Toolkit (WST) is a suite of tools that help provide the information necessary to make good decisions resulting in the minimization of further human exposure to contaminants, and the maximization of the effectiveness of intervention strategies. WST assists in the evaluation of multiple response actions in order to select the most beneficial consequence management strategy. It includes hydraulic and water quality modeling software and optimization methodologies to identify: (1) sensor locations to detect contamination, (2) locations in the network in which the contamination was introduced, (3) hydrants to remove contaminated water from the distribution system, (4) locations in the network to inject decontamination agents to inactivate, remove or destroy contaminants, (5) locations in the network to take grab sample to confirm contamination or cleanup and (6) valves to close in order to isolate contaminated areas of the network.

  12. TMVA - Toolkit for Multivariate Data Analysis with ROOT Users guide

    CERN Document Server

    Höcker, A; Tegenfeldt, F; Voss, H; Voss, K; Christov, A; Henrot-Versillé, S; Jachowski, M; Krasznahorkay, A; Mahalalel, Y; Prudent, X; Speckmayer, P

    2007-01-01

    Multivariate machine learning techniques for the classification of data from high-energy physics (HEP) experiments have become standard tools in most HEP analyses. The multivariate classifiers themselves have significantly evolved in recent years, also driven by developments in other areas inside and outside science. TMVA is a toolkit integrated in ROOT which hosts a large variety of multivariate classification algorithms. They range from rectangular cut optimisation (using a genetic algorithm) and likelihood estimators, over linear and non-linear discriminants (neural networks), to sophisticated recent developments like boosted decision trees and rule ensemble fitting. TMVA organises the simultaneous training, testing, and performance evaluation of all these classifiers with a user-friendly interface, and expedites the application of the trained classifiers to the analysis of data sets with unknown sample composition.

  13. A tetO Toolkit To Alter Expression of Genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cuperus, Josh T; Lo, Russell S; Shumaker, Lucia; Proctor, Julia; Fields, Stanley

    2015-07-17

    Strategies to optimize a metabolic pathway often involve building a large collection of strains, each containing different versions of sequences that regulate the expression of pathway genes. Here, we develop reagents and methods to carry out this process at high efficiency in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We identify variants of the Escherichia coli tet operator (tetO) sequence that bind a TetR-VP16 activator with differential affinity and therefore result in different TetR-VP16 activator-driven expression. By recombining these variants upstream of the genes of a pathway, we generate unique combinations of expression levels. Here, we built a tetO toolkit, which includes the I-OnuI homing endonuclease to create double-strand breaks, which increases homologous recombination by 10(5); a plasmid carrying six variant tetO sequences flanked by I-OnuI sites, uncoupling transformation and recombination steps; an S. cerevisiae-optimized TetR-VP16 activator; and a vector to integrate constructs into the yeast genome. We introduce into the S. cerevisiae genome the three crt genes from Erwinia herbicola required for yeast to synthesize lycopene and carry out the recombination process to produce a population of cells with permutations of tetO variants regulating the three genes. We identify 0.7% of this population as making detectable lycopene, of which the vast majority have undergone recombination at all three crt genes. We estimate a rate of ∼20% recombination per targeted site, much higher than that obtained in other studies. Application of this toolkit to medically or industrially important end products could reduce the time and labor required to optimize the expression of a set of metabolic genes.

  14. Effect of the good school toolkit on school staff mental health, sense of job satisfaction and perceptions of school climate: Secondary analysis of a cluster randomised trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kayiwa, Joshua; Clarke, Kelly; Knight, Louise; Allen, Elizabeth; Walakira, Eddy; Namy, Sophie; Merrill, Katherine G; Naker, Dipak; Devries, Karen

    2017-08-01

    The Good School Toolkit, a complex behavioural intervention delivered in Ugandan primary schools, has been shown to reduce school staff-perpetrated physical violence against students. We aimed to assess the effect of this intervention on staff members' mental health, sense of job satisfaction and perception of school climate. We analysed data from a cluster-randomised trial administered in 42 primary schools in Luwero district, Uganda. The trial was comprised of cross-sectional baseline (June/July 2012) and endline (June/July 2014) surveys among staff and students. Twenty-one schools were randomly selected to receive the Toolkit, whilst 21 schools constituted a wait-listed control group. We generated composite measures to assess staff members' perceptions of the school climate and job satisfaction. The trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01678846). No schools dropped out of the study and all 591 staff members who completed the endline survey were included in the analysis. Staff in schools receiving the Toolkit had more positive perspectives of their school climate compared to staff in control schools (difference in mean scores 2.19, 95% Confidence Interval 0.92, 3.39). We did not find any significant differences for job satisfaction and mental health. In conclusion, interventions like the Good School Toolkit that reduce physical violence by school staff against students can improve staff perceptions of the school climate, and could help to build more positive working and learning environments in Ugandan schools. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. An internet-based bioinformatics toolkit for plant biosecurity diagnosis and surveillance of viruses and viroids.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barrero, Roberto A; Napier, Kathryn R; Cunnington, James; Liefting, Lia; Keenan, Sandi; Frampton, Rebekah A; Szabo, Tamas; Bulman, Simon; Hunter, Adam; Ward, Lisa; Whattam, Mark; Bellgard, Matthew I

    2017-01-11

    Detection and preventing entry of exotic viruses and viroids at the border is critical for protecting plant industries trade worldwide. Existing post entry quarantine screening protocols rely on time-consuming biological indicators and/or molecular assays that require knowledge of infecting viral pathogens. Plants have developed the ability to recognise and respond to viral infections through Dicer-like enzymes that cleave viral sequences into specific small RNA products. Many studies reported the use of a broad range of small RNAs encompassing the product sizes of several Dicer enzymes involved in distinct biological pathways. Here we optimise the assembly of viral sequences by using specific small RNA subsets. We sequenced the small RNA fractions of 21 plants held at quarantine glasshouse facilities in Australia and New Zealand. Benchmarking of several de novo assembler tools yielded SPAdes using a kmer of 19 to produce the best assembly outcomes. We also found that de novo assembly using 21-25 nt small RNAs can result in chimeric assemblies of viral sequences and plant host sequences. Such non-specific assemblies can be resolved by using 21-22 nt or 24 nt small RNAs subsets. Among the 21 selected samples, we identified contigs with sequence similarity to 18 viruses and 3 viroids in 13 samples. Most of the viruses were assembled using only 21-22 nt long virus-derived siRNAs (viRNAs), except for one Citrus endogenous pararetrovirus that was more efficiently assembled using 24 nt long viRNAs. All three viroids found in this study were fully assembled using either 21-22 nt or 24 nt viRNAs. Optimised analysis workflows were customised within the Yabi web-based analytical environment. We present a fully automated viral surveillance and diagnosis web-based bioinformatics toolkit that provides a flexible, user-friendly, robust and scalable interface for the discovery and diagnosis of viral pathogens. We have implemented an automated viral surveillance and

  16. VariVis: a visualisation toolkit for variation databases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Smith Timothy D

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background With the completion of the Human Genome Project and recent advancements in mutation detection technologies, the volume of data available on genetic variations has risen considerably. These data are stored in online variation databases and provide important clues to the cause of diseases and potential side effects or resistance to drugs. However, the data presentation techniques employed by most of these databases make them difficult to use and understand. Results Here we present a visualisation toolkit that can be employed by online variation databases to generate graphical models of gene sequence with corresponding variations and their consequences. The VariVis software package can run on any web server capable of executing Perl CGI scripts and can interface with numerous Database Management Systems and "flat-file" data files. VariVis produces two easily understandable graphical depictions of any gene sequence and matches these with variant data. While developed with the goal of improving the utility of human variation databases, the VariVis package can be used in any variation database to enhance utilisation of, and access to, critical information.

  17. The Trick Simulation Toolkit: A NASA/Open source Framework for Running Time Based Physics Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Penn, John M.; Lin, Alexander S.

    2016-01-01

    This paper describes the design and use at of the Trick Simulation Toolkit, a simulation development environment for creating high fidelity training and engineering simulations at the NASA Johnson Space Center and many other NASA facilities. It describes Trick's design goals and how the development environment attempts to achieve those goals. It describes how Trick is used in some of the many training and engineering simulations at NASA. Finally it describes the Trick NASA/Open source project on Github.

  18. OpenMSI Arrayed Analysis Toolkit: Analyzing Spatially Defined Samples Using Mass Spectrometry Imaging

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    de Raad, Markus; de Rond, Tristan; Rübel, Oliver

    2017-01-01

    ://openmsinersc.gov), a platform for storing, sharing, and analyzing MSI data. By using a web-based python notebook (Jupyter), OMAAT is accessible to anyone without programming experience yet allows experienced users to leverage all features. OMAAT was :evaluated by analyzing an MSI data set of a high-throughput glycoside...... processing tools for the analysis of large arrayed MSI sample sets. The OpenMSI Arrayed Analysis Toolkit (OMAAT) is a software package that addresses the challenges of analyzing spatially defined samples in MSI data sets. OMAAT is written in Python and is integrated with OpenMSI (http...

  19. Preparing for the Flu (Including 2009 H1N1 Flu): A Communication Toolkit for Schools (Grades K-12)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of "Preparing for the Flu: A Communication Toolkit for Schools" is to provide basic information and communication resources to help school administrators implement recommendations from CDC's (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Guidance for State and Local Public Health Officials and School Administrators for School (K-12)…

  20. Microgrid Design Toolkit (MDT) Technical Documentation and Component Summaries

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Arguello, Bryan [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Gearhart, Jared Lee [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Jones, Katherine A. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Eddy, John P. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    2015-09-01

    The Microgrid Design Toolkit (MDT) is a decision support software tool for microgrid designers to use during the microgrid design process. The models that support the two main capabilities in MDT are described. The first capability, the Microgrid Sizing Capability (MSC), is used to determine the size and composition of a new microgrid in the early stages of the design process. MSC is a mixed-integer linear program that is focused on developing a microgrid that is economically viable when connected to the grid. The second capability is focused on refining a microgrid design for operation in islanded mode. This second capability relies on two models: the Technology Management Optimization (TMO) model and Performance Reliability Model (PRM). TMO uses a genetic algorithm to create and refine a collection of candidate microgrid designs. It uses PRM, a simulation based reliability model, to assess the performance of these designs. TMO produces a collection of microgrid designs that perform well with respect to one or more performance metrics.

  1. Simulating the Effects of Short-Term Synaptic Plasticity on Postsynaptic Dynamics in the Globus Pallidus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Moran eBrody

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available The rat globus pallidus (GP is one of the nuclei of the basal ganglia and plays an important role in a variety of motor and cognitive processes. In vivo studies have shown that repetitive stimulation evokes complex modulations of GP activity. In vitro and computational studies have suggested that short-term synaptic plasticity (STP could be one of the underlying mechanisms. The current study used simplified single compartment modeling to explore the possible effect of STP on the activity of GP neurons during low and high frequency stimulation. To do this we constructed a model of a GP neuron connected to a small network of neurons from the three major input sources to GP neurons: striatum (Str, subthalamic nucleus (STN and GP collaterals. All synapses were implemented with a kinetic model of STP. The in vitro recordings of responses to low frequency repetitive stimulation were highly reconstructed, including rate changes and locking to the stimulus. Mainly involved were fast forms of plasticity which have been found at these synapses. . The simulations were qualitatively compared to a data set previously recorded in vitro in our lab. Reconstructions of experimental responses to high frequency stimulation required adding slower forms of plasticity to the STN and GP collateral synapses, as well as adding metabotropic receptors to the STN-GP synapses. These finding suggest the existence of as yet unreported slower short-term dynamics in the GP. The computational model made additional predictions about GP activity during low and high frequency stimulation that may further our understanding of the mechanisms underlying repetative stimulation of the GP.

  2. Using the 4 Pillars™ Immunization Toolkit to Increase Pneumococcal Immunizations for Older Adults: A Cluster Randomized Trial

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zimmerman, Richard K.; Brown, Anthony E.; Pavlik, Valory N.; Moehling, Krissy K.; Raviotta, Jonathan M.; Lin, Chyongchiou J.; Zhang, Song; Hawk, Mary; Kyle, Shakala; Patel, Suchita; Ahmed, Faruque; Nowalk, Mary Patricia

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND Quality improvement in primary care has focused on improving adult immunization. OBJECTIVES Test the effectiveness of a step-by step, evidence-based guide, the 4 Pillars™ Immunization Toolkit, to increase adult pneumococcal vaccination. DESIGN Randomized controlled cluster trial (RCCT) in Year 1 (6/1/2013–5/31/2014) and a pre-post study in Year 2 (6/1/2014–1/31/2015) with data analyzed in 2016. Baseline year was 6/1/2012–5/31/2013. Demographic and vaccination data were derived from de-identified EMR extractions. SETTING 25 primary care practices stratified by city (Houston, Pittsburgh), location (rural, urban, suburban) and type (family medicine, internal medicine), randomized to receive the intervention in Year 1 (n=13) or Year 2 (n=12). PARTICIPANTS A cohort of 18,107 patients ≥65 years at baseline with a mean age of 74.2 years; 60.7% were women, 16.5% were non-white and 15.7% were Hispanic. INTERVENTION The Toolkit, provider education, and one-on-one coaching of practice-based immunization champions. Outcome measures were 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV) and pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) rates and percentage point (PP) changes. RESULTS In the RCCT, all intervention and control groups had significantly higher PPSV vaccination rates with average increases ranging from 6.5–8.7 PP (P<0.01). The intervention was not related to higher likelihood of PPSV vaccination. In the Year 2 pre-post study, the likelihood of PPSV and PCV vaccination was significantly higher in the active intervention sites than the maintenance sites in Pittsburgh, but not in Houston. CONCLUSION In a randomized controlled cluster trial, both intervention and control groups increased PPSV among adults ≥65 years. In a pre-post study, private primary care practices using the 4 Pillars™ Immunization Toolkit significantly improved PPSV and PCV uptake compared with practices that were in the maintenance phase of the study. PMID:27755655

  3. Grid workflow job execution service 'Pilot'

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shamardin, Lev; Kryukov, Alexander; Demichev, Andrey; Ilyin, Vyacheslav

    2011-12-01

    'Pilot' is a grid job execution service for workflow jobs. The main goal for the service is to automate computations with multiple stages since they can be expressed as simple workflows. Each job is a directed acyclic graph of tasks and each task is an execution of something on a grid resource (or 'computing element'). Tasks may be submitted to any WS-GRAM (Globus Toolkit 4) service. The target resources for the tasks execution are selected by the Pilot service from the set of available resources which match the specific requirements from the task and/or job definition. Some simple conditional execution logic is also provided. The 'Pilot' service is built on the REST concepts and provides a simple API through authenticated HTTPS. This service is deployed and used in production in a Russian national grid project GridNNN.

  4. Grid workflow job execution service 'Pilot'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shamardin, Lev; Kryukov, Alexander; Demichev, Andrey; Ilyin, Vyacheslav

    2011-01-01

    'Pilot' is a grid job execution service for workflow jobs. The main goal for the service is to automate computations with multiple stages since they can be expressed as simple workflows. Each job is a directed acyclic graph of tasks and each task is an execution of something on a grid resource (or 'computing element'). Tasks may be submitted to any WS-GRAM (Globus Toolkit 4) service. The target resources for the tasks execution are selected by the Pilot service from the set of available resources which match the specific requirements from the task and/or job definition. Some simple conditional execution logic is also provided. The 'Pilot' service is built on the REST concepts and provides a simple API through authenticated HTTPS. This service is deployed and used in production in a Russian national grid project GridNNN.

  5. Serial 1H-MRS of thalamus during deep brain stimulation of bilateral globus pallidus internus for primary generalized dystonia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chernov, Mikhail F.; Iseki, Hiroshi; Takakura, Kintomo; Ochiai, Taku; Taira, Takaomi; Hori, Tomokatsu; Ono, Yuko; Nakamura, Ryoichi; Muragaki, Yoshihiro

    2008-01-01

    The physiological mechanisms of deep brain stimulation (DBS) are not completely clear. Our understanding of them may be facilitated with the use of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 1 H-MRS). Serial 1 H-MRS of both thalami was performed during the course of DBS of bilateral globus pallidus internus in a patient with primary generalized dystonia. Two days after microelectrode implantation, a pulse frequency of 185 Hz was applied for stimulation. It resulted in relief of symptoms and a decrease of Burke-Fahn-Marsden dystonia rating scale (BFMDRS) scores, and was accompanied by a prominent increase of N-acetylaspartate (NAA)/choline-containing compounds (Cho) ratio, a mild increase of NAA/creatine (Cr) ratio, and a moderate decrease of Cho/Cr ratio. Two weeks later, for a search of the optimal stimulation mode, the pulse frequency was switched to 60 Hz, which resulted in clinical deterioration and significant increase of BFMDRS scores. At that time, all investigated 1 H-MRS-detected metabolic parameters had nearly returned to the pretreatment levels. Use of serial 1 H-MRS investigations of various brain structures during DBS in cases of movement disorders permits detailed evaluation of the treatment response, has a potential for its possible prediction, and may facilitate understanding of the physiological mechanisms of stimulation. (orig.)

  6. From toolkit to framework: The past and future evolution of PhEDEx

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sanchez-Hernandez, A. [CINVESTAV, IPN; Egeland, R. [Argosy U., Eagan; Huang, C. H. [Fermilab; Ratnikova, N. [Moscow, ITEP; Magini, N. [CERN; Wildish, T. [Princeton U.

    2012-01-01

    PhEDEx is the data-movement solution for CMS at the LHC. Created in 2004, it is now one of the longest-lived components of the CMS dataflow/workflow world. As such, it has undergone significant evolution over time, and continues to evolve today, despite being a fully mature system. Originally a toolkit of agents and utilities dedicated to specific tasks, it is becoming a more open framework that can be used in several ways, both within and beyond its original problem domain. In this talk we describe how a combination of refactoring and adoption of new technologies that have become available over the years have made PhEDEx more flexible, maintainable, and scaleable.

  7. Seizure-induced damage to substantia nigra and globus pallidus is accompanied by pronounced intra- and extracellular acidosis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Inamura, K.; Smith, M.L.; Hansen, A.J.; Siesjoe, B.K.

    1989-01-01

    Status epilepticus of greater than 30-min duration in rats gives rise to a conspicuous lesion in the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNPR) and globus pallidus (GP). The objective of the present study was to explore whether the lesion, which encompasses necrosis of both neurons and glial cells, is related to intra- and extracellular acidosis. Using the flurothyl model previously described to produce seizures, we assessed regional pH values with the autoradiographic 5,5-dimethyl[2-14C]oxazolidine-2,4-dione technique. Regional pH values were assessed in animals with continuous seizures for 20 and 60 min, as well as in those allowed to recover for 30 and 120 min after seizure periods of 20 or 60 min. In additional animals, changes in extracellular fluid pH (pHe) were measured with ion-selective microelectrodes, and extracellular fluid (ECF) volume was calculated from the diffusion profile for electrophoretically administered tetramethylammonium. In structures such as the neocortex and the hippocampus, which show intense metabolic activation during seizures, status epilepticus of 20- and 60-min duration was accompanied by a reduction of the composite tissue pH (pHt) of 0.2-0.3 unit. Recovery of pHt was observed upon termination of seizures. In SNPR and in GP, the acidosis was marked to excessive after 20 and 60 min of seizures (delta pHt approximately 0.6 after 60 min)

  8. Monte Carlo application based on GEANT4 toolkit to simulate a laser–plasma electron beam line for radiobiological studies

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lamia, D., E-mail: debora.lamia@ibfm.cnr.it [Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology IBFM CNR – LATO, Cefalù (Italy); Russo, G., E-mail: giorgio.russo@ibfm.cnr.it [Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology IBFM CNR – LATO, Cefalù (Italy); Casarino, C.; Gagliano, L.; Candiano, G.C. [Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology IBFM CNR – LATO, Cefalù (Italy); Labate, L. [Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory (ILIL) – National Institute of Optics INO CNR, Pisa (Italy); National Institute for Nuclear Physics INFN, Pisa Section and Frascati National Laboratories LNF (Italy); Baffigi, F.; Fulgentini, L.; Giulietti, A.; Koester, P.; Palla, D. [Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory (ILIL) – National Institute of Optics INO CNR, Pisa (Italy); Gizzi, L.A. [Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory (ILIL) – National Institute of Optics INO CNR, Pisa (Italy); National Institute for Nuclear Physics INFN, Pisa Section and Frascati National Laboratories LNF (Italy); Gilardi, M.C. [Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology IBFM CNR, Segrate (Italy); University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano (Italy)

    2015-06-21

    We report on the development of a Monte Carlo application, based on the GEANT4 toolkit, for the characterization and optimization of electron beams for clinical applications produced by a laser-driven plasma source. The GEANT4 application is conceived so as to represent in the most general way the physical and geometrical features of a typical laser-driven accelerator. It is designed to provide standard dosimetric figures such as percentage dose depth curves, two-dimensional dose distributions and 3D dose profiles at different positions both inside and outside the interaction chamber. The application was validated by comparing its predictions to experimental measurements carried out on a real laser-driven accelerator. The work is aimed at optimizing the source, by using this novel application, for radiobiological studies and, in perspective, for medical applications. - Highlights: • Development of a Monte Carlo application based on GEANT4 toolkit. • Experimental measurements carried out with a laser-driven acceleration system. • Validation of Geant4 application comparing experimental data with the simulated ones. • Dosimetric characterization of the acceleration system.

  9. SatelliteDL: a Toolkit for Analysis of Heterogeneous Satellite Datasets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galloy, M. D.; Fillmore, D.

    2014-12-01

    SatelliteDL is an IDL toolkit for the analysis of satellite Earth observations from a diverse set of platforms and sensors. The core function of the toolkit is the spatial and temporal alignment of satellite swath and geostationary data. The design features an abstraction layer that allows for easy inclusion of new datasets in a modular way. Our overarching objective is to create utilities that automate the mundane aspects of satellite data analysis, are extensible and maintainable, and do not place limitations on the analysis itself. IDL has a powerful suite of statistical and visualization tools that can be used in conjunction with SatelliteDL. Toward this end we have constructed SatelliteDL to include (1) HTML and LaTeX API document generation,(2) a unit test framework,(3) automatic message and error logs,(4) HTML and LaTeX plot and table generation, and(5) several real world examples with bundled datasets available for download. For ease of use, datasets, variables and optional workflows may be specified in a flexible format configuration file. Configuration statements may specify, for example, a region and date range, and the creation of images, plots and statistical summary tables for a long list of variables. SatelliteDL enforces data provenance; all data should be traceable and reproducible. The output NetCDF file metadata holds a complete history of the original datasets and their transformations, and a method exists to reconstruct a configuration file from this information. Release 0.1.0 distributes with ingest methods for GOES, MODIS, VIIRS and CERES radiance data (L1) as well as select 2D atmosphere products (L2) such as aerosol and cloud (MODIS and VIIRS) and radiant flux (CERES). Future releases will provide ingest methods for ocean and land surface products, gridded and time averaged datasets (L3 Daily, Monthly and Yearly), and support for 3D products such as temperature and water vapor profiles. Emphasis will be on NPP Sensor, Environmental and

  10. Performance Prediction Toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    2017-09-25

    The Performance Prediction Toolkit (PPT), is a scalable co-design tool that contains the hardware and middle-ware models, which accept proxy applications as input in runtime prediction. PPT relies on Simian, a parallel discrete event simulation engine in Python or Lua, that uses the process concept, where each computing unit (host, node, core) is a Simian entity. Processes perform their task through message exchanges to remain active, sleep, wake-up, begin and end. The PPT hardware model of a compute core (such as a Haswell core) consists of a set of parameters, such as clock speed, memory hierarchy levels, their respective sizes, cache-lines, access times for different cache levels, average cycle counts of ALU operations, etc. These parameters are ideally read off a spec sheet or are learned using regression models learned from hardware counters (PAPI) data. The compute core model offers an API to the software model, a function called time_compute(), which takes as input a tasklist. A tasklist is an unordered set of ALU, and other CPU-type operations (in particular virtual memory loads and stores). The PPT application model mimics the loop structure of the application and replaces the computational kernels with a call to the hardware model's time_compute() function giving tasklists as input that model the compute kernel. A PPT application model thus consists of tasklists representing kernels and the high-er level loop structure that we like to think of as pseudo code. The key challenge for the hardware model's time_compute-function is to translate virtual memory accesses into actual cache hierarchy level hits and misses.PPT also contains another CPU core level hardware model, Analytical Memory Model (AMM). The AMM solves this challenge soundly, where our previous alternatives explicitly include the L1,L2,L3 hit-rates as inputs to the tasklists. Explicit hit-rates inevitably only reflect the application modeler's best guess, perhaps informed by a few

  11. The WHO-ITU national eHealth strategy toolkit as an effective approach to national strategy development and implementation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamilton, Clayton

    2013-01-01

    With few exceptions, national eHealth strategies are the pivotal tools upon which the launch or refocusing of national eHealth programmes is hinged. The process of their development obviates cross-sector ministerial commitment led by the Ministry of Health. Yet countries often grapple with the task of strategy development and best efforts frequently fail to address strategic components of eHealth key to ensure successful implementation and stakeholder engagement. This can result in strategies that are narrowly focused, with an overemphasis placed on achieving technical outcomes. Without a clear link to a broader vision of health system development and a firm commitment from partners, the ability of a strategy to shape development of a national eHealth framework will be undermined and crucial momentum for implementation will be lost. WHO and ITU have sought to address this issue through the development of the National eHealth Strategy Toolkit that provides a basis for the components and processes to be considered in a strategy development or refocusing exercise. We look at this toolkit and highlight those areas which the countries should consider in formulating their national eHealth strategy.

  12. Java advanced medical image toolkit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saunder, T.H.C.; O'Keefe, G.J.; Scott, A.M.

    2002-01-01

    Full text: The Java Advanced Medical Image Toolkit (jAMIT) has been developed at the Center for PET and Department of Nuclear Medicine in an effort to provide a suite of tools that can be utilised in applications required to perform analysis, processing and visualisation of medical images. jAMIT uses Java Advanced Imaging (JAI) to combine the platform independent nature of Java with the speed benefits associated with native code. The object-orientated nature of Java allows the production of an extensible and robust package which is easily maintained. In addition to jAMIT, a Medical Image VO API called Sushi has been developed to provide access to many commonly used image formats. These include DICOM, Analyze, MINC/NetCDF, Trionix, Beat 6.4, Interfile 3.2/3.3 and Odyssey. This allows jAMIT to access data and study information contained in different medical image formats transparently. Additional formats can be added at any time without any modification to the jAMIT package. Tools available in jAMIT include 2D ROI Analysis, Palette Thresholding, Image Groping, Image Transposition, Scaling, Maximum Intensity Projection, Image Fusion, Image Annotation and Format Conversion. Future tools may include 2D Linear and Non-linear Registration, PET SUV Calculation, 3D Rendering and 3D ROI Analysis. Applications currently using JAMIT include Antibody Dosimetry Analysis, Mean Hemispheric Blood Flow Analysis, QuickViewing of PET Studies for Clinical Training, Pharamcodynamic Modelling based on Planar Imaging, and Medical Image Format Conversion. The use of jAMIT and Sushi for scripting and analysis in Matlab v6.1 and Jython is currently being explored. Copyright (2002) The Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine Inc

  13. Comparison of Globus Pallidus Interna and Subthalamic Nucleus in Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson Disease: An Institutional Experience and Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shazia Mirza

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS has revolutionized the lives of patients of Parkinson disease, offering therapeutic options to those not benefiting entirely from medications alone. With its proven track record of outperforming the best medical management, the goal is to unlock the full potential of this therapy. Currently, the Globus Pallidus Interna (GPi and Subthalamic Nucleus (STN are both viable targets for DBS, and the choice of site should focus on the constellation of symptoms, both motor and nonmotor, which are key determinants to quality of life. Our article sheds light on the specific advantages and drawbacks of the two sites, highlighting the need for matching the inherent properties of a target with specific desired effects in patients. UT Southwestern Medical Center has a robust and constantly evolving DBS program and the narrative from our center provides invaluable insight into the practical realities of DBS. The ultimate decision in selecting a DBS target is complex, ideally made by a multidisciplinary team, tailored towards each patient’s profile and their expectations, by drawing upon scientific evidence coupled with experience. Ongoing research is expanding our knowledge base, which should be dynamically incorporated into an institute’s DBS paradigm to ensure that patients receive the optimal therapy.

  14. A Gateway MultiSite recombination cloning toolkit.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lena K Petersen

    Full Text Available The generation of DNA constructs is often a rate-limiting step in conducting biological experiments. Recombination cloning of single DNA fragments using the Gateway system provided an advance over traditional restriction enzyme cloning due to increases in efficiency and reliability. Here we introduce a series of entry clones and a destination vector for use in two, three, and four fragment Gateway MultiSite recombination cloning whose advantages include increased flexibility and versatility. In contrast to Gateway single-fragment cloning approaches where variations are typically incorporated into model system-specific destination vectors, our Gateway MultiSite cloning strategy incorporates variations in easily generated entry clones that are model system-independent. In particular, we present entry clones containing insertions of GAL4, QF, UAS, QUAS, eGFP, and mCherry, among others, and demonstrate their in vivo functionality in Drosophila by using them to generate expression clones including GAL4 and QF drivers for various trp ion channel family members, UAS and QUAS excitatory and inhibitory light-gated ion channels, and QUAS red and green fluorescent synaptic vesicle markers. We thus establish a starter toolkit of modular Gateway MultiSite entry clones potentially adaptable to any model system. An inventory of entry clones and destination vectors for Gateway MultiSite cloning has also been established (www.gatewaymultisite.org.

  15. Mocapy++ - A toolkit for inference and learning in dynamic Bayesian networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hamelryck Thomas

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Mocapy++ is a toolkit for parameter learning and inference in dynamic Bayesian networks (DBNs. It supports a wide range of DBN architectures and probability distributions, including distributions from directional statistics (the statistics of angles, directions and orientations. Results The program package is freely available under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL from SourceForge http://sourceforge.net/projects/mocapy. The package contains the source for building the Mocapy++ library, several usage examples and the user manual. Conclusions Mocapy++ is especially suitable for constructing probabilistic models of biomolecular structure, due to its support for directional statistics. In particular, it supports the Kent distribution on the sphere and the bivariate von Mises distribution on the torus. These distributions have proven useful to formulate probabilistic models of protein and RNA structure in atomic detail.

  16. WE-H-BRA-04: Biological Geometries for the Monte Carlo Simulation Toolkit TOPASNBio

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McNamara, A; Held, K; Paganetti, H; Schuemann, J; Perl, J; Piersimoni, P; Ramos-Mendez, J; Faddegon, B

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: New advances in radiation therapy are most likely to come from the complex interface of physics, chemistry and biology. Computational simulations offer a powerful tool for quantitatively investigating radiation interactions with biological tissue and can thus help bridge the gap between physics and biology. The aim of TOPAS-nBio is to provide a comprehensive tool to generate advanced radiobiology simulations. Methods: TOPAS wraps and extends the Geant4 Monte Carlo (MC) simulation toolkit. TOPAS-nBio is an extension to TOPAS which utilizes the physics processes in Geant4-DNA to model biological damage from very low energy secondary electrons. Specialized cell, organelle and molecular geometries were designed for the toolkit. Results: TOPAS-nBio gives the user the capability of simulating biological geometries, ranging from the micron-scale (e.g. cells and organelles) to complex nano-scale geometries (e.g. DNA and proteins). The user interacts with TOPAS-nBio through easy-to-use input parameter files. For example, in a simple cell simulation the user can specify the cell type and size as well as the type, number and size of included organelles. For more detailed nuclear simulations, the user can specify chromosome territories containing chromatin fiber loops, the later comprised of nucleosomes on a double helix. The chromatin fibers can be arranged in simple rigid geometries or within factual globules, mimicking realistic chromosome territories. TOPAS-nBio also provides users with the capability of reading protein data bank 3D structural files to simulate radiation damage to proteins or nucleic acids e.g. histones or RNA. TOPAS-nBio has been validated by comparing results to other track structure simulation software and published experimental measurements. Conclusion: TOPAS-nBio provides users with a comprehensive MC simulation tool for radiobiological simulations, giving users without advanced programming skills the ability to design and run complex

  17. WE-H-BRA-04: Biological Geometries for the Monte Carlo Simulation Toolkit TOPASNBio

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    McNamara, A; Held, K; Paganetti, H; Schuemann, J [Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Med. School, Boston, MA (United States); Perl, J [Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, CA (United States); Piersimoni, P; Ramos-Mendez, J; Faddegon, B [University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (United States)

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: New advances in radiation therapy are most likely to come from the complex interface of physics, chemistry and biology. Computational simulations offer a powerful tool for quantitatively investigating radiation interactions with biological tissue and can thus help bridge the gap between physics and biology. The aim of TOPAS-nBio is to provide a comprehensive tool to generate advanced radiobiology simulations. Methods: TOPAS wraps and extends the Geant4 Monte Carlo (MC) simulation toolkit. TOPAS-nBio is an extension to TOPAS which utilizes the physics processes in Geant4-DNA to model biological damage from very low energy secondary electrons. Specialized cell, organelle and molecular geometries were designed for the toolkit. Results: TOPAS-nBio gives the user the capability of simulating biological geometries, ranging from the micron-scale (e.g. cells and organelles) to complex nano-scale geometries (e.g. DNA and proteins). The user interacts with TOPAS-nBio through easy-to-use input parameter files. For example, in a simple cell simulation the user can specify the cell type and size as well as the type, number and size of included organelles. For more detailed nuclear simulations, the user can specify chromosome territories containing chromatin fiber loops, the later comprised of nucleosomes on a double helix. The chromatin fibers can be arranged in simple rigid geometries or within factual globules, mimicking realistic chromosome territories. TOPAS-nBio also provides users with the capability of reading protein data bank 3D structural files to simulate radiation damage to proteins or nucleic acids e.g. histones or RNA. TOPAS-nBio has been validated by comparing results to other track structure simulation software and published experimental measurements. Conclusion: TOPAS-nBio provides users with a comprehensive MC simulation tool for radiobiological simulations, giving users without advanced programming skills the ability to design and run complex

  18. Multi-Physics Demonstration Problem with the SHARP Reactor Simulation Toolkit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Merzari, E. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Shemon, E. R. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Yu, Y. Q. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Thomas, J. W. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Obabko, A. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Jain, Rajeev [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Mahadevan, Vijay [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Tautges, Timothy [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Solberg, Jerome [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Ferencz, Robert Mark [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Whitesides, R. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

    2015-12-21

    This report describes to employ SHARP to perform a first-of-a-kind analysis of the core radial expansion phenomenon in an SFR. This effort required significant advances in the framework Multi-Physics Demonstration Problem with the SHARP Reactor Simulation Toolkit used to drive the coupled simulations, manipulate the mesh in response to the deformation of the geometry, and generate the necessary modified mesh files. Furthermore, the model geometry is fairly complex, and consistent mesh generation for the three physics modules required significant effort. Fully-integrated simulations of a 7-assembly mini-core test problem have been performed, and the results are presented here. Physics models of a full-core model of the Advanced Burner Test Reactor have also been developed for each of the three physics modules. Standalone results of each of the three physics modules for the ABTR are presented here, which provides a demonstration of the feasibility of the fully-integrated simulation.

  19. GEANT 4: an Object-Oriented toolkit for simulation in HEP

    CERN Multimedia

    Kent, P; Sirotenko, V; Komogorov, M; Pavliouk, A; Greeniaus, G L; Kayal, P I; Routenburg, P; Tanaka, S; Duellmann, D; Innocente, V; Paoli, S; Ranjard, F; Riccardi, F; Ruggier, M; Shiers, J; Egli, S; Kimura, A; Urban, P; Prior, S; Walkden, A; Forti, A; Magni, S; Strahl, K; Kokoulin, R; Braune, K; Volcker, C; Ullrich, T; Takahata, M; Nieminen, P; Ballocchi, G; Mora De Freitas, P; Verderi, M; Rybine, A; Langeveld, W; Nagamatsu, M; Hamatsu, R; Katayama, N; Chuma, J; Felawka, L; Gumplinger, P; Axen, D

    2002-01-01

    %RD44 %title\\\\ \\\\The GEANT4 software has been developed by a world-wide collaboration of about 100 scientists from over 40 institutions and laboratories participating in more than 10 experiments in Europe, Russia, Japan, Canada, and the United States. The GEANT4 detector simulation toolkit has been designed for the next generation of High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments, with primary requirements from the LHC, the CP violation, and the heavy ions experiments. In addition, GEANT4 also meets the requirements from the space and medical communities, thanks to very low energy extensions developed in a joint project with the European Space Agency (ESA). GEANT4 has exploited advanced software engineering techniques (for example PSS-05) and Object-Oriented technology to improve the validation process of the physics results, and in the same time to make possible the distributed software design and development in the world-wide collaboration. Fifteen specialised working groups have been responsible for fields as diver...

  20. ImTK: an open source multi-center information management toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alaoui, Adil; Ingeholm, Mary Lou; Padh, Shilpa; Dorobantu, Mihai; Desai, Mihir; Cleary, Kevin; Mun, Seong K.

    2008-03-01

    The Information Management Toolkit (ImTK) Consortium is an open source initiative to develop robust, freely available tools related to the information management needs of basic, clinical, and translational research. An open source framework and agile programming methodology can enable distributed software development while an open architecture will encourage interoperability across different environments. The ISIS Center has conceptualized a prototype data sharing network that simulates a multi-center environment based on a federated data access model. This model includes the development of software tools to enable efficient exchange, sharing, management, and analysis of multimedia medical information such as clinical information, images, and bioinformatics data from multiple data sources. The envisioned ImTK data environment will include an open architecture and data model implementation that complies with existing standards such as Digital Imaging and Communications (DICOM), Health Level 7 (HL7), and the technical framework and workflow defined by the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Information Technology Infrastructure initiative, mainly the Cross Enterprise Document Sharing (XDS) specifications.

  1. The Impact of Stimulation Induced Short Term Synaptic Plasticity on Firing Patterns in the Globus Pallidus of the Rat

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jenia eBugaysen

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Electrical stimulation in the globus pallidus (GP leads to complex modulations of neuronal activity in the stimulated nucleus. Multiple in-vivo studies have demonstrated the modulation of both firing rates and patterns during and immediately following the GP stimulation. Previous in-vitro studies, together with computational studies, have suggested the involvement of short-term synaptic plasticity (STP during the stimulation. The aim of the current study was to explore in-vitro the effects of STP on neuronal activity of GP neurons during local repetitive stimulation. We recorded synaptic potentials and assessed the modulations of spontaneous firing in a postsynaptic neuron in acute brain slices via a whole-cell pipette. Low-frequency repetitive stimulation locked the firing of the neuron to the stimulus. However, high-frequency repetitive stimulation in the GP generated a biphasic modulation of the firing frequency consisting of inhibitory and excitatory phases. Using blockers of synaptic transmission, we show that GABAergic synapses mediated the inhibitory and glutamatergic synapses the excitatory part of the response. Furthermore, we report that at high stimulation frequencies both types of synapses undergo short-term depression leading to a time dependent modulation of the neuronal firing. These findings indicate that STP modulates the dynamic responses of pallidal activity during electrical stimulation, and may contribute to a better understanding of the mechanism underlying deep brain stimulation (DBS like protocols.

  2. Gadolinium deposition within the dentate nucleus and globus pallidus after repeated administrations of gadolinium-based contrast agents - current status

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stojanov, Dragan [University of Nis, Faculty of Medicine, Nis (Serbia); Center for Radiology, Nis (Serbia); Aracki-Trenkic, Aleksandra [Center for Radiology, Nis (Serbia); Benedeto-Stojanov, Daniela [University of Nis, Faculty of Medicine, Nis (Serbia)

    2016-05-15

    Gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) have been used clinically since 1988 for contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (CE-MRI). Generally, GBCAs are considered to have an excellent safety profile. However, GBCA administration has been associated with increased occurrence of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) in patients with severely compromised renal function, and several studies have shown evidence of gadolinium deposition in specific brain structures, the globus pallidus and dentate nucleus, in patients with normal renal function. Gadolinium deposition in the brain following repeated CE-MRI scans has been demonstrated in patients using T1-weighted unenhanced MRI and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy. Additionally, rodent studies with controlled GBCA administration also resulted in neural gadolinium deposits. Repeated GBCA use is associated with gadolinium deposition in the brain. This is especially true with the use of less-stable, linear GBCAs. In spite of increasing evidence of gadolinium deposits in the brains of patients after multiple GBCA administrations, the clinical significance of these deposits continues to be unclear. Here, we discuss the current state of scientific evidence surrounding gadolinium deposition in the brain following GBCA use, and the potential clinical significance of gadolinium deposition. There is considerable need for further research, both to understand the mechanism by which gadolinium deposition in the brain occurs and how it affects the patients in which it occurs. (orig.)

  3. Low-frequency stimulation of the external globus palladium produces anti-epileptogenic and anti-ictogenic actions in rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Hui; Kuang, Yi-fang; Liu, Yang; Wang, Yi; Xu, Zheng-hao; Gao, Feng; Zhang, Shi-hong; Ding, Mei-ping; Chen, Zhong

    2015-08-01

    To investigate the anti-epileptic effects of deep brain stimulation targeting the external globus palladium (GPe) in rats. For inducing amygdala kindling and deep brain stimulation, bipolar stainless-steel electrodes were implanted in SD rats into right basolateral amygdala and right GPe, respectively. The effects of deep brain stimulation were evaluated in the amygdala kindling model, maximal electroshock model (MES) and pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) model. Moreover, the background EEGs in the amygdala and GPe were recorded. Low-frequency stimulation (0.1 ms, 1 Hz, 15 min) at the GPe slowed the progression of seizure stages and shortened the after-discharge duration (ADD) during kindling acquisition. Furthermore, low-frequency stimulation significantly decreased the incidence of generalized seizures, suppressed the average stage, and shortened the cumulative ADD and generalized seizure duration in fully kindled rats. In addition, low-frequency stimulation significantly suppressed the average stage of MES-induced seizures and increased the latency to generalized seizures in the PTZ model. High-frequency stimulation (0.1 ms, 130 Hz, 5 min) at the GPe had no anti-epileptic effect and even aggravated epileptogenesis induced by amygdala kindling. EEG analysis showed that low-frequency stimulation at the GPe reversed the increase in delta power, whereas high-frequency stimulation at the GPe had no such effect. Low-frequency stimulation, but not high-frequency stimulation, at the GPe exerts therapeutic effect on temporal lobe epilepsy and tonic-colonic generalized seizures, which may be due to interference with delta rhythms. The results suggest that modulation of GPe activity using low-frequency stimulation or drugs may be a promising epilepsy treatment.

  4. T1 Shortening in the Globus Pallidus after Multiple Administrations of Gadobutrol: Assessment with a Multidynamic Multiecho Sequence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, Koung Mi; Choi, Seung Hong; Hwang, Moonjung; Yun, Tae Jin; Kim, Ji-Hoon; Sohn, Chul-Ho

    2018-04-01

    Purpose To determine the association between the administration of the macrocyclic contrast medium gadobutrol and T1 relaxation time in the brains of patients with normal renal function by using multidynamic multiecho (MDME) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging sequences. Materials and Methods The institutional review board approved this retrospective study, and the need to obtain written informed consent was waived. This study included 46 patients (revealed by an electronic medical record search) who had received one or more gadobutrol injections and a maximum of one MR imaging contrast medium injection other than gadobutrol before MDME sequence acquisition. One radiologist performed quantitative analyses of regions of interest on quantitative T1 maps twice to cover the normal-appearing globus pallidus (GP), frontal white matter, frontal cortex, and thalamus. The number of administrations and the cumulative dose of gadobutrol, age, intervals between administrations, sex, and treatment were investigated. Univariable and multivariable linear regression analyses of the T1 values in four brain regions and the GP-to-thalamus signal intensity (SI) ratio were performed. P values of less than the Bonferroni-corrected value of .01 were considered to indicate significant differences. Results Intraobserver reproducibility was good to excellent (intraclass correlation coefficients, 0.62-0.81). Because of high multicollinearity between the number of gadobutrol administrations and accumulated dose (r = 0.96, P .01). Conclusion Multiple exposures to gadobutrol are associated with T1 shortening in the GP. © RSNA, 2017 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

  5. Transgenic Mouse Lines Subdivide External Segment of the Globus Pallidus (GPe) Neurons and Reveal Distinct GPe Output Pathways

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mastro, Kevin J.; Bouchard, Rachel S.; Holt, Hiromi A. K.

    2014-01-01

    Cell-type diversity in the brain enables the assembly of complex neural circuits, whose organization and patterns of activity give rise to brain function. However, the identification of distinct neuronal populations within a given brain region is often complicated by a lack of objective criteria to distinguish one neuronal population from another. In the external segment of the globus pallidus (GPe), neuronal populations have been defined using molecular, anatomical, and electrophysiological criteria, but these classification schemes are often not generalizable across preparations and lack consistency even within the same preparation. Here, we present a novel use of existing transgenic mouse lines, Lim homeobox 6 (Lhx6)–Cre and parvalbumin (PV)–Cre, to define genetically distinct cell populations in the GPe that differ molecularly, anatomically, and electrophysiologically. Lhx6–GPe neurons, which do not express PV, are concentrated in the medial portion of the GPe. They have lower spontaneous firing rates, narrower dynamic ranges, and make stronger projections to the striatum and substantia nigra pars compacta compared with PV–GPe neurons. In contrast, PV–GPe neurons are more concentrated in the lateral portions of the GPe. They have narrower action potentials, deeper afterhyperpolarizations, and make stronger projections to the subthalamic nucleus and parafascicular nucleus of the thalamus. These electrophysiological and anatomical differences suggest that Lhx6–GPe and PV–GPe neurons participate in different circuits with the potential to contribute to different aspects of motor function and dysfunction in disease. PMID:24501350

  6. The "Pesticides and Farmworker Health Toolkit" : An Innovative Model for Developing an Evidence-Informed Program for a Low-Literacy, Latino Immigrant Audience

    Science.gov (United States)

    LePrevost, Catherine E.; Storm, Julia F.; Asuaje, Cesar R.; Cope, W. Gregory

    2014-01-01

    Migrant and seasonal farmworkers are typically Spanish-speaking, Latino immigrants with limited formal education and low literacy skills and, as such, are a vulnerable population. We describe the development of the "Pesticides and Farmworker Health Toolkit", a pesticide safety and health curriculum designed to communicate to farmworkers…

  7. Scalable Networked Information Processing Environment (SNIPE)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fagg, G.E.; Moore, K. [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Computer Science; Dongarra, J.J. [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Computer Science]|[Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Computer Science and Mathematics Div.; Geist, A. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Computer Science and Mathematics Div.

    1997-11-01

    SNIPE is a metacomputing system that aims to provide a reliable, secure, fault tolerant environment for long term distributed computing applications and data stores across the global Internet. This system combines global naming and replication of both processing and data to support large scale information processing applications leading to better availability and reliability than currently available with typical cluster computing and/or distributed computer environments.

  8. Evaluation of the Tobii EyeX Eye tracking controller and Matlab toolkit for research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibaldi, Agostino; Vanegas, Mauricio; Bex, Peter J; Maiello, Guido

    2017-06-01

    The Tobii Eyex Controller is a new low-cost binocular eye tracker marketed for integration in gaming and consumer applications. The manufacturers claim that the system was conceived for natural eye gaze interaction, does not require continuous recalibration, and allows moderate head movements. The Controller is provided with a SDK to foster the development of new eye tracking applications. We review the characteristics of the device for its possible use in scientific research. We develop and evaluate an open source Matlab Toolkit that can be employed to interface with the EyeX device for gaze recording in behavioral experiments. The Toolkit provides calibration procedures tailored to both binocular and monocular experiments, as well as procedures to evaluate other eye tracking devices. The observed performance of the EyeX (i.e. accuracy < 0.6°, precision < 0.25°, latency < 50 ms and sampling frequency ≈55 Hz), is sufficient for some classes of research application. The device can be successfully employed to measure fixation parameters, saccadic, smooth pursuit and vergence eye movements. However, the relatively low sampling rate and moderate precision limit the suitability of the EyeX for monitoring micro-saccadic eye movements or for real-time gaze-contingent stimulus control. For these applications, research grade, high-cost eye tracking technology may still be necessary. Therefore, despite its limitations with respect to high-end devices, the EyeX has the potential to further the dissemination of eye tracking technology to a broad audience, and could be a valuable asset in consumer and gaming applications as well as a subset of basic and clinical research settings.

  9. Windows .NET Network Distributed Basic Local Alignment Search Toolkit (W.ND-BLAST

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oliver Melvin J

    2005-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background BLAST is one of the most common and useful tools for Genetic Research. This paper describes a software application we have termed Windows .NET Distributed Basic Local Alignment Search Toolkit (W.ND-BLAST, which enhances the BLAST utility by improving usability, fault recovery, and scalability in a Windows desktop environment. Our goal was to develop an easy to use, fault tolerant, high-throughput BLAST solution that incorporates a comprehensive BLAST result viewer with curation and annotation functionality. Results W.ND-BLAST is a comprehensive Windows-based software toolkit that targets researchers, including those with minimal computer skills, and provides the ability increase the performance of BLAST by distributing BLAST queries to any number of Windows based machines across local area networks (LAN. W.ND-BLAST provides intuitive Graphic User Interfaces (GUI for BLAST database creation, BLAST execution, BLAST output evaluation and BLAST result exportation. This software also provides several layers of fault tolerance and fault recovery to prevent loss of data if nodes or master machines fail. This paper lays out the functionality of W.ND-BLAST. W.ND-BLAST displays close to 100% performance efficiency when distributing tasks to 12 remote computers of the same performance class. A high throughput BLAST job which took 662.68 minutes (11 hours on one average machine was completed in 44.97 minutes when distributed to 17 nodes, which included lower performance class machines. Finally, there is a comprehensive high-throughput BLAST Output Viewer (BOV and Annotation Engine components, which provides comprehensive exportation of BLAST hits to text files, annotated fasta files, tables, or association files. Conclusion W.ND-BLAST provides an interactive tool that allows scientists to easily utilizing their available computing resources for high throughput and comprehensive sequence analyses. The install package for W.ND-BLAST is

  10. A Teacher Tablet Toolkit to meet the challenges posed by 21st century rural teaching and learning environments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adèle Botha

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available This article draws upon the experiences gained in participating in an Information and Communication Technology for Rural Education (ICT4RED initiative, as part of a larger Technology for Rural Education project (TECH4RED in Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The aim of this paper is to describe the conceptualisation, design and application of an innovative teacher professional development course for rural teachers, enabling them to use tablets to support teaching and learning in their classrooms. The course, as outcome, is presented as a Teacher Tablet Toolkit, designed to meet the challenges inherent to the 21st century rural technology enhanced teaching and learning environment. The paper documents and motivates design decisions, derived from literature and adapted through three iterations of a Design Science Research Process, to be incorporated in the ICT4RED Teacher Professional Development Course. The resulting course aims to equip participating teachers with a toolkit consisting of technology hardware, pragmatic pedagogical and technology knowledge and skills, and practice based experience. The significance of game design elements such as simulation and fun, technology in need rather than in case, adequate scaffolding and a clear learning path with interim learning goals are noted.

  11. Monte carlo simulations of the n_TOF lead spallation target with the Geant4 toolkit: A benchmark study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lerendegui-Marco J.

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Monte Carlo (MC simulations are an essential tool to determine fundamental features of a neutron beam, such as the neutron flux or the γ-ray background, that sometimes can not be measured or at least not in every position or energy range. Until recently, the most widely used MC codes in this field had been MCNPX and FLUKA. However, the Geant4 toolkit has also become a competitive code for the transport of neutrons after the development of the native Geant4 format for neutron data libraries, G4NDL. In this context, we present the Geant4 simulations of the neutron spallation target of the n_TOF facility at CERN, done with version 10.1.1 of the toolkit. The first goal was the validation of the intra-nuclear cascade models implemented in the code using, as benchmark, the characteristics of the neutron beam measured at the first experimental area (EAR1, especially the neutron flux and energy distribution, and the time distribution of neutrons of equal kinetic energy, the so-called Resolution Function. The second goal was the development of a Monte Carlo tool aimed to provide useful calculations for both the analysis and planning of the upcoming measurements at the new experimental area (EAR2 of the facility.

  12. Monte carlo simulations of the n_TOF lead spallation target with the Geant4 toolkit: A benchmark study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lerendegui-Marco, J.; Cortés-Giraldo, M. A.; Guerrero, C.; Quesada, J. M.; Meo, S. Lo; Massimi, C.; Barbagallo, M.; Colonna, N.; Mancussi, D.; Mingrone, F.; Sabaté-Gilarte, M.; Vannini, G.; Vlachoudis, V.; Aberle, O.; Andrzejewski, J.; Audouin, L.; Bacak, M.; Balibrea, J.; Bečvář, F.; Berthoumieux, E.; Billowes, J.; Bosnar, D.; Brown, A.; Caamaño, M.; Calviño, F.; Calviani, M.; Cano-Ott, D.; Cardella, R.; Casanovas, A.; Cerutti, F.; Chen, Y. H.; Chiaveri, E.; Cortés, G.; Cosentino, L.; Damone, L. A.; Diakaki, M.; Domingo-Pardo, C.; Dressler, R.; Dupont, E.; Durán, I.; Fernández-Domínguez, B.; Ferrari, A.; Ferreira, P.; Finocchiaro, P.; Göbel, K.; Gómez-Hornillos, M. B.; García, A. R.; Gawlik, A.; Gilardoni, S.; Glodariu, T.; Gonçalves, I. F.; González, E.; Griesmayer, E.; Gunsing, F.; Harada, H.; Heinitz, S.; Heyse, J.; Jenkins, D. G.; Jericha, E.; Käppeler, F.; Kadi, Y.; Kalamara, A.; Kavrigin, P.; Kimura, A.; Kivel, N.; Kokkoris, M.; Krtička, M.; Kurtulgil, D.; Leal-Cidoncha, E.; Lederer, C.; Leeb, H.; Lonsdale, S. J.; Macina, D.; Marganiec, J.; Martínez, T.; Masi, A.; Mastinu, P.; Mastromarco, M.; Maugeri, E. A.; Mazzone, A.; Mendoza, E.; Mengoni, A.; Milazzo, P. M.; Musumarra, A.; Negret, A.; Nolte, R.; Oprea, A.; Patronis, N.; Pavlik, A.; Perkowski, J.; Porras, I.; Praena, J.; Radeck, D.; Rauscher, T.; Reifarth, R.; Rout, P. C.; Rubbia, C.; Ryan, J. A.; Saxena, A.; Schillebeeckx, P.; Schumann, D.; Smith, A. G.; Sosnin, N. V.; Stamatopoulos, A.; Tagliente, G.; Tain, J. L.; Tarifeño-Saldivia, A.; Tassan-Got, L.; Valenta, S.; Variale, V.; Vaz, P.; Ventura, A.; Vlastou, R.; Wallner, A.; Warren, S.; Woods, P. J.; Wright, T.; Žugec, P.

    2017-09-01

    Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are an essential tool to determine fundamental features of a neutron beam, such as the neutron flux or the γ-ray background, that sometimes can not be measured or at least not in every position or energy range. Until recently, the most widely used MC codes in this field had been MCNPX and FLUKA. However, the Geant4 toolkit has also become a competitive code for the transport of neutrons after the development of the native Geant4 format for neutron data libraries, G4NDL. In this context, we present the Geant4 simulations of the neutron spallation target of the n_TOF facility at CERN, done with version 10.1.1 of the toolkit. The first goal was the validation of the intra-nuclear cascade models implemented in the code using, as benchmark, the characteristics of the neutron beam measured at the first experimental area (EAR1), especially the neutron flux and energy distribution, and the time distribution of neutrons of equal kinetic energy, the so-called Resolution Function. The second goal was the development of a Monte Carlo tool aimed to provide useful calculations for both the analysis and planning of the upcoming measurements at the new experimental area (EAR2) of the facility.

  13. IChem: A Versatile Toolkit for Detecting, Comparing, and Predicting Protein-Ligand Interactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Da Silva, Franck; Desaphy, Jeremy; Rognan, Didier

    2018-03-20

    Structure-based ligand design requires an exact description of the topology of molecular entities under scrutiny. IChem is a software package that reflects the many contributions of our research group in this area over the last decade. It facilitates and automates many tasks (e.g., ligand/cofactor atom typing, identification of key water molecules) usually left to the modeler's choice. It therefore permits the detection of molecular interactions between two molecules in a very precise and flexible manner. Moreover, IChem enables the conversion of intricate three-dimensional (3D) molecular objects into simple representations (fingerprints, graphs) that facilitate knowledge acquisition at very high throughput. The toolkit is an ideal companion for setting up and performing many structure-based design computations. © 2018 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

  14. ‘Survival’: a simulation toolkit introducing a modular approach for radiobiological evaluations in ion beam therapy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manganaro, L.; Russo, G.; Bourhaleb, F.; Fausti, F.; Giordanengo, S.; Monaco, V.; Sacchi, R.; Vignati, A.; Cirio, R.; Attili, A.

    2018-04-01

    One major rationale for the application of heavy ion beams in tumour therapy is their increased relative biological effectiveness (RBE). The complex dependencies of the RBE on dose, biological endpoint, position in the field etc require the use of biophysical models in treatment planning and clinical analysis. This study aims to introduce a new software, named ‘Survival’, to facilitate the radiobiological computations needed in ion therapy. The simulation toolkit was written in C++ and it was developed with a modular architecture in order to easily incorporate different radiobiological models. The following models were successfully implemented: the local effect model (LEM, version I, II and III) and variants of the microdosimetric-kinetic model (MKM). Different numerical evaluation approaches were also implemented: Monte Carlo (MC) numerical methods and a set of faster analytical approximations. Among the possible applications, the toolkit was used to reproduce the RBE versus LET for different ions (proton, He, C, O, Ne) and different cell lines (CHO, HSG). Intercomparison between different models (LEM and MKM) and computational approaches (MC and fast approximations) were performed. The developed software could represent an important tool for the evaluation of the biological effectiveness of charged particles in ion beam therapy, in particular when coupled with treatment simulations. Its modular architecture facilitates benchmarking and inter-comparison between different models and evaluation approaches. The code is open source (GPL2 license) and available at https://github.com/batuff/Survival.

  15. Educator Toolkits on Second Victim Syndrome, Mindfulness and Meditation, and Positive Psychology: The 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit

    OpenAIRE

    Jon Smart; Michael Zdradzinski; Sarah Roth; Alecia Gende; Kylie Conroy; Nicole Battaglioli

    2018-01-01

    Introduction: Burnout, depression, and suicidality among residents of all specialties have become a critical focus of attention for the medical education community. Methods: As part of the 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, resident participants from 31 programs collaborated in the Educator Toolkit workgroup. Over a seven-month period leading up to the summit, this workgroup convened virtually in the Wellness Think Tank, an online resident community, to perform a li...

  16. PDB@: an offline toolkit for exploration and analysis of PDB files.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mani, Udayakumar; Ravisankar, Sadhana; Ramakrishnan, Sai Mukund

    2013-12-01

    Protein Data Bank (PDB) is a freely accessible archive of the 3-D structural data of biological molecules. Structure based studies offers a unique vantage point in inferring the properties of a protein molecule from structural data. This is too big a task to be done manually. Moreover, there is no single tool, software or server that comprehensively analyses all structure-based properties. The objective of the present work is to develop an offline computational toolkit, PDB@ containing in-built algorithms that help categorizing the structural properties of a protein molecule. The user has the facility to view and edit the PDB file to his need. Some features of the present work are unique in itself and others are an improvement over existing tools. Also, the representation of protein properties in both graphical and textual formats helps in predicting all the necessary details of a protein molecule on a single platform.

  17. The Insight ToolKit Image Registration Framework

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brian eAvants

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Publicly available scientific resources help establish evaluation standards, provide a platform for teaching and improve reproducibility. Version 4 of the Insight ToolKit ( ITK4 seeks to es- tablish new standards in publicly available image registration methodology. ITK4 makes severaladvances in comparison to previous versions of ITK. ITK4 supports both multivariate images and objective functions; it also unifies high-dimensional (deformation field and low-dimensional (affine transformations with metrics that are reusable across transform types and with com- posite transforms that allow arbitrary series of geometric mappings to be chained together seamlessly. Metrics and optimizers take advantage of multi-core resources, when available.Furthermore, ITK4 reduces the parameter optimization burden via principled heuristics that automatically set scaling across disparate parameter types (rotations versus translations. A related approach also constrains steps sizes for gradient-based optimizers. The result is that tuning for different metrics and/or image pairs is rarely necessary allowing the researcher tomore easily focus on design/comparison of registration strategies. In total, the ITK4 contribu- tion is intended as a structure to support reproducible research practices, will provide a more extensive foundation against which to evaluate new work in image registration and also enable application level programmers a broad suite of tools on which to build. Finally, we contextu- alize this work with a reference registration evaluation study with application to pediatric brainlabeling.

  18. Altered neuronal activity in the primary motor cortex and globus pallidus after dopamine depletion in rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Min; Li, Min; Geng, Xiwen; Song, Zhimin; Albers, H Elliott; Yang, Maoquan; Zhang, Xiao; Xie, Jinlu; Qu, Qingyang; He, Tingting

    2015-01-15

    The involvement of dopamine (DA) neuron loss in the etiology of Parkinson's disease has been well documented. The neural mechanisms underlying the effects of DA loss and the resultant motor dysfunction remain unknown. To gain insights into how loss of DA disrupts the electrical processes in the cortico-subcortical network, the present study explores the effects of DA neuron depletion on electrical activity in the primary motor cortex (M1), on the external and the internal segment of the globus pallidus (GPe and GPi respectively), and on their temporal relationships. Comparison of local field potentials (LFPs) in these brain regions from unilateral hemispheric DA neuron depleted rats and neurologically intact rats revealed that the spectrum power of LFPs in 12-70Hz (for M1, and GPe) and in 25-40Hz (for GPi) was significantly greater in the DA depleted rats than that in the control group. These changes were associated with a shortening of latency in LFP activities between M1 and GPe, from several hundred milliseconds in the intact animals to close to zero in the DA depleted animals. LFP oscillations in M1 were significantly more synchronized with those in GPe in the DA depleted rats compared with those in the control rats. By contrast, the synchronization of oscillation in LFP activities between M1 and GPi did not differ between the DA depleted and intact rats. Not surprisingly, rats that had DA neuron depletion spent more time along the ladder compared with the control rats. These data suggest that enhanced oscillatory activity and increased synchronization of LFPs may contribute to movement impairment in the rat model of Parkinson's disease. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Everware toolkit. Supporting reproducible science and challenge-driven education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ustyuzhanin, A.; Head, T.; Babuschkin, I.; Tiunov, A.

    2017-10-01

    Modern science clearly demands for a higher level of reproducibility and collaboration. To make research fully reproducible one has to take care of several aspects: research protocol description, data access, environment preservation, workflow pipeline, and analysis script preservation. Version control systems like git help with the workflow and analysis scripts part. Virtualization techniques like Docker or Vagrant can help deal with environments. Jupyter notebooks are a powerful platform for conducting research in a collaborative manner. We present project Everware that seamlessly integrates git repository management systems such as Github or Gitlab, Docker and Jupyter helping with a) sharing results of real research and b) boosts education activities. With the help of Everware one can not only share the final artifacts of research but all the depth of the research process. This been shown to be extremely helpful during organization of several data analysis hackathons and machine learning schools. Using Everware participants could start from an existing solution instead of starting from scratch. They could start contributing immediately. Everware allows its users to make use of their own computational resources to run the workflows they are interested in, which leads to higher scalability of the toolkit.

  20. PopSc: Computing Toolkit for Basic Statistics of Molecular Population Genetics Simultaneously Implemented in Web-Based Calculator, Python and R.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Shi-Yi; Deng, Feilong; Huang, Ying; Li, Cao; Liu, Linhai; Jia, Xianbo; Lai, Song-Jia

    2016-01-01

    Although various computer tools have been elaborately developed to calculate a series of statistics in molecular population genetics for both small- and large-scale DNA data, there is no efficient and easy-to-use toolkit available yet for exclusively focusing on the steps of mathematical calculation. Here, we present PopSc, a bioinformatic toolkit for calculating 45 basic statistics in molecular population genetics, which could be categorized into three classes, including (i) genetic diversity of DNA sequences, (ii) statistical tests for neutral evolution, and (iii) measures of genetic differentiation among populations. In contrast to the existing computer tools, PopSc was designed to directly accept the intermediate metadata, such as allele frequencies, rather than the raw DNA sequences or genotyping results. PopSc is first implemented as the web-based calculator with user-friendly interface, which greatly facilitates the teaching of population genetics in class and also promotes the convenient and straightforward calculation of statistics in research. Additionally, we also provide the Python library and R package of PopSc, which can be flexibly integrated into other advanced bioinformatic packages of population genetics analysis.