A high throughput DNA extraction method with high yield and quality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xin Zhanguo

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Preparation of large quantity and high quality genomic DNA from a large number of plant samples is a major bottleneck for most genetic and genomic analyses, such as, genetic mapping, TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesion IN Genome, and next-generation sequencing directly from sheared genomic DNA. A variety of DNA preparation methods and commercial kits are available. However, they are either low throughput, low yield, or costly. Here, we describe a method for high throughput genomic DNA isolation from sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L. Moench] leaves and dry seeds with high yield, high quality, and affordable cost. Results We developed a high throughput DNA isolation method by combining a high yield CTAB extraction method with an improved cleanup procedure based on MagAttract kit. The method yielded large quantity and high quality DNA from both lyophilized sorghum leaves and dry seeds. The DNA yield was improved by nearly 30 fold with 4 times less consumption of MagAttract beads. The method can also be used in other plant species, including cotton leaves and pine needles. Conclusion A high throughput system for DNA extraction from sorghum leaves and seeds was developed and validated. The main advantages of the method are low cost, high yield, high quality, and high throughput. One person can process two 96-well plates in a working day at a cost of $0.10 per sample of magnetic beads plus other consumables that other methods will also need.

X-real-time executive (X-RTE) an ultra-high reliable real-time executive for safety critical systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suresh Babu, R.M.

1995-01-01

With growing number of application of computers in safety critical systems of nuclear plants there has been a need to assure high quality and reliability of the software used in these systems. One way to assure software quality is to use qualified software components. Since the safety systems and control systems are real-time systems there is a need for a real-time supervisory software to guarantee temporal response of the system. This report describes one such software package, called X-Real-Time Executive (or X-RTE), which was developed in Reactor Control Division, BARC. The report describes all the capabilities and unique features of X-RTE and compares it with a commercially available operating system. The features of X-RTE include pre-emptive scheduling, process synchronization, inter-process communication, multi-processor support, temporal support, debug facility, high portability, high reliability, high quality, and extensive documentation. Examples have been used very liberally to illustrate the underlying concepts. Besides, the report provides a brief description about the methods used, during the software development, to assure high quality and reliability of X-RTE. (author). refs., 11 figs., tabs

Real time high frequency monitoring of water quality in river streams using a UV-visible spectrometer: interest, limits and consequences for monitoring strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Faucheux, Mikaël; Fovet, Ophélie; Gruau, Gérard; Jaffrézic, Anne; Petitjean, Patrice; Gascuel-Odoux, Chantal; Ruiz, Laurent

2013-04-01

Stream water chemistry is highly variable in space and time, therefore high frequency water quality measurement methods are likely to lead to conceptual advances in the hydrological sciences. Sub-daily data on water quality improve the characterization of pollutant sources and pathways during flood events as well as during long-term periods [1]. However, real time, high frequency monitoring devices needs to be properly calibrated and validated in real streams. This study analyses data from in situ monitoring of a stream water quality. During two hydrological years (2010-11, 2011-12), a submersible UV-visible spectrometer (Scan Spectrolyser) was used for surface water quality measurement at the outlet of a headwater catchment located at Kervidy-Naizin, Western France (AgrHys long-term hydrological observatory, http://www.inra.fr/ore_agrhys/). The spectrometer is reagentless and equipped with an auto-cleaning system. It allows real time, in situ and high frequency (20 min) measurements and uses a multiwavelengt spectral (200-750 nm) for simultaneous measurement of nitrate, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and total suspended solids (TSS). A global calibration based on a PLS (Partial Least Squares) regression is provided by the manufacturer as default configuration of the UV-visible spectrometer. We carried out a local calibration of the spectrometer based on nitrates and DOC concentrations analysed in the laboratory from daily manual sampling and sub-daily automatic sampling of flood events. TSS results are compared with 15 min turbidity records from a continuous turdidimeter (Ponsel). The results show a good correlation between laboratory data and spectrometer data both during basis flows periods and flood events. However, the local calibration gives better results than the global one. Nutrient fluxes estimates based on high and different low frequency time series (daily to monthly) are compared to discuss the implication for environmental monitoring strategies. Such

Quality of E-Learners’ Time and Learning Performance Beyond Quantitative Time-on-Task

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Margarida Romero

2011-06-01

Full Text Available AbstractAlong with the amount of time spent learning (or time-on-task, the quality of learning time has a real influence on learning performance. Quality of time in online learning depends on students’ time availability and their willingness to devote quality cognitive time to learning activities. However, the quantity and quality of the time spent by adult e-learners on learning activities can be reduced by professional, family, and social commitments. Considering that the main time pattern followed by most adult e-learners is a professional one, it may be beneficial for online education programs to offer a certain degree of flexibility in instructional time that might allow adult learners to adjust their learning times to their professional constraints. However, using the time left over once professional and family requirements have been fulfilled could lead to a reduction in quality time for learning. This paper starts by introducing the concept of quality of learning time from an online student-centred perspective. The impact of students’ time-related variables (working hours, time-on-task engagement, time flexibility, time of day, day of week is then analyzed according to individual and collaborative grades achieved during an online master’s degree program. The data show that both students’ time flexibility (r = .98 and especially their availability to learn in the morning are related to better grades in individual (r = .93 and collaborative activities (r = .46.

Ultrasonic Real-Time Quality Monitoring Of Aluminum Spot Weld Process

Science.gov (United States)

Perez Regalado, Waldo Josue

The real-time ultrasonic spot weld monitoring system, introduced by our research group, has been designed for the unsupervised quality characterization of the spot welding process. It comprises the ultrasonic transducer (probe) built into one of the welding electrodes and an electronics hardware unit which gathers information from the transducer, performs real-time weld quality characterization and communicates with the robot programmable logic controller (PLC). The system has been fully developed for the inspection of spot welds manufactured in steel alloys, and has been mainly applied in the automotive industry. In recent years, a variety of materials have been introduced to the automotive industry. These include high strength steels, magnesium alloys, and aluminum alloys. Aluminum alloys have been of particular interest due to their high strength-to-weight ratio. Resistance spot welding requirements for aluminum vary greatly from those of steel. Additionally, the oxide film formed on the aluminum surface increases the heat generation between the copper electrodes and the aluminum plates leading to accelerated electrode deterioration. Preliminary studies showed that the real-time quality inspection system was not able to monitor spot welds manufactured with aluminum. The extensive experimental research, finite element modelling of the aluminum welding process and finite difference modeling of the acoustic wave propagation through the aluminum spot welds presented in this dissertation, revealed that the thermodynamics and hence the acoustic wave propagation through an aluminum and a steel spot weld differ significantly. For this reason, the hardware requirements and the algorithms developed to determine the welds quality from the ultrasonic data used on steel, no longer apply on aluminum spot welds. After updating the system and designing the required algorithms, parameters such as liquid nugget penetration and nugget diameter were available in the ultrasonic data

Effect of low-temperature long-time and high-temperature short-time blanching and frying treatments on the French fry quality of six Irish potato cultivars.

Science.gov (United States)

Ngobese, Nomali Ziphorah; Workneh, Tilahun Seyoum; Siwela, Muthulisi

2017-02-01

Processing conditions are an important determinant of French fry quality. However, the effect of low-temperature long-time (LTLT) and high-temperature short-time (HTST) blanching and frying treatments has not been investigated in many cultivars. The current study investigates the effect of the sequential application of these treatments on French fries processed from six Irish potato cultivars (Fianna, Innovator, Mondial, Navigator, Panamera and Savanna). Blanching was effected at 75 °C for 10 min or 85 °C for 5 min and frying was effected at 160 °C for 2 min or 180 °C for 1 min. These treatments resulted in significant differences in the quality of the fries across the cultivars. The blanching treatments had a greater impact on the French fry quality than the frying treatments. LTLT blanching resulted in lower oil (12-13% fresh mass basis [fmb]), and higher protein (3.5-4.3% fmb) and mineral content in the French fries processed from Innovator, compared to HTST blanching. This was accompanied by a crispier crust, which required a greater puncture force (1.2-2.1 N) for penetration. Blanching with the LTLT treatment before HTST frying resulted in French fries that were the most acceptable to consumers and these were from Fianna, Innovator and Mondial. The current study demonstrates that the effect of French fry processing conditions is cultivar-dependent.

Zerodur polishing process for high surface quality and high efficiency

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tesar, A.; Fuchs, B.

1992-08-01

Zerodur is a glass-ceramic composite importance in applications where temperature instabilities influence optical and mechanical performance, such as in earthbound and spaceborne telescope mirror substrates. Polished Zerodur surfaces of high quality have been required for laser gyro mirrors. Polished surface quality of substrates affects performance of high reflection coatings. Thus, the interest in improving Zerodur polished surface quality has become more general. Beyond eliminating subsurface damage, high quality surfaces are produced by reducing the amount of hydrated material redeposited on the surface during polishing. With the proper control of polishing parameters, such surfaces exhibit roughnesses of < l Angstrom rms. Zerodur polishing was studied to recommend a high surface quality polishing process which could be easily adapted to standard planetary continuous polishing machines and spindles. This summary contains information on a polishing process developed at LLNL which reproducibly provides high quality polished Zerodur surfaces at very high polishing efficiencies

[Quality management is associated with high quality services in health care].

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, Tenna Hassert; Riis, Allan; Mainz, Jan; Jensen, Anne-Louise Degn

2013-12-09

In these years, quality management has been the focus in order to meet high quality services for the patients in Danish health care. This article provides information on quality management and quality improvement and it evaluates its effectiveness in achieving better organizational structures, processes and results in Danish health-care organizations. Our findings generally support that quality management is associated with high quality services in health care.

Factors Affecting Time, Cost and Quality Management in Building ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study is an assessment of time, cost and quality management in the Nigerian construction industry, and it aims to explore time cost and quality management in the construction industry. The objective of the study is to identify factors affecting time; cost and quality management in building construction projects. This study ...

Isolation of high quality RNA from pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) and other woody plants high in secondary metabolites.

Science.gov (United States)

Moazzam Jazi, Maryam; Rajaei, Saideh; Seyedi, Seyed Mahdi

2015-10-01

The quality and quantity of RNA are critical for successful downstream transcriptome-based studies such as microarrays and RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq). RNA isolation from woody plants, such as Pistacia vera, with very high amounts of polyphenols and polysaccharides is an enormous challenge. Here, we describe a highly efficient protocol that overcomes the limitations posed by poor quality and low yield of isolated RNA from pistachio and various recalcitrant woody plants. The key factors that resulted in a yield of 150 μg of high quality RNA per 200 mg of plant tissue include the elimination of phenol from the extraction buffer, raising the concentration of β-mercaptoethanol, long time incubation at 65 °C, and nucleic acid precipitation with optimized volume of NaCl and isopropyl alcohol. Also, the A260/A280 and A260/A230 of extracted RNA were about 1.9-2.1and 2.2-2.3, respectively, revealing the high purity. Since the isolated RNA passed highly stringent quality control standards for sensitive reactions, including RNA sequencing and real-time PCR, it can be considered as a reliable and cost-effective method for RNA extraction from woody plants.

Managing high-bandwidth real-time data storage

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bigelow, David D. [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Brandt, Scott A [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Bent, John M [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Chen, Hsing-Bung [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2009-09-23

There exist certain systems which generate real-time data at high bandwidth, but do not necessarily require the long-term retention of that data in normal conditions. In some cases, the data may not actually be useful, and in others, there may be too much data to permanently retain in long-term storage whether it is useful or not. However, certain portions of the data may be identified as being vitally important from time to time, and must therefore be retained for further analysis or permanent storage without interrupting the ongoing collection of new data. We have developed a system, Mahanaxar, intended to address this problem. It provides quality of service guarantees for incoming real-time data streams and simultaneous access to already-recorded data on a best-effort basis utilizing any spare bandwidth. It has built in mechanisms for reliability and indexing, can scale upwards to meet increasing bandwidth requirements, and handles both small and large data elements equally well. We will show that a prototype version of this system provides better performance than a flat file (traditional filesystem) based version, particularly with regard to quality of service guarantees and hard real-time requirements.

Low physical activity and high screen time can increase the risks of mental health problems and poor sleep quality among Chinese college students.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaoyan Wu

Full Text Available To test the independent and interactive associations of physical activity (PA and screen time (ST with self-reported mental health and sleep quality among Chinese college students.Data were collected in October, 2013. The gender, age, residential background, body mass index (BMI, perceived family economy and perceived study burden were obtained from a total of 4747 college students (41.6% males and 58.4% females. The outcomes were self-reported PA status, ST, anxiety, depression, psychopathological symptoms and sleep quality. Analyses were conducted with logistic regression models.Overall, 16.3%, 15.9% and 17.3% of the students had psychological problems, such as anxiety, depression and psychopathological symptoms, respectively. The prevalence of poor sleep quality was 9.8%. High ST was significantly positively associated with anxiety (OR=1.38, 95%CI: 1.15-1.65, depression (OR=1.76, 95%CI: 1.47-2.09, psychopathological symptoms (OR=1.69, 95%CI: 1.43-2.01 and poor sleep quality (OR=1.32, 95%CI: 1.06-1.65. High PA was insignificantly negatively associated with anxiety, depression, psychopathological symptoms and poor sleep. Low PA and high ST were independently and interactively associated with increased risks of mental health problems and poor sleep quality (p<0.05 for all.Interventions are needed to reduce ST and increase PA in the lifestyles of young people. Future research should develop and measure the impacts of interventions and their potential consequences on sleep, health, and well being.

Breeding and maintaining high-quality insects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Kim; Kristensen, Torsten Nygård; Heckmann, Lars-Henrik

2017-01-01

Insects have a large potential for sustainably enhancing global food and feed production, and commercial insect production is a rising industry of high economic value. Insects suitable for production typically have fast growth, short generation time, efficient nutrient utilization, high...... reproductive potential, and thrive at high density. Insects may cost-efficiently convert agricultural and industrial food by-products into valuable protein once the technology is finetuned. However, since insect mass production is a new industry, the technology needed to efficiently farm these animals is still...... in a starting phase. Here, we discuss the challenges and precautions that need to be considered when breeding and maintaining high-quality insect populations for food and feed. This involves techniques typically used in domestic animal breeding programs including maintaining genetically healthy populations...

Study of weld quality real-time monitoring system for auto-body assembly

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Jun; Li, Yong-Bing; Chen, Guan-Long

2005-12-01

Resistance spot welding (RSW) is widely used for the auto-body assembly in automotive industry. But RSW suffers from a major problem of inconsistent quality from weld to weld. The major problem is the complexity of the basic process that may involve material coatings, electrode force, electrode wear, fit up, etc. Therefore weld quality assurance is still a big challenge and goal. Electrode displacement has proved to be a particularly useful signal which correlates well with weld quality. This paper introduces a novel auto-body spot weld quality monitoring system which uses electrode displacement as the quality parameter. This system chooses the latest laser displacement sensor with high resolution to measure the real-time electrode displacement. It solves the interference problem of sensor mounting by designing special fixture, and can be successfully applied on the portable welding machine. It is capable of evaluating weld quality and making diagnosis of process variations such as surface asperities, shunting, worn electrode and weld expansion with real-time electrode displacement. As proved by application in the workshop, the monitoring system has good stability and reliability, and is qualified for monitoring weld quality in process.

FRANCHISOR-FRANCHISEE RELATIONSHIP QUALITY: TIME OF RELATIONSHIP AND PERFORMANCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luís Fernando Varotto

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Franchise literature disputes how the relationship between franchisors and franchisees develops over time. Traditional lifecycle theory views relationships following an ascendant curve, in which relationship quality and performance strengthen over time. Another perspective better reflects the peculiarities of the franchisor-franchisee relationship, indicating that relationship quality in franchise systems follows a U-shaped curve. There is also limited research on the moderating effect of time on the relationship between relational variables and outcomes. This study sheds light on the influence of relationship duration on relationship quality and financial performance in the franchisee-franchisor relationship. Using a self-report survey from a sample of 342 franchisees, mean and regression analyses are conducted to test relationships. Results confirm the time effect on franchisor-franchisee relationship quality and performance, but the hypothesized shape of relationship phases is only partially confirmed. Moreover, time has a positive moderating effect on the impact of relationship quality on financial performance.

Next Generation High Quality Videoconferencing Service for the LHC

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2012-01-01

In recent times, we have witnessed an explosion of video initiatives in the industry worldwide. Several advancements in video technology are currently improving the way we interact and collaborate. These advancements are forcing tendencies and overall experiences: any device in any network can be used to collaborate, in most cases with an overall high quality. To cope with this technology progresses, CERN IT Department has taken the leading role to establish strategies and directions to improve the user experience in remote dispersed meetings and remote collaboration at large in the worldwide LHC communities. Due to the high rate of dispersion in the LHC user communities, these are critically dependent of videoconferencing technology, with a need of robustness and high quality for the best possible user experience. We will present an analysis of the factors that influenced the technical and strategic choices to improve the reliability, efficiency and overall quality of the LHC remote sessions. In particular, ...

High throughput electrospinning of high-quality nanofibers via an aluminum disk spinneret

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Guokuo

In this work, a simple and efficient needleless high throughput electrospinning process using an aluminum disk spinneret with 24 holes is described. Electrospun mats produced by this setup consisted of fine fibers (nano-sized) of the highest quality while the productivity (yield) was many times that obtained from conventional single-needle electrospinning. The goal was to produce scaled-up amounts of the same or better quality nanofibers under variable concentration, voltage, and the working distance than those produced with the single needle lab setting. The fiber mats produced were either polymer or ceramic (such as molybdenum trioxide nanofibers). Through experimentation the optimum process conditions were defined to be: 24 kilovolt, a distance to collector of 15cm. More diluted solutions resulted in smaller diameter fibers. Comparing the morphologies of the nanofibers of MoO3 produced by both the traditional and the high throughput set up it was found that they were very similar. Moreover, the nanofibers production rate is nearly 10 times than that of traditional needle electrospinning. Thus, the high throughput process has the potential to become an industrial nanomanufacturing process and the materials processed by it may be used as filtration devices, in tissue engineering, and as sensors.

Real-Time Water Quality Management in the Grassland Water District

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Quinn, Nigel W.T.; Hanna, W. Mark; Hanlon, Jeremy S.; Burns, Josphine R.; Taylor, Christophe M.; Marciochi, Don; Lower, Scott; Woodruff, Veronica; Wright, Diane; Poole, Tim

2004-12-10

The purpose of the research project was to advance the concept of real-time water quality management in the San Joaquin Basin by developing an application to drainage of seasonal wetlands in the Grassland Water District. Real-time water quality management is defined as the coordination of reservoir releases, return flows and river diversions to improve water quality conditions in the San Joaquin River and ensure compliance with State water quality objectives. Real-time water quality management is achieved through information exchange and cooperation between shakeholders who contribute or withdraw flow and salt load to or from the San Joaquin River. This project complements a larger scale project that was undertaken by members of the Water Quality Subcommittee of the San Joaquin River Management Program (SJRMP) and which produced forecasts of flow, salt load and San Joaquin River assimilative capacity between 1999 and 2003. These forecasts can help those entities exporting salt load to the River to develop salt load targets as a mechanism for improving compliance with salinity objectives. The mass balance model developed by this project is the decision support tool that helps to establish these salt load targets. A second important outcome of this project was the development and application of a methodology for assessing potential impacts of real-time wetland salinity management. Drawdown schedules are typically tied to weather conditions and are optimized in traditional practices to maximize food sources for over-wintering wildfowl as well as providing a biological control (through germination temperature) of undesirable weeds that compete with the more proteinaceous moist soil plants such as swamp timothy, watergrass and smartweed. This methodology combines high resolution remote sensing, ground-truthing vegetation surveys using established survey protocols and soil salinity mapping using rapid, automated electromagnetic sensor technology. This survey methodology

An improved multi-exposure approach for high quality holographic femtosecond laser patterning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Chenchu; Hu, Yanlei; Li, Jiawen; Lao, Zhaoxin; Ni, Jincheng; Chu, Jiaru; Huang, Wenhao; Wu, Dong

2014-01-01

High efficiency two photon polymerization through single exposure via spatial light modulator (SLM) has been used to decrease the fabrication time and rapidly realize various micro/nanostructures, but the surface quality remains a big problem due to the speckle noise of optical intensity distribution at the defocused plane. Here, a multi-exposure approach which used tens of computer generate holograms successively loaded on SLM is presented to significantly improve the optical uniformity without losing efficiency. By applying multi-exposure, we found that the uniformity at the defocused plane was increased from ∼0.02 to ∼0.6 according to our simulation. The fabricated two series of letters “HELLO” and “USTC” under single-and multi-exposure in our experiment also verified that the surface quality was greatly improved. Moreover, by this method, several kinds of beam splitters with high quality, e.g., 2 × 2, 5 × 5 Daman, and complex nonseperate 5 × 5, gratings were fabricated with both of high quality and short time (<1 min, 95% time-saving). This multi-exposure SLM-two-photon polymerization method showed the promising prospect in rapidly fabricating and integrating various binary optical devices and their systems

An improved multi-exposure approach for high quality holographic femtosecond laser patterning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Chenchu; Hu, Yanlei, E-mail: huyl@ustc.edu.cn, E-mail: jwl@ustc.edu.cn; Li, Jiawen, E-mail: huyl@ustc.edu.cn, E-mail: jwl@ustc.edu.cn; Lao, Zhaoxin; Ni, Jincheng; Chu, Jiaru; Huang, Wenhao; Wu, Dong [Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026 (China)

2014-12-01

High efficiency two photon polymerization through single exposure via spatial light modulator (SLM) has been used to decrease the fabrication time and rapidly realize various micro/nanostructures, but the surface quality remains a big problem due to the speckle noise of optical intensity distribution at the defocused plane. Here, a multi-exposure approach which used tens of computer generate holograms successively loaded on SLM is presented to significantly improve the optical uniformity without losing efficiency. By applying multi-exposure, we found that the uniformity at the defocused plane was increased from ∼0.02 to ∼0.6 according to our simulation. The fabricated two series of letters “HELLO” and “USTC” under single-and multi-exposure in our experiment also verified that the surface quality was greatly improved. Moreover, by this method, several kinds of beam splitters with high quality, e.g., 2 × 2, 5 × 5 Daman, and complex nonseperate 5 × 5, gratings were fabricated with both of high quality and short time (<1 min, 95% time-saving). This multi-exposure SLM-two-photon polymerization method showed the promising prospect in rapidly fabricating and integrating various binary optical devices and their systems.

A mathematical model for crashing projects by considering time, cost, quality and risk

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amin Mahmoudi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Employers are looking for reducing execution time and maintaining the quality of the projects that are the main objective of the projects. In this article, we focus on crashing projects by con-sidering different factors such as cost, time, quality and risk. For the proposed integer linear model, cost of conformance and cost of non-conformance are considered as parts of the costs of quality of deliverables in projects. The cost of conformance consists of the costs of training the project team, inspection and test of deliverables. The cost of non-conformance also includes costs of rework and scrap. Project risk management is one of the important aspects of the pro-jects. The present study also considers the impact of risks, which is highly applicable in projects with a high level of uncertainty. Results are presented using integer programming approach with the aim of minimizing the costs of the project.

Incentives for Quality over Time

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Claussen, Jörg; Kretschmer, Tobias; Mayrhofer, Philip

We study the market for applications on Facebook, the dominant platform for social networking and make use of a rule change by Facebook by which high-quality applications were rewarded with further opportunities to engage users. We find that the change led to quality being a more important driver...... of usage while sheer network size became less important. Further, we find that update frequency helps applications maintain higher usage, while generally usage of Facebook applications declines less rapidly with age....

REAL TIME QUALITY CONTROL OF THE HEATSET OFFSET PRINTING PROCESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Răzvan-George RĂCHERU

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Offset lithography is one of the most common ways of creating printed materials. Compared to other printing methods, offset printing is best suited for economically producing large volumes of high quality prints in a manner that requires little maintenance. Because of the high speed and the high volume of the printing press, we have to rely on automation for press control and not just to the printer’s eye. When printing an image that has more than one color, it is necessary to print each color separately and ensure each color overlaps the others precisely. If this is not done, the finished image will look fuzzy, blurred or "out of register". To help line the colors up correctly, a system of registration is necessary. Therefore, the use of an automated real time quality control system will result in a more consistent color for the customer and less waste for the printer.

Health-related Quality of Life and Related Factors in Full-time and Part-time Workers.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Byungsung; Kim, Wonjoon; Choi, Hyunrim; Won, Changwon; Kim, Youngshin

2012-07-01

There has been a rapid increase in the number of part-time workers in Korea with little information available on associated changes in quality of life. This study was designed to compare part-time and full-time workers in terms of the quality of life and related factors. Data were extracted from the 4th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted in 2008. Of the 1,284 participants selected, 942 were females (range, 20 to 64 years). Based on the information provided by self-administered questionnaire, subjects were categorized according to the working pattern (full-time and part-time) and working hours (part-time group was associated with poorer quality of life (odds ratio [OR], 0.49; P = 0.028). For both sexes, the non-stress group was linked with superior quality of life in comparison to the stress group (OR, 2.64; P = 0.002; OR, 2.17; P < 0.001). Female employees engaged in non-manual labor had superior quality of life than those engaged in manual labor (OR, 1.40; P = 0.027). This study concludes that working less than 30 hours per week is related to lower quality of life in comparison to working 30 hours or more in male employees in Korea.

Research on Real-Time Supervisory System for Compaction Quality in Face Rockfill Dam Engineering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shengxiang Huang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Compaction quality control in filling construction is of great significance to the stability and durability of the face rockfill dam. The conventional method of quality control mainly relies on manual process control and inspection for a limited number of test holes, which cannot meet the high requirements of modern mechanized construction and schedule anymore, with increasing of scale of face rockfill dams. There is an urgent need to propose a new quality control method of face rockfill dams during the entire compaction process. In this paper, a supervisory system based on GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System technology, wireless data communication technology, Internet of things technology, and computer technology is developed to supervise the real-time roller compaction parameters of the working surface including rolling track, rolling times, rolling speed, thickness, and smoothness. The system obtains continuous and high-precision spatial position information of roller compaction machines through GNSS technology and then calculates the roller compaction parameter information. The compaction quality control for the face rockfill dam is achieved through the supervision of roller compaction parameters. The feasibility and robustness of the developed supervisory system are validated by a case study in the face rockfill dam of Shuibuya project in China. The practice shows that the system provides a new and effective method of process control for the construction quality of the roller compaction in dam engineering and realizes real-time, precision, and automatic supervising of roller compaction parameters and ensures better construction quality.

High quality digital holographic reconstruction on analog film

Science.gov (United States)

Nelsen, B.; Hartmann, P.

2017-05-01

High quality real-time digital holographic reconstruction, i.e. at 30 Hz frame rates, has been at the forefront of research and has been hailed as the holy grail of display systems. While these efforts have produced a fascinating array of computer algorithms and technology, many applications of reconstructing high quality digital holograms do not require such high frame rates. In fact, applications such as 3D holographic lithography even require a stationary mask. Typical devices used for digital hologram reconstruction are based on spatial-light-modulator technology and this technology is great for reconstructing arbitrary holograms on the fly; however, it lacks the high spatial resolution achievable by its analog counterpart, holographic film. Analog holographic film is therefore the method of choice for reconstructing highquality static holograms. The challenge lies in taking a static, high-quality digitally calculated hologram and effectively writing it to holographic film. We have developed a theoretical system based on a tunable phase plate, an intensity adjustable high-coherence laser and a slip-stick based piezo rotation stage to effectively produce a digitally calculated hologram on analog film. The configuration reproduces the individual components, both the amplitude and phase, of the hologram in the Fourier domain. These Fourier components are then individually written on the holographic film after interfering with a reference beam. The system is analogous to writing angularly multiplexed plane waves with individual component phase control.

The Barriers to High-Quality Inpatient Pain Management: A Qualitative Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Richard J; Reid, M Carrington; Liu, Lydia L; Chused, Amy E; Evans, Arthur T

2015-09-01

The current literature suggests deficiencies in the quality of acute pain management among general medical inpatients. The aim of this qualitative study is to identify potential barriers to high-quality acute pain management among general medical inpatients at an urban academic medical center during a 2-year period. Data are collected using retrospective chart reviews, survey questionnaires, and semistructured, open-ended interviews of 40 general medical inpatients who have experienced pain during their hospitalization. Our results confirm high prevalence and disabling impacts of pain and significant patient- and provider-related barriers to high-quality acute pain management. We also identify unique system-related barriers such as time delay and pain management culture. Efforts to improve the pain management experience of general medical inpatients will need to address all these barriers. © The Author(s) 2014.

Differential time preferences for money and quality of life

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Parouty, M. B. Y.; Le, Hoa; Krooshof, D.; Postma, M. J.

Background This study provides an empirical investigation into differential time preferences between money and quality of life. Thus far, time preference investigations in health have mostly involved life-years gained and lives saved. However, the quality-adjusted life-year, which is recommended by

Biobanking of human pancreas cancer tissue: impact of ex-vivo procurement times on RNA quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Rudloff, Udo; Bhanot, Umesh; Gerald, William; Klimstra, David S; Jarnagin, William R; Brennan, Murray F; Allen, Peter J

2010-08-01

Tissue banking has become a major initiative at many oncology centers. The influence of warm ex-vivo ischemia times, storage times, and biobanking protocols on RNA integrity and subsequent microarray data is not well documented. A prospective institutional review board-approved protocol for the banking of abdominal neoplasms was initiated at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 2001. Sixty-four representative pancreas cancer specimens snap-frozen at various ex-vivo procurement times (1 h) and banked during three time periods (2001-2004, 2004-2006, 2006-2008) were processed. RNA integrity was determined by microcapillary electrophoresis using the RNA integrity number (RIN) algorithm and by results of laser-capture microdissection (LCM). Overall, 42% of human pancreas cancer specimens banked under a dedicated protocol yielded RNA with a RIN of > or =7. Limited warm ex-vivo ischemia times did not negatively impact RNA quality (percentage of tissue with total RNA with RIN of > or =7 for 60 min, 42%), and long-term storage of banked pancreas cancer biospecimens did not negatively influence RNA quality (total RNA with RIN of > or =7 banked 2001-2004, 44%; 2004-2006, 38%; 2006-2008, 50%). RNA retrieved from pancreatic cancer samples with RIN of > or =7 subject to LCM yielded RNA suitable for further downstream applications. Fresh-frozen pancreas tissue banked within a standardized research protocol yields high-quality RNA in approximately 50% of specimens and can be used for enrichment by LCM. Quality of tissues of the biobank were not adversely impacted by limited variations of warm ischemia times or different storage periods. This study shows the challenges and investments required to initiate and maintain high-quality tissue repositories.

Bust economics: foragers choose high quality habitats in lean times

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sonny S. Bleicher

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In environments where food resources are spatially variable and temporarily impoverished, consumers that encounter habitat patches with different food density should focus their foraging initially where food density is highest before they move to patches where food density is lower. Increasing missed opportunity costs should drive individuals progressively to patches with lower food density as resources in the initially high food density patches deplete. To test these expectations, we assessed the foraging decisions of two species of dasyurid marsupials (dunnarts: Sminthopsis hirtipes and S. youngsoni during a deep drought, or bust period, in the Simpson Desert of central Australia. Dunnarts were allowed access to three patches containing different food densities using an interview chamber experiment. Both species exhibited clear preference for the high density over the lower food density patches as measured in total harvested resources. Similarly, when measuring the proportion of resources harvested within the patches, we observed a marginal preference for patches with initially high densities. Models analyzing behavioral choices at the population level found no differences in behavior between the two species, but models analyzing choices at the individual level uncovered some variation. We conclude that dunnarts can distinguish between habitat patches with different densities of food and preferentially exploit the most valuable. As our observations were made during bust conditions, experiments should be repeated during boom times to assess the foraging economics of dunnarts when environmental resources are high.

Quality & timely delivery of products and services

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scott, K.; Shabbir, K.

2015-01-01

This paper discusses quality and timely delivery of services. The approach is to support our customers, to ensure quality, schedule and cost predictability with no compromise to safety, to avoid optimistic project schedules and conservative cost estimates. It is important to maintain a strategic focus in helping to improve the customer's assets and improve the methodology to improve assets.

High-quality compressive ghost imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Heyan; Zhou, Cheng; Tian, Tian; Liu, Dongqi; Song, Lijun

2018-04-01

We propose a high-quality compressive ghost imaging method based on projected Landweber regularization and guided filter, which effectively reduce the undersampling noise and improve the resolution. In our scheme, the original object is reconstructed by decomposing of regularization and denoising steps instead of solving a minimization problem in compressive reconstruction process. The simulation and experimental results show that our method can obtain high ghost imaging quality in terms of PSNR and visual observation.

A Comprehensive Real-Time Indoor Air-Quality Level Indicator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jungho Kang

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The growing concern about Indoor Air-Quality has accelerated the development of small, low-cost air-quality monitoring systems. These systems are capable of monitoring various indoor air pollutants in real time, notifying users about the current air-quality status and gathering the information to the central server. However, most Internet of Things (IoT-based air-quality monitoring systems numerically present the sensed value per pollutant, making it difficult for general users to identify how polluted the air is. Therefore, in this paper, we first introduce a tiny air-quality monitoring system that we developed and, based on the system, we also test the applicability of the comprehensive Air-Quality Index (AQI, which is widely used all over the world, in terms of its capacity for a comprehensive indoor air-quality indication. We also develop design considerations for an IoT-based air-quality monitoring system and propose a real-time comprehensive indoor air-quality level indication method, which effectively copes with dynamic changes and is efficient in terms of processing and memory overhead.

Optimisation of high-quality total ribonucleic acid isolation from cartilaginous tissues for real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Peeters, M; Huang, C L; Vonk, L A; Lu, Z F; Bank, R A; Helder, M N; Doulabi, B Zandieh

2016-11-01

Studies which consider the molecular mechanisms of degeneration and regeneration of cartilaginous tissues are seriously hampered by problematic ribonucleic acid (RNA) isolations due to low cell density and the dense, proteoglycan-rich extracellular matrix of cartilage. Proteoglycans tend to co-purify with RNA, they can absorb the full spectrum of UV light and they are potent inhibitors of polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Therefore, the objective of the present study is to compare and optimise different homogenisation methods and RNA isolation kits for an array of cartilaginous tissues. Tissue samples such as the nucleus pulposus (NP), annulus fibrosus (AF), articular cartilage (AC) and meniscus, were collected from goats and homogenised by either the MagNA Lyser or Freezer Mill. RNA of duplicate samples was subsequently isolated by either TRIzol (benchmark), or the RNeasy Lipid Tissue, RNeasy Fibrous Tissue, or Aurum Total RNA Fatty and Fibrous Tissue kits. RNA yield, purity, and integrity were determined and gene expression levels of type II collagen and aggrecan were measured by real-time PCR. No differences between the two homogenisation methods were found. RNA isolation using the RNeasy Fibrous and Lipid kits resulted in the purest RNA (A260/A280 ratio), whereas TRIzol isolations resulted in RNA that is not as pure, and show a larger difference in gene expression of duplicate samples compared with both RNeasy kits. The Aurum kit showed low reproducibility. For the extraction of high-quality RNA from cartilaginous structures, we suggest homogenisation of the samples by the MagNA Lyser. For AC, NP and AF we recommend the RNeasy Fibrous kit, whereas for the meniscus the RNeasy Lipid kit is advised.Cite this article: M. Peeters, C. L. Huang, L. A. Vonk, Z. F. Lu, R. A. Bank, M. N. Helder, B. Zandieh Doulabi. Optimisation of high-quality total ribonucleic acid isolation from cartilaginous tissues for real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. Bone Joint Res 2016

Quality & timely delivery of products and services

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scott, K.; Shabbir, K. [WorleyParsons, Toronto, ON (Canada)

2015-07-01

This paper discusses quality and timely delivery of services. The approach is to support our customers, to ensure quality, schedule and cost predictability with no compromise to safety, to avoid optimistic project schedules and conservative cost estimates. It is important to maintain a strategic focus in helping to improve the customer's assets and improve the methodology to improve assets.

Fabrication of high-quality brazed joints

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Orlov, A.V.

1980-01-01

Problem of ensuring of joint high-quality when brazing different parts in power engineering is considered. To obtain high-quality joints it is necessary to correctly design brazed joint and to choose a gap width, overlap length and fillet radius; to clean up carefully the surfaces to be brazed and fix them properly one relative to another; to apply a solder so as to provide its flowing into the gap and sticking in it; to exactly regulate thermal conditions of brazing. High quality and reliability of brazed joints are ensured by the application of solders based on noble metals, and cheap solders based on nickel, manganese and copper. Joints brazed with nickel base solders may operate at temperatures as high as 888 deg C

An Effective Time and Management Strategy in Quality Circles.

Science.gov (United States)

Halverson, Don E.

Contending that participation in quality circles enhances effective time management by school administrators and teachers, this guide provides both a theoretical briefing and practical recommendations for better time management. A pre- posttest prefaces a review of basic concepts of quality circles with reference to the work of Abraham Maslow,…

High throughput web inspection system using time-stretch real-time imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Chanju

Photonic time-stretch is a novel technology that enables capturing of fast, rare and non-repetitive events. Therefore, it operates in real-time with ability to record over long period of time while having fine temporal resolution. The powerful property of photonic time-stretch has already been employed in various fields of application such as analog-to-digital conversion, spectroscopy, laser scanner and microscopy. Further expanding the scope, we fully exploit the time-stretch technology to demonstrate a high throughput web inspection system. Web inspection, namely surface inspection is a nondestructive evaluation method which is crucial for semiconductor wafer and thin film production. We successfully report a dark-field web inspection system with line scan speed of 90.9 MHz which is up to 1000 times faster than conventional inspection instruments. The manufacturing of high quality semiconductor wafer and thin film may directly benefit from this technology as it can easily locate defects with area of less than 10 microm x 10 microm where it allows maximum web flow speed of 1.8 km/s. The thesis provides an overview of our web inspection technique, followed by description of the photonic time-stretch technique which is the keystone in our system. A detailed explanation of each component is covered to provide quantitative understanding of the system. Finally, imaging results from a hard-disk sample and flexible films are presented along with performance analysis of the system. This project was the first application of time-stretch to industrial inspection, and was conducted under financial support and with close involvement by Hitachi, Ltd.

[Real-time feedback systems for improvement of resuscitation quality].

Science.gov (United States)

Lukas, R P; Van Aken, H; Engel, P; Bohn, A

2011-07-01

The quality of chest compression is a determinant of survival after cardiac arrest. Therefore, the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) 2010 guidelines on resuscitation strongly focus on compression quality. Despite its impact on survival, observational studies have shown that chest compression quality is not reached by professional rescue teams. Real-time feedback devices for resuscitation are able to measure chest compression during an ongoing resuscitation attempt through a sternal sensor equipped with a motion and pressure detection system. In addition to the electrocardiograph (ECG) ventilation can be detected by transthoracic impedance monitoring. In cases of quality deviation, such as shallow chest compression depth or hyperventilation, feedback systems produce visual or acoustic alarms. Rescuers can thereby be supported and guided to the requested quality in chest compression and ventilation. Feedback technology is currently available both as a so-called stand-alone device and as an integrated feature in a monitor/defibrillator unit. Multiple studies have demonstrated sustainable enhancement in the education of resuscitation due to the use of real-time feedback technology. There is evidence that real-time feedback for resuscitation combined with training and debriefing strategies can improve both resuscitation quality and patient survival. Chest compression quality is an independent predictor for survival in resuscitation and should therefore be measured and documented in further clinical multicenter trials.

CellProfiler Tracer: exploring and validating high-throughput, time-lapse microscopy image data.

Science.gov (United States)

Bray, Mark-Anthony; Carpenter, Anne E

2015-11-04

Time-lapse analysis of cellular images is an important and growing need in biology. Algorithms for cell tracking are widely available; what researchers have been missing is a single open-source software package to visualize standard tracking output (from software like CellProfiler) in a way that allows convenient assessment of track quality, especially for researchers tuning tracking parameters for high-content time-lapse experiments. This makes quality assessment and algorithm adjustment a substantial challenge, particularly when dealing with hundreds of time-lapse movies collected in a high-throughput manner. We present CellProfiler Tracer, a free and open-source tool that complements the object tracking functionality of the CellProfiler biological image analysis package. Tracer allows multi-parametric morphological data to be visualized on object tracks, providing visualizations that have already been validated within the scientific community for time-lapse experiments, and combining them with simple graph-based measures for highlighting possible tracking artifacts. CellProfiler Tracer is a useful, free tool for inspection and quality control of object tracking data, available from http://www.cellprofiler.org/tracer/.

Optimized Scheduling of Smart Meter Data Access for Real-time Voltage Quality Monitoring

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

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

2018-01-01

Abstract—Active low-voltage distribution grids that support high integration of distributed generation such as photovoltaics and wind turbines require real-time voltage monitoring. At the same time, countries in Europe such as Denmark have close to 100% rollout of smart metering infrastructure....... The metering infrastructure has limitations to provide real-time measurements with small-time granularity. This paper presents an algorithm for optimized scheduling of smart meter data access to provide real-time voltage quality monitoring. The algorithm is analyzed using a real distribution grid in Denmark...

Highly-Accelerated Real-Time Cardiac Cine MRI Using k-t SPARSE-SENSE

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Li; Srichai, Monvadi B.; Lim, Ruth P.; Harrison, Alexis; King, Wilson; Adluru, Ganesh; Dibella, Edward VR.; Sodickson, Daniel K.; Otazo, Ricardo; Kim, Daniel

2012-01-01

For patients with impaired breath-hold capacity and/or arrhythmias, real-time cine MRI may be more clinically useful than breath-hold cine MRI. However, commercially available real-time cine MRI methods using parallel imaging typically yield relatively poor spatio-temporal resolution due to their low image acquisition speed. We sought to achieve relatively high spatial resolution (~2.5mm × 2.5mm) and temporal resolution (~40ms), to produce high-quality real-time cine MR images that could be applied clinically for wall motion assessment and measurement of left ventricular (LV) function. In this work, we present an 8-fold accelerated real-time cardiac cine MRI pulse sequence using a combination of compressed sensing and parallel imaging (k-t SPARSE-SENSE). Compared with reference, breath-hold cine MRI, our 8-fold accelerated real-time cine MRI produced significantly worse qualitative grades (1–5 scale), but its image quality and temporal fidelity scores were above 3.0 (adequate) and artifacts and noise scores were below 3.0 (moderate), suggesting that acceptable diagnostic image quality can be achieved. Additionally, both 8-fold accelerated real-time cine and breath-hold cine MRI yielded comparable LV function measurements, with coefficient of variation cine MRI with k-t SPARSE-SENSE is a promising modality for rapid imaging of myocardial function. PMID:22887290

Highly accelerated real-time cardiac cine MRI using k-t SPARSE-SENSE.

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Li; Srichai, Monvadi B; Lim, Ruth P; Harrison, Alexis; King, Wilson; Adluru, Ganesh; Dibella, Edward V R; Sodickson, Daniel K; Otazo, Ricardo; Kim, Daniel

2013-07-01

For patients with impaired breath-hold capacity and/or arrhythmias, real-time cine MRI may be more clinically useful than breath-hold cine MRI. However, commercially available real-time cine MRI methods using parallel imaging typically yield relatively poor spatio-temporal resolution due to their low image acquisition speed. We sought to achieve relatively high spatial resolution (∼2.5 × 2.5 mm(2)) and temporal resolution (∼40 ms), to produce high-quality real-time cine MR images that could be applied clinically for wall motion assessment and measurement of left ventricular function. In this work, we present an eightfold accelerated real-time cardiac cine MRI pulse sequence using a combination of compressed sensing and parallel imaging (k-t SPARSE-SENSE). Compared with reference, breath-hold cine MRI, our eightfold accelerated real-time cine MRI produced significantly worse qualitative grades (1-5 scale), but its image quality and temporal fidelity scores were above 3.0 (adequate) and artifacts and noise scores were below 3.0 (moderate), suggesting that acceptable diagnostic image quality can be achieved. Additionally, both eightfold accelerated real-time cine and breath-hold cine MRI yielded comparable left ventricular function measurements, with coefficient of variation cine MRI with k-t SPARSE-SENSE is a promising modality for rapid imaging of myocardial function. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Availability of high quality weather data measurements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Elsa; Johansen, Jakob Berg; Furbo, Simon

In the period 2016-2017 the project “Availability of high quality weather data measurements” is carried out at Department of Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark. The aim of the project is to establish measured high quality weather data which will be easily available...... for the building energy branch and the solar energy branch in their efforts to achieve energy savings and for researchers and students carrying out projects where measured high quality weather data are needed....

High-quality GaN epitaxially grown on Si substrate with serpentine channels

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Tiantian; Zong, Hua; Jiang, Shengxiang; Yang, Yue; Liao, Hui; Xie, Yahong; Wang, Wenjie; Li, Junze; Tang, Jun; Hu, Xiaodong

2018-06-01

A novel serpentine-channeled mask was introduced to Si substrate for low-dislocation GaN epitaxial growth and the fully coalesced GaN film on the masked Si substrate was achieved for the first time. Compared with the epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELOG) growth method, this innovative mask only requires one-step epitaxial growth of GaN which has only one high-dislocation region per mask opening. This new growth method can effectively reduce dislocation density, thus improving the quality of GaN significantly. High-quality GaN with low dislocation density ∼2.4 × 107 cm-2 was obtained, which accounted for about eighty percent of the GaN film in area. This innovative technique is promising for the growth of high-quality GaN templates and the subsequent fabrication of high-performance GaN-based devices like transistors, laser diodes (LDs), and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on Si substrate.

Wellbeing Understanding in High Quality Healthcare Informatics and Telepractice.

Science.gov (United States)

Fiorini, Rodolfo A; De Giacomo, Piero; L'Abate, Luciano

2016-01-01

The proper use of healthcare informatics technology and multidimensional conceptual clarity are fundamental to create and boost outstanding clinical and telepractice results. Avoiding even terminology ambiguities is mandatory for high quality of care service. For instance, well-being or wellbeing is a different way to write the same concept only, or there is a good deal of ambiguity around the meanings of these terms the way they are written. In personal health, healthcare and healthcare informatics, this kind of ambiguity and lack of conceptual clarity has been called out repeatedly over the past 50 years. It is time to get the right, terse scenario. We present a brief review to develop and achieve ultimate wellbeing understanding for practical high quality healthcare informatics and telepractice application. This article presents an innovative point of view on deeper wellbeing understanding towards its increased clinical effective application.

Effect of high hydrostatic pressure on overall quality parameters of watermelon juice.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Y; Zhao, X Y; Zou, L; Hu, X S

2013-06-01

High hydrostatic pressure as a kind of non-thermal processing might maintain the quality of thermo-sensitive watermelon juice. So, the effect of high hydrostatic pressure treatment on enzymes and quality of watermelon juice was investigated. After high hydrostatic pressure treatment, the activities of polyphenol oxidase, peroxidase, and pectin methylesterase of juice decreased significantly with the pressure (P  0.05). No significant difference was observed in lycopene and total phenolics after high hydrostatic pressure treatment when compared to the control (P > 0.05). Cloudiness and viscosity increased with pressure (P  0.05). a*- and b*-value both unchanged after high hydrostatic pressure treatment (P > 0.05) while L*-value increased but the values had no significant difference among treated juices. Browning degree after high hydrostatic pressure treatment decreased with increase in pressure and treatment time (P hydrostatic pressure had little effect on color of juice. The results of this study demonstrated the efficacy of high hydrostatic pressure in inactivating enzymes and maintaining the quality of watermelon juice.

Health-related quality of life in patients with high-grade gliomas

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Piil, K; Jakobsen, J; Christensen, Karl Bang

2015-01-01

follow-up after 1 year. Scores of Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), physical activity, anxiety and depression and health-related quality of life (FACT-Br) are obtained. Patients' physical activity level and KPS decrease during the disease- and treatment trajectory. The majority of patients did......The diagnosis of a high-grade glioma usual is followed by functional impairment(s), cognitive decline and an impaired psycho-social well-being. This might well have a significant and negative impact on the health related quality of life. The purpose of this study was to explore physical activity...... levels, prevalence and severity of anxiety and depressive symptoms and health-related quality of life among patients with a highgrade glioma. This paper is based on a longitudinal mixed methods study. Patients (n = 30) completed questionnaires at 5 time points from time of diagnosis until the final...

FRANCHISOR-FRANCHISEE RELATIONSHIP QUALITY: TIME OF RELATIONSHIP AND PERFORMANCE

OpenAIRE

VAROTTO,LUÍS FERNANDO; PARENTE,JURACY GOMES

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT Franchise literature disputes how the relationship between franchisors and franchisees develops over time. Traditional lifecycle theory views relationships following an ascendant curve, in which relationship quality and performance strengthen over time. Another perspective better reflects the peculiarities of the franchisor-franchisee relationship, indicating that relationship quality in franchise systems follows a U-shaped curve. There is also limited research on the moderating effe...

Highly qualified does not equal high quality: A study of urban stakeholders' perceptions of quality in science teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Miranda, Rommel Joseph

By employing qualitative methods, this study sought to determine the perceptions that urban stakeholders hold about what characteristics should distinguish a high school science teacher whom they would consider to demonstrate high quality in science teaching. A maximum variation sample of six science teachers, three school administrators, six parents and six students from a large urban public school district were interviewed using semi-structured, in-depth interview techniques. From these data, a list of observable characteristics which urban stakeholders hold as evidence of high quality in science teaching was generated. Observational techniques were utilized to determine the extent to which six urban high school science teachers, who meet the NCLB Act criteria for being "highly qualified", actually possessed the characteristics which these stakeholders hold as evidence of high quality in science teaching. Constant comparative analysis was used to analyze the data set. The findings suggest that urban stakeholders perceive that a high school science teacher who demonstrates high quality in science teaching should be knowledgeable about their subject matter, their student population, and should be resourceful; should possess an academic background in science and professional experience in science teaching; should exhibit professionalism, a passion for science and teaching, and a dedication to teaching and student learning; should be skillful in planning and preparing science lessons and in organizing the classroom, in presenting the subject matter to students, in conducting a variety of hands-on activities, and in managing a classroom; and should assess whether students complete class goals and objectives, and provide feedback about grades for students promptly. The findings further reveal that some of the urban high school science teachers who were deemed to be "highly qualified", as defined by the NCLB Act, engaged in practices that threatened quality in science

A design technique of low cost but high quality peak stretcher

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lo, H Y; Su, C S; Hsu, J Y; Wang, L

1981-03-01

This paper presents the design of low cost but high quality pulse peak stretcher incorporated with a LSI of 12 bit ADC and SKD-85 microcomputer. The conflict between the capacitor high charging speed and longer holding time for realizing a high quality stretcher is discussed and solved. For a lager number of channels available in a dual ramp Wilkinson-type ADC, two-stage stretchers connected in series are designed. The first stage is a fast-discharge to keep the output stretched pulse follow-up the input quickly and the second-stage (main stretcher) is a slow-discharge to keep the transient of the circuit minimum. Both of these two peak stretchers are described and the experiment results are photographically recorded.

High quality mask storage in an advanced Logic-Fab

Science.gov (United States)

Jähnert, Carmen; Fritsche, Silvio

2012-02-01

High efficient mask logistics as well as safe and high quality mask storage are essential requirements within an advanced lithography area of a modern logic waferfab. Fast operational availability of the required masks at the exposure tool with excellent mask condition requires a safe mask handling, safeguarding of high mask quality over the whole mask usage time without any quality degradation and an intelligent mask logistics. One big challenge is the prevention of haze on high advanced phase shift masks used in a high volume production line for some thousands of 248nm or 193nm exposures. In 2008 Infineon Dresden qualified a customer specific developed semi-bare mask storage system from DMSDynamic Micro Systems in combination with a high advanced mask handling and an interconnected complex logistic system. This high-capacity mask storage system DMS M1900.22 for more than 3000 masks with fully automated mask and box handling as well as full-blown XCDA purge has been developed and adapted to the Infineon Lithotoollandscape using Nikon and SMIF reticle cases. Advanced features for ESD safety and mask security, mask tracking via RFID and interactions with the exposure tools were developed and implemented. The stocker is remote controlled by the iCADA-RSM system, ordering of the requested mask directly from the affected exposure tool allows fast access. This paper discusses the advantages and challenges for this approach as well as the practical experience gained during the implementation of the new system which improves the fab performance with respect to mask quality, security and throughput. Especially the realization of an extremely low and stable humidity level in addition with a well controlled air flow at each mask surface, preventing masks from haze degradation and particle contamination, turns out to be a notable technical achievement. The longterm stability of haze critical masks has been improved significantly. Relevant environmental parameters like

Assuring quality in high-consequence engineering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hoover, Marcey L.; Kolb, Rachel R.

2014-03-01

In high-consequence engineering organizations, such as Sandia, quality assurance may be heavily dependent on staff competency. Competency-dependent quality assurance models are at risk when the environment changes, as it has with increasing attrition rates, budget and schedule cuts, and competing program priorities. Risks in Sandia's competency-dependent culture can be mitigated through changes to hiring, training, and customer engagement approaches to manage people, partners, and products. Sandia's technical quality engineering organization has been able to mitigate corporate-level risks by driving changes that benefit all departments, and in doing so has assured Sandia's commitment to excellence in high-consequence engineering and national service.

Optical studies of high quality synthetic diamond

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharp, S.J.

1999-01-01

This thesis is concerned with the study of fundamental and defect induced optical properties of synthetic diamond grown using high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) synthesis or chemical vapour deposition (CVD). The primary technique used for investigation is cathodoluminescence (including imaging and decay-time measurements) in addition to other forms of optical spectroscopy. This thesis is timely in that the crystallinity and purity of synthetic diamond has increased ten fold over the last few years. The diamond exciton emission, which is easily quenched by the presence of defects, is studied in high quality samples in detail. In addition the ability now exists to engineer the isotopic content of synthetic diamond to a high degree of accuracy. The experimental chapters are divided as follows: Chapter 2: High resolution, low temperature spectra reveal a splitting of the free-exciton phonon recombination emission peaks and the bound-exciton zero phonon line. Included are measurements of the variation in intensity and decay-time as a function of temperature. Chapter 3: The shift in energy of the phonon-assisted free-exciton phonon replicas with isotopic content has been measured. The shift is in agreement with the results of interatomic force model for phonon scattering due to isotope disorder. Chapter 4: A study of the shift in energy with isotopic content of the diamond of the GR1 band due to the neutral vacancy has allowed a verification of the theoretical predictions due to the Jahn Teller effect. Chapter 5: The spatial distribution of the free-exciton luminescence is studied in HPHT synthetic and CVD diamond. A variation in intensity with distance from the surface is interpreted as a significant non-radiative loss of excitons to the surface. Chapter 6: The decay-times of all known self-interstitial related centres have been measured in order to calculate the concentration of these centres present in electron irradiated diamond. (author)

Concrete Waste Recycling Process for High Quality Aggregate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishikura, Takeshi; Fujii, Shin-ichi

2008-01-01

Large amount of concrete waste generates during nuclear power plant (NPP) dismantling. Non-contaminated concrete waste is assumed to be disposed in a landfill site, but that will not be the solution especially in the future, because of decreasing tendency of the site availability and natural resources. Concerning concrete recycling, demand for roadbeds and backfill tends to be less than the amount of dismantled concrete generated in a single rural site, and conventional recycled aggregate is limited of its use to non-structural concrete, because of its inferior quality to ordinary natural aggregate. Therefore, it is vital to develop high quality recycled aggregate for general uses of dismantled concrete. If recycled aggregate is available for high structural concrete, the dismantling concrete is recyclable as aggregate for industry including nuclear field. Authors developed techniques on high quality aggregate reclamation for large amount of concrete generated during NPP decommissioning. Concrete of NPP buildings has good features for recycling aggregate; large quantity of high quality aggregate from same origin, record keeping of the aggregate origin, and little impurities in dismantled concrete such as wood and plastics. The target of recycled aggregate in this development is to meet the quality criteria for NPP concrete as prescribed in JASS 5N 'Specification for Nuclear Power Facility Reinforced Concrete' and JASS 5 'Specification for Reinforced Concrete Work'. The target of recycled aggregate concrete is to be comparable performance with ordinary aggregate concrete. The high quality recycled aggregate production techniques are assumed to apply for recycling for large amount of non-contaminated concrete. These techniques can also be applied for slightly contaminated concrete dismantled from radiological control area (RCA), together with free release survey. In conclusion: a technology on dismantled concrete recycling for high quality aggregate was developed

Parent-Child Quality Time: Does Birth Order Matter?

Science.gov (United States)

Price, Joseph

2008-01-01

Using data from the American Time Use Survey, I find that a first-born child receives 20-30 more minutes of quality time each day with his or her parent than a second-born child of the same age from a similar family. The birth-order difference results from parents giving roughly equal time to each child at any point in time while the amount of…

Real-time management of water quality in the San Joaquin River Basin, California.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Quinn, N.W.T.; Karkoski, J.

1997-09-01

In the San Joaquin River Basin, California, a realtime water quality forecasting model was developed to help improve the management of saline agricultural and wetland drainage to meet water quality objectives. Predicted salt loads from the water quality forecasting model, SJRIODAY, were consistently within +- 11 percent of actual, within +- 14 percent for seven-day forecasts, and with in +- 26 percent for 14-day forecasts for the 16-month trial period. When the 48 days dominated by rainfall/runoff events were eliminated from the data set, the error bar decreased to +- 9 percent for the model and +- 11 percent and +- 17 percent for the seven-day and 14-day forecasts, respectively. Constraints on the use of the model for salinity management on the San Joaquin River include the number of entities that control or influence water quality and the lack of a centralized authority to direct their activities. The lack of real-time monitoring sensors for other primary constituents of concern, such as selenium and boron, limits the application of the model to salinity at the present time. A case study describes wetland drainage releases scheduled to coincide with high river flows and significant river assimilative capacity for salt loads.

Gender differences in the association of a high quality job and self-esteem over time: A multiwave study

OpenAIRE

Keller, Anita C.; Meier, Laurenz L.; Gross, Sven; Semmer, Norbert K.

2015-01-01

High self-esteem often predicts job-related outcomes, such as high job satisfaction or high status. Theoretically, high quality jobs (HQJs) should be important for self-esteem, as they enable people to use a variety of skills and attribute accomplishments to themselves, but research findings are mixed. We expected reciprocal relationships between self-esteem and HQJ. However, as work often is more important for the status of men, we expected HQJ to have a stronger influence on self-esteem for...

Dependence of image quality on acquisition time for the PET/CT Biograph mCT

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Molina-Duran, Flavia; Glatting, Gerhard [Heidelberg Univ., Mannheim (Germany). Medical Radiation Physics/Radiation Protection; Dinter, Dietmar; Schoenberg, Stefan O. [Heidelberg Univ., Mannheim (Germany). Inst. of Clinical Radiology and Nuclear Medicine; Schoenahl, Frederic [Siemens Healthcare Molecular Imaging, Erlangen (Germany)

2014-03-01

The impact of acquisition time on reconstructed PET image quality is analyzed for different acquisition times (1, 2, 3 and 4 min). Image quality was tested according to the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) NU 2-2007, the evaluation for the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and the reconstructed activity ratio (RAR) for three algorithms, i.e. OSEM, TrueX and TOF applying different effective iteration numbers. The present work shows that the image quality of 3 and 4 min acquisition time for spherical lesions of 10 mm diameter are not significantly different between TrueX, TOF and OSEM. The 2 min acquisition time should be used carefully for the TrueX and OSEM algorithms in small lesions, because the levels of background noise are high compared to 3 or 4 min measurements. Also, the reconstructed activity ratio is underestimated to be approximately half of the expected value. For large lesions the three algorithms perform similarly for all acquisition durations, however, OSEM has the advantage of a more accurately reconstructed activity ratio compared to TrueX and TOF, which are more strongly influenced by noise. (orig.)

QC-ART: A tool for real-time quality control assessment of mass spectrometry-based proteomics data.

Science.gov (United States)

Stanfill, Bryan A; Nakayasu, Ernesto S; Bramer, Lisa M; Thompson, Allison M; Ansong, Charles K; Clauss, Therese; Gritsenko, Marina A; Monroe, Matthew E; Moore, Ronald J; Orton, Daniel J; Piehowski, Paul D; Schepmoes, Athena A; Smith, Richard D; Webb-Robertson, Bobbie-Jo; Metz, Thomas O; TEDDY Study Group, The Environmental Determinants Of Diabetes In The Young

2018-04-17

Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based proteomics studies of large sample cohorts can easily require from months to years to complete. Acquiring consistent, high-quality data in such large-scale studies is challenging because of normal variations in instrumentation performance over time, as well as artifacts introduced by the samples themselves, such as those due to collection, storage and processing. Existing quality control methods for proteomics data primarily focus on post-hoc analysis to remove low-quality data that would degrade downstream statistics; they are not designed to evaluate the data in near real-time, which would allow for interventions as soon as deviations in data quality are detected.  In addition to flagging analyses that demonstrate outlier behavior, evaluating how the data structure changes over time can aide in understanding typical instrument performance or identify issues such as a degradation in data quality due to the need for instrument cleaning and/or re-calibration.  To address this gap for proteomics, we developed Quality Control Analysis in Real-Time (QC-ART), a tool for evaluating data as they are acquired in order to dynamically flag potential issues with instrument performance or sample quality.  QC-ART has similar accuracy as standard post-hoc analysis methods with the additional benefit of real-time analysis.  We demonstrate the utility and performance of QC-ART in identifying deviations in data quality due to both instrument and sample issues in near real-time for LC-MS-based plasma proteomics analyses of a sample subset of The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young cohort. We also present a case where QC-ART facilitated the identification of oxidative modifications, which are often underappreciated in proteomic experiments. Published under license by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Protocol: A simple phenol-based method for 96-well extraction of high quality RNA from Arabidopsis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Coustham Vincent

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Many experiments in modern plant molecular biology require the processing of large numbers of samples for a variety of applications from mutant screens to the analysis of natural variants. A severe bottleneck to many such analyses is the acquisition of good yields of high quality RNA suitable for use in sensitive downstream applications such as real time quantitative reverse-transcription-polymerase chain reaction (real time qRT-PCR. Although several commercial kits are available for high-throughput RNA extraction in 96-well format, only one non-kit method has been described in the literature using the commercial reagent TRIZOL. Results We describe an unusual phenomenon when using TRIZOL reagent with young Arabidopsis seedlings. This prompted us to develop a high-throughput RNA extraction protocol (HTP96 adapted from a well established phenol:chloroform-LiCl method (P:C-L that is cheap, reliable and requires no specialist equipment. With this protocol 192 high quality RNA samples can be prepared in 96-well format in three hours (less than 1 minute per sample with less than 1% loss of samples. We demonstrate that the RNA derived from this protocol is of high quality and suitable for use in real time qRT-PCR assays. Conclusion The development of the HTP96 protocol has vastly increased our sample throughput, allowing us to fully exploit the large sample capacity of modern real time qRT-PCR thermocyclers, now commonplace in many labs, and develop an effective high-throughput gene expression platform. We propose that the HTP96 protocol will significantly benefit any plant scientist with the task of obtaining hundreds of high quality RNA extractions.

Effect of forage quality in faeces from different ruminant species fed high and low quality forage

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jalali, A R; Nørgaard, P; Nielsen, M O

2010-01-01

Effect of forage quality in faeces from different ruminant species fed high and low quality forage......Effect of forage quality in faeces from different ruminant species fed high and low quality forage...

Selection of process parameters for producing high quality defatted sesame flour at pilot scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Manikantan, M R; Sharma, Rajiv; Yadav, D N; Gupta, R K

2015-03-01

The present work was undertaken to study the effect of pearling duration, soaking time, steaming duration and drying temperature on the quality of sesame seeds and mechanically extracted partially defatted sesame cake. On the basis of quality attributes i.e. high protein, low crude fibre, low residual oil and low oxalic acid, the optimum process parameters were selected. The combination of 20 min of pearling duration, 15 min of soaking, 15 min of steaming at 100 kPa pressure and drying at 50 °C yielded high quality partially defatted protein rich sesame flour as compared to untreated defatted sesame flour. The developed high quality partially defatted protein rich sesame flour may be used in various food applications as a vital ingredient to increase the nutritional significance of the prepared foodstuffs.

Colometer: a real-time quality feedback system for screening colonoscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Filip, Dobromir; Gao, Xuexin; Angulo-Rodríguez, Leticia; Mintchev, Martin P; Devlin, Shane M; Rostom, Alaa; Rosen, Wayne; Andrews, Christopher N

2012-08-28

To investigate the performance of a new software-based colonoscopy quality assessment system. The software-based system employs a novel image processing algorithm which detects the levels of image clarity, withdrawal velocity, and level of the bowel preparation in a real-time fashion from live video signal. Threshold levels of image blurriness and the withdrawal velocity below which the visualization could be considered adequate have initially been determined arbitrarily by review of sample colonoscopy videos by two experienced endoscopists. Subsequently, an overall colonoscopy quality rating was computed based on the percentage of the withdrawal time with adequate visualization (scored 1-5; 1, when the percentage was 1%-20%; 2, when the percentage was 21%-40%, etc.). In order to test the proposed velocity and blurriness thresholds, screening colonoscopy withdrawal videos from a specialized ambulatory colon cancer screening center were collected, automatically processed and rated. Quality ratings on the withdrawal were compared to the insertion in the same patients. Then, 3 experienced endoscopists reviewed the collected videos in a blinded fashion and rated the overall quality of each withdrawal (scored 1-5; 1, poor; 3, average; 5, excellent) based on 3 major aspects: image quality, colon preparation, and withdrawal velocity. The automated quality ratings were compared to the averaged endoscopist quality ratings using Spearman correlation coefficient. Fourteen screening colonoscopies were assessed. Adenomatous polyps were detected in 4/14 (29%) of the collected colonoscopy video samples. As a proof of concept, the Colometer software rated colonoscope withdrawal as having better visualization than the insertion in the 10 videos which did not have any polyps (average percent time with adequate visualization: 79% ± 5% for withdrawal and 50% ± 14% for insertion, P quality rating from the automated system and the reviewers was 3.45 [interquartile range (IQR), 3

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN HIGH EDUCATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hasan SERİN, Alper AYTEKİN

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The approach of Total Quality Management (TQM has been even more common and most recently its use in high education has been discussed. Likewise the enterprises producing various products, universities have also inputs, processes, and outputs. Due to conditions of competition, universities have to improve the qualities of these inputs, processes, and outputs, according to satisfaction, demands, and expectations of internal and external customers. If the TQM has been implemented in the universities with a manner that aims for customer satisfaction (students, lecturers, public and private establishments, and families, supports constant development, ensures participatory approach, and encourages working in groups, it will provide universities with effectiveness, efficiency, dynamics, and economics. In this study, common problems of universities, definitions of quality and TQM in high education, customer concept at universities, and factors affecting the quality of education have been explained. Besides, in order TQM approach to be successfully implemented in the universities, various suggestions have been presented.

Real Time Face Quality Assessment for Face Log Generation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kamal, Nasrollahi; Moeslund, Thomas B.

2009-01-01

Summarizing a long surveillance video to just a few best quality face images of each subject, a face-log, is of great importance in surveillance systems. Face quality assessment is the back-bone for face log generation and improving the quality assessment makes the face logs more reliable....... Developing a real time face quality assessment system using the most important facial features and employing it for face logs generation are the concerns of this paper. Extensive tests using four databases are carried out to validate the usability of the system....

Quality of Standard Reference Materials for Short Time Activation Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ismail, S.S.; Oberleitner, W.

2003-01-01

Some environmental reference materials (CFA-1633 b, IAEA-SL-1, SARM-1,BCR-176, Coal-1635, IAEA-SL-3, BCR-146, and SRAM-5) were analysed by short-time activation analysis. The results show that these materials can be classified in three groups, according to their activities after irradiation. The obtained results were compared in order to create a quality index for determination of short-lived nuclides at high count rates. It was found that Cfta is not a suitable standard for determining very short-lived nuclides (half-lives<1 min) because the activity it produces is 15-fold higher than that SL-3. Biological reference materials, such as SRM-1571, SRM-1573, SRM-1575, SRM-1577, IAEA-392, and IAEA-393, were also investigated by a higher counting efficiency system. The quality of this system and its well-type detector for investigating short-lived nuclides was discussed

Applying Machine Learning and High Performance Computing to Water Quality Assessment and Prediction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ruijian Zhang

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Water quality assessment and prediction is a more and more important issue. Traditional ways either take lots of time or they can only do assessments. In this research, by applying machine learning algorithm to a long period time of water attributes’ data; we can generate a decision tree so that it can predict the future day’s water quality in an easy and efficient way. The idea is to combine the traditional ways and the computer algorithms together. Using machine learning algorithms, the assessment of water quality will be far more efficient, and by generating the decision tree, the prediction will be quite accurate. The drawback of the machine learning modeling is that the execution takes quite long time, especially when we employ a better accuracy but more time-consuming algorithm in clustering. Therefore, we applied the high performance computing (HPC System to deal with this problem. Up to now, the pilot experiments have achieved very promising preliminary results. The visualized water quality assessment and prediction obtained from this project would be published in an interactive website so that the public and the environmental managers could use the information for their decision making.

Smart sensors for real-time water quality monitoring

CERN Document Server

Mason, Alex

2013-01-01

Sensors are being utilised to increasing degrees in all forms of industry.  Researchers and industrial practitioners in all fields seek to obtain a better understanding of appropriate processes so as to improve quality of service and efficiency.  The quality of water is no exception, and the water industry is faced with a wide array of water quality issues being present world-wide.  Thus, the need for sensors to tackle this diverse subject is paramount.  The aim of this book is to combine, for the first time, international expertise in the area of water quality monitoring using smart sensors and systems in order that a better understanding of the challenges faced and solutions posed may be available to all in a single text.

Analysis of high-quality modes in open chaotic microcavities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fang, W.; Yamilov, A.; Cao, H.

2005-01-01

We present a numerical study of the high-quality modes in two-dimensional dielectric stadium microcavities. Although the classical ray mechanics is fully chaotic in a stadium billiard, all of the high-quality modes show a 'strong scar' around unstable periodic orbits. When the deformation (ratio of the length of the straight segments over the diameter of the half circles) is small, the high-quality modes correspond to whispering-gallery-type trajectories and their quality factors decrease monotonically with increasing deformation. At large deformation, each high-quality mode is associated with multiple unstable periodic orbits. Its quality factor changes nonmonotonically with the deformation, and there exists an optimal deformation for each mode at which its quality factor reaches a local maximum. This unusual behavior is attributed to the interference of waves propagating along different constituent orbits that could minimize light leakage out of the cavity

Automated high speed volume computed tomography for inline quality control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hanke, R.; Kugel, A.; Troup, P.

2004-01-01

Increasing complexity of innovative products as well as growing requirements on quality and reliability call for more detailed knowledge about internal structures of manufactured components rather by 100 % inspection than just by sampling test. A first-step solution, like radioscopic inline inspection machines, equipped with automated data evaluation software, have become state of the art in the production floor during the last years. However, these machines provide just ordinary two-dimensional information and deliver no volume data e.g. to evaluate exact position or shape of detected defects. One way to solve this problem is the application of X-ray computed tomography (CT). Compared to the performance of the first generation medical scanners (scanning times of many hours), today, modern Volume CT machines for industrial applications need about 5 minutes for a full object scan depending on the object size. Of course, this is still too long to introduce this powerful method into the inline production quality control. In order to gain acceptance, the scanning time including subsequent data evaluation must be decreased significantly and adapted to the manufacturing cycle times. This presentation demonstrates the new technical set up, reconstruction results and the methods for high-speed volume data evaluation of a new fully automated high-speed CT scanner with cycle times below one minute for an object size of less than 15 cm. This will directly create new opportunities in design and construction of more complex objects. (author)

REDUCTION OF MORTADELLA COOKING TIME AND EVALUATION OF THE FINAL PRODUCT QUALITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diones Orsolin

2015-10-01

Full Text Available In food industry, the cooking is one of the most important processes for the conservation and quality assurance of the final product, especially mortadella. However, this process requires high investment in modern equipment besides having energy and steam expenses.. In this context, the objective of this study was to propose a cooking method of mortadella produced with pork and chicken, by reducing time and increasing temperature inside the baking oven. Evaluations of behavior of water activity, pH and texture of the mortadella were carried out throughout shelf life. From the results, we found that both pork and chicken mortadella that were cooked by the current process and those that passed through the cooking process with reduced time showed no significant differences at the level of 95% confidence for the analyzed characteristics. Therefore, all treatments had similar values and can be considered within the established standards of product quality for both water activity and for pH and texture.

Systematic Quality Development Work in a Swedish Leisure-Time Centre

Science.gov (United States)

Lager, Karin; Sheridan, Sonja; Gustafsson, Jan

2016-01-01

There is increasing activity in the area of quality issues in education in Europe. Diverse discourses of policy for quality are encountered in daily practice. This article explores systematic quality development work in a Swedish educational setting: the leisure-time centre. By following 2 teachers' enactments of policy in planning, organising,…

Probing Growth-Induced Anisotropic Thermal Transport in High-Quality CVD Diamond Membranes by Multifrequency and Multiple-Spot-Size Time-Domain Thermoreflectance.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Zhe; Bougher, Thomas; Bai, Tingyu; Wang, Steven Y; Li, Chao; Yates, Luke; Foley, Brian M; Goorsky, Mark; Cola, Baratunde A; Faili, Firooz; Graham, Samuel

2018-02-07

The maximum output power of GaN-based high-electron mobility transistors is limited by high channel temperature induced by localized self-heating, which degrades device performance and reliability. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond is an attractive candidate to aid in the extraction of this heat and in minimizing the peak operating temperatures of high-power electronics. Owing to its inhomogeneous structure, the thermal conductivity of CVD diamond varies along the growth direction and can differ between the in-plane and out-of-plane directions, resulting in a complex three-dimensional (3D) distribution. Depending on the thickness of the diamond and size of the electronic device, this 3D distribution may impact the effectiveness of CVD diamond in device thermal management. In this work, time-domain thermoreflectance is used to measure the anisotropic thermal conductivity of an 11.8 μm-thick high-quality CVD diamond membrane from its nucleation side. Starting with a spot-size diameter larger than the thickness of the membrane, measurements are made at various modulation frequencies from 1.2 to 11.6 MHz to tune the heat penetration depth and sample the variation in thermal conductivity. We then analyze the data by creating a model with the membrane divided into ten sublayers and assume isotropic thermal conductivity in each sublayer. From this, we observe a two-dimensional gradient of the depth-dependent thermal conductivity for this membrane. The local thermal conductivity goes beyond 1000 W/(m K) when the distance from the nucleation interface only reaches 3 μm. Additionally, by measuring the same region with a smaller spot size at multiple frequencies, the in-plane and cross-plane thermal conductivities are extracted. Through this use of multiple spot sizes and modulation frequencies, the 3D anisotropic thermal conductivity of CVD diamond membrane is experimentally obtained by fitting the experimental data to a thermal model. This work provides an improved

Development of VIS/NIR spectroscopic system for real-time prediction of fresh pork quality

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Haiyun; Peng, Yankun; Zhao, Songwei; Sasao, Akira

2013-05-01

Quality attributes of fresh meat will influence nutritional value and consumers' purchasing power. The aim of the research was to develop a prototype for real-time detection of quality in meat. It consisted of hardware system and software system. A VIS/NIR spectrograph in the range of 350 to 1100 nm was used to collect the spectral data. In order to acquire more potential information of the sample, optical fiber multiplexer was used. A conveyable and cylindrical device was designed and fabricated to hold optical fibers from multiplexer. High power halogen tungsten lamp was collected as the light source. The spectral data were obtained with the exposure time of 2.17ms from the surface of the sample by press down the trigger switch on the self-developed system. The system could automatically acquire, process, display and save the data. Moreover the quality could be predicted on-line. A total of 55 fresh pork samples were used to develop prediction model for real time detection. The spectral data were pretreated with standard normalized variant (SNV) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) was used to develop prediction model. The correlation coefficient and root mean square error of the validation set for water content and pH were 0.810, 0.653, and 0.803, 0.098 respectively. The research shows that the real-time non-destructive detection system based on VIS/NIR spectroscopy can be efficient to predict the quality of fresh meat.

High beam quality and high energy short-pulse laser with MOPA

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Quanwei; Pang, Yu; Jiang, JianFeng; Tan, Liang; Cui, Lingling; Wei, Bin; Sun, Yinhong; Tang, Chun

2018-03-01

A high energy, high beam quality short-pulse diode-pumped Nd:YAG master oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) laser with two amplifier stages is demonstrated. The two-rod birefringence compensation was used as beam quality controlling methods, which presents a short-pulse energy of 40 mJ with a beam quality value of M2 = 1.2 at a repetition rate of 400Hz. The MOPA system delivers a short-pulse energy of 712.5 mJ with a pulse width of 12.4 ns.The method of spherical aberration compensation is improved the beam quality, a M2 factor of 2.3 and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 27.7% is obtained at the maximum laser out power.The laser obtained 1.4J out energy with polarization integration.

High quality-factor optical resonators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Henriet, Rémi; Salzenstein, Patrice; Coillet, Aurélien; Saleh, Khaldoun; Chembo, Yanne K; Ristic, Davor; Ferrari, Maurizio; Mortier, Michel; Rasoloniaina, Alphonse; Dumeige, Yannick; Féron, Patrice; Cibiel, Gilles; Llopis, Olivier

2014-01-01

Various resonators are investigated for microwave photonic applications. Micro-sphere, disk and fiber ring resonators were designed, realized and characterized. Obtained quality factors are as high as Q = 10 10 . (paper)

Developing Quality Control Procedures to Sustain a Supply of High Quality Blood for Mass Rearing Tsetse Flies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

De Beer, C J; Venter, G J; Potgieter, F T [ARC-Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, Old Soutpans Road, Private Bag X05, 0110 Onderstepoort (South Africa)

2012-07-15

Mass rearing tsetse flies Glossina spp. is dependent on the sustained availability of a high quality blood diet. In any mass rearing facility, the logistics for obtaining sterile, high quality fresh blood is challenging. An added complication is the influence of potential chemical, physical and microbiological elements present in the blood of donors, as well as contamination during collection, handling and storage. Research at the Agricultural Research Council - Onderstepoort Veterinary institute (ARC-OVI) is directed towards the development of quality control procedures for the supply of the in vitro diet used to maintain productive colonies of Glossina brevipalpis Newstead and Glossina austeni Newstead. Factors that may influence the blood diet, e.g. defibrination, feeding times, collection of blood in anticoagulants, treatment of blood with taste stimuli, repeated freezing and thawing of blood, effect of bovine growth hormones, and also a preference for bovine or porcine blood were tested. A 25 day bioassay was used to determine the effects of these factors on tsetse survival and reproduction. Defibrination of the blood for 10 to 15 minutes gave the best results for both species. It was found that G. brevipalpis should be fed three times per week for 5 minutes each time, and G. austeni three times per week for 10 minutes. Heparin, acid citrate dextrose (ACD), citric acid, citrate phosphate dextrose adenine (CPDA) and a combination of sodium citrate and citric acid were effective anticoagulants in the blood diets of G. brevipalpis and G. austeni. Blood treated with inosine triphosphate (ITP) gave the highest quality factor (QFC) values for both G. austeni and G. brevipalpis. Repeated freezing and thawing of blood definitely affects pupal production negatively; G. brevipalpis especially produced significantly smaller pupae. A premixed diet of equal amounts of bovine and porcine blood was found to be best suited for G. brevipalpis, and for G. austeni a mixture of

Formation of a high quality electron beam using photo cathode RF electron gun

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Washio, Masakazu

2000-01-01

Formation of a high quality electron beam using photo cathode RF electron gun is expected for formation of a next generation high brilliant X-ray beam and a source for electron and positron collider. And, on a field of material science, as is possible to carry out an experiment under ultra short pulse and extremely high precision in time, it collects large expectation. Recently, formation of high quality beam possible to develop for multi directions and to use by everyone in future has been able to realize. Here were explained on electron beam source, principle and component on RF electron gun, working features on RF gun, features and simulation of RF gun under operation, and some views in near future. (G.K.)

Supporting Quality Timely PhD Completions: Delivering Research Outcomes

Science.gov (United States)

Gasson, Susan

2015-01-01

The case study used a three-phase organising process to explain how design and implementation of an accessible and interactive electronic thesis submission form streamlined quality assurance of theses and their timely dissemination via an online thesis repository. The quality of the theses submitted is assured by key academics in their final sign…

(-201) β-Gallium oxide substrate for high quality GaN materials

KAUST Repository

Roqan, Iman S.

2015-03-13

(-201) oriented β-Ga2O3 has the potential to be used as a transparent and conductive substrate for GaN-growth. The key advantages of Ga2O3 are its small lattice mismatches (4.7%), appropriate structural, thermal and electrical properties and a competitive price compared to other substrates. Optical characterization show that GaN layers grown on (-201) oriented β-Ga2O3 are dominated by intense bandedge emission with a high luminescence efficiency. Atomic force microscopy studies show a modest threading dislocation density of ~108 cm-2, while complementary Raman spectroscopy indicates that the GaN epilayer is of high quality with slight compressive strain. Room temperature time-findings suggest that the limitation of the photoluminescence lifetime (~500 ps) is due to nonradiative recombination arising from threading dislocation. Therefore, by optimizing the growth conditions, high quality material with significant optical efficiency can be obtained.

Quality Improvement Cycles that Reduced Waiting Times at ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

It was decided to undertake quality improvement (QI) cycles to analyse and improve the situation, using waiting time as a measure of improvement. Methods: A QI team was chosen to conduct two QI cycles. The allocated time for QI cycle 1 was from May to August 2006 and for QI cycle 2 from September to December 2006.

High-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation: current and future directions.

Science.gov (United States)

Abella, Benjamin S

2016-06-01

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) represents the cornerstone of cardiac arrest resuscitation care. Prompt delivery of high-quality CPR can dramatically improve survival outcomes; however, the definitions of optimal CPR have evolved over several decades. The present review will discuss the metrics of CPR delivery, and the evidence supporting the importance of CPR quality to improve clinical outcomes. The introduction of new technologies to quantify metrics of CPR delivery has yielded important insights into CPR quality. Investigations using CPR recording devices have allowed the assessment of specific CPR performance parameters and their relative importance regarding return of spontaneous circulation and survival to hospital discharge. Additional work has suggested new opportunities to measure physiologic markers during CPR and potentially tailor CPR delivery to patient requirements. Through recent laboratory and clinical investigations, a more evidence-based definition of high-quality CPR continues to emerge. Exciting opportunities now exist to study quantitative metrics of CPR and potentially guide resuscitation care in a goal-directed fashion. Concepts of high-quality CPR have also informed new approaches to training and quality improvement efforts for cardiac arrest care.

Quality management manual for production of high quality cassava flour

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dziedzoave, Nanam Tay; Abass, Adebayo Busura; Amoa-Awua, Wisdom K.

The high quality cassava flour (HQCF) industry has just started to evolve in Africa and elsewhere. The sustainability of the growing industry, the profitability of small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) that are active in the industry and good-health of consumers can best be guaranteed through...... the adoption of proper quality and food safety procedures. Cassava processing enterprises involved in the productionof HQCF must therefore be commited to the quality and food safety of the HQCF. They must have the right technology, appropriate processing machhinery, standard testing instruments...... and the necessary technical expertise. This quality manual was therefore developed to guide small- to medium-scale cassava in the design and implematation of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system and Good manufacturing Practices (GMP) plans for HQCF production. It describes the HQCF production...

High day- and night-time temperatures affect grain growth dynamics in contrasting rice genotypes.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Wanju; Yin, Xinyou; Struik, Paul C; Solis, Celymar; Xie, Fangming; Schmidt, Ralf C; Huang, Min; Zou, Yingbin; Ye, Changrong; Jagadish, S V Krishna

2017-11-02

Rice grain yield and quality are predicted to be highly vulnerable to global warming. Five genotypes including heat-tolerant and susceptible checks, a heat-tolerant near-isogenic line and two hybrids were exposed to control (31 °C/23 °C, day/night), high night-time temperature (HNT; 31 °C/30 °C), high day-time temperature (HDT; 38 °C/23 °C) and high day- and night-time temperature (HNDT; 38 °C/30 °C) treatments for 20 consecutive days during the grain-filling stage. Grain-filling dynamics, starch metabolism enzymes, temporal starch accumulation patterns and the process of chalk formation were quantified. Compensation between the rate and duration of grain filling minimized the impact of HNT, but irreversible impacts on seed-set, grain filling and ultimately grain weight were recorded with HDT and HNDT. Scanning electron microscopy demonstrated irregular and smaller starch granule formation affecting amyloplast build-up with HDT and HNDT, while a quicker but normal amylopast build-up was recorded with HNT. Our findings revealed temporal variation in the starch metabolism enzymes in all three stress treatments. Changes in the enzymatic activity did not derail starch accumulation under HNT when assimilates were sufficiently available, while both sucrose supply and the conversion of sucrose into starch were affected by HDT and HNDT. The findings indicate differential mechanisms leading to high day and high night temperature stress-induced loss in yield and quality. Additional genetic improvement is needed to sustain rice productivity and quality under future climates. © Society for Experimental Biology 2017.

Macular Carotenoid Supplementation Improves Visual Performance, Sleep Quality, and Adverse Physical Symptoms in Those with High Screen Time Exposure.

Science.gov (United States)

Stringham, James M; Stringham, Nicole T; O'Brien, Kevin J

2017-06-29

The dramatic rise in the use of smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers over the past decade has raised concerns about potentially deleterious health effects of increased "screen time" (ST) and associated short-wavelength (blue) light exposure. We determined baseline associations and effects of 6 months' supplementation with the macular carotenoids (MC) lutein, zeaxanthin, and mesozeaxanthin on the blue-absorbing macular pigment (MP) and measures of sleep quality, visual performance, and physical indicators of excessive ST. Forty-eight healthy young adults with at least 6 h of daily near-field ST exposure participated in this placebo-controlled trial. Visual performance measures included contrast sensitivity, critical flicker fusion, disability glare, and photostress recovery. Physical indicators of excessive screen time and sleep quality were assessed via questionnaire. MP optical density (MPOD) was assessed via heterochromatic flicker photometry. At baseline, MPOD was correlated significantly with all visual performance measures ( p eye strain, eye fatigue, and all visual performance measures, versus placebo ( p < 0.05 for all). Increased MPOD significantly improves visual performance and, in turn, improves several undesirable physical outcomes associated with excessive ST. The improvement in sleep quality was not directly related to increases in MPOD, and may be due to systemic reduction in oxidative stress and inflammation.

A design for a high resolution very-low-Q time-of flight diffractometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hjelm, R. P.

1998-01-01

The design of a high resolution view low-Q time of flight diffractometer was motivated by the anticipated need to perform small-angle neutron scattering measurements at far lower momentum transfer and higher precision than currently available at either pulsed or steady state sources. In addition, it was recognized that flexibility in the configuration of the instrument and ease in which data is acquired are important. The design offers two configurations, a high intensity/very low Q geometry employing a focusing mirror and a medium to high Q-precision/low Q configuration using standard pinhole collimation geometry. The quality of the mirror optics is very important to the performance of the high intensity/very low Q configuration. We believe that the necessary technology exists to fabricate the high quality mirror optics required for the instrument

Dare to share? How people share high-quality knowledge in online communities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rotundo, Enrico; Blank, M.; Moser, C.; Leopold, H.

The Internet has fundamentally changed how work gets done in the 21st century. For example, people increasingly spend time on the Internet where they share and develop knowledge in online communities. Yet, little is known about how high-quality knowledge comes about in these communities. This is

Idea on patent ; It is high time to stress quality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2012-03-01

This book deals with patent stressing on the quality, which includes from idea to technical business, It's simple to register the computer program, why do patent lawyer appoint the patent attorney's office? construction of patent right range, a good patent and a bad patent, strong patent and weak patent. It doesn't allow for Dus to use as we like, each patent has different value, Let's write technical specifications, advice on talking for invention with a patent attorney's office and what kind of task do intellectual property division do?

High-quality bulk hybrid perovskite single crystals within minutes by inverse temperature crystallization

KAUST Repository

Saidaminov, Makhsud I.; Abdelhady, Ahmed L.; Banavoth, Murali; Alarousu, Erkki; Burlakov, Victor M.; Peng, Wei; Dursun, Ibrahim; Wang, Lingfei; He, Yao; Maculan, Giacomo; Goriely, Alain; Wu, Tao; Mohammed, Omar F.; Bakr, Osman

2015-01-01

Single crystals of methylammonium lead trihalide perovskites (MAPbX3; MA=CH3NH3+, X=Br− or I−) have shown remarkably low trap density and charge transport properties; however, growth of such high-quality semiconductors is a time-consuming process

Quality Assurance Strategy for Existing Homes: Final Quality Management Primer for High Performing Homes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Del Bianco, M.; Taggart, J.; Sikora, J.; Wood, A.

2012-12-01

This guide is designed to help Building America (BA) Teams understand quality management and its role in transitioning from conventional to high performance home building and remodeling. It explains what quality means, the value of quality management systems, the unique need for QMS when building high performing homes, and the first steps to a implementing a comprehensive QMS. This document provides a framework and context for BA teams when they encounter builders and remodelers.

Quality Assurance Strategy for Existing Homes. Final Quality Management Primer for High Performing Homes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Del Bianco, M. [NAHB Research Center Industry Partnership, Upper Marlboro, MD (United States); Taggart, J. [NAHB Research Center Industry Partnership, Upper Marlboro, MD (United States); Sikora, J. [NAHB Research Center Industry Partnership, Upper Marlboro, MD (United States); Wood, A. [NAHB Research Center Industry Partnership, Upper Marlboro, MD (United States)

2012-12-01

This guide is designed to help Building America (BA) teams understand quality management and its role in transitioning from conventional to high performance home building and remodeling. It explains what quality means, the value of quality management systems, the unique need for QMS when building high performing homes, and the first steps to a implementing a comprehensive QMS. This document provides a framework and context for BA teams when they encounter builders and remodelers.

Importance of interactions between food quality, quantity, and gut transit time on consumer feeding, growth, and trophic dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Mitra, Aditee; Flynn, Kevin J

2007-05-01

Ingestion kinetics of animals are controlled by both external food availability and feedback from the quantity of material already within the gut. The latter varies with gut transit time (GTT) and digestion of the food. Ingestion, assimilation efficiency, and thus, growth dynamics are not related in a simple fashion. For the first time, the important linkage between these processes and GTT is demonstrated; this is achieved using a biomass-based, mechanistic multinutrient model fitted to experimental data for zooplankton growth dynamics when presented with food items of varying quality (stoichiometric composition) or quantity. The results show that trophic transfer dynamics will vary greatly between the extremes of feeding on low-quantity/high-quality versus high-quantity/low-quality food; these conditions are likely to occur in nature. Descriptions of consumer behavior that assume a constant relationship between the kinetics of grazing and growth irrespective of food quality and/or quantity, with little or no recognition of the combined importance of these factors on consumer behavior, may seriously misrepresent consumer activity in dynamic situations.

A high-resolution mini-microscope system for wireless real-time monitoring.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zongjie; Boddeda, Akash; Parker, Benjamin; Samanipour, Roya; Ghosh, Sanjoy; Menard, Frederic; Kim, Keekyoung

2017-09-04

Compact, cost-effective and high-performance microscope that enables the real-time imaging of cells and lab-on-a-chip devices is highly demanded for cell biology and biomedical engineering. This paper aims to present the design and application of an inexpensive wireless mini-microscope with resolution up to 2592 × 1944 pixels and speed up to 90 fps. The mini-microscope system was built on a commercial embedded system (Raspberry Pi). We modified a camera module and adopted an inverse dual lens system to obtain the clear field of view and appropriate magnification for tens of micrometer objects. The system was capable of capturing time-lapse images and transferring image data wirelessly. The entire system can be operated wirelessly and cordlessly in a conventional cell culturing incubator. The developed mini-microscope was used to monitor the attachment and proliferation of NIH-3T3 and HEK 293 cells inside an incubator for 50 hours. In addition, the mini-microscope was used to monitor a droplet generation process in a microfluidic device. The high-quality images captured by the mini-microscope enabled us an automated analysis of experimental parameters. The successful applications prove the great potential of the developed mini-microscope for monitoring various biological samples and microfluidic devices. This paper presents the design of a high resolution mini-microscope system that enables the wireless real-time imaging of cells inside the incubator. This system has been verified to be a useful tool to obtain high-quality images and videos for the automated quantitative analysis of biological samples and lab-on-a-chip devices in the long term.

Explore the advantage of High-frequency Water Quality Data in Urban Surface Water: A Case Study in Bristol, UK

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Y.; Han, D.

2017-12-01

Water system is an essential component in a smart city for its sustainability and resilience. The freshness and beauty of the water body would please people as well as benefit the local aquatic ecosystems. Water quality monitoring approach has evolved from the manual lab-based monitoring approach to the manual in-situ monitoring approach, and finally to the latest wireless-sensor-network (WSN) based solutions in recent decades. The development of the in-situ water quality sensors enable humans to collect high-frequency and real-time water quality data. This poster aims to explore the advantages of the high-frequency water quality data over the low-frequency data collected manually. The data is collected by a remote real-time high-frequency water quality monitor system based on the cutting edge smart city infrastructure in Bristol - `Bristol Is Open'. The water quality of Bristol Floating Harbour is monitored which is the focal area of Bristol with new buildings and features redeveloped in the past decades. This poster will first briefly introduce the water quality monitoring system, followed by the analysis of the advantages of the sub-hourly water quality data. Thus, the suggestion on the monitoring frequency will be given.

Dissociating neural variability related to stimulus quality and response times in perceptual decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Bode, Stefan; Bennett, Daniel; Sewell, David K; Paton, Bryan; Egan, Gary F; Smith, Philip L; Murawski, Carsten

2018-03-01

According to sequential sampling models, perceptual decision-making is based on accumulation of noisy evidence towards a decision threshold. The speed with which a decision is reached is determined by both the quality of incoming sensory information and random trial-by-trial variability in the encoded stimulus representations. To investigate those decision dynamics at the neural level, participants made perceptual decisions while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was conducted. On each trial, participants judged whether an image presented under conditions of high, medium, or low visual noise showed a piano or a chair. Higher stimulus quality (lower visual noise) was associated with increased activation in bilateral medial occipito-temporal cortex and ventral striatum. Lower stimulus quality was related to stronger activation in posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). When stimulus quality was fixed, faster response times were associated with a positive parametric modulation of activation in medial prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex, while slower response times were again related to more activation in PPC, DLPFC and insula. Our results suggest that distinct neural networks were sensitive to the quality of stimulus information, and to trial-to-trial variability in the encoded stimulus representations, but that reaching a decision was a consequence of their joint activity. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Preparation of high-quality iodine-125-labeled pituitary luteinizing hormone for radioimmunoassay

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinto, H.; Wajchenberg, B.L.; Higa, O.Z.; Toledo e Souza, I.T. de; Werner, R.S.; Pieroni, R.R.

1974-01-01

High quality pituitary luteinizing hormone labeled with 125 I was obtained after separating out the more heavily iodinated fractions, through starch gel electrophoresis, using the cathodal component (fraction 1) which was further purified on Sephadex G-100, with the obtention of an almost pure 125 I-LH preparation, presenting excellent immunoreactivity and low levels of damage on incubation in plasma. The quality control of the steps of the technique was done with plasma-coated talc (200 mg) which compared favorably, as far indicating undamaged labeled LH, with the more time-consuming chromatoelectrophoresis

Interrupted Time Series Versus Statistical Process Control in Quality Improvement Projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Andersson Hagiwara, Magnus; Andersson Gäre, Boel; Elg, Mattias

2016-01-01

To measure the effect of quality improvement interventions, it is appropriate to use analysis methods that measure data over time. Examples of such methods include statistical process control analysis and interrupted time series with segmented regression analysis. This article compares the use of statistical process control analysis and interrupted time series with segmented regression analysis for evaluating the longitudinal effects of quality improvement interventions, using an example study on an evaluation of a computerized decision support system.

High School Start Times and the Impact on High School Students: What We Know, and What We Hope to Learn

Science.gov (United States)

Morgenthaler, Timothy I.; Hashmi, Sarah; Croft, Janet B.; Dort, Leslie; Heald, Jonathan L.; Mullington, Janet

2016-01-01

Study Objectives: Several organizations have provided recommendations to ensure high school starts no sooner than 08:30. However, although there are plausible biological reasons to support such recommendations, published recommendations have been based largely on expert opinion and a few observational studies. We sought to perform a critical review of published evidence regarding the effect of high school start times on sleep and other relevant outcomes. Methods: We performed a broad literature search to identify 287 candidate publications for inclusion in our review, which focused on studies offering direct comparison of sleep time, academic or physical performance, behavioral health measures, or motor vehicular accidents in high school students. Where possible, outcomes were combined for meta-analysis. Results: After application of study criteria, only 18 studies were suitable for review. Eight studies were amenable to meta-analysis for some outcomes. We found that later school start times, particularly when compared with start times more than 60 min earlier, are associated with longer weekday sleep durations, lower weekday-weekend sleep duration differences, reduced vehicular accident rates, and reduced subjective daytime sleepiness. Improvement in academic performance and behavioral issues is less established. Conclusions: The literature regarding effect of school start time delays on important aspects of high school life suggests some salutary effects, but often the evidence is indirect, imprecise, or derived from cohorts of convenience, making the overall quality of evidence weak or very weak. This review highlights a need for higher-quality data upon which to base important and complex public health decisions. Citation: Morgenthaler TI, Hashmi S, Croft JB, Dort L, Heald JL, Mullington J. High school start times and the impact on high school students: what we know, and what we hope to learn. J Clin Sleep Med 2016;12(12):1681–1689. PMID:27855730

Quality of Just-in-Time Requirements : Just-Enough and Just-in-Time

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heck, P.M.

2016-01-01

The goal of this thesis was to obtain a deeper understanding of the notion of quality for Just-in-Time (JIT) Requirements. JIT requirements are the opposite of up-front requirements. JIT requirements are not analyzed or defined until they are needed meaning that development is allowed to begin with

Inequality in Preschool Quality? Community-Level Disparities in Access to High-Quality Learning Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Bassok, Daphna; Galdo, Eva

2016-01-01

In recent years, unequal access to high-quality preschool has emerged as a growing public policy concern. Because of data limitations, it is notoriously difficult to measure disparities in access to early learning opportunities across communities and particularly challenging to quantify gaps in access to "high-quality" programs. Research…

Integrated Pathology Informatics Enables High-Quality Personalized and Precision Medicine: Digital Pathology and Beyond.

Science.gov (United States)

Volynskaya, Zoya; Chow, Hung; Evans, Andrew; Wolff, Alan; Lagmay-Traya, Cecilia; Asa, Sylvia L

2018-03-01

- The critical role of pathology in diagnosis, prognosis, and prediction demands high-quality subspecialty diagnostics that integrates information from multiple laboratories. - To identify key requirements and to establish a systematic approach to providing high-quality pathology in a health care system that is responsible for services across a large geographic area. - This report focuses on the development of a multisite pathology informatics platform to support high-quality surgical pathology and hematopathology using a sophisticated laboratory information system and whole slide imaging for histology and immunohistochemistry, integrated with ancillary tools, including electron microscopy, flow cytometry, cytogenetics, and molecular diagnostics. - These tools enable patients in numerous geographic locations access to a model of subspecialty pathology that allows reporting of every specimen by the right pathologist at the right time. The use of whole slide imaging for multidisciplinary case conferences enables better communication among members of patient care teams. The system encourages data collection using a discrete data synoptic reporting module, has implemented documentation of quality assurance activities, and allows workload measurement, providing examples of additional benefits that can be gained by this electronic approach to pathology. - This approach builds the foundation for accurate big data collection and high-quality personalized and precision medicine.

Life quality time allocation index-an equilibrium economy consistent version of the current life quality index

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ditlevsen, Ove; Friis-Hansen, Peter

2005-01-01

The definition the Life Quality Index for a country as originally suggested by Nathwani, Lind and Pandey is based on the gross domestic product (GDP), the expected life in good health at birth, and the fraction of life time the anonymous citizen of the country is occupied with money making work...... a further development casting the definition into dimensionless quantities that make the index get a pure unit of time and not the somewhat obscure unit as a power product of a money unit and a time unit. To avoid confusion, this new variant of the LQI is called the Life Quality Time Allocation Index (LQTAI...... of the variables themselves, the relative increment of the LQI becomes defined as a convex combination of the two relative increments. The combination parameter is obtained by an optimality argument about the anonymous citizen’s distribution of his or her time between free time and work time. In the original...

Low-quality birds do not display high-quality signals: The cysteine-pheomelanin mechanism of honesty

Science.gov (United States)

Galván, Ismael; Wakamatsu, Kazumasa; Camarero, Pablo R; Mateo, Rafael; Alonso-Alvarez, Carlos

2015-01-01

The mechanisms that make that the costs of producing high-quality signals are unaffordable to low-quality signalers are a current issue in animal communication. The size of the melanin-based bib of male house sparrows Passer domesticus honestly signals quality. We induced the development of new bibs while treating males with buthionine-sulfoximine (BSO), a substance that depletes the levels of the antioxidant glutathione (GSH) and the amino acid cysteine, two elements that switch melanogenesis from eumelanin to pheomelanin. Final bib size is negatively related to pheomelanin levels in the bib feathers. BSO reduced cysteine and GSH levels in all birds, but improved phenotypes (bibs larger than controls) were only expressed by high-quality birds (BSO birds with largest bibs initially). Negative associations between final bib size and cysteine levels in erythrocytes, and between pheomelanin and cysteine levels, were observed in high-quality birds only. These findings suggest that a mechanism uncoupling pheomelanin and cysteine levels may have evolved in low-quality birds to avoid producing bibs of size not corresponding to their quality and greater relative costs. Indeed, greater oxidative stress in cells was not observed in low-quality birds. This may represent the first mechanism maintaining signal honesty without producing greater relative costs on low-quality signalers. PMID:25330349

Quality control of 192Ir high dose rate after loading brachytherapy dose veracity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feng Zhongsu; Xu Xiao; Liu Fen

2008-01-01

Recently, 192 Ir high dose rate (HDR) afterloading are widely used in brachytherapy. The advantage of using HDR systems over low dose rate systems are shorter treatment time and higher fraction dose. To guarantee the veracity of the delivery dose, several quality control methods are deseribed in this work. With these we can improve the position precision, time precision and dose precision of the brachytherapy. (authors)

Influence of harvest time on the composition and quality of Rosinjola cultivar virgin olive oils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olivera Koprivnjak

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this investigation was to determine the influence of Rosinjola cultivar fruits harvest time on oil content in olive pastes and on composition and quality of obtained oils. In the late harvest time the higher value of oil in the dry matter of olive paste was determined than in the early harvest time, but the late harvest negatively affected oil quality parameters. The proportion of oleic acid decreased slightly in the late harvest time and linoleic acid increased. The ratio of oleic/linoleic acid, total phenols and ortho-diphenols, as well as bitterness index and antioxidant capacity decreased in the oil obtained from black fruit. Late harvest time influenced the decrease in chlorophyll and carotenoid content and color parameter values (a*, b* and C in obtained oils, but lightness (L* increased. The concentration of volatiles responsible for positive odour of Rosinjola oils decreased, except for aldehydes which increased slightly. Sensory score of oil obtained from the late harvest time decreased, as well as intensities of sensory characteristics olive fruity, apple, green grass, bitter and pungent, while the intensities of characteristics sweet and ripe fruits increased. Oils obtained in the early harvest time were described as harmonious and astringent with pronounced green odour notes, and oils obtained in the late harvest time as overripe and without freshness. The obtained results are important for optimal harvest time determination and understanding the potential of Rosinjola cultivar for production of high quality virgin olive oil with targeted and specific characteristics.

High Quality Data for Grid Integration Studies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Clifton, Andrew; Draxl, Caroline; Sengupta, Manajit; Hodge, Bri-Mathias

2017-01-22

As variable renewable power penetration levels increase in power systems worldwide, renewable integration studies are crucial to ensure continued economic and reliable operation of the power grid. The existing electric grid infrastructure in the US in particular poses significant limitations on wind power expansion. In this presentation we will shed light on requirements for grid integration studies as far as wind and solar energy are concerned. Because wind and solar plants are strongly impacted by weather, high-resolution and high-quality weather data are required to drive power system simulations. Future data sets will have to push limits of numerical weather prediction to yield these high-resolution data sets, and wind data will have to be time-synchronized with solar data. Current wind and solar integration data sets are presented. The Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit is the largest and most complete grid integration data set publicly available to date. A meteorological data set, wind power production time series, and simulated forecasts created using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model run on a 2-km grid over the continental United States at a 5-min resolution is now publicly available for more than 126,000 land-based and offshore wind power production sites. The National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) is a similar high temporal- and spatial resolution database of 18 years of solar resource data for North America and India. The need for high-resolution weather data pushes modeling towards finer scales and closer synchronization. We also present how we anticipate such datasets developing in the future, their benefits, and the challenges with using and disseminating such large amounts of data.

Effect of osmotic dehydration and vacuum-frying parameters to produce high-quality mango chips.

Science.gov (United States)

Nunes, Yolanda; Moreira, Rosana G

2009-09-01

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is a fruit rich in flavor and nutritional values, which is an excellent candidate for producing chips. The objective of this study was to develop high-quality mango chips using vacuum frying. Mango ("Tommy Atkins") slices were pretreated with different maltodextrin concentrations (40, 50, and 65, w/v), osmotic dehydration times (45, 60, and 70 min), and solution temperatures (22 and 40 degrees C). Pretreated slices were vacuum fried at 120, 130, and 138 degrees C and product quality attributes (oil content, texture, color, carotenoid content) determined. The effect of frying temperatures at optimum osmotic dehydration times (65 [w/v] at 40 degrees C) was assessed. All samples were acceptable (scores > 5) to consumer panelists. The best mango chips were those pretreated with 65 (w/v) concentration for 60 min and vacuum fried at 120 degrees C. Mango chips under atmospheric frying had less carotenoid retention (32%) than those under vacuum frying (up to 65%). These results may help further optimize vacuum-frying processing of high-quality fruit-based snacks.

Emblems of Quality in Higher Education. Developing and Sustaining High-Quality Programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Haworth, Jennifer Grant; Conrad, Clifton F.

This book proposes an "engagement" theory of program quality to evaluate and improve higher education programs at all degree levels. Based on interviews with 781 participants in a national study of Masters degree programs, it focuses on the interactive roles of students, faculty, and administrators in developing high-quality programs…

A Narrative Review of High-Quality Literature on the Effects of Resident Duty Hours Reforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Henry; Lin, Emery; Auditore, Stephanie; Fanning, Jon

2016-01-01

To summarize current high-quality studies evaluating the effect and efficacy of resident duty hours reforms (DHRs) on patient safety and resident education and well-being. The authors searched PubMed and Medline in August 2012 and again in May 2013 for literature (1987-2013) about the effects of DHRs. They assessed the quality of articles using the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI) scoring system. They considered randomized controlled trials (RCTs), partial RCTs, and all studies with a MERSQI score ≥ 14 to be "high-quality" methodology studies. A total of 72 high-quality studies met inclusion criteria. Most studies showed no change or slight improvement in mortality and complication rates after DHRs. Resident well-being was generally improved, but there was a perceived negative impact on education (knowledge acquisition, skills, and cognitive performance) following DHRs. Eleven high-quality studies assessed the impact of DHR interventions; all reported a neutral to positive impact. Seven high-quality studies assessed costs associated with DHRs and demonstrated an increase in hospital costs. The results of most studies that allow enough time for DHR interventions to take effect suggest a benefit to patient safety and resident well-being, but the effect on the quality of training remains unknown. Additional methodologically sound studies on the impact of DHRs are necessary. Priorities for future research include approaches to optimizing education and clinical proficiency and studies on the effect of intervention strategies on both education and patient safety. Such studies will provide additional information to help improve duty hours policies.

Effect of polishing time and pressure on quality characteristics of rice grain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karim, M.A.

2002-01-01

Since totally unpolished rice has poor cooking quality, a certain amount of polishing for the removal of the outermost bran layers is essential. To determine the best combination of polishing time and pressure with respect to obtaining optimum quantity/quality, the brown rice (head grains) of a rice strain 4048 was milled for 10, 20, 30 and 40 seconds against 1,2,3,4 and 5 lbs pressure in a Burrows McGill Polisher No. 3. the quality characteristics studied were: total milling recovery, head rice recovery, whiteness of milled rice, protein content of grain, grain length and bursting upon cooking. Both, total milled rice and head rice reduced while the whiteness of milled rice improved significantly with an increase in polishing time and or pressure. The protein content decreased gradually with an increase in time and pressure of milling but the effect was non significant. The cooked grain length increased with an increase in milling degree up to a stage, beyond which it declined. The increase in bursting of grains on cooking. A combination of 20 seconds polishing time with 2 lbs pressure or 20 seconds polishing time with 3 lbs pressure was found to be the best combination of obtaining the optimum quality as well as the quality of milled rice.(author)

Quality and efficiency in high dimensional Nearest neighbor search

KAUST Repository

Tao, Yufei; Yi, Ke; Sheng, Cheng; Kalnis, Panos

2009-01-01

Nearest neighbor (NN) search in high dimensional space is an important problem in many applications. Ideally, a practical solution (i) should be implementable in a relational database, and (ii) its query cost should grow sub-linearly with the dataset size, regardless of the data and query distributions. Despite the bulk of NN literature, no solution fulfills both requirements, except locality sensitive hashing (LSH). The existing LSH implementations are either rigorous or adhoc. Rigorous-LSH ensures good quality of query results, but requires expensive space and query cost. Although adhoc-LSH is more efficient, it abandons quality control, i.e., the neighbor it outputs can be arbitrarily bad. As a result, currently no method is able to ensure both quality and efficiency simultaneously in practice. Motivated by this, we propose a new access method called the locality sensitive B-tree (LSB-tree) that enables fast highdimensional NN search with excellent quality. The combination of several LSB-trees leads to a structure called the LSB-forest that ensures the same result quality as rigorous-LSH, but reduces its space and query cost dramatically. The LSB-forest also outperforms adhoc-LSH, even though the latter has no quality guarantee. Besides its appealing theoretical properties, the LSB-tree itself also serves as an effective index that consumes linear space, and supports efficient updates. Our extensive experiments confirm that the LSB-tree is faster than (i) the state of the art of exact NN search by two orders of magnitude, and (ii) the best (linear-space) method of approximate retrieval by an order of magnitude, and at the same time, returns neighbors with much better quality. © 2009 ACM.

A novel water quality data analysis framework based on time-series data mining.

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Weihui; Wang, Guoyin

2017-07-01

The rapid development of time-series data mining provides an emerging method for water resource management research. In this paper, based on the time-series data mining methodology, we propose a novel and general analysis framework for water quality time-series data. It consists of two parts: implementation components and common tasks of time-series data mining in water quality data. In the first part, we propose to granulate the time series into several two-dimensional normal clouds and calculate the similarities in the granulated level. On the basis of the similarity matrix, the similarity search, anomaly detection, and pattern discovery tasks in the water quality time-series instance dataset can be easily implemented in the second part. We present a case study of this analysis framework on weekly Dissolve Oxygen time-series data collected from five monitoring stations on the upper reaches of Yangtze River, China. It discovered the relationship of water quality in the mainstream and tributary as well as the main changing patterns of DO. The experimental results show that the proposed analysis framework is a feasible and efficient method to mine the hidden and valuable knowledge from water quality historical time-series data. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

High quality antireflective ZnS thin films prepared by chemical bath deposition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tec-Yam, S.; Rojas, J.; Rejón, V.; Oliva, A.I.

2012-01-01

Zinc sulfide (ZnS) thin films for antireflective applications were deposited on glass substrates by chemical bath deposition (CBD). Chemical analysis of the soluble species permits to predict the optimal pH conditions to obtain high quality ZnS films. For the CBD, the ZnCl 2 , NH 4 NO 3 , and CS(NH 2 ) 2 were fixed components, whereas the KOH concentration was varied from 0.8 to 1.4 M. Groups of samples with deposition times from 60 to 120 min were prepared in a bath with magnetic agitation and heated at 90 °C. ZnS films obtained from optimal KOH concentrations of 0.9 M and 1.0 M exhibited high transparency, homogeneity, adherence, and crystalline. The ZnS films presented a band gap energy of 3.84 eV, an atomic Zn:S stoichiometry ratio of 49:51, a transmittance above 85% in the 300–800 nm wavelength range, and a reflectance below 25% in the UV–Vis range. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed a cubic structure in the (111) orientation for the films. The thickness of the films was tuned between 60 nm and 135 nm by controlling the deposition time and KOH concentration. The incorporation of the CBD-ZnS films into ITO/ZnS/CdS/CdTe and glass/Mo/ZnS heterostructures as antireflective layer confirms their high optical quality. -- Highlights: ► High quality ZnS thin films were prepared by chemical bath deposition (CBD). ► Better CBD-ZnS films were achieved by using 0.9 M-KOH concentration. ► Reduction in the reflectance was obtained for ZnS films used as buffer layers.

Dealing with Variations over Space and Time in Urban Vegetation-Air Quality Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, P. Y.

2017-12-01

Studies on role of urban vegetation ameliorate poor air quality frequently encountered in urban areas should aim to answer a pertinent question: what is the net impact of urban vegetation in improving public health directly or indirectly through removal of air pollutants? Answers to this question need to consider that role of urban vegetation in air quality improvement is not just dependent on physical and physiological processes mediated by plants, it is also highly dependent on atmospheric processes. The roles of these two components thus need to be separated. This uncertainty is further complicated by heterogeneity of air quality over spatial scales and fluctuations in air quality over time. Singapore is used to illustrate these complexities. Between seasons, the main external source of atmospheric pollutants is aerosols from biomass burning in plantations in surrounding SE Asian countries, and air quality is highly dependent on wind directions dictated by monsoon systems. When air quality does deteriorate from transboundary pollution, there are also spatial differences within the city, as air pollutant levels differ in different regions. Rainfall from monsoons and other rain-bearing weather systems over Singapore also dictate the relative amounts of wet and dry deposition and the persistence of particulate matter deposited on vegetation surfaces. For locally generated air pollutants, diurnal fluctuations of anthropogenic activities, such as vehicular emissions between peak and non-peak hours, should also lead to fluctuations over the day. Not only does air quality vary from region to region, air quality within a vertical transect in the urban canopy layer also differs due to urban morphology and urban elements. A pedestrian along a treed street may experience poorer air quality than one living on highrise building, despite proximity to vegetation. There are thus interactions between climate, weather and urban context, which lead to spatial heterogeneity over

Anti-Stokes Luminescence in High Quality Quantum Wells

Science.gov (United States)

Vinattieri, A.; Bogani, F.; Miotto, A.; Ceccherini, S.

1997-11-01

We present a detailed investigation of the anti-Stokes (AS) luminescence which originates from exciton recombination when below gap excitation is used, in a set of high quality quantum well structures. We observe strong excitonic resonances in the AS signal as measured from photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation spectra. We demonstrate that neither the electromagnetic coupling between the wells nor the morphological disorder can explain this up-conversion effect. Time-resolved luminescence data after ps excitation and fs correlation spectroscopy results provide clear evidence of the occurrence of a two-step absorption which is assisted by the exciton population resonantly excited by the first photon.

Long quantum channels for high-quality entanglement transfer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Banchi, L; Apollaro, T J G; Cuccoli, A; Verrucchi, P; Vaia, R

2011-01-01

High-quality quantum-state and entanglement transfer can be achieved in an unmodulated spin bus operating in the ballistic regime, which occurs when the endpoint qubits A and B are nonperturbatively coupled to the chain by a suitable exchange interaction j 0 . Indeed, the transition amplitude characterizing the transfer quality exhibits a maximum for a finite optimal value j opt 0 (N), where N is the channel length. We show that j opt 0 (N) scales as N -1/6 for large N and that it ensures a high-quality entanglement transfer even in the limit of arbitrarily long channels, almost independently of the channel initialization. For instance, for any chain length the average quantum-state transmission fidelity exceeds 90% and decreases very little in a broad neighbourhood of j opt 0 (N). We emphasize that, taking the reverse point of view, should j 0 be experimentally constrained, high-quality transfer can still be obtained by adjusting the channel length to its optimal value. (paper)

Statistical quality analysis of schedulers under soft-real-time constraints

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Baarsma, H.E.; Hurink, Johann L.; Jansen, P.G.

2007-01-01

This paper describes an algorithm to determine the performance of real-time systems with tasks using stochastic processing times. Such an algorithm can be used for guaranteeing Quality of Service of periodic tasks with soft real-time constraints. We use a discrete distribution model of processing

High School Start Times and the Impact on High School Students: What We Know, and What We Hope to Learn.

Science.gov (United States)

Morgenthaler, Timothy I; Hashmi, Sarah; Croft, Janet B; Dort, Leslie; Heald, Jonathan L; Mullington, Janet

2016-12-15

Several organizations have provided recommendations to ensure high school starts no sooner than 08:30. However, although there are plausible biological reasons to support such recommendations, published recommendations have been based largely on expert opinion and a few observational studies. We sought to perform a critical review of published evidence regarding the effect of high school start times on sleep and other relevant outcomes. We performed a broad literature search to identify 287 candidate publications for inclusion in our review, which focused on studies offering direct comparison of sleep time, academic or physical performance, behavioral health measures, or motor vehicular accidents in high school students. Where possible, outcomes were combined for meta-analysis. After application of study criteria, only 18 studies were suitable for review. Eight studies were amenable to meta-analysis for some outcomes. We found that later school start times, particularly when compared with start times more than 60 min earlier, are associated with longer weekday sleep durations, lower weekday-weekend sleep duration differences, reduced vehicular accident rates, and reduced subjective daytime sleepiness. Improvement in academic performance and behavioral issues is less established. The literature regarding effect of school start time delays on important aspects of high school life suggests some salutary effects, but often the evidence is indirect, imprecise, or derived from cohorts of convenience, making the overall quality of evidence weak or very weak. This review highlights a need for higher-quality data upon which to base important and complex public health decisions. © 2016 American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Cassava chips quality as influenced by cultivar, blanching time and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Currently, fried cassava chips and crisps are increasingly being consumed as snacks; and fried cassava chips are produced by street processors. The quality and safety of these products is not known, therefore, the current study was to establish the influence of cassava cultivar, blanching time and slice thickness on quality ...

Identifying suitable substrates for high-quality graphene-based heterostructures

Science.gov (United States)

Banszerus, L.; Janssen, H.; Otto, M.; Epping, A.; Taniguchi, T.; Watanabe, K.; Beschoten, B.; Neumaier, D.; Stampfer, C.

2017-06-01

We report on a scanning confocal Raman spectroscopy study investigating the strain-uniformity and the overall strain and doping of high-quality chemical vapour deposited (CVD) graphene-based heterostuctures on a large number of different substrate materials, including hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), transition metal dichalcogenides, silicon, different oxides and nitrides, as well as polymers. By applying a hBN-assisted, contamination free, dry transfer process for CVD graphene, high-quality heterostructures with low doping densities and low strain variations are assembled. The Raman spectra of these pristine heterostructures are sensitive to substrate-induced doping and strain variations and are thus used to probe the suitability of the substrate material for potential high-quality graphene devices. We find that the flatness of the substrate material is a key figure for gaining, or preserving high-quality graphene.

Time perception and psychopathology: Influence of time perspective on quality of life of severe mental illness.

Science.gov (United States)

Oyanadel, Cristián; Buela-Casal, Gualberto

2014-01-01

The study of time perception and mental illness has given priority to time estimation over time perspective. Considering Zimbardo’s theory on five dimensions of time perspective, and balanced time perspective profile, this study has aimed to compare people with severe mental illness (SMI) and healthy people, with measurements of time perspective and time estimation and to assess whether the time perspective profile influences the quality of life in people with SMI. Using a quasi-experimental design, a clinical group (n=167) corresponding to four samples of severe mental disorders (major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and personality disorders) and healthy people (n=167) were compared in their performance regarding time perspective and time estimation. After, the clinical sample was grouped according to their deviation from the balanced time perspective profile (DBTP) and negative profile (DNTP). These groups were evaluated with health measures and time estimation tasks. Through the ANOVA, it can be seen that the time perspective profile affects health measurements. There are significant differences between the clinical sample and controls regarding time perspective and time estimation. Within the group of patients, it was observed that those who were closer to the BTP profile had better physical health, and less hopelessness (ptime perspective in the assessment, treatment and quality of life of people with SMI.

High frequency, high time resolution time-to-digital converter employing passive resonating circuits.

Science.gov (United States)

Ripamonti, Giancarlo; Abba, Andrea; Geraci, Angelo

2010-05-01

A method for measuring time intervals accurate to the picosecond range is based on phase measurements of oscillating waveforms synchronous with their beginning and/or end. The oscillation is generated by triggering an LC resonant circuit, whose capacitance is precharged. By using high Q resonators and a final active quenching of the oscillation, it is possible to conjugate high time resolution and a small measurement time, which allows a high measurement rate. Methods for fast analysis of the data are considered and discussed with reference to computing resource requirements, speed, and accuracy. Experimental tests show the feasibility of the method and a time accuracy better than 4 ps rms. Methods aimed at further reducing hardware resources are finally discussed.

High frequency, high time resolution time-to-digital converter employing passive resonating circuits

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ripamonti, Giancarlo; Abba, Andrea; Geraci, Angelo

2010-01-01

A method for measuring time intervals accurate to the picosecond range is based on phase measurements of oscillating waveforms synchronous with their beginning and/or end. The oscillation is generated by triggering an LC resonant circuit, whose capacitance is precharged. By using high Q resonators and a final active quenching of the oscillation, it is possible to conjugate high time resolution and a small measurement time, which allows a high measurement rate. Methods for fast analysis of the data are considered and discussed with reference to computing resource requirements, speed, and accuracy. Experimental tests show the feasibility of the method and a time accuracy better than 4 ps rms. Methods aimed at further reducing hardware resources are finally discussed.

High day- and night-time temperatures affect grain growth dynamics in contrasting rice genotypes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shi, Wanju; Yin, Xinyou; Struik, Paul C.; Solis, Celymar; Xie, Fangming; Schmidt, Ralf C.; Huang, Min; Zou, Yingbin; Ye, Changrong; Jagadish, S.V.K.

2017-01-01

Rice grain yield and quality are predicted to be highly vulnerable to global warming. Five genotypes including heat-tolerant and susceptible checks, a heat-tolerant near-isogenic line and two hybrids were exposed to control (31 °C/23 °C, day/night), high night-time temperature (HNT; 31 °C/30 °C),

Work satisfaction, quality of life, and leisure time of neonatology fellows and senior neonatologists in Israel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moshe Michael

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Objectives To examine work satisfaction, quality of life, and leisure time of neonatology fellows and senior neonatologists in Israel. Methods A validated questionnaire was delivered during the second half of 2008 to all the neonatology fellows and senior neonatologists in Israel. Descriptive analysis, parametric Student’s t-test, and aparametric Mann Whitney and χ2 tests were conducted. Results Of 114 practicing neonatologists in that period in Israel (including both seniors and fellows, 112 (98.25% participated in the study. The majority of neonatologists were male (53.2%, married (91.7%, 40–60 years old (69.7%, and studied in Israeli medical schools (62.0%. Most did their pediatric residencies and fellowships in Israel (97.2% and 75.7%, respectively. The average number of night/on-call shifts of fellows and senior neonatologists was 8.8 per month (SD ± 3.425 and the number of active on-call shifts was 4.04 (SD ± 3.194. The satisfaction level of neonatologists in Israeli medical centers with patient care, self-reward, work relations, and quality of life was high, but their satisfaction level with workload, income and prestige, and leisure time was low. The general index of work satisfaction and the general index of indices were both high in relation to the mid-range values. The majority of neonatologists stated that they would choose to practice medicine again. Most of them would encourage medical students to choose the same specialty they had chosen. Only a few neonatologists were contemplating changing their choice of specialty. Most neonatologists want to continue practicing medicine; however, a significant number will not recommend that their children do so. Conclusions The satisfaction level of neonatologists in Israel is high, mainly due to satisfaction with their work. High satisfaction levels promise high quality patient care, as well as high satisfaction levels of patients and their families. However

Effects of shading time on quality of matcha and matcha cake

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

LI Hui

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Effects of shading time on the quality of Matcha and the Matcha cake.It showed that shading could help the systhesis of nitrogen compounds such as amino acids,caffeine chlorophyll and protein,but couldn′t favor accumulation of tea polyphenol and polysaccharides.The more shading time was,the more chlorophyll content would be,and the more green of Matcha color would be.After Matcha cake was baked,the green color reduced.The colors of Macha cake are greener with longer shading time.Thus,the length of Shading time has obvious effect on the green tea and the tea cake quality,We can adjust the Matcha cake taste,flavor and color by adding Matcha from different shading time.

Aircraft model prototypes which have specified handling-quality time histories

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, S. H.

1978-01-01

Several techniques for obtaining linear constant-coefficient airplane models from specified handling-quality time histories are discussed. The pseudodata method solves the basic problem, yields specified eigenvalues, and accommodates state-variable transfer-function zero suppression. The algebraic equations to be solved are bilinear, at worst. The disadvantages are reduced generality and no assurance that the resulting model will be airplane like in detail. The method is fully illustrated for a fourth-order stability-axis small motion model with three lateral handling quality time histories specified. The FORTRAN program which obtains and verifies the model is included and fully documented.

Effects of Variety and Fermentation Time on the Quality of Rice Wine ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A study was conducted to investigate the effect of variety and fermentation time on rice wine quality. Two rice varieties, X- Jigna and Gomera, and three fermentation times, 5, 6 and 7 days were used to study the physicochemical and sensory qualities of wine. Significant difference was observed at P<0.05 among the rice ...

Development of a biotechnological process for the production of high quality linen fibers.

Science.gov (United States)

Valladares Juárez, Ana Gabriela; Rost, Gernot; Heitmann, Uwe; Heger, Egon; Müller, Rudolf

2011-10-01

A novel biotechnological process for the production of high-quality flax fibers was developed. In this process, decorticated fibers from green flax were washed with 0.5% soda solution and treated with the pectinolytic strain Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius PB94A. Before drying the fibers, they were treated with the textile softener Adulcinol BUN. If the fibers contained contaminant shives, a bleaching step with hydrogen peroxide was performed before the softener treatment. In experiments where fibers were treated by the new process, and in which the bacterial solutions were reused seven times, the fiber quality was similar in all batches. The resolution of the treated fibers was 2.7 ± 0.4 and the fineness was 11.1 ± 1.1 dtex, while the starting material had a resolution of 7.3 and a fineness of 37 dtex. The new biotechnological treatment eliminates the weather-associated risks of the traditional fiber retting completely and produces consistently high-quality fibers that can be used to produce fine linen yarns.

The aquatic real-time monitoring network; in-situ optical sensors for monitoring the nation's water quality

Science.gov (United States)

Pellerin, Brian A.; Bergamaschi, Brian A.; Murdoch, Peter S.; Downing, Bryan D.; Saraceno, John Franco; Aiken, George R.; Striegl, Robert G.

2011-01-01

Floods, hurricanes, and longer-term changes in climate and land use can have profound effects on water quality due to shifts in hydrologic flow paths, water residence time, precipitation patterns, connectivity between rivers and uplands, and many other factors. In order to understand and respond to changes in hydrology and water quality, resource managers and policy makers have a need for accurate and early indicators, as well as the ability to assess possible mechanisms and likely outcomes. In-situ optical sensors-those making continuous measurements of constituents by absorbance or fluorescence properties in the environment at timescales of minutes to years-have a long history in oceanography for developing highly resolved concentrations and fluxes, but are not commonly used in freshwater systems. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has developed the Aquatic Real-Time Monitoring Network, with high-resolution optical data collection for organic carbon, nutrients, and sediment in large coastal rivers, along with continuous measurements of discharge, water temperature, and dissolved inorganic carbon. The collecting of continuous water-quality data in the Nation?s waterways has revealed temporal trends and spatial patterns in constituents that traditional sampling approaches fail to capture, and will serve a critical role in monitoring, assessment and decision-making in a rapidly changing landscape.

Improving visit cycle time using patient flow analysis in a high-volume inner-city hospital-based ambulatory clinic serving minority New Yorkers.

Science.gov (United States)

Dhar, Sanjay; Michel, Raquel; Kanna, Balavenkatesh

2011-01-01

Patient waiting time and waiting room congestion are quality indicators that are related to efficiency of ambulatory care systems and patient satisfaction. Our main purpose was to test a program to decrease patient visit cycle time, while maintaining high-quality healthcare in a high-volume inner-city hospital-based clinic in New York City. Use of patient flow analysis and the creation of patient care teams proved useful in identifying areas for improvement, target, and measure effectiveness of interventions. The end result is reduced visit cycle time, improved provider team performance, and sustained patient care outcomes. © 2010 National Association for Healthcare Quality.

High quality data: An evaluation of AIM data quality and data quality procedures

Science.gov (United States)

The goal of every monitoring program is to collect high-quality data which can then be used to provide information to decision makers. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) program is one such data set which provides rangeland status, condition, and trend in...

High spatial and temporal resolution retrospective cine cardiovascular magnetic resonance from shortened free breathing real-time acquisitions.

Science.gov (United States)

Xue, Hui; Kellman, Peter; Larocca, Gina; Arai, Andrew E; Hansen, Michael S

2013-11-14

Cine cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is challenging in patients who cannot perform repeated breath holds. Real-time, free-breathing acquisition is an alternative, but image quality is typically inferior. There is a clinical need for techniques that achieve similar image quality to the segmented cine using a free breathing acquisition. Previously, high quality retrospectively gated cine images have been reconstructed from real-time acquisitions using parallel imaging and motion correction. These methods had limited clinical applicability due to lengthy acquisitions and volumetric measurements obtained with such methods have not previously been evaluated systematically. This study introduces a new retrospective reconstruction scheme for real-time cine imaging which aims to shorten the required acquisition. A real-time acquisition of 16-20s per acquired slice was inputted into a retrospective cine reconstruction algorithm, which employed non-rigid registration to remove respiratory motion and SPIRiT non-linear reconstruction with temporal regularization to fill in missing data. The algorithm was used to reconstruct cine loops with high spatial (1.3-1.8 × 1.8-2.1 mm²) and temporal resolution (retrospectively gated, 30 cardiac phases, temporal resolution 34.3 ± 9.1 ms). Validation was performed in 15 healthy volunteers using two different acquisition resolutions (256 × 144/192 × 128 matrix sizes). For each subject, 9 to 12 short axis and 3 long axis slices were imaged with both segmented and real-time acquisitions. The retrospectively reconstructed real-time cine images were compared to a traditional segmented breath-held acquisition in terms of image quality scores. Image quality scoring was performed by two experts using a scale between 1 and 5 (poor to good). For every subject, LAX and three SAX slices were selected and reviewed in the random order. The reviewers were blinded to the reconstruction approach and acquisition protocols and

Relationship Between Time Consumption and Quality of Responses to Drug-related Queries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Amundstuen Reppe, Linda; Lydersen, Stian; Schjøtt, Jan

2016-01-01

in score, –0.05 per hour of work; 95% CI, –0.08 to –0.01; P = 0.005). No such associations were found for the internal experts’ assessment. Implications To our knowledge, this is the first study of the association between time consumption and quality of responses to drug-related queries in DICs......Purpose The aims of this study were to assess the quality of responses produced by drug information centers (DICs) in Scandinavia, and to study the association between time consumption processing queries and the quality of the responses. Methods We posed six identical drug-related queries to seven...... DICs in Scandinavia, and the time consumption required for processing them was estimated. Clinical pharmacologists (internal experts) and general practitioners (external experts) reviewed responses individually. We used mixed model linear regression analyses to study the associations between time...

Use of a Real-Time Training Software (Laerdal QCPR®) Compared to Instructor-Based Feedback for High-Quality Chest Compressions Acquisition in Secondary School Students: A Randomized Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Cortegiani, Andrea; Russotto, Vincenzo; Montalto, Francesca; Iozzo, Pasquale; Meschis, Roberta; Pugliesi, Marinella; Mariano, Dario; Benenati, Vincenzo; Raineri, Santi Maurizio; Gregoretti, Cesare; Giarratano, Antonino

2017-01-01

High-quality chest compressions are pivotal to improve survival from cardiac arrest. Basic life support training of school students is an international priority. The aim of this trial was to assess the effectiveness of a real-time training software (Laerdal QCPR®) compared to a standard instructor-based feedback for chest compressions acquisition in secondary school students. After an interactive frontal lesson about basic life support and high quality chest compressions, 144 students were randomized to two types of chest compressions training: 1) using Laerdal QCPR® (QCPR group- 72 students) for real-time feedback during chest compressions with the guide of an instructor who considered software data for students' correction 2) based on standard instructor-based feedback (SF group- 72 students). Both groups had a minimum of a 2-minute chest compressions training session. Students were required to reach a minimum technical skill level before the evaluation. We evaluated all students at 7 days from the training with a 2-minute chest compressions session. The primary outcome was the compression score, which is an overall measure of chest compressions quality calculated by the software expressed as percentage. 125 students were present at the evaluation session (60 from QCPR group and 65 from SF group). Students in QCPR group had a significantly higher compression score (median 90%, IQR 81.9-96.0) compared to SF group (median 67%, IQR 27.7-87.5), p = 0.0003. Students in QCPR group performed significantly higher percentage of fully released chest compressions (71% [IQR 24.5-99.0] vs 24% [IQR 2.5-88.2]; p = 0.005) and better chest compression rate (117.5/min [IQR 106-123.5] vs 125/min [115-135.2]; p = 0.001). In secondary school students, a training for chest compressions based on a real-time feedback software (Laerdal QCPR®) guided by an instructor is superior to instructor-based feedback training in terms of chest compression technical skill acquisition. Australian

Measures to reduce construction time of high-rise buildings

Science.gov (United States)

Kolchedantsev, Leonid; Adamtsevich, Aleksey; Stupakova, Olga; Drozdov, Alexander

2018-03-01

The organizational and technological solutions for high-rise buildings construction efficiency increase are considered, primarily - decrease of typical floor construction time and improvement of bearing structures concrete quality. The essence of offered technology is: a concrete mixing station and a polygon mainly for load-bearing wall panels with starter bars casting are located on the building site; for reinforced concrete components manufacturing and butt joints grouting the warmed-up concrete mixtures are used. The results of researches and elaborations carried out by the SPSUACE in area of a preliminary warming-up of concrete mixtures are presented. The possibility and feasibility of their usage in high-rise buildings and of excess height buildings construction including cast-in-place and precast execution are shown. The essence of heat-vibro treating of concrete mixture is revealed as a kind of prior electroresistive curing, and the achieved results are: accelerated concrete strength gain, power inputs decrease, concrete quality improvement. It is shown that the location of a concrete mixing station on the building site enables to broaden possibilities of the "thermos" method use and to avoid concrete mixtures warming up in medium-mass structures erection (columns, girders) during the high-rise buildings construction. It is experimentally proved that the splice between precast elements encased with warmed-up concrete mixture is equal with conjugated elements in strength.

Mahanaxar: quality of service guarantees in high-bandwidth, real-time streaming data storage

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bigelow, David [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Bent, John [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Chen, Hsing-Bung [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Brandt, Scott [UCSC

2010-04-05

Large radio telescopes, cyber-security systems monitoring real-time network traffic, and others have specialized data storage needs: guaranteed capture of an ultra-high-bandwidth data stream, retention of the data long enough to determine what is 'interesting,' retention of interesting data indefinitely, and concurrent read/write access to determine what data is interesting, without interrupting the ongoing capture of incoming data. Mahanaxar addresses this problem. Mahanaxar guarantees streaming real-time data capture at (nearly) the full rate of the raw device, allows concurrent read and write access to the device on a best-effort basis without interrupting the data capture, and retains data as long as possible given the available storage. It has built in mechanisms for reliability and indexing, can scale to meet arbitrary bandwidth requirements, and handles both small and large data elements equally well. Results from our prototype implementation shows that Mahanaxar provides both better guarantees and better performance than traditional file systems.

Quality Control Procedure Based on Partitioning of NMR Time Series

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michał Staniszewski

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The quality of the magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS depends on the stability of magnetic resonance (MR system performance and optimal hardware functioning, which ensure adequate levels of signal-to-noise ratios (SNR as well as good spectral resolution and minimal artifacts in the spectral data. MRS quality control (QC protocols and methodologies are based on phantom measurements that are repeated regularly. In this work, a signal partitioning algorithm based on a dynamic programming (DP method for QC assessment of the spectral data is described. The proposed algorithm allows detection of the change points—the abrupt variations in the time series data. The proposed QC method was tested using the simulated and real phantom data. Simulated data were randomly generated time series distorted by white noise. The real data were taken from the phantom quality control studies of the MRS scanner collected for four and a half years and analyzed by LCModel software. Along with the proposed algorithm, performance of various literature methods was evaluated for the predefined number of change points based on the error values calculated by subtracting the mean values calculated for the periods between the change-points from the original data points. The time series were checked using external software, a set of external methods and the proposed tool, and the obtained results were comparable. The application of dynamic programming in the analysis of the phantom MRS data is a novel approach to QC. The obtained results confirm that the presented change-point-detection tool can be used either for independent analysis of MRS time series (or any other or as a part of quality control.

Health-related quality of life in children with high-functioning autism.

Science.gov (United States)

Potvin, Marie-Christine; Snider, Laurie; Prelock, Patricia A; Wood-Dauphinee, Sharon; Kehayia, Eva

2015-01-01

The health-related quality of life of school-aged children with high-functioning autism is poorly understood. The objectives of this study were to compare the health-related quality of life of children with high-functioning autism to that of typically developing peers and to compare child-self and parent-proxy reports of health-related quality of life of children. A cross-sectional study of children with high-functioning autism (n = 30) and peers (n = 31) was conducted using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 Generic Core Scales. Children with high-functioning autism had significantly poorer health-related quality of life than peers whether reported by themselves (p children and parental scores suggested variance in points of view. This study specifically investigated health-related quality of life in children with high-functioning autism as compared to a sample of peers, from the child's perspective. It strengthens earlier findings that children with high-functioning autism experience poorer health-related quality of life than those without this disorder and points to the importance of clinicians working with families to identify areas in a child's life that promote or hinder their sense of well-being. © The Author(s) 2013.

Determining the nature of excitonic dephasing in high-quality GaN/AlGaN quantum wells through time-resolved and spectrally resolved four-wave mixing spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Gallart, M.; Ziegler, M.; Crégut, O.; Feltin, E.; Carlin, J.-F.; Butté, R.; Grandjean, N.; Hönerlage, B.; Gilliot, P.

2017-07-01

Applying four-wave mixing spectroscopy to a high-quality GaN/AlGaN single quantum well, we report on the experimental determination of excitonic dephasing times at different temperatures and exciton densities in III-nitride heterostructures. By comparing the evolution with the temperature of the dephasing and the spin-relaxation rate, we conclude that both processes are related to the rate of excitonic collisions. When spin relaxation occurs in the motional-narrowing regime, it remains constant over a large temperature range as the spin-precession frequency increases linearly with temperature, hence compensating for the observed decrease in the dephasing time. From those measurements, a value of the electron-hole exchange interaction strength of 0.45 meV at T =10 K is inferred.

Job quality of short-time workers and perception and support from their managers

OpenAIRE

坂爪, 洋美

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between the characteristics of job quality that short-time workers occupied and the managers’ perception and support whose member has used short-time working hour system. A total of 559 first-line managers who has a member using short-time working hour system completed a web-based survey assessing job quality of short-time workers , the risk of using short-timeworking hour system, career perspective of short-time workers, and the suppo...

The Relationships among Imagination, Future Imagination Tendency, and Future Time Perspective of Junior High School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, Min-Ying

2015-01-01

The main purpose of the study were to investigate the relationships among imagination, future imagination tendency, and future time perspective of junior high school students, then to explore the future time perspective which is predicted by background variables, imaginative qualities, and future imagination tendency. The subjects were 331 from…

High-field, high-resolution, susceptibility-weighted magnetic resonance imaging: improved image quality by addition of contrast agent and higher field strength in patients with brain tumors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinker, K.; Noebauer-Huhmann, I.M.; Szomolanyi, P.; Weber, M.; Grabner, G.; Trattnig, S.; Stavrou, I.; Knosp, E.; Hoeftberger, R.; Stadlbauer, A.

2008-01-01

To demonstrate intratumoral susceptibility effects in malignant brain tumors and to assess visualization of susceptibility effects before and after administration of the paramagnetic contrast agent MultiHance (gadobenate dimeglumine; Bracco Imaging), an agent known to have high relaxivity, with respect to susceptibility effects, image quality, and reduction of scan time. Included in the study were 19 patients with malignant brain tumors who underwent high-resolution, susceptibility-weighted (SW) MR imaging at 3 T before and after administration of contrast agent. In all patients, Multihance was administered intravenously as a bolus (0.1 mmol/kg body weight). MR images were individually evaluated by two radiologists with previous experience in the evaluation of pre- and postcontrast 3-T SW MR images with respect to susceptibility effects, image quality, and reduction of scan time. In the 19 patients 21 tumors were diagnosed, of which 18 demonstrated intralesional susceptibility effects both in pre- and postcontrast SW images, and 19 demonstrated contrast enhancement in both SW images and T1-weighted spin-echo MR images. Conspicuity of susceptibility effects and image quality were improved in postcontrast images compared with precontrast images and the scan time was also reduced due to decreased TE values from 9 min (precontrast) to 7 min (postcontrast). The intravenous administration of MultiHance, an agent with high relaxivity, allowed a reduction of scan time from 9 min to 7 min while preserving excellent susceptibility effects and image quality in SW images obtained at 3 T. Contrast enhancement and intralesional susceptibility effects can be assessed in one sequence. (orig.)

Charles River Water Quality Improvements Earns an A- for the Second Time in the Past Five Years

Science.gov (United States)

EPA has given the Charles River a grade of A- for bacterial water quality in the river during 2017. This is only the second time the river has earned a grade as high as an A-minus, and both have occurred within the past five years.

Noncoplanar VMAT for nasopharyngeal tumors: Plan quality versus treatment time

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wild, Esther, E-mail: e.wild@dkfz.de; Bangert, Mark [Department of Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology, German Cancer Research Center, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, D-69120 Heidelberg (Germany); Nill, Simeon [Joint Department of Physics at The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London SM2 5NG (United Kingdom); Oelfke, Uwe [Joint Department of Physics at The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London SM2 5NG, United Kingdom and Department of Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology, German Cancer Research Center, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, D-69120 Heidelberg (Germany)

2015-05-15

Purpose: The authors investigated the potential of optimized noncoplanar irradiation trajectories for volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) treatments of nasopharyngeal patients and studied the trade-off between treatment plan quality and delivery time in radiation therapy. Methods: For three nasopharyngeal patients, the authors generated treatment plans for nine different delivery scenarios using dedicated optimization methods. They compared these scenarios according to dose characteristics, number of beam directions, and estimated delivery times. In particular, the authors generated the following treatment plans: (1) a 4π plan, which is a not sequenced, fluence optimized plan that uses beam directions from approximately 1400 noncoplanar directions and marks a theoretical upper limit of the treatment plan quality, (2) a coplanar 2π plan with 72 coplanar beam directions as pendant to the noncoplanar 4π plan, (3) a coplanar VMAT plan, (4) a coplanar step and shoot (SnS) plan, (5) a beam angle optimized (BAO) coplanar SnS IMRT plan, (6) a noncoplanar BAO SnS plan, (7) a VMAT plan with rotated treatment couch, (8) a noncoplanar VMAT plan with an optimized great circle around the patient, and (9) a noncoplanar BAO VMAT plan with an arbitrary trajectory around the patient. Results: VMAT using optimized noncoplanar irradiation trajectories reduced the mean and maximum doses in organs at risk compared to coplanar VMAT plans by 19% on average while the target coverage remains constant. A coplanar BAO SnS plan was superior to coplanar SnS or VMAT; however, noncoplanar plans like a noncoplanar BAO SnS plan or noncoplanar VMAT yielded a better plan quality than the best coplanar 2π plan. The treatment plan quality of VMAT plans depended on the length of the trajectory. The delivery times of noncoplanar VMAT plans were estimated to be 6.5 min in average; 1.6 min longer than a coplanar plan but on average 2.8 min faster than a noncoplanar SnS plan with comparable

Noncoplanar VMAT for nasopharyngeal tumors: Plan quality versus treatment time

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wild, Esther; Bangert, Mark; Nill, Simeon; Oelfke, Uwe

2015-01-01

Purpose: The authors investigated the potential of optimized noncoplanar irradiation trajectories for volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) treatments of nasopharyngeal patients and studied the trade-off between treatment plan quality and delivery time in radiation therapy. Methods: For three nasopharyngeal patients, the authors generated treatment plans for nine different delivery scenarios using dedicated optimization methods. They compared these scenarios according to dose characteristics, number of beam directions, and estimated delivery times. In particular, the authors generated the following treatment plans: (1) a 4π plan, which is a not sequenced, fluence optimized plan that uses beam directions from approximately 1400 noncoplanar directions and marks a theoretical upper limit of the treatment plan quality, (2) a coplanar 2π plan with 72 coplanar beam directions as pendant to the noncoplanar 4π plan, (3) a coplanar VMAT plan, (4) a coplanar step and shoot (SnS) plan, (5) a beam angle optimized (BAO) coplanar SnS IMRT plan, (6) a noncoplanar BAO SnS plan, (7) a VMAT plan with rotated treatment couch, (8) a noncoplanar VMAT plan with an optimized great circle around the patient, and (9) a noncoplanar BAO VMAT plan with an arbitrary trajectory around the patient. Results: VMAT using optimized noncoplanar irradiation trajectories reduced the mean and maximum doses in organs at risk compared to coplanar VMAT plans by 19% on average while the target coverage remains constant. A coplanar BAO SnS plan was superior to coplanar SnS or VMAT; however, noncoplanar plans like a noncoplanar BAO SnS plan or noncoplanar VMAT yielded a better plan quality than the best coplanar 2π plan. The treatment plan quality of VMAT plans depended on the length of the trajectory. The delivery times of noncoplanar VMAT plans were estimated to be 6.5 min in average; 1.6 min longer than a coplanar plan but on average 2.8 min faster than a noncoplanar SnS plan with comparable

4D Near Real-Time Environmental Monitoring Using Highly Temporal LiDAR

Science.gov (United States)

Höfle, Bernhard; Canli, Ekrem; Schmitz, Evelyn; Crommelinck, Sophie; Hoffmeister, Dirk; Glade, Thomas

2016-04-01

The last decade has witnessed extensive applications of 3D environmental monitoring with the LiDAR technology, also referred to as laser scanning. Although several automatic methods were developed to extract environmental parameters from LiDAR point clouds, only little research has focused on highly multitemporal near real-time LiDAR (4D-LiDAR) for environmental monitoring. Large potential of applying 4D-LiDAR is given for landscape objects with high and varying rates of change (e.g. plant growth) and also for phenomena with sudden unpredictable changes (e.g. geomorphological processes). In this presentation we will report on the most recent findings of the research projects 4DEMON (http://uni-heidelberg.de/4demon) and NoeSLIDE (https://geomorph.univie.ac.at/forschung/projekte/aktuell/noeslide/). The method development in both projects is based on two real-world use cases: i) Surface parameter derivation of agricultural crops (e.g. crop height) and ii) change detection of landslides. Both projects exploit the "full history" contained in the LiDAR point cloud time series. One crucial initial step of 4D-LiDAR analysis is the co-registration over time, 3D-georeferencing and time-dependent quality assessment of the LiDAR point cloud time series. Due to the high amount of datasets (e.g. one full LiDAR scan per day), the procedure needs to be performed fully automatically. Furthermore, the online near real-time 4D monitoring system requires to set triggers that can detect removal or moving of tie reflectors (used for co-registration) or the scanner itself. This guarantees long-term data acquisition with high quality. We will present results from a georeferencing experiment for 4D-LiDAR monitoring, which performs benchmarking of co-registration, 3D-georeferencing and also fully automatic detection of events (e.g. removal/moving of reflectors or scanner). Secondly, we will show our empirical findings of an ongoing permanent LiDAR observation of a landslide (Gresten

High-Quality Ultra-Compact Grid Layout of Grouped Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Yoghourdjian, Vahan; Dwyer, Tim; Gange, Graeme; Kieffer, Steve; Klein, Karsten; Marriott, Kim

2016-01-01

Prior research into network layout has focused on fast heuristic techniques for layout of large networks, or complex multi-stage pipelines for higher quality layout of small graphs. Improvements to these pipeline techniques, especially for orthogonal-style layout, are difficult and practical results have been slight in recent years. Yet, as discussed in this paper, there remain significant issues in the quality of the layouts produced by these techniques, even for quite small networks. This is especially true when layout with additional grouping constraints is required. The first contribution of this paper is to investigate an ultra-compact, grid-like network layout aesthetic that is motivated by the grid arrangements that are used almost universally by designers in typographical layout. Since the time when these heuristic and pipeline-based graph-layout methods were conceived, generic technologies (MIP, CP and SAT) for solving combinatorial and mixed-integer optimization problems have improved massively. The second contribution of this paper is to reassess whether these techniques can be used for high-quality layout of small graphs. While they are fast enough for graphs of up to 50 nodes we found these methods do not scale up. Our third contribution is a large-neighborhood search meta-heuristic approach that is scalable to larger networks.

Effect of Fermentation Time and Leavening Agent on the Quality of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Evaluation of production techniques, quality of market samples and effects of fermentation times (6 and 8hrs), leavening agents (yeasts and baking powder) and shelf life (fresh and 24h) on the quality of masa were carried out through interviews, processing operations, laboratory analyses and sensory studies. Statistical ...

Fingerprint analysis and quality consistency evaluation of flavonoid compounds for fermented Guava leaf by combining high-performance liquid chromatography time-of-flight electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and chemometric methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Lu; Tian, Xiaofei; Wei, Wenhao; Chen, Gong; Wu, Zhenqiang

2016-10-01

Guava leaves are used in traditional herbal teas as antidiabetic therapies. Flavonoids are the main active of Guava leaves and have many physiological functions. However, the flavonoid compositions and activities of Guava leaves could change due to microbial fermentation. A high-performance liquid chromatography time-of-flight electrospray ionization mass spectrometry method was applied to identify the varieties of the flavonoids in Guava leaves before and after fermentation. High-performance liquid chromatography, hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis were used to quantitatively determine the changes in flavonoid compositions and evaluate the consistency and quality of Guava leaves. Monascus anka Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermented Guava leaves contained 2.32- and 4.06-fold more total flavonoids and quercetin, respectively, than natural Guava leaves. The flavonoid compounds of the natural Guava leaves had similarities ranging from 0.837 to 0.927. The flavonoid compounds from the Monascus anka S. cerevisiae fermented Guava leaves had similarities higher than 0.993. This indicated that the quality consistency of the fermented Guava leaves was better than that of the natural Guava leaves. High-performance liquid chromatography fingerprinting and chemometric analysis are promising methods for evaluating the degree of fermentation of Guava leaves based on quality consistency, which could be used in assessing flavonoid compounds for the production of fermented Guava leaves. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Premigration School Quality, Time Spent in the United States, and the Math Achievement of Immigrant High School Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Bozick, Robert; Malchiodi, Alessandro; Miller, Trey

2016-10-01

Using a nationally representative sample of 1,189 immigrant youth in American high schools, we examine whether the quality of education in their country of origin is related to post-migration math achievement in the 9th grade. To measure the quality of their education in the country of origin, we use country-specific average test scores from two international assessments: the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). We find that the average PISA or TIMSS scores for immigrant youth's country of origin are positively associated with their performance on the 9th grade post-migration math assessment. We also find that each year spent in the United States is positively associated with performance on the 9th grade post-migration math assessment, but this effect is strongest for immigrants from countries with low PISA/TIMSS scores.

Real-World Solutions for Developing High-Quality PHP Frameworks and Applications

CERN Document Server

Bergmann, Sebastian

2011-01-01

Learn to develop high-quality applications and frameworks in PHP Packed with in-depth information and step-by-step guidance, this book escorts you through the process of creating, maintaining and extending sustainable software of high quality with PHP. World-renowned PHP experts present real-world case studies for developing high-quality applications and frameworks in PHP that can easily be adapted to changing business requirements. . They offer different approaches to solving  typical development and quality assurance problems that every developer needs to know and master.Details the process

Real-time statistical quality control and ARM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blough, D.K.

1992-05-01

An important component of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program is real-time quality control of data obtained from meteorological instruments. It is the goal of the ARM program to enhance the predictive capabilities of global circulation models by incorporating in them more detailed information on the radiative characteristics of the earth's atmosphere. To this end, a number of Cloud and Radiation Testbeds (CART's) will be built at various locations worldwide. Each CART will consist of an array of instruments designed to collect radiative data. The large amount of data obtained from these instruments necessitates real-time processing in order to flag outliers and possible instrument malfunction. The Bayesian dynamic linear model (DLM) proves to be an effective way of monitoring the time series data which each instrument generates. It provides a flexible yet powerful approach to detecting in real-time sudden shifts in a non-stationary multivariate time series. An application of these techniques to data arising from a remote sensing instrument to be used in the CART is provided. Using real data from a wind profiler, the ability of the DLM to detect outliers is studied. 5 refs

Development of Geometrical Quality Control Real-time Analysis Program using an Electronic Portal Imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Sang Rok; Jung, Kyung Yong; Jang, Min Sun; Lee, Byung Gu; Kwon, Young Ho

2012-01-01

To develop a geometrical quality control real-time analysis program using an electronic portal imaging to replace film evaluation method. A geometrical quality control item was established with the Eclipse treatment planning system (Version 8.1, Varian, USA) after the Electronic Portal Imaging Device (EPID) took care of the problems occurring from the fixed substructure of the linear accelerator (CL-iX, Varian, USA). Electronic portal image (single exposure before plan) was created at the treatment room's 4DTC (Version 10.2, Varian, USA) and a beam was irradiated in accordance with each item. The gaining the entire electronic portal imaging at the Off-line review and was evaluated by a self-developed geometrical quality control real-time analysis program. As for evaluation methods, the intra-fraction error was analyzed by executing 5 times in a row under identical conditions and procedures on the same day, and in order to confirm the infer-fraction error, it was executed for 10 days under identical conditions of all procedures and was compared with the film evaluation method using an Iso-align quality control device. Measurement and analysis time was measured by sorting the time into from the device setup to data achievement and the time amount after the time until the completion of analysis and the convenience of the users and execution processes were compared. The intra-fraction error values for each average 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.2 mm at light-radiation field coincidence, collimator rotation axis, couch rotation axis and gantry rotation axis. By checking the infer-fraction error through 10 days of continuous quality control, the error values obtained were average 1.7, 1.4, 0.7, 1.1 mm for each item. Also, the measurement times were average 36 minutes, 15 minutes for the film evaluation method and electronic portal imaging system, and the analysis times were average 30 minutes, 22 minutes. When conducting a geometrical quality control using an electronic portal imaging

Forecasting air quality time series using deep learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Freeman, Brian S; Taylor, Graham; Gharabaghi, Bahram; Thé, Jesse

2018-04-13

This paper presents one of the first applications of deep learning (DL) techniques to predict air pollution time series. Air quality management relies extensively on time series data captured at air monitoring stations as the basis of identifying population exposure to airborne pollutants and determining compliance with local ambient air standards. In this paper, 8 hr averaged surface ozone (O 3 ) concentrations were predicted using deep learning consisting of a recurrent neural network (RNN) with long short-term memory (LSTM). Hourly air quality and meteorological data were used to train and forecast values up to 72 hours with low error rates. The LSTM was able to forecast the duration of continuous O 3 exceedances as well. Prior to training the network, the dataset was reviewed for missing data and outliers. Missing data were imputed using a novel technique that averaged gaps less than eight time steps with incremental steps based on first-order differences of neighboring time periods. Data were then used to train decision trees to evaluate input feature importance over different time prediction horizons. The number of features used to train the LSTM model was reduced from 25 features to 5 features, resulting in improved accuracy as measured by Mean Absolute Error (MAE). Parameter sensitivity analysis identified look-back nodes associated with the RNN proved to be a significant source of error if not aligned with the prediction horizon. Overall, MAE's less than 2 were calculated for predictions out to 72 hours. Novel deep learning techniques were used to train an 8-hour averaged ozone forecast model. Missing data and outliers within the captured data set were replaced using a new imputation method that generated calculated values closer to the expected value based on the time and season. Decision trees were used to identify input variables with the greatest importance. The methods presented in this paper allow air managers to forecast long range air pollution

Process model for building quality software on internet time ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The competitive nature of the software construction market and the inherently exhilarating nature of software itself have hinged the success of any software development project on four major pillars: time to market, product quality, innovation and documentation. Unfortunately, however, existing software development models ...

Stress in Childhood and Adulthood: Effects on Marital Quality over Time

Science.gov (United States)

Umberson, Debra; Williams, Kristi; Powers, Daniel A.; Liu, Hui; Needham, Belinda

2005-01-01

We work from a stress and life course perspective to consider how stress affects trajectories of change in marital quality over time. Specifically, we ask whether stress is more likely to undermine the quality of marital experiences at different points in the life course. In addition, we ask whether the effects of adult stress on marital quality…

Blueprint for action: steps toward a high-quality, high-value maternity care system.

Science.gov (United States)

Angood, Peter B; Armstrong, Elizabeth Mitchell; Ashton, Diane; Burstin, Helen; Corry, Maureen P; Delbanco, Suzanne F; Fildes, Barbara; Fox, Daniel M; Gluck, Paul A; Gullo, Sue Leavitt; Howes, Joanne; Jolivet, R Rima; Laube, Douglas W; Lynne, Donna; Main, Elliott; Markus, Anne Rossier; Mayberry, Linda; Mitchell, Lynn V; Ness, Debra L; Nuzum, Rachel; Quinlan, Jeffrey D; Sakala, Carol; Salganicoff, Alina

2010-01-01

Childbirth Connection hosted a 90th Anniversary national policy symposium, Transforming Maternity Care: A High Value Proposition, on April 3, 2009, in Washington, DC. Over 100 leaders from across the range of stakeholder perspectives were actively engaged in the symposium work to improve the quality and value of U.S. maternity care through broad system improvement. A multi-disciplinary symposium steering committee guided the strategy from its inception and contributed to every phase of the project. The "Blueprint for Action: Steps Toward a High Quality, High Value Maternity Care System", issued by the Transforming Maternity Care Symposium Steering Committee, answers the fundamental question, "Who needs to do what, to, for, and with whom to improve the quality of maternity care over the next five years?" Five stakeholder workgroups collaborated to propose actionable strategies in 11 critical focus areas for moving expeditiously toward the realization of the long term "2020 Vision for a High Quality, High Value Maternity Care System", also published in this issue. Following the symposium these workgroup reports and recommendations were synthesized into the current blueprint. For each critical focus area, the "Blueprint for Action" presents a brief problem statement, a set of system goals for improvement in that area, and major recommendations with proposed action steps to achieve them. This process created a clear sightline to action that if enacted could improve the structure, process, experiences of care, and outcomes of the maternity care system in ways that when anchored in the culture can indeed transform maternity care. Copyright 2010 Jacobs Institute of Women

High precision instrumentation for measuring the true exposure time in diagnostic X-ray examinations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva, Danubia B.; Santos, Marcus A.P.; Barros, Fabio R.; Santos, Luiz A.P.

2013-01-01

One of the most important physical quantities to be evaluated in diagnostic radiology is the radiation exposure time experimented by the patient during the X-ray examination. IAEA and WHO organizations have suggested that any country must create a quality surveillance program to verify if each type of ionizing radiation equipment used in the hospitals and medical clinics are in conformity with the accepted uncertainties following the international standards. The purpose of this work is to present a new high precision methodology for measuring true exposure time in diagnostic X-ray examinations: pulsed, continuous or digital one. An electronic system named CronoX, which will be soon registered at the Brazilian Patent Office (INPI), is the equipment that provides such a high precision measurement. The principle of measurement is based on the electrical signal captured by a sensor that enters in a regeneration amplifier to transform it in a digital signal, which is treated by a microprocessor (uP). The signal treatment results in a two measured times: 1) T rx , the true X-ray exposure time; 2) T nx , the time in which the X-ray machine is repeatedly cut off during the pulsed irradiation and there is no delivery dose to the patient. Conventional Polymat X-ray equipment and dental X-ray machines were used to generate X-ray photons and take the measurements with the electronic systems. The results show that such a high precision instrumentation displays the true exposure time in diagnostic X-ray examinations and indicates a new method to be purposed for the quality surveillance programs in radiology. (author)

High perfomance liquid chromatography fingerprint analysis for quality control of brotowali (Tinospora crispa)

Science.gov (United States)

Syarifah, V. B.; Rafi, M.; Wahyuni, W. T.

2017-05-01

Brotowali (Tinospora crispa) is widely used in Indonesia as ingredient of herbal medicine formulation. To ensure the quality, safety, and efficacy of herbal medicine products, its chemical constituents should be continuously evaluated. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint is one of powerful technique for this quality control process. In this study, HPLC fingerprint analysis method was developed for quality control of brotowali. HPLC analysis was performed in C18 column and detection was performed using photodiode array detector. The optimum mobile phase for brotowali fingerprint was acetonitrile (ACN) and 0.1% formic acid in gradient elution mode at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. The number of peaks detected in HPLC fingerprint of brotowali was 32 peaks and 23 peaks for stems and leaves, respectively. Berberine as marker compound was detected at retention time of 20.525 minutes. Evaluation of analytical performance including precision, reproducibility, and stability prove that this HPLC fingerprint analysis was reliable and could be applied for quality control of brotowali.

A high-throughput system for high-quality tomographic reconstruction of large datasets at Diamond Light Source.

Science.gov (United States)

Atwood, Robert C; Bodey, Andrew J; Price, Stephen W T; Basham, Mark; Drakopoulos, Michael

2015-06-13

Tomographic datasets collected at synchrotrons are becoming very large and complex, and, therefore, need to be managed efficiently. Raw images may have high pixel counts, and each pixel can be multidimensional and associated with additional data such as those derived from spectroscopy. In time-resolved studies, hundreds of tomographic datasets can be collected in sequence, yielding terabytes of data. Users of tomographic beamlines are drawn from various scientific disciplines, and many are keen to use tomographic reconstruction software that does not require a deep understanding of reconstruction principles. We have developed Savu, a reconstruction pipeline that enables users to rapidly reconstruct data to consistently create high-quality results. Savu is designed to work in an 'orthogonal' fashion, meaning that data can be converted between projection and sinogram space throughout the processing workflow as required. The Savu pipeline is modular and allows processing strategies to be optimized for users' purposes. In addition to the reconstruction algorithms themselves, it can include modules for identification of experimental problems, artefact correction, general image processing and data quality assessment. Savu is open source, open licensed and 'facility-independent': it can run on standard cluster infrastructure at any institution.

Blood serum metabolites and meat quality in crossbred pigs experiencing different lairage time

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivan Juric

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Pigs of two crosses: A (Duroc x Swedish Landrace x Pietrain (n=24 and B (Swedish Landrace x Large White x Pietrain (n=26 were used to investigate the effects of different lairage time (2 and 24 hours on levels of stress and meat quality traits. No direct effect of lairage time on cortisol, lactate, electrolytes and meat quality parameters was observed. However, after long lairage time, pigs showed lower level of glucose and higher CK, AST and ALT activity. Crossbred B pigs exposed to short lairage time, showed higher blood lactate, sodium, and potassium level, higher drip loss and lower pHi, whereas there were no significant differences between the crossbreeds in the long lairage group. The results indicate that long lairage time decreases blood glucose level and produces signs of muscle damage. In the short lairage period, the crossbreed B showed a higher response to pre-slaughter handling affecting the meat quality.

Quality and Quantity of Sorghum Hydroponic Fodder from Different Varieties and Harvest Time

Science.gov (United States)

Chrisdiana, R.

2018-02-01

This experiment was designed to compare different varieties and harvest time of sorghum hydroponic fodder based on nutrient content and biomass production. Experimental design for fodder productivity was completely randomized design with 2 x 3 factorial, i.e., sorghum varieties (KD 4 and Super-1) and time of harvesting the sorghum hydroponic fodder (8,12 and 16 d). Total biomass and DM production, were affected significantly (p<0.05) on harvest time. Total biomass and nutrient content were increased in longer harvest time. The nutrient content were increased with decreasing total value of DM. Super-1 varieties produce larger biomass and nutrient content higher than KD4 (p<0.05). Based on sorghum hidroponic fodder quality and quantity, sorghum hidroponic fodder with Super-1 varieties harvested at 12 d had a good quality of fodder and it can be alternative of technology providing quality forage and land saving with a short time planting period and continous production.

Present status of high quality beam facility at Waseda University

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Washio, M.; Kawai, H.; Hama, Y.; Kudo, N.; Kobayashi, M.; Kuribayasi, T.; Kawaguchi, M.; Kuroda, R.; Maeda, K.; Nagasawa, F.; Ueyama, D.; Hizume, K.; Wang, X.J.; Hayano, H.; Urakawa, J.; Kashiwagi, S.

2004-01-01

A research project named High-Tech Research Center Project has been conducted at Waseda University. In this project, an RF gun system has been used for production of low emittance and short bunched electron beam. The experiments for the electron beam quality measurement have been carried out by slit scan techniques, etc. Short pulsed x-ray with the energy range of so-called water window has been generation by the inverse compton scattering. Further, the pulse radiolysis system has been constructed, and the stroboscopic pulse radiolysis has been applied for the detection of hydrated electron in picosecond time region. (author)

High-resolution, time-resolved MRA provides superior definition of lower-extremity arterial segments compared to 2D time-of-flight imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Thornton, F J; Du, J; Suleiman, S A; Dieter, R; Tefera, G; Pillai, K R; Korosec, F R; Mistretta, C A; Grist, T M

2006-08-01

To evaluate a novel time-resolved contrast-enhanced (CE) projection reconstruction (PR) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) method for identifying potential bypass graft target vessels in patients with Class II-IV peripheral vascular disease. Twenty patients (M:F = 15:5, mean age = 58 years, range = 48-83 years), were recruited from routine MRA referrals. All imaging was performed on a 1.5 T MRI system with fast gradients (Signa LX; GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI). Images were acquired with a novel technique that combined undersampled PR with a time-resolved acquisition to yield an MRA method with high temporal and spatial resolution. The method is called PR hyper time-resolved imaging of contrast kinetics (PR-hyperTRICKS). Quantitative and qualitative analyses were used to compare two-dimensional (2D) time-of-flight (TOF) and PR-hyperTRICKS in 13 arterial segments per lower extremity. Statistical analysis was performed with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Fifteen percent (77/517) of the vessels were scored as missing or nondiagnostic with 2D TOF, but were scored as diagnostic with PR-hyperTRICKS. Image quality was superior with PR-hyperTRICKS vs. 2D TOF (on a four-point scale, mean rank = 3.3 +/- 1.2 vs. 2.9 +/- 1.2, P < 0.0001). PR-hyperTRICKS produced images with high contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR) and high spatial and temporal resolution. 2D TOF images were of inferior quality due to moderate spatial resolution, inferior CNR, greater flow-related artifacts, and absence of temporal resolution. PR-hyperTRICKS provides superior preoperative assessment of lower limb ischemia compared to 2D TOF.

Leisure time physical activity and quality of life in medical students: results from a multicentre study.

Science.gov (United States)

Peleias, Munique; Tempski, Patricia; Paro, Helena Bms; Perotta, Bruno; Mayer, Fernanda B; Enns, Sylvia C; Gannam, Silmar; Pereira, Maria Amelia D; Silveira, Paulo S; Santos, Itamar S; Carvalho, Celso Rf; Martins, Milton A

2017-01-01

We evaluated the association between leisure time physical activity (PA) and quality of life (QoL) in medical students. Our hypothesis was that there was a positive association between volume of PA and various domains of perception of QoL. Data were evaluated from a random sample of 1350 medical students from 22 Brazilian medical schools. Information from participants included the WHO Quality of Life questionnaire-short form (WHOQOL-BREF), a questionnaire specifically designed to evaluate QoL in medical students (VERAS-Q) and questions for both global QoL self-assessment and leisure time PA. According to the amount of metabolic equivalents (METs) spend during PA, volunteers were divided into four groups, according to the volume of PA: (a) no PA; (b) low PA, ≤540 MET min/week; (c) moderate PA, from 541 to 1260 MET min/week and (d) high PA, > 1261 MET min/week. Forty per cent of the medical students reported no leisure time PA (46.0% of females and 32.3% of males). In contrast, 27.2% were classified in the group of high PA (21.0% of females and 34.2% of males). We found significant associations between moderate and high levels of PA and better QoL for all measurements. For low levels of PA, this association was also significant for most QoL measurements, with the exceptions of WHOQOL physical health (p=0.08) and social relationships (p=0.26) domains. We observed a strong dose-effect relationship between the volume of leisure time PA and QoL in both male and female medical students.

Adoption and impact of high quality bambara flour (HQBF ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Adoption and impact of high quality bambara flour (HQBF) technology in the ... consumer acceptability/quality of products, credit, availability of raw materials, and ... as a result of 12.5 per cent increase in demand for bambara-based products.

Development of a high-quality cut-off wall using electrophoresis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawachi, T.; Murahashi, H.

1991-01-01

Techniques to build a high-quality cut-off wall have been developed for storage facilities of low-level radioactive waste (LLW) as an emergency measures to prevent leakages. The cut-off wall is highly impermeable, nucleid-adsorptive and have long-term durability. Electrophoresis is used to form impermeable membrane of bentonite as main features of the cut-off wall. First of all, laboratory tests have been conducted to study ways of building barriers on site and to collect data on the barriers properties. Afterwards, on-site construction tests of a high-quality cut-off wall have been carried out. In this paper, we describe the process and results on the studies of the high-quality cut-off wall using electrophoresis

Health-Related Quality of Life in Children with High-Functioning Autism

Science.gov (United States)

Potvin, Marie-Christine; Snider, Laurie; Prelock, Patricia A.; Wood-Dauphinee, Sharon; Kehayia, Eva

2015-01-01

The health-related quality of life of school-aged children with high-functioning autism is poorly understood. The objectives of this study were to compare the health-related quality of life of children with high-functioning autism to that of typically developing peers and to compare child-self and parent-proxy reports of health-related quality of…

Admission medical records made at night time have the same quality as day and evening time records.

Science.gov (United States)

Amirian, Ilda; Mortensen, Jacob F; Rosenberg, Jacob; Gögenur, Ismail

2014-07-01

A thorough and accurate admission medical record is an important tool in ensuring patient safety during the hospital stay. Surgeons' performance might be affected during night shifts due to sleep deprivation. The aim of the study was to assess the quality of admission medical records during day, evening and night time. A total of 1,000 admission medical records were collected from 2009 to 2013 based equally on four diagnoses: mechanical bowel obstruction, appendicitis, gallstone disease and gastrointestinal bleeding. The records were reviewed for errors by a pre-defined checklist based on Danish standards for admission medical records. The time of dictation for the medical record was registered. A total of 1,183 errors were found in 778 admission medical records made during day- and evening time, and 322 errors in 222 admission medical records from night time shifts. No significant overall difference in error was found in the admission medical records when day and evening values were compared to night values. Subgroup analyses made for all four diagnoses showed no difference in day and evening values compared with night time values. Night time deterioration was not seen in the quality of the medical records.

Twin pregnancy possibly associated with high semen quality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Asklund, Camilla; Jensen, Tina Kold; Jørgensen, Niels

2007-01-01

BACKGROUND: Recent studies found an association between a long waiting time to pregnancy (TTP) and reduced probability of twinning and a reduced dizygotic (DZ) twinning rate in subfertile men. However, it remains unsolved whether semen quality is associated with twin offspring. We therefore studied...... the semen quality in a group of fathers of naturally conceived twins. METHODS: In this study, 37 fathers of DZ twins and 15 fathers of monozygotic (MZ) twins participated, and 349 normal fertile men served as a reference group. All men delivered a semen sample, underwent a physical examination and completed...... points higher than the reference group (P semen quality than the reference group, which supports...

The effect of the amiodarone-warfarin interaction on anticoagulation quality in a single, high-quality anticoagulation center.

Science.gov (United States)

White, Ryan D; Riggs, Kyle W; Ege, Ed J; Petroski, Gregory F; Koerber, Scott M; Flaker, Greg

2016-03-01

Clinical trials have reported a low time in therapeutic range (TTR) in patients with atrial fibrillation treated with both warfarin andamiodarone. These trials included centers and countries with both high and low TTRs. What is the impact of amiodarone on the TTR in a single, high-quality anticoagulation clinic? TTR was assessed in amiodarone and nonamiodarone-treated patients from a University anticoagulation clinic. Baseline characteristics between patients ever-taking or never-taking amiodarone were similar, except more amiodarone patients were smokers (19.5 vs. 6.1%, P = 0.0031). The TTR calculated from 8901international normalized ratios (INRs) in 249 nonamiodarone patients with a mean follow-up of 34 ± 20 months (mean INR 36 ± 18) was 66 ± 16.6% compared with 61.3 ± 16.2% (P = 0.111) from 1455 INRs in 41 amiodarone-treated patients with a mean follow-up of 28 ± 20 months (mean INR 35 ± 22). Factors associated with a low TTR were male sex (P = 0.0013), smoker (P = 0.0048), and amiodarone use (P = 0.0374). A second on-treatment analysis, in which the TTR was calculated only during amiodarone therapy, resulted in similar findings; however, amiodarone did not emerge as a predictor of a low TTR. In 11 patients, the TTR prior to amiodarone (54.5 ± 22.2%) was not significantly different in the first 3 months (54.6 ± 33.4%) or after 3 months (67.2 ± 33.7%) of amiodarone. In a single high-quality anticoagulation center, anticoagulation quality, as measured by the TTR, can be comparable in amiodarone and nonamiodarone-treated patients.

Balancing Time-to-Market and Quality in Embedded Systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Spek, P.; Verhoef, C.

2014-01-01

Finding a balance between the time-to-market and quality of a delivered product is a daunting task. The optimal release moment is not easily found. We propose to use historical project data to monitor the progress of running projects. From the data we inferred a formula providing a rough indication

Quality Minus Junk

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Asness, Clifford S.; Frazzini, Andrea; Heje Pedersen, Lasse

We define a quality security as one that has characteristics that, all-else-equal, an investor should be willing to pay a higher price for: stocks that are safe, profitable, growing, and well managed. High-quality stocks do have higher prices on average, but not by a very large margin. Perhaps....... The price of quality – i.e., how much investors pay extra for higher quality stocks – varies over time, reaching a low during the internet bubble. Further, a low price of quality predicts a high future return of QMJ. Finally, controlling for quality resurrects the otherwise moribund size effect....

A Modular IoT Platform for Real-Time Indoor Air Quality Monitoring

OpenAIRE

Mohieddine Benammar; Abderrazak Abdaoui; Sabbir H.M. Ahmad; Farid Touati; Abdullah Kadri

2018-01-01

The impact of air quality on health and on life comfort is well established. In many societies, vulnerable elderly and young populations spend most of their time indoors. Therefore, indoor air quality monitoring (IAQM) is of great importance to human health. Engineers and researchers are increasingly focusing their efforts on the design of real-time IAQM systems using wireless sensor networks. This paper presents an end-to-end IAQM system enabling measurement of CO2, CO, SO2, NO2, O3, Cl2, am...

Different Polar Metabolites and Protein Profiles between High- and Low-Quality Japanese Ginjo Sake.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kei Takahashi

Full Text Available Japanese ginjo sake is a premium refined sake characterized by a pleasant fruity apple-like flavor and a sophisticated taste. Because of technical difficulties inherent in brewing ginjo sake, off-flavors sometimes occur. However, the metabolites responsible for off-flavors as well as those present or absent in higher quality ginjo sake remain uncertain. Here, the relationship between 202 polar chemical compounds in sake identified using capillary electrophoresis coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry and its organoleptic properties, such as quality and off-flavor, was examined. First, we found that some off-flavored sakes contained higher total amounts of metabolites than other sake samples. The results also identified that levels of 2-oxoglutaric acid and fumaric acid, metabolites in the tricarboxylic acid cycle, were highly but oppositely correlated with ginjo sake quality. Similarly, pyridoxine and pyridoxamine, co-enzymes for amino transferase, were also highly but oppositely correlated with ginjo sake quality. Additionally, pyruvic acid levels were associated with good quality as well. Compounds involved in the methionine salvage cycle, oxidative glutathione derivatives, and amino acid catabolites were correlated with low quality. Among off-flavors, an inharmonious bitter taste appeared attributable to polyamines. Furthermore, protein analysis displayed that a diversity of protein components and yeast protein (triosephosphate isomerase, TPI leakage was linked to the overall metabolite intensity in ginjo sake. This research provides insight into the relationship between sake components and organoleptic properties.

Ensuring on-time quality data management deliverables from global clinical data management teams

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zia Haque

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The growing emphasis on off-site and off-shore clinical data management activities mandates a paramount need for adequate solutions geared toward on-time, quality deliverables. The author has been leading large teams that have been involved in successful global clinical data management endeavors. While each study scenario is unique and has to be approached as such, there are several elements in defining strategy and team structure in global clinical data management that can be applied universally. In this article, key roles, practices, and high-level procedures are laid out as a road map to ensure success with the model.

Improving prehospital trauma care in Rwanda through continuous quality improvement: an interrupted time series analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, John W; Nyinawankusi, Jeanne D'Arc; Enumah, Samuel; Maine, Rebecca; Uwitonze, Eric; Hu, Yihan; Kabagema, Ignace; Byiringiro, Jean Claude; Riviello, Robert; Jayaraman, Sudha

2017-07-01

Injury is a major cause of premature death and disability in East Africa, and high-quality pre-hospital care is essential for optimal trauma outcomes. The Rwandan pre-hospital emergency care service (SAMU) uses an electronic database to evaluate and optimize pre-hospital care through a continuous quality improvement programme (CQIP), beginning March 2014. The SAMU database was used to assess pre-hospital quality metrics including supplementary oxygen for hypoxia (O2), intravenous fluids for hypotension (IVF), cervical collar placement for head injuries (c-collar), and either splinting (splint) or administration of pain medications (pain) for long bone fractures. Targets of >90% were set for each metric and daily team meetings and monthly feedback sessions were implemented to address opportunities for improvement. These five pre-hospital quality metrics were assessed monthly before and after implementation of the CQIP. Met and unmet needs for O2, IVF, and c-collar were combined into a summative monthly SAMU Trauma Quality Scores (STQ score). An interrupted time series linear regression model compared the STQ score during 14 months before the CQIP implementation to the first 14 months after. During the 29-month study period 3,822 patients met study criteria. 1,028 patients needed one or more of the five studied interventions during the study period. All five endpoints had a significant increase between the pre-CQI and post-CQI periods (pRwanda. This programme may be used as an example for additional efforts engaging frontline staff with real-time data feedback in order to rapidly translate data collection efforts into improved care for the injured in a resource-limited setting. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Eating behavior and quality of life in high school pupils in Lviv

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S.L. Nyankovskyy

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Background. The negative dynamics of the health of the children population needs to increase attention to this problem, first of all — to provide an effective preventive component of medical care. Analyzing the reasons for the negative dynamics of the health status indicators in Ukrainian children, it is necessary to pay attention to the way of life, which occupies the leading position in the structure of the factors of influence on health. In view of this, we analyzed the peculiarities of lifestyle, eating behavior of high school students and their impact on the main quality of life parameters. Materials and methods. To achieve the goal, we studied lifestyle and eating behavior in 80 healthy high school pupils aged 14–17 years using a questionnaire containing questions about the family anamnesis, living conditions, day regime and nutrition. For the evaluation of the quality of life, we used international questionnaire MOS SF-36. Results. Eating behavior analysis has showed that 45 % of high school pupils take products of industrial production containing meat everyday. Fish plates occur in everyday diet significantly rare than meat ones, only in 13.75 % (p < 0.05. 16.25 % of children do not have fish plates at all. Dairy foods and milk are signed in everyday diet less than in a half of the surveyed children (35 %. We found a high percentage of adolescents who drink low-alcohol drinks (15 %. We revealed that 45 % of adolescents use the computer or watch TV more than 3 hours per day, only 22 % of exa­minees spend their time outside on fresh air more than 2 hours per day. The quality of life data revealed authentically higher indexes by the scale of viability in children spending outdoor more than 2 hours. We determined that in children who have proper meal every day, there are sufficiently higher indexes of community relief, value determined by the scale of psychological health and by the scale of viability (p < 0.05. We noted the sufficient

Prediction of bread-making quality using size exclusion high ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Variation in the distribution of protein molecular weight in wheat (Triticum aestivum), influences breadmaking quality of wheat cultivars, resulting in either poor or good bread. The objective of this study was to predict breadmaking quality of wheat cultivars using size exclusion high performance liquid chromatography.

Exome sequencing generates high quality data in non-target regions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guo Yan

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Exome sequencing using next-generation sequencing technologies is a cost efficient approach to selectively sequencing coding regions of human genome for detection of disease variants. A significant amount of DNA fragments from the capture process fall outside target regions, and sequence data for positions outside target regions have been mostly ignored after alignment. Result We performed whole exome sequencing on 22 subjects using Agilent SureSelect capture reagent and 6 subjects using Illumina TrueSeq capture reagent. We also downloaded sequencing data for 6 subjects from the 1000 Genomes Project Pilot 3 study. Using these data, we examined the quality of SNPs detected outside target regions by computing consistency rate with genotypes obtained from SNP chips or the Hapmap database, transition-transversion (Ti/Tv ratio, and percentage of SNPs inside dbSNP. For all three platforms, we obtained high-quality SNPs outside target regions, and some far from target regions. In our Agilent SureSelect data, we obtained 84,049 high-quality SNPs outside target regions compared to 65,231 SNPs inside target regions (a 129% increase. For our Illumina TrueSeq data, we obtained 222,171 high-quality SNPs outside target regions compared to 95,818 SNPs inside target regions (a 232% increase. For the data from the 1000 Genomes Project, we obtained 7,139 high-quality SNPs outside target regions compared to 1,548 SNPs inside target regions (a 461% increase. Conclusions These results demonstrate that a significant amount of high quality genotypes outside target regions can be obtained from exome sequencing data. These data should not be ignored in genetic epidemiology studies.

Key factors for a high-quality VR experience

Science.gov (United States)

Champel, Mary-Luc; Doré, Renaud; Mollet, Nicolas

2017-09-01

For many years, Virtual Reality has been presented as a promising technology that could deliver a truly new experience to users. The media and entertainment industry is now investigating the possibility to offer a video-based VR 360 experience. Nevertheless, there is a substantial risk that VR 360 could have the same fate as 3DTV if it cannot offer more than just being the next fad. The present paper aims at presenting the various quality factors required for a high-quality VR experience. More specifically, this paper will focus on the main three VR quality pillars: visual, audio and immersion.

Sleep quality and its relationship with quality of life among high-risk pregnant women (gestational diabetes and hypertension).

Science.gov (United States)

Saadati, Fatemeh; Sehhatiei Shafaei, Fahimeh; Mirghafourvand, Mozhgan

2018-01-01

Sleep is one of the most basic human requirements. This research aims at determining the status of sleep quality and its relationship with quality of life among high-risk pregnant women in Tabriz, Iran, in 2015. This research was a sectional study done on 364 qualified women in 28-36 weeks of pregnancy suffering from mild preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. The sampling was done as convenience. Personal-social-midwifery questionnaire, Pittsburg sleep quality, and quality of life in pregnancy (QOL-ORAV) were used for gathering data. Multivariate linear regression model was used for determining the relationship between sleep quality and its subsets with quality of life and controlling confounders. In the current study, the prevalence of sleep disturbance was 96.4%. Mean (SD) of the total score of sleep quality was 10.1 (4.1) and the total score of quality of life was 61.7 (17.3). According to Pearson's correlation test, there was statistically significant relationship between quality of life and sleep quality and all its subsets except sleep duration and use of sleep medication (p quality of life. The findings of current research show that sleep quality is low among high-risk pregnant women and quality of life is medium. So, it is necessary that required training is given by health cares for improving sleep quality and quality of life to mothers.

Maintaining high precision of isotope ratio analysis over extended periods of time.

Science.gov (United States)

Brand, Willi A

2009-06-01

Stable isotope ratios are reliable and long lasting process tracers. In order to compare data from different locations or different sampling times at a high level of precision, a measurement strategy must include reliable traceability to an international stable isotope scale via a reference material (RM). Since these international RMs are available in low quantities only, we have developed our own analysis schemes involving laboratory working RM. In addition, quality assurance RMs are used to control the long-term performance of the delta-value assignments. The analysis schemes allow the construction of quality assurance performance charts over years of operation. In this contribution, the performance of three typical techniques established in IsoLab at the MPI-BGC in Jena is discussed. The techniques are (1) isotope ratio mass spectrometry with an elemental analyser for delta(15)N and delta(13)C analysis of bulk (organic) material, (2) high precision delta(13)C and delta(18)O analysis of CO(2) in clean-air samples, and (3) stable isotope analysis of water samples using a high-temperature reaction with carbon. In addition, reference strategies on a laser ablation system for high spatial resolution delta(13)C analysis in tree rings is exemplified briefly.

Facile Formation of High-quality InGaN/GaN Quantum-disks-in-Nanowires on Bulk-Metal Substrates for High-power Light-emitters

KAUST Repository

Zhao, Chao; Ng, Tien Khee; Wei, Nini; Prabaswara, Aditya; Alias, Mohd Sharizal; Janjua, Bilal; Shen, Chao; Ooi, Boon S.

2016-01-01

High-quality nitride materials grown on scalable and low-cost metallic substrates are considerably attractive for high-power light emitters. We demonstrate here, for the first time, the high-power red (705 nm) InGaN/GaN quantum-disks (Qdisks)-in-nanowire light-emitting diodes (LEDs) self-assembled directly on metal-substrate. The LEDs exhibited a low turn-on voltage of ~2 V without efficiency droop up to injection current of 500 mA (1.6 kA/cm2) at ~5 V. This is achieved through the direct growth and optimization of high-quality nanowires on titanium (Ti) coated bulk polycrystalline-molybdenum (Mo) substrates. We performed extensive studies on the growth mechanisms, obtained high-crystal-quality nanowires, and confirmed the epitaxial relationship between the cubic titanium nitride (TiN) transition layer and the hexagonal nanowires. The growth of nanowires on all-metal stack of TiN/Ti/Mo enables simultaneous implementation of n-metal contact, reflector and heat-sink, which greatly simplifies the fabrication process of high-power light emitters. Our work ushers in a practical platform for high-power nanowires light emitters, providing versatile solutions for multiple cross-disciplinary applications that are greatly enhanced by leveraging on the chemical stability of nitride materials, large specific surface of nanowires, chemical lift-off ready layer structures, and reusable Mo substrates.

Facile Formation of High-quality InGaN/GaN Quantum-disks-in-Nanowires on Bulk-Metal Substrates for High-power Light-emitters

KAUST Repository

Zhao, Chao

2016-01-08

High-quality nitride materials grown on scalable and low-cost metallic substrates are considerably attractive for high-power light emitters. We demonstrate here, for the first time, the high-power red (705 nm) InGaN/GaN quantum-disks (Qdisks)-in-nanowire light-emitting diodes (LEDs) self-assembled directly on metal-substrate. The LEDs exhibited a low turn-on voltage of ~2 V without efficiency droop up to injection current of 500 mA (1.6 kA/cm2) at ~5 V. This is achieved through the direct growth and optimization of high-quality nanowires on titanium (Ti) coated bulk polycrystalline-molybdenum (Mo) substrates. We performed extensive studies on the growth mechanisms, obtained high-crystal-quality nanowires, and confirmed the epitaxial relationship between the cubic titanium nitride (TiN) transition layer and the hexagonal nanowires. The growth of nanowires on all-metal stack of TiN/Ti/Mo enables simultaneous implementation of n-metal contact, reflector and heat-sink, which greatly simplifies the fabrication process of high-power light emitters. Our work ushers in a practical platform for high-power nanowires light emitters, providing versatile solutions for multiple cross-disciplinary applications that are greatly enhanced by leveraging on the chemical stability of nitride materials, large specific surface of nanowires, chemical lift-off ready layer structures, and reusable Mo substrates.

Quality Control Circles: A Vehicle for Just-in-Time Implementation.

Science.gov (United States)

Sepehri, Mehran

1985-01-01

Explains just-in-time (JIT) material flow and production, a method of production designed to eliminate waste. Discusses why quality control circles work so well with a JIT system, and describes how several companies have made JIT work for them. (CT)

Real-time motion analytics during brain MRI improve data quality and reduce costs.

Science.gov (United States)

Dosenbach, Nico U F; Koller, Jonathan M; Earl, Eric A; Miranda-Dominguez, Oscar; Klein, Rachel L; Van, Andrew N; Snyder, Abraham Z; Nagel, Bonnie J; Nigg, Joel T; Nguyen, Annie L; Wesevich, Victoria; Greene, Deanna J; Fair, Damien A

2017-11-01

Head motion systematically distorts clinical and research MRI data. Motion artifacts have biased findings from many structural and functional brain MRI studies. An effective way to remove motion artifacts is to exclude MRI data frames affected by head motion. However, such post-hoc frame censoring can lead to data loss rates of 50% or more in our pediatric patient cohorts. Hence, many scanner operators collect additional 'buffer data', an expensive practice that, by itself, does not guarantee sufficient high-quality MRI data for a given participant. Therefore, we developed an easy-to-setup, easy-to-use Framewise Integrated Real-time MRI Monitoring (FIRMM) software suite that provides scanner operators with head motion analytics in real-time, allowing them to scan each subject until the desired amount of low-movement data has been collected. Our analyses show that using FIRMM to identify the ideal scan time for each person can reduce total brain MRI scan times and associated costs by 50% or more. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Spike rate and spike timing contributions to coding taste quality information in rat periphery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vernon eLawhern

2011-05-01

Full Text Available There is emerging evidence that individual sensory neurons in the rodent brain rely on temporal features of the discharge pattern to code differences in taste quality information. In contrast, in-vestigations of individual sensory neurons in the periphery have focused on analysis of spike rate and mostly disregarded spike timing as a taste quality coding mechanism. The purpose of this work was to determine the contribution of spike timing to taste quality coding by rat geniculate ganglion neurons using computational methods that have been applied successfully in other sys-tems. We recorded the discharge patterns of narrowly-tuned and broadly-tuned neurons in the rat geniculate ganglion to representatives of the five basic taste qualities. We used mutual in-formation to determine significant responses and the van Rossum metric to characterize their temporal features. While our findings show that spike timing contributes a significant part of the message, spike rate contributes the largest portion of the message relayed by afferent neurons from rat fungiform taste buds to the brain. Thus, spike rate and spike timing together are more effective than spike rate alone in coding stimulus quality information to a single basic taste in the periphery for both narrowly-tuned specialist and broadly-tuned generalist neurons.

Optimization of nitridation conditions for high quality inter-polysilicon dielectric layers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klootwijk, J.H.; Bergveld, H.J.; van Kranenburg, H.; Woerlee, P.H.; Wallinga, Hans

1996-01-01

Nitridation of deposited high temperature oxides (HTO) was studied to form high quality inter-polysilicon dielectric layers for embedded non volatile memories. Good quality dielectric layers were obtained earlier by using an optimized deposition of polysilicon and by performing a post-dielectric

High-quality electron beam generation in a proton-driven hollow plasma wakefield accelerator

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Y.; Xia, G.; Lotov, K. V.; Sosedkin, A. P.; Hanahoe, K.; Mete-Apsimon, O.

2017-10-01

Simulations of proton-driven plasma wakefield accelerators have demonstrated substantially higher accelerating gradients compared to conventional accelerators and the viability of accelerating electrons to the energy frontier in a single plasma stage. However, due to the strong intrinsic transverse fields varying both radially and in time, the witness beam quality is still far from suitable for practical application in future colliders. Here we demonstrate the efficient acceleration of electrons in proton-driven wakefields in a hollow plasma channel. In this regime, the witness bunch is positioned in the region with a strong accelerating field, free from plasma electrons and ions. We show that the electron beam carrying the charge of about 10% of 1 TeV proton driver charge can be accelerated to 0.6 TeV with a preserved normalized emittance in a single channel of 700 m. This high-quality and high-charge beam may pave the way for the development of future plasma-based energy frontier colliders.

Level of activity and short implementation times - are quality and safety suffering?; Aktivitetsnivaa og korte gjennomfoeringstider - gaar det paa kvaliteten og sikkerheten loes?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Berge, Gunnar [Oljedirektoratet, Stavanger (Norway)

1998-07-01

The level of activity on the Norwegian Shelf has been very high. Activity has increased faster than the capacity in the market. The availability of competence and skilled personnel has been limited. However, by preserving the best in the development, it will be possible to continue the development towards a cost-effective petroleum activity that meets the quality requirements, including safety and working environment. It has been said that the great pace with which today's projects are implemented, everything must be done correctly first time. Although this is a great challenge, the interesting point is that a way of defining quality and quality management may be just that this means doing the right thing first time. Quality is a management responsibility.

Producing high-quality slash pine seeds

Science.gov (United States)

James Barnett; Sue Varela

2003-01-01

Slash pine is a desirable species. It serves many purposes and is well adapted to poorly drained flatwoods and seasonally flooded areas along the lower Coastal Plain of the Southeastern US. The use of high-quality seeds has been shown to produce uniform seedlings for outplanting, which is key to silvicultural success along the Coastal Plain and elsewhere. We present...

Environment-friendly cycle time optimization and quality improvisation using Six Sigma.

Science.gov (United States)

Deshpande, V S; Mungle, N P

2008-07-01

Healthy environment in any organization can make a difference in improving productivity and quality with low defect, lack of concentration, willingness to work, minimum accidental problems etc. Six Sigma is one of the more recent quality improvement initiatives to gain popularity and acceptance in many industries across the globe. It is an alternative to TQM to obtain minimum manufacturing defect, cycle time reduction, cost reduction, inventory reduction etc. Its use is increasingly widespread in many industries, in both manufacturing and service industries with many proponents of the approach claiming that it has developed beyond a quality control approach into a broader process improvement concept.

Analysis of apple beverages treated with high-power ultrasound: a quality function deployment approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Režek Jambrak, Anet; Šimunek, Marina; Grbeš, Franjo; Mandura, Ana; Djekic, Ilija

2018-04-01

The objective of this paper was to demonstrate application of quality function deployment in analysing effects of high power ultrasound on quality properties of apple juices and nectars. In order to develop a quality function deployment model, joint with instrumental analysis of treated samples, a field survey was performed to identify consumer preferences towards quality characteristics of juices/nectar. Based on field research, the three most important characteristics were 'taste' and 'aroma' with 28.5% of relative absolute weight importance, followed by 'odour' (16.9%). The quality function deployment model showed that the top three 'quality scores' for apple juice were treatments with amplitude 90 µm, 9 min treatment time and sample temperature 40 °C; 60 µm, 9 min, 60 °C; and 90 µm, 6 min, 40 °C. For nectars, the top three were treatments 120 µm, 9 min, 20 °C; 60 µm, 9 min, 60 °C; and A2.16 60 µm, 9 min, 20 °C. This type of quality model enables a more complex measure of large scale of different quality parameters. Its simplicity should be understood as its practical advantage and, as such, this tool can be a part of design quality when using novel preservation technologies. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

High Quality Virtual Reality for Architectural Exhibitions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kreutzberg, Anette

2016-01-01

This paper will summarise the findings from creating and implementing a visually high quality Virtual Reality (VR) experiment as part of an international architecture exhibition. It was the aim to represent the architectural spatial qualities as well as the atmosphere created from combining natural...... and artificial lighting in a prominent not yet built project. The outcome is twofold: Findings concerning the integration of VR in an exhibition space and findings concerning the experience of the virtual space itself. In the exhibition, an important aspect was the unmanned exhibition space, requiring the VR...... experience to be self-explanatory. Observations of different visitor reactions to the unmanned VR experience compared with visitor reactions at guided tours with personal instructions are evaluated. Data on perception of realism, spatial quality and light in the VR model were collected with qualitative...

Real time quality control of meteorological data used in SRP's emergency response system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pendergast, M.M.

1980-05-01

The Savannah River Laboratory's WIND minicomputer system allows quick and accurate assessment of an accidental release at the Savannah River Plant using data from eight meteorological towers. The accuracy of the assessment is largely determined by the accuracy of the meteorological data; therefore quality control is important in an emergency response system. Real-time quality control of this data will be added to the WIND system to automatically identify inaccurate data. Currently, the system averages the measurements from the towers to minimize the influence of inaccurate data being used in calculations. The computer code used in the real-time quality control has been previously used to identify inaccurate measurements from the archived tower data

Exploring the role of Environmental Quality and time Perspective in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

environmental quality as well as time perspective on academic performance within ... cognitive factors such as concentration, perception, memory and reason (Louw, Van Ede & ... (Reader's Digest, 1987) or the social or psychological conditions (Evans, .... The person who sees the consequences of his/her actions as being.

The influence of chemicals on water quality in a high pressure separation rig

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johnsen, Einar E.; Hemmingsen, Paal V.; Mediaas, Heidi; Svarstad, May Britt E.; Westvik, Arild

2006-03-15

In the research laboratory of Statoil at Rotvoll, Trondheim, a high pressure experimental rig used for separation and foaming studies has been developed. There have been several studies to ensure that the high pressure separation rig produces reliable and consistent results with regard to the water-in-oil and oil-in-water contents. The results are consistent with available field data and, just as important, consistent when changing variables like temperature, pressure drop and water cut. The results are also consistent when changing hydrodynamic variables like flow velocity and mixing point (using different choke valves) and when using oil with and without gas saturation. At equal experimental conditions, the high pressure separation rig is able to differentiate between separation characteristics of oil and water from different fields and from different wells at the same field. The high pressure separation and foam rig can be used from -10 deg C to 175 deg C and at pressures up to 200 bar. Crude oil and water are studied under relevant process conditions with respect to temperature, pressure, shear, water cut and separation time. In the present work the influence of chemicals on the oil and water quality has been studied. Chemicals have been mixed into the oil and/or water beforehand or added in situ (on-stream; simulated well stream). The amount of oil in the water after a given residence time in the separation cell has been measured. The results from the high pressure rig show that some demulsifiers, with their primary purpose of giving less water in oil, also have influence on the water quality. Improvement of water quality has been observed as well as no effect or aggravation. The experimental results have been compared to results from bottle tests at the field. The results from the bottle tests and from the laboratory are not corresponding, and only a full-scale field test can tell which of them are the correct results, if any. (Experience from corresponding

Evaluation of highly accelerated real-time cardiac cine MRI in tachycardia.

Science.gov (United States)

Bassett, Elwin C; Kholmovski, Eugene G; Wilson, Brent D; DiBella, Edward V R; Dosdall, Derek J; Ranjan, Ravi; McGann, Christopher J; Kim, Daniel

2014-02-01

Electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated breath-hold cine MRI is considered to be the gold standard test for the assessment of cardiac function. However, it may fail in patients with arrhythmia, impaired breath-hold capacity and poor ECG gating. Although ungated real-time cine MRI may mitigate these problems, commercially available real-time cine MRI pulse sequences using parallel imaging typically yield relatively poor spatiotemporal resolution because of their low image acquisition efficiency. As an extension of our previous work, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic quality and accuracy of eight-fold-accelerated real-time cine MRI with compressed sensing (CS) for the quantification of cardiac function in tachycardia, where it is challenging for real-time cine MRI to provide sufficient spatiotemporal resolution. We evaluated the performances of eight-fold-accelerated cine MRI with CS, three-fold-accelerated real-time cine MRI with temporal generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisitions (TGRAPPA) and ECG-gated breath-hold cine MRI in 21 large animals with tachycardia (mean heart rate, 104 beats per minute) at 3T. For each cine MRI method, two expert readers evaluated the diagnostic quality in four categories (image quality, temporal fidelity of wall motion, artifacts and apparent noise) using a Likert scale (1-5, worst to best). One reader evaluated the left ventricular functional parameters. The diagnostic quality scores were significantly different between the three cine pulse sequences, except for the artifact level between CS and TGRAPPA real-time cine MRI. Both ECG-gated breath-hold cine MRI and eight-fold accelerated real-time cine MRI yielded all four scores of ≥ 3.0 (acceptable), whereas three-fold-accelerated real-time cine MRI yielded all scores below 3.0, except for artifact (3.0). The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) measurements agreed better between ECG-gated cine MRI and eight-fold-accelerated real-time cine MRI

High-speed mapping of water isotopes and residence time in Cache Slough Complex, San Francisco Bay Delta, CA

Data.gov (United States)

Department of the Interior — Real-time, high frequency (1-second sample interval) GPS location, water quality, and water isotope (δ2H, δ18O) data was collected in the Cache Slough Complex (CSC),...

Integration study of high quality teaching resources in universities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Honglu Liu

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The development level and quality of education depend on the merits and efficiency in the use of teaching resources, especially in the case of obvious contradiction between the demand and supply of teaching resources. So to integrate teaching resources, improve the efficiency in the use of high quality teaching resources, and take the road of content development to enhance the competitiveness of education has become very important and urgent.Design/methodology/approach: On the basis of analysis on the teaching resources of universities and the problems they faced, this paper introduced the basic concepts of cloud storage, and built the integration architecture of high quality teaching resources in universities based on the cloud storage.Findings and Originality/value: The HDFS-based cloud storage proposed in this paper is a dynamically adjustable and Internet-based storage solution, and the users can access storage targets using the network through a common and easy-to-use protocol and application programming interfaces. This new technology is useful for end users benefits. With the continuous development and improvement of cloud storage, it will necessarily result in more and more applications in the institutions of higher learning and education network.Originality/value: This paper introduced the cloud storage into the integration of high quality teaching resources in universities first and as a new form of service, it can be a good solution.

A Near-linear Time Approximation Algorithm for Angle-based Outlier Detection in High-dimensional Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pham, Ninh Dang; Pagh, Rasmus

2012-01-01

projection-based technique that is able to estimate the angle-based outlier factor for all data points in time near-linear in the size of the data. Also, our approach is suitable to be performed in parallel environment to achieve a parallel speedup. We introduce a theoretical analysis of the quality...... neighbor are deteriorated in high-dimensional data. Following up on the work of Kriegel et al. (KDD '08), we investigate the use of angle-based outlier factor in mining high-dimensional outliers. While their algorithm runs in cubic time (with a quadratic time heuristic), we propose a novel random......Outlier mining in d-dimensional point sets is a fundamental and well studied data mining task due to its variety of applications. Most such applications arise in high-dimensional domains. A bottleneck of existing approaches is that implicit or explicit assessments on concepts of distance or nearest...

Fabrication of high quality anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) on low purity aluminum—A comparative study with the AAO produced on high purity aluminum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Michalska-Domańska, Marta; Norek, Małgorzata; Stępniowski, Wojciech J.; Budner, Bogusław

2013-01-01

Highlights: • Nanoporous alumina was fabricated by anodization in sulfuric acid solution with glycol. • The AAO manufacturing on low- and high-purity Al was compared. • The pores size was ranging between 30 and 50 nm. • No difference in the quality of the AAO fabricated on both Al types was observed. • The current vs. anodization time curves were recorded. -- Abstract: In this work the quality, arrangement, composition, and regularity of nanoporous AAO formed on the low-purity (AA1050) and high-purity aluminum during two-step anodization in a mixture of sulfuric acid solution (0.3 M), water and glycol (3:2, v/v), at various voltages (15, 20, 25, 30, 35 V) and at temperature of −1 °C, are investigated. The electrochemical conditions have allowed to obtain pores with the size ranging from 30 to 50 nm, which are much larger than those usually obtained by anodization in a pure sulfuric acid solution (<20 nm). The mechanism of the AAO growth is discussed. It was found that with the increase of applied anodizing voltage a number of incorporated sulfate ions in the aluminum oxide matrix increases, which was connected with the appearance of an unusual area in the current vs. time curves. On the surface of anodizing low- and high-purity aluminum, the formation of hillocks was observed, which was associated with the sulfate ions incorporation. The sulfate ions are replacing the oxygen atom/atoms in the AAO amorphous crystal structure and, consequently, the AAO template swells, the oxide cracks and uplifts causing the formation of hillocks. The same mechanism occurs for both low- and high-purity aluminum. Nanoporous AAO characterized by a very high regularity, not registered previously for low purity aluminum, was obtained. Furthermore, no significant difference in the regularity ratio between the AAO obtained on low- and high-purity aluminum, was observed. The electrochemical conditions applied in this study can be, thus, used for the fabrication of high quality

Versatile, High Quality and Scalable Continuous Flow Production of Metal-Organic Frameworks

Science.gov (United States)

Rubio-Martinez, Marta; Batten, Michael P.; Polyzos, Anastasios; Carey, Keri-Constanti; Mardel, James I.; Lim, Kok-Seng; Hill, Matthew R.

2014-01-01

Further deployment of Metal-Organic Frameworks in applied settings requires their ready preparation at scale. Expansion of typical batch processes can lead to unsuccessful or low quality synthesis for some systems. Here we report how continuous flow chemistry can be adapted as a versatile route to a range of MOFs, by emulating conditions of lab-scale batch synthesis. This delivers ready synthesis of three different MOFs, with surface areas that closely match theoretical maxima, with production rates of 60 g/h at extremely high space-time yields. PMID:24962145

Controllable Edge Oxidation and Bubbling Exfoliation Enable the Fabrication of High Quality Water Dispersible Graphene.

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Suyun; Sun, Jing; Yang, Siwei; He, Peng; Wang, Gang; Di, Zengfeng; Ding, Guqiao; Xie, Xiaoming; Jiang, Mianheng

2016-09-26

Despite significant progresses made on mass production of chemically exfoliated graphene, the quality, cost and environmental friendliness remain major challenges for its market penetration. Here, we present a fast and green exfoliation strategy for large scale production of high quality water dispersible few layer graphene through a controllable edge oxidation and localized gas bubbling process. Mild edge oxidation guarantees that the pristine sp 2 lattice is largely intact and the edges are functionalized with hydrophilic groups, giving rise to high conductivity and good water dispersibility at the same time. The aqueous concentration can be as high as 5.0 mg mL -1 , which is an order of magnitude higher than previously reports. The water soluble graphene can be directly spray-coated on various substrates, and the back-gated field effect transistor give hole and electron mobility of ~496 and ~676 cm 2 V -1 s -1 , respectively. These results achieved are expected to expedite various applications of graphene.

Controllable Edge Oxidation and Bubbling Exfoliation Enable the Fabrication of High Quality Water Dispersible Graphene

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Suyun; Sun, Jing; Yang, Siwei; He, Peng; Wang, Gang; di, Zengfeng; Ding, Guqiao; Xie, Xiaoming; Jiang, Mianheng

2016-09-01

Despite significant progresses made on mass production of chemically exfoliated graphene, the quality, cost and environmental friendliness remain major challenges for its market penetration. Here, we present a fast and green exfoliation strategy for large scale production of high quality water dispersible few layer graphene through a controllable edge oxidation and localized gas bubbling process. Mild edge oxidation guarantees that the pristine sp2 lattice is largely intact and the edges are functionalized with hydrophilic groups, giving rise to high conductivity and good water dispersibility at the same time. The aqueous concentration can be as high as 5.0 mg mL-1, which is an order of magnitude higher than previously reports. The water soluble graphene can be directly spray-coated on various substrates, and the back-gated field effect transistor give hole and electron mobility of ~496 and ~676 cm2 V-1 s-1, respectively. These results achieved are expected to expedite various applications of graphene.

Bolus timing in high-pitch CT angiography of the aorta

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beeres, Martin; Loch, Matthias; Schulz, Boris; Kerl, Matthias; Al-Butmeh, Firas; Bodelle, Boris; Herrmann, Eva; Gruber-Rouh, Tatjana; Lee, Clara; Jacobi, Volkmar; Vogl, Thomas J.

2013-01-01

Objective: To investigate the bolus geometry in high-pitch CT angiography (CTA) of the aorta without ECG synchronisation in comparison to single-source CT. Methods: Overall 160 consecutive patients underwent CTA either in conventional single-source mode with a pitch of 1.2 (group 1), or in dual-source mode with a pitch of 3.0 (groups 2, 3 and 4) using different contrast media timings with bolus triggering at 140 HU (5 s, group 1; 10 s, group 2; 12 s, group 3; 14 s, group 4). Contrast material, saline flush, flow rate and kV/mAs settings were kept equal for optimum comparability. Aortic attenuation was measured along the z-axis of the patient at different anatomic landmarks and subjective image quality was compared. Results: The most homogeneous enhancement of the aorta was reached with a delay of 10 s after reaching the trigger threshold. The imaging length was not significantly different, but the examination time was significantly (p < 0.001) shorter in the high-pitch group (7.7 s vs. 1.7 s for group 1 vs. 2, 3 and 4). Conclusion: In high-pitch CT angiography using a start delay of 10 s after a trigger threshold of 140 HU in the descending aorta is reached, a homogenous contrast along the z-axis is accomplished

Improving Reports Turnaround Time: An Essential Healthcare Quality Dimension.

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Mustafa; Khalid, Parwaiz; Al-Said, Youssef; Cupler, Edward; Almorsy, Lamia; Khalifa, Mohamed

2016-01-01

Turnaround time is one of the most important healthcare performance indicators. King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia worked on reducing the reports turnaround time of the neurophysiology lab from more than two weeks to only five working days for 90% of cases. The main quality improvement methodology used was the FOCUS PDCA. Using root cause analysis, Pareto analysis and qualitative survey methods, the main factors contributing to the delay of turnaround time and the suggested improvement strategies were identified and implemented, through restructuring transcriptionists daily tasks, rescheduling physicians time and alerting for new reports, engaging consultants, consistent coordination and prioritizing critical reports. After implementation; 92% of reports are verified within 5 days compared to only 6% before implementation. 7% of reports were verified in 5 days to 2 weeks and only 1% of reports needed more than 2 weeks compared to 76% before implementation.

Time in bed, quality of sleep and school functioning of children.

Science.gov (United States)

Meijer, A M; Habekothé, H T; Van Den Wittenboer, G L

2000-06-01

This study describes the relationship of time in bed and quality of sleep with concentration and functioning at school. Neurotic and psychosomatic symptoms have been used as control variables. The sample consisted of 449 Dutch children in the seventh and eighth grades of elementary school. The age of the children varied between 9 y 5 mo and 14 y 5 mo. Seven schools participated in the research, with a total of 18 classes. The results indicated that 43% of the children had difficulty getting up in the morning. Furthermore, 15% of the children reported sleep problems and 25% did not feel rested at school. Time in bed and sleep quality show no relationship with concentration. Sleep quality, feeling rested at school and less distinct bedtimes were clearly related to school functioning. Another result was that children who had no difficulty getting up displayed more achievement motivation. Being open to the teacher's influence and achievement motivation depended mainly on sleep characteristics. Not getting bored at school, self-image as a pupil and control over aggressive behaviour were also influenced by gender, age, neuroticism and neurosomaticism.

Platform for Automated Real-Time High Performance Analytics on Medical Image Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, William J; Gabr, Refaat E; Tefera, Getaneh B; Pednekar, Amol S; Vaughn, Matthew W; Narayana, Ponnada A

2018-03-01

Biomedical data are quickly growing in volume and in variety, providing clinicians an opportunity for better clinical decision support. Here, we demonstrate a robust platform that uses software automation and high performance computing (HPC) resources to achieve real-time analytics of clinical data, specifically magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. We used the Agave application programming interface to facilitate communication, data transfer, and job control between an MRI scanner and an off-site HPC resource. In this use case, Agave executed the graphical pipeline tool GRAphical Pipeline Environment (GRAPE) to perform automated, real-time, quantitative analysis of MRI scans. Same-session image processing will open the door for adaptive scanning and real-time quality control, potentially accelerating the discovery of pathologies and minimizing patient callbacks. We envision this platform can be adapted to other medical instruments, HPC resources, and analytics tools.

COST QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vitanova Gordana

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Within the contemporary economic conditions, enterprises might achieve a competitive advantage if only they sell goods and services with high quality and lower prices. Customers, usually, prefer quality goods with acceptable prices, while such goods create reputation with the particular brand. The perfect control system is necessary to achieve a high quality product, which the cost quality management is considered to be an indispensable part in. The cost quality is nevertheless created to ensure that customers’ requirements are being appropriately attained. The most important objective of quality costs controlling is to assist the management in enhancing the product’s value permanently. The superior cost quality control system helps the management to achieve other strategic objectives, such as: producing goods with acceptable costs and deliver the products to their customers in time.

New information technologies as a means of quality improvement of part-time students’ training

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Нестеренко В. В.

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Ways and means aimed at facilitating the quality of part-time students’ training at an institution of higher education are considered in the article. The principles the conditions facilitating quality increase of adult part-time students’ training are based on as well as criteria of their effectiveness assessment are described. The definition of the notion «distance learning» has been given. Tuition by correspondence as a special form of continuous education allowing the use of elements of distance educational technologies is examined. The role of informational technologies in correspondence form of education providing essential improvement of students’ training quality is described.

EXPERT-ANALITICAL MONITORING OF LEARNING PROCESS QUALITY IN HIGH SCHOOL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. M. Korotun

2010-10-01

Full Text Available The technological model is proposed for monitoring process of learning process quality in high school compliant with current European and home standards. The mathematical methods are elaborated for diverse activities as to learning process objects quality determination unified support. They self-consistently combine: automatic expert evaluation with Bayesian net and Value tree models; Delphi technique enhancement; best practices for education quality assessment. Quality estimates’ consistency index is introduced for their choice and acceptability analysis. Its permanent increasing over monitoring stages is guaranteed. The tools for these stages’ automatic support are described.

Combined microfluidization and ultrasonication: a synergistic protocol for high-efficient processing of SWCNT dispersions with high quality

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Luo, Sida, E-mail: s.luo@buaa.edu.cn [Beihang University, School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation (China); Liu, Tao, E-mail: tliu@fsu.edu [Florida State University, High-Performance Materials Institute (United States); Wang, Yong; Li, Liuhe [Beihang University, School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation (China); Wang, Guantao; Luo, Yun [China University of Geosciences, Center of Safety Research, School of Engineering and Technology (China)

2016-08-15

High-efficient and large-scale production of high-quality CNT dispersions is necessary for meeting the future needs to develop various CNT-based electronic devices. Herein, we have designed novel processing protocols by combining conventional ultrasonication process with a new microfluidization technique to produce high-quality SWCNT dispersions with improved processing efficiency. To judge the quality of SWCNT dispersions, one critical factor is the degree of exfoliation, which could be quantified by both geometrical dimension of the exfoliated nanotubes and percentage of individual tubes in a given dispersion. In this paper, the synergistic effect of the combined protocols was systematically investigated through evaluating SWCNT dispersions with newly developed characterization techniques, namely preparative ultracentrifuge method (PUM) and simultaneous Raman scattering and photoluminescence spectroscopy (SRSPL). The results of both techniques draw similar conclusions that as compared with either of the processes operated separately, a low-pass microfluidization followed by a reasonable duration of ultrasonication could substantially improve the processing efficiency to produce high-quality SWCNT dispersions with averaged particle length and diameter as small as ~600 and ~2 nm, respectively.Graphical abstract.

STUDY OF EFFECTIVE TIME OF UNDILUTED FIXINGSOLUTIONS INLIGHTENING OF THE HIGH DENSITY PERIAPICAL RADIOGRAPHS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A ZAMANI NASER

2003-12-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Dental radiographs are occationally too dark because of different reasons such as over exposure, high concen-tration of developing solution and over development. Different chemicals are used to lighten these radiographs. In this research the undiluted fixed solution for the first time are tested and efficiency time of this solution in reducing the density of dark radiographs were evaluated. Method: Use of a dry mandible containing some teeth and 98 E speed periapical radiographs were prepared as foolow: A film wasexposed with 0.4 S... as positive control (ideal. 97 films were exposed with 1.8 S (dark and unreadable. Out of 97, one radiograph kept as positive control and remaining films prepared for study. All of radiographs developed and fixed with automatic processor in the same conditio. Out of 96 dark radiograph, 3 was used for pilot study and inserted in the undiluted fixing solution in different time. (2.5, 3 and 3.5 hrs. The result of pilot study showed that aii3 radiographs showed reductionin density and radiographs with her reduction time was closest to positive control for density and diognostic quality and radiograph with 2.5 hrs reduction time and 3.5 hre became darker and lighter as compared to positive control. The remaining 93 high density radiographs were divided into 3 groups, 31 in each group (group 1,2 and 3 first group 2.5 hrs, second 3 hrs and the third group 3.5 hrs were kept in undiluted fixed solution. for this, disposable glasses were used and in each glass a radiograph were inserted. The research time was spring and the temperature was about 2609 (without coolant. Evaluation of radiographs: For evaluation of radiographs 2 methods were used: First method used was: Densitometry: By this method the density of total lightened radiographs, positive control and negative control were determined. Another method was determined diagnostic quality of radiographs visually by radiologists, throng this way: Special

Real-time quality assurance testing using photonic techniques: Application to iodine water system

Science.gov (United States)

Arendale, W. F.; Hatcher, Richard; Garlington, Yadilett; Harwell, Jack; Everett, Tracey

1990-01-01

A feasibility study of the use of inspection systems incorporating photonic sensors and multivariate analyses to provide an instrumentation system that in real-time assures quality and that the system in control has been conducted. A system is in control when the near future of the product quality is predictable. Off-line chemical analyses can be used for a chemical process when slow kinetics allows time to take a sample to the laboratory and the system provides a recovery mechanism that returns the system to statistical control without intervention of the operator. The objective for this study has been the implementation of do-it-right-the-first-time and just-in-time philosophies. The Environment Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) water reclamation system that adds iodine for biocidal control is an ideal candidate for the study and implementation of do-it-right-the-first-time technologies.

Ecoflex: Improving air quality with green dynamic traffic management based on real time air quality measurements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Baalen, J. van; Koning, A. de; Voogt, M.; Stelwagen, U.; Turksma, S.

2011-01-01

Across the world, air quality regulations are breached due to localized high pollution episodes in specific locations, or "hotspots". Advances in air pollution monitoring techniques enable hotspots to be identified more effectively; however challenges remain as to how best to reduce the incidence

Combined risk assessment of nonstationary monthly water quality based on Markov chain and time-varying copula.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Wei; Xia, Jun

2017-02-01

Water quality risk management is a global hot research linkage with the sustainable water resource development. Ammonium nitrogen (NH 3 -N) and permanganate index (COD Mn ) as the focus indicators in Huai River Basin, are selected to reveal their joint transition laws based on Markov theory. The time-varying moments model with either time or land cover index as explanatory variables is applied to build the time-varying marginal distributions of water quality time series. Time-varying copula model, which takes the non-stationarity in the marginal distribution and/or the time variation in dependence structure between water quality series into consideration, is constructed to describe a bivariate frequency analysis for NH 3 -N and COD Mn series at the same monitoring gauge. The larger first-order Markov joint transition probability indicates water quality state Class V w , Class IV and Class III will occur easily in the water body of Bengbu Sluice. Both marginal distribution and copula models are nonstationary, and the explanatory variable time yields better performance than land cover index in describing the non-stationarities in the marginal distributions. In modelling the dependence structure changes, time-varying copula has a better fitting performance than the copula with the constant or the time-trend dependence parameter. The largest synchronous encounter risk probability of NH 3 -N and COD Mn simultaneously reaching Class V is 50.61%, while the asynchronous encounter risk probability is largest when NH 3 -N and COD Mn is inferior to class V and class IV water quality standards, respectively.

Later school start times for supporting the education, health, and well-being of high school students.

Science.gov (United States)

Marx, Robert; Tanner-Smith, Emily E; Davison, Colleen M; Ufholz, Lee-Anne; Freeman, John; Shankar, Ravi; Newton, Lisa; Brown, Robert S; Parpia, Alyssa S; Cozma, Ioana; Hendrikx, Shawn

2017-07-03

A number of school systems worldwide have proposed and implemented later school start times as a means of avoiding the potentially negative impacts that early morning schedules can have on adolescent students. Even mild sleep deprivation has been associated with significant health and educational concerns: increased risk for accidents and injuries, impaired learning, aggression, memory loss, poor self-esteem, and changes in metabolism. Although researchers have begun to explore the effects of delayed school start time, no one has conducted a rigorous review of evidence to determine whether later school start times support adolescent health, education, and well-being. We aimed to assess the effects of a later school start time for supporting health, education, and well-being in high school students.Secondary objectives were to explore possible differential effects of later school start times in student subgroups and in different types of schools; to identify implementation practices, contextual factors, and delivery modes associated with positive and negative effects of later start times; and to assess the effects of later school start times on the broader community (high school faculty and staff, neighborhood, and families). We conducted the main search for this review on 28 October 2014 and updated it on 8 February 2016. We searched CENTRAL as well as 17 key electronic databases (including MEDLINE, Embase, ERIC, PsycINFO, and Sociological Abstracts), current editions of relevant journals and organizational websites, trial registries, and Google Scholar. We included any randomized controlled trials, controlled before-and-after studies, and interrupted time series studies with sufficient data points that pertained to students aged 13 to 19 years and that compared different school start times. Studies that reported either primary outcomes of interest (academic outcomes, amount or quality of sleep, mental health indicators, attendance, or alertness) or secondary

High-quality LaVO3 films as solar energy conversion material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Hai-Tian; Brahlek, Matthew; Ji, Xiaoyu; Lei, Shiming; Lapano, Jason

2017-01-01

Mott insulating oxides and their heterostructures have recently been identified as potential photovoltaic materials with favorable absorption properties and an intrinsic built-in electric field that can efficiently separate excited electron hole pairs. At the same time, they are predicted to overcome the Shockley-Queisser limit due to strong electron electron interaction present. Despite these premises a high concentration of defects commonly observed in Mott insulating films acting as recombination centers can derogate the photovoltaic conversion efficiency. With use of the self-regulated growth kinetics in hybrid molecular beam epitaxy, this obstacle can be overcome. High-quality, stoichiometric LaVO 3 films were grown with defect densities of in-gap states up to 2 orders of magnitude lower compared to the films in the literature, and a factor of 3 lower than LaVO 3 bulk single crystals. Photoconductivity measurements revealed a significant photoresponsivity increase as high as tenfold of stoichiometric LaVO 3 films compared to their nonstoichiometric counterparts. Furthermore, this work marks a critical step toward the realization of high-performance Mott insulator solar cells beyond conventional semiconductors.

PMG: online generation of high-quality molecular pictures and storyboarded animations

Science.gov (United States)

Autin, Ludovic; Tufféry, Pierre

2007-01-01

The Protein Movie Generator (PMG) is an online service able to generate high-quality pictures and animations for which one can then define simple storyboards. The PMG can therefore efficiently illustrate concepts such as molecular motion or formation/dissociation of complexes. Emphasis is put on the simplicity of animation generation. Rendering is achieved using Dino coupled to POV-Ray. In order to produce highly informative images, the PMG includes capabilities of using different molecular representations at the same time to highlight particular molecular features. Moreover, sophisticated rendering concepts including scene definition, as well as modeling light and materials are available. The PMG accepts Protein Data Bank (PDB) files as input, which may include series of models or molecular dynamics trajectories and produces images or movies under various formats. PMG can be accessed at http://bioserv.rpbs.jussieu.fr/PMG.html. PMID:17478496

Enhancing the Quality of Service for Real Time Traffic over Optical Burst Switching (OBS Networks with Ensuring the Fairness for Other Traffics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammed A Al-Shargabi

Full Text Available Optical burst switching (OBS networks have been attracting much consideration as a promising approach to build the next generation optical Internet. A solution for enhancing the Quality of Service (QoS for high priority real time traffic over OBS with the fairness among the traffic types is absent in current OBS' QoS schemes. In this paper we present a novel Real Time Quality of Service with Fairness Ratio (RT-QoSFR scheme that can adapt the burst assembly parameters according to the traffic QoS needs in order to enhance the real time traffic QoS requirements and to ensure the fairness for other traffic. The results show that RT-QoSFR scheme is able to fulfill the real time traffic requirements (end to end delay, and loss rate ensuring the fairness for other traffics under various conditions such as the type of real time traffic and traffic load. RT-QoSFR can guarantee that the delay of the real time traffic packets does not exceed the maximum packets transfer delay value. Furthermore, it can reduce the real time traffic packets loss, at the same time guarantee the fairness for non real time traffic packets by determining the ratio of real time traffic inside the burst to be 50-60%, 30-40%, and 10-20% for high, normal, and low traffic loads respectively.

Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole/time of flight mass spectrometry based chemical profiling approach for the holistic quality control of complex Kang-Jing formula preparations.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Xiao-Huan; Cheng, Xiao-Lan; Qin, Bing; Cai, Zhuo-Ya; Cai, Xiong; Liu, Shao; Wang, Qi; Qin, Yong

2016-05-30

The Kang-Jing (KJ) formula is a compound preparation made from 12 kinds of herbs. So far, four different methods (M1-M4) have been documented for KJ preparation, but the influence of preparation methods on the holistic quality of KJ have remained unknown. In this study, a strategy was proposed to investigate the influence of different preparation methods on the holistic quality of KJ using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole/time of flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS) based chemical profiling. A total of 101 compounds mainly belonging to flavonoids, tanshinones, monoterpene glycosides, triterpenoid saponins, alkaloids, phenolic acids and volatile oils, were identified. Among these compounds, glaucine was detected only in M3/M4 samples, while two dehydrocorydaline isomers merely detected in M2/M3/M4 samples. Tetrahydrocolumbamine, ethylic lithospermic acid, salvianolic acid E and rosmarimic acid were only detected in M1/M3/M4 samples. In the subsequent quantitative analysis, 12 major compounds were determined by UHPLC-MS/MS. The proposed method was validated with respect to linearity, accuracy, precision and recovery. It was found that the contents of marker compounds varied significantly in samples prepared by different methods. These results demonstrated that preparation method does significantly affect the holistic quality of KJ. UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS based chemical profiling approach is efficient and reliable for comprehensive quality evaluation of KJ. Collectively, this study provide the chemical evidence for revealing the material basis of KJ, and establish a simple and accurate chemical profiling method for its quality control. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reproducibility of phantom-based quality assurance parameters in real-time ultrasound imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Sipilä, Outi; Blomqvist, Päivi; Jauhiainen, Mervi; Kilpeläinen, Tiina; Malaska, Paula; Mannila, Vilma; Vinnurva-Jussila, Tuula; Virsula, Sari

2011-07-01

In a large radiological center, the ultrasound (US) quality assurance (QA) program involves several professionals. Although the operator and the parameters utilized can contribute to the results, the selected QA parameters should still reflect the quality of the US scanner, not the measuring process. To evaluate the reproducibility of recommended phantom-based US QA parameters in a realistic environment. Six sonographers measured six high-end US scanners with 20 transducers using a general purpose phantom. Every transducer was measured altogether seven times, using one frequency per transducer. The QA parameters studied were homogeneity, visualization depth, vertical and horizontal distance measurements, axial and lateral resolution, and the correct visibility of anechoic and high-contrast masses. The evaluation of the homogeneity was based on visual observations. Inter-observer interquartile ranges were computed for the grading of the masses. For the other QA parameters, the mean inter- and intra-observer coefficients of variation (CoV) were calculated. In addition, the symmetry of the reverberations when imaging air with a clean transducer was checked. The mean inter-observer CoVs were: visualization depth 11 ± 4%, vertical distance 1.7 ± 0.4%, horizontal distance 1.4 ± 0.6%, axial resolution 22 ± 7%, and lateral resolution 16 ± 8%. The mean intra-observer values were about half of these values with similar standard deviations. The visual evaluation of the homogeneity and the symmetry of the reverberations produced false-positive findings in 5% of the cases, but were found useful in detecting a defective transducer. The grading of the masses had mean interquartile ranges of 20-30% of the grading scale. The inter-observer variability in measuring phantom-based QA parameters can be relatively high. This should be considered when implementing a phantom-based QA protocol and evaluating the results.

Production of high-quality marketing applications: strategies for biotechnology companies working with contract research organizations.

Science.gov (United States)

Hecker, Sandra J; Preston, Christopher; Foote, MaryAnn

2003-01-01

Many biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies use clinical research organizations (CROs) to assist in the writing and preparation of clinical documents intended for submission to health authorities. Start-up companies often require the expertise of a CRO to prepare their first regulatory documents. Larger or more experienced companies often require CRO staff to assist at times of multiple simultaneous submissions. The timely production of high-quality new drug marketing applications requires close collaborations between the drug company and the CRO. The views of both CRO and industry in ensuring best practices are discussed.

Changes in sleep time and sleep quality across the ovulatory cycle as a function of fertility and partner attractiveness.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brooke N Gentle

Full Text Available Research suggests that near ovulation women tend to consume fewer calories and engage in more physical activity; they are judged to be more attractive, express greater preferences for masculine and symmetrical men, and experience increases in sexual desire for men other than their primary partners. Some of these cycle phase shifts are moderated by partner attractiveness and interpreted as strategic responses to women's current reproductive context. The present study investigated changes in sleep across the ovulatory cycle, based on the hypothesis that changes in sleep may reflect ancestral strategic shifts of time and energy toward reproductive activities. Participants completed a 32-day daily diary in which they recorded their sleep time and quality for each day, yielding over 1,000 observations of sleep time and quality. Results indicated that, when the probability of conception was high, women partnered with less attractive men slept more, while women with more attractive partners slept less.

Endorectal high dose rate brachytherapy quality assurance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Devic, S.; Vuong, T.; Evans, M.; Podgorsak, E.

2008-01-01

We describe our quality assurance method for preoperative high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy of endorectal tumours. Reproduction of the treatment planning dose distribution on a daily basis is crucial for treatment success. Due to the cylindrical symmetry, two types of adjustments are necessary: applicator rotation and dose distribution shift along the applicator axis. (author)

Simple, rapid and cost-effective method for high quality nucleic acids extraction from different strains of Botryococcus braunii.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Byung-Hyuk Kim

Full Text Available This study deals with an effective nucleic acids extraction method from various strains of Botryococcus braunii which possesses an extensive extracellular matrix. A method combining freeze/thaw and bead-beating with heterogeneous diameter of silica/zirconia beads was optimized to isolate DNA and RNA from microalgae, especially from B. braunii. Eukaryotic Microalgal Nucleic Acids Extraction (EMNE method developed in this study showed at least 300 times higher DNA yield in all strains of B. braunii with high integrity and 50 times reduced working volume compared to commercially available DNA extraction kits. High quality RNA was also extracted using this method and more than two times the yield compared to existing methods. Real-time experiments confirmed the quality and quantity of the input DNA and RNA extracted using EMNE method. The method was also applied to other eukaryotic microalgae, such as diatoms, Chlamydomonas sp., Chlorella sp., and Scenedesmus sp. resulting in higher efficiencies. Cost-effectiveness analysis of DNA extraction by various methods revealed that EMNE method was superior to commercial kits and other reported methods by >15%. This method would immensely contribute to area of microalgal genomics.

Time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with optimized high-harmonic pulses using frequency-doubled Ti:Sapphire lasers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eich, S.; Stange, A.; Carr, A.V.; Urbancic, J.; Popmintchev, T.; Wiesenmayer, M.; Jansen, K.; Ruffing, A.; Jakobs, S.; Rohwer, T.; Hellmann, S.; Chen, C.; Matyba, P.; Kipp, L.; Rossnagel, K.; Bauer, M.; Murnane, M.M.; Kapteyn, H.C.; Mathias, S.; Aeschlimann, M.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • We present a scheme to generate high intensity XUV pulses from HHG with variable time-bandwidth product. • Shorter-wavelength driven high-harmonic XUV trARPES provides higher photon flux and increased energy resolution. • High-quality high-harmonic XUV trARPES data with sub 150 meV energy and sub 30 fs time resolution is presented. - Abstract: Time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (trARPES) using femtosecond extreme ultraviolet high harmonics has recently emerged as a powerful tool for investigating ultrafast quasiparticle dynamics in correlated-electron materials. However, the full potential of this approach has not yet been achieved because, to date, high harmonics generated by 800 nm wavelength Ti:Sapphire lasers required a trade-off between photon flux, energy and time resolution. Photoemission spectroscopy requires a quasi-monochromatic output, but dispersive optical elements that select a single harmonic can significantly reduce the photon flux and time resolution. Here we show that 400 nm driven high harmonic extreme-ultraviolet trARPES is superior to using 800 nm laser drivers since it eliminates the need for any spectral selection, thereby increasing photon flux and energy resolution to <150 meV while preserving excellent time resolution of about 30 fs

Quality of life in a cohort of high-dose benzodiazepine dependent patients.

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Lugoboni, Fabio; Mirijello, Antonio; Faccini, Marco; Casari, Rebecca; Cossari, Anthony; Musi, Gessica; Bissoli, Giorgia; Quaglio, Gianluca; Addolorato, Giovanni

2014-09-01

Benzodiazepines (BZD) are among the most widely prescribed drugs in developed countries. Since BZD can produce tolerance and dependence even in a short time, their use is recommended for a very limited time. However, these recommendations have been largely disregarded. The chronic use of BZD causes a number of serious side effects, i.e., cognitive impairment, falls, traffic accidents, dependence and tolerance. The aim of the present study was to evaluate quality of life (QoL) in a cohort of 62 consecutive high-dose BZD-dependent patients seeking a BZD detoxification. Patients seeking BZD detoxification were evaluated using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and the short form-36 questionnaire (SF-36). Patients showed a significant reduction of QoL as measured by either SF-36 or GHQ-12. In particular, the greater impairment was observed in the items exploring physical and emotional status. Physical functioning was the item more influenced by the length of BZD abuse. Female patients showed a greater reduction of QoL compared to male, at least in some of the explored items. Social functioning scores were greatly reduced. The present study shows for the first time that high-doses BZD dependent patients have a reduced QoL and a reduced social functioning, along with high levels of psychological distress. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

High Spectral Resolution LIDAR as a Tool for Air Quality Research

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Eloranta, E. W.; Spuler, S.; Hayman, M. M.

2017-12-01

Many aspects of air quality research require information on the vertical distribution of pollution. Traditional measurements, obtained from surface based samplers, or passive satellite remote sensing, do not provide vertical profiles. Lidar can provide profiles of aerosol properties. However traditional backscatter lidar suffers from uncertain calibrations with poorly constrained algorithms. These problems are avoided using High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) which provides absolutely calibrated vertical profiles of aerosol properties. The University of Wisconsin HSRL systems measure 532 nm wavelength aerosol backscatter cross-sections, extinction cross-sections, depolarization, and attenuated 1064 nm backscatter. These instruments are designed for long-term deployment at remote sites with minimal local support. Processed data is provided for public viewing and download in real-time on our web site "http://hsrl.ssec.wisc.edu". Air pollution applications of HSRL data will be illustrated with examples acquired during air quality field programs including; KORUS-AQ, DISCOVER-AQ, LAMOS and FRAPPE. Observations include 1) long range transport of dust, air pollution and smoke. 2) Fumigation episodes where elevated pollution is mixed down to the surface. 3) visibility restrictions by aerosols and 4) diurnal variations in atmospheric optical depth. While HSRL is powerful air quality research tool, its application in routine measurement networks is hindered by the high cost of current systems. Recent technical advances promise a next generation HSRL using telcom components to greatly reduce system cost. This paper will present data generated by a prototype low cost system constructed at NCAR. In addition to lower cost, operation at a non-visible near 780 nm infrared wavelength removes all FAA restrictions on the operation.

MOPITT Near Real-Time Data for LANCE: Automatic Quality Assurance and Comparison to Operational Products

Science.gov (United States)

Martinez-Alonso, S.; Deeter, M. N.; Worden, H. M.; Ziskin, D.

2017-12-01

Terra-MOPITT (the Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere instrument) near real-time (NRT) carbon monoxide (CO) products have been selected for distribution through NASA's LANCE (the Land, Atmosphere Near Real-Time Capability for EOS). MOPITT version 7 NRT data will be made publicly available within 3 hours from observation. The retrieval process is the same for both MOPITT NRT and operational products, albeit for the former it is constrained to use ancillary data available within the latency time. Among other requirements, LANCE NRT products must be examined for quality assurance (QA) purposes and relative errors between NRT and operational products must be quantified. Here we present an algorithm for automatic MOPITT NRT QA aimed to identify artifacts and separate those from anomalously high but real CO values. The algorithm is based on a comparison to the statistics of MOPITT operational products. We discuss the algorithm's performance when tested by applying it to three MOPITT datasets: a known (and corrected) artifact in version 4 operational data, anomalously high CO values in operational data during the 2015 Indonesia fires, and actual NRT data. Last, we describe results from a quantitative comparison between MOPITT NRT data and their operational counterparts.

Just In Time Value Chain Total Quality Management Part Of Technical Strategic Management Accounting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lesi Hertati

2015-08-01

Full Text Available This article aims to determine Just In Time Value Chain Total Quality Management tqm as a technique in management accounting stategis.Tujuan Just In Time value chain or value chain Total Quality Management TQM is strategic for customer satisfaction in the long term obtained from the information. Quality information is the way to continuous improvement in order to increase the companys financial performance in the long term to increase competitive advantage. Strategic Management Accounting process gather competitor information explore opportunities to reduce costs integrate accounting with emphasis on the strategic position of the competition is a great plan. An overall strategic plan interrelated and serves as the basis for achieving targets or goals ahead.

Quality beyond compliance.

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Centanni, N; Monroe, M; White, L; Larson, R

1999-01-01

The service sector within the biopharmaceutical industry has experienced phenomenal growth over the past decade. In the highly regulated Good Laboratory Practices environment, the need for timely, high-quality service, accurate results, and on-time deliverables becomes paramount for the success and profitability of biopharmaceutical companies. The quality assurance process is a vital component of this drug product-development cycle and ensures compliance to the highest domestic and international regulatory standards. Quality-assurance professionals historically have held the role of independent auditors of the processes, who certify that results meet current standards of practice. Covance, a contract research organization that includes Good Laboratory Practices laboratories, reorganized and expanded the functional responsibilities of its quality assurance team in 1997. Auditors and quality assurance professionals have assumed roles beyond traditional compliance auditing and are forging new leadership and mentoring roles as process-improvement specialists. The results have been tangible, measurable benefits for clients and the Covance organization. This article provides an overview of this cultural change and the processes put in place to improve efficiency, productivity, and customer and employee satisfaction.

Phonon replica dynamics in high quality GaN epilayers and AlGaN/GaN quantum wells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alderighi, D.; Vinattieri, A.; Colocci, M. [Ist. Nazionale Fisica della Materia, Firenze (Italy); Dipt. di Fisica and LENS, Firenze (Italy); Bogani, F. [Ist. Nazionale Fisica della Materia, Firenze (Italy); Dipt. di Energetica, Firenze (Italy); Gottardo, S. [Dipt. di Fisica and LENS, Firenze (Italy); Grandjean, N.; Massies, J. [Centre de Recherche sur l' Hetero-Epitaxie et ses Applications, CNRS, Valbonne (France)

2001-01-01

We present an experimental study of the exciton and phonon replica dynamics in high quality GaN epilayers and AlGaN/GaN quantum wells (QW) by means of picosecond time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) measurements. A non-exponential decay is observed both at the zero phonon line (ZPL) and at the n = 1 LO replica. Time-resolved spectra unambiguously assign the replica to the free exciton A recombination. Optical migration effects are detected both in the epilayer and the QWs samples and disappear as the temperature increases up to 60-90 K. Even though the sample quality is comparable to state-of-the-art samples, localization effects dominate the exciton dynamics at low temperature in the studied GaN based structures. (orig.)

R/S method for evaluation of pollutant time series in environmental quality assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bu Quanmin

2008-12-01

Full Text Available The significance of the fluctuation and randomness of the time series of each pollutant in environmental quality assessment is described for the first time in this paper. A comparative study was made of three different computing methods: the same starting point method, the striding averaging method, and the stagger phase averaging method. All of them can be used to calculate the Hurst index, which quantifies fluctuation and randomness. This study used real water quality data from Shazhu monitoring station on Taihu Lake in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. The results show that, of the three methods, the stagger phase averaging method is best for calculating the Hurst index of a pollutant time series from the perspective of statistical regularity.

Benchmarking, benchmarks, or best practices? Applying quality improvement principles to decrease surgical turnaround time.

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Mitchell, L

1996-01-01

The processes of benchmarking, benchmark data comparative analysis, and study of best practices are distinctly different. The study of best practices is explained with an example based on the Arthur Andersen & Co. 1992 "Study of Best Practices in Ambulatory Surgery". The results of a national best practices study in ambulatory surgery were used to provide our quality improvement team with the goal of improving the turnaround time between surgical cases. The team used a seven-step quality improvement problem-solving process to improve the surgical turnaround time. The national benchmark for turnaround times between surgical cases in 1992 was 13.5 minutes. The initial turnaround time at St. Joseph's Medical Center was 19.9 minutes. After the team implemented solutions, the time was reduced to an average of 16.3 minutes, an 18% improvement. Cost-benefit analysis showed a potential enhanced revenue of approximately $300,000, or a potential savings of $10,119. Applying quality improvement principles to benchmarking, benchmarks, or best practices can improve process performance. Understanding which form of benchmarking the institution wishes to embark on will help focus a team and use appropriate resources. Communicating with professional organizations that have experience in benchmarking will save time and money and help achieve the desired results.

Associations among evening snacking, screen time, weight status, and overall diet quality in young adolescents.

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Ciccone, Jillian; Woodruff, Sarah J; Fryer, Katherine; Campbell, Ty; Cole, Mary

2013-07-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the associations among evening snacking (food choices, portion sizes), afterschool-evening screen time, overall diet quality, and weight status. Participants consisted of 1008 young adolescents (secondary analyses, n = 651) from schools in Windsor-Essex, Ontario. The Web-based Food Behaviour Questionnaire, including a 24-h diet recall, was used to assess eating and screen time behaviours (television and video and computer games), as well as nutrient intake; height and weight for BMI were measured using a stadiometer. Results indicated that the majority of participants (62%) consumed an evening snack that contributed approximately 11% of their daily caloric intake. Evening snacking was associated with an overall good diet quality compared with that of non-evening snackers (p snack servings of vegetables and fruit (p snack food portion sizes (p snacking factors, participants with greater than 6 h of afterschool-evening screen time were less likely to have a good overall diet quality compared with those with less than 1 h of afterschool-evening screen time. Therefore, increased screen time, because it is associated with greater evening snack portion sizes and overall poor diet quality, is of great concern regarding young adolescents' evening behaviour.

Withdrawal times and associated factors in colonoscopy: a quality assurance multicenter assessment.

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Overholt, Bergein F; Brooks-Belli, Linda; Grace, Michael; Rankin, Kristin; Harrell, Royce; Turyk, Mary; Rosenberg, Fred B; Barish, Robert W; Gilinsky, Norman H

2010-04-01

To evaluate the use and impact of the recommended withdrawal time of at least 6 minutes from the cecum in colonoscopy in multiple gastroenterology endoscopy ambulatory surgery centers serving a wide geographical area. An observational prospective multicenter quality assurance review was conducted in 49 ambulatory surgery centers in 17 states with 315 gastroenterologists. There was no intervention with this quality assessment program as care of patients and the routine of gastroenterologists continued as standard practice. Multivariable analysis was applied to the database to examine factors affecting withdrawal time and polyp detection. There were 15,955 consecutive qualified patients receiving colonoscopies in a designated 4-week period. Gastroenterologists with average withdrawal times of 6 minutes or more in patients with no polyps were 1.8 times more likely to detect 1 or more polyps and had a significantly higher rate (Pquality assurance assessment from standard colonoscopy practices of 315 gastroenterologists in 49 endoscopic ambulatory surgery centers serving a wide geographical area provides support for the merits of a colonoscopy withdrawal time from the cecum of 6 minutes or more to improve the detection of polyps.

Real-time water quality monitoring at a Great Lakes National Park

Science.gov (United States)

Byappanahalli, Muruleedhara; Nevers, Meredith; Shively, Dawn; Spoljaric, Ashley; Otto, Christopher

2018-01-01

Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used by the USEPA to establish new recreational water quality criteria in 2012 using the indicator bacteria enterococci. The application of this method has been limited, but resource managers are interested in more timely monitoring results. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of qPCR as a rapid, alternative method to the time-consuming membrane filtration (MF) method for monitoring water at select beaches and rivers of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Empire, MI. Water samples were collected from four locations (Esch Road Beach, Otter Creek, Platte Point Bay, and Platte River outlet) in 2014 and analyzed for culture-based (MF) and non-culture-based (i.e., qPCR) endpoints using Escherichia coli and enterococci bacteria. The MF and qPCR enterococci results were significantly, positively correlated overall (r = 0.686, p Water quality standard exceedances based on enterococci levels by qPCR were lower than by MF method: 3 and 16, respectively. Based on our findings, we conclude that qPCR may be a viable alternative to the culture-based method for monitoring water quality on public lands. Rapid, same-day results are achievable by the qPCR method, which greatly improves protection of the public from water-related illnesses.

Complementary therapy use and quality of life in persons with high-grade gliomas.

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Fox, Sherry; Laws, Edward R; Anderson, Frederick; Farace, Elana

2006-08-01

Studies have indicated that 30%-80% of cancer patients use complementary and alternative practices and products (CAPPs), but little is known about CAPPs use by persons with brain tumors. This secondary analysis of Glioma Outcomes Project data compared CAPPs users with nonusers, compared those who stopped using CAPPs with those who continued use, described frequency and patterns of CAPPs use, and compared the relationship of CAPPs use to self-reported quality of life (QOL) over time, in 186 persons with high-grade gliomas. CAPPs users at all three measurement points rated QOL higher, although not significantly higher, than nonusers. Study findings support further exploration of CAPPs use and its effects on key outcomes in persons with high-grade gliomas.

MALDI-TOF MS for quality control of high protein content sport supplements.

Science.gov (United States)

De Ceglie, Cristina; Calvano, Cosima D; Zambonin, Carlo G

2015-06-01

High protein content sport nutritional supplements are found as powder products containing, as ingredients, amino acids and proteins with important nutritional values as milk, soy and egg proteins. An EU Food Supplements Directive (2002) requires that supplements should be safe, both in dosages and in purity. It is important, then, to develop rapid and sensitive methods to be employed for the quality control of these substances. In this work, we apply, for the first time, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-mass spectrometry as a fast, reproducible and sensitive method for the quality control of sport nutritional supplements based on proteins. To this aim, several commercial egg- and/or milk-based powder products have been processed by in gel or in solution digestion and analyzed in comparison to pure standard products. This strategy allowed to assess the reliability of the indications on proteins (as caseins, whey proteins and ovalbumin) declared in the label of several sport nutritional supplements. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

When high-volume PCI operators in high-volume hospitals move to lower volume hospitals-Do they still maintain high volume and quality of outcomes?

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Lu, Tsung-Hsueh; Li, Sheng-Tun; Liang, Fu-Wen; Lee, Jo-Chi; Yin, Wei-Hsian

2017-10-31

The aim of this quasi-experimental study was to examine whether high-volume percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) operators still maintain high volume and quality of outcomes when they moved to lower volume hospitals. Systematic reviews have indicated that high-volume PCI operators and hospitals have higher quality outcomes. However, little is known on whether high PCI volume and high quality outcomes are mainly due to operator characteristics (i.e., skill and experience) and is portable across organizations or whether it is due to hospital characteristics (i.e., equipment, team, and management system) and is less portable. We used Taiwan National Health Insurance claims data 2000-2012 to identify 98 high-volume PCI operators, 10 of whom moved from one hospital to another during the study period. We compared the PCI volume, risk-adjusted mortality ratio, and major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) ratio before and after moving. Of the 10 high-volume operators who moved, 6 moved from high- to moderate- or low-volume hospitals, with median annual PCI volumes (interquartile range) of 130 (117-165) in prior hospitals and 54 (46-84) in subsequent hospitals (the hospital the operator moved to), and the remaining 4 moved from high to high-volume hospitals, with median annual PCI volumes (interquartile range) of 151 (133-162) in prior hospitals and 193 (178-239) in subsequent hospitals. No significant differences were observed in the risk-adjusted mortality ratios and MACE ratios between high-volume operators and matched controls before and after moving. High-volume operators cannot maintain high volume when they moved from high to moderate or low-volume hospitals; however, the quality of care is maintained. High PCI volume and high-quality outcomes are less portable and more hospital bound. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Real-Time, Non-Intrusive Detection of Liquid Nitrogen in Liquid Oxygen at High Pressure and High Flow

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Jagdish P.; Yueh, Fang-Yu; Kalluru, Rajamohan R.; Harrison, Louie

2012-01-01

An integrated fiber-optic Raman sensor has been designed for real-time, nonintrusive detection of liquid nitrogen in liquid oxygen (LOX) at high pressures and high flow rates in order to monitor the quality of LOX used during rocket engine ground testing. The integrated sensor employs a high-power (3-W) Melles Griot diode-pumped, solid-state (DPSS), frequency-doubled Nd:YAG 532- nm laser; a modified Raman probe that has built-in Raman signal filter optics; two high-resolution spectrometers; and photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) with selected bandpass filters to collect both N2 and O2 Raman signals. The PMT detection units are interfaced with National Instruments Lab- VIEW for fast data acquisition. Studies of sensor performance with different detection systems (i.e., spectrometer and PMT) were carried out. The concentration ratio of N2 and O2 can be inferred by comparing the intensities of the N2 and O2 Raman signals. The final system was fabricated to measure N2 and O2 gas mixtures as well as mixtures of liquid N2 and LOX

Characteristics of primary care practices associated with high quality of care.

Science.gov (United States)

Beaulieu, Marie-Dominique; Haggerty, Jeannie; Tousignant, Pierre; Barnsley, Janet; Hogg, William; Geneau, Robert; Hudon, Éveline; Duplain, Réjean; Denis, Jean-Louis; Bonin, Lucie; Del Grande, Claudio; Dragieva, Natalyia

2013-09-03

No primary practice care model has been shown to be superior in achieving high-quality primary care. We aimed to identify the organizational characteristics of primary care practices that provide high-quality primary care. We performed a cross-sectional observational study involving a stratified random sample of 37 primary care practices from 3 regions of Quebec. We recruited 1457 patients who had 1 of 2 chronic care conditions or 1 of 6 episodic care conditions. The main outcome was the overall technical quality score. We measured organizational characteristics by use of a validated questionnaire and the Team Climate Inventory. Statistical analyses were based on multilevel regression modelling. The following characteristics were strongly associated with overall technical quality of care score: physician remuneration method (27.0; 95% confidence interval [CI] 19.0-35.0), extent of sharing of administrative resources (7.6; 95% CI 0.8-14.4), presence of allied health professionals (15.3; 95% CI 5.4-25.2) and/or specialist physicians (19.6; 95% CI 8.3-30.9), the presence of mechanisms for maintaining or evaluating competence (7.7; 95% CI 3.0-12.4) and average organizational access to the practice (4.9; 95% CI 2.6-7.2). The number of physicians (1.2; 95% CI 0.6-1.8) and the average Team Climate Inventory score (1.3; 95% CI 0.1-2.5) were modestly associated with high-quality care. We identified a common set of organizational characteristics associated with high-quality primary care. Many of these characteristics are amenable to change through practice-level organizational changes.

Perception of CPR quality: Influence of CPR feedback, Just-in-Time CPR training and provider role.

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Cheng, Adam; Overly, Frank; Kessler, David; Nadkarni, Vinay M; Lin, Yiqun; Doan, Quynh; Duff, Jonathan P; Tofil, Nancy M; Bhanji, Farhan; Adler, Mark; Charnovich, Alex; Hunt, Elizabeth A; Brown, Linda L

2015-02-01

Many healthcare providers rely on visual perception to guide cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), but little is known about the accuracy of provider perceptions of CPR quality. We aimed to describe the difference between perceived versus measured CPR quality, and to determine the impact of provider role, real-time visual CPR feedback and Just-in-Time (JIT) CPR training on provider perceptions. We conducted secondary analyses of data collected from a prospective, multicenter, randomized trial of 324 healthcare providers who participated in a simulated cardiac arrest scenario between July 2012 and April 2014. Participants were randomized to one of four permutations of: JIT CPR training and real-time visual CPR feedback. We calculated the difference between perceived and measured quality of CPR and reported the proportion of subjects accurately estimating the quality of CPR within each study arm. Participants overestimated achieving adequate chest compression depth (mean difference range: 16.1-60.6%) and rate (range: 0.2-51%), and underestimated chest compression fraction (0.2-2.9%) across all arms. Compared to no intervention, the use of real-time feedback and JIT CPR training (alone or in combination) improved perception of depth (pCPR quality was poor for chest compression depth (0-13%), rate (5-46%) and chest compression fraction (60-63%). Perception of depth is more accurate in CPR providers versus team leaders (27.8% vs. 7.4%; p=0.043) when using real-time feedback. Healthcare providers' visual perception of CPR quality is poor. Perceptions of CPR depth are improved by using real-time visual feedback and with prior JIT CPR training. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Experimental dissociation of individual quality, food and timing of breeding effects on double-brooding in a migratory songbird.

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O'Brien, Erin L; Dawson, Russell D

2013-07-01

Annual reproductive success in many species is influenced by the number of breeding attempts within a season. Although previous studies have shown isolated effects of female quality, food, and timing of breeding on the probability of female birds producing second broods, to our knowledge, none have tested the relative importance of multiple factors and their interactions using simultaneous manipulations within populations of free-living birds. In this study, we show that individual quality and timing of breeding interact to affect the probability of double-brooding in female mountain bluebirds (Sialia currucoides). High-quality females (those that naturally initiated clutches early in the season) were more likely to double-brood, regardless of whether their hatching date was advanced or delayed, whereas later breeding, lower quality females were much less likely to double-brood when their first attempt was delayed. This indicates that annual fecundity of poorer quality (or younger) female bluebirds may be more sensitive to seasonal variation in environmental conditions. In addition, birds that were provided with supplemental food throughout first breeding attempts were more likely to double-brood in one of the study years, suggesting that female bluebirds may be energetically limited in their capacity to initiate a second brood. Females that had their first brood delayed also had a shorter inter-brood interval and were moulting fewer feathers during second broods compared to controls, while females in better condition showed more advanced moult in second breeding attempts. Taken together, our results demonstrate the combined effects of age- or individual quality-mediated energetic trade-offs between current and future reproduction, and between investments in offspring and self-maintenance, on annual fecundity of female birds.

Effect of temperature and time of pasteurization on the milk quality during storage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abubakar

2001-03-01

Full Text Available A study on the effect of temperature and time of pasteurization on the milk quality during storage was carried out using fresh milk. The aim of the experiment was to asses the storage time of pasteurized milk for consumption without nutrient losses. A completely randomized factorial design, 2 x 8 was used, with pasteurization temperature (T, consisted of 2 levels, the low temperature long time (LTLT, i.e. fresh milk was warmed at 65oC for 30 minutes (T1 and the high temperature short time (HTST, i.e. fresh milk was warmed at 71oC for 15 seconds (T2; and storage time (S, consisted of 8 levels, i.e. 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, and 21 hours respectively, as the factors, with 3 replicates. Parameters measured were alcohol test, water, fat, and protein concentrations, and microbial population of pasteurized milk during storage. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance and simple linear regression. The result showed that water and fat concentrations and microbial population was not significantly different (P>0.05 in pasteurization temperature treatment, but was significantly different (P<0.05 due to storage time treatment. Meanwhile, the protein concentration was significantly different (P<0.05 either in pasteurization temperature or storage time. It was concluded that pasteurized milk was still suitable for consumption at 15-21 hours storage, while protein concentration tended to be better when was pasteurized at 65oC.

Chinese Undergraduate Students' Work Values: The Role of Parental Work Experience and Part-Time Work Quality

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Cheung, Francis Yue-lok; Tang, Catherine So-kum

2012-01-01

In this study, the authors investigated the association of perceived parental job insecurity and students' part-time work quality on work values among 341 Hong Kong Chinese undergraduate students. Correlation and regression results showed that work values were strongly related to students' part-time work satisfaction and work quality. In…

Quack: A quality assurance tool for high throughput sequence data.

Science.gov (United States)

Thrash, Adam; Arick, Mark; Peterson, Daniel G

2018-05-01

The quality of data generated by high-throughput DNA sequencing tools must be rapidly assessed in order to determine how useful the data may be in making biological discoveries; higher quality data leads to more confident results and conclusions. Due to the ever-increasing size of data sets and the importance of rapid quality assessment, tools that analyze sequencing data should quickly produce easily interpretable graphics. Quack addresses these issues by generating information-dense visualizations from FASTQ files at a speed far surpassing other publicly available quality assurance tools in a manner independent of sequencing technology. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Experiences and recommendations in deploying a real-time, water quality monitoring system

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O'Flynn, B.; Regan, F.; Lawlor, A.; Wallace, J.; Torres, J.; O'Mathuna, C.

2010-12-01

Monitoring of water quality at a river basin level to meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) using conventional sampling and laboratory-based techniques poses a significant financial burden. Wireless sensing systems offer the potential to reduce these costs considerably, as well as provide more useful, continuous monitoring capabilities by giving an accurate idea of the changing environmental and water quality in real time. It is unlikely that the traditional spot/grab sampling will provide a reasonable estimate of the true maximum and/or mean concentration for a particular physicochemical variable in a water body with marked temporal variability. When persistent fluctuations occur, it is likely only to be detected through continuous measurements, which have the capability of detecting sporadic peaks of concentration. Thus, in situ sensors capable of continuous sampling of parameters required under the WFD would therefore provide more up-to-date information, cut monitoring costs and provide better coverage representing long-term trends in fluctuations of pollutant concentrations. DEPLOY is a technology demonstration project, which began planning and station selection and design in August 2008 aiming to show how state-of-the-art technology could be implemented for cost-effective, continuous and real-time monitoring of a river catchment. The DEPLOY project is seen as an important building block in the realization of a wide area autonomous network of sensors capable of monitoring the spatial and temporal distribution of important water quality and environmental target parameters. The demonstration sites chosen are based in the River Lee, which flows through Ireland's second largest city, Cork, and were designed to include monitoring stations in five zones considered typical of significant river systems--these monitor water quality parameters such as pH, temperature, depth, conductivity, turbidity and dissolved oxygen. Over one million data points

Experiences and recommendations in deploying a real-time, water quality monitoring system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

O'Flynn, B; O'Mathuna, C; Regan, F; Lawlor, A; Wallace, J; Torres, J

2010-01-01

Monitoring of water quality at a river basin level to meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) using conventional sampling and laboratory-based techniques poses a significant financial burden. Wireless sensing systems offer the potential to reduce these costs considerably, as well as provide more useful, continuous monitoring capabilities by giving an accurate idea of the changing environmental and water quality in real time. It is unlikely that the traditional spot/grab sampling will provide a reasonable estimate of the true maximum and/or mean concentration for a particular physicochemical variable in a water body with marked temporal variability. When persistent fluctuations occur, it is likely only to be detected through continuous measurements, which have the capability of detecting sporadic peaks of concentration. Thus, in situ sensors capable of continuous sampling of parameters required under the WFD would therefore provide more up-to-date information, cut monitoring costs and provide better coverage representing long-term trends in fluctuations of pollutant concentrations. DEPLOY is a technology demonstration project, which began planning and station selection and design in August 2008 aiming to show how state-of-the-art technology could be implemented for cost-effective, continuous and real-time monitoring of a river catchment. The DEPLOY project is seen as an important building block in the realization of a wide area autonomous network of sensors capable of monitoring the spatial and temporal distribution of important water quality and environmental target parameters. The demonstration sites chosen are based in the River Lee, which flows through Ireland's second largest city, Cork, and were designed to include monitoring stations in five zones considered typical of significant river systems-–these monitor water quality parameters such as pH, temperature, depth, conductivity, turbidity and dissolved oxygen. Over one million data

[Quality of sleep and academic performance in high school students].

Science.gov (United States)

Bugueño, Maithe; Curihual, Carolina; Olivares, Paulina; Wallace, Josefa; López-AlegrÍa, Fanny; Rivera-López, Gonzalo; Oyanedel, Juan Carlos

2017-09-01

Sleeping and studying are the day-to-day activities of a teenager attending school. To determine the quality of sleep and its relationship to the academic performance among students attending morning and afternoon shifts in a public high school. Students of the first and second year of high school answered an interview about socio-demographic background, academic performance, student activities and subjective sleep quality; they were evaluated using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The interview was answered by 322 first year students aged 15 ± 5 years attending the morning shift and 364 second year students, aged 16 ± 0.5 years, attending the afternoon shift. The components: sleep latency, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbance, drug use and daytime dysfunction were similar and classified as good in both school shifts. The components subjective sleep quality and duration of sleep had higher scores among students of the morning shift. The mean grades during the first semester of the students attending morning and afternoon shifts were 5.9 and 5.8, respectively (of a scale from 1 to 7). Among students of both shifts, the PSQI scale was associated inversely and significantly with academic performance. A bad sleep quality influences academic performance in these students.

Project ATLANTA (Atlanta Land use Analysis: Temperature and Air Quality): Use of Remote Sensing and Modeling to Analyze How Urban Land Use Change Affects Meteorology and Air Quality Through Time

Science.gov (United States)

Quattrochi, Dale A.; Luvall, Jeffrey C.; Estes, Maurice G., Jr.

1999-01-01

This paper presents an overview of Project ATLANTA (ATlanta Land use ANalysis: Temperature and Air-quality) which is an investigation that seeks to observe, measure, model, and analyze how the rapid growth of the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area since the early 1970's has impacted the region's climate and air quality. The primary objectives for this research effort are: (1) To investigate and model the relationships between land cover change in the Atlanta metropolitan, and the development of the urban heat island phenomenon through time; (2) To investigate and model the temporal relationships between Atlanta urban growth and land cover change on air quality; and (3) To model the overall effects of urban development on surface energy budget characteristics across the Atlanta urban landscape through time. Our key goal is to derive a better scientific understanding of how land cover changes associated with urbanization in the Atlanta area, principally in transforming forest lands to urban land covers through time, has, and will, effect local and regional climate, surface energy flux, and air quality characteristics. Allied with this goal is the prospect that the results from this research can be applied by urban planners, environmental managers and other decision-makers, for determining how urbanization has impacted the climate and overall environment of the Atlanta area. Multiscaled remote sensing data, particularly high resolution thermal infrared data, are integral to this study for the analysis of thermal energy fluxes across the Atlanta urban landscape.

extraction of high quality dna from polysaccharides-secreting ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

cistvr

A DNA extraction method using CTAB was used for the isolation of genomic DNA from ten. Xanthomonas campestris pathovars, ten isolates of Xanthomonas albilineans and one isolate of. Pseudomonas rubrisubalbicans. High quality DNA was obtained that was ideal for molecular analy- ses. Extracellular polysaccharides ...

[Total quality management in times of crisis. The case of Argentina].

Science.gov (United States)

Larroca, Norberto

2003-01-01

Healthcare organizations were faced with so great a challenge following the financial slump that they were forced to 'sharpen their wits' in order to survive. Integrated Quality Management (in Spanish GIC), proved the ideal instrument. GIC has four foundational elements, the application of which allow for successful management of crisis situations. They are as follows: TRAINING of human resources EVALUATION of healthcare institutions SELF-EVALUATION by institutions QUALITY ACCREDITATION of institutions All our organizations have the appropriate tools to carry out these activities which form the basis of our project: CAES (Argentinean Chamber of Healthcare Institutions) -training-, CIDCAM (Inter-institutional Committee for Quality Development in Medical Care) -evaluation and self-evaluation-, CENAS (Specialist Centre for the Standardization and Accreditation in Health Care)-accreditation-. In times of crisis, we play an active part, that is, instead of withdrawing our efforts, we do our best to achieve the best and most adequate objective in order to meet the needs of the population through Integrated Quality Management. Eventually, when the results are examined, medical care that meets the best quality standards is found to be, after all, the most economical (that is best results, better satisfaction of healthcare users and providers as well as less mistakes).

Managing quality inside a high-technology project organization

OpenAIRE

Jokinen, T. (Tauno)

2004-01-01

Abstract This action research addresses the deployment of Total Quality Management (TQM) principles in a high-technology new product development organisation. During the period of study, the organisation grew fast. High-technology product development and hypergrowth provided a unique combination of extreme conditions for the study. The existing concepts of TQM are presented as an organised map enabling strategic analysis for an implementation plan. The history of TQM dates back to the ...

The link between water quality and tidal marshes in a highly impacted estuary.

Science.gov (United States)

Meire, Patrick; Maris, Tom; van Damme, Stefan; Jacobs, Sander; Cox, Tom; Struyf, Eric

2010-05-01

The Schelde estuary is one of the most heavily impacted estuaries in Europe. During several decades, untreated waste water from large cities (e.g. Brussels, Antwerp, Valenciennes, Lille) and industries was discharged in the river. As a result, the Schelde estuary has the reputation of being one of the most polluted estuaries in Europe. For a long time (approx. 1950 - 1995) all forms of higher life (macro-invertebrates and fish) were absent in the fresh and brackish parts of the estuary. Due to European legislation, a large part of the sewage water is now treated resulting in a significant recovery of water quality in the estuary. However, next to water quality, the estuary also suffered serious habitat losses during the last decades, mostly due to economic development and changing hydrological conditions causing more erosion. Over the last fifteen years, the management of the estuary has changed fundamentally. It is now more and more focused on the restoration of ecosystem services. In this presentation we will document the changes in water quality over the last 50 years and summarize recent work on the role of tidal marshes on water quality within the freshwater part of the Schelde estuary. Our results stress the important of taking into account ecosystem services and habitat restoration for long-term estuarine management. .After decades of high inorganic nutrient concentrations and recurring anoxia and hypoxia, we observed a paradoxical increase in chlorophyll-a concentrations with decreasing nutrient inputs, indicating a regime shift. Our results indicate that the recovery of a hypereutrophied systems towards a classical eutrophied state, needs the reduction of waste loads below certain thresholds. Paradoxically, phytoplankton production was inhibited by high ammonia or low oxygen concentrations. The system state change is accompanied by large fluctuations in oxygen concentrations. The improved water quality resulted in a remarkable recovery of different groups

Can a combination of average of normals and "real time" External Quality Assurance replace Internal Quality Control?

Science.gov (United States)

Badrick, Tony; Graham, Peter

2018-03-28

Internal Quality Control and External Quality Assurance are separate but related processes that have developed independently in laboratory medicine over many years. They have different sample frequencies, statistical interpretations and immediacy. Both processes have evolved absorbing new understandings of the concept of laboratory error, sample material matrix and assay capability. However, we do not believe at the coalface that either process has led to much improvement in patient outcomes recently. It is the increasing reliability and automation of analytical platforms along with improved stability of reagents that has reduced systematic and random error, which in turn has minimised the risk of running less frequent IQC. We suggest that it is time to rethink the role of both these processes and unite them into a single approach using an Average of Normals model supported by more frequent External Quality Assurance samples. This new paradigm may lead to less confusion for laboratory staff and quicker responses to and identification of out of control situations.

High quality transportation fuels from renewable feedstock

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lindfors, Lars Peter

2010-09-15

Hydrotreating of vegetable oils is novel process for producing high quality renewable diesel. Hydrotreated vegetable oils (HVO) are paraffinic hydrocarbons. They are free of aromatics, have high cetane numbers and reduce emissions. HVO can be used as component or as such. HVO processes can also be modified to produce jet fuel. GHG savings by HVO use are significant compared to fossil fuels. HVO is already in commercial production. Neste Oil is producing its NExBTL diesel in two plants. Production of renewable fuels will be limited by availability of sustainable feedstock. Therefore R and D efforts are made to expand feedstock base further.

Evaluating real-time air-quality data as earthquake indicator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hsu, Shih-Chieh; Huang, Yi-Tang; Huang, Jr-Chung; Tu, Jien-Yi; Engling, Guenter; Lin, Chuan-Yao; Lin, Fei-Jan; Huang, Chao-Hao

2010-01-01

A catastrophic earthquake, namely the 921-earthquake, occurred with a magnitude of M L = 7.3 in Taiwan on September 21, 1999, causing severe disaster. The evaluation of real-time air-quality data, obtained by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), revealed a staggering increase in ambient SO 2 concentrations by more than one order of magnitude across the island several hours prior to the earthquake, particularly at background stations. The abrupt increase in SO 2 concentrations likely resulted from seismic-triggered degassing instead of air pollution. An additional case of a large earthquake (M L = 6.8), occurring on March 31, 2002, was examined to confirm our observations of significantly enhanced SO 2 concentrations in ambient air prior to large earthquakes. The coincidence between large earthquakes and increases in trace gases during the pre-quake period (several hours) indicates the potential of employing air-quality monitoring data to forecast catastrophic earthquakes.

Seed Nutrition and Quality, Seed Coat Boron and Lignin Are Influenced by Delayed Harvest in Exotically-Derived Soybean Breeding Lines under High Heat.

Science.gov (United States)

Bellaloui, Nacer; Smith, James R; Mengistu, Alemu

2017-01-01

The timing of harvest is a major factor affecting seed quality in soybean, particularly in Midsouthern USA, when rain during harvest period is not uncommon. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effects of time of harvest on soybean seed quality (seed composition, germination, seed coat boron, and lignin) in high germinability (HG) breeding lines (50% exotic) developed under high heat. The hypothesis was that seeds of HG lines possess physiological and genetic traits for a better seed quality at harvest maturity and delayed harvest. A 2-year field experiment was conducted under irrigated conditions. Results showed that, at harvest maturity, the exotic HG lines had higher seed protein, oleic acid, sugars, seed coat boron, and seed coat lignin, but lower seed oil compared with the non-exotic checks (Control), confirming our hypothesis. At 28 days after harvest maturity (delayed harvest), the content of seed protein, oleic acid, sugars, seed coat boron, and seed coat lignin were higher in some of the HG lines compared with the checks, indicating a possible involvement of these seed constituents, especially seed coat boron and seed coat lignin, in maintaining seed coat integrity and protecting seed coat against physical damage. Highly significant positive correlations were found between germination and seed protein, oleic acid, sugars, and seed coat boron and seed coat lignin. Highly significant negative correlation was found between germination and oil, linoleic acid, seed coat wrinkling, shattering, and hard seed. Yields of some HG lines were competitive with checks. This research demonstrated that time of harvesting is an important factor influencing seed protein and oil production. Also, since high oleic acid is desirable for oxidative stability, shelf-life and biodiesel properties, using HG lines could positively influence these important traits. This result should suggest to breeders of some of the advantages of selecting for high seed coat boron and

Availability and Quality of Family Planning Services in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: High Potential for Improvement.

Science.gov (United States)

Mpunga, Dieudonné; Lumbayi, J P; Dikamba, Nelly; Mwembo, Albert; Ali Mapatano, Mala; Wembodinga, Gilbert

2017-06-27

To determine the availability and quality of family planning services within health facilities throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Data were collected for the cross-sectional study from April 2014 to June 2014 by the Ministry of Public Health. A total of 1,568 health facilities that reported data to the National Health Information System were selected by multistage random sampling in the 11 provinces of the DRC existing at that time. Data were collected through interviews, document review, and direct observation. Two dependent variables were measured: availability of family planning services (consisting of a room for services, staff assigned to family planning, and evidence of client use of family planning) and quality of family planning services (assessed as "high" if the facility had at least 1 trained staff member, family planning service delivery guidelines, at least 3 types of methods, and a sphygmomanometer, or "low" if the facility did not meet any of these 4 criteria). Pearson's chi-square test and odds ratios (ORs) were used to test for significant associations, using the alpha significance level of .05. We successfully surveyed 1,555 facilities (99.2%) of those included in the sample. One in every 3 facilities (33%) offered family planning services as assessed by the index of availability, of which 20% met all 4 criteria for providing high-quality services. Availability was greatest at the highest level of the health system (hospitals) and decreased incrementally with each health system level, with disparities between provinces and urban and rural areas. Facilities in urban areas were more likely than in rural areas to meet the standard for high-quality services ( P facilities were less likely than private facilities to have high-quality services ( P =.02). Among all 1,555 facilities surveyed, 14% had at least 3 types of methods available at the time of the survey; the most widely available methods were male condoms, combined oral

Improving high quality, equitable maternal health services in Malawi ...

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

Improving high quality, equitable maternal health services in Malawi (IMCHA) ... In response, the Ministry of Health implemented a Standards-Based Management and Recognition for Reproductive Health initiative to improve ... Total funding.

Modeling the time--varying subjective quality of HTTP video streams with rate adaptations.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chao; Choi, Lark Kwon; de Veciana, Gustavo; Caramanis, Constantine; Heath, Robert W; Bovik, Alan C

2014-05-01

Newly developed hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)-based video streaming technologies enable flexible rate-adaptation under varying channel conditions. Accurately predicting the users' quality of experience (QoE) for rate-adaptive HTTP video streams is thus critical to achieve efficiency. An important aspect of understanding and modeling QoE is predicting the up-to-the-moment subjective quality of a video as it is played, which is difficult due to hysteresis effects and nonlinearities in human behavioral responses. This paper presents a Hammerstein-Wiener model for predicting the time-varying subjective quality (TVSQ) of rate-adaptive videos. To collect data for model parameterization and validation, a database of longer duration videos with time-varying distortions was built and the TVSQs of the videos were measured in a large-scale subjective study. The proposed method is able to reliably predict the TVSQ of rate adaptive videos. Since the Hammerstein-Wiener model has a very simple structure, the proposed method is suitable for online TVSQ prediction in HTTP-based streaming.

Coupling of high-quality-factor optical resonators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salzenstein, Patrice; Henriet, Rémi; Coillet, Aurélien; Chembo, Yanne K; Mortier, Michel; Sérier-Brault, Hélène; Rasoloniaina, Alphonse; Dumeige, Yannick; Féron, Patrice

2013-01-01

We improve theoretically and experimentally the problem of the coupling between a high Q-factor resonator and its external coupler. We have observed oscillations of ringing induced by the sweeping of the excitation frequency of an active microsphere. Thanks to this approach, the quality factor of an optical resonator was measured and we obtained Q = 5.8 × 10 8 . (paper)

High-picture quality industrial CT scanner

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shoji, Takao; Nishide, Akihiko; Fujii, Masashi.

1989-01-01

Industrial X-ray-CT-scanners, which provide cross-sectional images of a tested sample without destroying it, are attracting attention as a new nondestructive inspection device. In 1982, Toshiba commenced the development of industrial CT scanners, and introduced the 'TOSCANER' -3000 and-4000 series. Now, the state of the art 'TOSCANER'-20000 series of CT systems has been developed incorporating the latest computer tomography and image processing technology, such as the T9506 image processor. One of the advantages of this system is its applicability to a wide range of X-ray energy . The 'TOSCANER'-20000 series can be utilized for inspecting castings and other materials with relatively low-transparency to X-rays, as well as ceramics, composite materials and other materials with high X-ray transparency. A further feature of the new system is its high-picture quality, with a high-spatial resolution resulting from a pixel size of 0.2x0.2(mm). (author)

Computer-aided control of high-quality cast iron

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Pietrowski

2008-04-01

Full Text Available The study discusses the possibility of control of the high-quality grey cast iron and ductile iron using the author’s genuine computer programs. The programs have been developed with the help of algorithms based on statistical relationships that are said to exist between the characteristic parameters of DTA curves and properties, like Rp0,2, Rm, A5 and HB. It has been proved that the spheroidisation and inoculation treatment of cast iron changes in an important way the characteristic parameters of DTA curves, thus enabling a control of these operations as regards their correctness and effectiveness, along with the related changes in microstructure and mechanical properties of cast iron. Moreover, some examples of statistical relationships existing between the typical properties of ductile iron and its control process were given for cases of the melts consistent and inconsistent with the adopted technology.A test stand for control of the high-quality cast iron and respective melts has been schematically depicted.

Quality control methodology for high-throughput protein-protein interaction screening.

Science.gov (United States)

Vazquez, Alexei; Rual, Jean-François; Venkatesan, Kavitha

2011-01-01

Protein-protein interactions are key to many aspects of the cell, including its cytoskeletal structure, the signaling processes in which it is involved, or its metabolism. Failure to form protein complexes or signaling cascades may sometimes translate into pathologic conditions such as cancer or neurodegenerative diseases. The set of all protein interactions between the proteins encoded by an organism constitutes its protein interaction network, representing a scaffold for biological function. Knowing the protein interaction network of an organism, combined with other sources of biological information, can unravel fundamental biological circuits and may help better understand the molecular basics of human diseases. The protein interaction network of an organism can be mapped by combining data obtained from both low-throughput screens, i.e., "one gene at a time" experiments and high-throughput screens, i.e., screens designed to interrogate large sets of proteins at once. In either case, quality controls are required to deal with the inherent imperfect nature of experimental assays. In this chapter, we discuss experimental and statistical methodologies to quantify error rates in high-throughput protein-protein interactions screens.

Improving data quality and supervision of antiretroviral therapy sites in Malawi: an application of Lot Quality Assurance Sampling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hedt-Gauthier Bethany L

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background High quality program data is critical for managing, monitoring, and evaluating national HIV treatment programs. By 2009, the Malawi Ministry of Health had initiated more than 270,000 patients on HIV treatment at 377 sites. Quarterly supervision of these antiretroviral therapy (ART sites ensures high quality care, but the time currently dedicated to exhaustive record review and data cleaning detracts from other critical components. The exhaustive record review is unlikely to be sustainable long term because of the resources required and increasing number of patients on ART. This study quantifies the current levels of data quality and evaluates Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS as a tool to prioritize sites with low data quality, thus lowering costs while maintaining sufficient quality for program monitoring and patient care. Methods In January 2010, a study team joined supervision teams at 19 sites purposely selected to reflect the variety of ART sites. During the exhaustive data review, the time allocated to data cleaning and data discrepancies were documented. The team then randomly sampled 76 records from each site, recording secondary outcomes and the time required for sampling. Results At the 19 sites, only 1.2% of records had discrepancies in patient outcomes and 0.4% in treatment regimen. However, data cleaning took 28.5 hours in total, suggesting that data cleaning for all 377 ART sites would require over 350 supervision-hours quarterly. The LQAS tool accurately identified the sites with the low data quality, reduced the time for data cleaning by 70%, and allowed for reporting on secondary outcomes. Conclusions Most sites maintained high quality records. In spite of this, data cleaning required significant amounts of time with little effect on program estimates of patient outcomes. LQAS conserves resources while maintaining sufficient data quality for program assessment and management to allow for quality patient

Improving data quality and supervision of antiretroviral therapy sites in Malawi: an application of Lot Quality Assurance Sampling.

Science.gov (United States)

Hedt-Gauthier, Bethany L; Tenthani, Lyson; Mitchell, Shira; Chimbwandira, Frank M; Makombe, Simon; Chirwa, Zengani; Schouten, Erik J; Pagano, Marcello; Jahn, Andreas

2012-07-09

High quality program data is critical for managing, monitoring, and evaluating national HIV treatment programs. By 2009, the Malawi Ministry of Health had initiated more than 270,000 patients on HIV treatment at 377 sites. Quarterly supervision of these antiretroviral therapy (ART) sites ensures high quality care, but the time currently dedicated to exhaustive record review and data cleaning detracts from other critical components. The exhaustive record review is unlikely to be sustainable long term because of the resources required and increasing number of patients on ART. This study quantifies the current levels of data quality and evaluates Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) as a tool to prioritize sites with low data quality, thus lowering costs while maintaining sufficient quality for program monitoring and patient care. In January 2010, a study team joined supervision teams at 19 sites purposely selected to reflect the variety of ART sites. During the exhaustive data review, the time allocated to data cleaning and data discrepancies were documented. The team then randomly sampled 76 records from each site, recording secondary outcomes and the time required for sampling. At the 19 sites, only 1.2% of records had discrepancies in patient outcomes and 0.4% in treatment regimen. However, data cleaning took 28.5 hours in total, suggesting that data cleaning for all 377 ART sites would require over 350 supervision-hours quarterly. The LQAS tool accurately identified the sites with the low data quality, reduced the time for data cleaning by 70%, and allowed for reporting on secondary outcomes. Most sites maintained high quality records. In spite of this, data cleaning required significant amounts of time with little effect on program estimates of patient outcomes. LQAS conserves resources while maintaining sufficient data quality for program assessment and management to allow for quality patient care.

Characterizing the "Time of Emergence" of Air Quality Climate Penalties

Science.gov (United States)

Rothenberg, D. A.; Garcia-Menendez, F.; Monier, E.; Solomon, S.; Selin, N. E.

2017-12-01

By driving not only local changes in temperature, but also precipitation and regional-scale changes in seasonal circulation patterns, climate change can directly and indirectly influence changes in air quality and its extremes. These changes - often referred to as "climate penalties" - can have important implications for human health, which is often targeted when assessing the potential co-benefits of climate policy. But because climate penalties are driven by slow, spatially-varying, temporal changes in the climate system, their emergence in the real world should also have a spatio-temporal component following regional variability in background air quality. In this work, we attempt to estimate the spatially-varying "time of emergence" of climate penalty signals by using an ensemble modeling framework based on the MIT Integrated Global System Model (MIT IGSM). With this framework we assess three climate policy scenarios assuming three different underlying climate sensitivities, and conduct a 5-member ensemble for each case to capture internal variability within the model. These simulations are used to drive offline chemical transport modeling (using CAM-Chem and GEOS-Chem). In these simulations, we find that the air quality response to climate change can vary dramatically across different regions of the globe. To analyze these regionally-varying climate signals, we employ a hierarchical clustering technique to identify regions with similar seasonal patterns of air quality change. Our simulations suggest that the earliest emergence of ozone climate penalties would occur in Southern Europe (by 2035), should the world neglect climate change and rely on a "business-as-usual" emissions policy. However, even modest climate policy dramatically pushes back the time of emergence of these penalties - to beyond 2100 - across most of the globe. The emergence of climate-forced changes in PM2.5 are much more difficult to detect, partially owing to the large role that changes in

High quality ceramic coatings sprayed by high efficiency hypersonic plasma spraying gun

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu Sheng; Xu Binshi; Yao JiuKun

2005-01-01

This paper introduced the structure of the high efficiency hypersonic plasma spraying gun and the effects of hypersonic plasma jet on the sprayed particles. The optimised spraying process parameters for several ceramic powders such as Al 2 O 3 , Cr 2 O 3 , ZrO 2 , Cr 3 C 2 and Co-WC were listed. The properties and microstructure of the sprayed ceramic coatings were investigated. Nano Al 2 O 3 -TiO 2 ceramic coating sprayed by using the high efficiency hypersonic plasma spraying was also studied. Compared with the conventional air plasma spraying, high efficiency hypersonic plasma spraying improves greatly the ceramic coatings quality but at low cost. (orig.)

Initial clinical experience with a 64-MDCT whole-body scanner in an emergency department: better time management and diagnostic quality?

Science.gov (United States)

Rieger, Michael; Czermak, Benedikt; El Attal, Rene; Sumann, Günther; Jaschke, Werner; Freund, Martin

2009-03-01

The objective of this study was to assess time management and diagnostic quality when using a 64-multidetector-row computed tomography (MDCT) whole-body scanner to evaluate polytraumatized patients in an emergency department. Eighty-eight consecutive polytraumatized patients with injury severity score (ISS) > or = 18 (mean ISS = 29) were included in this study. Documented and evaluated data were crash history, trauma mechanism, number and pattern of injuries, injury severity, diagnostics, time flow, and missed diagnoses. Data were stored in our hospital information system. Seven time intervals were evaluated. In particular, attention was paid to the "acquisition interval," the "reformatting and evaluation time" as well as the "CT time" (time from CT start to preliminary diagnosis). A standardized whole-body CT was performed. The acquired CT data together with automatically generated multiplanar reformatted images ("direct MPR") were transferred to a 3D rendering workstation. Diagnostic quality was determined on the basis of missed diagnoses. Head-to-toe scout images were possible because volume coverage was up to 2 m. Experienced radiologists at an affiliated workstation performed radiologic evaluation of the acquired datasets immediately after acquisition. The "acquisition interval" was 12 minutes +/- 4.9 minutes, the "reformatting and evaluation interval" 7.0 minutes +/- 2.1 minutes, and the "CT time" 19 minutes +/- 6.1 minutes. Altogether, 7 of 486 lesions were recognized but not communicated in the "reformatting and evaluation interval", and 10 injuries were initially missed and detected during follow-up. This study indicates that 64-MDCT saves time, especially in the "reformatting and evaluation interval." Diagnostic quality is high, as reflected by the small number of missed diagnoses.

High quality electron beams from a laser wakefield accelerator

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wiggins, S M; Issac, R C; Welsh, G H; Brunetti, E; Shanks, R P; Anania, M P; Cipiccia, S; Manahan, G G; Aniculaesei, C; Ersfeld, B; Islam, M R; Burgess, R T L; Vieux, G; Jaroszynski, D A [SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (United Kingdom); Gillespie, W A [SUPA, Division of Electronic Engineering and Physics, University of Dundee, Dundee (United Kingdom); MacLeod, A M [School of Computing and Creative Technologies, University of Abertay Dundee, Dundee (United Kingdom); Van der Geer, S B; De Loos, M J, E-mail: m.wiggins@phys.strath.ac.u [Pulsar Physics, Burghstraat 47, 5614 BC Eindhoven (Netherlands)

2010-12-15

High quality electron beams have been produced in a laser-plasma accelerator driven by femtosecond laser pulses with a peak power of 26 TW. Electrons are produced with an energy up to 150 MeV from the 2 mm gas jet accelerator and the measured rms relative energy spread is less than 1%. Shot-to-shot stability in the central energy is 3%. Pepper-pot measurements have shown that the normalized transverse emittance is {approx}1{pi} mm mrad while the beam charge is in the range 2-10 pC. The generation of high quality electron beams is understood from simulations accounting for beam loading of the wakefield accelerating structure. Experiments and self-consistent simulations indicate that the beam peak current is several kiloamperes. Efficient transportation of the beam through an undulator is simulated and progress is being made towards the realization of a compact, high peak brilliance free-electron laser operating in the vacuum ultraviolet and soft x-ray wavelength ranges.

Isolation of high-quality total RNA from leaves of Myrciaria dubia "CAMU CAMU".

Science.gov (United States)

Gómez, Juan Carlos Castro; Reátegui, Alina Del Carmen Egoavil; Flores, Julián Torres; Saavedra, Roberson Ramírez; Ruiz, Marianela Cobos; Correa, Sixto Alfredo Imán

2013-01-01

Myrciaria dubia is a main source of vitamin C for people in the Amazon region. Molecular studies of M. dubia require high-quality total RNA from different tissues. So far, no protocols have been reported for total RNA isolation from leaves of this species. The objective of this research was to develop protocols for extracting high-quality total RNA from leaves of M. dubia. Total RNA was purified following two modified protocols developed for leaves of other species (by Zeng and Yang, and by Reid et al.) and one modified protocol developed for fruits of the studied species (by Silva). Quantity and quality of purified total RNA were assessed by spectrophotometric and electrophoretic analysis. Additionally, quality of total RNA was evaluated with reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). With these three modified protocols we were able to isolate high-quality RNA (A260nm/A280nm >1.9 and A260nm/A230nm >2.0). Highest yield was produced with the Zeng and Yang modified protocol (384±46µg ARN/g fresh weight). Furthermore, electrophoretic analysis showed the integrity of isolated RNA and the absence of DNA. Another proof of the high quality of our purified RNA was the successful cDNA synthesis and amplification of a segment of the M. dubia actin 1 gene. We report three modified protocols for isolation total RNA from leaves of M. dubia. The modified protocols are easy, rapid, low in cost, and effective for high-quality and quantity total RNA isolation suitable for cDNA synthesis and polymerase chain reaction.

Real-time shadows

CERN Document Server

Eisemann, Elmar; Assarsson, Ulf; Wimmer, Michael

2011-01-01

Important elements of games, movies, and other computer-generated content, shadows are crucial for enhancing realism and providing important visual cues. In recent years, there have been notable improvements in visual quality and speed, making high-quality realistic real-time shadows a reachable goal. Real-Time Shadows is a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of real-time shadow techniques. It covers a large variety of different effects, including hard, soft, volumetric, and semi-transparent shadows.The book explains the basics as well as many advanced aspects related to the domain

The ecology of the patient visit: physical attractiveness, waiting times, and perceived quality of care.

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, Franklin; Douglass, Stephanie

2008-01-01

This study examined the relationship between the attractiveness of the physical environment of healthcare facilities and patient perceptions of quality, service, and waiting time through systematic observations and patient satisfaction surveys at 7 outpatient practices at Weill Cornell Medical Center. Findings indicate positive correlations between more attractive environments and higher levels of perceived quality, satisfaction, staff interaction, and reduction of patient anxiety. The comparison of actual observed time and patients' perception of time showed that patients tend to overestimate shorter waiting times and underestimate longer waiting times in both the waiting area and the examination room. Further examinations of the way outpatient-practice environments impact patient and staff perceptions and how those perceptions impact behavior and medical outcomes are suggested.

Negative Binomial charts for monitoring high-quality processes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Albers, Willem/Wim

Good control charts for high quality processes are often based on the number of successes between failures. Geometric charts are simplest in this respect, but slow in recognizing moderately increased failure rates p. Improvement can be achieved by waiting until r > 1 failures have occurred, i.e. by

Derivation of the scan time requirement for maintaining a consistent PET image quality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Jin Su; Lee, Jae Sung; Kim, Seok-Ki

2015-01-01

Objectives: the image quality of PET for larger patients is relatively poor, even though the injection dose is optimized considering the NECR characteristics of the PET scanner. This poor image quality is due to the lower level of maximum NECR that can be achieved in these large patients. The aim of this study was to optimize the PET scan time to obtain a consistent PET image quality regardless of the body size, based on the relationship between the patient specific NECR (pNECR) and body weight. Methods: eighty patients (M/F=53/27, body weight: 059 ± 1 kg) underwent whole-body FDG PET scans using a Philips GEMINI GS PET/CT scanner after an injection of 0.14 mCi/kg FDG. The relationship between the scatter fraction (SF) and body weight was determined by repeated Monte Carlo simulations using a NEMA scatter phantom, the size of which varied according to the relationship between the abdominal circumference and body weight. Using this information, the pNECR was calculated from the prompt and delayed PET sinograms to obtain the prediction equation of NECR vs. body weight. The time scaling factor (F TS ) for the scan duration was finally derived to make PET images with equivalent SNR levels. Results: the SF and NECR had the following nonlinear relationships with the body weight: SF=0.15 ⋅ body weight 0.3 and NECR = 421.36 (body weight) −0.84 . The equation derived for F TS was 0.01⋅ body weight + 0.2, which means that, for example, a 120-kg person should be scanned 1.8 times longer than a 70 kg person, or the scan time for a 40-kg person can be reduced by 30%. Conclusion: the equation of the relative time demand derived in this study will be useful for maintaining consistent PET image quality in clinics

IMPACT OF RESILIENCE, ICT SUPPORT AND QUALITY OF STUDENT'S LIFE ON QUALITY OF HIGH EDUCATION PROCESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zorica Lazic

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Answers to the questions of how and in what way the quality of life of students, resilience and ICT support affects the quality of high education we will get through this work where main objective is to define a network of processes and process management ensuring more quality and more innovative managing and service provision, therefore satisfying the needs of service users - in this case the students of the university. To collect the relevant data in the thematic analysis of this paper, the method of interviewing by questionnaires was applied. The sample survey was conducted among undergraduate students, teachers and staff of the Teacher Training Faculty in Uzice.

Quality Saving Mechanisms of Mitochondria during Aging in a Fully Time-Dependent Computational Biophysical Model.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Mellem

Full Text Available Mitochondria are essential for the energy production of eukaryotic cells. During aging mitochondria run through various processes which change their quality in terms of activity, health and metabolic supply. In recent years, many of these processes such as fission and fusion of mitochondria, mitophagy, mitochondrial biogenesis and energy consumption have been subject of research. Based on numerous experimental insights, it was possible to qualify mitochondrial behaviour in computational simulations. Here, we present a new biophysical model based on the approach of Figge et al. in 2012. We introduce exponential decay and growth laws for each mitochondrial process to derive its time-dependent probability during the aging of cells. All mitochondrial processes of the original model are mathematically and biophysically redefined and additional processes are implemented: Mitochondrial fission and fusion is separated into a metabolic outer-membrane part and a protein-related inner-membrane part, a quality-dependent threshold for mitophagy and mitochondrial biogenesis is introduced and processes for activity-dependent internal oxidative stress as well as mitochondrial repair mechanisms are newly included. Our findings reveal a decrease of mitochondrial quality and a fragmentation of the mitochondrial network during aging. Additionally, the model discloses a quality increasing mechanism due to the interplay of the mitophagy and biogenesis cycle and the fission and fusion cycle of mitochondria. It is revealed that decreased mitochondrial repair can be a quality saving process in aged cells. Furthermore, the model finds strategies to sustain the quality of the mitochondrial network in cells with high production rates of reactive oxygen species due to large energy demands. Hence, the model adds new insights to biophysical mechanisms of mitochondrial aging and provides novel understandings of the interdependency of mitochondrial processes.

Multi-Fresnel lenses pumping approach for improving high-power Nd:YAG solar laser beam quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Dawei; Almeida, Joana

2013-07-20

To significantly improve the present-day high-power solar laser beam quality, a three-stage multi-Fresnel lenses approach is proposed for side-pumping either a Nd:YAG single-crystal or a core-doped Sm(3+)Nd:YAG ceramic rod. Optimum pumping and laser beam parameters are found through ZEMAX and LASCAD numerical analysis. The proposed scheme offers a uniform absorption profile along the rod. 167 W laser power can be achieved, corresponding to 29.3 W/m(2) collection efficiency. High brightness figure of merit of 8.34 W is expected for the core-doped rod within a convex-concave resonator, which is 1300 times higher than that of the most-recent high-power solar laser.

How Wastes Influence Quality Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gratiela Dana BOCA

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Companies are often surprised to learn that only a fraction of their activities actually add value for their customers. A primary cause of waste is information deficits – employees simply lack the knowledge they need to do their jobs efficiently and effectively. This leads employees to waste valuable time and motion searching, waiting, retrieving, reworking or just plain future action. Companies are able to respond to changing customer desires with high variety, high quality, low cost, and with very fast throughput times. Eliminating waste along entire value streams, instead of at isolated points, creates processes that need less human effort, less space, less capital, and less time to make products and services at far less costs and with much fewer defects, compared with traditional business systems. Companies are able to respond to changing customer desires with high variety, high quality, low cost, and with very fast throughput times.

Towards a high quality high school workforce: A longitudinal, demographic analysis of U.S. public school physics teachers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gregory T. Rushton

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Efforts to improve the number and quality of the high school physics teaching workforce have taken several forms, including those sponsored by professional organizations. Using a series of large-scale teacher demographic data sets from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, this study sought to investigate trends in teacher quality at the national level in the two and a half decades between 1987 and 2012. Specifically, we investigated (i details about the degree backgrounds, main teaching assignments, and experience levels of those assigned to teach physics; (ii whether the proportion of those with certifications in physics as a fraction of the entire physics teaching workforce had changed; and (iii if workforce diversity (with respect to race and gender had changed over time. Our data indicate that trends in these domains have generally been positive, but still fall short of having a highly qualified physics teacher in each classroom. Additionally, the population of physics teachers has more novices and fewer veterans than it did 10 years ago, although veteran physics teachers are not as rare as those in other branches of high school STEM fields. We also analyzed trends in physics teacher race and gender diversity and found them to lag behind other STEM and non-STEM teacher communities. High school physics is still mostly taught by white males with backgrounds from outside of physics. Implications for future policy decisions at the local and national levels are discussed, including attending to the specific needs of degree-holding and non-degree-holding physics teachers separately and localizing teacher recruitment and preparation efforts in regional centers.

Towards a high quality high school workforce: A longitudinal, demographic analysis of U.S. public school physics teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Rushton, Gregory T.; Rosengrant, David; Dewar, Andrew; Shah, Lisa; Ray, Herman E.; Sheppard, Keith; Watanabe, Lynn

2017-12-01

Efforts to improve the number and quality of the high school physics teaching workforce have taken several forms, including those sponsored by professional organizations. Using a series of large-scale teacher demographic data sets from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), this study sought to investigate trends in teacher quality at the national level in the two and a half decades between 1987 and 2012. Specifically, we investigated (i) details about the degree backgrounds, main teaching assignments, and experience levels of those assigned to teach physics; (ii) whether the proportion of those with certifications in physics as a fraction of the entire physics teaching workforce had changed; and (iii) if workforce diversity (with respect to race and gender) had changed over time. Our data indicate that trends in these domains have generally been positive, but still fall short of having a highly qualified physics teacher in each classroom. Additionally, the population of physics teachers has more novices and fewer veterans than it did 10 years ago, although veteran physics teachers are not as rare as those in other branches of high school STEM fields. We also analyzed trends in physics teacher race and gender diversity and found them to lag behind other STEM and non-STEM teacher communities. High school physics is still mostly taught by white males with backgrounds from outside of physics. Implications for future policy decisions at the local and national levels are discussed, including attending to the specific needs of degree-holding and non-degree-holding physics teachers separately and localizing teacher recruitment and preparation efforts in regional centers.

Applications of optical sensors for high-frequency water-quality monitoring and research

Science.gov (United States)

Pellerin, Brian

2015-01-01

The recent commercial availability of in-situ optical sensors, together with new techniques for data collection and analysis, provides the opportunity to monitor a wide range of water-quality constituents over time scales during which environmental conditions actually change. Traditional approaches for data collection (daily to monthly discrete samples) are often limited by high sample collection, processing, and analytical costs, difficult site access, and logistical challenges, particularly for long-term sampling at a large number of sites. Optical sensors that continuously measure constituents in the environment by absorbance or fluorescence properties (Figure 1) have had a long history of use in oceanography for measuring highly resolved concentrations and fluxes of organic matter, nutrients, and algal material. However, much of the work using commercially-available optical sensors in rivers and streams has taken place in only the last few years. Figure 1. [NOT SHOWN] Optical sensor technology is now sufficiently developed to warrant broader application for research and monitoring in coastal and freshwater systems, and the United States Geological Survey (a U.S. science agency) is now using these sensors in a variety of research and monitoring programs to better understand water quality in-situ and in real-time. Examples are numerous and range from the applications of nitrate sensors for calculating loads to estuaries susceptible to hypoxia (Pellerin et al., 2014) to the use of fluorometers to estimate methymercury fluxes (Bergamaschi et al., 2011) and disinfection byproduct formation (Carpenter et al., 2013). Transmitting these data in real-time provides information that can be used for early trend detection, help identify monitoring gaps critical for water management, and provide science-based decision support across a range of issues related to water quality, freshwater ecosystems, and human health. Despite the value of these sensors, collecting data that

[A Quality Assurance (QA) System with a Web Camera for High-dose-rate Brachytherapy].

Science.gov (United States)

Hirose, Asako; Ueda, Yoshihiro; Oohira, Shingo; Isono, Masaru; Tsujii, Katsutomo; Inui, Shouki; Masaoka, Akira; Taniguchi, Makoto; Miyazaki, Masayoshi; Teshima, Teruki

2016-03-01

The quality assurance (QA) system that simultaneously quantifies the position and duration of an (192)Ir source (dwell position and time) was developed and the performance of this system was evaluated in high-dose-rate brachytherapy. This QA system has two functions to verify and quantify dwell position and time by using a web camera. The web camera records 30 images per second in a range from 1,425 mm to 1,505 mm. A user verifies the source position from the web camera at real time. The source position and duration were quantified with the movie using in-house software which was applied with a template-matching technique. This QA system allowed verification of the absolute position in real time and quantification of dwell position and time simultaneously. It was evident from the verification of the system that the mean of step size errors was 0.31±0.1 mm and that of dwell time errors 0.1±0.0 s. Absolute position errors can be determined with an accuracy of 1.0 mm at all dwell points in three step sizes and dwell time errors with an accuracy of 0.1% in more than 10.0 s of the planned time. This system is to provide quick verification and quantification of the dwell position and time with high accuracy at various dwell positions without depending on the step size.

A quality assurance (QA) system with a web camera for high-dose-rate brachytherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirose, Asako; Ueda, Yoshihiro; Ohira, Shingo

2016-01-01

The quality assurance (QA) system that simultaneously quantifies the position and duration of an 192 Ir source (dwell position and time) was developed and the performance of this system was evaluated in high-dose-rate brachytherapy. This QA system has two functions to verify and quantify dwell position and time by using a web camera. The web camera records 30 images per second in a range from 1,425 mm to 1,505 mm. A user verifies the source position from the web camera at real time. The source position and duration were quantified with the movie using in-house software which was applied with a template-matching technique. This QA system allowed verification of the absolute position in real time and quantification of dwell position and time simultaneously. It was evident from the verification of the system that the mean of step size errors was 0.3±0.1 mm and that of dwell time errors 0.1 ± 0.0 s. Absolute position errors can be determined with an accuracy of 1.0 mm at all dwell points in three step sizes and dwell time errors with an accuracy of 0.1% in more than 10.0 s of the planned time. This system is to provide quick verification and quantification of the dwell position and time with high accuracy at various dwell positions without depending on the step size. (author)

A High-Precision Control for a ZVT PWM Soft-Switching Inverter to Eliminate the Dead-Time Effect

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baoquan Kou

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Attributing to the advantages of high efficiency, low electromagnetic interference (EMI noise and closest to the pulse-width-modulation (PWM converter counterpart, zero-voltage-transition (ZVT PWM soft-switching inverters are very suitable for high-performance applications. However, the conventional control algorithms intended for high efficiency generally results in voltage distortion. Thus, this paper, for the first time, proposes a high-precision control method to eliminate the dead-time effect through controlling the auxiliary current in the auxiliary resonant snubber inverter (ARSI, which is a typical ZVT PWM inverter. The dead-time effect of ARSI is analyzed, which is distinguished from hard-switching inverters. The proposed high-precision control is introduced based on the investigation of dead-time effect. A prototype was developed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control. The experimental results shows that the total harmonic distortion (THD of the output current of the ARSI can be reduced compared with that of the hard-switching inverter, because the blanking delay error is eliminated. The quality of the output current and voltage can be further improved by utilizing the proposed control method.

Learning Disabilities and Achieving High-Quality Education Standards

Science.gov (United States)

Gartland, Debi; Strosnider, Roberta

2017-01-01

This is an official document of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD), of which Council for Learning Disabilities is a long-standing, active member. With this position paper, NJCLD advocates for the implementation of high-quality education standards (HQES) for students with learning disabilities (LD) and outlines the…

CCD Astrophotography High-Quality Imaging from the Suburbs

CERN Document Server

Stuart, Adam

2006-01-01

This is a reference book for amateur astronomers who have become interested in CCD imaging. Those glorious astronomical images found in astronomy magazines might seem out of reach to newcomers to CCD imaging, but this is not the case. Great pictures are attainable with modest equipment. Adam Stuart’s many beautiful images, reproduced in this book, attest to the quality of – initially – a beginner’s efforts. Chilled-chip astronomical CCD-cameras and software are also wonderful tools for cutting through seemingly impenetrable light-pollution. CCD Astrophotography from the Suburbs describes one man’s successful approach to the problem of getting high-quality astronomical images under some of the most light-polluted conditions. Here is a complete and thoroughly tested program that will help every CCD-beginner to work towards digital imaging of the highest quality. It is equally useful to astronomers who have perfect observing conditions, as to those who have to observe from light-polluted city skies.

Measuring Gait Quality in Parkinson’s Disease through Real-Time Gait Phase Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ilaria Mileti

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Monitoring gait quality in daily activities through wearable sensors has the potential to improve medical assessment in Parkinson’s Disease (PD. In this study, four gait partitioning methods, two based on thresholds and two based on a machine learning approach, considering the four-phase model, were compared. The methods were tested on 26 PD patients, both in OFF and ON levodopa conditions, and 11 healthy subjects, during walking tasks. All subjects were equipped with inertial sensors placed on feet. Force resistive sensors were used to assess reference time sequence of gait phases. Goodness Index (G was evaluated to assess accuracy in gait phases estimation. A novel synthetic index called Gait Phase Quality Index (GPQI was proposed for gait quality assessment. Results revealed optimum performance (G < 0.25 for three tested methods and good performance (0.25 < G < 0.70 for one threshold method. The GPQI resulted significantly higher in PD patients than in healthy subjects, showing a moderate correlation with clinical scales score. Furthermore, in patients with severe gait impairment, GPQI was found higher in OFF than in ON state. Our results unveil the possibility of monitoring gait quality in PD through real-time gait partitioning based on wearable sensors.

The influence of knowledge management implementation toward the quality of high schools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hilda Ainissyifa

2012-09-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of knowledge management implementation toward the quality of high schools. This study was conducted among five high schools under an education foundation. The analysis models used in the study were correlation analysis and t-test. The respondents were used as the profession references are 86 teachers. The result of the study shows that knowledge management implementation has a positive and significant influence toward the quality of high schools.

Boiling curve in high quality flow boiling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shiralkar, B.S.; Hein, R.A.; Yadigaroglu, G.

1980-01-01

The post dry-out heat transfer regime of the flow boiling curve was investigated experimentally for high pressure water at high qualities. The test section was a short round tube located downstream of a hot patch created by a temperature controlled segment of tubing. Results from the experiment showed that the distance from the dryout point has a significant effect on the downstream temperatures and there was no unique boiling curve. The heat transfer coefficients measured sufficiently downstream of the dryout point could be correlated using the Heineman correlation for superheated steam, indicating that the droplet deposition effects could be neglected in this region

Just-in-Time Compound Pooling Increases Primary Screening Capacity without Compromising Screening Quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Elkin, L L; Harden, D G; Saldanha, S; Ferguson, H; Cheney, D L; Pieniazek, S N; Maloney, D P; Zewinski, J; O'Connell, J; Banks, M

2015-06-01

Compound pooling, or multiplexing more than one compound per well during primary high-throughput screening (HTS), is a controversial approach with a long history of limited success. Many issues with this approach likely arise from long-term storage of library plates containing complex mixtures of compounds at high concentrations. Due to the historical difficulties with using multiplexed library plates, primary HTS often uses a one-compound-one-well approach. However, as compound collections grow, innovative strategies are required to increase the capacity of primary screening campaigns. Toward this goal, we have developed a novel compound pooling method that increases screening capacity without compromising data quality. This method circumvents issues related to the long-term storage of complex compound mixtures by using acoustic dispensing to enable "just-in-time" compound pooling directly in the assay well immediately prior to assay. Using this method, we can pool two compounds per well, effectively doubling the capacity of a primary screen. Here, we present data from pilot studies using just-in-time pooling, as well as data from a large >2-million-compound screen using this approach. These data suggest that, for many targets, this method can be used to vastly increase screening capacity without significant reduction in the ability to detect screening hits. © 2015 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

Dual-Readout Calorimetry for High-Quality Energy Measurements. Final Report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wigmans, Richard; Nural, Akchurin

2013-01-01

This document constitutes the final report on the project Dual-Readout Calorimetry for High-Quality Energy Measurements. The project was carried out by a consortium of US and Italian physicists, led by Dr. Richard Wigmans (Texas tech University). This consortium built several particle detectors and tested these at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. The idea arose to use scintillating crystals as dual-readout calorimeters. Such crystals were of course already known to provide excellent energy resolution for the detection of particles developing electromagnetic (em) showers. The efforts to separate the signals from scintillating crystals into scintillation and Cerenkov components led to four different methods by which this could be accomplished. These methods are based on a) the directionality, b) spectral differences, c) the time structure, and d) the polarization of the signals

CBE growth of high-quality ZnO epitaxial layers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

El-Shaer, A.; Bakin, A.; Mofor, A.C.; Kreye, M.; Waag, A. [Institute of Semiconductor Technology, Technical University Braunschweig, Hans-Sommer-Strasse 66, 38106 Braunschweig (Germany); Blaesing, J.; Krost, A. [Institute of Experimental Physics, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg (Germany); Stoimenos, J. [Physics Department, Aristotele University, Univ. Campus, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece); Pecz, B. [Research Institute for Technical Physics and Materials Science, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 49, 1525 Budapest (Hungary); Heuken, M. [Aixtron AG, Kackertstr. 15-17, 52072 Aachen (Germany)

2006-03-15

Further improvements on the recently reported novel approach to zinc oxide Chemical Beam Epitaxy (CBE) are presented. Hydrogen peroxide is employed as a very efficient novel oxidant. ZnO layers with a thickness from 100 nm to 600 nm were grown on c-sapphire using a MgO buffer. PL-mapping as well as conductivity mapping shows a good uniformity across the 2 inch ZnO-on-sapphire epiwafers. The measured surface roughness for the best layers is as low as 0.26 nm. HRXRD measurements of the obtained ZnO layers show excellent quality of the single crystalline ZnO. The FWHM of the HRXRD (0002) rocking curves measured for the 2 inch ZnO-on-sapphire wafers is as low as 27 arcsec with a very high lateral homogeneity across the whole wafer. Plane view HRTEM observations reveal the very good quality of the ZnO films. The results indicate that CBE is a suitable technique to fabricate ZnO of very high structural quality, which can eventually be used as an alternative to bulk ZnO substrates. (copyright 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)

High-intensity Interval Training Frequency: Cardiometabolic Effects and Quality of Life.

Science.gov (United States)

Stavrinou, Pinelopi S; Bogdanis, Gregory C; Giannaki, Christoforos D; Terzis, Gerasimos; Hadjicharalambous, Marios

2018-02-01

The effects of high intensity interval training (HIIT) frequency on cardiometabolic health and quality of life were examined in 35 healthy inactive adults (age: 31.7±2.6 yrs, VO 2 peak: 32.7±7.4 ml·: kg -1 ·: min -1 ). Participants were randomly assigned to a control (CON) and two training groups, which performed 10×60-s cycling at ~83% of peak power, two (HIIT-2) or three times per week (HIIT-3) for eight weeks. Compared with CON, both training regimes resulted in similar improvements in VO 2 peak (HIIT-2: 10.8%, p=0.048, HIIT-3: 13.6%, p=0.017), waist circumference (HIIT-2: -1.4 cm, p=0.048, HIIT-3: -2.4 cm, p=0.028), thigh cross-sectional area (HIIT-2: 11.4 cm 2 , p=0.001, HIIT-3: 9.3 cm 2 , p=0.001) and the physical health component of quality of life (HIIT-2: 8.4, p=0.001, HIIT-3: 12.2, p=0.001). However, HIIT-3 conferred additional health-related benefits by reducing total body and trunk fat percentage (pHIIT only twice per week is effective in promoting cardiometabolic health-related adaptations and quality of life in inactive adults. However, higher HIIT frequency is required for an effect on fat deposits, cholesterol and mental component of well-being. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Assessment of Real-Time Compaction Quality Test Indexes for Rockfill Material Based on Roller Vibratory Acceleration Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tianbo Hua

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Compaction quality is directly related to the structure and seepage stability of a rockfill dam. To timely and accurately test the compaction quality of the rockfill material, four real-time test indexes were chosen to characterize the soil compaction degree based on the analysis of roller vibratory acceleration, including acceleration peak value (ap, acceleration root mean square value (arms, crest factor value (CF, and compaction meter value (CMV. To determine which of these indexes is the most appropriate, a two-part field compaction experiment was conducted using a vibratory roller in different filling zones of the dam body. Data on rolling parameters, real-time test indexes, and compaction quality indexes were collected to perform statistical regression analyses. Combined with the spectrum analysis of the acceleration signal, it was found that the CF index best characterizes the compaction degree of the rockfill material among the four indexes. Furthermore, the quantitative relations between the real-time index and compaction quality index were established to determine the control criterion of CF, which can instruct the site work of compaction quality control in the rockfill rolling process.

High quality factor GaAs microcavity with buried bullseye defects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Winkler, K.; Gregersen, Niels; Hayrynen, T.

2018-01-01

The development of high quality factor solid-state microcavities with low mode volumes has paved the way towards on-chip cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments and the development of high-performance nanophotonic devices. Here, we report on the implementation of a new kind of solid...

Real-time dissemination of air quality information using data streams and Web technologies: linking air quality to health risks in urban areas.

Science.gov (United States)

Davila, Silvije; Ilić, Jadranka Pečar; Bešlić, Ivan

2015-06-01

This article presents a new, original application of modern information and communication technology to provide effective real-time dissemination of air quality information and related health risks to the general public. Our on-line subsystem for urban real-time air quality monitoring is a crucial component of a more comprehensive integrated information system, which has been developed by the Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health. It relies on a StreamInsight data stream management system and service-oriented architecture to process data streamed from seven monitoring stations across Zagreb. Parameters that are monitored include gases (NO, NO2, CO, O3, H2S, SO2, benzene, NH3), particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), and meteorological data (wind speed and direction, temperature and pressure). Streamed data are processed in real-time using complex continuous queries. They first go through automated validation, then hourly air quality index is calculated for every station, and a report sent to the Croatian Environment Agency. If the parameter values exceed the corresponding regulation limits for three consecutive hours, the web service generates an alert for population groups at risk. Coupled with the Common Air Quality Index model, our web application brings air pollution information closer to the general population and raises awareness about environmental and health issues. Soon we intend to expand the service to a mobile application that is being developed.

Low-cost high-quality crystalline germanium based flexible devices

KAUST Repository

Nassar, Joanna M.

2014-06-16

High performance flexible electronics promise innovative future technology for various interactive applications for the pursuit of low-cost, light-weight, and multi-functional devices. Thus, here we show a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible fabrication of flexible metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors (MOSCAPs) with high-κ/metal gate stack, using a physical vapor deposition (PVD) cost-effective technique to obtain a high-quality Ge channel. We report outstanding bending radius ~1.25 mm and semi-transparency of 30%.

Low-cost high-quality crystalline germanium based flexible devices

KAUST Repository

Nassar, Joanna M.; Hussain, Aftab M.; Rojas, Jhonathan Prieto; Hussain, Muhammad Mustafa

2014-01-01

High performance flexible electronics promise innovative future technology for various interactive applications for the pursuit of low-cost, light-weight, and multi-functional devices. Thus, here we show a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible fabrication of flexible metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors (MOSCAPs) with high-κ/metal gate stack, using a physical vapor deposition (PVD) cost-effective technique to obtain a high-quality Ge channel. We report outstanding bending radius ~1.25 mm and semi-transparency of 30%.

Quality characteristics of Moroccan sweet paprika (Capsicum annuum L. at different sampling times

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naima Zaki

2013-09-01

Full Text Available "La Niora" is a red pepper variety cultivated in Tadla Region (Morocco which is used for manufacturing paprika after sun drying. The paprika quality (nutritional, chemical and microbiological was evaluated immediately after milling, from September to December. Sampling time mainly affected paprika color and the total capsaicinoid and vitamin C contents. The commercial quality was acceptable and no aflatoxins were found, but the microbial load sometimes exceeded permitted levels.

Study on quality assurance for high-level radioactive waste disposal project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takada, Susumu

2005-01-01

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has developed comparatively detailed quality assurance requirements for the high-level radioactive waste disposal systems. Quality assurance is recognized as a key issue for confidence building and smooth implementation of the HLW program in Japan, and Japan is at an initial phase of repository development. Then the quality assurance requirements at site research and site selection, site characterization, and site suitability analysis used in the Yucca Mountain project were examined in detail and comprehensive descriptions were developed using flow charts. Additionally, the applicability to the Japan high-level radioactive waste disposal project was studied. The examination and study were performed for the following QA requirements: The requirements that have the relative importance at site research and site selection, site characterization, and site suitability analysis (such as planning and performing scientific investigations, sample control, data control, model development and use, technical report review, software control, and control of the electric management of data). The requirements that have the relative importance at the whole repository phases (such as quality assurance program, document control, and control of quality assurance records). (author)

Assessment of bird populations in a high quality savanna/woodland: a banding approach

Science.gov (United States)

Wilmore, Sandra L.; Glowacki, Gary A.; Grundel, Ralph

2005-01-01

Between 1999 and 2004, Save the Dunes Conservation Fund's Miller Woods Bird Banding Program monitored migrating and breeding bird populations within a high quality black oak, dry-mesic sand savanna/woodland with ridge and swale topography. The objectives of this program were to collect consistent and reliable demographic and abundance data on the bird populations, to investigate long-term population trends, and to contribute to improved land management decisions at regional and national scales. The technique employed involved capturing birds in mist nets that were deployed for set periods of time at 17 net sites in two banding areas in Miller Woods.

Time lens for high-resolution neutron time-of-flight spectrometers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baumann, K.; Gaehler, R.; Grigoriev, P.; Kats, E.I.

2005-01-01

We examine in analytic and numeric ways the imaging effects of temporal neutron lenses created by traveling magnetic fields. For fields of parabolic shape we derive the imaging equations, investigate the time magnification, the evolution of the phase-space element, the gain factor, and the effect of finite beam size. The main aberration effects are calculated numerically. The system is technologically feasible and should convert neutron time-of-flight instruments from pinhole to imaging configuration in time, thus enhancing intensity and/or time resolution. Further fields of application for high-resolution spectrometry may be opened

Effect of high-oxygen and high-carbon-dioxide atmospheres on strawberry flavor and other quality traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Pérez, A G; Sanz, C

2001-05-01

The effect of high-oxygen atmospheres on strawberry flavor was studied. Strawberry fruits (Fragariax ananassa Duch. cv. Camarosa) were stored at 8 degrees C in four different atmospheres: air, 5% O(2)/20% CO(2), 80% O(2)/20% CO(2), and 90% O(2)/10% CO(2). Changes in several quality parameters were evaluated. Atmospheres combining high O(2) and high CO(2) were the most effective in preventing fungal growth and enhancing strawberry firmness. Other quality parameters such as color, titrable acidity, sugars and organic acids distribution, off-flavor development, and aroma were only mildly affected by superatmospheric O(2) levels. After one week of storage, unexpected high contents of off-flavor related compounds were found in the 80% O(2)/20% CO(2) and 90% O(2)/10% CO(2) atmospheres. Evidence of an altered ester biosynthesis was also found in fruits stored under these high-O(2) atmospheres. Data obtained suggest that stress induced by high CO(2) and stress induced by high O(2) have an additive effect on strawberry flavor alteration.

Time-resolved x-ray diffraction analysis of the experimental dehydration of serpentine at high pressure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inoue, Toru; Yoshimi, Isamu; Yamada, Akihiro; Kikegawa, Takumi

2009-01-01

Time-resolved, in situ X-ray diffraction analysis was used to determine the dehydration rate and kinetics of serpentine during experimental dehydration at high pressures. The capsule used comprises a diamond sleeve fitted with Au or Pt lids in order to provide high-quality, time-resolved X-ray diffraction data. Antigorite quickly dehydrated to enstatite + forsterite + fluid within 2 h at 650degC below ∼6 GPa. Avrami modeling of the results and SEM observations of the partially dehydrated sample revealed that the nucleation rate was quite high for enstatite but low for forsterite, showing incubation periods of ∼10 min before appearing. The crystallization of these minerals is controlled largely by the composition of the fluid generated from serpentine dehydration. The dehydration boundary determined below 6 GPa in the present study is consistent with the results of previous phase equilibrium studies. This study indicates that serpentine in a subducting slab dehydrates rapidly below 6 GPa when the slab intersects the dehydration boundary conditions. (author)

High-quality remote interactive imaging in the operating theatre

Science.gov (United States)

Grimstead, Ian J.; Avis, Nick J.; Evans, Peter L.; Bocca, Alan

2009-02-01

We present a high-quality display system that enables the remote access within an operating theatre of high-end medical imaging and surgical planning software. Currently, surgeons often use printouts from such software for reference during surgery; our system enables surgeons to access and review patient data in a sterile environment, viewing real-time renderings of MRI & CT data as required. Once calibrated, our system displays shades of grey in Operating Room lighting conditions (removing any gamma correction artefacts). Our system does not require any expensive display hardware, is unobtrusive to the remote workstation and works with any application without requiring additional software licenses. To extend the native 256 levels of grey supported by a standard LCD monitor, we have used the concept of "PseudoGrey" where slightly off-white shades of grey are used to extend the intensity range from 256 to 1,785 shades of grey. Remote access is facilitated by a customized version of UltraVNC, which corrects remote shades of grey for display in the Operating Room. The system is successfully deployed at Morriston Hospital, Swansea, UK, and is in daily use during Maxillofacial surgery. More formal user trials and quantitative assessments are being planned for the future.

High-quality bulk hybrid perovskite single crystals within minutes by inverse temperature crystallization

KAUST Repository

Saidaminov, Makhsud I.

2015-07-06

Single crystals of methylammonium lead trihalide perovskites (MAPbX3; MA=CH3NH3+, X=Br− or I−) have shown remarkably low trap density and charge transport properties; however, growth of such high-quality semiconductors is a time-consuming process. Here we present a rapid crystal growth process to obtain MAPbX3 single crystals, an order of magnitude faster than previous reports. The process is based on our observation of the substantial decrease of MAPbX3 solubility, in certain solvents, at elevated temperatures. The crystals can be both size- and shape-controlled by manipulating the different crystallization parameters. Despite the rapidity of the method, the grown crystals exhibit transport properties and trap densities comparable to the highest quality MAPbX3 reported to date. The phenomenon of inverse or retrograde solubility and its correlated inverse temperature crystallization strategy present a major step forward for advancing the field on perovskite crystallization.

High-dose chemotherapy for patients with high-risk breast cancer: a clinical and economic assessment using a quality-adjusted survival analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Marino, Patricia; Roché, Henri; Moatti, Jean-Paul

2008-04-01

The benefit of high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) has not been clearly demonstrated. It may offer disease-free survival improvement at the expense of major toxicity and increasing cost. We evaluated the trade-offs between toxicity, relapse, and costs using a quality-adjusted time without symptoms or toxicity (Q-TWiST) analysis. The analysis was conducted in the context of a randomized trial (PEGASE 01) evaluating the benefit of HDC for 314 patients with high-risk breast cancer. A Q-TWiST analysis was first performed to compare HDC with standard chemotherapy. We then used the results of this Q-TWiST analysis to inform a cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) comparison between treatments. Q-TWiST durations were in favor of HDC, whatever the weighting coefficients used for the analysis. This benefit was significant when the weighting coefficient related to the time spent after relapse was low (0.78), HDC offered no benefit. For intermediate values, the results depended on the weighting coefficient attributed to the toxicity period. The incremental cost per QALY ranged from 12,691euro/QALY to 26,439euro/QALY, according to the coefficients used to weight toxicity and relapse. The benefits of HDC outweigh the burdens of treatment for a wide range of utility coefficients. Economic impact is not a barrier to HDC diffusion in this situation. Nevertheless, no significant benefit was demonstrated for a certain range of utility values.

A safe inexpensive method to isolate high quality plant and fungal ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

STORAGESEVER

2008-08-18

Aug 18, 2008 ... quality DNA from plant and fungal species. This method uses potassium acetate to remove proteins and polysaccharides in an SDS extraction buffer. Further DNA purification is achieved using a low salt. CTAB treatment. This SDS/CTAB protocol was used to isolate high quality genomic DNA subject to.

The effect of sleep quality on academic performance is mediated by Internet use time: DADOS study.

Science.gov (United States)

Adelantado-Renau, Mireia; Diez-Fernandez, Ana; Beltran-Valls, Maria Reyes; Soriano-Maldonado, Alberto; Moliner-Urdiales, Diego

2018-05-19

The aims of the present study were to analyze the association of sleep patterns with academic and cognitive performance in adolescents, and to test the potential mediating effect of different activities of screen media usage on this association. A sample of 269 adolescents (140 boys) aged 14 years from the baseline data of the Deporte, ADOlescencia y Salud study completed questionnaires about sleep quality, cognitive performance, and leisure-time sedentary behaviors. Sleep duration was objectively computed using a wrist-worn GENEActiv accelerometer and academic performance was analyzed through school records. Sleep quality (but not sleep duration) was associated with all the academic performance indicators (all p<0.05). Analysis of covariance revealed higher grades among adolescents with better sleep quality (PSQI≤5; all p<0.05). These analyses showed no differences regarding cognitive performance. Internet use time was revealed as a mediator of the association between sleep quality and academic performance, being significant for all academic performance indicators (P M ranging from 15.5% to 16.0%). The association between sleep quality and academic performance in adolescents is mediated by time of Internet use. Overall, reducing Internet use in adolescents could be an achievable intervention for improving sleep quality, with potentially positive effects on academic performance. Copyright © 2018 Sociedade Brasileira de Pediatria. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

Physics and quality assurance for high dose rate brachytherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, Lowell L.

1995-01-01

Purpose: To review the physical aspects of high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy, including commissioning and quality assurance, source calibration and dose distribution measurements, and treatment planning methods. Following the introduction of afterloading in brachytherapy, development efforts to make it 'remote' culminated in 1964 with the near-simultaneous appearance of remote afterloaders in five major medical centers. Four of these machines were 'high dose rate', three employing 60Co and one (the GammaMed) using a single, cable-mounted 192Ir source. Stepping-motor source control was added to the GammaMed in 1974, making it the precursor of modern remote afterloaders, which are now suitable for interstitial as well as intracavitary brachytherapy by virtue of small source-diameter and indexer-accessed multiple channels. Because the 192Ir sources currently used in HDR remote afterloaders are supplied at a nominal air-kerma strength of 11.4 cGy cm2 s-1 (10 Ci), are not collimated in clinical use, and emit a significant fraction (15%) of photons at energies greater than 600 keV, shielding and facility design must be undertaken as carefully and thoroughly as for external beam installations. Licensing requirements of regulatory agencies must be met with respect both to maximum permissible dose limits and to the existence and functionality of safety devices (door interlocks, radiation monitors, etc.). Commissioning and quality assurance procedures that must be documented for HDR remote afterloading relate to (1) machine, applicator, guide-tube, and facility functionality checks, (2) source calibration, (3) emergency response readiness, (4) planning software evaluation, and (5) independent checks of clinical dose calculations. Source calibration checks must be performed locally, either by in-air measurement of air kerma strength or with a well ionization chamber calibrated (by an accredited standards laboratory) against an in-air measurement of air kerma strength for the

Effects of Storage Time on the Quality of Local Chicken Meat ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

An experiment was carried out to investigate the proximate composition and effects of aging time on local chicken meat quality. For proximate analysis, 24 male and 24 female breast, thigh and drumstick samples from one half of the carcass were skinned, de-boned and frozen at -20oC. The samples were minced through a ...

Construction of High-Quality Camel Immune Antibody Libraries.

Science.gov (United States)

Romão, Ema; Poignavent, Vianney; Vincke, Cécile; Ritzenthaler, Christophe; Muyldermans, Serge; Monsion, Baptiste

2018-01-01

Single-domain antibodies libraries of heavy-chain only immunoglobulins from camelids or shark are enriched for high-affinity antigen-specific binders by a short in vivo immunization. Thus, potent binders are readily retrieved from relatively small-sized libraries of 10 7 -10 8 individual transformants, mostly after phage display and panning on a purified target. However, the remaining drawback of this strategy arises from the need to generate a dedicated library, for nearly every envisaged target. Therefore, all the procedures that shorten and facilitate the construction of an immune library of best possible quality are definitely a step forward. In this chapter, we provide the protocol to generate a high-quality immune VHH library using the Golden Gate Cloning strategy employing an adapted phage display vector where a lethal ccdB gene has to be substituted by the VHH gene. With this procedure, the construction of the library can be shortened to less than a week starting from bleeding the animal. Our libraries exceed 10 8 individual transformants and close to 100% of the clones harbor a phage display vector having an insert with the length of a VHH gene. These libraries are also more economic to make than previous standard approaches using classical restriction enzymes and ligations. The quality of the Nanobodies that are retrieved from immune libraries obtained by Golden Gate Cloning is identical to those from immune libraries made according to the classical procedure.

Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter (PM) at high altitude cities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bravo Alvarez, H.; Sosa Echeverria, R.; Sanchez Alvarez, P.; Krupa, S.

2013-01-01

The Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter (PM) at high altitude urban areas in different countries, must consider the pressure and temperature due to the effect that these parameters have on the breath volume. This paper shows the importance to correct Air Quality Standards for PM considering pressure and temperature at different altitudes. Specific factors were suggested to convert the information concerning PM, from local to standard conditions, and adjust the Air Quality Standards for different high altitudes cities. The correction factors ranged from: 1.03 for Santiago de Chile to 1.47 for El Alto Bolivia. Other cities in this study include: Mexico City, México; La Paz, Bolivia; Bogota, Cali and Medellin, Colombia; Quito, Ecuador and Cuzco, Peru. If these corrections are not considered, the atmospheric concentrations will be underestimated. - Highlights: ► AQS for particulate matter concentrations adjusted by pressure and temperature. ► Particulate matter concentrations can be underestimated in high altitude Cities. ► Particulate matter concentrations must be compared under the same conditions. - In order to compare high altitude atmospheric PM concentrations with AQS, one must consider T and P of the sampling site.

Providing high-quality care in primary care settings: how to make trade-offs.

Science.gov (United States)

Beaulieu, Marie-Dominique; Geneau, Robert; Del Grande, Claudio; Denis, Jean-Louis; Hudon, Eveline; Haggerty, Jeannie L; Bonin, Lucie; Duplain, Réjean; Goudreau, Johanne; Hogg, William

2014-05-01

To gain a deeper understanding of how primary care (PC) practices belonging to different models manage resources to provide high-quality care. Multiple-case study embedded in a cross-sectional study of a random sample of 37 practices. Three regions of Quebec. Health care professionals and staff of 5 PC practices. Five cases showing above-average results on quality-of-care indicators were purposefully selected to contrast on region, practice size, and PC model. Data were collected using an organizational questionnaire; the Team Climate Inventory, which was completed by health care professionals and staff; and 33 individual interviews. Detailed case histories were written and thematic analysis was performed. The core common feature of these practices was their ongoing effort to make trade-offs to deliver services that met their vision of high-quality care. These compromises involved the same 3 areas, but to varying degrees depending on clinic characteristics: developing a shared vision of high-quality care; aligning resource use with that vision; and balancing professional aspirations and population needs. The leadership of the physician lead was crucial. The external environment was perceived as a source of pressure and dilemmas rather than as a source of support in these matters. Irrespective of their models, PC practices' pursuit of high-quality care is based on a vision in which accessibility is a key component, balanced by appropriate management of available resources and of external environment expectations. Current PC reforms often create tensions rather than support PC practices in their pursuit of high-quality care. Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Stainless steel fabrication for high quality requirements in the nuclear industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wareing, A.J.

1990-01-01

In this paper the author explains the welding procedures and practices adopted within the nuclear industry to achieve the high quality and standards of welds required. The changeover to mechanised welding, orbital TIG welding and synergic MIG welding, has resulted in consistent achievement of high quality standards as well as optimising the productivity. However, the use of mechanised welding machines does require the welder operating them to be fully trained and qualified. The formally organised training courses are described and the cost savings and production rates achieved by utilising the mechanised method are discussed. (author)

Welding quality evaluation of resistance spot welding using the time-varying inductive reactance signal

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Hongjie; Hou, Yanyan; Yang, Tao; Zhang, Qian; Zhao, Jian

2018-05-01

In the spot welding process, a high alternating current is applied, resulting in a time-varying electromagnetic field surrounding the welder. When measuring the welding voltage signal, the impedance of the measuring circuit consists of two parts: dynamic resistance relating to weld nugget nucleation event and inductive reactance caused by mutual inductance. The aim of this study is to develop a method to acquire the dynamic reactance signal and to discuss the possibility of using this signal to evaluate the weld quality. For this purpose, a series of experiments were carried out. The reactance signals under different welding conditions were compared and the results showed that the morphological feature of the reactance signal was closely related to the welding current and it was also significantly influenced by some abnormal welding conditions. Some features were extracted from the reactance signal and combined to construct weld nugget strength and diameter prediction models based on the radial basis function (RBF) neural network. In addition, several features were also used to monitor the expulsion in the welding process by using Fisher linear discriminant analysis. The results indicated that using the dynamic reactance signal to evaluate weld quality is possible and feasible.

A Filtration-based Method of Preparing High-quality Nuclei from Cross-linked Skeletal Muscle for Chromatin Immunoprecipitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Nohara, Kazunari; Chen, Zheng; Yoo, Seung-Hee

2017-07-06

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a powerful method to determine protein binding to chromatin DNA. Fiber-rich skeletal muscle, however, has been a challenge for ChIP due to technical difficulty in isolation of high-quality nuclei with minimal contamination of myofibrils. Previous protocols have attempted to purify nuclei before cross-linking, which incurs the risk of altered DNA-protein interaction during the prolonged nuclei preparation process. In the current protocol, we first cross-linked the skeletal muscle tissue collected from mice, and the tissues were minced and sonicated. Since we found that ultracentrifugation was not able to separate nuclei from myofibrils using cross-linked muscle tissue, we devised a sequential filtration procedure to obtain high-quality nuclei devoid of significant myofibril contamination. We subsequently prepared chromatin by using an ultrasonicator, and ChIP assays with anti-BMAL1 antibody revealed robust circadian binding pattern of BMAL1 to target gene promoters. This filtration protocol constitutes an easily applicable method to isolate high-quality nuclei from cross-linked skeletal muscle tissue, allowing consistent sample processing for circadian and other time-sensitive studies. In combination with next-generation sequencing (NGS), our method can be deployed for various mechanistic and genomic studies focusing on skeletal muscle function.

Extraction of high quality DNA from seized Moroccan cannabis resin (Hashish.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moulay Abdelaziz El Alaoui

Full Text Available The extraction and purification of nucleic acids is the first step in most molecular biology analysis techniques. The objective of this work is to obtain highly purified nucleic acids derived from Cannabis sativa resin seizure in order to conduct a DNA typing method for the individualization of cannabis resin samples. To obtain highly purified nucleic acids from cannabis resin (Hashish free from contaminants that cause inhibition of PCR reaction, we have tested two protocols: the CTAB protocol of Wagner and a CTAB protocol described by Somma (2004 adapted for difficult matrix. We obtained high quality genomic DNA from 8 cannabis resin seizures using the adapted protocol. DNA extracted by the Wagner CTAB protocol failed to give polymerase chain reaction (PCR amplification of tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA synthase coding gene. However, the extracted DNA by the second protocol permits amplification of THCA synthase coding gene using different sets of primers as assessed by PCR. We describe here for the first time the possibility of DNA extraction from (Hashish resin derived from Cannabis sativa. This allows the use of DNA molecular tests under special forensic circumstances.

High-speed nuclear quality pulse height analyzer for synchrotron-based applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beche, Jean-Francois; Bucher, Jerome J.; Fabris, Lorenzo; Riot, Vincent J.

2001-01-01

A high throughput Pulse Height Analyzer system for synchrotron-based applications requiring high resolution, high processing speed and low dead time has been developed. The system is comprised of a 120ns 12-bit nuclear quality Analog to Digital converter with a self-adaptive fast peak detector-stretcher and a custom-made fast histogramming memory module that records and processes the digitized data. The histogramming module is packaged in a VME or VXI compatible interface. Data is transferred through a fast optical link from the memory interface to a computer. A dedicated data acquisition program matches the hardware characteristics of the histogramming memory module. The data acquisition system allows for two data collection modes: ''standard'' data acquisition mode where the data is accumulated and read in synchronization with an external trigger and ''live'' data acquisition mode where the system operates as a standard Pulse Height Analyzer. The acquisition, standard or live, can be performed on several channels simultaneously. A two-channel prototype has been demonstrated at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory accelerator in conjunction with an X-ray Fluorescence Absorption Spectroscopy experiment. A detailed description of the entire system is given and experimental data is shown

Estimating Discharge and Nonpoint Source Nitrate Loading to Streams From Three End-Member Pathways Using High-Frequency Water Quality Data

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Matthew P.; Tesoriero, Anthony J.; Hood, Krista; Terziotti, Silvia; Wolock, David M.

2017-12-01

The myriad hydrologic and biogeochemical processes taking place in watersheds occurring across space and time are integrated and reflected in the quantity and quality of water in streams and rivers. Collection of high-frequency water quality data with sensors in surface waters provides new opportunities to disentangle these processes and quantify sources and transport of water and solutes in the coupled groundwater-surface water system. A new approach for separating the streamflow hydrograph into three components was developed and coupled with high-frequency nitrate data to estimate time-variable nitrate loads from chemically dilute quick flow, chemically concentrated quick flow, and slowflow groundwater end-member pathways for periods of up to 2 years in a groundwater-dominated and a quick-flow-dominated stream in central Wisconsin, using only streamflow and in-stream water quality data. The dilute and concentrated quick flow end-members were distinguished using high-frequency specific conductance data. Results indicate that dilute quick flow contributed less than 5% of the nitrate load at both sites, whereas 89 ± 8% of the nitrate load at the groundwater-dominated stream was from slowflow groundwater, and 84 ± 25% of the nitrate load at the quick-flow-dominated stream was from concentrated quick flow. Concentrated quick flow nitrate concentrations varied seasonally at both sites, with peak concentrations in the winter that were 2-3 times greater than minimum concentrations during the growing season. Application of this approach provides an opportunity to assess stream vulnerability to nonpoint source nitrate loading and expected stream responses to current or changing conditions and practices in watersheds.

A digital approach for real time high-rate high-resolution radiation measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gerardi, G.; Abbene, L.

2014-01-01

Modern spectrometers are currently developed by using digital pulse processing (DPP) systems, showing several advantages over traditional analog electronics. The aim of this work is to present digital strategies, in a time domain, for the development of real time high-rate high-resolution spectrometers. We propose a digital method, based on the single delay line (SDL) shaping technique, able to perform multi-parameter analysis with high performance even at high photon counting rates. A robust pulse shape and height analysis (PSHA), applied on single isolated time windows of the detector output waveforms, is presented. The potentialities of the proposed strategy are highlighted through both theoretical and experimental approaches. To strengthen our approach, the implementation of the method on a real-time system together with some experimental results are presented. X-ray spectra measurements with a semiconductor detector are performed both at low and high photon counting rates (up to 1.1 Mcps)

A digital approach for real time high-rate high-resolution radiation measurements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gerardi, G.; Abbene, L., E-mail: leonardo.abbene@unipa.it

2014-12-21

Modern spectrometers are currently developed by using digital pulse processing (DPP) systems, showing several advantages over traditional analog electronics. The aim of this work is to present digital strategies, in a time domain, for the development of real time high-rate high-resolution spectrometers. We propose a digital method, based on the single delay line (SDL) shaping technique, able to perform multi-parameter analysis with high performance even at high photon counting rates. A robust pulse shape and height analysis (PSHA), applied on single isolated time windows of the detector output waveforms, is presented. The potentialities of the proposed strategy are highlighted through both theoretical and experimental approaches. To strengthen our approach, the implementation of the method on a real-time system together with some experimental results are presented. X-ray spectra measurements with a semiconductor detector are performed both at low and high photon counting rates (up to 1.1 Mcps)

Real-time monitoring of laser welding of galvanized high strength steel in lap joint configuration

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, Fanrong; Ma, Junjie; Carlson, Blair; Kovacevic, Radovan

2012-10-01

Two different cases regarding the zinc coating at the lap joint faying surface are selected for studying the influence of zinc vapor on the keyhole dynamics of the weld pool and the final welding quality. One case has the zinc coating fully removed at the faying surface; while the other case retains the zinc coating on the faying surface. It is found that removal of the zinc coating at the faying surface produces a significantly better weld quality as exemplified by a lack of spatters whereas intense spatters are present when the zinc coating is present at the faying surface. Spectroscopy is used to detect the optical spectra emitted from a laser generated plasma plume during the laser welding of galvanized high strength DP980 steel in a lap-joint configuration. A correlation between the electron temperature and defects within the weld bead is identified by using the Boltzmann plot method. The laser weld pool keyhole dynamic behavior affected by a high-pressure zinc vapor generated at the faying surface of galvanized steel lap-joint is monitored in real-time by a high speed charge-coupled device (CCD) camera assisted with a green laser as an illumination source.

Process to Continuously Melt, Refine and Cast High Quality Steel

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

2005-09-01

The purpose of this project is to conduct research and development targeted at designing a revolutionary steelmaking process. This process will deliver high quality steel from scrap to the casting mold in one continuous process and will be safer, more productive, and less capital intensive to build and operate than conventional steelmaking. The new process will produce higher quality steel faster than traditional batch processes while consuming less energy and other resources.

High-quality and interactive animations of 3D time-varying vector fields.

Science.gov (United States)

Helgeland, Anders; Elboth, Thomas

2006-01-01

In this paper, we present an interactive texture-based method for visualizing three-dimensional unsteady vector fields. The visualization method uses a sparse and global representation of the flow, such that it does not suffer from the same perceptual issues as is the case for visualizing dense representations. The animation is made by injecting a collection of particles evenly distributed throughout the physical domain. These particles are then tracked along their path lines. At each time step, these particles are used as seed points to generate field lines using any vector field such as the velocity field or vorticity field. In this way, the animation shows the advection of particles while each frame in the animation shows the instantaneous vector field. In order to maintain a coherent particle density and to avoid clustering as time passes, we have developed a novel particle advection strategy which produces approximately evenly-spaced field lines at each time step. To improve rendering performance, we decouple the rendering stage from the preceding stages of the visualization method. This allows interactive exploration of multiple fields simultaneously, which sets the stage for a more complete analysis of the flow field. The final display is rendered using texture-based direct volume rendering.

Physical quality of Simental Ongole crossbred silverside meat at various boiling times

Science.gov (United States)

Riyanto, J.; Cahyadi, M.; Guntari, W. S.

2018-03-01

This study aims to determine the physical quality of silverside beef meat at various boiling times. Samples that have been used are the back thigh or silverside meat. Treatment of boiling meat included TR (meat without boiled), R15 (boiled 15 minutes), and R30 (boiled for 30 minutes). The experimental design using Completely Randomized Design with 3 replications. Each replication was done in triple physical quality test. Determination of physical quality was performed at the Livestock Industry and Processing Laboratory at Sebelas Maret University Surakarta and the Meat Technology Laboratory at the Faculty of Animal Husbandry of Gadjah Mada University. The result of variance analysis showed that boiling affect cooking loss (P≥0.05) and but did not affect (P≤0,05) pH, water holding capacity and meat tenderness. The conclusions of the study showed that boiling for 15 minutes and 30 minutes decreased the cooking loss of Simental Ongole Crossbred silverside meat. Meat physical quality of pH, water holding capacity and the value of tenderness is not affected by boiling for 15 and 30 minutes.

Software product quality control

CERN Document Server

Wagner, Stefan

2013-01-01

Quality is not a fixed or universal property of software; it depends on the context and goals of its stakeholders. Hence, when you want to develop a high-quality software system, the first step must be a clear and precise specification of quality. Yet even if you get it right and complete, you can be sure that it will become invalid over time. So the only solution is continuous quality control: the steady and explicit evaluation of a product's properties with respect to its updated quality goals.This book guides you in setting up and running continuous quality control in your environment. Star

76 FR 45397 - Export Inspection and Weighing Waiver for High Quality Specialty Grain Transported in Containers

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-29

...-AB18 Export Inspection and Weighing Waiver for High Quality Specialty Grain Transported in Containers... permanent a waiver due to expire on July 31, 2012, for high quality specialty grain exported in containers... of high quality specialty grain exported in containers are small entities that up until recently...

Quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS and on highly active ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS and on highly active ... the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) was used to measure quality of life among patients on ... instrument for use in Ethiopia to assess the quality of life of people living with ...

A Systematic Process for Developing High Quality SaaS Cloud Services

Science.gov (United States)

La, Hyun Jung; Kim, Soo Dong

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a type of cloud service which provides software functionality through Internet. Its benefits are well received in academia and industry. To fully utilize the benefits, there should be effective methodologies to support the development of SaaS services which provide high reusability and applicability. Conventional approaches such as object-oriented methods do not effectively support SaaS-specific engineering activities such as modeling common features, variability, and designing quality services. In this paper, we present a systematic process for developing high quality SaaS and highlight the essentiality of commonality and variability (C&V) modeling to maximize the reusability. We first define criteria for designing the process model and provide a theoretical foundation for SaaS; its meta-model and C&V model. We clarify the notion of commonality and variability in SaaS, and propose a SaaS development process which is accompanied with engineering instructions. Using the proposed process, SaaS services with high quality can be effectively developed.

The quality of high-energy X-ray beams

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

LaRiviere, P.D.

1989-01-01

Supplement 17 of the British Journal of Radiology is a survey of central-axis depth doses for radiotherapy machines, patterned largely on BJR Supplement 11 (1972). Inspection of high-energy X-ray depth doses for a 10 x 10 cm field at an SSD of 100 cm disclosed large differences between the two sets of data, especially for qualities above 8 MV, e.g. a depth dose of 80% at 10 cm is rated at about 19 MV according to BJR Supplement 11, and 23 MV according to BJR Supplement 17. It was found that Supplement 17 depth-dose data above 8 MV were erratic, but Supplement 11 data could be represented by an analytical expression, providing a unique means of assigning MV quality. It was also found that dose-weighted average energy of the filtered beam plotted smoothly against depth dose. For dosimetric purposes, it is suggested that this parameter be used as a true measure of beam quality, removing discrepancies introduced by the use of nominal MV for this purpose. (author)

Optical timing receiver for the NASA Spaceborne Ranging System. Part II: high precision event-timing digitizer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Leskovar, Branko; Turko, Bojan

1978-08-01

Position-resolution capabilities of the NASA Spaceborne Laser Ranging System are essentially determined by the timeresolution capabilities of its optical timing receiver. The optical timing receiver consists of a fast photoelectric device; (e.g., photomultiplier or an avalanche photodiode detector), a timing discriminator, a high-precision event-timing digitizer, and a signal-processing system. The time-resolution capabilities of the receiver are determined by the photoelectron time spread of the photoelectric device, the time walk and resolution characteristics of the timing discriminator, and the resolution of the event-timing digitizer. It is thus necessary to evaluate available fast photoelectronic devices with respect to the time-resolution capabilities, and to develop a very low time walk timing discriminator and a high-resolution event-timing digitizer to be used in the high-resolution spaceborne laser ranging system receiver. This part of the report describes the development of a high precision event-timing digitizer. The event-timing digitizer is basically a combination of a very accurate high resolution real time digital clock and an interval timer. The timing digitizer is a high resolution multiple stop clock, counting the time up to 131 days in 19.5 ps increments.

High quality flux control system for electron gun evaporation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Appelbloom, A.M.; Hadley, P.; van der Marel, D.; Mooij, J.E.

1991-01-01

This paper reports on a high quality flux control system for electron gun evaporation developed and tested for the MBE growth of high temperature superconductors. The system can be applied to any electron gun without altering the electron gun itself. Essential elements of the system are a high bandwidth mass spectrometer, control electronics and a high voltage modulator to sweep the electron beam over the melt at high frequencies. the sweep amplitude of the electron beam is used to control the evaporation flux at high frequencies. The feedback loop of the system has a bandwidth of over 100 Hz, which makes it possible to grow superlattices and layered structures in a fast and precisely controlled manner

High quality factor GaAs microcavity with buried bullseye defects

Science.gov (United States)

Winkler, K.; Gregersen, N.; Häyrynen, T.; Bradel, B.; Schade, A.; Emmerling, M.; Kamp, M.; Höfling, S.; Schneider, C.

2018-05-01

The development of high quality factor solid-state microcavities with low mode volumes has paved the way towards on-chip cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments and the development of high-performance nanophotonic devices. Here, we report on the implementation of a new kind of solid-state vertical microcavity, which allows for confinement of the electromagnetic field in the lateral direction without deep etching. The confinement originates from a local elongation of the cavity layer imprinted in a shallow etch and epitaxial overgrowth technique. We show that it is possible to improve the quality factor of such microcavities by a specific in-plane bullseye geometry consisting of a set of concentric rings with subwavelength dimensions. This design results in a smooth effective lateral photonic potential and therefore in a reduction of lateral scattering losses, which makes it highly appealing for experiments in the framework of exciton-polariton physics demanding tight spatial confinement.

Improved Planning Time and Plan Quality Through Multicriteria Optimization for Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Craft, David L.; Hong, Theodore S.; Shih, Helen A.; Bortfeld, Thomas R.

2012-01-01

Purpose: To test whether multicriteria optimization (MCO) can reduce treatment planning time and improve plan quality in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Methods and Materials: Ten IMRT patients (5 with glioblastoma and 5 with locally advanced pancreatic cancers) were logged during the standard treatment planning procedure currently in use at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Planning durations and other relevant planning information were recorded. In parallel, the patients were planned using an MCO planning system, and similar planning time data were collected. The patients were treated with the standard plan, but each MCO plan was also approved by the physicians. Plans were then blindly reviewed 3 weeks after planning by the treating physician. Results: In all cases, the treatment planning time was vastly shorter for the MCO planning (average MCO treatment planning time was 12 min; average standard planning time was 135 min). The physician involvement time in the planning process increased from an average of 4.8 min for the standard process to 8.6 min for the MCO process. In all cases, the MCO plan was blindly identified as the superior plan. Conclusions: This provides the first concrete evidence that MCO-based planning is superior in terms of both planning efficiency and dose distribution quality compared with the current trial and error–based IMRT planning approach.

A quality improvement project sustainably decreased time to onset of active physical therapy intervention in patients with acute lung injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Dinglas, Victor D; Parker, Ann M; Reddy, Dereddi Raja S; Colantuoni, Elizabeth; Zanni, Jennifer M; Turnbull, Alison E; Nelliot, Archana; Ciesla, Nancy; Needham, Dale M

2014-10-01

Rehabilitation started early during an intensive care unit (ICU) stay is associated with improved outcomes and is the basis for many quality improvement (QI) projects showing important changes in practice. However, little evidence exists regarding whether such changes are sustainable in real-world practice. To evaluate the sustained effect of a quality improvement project on the timing of initiation of active physical therapy intervention in patients with acute lung injury (ALI). This was a pre-post evaluation using prospectively collected data involving consecutive patients with ALI admitted pre-quality improvement (October 2004-April 2007, n = 120) versus post-quality improvement (July 2009-July 2012, n = 123) from a single medical ICU. The primary outcome was time to first active physical therapy intervention, defined as strengthening, mobility, or cycle ergometry exercises. Among ICU survivors, more patients in the post-quality improvement versus pre-quality improvement group received physical therapy in the ICU (89% vs. 24%, P quality improvement versus pre-quality improvement group, there was a shorter median (interquartile range) time to first physical therapy (4 [2, 6] vs. 11 d [6, 29], P quality improvement period was associated with shorter time to physical therapy (adjusted hazard ratio [95% confidence interval], 8.38 [4.98, 14.11], P quality improvement period. The following variables were independently associated with a longer time to physical therapy: higher Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score (0.93 [0.89, 0.97]), higher FiO2 (0.86 [0.75, 0.99] for each 10% increase), use of an opioid infusion (0.47 [0.25, 0.89]), and deep sedation (0.24 [0.12, 0.46]). In this single-site, pre-post analysis of patients with ALI, an early rehabilitation quality improvement project was independently associated with a substantial decrease in the time to initiation of active physical therapy intervention that was sustained over 5 years. Over the entire pre

Project ATLANTA (ATlanta Land-use ANalysis: Temperature and Air quality): A Study of how the Urban Landscape Affects Meteorology and Air Quality Through Time

Science.gov (United States)

Quattrochi, Dale A.; Luvall, Jeffrey C.; Estes, Maurice G.; Lo, C. P.; Kidder, Stanley Q.; Hafner, Jan; Taha, Haider; Bornstein, Robert D.; Gillies, Robert R.; Gallo, Kevin P.

1998-01-01

It is our intent through this investigation to help facilitate measures that can be Project ATLANTA (ATlanta Land-use ANalysis: applied to mitigate climatological or air quality Temperature and Air-quality) is a NASA Earth degradation, or to design alternate measures to sustain Observing System (EOS) Interdisciplinary Science or improve the overall urban environment in the future. investigation that seeks to observe, measure, model, and analyze how the rapid growth of the Atlanta. The primary objectives for this research effort are: 1) To In the last half of the 20th century, Atlanta, investigate and model the relationship between Atlanta Georgia has risen as the premier commercial, urban growth, land cover change, and the development industrial, and transportation urban area of the of the urban heat island phenomenon through time at southeastern United States. The rapid growth of the nested spatial scales from local to regional; 2) To Atlanta area, particularly within the last 25 years, has investigate and model the relationship between Atlanta made Atlanta one of the fastest growing metropolitan urban growth and land cover change on air quality areas in the United States. The population of the through time at nested spatial scales from local to Atlanta metropolitan area increased 27% between 1970 regional; and 3) To model the overall effects of urban and 1980, and 33% between 1980-1990 (Research development on surface energy budget characteristics Atlanta, Inc., 1993). Concomitant with this high rate of across the Atlanta urban landscape through time at population growth, has been an explosive growth in nested spatial scales from local to regional. Our key retail, industrial, commercial, and transportation goal is to derive a better scientific understanding of how services within the Atlanta region. This has resulted in land cover changes associated with urbanization in the tremendous land cover change dynamics within the Atlanta area, principally in transforming

High dose-rate brachytherapy source position quality assurance using radiochromic film

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Evans, M.D.C.; Devic, S.; Podgorsak, E.B.

2007-01-01

Traditionally, radiographic film has been used to verify high-dose-rate brachytherapy source position accuracy by co-registering autoradiographic and diagnostic images of the associated applicator. Filmless PACS-based clinics that do not have access to radiographic film and wet developers may have trouble performing this quality assurance test in a simple and practical manner. We describe an alternative method for quality assurance using radiochromic-type film. In addition to being easy and practical to use, radiochromic film has some advantages in comparison with traditional radiographic film when used for HDR brachytherapy quality assurance

High quality broadband spatial reflections of slow Rayleigh surface acoustic waves modulated by a graded grooved surface

KAUST Repository

Xu, Yanlong

2015-01-21

We report high quality broadband spatial reflections of Rayleigh surface acoustic waves (SAWs) through a graded grooved surface. High quality means that no wave is allowed to transmit and the incident wave is nearly all reflected to the input side. The graded grooved surface is structured by drilling one dimensional array of graded grooves with increased depths on a flat surface. We investigate SAW dispersion relations, wave field distribution at several typical SAW wavelengths, and time evolution of a Gaussian pulse through the graded grooved surface. Results show that the input broadband Rayleigh SAWs can be slowed, spatially enhanced and stopped, and finally reflected to the input side. The study suggests that engraving the flat surface can be used as an efficient and economical way to manipulate Rayleigh SAWs, which has potential application in novel SAW devices such as filters, reflectors, sensors, energy harvesters, and diodes.

Reliable Exfoliation of Large-Area High-Quality Flakes of Graphene and Other Two-Dimensional Materials.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Yuan; Sutter, Eli; Shi, Norman N; Zheng, Jiabao; Yang, Tianzhong; Englund, Dirk; Gao, Hong-Jun; Sutter, Peter

2015-11-24

Mechanical exfoliation has been a key enabler of the exploration of the properties of two-dimensional materials, such as graphene, by providing routine access to high-quality material. The original exfoliation method, which remained largely unchanged during the past decade, provides relatively small flakes with moderate yield. Here, we report a modified approach for exfoliating thin monolayer and few-layer flakes from layered crystals. Our method introduces two process steps that enhance and homogenize the adhesion force between the outermost sheet in contact with a substrate: Prior to exfoliation, ambient adsorbates are effectively removed from the substrate by oxygen plasma cleaning, and an additional heat treatment maximizes the uniform contact area at the interface between the source crystal and the substrate. For graphene exfoliation, these simple process steps increased the yield and the area of the transferred flakes by more than 50 times compared to the established exfoliation methods. Raman and AFM characterization shows that the graphene flakes are of similar high quality as those obtained in previous reports. Graphene field-effect devices were fabricated and measured with back-gating and solution top-gating, yielding mobilities of ∼4000 and 12,000 cm(2)/(V s), respectively, and thus demonstrating excellent electrical properties. Experiments with other layered crystals, e.g., a bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide (BSCCO) superconductor, show enhancements in exfoliation yield and flake area similar to those for graphene, suggesting that our modified exfoliation method provides an effective way for producing large area, high-quality flakes of a wide range of 2D materials.

Station distribution and quality control for real-time moment tensor inversion at regional distances for the southwestern Iberian Peninsula

Science.gov (United States)

Convers, Jaime; Custodio, Susana

2016-04-01

Rapid assessment of seismological parameters pertinent to the nucleation and rupture of earthquakes are now routinely calculated by local and regional seismic networks. With the increasing number of stations, fast data transmission, and advanced computer power, we can now go beyond accurate magnitude and epicentral locations, to rapid estimations of other higher-order earthquake parameters such as seismic moment tensor. Although an increased number of stations can minimize azimuthal gaps, it also increases computation time, and potentially introduces poor quality data that often leads to a lower the stability of automated inversions. In this presentation, we focus on moment tensor calculations for earthquakes occurring offshore the southwestern Iberian peninsula. The available regional seismic data in this region has a significant azimuthal gap that results from the geographical setting. In this case, increasing the number of data from stations spanning a small area (and at a small azimuthal angle) increases the calculation time without necessarily improving the accuracy of the inversion. Additionally, limited regional data coverage makes it imperative to exclude poor-quality data, as their negative effect on moment tensor inversions is often significant. In our work, we analyze methods to minimize the effects of large azimuthal gaps in a regional station coverage, of potential bias by uneven station distribution, and of poor data quality in moment tensor inversions obtained for earthquakes offshore the southwestern Iberian peninsula. We calculate moment tensors using the KIWI tools, and we implement different configurations of station-weighing, and cross-correlation of neighboring stations, with the aim of automatically estimating and selecting high-quality data, improving the accuracy of results, and reducing the computation time of moment tensor inversions. As the available recent intermediate-size events offshore the Iberian peninsula is limited due to the long

High Quality Education and Learning for All through Open Education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stracke, Christian M.

2016-01-01

Keynote at the International Lensky Education Forum 2016, Yakutsk, Republic of Sakha, Russian Federation, by Stracke, C. M. (2016, 16 August): "High Quality Education and Learning for All through Open Education"

Growth of High-Quality GaAs on Ge by Controlling the Thickness and Growth Temperature of Buffer Layer

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Xu-Liang; Pan, Jiao-Qing; Yu, Hong-Yan; Li, Shi-Yan; Wang, Bao-Jun; Bian, Jing; Wang, Wei

2014-12-01

High-quality GaAs thin films grown on miscut Ge substrates are crucial for GaAs-based devices on silicon. We investigate the effect of different thicknesses and temperatures of GaAs buffer layers on the crystal quality and surface morphology of GaAs on Ge by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. Through high resolution x-ray diffraction measurements, it is demonstrated that the full width at half maximum for the GaAs epilayer (Ge substrate) peak could achieve 19.3 (11.0) arcsec. The value of etch pit density could be 4×104 cm-2. At the same time, GaAs surfaces with no pyramid-shaped pits are obtained when the buffer layer growth temperature is lower than 360°C, due to effective inhibition of initial nucleation at terraces of the Ge surface. In addition, it is shown that large island formation at the initial stage of epitaxial growth is a significant factor for the final rough surface and that this initial stage should be carefully controlled when a device quality GaAs surface is desired.

Real-Time Scintigraphic Assessment of Intravenous Radium-223 Administration for Quality Control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chadwick L. Wright

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Radium-223 (223Ra dichloride is an approved intravenous radiotherapy for patients with osseous metastases from castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC. In addition to the therapeutic alpha radiation, there is additional 223Ra radiation generated which produces photons that can be imaged with conventional gamma cameras. No studies have evaluated real-time and quality imaging during intravenous 223Ra administration to verify systemic circulation and exclude 223Ra extravasation at the injection site. A retrospective review was performed for fifteen 223Ra administrations for CRPC patients which were imaged using a large field of view portable gamma camera (LFOVPGC for the purposes of quality control and patient safety. Dynamic imaging of the chest was performed before, during, and after the 223Ra administration to verify systemic circulation, per institutional clinical protocol. Before and after 223Ra administration, a static image was obtained of the intravenous access site. Dynamic imaging of the chest confirmed systemic administration early during the 1-minute injection period for all patients. There were no cases of focal 223Ra extravasation at the site of intravenous access. These results verify that systemic 223Ra administrations can be quantified with real-time imaging using an LFOVPGC. This simple approach can confirm and quantify systemic circulation of 223Ra early during injection and exclude focal extravasation for the purposes of quality control.

Safety and quality management at the high flux reactor Petten

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zurita, A.; Ahlf, J.

1995-01-01

The High Flux Reactor (HFR) is one high power multi-purpose materials testing research reactor of the tank-in-pool type, cooled and moderated by light-water. It is operated at 45 MW at a prescribed schedule of 11 cycles per year, each comprising 25 operation days and three shut-down days. Since the licence for the operation of HFR was granted in 1962, a total of 14 amendments to the original licence have been made following different modifications in the installations. In the meantime, international nuclear standards were developed, especially in the framework of the NUSS programme of the IAEA, which were adopted by the Dutch Licensing Authorities. In order to implement the new standards, the situation at the HFR was comprehensively reviewed in the course of an audit performed by the Dutch Licensing Authorities in 1988. This also resulted in formulating the task of setting-up an 'HFR - Integral Quality Assurance Handbook' (HFR-IQAD) involving both organizations JRCIAM and ECN, which had the unique framework and basic guideline to assure the safe and efficient operation and exploitation of the HFR and to promote safety and quality in all aspects of HFR related activities. The assurance of safe and efficient operation and exploitation of the HFR is condensed together under the concepts of safety and quality of services and is achieved through the safety and quality management. (orig.)

Buyer-Supplier Collaboration in New Product Development - Reduction of Ramp-up time for high-tech products

OpenAIRE

Nielsen, Halvor Eid

2015-01-01

Product development has always been a key activity to gain competitive advantage. Especially in technology based industry, such as the maritime subsea industry. Due to increasing globalization and high competition from low cost countries, companies need to streamline the supply chain and development in order to get new product out on the market fast and efficient. Involving suppliers in the development have shown great effect on reduced development time and cost while increasing quality of...

Design of high-efficiency diffractive optical elements towards ultrafast mid-infrared time-stretched imaging and spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Hongbo; Ren, Delun; Wang, Chao; Mao, Chensheng; Yang, Lei

2018-02-01

Ultrafast time stretch imaging offers unprecedented imaging speed and enables new discoveries in scientific research and engineering. One challenge in exploiting time stretch imaging in mid-infrared is the lack of high-quality diffractive optical elements (DOEs), which encode the image information into mid-infrared optical spectrum. This work reports the design and optimization of mid-infrared DOE with high diffraction-efficiency, broad bandwidth and large field of view. Using various typical materials with their refractive indices ranging from 1.32 to 4.06 in ? mid-infrared band, diffraction efficiencies of single-layer and double-layer DOEs have been studied in different wavelength bands with different field of views. More importantly, by replacing the air gap of double-layer DOE with carefully selected optical materials, one optimized ? triple-layer DOE, with efficiency higher than 95% in the whole ? mid-infrared window and field of view greater than ?, is designed and analyzed. This new DOE device holds great potential in ultrafast mid-infrared time stretch imaging and spectroscopy.

Multiview 3D sensing and analysis for high quality point cloud reconstruction

Science.gov (United States)

Satnik, Andrej; Izquierdo, Ebroul; Orjesek, Richard

2018-04-01

Multiview 3D reconstruction techniques enable digital reconstruction of 3D objects from the real world by fusing different viewpoints of the same object into a single 3D representation. This process is by no means trivial and the acquisition of high quality point cloud representations of dynamic 3D objects is still an open problem. In this paper, an approach for high fidelity 3D point cloud generation using low cost 3D sensing hardware is presented. The proposed approach runs in an efficient low-cost hardware setting based on several Kinect v2 scanners connected to a single PC. It performs autocalibration and runs in real-time exploiting an efficient composition of several filtering methods including Radius Outlier Removal (ROR), Weighted Median filter (WM) and Weighted Inter-Frame Average filtering (WIFA). The performance of the proposed method has been demonstrated through efficient acquisition of dense 3D point clouds of moving objects.

High-quality substrate for fluorescence enhancement using agarose-coated silica opal film.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Ming; Li, Juan; Sun, Liguo; Zhao, Yuanjin; Xie, Zhuoying; Lv, Linli; Zhao, Xiangwei; Xiao, Pengfeng; Hu, Jing; Lv, Mei; Gu, Zhongze

2010-08-01

To improve the sensitivity of fluorescence detection in biochip, a new kind of substrates was developed by agarose coating on silica opal film. In this study, silica opal film was fabricated on glass substrate using the vertical deposition technique. It can provide stronger fluorescence signals and thus improve the detection sensitivity. After coating with agarose, the hybrid film could provide a 3D support for immobilizing sample. Comparing with agarose-coated glass substrate, the agarose-coated opal substrates could selectively enhance particular fluorescence signals with high sensitivity when the stop band of the silica opal film in the agarose-coated opal substrate overlapped the fluorescence emission wavelength. A DNA hybridization experiment demonstrated that fluorescence intensity of special type of agarose-coated opal substrates was about four times that of agarose-coated glass substrate. These results indicate that the optimized agarose-coated opal substrate can be used for improving the sensitivity of fluorescence detection with high quality and selectivity.

Quality Assurance in Nuclear Fuel Research at the Laboratory of High- and Medium-level Activity at SCK-CEN

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sannen, L.; Gys, A.; Verwerft, M

1999-10-01

Quality assurance in nuclear fuel research demands specific calibration and validation methodologies. Indeed the analytical experiments in hot-cells on highly radioactive objects are non-standard and many times unique. The standards and validation methods developed for and applied to the main nuclear fuel research experiments in the hot laboratories of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK-CEN are outlined.

Quality Assurance in Nuclear Fuel Research at the Laboratory of High- and Medium-level Activity at SCK-CEN

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sannen, L.; Gys, A.; Verwerft, M.

1999-10-01

Quality assurance in nuclear fuel research demands specific calibration and validation methodologies. Indeed the analytical experiments in hot-cells on highly radioactive objects are non-standard and many times unique. The standards and validation methods developed for and applied to the main nuclear fuel research experiments in the hot laboratories of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK-CEN are outlined

Effects of harvesting time on some yield and quality traits of different ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The effect of harvesting time was investigated on yield and quality traits for spring season production in different maturing potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivars under agro-climatic conditions of southern of Turkey in 2006 and 2007. The experimental layout was a randomized split plot with three replications, including six ...

What cost quality assurance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tikkanen, M.W.; Starek, R.; Liddel, P.R.; Grey, R.G.; Peile, R.C.

1991-01-01

This paper reports that the increased awareness of global environmental pollution has meant that analytical laboratories are faced with an increasing number of samples to analyze and a greater demand for quality control for their applications. In answer to these demands, more laboratory managers are turning to automation for analytical procedures and automated routines to perform quality control on individual samples. Atomic Absorption analysis, particularly by graphite furnace and hydride generation technique has proved to be adaptable to automated analysis to determine low concentrations of elements such as As, Co, Cd, Hg, Ag, Ba, Cr and Pb. Although highly sensitive, both techniques are time consuming and highly matrix dependent. They may also require extensive sample preparation prior to analysis. Additionally, government imposed methodologies e.g. those used for the USA EPA, Contract Laboratory Program, RCRA and SDWA programs, require very specific time consuming quality control measures

Quality assurance test of a real time radiography system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yadav, R.K.; Rama, R.; Sharma, A.; Kannan, R.

2005-01-01

Any radiation generating equipment can be used and marketed in India only after obtaining specific type approval certificate from the Competent Authority i.e. Chairman, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), Mumbai. Recently AERB has enforced a directive that the Industrial X-ray machines should also be permitted to use only after getting NOC or type approval. Type approval is granted based upon the satisfactory QA test report of the radiation generating equipment. X-ray machines with Real Time Radiography (RTR) facility are used in industrial radiography for faster inspection of equipment's and products online. A standard test protocol was developed for QA tests of a real time radiography system. This will be helpful for evaluation of an industrial X-ray machine. Also above procedure can be used to check a RTR system each day or a system-qualification can be done when the image quality diminishes as recommended by American Society of Testing Material (ASTM). Various tests carried out on a constant potential 450 kV, 10 mA industrial X-ray machine having real time radiography facility to monitor the products online, is described in this paper. (author)

Real time chromametry measurement for food quality detection using mobile device

Science.gov (United States)

Witjaksono, Gunawan; Mohamad Hussin, Nur Haziqah Farah Binti; Abdelkreem Saeed Rabih, Almur; Alfa, Sagir

2017-09-01

Freshness of the food is the main factor in determining the quality and safety of the consumed food and hence consumers satisfaction. Current technologies for food quality determination depend on colour changing labels to indicate the freshness level, which is subjective to human eyes. The goal of this paper is to design and develop chromatic algorithm based on RGB colour reading and correlation with pH values for real time determination of freshness level of shrimp. The results show that the developed algorithm is able to measure, analyse and display the freshness level of food directly on the screen of a mobile app technology. The mobile app is developed on Android platform and is tested in the shrimp freshness range by stating whether it is “fresh, good or spoiled”.

Longitudinal Outcomes of Start Time Delay on Sleep, Behavior, and Achievement in High School

Science.gov (United States)

Thacher, Pamela V.; Onyper, Serge V.

2016-01-01

Study Objectives: To establish whether sleep, health, mood, behavior, and academics improved after a 45-minute delay in high school start time, and whether changes persisted longitudinally. Methods: We collected data from school records and student self-report across a number of domains at baseline (May 2012) and at two follow-up time points (November 2012 and May 2013), at a public high school in upstate New York. Students enrolled during academic years (AY) 2011–2012 and 2012–2013 completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; the DASS-21; the “Owl-Lark” Scale; the Daytime Sleepiness Index; and a brief self-report of health. Reports from school records regarding attendance, tardiness, disciplinary violations, and academic performance were collected for AY 2010–2011 through 2013–2014. Results: Students delayed but did not extend their sleep period; we found lasting improvements in tardiness and disciplinary violations after the start-time delay, but no changes to other variables. At the first follow-up, students reported 20 minutes longer sleep, driven by later rise times and stable bed times. At the second follow-up, students maintained later rise times but delayed bedtimes, returning total sleep to baseline levels. A delay in rise time, paralleling the delay in the start time that occurred, resulted in less tardiness and decreased disciplinary incidents, but larger improvements to sleep patterns may be necessary to affect health, attendance, sleepiness, and academic performance. Conclusions: Later start times improved tardiness and disciplinary issues at this school district. A delay in start time may be a necessary but not sufficient means to increase sleep time and may depend on preexisting individual differences. Commentary: A commentary on this article appears in this issue on page 267. Citation: Thacher PV, Onyper SV. Longitudinal outcomes of start time delay on sleep, behavior, and achievement in high school. SLEEP 2016;39(2):271–281. PMID

General Managers' and building managers' different evaluation of building value and quality - as built and over time

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Per Anker

2007-01-01

building. Furthermore, the respondents were asked to prioritize the quality factors. In the analysis the quality factors were grouped into cultural value and use value and into quality as built and over time. The paper presents the general results of the survey with focus on the differences between......This paper is one of the results of a research project on real estate strategies and building values based on a case study of the corporate buildings of DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation). The paper presents some of the results from a questionnaire survey among select groups of managers in DR...... concerning their evaluation of 5 buildings. The overall purpose of the survey was to evaluate the different buildings’ values and quality, both as built and over time. A second purpose was to develop and test a methodology to describe the values and quality of buildings at a general but still differentiated...

Influence of acidification, pasteurization, centrifugation and storage time and temperature on watermelon juice quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Tarazona-Díaz, Martha Patricia; Aguayo, Encarna

2013-12-01

Watermelon juice has gained increasing popularity among consumers as a rich natural source of functional compounds such as lycopene and citrulline. However, the final quality of the juice depends significantly on its acidification, pasteurization, centrifugation and storage time and temperature. In this study, these characteristics were assessed in watermelon juice pasteurized at 87.7 °C for 20 s and stored for up to 30 days at 4 or 8 °C. The acidifier citric acid provided an adequate sensory quality, similar to natural watermelon juice. Centrifugation and pasteurization significantly reduced the red color, bioactive compounds (lycopene, antioxidant capacity and total polyphenols) and sensory quality of the juice, particularly when the storage time was extended and a temperature of 8 °C was used (P ≤ 0.05). All treated juices were microbiologically safe for up to 30 days when stored at 4 or 8 °C. In terms of sensory acceptability, only non-centrifuged juices stored for up to 20 days at 4 °C remained above the commercial limit. The present results suggest that using a non-centrifugation process and a storage temperature of 4 °C yields a watermelon juice that better retains its sensory and functional qualities. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry.

High-speed optical signal processing using time lenses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Galili, Michael; Hu, Hao; Guan, Pengyu

2015-01-01

This paper will discuss time lenses and their broad range of applications. A number of recent demonstrations of complex high-speed optical signal processing using time lenses will be outlined with focus on the operating principle.......This paper will discuss time lenses and their broad range of applications. A number of recent demonstrations of complex high-speed optical signal processing using time lenses will be outlined with focus on the operating principle....

Efficient Simplification Methods for Generating High Quality LODs of 3D Meshes

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Muhammad Hussain

2009-01-01

Two simplification algorithms are proposed for automatic decimation of polygonal models, and for generating their LODs. Each algorithm orders vertices according to their priority values and then removes them iteratively. For setting the priority value of each vertex, exploiting normal field of its one-ring neighborhood, we introduce a new measure of geometric fidelity that reflects well the local geometric features of the vertex. After a vertex is selected, using other measures of geometric distortion that are based on normal field deviation and distance measure, it is decided which of the edges incident on the vertex is to be collapsed for removing it. The collapsed edge is substituted with a new vertex whose position is found by minimizing the local quadric error measure. A comparison with the state-of-the-art algorithms reveals that the proposed algorithms are simple to implement, are computationally more efficient, generate LODs with better quality, and preserve salient features even after drastic simplification. The methods are useful for applications such as 3D computer games, virtual reality, where focus is on fast running time, reduced memory overhead, and high quality LODs.

Use of artificial intelligence in the production of high quality minced meat

Science.gov (United States)

Kapovsky, B. R.; Pchelkina, V. A.; Plyasheshnik, P. I.; Dydykin, A. S.; Lazarev, A. A.

2017-09-01

A design for an automatic line for minced meat production according to new production technology based on an innovative meat milling method is proposed. This method allows the necessary degree of raw material comminution at the stage of raw material preparation to be obtained, which leads to production intensification due to the traditional meat mass comminution equipment being unnecessary. To ensure consistent quality of the product obtained, the use of on-line automatic control of the technological process for minced meat production is envisaged. This system has been developed using artificial intelligence methods and technologies. The system is trainable during the operation process, adapts to changes in processed raw material characteristics and to external impacts that affect the system operation, and manufactures meat shavings with minimal dispersion of the typical particle size. The control system includes equipment for express analysis of the chemical composition of the minced meat and its temperature after comminution. In this case, the minced meat production process can be controlled strictly as a function of time, which excludes subjective factors for assessing the degree of finished product readiness. This will allow finished meat products with consistent, targeted high quality to be produced.

PROVIDING QUALITY – A KEY TO SUCCESS

OpenAIRE

Oana Staiculescu; Angel-Cristian Staiculescu

2012-01-01

Providing a high quality products and services is a key to business success. That is because high quality promotes customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction has a direct link to business revenue. Clients want quality products and services in order to feel they are getting value for money, especially in these hard economic times. Although it is well known that advertising may win new customers, quality can be the reason to keep them. A good manager is aware that the costs of winning mark...

Safe and High Quality Food Production using Low Quality Waters and Improved Irrigation Systems and Management, EU Project

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Plauborg, Finn; Jensen, Christian Richardt; Dalsgaard, Anders

2009-01-01

: the safety and quality of food products, and the increasing competition for clean freshwater. SAFIR is funded for the period 2005-2009 under the Food Quality and Safety thematic area of the EU 6th Framework Research Programme. The challenge for the next years will be to produce safe and high quality foods...... a multi-disciplinary team, with food safety and quality experts, engineers, agronomists and economists from17 research institutes and private companies in Europe, Israel and China working together. The project assesses potential risks to farmers. Coupled with farm management and economic models, a new...... intelligent tool for efficient and safe use and re-use of low-quality water are being developed. Already published results indicate water saving in the order of 25-30% in agricultural crops as potatoes and tomatoes are possible without yield reduction. Slightly treated waste water can be used safely when...

Bullying as a risk for poor sleep quality among high school students in China.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ying Zhou

Full Text Available To determine whether involvement in bullying as a bully, victim, or bully-victim was associated with a higher risk of poor sleep quality among high school students in China.A cross-sectional study was conducted. A total of 23,877 high school students were surveyed in six cities in Guangdong Province. All students were asked to complete the adolescent health status questionnaire, which included the Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI and bullying involvement. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate sleep quality and the prevalence of school bullying. Multi-level logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between being victimized and bullying others with sleep quality.Among the 23,877 students, 6,127 (25.66% reported having poor sleep quality, and 10.89% reported being involved in bullying behaviors. Of the respondents, 1,410 (5.91% were pure victims of bullying, 401 (1.68% were bullies and 784 (3.28% were bully-victims. Frequently being involved in bullying behaviors (being bullied or bullying others was related to increased risks of poor sleep quality compared with adolescents who were not involved in bullying behaviors. After adjusting for age, sex, and other confounding factors, the students who were being bullied (OR=2.05, 95%CI=1.81-2.32, bullied others (OR=2.30, 95%CI=1.85-2.86 or both (OR=2.58, 95%CI=2.20-3.03 were at a higher risk for poor sleep quality.Poor sleep quality among high school students is highly prevalent, and school bullying is prevalent among adolescents in China. The present results suggested that being involved in school bullying might be a risk factor for poor sleep quality among adolescents.

Bullying as a risk for poor sleep quality among high school students in China.

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Zhou, Ying; Guo, Lan; Lu, Ci-yong; Deng, Jian-xiong; He, Yuan; Huang, Jing-hui; Huang, Guo-liang; Deng, Xue-qing; Gao, Xue

2015-01-01

To determine whether involvement in bullying as a bully, victim, or bully-victim was associated with a higher risk of poor sleep quality among high school students in China. A cross-sectional study was conducted. A total of 23,877 high school students were surveyed in six cities in Guangdong Province. All students were asked to complete the adolescent health status questionnaire, which included the Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and bullying involvement. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate sleep quality and the prevalence of school bullying. Multi-level logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between being victimized and bullying others with sleep quality. Among the 23,877 students, 6,127 (25.66%) reported having poor sleep quality, and 10.89% reported being involved in bullying behaviors. Of the respondents, 1,410 (5.91%) were pure victims of bullying, 401 (1.68%) were bullies and 784 (3.28%) were bully-victims. Frequently being involved in bullying behaviors (being bullied or bullying others) was related to increased risks of poor sleep quality compared with adolescents who were not involved in bullying behaviors. After adjusting for age, sex, and other confounding factors, the students who were being bullied (OR=2.05, 95%CI=1.81-2.32), bullied others (OR=2.30, 95%CI=1.85-2.86) or both (OR=2.58, 95%CI=2.20-3.03) were at a higher risk for poor sleep quality. Poor sleep quality among high school students is highly prevalent, and school bullying is prevalent among adolescents in China. The present results suggested that being involved in school bullying might be a risk factor for poor sleep quality among adolescents.

Relations of Parenting Quality, Interparental Conflict, and Overnights with Mental Health Problems of Children in Divorcing Families with High Legal Conflict

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Sandler, Irwin N.; Wheeler, Lorey A.; Braver, Sanford L.

2013-01-01

The current study examined the associations between child mental health problems and the quality of maternal and paternal parenting, and how these associations were moderated by three contextual factors, quality of parenting by the other parent, interparental conflict, and the number of overnights parents had with the child. Data for the current study come from a sample of divorcing families who are in high legal conflict over developing or maintaining a parenting plan following divorce. Analyses revealed that the associations between child mental health problems and positive maternal and paternal parenting were moderated by the quality of parenting provided by the other parent and by the number of overnights children spent with parents, but not by the level of interparental conflict. When both parenting by the other parent and number of overnights were considered in the same model, only number of overnights moderated the relations between parenting and child behavior problems. The results support the proposition that the well-being of children in high conflict divorcing families is better when they spend adequate time with at least one parent who provides high quality parenting. PMID:24098960

The Role of Dosimetry in High-Quality EMI Risk Assessment

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

2006-01-01

The Final Proceedings for The role of EMF dosimetry in high quality risk assessment 13 September 2006 - 15 September 2006 In the last three decades the use of devices that emit electromagnetic fields (EMF...

High-Quality AZO/Au/AZO Sandwich Film with Ultralow Optical Loss and Resistivity for Transparent Flexible Electrodes.

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Zhou, Hua; Xie, Jing; Mai, Manfang; Wang, Jing; Shen, Xiangqian; Wang, Shuying; Zhang, Lihua; Kisslinger, Kim; Wang, Hui-Qiong; Zhang, Jinxing; Li, Yu; Deng, Junhong; Ke, Shanming; Zeng, Xierong

2018-05-09

Transparent flexible electrodes are in ever-growing demand for modern stretchable optoelectronic devices, such as display technologies, solar cells, and smart windows. Such sandwich-film-electrodes deposited on polymer substrates are unattainable because of the low quality of the films, inducing a relatively large optical loss and resistivity as well as a difficulty in elucidating the interference behavior of light. In this article, we report a high-quality AZO/Au/AZO sandwich film with excellent optoelectronic performance, e.g., an average transmittance of about 81.7% (including the substrate contribution) over the visible range, a sheet resistance of 5 Ω/sq, and a figure-of-merit (FoM) factor of ∼55.1. These values are well ahead of those previously reported for sandwich-film-electrodes. Additionally, the interference behaviors of light modulated by the coat and metal layers have been explored with the employment of transmittance spectra and numerical simulations. In particular, a heater device based on an AZO/Au/AZO sandwich film exhibits high performance such as short response time (∼5 s) and uniform temperature field. This work provides a deep insight into the improvement of the film quality of the sandwich electrodes and the design of high-performance transparent flexible devices by the application of a flexible substrate with an atomically smooth surface.

Applying Machine Learning and High Performance Computing to Water Quality Assessment and Prediction

OpenAIRE

Ruijian Zhang; Deren Li

2017-01-01

Water quality assessment and prediction is a more and more important issue. Traditional ways either take lots of time or they can only do assessments. In this research, by applying machine learning algorithm to a long period time of water attributes’ data; we can generate a decision tree so that it can predict the future day’s water quality in an easy and efficient way. The idea is to combine the traditional ways and the computer algorithms together. Using machine learning algorithms, the ass...

Identification of long-term trends and seasonality in high-frequency water quality data from the Yangtze River basin, China.

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Duan, Weili; He, Bin; Chen, Yaning; Zou, Shan; Wang, Yi; Nover, Daniel; Chen, Wen; Yang, Guishan

2018-01-01

Comprehensive understanding of the long-term trends and seasonality of water quality is important for controlling water pollution. This study focuses on spatio-temporal distributions, long-term trends, and seasonality of water quality in the Yangtze River basin using a combination of the seasonal Mann-Kendall test and time-series decomposition. The used weekly water quality data were from 17 environmental stations for the period January 2004 to December 2015. Results show gradual improvement in water quality during this period in the Yangtze River basin and greater improvement in the Uppermost Yangtze River basin. The larger cities, with high GDP and population density, experienced relatively higher pollution levels due to discharge of industrial and household wastewater. There are higher pollution levels in Xiang and Gan River basins, as indicated by higher NH4-N and CODMn concentrations measured at the stations within these basins. Significant trends in water quality were identified for the 2004-2015 period. Operations of the three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) enhanced pH fluctuations and possibly attenuated CODMn, and NH4-N transportation. Finally, seasonal cycles of varying strength were detected for time-series of pollutants in river discharge. Seasonal patterns in pH indicate that maxima appear in winter, and minima in summer, with the opposite true for CODMn. Accurate understanding of long-term trends and seasonality are necessary goals of water quality monitoring system efforts and the analysis methods described here provide essential information for effectively controlling water pollution.

Identification of long-term trends and seasonality in high-frequency water quality data from the Yangtze River basin, China

Science.gov (United States)

He, Bin; Chen, Yaning; Zou, Shan; Wang, Yi; Nover, Daniel; Chen, Wen; Yang, Guishan

2018-01-01

Comprehensive understanding of the long-term trends and seasonality of water quality is important for controlling water pollution. This study focuses on spatio-temporal distributions, long-term trends, and seasonality of water quality in the Yangtze River basin using a combination of the seasonal Mann-Kendall test and time-series decomposition. The used weekly water quality data were from 17 environmental stations for the period January 2004 to December 2015. Results show gradual improvement in water quality during this period in the Yangtze River basin and greater improvement in the Uppermost Yangtze River basin. The larger cities, with high GDP and population density, experienced relatively higher pollution levels due to discharge of industrial and household wastewater. There are higher pollution levels in Xiang and Gan River basins, as indicated by higher NH4-N and CODMn concentrations measured at the stations within these basins. Significant trends in water quality were identified for the 2004–2015 period. Operations of the three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) enhanced pH fluctuations and possibly attenuated CODMn, and NH4-N transportation. Finally, seasonal cycles of varying strength were detected for time-series of pollutants in river discharge. Seasonal patterns in pH indicate that maxima appear in winter, and minima in summer, with the opposite true for CODMn. Accurate understanding of long-term trends and seasonality are necessary goals of water quality monitoring system efforts and the analysis methods described here provide essential information for effectively controlling water pollution. PMID:29466354

High cardiac vagal control is related to better subjective and objective sleep quality.

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Werner, Gabriela G; Ford, Brett Q; Mauss, Iris B; Schabus, Manuel; Blechert, Jens; Wilhelm, Frank H

2015-03-01

Cardiac vagal control (CVC) has been linked to both physical and mental health. One critical aspect of health, that has not received much attention, is sleep. We hypothesized that adults with higher CVC--operationalized by high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV)--will exhibit better sleep quality assessed both subjectively (i.e., with Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) and objectively (i.e., with polysomnography). HF-HRV was measured in 29 healthy young women during an extended neutral film clip. Participants then underwent full polysomnography to obtain objective measures of sleep quality and HF-HRV during a night of sleep. As expected, higher resting HF-HRV was associated with higher subjective and objective sleep quality (i.e., shorter sleep latency and fewer arousals). HF-HRV during sleep (overall or separated by sleep phases) showed less consistent relationships with sleep quality. These findings indicate that high waking CVC may be a key predictor of healthy sleep. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

High quality RNA isolation from Aedes aegypti midguts using laser microdissection microscopy

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Gobert Geoffrey N

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Laser microdissection microscopy (LMM has potential as a research tool because it allows precise excision of target tissues or cells from a complex biological specimen, and facilitates tissue-specific sample preparation. However, this method has not been used in mosquito vectors to date. To this end, we have developed an LMM method to isolate midgut RNA using Aedes aegypti. Results Total RNA was isolated from Ae. aegypti midguts that were either fresh-frozen or fixed with histological fixatives. Generally, fresh-frozen tissue sections are a common source of quality LMM-derived RNA; however, our aim was to develop an LMM protocol that could inactivate pathogenic viruses by fixation, while simultaneously preserving RNA from arbovirus-infected mosquitoes. Three groups (10 - 15 mosquitoes per group of female Ae. aegypti at 24 or 48-hours post-blood meal were intrathoracically injected with one of seven common fixatives (Bouin's, Carnoy's, Formoy's, Cal-Rite, 4% formalin, 10% neutral buffered formalin, or zinc formalin to evaluate their effect on RNA quality. Total RNA was isolated from the fixed abdomens using a Trizol® method. The results indicated that RNA from Carnoy's and Bouin's fixative samples was comparable to that of fresh frozen midguts (control in duplicate experiments. When Carnoy's and Bouin's were used to fix the midguts for the LMM procedure, however, Carnoy's-fixed RNA clearly showed much less degradation than Bouin's-fixed RNA. In addition, a sample of 5 randomly chosen transcripts were amplified more efficiently using the Carnoy's treated LMM RNA than Bouin's-fixed RNA in quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR assays, suggesting there were more intact target mRNAs in the Carnoy's fixed RNA. The yields of total RNA ranged from 0.3 to 19.0 ng per ~3.0 × 106 μm2 in the LMM procedure. Conclusions Carnoy's fixative was found to be highly compatible with LMM, producing high quality RNA from Ae. aegypti midguts while

Teacher's sleep quality: linked to social job characteristics?

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Kottwitz, Maria U; Gerhardt, Christin; Pereira, Diana; Iseli, Lionel; Elfering, Achim

2018-02-07

Besides dealing with high workload, being a teacher is challenging with respect to the social context. There is increasing evidence that adverse social job characteristics challenge sleep quality. The current study tests whether restraint sleep quality (defined as worse sleep quality before than during vacation) is related to time-related job stressors, job resources, and social job characteristics. Forty-eight elementary school teachers (42% women) participated both during the last week before and the first week after vacation. Before vacation, teachers were asked for demographics and working conditions with reference to the last 30 d, and sleep quality with reference to the last 7 d. After vacation sleep quality during vacation was assessed and used as reference for working time sleep quality. Results showed mean levels of sleep quality increased during vacation. In teachers with restrained working time sleep quality (38%), experiences of failure at work, social exclusion, and emotional dissonance were more frequent than in teachers with unrestrained working time sleep quality (Psquality in teachers.

75 FR 77828 - Certain Hot-Rolled Flat-Rolled Carbon-Quality Steel Products From Brazil: Extension of Time Limit...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-14

...-Rolled Carbon-Quality Steel Products From Brazil: Extension of Time Limit for Final Results of...-Rolled Carbon Quality Steel Products From Brazil: Preliminary Results of Countervailing Duty... administrative review of the countervailing duty order on certain hot-rolled flat-rolled carbon- quality steel...

Indoor Air Quality in High Performance Schools

Science.gov (United States)

High performance schools are facilities that improve the learning environment while saving energy, resources, and money. The key is understanding the lifetime value of high performance schools and effectively managing priorities, time, and budget.