Whose forests, whose voices? Mining and community- based nature ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper explores local experiences of private - sector led community - based nature conservation near Fort Dauphin, southeastern Madagascar through the analysis of a conservation zone managed in partnership between the Rio Tinto mining corporation, local government and local communities. The article assesses ...

Preliminary investigations of piezoelectric based LED luminary

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Dennis; Andersen, Michael A. E.; Meyer, Kaspar Sinding

2011-01-01

, modulation schemes, LEDs and LED driving conditions are analyzed. A prototype radial mode PT optimized for ZVS (Zero Voltage Switching) is designed. FEM (Final Element Method) and measurements validates the PT design. A prototype PT based AC/DC converter operating from european mains is proposed......This paper presents a preliminary study of PT (Piezoelectric Transformer) based SMPS’s (Switch Mode Power Supplies) for LED luminary. The unique properties of PTs (efficiency, power density and EMI) make them highly suitable for this application. Power stage topologies, rectifiers circuits...

Building a community-based culture of evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Janzen, Rich; Ochocka, Joanna; Turner, Leanne; Cook, Tabitha; Franklin, Michelle; Deichert, Debbie

2017-12-01

In this article we argue for a community-based approach as a means of promoting a culture of evaluation. We do this by linking two bodies of knowledge - the 70-year theoretical tradition of community-based research and the trans-discipline of program evaluation - that are seldom intersected within the evaluation capacity building literature. We use the three hallmarks of a community-based research approach (community-determined; equitable participation; action and change) as a conceptual lens to reflect on a case example of an evaluation capacity building program led by the Ontario Brian Institute. This program involved two community-based groups (Epilepsy Southwestern Ontarioand the South West Alzheimer Society Alliance) who were supported by evaluators from the Centre for Community Based Research to conduct their own internal evaluation. The article provides an overview of a community-based research approach and its link to evaluation. It then describes the featured evaluation capacity building initiative, including reflections by the participating organizations themselves. We end by discussing lessons learned and their implications for future evaluation capacity building. Our main argument is that organizations that strive towards a community-based approach to evaluation are well placed to build and sustain a culture of evaluation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Leading Communities: Community-led Development in England’s Small Towns: the Market Towns Initiative

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gordon Morris

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The Market Towns Initiative (MTI, a UK community-led development programme, operated throughout rural England from 2000 until 2005/6. It was designed to help local people, with professional support, identify – and then capitalize on – the economic, environmental and social strengths and weaknesses of small country towns. This paper explains the origins and ways of working of the MTI. Examples of the topics explored and participants’ views are given, and conclusions drawn. The opportunity is also taken to explain how interest in the roles of England’s small country towns grew in the years following the Second World War, and how this led to the development of the MTI. Evidence suggests that the programme worked well. It demonstrated that local people have the enthusiasm, skills and knowledge to take a lead in the development of the places in which they live; something which, until local government reforms changed roles and structures, was largely taken for granted.

Student Leadership Distribution: Effects of a Student-Led Leadership Program on School Climate and Community

Science.gov (United States)

Pedersen, Jeff; Yager, Stuart; Yager, Robert

2012-01-01

This study focuses on the understandings educators developed from two schools concerning how distributed leadership involving a select group of students affected the climate and community of their schools. Findings suggest that student-led leadership roles within the school community have an impact on creating a positive school-wide climate; a…

Goniometric characterization of LED based greenhouse lighting

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thorseth, Anders; Lindén, Johannes; Corell, Dennis Dan

2015-01-01

This paper describes a demonstration of goniospectroradiometry for characterizations of new light emitting diode (LED) based luminaries for enhanced photosynthesis in greenhouses. It highlights the differences between measurement of the traditional high pressure sodium (HPS) luminaries and the LED...

LED Virtual Simulation based on Web3D

OpenAIRE

Lilan Liu; Liu Han; Zhiqi Lin; Manping Li; Tao Yu

2014-01-01

Regarding to the high price and low market popularity of current LED indoor lighting products, a LED indoor lighting platform is proposed based on Web3D technology. The internet virtual reality technology is integrated and applied into the LED collaborative e-commerce website with Virtools. According to the characteristics of the LED indoor lighting products, this paper introduced the method to build encapsulated model and three characteristics of LED lighting: geometrical, optical and behavi...

End-of-life conversations and care: an asset-based model for community engagement.

Science.gov (United States)

Matthiesen, Mary; Froggatt, Katherine; Owen, Elaine; Ashton, John R

2014-09-01

Public awareness work regarding palliative and end-of-life care is increasingly promoted within national strategies for palliative care. Different approaches to undertaking this work are being used, often based upon broader educational principles, but little is known about how to undertake such initiatives in a way that equally engages both the health and social care sector and the local communities. An asset-based community engagement approach has been developed that facilitates community-led awareness initiatives concerning end-of-life conversations and care by identifying and connecting existing skills and expertise. (1) To describe the processes and features of an asset-based community engagement approach that facilitates community-led awareness initiatives with a focus on end-of-life conversations and care; and (2) to identify key community-identified priorities for sustainable community engagement processes. An asset-based model of community engagement specific to end-of-life issues using a four-step process is described (getting started, coming together, action planning and implementation). The use of this approach, in two regional community engagement programmes, based across rural and urban communities in the northwest of England, is described. The assets identified in the facilitated community engagement process encompassed people's talents and skills, community groups and networks, government and non-government agencies, physical and economic assets and community values and stories. Five priority areas were addressed to ensure active community engagement work: information, outreach, education, leadership and sustainability. A facilitated, asset-based approach of community engagement for end-of-life conversations and care can catalyse community-led awareness initiatives. This occurs through the involvement of community and local health and social care organisations as co-creators of this change across multiple sectors in a sustainable way. This approach

On the application of CaF2:Eu and SrF2:Eu phosphors in LED based phototherapy lamp

Science.gov (United States)

Belsare, P. D.; Moharil, S. V.; Joshi, C. P.; Omanwar, S. K.

2013-06-01

In the last few years the interest of scientific community has been increased towards solid state lighting based on LEDs because of their superior advantages over the conventional fluorescent lamps. As the GaN based LEDs are easily available efforts of the researchers are now on making the new phosphors which are excitable in the near UV region (360-400nm) for solid state lighting. This paper reports the photoluminescence characteristics of CaF2:Eu and SrF2:Eu phosphor prepared by wet chemical method. The violet emission of these phosphors with near UV excitation can be useful in making a phototherapy lamp based on LEDs for treating various skin diseases like acne vulgaris and hyperbilirubinemia.

Progress in extremely high brightness LED-based light sources

Science.gov (United States)

Hoelen, Christoph; Antonis, Piet; de Boer, Dick; Koole, Rolf; Kadijk, Simon; Li, Yun; Vanbroekhoven, Vincent; Van De Voorde, Patrick

2017-09-01

Although the maximum brightness of LEDs has been increasing continuously during the past decade, their luminance is still far from what is required for multiple applications that still rely on the high brightness of discharge lamps. In particular for high brightness applications with limited étendue, e.g. front projection, only very modest luminance values in the beam can be achieved with LEDs compared to systems based on discharge lamps or lasers. With dedicated architectures, phosphor-converted green LEDs for projection may achieve luminance values up to 200-300 Mnit. In this paper we report on the progress made in the development of light engines based on an elongated luminescent concentrator pumped by blue LEDs. This concept has recently been introduced to the market as ColorSpark High Lumen Density LED technology. These sources outperform the maximum brightness of LEDs by multiple factors. In LED front projection, green LEDs are the main limiting factor. With our green modules, we now have achieved peak luminance values of 2 Gnit, enabling LED-based projection systems with over 4000 ANSI lm. Extension of this concept to yellow and red light sources is presented. The light source efficiency has been increased considerably, reaching 45-60 lm/W for green under practical application conditions. The module architecture, beam shaping, and performance characteristics are reviewed, as well as system aspects. The performance increase, spectral range extensions, beam-shaping flexibility, and cost reductions realized with the new module architecture enable a breakthrough in LED-based projection systems and in a wide variety of other high brightness applications.

Outcomes and provider perspectives on geriatric care by a nurse practitioner-led community paramedicine program.

Science.gov (United States)

Kant, Rebecca E; Vejar, Maria; Parnes, Bennett; Mulder, Joy; Daddato, Andrea; Matlock, Daniel D; Lum, Hillary D

2018-05-03

This study explores the use of a nurse practitioner-led paramedicine program for acute, home-based care of geriatric patients. This case series describes patients, outcomes, and geriatric primary care provider perspectives related to use of this independent paramedicine program. There were 40 patient visits from August 2016-May 2017. We reviewed patient demographics, medical conditions, healthcare utilization, and communication processes and used semi-structured interviews and content analysis to explore staff perspectives. The most commonly treated diagnoses were respiratory conditions, urinary tract infections, and gastrointestinal concerns. Two patients required an immediate transfer to a higher level of care. Six patients had emergency department visits and five patients were hospitalized within two weeks. Geriatric providers identified three themes including: potential benefits to geriatric patients, importance of enhanced care coordination and communication, and considerations for the specific role of nurse practitioner-led community paramedicine programs for geriatric patient care. Published by Elsevier Inc.

LED Street Lighting Solutions: Flagstaff, Arizona as a Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Hall, Jeffrey C.

2018-01-01

Dark-sky protection in Flagstaff, Arizona extends back to 1958, with the first ordinance in the City banning advertising floodlights. The current ordinance, adopted in 1989, is comprehensive and has played a critical role in maintaining the quality of the night sky for astronomy, tourism, public enjoyment, and other purposes. Flagstaff, like many communities around the world, is now working on a transition from legacy bulb-based technology to LED for its outdoor lighting. The City, Lowell Observatory, the U. S. Naval Observatory, and the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition have been working intensively for two years to identify an LED-based street lighting solution that will preserve the City's dark skies while meeting municipal needs. We will soon be installing test fixtures for an innovative solution incorporating narrow-band amber LED and modest amounts of low-CCT white LED. In this talk, I will review the types of LEDs available for outdoor lighting and discuss the plans for Flagstaff's street lighting in the LED era, which we hope will be a model for communities worldwide.

[Effects of Nurse-Led Team Management on Type 2 Diabetes Patients in the Community].

Science.gov (United States)

Ni, Yun-Xia; Liu, Su-Zhen; Li, Ji-Ping; Diao, Yong-Shu; Dong, Ting; Tao, Lin

2017-04-01

Managing increasing numbers of diabetic patients is placing increasing pressure on healthcare providers, especially general practitioners, who usually serve in multiple roles. This situation has caused generally poor results in terms of diabetes management. However, community nurses in some countries have successfully and effectively controlled chronic diseases among their patients. Therefore, the effects of nurse-led management is worth further exploration in order to better understand and promote this mode of care. To explore the effects of community-nurse-led team management on diabetes patients. An experimental research design was adopted. Patients with type 2 diabetes were recruited from two community health centers (the first for the intervention group, the second for the control group) in Wuhou District, Chengdu City, China. The intervention group received nurse-led team management care for 2 years, while the control group received standard care. The evaluations were conducted before the intervention and at 6, 12, and 24 months into the intervention. Outcomes included glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level, body mass index, waist circumference, visual acuity, ankle brachial index, kidney function index, urinary protein level, and electrocardiogram. The 179 participants included 88 in the intervention group and 91 in the control group. After the intervention, HbA1c level, ankle brachial index, and waist circumference were all significantly better in the intervention group than in the control group (F = 28.894, p team management is an effective mode of care in terms of controlling blood glucose control and preventing diabetes-related complications.

Conduction-driven cooling of LED-based automotive LED lighting systems for abating local hot spots

Science.gov (United States)

Saati, Ferina; Arik, Mehmet

2018-02-01

Light-emitting diode (LED)-based automotive lighting systems pose unique challenges, such as dual-side packaging (front side for LEDs and back side for driver electronics circuit), size, harsh ambient, and cooling. Packaging for automotive lighting applications combining the advanced printed circuit board (PCB) technology with a multifunctional LED-based board is investigated with a focus on the effect of thermal conduction-based cooling for hot spot abatement. A baseline study with a flame retardant 4 technology, commonly known as FR4 PCB, is first compared with a metal-core PCB technology, both experimentally and computationally. The double-sided advanced PCB that houses both electronics and LEDs is then investigated computationally and experimentally compared with the baseline FR4 PCB. Computational models are first developed with a commercial computational fluid dynamics software and are followed by an advanced PCB technology based on embedded heat pipes, which is computationally and experimentally studied. Then, attention is turned to studying different heat pipe orientations and heat pipe placements on the board. Results show that conventional FR4-based light engines experience local hot spots (ΔT>50°C) while advanced PCB technology based on heat pipes and thermal spreaders eliminates these local hot spots (ΔT<10°C), leading to a higher lumen extraction with improved reliability. Finally, possible design options are presented with embedded heat pipe structures that further improve the PCB performance.

Vision communications based on LED array and imaging sensor

Science.gov (United States)

Yoo, Jong-Ho; Jung, Sung-Yoon

2012-11-01

In this paper, we propose a brand new communication concept, called as "vision communication" based on LED array and image sensor. This system consists of LED array as a transmitter and digital device which include image sensor such as CCD and CMOS as receiver. In order to transmit data, the proposed communication scheme simultaneously uses the digital image processing and optical wireless communication scheme. Therefore, the cognitive communication scheme is possible with the help of recognition techniques used in vision system. By increasing data rate, our scheme can use LED array consisting of several multi-spectral LEDs. Because arranged each LED can emit multi-spectral optical signal such as visible, infrared and ultraviolet light, the increase of data rate is possible similar to WDM and MIMO skills used in traditional optical and wireless communications. In addition, this multi-spectral capability also makes it possible to avoid the optical noises in communication environment. In our vision communication scheme, the data packet is composed of Sync. data and information data. Sync. data is used to detect the transmitter area and calibrate the distorted image snapshots obtained by image sensor. By making the optical rate of LED array be same with the frame rate (frames per second) of image sensor, we can decode the information data included in each image snapshot based on image processing and optical wireless communication techniques. Through experiment based on practical test bed system, we confirm the feasibility of the proposed vision communications based on LED array and image sensor.

STEM-related, Student-led Service Learning / Community Engagement Projects: Examples and Benefits

Science.gov (United States)

Swap, R. J.; Wayland, K.

2015-12-01

Field-based, STEM-related service learning / community engagement projects present an opportunity for undergraduate students to demonstrate proficiencies related to the process of inquiry. These proficiencies include: appreciation of the larger project context, articulation of an informed question/hypothesis, project proposal development, interdisciplinary collaboration, project management (including planning, implementation reconfiguration and synthesis) and lastly the generation and handing off of acquired knowledge. Calls for these types of proficiencies have been expressed by governmental, non-governmental as well as the private sector. Accordingly, institutions of higher learning have viewed such activities as opportunities for enriching the learning experience for undergraduate students and for making such students more marketable, especially those from STEM-related fields. This institutional interest has provided an opportunity to support and expand field-based learning. Here we present examples of student-led/faculty-mentored international service learning and community engagement projects along the arc of preparation, implementation and post-field process. Representative examples that draw upon environmental science and engineering knowledge have been selected from more than 20 international undergraduate student projects over past decade and include: slow-sand water filtration, rainwater harvesting, methane biodigesters, water reticulation schemes and development and implementation of rocket stoves for communal cooking. We discuss these efforts in terms of the development of the aforementioned proficiencies, the utility of such proficiencies to the larger enterprise of STEM and the potential for transformative student learning outcomes. We share these experiences and lessons learned with the hope that others may intelligently borrow from our approach in a manner appropriate for their particular context.

Color adjustable LED driver design based on PWM

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Yiying; Yu, Caideng; Que, Longcheng; Zhou, Yun; Lv, Jian

2012-10-01

Light-emitting diode (LED) is a liquid cold source light source that rapidly develops in recent years. The merits of high brightness efficiency, long duration, high credibility and no pollution make it satisfy our demands for consumption and natural life, and gradually replace the traditional lamp-house-incandescent light and fluorescent light. However, because of the high cost and unstable drive circuit, the application range is restricted. To popularize the applications of the LED, we focus on improving the LED driver circuit to change this phenomenon. Basing on the traditional LED drive circuit, we adopt pre-setup constant current model and introduce pulse width modulation (PWM) control method to realize adjustable 256 level-grays display. In this paper, basing on human visual characteristics and the traditional PWM control method, we propose a new PWM control timing clock to alter the duty cycle of PWM signal to realize the simple gamma correction. Consequently, the brightness can accord with our visual characteristics.

LED-based UV source for monitoring spectroradiometer properties

Science.gov (United States)

Sildoja, Meelis-Mait; Nevas, Saulius; Kouremeti, Natalia; Gröbner, Julian; Pape, Sven; Pendsa, Stefan; Sperfeld, Peter; Kemus, Fabian

2018-06-01

A compact and stable UV monitoring source based on state-of-the-art commercially available ultraviolet light emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) has been developed. It is designed to trace the radiometric stability—both responsivity and wavelength scale—of array spectroradiometers measuring direct solar irradiance in the wavelength range between 300 nm and 400 nm. The spectral irradiance stability of the UV-LED-based light source observed in the laboratory after seasoning (burning-in) the individual LEDs was better than 0.3% over a 12 h period of continuous operation. The integral irradiance measurements of the source over a period of several months, where the UV-LED source was not operated continuously between the measurements, showed stability within 0.3%. In-field measurements of the source with an array spectroradiometer indicated the stability of the source to be within the standard uncertainty of the spectroradiometer calibration, which was within 1% to 2%.

EarthCube - A Community-led, Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Geoscience Cyberinfrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Dick, Cindy; Allison, Lee

2016-04-01

The US NSF EarthCube Test Enterprise Governance Project completed its initial two-year long process to engage the community and test a demonstration governing organization with the goal of facilitating a community-led process on designing and developing a geoscience cyberinfrastructure. Conclusions are that EarthCube is viable, has engaged a broad spectrum of end-users and contributors, and has begun to foster a sense of urgency around the importance of open and shared data. Levels of trust among participants are growing. At the same time, the active participants in EarthCube represent a very small sub-set of the larger population of geoscientists. Results from Stage I of this project have impacted NSF decisions on the direction of the EarthCube program. The overall tone of EarthCube events has had a constructive, problem-solving orientation. The technical and organizational elements of EarthCube are poised to support a functional infrastructure for the geosciences community. The process for establishing shared technological standards has notable progress but there is a continuing need to expand technological and cultural alignment. Increasing emphasis is being given to the interdependencies among EarthCube funded projects. The newly developed EarthCube Technology Plan highlights important progress in this area by five working groups focusing on: 1. Use cases; 2. Funded project gap analysis; 3. Testbed development; 4. Standards; and 5. Architecture. The EarthCube governance implementing processes to facilitate community convergence on a system architecture, which is expected to emerge naturally from a set of data principles, user requirements, science drivers, technology capabilities, and domain needs.

A community health worker-led lifestyle behavior intervention for Latina (Hispanic) women: feasibility and outcomes of a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Koniak-Griffin, Deborah; Brecht, Mary-Lynn; Takayanagi, Sumiko; Villegas, Juan; Melendrez, Marylee; Balcázar, Héctor

2015-01-01

Low-income Latinas (Hispanics) face risk for cardiovascular disease due to high rates of overweight/obesity, sedentary lifestyle, and other factors. Limited access to health care and language barriers may prevent delivery of health promotion messages. Targeted approaches, including the integration of community health workers, may be required to promote healthy lifestyle and prevent chronic disease in underserved ethnic minority groups. The term commonly used to refer to female community health workers in Latino communities is "promotora(s)." This study evaluates the outcomes and feasibility of a promotora-led lifestyle behavior intervention for overweight, immigrant Latinas. A community prevention model was employed in planning and implementing this study. A randomized controlled trial design was used. A Community Advisory Board provided expertise in evaluating feasibility of study implementation in the community and other important guidance. The sample was comprised of 223 women aged 35-64 years, predominantly with low income and ≤8th grade education. The culturally tailored Lifestyle Behavior Intervention included group education (8 classes based upon Su Corazon, Su Vida), followed by 4 months of individual teaching and coaching (home visits and telephone calls). The control group received a comparable length educational program and follow-up contacts. Evaluations were conducted at baseline and at 6 and 9 months using a dietary habits questionnaire, accelerometer readings of physical activity, and clinical measures (body mass index, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, lipids, blood glucose). Data were collected between January 2010 and August 2012. Women in the intervention group improved significantly in dietary habits, waist circumference, and physical activity in comparison to those in the control group. A treatment dosage effect was observed for weight and waist circumference. Knowledge about heart disease increased. High attendance at classes and

Effectiveness of a lifestyle intervention led by female community health volunteers versus usual care in blood pressure reduction (COBIN)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Neupane, Dinesh; McLachlan, Craig S; Mishra, Shiva Raj

2018-01-01

). In the intervention group, 43 FCHVs provided home visits every 4 months for lifestyle counselling and blood pressure monitoring. Eligible participants had been involved in a previous population-based survey, were aged 25–65 years, did not have plans to migrate outside the study area, and were not severely ill......-income population. Methods We did a community-based, open-label, two-group, cluster-randomised controlled trial in Nepal. Using computer-generated codes, we randomly assigned (1:1) 14 clusters to a lifestyle intervention led by female community health volunteers (FCHVs) or usual care (control group...... participants (939 assigned to intervention; 699 assigned to control). At 1 year, 855 participants remained in the intervention group (425 were normotensive, 175 were prehypertensive, and 255 had hypertension) and 613 remained in the control group (305 were normotensive, 128 were prehypertensive, and 180 had...

The challenge of assessing MTech community-based-visual arts ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The article explores specific challenges in supervising, accommodating and evaluating diverse candidates who pursue an action-led and community-based research approach rooted within the visual arts. I contend that there is a specific challenge in the field of postgraduate supervision of engaging evaluation strategies.

The impact of a community-led program promoting weight loss and healthy living in Aboriginal communities: the New South Wales Knockout Health Challenge

OpenAIRE

Passmore, Erin; Shepherd, Brooke; Milat, Andrew; Maher, Louise; Hennessey, Kiel; Havrlant, Rachael; Maxwell, Michelle; Hodge, Wendy; Christian, Fiona; Richards, Justin; Mitchell, Jo

2017-01-01

Background Aboriginal people in Australia experience significant health burden from chronic disease. There has been limited research to identify effective healthy lifestyle programs to address risk factors for chronic disease among Aboriginal people. Methods The Knockout Health Challenge is a community-led healthy lifestyle program for Aboriginal communities across New South Wales, Australia. An evaluation of the 2013 Knockout Health Challenge was undertaken. Participants’ self-reported physi...

Meeting the challenges of developing LED-based projection displays

Science.gov (United States)

Geißler, Enrico

2006-04-01

The main challenge in developing a LED-based projection system is to meet the brightness requirements of the market. Therefore a balanced combination of optical, electrical and thermal parameters must be reached to achieve these performance and cost targets. This paper describes the system design methodology for a digital micromirror display (DMD) based optical engine using LEDs as the light source, starting at the basic physical and geometrical parameters of the DMD and other optical elements through characterization of the LEDs to optimizing the system performance by determining optimal driving conditions. LEDs have a luminous flux density which is just at the threshold of acceptance in projection systems and thus only a fully optimized optical system with a matched set of LEDs can be used. This work resulted in two projection engines, one for a compact pocket projector and the other for a rear projection television, both of which are currently in commercialization.

The impact and process of a community-led intervention on reducing environmental inequalities related to physical activity and healthy eating - a pilot study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grogan Sarah C

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There is growing recognition that a sedentary lifestyle is being driven, at least in part, by environmental factors that affect individuals' physical activity choices and health behaviours. In other words, the environments in which we live, and with which we interact, have become ones that encourage lifestyle choices that decrease physical activity and encourage over-consumption of foods. However, evidence from community-led interventions to change local neighbourhood environments to support physical activity and healthy eating is lacking. This article summarises the research protocol developed to evaluate a community-led intervention "My Health Matters" aimed at reducing health inequalities relating to increasing physical activity and healthy eating as defined by community members themselves. Methods/Design This study includes three of the most deprived electoral wards in Stoke-on-Trent. In each of these areas, environmental factors including proximity of physical activity spaces, greenspace and leisure facilities, neighbourhood connectivity and walkability, land-use-mix and population density, traffic, safety and crime, and food outlets will be mapped using Geographical Information Systems (GIS. A community postal survey of randomly selected addresses assessing environmental characteristics relating to physical activity, perceived health status, social capital, fruit and vegetable consumption and levels of physical activity will be undertaken (baseline and at 2 year follow-up. Based on baseline findings an intervention will be designed and implemented over a 2 year period that includes the following; use of community participatory research to build effective community partnerships; use of partnership consensus to identify, prioritise and design intervention(s related to specific health disparities; recruitment of local residents to help with the delivery and sustainability of target intervention(s; and the development of

The impact and process of a community-led intervention on reducing environmental inequalities related to physical activity and healthy eating - a pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Davey, Rachel C; Hurst, Gemma L; Smith, Graham R; Grogan, Sarah C; Kurth, Judy

2011-09-12

There is growing recognition that a sedentary lifestyle is being driven, at least in part, by environmental factors that affect individuals' physical activity choices and health behaviours. In other words, the environments in which we live, and with which we interact, have become ones that encourage lifestyle choices that decrease physical activity and encourage over-consumption of foods. However, evidence from community-led interventions to change local neighbourhood environments to support physical activity and healthy eating is lacking. This article summarises the research protocol developed to evaluate a community-led intervention "My Health Matters" aimed at reducing health inequalities relating to increasing physical activity and healthy eating as defined by community members themselves. This study includes three of the most deprived electoral wards in Stoke-on-Trent. In each of these areas, environmental factors including proximity of physical activity spaces, greenspace and leisure facilities, neighbourhood connectivity and walkability, land-use-mix and population density, traffic, safety and crime, and food outlets will be mapped using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). A community postal survey of randomly selected addresses assessing environmental characteristics relating to physical activity, perceived health status, social capital, fruit and vegetable consumption and levels of physical activity will be undertaken (baseline and at 2 year follow-up). Based on baseline findings an intervention will be designed and implemented over a 2 year period that includes the following; use of community participatory research to build effective community partnerships; use of partnership consensus to identify, prioritise and design intervention(s) related to specific health disparities; recruitment of local residents to help with the delivery and sustainability of target intervention(s); and the development of local systems for ongoing monitoring and evaluation

Progress and prospects of GaN-based LEDs using nanostructures

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Li-Xia; Yu, Zhi-Guo; Sun, Bo; Zhu, Shi-Chao; An, Ping-Bo; Yang, Chao; Liu, Lei; Wang, Jun-Xi; Li, Jin-Min

2015-06-01

Progress with GaN-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) that incorporate nanostructures is reviewed, especially the recent achievements in our research group. Nano-patterned sapphire substrates have been used to grow an AlN template layer for deep-ultraviolet (DUV) LEDs. One efficient surface nano-texturing technology, hemisphere-cones-hybrid nanostructures, was employed to enhance the extraction efficiency of InGaN flip-chip LEDs. Hexagonal nanopyramid GaN-based LEDs have been fabricated and show electrically driven color modification and phosphor-free white light emission because of the linearly increased quantum well width and indium incorporation from the shell to the core. Based on the nanostructures, we have also fabricated surface plasmon-enhanced nanoporous GaN-based green LEDs using AAO membrane as a mask. Benefitting from the strong lateral SP coupling as well as good electrical protection by a passivation layer, the EL intensity of an SP-enhanced nanoporous LED was significantly enhanced by 380%. Furthermore, nanostructures have been used for the growth of GaN LEDs on amorphous substrates, the fabrication of stretchable LEDs, and for increasing the 3-dB modulation bandwidth for visible light communication. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61334009), the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2015AA03A101 and 2014BAK02B08), China International Science and Technology Cooperation Program (Grant No. 2014DFG62280), the “Import Outstanding Technical Talent Plan” and “Youth Innovation Promotion Association Program” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Confronting structural violence in sex work: lessons from a community-led HIV prevention project in Mysore, India.

Science.gov (United States)

Argento, Elena; Reza-Paul, Sushena; Lorway, Robert; Jain, Jinendra; Bhagya, M; Fathima, Mary; Sreeram, S V; Hafeezur, Rahman Syed; O'Neil, John

2011-01-01

Evidence from community-led HIV prevention projects suggests that structural interventions may result in reduced rates of HIV and STIs. The complex relationship between empowerment and confronting stigma, discrimination and physical abuse necessitates further investigation into the impact that such interventions have on the personal risks for sex workers. This article aims to describe lived experiences of members from a sex worker's collective in Mysore, India and how they have confronted structural violence. The narratives highlight experiences of violence and the development and implementation of strategies that have altered the social, physical, and emotional environment for sex workers. Building an enabling environment was key to reducing personal risks inherent to sex work, emphasizing the importance of community-led structural interventions for sex workers in India.

Using community-based participatory research in parish nursing: a win-win situation!

Science.gov (United States)

Maitlen, Lynn A; Bockstahler, Amie M; Belcher, Anne E

2012-01-01

Parish nurses contribute to community health through the expertise and programming they provide to and through faith communities. Application of community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles helps develop, implement, and evaluate effective community interventions. University graduate students partnered with a Hospital Parish Nurse Program (HPNP) in an urban community to provide assessment data in a CBPR project that led the HPNP to focus resources and interventions on high obesity rates. The HPNP utilized data to write grant proposals to expand community services to impact obesity.

Re-Configuring Inclusion, Decolonising Practice: Digital Participation and Learning in Black Women's Community-Led Heritage

Science.gov (United States)

Clarke, Rachel; Lewis, Rosie M.

2016-01-01

This article explores an innovative model of adult education within museums developed from a Black feminist approach. BAM! Sistahood! is a community-led project with regional heritage organisations, universities and women's centres in the UK, that offers a holistic approach to heritage development. The ethos is to challenge the perpetuation of…

Community-led local development approach principles implementation when forming a regional local development projects support system in Ukraine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. G. Udod

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The article contains a brief description of the Community-led local development approach (local development under the leadership of the community, CLLD and the main purpose of its use in the European Union. The study indicated periods of the major initiatives to support local development in EU. Moreover the article posted CLLD approach principles’ evolution and the basic principles of the LEADER method and its application in CLLD, which can be applied in Ukraine. Subject to the provisions of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC for further CLLD-approach distribution the five trends were identified that must be considered when forming a Regional local development projects support system in Ukraine: Multi-fund financing; Unification; Networking and collaboration; Extending the approach; Simplifying the process. The characteristic of the present phase of CLLD-approach, in particular, of the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD, which attaches great importance to the dissemination of the most effective CLLD practices and establish partnerships between communities and territories where the approach is implemented. The study found out the relationship between Community-led local development and Community-driven development (CDD supported by the World Bank.

Design of an Oximeter Based on LED-LED Configuration and FPGA Technology

OpenAIRE

Stojanovic, Radovan; Karadaglic, Dejan

2013-01-01

A fully digital photoplethysmographic (PPG) sensor and actuator has been developed. The sensing circuit uses one Light Emitting Diode (LED) for emitting light into human tissue and one LED for detecting the reflectance light from human tissue. A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is used to control the LEDs and determine the PPG and Blood Oxygen Saturation (SpO2). The configurations with two LEDs and four LEDs are developed for measuring PPG signal and Blood Oxygen Saturation (SpO2). N-LEDs...

LED-based high-speed visible light communications

Science.gov (United States)

Chi, Nan; Shi, Meng; Zhao, Yiheng; Wang, Fumin; Shi, Jianyang; Zhou, Yingjun; Lu, Xingyu; Qiao, Liang

2018-01-01

We are seeing a growing use of light emitting diodes (LEDs) in a range of applications including lighting, TV and backlight board screen, display etc. In comparison with the traditional incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs, LEDs offer long life-space, much higher energy efficiency, high performance cost ratio and above all very fast switching capability. LED based Visible Light Communications (VLC) is an emerging field of optical communications that focuses on the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans can see. Depending on the transmission distance, we can divide the whole optical network into two categories, long haul and short haul. Visible light communication can be a promising candidate for short haul applications. In this paper, we outline the configuration of VLC, its unique benefits, and describe the state of the art research contributions consisting of advanced modulation formats including adaptive bit loading OFDM, carrierless amplitude and phase (CAP), pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) and single carrier Nyquist, linear equalization and nonlinear distortion mitigation based on machine learning, quasi-balanced coding and phase-shifted Manchester coding. These enabling technologies can support VLC up to 10Gb/s class free space transmission.

Forward Conduction Mode Controlled Piezoelectric Transformer-Based PFC LED Drive

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Roedgaard, M. S.; Weirich, M.; Andersen, M. A. E.

2013-01-01

Light-emitting diode (LED) illumination is getting more and more common; as LED's performance is rising, the price is falling and is getting competitive. Some of the challenges of ac mains supplied illumination are the requirement of power factor correction (PFC) and the competitiveness of a low...... priced market. In this paper, a new forward conduction mode (FCM) control method for piezoelectric transformer (PT)-based power converters is proposed. A PT-based LED drive facilitating passive PFC is developed, utilizing and validating the FCM control method. The drive utilizes an inductorless half...... LED drive has been developed, supplied from 230-V 50-Hz ac mains, achieving a power factor of 0.96....

A synthetic method of solar spectrum based on LED

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ji-qiang; Su, Shi; Zhang, Guo-yu; Zhang, Jian

2017-10-01

A synthetic method of solar spectrum which based on the spectral characteristics of the solar spectrum and LED, and the principle of arbitrary spectral synthesis was studied by using 14 kinds of LED with different central wavelengths.The LED and solar spectrum data were selected by Origin Software firstly, then calculated the total number of LED for each center band by the transformation relation between brightness and illumination and Least Squares Curve Fit in Matlab.Finally, the spectrum curve of AM1.5 standard solar spectrum was obtained. The results met the technical indexes of the solar spectrum matching with ±20% and the solar constant with >0.5.

Engaging Key Stakeholders in Climate Change: A Community-Based Project for Youth-Led Participatory Climate Action

Science.gov (United States)

Trott, Carlie D.

Few studies have examined how youth think about, and take action on climate change and far fewer have sought to facilitate their engagement using participatory methods. This dissertation evaluated the impacts of Science, Camera, Action! (SCA), a novel after-school program that combined climate change education with participatory action through photovoice. The specific aims of this study were to: (1) Evaluate the impacts of SCA on youth participants' climate change knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; (2) Examine how SCA participation served to empower youth agency; and (3) Explore SCA's influence on youths' science engagement. Participants were 55 youths (ages 10 to 12) across three Boys and Girls Club sites in Northern Colorado. SCA's Science component used interactive activities to demonstrate the interrelationships between Earth's changing climate, ecosystems, and sustainable actions within communities. Photovoice, SCA's Camera component, was used to explore youths' climate change perspectives and to identify opportunities for their active engagement. Finally, SCA's Action component aimed to cultivate youth potential as agents of change in their families and communities through the development and implementation of youth-led action projects. Action projects included local policy advocacy, a tree-planting campaign, a photo gallery opening, development of a website, and the establishment of a Boys and Girls Club community garden. To evaluate SCA impacts, a combination of survey and focus group methods were used. Following the program, youth demonstrated increased knowledge of the scientific and social dimensions of the causes and consequences of climate change, as well as its solutions through human action. Though participants expressed a mix of positive (e.g., hope) and negative (e.g., sadness) emotions about climate change, they left the program with an increased sense of respect for nature, an enhanced sense of environmental responsibility, and a greater sense

Design of an Oximeter Based on LED-LED Configuration and FPGA Technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Radovan Stojanovic

2013-01-01

Full Text Available A fully digital photoplethysmographic (PPG sensor and actuator has been developed. The sensing circuit uses one Light Emitting Diode (LED for emitting light into human tissue and one LED for detecting the reflectance light from human tissue. A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA is used to control the LEDs and determine the PPG and Blood Oxygen Saturation (SpO2. The configurations with two LEDs and four LEDs are developed for measuring PPG signal and Blood Oxygen Saturation (SpO2. N-LEDs configuration is proposed for multichannel SpO2 measurements. The approach resulted in better spectral sensitivity, increased and adjustable resolution, reduced noise, small size, low cost and low power consumption.

Design of an oximeter based on LED-LED configuration and FPGA technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Stojanovic, Radovan; Karadaglic, Dejan

2013-01-04

A fully digital photoplethysmographic (PPG) sensor and actuator has been developed. The sensing circuit uses one Light Emitting Diode (LED) for emitting light into human tissue and one LED for detecting the reflectance light from human tissue. A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is used to control the LEDs and determine the PPG and Blood Oxygen Saturation (S(p)O(2)). The configurations with two LEDs and four LEDs are developed for measuring PPG signal and Blood Oxygen Saturation (S(p)O(2)). N-LEDs configuration is proposed for multichannel S(p)O(2) measurements. The approach resulted in better spectral sensitivity, increased and adjustable resolution, reduced noise, small size, low cost and low power consumption.

VLC-based indoor location awareness using LED light and image sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Seok-Ju; Yoo, Jong-Ho; Jung, Sung-Yoon

2012-11-01

Recently, indoor LED lighting can be considered for constructing green infra with energy saving and additionally providing LED-IT convergence services such as visible light communication (VLC) based location awareness and navigation services. For example, in case of large complex shopping mall, location awareness to navigate the destination is very important issue. However, the conventional navigation using GPS is not working indoors. Alternative location service based on WLAN has a problem that the position accuracy is low. For example, it is difficult to estimate the height exactly. If the position error of the height is greater than the height between floors, it may cause big problem. Therefore, conventional navigation is inappropriate for indoor navigation. Alternative possible solution for indoor navigation is VLC based location awareness scheme. Because indoor LED infra will be definitely equipped for providing lighting functionality, indoor LED lighting has a possibility to provide relatively high accuracy of position estimation combined with VLC technology. In this paper, we provide a new VLC based positioning system using visible LED lights and image sensors. Our system uses location of image sensor lens and location of reception plane. By using more than two image sensor, we can determine transmitter position less than 1m position error. Through simulation, we verify the validity of the proposed VLC based new positioning system using visible LED light and image sensors.

A Simulation-Based LED Design Project in Photonics Instruction Based on Industry-University Collaboration

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, S. -H.; Chen, M. -L.; Kuo, Y. -K.; Shen, Y. -C.

2011-01-01

In response to the growing industrial demand for light-emitting diode (LED) design professionals, based on industry-university collaboration in Taiwan, this paper develops a novel instructional approach: a simulation-based learning course with peer assessment to develop students' professional skills in LED design as required by industry as well as…

Healthcare students' experiences of an interprofessional, student-led neuro-rehabilitation community-based clinic.

Science.gov (United States)

Gustafsson, Louise; Hutchinson, Laura; Theodoros, Deborah; Williams, Katrina; Copley, Anna; Fagan, Amy; Desha, Laura

2016-01-01

Student-led clinics are becoming more prominent as educators seek alternate models of clinical education for health professionals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate healthcare students' experiences of an interprofessional student-led clinic for clients with neurological conditions. Thirteen students representing occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and speech pathology were recruited for the study. A sequential mixed-methods evaluation was employed and the results from the Interprofessional Education Scale and focus group revealed that the students experienced positive perceptions of working collaboratively with other professions, forming good relationships with others, as well as an increased respect for the roles of other professions. The findings suggest that providing a capstone opportunity, where students can work as part of an interprofessional team with a real client, in a format they may come across in future clinical practice, may be beneficial in providing them with essential interprofessional skills as new graduate health professionals.

Measuring Costs to Community-Based Agencies for Implementation of an Evidence-Based Practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Lang, Jason M; Connell, Christian M

2017-01-01

Healthcare reform has led to an increase in dissemination of evidence-based practices. Cost is frequently cited as a significant yet rarely studied barrier to dissemination of evidence-based practices and the associated improvements in quality of care. This study describes an approach to measuring the incremental, unreimbursed costs in staff time and direct costs to community-based clinics implementing an evidence-based practice through participating in a learning collaborative. Initial implementation costs exceeding those for providing "treatment as usual" were collected for ten clinics implementing trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy through participation in 10-month learning collaboratives. Incremental implementation costs of these ten community-based clinic teams averaged the equivalent of US$89,575 (US$ 2012). The most costly activities were training, supervision, preparation time, and implementation team meetings. Recommendations are made for further research on implementation costs, dissemination of evidence-based practices, and implications for researchers and policy makers.

Occupancy-based illumination control of LED lighting systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Caicedo Fernandez, D.R.; Pandharipande, A.; Leus, G.

2011-01-01

Light emitting diode (LED)-based systems are considered to be the future of lighting. We consider the problem of energy-efficient illumination control of such systems. Energy-efficient system design is based on two aspects: localised information on occupancy and optimisation of dimming levels of the

Effects of Nurse-Led Multifactorial Care to Prevent Disability in Community-Living Older People : Cluster Randomized Trial

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Suijker, Jacqueline J.; van Rijn, Marjon; Buurman, Bianca M.; ter Riet, Gerben; van Charante, Eric P. Moll; de Rooij, Sophia E.

2016-01-01

Background To evaluate the effects of nurse-led multifactorial care to prevent disability in community-living older people. Methods In a cluster randomized trail, 11 practices (n = 1,209 participants) were randomized to the intervention group, and 13 practices (n = 1,074 participants) were

Secrecy Dimming Capacity in Multi-LED PAM-Based Visible Light Communications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Byung Wook Kim

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Recently, mobile cloud computing (MCC has gained a lot of interest for researchers building the next-generation mobile applications. Because unauthorized access may cause serious problems, security and privacy with MCC have become significant issues. This paper addresses the secrecy dimming capacity of secure transmission in MCC over visible light communication (VLC channels. By obtaining the entropy-maximizing symbol probability of multiple light emitting diode- (LED- based pulse amplitude modulation (PAM, mathematical analysis of the secrecy dimming capacity of VLC was derived. Simulation results show that the secure transmission ability of multi-LED-based VLC is determined according to the number of activated LEDs and target dimming level. This can be a guideline for practical VLC-based mobile network designers intending to secure wireless transmission and to decide on the number of activated LEDs at target dimming level to operate.

The Development of LED-Based Dental Light Using a Multiplanar Reflector Design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chi-Chang Hsieh

2014-01-01

Full Text Available A multiplanar reflector was designed to enhance the application efficiency of light-emitting diode (LED light sources that can be employed as LED-based dental lights. This study used a high-power LED developed by Nichia, that is, a single LED capable of providing a total luminous flux of 120 lm, as the primarily light source to design and develop an LED-based dental light. This LED complies with the international standards and regulations stipulated in ISO 9680:2007. The light spots produced by the prototype were rectangular, with a length of 200 mm and a width of 100 mm. These light spots achieved maximum illumination of 12,000 lux. The use of LEDs can reduce energy consumption from 50 W to 3 W, providing an energy saving of more than 90%.

SILAR-Based Application of Various Nanopillars on GaN-Based LED to Enhance Light-Extraction Efficiency

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. C. Shei

2013-01-01

Full Text Available We reported the various nanopillars on GaN-based LED to enhance light-extraction efficiency prepared by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method (SILAR. Indium tin oxide (ITO with thickness of 1 μm as transparent contact layer was grown to improve the electrical characteristics of the LEDs, including series resistance and operating voltage. SILAR-deposition ZnO nanoparticles on SiO2 were used as etching nanomasks. Multiple nanopillars were simultaneously formed on overall surfaces of ITO p- and n-GaN by ICP etching. The proposed GaN-based LEDs with nanopillars increase light output power by 7%–20.3% (at 20 mA over that of regular GaN-based LEDs. The difference in light output power can be attributed to differences in materials and shapes of nanopillars, resulting in a reduction in Fresnel reflection by the roughened surface of GaN-based LEDs.

Implementation Measurement for Evidence-Based Violence Prevention Programs in Communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Massetti, Greta M; Holland, Kristin M; Gorman-Smith, Deborah

2016-08-01

Increasing attention to the evaluation, dissemination, and implementation of evidence-based programs (EBPs) has led to significant advancements in the science of community-based violence prevention. One of the prevailing challenges in moving from science to community involves implementing EBPs and strategies with quality. The CDC-funded National Centers of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention (YVPCs) partner with communities to implement a comprehensive community-based strategy to prevent violence and to evaluate that strategy for impact on community-wide rates of violence. As part of their implementation approach, YVPCs document implementation of and fidelity to the components of the comprehensive youth violence prevention strategy. We describe the strategies and methods used by the six YVPCs to assess implementation and to use implementation data to inform program improvement efforts. The information presented describes the approach and measurement strategies employed by each center and for each program implemented in the partner communities. YVPCs employ both established and innovative strategies for measurement and tracking of implementation across a broad range of programs, practices, and strategies. The work of the YVPCs highlights the need to use data to understand the relationship between implementation of EBPs and youth violence outcomes.

A Community Based Systems Diagram of Obesity Causes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven Allender

Full Text Available Application of system thinking to the development, implementation and evaluation of childhood obesity prevention efforts represents the cutting edge of community-based prevention. We report on an approach to developing a system oriented community perspective on the causes of obesity.Group model building sessions were conducted in a rural Australian community to address increasing childhood obesity. Stakeholders (n = 12 built a community model that progressed from connection circles to causal loop diagrams using scripts from the system dynamics literature. Participants began this work in identifying change over time in causes and effects of childhood obesity within their community. The initial causal loop diagram was then reviewed and elaborated by 50 community leaders over a full day session.The process created a causal loop diagram representing community perceptions of determinants and causes of obesity. The causal loop diagram can be broken down into four separate domains; social influences; fast food and junk food; participation in sport; and general physical activity.This causal loop diagram can provide the basis for community led planning of a prevention response that engages with multiple levels of existing settings and systems.

Efficient conceptual design for LED-based pixel light vehicle headlamps

Science.gov (United States)

Held, Marcel Philipp; Lachmayer, Roland

2017-12-01

High-resolution vehicle headlamps represent a future-oriented technology that can be used to increase traffic safety and driving comfort. As a further development to the current Matrix Beam headlamps, LED-based pixel light systems enable ideal lighting functions (e.g. projection of navigation information onto the road) to be activated in any given driving scenario. Moreover, compared to other light-modulating elements such as DMDs and LCDs, instantaneous LED on-off toggling provides a decisive advantage in efficiency. To generate highly individualized light distributions for automotive applications, a number of approaches using an LED array may be pursued. One approach is to vary the LED density in the array so as to output the desired light distribution. Another notable approach makes use of an equidistant arrangement of the individual LEDs together with distortion optics to formulate the desired light distribution. The optical system adjusts the light distribution in a manner that improves resolution and increases luminous intensity of the desired area. An efficient setup for pixel generation calls for one lens per LED. Taking into consideration the limited space requirements of the system, this implies that the luminous flux, efficiency and resolution image parameters are primarily controlled by the lens dimensions. In this paper a concept for an equidistant LED array arrangement utilizing distortion optics is presented. The paper is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the influence of lens geometry on the system efficiency whereas the second part investigates the correlation between resolution and luminous flux based on the lens dimensions.

Community-Led Total Sanitation, Open Defecation Free Status, and Ebola Virus Disease in Lofa County, Liberia.

Science.gov (United States)

Capps, Jean Meyer; Njiru, Haron; deVries, Pieter

2017-01-01

The Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic entered Liberia through Lofa County in February 2014 and spread to two health districts where the nongovernmental organization Global Communities had been implementing community-led total sanitation (CLTS) since 2012. By December 2014 the county had 928 Ebola cases (422 of them confirmed) and 648 deaths. Before the epidemic, CLTS was triggered in 155 communities, and 98 communities were certified as Open Defecation Free (ODF). Using mixed quantitative and qualitative methods, we determined that no cases of EVD were found in ODF communities and in only one CLTS community that had not reached ODF status. No differences were found between EVD and non-EVD communities in tribe, religion, ethnic group, or major sources of Ebola information. Radio was the most common source of information for all communities, but health workers were the most trusted information sources. CLTS ODF communities attributed their avoidance of EVD to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene behaviors, especially hand washing with soap and disposal of feces that they learned from CLTS prior to the epidemic. Communities that got EVD blamed their strong initial resistance to Ebola response messages on their distrust that Ebola was real and their reliance on friends and family for advice. A strong inverse correlation between EVD and CLTS with or without ODF emerged from the regression analysis (R = -.6).

A self-calibrating led-based solar test platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krebs, Frederik C; Sylvester-Hvid, Kristian O.; Jørgensen, Mikkel

2011-01-01

A compact platform for testing solar cells is presented. The light source comprises a multi-wavelength high-power LED (light emitting diode) array allowing the homogenous illumination of small laboratory solar cell devices (substrate size 50 × 25 mm) within the 390–940 nm wavelength range......, it is possible to perform all the commonly employed measurements on the solar cell at very high speed without moving the sample. In particular, the LED-based illumination system provides an alternative to light-biased incident photon-to-current efficiency measurement to be performed which we demonstrate. Both...

Concept and Method of Asset-Based Community Development Planning: A Case Study on Minlecun Community in Chongqing’s Yuzhong District

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Huang; Ling; Liu; Yang; Xu; Jianfeng

2015-01-01

With the transformation of the Chinese economy from an extensive growth to intensive development, city development is also gradually turning from incremental construction to stock management. Community, as a basic unit of human settlements, is an important platform to build and improve the social governance capability. In 2013, Shiyoulu Jiedao Offi ce of Yuzhong District led the 1st urban community development planning, which was a milestone of Chongqing’s city regeneration and governance innovation. This paper focuses on two key issues: how to understand the community values and make the community development planning based on the above, and how to integrate with the local forces so that the community development planning can be integrated into the action plan. Combined with the practice of Minlecun Community Development Planning, using the concept of asset-based community development, a comprehensive survey is conducted on community assets(including three aspects of physical, human, and social capital), and a community comprehensive planning strategy is formulated which covers two parts: the optimization of community spaces and the upgrading of community governance. The paper explores the local-based community planning theories and methods from such aspects as value attitude, public participation, role transformation of urban planners, and others.

Daylight integrated illumination control of LED systems based on enhanced presence sensing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pandharipande, A.; Caicedo Fernandez, D.R.

2011-01-01

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are considered to become the dominant source of illumination in the future, offering long life times, energy efficiency and flexible tunability. The flexibility of adapting LED parameters offers multiple degrees of freedom in designing LED based lighting systems. In this

Projecting LED product life based on application

Science.gov (United States)

Narendran, Nadarajah; Liu, Yi-wei; Mou, Xi; Thotagamuwa, Dinusha R.; Eshwarage, Oshadhi V. Madihe

2016-09-01

LED products have started to displace traditional light sources in many lighting applications. One of the commonly claimed benefits for LED lighting products is their long useful lifetime in applications. Today there are many replacement lamp products using LEDs in the marketplace. Typically, lifetime claims of these replacement lamps are in the 25,000-hour range. According to current industry practice, the time for the LED light output to reach the 70% value is estimated according to IESNA LM-80 and TM-21 procedures and the resulting value is reported as the whole system life. LED products generally experience different thermal environments and switching (on-off cycling) patterns when used in applications. Current industry test methods often do not produce accurate lifetime estimates for LED systems because only one component of the system, namely the LED, is tested under a continuous-on burning condition without switching on and off, and because they estimate for only one failure type, lumen depreciation. The objective of the study presented in this manuscript was to develop a test method that could help predict LED system life in any application by testing the whole LED system, including on-off power cycling with sufficient dwell time, and considering both failure types, catastrophic and parametric. The study results showed for the LED A-lamps tested in this study, both failure types, catastrophic and parametric, exist. The on-off cycling encourages catastrophic failure, and maximum operating temperature influences the lumen depreciation rate and parametric failure time. It was also clear that LED system life is negatively affected by on-off switching, contrary to commonly held belief. In addition, the study results showed that most of the LED systems failed catastrophically much ahead of the LED light output reaching the 70% value. This emphasizes the fact that life testing of LED systems must consider catastrophic failure in addition to lumen depreciation, and

Energy-Saving Tunnel Illumination System Based on LED's Intelligent Control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo Shanshan; Wu Lan; Gu Hanting; Jiang Shuixiu

2011-01-01

At present there is a lot of electric energy wastage in tunnel illumination, whose design is based on the maximum brightness outside and the maximum vehicle speed all year round. LED's energy consumption is low, and the control of its brightness is simple and effective. It can be quickly adjusted between 0-100% of its maximum brightness, and will not affect the service life. Therefore, using LED as tunnel's illumination source, we can achieve a good energy saving effect. According to real-time data acquisition of vehicle speed, traffic flow and brightness outside the tunnel, the auto real-time control of tunnel illumination can be achieved. And the system regulated the LED luminance by means of combination of LED power module and intelligent control module. The tunnel information was detected by inspection equipments, which included luminometer, vehicle detector, and received by RTU(Remote Terminal Unit), then synchronously transmitted to PC. After data processing, RTU emitted the dimming signal to the LED driver to adjust the brightness of LED. Despite the relatively high cost of high-power LED lights, the enormous energy-saving effect and the well-behaved controllability is beyond compare to other lighting devices.

Illumination sensing in LED lighting systems based on frequency-division multiplexing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yang, Hongming; Bergmans, J.W.M.; Schenk, T.C.W.

2009-01-01

Recently, light emitting diode (LED) based illumination systems have attracted considerable research interest. Such systems normally consist of a large number of LEDs. In order to facilitate the control of such high-complexity system, a novel signal processing application, namely illumination

Analysis of behavioral change techniques in community-led total sanitation programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Sigler, Rachel; Mahmoudi, Lyana; Graham, Jay Paul

2015-03-01

The lack of sanitation facilitates the spread of diarrheal diseases-a leading cause of child deaths worldwide. As of 2012, an estimated 1 billion people still practiced open defecation (OD). To address this issue, one behavioral change approach used is community-led total sanitation (CLTS). It is now applied in an estimated 66 countries worldwide, and many countries have adopted this approach as their main strategy for scaling up rural sanitation coverage. While it appears that many of the activities used in CLTS-that target community-level changes in sanitation behaviors instead of household-level changes-have evolved out of existing behavior change frameworks and techniques, it is less clear how these activities are adapted by different organizations and applied in different country contexts. The aims of this study are to (i) show which behavior change frameworks and techniques are the most common in CLTS interventions; (ii) describe how activities are implemented in CLTS interventions by region and context; and (3) determine which activities program implementers considered the most valuable in achieving open defecation free (ODF) status and sustaining it. The results indicate that a wide range of activities are conducted across the different programs and often go beyond standard CLTS activities. CLTS practitioners ranked follow-up and monitoring activities as the most important activities for achieving an ODF community, yet only 1 of 10 organizations conducted monitoring and follow-up throughout their project. Empirical studies are needed to determine which specific behavioral change activities are most effective at ending OD and sustaining it. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

System Reliability for LED-Based Products

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Davis, J Lynn; Mills, Karmann; Lamvik, Michael; Yaga, Robert; Shepherd, Sarah D; Bittle, James; Baldasaro, Nick; Solano, Eric; Bobashev, Georgiy; Johnson, Cortina; Evans, Amy

2014-04-07

Results from accelerated life tests (ALT) on mass-produced commercially available 6” downlights are reported along with results from commercial LEDs. The luminaires capture many of the design features found in modern luminaires. In general, a systems perspective is required to understand the reliability of these devices since LED failure is rare. In contrast, components such as drivers, lenses, and reflector are more likely to impact luminaire reliability than LEDs.

Peer-led prenatal breast-feeding education: a viable alternative to nurse-led education.

Science.gov (United States)

Rempel, Lynn A; Moore, Katrina C J

2012-02-01

To evaluate a prenatal breast-feeding class developed and facilitated by peer Breast-feeding Buddies. Non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental study comparing participants of the peer-led class (PLC) to those attending an established hospital-based breast-feeding nurse-led class (NLC). A brief questionnaire was completed immediately prior to the class, and telephone interviews were conducted approximately one week following the class, and one and six months post partum. 54 expectant mothers who registered for the community PLC and 55 expectant mothers who registered for the NLC. Breast-feeding intentions were measured at all time-points. Class evaluations, breast-feeding experiences, and breast-feeding support were measured at all post-class interviews. Both classes were considered worthwhile, but the PLC class was rated as more helpful and participants appreciated learning from the peers' personal experiences. Mothers taught by peers were more likely to access peer breast-feeding support. PLC participants initially decreased their prenatal breast-feeding duration intentions but had significantly stronger intentions to continue breast feeding at six months than did NLC mothers. A peer-led prenatal breast-feeding class is as effective as a traditional model of breast-feeding education and is a valuable tool to promote and support successful breast feeding. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Peer-led breast-feeding classes should be provided to enhance the accessibility of breast-feeding education and support for expectant mothers. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bright infrared LEDs based on colloidal quantum-dots

KAUST Repository

Sun, Liangfeng; Choi, Joshua J.; Stachnik, David; Bartnik, Adam C.; Hyun, Byung-Ryool; Malliaras, George G.; Hanrath, Tobias; Wise, Frank W.

2013-01-01

Record-brightness infrared LEDs based on colloidal quantum-dots have been achieved through control of the spacing between adjacent quantum-dots. By tuning the size of quantum-dots, the emission wavelengths can be tuned between 900nm and 1650nm. © 2013 Materials Research Society.

LED-Based High-Voltage Lines Warning System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eldar MUSA

2013-04-01

Full Text Available LED-based system, running with the current of high-voltage lines and converting the current flowing through the line into the light by using a toroid transformer, has been developed. The transformer’s primary winding is constituted by the high voltage power line. Toroidal core consists of two equal parts and the secondary windings are evenly placed on these two parts. The system is mounted on the high-voltage lines as a clamp. The secondary winding ends are connected in series by the connector on the clamp. LEDs are supplied by the voltage at the ends of secondary. Current flowing through highvoltage transmission lines is converted to voltage by the toroidal transformer and the light emitting LEDs are supplied with this voltage. The theory of the conversion of the current flowing through the line into the light is given. The system, running with the current of the line and converting the current into the light, has been developed. System has many application areas such as warning high voltage lines (warning winches to not hinder the high-voltage lines when working under the lines, warning planes to not touch the high-voltage lines, remote measurement of high-voltage line currents, and local illumination of the line area

GaN-based micro-LED arrays on flexible substrates for optical cochlear implants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goßler, Christian; Bierbrauer, Colin; Moser, Rüdiger; Kunzer, Michael; Holc, Katarzyna; Pletschen, Wilfried; Köhler, Klaus; Wagner, Joachim; Schwarz, Ulrich T; Schwaerzle, Michael; Ruther, Patrick; Paul, Oliver; Neef, Jakob; Keppeler, Daniel; Hoch, Gerhard; Moser, Tobias

2014-01-01

Currently available cochlear implants are based on electrical stimulation of the spiral ganglion neurons. Optical stimulation with arrays of micro-sized light-emitting diodes (µLEDs) promises to increase the number of distinguishable frequencies. Here, the development of a flexible GaN-based micro-LED array as an optical cochlear implant is reported for application in a mouse model. The fabrication of 15 µm thin and highly flexible devices is enabled by a laser-based layer transfer process of the GaN-LEDs from sapphire to a polyimide-on-silicon carrier wafer. The fabricated 50 × 50 µm 2 LEDs are contacted via conducting paths on both p- and n-sides of the LEDs. Up to three separate channels could be addressed. The probes, composed of a linear array of the said µLEDs bonded to the flexible polyimide substrate, are peeled off the carrier wafer and attached to flexible printed circuit boards. Probes with four µLEDs and a width of 230 µm are successfully implanted in the mouse cochlea both in vitro and in vivo. The LEDs emit 60 µW at 1 mA after peel-off, corresponding to a radiant emittance of 6 mW mm −2 . (paper)

Patients' experiences of a multidisciplinary team-led community case management programme: a qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Gowing, Alice; Dickinson, Claire; Gorman, Tom; Robinson, Louise; Duncan, Rachel

2016-09-09

To explore the views and experiences of patients on the care they have received while enrolled on the Northumberland High Risk Patient Programme (NHRPP). This programme involved case finding of frail patients using a multidisciplinary team (MDT)-led community case management programme, and support of patients through care planning and regular reviews using primary, community, secondary and social care professionals. A qualitative study using semistructured interviews, which were digitally recorded, transcribed and subject to thematic analysis. Community patients receiving primary care in the county of Northumberland, England. 23 participants took part, of which 16 were patients enrolled on the NHRPP, and 7 carers. GP practices were selected purposively by size, deprivation and location, and patients identified and invited by General Practitioners to participate. 4 main themes emerged from the data: awareness and understanding of the NHRPP, confidence in the primary healthcare team, limitations of home care and the active role of being a patient. Despite having a low level of awareness of the details of the NHRPP, participants did think that its broad aim made sense. Participants discussed their high level of satisfaction with their care and access to team members. However, some limitations of alternatives to hospital care were identified, including the need to consider psychological as well as medical needs, the importance of overnight care and the needs of those without informal carers. Finally, participants discussed the active nature of being a patient under the NHRPP if they were to contribute fully to planning and managing their own care. This study has identified that a programme of MDT-led case management was generally very well received by patients and their families. However, a number of factors were identified that could improve the implementation of the programme and further research needs to be undertaken to address these. Published by the BMJ

Implementation and Test of a LED-Based Lamp for a Lighthouse

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luca Mercatelli

2014-01-01

Full Text Available A novel sustainable source was developed for an existing Italian lighthouse, exploiting the light emitting diode (LED technology and the norms evolution. The research work started with the optical design of the device, while this work concerns the realization, installation, and test of the new LED lamp. The lamp recombines multiple separated LEDs, realizing a quasipunctual localized source. After installation in the lighthouse, specific photometric tests verified that the proposed power-saving source satisfied the illumination requirements of the marine signaling norms. The advantages of the LED-based lamp are reduced energy consumption, enhanced efficiency, longer life, decreased faults, slower aging, and lower maintenance costs. The obtained LED signalling device is more durable and reliable. In the future the application of these power-saving long-life sources could be extended to other maritime signaling devices or to other traffic signs.

Cardiovascular risk outcome and program evaluation of a cluster randomised controlled trial of a community-based, lay peer led program for people with diabetes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. A. Riddell

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The 2013 Global Burden of Disease Study demonstrated the increasing burden of diabetes and the challenge it poses to the health systems of all countries. The chronic and complex nature of diabetes requires active self-management by patients in addition to clinical management in order to achieve optimal glycaemic control and appropriate use of available clinical services. This study is an evaluation of a “real world” peer support program aimed at improving the control and management of type 2 diabetes (T2DM in Australia. Methods The trial used a randomised cluster design with a peer support intervention and routine care control arms and 12-month follow up. Participants in both arms received a standardised session of self-management education at baseline. The intervention program comprised monthly community-based group meetings over 12 months led by trained peer supporters and active encouragement to use primary health care and other community resources and supports related to diabetes. Clinical, behavioural and other measures were collected at baseline, 6 and 12 months. The primary outcome was the predicted 5 year cardiovascular disease risk using the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS Risk Equation at 12 months. Secondary outcomes included clinical measures, quality of life, measures of support, psychosocial functioning and lifestyle measures. Results Eleven of 12 planned groups were successfully implemented in the intervention arm. Both the usual care and the intervention arms demonstrated a small reduction in 5 year UKPDS risk and the mean values for biochemical and anthropometric outcomes were close to target at 12 months. There were some small positive changes in self-management behaviours. Conclusions The positive changes in self-management behaviours among intervention participants were not sufficient to reduce cardiovascular risk, possibly because approximately half of the study participants

Visual color matching system based on RGB LED light source

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Lei; Huang, Qingmei; Feng, Chen; Li, Wei; Wang, Chaofeng

2018-01-01

In order to study the property and performance of LED as RGB primary color light sources on color mixture in visual psychophysical experiments, and to find out the difference between LED light source and traditional light source, a visual color matching experiment system based on LED light sources as RGB primary colors has been built. By simulating traditional experiment of metameric color matching in CIE 1931 RGB color system, it can be used for visual color matching experiments to obtain a set of the spectral tristimulus values which we often call color-matching functions (CMFs). This system consists of three parts: a monochromatic light part using blazed grating, a light mixing part where the summation of 3 LED illuminations are to be visually matched with a monochromatic illumination, and a visual observation part. The three narrow band LEDs used have dominant wavelengths of 640 nm (red), 522 nm (green) and 458 nm (blue) respectively and their intensities can be controlled independently. After the calibration of wavelength and luminance of LED sources with a spectrophotometer, a series of visual color matching experiments have been carried out by 5 observers. The results are compared with those from CIE 1931 RGB color system, and have been used to compute an average locus for the spectral colors in the color triangle, with white at the center. It has been shown that the use of LED is feasible and has the advantages of easy control, good stability and low cost.

Performance of GaN-Based LEDs with Nanopatterned Indium Tin Oxide Electrode

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhanxu Chen

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The indium tin oxide (ITO has been widely applied in light emitting diodes (LEDs as the transparent current spreading layer. In this work, the performance of GaN-based blue light LEDs with nanopatterned ITO electrode is investigated. Periodic nanopillar ITO arrays are fabricated by inductive coupled plasma etching with the mask of polystyrene nanosphere. The light extraction efficiency (LEE of LEDs can be improved by nanopatterned ITO ohmic contacts. The light output intensity of the fabricated LEDs with nanopatterned ITO electrode is 17% higher than that of the conventional LEDs at an injection current of 100 mA. Three-dimensional finite difference time domain simulation matches well with the experimental result. This method may serve as a practical approach to improving the LEE of the LEDs.

High efficiency nitride based phosphores for white LEDs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Li, Yuan Qiang; Hintzen, H.T.J.M.

2008-01-01

In this overview paper, novel rare-earth doped silicon nitride based phosphors for white LEDs applications have been demonstrated. The luminescence properties of orange-red-emitting phosphors (M2Si5N8:Eu2+) and green-to-yellow emitting phosphors (MSi2N2O2:Eu2+, M = Ca, Sr, Ba) are discussed in

Thermal management for LED applications

CERN Document Server

Poppe, András

2014-01-01

Thermal Management for LED Applications provides state-of-the-art information on recent developments in thermal management as it relates to LEDs and LED-based systems and their applications. Coverage begins with an overview of the basics of thermal management including thermal design for LEDs, thermal characterization and testing of LEDs, and issues related to failure mechanisms and reliability and performance in harsh environments. Advances and recent developments in thermal management round out the book with discussions on advances in TIMs (thermal interface materials) for LED applications, advances in forced convection cooling of LEDs, and advances in heat sinks for LED assemblies. This book also: Presents a comprehensive overview of the basics of thermal management as it relates to LEDs and LED-based systems Discusses both design and thermal management considerations when manufacturing LEDs and LED-based systems Covers reliability and performance of LEDs in harsh environments Has a hands-on applications a...

A filter bank approach for LED illumintaion sensing based on frequency division multiplexing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yang, Hongming; Bergmans, J.W.M.; Schenk, T.C.W.

2009-01-01

In this work, we consider illumination sensing in a light emitting diode (LED) based illumination system that normally consists of a large number of LEDs. Illumination sensing is used in order to facilitate the control of such system whose complexity, due to the large number of LEDs, can be quite

User-led innovation in civic energy communities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Vries, Gerben; Boon, Wouter; Peine, A.

2016-01-01

Building on user and grassroots innovation literature, we explore user innovations in five Dutch civic energy communities. Less attention has been paid to the interplay of social, symbolic and technological innovations that seems to be at the heart of many civic energy communities. In this paper, we

Imaging camera system of OYGBR-phosphor-based white LED lighting

Science.gov (United States)

Kobashi, Katsuya; Taguchi, Tsunemasa

2005-03-01

The near-ultraviolet (nUV) white LED approach is analogous to three-color fluorescent lamp technology, which is based on the conversion of nUV radiation to visible light via the photoluminescence process in phosphor materials. The nUV light is not included in the white light generation from nUV-based white LED devices. This technology can thus provide a higher quality of white light than the blue and YAG method. A typical device demonstrates white luminescence with Tc=3,700 K, Ra > 93, K > 40 lm/W and chromaticity (x, y) = (0.39, 0.39), respectively. The orange, yellow, green and blue OYGB) or orange, yellow, red, green and blue (OYRGB) device shows a luminescence spectrum broader than of an RGB white LED and a better color rendering index. Such superior luminous characteristics could be useful for the application of several kinds of endoscope. We have shown the excellent pictures of digestive organs in a stomach of a dog due to the strong green component and high Ra.

LED; Zum Thema LED

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2010-07-01

This collection of articles on the subject of light emitting diodes (LED) provides technical information on LED technology, examines latest developments and provides examples of LED use in practice. An 'ABC' of LED technology is presented and fifteen common LED mistakes are noted. The chances and risks of LED use are discussed as is the retrofitting of lighting installations with LEDs. The use of LEDs in street lighting is examined. The journal also includes interviews with architects and a lighting designer. Practical examples of the use of LEDs include the refurbished parliamentary library in Berne, their use in the bird sanctuary headquarters in Sempach, Switzerland, as well as LED use in sales outlets. Also, the use of LED lighting in a spa gazebo in Lucerne is examined.

Riding the rural radio wave: The impact of a community-led drug and alcohol radio advertising campaign in a remote Australian Aboriginal community.

Science.gov (United States)

Munro, Alice; Allan, Julaine; Shakeshaft, Anthony; Snijder, Mieke

2017-10-01

Aboriginal people experience a higher burden of disease as a consequence of drug and alcohol (D&A) abuse. Although media campaigns can be a popular tool for disseminating health promotion messages, evidence of the extent to which they reduce the impact of substance abuse is limited, especially for rural Aboriginal communities. This paper is the first to examine the impact a locally designed D&A radio advertising campaign for Aboriginal people in a remote community in Western NSW. A post-intervention evaluation. The radio campaign was implemented in Bourke, (population 2465, 30% Aboriginal). Fifty-three community surveys were completed. The self-reported level of awareness of the campaign and the number of self-referrals to local D&A workers in the intervention period. Most respondents (79%) reported they listen to radio on a daily basis, with 75% reporting that they had heard one or more of the advertisements. The advertisement that was remembered best contained the voice of a respected, local person. There was one self-referral to local health services during the intervention timeframe. The community-led radio advertising campaign increased community awareness of substance abuse harms, but had limited impact on formal help-seeking. This paper highlights the value of radio as a commonly used, trusted and culturally relevant health promotion medium for rural communities, especially when engaging local respected Aboriginal presenters. © 2017 National Rural Health Alliance Inc.

Development of a LED based standard for luminous flux

Science.gov (United States)

Sardinha, André; Ázara, Ivo; Torres, Miguel; Menegotto, Thiago; Grieneisen, Hans Peter; Borghi, Giovanna; Couceiro, Iakyra; Zim, Alexandre; Muller, Filipe

2018-03-01

Incandescent lamps, simple artifacts with radiation spectrum very similar to a black-body emitter, are traditional standards in photometry. Nowadays LEDs are broadly used in lighting, with great variety of spectra, and it is convenient to use standards for photometry with spectral distribution similar to that of the measured artifact. Research and development of such standards occur in several National Metrology Institutes. In Brazil, Inmetro is working on a practical solution for providing a LED based standard to be used for luminous flux measurements in the field of general lighting. This paper shows the measurements made for the developing of a prototype, that in sequence will be characterized in photometric quantities.

340nm UV LED excitation in time-resolved fluorescence system for europium-based immunoassays detection

Science.gov (United States)

Rodenko, Olga; Fodgaard, Henrik; Tidemand-Lichtenberg, Peter; Pedersen, Christian

2017-02-01

In immunoassay analyzers for in-vitro diagnostics, Xenon flash lamps have been widely used as excitation light sources. Recent advancements in UV LED technology and its advantages over the flash lamps such as smaller footprint, better wall-plug efficiency, narrow emission spectrum, and no significant afterglow, have made them attractive light sources for gated detection systems. In this paper, we report on the implementation of a 340 nm UV LED based time-resolved fluorescence system based on europium chelate as a fluorescent marker. The system performance was tested with the immunoassay based on the cardiac marker, TnI. The same signal-to-noise ratio as for the flash lamp based system was obtained, operating the LED below specified maximum current. The background counts of the system and its main contributors were measured and analyzed. The background of the system of the LED based unit was improved by 39% compared to that of the Xenon flash lamp based unit, due to the LEDs narrower emission spectrum and longer pulse width. Key parameters of the LED system are discussed to further optimize the signal-to-noise ratio and signal-to-background, and hence the sensitivity of the instrument.

Space for innovation for sustainable community-based biofuel production and use: Lessons learned for policy from Nhambita community, Mozambique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schut, Marc; Paassen, Annemarie van; Leeuwis, Cees; Bos, Sandra; Leonardo, Wilson; Lerner, Anna

2011-01-01

This paper provides insights and recommendations for policy on the opportunities and constrains that influence the space for innovation for sustainable community-based biofuel production and use. Promoted by the Mozambican government, Nhambita community established jatropha trials in 2005. Initial results were promising, but crop failure and the absence of organized markets led to scepticism amongst farmers. We start from the idea that the promotion of community-based biofuel production and use requires taking interactions between social-cultural, biophysical, economic, political and legal subsystems across different scales and levels of analysis through time into account. Our analysis demonstrates that heterogeneous farming strategies and their synergies at community level should be carefully assessed. Furthermore, national and international political and legal developments, such as the development of biofuel sustainability criteria, influence the local space in which community-based biofuel developments take place. We conclude that ex-ante integrated assessment and creating an enabling environment can enhance space for sustainable community-based biofuel production and use. It may provide insights into the opportunities and constraints for different types of smallholders, and promote the development of adequate policy mechanisms to prevent biofuels from becoming a threat rather than an opportunity for smallholders. - Highlights: → This paper explores space for innovation for community-based biofuel production and use. → Heterogeneous farming strategies and their synergies at community level are key. → Farmers have little trust in jatropha due to crop failure and absence of markets. → (Inter)national biofuel policies influence space for local biofuel production and use. → Policies should focus on ex-ante integrated assessment and creating an enabling environment.

Cost analysis of two community-based HIV testing service modalities led by a Non-Governmental Organization in Cape Town, South Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Meehan, Sue-Ann; Beyers, Nulda; Burger, Ronelle

2017-12-02

In South Africa, the financing and sustainability of HIV services is a priority. Community-based HIV testing services (CB-HTS) play a vital role in diagnosis and linkage to HIV care for those least likely to utilise government health services. With insufficient estimates of the costs associated with CB-HTS provided by NGOs in South Africa, this cost analysis explored the cost to implement and provide services at two NGO-led CB-HTS modalities and calculated the costs associated with realizing key HIV outputs for each CB-HTS modality. The study took place in a peri-urban area where CB-HTS were provided from a stand-alone centre and mobile service. Using a service provider (NGO) perspective, all inputs were allocated by HTS modality with shared costs apportioned according to client volume or personnel time. We calculated the total cost of each HTS modality and the cost categories (personnel, capital and recurring goods/services) across each HTS modality. Costs were divided into seven pre-determined project components, used to examine cost drivers. HIV outputs were analysed for each HTS modality and the mean cost for each HIV output was calculated per HTS modality. The annual cost of the stand-alone and mobile modalities was $96,616 and $77,764 respectively, with personnel costs accounting for 54% of the total costs at the stand-alone. For project components, overheads and service provision made up the majority of the costs. The mean cost per person tested at stand-alone ($51) was higher than at the mobile ($25). Linkage to care cost at the stand-alone ($1039) was lower than the mobile ($2102). This study provides insight into the cost of an NGO led CB-HTS project providing HIV testing and linkage to care through two CB-HIV testing modalities. The study highlights; (1) the importance of including all applicable costs (including overheads) to ensure an accurate cost estimate that is representative of the full service implementation cost, (2) the direct link between test

The development of a lay health worker delivered collaborative community based intervention for people with schizophrenia in India

OpenAIRE

Balaji, Madhumitha; Chatterjee, Sudipto; Koschorke, Mirja; Rangaswamy, Thara; Chavan, Animish; Dabholkar, Hamid; Dakshin, Lilly; Kumar, Pratheesh; John, Sujit; Thornicroft, Graham; Patel, Vikram

2012-01-01

Abstract Background Care for schizophrenia in low and middle income countries is predominantly facility based and led by specialists, with limited use of non-pharmacological treatments. Although community based psychosocial interventions are emphasised, there is little evidence about their acceptability and feasibility. Furthermore, the shortage of skilled manpower is a major barrier to improving access to these interventions. Our study aimed to develop a lay health worker delivered community...

Improving medication adherence: a framework for community pharmacy-based interventions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pringle J

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Janice Pringle,1 Kim C Coley2 1Program Evaluation and Research Unit, Department of Pharmacy and Therapeutics, School of Pharmacy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; 2Department of Pharmacy and Therapeutics, School of Pharmacy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Abstract: Evidence supports that patient medication adherence is suboptimal with patients typically taking less than half of their prescribed doses. Medication nonadherence is associated with poor health outcomes and higher downstream health care costs. Results of studies evaluating pharmacist-led models in a community pharmacy setting and their impact on medication adherence have been mixed. Community pharmacists are ideally situated to provide medication adherence interventions, and effective strategies for how they can consistently improve patient medication adherence are necessary. This article suggests a framework to use in the community pharmacy setting that will significantly improve patient adherence and provides a strategy for how to apply this framework to develop and test new medication adherence innovations. The proposed framework is composed of the following elements: 1 defining the program's pharmacy service vision, 2 using evidence-based, patient-centered communication and intervention strategies, 3 using specific implementation approaches that ensure fidelity, and 4 applying continuous evaluation strategies. Within this framework, pharmacist interventions should include those services that capitalize on their specific skill sets. It is also essential that the organization's leadership effectively communicates the pharmacy service vision. Medication adherence strategies that are evidence-based and individualized to each patient's adherence problems are most desirable. Ideally, interventions would be delivered repeatedly over time and adjusted when patient's adherence circumstances change. Motivational interviewing principles are particularly well

340 nm pulsed UV LED system for europium-based time-resolved fluorescence detection of immunoassays

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rodenko, Olga; Fodgaard, Henrik; Tidemand-Lichtenberg, Peter

2016-01-01

We report on the design, development and investigation of an optical system based on UV light emitting diode (LED) excitation at 340 nm for time-resolved fluorescence detection of immunoassays. The system was tested to measure cardiac marker Troponin I with a concentration of 200 ng....../L in immunoassay. The signal-to-noise ratio was comparable to state-of-the-art Xenon flash lamp based unit with equal excitation energy and without overdriving the LED. We performed a comparative study of the flash lamp and the LED based system and discussed temporal, spatial, and spectral features of the LED...... excitation for time-resolved fluorimetry. Optimization of the suggested key parameters of the LED promises significant increase of the signal-to-noise ratio and hence of the sensitivity of immunoassay systems....

340 nm pulsed UV LED system for europium-based time-resolved fluorescence detection of immunoassays.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodenko, Olga; Fodgaard, Henrik; Tidemand-Lichtenberg, Peter; Petersen, Paul Michael; Pedersen, Christian

2016-09-19

We report on the design, development and investigation of an optical system based on UV light emitting diode (LED) excitation at 340 nm for time-resolved fluorescence detection of immunoassays. The system was tested to measure cardiac marker Troponin I with a concentration of 200 ng/L in immunoassay. The signal-to-noise ratio was comparable to state-of-the-art Xenon flash lamp based unit with equal excitation energy and without overdriving the LED. We performed a comparative study of the flash lamp and the LED based system and discussed temporal, spatial, and spectral features of the LED excitation for time-resolved fluorimetry. Optimization of the suggested key parameters of the LED promises significant increase of the signal-to-noise ratio and hence of the sensitivity of immunoassay systems.

Utilization of the state led public private partnership program "Chiranjeevi Yojana" to promote facility births in Gujarat, India: a cross sectional community based study.

Science.gov (United States)

Yasobant, Sandul; Vora, Kranti Suresh; Shewade, Hemant Deepak; Annerstedt, Kristi Sidney; Isaakidis, Petros; Mavalankar, Dileep V; Dholakia, Nishith B; De Costa, Ayesha

2016-07-15

"Chiranjeevi Yojana (CY)", a state-led large-scale demand-side financing scheme (DSF) under public-private partnership to increase institutional delivery, has been implemented across Gujarat state, India since 2005. The scheme aims to provide free institutional childbirth services in accredited private health facilities to women from socially disadvantaged groups (eligible women). These services are paid for by the state to the private facility with the intention of service being free to the user. This community-based study estimates CY uptake among eligible women and explores factors associated with non-utilization of the CY program. This was a community-based cross sectional survey of eligible women who gave birth between January and July 2013 in 142 selected villages of three districts in Gujarat. A structured questionnaire was administered by trained research assistant to collect information on socio-demographic details, pregnancy details, details of childbirth and out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses incurred. A multivariable inferential analysis was done to explore the factors associated with non-utilization of the CY program. Out of 2,143 eligible women, 559 (26 %) gave birth under the CY program. A further 436(20 %) delivered at free public facilities, 713(33 %) at private facilities (OOP payment) and 435(20 %) at home. Eligible women who belonged to either scheduled tribe or poor [aOR = 3.1, 95 % CI:2.4 - 3.8] or having no formal education [aOR = 1.6, 95 % CI:1.1, 2.2] and who delivered by C-section [aOR = 2.1,95 % CI: 1.2, 3.8] had higher odds of not utilizing CY program. Of births at CY accredited facilities (n = 924), non-utilization was 40 % (n = 365) mostly because of lack of required official documentation that proved eligibility (72 % of eligible non-users). Women who utilized the CY program overall paid more than women who delivered in the free public facilities. Uptake of the CY among eligible women was low after almost a decade

Community-led approaches and interventions for the regeneration of abandoned towns in Southern Italy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

May East

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Defined as towns or villages that have been abandoned by their original inhabitants, the so-called ‘ghost towns’ are a sub-product of the opposing conditions of excessive urban growth in one hand and decline of rural regions on the other. Natural disasters, economic and demographic decline, armed conflict, disease and environmental contamination are repeatedly the drivers for their abandonment.  An increasing large concentration of these abandoned small villages is found in the impoverished Southern regions of Italy.  To investigate this problem and identify conservation approaches that could generate new dynamics to the abandoned historic villages, the paper starts by identifying the linkages between globalisation, rapid urbanisation and ghost towns. This is followed by an analysis of the root causes of ghost towns in an attempt to define a ghost town typology. With this in mind, this paper investigates integrated conservation approaches, which could promote the restoration of abandoned towns, strengthening their local identity and enhancing resource-efficient local economies. Based on these considerations, the paper focus the attention on three scenarios of rehabilitation: a community-led approach to conservation demonstrated by the medieval village Torri Superiore embedded in ecovillage principles; the hospitality concept albergo diffuso demonstrated by Albergo Diffuso Borgo di Castelvetere, acting as social, cultural and economic stimuli to depopulated villages; the Riace village humanitarian approach which has integrated migrants in the social fabric of its aging population. The paper ends by reflecting if Torri Superiore and Riace’s approaches offer a potential solution to the housing crises currently engulfing southern Europe. As a result of imaginative housing and food production practices, these villages have made significantly more progress than mainstream government approaches towards the realisation of sustainable communities

DC Grids for Smart LED-Based Lighting: The EDISON Solution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steffen Thielemans

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This paper highlights the benefits and possible drawbacks of a DC-based lighting infrastructure for powering Light Emitting Diode (LED-lamps. It also evaluates the efforts needed for integrating the so called smart lighting and other sensor/actuator based control systems, and compares existing and emerging solutions. It reviews and discusses published work in this field with special focus on the intelligent DC-based infrastructure named EDISON that is primarily dedicated to lighting, but is applicable to building automation in general. The EDISON “PowerLAN” consists of a DC-based infrastructure that offers telecommunication abilities and can be applied to lighting retrofitting scenarios for buildings. Its infrastructure allows simple and efficient powering of DC-oriented devices like LED lamps, sensors and microcontrollers, while offering a wired communication channel. This paper motivates the design choices for organizing DC lighting grids and their associated communication possibilities. It also shows how the EDISON based smart lighting solution is evolving today to include new communication technologies and to further integrate other parts of building management solutions through the OneM2M (Machine to Machine service bus.

Trait-based approaches in the analysis of stream fish communities

Science.gov (United States)

Frimpong, Emmanuel; Angermeier, Paul

2010-01-01

Species traits are used to study the functional organization of fish communities for a range of reasons, from simply reducing data dimensionality to providing mechanistic explanations for observed variation in communities. Ecological and life history traits have been used to understand the basic ecology of fishes and predict (1) species and community responses to habitat and climate alteration, and (2) species extinction, species invasion, and community homogenization. Many approaches in this arena have been developed during the past three decades, but they often have not been integrated with related ecological concepts or subdisciplines, which has led to confusion in terminology. We review 102 studies of species traits and then summarize patterns in traits being used and questions being addressed with trait-based approaches. Overall, studies of fish–habitat relationships that apply habitat templates and hierarchical filters dominate our sample; the most frequently used traits are related to feeding. We define and show the relationships among key terms such as fundamental and realized niches; functional traits, performance, and fitness; tactic, trait-state, syndromes, and strategies; and guilds and functional groups. We propose accelerating research to (1) quantify trait plasticity, (2) identify traits useful for testing ecological hypotheses, (3) model habitat and biotic interactions in communities while explicitly accounting for phylogenetic relationships, (4) explore how traits control community assembly, and (5) document the importance of traits in fish– community responses to anthropogenic change and in delivering ecosystem services. Further synthesis of these topics is still needed to develop concepts, models, and principles that can unify the disparate approaches taken in trait-based analysis of fish communities, link fish community ecology to general community ecology, and inform sustainable management of ecosystems.

340nm UV LED excitation in time-resolved fluorescence system for europium-based immunoassays detection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rodenko, Olga; Fodgaard, Henrik; Tidemand-Lichtenberg, Peter

2017-01-01

In immunoassay analyzers for in-vitro diagnostics, Xenon flash lamps have been widely used as excitation light sources. Recent advancements in UV LED technology and its advantages over the flash lamps such as smaller footprint, better wall-plug efficiency, narrow emission spectrum......, and no significant afterglow, have made them attractive light sources for gated detection systems. In this paper, we report on the implementation of a 340 nm UV LED based time-resolved fluorescence system based on europium chelate as a fluorescent marker. The system performance was tested with the immunoassay based...... on the cardiac marker, TnI. The same signal-to-noise ratio as for the flash lamp based system was obtained, operating the LED below specified maximum current. The background counts of the system and its main contributors were measured and analyzed. The background of the system of the LED based unit was improved...

High Output LED-Based Profile Lighting Fixture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Török, Lajos; Beczkowski, Szymon; Munk-Nielsen, Stig

2011-01-01

Recent developments in power light emitting diode (LED) industry have made LEDs suitable for being efficiently used in high intensity lighting fixtures instead of the commonly used high intensity discharge (HID) lamps. A high output LEDbased profile-light fixture is presented in this paper...

Improving the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis using a senior-friendly peer-led community education and mentoring model: a randomized controlled trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kloseck M

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Marita Kloseck,1,2 Deborah A Fitzsimmons,1,3,4 Mark Speechley,5 Marie Y Savundranayagam,1 Richard G Crilly1,2 1Sam Katz Community Health and Aging Research Unit, 2Division of Geriatric Medicine, Western University, London, ON, Canada; 3School of Nursing and Allied Health, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, 4School of Health and Related Research, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK; 5Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University, London, ON, Canada Background: This randomized controlled trial (RCT evaluated a 6-month peer-led community education and mentorship program to improve the diagnosis and management of osteoporosis.Methods: Ten seniors (74–90 years of age were trained to become peer educators and mentors and deliver the intervention. In the subsequent RCT, 105 seniors (mean age =80.5±6.9; 89% female were randomly assigned to the peer-led education and mentorship program (n=53 or control group (n=52. Knowledge was assessed at baseline and 6 months. Success was defined as discussing osteoporosis risk with their family physician, obtaining a bone mineral density assessment, and returning to review their risk profile and receive advice and/or treatment.Results: Knowledge of osteoporosis did not change significantly. There was no difference in knowledge change between the two groups (mean difference =1.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] of difference −0.76 to 3.36. More participants in the intervention group achieved a successful outcome (odds ratio 0.16, 95% CI 0.06–0.42, P<0.001.Conclusion: Peer-led education and mentorship can promote positive health behavior in seniors. This model was effective for improving osteoporosis risk assessment, diagnosis, and treatment in a community setting. Keywords: prevention, seniors, mentor, bone mineral density, capacity building, community knowledge translation

Design and radiation tests on a LED based emergency evacuation directional lighting

CERN Document Server

Trikoupis, Nikolaos

2017-01-01

A LED (Light Emitting Diode) based directional lighting system has been designed to indicate the best evacuation direction for applications like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) tunnel. The design includes constraints for redundancy required by safety systems and for components selection by radiation effects. Most of the literature for radiation effects on LEDs concern digital communications systems, although some recent reports do exist for visible spectrum power LEDs and the reduction in light output versus dose is coherent with the results presented in this paper. Prototype lighting units were irradiated in CERN’s CHARM facility up to a Total Integrated Dose (TID) of 870 Gy and no failures were observed. This paper describes the basic design, presents field tests and the effects of radiation on the LEDs luminance.

LED Technology for Dental Applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Argyraki, Aikaterini; Ou, Yiyu; Soerensen, L. H.

LEDs have a large potential in many dental and oral applications. Areas such as photo polymerization, fluorescence imaging, photodynamic therapy, and photoactivated disinfection are important future candidates for LED based diagnostics and treatment in dentistry.......LEDs have a large potential in many dental and oral applications. Areas such as photo polymerization, fluorescence imaging, photodynamic therapy, and photoactivated disinfection are important future candidates for LED based diagnostics and treatment in dentistry....

Solid State pH Sensor Based on Light Emitting Diodes (LED) As Detector Platform

OpenAIRE

Lau, King Tong; Shepherd, R.; Diamond, Danny; Diamond, Dermot

2006-01-01

A low-power, high sensitivity, very low-cost light emitting diode (LED)-based device developed for low-cost sensor networks was modified with bromocresol green membrane to work as a solid-state pH sensor. In this approach, a reverse-biased LED functioning as a photodiode is coupled with a second LED configured in conventional emission mode. A simple timer circuit measures how long (in microsecond) it takes for the photocurrent generated on the detector LED to discharge its capacitance from lo...

What Goes Around: the process of building a community-based harm reduction research project.

Science.gov (United States)

Jalloh, Chelsea; Illsley, Shohan; Wylie, John; Migliardi, Paula; West, Ethan; Stewart, Debbie; Mignone, Javier

2017-11-16

Often, research takes place on underserved populations rather than with underserved populations. This approach can further isolate and stigmatize groups that are already made marginalized. What Goes Around is a community-based research project that was led by community members themselves (Peers). This research aimed to implement a community-based research methodology grounded in the leadership and growing research capacity of community researchers and to investigate a topic which community members identified as important and meaningful. Chosen by community members, this project explored how safer sex and safer drug use information is shared informally among Peers. Seventeen community members actively engaged as both community researchers and research participants throughout all facets of the project: inception, implementation, analysis, and dissemination of results. Effective collaboration between community researchers, a community organization, and academics facilitated a research process in which community members actively guided the project from beginning to end. The methods used in What Goes Around demonstrated that it is not only possible, but advantageous, to draw from community members' involvement and direction in all stages of a community-based research project. This is particularly important when working with a historically underserved population. Purposeful and regular communication among collaborators, ongoing capacity building, and a commitment to respect the experience and expertise of community members were essential to the project's success. This project demonstrated that community members are highly invested in both informally sharing information about safer sex and safer drug use and taking leadership roles in directing research that prioritizes harm reduction in their communities.

Oblique-angle sputtered AlN nanocolumnar layer as a buffer layer in GaN-based LED

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Lung-Chien; Tien, Ching-Ho; Liao, Wei-Chian; Luo, Yi-Min

2011-01-01

This work presents an aluminum nitride (AlN) nanocolumnar layer sputtered at various oblique angles and its application as a buffer layer for GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that are fabricated on sapphire substrates. The OA-AlN nanocolumnar layer has a diameter of about 30-60 nm. The GaN-based LED structure is perpendicularly extended from the OA-AlN nanocolumnar layer. Then, the nanocolumnar structure is merged into p-GaN layer to form a mesa structure with a diameter of about 200-600 nm on the surface of the GaN-based LED. Moreover, optical characteristics of the LED were studied using photoluminescence, along with the blue-shifts observed as well. - Research highlights: → An AlN nanocolumnar buffer layer prepared by oblique-angle (OA) deposition. → GaN-based LED structures were grown on a sapphire substrate with an AlN nanocolumnar buffer layer. → The OA-AlN nanocolumnar layer has a diameter of about 30-60 nm.

Demonstration of 575-Mb/s downlink and 225-Mb/s uplink bi-directional SCM-WDM visible light communication using RGB LED and phosphor-based LED.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yuanquan; Wang, Yiguang; Chi, Nan; Yu, Jianjun; Shang, Huiliang

2013-01-14

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel full-duplex bi-directional subcarrier multiplexing (SCM)-wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) visible light communication (VLC) system based on commercially available red-green-blue (RGB) light emitting diode (LED) and phosphor-based LED (P-LED) with 575-Mb/s downstream and 225-Mb/s upstream transmission, employing various modulation orders of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). For the downlink, red and green colors/wavelengths are assigned to carry useful information, while blue chip is just kept lighting to maintain the white color illumination, and for the uplink, the low-cost P-LED is implemented. In this demonstration, pre-equalization and post-equalization are also adopted to compensate the severe frequency response of LEDs. Using this scheme, 4-user downlink and 1-user uplink transmission can be achieved. Furthermore, it can support more users by adjusting the bandwidth of each sub-channel. Bit error rates (BERs) of all links are below pre-forward-error-correction (pre-FEC) threshold of 3.8x 10(-3) after 66-cm free-space delivery. The results show that this scheme has great potential in the practical VLC system.

Precise Temperature Mapping of GaN-Based LEDs by Quantitative Infrared Micro-Thermography

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Geon Hee Kim

2012-04-01

Full Text Available A method of measuring the precise temperature distribution of GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs by quantitative infrared micro-thermography is reported. To reduce the calibration error, the same measuring conditions were used for both calibration and thermal imaging; calibration was conducted on a highly emissive black-painted area on a dummy sapphire wafer loaded near the LED wafer on a thermoelectric cooler mount. We used infrared thermal radiation images of the black-painted area on the dummy wafer and an unbiased LED wafer at two different temperatures to determine the factors that degrade the accuracy of temperature measurement, i.e., the non-uniform response of the instrument, superimposed offset radiation, reflected radiation, and emissivity map of the LED surface. By correcting these factors from the measured infrared thermal radiation images of biased LEDs, we determined a precise absolute temperature image. Consequently, we could observe from where the local self-heat emerges and how it distributes on the emitting area of the LEDs. The experimental results demonstrated that highly localized self-heating and a remarkable temperature gradient, which are detrimental to LED performance and reliability, arise near the p-contact edge of the LED surface at high injection levels owing to the current crowding effect.

Comprehensive geriatric assessment, multifactorial interventions and nurse-led care coordination to prevent functional decline in community-dwelling older persons: protocol of a cluster randomized trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suijker Jacqueline J

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Functional decline in community-dwelling older persons is associated with the loss of independence, the need for hospital and nursing-home care and premature death. The effectiveness of multifactorial interventions in preventing functional decline remains controversial. The aim of this study is to investigate whether functional decline in community-dwelling older persons can be delayed or prevented by a comprehensive geriatric assessment, multifactorial interventions and nurse-led care coordination. Methods/Design In a cluster randomized controlled trial, with the general practice as the unit of randomization, 1281 participants from 25 general practices will be enrolled in each condition to compare the intervention with usual care. The intervention will focus on older persons who are at increased risk for functional decline, identified by an Identification of Seniors at Risk Primary Care (ISAR-PC score (≥ 2. These older persons will receive a comprehensive geriatric assessment, an individually tailored care and treatment plan, consisting of multifactorial, evidence-based interventions and subsequent nurse-led care coordination. The control group will receive 'care as usual' by the general practitioner (GP. The main outcome after 12 months is the level of physical functioning on the modified Katz-15 index score. The secondary outcomes are health-related quality of life, psychological and social functioning, healthcare utilization and institutionalization. Furthermore, a process evaluation and cost-effectiveness analysis will be performed. Discussion This study will provide new knowledge regarding the effectiveness and feasibility of a comprehensive geriatric assessment, multifactorial interventions and nurse-led elderly care in general practice. Trial registration NTR2653 Grant Unrestricted grant 'The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and development' no 313020201

Evaluation of a Peer-Led, Low-Intensity Physical Activity Program for Older Adults

Science.gov (United States)

Werner, Danilea; Teufel, James; Brown, Stephen L.

2014-01-01

Background: Physical inactivity is a primary contributor to decreasing functional physical fitness and increasing chronic disease in older adults. Purpose: This study assessed the health-related benefits of ExerStart for Lay Leaders, a 20-week, community based, peer-led, low-impact exercise program for older adults. ExerStart focuses on aerobic…

Optimization design of LED heat dissipation structure based on strip fins

Science.gov (United States)

Xue, Lingyun; Wan, Wenbin; Chen, Qingguang; Rao, Huanle; Xu, Ping

2018-03-01

To solve the heat dissipation problem of LED, a radiator structure based on strip fins is designed and the method to optimize the structure parameters of strip fins is proposed in this paper. The combination of RBF neural networks and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used for modeling and optimization respectively. During the experiment, the 150 datasets of LED junction temperature when structure parameters of number of strip fins, length, width and height of the fins have different values are obtained by ANSYS software. Then RBF neural network is applied to build the non-linear regression model and the parameters optimization of structure based on particle swarm optimization algorithm is performed with this model. The experimental results show that the lowest LED junction temperature reaches 43.88 degrees when the number of hidden layer nodes in RBF neural network is 10, the two learning factors in particle swarm optimization algorithm are 0.5, 0.5 respectively, the inertia factor is 1 and the maximum number of iterations is 100, and now the number of fins is 64, the distribution structure is 8*8, and the length, width and height of fins are 4.3mm, 4.48mm and 55.3mm respectively. To compare the modeling and optimization results, LED junction temperature at the optimized structure parameters was simulated and the result is 43.592°C which approximately equals to the optimal result. Compared with the ordinary plate-fin-type radiator structure whose temperature is 56.38°C, the structure greatly enhances heat dissipation performance of the structure.

Enhanced light extraction from GaN-based LEDs with a bottom-up assembled photonic crystal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gong Haibo; Hao Xiaopeng; Wu Yongzhong; Cao Bingqiang; Xia Wei; Xu Xiangang

2011-01-01

Highlights: → Polystyrene (PS) microspheres were employed as a template. → A noninvasive photonic crystal was fabricated on the surface of GaN-based LED. → Periodic arrangement of bowl-like holes served as a photonic crystal with gradually changed fill factors. → The electroluminescence intensity of LED with a photonic crystal was significantly enhanced. - Abstract: Photonic crystal (PhC) structure is an efficient tool for light extraction from light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The fabrication of a large area PhC structure on the light output surface of LEDs often involves sophisticated equipments such as nanoimprint lithography machine. In this study a monolayer of polystyrene (PS) microspheres was employed as a template to fabricate a noninvasive photonic crystal of indium tin oxide (ITO) on the surface of GaN-based LED. PS spheres can help to form periodic arrangement of bowl-like holes, a photonic crystal with gradually changed fill factors. Importantly, the electroluminescence intensity of LED with a photonic crystal was significantly enhanced by 1.5 times compared to that of the conventional one under various forward injection currents.

Enhanced light extraction from GaN-based LEDs with a bottom-up assembled photonic crystal

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gong Haibo [State Key Lab of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100 (China); School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250022 (China); Hao Xiaopeng, E-mail: xphao@sdu.edu.cn [State Key Lab of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100 (China); Wu Yongzhong [State Key Lab of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100 (China); Cao Bingqiang [School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250022 (China); Xia Wei [Shandong Huaguang Optoelectronics Company, Ltd., Jinan, 250101 (China); Xu Xiangang [State Key Lab of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100 (China); Shandong Huaguang Optoelectronics Company, Ltd., Jinan, 250101 (China)

2011-08-15

Highlights: > Polystyrene (PS) microspheres were employed as a template. > A noninvasive photonic crystal was fabricated on the surface of GaN-based LED. > Periodic arrangement of bowl-like holes served as a photonic crystal with gradually changed fill factors. > The electroluminescence intensity of LED with a photonic crystal was significantly enhanced. - Abstract: Photonic crystal (PhC) structure is an efficient tool for light extraction from light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The fabrication of a large area PhC structure on the light output surface of LEDs often involves sophisticated equipments such as nanoimprint lithography machine. In this study a monolayer of polystyrene (PS) microspheres was employed as a template to fabricate a noninvasive photonic crystal of indium tin oxide (ITO) on the surface of GaN-based LED. PS spheres can help to form periodic arrangement of bowl-like holes, a photonic crystal with gradually changed fill factors. Importantly, the electroluminescence intensity of LED with a photonic crystal was significantly enhanced by 1.5 times compared to that of the conventional one under various forward injection currents.

Evaluation of a LED-based flatbed document scanner for radiochromic film dosimetry in transmission mode.

Science.gov (United States)

Lárraga-Gutiérrez, José Manuel; García-Garduño, Olivia Amanda; Treviño-Palacios, Carlos; Herrera-González, José Alfredo

2018-03-01

Flatbed scanners are the most frequently used reading instrument for radiochromic film dosimetry because its low cost, high spatial resolution, among other advantages. These scanners use a fluorescent lamp and a CCD array as light source and detector, respectively. Recently, manufacturers of flatbed scanners replaced the fluorescent lamp by light emission diodes (LED) as a light source. The goal of this work is to evaluate the performance of a commercial flatbed scanner with LED based source light for radiochromic film dosimetry. Film read out consistency, response uniformity, film-scanner sensitivity, long term stability and total dose uncertainty was evaluated. In overall, the performance of the LED flatbed scanner is comparable to that of a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL). There are important spectral differences between LED and CCFL lamps that results in a higher sensitivity of the LED scanner in the green channel. Total dose uncertainty, film response reproducibility and long-term stability of LED scanner are slightly better than those of the CCFL. However, the LED based scanner has a strong non-uniform response, up to 9%, that must be adequately corrected for radiotherapy dosimetry QA. The differences in light emission spectra between LED and CCFL lamps and its potential impact on film-scanner sensitivity suggest that the design of a dedicated flat-bed scanner with LEDs may improve sensitivity and dose uncertainty in radiochromic film dosimetry. Copyright © 2018 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

LED based opto-wetting platforms for micromixing

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Tony; Narayanan Unni, Harikrishnan

2018-02-01

The digital microfluidics utilizes the gradient in wettability for droplet transportation. This paper reports a novel technique of LED induced wetting ( Opto-wetting) where a single low power LED (Light emitting diode) emitting light of wavelength 395nm peak with luminous intensity of 300mcd (milli candela) is used to move two droplets of 20μL each on a photo responsive substrate of azobenzene (C12H10N2) coated PDMS (Poly Dimethyl Siloxane) substrate. The PDMS substrate of size 5cmx2cmx0.5cm were modified by thin film coating of Azobenzene dissolved in olive oil solution. The LED was aligned vertically on the top of the substrate. The pulsed operation of LED induces a spatial gradient of surface energy due to the reversible process of photo isomerization of Azobenzene molecules coated on the surface. The Photo-isomerization changes the conformation of the molecules thereby changing its surface energy .The change in surface energy of the substrate induces a change in contact angle of the droplet which initiates its movement. Two water droplets each of 20μL were dispensed on the substrate using micro syringe. Two droplets which were initially at a few cm distance apart were gradually moved towards the focus of light and merged together. The urine droplets (20μL) were moved and mixed with the red dye reagent (20μL) by controlling the light intensity of the LED. This concept provides a cost effective technique of droplet manipulation in the Lab on a chip domain where various multiplexed operations on proteins and DNA droplets can be done for point of care diagnostics.

Design for The Indoor Visible Light Communication Application System Based on LED Visible Light

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lian Wenyu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper designs an indoor visible light communication application system based on LED. The system can modulate the original signal one or more times, move to a specific frequency band, transmit on the power line, in the LED terminal use this module to decode, restore the Ethernet signals. This design is applicable to the simplicity of the LED visible light communication applications, which provide the premise and guarantee for the construction of smart home network.

An inexpensive Arduino-based LED stimulator system for vision research.

Science.gov (United States)

Teikari, Petteri; Najjar, Raymond P; Malkki, Hemi; Knoblauch, Kenneth; Dumortier, Dominique; Gronfier, Claude; Cooper, Howard M

2012-11-15

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are being used increasingly as light sources in life sciences applications such as in vision research, fluorescence microscopy and in brain-computer interfacing. Here we present an inexpensive but effective visual stimulator based on light emitting diodes (LEDs) and open-source Arduino microcontroller prototyping platform. The main design goal of our system was to use off-the-shelf and open-source components as much as possible, and to reduce design complexity allowing use of the system to end-users without advanced electronics skills. The main core of the system is a USB-connected Arduino microcontroller platform designed initially with a specific emphasis on the ease-of-use creating interactive physical computing environments. The pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal of Arduino was used to drive LEDs allowing linear light intensity control. The visual stimulator was demonstrated in applications such as murine pupillometry, rodent models for cognitive research, and heterochromatic flicker photometry in human psychophysics. These examples illustrate some of the possible applications that can be easily implemented and that are advantageous for students, educational purposes and universities with limited resources. The LED stimulator system was developed as an open-source project. Software interface was developed using Python with simplified examples provided for Matlab and LabVIEW. Source code and hardware information are distributed under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL, version 3). Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Communication, Awareness, Relationships and Empowerment (C.A.R.E. Model: An Effective Tool for Engaging Urban Communities in Community-Based Participatory Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joniqua Ceasar

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Little is known about recruitment methods for racial/ethnic minority populations from resource-limited areas for community-based health and needs assessments, particularly assessments that incorporate mobile health (mHealth technology for characterizing physical activity and dietary intake. We examined whether the Communication, Awareness, Relationships and Empowerment (C.A.R.E. model could reduce challenges recruiting and retaining participants from faith-based organizations in predominantly African American Washington, D.C. communities for a community-based assessment. Employing C.A.R.E. model elements, our diverse research team developed partnerships with churches, health organizations, academic institutions and governmental agencies. Through these partnerships, we cultivated a visible presence at community events, provided cardiovascular health education and remained accessible throughout the research process. Additionally, these relationships led to the creation of a community advisory board (CAB, which influenced the study’s design, implementation, and dissemination. Over thirteen months, 159 individuals were recruited for the study, 99 completed the initial assessment, and 81 used mHealth technology to self-monitor physical activity over 30 days. The culturally and historically sensitive C.A.R.E. model strategically engaged CAB members and study participants. It was essential for success in recruitment and retention of an at-risk, African American population and may be an effective model for researchers hoping to engage racial/ethnic minority populations living in urban communities.

The Communication, Awareness, Relationships and Empowerment (C.A.R.E.) Model: An Effective Tool for Engaging Urban Communities in Community-Based Participatory Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Ceasar, Joniqua; Peters-Lawrence, Marlene H; Mitchell, Valerie; Powell-Wiley, Tiffany M

2017-11-21

Little is known about recruitment methods for racial/ethnic minority populations from resource-limited areas for community-based health and needs assessments, particularly assessments that incorporate mobile health (mHealth) technology for characterizing physical activity and dietary intake. We examined whether the Communication, Awareness, Relationships and Empowerment (C.A.R.E.) model could reduce challenges recruiting and retaining participants from faith-based organizations in predominantly African American Washington, D.C. communities for a community-based assessment. Employing C.A.R.E. model elements, our diverse research team developed partnerships with churches, health organizations, academic institutions and governmental agencies. Through these partnerships, we cultivated a visible presence at community events, provided cardiovascular health education and remained accessible throughout the research process. Additionally, these relationships led to the creation of a community advisory board (CAB), which influenced the study's design, implementation, and dissemination. Over thirteen months, 159 individuals were recruited for the study, 99 completed the initial assessment, and 81 used mHealth technology to self-monitor physical activity over 30 days. The culturally and historically sensitive C.A.R.E. model strategically engaged CAB members and study participants. It was essential for success in recruitment and retention of an at-risk, African American population and may be an effective model for researchers hoping to engage racial/ethnic minority populations living in urban communities.

Achieving water security through community-based agreements in rural Northwestern Costa Rica

Science.gov (United States)

Bautista Solís, P.; Bommel, P.; Campos, X.; Suarez, A.; Leclerc, G.

2016-12-01

Community-based drinking water organizations have the responsibility in supplying water for domestic use to 29% of the Costa Rican population. Nowadays, more than 1.500 of these organizations face important challenges for achieving this critical mission, such as fulfilling national drinking-water quality standards, and improving their organization and administration to secure water supply and distribution under climate change. We conducted action-research in two communities with similar geographical and demographic conditions: Cuajiniquil and Colas de Gallo located in the drought prone Guanacaste region in Costa Rica. Both communities are contrasted regarding to their assets and organization. We addressed the following research question: Can a participatory process help communities assess the situation of their aqueduct and its management, project themselves in the future, and build more resilient strategies to face domestic water restrictions? Through 16 participatory sessions, we adapted the Wat-a-Game (WAG) toolkit to the problem of domestic water provision in these communities, creating the WAG-Tico role-playing game. This was complemented by two other activities: visits by regional actors sharing their experience, and exchange visits between both communities for cross-learning about community-based water management. The process resulted in a locally-led collaboration between both communities and the emergence of community commitments for improving drought resilience. WAG-Tico sensibilized participants to appreciate the value of community organization and the impacts of climate change on water supply, and develop aqueduct management rules. Exchange visits and regional actors interventions promoted opportunities for accessing to external resources (i.e. social, human and financial). Colas de Gallo created its first water committee for building a community aqueduct and their first drilled well. Cuajiniquil has committed in protecting its water springs, organized

Mixed-method exploratory study of general practitioner and nurse perceptions of a new community based nurse-led heart failure service.

Science.gov (United States)

MacKenzie, Emma; Smith, Amanda; Angus, Neil; Menzies, Sue; Brulisauer, Franz; Leslie, Stephen J

2010-01-01

The treatment of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) remains sub-optimal. Specialist CHF nurses are proven to improve care and reduce admission but developing such services, especially in remote areas, can be difficult. This study aimed: first, to assess the perceived acceptability and effectiveness of a new community based nurse-led heart failure service by general practitioners (GPs) in an area with a dispersed population; second, to assess the knowledge and learning needs of GPs; and third, to assess perceptions of the use of national guidelines and telehealth on heart failure management. The study was conducted in the Scottish Highlands, a large geographical area in the north of the UK which includes both rural and urban populations. The area has a total population of 240 000, approximately 60% of whom are within 1 hour travel time of the largest urban centre. A postal survey of all GPs (n = 260) and structured email survey of all CHF specialist nurses (n = 3) was performed. All responses were entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, summarised and subjected to thematic analysis. Differences between GPs in 'rural', 'urban' or both 'urban & rural' was investigated using an F-test for continuous variables and a three-sample test for equality of proportions for nominal data. Questionnaires were returned from 83 GPs (32%) and all three CHF specialist nurses. In this sample there were only a few differences between GPs from 'rural', 'urban' and 'urban & rural'. There also appeared to be little difference in responses between those who had the experience of the CHF nurse service and those who had not. Overall, 32 GPs (39%) wished better, local access to echocardiography, while 63 (76%) wished access to testing for brain natriuretic peptide (BNP). Only 27 GPs (33%) referred all patients with CHF to hospital. A number of GPs stated that this was dependant on individual circumstances and the patient's ability to travel. The GPs were confident to initiate

Reconsidering Community-based Retailing

OpenAIRE

Maughan, Rebecca; O'Driscoll, Aidan

2012-01-01

One of the areas with great potential for economic, social and environmental benefit is community-based retailing. The concept of community based retailing can incorporate a number of different tenets. We suggest that it is retailing that is based close to the community it serves, usually within the town or village centre rather than out-of-town locations, and which is composed of a diverse range of small and medium sized business that are often independently or co-operatively owned. These co...

Parent Interest in a School-Based, School Nurse-Led Weight Management Program

Science.gov (United States)

Kubik, Martha Y.; Lee, Jiwoo

2014-01-01

Because one in three children is already overweight or obese, school-based interventions targeting secondary obesity prevention merit consideration. This study assessed parent interest in participating in a school-based, school nurse-led weight management program for young school-aged children. A random sample of parents ("n" = 122) of…

Restoring Myanmar’s mangrove forests and coastal communities’ socioeconomic stability with community based mangrove management

OpenAIRE

Lindholt, Jonathan Grevstad

2016-01-01

Mangrove forests have a significant capacity to provide ecosystem services. However, deforestation from land use changes has led to widespread degradation of these services and consequently jeopardizes coastal populations. Reforestation projects and attempts to develop sustainable management procedures are widely attempted worldwide. However, these projects often have sustainable rural livelihood improvements as a complementary goal. Integrated approaches such as Community Based Mangrove Mana...

Assembling and Using an LED-Based Detector to Monitor Absorbance Changes during Acid-Base Titrations

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Willy G.; Cavalheiro, E´der T. G.

2015-01-01

A simple photometric assembly based in an LED as a light source and a photodiode as a detector is proposed in order to follow the absorbance changes as a function of the titrant volume added during the course of acid-base titrations in the presence of a suitable visual indicator. The simplicity and low cost of the electronic device allow the…

Evaluation of mangrove management through community-based silvofishery in North Sumatra, Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Basyuni, M.; Yani, P.; Hartini, K. S.

2018-02-01

Aquaculture expansion has been reported as the primary driver of mangrove loss and a significant cause of mangrove deforestation in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Development of silvofishery based on creating balance condition between conserving mangrove forest and offering better livelihood for local communities surrounding mangrove. The present study evaluates of mangrove management through community-based silvofishery in three villages, namely Paluh Manan, Paluh Kurau, and Lama, Hamparan Perak of Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Three communities used the same ecological type-silvofishery, characterized by planted mangrove surrounded aquaculture. Results showed that in the Paluh Manan village, planted mangrove and aquaculture in the ratio of 75:25 with planting distance of mangrove 50x50 cm, containing 2,500 trees/ha, resulted in US 36.2/month/ha of fish and shrimp farming. In the Paluh Kurau village, a mixture mangrove and aquaculture in an 84:16 ratio, planting distance of 1x1 m, consists of 1,600 trees/ha, US 23.8 of generating revenue from crab farming. Furthermore, in the third village, Lama village, consists of mangrove and aquaculture in the proportions 90:10, with planting spacing 2x2 m, composing 1,000 trees/ha, led to US 45.8/month/ha from fish, shrimp and crab farming. The present study suggested the mangrove management through community-based mangrove-friendly aquaculture.

Linking community-based monitoring to water policy: Perceptions of citizen scientists.

Science.gov (United States)

Carlson, Tyler; Cohen, Alice

2018-05-05

This paper examines the relationships between Community-Based Water Monitoring (CBM) and government-led water initiatives. Drawing on a cross-Canada survey of over one hundred organizations, we explore the reasons why communities undertake CBM, the monitoring protocols they follow, and the extent to which CBM program members feel their findings are incorporated into formal (i.e., government-led) decision-making processes. Our results indicate that despite following standardized and credible monitoring protocols, fewer than half of CBM organizations report that their data is being used to inform water policy at any level of government. Moreover, respondents report higher rates of cooperation and data-sharing between CBM organizations themselves than between CBM organizations and their respective governments. These findings are significant, because many governments continue to express support for CBM. We explore the barriers between CBM data collection and government policy, and suggest that structural barriers include lack of multi-year funding, inconsistent protocols, and poor communication. More broadly, we argue that the distinction between formal and informal programming is unclear, and that addressing known CBM challenges will rely on a change in perception: CBM cannot simply be a less expensive alternative to government-driven data collection. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Evaluating the Mental Health Training Needs of Community-based Organizations Serving Refugees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jennifer Anne Simmelink

2012-08-01

Full Text Available This exploratory study examines the mental health knowledge and training needs of refugee-serving community based organizations in a Midwestern state. A survey was administered to 31 staff members at 27 community based organizations (CBOs to assess the ability of staff to recognize and screen for mental health symptoms that may interfere with successful resettlement. Of the 31 respondents 93.5% (n=29 see refugees with mental health issues and 48.4% (n=15 assess refugees for mental health symptoms – primarily through informal assessment. Mainstream organizations were more likely than ethnic organizations to have received training related to the mental health needs of refugees. Results indicate that while refugee led CBOs recognize mental health symptoms of refugees they may be less likely to assess mental health symptoms and refer for treatment. Policy recommendations for improving CBO services to refugees are offered.

Increasing Melanoma Screening Among Hispanic/Latino Americans: A Community-Based Educational Intervention.

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Grace Y; Brown, Gina; Gibson, Desmond

2015-10-01

Melanoma incidence is increasing among Hispanics/Latinos in California. This community-based project reached out to a rural Hispanic/Latino community in North San Diego County to provide melanoma prevention and screening education. At a local community health fair, bilingual volunteer lay health workers led 10- to 15-minute-long information sessions on melanoma disease, risk factors, and skin self-examination techniques. Pearson chi-square analyses of participants' (N = 34) responses to pre- and postintervention evaluation surveys indicate significant increases in knowledge, risk awareness, and self-efficacy for self-screening. The results revealed that Hispanics/Latinos in a low socioeconomic stratum might be at moderate to high risk for developing melanoma. Their low annual income, low level of education, occupational sun-exposure, and lack of access to health care are likely factors that deter at-risk Hispanics/Latinos from seeking health care. © 2015 Society for Public Health Education.

Measuring progress towards a primary care-led NHS.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, P; Craig, N; Scott, A; Walker, A; Hanlon, P

1999-07-01

The push towards a 'primary care-led' National Health Service (NHS) has far-reaching implications for the future structure of the NHS. The policy involves both a growing emphasis on the role of primary care practitioners in the commissioning of health services, and a change from hospital to primary and community settings for a range of services and procedures. Although the terminology has changed, this emphasis remains in the recent Scottish Health Service White Paper and its English counterpart. To consider three questions in relation to this policy goal. First, does the evidence base support the changes? Secondly, what is the scale of the changes that have occurred? Thirdly, what are the barriers to the development of a primary care-led NHS? Programme budgets were compiled to assess changes over time in the balance of NHS resource allocation with respect to primary and secondary care. Total NHS revenue expenditure for the 15 Scottish health boards was grouped into four blocks or 'programmes': primary care, secondary care, community services, and a residual. The study period was 1991/2 to 1995/6. Expenditure data were supplied by the Scottish Office. Ambiguity of definitions and the absence of good data cause methodological difficulties in evaluating the scale and the appropriateness of the shift. The data that are available suggest that, at the aggregate level, there have been changes over time in the balance of resource allocation between care settings: relative investment into primary care has increased. It would appear that this investment is relatively small and from growth money rather than a 'shift' from secondary care. In addition, the impact of GP-led commissioning is variable but limited. General practitioners' (GPs') attitudes to the policy suggest that progress towards a primary care-led NHS will continue to be patchy. The limited shift to date, alongside evidence of ambivalent attitudes to the shift on the part of GPs, suggest that this is a policy

Light extraction from GaN-based LED structures on silicon-on-insulator substrates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tripathy, S.; Teo, S.L.; Lin, V.K.X.; Chen, M.F. [Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology, and Research), 117602 (Singapore); Dadgar, A.; Krost, A. [Institut fuer Exerimentelle Physik, Otto-von Guericke Universitaet Magdeburg, Universitaetsplatz 1, 39016 Magdeburg (Germany); AZZURRO Semiconductors AG, Universitaetsplatz 1, 39016 Magdeburg (Germany); Christen, J. [Institut fuer Exerimentelle Physik, Otto-von Guericke Universitaet Magdeburg, Universitaetsplatz 1, 39016 Magdeburg (Germany)

2010-01-15

Nano-patterning of GaN-based devices is a promising technology in the development of high output power devices. Recent researches have been focused on the realization of two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal (PhC) structure to improve light extraction efficiency and to control the direction of emission. In this study, we have demonstrated improved light extraction from green light emitting diode (LED) structures on thin silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates using surface nanopatterning. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is used to probe the size, shape, and etch depth of nano-patterns on the LED surfaces. Different types of nanopatterns were created by e-beam lithography and inductively coupled plasma etching. The LED structures after post processing are studied by photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The GaN nanophotonic structures formed by ICP etching led to more than five-fold increase in the intensity of the green emission. The improved light extraction is due to the combination of SOI substrate reflectivity and photonic structures on top GaN LED surfaces. (copyright 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)

The necessary contradictions of 'community-led' health promotion: a case study of HIV prevention in an Indian red light district.

Science.gov (United States)

Cornish, Flora; Ghosh, Riddhi

2007-01-01

Health promotion interventions with marginalised groups are increasingly expected to demonstrate genuine community participation in their design and delivery. However, ideals of egalitarian democratic participation are far removed from the starting point of the hierarchical and exploitative social relations that typically characterise marginalised communities. What scope is there for health promotion projects to implement ideals of community leadership within the realities of marginalisation and inequality? We examine how the Sonagachi Project, a successful sex-worker-led HIV prevention project in India, has engaged with the unequal social relations in which it is embedded. Our ethnographic study is based on observation of the Project's participatory activities and 39 interviews with a range of its stakeholders (including sex worker employees of the Project, non-sex-worker development professionals, brothel managers, sex workers' clients). The analysis shows that the project is deeply shaped by its relationships with non-sex-worker interest groups. In order to be permitted access to the red light district, it has had to accommodate the interests of local men's clubs and brothel managers. The economic and organisational capacity to run such a project has depended upon the direct input of development professionals and funding agencies. Thus, the 'community' that leads this project is much wider than a local grouping of marginalised sex workers. We argue that, given existing power relations, the engagement with other interest groups was necessary to the project's success. Moreover, as the project has developed, sex workers' interests and leadership have gained increasing prominence. We suggest that existing optimistic expectations of participation inhibit acknowledgement of the troubling work of balancing power relations. Rather than denying such power relations, projects should be expected to plan for them.

A Learner-led, Discussion-based Elective on Emerging Infectious Disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Mathias, Clinton

2015-08-25

Objective. To implement a learner-led, discussion-based course aimed at exposing second-year pharmacy learners to the study of emerging infectious diseases from a global health perspective and to assess the role and importance of pharmacists in the management of disease outbreaks. Design. Learners examined literature pertinent to an emerging infectious disease in a 3-credit, discussion-based course and participated in peer discussion led by a designated learner. Instructional materials included journal articles, audio-visual presentations, documentaries, book chapters, movies, newspaper/magazine articles, and other materials. Learning outcomes were measured based on the ability of learners to perform critical thinking and analysis, communicate with their peers, and participate in class discussions. Assessment. The course was offered to 2 consecutive cohorts consisting of 14 and 16 learners, respectively. Overall, every learner in the first cohort achieved a final grade of A for the course. In the second cohort, the overall grade distribution consisted of grades of A, B, and C for the course. Learner evaluations indicated that the active-learning, discussion-based environment significantly enhanced interest in the topic and overall performance in the course. Conclusion. The elective course on emerging infectious diseases provided in-depth exposure to disease topics normally not encountered in the pharmacy curriculum. Learners found the material and format valuable, and the course enhanced their appreciation of infectious diseases, research methodology, critical thinking and analysis, and their roles as pharmacists.

Geriatric and Student Perceptions following Student-led Educational Sessions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kristin Janzen

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: The objective of this study was to measure the effect of student-led educational events on geriatric patient and student participant perceptions in a community setting. Methods: Students led three events at a senior community center, focusing on learning and memory, sleep hygiene, and arthritis pain. The participants were geriatric patients who themselves were providers of support to homebound peers (“clients” through an independently organized program. Geriatric participants completed pre- and post-event surveys to measure changes in familiarity with the topics. Student participants also completed pre- and post-event surveys that tracked changes in their comfort in working with the geriatric population. Results: Each event demonstrated at least one positive finding for geriatric patients and/or their clients. Students reported increased comfort in working with and teaching the geriatric population following the first and third events, but not the second. Conclusion: Student-led educational sessions can improve perceived health-related knowledge of geriatric participants while simultaneously exposing students to the geriatric patient population. Overall, both students and geriatric participants benefited from these events. Practice Implications: Incorporation of single, student-led educational events could be mutually beneficial to students and the elderly population in the community and easily incorporated into any healthcare curriculum. Funding:This work was supported by a Butler University Innovation Fund Grant. Treatment of Human Subjects: IRB review/approval required and obtained   Type: Original Research

Community-Based Care

Science.gov (United States)

... our e-newsletter! Aging & Health A to Z Community-Based Care Basic Facts & Information A variety of healthcare options ... day care centers are either in churches or community centers. Adult day care is commonly used to care for people who ...

Prognostics-based qualification of high-power white LEDs using Lévy process approach

Science.gov (United States)

Yung, Kam-Chuen; Sun, Bo; Jiang, Xiaopeng

2017-01-01

Due to their versatility in a variety of applications and the growing market demand, high-power white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have attracted considerable attention. Reliability qualification testing is an essential part of the product development process to ensure the reliability of a new LED product before its release. However, the widely used IES-TM-21 method does not provide comprehensive reliability information. For more accurate and effective qualification, this paper presents a novel method based on prognostics techniques. Prognostics is an engineering technology predicting the future reliability or determining the remaining useful lifetime (RUL) of a product by assessing the extent of deviation or degradation from its expected normal operating conditions. A Lévy subordinator of a mixed Gamma and compound Poisson process is used to describe the actual degradation process of LEDs characterized by random sporadic small jumps of degradation degree, and the reliability function is derived for qualification with different distribution forms of jump sizes. The IES LM-80 test results reported by different LED vendors are used to develop and validate the qualification methodology. This study will be helpful for LED manufacturers to reduce the total test time and cost required to qualify the reliability of an LED product.

Cost-effectiveness of nurse-led multifactorial care to prevent or postpone new disabilities in community-living older people : Results of a cluster randomized trial

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Suijker, Jacqueline J.; MacNeil-Vroomen, Janet L.; van Rijn, Marjon; Buurman, Bianca M.; de Rooij, Sophia E.; van Charente, Eric P. Moll; Bosmans, Judith E.

2017-01-01

Objective To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of nurse-led multifactorial care to prevent or postpone new disabilities in community-living older people in comparison with usual care. Methods We conducted cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses alongside a cluster randomized trial with one-year

Cost-effectiveness of nurse-led multifactorial care to prevent or postpone new disabilities in community-living older people: Results of a cluster randomized trial

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Suijker, Jacqueline J.; MacNeil-Vroomen, Janet L.; van Rijn, Marjon; Buurman, Bianca M.; de Rooij, Sophia E.; Moll van Charante, Eric P.; Bosmans, Judith E.

2017-01-01

Objective To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of nurse-led multifactorial care to prevent or postpone new disabilities in community-living older people in comparison with usual care. Methods We conducted cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses alongside a cluster randomized trial with one-year

Cost-effectiveness of nurse-led multifactorial care to prevent or postpone new disabilities in community-living older people : Results of a cluster randomized trial

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Suijker, Jacqueline J; MacNeil-Vroomen, Janet L; van Rijn, Marjon; Buurman, Bianca M; de Rooij, Sophia E; Moll van Charante, Eric P; Bosmans, Judith E

2017-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of nurse-led multifactorial care to prevent or postpone new disabilities in community-living older people in comparison with usual care. METHODS: We conducted cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses alongside a cluster randomized trial with one-year

Network-Based Community Brings forth Sustainable Society

Science.gov (United States)

Kikuchi, Toshiko

It has already been shown that an artificial society based on the three relations of social configuration (market, communal, and obligatory relations) functioning in balance with each other formed a sustainable society which the social reproduction is possible. In this artificial society model, communal relations exist in a network-based community with alternating members rather than a conventional community with cooperative mutual assistance practiced in some agricultural communities. In this paper, using the comparison between network-based communities with alternating members and conventional communities with fixed members, the significance of a network-based community is considered. In concrete terms, the difference in appearance rate for sustainable society, economic activity and asset inequality between network-based communities and conventional communities is analyzed. The appearance rate for a sustainable society of network-based community is higher than that of conventional community. Moreover, most of network-based communities had a larger total number of trade volume than conventional communities. But, the value of Gini coefficient in conventional community is smaller than that of network-based community. These results show that communal relations based on a network-based community is significant for the social reproduction and economic efficiency. However, in such an artificial society, the inequality is sacrificed.

‘No Blue’ White LED

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ou, Haiyan; Corell, Dennis Dan; Dam-Hansen, Carsten

2010-01-01

This paper explored the feasibility of making a white LED light source by color mixing method without using the blue color. This ‘no blue’ white LED has potential applications in photolithography room illumination, medical treatment and biophotonics research. A no-blue LED was designed......-2005. Even after 15 days of illumination, no effect was observed. So this LED-based solution was demonstrated to be a very promising light source for photolithography room illumination due to its better color rendering in addition to energy efficiency, long life time and design flexibility. Additionally......, and the prototype was fabricated. The spectral power distribution of both the LED bulb and the yellow fluorescent tube was measured. Based on that, colorimetric values were calculated and compared on terms of chromatic coordinates, correlated color temperature, color rendering index, and chromatic deviation...

International Journal of Web Based Communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2006-01-01

Special Issue on Knowledge Communication, culture and communities of practice in web based communities. ......Special Issue on Knowledge Communication, culture and communities of practice in web based communities. ...

Community-Based Programming: An Opportunity and Imperative for the Community College.

Science.gov (United States)

Boone, Edgar J.

1992-01-01

Defines community-based programing as a cooperative process in which the community college serves as leader and catalyst in effecting collaboration among community members, leaders, and groups. Recommends 15 tasks for community college leaders involved in community-based programing, including environmental scanning and coalition building. (DMM)

Spatial layout optimization design of multi-type LEDs lighting source based on photoelectrothermal coupling theory

Science.gov (United States)

Xue, Lingyun; Li, Guang; Chen, Qingguang; Rao, Huanle; Xu, Ping

2018-03-01

Multiple LED-based spectral synthesis technology has been widely used in the fields of solar simulator, color mixing, and artificial lighting of plant factory and so on. Generally, amounts of LEDs are spatially arranged with compact layout to obtain the high power density output. Mutual thermal spreading among LEDs will produce the coupled thermal effect which will additionally increase the junction temperature of LED. Affected by the Photoelectric thermal coupling effect of LED, the spectrum of LED will shift and luminous efficiency will decrease. Correspondingly, the spectral synthesis result will mismatch. Therefore, thermal management of LED spatial layout plays an important role for multi-LEDs light source system. In the paper, the thermal dissipation network topology model considering the mutual thermal spreading effect among the LEDs is proposed for multi-LEDs system with various types of power. The junction temperature increment cased by the thermal coupling has the great relation with the spatial arrangement. To minimize the thermal coupling effect, an optimized method of LED spatial layout for the specific light source structure is presented and analyzed. The results showed that layout of LED with high-power are arranged in the corner and low-power in the center. Finally, according to this method, it is convenient to determine the spatial layout of LEDs in a system having any kind of light source structure, and has the advantages of being universally applicable to facilitate adjustment.

Identification Reduces Stigma of Mental Ill-Health: A Community-Based Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kearns, Michelle; Muldoon, Orla T; Msetfi, Rachel M; Surgenor, Paul W G

2018-03-01

The stigma surrounding mental ill-health is an important issue that affects likelihood of diagnosis and uptake of services, as those affected may work to avoid exposure, judgment, or any perceived loss in status associated with their mental ill-health. In this study, we drew upon social identity theory to examine how social group membership might influence the stigma surrounding mental ill-health. Participants from two urban centers in Ireland (N = 626) completed a survey measuring stigma of mental health, perceived social support as well as identification with two different social groups (community and religion). Mediation analysis showed that subjective identification with religious and community groups led to greater perceived social support and consequently lower perceived stigma of mental ill-health. Furthermore, findings indicated that high identification with more than one social group can lead to enhanced social resources, and that identification with a religious group was associated with greater community identification. This study thus extends the evidence base of group identification by demonstrating its relationship with stigma of mental ill-health, while also reinforcing how multiple identities can interact to enhance social resources crucial for well-being. © Society for Community Research and Action 2017.

Broadband Radiometric LED Measurements

OpenAIRE

Eppeldauer, G. P.; Cooksey, C. C.; Yoon, H. W.; Hanssen, L. M.; Podobedov, V. B.; Vest, R. E.; Arp, U.; Miller, C. C.

2016-01-01

At present, broadband radiometric measurements of LEDs with uniform and low-uncertainty results are not available. Currently, either complicated and expensive spectral radiometric measurements or broadband photometric LED measurements are used. The broadband photometric measurements are based on the CIE standardized V(��) function, which cannot be used in the UV range and leads to large errors when blue or red LEDs are measured in its wings, where the realization is always poor. Reference irr...

Solid State pH Sensor Based on Light Emitting Diodes (LED) As Detector Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Lau, King Tong; Shepherd, R.; Diamond, Danny; Diamond, Dermot

2006-01-01

A low-power, high sensitivity, very low-cost light emitting diode (LED)-based device developed for low-cost sensor networks was modified with bromocresol green membrane to work as a solid-state pH sensor. In this approach, a reverse-biased LED functioning as a photodiode is coupled with a second LED configured in conventional emission mode. A simple timer circuit measures how long (in microsecond) it takes for the photocurrent generated on the detector LED to discharge its capacitance from logic 1 (+5 V) to logic 0 (+1.7 V). The entire instrument provides an inherently digital output of light intensity measurements for a few cents. A light dependent resistor (LDR) modified with similar sensor membrane was also used as a comparison method. Both the LED sensor and the LDR sensor responded to various pH buffer solutions in a similar way to obtain sigmoidal curves expected of the dye. The pKa value obtained for the sensors was found to agree with the literature value.

Nano-roughening n-side surface of AlGaInP-based LEDs for increasing extraction efficiency

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Y.J.; Lu, T.C.; Kuo, H.C.; Wang, S.C.; Hsu, T.C.; Hsieh, M.H.; Jou, M.J.; Lee, B.J.

2007-01-01

A chemical wet etching technique is presented to form a nano-roughened surface with triangle-like morphology on n-side-up AlGaInP-based LEDs fabricated by adopting adhesive layer bonding scheme. A simple and commonly used H 3 PO 4 -based solution was applied for chemical wet etching. The morphology of nano-roughened surfaces is analyzed by the atomic force microscope (AFM) and significantly related to the enhancement factor of the LED output power. The output power shows 80% increase after optimizing the nano-roughened morphology of n-side surface, as compared to the ordinary flat surface LED

340nm UV LED excitation in time-resolved fluorescence system for europium-based immunoassays detection

OpenAIRE

Rodenko, Olga; Fodgaard, Henrik; Tidemand-Lichtenberg, Peter; Pedersen, Christian

2017-01-01

In immunoassay analyzers for in-vitro diagnostics, Xenon flash lamps have been widely used as excitation light sources. Recent advancements in UV LED technology and its advantages over the flash lamps such as smaller footprint, better wall-plug efficiency, narrow emission spectrum, and no significant afterglow, have made them attractive light sources for gated detection systems. In this paper, we report on the implementation of a 340 nm UV LED based time-resolved fluorescence system based on ...

Measurement of the photometric characteristics of LEDs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nazarenko, L.A.; Zubkov, D.P.

2015-01-01

Proposed and implemented a method for measuring LEDs, which is based on self-calibration of the LED goniophotometer facility by using a trap-detector. Designed and manufactured automated goniophotometer, which provides a measurement of high power LEDs at a specified junction temperature. Designed and experimentally researched the photometer with a photometric sphere based diffuser, which meets all requirements of CIE for photometric measurements of LEDs

Broadband radiometric LED measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Eppeldauer, G. P.; Cooksey, C. C.; Yoon, H. W.; Hanssen, L. M.; Podobedov, V. B.; Vest, R. E.; Arp, U.; Miller, C. C.

2016-09-01

At present, broadband radiometric LED measurements with uniform and low-uncertainty results are not available. Currently, either complicated and expensive spectral radiometric measurements or broadband photometric LED measurements are used. The broadband photometric measurements are based on the CIE standardized V(λ) function, which cannot be used in the UV range and leads to large errors when blue or red LEDs are measured in its wings, where the realization is always poor. Reference irradiance meters with spectrally constant response and high-intensity LED irradiance sources were developed here to implement the previously suggested broadband radiometric LED measurement procedure [1, 2]. Using a detector with spectrally constant response, the broadband radiometric quantities of any LEDs or LED groups can be simply measured with low uncertainty without using any source standard. The spectral flatness of filtered-Si detectors and low-noise pyroelectric radiometers are compared. Examples are given for integrated irradiance measurement of UV and blue LED sources using the here introduced reference (standard) pyroelectric irradiance meters. For validation, the broadband measured integrated irradiance of several LED-365 sources were compared with the spectrally determined integrated irradiance derived from an FEL spectral irradiance lamp-standard. Integrated responsivity transfer from the reference irradiance meter to transfer standard and field UV irradiance meters is discussed.

Improving the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis using a senior-friendly peer-led community education and mentoring model: a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Kloseck, Marita; Fitzsimmons, Deborah A; Speechley, Mark; Savundranayagam, Marie Y; Crilly, Richard G

2017-01-01

This randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluated a 6-month peer-led community education and mentorship program to improve the diagnosis and management of osteoporosis. Ten seniors (74-90 years of age) were trained to become peer educators and mentors and deliver the intervention. In the subsequent RCT, 105 seniors (mean age =80.5±6.9; 89% female) were randomly assigned to the peer-led education and mentorship program (n=53) or control group (n=52). Knowledge was assessed at baseline and 6 months. Success was defined as discussing osteoporosis risk with their family physician, obtaining a bone mineral density assessment, and returning to review their risk profile and receive advice and/or treatment. Knowledge of osteoporosis did not change significantly. There was no difference in knowledge change between the two groups (mean difference =1.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] of difference -0.76 to 3.36). More participants in the intervention group achieved a successful outcome (odds ratio 0.16, 95% CI 0.06-0.42, P seniors. This model was effective for improving osteoporosis risk assessment, diagnosis, and treatment in a community setting.

Advances in LEDs for automotive applications

Science.gov (United States)

Bhardwaj, Jy; Peddada, Rao; Spinger, Benno

2016-03-01

High power LEDs were introduced in automotive headlights in 2006-2007, for example as full LED headlights in the Audi R8 or low beam in Lexus. Since then, LED headlighting has become established in premium and volume automotive segments and beginning to enable new compact form factors such as distributed low beam and new functions such as adaptive driving beam. New generations of highly versatile high power LEDs are emerging to meet these application needs. In this paper, we will detail ongoing advances in LED technology that enable revolutionary styling, performance and adaptive control in automotive headlights. As the standards which govern the necessary lumens on the road are well established, increasing luminance enables not only more design freedom but also headlight cost reduction with space and weight saving through more compact optics. Adaptive headlighting is based on LED pixelation and requires high contrast, high luminance, smaller LEDs with high-packing density for pixelated Matrix Lighting sources. Matrix applications require an extremely tight tolerance on not only the X, Y placement accuracy, but also on the Z height of the LEDs given the precision optics used to image the LEDs onto the road. A new generation of chip scale packaged (CSP) LEDs based on Wafer Level Packaging (WLP) have been developed to meet these needs, offering a form factor less than 20% increase over the LED emitter surface footprint. These miniature LEDs are surface mount devices compatible with automated tools for L2 board direct attach (without the need for an interposer or L1 substrate), meeting the high position accuracy as well as the optical and thermal performance. To illustrate the versatility of the CSP LEDs, we will show the results of, firstly, a reflector-based distributed low beam using multiple individual cavities each with only 20mm height and secondly 3x4 to 3x28 Matrix arrays for adaptive full beam. Also a few key trends in rear lighting and impact on LED light

DMD-based LED-illumination super-resolution and optical sectioning microscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Dan, Dan; Lei, Ming; Yao, Baoli; Wang, Wen; Winterhalder, Martin; Zumbusch, Andreas; Qi, Yujiao; Xia, Liang; Yan, Shaohui; Yang, Yanlong; Gao, Peng; Ye, Tong; Zhao, Wei

2013-01-01

Super-resolution three-dimensional (3D) optical microscopy has incomparable advantages over other high-resolution microscopic technologies, such as electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy, in the study of biological molecules, pathways and events in live cells and tissues. We present a novel approach of structured illumination microscopy (SIM) by using a digital micromirror device (DMD) for fringe projection and a low-coherence LED light for illumination. The lateral resolution of 90 nm and the optical sectioning depth of 120 μm were achieved. The maximum acquisition speed for 3D imaging in the optical sectioning mode was 1.6×10(7) pixels/second, which was mainly limited by the sensitivity and speed of the CCD camera. In contrast to other SIM techniques, the DMD-based LED-illumination SIM is cost-effective, ease of multi-wavelength switchable and speckle-noise-free. The 2D super-resolution and 3D optical sectioning modalities can be easily switched and applied to either fluorescent or non-fluorescent specimens.

340 nm pulsed UV LED system for europium-based time-resolved fluorescence detection of immunoassays

OpenAIRE

Rodenko, Olga; Fodgaard, Henrik; Tidemand-Lichtenberg, Peter; Petersen, Paul Michael; Pedersen, Christian

2016-01-01

We report on the design, development and investigation of an optical system based on UV light emitting diode (LED) excitation at 340 nm for time-resolved fluorescence detection of immunoassays. The system was tested to measure cardiac marker Troponin I with a concentration of 200 ng/L in immunoassay. The signal-to-noise ratio was comparable to state-of-the-art Xenon flash lamp based unit with equal excitation energy and without overdriving the LED. We performed a comparative study of the flas...

Quantification and analysis of color stability based on thermal transient behavior in white LED lamps.

Science.gov (United States)

Nisa Khan, M

2017-09-20

We present measurement and analysis of color stability over time for two categories of white LED lamps based on their thermal management scheme, which also affects their transient lumen depreciation. We previously reported that lumen depreciation in LED lamps can be minimized by properly designing the heat sink configuration that allows lamps to reach a thermal equilibrium condition quickly. Although it is well known that lumen depreciation degrades color stability of white light since color coordinates vary with total lumen power by definition, quantification and characterization of color shifts based on thermal transient behavior have not been previously reported in literature for LED lamps. Here we provide experimental data and analysis of transient color shifts for two categories of household LED lamps (from a total of six lamps in two categories) and demonstrate that reaching thermal equilibrium more quickly provides better stability for color rendering, color temperature, and less deviation of color coordinates from the Planckian blackbody locus line, which are all very important characterization parameters of color for white light. We report for the first time that a lamp's color degradation from the turn-on time primarily depends on thermal transient behavior of the semiconductor LED chip, which experiences a wavelength shift as well as a decrease in its dominant wavelength peak value with time, which in turn degrades the phosphor conversion. For the first time, we also provide a comprehensive quantitative analysis that differentiates color degradation due to the heat rise in GaN/GaInN LED chips and subsequently the boards these chips are mounted on-from that caused by phosphor heating in a white LED module. Finally, we briefly discuss why there are some inevitable trade-offs between omnidirectionality and color and luminous output stability in current household LED lamps and what will help eliminate these trade-offs in future lamp designs.

Assessment of community led total sanitation uptake in rural Kenya

African Journals Online (AJOL)

K. N. Ogendo, Bsc, MPH, Living goods Nairobi, Kenya,Ministry of Health, Environmental Health ... led drive to set up pit latrines in rural kenya with an aim of promoting sustainable ... Development and Sustainable Development goals lay.

Structural optimization of a microjet based cooling system for high power LEDs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sheng Liu; Zhiyin Gan [Institute for Microsystems, School of Mechanical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan (China); Wuhan National Lab of Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan (China); Jianghui Yang [School of Energy and Power Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan (China); Xiaobing Luo [Wuhan National Lab of Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan (China); School of Energy and Power Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan (China)

2008-08-15

Based on the previous experiments and simulations reported by the present authors, it was found the cooling system could be optimized to obtain better performance. In this paper, the microjet cooling systems with three different microjet structures were numerically investigated. The numerical model was proven by the experiments. The optimization results demonstrate that the microjet structure with one single inlet but two outlets can achieve better cooling performance. The simulation results show that the maximum temperature of the LED substrate cooled by the optimized microjet cooling device was 23 K lower than that of the LED substrate cooled by the present experimental cooling system. (author)

A New Challenge to Research Ethics: Patients-Led Research (PLR) and the Role of Internet Based Social Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Lamas, Eugenia; Salinas, Rodrigo; Vuillaume, Dominique

2016-01-01

A characteristic feature of the development of health-related social networks is the emergence of internet-based virtual communities, composed of patients. These communities go beyond the mere interchange of information concerning their conditions, intervening in the planning and execution of clinical research, including randomised controlled trials, in collaboration with health professionals. That was the case, in 2009, when patients suffering amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a rare and severe disease, conducted a clinical trial in USA, organising themselves through an online platform. This initiative launched a new model for the planning and conduction of clinical research: "Participants-Led Research" (PLR). The distinctive particularities of this new research paradigm represent a challenge to the traditional standards used for judging the ethical soundness of clinical investigation. That is the case, for example, of informed consent. This article aims at identifying the ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) posed by PLR and the relevant concepts that may help in solving them. The following issues, in particular, are analysed, that may give place to a new social contract for the ethical assessment of clinical research: consent for participating in research and personal integrity; data protection and confidentiality; benefits sharing and intellectual property.

The LED and fiber based calibration system for the photomultiplier array of SNO+

Science.gov (United States)

Seabra, L.; Alves, R.; Andringa, S.; Bradbury, S.; Carvalho, J.; Clark, K.; Coulter, I.; Descamps, F.; Falk, L.; Gurriana, L.; Kraus, C.; Lefeuvre, G.; Maio, A.; Maneira, J.; Mottram, M.; Peeters, S.; Rose, J.; Sinclair, J.; Skensved, P.; Waterfield, J.; White, R.; Wilson, J.; SNO+ Collaboration

2015-02-01

A new external LED/fiber light injection calibration system was designed for the calibration and monitoring of the photomultiplier array of the SNO+ experiment at SNOLAB. The goal of the calibration system is to allow an accurate and regular measurement of the photomultiplier array's performance, while minimizing the risk of radioactivity ingress. The choice in SNO+ was to use a set of optical fiber cables to convey into the detector the light pulses produced by external LEDs. The quality control was carried out using a modified test bench that was used in QC of optical fibers for TileCal/ATLAS. The optical fibers were characterized for transmission, timing and angular dispersions. This article describes the setups used for the characterization and quality control of the system based on LEDs and optical fibers and their results.

Temperature increase inside LED-based illuminators for in vitro aPDT photodamage studies

Science.gov (United States)

Battisti, A.; Morici, P.; Tortora, G.; Menciassi, A.; Checcucci, G.; Ghetti, F.; Sgarbossa, A.

2018-06-01

Antimicrobial PhotoDynamic Therapy (aPDT) is an emerging strategy aimed at the eradication of bacterial infections, with a special focus on antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This method is easy to apply, not expensive and particularly interesting in case of bacteria that spontaneously produce the required photosensitizers. In the framework of a project aimed at the development of an ingestible pill for the application of aPDT to gastric infections by Helicobacter pylori, a LED-based illuminating prototype (LED-BIP) was purposely designed in order to evaluate the photodamage induced by light of different wavelengths on porphyrin-producing bacteria. This short paper reports about temperature tests performed to assess the maximum exposure time and light dose that can be administered to bacterial cultures inside LED-BIP without reaching temperatures exceeding the physiological range.

Beliefs, Behaviors, and Perceptions of Community-Led Total Sanitation and Their Relation to Improved Sanitation in Rural Zambia

Science.gov (United States)

Joseph Lawrence, J.; Yeboah-Antwi, Kojo; Biemba, Godfrey; Ram, Pavani K.; Osbert, Nicolas; Sabin, Lora L.; Hamer, Davidson H.

2016-01-01

Inadequate hygiene and sanitation remain leading global contributors to morbidity and mortality in children and adults. One strategy for improving sanitation access is community-led total sanitation (CLTS), in which participants are guided into self-realization of the importance of sanitation through activities called “triggering.” This qualitative study explored community members' and stakeholders' sanitation, knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors during early CLTS implementation in Zambia. We conducted 67 in-depth interviews and 24 focus group discussions in six districts in Zambia 12–18 months after CLTS implementation. Triggering activities elicited strong emotions, including shame, disgust, and peer pressure, which persuaded individuals and families to build and use latrines and handwashing stations. New sanitation behaviors were also encouraged by the hierarchical influences of traditional leaders and sanitation action groups and by children's opinions. Poor soil conditions were identified as barriers to latrine construction. Taboos, including prohibition of different generations of family members, in-laws, and opposite genders from using the same toilet, were barriers for using sanitation facilities. CLTS, through community empowerment and ownership, produced powerful responses that encouraged construction and use of latrines and handwashing practices. These qualitative data suggest that CLTS is effective for improving sanitation beliefs and behaviors in Zambia. PMID:26787149

Creating Community Resilience Through Elder-Led Physical and Social Infrastructure.

Science.gov (United States)

Aldrich, Daniel P; Kyota, Emi

2017-02-01

Natural disasters and rapidly aging populations are chronic problems for societies worldwide. We investigated the effects of an intervention in Japan known as Ibasho, which embeds elderly residents in vulnerable areas within larger social networks and encourages them to participate in leadership activities. This project sought to deepen the connections of these elderly residents to society and to build elderly leadership and community capacity for future crises. We carried out surveys of participants and nonparticipant residents across the city of Ofunato in Tohoku, Japan, 1 year after the intervention began. Our surveys included questions assessing participation levels in Ibasho, demographic characteristics, efficacy, social networks, and a sense of belonging. Regression analysis and propensity score matching of more than 1100 respondents showed that regular participation in the Ibasho project had a statistically significant and positive connection with various measures of social capital. Given its relatively low cost and focus on deepening cohesion, we suggest that this community-based project could be replicated and scaled up in other countries to deepen resilience, elder health, and social capital. Moving away from an emphasis on investing in physical infrastructure, we believe that disaster risk reduction strategies should center on social infrastructure. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:120-126).

Visible light communication based vehicle positioning using LED street light and rolling shutter CMOS sensors

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Do, Trong Hop; Yoo, Myungsik

2018-01-01

This paper proposes a vehicle positioning system using LED street lights and two rolling shutter CMOS sensor cameras. In this system, identification codes for the LED street lights are transmitted to camera-equipped vehicles through a visible light communication (VLC) channel. Given that the camera parameters are known, the positions of the vehicles are determined based on the geometric relationship between the coordinates of the LEDs in the images and their real world coordinates, which are obtained through the LED identification codes. The main contributions of the paper are twofold. First, the collinear arrangement of the LED street lights makes traditional camera-based positioning algorithms fail to determine the position of the vehicles. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed to fuse data received from the two cameras attached to the vehicles in order to solve the collinearity problem of the LEDs. Second, the rolling shutter mechanism of the CMOS sensors combined with the movement of the vehicles creates image artifacts that may severely degrade the positioning accuracy. This paper also proposes a method to compensate for the rolling shutter artifact, and a high positioning accuracy can be achieved even when the vehicle is moving at high speeds. The performance of the proposed positioning system corresponding to different system parameters is examined by conducting Matlab simulations. Small-scale experiments are also conducted to study the performance of the proposed algorithm in real applications.

Community-based knowledge translation: unexplored opportunities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Armstrong Rebecca

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Knowledge translation is an interactive process of knowledge exchange between health researchers and knowledge users. Given that the health system is broad in scope, it is important to reflect on how definitions and applications of knowledge translation might differ by setting and focus. Community-based organizations and their practitioners share common characteristics related to their setting, the evidence used in this setting, and anticipated outcomes that are not, in our experience, satisfactorily reflected in current knowledge translation approaches, frameworks, or tools. Discussion Community-based organizations face a distinctive set of challenges and concerns related to engaging in the knowledge translation process, suggesting a unique perspective on knowledge translation in these settings. Specifically, community-based organizations tend to value the process of working in collaboration with multi-sector stakeholders in order to achieve an outcome. A feature of such community-based collaborations is the way in which 'evidence' is conceptualized or defined by these partners, which may in turn influence the degree to which generalizable research evidence in particular is relevant and useful when balanced against more contextually-informed knowledge, such as tacit knowledge. Related to the issues of evidence and context is the desire for local information. For knowledge translation researchers, developing processes to assist community-based organizations to adapt research findings to local circumstances may be the most helpful way to advance decision making in this area. A final characteristic shared by community-based organizations is involvement in advocacy activities, a function that has been virtually ignored in traditional knowledge translation approaches. Summary This commentary is intended to stimulate further discussion in the area of community-based knowledge translation. Knowledge translation, and exchange

Nurse led home-based care for people with HIV/AIDS.

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Wood, Elizabeth M; Zani, Babalwa; Esterhuizen, Tonya M; Young, Taryn

2018-03-27

Home-based care is used in many countries to increase quality of life and limit hospital stay, particularly where public health services are overburdened. Home-based care objectives for HIV/AIDS can include medical care, delivery of antiretroviral treatment and psychosocial support. This review assesses the effects of home-based nursing on morbidity in people infected with HIV/AIDS. The trials studied are in HIV positive adults and children, regardless of sex or setting and all randomised controlled. Home-based care provided by qualified nurses was compared with hospital or health-facility based treatment. The following electronic databases were searched from January 1980 to March 2015: AIDSearch, CINAHL, Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, MEDLINE and PsycINFO/LIT, with an updated search in November 2016. Two authors independently screened titles and abstracts from the electronic search based on the study design, interventions and types of participant. For all selected abstracts, full text articles were obtained. The final study selection was determined with use of an eligibility form. Data extraction was performed independently from assessment of risk of bias. The results were analysed by narrative synthesis, in order to be able to obtain relevant effect measures plus 95% confidence intervals. Seven studies met the inclusion criteria. The trial size varied from 37 to 238 participants. Only one trial was conducted in children. Five studies were conducted in the USA and two in China. Four studies looked at home-based adherence support and the rest at providing home-based psychosocial support. Reported adherence to antiretroviral drugs improved with nurse-led home-based care but did not affect viral load. Psychiatric nurse support in those with existing mental health conditions improved mental health and depressive symptoms. Home-based psychological support impacted on HIV stigma, worry and physical functioning and in certain cases depressive symptoms

Interprofessional education through service-learning: lessons from a student-led free clinic.

Science.gov (United States)

Farlow, Janice L; Goodwin, Charles; Sevilla, Javier

2015-05-01

The academic community must replicate and strengthen existing models for interprofessional education (IPE) to meet widespread calls for team-based patient-centered care. One effective but under-explored possibility for IPE is through student-led clinics, which now exist in the majority of medical schools. This short report presents the Indiana University Student Outreach Clinic (IU-SOC), which involves seven different professional programs across three institutions, as a model for how IPE can be delivered formally through service learning. Lessons learned, such as nurturing an intentional interprofessional program, structured orientation and reflection, and resource and knowledge sharing between the clinic and academic institutions, can be applied to all student-led clinics, but also can inform other IPE initiatives in health professional curricula.

Improved power quality based high brightness LED lamp driver

African Journals Online (AJOL)

user

consists of a PFC Cuk DC-DC converter which operates in continuous conduction mode (CCM) to improve the ... In proposed LED driver as shown in Figure 1, a Cuk buck boost AC-DC converter ... Design and Analysis of Proposed LED Driver.

Renewal strategy and community based organisations in community ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Renewal strategy and community based organisations in community ... the local population and resources to do that which the governments had failed to do. ... country with a view to reducing poverty and developmental imbalance in Nigeria.

Nanorods on surface of GaN-based thin-film LEDs deposited by post-annealing after photo-assisted chemical etching

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Lung-Chien; Lin, Wun-Wei; Liu, Te-Yu

2017-01-01

This study investigates the optoelectronic characteristics of gallium nitride (GaN)-based thin-film light-emitting diodes (TF-LEDs) that are formed by a two-step transfer process that involves wet etching and post-annealing. In the two-step transfer process, GaN LEDs were stripped from sapphire substrates by the laser lift-off (LLO) method using a KrF laser and then transferred onto ceramic substrates. Ga-K nanorods were formed on the surface of the GaN-based TF-LEDs following photo-assisted chemical etching and photo-enhanced post-annealing at 100 °C for 1 min. As a result, the light output power of GaN-based TF-LEDs with wet etching and post-annealing was over 72% more than that of LEDs that did not undergo these treatments.

A new approach to preparation of standard LEDs for luminous intensity and flux measurement of LEDs

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Seung-Nam; Park, Seongchong; Lee, Dong-Hoon

2006-09-01

This work presents an alternative approach for preparing photometric standard LEDs, which is based on a novel functional seasoning method. The main idea of our seasoning method is simultaneously monitoring the light output and the junction voltage to obtain quantitative information on the temperature dependence and the aging effect of the LED emission. We suggested a general model describing the seasoning process by taking junction temperature variation and aging effect into account and implemented a fully automated seasoning facility, which is capable of seasoning 12 LEDs at the same time. By independent measurements of the temperature dependence, we confirmed the discrepancy of the theoretical model to be less than 0.5 % and evaluate the uncertainty contribution of the functional seasoning to be less than 0.5 % for all the seasoned samples. To demonstrate assigning the reference value to a standard LED, the CIE averaged LED intensity (ALI) of the seasoned LEDs was measured with a spectroradiometer-based instrument and the measurement uncertainty was analyzed. The expanded uncertainty of the standard LED prepared by the new approach amounts to be 4 % ~ 5 % (k=2) depending on color without correction of spectral stray light in the spectroradiometer.

Cost-effectiveness of nurse-led multifactorial care to prevent or postpone new disabilities in community-living older people: Results of a cluster randomized trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Suijker, Jacqueline J; MacNeil-Vroomen, Janet L; van Rijn, Marjon; Buurman, Bianca M; de Rooij, Sophia E; Moll van Charante, Eric P; Bosmans, Judith E

2017-01-01

To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of nurse-led multifactorial care to prevent or postpone new disabilities in community-living older people in comparison with usual care. We conducted cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses alongside a cluster randomized trial with one-year follow-up. Participants were aged ≥ 70 years and at increased risk of functional decline. Participants in the intervention group (n = 1209) received a comprehensive geriatric assessment and individually tailored multifactorial interventions coordinated by a community-care registered nurse with multiple follow-up visits. The control group (n = 1074) received usual care. Costs were assessed from a healthcare perspective. Outcome measures included disability (modified Katz-Activities of Daily Living (ADL) index score), and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). Statistical uncertainty surrounding Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratios (ICERs) was estimated using bootstrapped bivariate regression models while adjusting for confounders. There were no statistically significant differences in Katz-ADL index score and QALYs between the two groups. Total mean costs were significantly higher in the intervention group (EUR 6518 (SE 472) compared with usual care (EUR 5214 (SE 338); adjusted mean difference €1457 (95% CI: 572; 2537). Cost-effectiveness acceptability curves showed that the maximum probability of the intervention being cost-effective was 0.14 at a willingness to pay (WTP) of EUR 50,000 per one point improvement on the Katz-ADL index score and 0.04 at a WTP of EUR 50,000 per QALY gained. The current intervention was not cost-effective compared to usual care to prevent or postpone new disabilities over a one-year period. Based on these findings, implementation of the evaluated multifactorial nurse-led care model is not to be recommended.

Testing a Web-Based, Trained-Peer Model to Build Capacity for Evidence-Based Practices in Community Mental Health Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

German, Ramaris E; Adler, Abby; Frankel, Sarah A; Stirman, Shannon Wiltsey; Pinedo, Paola; Evans, Arthur C; Beck, Aaron T; Creed, Torrey A

2018-03-01

Use of expert-led workshops plus consultation has been established as an effective strategy for training community mental health (CMH) clinicians in evidence-based practices (EBPs). Because of high rates of staff turnover, this strategy inadequately addresses the need to maintain capacity to deliver EBPs. This study examined knowledge, competency, and retention outcomes of a two-phase model developed to build capacity for an EBP in CMH programs. In the first phase, an initial training cohort in each CMH program participated in in-person workshops followed by expert-led consultation (in-person, expert-led [IPEL] phase) (N=214 clinicians). After this cohort completed training, new staff members participated in Web-based training (in place of in-person workshops), followed by peer-led consultation with the initial cohort (Web-based, trained-peer [WBTP] phase) (N=148). Tests of noninferiority assessed whether WBTP was not inferior to IPEL at increasing clinician cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) competency, as measured by the Cognitive Therapy Rating Scale. WBTP was not inferior to IPEL at developing clinician competency. Hierarchical linear models showed no significant differences in CBT knowledge acquisition between the two phases. Survival analyses indicated that WBTP trainees were less likely than IPEL trainees to complete training. In terms of time required from experts, WBTP required 8% of the resources of IPEL. After an initial investment to build in-house CBT expertise, CMH programs were able to use a WBTP model to broaden their own capacity for high-fidelity CBT. IPEL followed by WBTP offers an effective alternative to build EBP capacity in CMH programs, rather than reliance on external experts.

Assessment of the implementation of community-led total sanitation, hygiene, and associated factors in Diretiyara district, Eastern Ethiopia.

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Roba Argaw Tessema

Full Text Available Based on the sustainable development goals, the United Nations plans to achieve equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and to end open defecation by 2030. In Ethiopia, 60% to 80% of health problems are due to communicable diseases attributable to unsafe water supply, unhygienic and unsanitary waste management, which are directly linked to the practice of open defecation. This study has aimed at assessing the implementation of community-led total sanitation and hygiene (CLTSH and associated factors. A community-based cross-sectional study design involving 420 of the 7,225 households found in Diretiyara district was conducted in June 2014. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Using Logistic Regressions, bivariate and multivariate analyses were computed. This study showed that 66% of the respondents have knowledge of CLTSH. Eighty-nine percent of the respondents have latrine, of which 78% were constructed after the introduction of CLTSH. Eleven percent of the respondents reported to have defected in the open field and 15% of them reported that they had been recently exposed to diarrhea diseases. The occurrence of diarrheal disease was significantly associated with the extent of latrine ownership [AOR = 2.48; 95% CI 1.00, 6.12]. Attitude and perception parameters were significantly associated with consistent latrine utilization. Respondents who agreed that "Open defecation is preferred due to the unpleasant smell and heat from the Latrine'' [COR = 0.58; 95% CI 0.34, 0.99] were 58% less likely to use the latrine consistently. In conclusion, CLTSH has increased the extent of latrine ownership and decreased practice of open defecation, and yet, intermittent latrine use and poor hygienic practice were reported. Although some fundamental misconceptions were reported, the majority of the respondents have accepted CLTSH approach as a means to ending open defecation in their village. Health extension workers and local authorities should

Empirically Derived Lessons Learned about What Makes Peer-Led Exercise Groups Flourish.

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Fletcher, Kathlyn E; Ertl, Kristyn; Ruffalo, Leslie; Harris, LaTamba; Whittle, Jeff

2017-01-01

Physical exercise confers many health benefits, but it is difficult to motivate people to exercise. Although community exercise groups may facilitate initiation and persistence in an exercise program, reports regarding factors that allow such groups to flourish are limited. We performed a prospective qualitative evaluation of our experience starting a program of community-based, peer-led exercise groups for military veterans to identify important lessons learned. We synthesized data from structured observations, post-observation debriefings, and focus groups. Our participants were trained peer leaders and exercise group members. Our main outcomes consisted of empirically derived lessons learned during the implementation of a peer-led group exercise program for veterans at multiple community sites. We collected and analyzed data from 40 observation visits (covering 14 sites), 7 transcribed debriefings, and 5 focus groups. We identified five lessons learned. (1) The camaraderie and social aspect of the exercise groups provided motivation for people to stay involved. (2) Shared responsibility and commitment to each other by the group members was instrumental to success. (3) Regular meeting times encouraged participation. (4) Variety, especially getting outdoors, was very popular for some groups. (5) Modest involvement of professionals encouraged ongoing engagement with the program. Both social and programmatic issues influence implementation of group exercise programs for older, predominantly male, veterans. These results should be confirmed in other settings.

Optimal colour quality of LED clusters based on memory colours.

Science.gov (United States)

Smet, Kevin; Ryckaert, Wouter R; Pointer, Michael R; Deconinck, Geert; Hanselaer, Peter

2011-03-28

The spectral power distributions of tri- and tetrachromatic clusters of Light-Emitting-Diodes, composed of simulated and commercially available LEDs, were optimized with a genetic algorithm to maximize the luminous efficacy of radiation and the colour quality as assessed by the memory colour quality metric developed by the authors. The trade-off of the colour quality as assessed by the memory colour metric and the luminous efficacy of radiation was investigated by calculating the Pareto optimal front using the NSGA-II genetic algorithm. Optimal peak wavelengths and spectral widths of the LEDs were derived, and over half of them were found to be close to Thornton's prime colours. The Pareto optimal fronts of real LED clusters were always found to be smaller than those of the simulated clusters. The effect of binning on designing a real LED cluster was investigated and was found to be quite large. Finally, a real LED cluster of commercially available AlGaInP, InGaN and phosphor white LEDs was optimized to obtain a higher score on memory colour quality scale than its corresponding CIE reference illuminant.

Development of LEDs-based microplate reader for bioanalytical assay measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alaruri, Sami D; Katzlinger, Michael; Schinwald, Bernhard; Kronberger, Georg; Atzler, Joseph

2013-01-01

The optical design for an LEDs-based microplate reader that can perform fluorescence intensity (top and bottom), absorbance, luminescence and time-resolved fluorescence measurements is described. The microplate reader is the first microplate reader in the marketplace that incorporates LEDs as excitation light sources. Absorbance measurements over the 0–3.5 optical density range for caffeine solution are presented. Additionally, fluorescence intensity readings collected at 535 and 625 nm from a green and a red RediPlate TM are reported. Furthermore, fluorescence decay lifetime measurements obtained for Eu (europium) and Sm (samarium) standard solutions using 370 nm excitation are presented. The microplate reader detection limits for the fluorescence intensity top, fluorescence intensity bottom, fluorescence polarization and time-resolved fluorescence modes are 1.5 fmol 100 µL −1 fluorescein (384-well plate), 25 fmol 100 µL −1 fluorescein (384-well plate), 5 mP at 10 nM fluorescein (black 384-well plate) and 30 amol 100 µL −1 europium solution (white 384-well plate), respectively. (paper)

Development of LEDs-based microplate reader for bioanalytical assay measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Alaruri, Sami D.; Katzlinger, Michael; Schinwald, Bernhard; Kronberger, Georg; Atzler, Joseph

2013-10-01

The optical design for an LEDs-based microplate reader that can perform fluorescence intensity (top and bottom), absorbance, luminescence and time-resolved fluorescence measurements is described. The microplate reader is the first microplate reader in the marketplace that incorporates LEDs as excitation light sources. Absorbance measurements over the 0-3.5 optical density range for caffeine solution are presented. Additionally, fluorescence intensity readings collected at 535 and 625 nm from a green and a red RediPlateTM are reported. Furthermore, fluorescence decay lifetime measurements obtained for Eu (europium) and Sm (samarium) standard solutions using 370 nm excitation are presented. The microplate reader detection limits for the fluorescence intensity top, fluorescence intensity bottom, fluorescence polarization and time-resolved fluorescence modes are 1.5 fmol 100 µL-1 fluorescein (384-well plate), 25 fmol 100 µL-1 fluorescein (384-well plate), 5 mP at 10 nM fluorescein (black 384-well plate) and 30 amol 100 µL-1 europium solution (white 384-well plate), respectively.

Crack-free AlGaN-based UV LED on Si(111) substrate

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saengkaew, P.; Dadgar, A.; Blaesing, J.; Witte, H.; Mueller, M.; Guenther, K.M.; Fey, T.; Bastek, B.; Bertram, F.; Kurnatowski, M. von; Wieneke, M.; Hempel, T.; Veit, P.; Clos, R.; Christen, J.; Krost, A. [FNW/IEP/AHE Otto-von-Guericke-Universitaet Magdeburg (Germany)

2010-07-01

To achieve low-cost UV LEDs on large-diameter substrates it is a very interesting approach to grow AlGaN on low-cost Si substrates. Here, AlGaN layers and AlGaN LED structures grown on Si(111) were additionally monitored by in-situ curvature measurements. They show that with the insertion of AlN-based SL buffer layers and LT-AlN interlayers, the AlGaN layers are under compressive stress during growth enabling to compensate tensile stress after cooling. To characterize the crystalline quality, HR-XRD measurements were performed. Cross-sectional TEM to investigate dislocation propagation and annihilation. n- and p- conductivities were achieved by Si and Mg doping of the layers, respectively. By C-V and Hall-effect measurements, the maximum free-electron concentration of 2.6{sup +18} cm{sup -3} and free-hole concentration of 2.4{sup +17} cm{sup -3} by using a structure of Mg-doped GaN/Al{sub 0.1}Ga{sub 0.9}N multilayers for the latter were determined. A GaN/Al{sub 0.1}Ga{sub 0.9}N MQW structure showed near UV-luminescence around 350-360 nm. The optical and electrical properties of AlGaN-based LED samples were further characterized by I-V, EL, PL and CL measurements. The I-V measurements show forward-diode characteristics with turn-on voltage about 2.6-3.1 V.

Chapter 11. Community analysis-based methods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cao, Y.; Wu, C.H.; Andersen, G.L.; Holden, P.A.

2010-05-01

Microbial communities are each a composite of populations whose presence and relative abundance in water or other environmental samples are a direct manifestation of environmental conditions, including the introduction of microbe-rich fecal material and factors promoting persistence of the microbes therein. As shown by culture-independent methods, different animal-host fecal microbial communities appear distinctive, suggesting that their community profiles can be used to differentiate fecal samples and to potentially reveal the presence of host fecal material in environmental waters. Cross-comparisons of microbial communities from different hosts also reveal relative abundances of genetic groups that can be used to distinguish sources. In increasing order of their information richness, several community analysis methods hold promise for MST applications: phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP), cloning/sequencing, and PhyloChip. Specific case studies involving TRFLP and PhyloChip approaches demonstrate the ability of community-based analyses of contaminated waters to confirm a diagnosis of water quality based on host-specific marker(s). The success of community-based MST for comprehensively confirming fecal sources relies extensively upon using appropriate multivariate statistical approaches. While community-based MST is still under evaluation and development as a primary diagnostic tool, results presented herein demonstrate its promise. Coupled with its inherently comprehensive ability to capture an unprecedented amount of microbiological data that is relevant to water quality, the tools for microbial community analysis are increasingly accessible, and community-based approaches have unparalleled potential for translation into rapid, perhaps real-time, monitoring platforms.

Transforming Communities through Academic Activism: An Emancipatory, Praxis-led Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Isobel Hawthorne-Steele

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This article tracks the engagement of university faculty in academic and community activism during thirty years in conflict-affected Northern Ireland. Over time, the team of three academics who wrote the article developed programs to help tackle educational disadvantage in a deeply divided society riven with violent conflict. Our pedagogical approach was driven by social justice principles in practice. In the process, students became what Ledwith & Springett (2010 describe as participative activists in the academy and in their own communities. The aim of this collective activism was to foster transformative change in a society that is now in transition from conflict. Key examples of critical practice are described. We use a case study approach to describe challenges faced by faculty and participants. We argue that academic activism and community partnership can play a positive role in community transformation in the most difficult circumstances.

Are nurse-led chemotherapy clinics really nurse-led? An ethnographic study.

Science.gov (United States)

Farrell, Carole; Walshe, Catherine; Molassiotis, Alex

2017-04-01

The number of patients requiring ambulatory chemotherapy is increasing year on year, creating problems with capacity in outpatient clinics and chemotherapy units. Although nurse-led chemotherapy clinics have been set up to address this, there is a lack of evaluation of their effectiveness. Despite a rapid expansion in the development of nursing roles and responsibilities in oncology, there is little understanding of the operational aspects of nurses' roles in nurse-led clinics. To explore nurses' roles within nurse-led chemotherapy clinics. A focused ethnographic study of nurses' roles in nurse-led chemotherapy clinics, including semi-structured interviews with nurses. Four chemotherapy units/cancer centres in the UK PARTICIPANTS: Purposive sampling was used to select four cancer centres/units in different geographical areas within the UK operating nurse-led chemotherapy clinics. Participants were 13 nurses working within nurse-led chemotherapy clinics at the chosen locations. Non-participant observation of nurse-led chemotherapy clinics, semi-structured interviews with nurse participants, review of clinic protocols and associated documentation. 61 nurse-patient consultations were observed with 13 nurses; of these 13, interviews were conducted with 11 nurses. Despite similarities in clinical skills training and prescribing, there were great disparities between clinics run by chemotherapy nurses and those run by advanced nurse practitioners. This included the number of patients seen within each clinic, operational aspects, nurses' autonomy, scope of practice and clinical decision-making abilities. The differences highlighted four different levels of nurse-led chemotherapy clinics, based on nurses' autonomy and scope of clinical practice. However, this was heavily influenced by medical consultants. Several nurses perceived they were undertaking holistic assessments, however they were using medical models/consultation styles, indicating medicalization of nurses' roles

UV-LED-based charge control for LISA

Science.gov (United States)

Olatunde, Taiwo; Shelley, Ryan; Chilton, Andrew; Ciani, Giacomo; Mueller, Guido; Conklin, John

2014-03-01

The test masses inside the LISA gravitational reference sensors (GRS) must maintain almost pure geodesic motion for gravitational waves to be successfully detected. The residual accelerations have to stay below 3fm/s2/rtHz at all frequencies between 0.1 and 3 mHz. One of the well known noise sources is associated with the charges on the test masses which couple to stray electrical potentials and external electro-magnetic fields. The LISA pathfinder (LPF) will use Hg-discharge lamps emitting mostly around 253 nm to discharge the test masses via photoemission in its 2015/16 flight. A future LISA mission launched around 2030 will likely replace the lamps with newer UV-LEDs. UV-LEDs have a lower mass, a better power efficiency, and are smaller than their Hg counterparts. Furthermore, the latest generation produces light at 240 nm, with energy well above the work function of pure gold. I will describe a preliminary design for effective charge control through photoelectric effect by using these LEDs. The effectiveness of this method is verified by taking Quantum Efficiency (QE) measurements which relate the number of electrons emitted to the number of photons incident on the Au test mass surface. This presentation addresses our initial results and future plans which includes implementation and testing in the UF torsion pendulum and space-qualification in a small satellite mission which will launch in the summer of 2014, through a collaboration with Stanford, KACST, and NASA Ames Research Center.

Integrating Community into the Classroom: Community Gardening, Community Involvement, and Project-Based Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Langhout, Regina Day; Rappaport, Julian; Simmons, Doretha

2002-01-01

Culturally relevant, ongoing project-based learning was facilitated in a predominantly African American urban elementary school via a community garden project. The project involved teachers, students, university members, and community members. This article evaluates the project through two classroom-community collaboration models, noting common…

Renewal Strategy and Community Based Organisations in Community

African Journals Online (AJOL)

FBL

organisations in the study areas and Community-Based Poverty Reduction. Programme ... regions or areas. In Nigeria, for ... industries in the growing and developing urban areas. ..... Security network is also provided by the community. To ..... Development Efforts in Nigeria: Case Study of Anambra and Oyo State, NISER.

Building partnerships to support community-led HIV/AIDS ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Despite many challenges, the partnership formation process has seen some positive achievements; we outline these and discuss the essential role played by an external change agent, and conclude with a discussion of the possibility of building long-term structures to sustain the project. Keywords: community development ...

A relative navigation sensor for CubeSats based on LED fiducial markers

Science.gov (United States)

Sansone, Francesco; Branz, Francesco; Francesconi, Alessandro

2018-05-01

Small satellite platforms are becoming very appealing both for scientific and commercial applications, thanks to their low cost, short development times and availability of standard components and subsystems. The main disadvantage with such vehicles is the limitation of available resources to perform mission tasks. To overcome this drawback, mission concepts are under study that foresee cooperation between autonomous small satellites to accomplish complex tasks; among these, on-orbit servicing and on-orbit assembly of large structures are of particular interest and the global scientific community is putting a significant effort in the miniaturization of critical technologies that are required for such innovative mission scenarios. In this work, the development and the laboratory testing of an accurate relative navigation package for nanosatellites compliant to the CubeSat standard is presented. The system features a small camera and two sets of LED fiducial markers, and is conceived as a standard package that allows small spacecraft to perform mutual tracking during rendezvous and docking maneuvers. The hardware is based on off-the-shelf components assembled in a compact configuration that is compatible with the CubeSat standard. The image processing and pose estimation software was custom developed. The experimental evaluation of the system allowed to determine both the static and dynamic performances. The system is capable to determine the close range relative position and attitude faster than 10 S/s, with errors always below 10 mm and 2 deg.

Peer led HIV/AIDS prevention for women in South African informal settlements.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Hara Murdock, Peggy; Garbharran, Hari; Edwards, Mary Jo; Smith, Maria A; Lutchmiah, Johnny; Mkhize, Makhosi

2003-07-01

South African women who live in informal settlement communities are at high risk of HIV/AIDS infection due to their poor economic and social status. Prevention programs must include methods for improving their social conditions as well as their sexual risk behaviors. Members of Partners trained 24 women from informal settlements to lead HIV/AIDS education workshops for 480 residents. When these participants reached out to their neighbors, this participatory community-based approach resulted in providing HIV/AIDS prevention messages to more than 1,440 residents. Program leaders from three settlements said in focus group discussions that results from this social influences peer led approach demonstrated that women residents are a valuable resource in providing effective HIV/AIDS prevention programs to South Africa's most vulnerable residents.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Alternative Community-Led Security ...

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

While many believe the state has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, realities on the ground challenge this assertion, particularly in conflict and ... It will document alternative sources of governance, security, and justice that urban communities apply when state security forces are weak, unresponsive, or abusive.

Growth of monolithic full-color GaN-based LED with intermediate carrier blocking layers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

El-Ghoroury, Hussein S.; Yeh, Milton; Chen, J. C., E-mail: jc.chen@ostendo.com; Li, X.; Chuang, Chih-Li [EPI Lab, Ostendo Technologies, Inc., 679 Brea Canyon Rd, Walnut, CA 91789 (United States)

2016-07-15

Specially designed intermediate carrier blocking layers (ICBLs) in multi-active regions of III-nitride LEDs were shown to be effective in controlling the carrier injection distribution across the active regions. In principle, the majority of carriers, both holes and electrons, can be guided into targeted quantum wells and recombine to generate light of specific wavelengths at controlled current-densities. Accordingly we proposed and demonstrated a novel monolithic InGaN-based LED to achieve three primary colors of light from one device at selected current densities. This LED structure, which has three different sets of quantum wells separated with ICBLs for three primary red-green-blue (RGB) colors, was grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Results show that this LED can emit light ranging from 460 to 650 nm to cover the entire visible spectrum. The emission wavelength starts at 650 nm and then decreases to 460 nm or lower as the injection current increases. In addition to three primary colors, many other colors can be obtained by color mixing techniques. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of monolithic full-color LED grown by a simple growth technique without using re-growth process.

Growth of monolithic full-color GaN-based LED with intermediate carrier blocking layers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El-Ghoroury, Hussein S.; Yeh, Milton; Chen, J. C.; Li, X.; Chuang, Chih-Li

2016-01-01

Specially designed intermediate carrier blocking layers (ICBLs) in multi-active regions of III-nitride LEDs were shown to be effective in controlling the carrier injection distribution across the active regions. In principle, the majority of carriers, both holes and electrons, can be guided into targeted quantum wells and recombine to generate light of specific wavelengths at controlled current-densities. Accordingly we proposed and demonstrated a novel monolithic InGaN-based LED to achieve three primary colors of light from one device at selected current densities. This LED structure, which has three different sets of quantum wells separated with ICBLs for three primary red-green-blue (RGB) colors, was grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Results show that this LED can emit light ranging from 460 to 650 nm to cover the entire visible spectrum. The emission wavelength starts at 650 nm and then decreases to 460 nm or lower as the injection current increases. In addition to three primary colors, many other colors can be obtained by color mixing techniques. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of monolithic full-color LED grown by a simple growth technique without using re-growth process.

Nurse led, primary care based antiretroviral treatment versus hospital care: a controlled prospective study in Swaziland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bailey Kerry A

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Antiretroviral treatment services delivered in hospital settings in Africa increasingly lack capacity to meet demand and are difficult to access by patients. We evaluate the effectiveness of nurse led primary care based antiretroviral treatment by comparison with usual hospital care in a typical rural sub Saharan African setting. Methods We undertook a prospective, controlled evaluation of planned service change in Lubombo, Swaziland. Clinically stable adults with a CD4 count > 100 and on antiretroviral treatment for at least four weeks at the district hospital were assigned to either nurse led primary care based antiretroviral treatment care or usual hospital care. Assignment depended on the location of the nearest primary care clinic. The main outcome measures were clinic attendance and patient experience. Results Those receiving primary care based treatment were less likely to miss an appointment compared with those continuing to receive hospital care (RR 0·37, p p = 0·001. Those receiving primary care based, nurse led care were more likely to be satisfied in the ability of staff to manage their condition (RR 1·23, p = 0·003. There was no significant difference in loss to follow-up or other health related outcomes in modified intention to treat analysis. Multilevel, multivariable regression identified little inter-cluster variation. Conclusions Clinic attendance and patient experience are better with nurse led primary care based antiretroviral treatment care than with hospital care; health related outcomes appear equally good. This evidence supports efforts of the WHO to scale-up universal access to antiretroviral treatment in sub Saharan Africa.

Effect of LED-LCU light irradiance distribution on mechanical properties of resin based materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Magalhães Filho, T.R.; Weig, K.M.; Costa, M.F.; Werneck, M.M.; Barthem, R.B.; Costa Neto, C.A.

2016-01-01

The objective of this study is to analyze the light power distribution along the tip end of the light guide of three LED-LCUs (Light Curing Units) and to evaluate its effect on the mechanical properties of a polymer based dental composite. Firstly, the light power distribution over the whole area of LED-LCU light guide surface was analyzed by three methods: visual projection observation, spectral measurement and optical spectral analysis (OSA). The light power distribution and the total irradiance were different for the three LEDs used, but the wavelength was within the camphorquinone absorption spectrum. The use of a blank sheet was quite on hand to make a qualitative analysis of a beam, and it is costless. Secondly, specimens of a hybrid composite with approximately 8 mm diameter and 2 mm thickness were produced and polymerized by 20 s exposition time to each LED-LCU. Thirdly, the elastic modulus (E) and hardness (HV) were measured throughout the irradiated area by instrumented micro-indentation test (IIT), allowing to correlate localized power and mechanical properties. Both E and HV showed to be very sensitive to local power and wavelength dependent, but they followed the beam power profile. It was also shown that the mechanical properties could be directly correlated to the curing process. Very steep differences in mechanical properties over very short distances may impair the material performance, since residual stresses can easily be built over it. - Highlights: • A resin based composite (RBC) was polymerized by three different Light Emitting Diodes. • Each LED had its beam profile visually, wavelength and power analyzed. • The effective polymerization power (EPP) varied from 28% to 52% of the total beam power. • Wavelength seems to be as relevant as power in the light curing process. • Mechanical properties depend on the simultaneous effect of wavelength and power.

Effect of LED-LCU light irradiance distribution on mechanical properties of resin based materials

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Magalhães Filho, T.R.; Weig, K.M. [Faculdade de Odontologia, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rua São Paulo 28, CEP 24020-150 Niterói (Brazil); Engenharia Metalúrgica e de Materiais (COPPE), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, CP 68505, CEP: 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro (Brazil); Costa, M.F. [Engenharia Metalúrgica e de Materiais (COPPE), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, CP 68505, CEP: 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro (Brazil); Werneck, M.M. [Engenharia Elétrica (COPPE), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, CP 68504, CEP: 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro (Brazil); Barthem, R.B. [Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, CP 68528, CEP: 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro (Brazil); Costa Neto, C.A., E-mail: celio@metalmat.ufrj.br [Engenharia Metalúrgica e de Materiais (COPPE), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, CP 68505, CEP: 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

2016-06-01

The objective of this study is to analyze the light power distribution along the tip end of the light guide of three LED-LCUs (Light Curing Units) and to evaluate its effect on the mechanical properties of a polymer based dental composite. Firstly, the light power distribution over the whole area of LED-LCU light guide surface was analyzed by three methods: visual projection observation, spectral measurement and optical spectral analysis (OSA). The light power distribution and the total irradiance were different for the three LEDs used, but the wavelength was within the camphorquinone absorption spectrum. The use of a blank sheet was quite on hand to make a qualitative analysis of a beam, and it is costless. Secondly, specimens of a hybrid composite with approximately 8 mm diameter and 2 mm thickness were produced and polymerized by 20 s exposition time to each LED-LCU. Thirdly, the elastic modulus (E) and hardness (HV) were measured throughout the irradiated area by instrumented micro-indentation test (IIT), allowing to correlate localized power and mechanical properties. Both E and HV showed to be very sensitive to local power and wavelength dependent, but they followed the beam power profile. It was also shown that the mechanical properties could be directly correlated to the curing process. Very steep differences in mechanical properties over very short distances may impair the material performance, since residual stresses can easily be built over it. - Highlights: • A resin based composite (RBC) was polymerized by three different Light Emitting Diodes. • Each LED had its beam profile visually, wavelength and power analyzed. • The effective polymerization power (EPP) varied from 28% to 52% of the total beam power. • Wavelength seems to be as relevant as power in the light curing process. • Mechanical properties depend on the simultaneous effect of wavelength and power.

From Campuses to Communities: Community-Based Cultism and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Due to the criminal activities of the cult groups in the NDR and ineptitude of the police, communities have responded by creating vigilante groups but this has only promoted cycle of violence. The paper recommended that government should tackle community-based cultism and also strengthen the Nigeria Police Force to be ...

Off-grid energy services for the poor: Introducing LED lighting in the Millennium Villages Project in Malawi

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adkins, Edwin; Eapen, Sandy; Kaluwile, Flora; Nair, Gautam; Modi, Vijay

2010-01-01

Lanterns that use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) powered by batteries, which are in turn charged by grid electricity or small solar panels, have emerged as a cost-competitive alternative to kerosene and other fuel-based lighting technologies, offering brighter light for longer duration at equal or lower cost over time. This paper presents lessons learned from the introduction of solar LED lanterns in rural Malawi. We discuss a market-based program using new and existing local commercial structures such as vendors and cooperatives to sell lanterns to village households without subsidy. The paper addresses issues of enterprise development, community interactions, and survey data on lighting use and expenditure patterns before and after LED lantern introduction. Households that purchased a lantern reported high levels of satisfaction with the LED lanterns as well as savings in annual kerosene expenditure comparable to the price of the lantern. These households also reported monthly incomes comparable to the price of the LED lanterns whereas non-adopters surveyed reported monthly incomes about half this level, suggesting a need for financing options to maximize adoption among poorer populations in rural areas. These results suggest that similar market based models of LED lighting technology dissemination have the potential to be replicated and scaled up in other off-grid regions in developing countries. However, viability of local cooperatives and supply chains for lantern products over the medium-to-long term remain to be assessed.

'No blue' LED solution for photolithography room illumination

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ou, Haiyan; Corell, Dennis Dan; Dam-Hansen, Carsten

2010-01-01

This paper explored the feasibility of using a LED-based bulb as the illumination light source for photolithography room. A no-blue LED was designed, and the prototype was fabricated. The spectral power distribution of both the LED bulb and the yellow fluorescent tube was measured. Based on that...... color rendering ability than the YFT. Furthermore, LED solution has design flexibility to improve it further. The prototype has been tested with photoresist SU8-2005. Even after 15 days of illumination, no effect was observed. So this LED-based solution was demonstrated to be a very promising light......, colorimetric values were calculated and compared on terms of chromatic coordinates, correlated color temperature, color rendering index, and chromatic deviation. Gretagmacbeth color charts were used as a more visional way to compare the two light sources, which shows that our no-blue LED bulb has much better...

Plant growth with Led lighting systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Campiotti, C.A.; Bernardini, A.; Di Carlo, F.; Scoccianti, M.; Alonzo, G.; Carlino, M.; Dondi, F.; Bibbiani, C.

2009-01-01

Leds lighting is highly relevant for the horticultural industry. Compared to other light sources used for plant production, leds have several properties which are potentially useful in relation to horticulture. However, although LEDs technology has raised strong interest in research for extraterrestrial agriculture, current LEDs panel costs are still too high for commercial adoption in greenhouse sector, and their electrical efficacies do not compete with those of high-pressure sodium lamps, but several manufactures are working to address these issues. When LEDs become practical, their ability to based light sources specifically suitable for photosynthesis and other horticulturally relevant plant properties (i.e. low radiated heat; lighting from within the canopy) will render the narrow band spectrum of LEDs of particular interest for providing light to greenhouse horticulture. A general description of LEDs application and their technical characteristics is briefly reported. [it

Development of Key Technologies for White Lighting Based on Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Werner Goetz; Bill Imler; James Kim; Junko Kobayashi; Andrew Kim; Mike Krames; Rick Mann; Gerd Mueller-Mach; Anneli Munkholm; Jonathan Wierer

2004-03-31

This program was organized to focus on materials development issues critical to the acceleration of solid-state lighting, and was split into three major thrust areas: (1) study of dislocation density reduction for GaN grown on sapphire using 'cantilever epitaxy', and the impact of dislocation density on the performance of state-of-the-art high-power LEDs; (2) the evaluation of in situ techniques for monitoring gas phase chemistry and the properties of GaN-based layers during metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOCVD), and (3) feasibility for using semiconductor nanoparticles ('quantum dots') for the down-conversion of blue or ultraviolet light to generate white light. The program included a partnership between Lumileds Lighting (epitaxy and device fabrication for high power LEDs) and Sandia National Laboratories (cantilever epitaxy, gas phase chemistry, and quantum dot synthesis). Key findings included: (1) cantilever epitaxy can provide dislocation density reduction comparable to that of more complicated approaches, but all in one epitaxial growth step; however, further improvements are required to realize significant gains in LED performance at high drive currents, (2) in situ tools can provide detailed knowledge about gas phase chemistry, and can be used to monitor and control epitaxial layer composition and temperature to provide improved yields (e.g., a fivefold increase in color targeting is demonstrated for 540nm LEDs), and (3) quantum efficiency for quantum dots is improved and maintained up to 70% in epoxy thin films, but further work is necessary to increase densification (absorption) and robustness before practical application to LEDs.

The Cascade of Care for an Australian Community-Based Hepatitis C Treatment Service.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amanda J Wade

Full Text Available Hepatitis C treatment uptake in Australia is low. To increase access to hepatitis C virus treatment for people who inject drugs, we developed a community-based, nurse-led service that linked a viral hepatitis service in a tertiary hospital to primary care clinics, and resulted in hepatitis C treatment provision in the community.A retrospective cohort study of patients referred to the community hepatitis service was undertaken to determine the cascade of care. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify predictors of hepatitis C treatment uptake.Four hundred and sixty-two patients were referred to the community hepatitis service; 344 attended. Among the 279 attendees with confirmed chronic hepatitis C, 257 (99% reported ever injecting drugs, and 124 (48% injected in the last month. Of 201 (72% patients who had their fibrosis staged, 63 (31% had F3-F4 fibrosis. Fifty-five patients commenced hepatitis C treatment; 26 (47% were current injectors and 25 (45% had F3-F4 fibrosis. Nineteen of the 27 (70% genotype 1 patients and 14 of the 26 (54% genotype 3 patients eligible for assessment achieved a sustained virologic response. Advanced fibrosis was a significant predictor of treatment uptake in adjusted analysis (AOR 2.56, CI 1.30-5.00, p = 0.006.Our community hepatitis service produced relatively high rates of fibrosis assessment, hepatitis C treatment uptake and cure, among people who inject drugs. These findings highlight the potential benefits of providing community-based hepatitis C care to people who inject drugs in Australia-benefits that should be realised as direct-acting antiviral agents become available.

ZnO nanorod based low turn-on voltage LEDs with wide electroluminescence spectra

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jha, S.K.; Kutsay, O.; Bello, I.; Lee, S.T.

2013-01-01

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) based on arrays of n-type ZnO Nanorods were fabricated on p-GaN films using a hydrothermal method. The LEDs emit mainly in blue and UV range of the light. Their current–Voltage (I–V) characteristics typically show a low leakage current (7.2 μA) and a high rectification ratio (3 5 5). Devices operate at a low turn-on voltage of ∼4.5 V. Photoluminescence (PL) and electroluminescence (EL) measurements suggest low density of ZnO defects; however, in some aspects density of interfacial defects still might be considerable in the studied devices. The PL emission is deconvoluted to three peaks that are located at wavelengths of 361, 381, and 397 nm, while the wide EL spectra are deconvoluted to five peaks appearing at 368, 385, 427, 474, and 515 nm. Near-band-edge (NBE) emission of p-GaN and n-ZnO was observed in both the PL and EL spectra. Deconvoluted EL spectra consist of a very wide green band with the peak at 515 nm and extending up to 650 nm (red), and a rarely reported EL emission at 474 nm. Origin of these emissions is discussed, herein. The electrical characteristics together with EL characteristics indicate potential to develop and study p-GaN/n-ZnO nanorod LEDs for white emitting applications. - Highlights: ► A low turn-on voltage (4–4.5 V) and low threshold (5 V) electroluminescence from ZnO/GaN heterostructure. ► A wide spectrum EL emission (360–700 nm) suitable for white LED application. ► EL spectra consist of a rarely reported emission band with peak at 474 nm. ► Low-temperature and solution based fabrication, which is scalable and of low cost.

Nanorods on surface of GaN-based thin-film LEDs deposited by post-annealing after photo-assisted chemical etching

OpenAIRE

Chen, Lung-Chien; Lin, Wun-Wei; Liu, Te-Yu

2017-01-01

This study investigates the optoelectronic characteristics of gallium nitride (GaN)-based thin-film light-emitting diodes (TF-LEDs) that are formed by a two-step transfer process that involves wet etching and post-annealing. In the two-step transfer process, GaN LEDs were stripped from sapphire substrates by the laser lift-off (LLO) method using a KrF laser and then transferred onto ceramic substrates. Ga-K nanorods were formed on the surface of the GaN-based TF-LEDs following photo-assisted ...

Enabling factors for the improvement of nitride-based LED efficiency

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laubsch, Ansgar; Bergbauer, Werner; Sabathil, Matthias; Peter, Matthias; Meyer, Tobias; Bruederl, Georg; Linder, Norbert; Streubel, Klaus; Oberschmid, Raimund; Hahn, Berthold; Wagner, Joachim

2008-01-01

Recent progress in the epitaxial growth of LEDs with InGaN/GaN quantum-well heterostructures has led to a significant enhancement of output power. In this talk, we will discuss the mechanisms limiting the devices' internal efficiency and identify enabling factors for further improvements. We compare samples with different Indium content as well as different design of the active layer. Although heteroepitaxial growth of GaN on sapphire generates high defect densities, non-radiative defect-related Shockley-Read-Hall recombination does not seem to substantially limit the efficiency of standard InGaN/GaN LED structures. We rather discuss a supplemental Auger-like non-radiative path for carrier recombination that becomes dominant at quantum-well carrier densities typical for LED operation. Additionally, the piezo-field induced reduced overlap of electron and hole wavefunction in standard c-plane grown InGaN quantum wells reduces the radiative recombination rate

Community-based recreational football

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bruun, Ditte Marie; Bjerre, Eik; Krustrup, Peter

2014-01-01

is limited and the majority of prostate cancer survivors remain sedentary. Hence, novel approaches to evaluate and promote physical activity are warranted. This paper presents the rationale behind the delivery and evaluation of community-based recreational football offered in existing football clubs under...... the Danish Football Association to promote quality of life and physical activity adherence in prostate cancer survivors. The RE-AIM framework will be applied to evaluate the impact of the intervention including outcomes both at the individual and organizational level. By introducing community-based sport...

Study and Implementation of White Power-LED Based Indoor Lighting Application for the Healthcare Sector

Science.gov (United States)

Chakraborty, A.; Ganguly, R.

With the current technological growth in the field of device fabrication, white power-LED's are available for solid state lighting applications. This is a paradigm shift from electrical lighting to electronic lighting. The implemented systems are showing some promise by saving a considerable amount of energy as well as providing a good and acceptable illumination level. However, the `useful life' of such devices is an important parameter. If the proper device is not chosen, the desired reliability and performance will not be obtained. In the present work, different parameters associated with reliability of such LED's are studied. Four different varieties of LED's are put to test the `useful life' as per IESNA LM 79 standard. From the results obtained, the proper LED is chosen for further application. Subsequently, lighting design is done for a hospital waiting room (indoor application) with 24 × 7 lighting requirements for replacement of existing CFLs there. The calculations show that although the initial cost is higher for LED based lighting, yet the savings on energy and replacement of the lamp results in a payback time of less than a year.

The role of public libraries in culture-led urban regeneration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skot-Hansen, Dorte; Hvenegaard, Casper; Jochumsen, Henrik

2013-01-01

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to present a research project on public libraries in urban development focusing on how libraries contribute to culture‐led urban regeneration as icons, placemakers and community vitalization. Design/methodology/approach – The research project is based...... implications – The article provides a framework for development of strategies and legitimization for public libraries and a point of departure for the discussion of the library's contribution to urban development. Originality/value – This is the first public presentation of the findings of the results...... of the research project Public Libraries in Urban Development – Creativity, Innovation and Experience outside the Nordic countries....

Design of the control system for full-color LED display based on MSP430 MCU

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xue; Xu, Hui-juan; Qin, Ling-ling; Zheng, Long-jiang

2013-08-01

The LED display incorporate the micro electronic technique, computer technology and information processing as a whole, it becomes the most preponderant of a new generation of display media with the advantages of bright in color, high dynamic range, high brightness and long operating life, etc. The LED display has been widely used in the bank, securities trading, highway signs, airport and advertising, etc. According to the display color, the LED display screen is divided into monochrome screen, double color display and full color display. With the diversification of the LED display's color and the ceaseless rise of the display demands, the LED display's drive circuit and control technology also get the corresponding progress and development. The earliest monochrome screen just displaying Chinese characters, simple character or digital, so the requirements of the controller are relatively low. With the widely used of the double color LED display, the performance of its controller will also increase. In recent years, the full color LED display with three primary colors of red, green, blue and grayscale display effect has been highly attention with its rich and colorful display effect. Every true color pixel includes three son pixels of red, green, blue, using the space colour mixture to realize the multicolor. The dynamic scanning control system of LED full-color display is designed based on MSP430 microcontroller technology of the low power consumption. The gray control technology of this system used the new method of pulse width modulation (PWM) and 19 games show principle are combining. This method in meet 256 level grayscale display conditions, improves the efficiency of the LED light device, and enhances the administrative levels feels of the image. Drive circuit used 1/8 scanning constant current drive mode, and make full use of the single chip microcomputer I/O mouth resources to complete the control. The system supports text, pictures display of 256 grayscale

Pollution Prevention through Peer Education: A Community Health Worker and Small and Home-Based Business Initiative on the Arizona-Sonora Border.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramírez, Denise Moreno; Ramírez-Andreotta, Mónica D; Vea, Lourdes; Estrella-Sánchez, Rocío; Wolf, Ann Marie A; Kilungo, Aminata; Spitz, Anna H; Betterton, Eric A

2015-09-09

Government-led pollution prevention programs tend to focus on large businesses due to their potential to pollute larger quantities, therefore leaving a gap in programs targeting small and home-based businesses. In light of this gap, we set out to determine if a voluntary, peer education approach led by female, Hispanic community health workers (promotoras) can influence small and home-based businesses to implement pollution prevention strategies on-site. This paper describes a partnership between promotoras from a non-profit organization and researchers from a university working together to reach these businesses in a predominately Hispanic area of Tucson, Arizona. From 2008 to 2011, the promotora-led pollution prevention program reached a total of 640 small and home-based businesses. Program activities include technical trainings for promotoras and businesses, generation of culturally and language appropriate educational materials, and face-to-face peer education via multiple on-site visits. To determine the overall effectiveness of the program, surveys were used to measure best practices implemented on-site, perceptions towards pollution prevention, and overall satisfaction with the industry-specific trainings. This paper demonstrates that promotoras can promote the implementation of pollution prevention best practices by Hispanic small and home-based businesses considered "hard-to-reach" by government-led programs.

Pollution Prevention through Peer Education: A Community Health Worker and Small and Home-Based Business Initiative on the Arizona-Sonora Border

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Denise Moreno Ramírez

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Government-led pollution prevention programs tend to focus on large businesses due to their potential to pollute larger quantities, therefore leaving a gap in programs targeting small and home-based businesses. In light of this gap, we set out to determine if a voluntary, peer education approach led by female, Hispanic community health workers (promotoras can influence small and home-based businesses to implement pollution prevention strategies on-site. This paper describes a partnership between promotoras from a non-profit organization and researchers from a university working together to reach these businesses in a predominately Hispanic area of Tucson, Arizona. From 2008 to 2011, the promotora-led pollution prevention program reached a total of 640 small and home-based businesses. Program activities include technical trainings for promotoras and businesses, generation of culturally and language appropriate educational materials, and face-to-face peer education via multiple on-site visits. To determine the overall effectiveness of the program, surveys were used to measure best practices implemented on-site, perceptions towards pollution prevention, and overall satisfaction with the industry-specific trainings. This paper demonstrates that promotoras can promote the implementation of pollution prevention best practices by Hispanic small and home-based businesses considered “hard-to-reach” by government-led programs.

Pollution Prevention through Peer Education: A Community Health Worker and Small and Home-Based Business Initiative on the Arizona-Sonora Border

Science.gov (United States)

Moreno Ramírez, Denise; Ramírez-Andreotta, Mónica D.; Vea, Lourdes; Estrella-Sánchez, Rocío; Wolf, Ann Marie A.; Kilungo, Aminata; Spitz, Anna H.; Betterton, Eric A.

2015-01-01

Government-led pollution prevention programs tend to focus on large businesses due to their potential to pollute larger quantities, therefore leaving a gap in programs targeting small and home-based businesses. In light of this gap, we set out to determine if a voluntary, peer education approach led by female, Hispanic community health workers (promotoras) can influence small and home-based businesses to implement pollution prevention strategies on-site. This paper describes a partnership between promotoras from a non-profit organization and researchers from a university working together to reach these businesses in a predominately Hispanic area of Tucson, Arizona. From 2008 to 2011, the promotora-led pollution prevention program reached a total of 640 small and home-based businesses. Program activities include technical trainings for promotoras and businesses, generation of culturally and language appropriate educational materials, and face-to-face peer education via multiple on-site visits. To determine the overall effectiveness of the program, surveys were used to measure best practices implemented on-site, perceptions towards pollution prevention, and overall satisfaction with the industry-specific trainings. This paper demonstrates that promotoras can promote the implementation of pollution prevention best practices by Hispanic small and home-based businesses considered “hard-to-reach” by government-led programs. PMID:26371028

Embracing a competency-based specialty curriculum for community-based nursing roles.

Science.gov (United States)

Levin, Pamela F; Swider, Susan M; Breakwell, Susan; Cowell, Julia M; Reising, Virginia

2013-01-01

The Quad Council competencies for public health nursing (PHN) provide guidance in developing curricula at both the generalist and specialist level. However, these competencies are based on nursing roles in traditional public health agencies and community/public health is defined more broadly than official agency practice. The question arises as to whether community-based specialties require largely the same knowledge and skill set as PHN. The purpose of the competency cross-mapping project reported here was to (a) assess the intersection of the Quad Council competencies with four community-based specialties and (b) ensure the appropriateness of a Quad Council-based curriculum to prepare graduates across these four specialties (home health, occupational health, environmental health, and school nursing). This article details the multistep cross-mapping process, including validation with practice leaders. Results indicate strong alignment of community-based specialty competencies with Quad Council competencies. Community-based specialty-specific content that did not align well is identified, along with examples of didactic and clinical strategies to address gaps. This work indicates that a Quad Council-based curriculum is appropriate to prepare graduates in community-based specialties when attention to the specialty-specific competencies in the clinical setting is included. This work guides the development of a doctorate of nursing practice curriculum in PHN, encompassing the four additional community-based specialties. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Affording and Constraining Local Moral Orders in Teacher-Led Ability-Based Mathematics Groups

Science.gov (United States)

Tait-McCutcheon, Sandi; Shuker, Mary Jane; Higgins, Joanna; Loveridge, Judith

2015-01-01

How teachers position themselves and their students can influence the development of afforded or constrained local moral orders in ability-based teacher-led mathematics lessons. Local moral orders are the negotiated discursive practices and interactions of participants in the group. In this article, the developing local moral orders of 12 teachers…

Validation of the spectral mismatch correction factor using an LED-based solar simulator

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Riedel, Nicholas; Santamaria Lancia, Adrian Alejo; Thorsteinsson, Sune

LED-based solar simulators are gaining popularity in the PV characterization field. There are several reasons for this trend, but the primary interest is often the potential of tuning the light source spectrum to a closer match to the AM 1.5G reference spectrum than traditional Xenon or metal-hal...

Reaching out: medical students leading in local communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Bannon, Aidan; O'Hare, Niamh; Corr, Michael; Sterling, Margaret; Gormley, Gerard J

2015-06-01

Queen's University Red Cross is a medical student-led volunteer group with a key aim of promoting social change within local communities and empowering young people to aspire to higher education. We describe 'The Personal Development Certificate', a 12-week community development programme devised by third-year medical students at Queen's University Belfast to target young people who are lacking educational motivation, are disengaged at home or are marginalised through social circumstances. Community-based education is of increasing importance within undergraduate and postgraduate medical education in the UK, and further afield. We evaluated the perceived improvements in key skills such as teamwork, leadership, communication, and problem solving in students following participation in this programme, and the extent to which their attitude and appreciation of community-based medicine changed. [Students] appreciated the opportunity to translate a series of classroom-learned skills to real-life environments Following facilitation of this community-based initiative, all students reported a perceived improvement in the acquired skill sets. Students made strong links from this programme to previous clinical experiences and appreciated the opportunity to translate a series of classroom-learned skills to real-life environments and interactions. The students' appreciation and understanding of community-based medicine was the single most improved area of our evaluation. We have demonstrated that medical students possess the skills to develop and facilitate their own educational projects. Non-clinical, student-led community projects have the potential to be reproduced using recognised frameworks and guidelines to complement the current undergraduate medical curriculum. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Finding Urban Identity through Culture-led Urban Regeneration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kyu Hong Hwang

Full Text Available ABSTRACT: A city experiencing a cycle from growth to decline cannot maintain sustainable development without the type of urban identity that could be consolidated by culture-led urban regeneration. A plan for urban regeneration in a declining urban area should be practiced partially or on the whole according to the characteristics of the community. By transforming a low-value and deteriorated area into a highly valued district, the local community can simultaneously restore its social pride, revive the local economy, and realize an urban identity.Firstly, this paper examines urban decline in order to better understand urban regeneration and the need for multidisciplinary management, and also, by considering the necessity for and universal types of urban regeneration, investigates the characteristics of culture-led urban regeneration as a tool for realizing socio-economic revival and urban identity. In particular, this study suggests the action techniques and benchmarking points for urban regeneration by analyzing cases of culture-led urban regeneration in Korea. Three subjects were considered as case studies in this paper: 1 Hanok village in Jeonju city, which changed from a twilight zone to a tourist attraction; 2 Changdong district in Changwon city, which recovered from an area of declining and dark alleyways that had been the hub for arts and culture in the 1970s to become a new artist village; and 3 Cheongju city, which is being transformed from an idle industrial facility into a cultural space. This thesis suggests the implementation process of culture-led urban regeneration to find an urban identity through analysis of the causes of urban decline, the methods of regeneration, and the results of urban regeneration in the three aforementioned cases. In the conclusion section of this paper, the implementation process for culture-led urban regeneration is summarized as consisting of 5 phases: Phase 1, the diagnosis of decline; Phase 2

Development of Local-Economic-Development Small and Medium Industries (Led-Sme In East Java

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rachmad Hidayat

2013-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the effects of Indonesian government’s developmental efforts of assistance and training performed  on the growth of LED-SME business units and business performance. Both parameters of the government’s assistance and training were used to analyze the impact to the  growth and performance of business unit. To achieve a comprehensive result, samples acquired in this research were about 190 entrepreneurs and managers of LED-SME from East Java. Based on the parameters above, there are five hypotheses made to prove the relationship of the assistance and training to the growth and performance of business units. The structural equation modeling (SEM was carried out to test the hypotheses. The results have shown that the government’s developmental efforts through both assistance and training for the LED-SME were capable on increasing growth and performance of business units. On the other hand, government’s developmental efforts through only trainings were incapable of directly affecting growth of LED-SME business units and performance. To improve the business unit and performance, the government needs to implement developmental principles of LED-SME with the basis of utilizing local natural resources and also the communities of LED-SME as main suppliers for their local markets. In addition, preservation and development of local cultural and traditional arts also need to be the government’s main concern. 

Peer-led versus teacher-led AIDS education for female high-school students in Yazd, Islamic Republic of Iran.

Science.gov (United States)

Baghianimoghadam, M H; Forghani, H; Zolghadr, R; Rahaei, Z; Khani, P

2012-04-01

Peer-led programmes on AIDS prevention have shown a good level of effectiveness when tested among high-risk populations. This study compared peer-led and teacher-led methods of education about HIV/AIDS among female high-school students in Yazd city, Islamic Republic of Iran. In 2009 students in 3 high schools were trained by their classmates (peer-led), by the research team (teacher-led) or had no education (controls); 180 students completed a specially designed questionnaire based on the health belief model, before and after the intervention. Post-intervention mean knowledge scores increased 2-fold in the peer-led group, and this was significantly higher than the increase in the teacher-led group scores (1.5-fold). Control group scores were unchanged. In the peer-led programme all of the components of the model were significantly improved whereas in the teacher-led programme, only perceived severity and perceived barriers scored significantly higher after the intervention.

High-power LEDs for plant cultivation

Science.gov (United States)

Tamulaitis, Gintautas; Duchovskis, Pavelas; Bliznikas, Zenius; Breive, Kestutis; Ulinskaite, Raimonda; Brazaityte, Ausra; Novickovas, Algirdas; Zukauskas, Arturas; Shur, Michael S.

2004-10-01

We report on high-power solid-state lighting facility for cultivation of greenhouse vegetables and on the results of the study of control of photosynthetic activity and growth morphology of radish and lettuce imposed by variation of the spectral composition of illumination. Experimental lighting modules (useful area of 0.22 m2) were designed based on 4 types of high-power light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with emission peaked in red at the wavelengths of 660 nm and 640 nm (predominantly absorbed by chlorophyll a and b for photosynthesis, respectively), in blue at 455 nm (phototropic function), and in far-red at 735 nm (important for photomorphology). Morphological characteristics, chlorophyll and phytohormone concentrations in radish and lettuce grown in phytotron chambers under lighting with different spectral composition of the LED-based illuminator and under illumination by high pressure sodium lamps with an equivalent photosynthetic photon flux density were compared. A well-balanced solid-state lighting was found to enhance production of green mass and to ensure healthy morphogenesis of plants compared to those grown using conventional lighting. We observed that the plant morphology and concentrations of morphologically active phytohormones is strongly affected by the spectral composition of light in the red region. Commercial application of the LED-based illumination for large-scale plant cultivation is discussed. This technology is favorable from the point of view of energy consumption, controllable growth, and food safety but is hindered by high cost of the LEDs. Large scale manufacturing of high-power red AlInGaP-based LEDs emitting at 650 nm and a further decrease of the photon price for the LEDs emitting in the vicinity of the absorption peak of chlorophylls have to be achieved to promote horticulture applications.

The true costs of participatory sanitation: Evidence from community-led total sanitation studies in Ghana and Ethiopia.

Science.gov (United States)

Crocker, Jonny; Saywell, Darren; Shields, Katherine F; Kolsky, Pete; Bartram, Jamie

2017-12-01

Evidence on sanitation and hygiene program costs is used for many purposes. The few studies that report costs use top-down costing methods that are inaccurate and inappropriate. Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) is a participatory behavior-change approach that presents difficulties for cost analysis. We used implementation tracking and bottom-up, activity-based costing to assess the process, program costs, and local investments for four CLTS interventions in Ghana and Ethiopia. Data collection included implementation checklists, surveys, and financial records review. Financial costs and value-of-time spent on CLTS by different actors were assessed. Results are disaggregated by intervention, cost category, actor, geographic area, and project month. The average household size was 4.0 people in Ghana, and 5.8 people in Ethiopia. The program cost of CLTS was $30.34-$81.56 per household targeted in Ghana, and $14.15-$19.21 in Ethiopia. Most program costs were from training for three of four interventions. Local investments ranged from $7.93-$22.36 per household targeted in Ghana, and $2.35-$3.41 in Ethiopia. This is the first study to present comprehensive, disaggregated costs of a sanitation and hygiene behavior-change intervention. The findings can be used to inform policy and finance decisions, plan program scale-up, perform cost-effectiveness and benefit studies, and compare different interventions. The costing method is applicable to other public health behavior-change programs. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Community and evidence-based approaches to healthcare ...

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

2016-04-29

Apr 29, 2016 ... This project developed community connections, shared cross-cultural teaching experiences, and fostered local community partnerships. Participants in the course were encouraged to continue providing evidence-based care throughout their careers. UniLúrio now plans to include the community-based ...

Ultrabroad linewidth orange-emitting nanowires LED for high CRI laser-based white lighting and gigahertz communications

KAUST Repository

Janjua, Bilal

2016-08-10

Group-III-nitride laser diode (LD)-based solid-state lighting device has been demonstrated to be droop-free compared to light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and highly energy-efficient compared to that of the traditional incandescent and fluorescent white light systems. The YAG:Ce3+ phosphor used in LD-based solid-state lighting, however, is associated with rapid degradation issue. An alternate phosphor/LD architecture, which is capable of sustaining high temperature, high power density, while still intensity- and bandwidth-tunable for high color-quality remained unexplored. In this paper, we present for the first time, the proof-of-concept of the generation of high-quality white light using an InGaN-based orange nanowires (NWs) LED grown on silicon, in conjunction with a blue LD, and in place of the compound-phosphor. By changing the relative intensities of the ultrabroad linewidth orange and narrow-linewidth blue components, our LED/LD device architecture achieved correlated color temperature (CCT) ranging from 3000 K to above 6000K with color rendering index (CRI) values reaching 83.1, a value unsurpassed by the YAG-phosphor/blue-LD counterpart. The white-light wireless communications was implemented using the blue LD through on-off keying (OOK) modulation to obtain a data rate of 1.06 Gbps. We therefore achieved the best of both worlds when orange-emitting NWs LED are utilized as “active-phosphor”, while blue LD is used for both color mixing and optical wireless communications.

Harmonics Monitoring Survey on LED Lamps

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Abdelrahman Ahmed Akila

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Light Emitting Diode (LED lamps are being increasingly used in many applications. These LED lamps operate using a driver, which is a switching device. Hence, LED lamps will be a source of harmonics in the power system. These harmonics if not well treated, may cause severe performance and operational problems. In this paper, harmonics (amplitude and phase angles generated by both LED lamps and conventional fluorescent lamps will be studied practically. Then they will be analyzed and evaluated. Compared to each other harmonics generated by both LED and conventional florescent lamps, self mitigation may occur based on the phase angle of these harmonics. All data will be measured using power analyzer and will be done on a sample of actual lamps.

Comparison of effect of TDS and Fe in uranium measurement in LED and Xe lamp based fluorimeter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sahoo, S.K.; Mohapatra, S.; Lenka, P.; Dubey, J.S.; Patra, A.C.; Thakur, V.K.; Ravi, P.M.; Tripathi, R.M.

2014-01-01

In the present study, the effect of TDS and Fe on uranium fluorescence in water samples is studied by fluorometric techniques based on LED and xenon lamp systems. Fluorimeters are calibrated with uranium standards to establish the relationship between concentration and fluorescence response. Known concentration of uranium standard solution is measured in both LED and Xe lamp based fluorimeter after spiking with a series of concentration of Fe and TDS solution. Most often high levels of TDS are caused by the presence of K, CI, Na, etc. Thus here the effect of TDS is studied with NaCI solution but the effect may differ with the presence other elements. Details of the optimization procedure and measurement of uranium concentration in fluorometric technique are given elsewhere. In LED based system, sodium pyrophosphate with phosphoric acid is used as the complexing agent while sodium polysilicate is used in Xe lamp based system. Fe standard solution of 0.1 to 10 ppm was spiked with known uranium standard and analysed in both the fluorimeters. The fluorescence response gradually decreased upto 50% with 10 ppm of Fe in the solution in the LED based system whereas there was a gradual decrease of fluorescence response with increase in Fe concentration and it was 60% with 10 ppm of Fe. Thus both the instruments show nearly equal response with the increasing concentration of Fe in sample solution. Therefore, in case of high TDS and Fe content in the sample, precautions should be taken during measurement of uranium in water samples directly by fluorimetric techniques

Commentary on community-led total sanitation and human rights: should the right to community-wide health be won at the cost of individual rights?

Science.gov (United States)

Bartram, Jamie; Charles, Katrina; Evans, Barbara; O'Hanlon, Lucinda; Pedley, Steve

2012-12-01

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set out to halve the proportion of the population without access to basic sanitation between 1990 and 2015. The slow pace of progress has lead to a search for innovative responses, including social motivation approaches. One example of this type of approach is 'Community-led Total Sanitation' (CLTS). CLTS represents a major shift for sanitation projects and programmes in recognising the value of stopping open-defecation across the whole community, even when the individual toilets built are not necessarily wholly hygienic. However, recent publications on CLTS document a number of examples of practices which fail to meet basic ethical criteria and infringe human rights. There is a general theme in the CLTS literature encouraging the use of 'shame' or 'social stigma' as a tool for promoting behaviours. There are reported cases where monetary benefits to which individuals are otherwise entitled or the means to practice a livelihood are withheld to create pressures to conform. At the very extreme end of the scale, the investigation and punishment of violence has reportedly been denied if the crime occurred while defecating in the open, violating rights to a remedy and related access to justice. While social mobilisation in general, and CLTS in particular, have drastically and positively changed the way we think about sanitation, they neither need nor benefit from an association with any infringements of human rights.

High efficiency GaN-based LEDs using plasma selective treatment of p-GaN surface

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Young-Bae; Naoi, Yoshiki; Sakai, Shiro [Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Tokushima, 2-1 Minami-josanjima, Tokushima 770-8506 (Japan); Takaki, Ryohei; Sato, Hisao [Nitride Semiconductor Co., Ltd., 115-7 Itayajima, Akinokami, Seto-cho, Naruto, Tokushima 771-0360 (Japan)

2003-11-01

We have studied a new method of increasing the extraction efficiency of a GaN-based light-emitting diode (LED) using a plasma surface treatment. In this method, prior to the evaporation of a semitransparent p-metal, the surface of a p-GaN located beneath a p-pad is selectively exposed to a nitrogen plasma in a reactive ion etching (RIE) chamber. The electrical characteristics of the plasma treated p-GaN remarkably changes its resistivity into semi-insulator without any parasitic damage. Since the LEDs with a new method have no light absorption in a p-pad region, a higher optical power can be extracted compared to a conventional LEDs without plasma selective treatment on the p-GaN surface. (copyright 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)

Wellness works: community service health promotion groups led by occupational therapy students.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, A H

1999-01-01

In the context of a group process course, occupational therapy students learned health promotion skills through working on personal wellness goals and leading community-based health promotion groups. The groups targeted topics such as smoking cessation, improving diet, reducing stress through yoga, meditation, tai chi chuan, ROM (Range of Motion) Dance, aerobics, and a variety of other activities. After identifying a personal wellness goal and developing it in a Wellness Awareness Learning Contract, each student used a Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) to predict an expected outcome for achieving the goal and to measure his or her progress toward attaining the goal. Students also used the GAS to measure progress in attaining group leadership skills within the community groups, which they outlined in a separate Group Skills Contract. Students kept weekly logs to foster reflective thinking, and the logs were used for interactive dialogue with the instructor. To further evaluate lifestyle change, students compared pretest and posttest scores on a Self-Assessment Scorecard, which surveyed six areas of health and human potential in body, mind, and spirit. Students monitored their own change process on both their personal health lifestyle goals and their group leadership skills while developing a richer appreciation of the dynamics of working for change with clients in community and traditional settings. Differences on the Self-Assessment Scorecard indicated improvement on two of the six scales for physical health and choices. Students experienced firsthand the challenges of developing healthier lifestyles on the basis of their personal goals as well as through fostering group changes. The two GAS learning contracts provided them with concrete evidence of their growth and learning. This experience--embedded in the context of a group process course with a community service learning group practicum--provided most students with a positive initial experience with group leadership

Prediction of Lumen Output and Chromaticity Shift in LEDs Using Kalman Filter and Extended Kalman Filter Based Models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lall, Pradeep; Wei, Junchao; Davis, J Lynn

2014-06-24

Abstract— Solid-state lighting (SSL) luminaires containing light emitting diodes (LEDs) have the potential of seeing excessive temperatures when being transported across country or being stored in non-climate controlled warehouses. They are also being used in outdoor applications in desert environments that see little or no humidity but will experience extremely high temperatures during the day. This makes it important to increase our understanding of what effects high temperature exposure for a prolonged period of time will have on the usability and survivability of these devices. Traditional light sources “burn out” at end-of-life. For an incandescent bulb, the lamp life is defined by B50 life. However, the LEDs have no filament to “burn”. The LEDs continually degrade and the light output decreases eventually below useful levels causing failure. Presently, the TM-21 test standard is used to predict the L70 life of LEDs from LM-80 test data. Several failure mechanisms may be active in a LED at a single time causing lumen depreciation. The underlying TM-21 Model may not capture the failure physics in presence of multiple failure mechanisms. Correlation of lumen maintenance with underlying physics of degradation at system-level is needed. In this paper, Kalman Filter (KF) and Extended Kalman Filters (EKF) have been used to develop a 70-percent Lumen Maintenance Life Prediction Model for LEDs used in SSL luminaires. Ten-thousand hour LM-80 test data for various LEDs have been used for model development. System state at each future time has been computed based on the state space at preceding time step, system dynamics matrix, control vector, control matrix, measurement matrix, measured vector, process noise and measurement noise. The future state of the lumen depreciation has been estimated based on a second order Kalman Filter model and a Bayesian Framework. Life prediction of L70 life for the LEDs used in SSL luminaires from KF and EKF based models have

EDITORIAL: LED light sources (light for the future) LED light sources (light for the future)

Science.gov (United States)

Grandjean, N.

2010-09-01

Generating white light from electricity with maximum efficacy has been a long quest since the first incandescent lamp was invented by Edison at the end of the 19th century. Nowadays, semiconductors are making reality the holy grail of converting electrons into photons with 100% efficiency and with colours that can be mixed for white light illumination. The revolution in solid-state lighting (SSL) dates to 1994 when Nakamura reported the first high-brightness blue LED based on GaN semiconductors. Then, white light was produced by simply combining a blue dye with a yellow phosphor. After more than a decade of intensive research the performance of white LEDs is quite impressive, beating by far the luminous efficacy of compact fluorescent lamps. We are likely close to replacing our current lighting devices by SSL lamps. However, there are still technological and fabrication cost issues that could delay large market penetration of white LEDs. Interestingly, SSL may create novel ways of using light that could potentially limit electricity saving. Whatever the impact of SSL, it will be significant on our daily life. The purpose of this special cluster issue is to produce a snapshot of the current situation of SSL from different viewing angles. In an introductory paper, Tsao and co-workers from Sandia National Laboratories, present an energy-economics perspective of SSL considering societal changes and SSL technology evolution. In a second article, Narukawa et al working at Nichia Corporation—the pioneer and still the leading company in SSL—describe the state of the art of current research products. They demonstrate record performance with white LEDs exhibiting luminous efficacy of 183 lm W-1 at high-current injection. Then, a series of topical papers discuss in detail various aspects of the physics and technology of white LEDs Carrier localization in InGaN quantum wells has been considered the key to white LEDs' success despite the huge density of defects. A

Optogenetic activation of neocortical neurons in vivo with a sapphire-based micro-scale LED probe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Niall eMcAlinden

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Optogenetics has proven to be a revolutionary technology in neuroscience and has advanced continuously over the past decade. However, optical stimulation technologies for in vivo need to be developed to match the advances in genetics and biochemistry that have driven this field. In particular, conventional approaches for in vivo optical illumination have a limitation on the achievable spatio-temporal resolution. Here we utilize a sapphire-based microscale gallium nitride light-emitting diode (µLED probe to activate neocortical neurons in vivo. The probes were designed to contain independently controllable multiple µLEDs, emitting at 450 nm wavelength with an irradiance of up to 2 W/mm2. Monte-Carlo stimulations predicted that optical stimulation using a µLED can modulate neural activity within a localized region. To validate this prediction, we tested this probe in the mouse neocortex that expressed channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2 and compared the results with optical stimulation through a fiber at the cortical surface. We confirmed that both approaches reliably induced action potentials in cortical neurons and that the µLED probe evoked strong responses in deep neurons. Due to the possibility to integrate many optical stimulation sites onto a single shank, the µLED probe is thus a promising approach to control neurons locally in vivo.

Review of performance-based incentives in community-based family planning programmes

Science.gov (United States)

Bellows, Nicole M; Askew, Ian; Bellows, Benjamin

2015-01-01

Background One strategy for improving family planning (FP) uptake at the community level is the use of performance-based incentives (PBIs), which offer community distributors financial incentives to recruit more users of FP. This article examines the use of PBIs in community-based FP programmes via a literature search of the peer-reviewed and grey literature conducted in April 2013. Results A total of 28 community-based FP programmes in 21 countries were identified as having used PBIs. The most common approach was a sales commission model where distributors received commission for FP products sold, while a referral payment model for long-term methods was also used extensively. Six evaluations were identified that specifically examined the impact of the PBI in community-based FP programmes. Overall, the results of the evaluations are mixed and more research is needed; however, the findings suggest that easy-to-understand PBIs can be successful in increasing the use of FP at the community level. Conclusion For future use of PBIs in community-based FP programmes it is important to consider the ethics of incentivising FP and ensuring that PBIs are non-coercive and choice-enhancing. PMID:25037703

DMPonline Version 4.0: User-Led Innovation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Magdalena Getler

2014-07-01

Full Text Available DMPonline is a web-based tool to help researchers and research support staff produce data management and sharing plans. Between October and December 2012, we examined DMPonline in unprecedented detail. The results of this evaluation led to some major changes. We have shortened the DCC Checklist for a Data Management Plan and revised how this is used in the tool. We have also amended the data model for DMPonline, improved workflows and redesigned the user interface. This paper reports on the evaluation, outlining the methods used, the results gathered and how they have been acted upon. We conducted usability testing on v.3 of DMPonline and the v.4 beta prior to release. The results from these two rounds of usability testing are compared to validate the changes made. We also put forward future plans for a more iterative development approach and greater community input.

Small-grants programs: lessons from community-based approaches to changing nutrition environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Donna B; Smith, Lynne T; Bruemmer, Barbara

2007-02-01

Providing small grants to community organizations can be an effective way to encourage changes in the environment that support better nutrition. This is effective because these organizations can provide insights into their communities, ready-made relationships with community members, and the trust of the community. Small-grants programs are more likely to be successful when they are tailored to the needs of individual communities, led by organizations that have established reputations with the community, fully supported by the lead community organization, and engage local partners that complement the skills and resources of the lead organization. An evaluation of a small-grants program, Grants for Healthy Youth, found that grantees developed unique approaches to improving their community nutrition environments, gained experience and skills in program development, built partnerships, and received recognition for their project work. Grantees faced some common barriers, especially with program evaluation. Small-grants programs can be an effective way to improve community nutrition environments, but granting agencies need to provide effective technical assistance to communities throughout the process.

Reliable LED Lighting Technologies: Key Factors and Procurement Guidance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Davis, Lynn; Arquit Niederberger, Anne

2015-10-08

Abstract— Lighting systems have the ability to transform the economic and educational infrastructure of disadvantaged communities, and eradicating “light poverty” has become one of the primary goals of the International Year of Light 2015. Solid-state lighting (SSL) technology, based on light-emitting diode (LED) light sources, has emerged as the next generation of lighting technology, with a current global market penetration of roughly 5%. This paper will report on recent research on understanding SSL lighting system reliability (failure modes, environmental stressors, electrical power quality); discuss the implications of SSL technology reliability for providing lighting services; and suggest practical approaches to ensure SSL reliability to benefit humanity. Among the key findings from this work is that LED sources can be extremely reliable, withstanding a broad range of environmental stresses without failure. Nonetheless, SSL lighting systems can have a negative impact on electrical power reliability, as well as on the affordability of lighting services, without attention to the quality of the accompanying power infrastructure. It is therefore critical to ensure that the performance of the power supply electronics used in lighting systems is matched to the quality of the power source, when evaluating energy efficient lighting choices.

Community capacity building and sustainability: outcomes of community-based participatory research.

Science.gov (United States)

Hacker, Karen; Tendulkar, Shalini A; Rideout, Catlin; Bhuiya, Nazmim; Trinh-Shevrin, Chau; Savage, Clara P; Grullon, Milagro; Strelnick, Hal; Leung, Carolyn; DiGirolamo, Ann

2012-01-01

For communities, the value of community-based participatory research (CBPR) is often manifested in the outcomes of increased capacity and sustainable adoption of evidence-based practices for social change. Educational opportunities that promote discourse between community and academic partners can help to advance CBPR and better define these outcomes. This paper describes a community-academic conference to develop shared definitions of community capacity building and sustainability related to CBPR and to identify obstacles and facilitators to both. "Taking It to the Curbside: Engaging Communities to Create Sustainable Change for Health" was planned by five Clinical Translational Science Institutes and four community organizations. After a keynote presentation, breakout groups of community and academic members met to define community capacity building and sustainability, and to identify facilitators and barriers to achieving both. Groups were facilitated by researcher-community partner teams and conversations were recorded and transcribed. Qualitative analysis for thematic content was conducted by a subset of the planning committee. Important findings included learning that (1) the concepts of capacity and sustainability were considered interconnected; (2) partnership was perceived as both a facilitator and an outcome of CBPR; (3) sustainability was linked to "transfer of knowledge" from one generation to another within a community; and (4) capacity and sustainability were enhanced when goals were shared and health outcomes were achieved. Community capacity building and sustainability are key outcomes of CBPR for communities. Co-learning opportunities that engage and mutually educate both community members and academics can be useful strategies for identifying meaningful strategies to achieve these outcomes.

Novel Carbazole Skeleton-Based Photoinitiators for LED Polymerization and LED Projector 3D Printing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Assi Al Mousawi

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Radical chemistry is a very convenient way to produce polymer materials. Here, an application of a particular photoinduced radical chemistry is illustrated. Seven new carbazole derivatives Cd1–Cd7 are incorporated and proposed as high performance near-UV photoinitiators for both the free radical polymerization (FRP of (methacrylates and the cationic polymerization (CP of epoxides utilizing Light Emitting Diodes LEDs @405 nm. Excellent polymerization-initiating abilities are found and high final reactive function conversions are obtained. Interestingly, these new derivatives display much better near-UV polymerization-initiating abilities compared to a reference UV absorbing carbazole (CARET 9H-carbazole-9-ethanol demonstrating that the new substituents have good ability to red shift the absorption of the proposed photoinitiators. All the more strikingly, in combination with iodonium salt, Cd1–Cd7 are likewise preferred as cationic photoinitiators over the notable photoinitiator bis(2,4,6-trimethylbenzoylphenylphosphine oxide (BAPO for mild irradiation conditions featuring their remarkable reactivity. In particular their utilization in the preparation of new cationic resins for LED projector 3D printing is envisioned. A full picture of the included photochemical mechanisms is given.

Community-based natural resource management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Treue, Thorsten; Nathan, Iben

that deliver credible and easily accessible information. Checks and balances can be supported through civil society as well as the media. Finally, the private sector plays a key and potentially beneficial role in the harvest, transport and marketing of CBNRM products. Thus, dialogue partners should include......This technical note is the product of a long process of consultation with a wide range of resource persons who have over the years been involved in the Danish support to Community Based Natural Resource Management. It gives a brief introduction to community-based natural resource management (CBNRM...... from CBNRM will be useful when designing community-based climate adaptation strategies. Thus, this note is a contribution to an ongoing debate as well as a product of the long-standing experiences of Danida's environmental portfolio. CBNRM is not a stand-alone solution to secure poverty reduction...

Output blue light evaluation for phosphor based smart white LED wafer level packages.

Science.gov (United States)

Kolahdouz, Zahra; Rostamian, Ali; Kolahdouz, Mohammadreza; Ma, Teng; van Zeijl, Henk; Zhang, Kouchi

2016-02-22

This study presents a blue light detector for evaluating the output light of phosphor based white LED package. It is composed of a silicon stripe-shaped photodiode designed and implemented in a 2 μm BiCMOS process which can be used for wafer level integration of different passive and active devices all in just 5 lithography steps. The final device shows a high selectivity to blue light. The maximum responsivity at 480 nm is matched with the target blue LED illumination. The designed structure have better responsivity compared to simple photodiode structure due to reducing the effect of dead layer formation close to the surface because of implantation. It has also a two-fold increase in the responsivity and quantum efficiency compared to previously similar published sensors.

Cultural and Rhetorical Bases for communicating knowledge in web based communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kampf, Constance; Kommers, Piet

2008-01-01

Cultural and Rhetorical Bases for communicating knowledge in web based communities How can we extend learner-centred theories for educational technology to include, for instance, the cultural and rhetorical backgrounds which influence participants in online communities as they engage in knowledge...... via web-based communities the intersection of culture and rhetoric in web-based communication rhetoric and discourse in the process of communicating knowledge via technology heuristics for knowledge communication from teaching in online forums connections between identity and knowledge communication...... This call for papers invites papers focused on theoretical frameworks or empirical research which highlights the cultural and/or rhetorical aspects of communicating knowledge in web based communities. We are looking for work that brings together methods and perspectives across disciplines...

Community Garden Information Systems: Analyzing and Strengthening Community-Based Resource Sharing Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Loria, Kristen

2013-01-01

Extension professionals play an increasingly central role in supporting community garden and other community-based agriculture projects. With growing interest in community gardens as tools to improve community health and vitality, the best strategies for supporting these projects should be explored. Due to the importance of inter-personal networks…

Increasing colon cancer testing in rural Colorado: evaluation of the exposure to a community-based awareness campaign

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Norman Ned

2009-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Despite effective prevention and early detection screening methods, colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Colorectal cancer screening community-based interventions are rare, and the literature lacks information about community-based intervention processes. Using participatory research methods, the High Plains Research Network developed a community-based awareness and educational intervention to increase colorectal cancer screening rates in rural northeastern Colorado. This study describes the program components and implementation and explores whether the target population was exposed to the intervention, the reach of the individual intervention components, and the effect on screening intentions. Methods A random digit dial survey was conducted of residents age 40 and older in the first 3 communities to receive the intervention to estimate exposure to the intervention and its effect on colorectal cancer screening intentions. Results Exposure to at least intervention component was reported by 68% of respondents (n = 460. As the level of exposure increased, intentions to talk to a doctor about colorectal cancer screening increased significantly more in respondents who had not been tested in the past 5 years than those who had (p = .025. Intentions to get tested increased significantly in both groups at the same rate as level of exposure increased (p Conclusion Using local community members led to the successful implementation of the intervention. Program materials and messages reached a high percentage of the target population and increased colorectal cancer screening intentions.

Community-based participatory research for the study of air pollution: a review of motivations, approaches, and outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Commodore, Adwoa; Wilson, Sacoby; Muhammad, Omar; Svendsen, Erik; Pearce, John

2017-08-01

Neighborhood level air pollution represents a long-standing issue for many communities that, until recently, has been difficult to address due to the cost of equipment and lack of related expertise. Changes in available technology and subsequent increases in community-based participatory research (CBPR) have drastically improved the ability to address this issue. However, much still needs to be learned as these types of studies are expected to increase in the future. To assist, we review the literature in an effort to improve understanding of the motivations, approaches, and outcomes of air monitoring studies that incorporate CBPR and citizen science (CS) principles. We found that the primary motivations for conducting community-based air monitoring were concerns for air pollution health risks, residing near potential pollution sources, urban sprawl, living in "unmonitored" areas, and a general quest for improved air quality knowledge. Studies were mainly conducted using community led partnerships. Fixed site monitoring was primarily used, while mobile, personal, school-based, and occupational sampling approaches were less frequent. Low-cost sensors can enable thorough neighborhood level characterization; however, keeping the community involved at every step, understanding the limitations and benefits of this type of monitoring, recognizing potential areas of debate, and addressing study challenges are vital for achieving harmony between expected and observed study outcomes. Future directions include assessing currently unregulated pollutants, establishing long-term neighborhood monitoring sites, performing saturation studies, evaluating interventions, and creating CS databases.

Can comprehensive specialised end-of-life care be provided at home? Lessons from a study of an innovative consultant-led community service in the UK.

Science.gov (United States)

Noble, B; King, N; Woolmore, A; Hughes, P; Winslow, M; Melvin, J; Brooks, J; Bravington, A; Ingleton, C; Bath, P A

2015-03-01

The Midhurst Macmillan Specialist Palliative Care Service (MMSPCS) is a UK, medical consultant-led, multidisciplinary team aiming to provide round-the-clock advice and care, including specialist interventions, in the home, community hospitals and care homes. Of 389 referrals in 2010/11, about 85% were for cancer, from a population of about 155 000. Using a mixed method approach, the evaluation comprised: a retrospective analysis of secondary-care use in the last year of life; financial evaluation of the MMSPCS using an Activity Based Costing approach; qualitative interviews with patients, carers, health and social care staff and MMSPCS staff and volunteers; a postal survey of General Practices; and a postal survey of bereaved caregivers using the MMSPCS. The mean cost is about 3000 GBP (3461 EUR) per patient with mean cost of interventions for cancer patients in the last year of life 1900 GBP (2192 EUR). Post-referral, overall costs to the system are similar for MMSPCS and hospice-led models; however, earlier referral avoided around 20% of total costs in the last year of life. Patients and carers reported positive experiences of support, linked to the flexible way the service worked. Seventy-one per cent of patients died at home. This model may have application elsewhere. © 2014 The Authors. European Journal of Cancer Care published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Development of Laser LEDs Based a Programmable Optical Sensor for Detection of Environmental Pollutants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amit K. Sharma

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The laser LED based optical sensor and its multifunctional operation for detection of environmental pollutants are described. The work will provide the instructions to design of circuitry for optical sensor instrument with a program based on a microcontroller (8902051-24PI, and to allow this program to communicate via RS-232 with computer. An algorithm is outlined by which the sensor instrument can use three laser LEDs (blue, Green and red to quantify the composition of pollutant. The operation of measurement through optical sensor has been applied to the study of detection and rate of reaction of pollutant i.e. methyl parathion and the produced informative data were also correlated with UV-vis spectrophotometry for the validation of results. The purpose of designed optical sensor is that the sophisticated analytical techniques show costly impact, time taking process, high consumable solvents and not suit for field application purpose which focuses the merits of the optical sensor.

Sustainable LED Fluorescent Light Replacement Technology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None, None

2011-09-30

Ilumisys and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) partnered on a three-year project awarded by the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE), to quantify the impacts of LED lamps, incandescent lamps and fluorescent benchmark lamps over a product lifecycle – i.e. to develop a sustainable design and manufacturing strategy that addresses product manufacturing, use, recycling and disposal scenarios for LED-based lighting. Based on the knowledge gained from extensive product tear-down studies of fluorescent and screw-in lighting products, lifecycle assessment tools, and accelerated lifecycle testing protocols, an interactive Sustainable LED Design Guide has been developed to aid architectural and lighting designers and engineers in making design decisions that consider three important environmental impacts (greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and mercury emission) across all phases of the life of an LED lighting product. Critical information developed for the lifecycle analysis and product feature comparisons is the useful life of the lighting product as well as its performance. The Design Guide is available at www.ncms.org, and was developed based on operational and durability testing of a variety of lighting products including power consumption, light output, and useful life of a lamp in order to allow a more realistic comparison of lamp designs. This report describes the main project tasks, results and innovative features of the lifecycle assessment (LCA)-based design tools, and the key considerations driving the sustainable design of LED lighting systems. The Design Guide incorporates the following three novel features for efficiently evaluating LED lighting features in value-chains: Bill-of-Materials (BOM) Builder – Designers may import process data for each component and supply functional data for the product, including power, consumption, lumen output and expected useful life: Environmental Impact Review – Designs are comparable

White LEDs with limit luminous efficacy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lisitsyn, V. M.; Stepanov, S. A., E-mail: stepanovsa@tpu.ru; Yangyang, Ju [National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, 30 Lenin Av., Tomsk, 634050 (Russian Federation); Lukash, V. S. [JSC Research Institute of Semiconductor Devices, 99a Krasnoarmeyskaja St., Tomsk, 634050 (Russian Federation)

2016-01-15

In most promising widespread gallium nitride based LEDs emission is generated in the blue spectral region with a maximum at about 450 nm which is converted to visible light with the desired spectrum by means of phosphor. The thermal energy in the conversion is determined by the difference in the energies of excitation and emission quanta and the phosphor quantum yield. Heat losses manifest themselves as decrease in the luminous efficacy. LED heating significantly reduces its efficiency and life. In addition, while heating, the emission generation output and the efficiency of the emission conversion decrease. Therefore, the reduction of the energy losses caused by heating is crucial for LED development. In this paper, heat losses in phosphor-converted LEDs (hereinafter chips) during spectrum conversion are estimated. The limit values of the luminous efficacy for white LEDs are evaluated.

A systematic review on community-based interventions for elder abuse and neglect.

Science.gov (United States)

Fearing, Gwendolyn; Sheppard, Christine L; McDonald, Lynn; Beaulieu, Marie; Hitzig, Sander L

2017-03-01

Elder abuse and neglect is a societal issue that requires prevention and intervention strategies at the practice and policy level. A systematic review on the efficacy of community-based elder abuse interventions was undertaken to advance the state of knowledge in the field. The peer-reviewed literature between 2009 and December 2015 were searched across four databases. Two raters independently reviewed all articles, assessed their methodological quality, and used a modified Sackett Scale to assign levels of evidence. Four thousand nine hundred and five articles were identified; nine were selected for inclusion. Although there was Level-1 evidence for psychological interventions (n = 2), only one study on strategies for relatives (START) led to a reported decrease in elder abuse. There was Level-4 evidence for conservatorship, an elder abuse intervention/prevention program (ECARE), and a multidisciplinary intervention (n = 4), in which one study yielded significant decreases in elder abuse and/or neglect. The remaining three were classified as Level-5 evidence (n = 3) for elder mediation and multidisciplinary interventions. There are limited studies with high levels of evidence for interventions that decrease elder abuse and neglect. The scarcity of community-based interventions for older adults and caregivers highlights the need for further work to elevate the quality of studies.

Recognizing Community Voice and a Youth-Led School-Community Partnership in the School Climate Improvement Process

Science.gov (United States)

Ice, Megan; Thapa, Amrit; Cohen, Jonathan

2015-01-01

A growing body of school improvement research suggests that engaging all members of the school community, including community members and leaders, provides an essential foundation to successful school improvement efforts. School climate surveys to date tend to recognize student, parent/guardian, and school personnel voice but not the voice of…

Facilitators' perceptions of problem-based learning and community-based education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annali E Fichardt

2000-10-01

Full Text Available In 1997 the School for Nursing, University of the Orange Free State, changed from the traditional lecture method of teaching to problem-based learning and from a curative to a community-based approach. Lecturers from a traditional environment became facilitators and new skills such as listening, dialogue, negotiation, counselling and problemsolving were expected from them. Besides the role change, the environment changed from a structural classroom to an unstructured community. The aim of this research was to determine the perceptions and experiences of facilitators in problem-based learning and community-base education. *Please note: This is a reduced version of the abstract. Please refer to PDF for full text.

Project-Based Learning with an Online Peer Assessment System in a Photonics Instruction for Enhancing LED Design Skills

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Shu-Hsuan; Wu, Tsung-Chih; Kuo, Yen-Kuang; You, Li-Chih

2012-01-01

This study proposed a novel instructional approach, a two-stage LED simulation of Project-based learning (PBL) course with online peer assessment (OPA), and explored how to apply OPA to the different structured problems in a PBL course to enhance students' professional skills in LED design as well as meta-cognitive thinking. The participants of…

UV-LED Curing Efficiency of Wood Coatings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Véronic Landry

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Ultraviolet light emitting diodes (UV-LEDs have attracted great interest in recent years. They can be used to polymerize coatings, such as those used for prefinished wood flooring. In this project, two lamps were compared for their suitability to be used on a wood flooring finishing line: a UV-microwave and a UV-LED lamp. Low heat emission was found for the UV-LED lamp compared to the UV-microwave one. This study also reveals that the 4 W/cm2 UV-LED lamp used is not powerful enough to cure UV high solids acrylate coatings while satisfactory results can be obtained for UV water-based formulations. In fact, conversion percentages were found to be low for the high solids coatings, leaving the coatings tacky. Higher conversion percentages were obtained for the UV water-based formulations. As a result, mass loss, hardness, and scratch resistance found for the samples cured by UV-LED were closed to the ones found for the samples cured using the UV microwave lamp.

Promoting Community Health and Eliminating Health Disparities Through Community-Based Participatory Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Ruiping; Stone, John R; Hoffman, Julie E; Klappa, Susan G

2016-03-01

In physical therapy, there is increasing focus on the need at the community level to promote health, eliminate disparities in health status, and ameliorate risk factors among underserved minorities. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is the most promising paradigm for pursuing these goals. Community-based participatory research stresses equitable partnering of the community and investigators in light of local social, structural, and cultural elements. Throughout the research process, the CBPR model emphasizes coalition and team building that joins partners with diverse skills/expertise, knowledge, and sensitivities. This article presents core concepts and principles of CBPR and the rationale for its application in the management of health issues at the community level. Community-based participatory research is now commonly used to address public health issues. A literature review identified limited reports of its use in physical therapy research and services. A published study is used to illustrate features of CBPR for physical therapy. The purpose of this article is to promote an understanding of how physical therapists could use CBPR as a promising way to advance the profession's goals of community health and elimination of health care disparities, and social responsibility. Funding opportunities for the support of CBPR are noted. © 2016 American Physical Therapy Association.

High-speed photoacoustic imaging using an LED-based photoacoustic imaging system

Science.gov (United States)

Sato, Naoto; Kuniyil Ajith Singh, Mithun; Shigeta, Yusuke; Hanaoka, Takamitsu; Agano, Toshitaka

2018-02-01

Recently we developed a multispectral LED-based photoacoustic/ultrasound imaging system (AcousticX) and have been continuously working on its technical/functional improvements. AcousticX is a linear array ultrasound transducer (128 elements, 10 MHz)-based system in which LED arrays (selectable wavelengths, pulse repetition frequency: 4 kHz, pulse width: tunable from 40 - 100 ns) are fixed on both sides of the transducer to illuminate the tissue for photoacoustic imaging. The ultrasound/photoacoustic data from all 128 elements can be simultaneously acquired, processed and displayed. We already demonstrated our system's capability to perform photoacoustic/ultrasound imaging for dynamic imaging of the tissue at a frame rate of 10 Hz (for example to visualize the pulsation of arteries in vivo in human subjects). In this work, we present the development of a new high-speed imaging mode in AcousticX. In this mode, instead of toggling between ultrasound and photoacoustic measurements, it is possible to continuously acquire only photoacoustic data for 1.5 seconds with a time interval of 1 ms. With this improvement, we can record photoacoustic signals from the whole aperture (38 mm) at fast rate and can be reviewed later at different speeds for analyzing dynamic changes in the photoacoustic signals. We believe that AcousticX with this new high-speed mode opens up a feasible technical path for multiple dynamic studies, for example one which focus on imaging the response of voltage sensitive dyes. We envisage to improve the acquisition speed further in future for exploring ultra-high-speed applications.

Testing a high-power LED based light source for hyperspectral imaging microscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Klomkaew, Phiwat; Mayes, Sam A.; Rich, Thomas C.; Leavesley, Silas J.

2017-02-01

Our lab has worked to develop high-speed hyperspectral imaging systems that scan the fluorescence excitation spectrum for biomedical imaging applications. Hyperspectral imaging can be used in remote sensing, medical imaging, reaction analysis, and other applications. Here, we describe the development of a hyperspectral imaging system that comprised an inverted Nikon Eclipse microscope, sCMOS camera, and a custom light source that utilized a series of high-power LEDs. LED selection was performed to achieve wavelengths of 350-590 nm. To reduce scattering, LEDs with low viewing angles were selected. LEDs were surface-mount soldered and powered by an RCD. We utilized 3D printed mounting brackets to assemble all circuit components. Spectraradiometric calibration was performed using a spectrometer (QE65000, Ocean Optics) and integrating sphere (FOIS-1, Ocean Optics). Optical output and LED driving current were measured over a range of illumination intensities. A normalization algorithm was used to calibrate and optimize the intensity of the light source. The highest illumination power was at 375 nm (3300 mW/cm2), while the lowest illumination power was at 515, 525, and 590 nm (5200 mW/cm2). Comparing the intensities supplied by each LED to the intensities measured at the microscope stage, we found there was a great loss in power output. Future work will focus on using two of the same LEDs to double the power and finding more LED and/or laser diodes and chips around the range. This custom hyperspectral imaging system could be used for the detection of cancer and the identification of biomolecules.

Research on Livable Community Evaluation Based on GIS

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, Zhangcai; Wu, Yang; Jin, Zhanghaonan; Zhang, Xu

2018-01-01

Community is the basic unit of the city. Research on livable community could provide a bottom-up research path for the realization of livable city. Livability is the total factor affecting the quality of community life. In this paper, livable community evaluation indexes are evaluated based on GIS and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method. Then the sum-index and sub-index of community livability are both calculated. And community livable evaluation index system is constructed based on the platform of GIS. This study provides theoretical support for the construction and management of livable communities, so as to guide the development and optimization of city.

Light out-coupling from LEDs by means of metal nanoparticles; Lichtauskopplung aus LEDs mittels Metallnanoteilchen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Goehler, Tino

2010-12-17

The external quantum efficiency of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on Al- GaAs/InGaAlP is limited by total internal reflection because of the high refractive index (typically between 3 and 4) of the semiconductor. Metal nanoparticles (MNP) deposited on the surface of the LED can be used as dipole scatterers in order to enhance the emission of the LED. In this thesis, first, single gold nanoparticles of various sizes deposited on such an LED were investigated. A clear enhancement is detected as long as the dipole plasmon resonance of the particle is at a shorter wavelength than the LED emission. If the plasmon resonance coincides with the LED emission or is at a larger wavelength, the enhancement turns into suppression. Numerical simulations indicate that this latter effect is mainly caused by the particle quadrupole resonance producing extra absorption. Arrays of MNPs can be produced by a special mask technique called ''Fischer pattern nanolithography'' and manipulated in shape and size by additional steps. Originally, the MNPs produced by this technique are triangular in shape and turn out to suppress the LED emission. After transformation of the particles to spheres, a clear enhancement was detected. Light that would otherwise remain trapped inside the substrate is coupled out by resonant plasmonic scattering. Investigations on analogous structures on a transparent high-index material (GaP) indicate a stronger coupling between the particles than expected on the basis of literature data. (orig.)

Community Based Networks and 5G Wi-Fi

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Williams, Idongesit

2018-01-01

This paper argues on why Community Based Networks should be recognized as potential 5G providers using 5G Wi-Fi. The argument is hinged on findings in a research to understand why Community Based Networks deploy telecom and Broadband infrastructure. The study was a qualitative study carried out...... inductively using Grounded Theory. Six cases were investigated. Two Community Based Network Mobilization Models were identified. The findings indicate that 5G Wi-Fi deployment by Community Based Networks is possible if policy initiatives and the 5G Wi-Fi standards are developed to facilitate the causal...

Active tracking system for visible light communication using a GaN-based micro-LED and NRZ-OOK.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Zhijian; Tian, Pengfei; Chen, Hong; Baranowski, Izak; Fu, Houqiang; Huang, Xuanqi; Montes, Jossue; Fan, Youyou; Wang, Hongyi; Liu, Xiaoyan; Liu, Ran; Zhao, Yuji

2017-07-24

Visible light communication (VLC) holds the promise of a high-speed wireless network for indoor applications and competes with 5G radio frequency (RF) system. Although the breakthrough of gallium nitride (GaN) based micro-light-emitting-diodes (micro-LEDs) increases the -3dB modulation bandwidth exceptionally from tens of MHz to hundreds of MHz, the light collected onto a fast photo receiver drops dramatically, which determines the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of VLC. To fully implement the practical high data-rate VLC link enabled by a GaN-based micro-LED, it requires focusing optics and a tracking system. In this paper, we demonstrate an active on-chip tracking system for VLC using a GaN-based micro-LED and none-return-to-zero on-off keying (NRZ-OOK). Using this novel technique, the field of view (FOV) was enlarged to 120° and data rates up to 600 Mbps at a bit error rate (BER) of 2.1×10 -4 were achieved without manual focusing. This paper demonstrates the establishment of a VLC physical link that shows enhanced communication quality by orders of magnitude, making it optimized for practical communication applications.

Evaluating community-based public health leadership training.

Science.gov (United States)

Ceraso, Marion; Gruebling, Kirsten; Layde, Peter; Remington, Patrick; Hill, Barbara; Morzinski, Jeffrey; Ore, Peggy

2011-01-01

Addressing the nation's increasingly complex public health challenges will require more effective multisector collaboration and stronger public health leadership. In 2005, the Healthy Wisconsin Leadership Institute launched an annual, year-long intensive "community teams" program. The goal of this program is to develop collaborative leadership and public health skills among Wisconsin-based multisectoral teams mobilizing their communities to improve public health. To measure the scope of participation and program impacts on individual learning and practice, including application of new knowledge and collective achievements of teams on coalition and short-term community outcomes. End-of-year participant program evaluations and follow-up telephone interviews with participants 20 months after program completion. Community-based public health leadership training program. Sixty-eight participants in the Community Teams Program during the years 2006 to 2007 and 2007 to 2008. Professional diversity of program participants; individual learning and practice, including application of new knowledge; and collective achievements of teams, including coalition and short-term community outcomes. Participants in the Community Teams Program represent a diversity of sectors, including nonprofit, governmental, academic, business, and local public health. Participation increased knowledge across all public health and leadership competency areas covered in the program. Participating teams reported outcomes, including increased engagement of community leadership, expansion of preventive services, increased media coverage, strengthened community coalitions, and increased grant funding. Evaluation of this community-based approach to public health leadership training has shown it to be a promising model for building collaborative and public health leadership skills and initiating sustained community change for health improvement.

Community-Based Nursing versus Community Health Nursing: What Does It All Mean?

Science.gov (United States)

Zotti, Marianne E.; And Others

1996-01-01

Offers practice models for community-based nursing and community health nursing that demonstrate the different roles, philosophies, and activities of the two approaches. Points to curriculum changes that are needed to prepare students to practice in an increasingly community-oriented health care industry. (Author)

Control and Driving Methods for LED Based Intelligent Light Sources

OpenAIRE

Beczkowski, Szymon

2012-01-01

High power light-emitting diodes allow the creation of luminaires capable of generating saturated colour light at very high efficacies. Contrary to traditional light sources like incandescent and high-intensity discharge lamps, where colour is generated using filters, LEDs use additive light mixing, where the intensity of each primary colour diode has to be adjusted to the needed intensity to generate specified colour. The function of LED driver is to supply the diode with power needed to ach...

Improvement of surface light extraction from flip-chip GaN-based LED by embossing of thermosetting polymers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bao, Kui; Zhang, Bei; Wang, ZhiMin; Dai, Tao; Kang, XiangNing; Chen, ZhiZhong; Xu, Ke; Ji, Hang; Chen, Yong; Gan, ZiZhao [School of Physics and State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructures and Mesoscopic Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China)

2007-07-01

In this report, a further improvement of surface light extraction from flip-chip GaN-based LED was obtained by the micro patterning of encapsulation on the sapphire. The two dimensional taper arrays with period from 6 to 10 micron were successfully realized on polymer encapsulation by a simple and low cost technique so called embossing of thermosetting polymers. As a preliminary demonstration, at least 1.74 enhancement of the surface output intensity was achieved in the 1 mm x 1 mm GaN-based LED device under the injection current of 350 mA. (copyright 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)

A design of LED adaptive dimming lighting system based on incremental PID controller

Science.gov (United States)

He, Xiangyan; Xiao, Zexin; He, Shaojia

2010-11-01

As a new generation energy-saving lighting source, LED is applied widely in various technology and industry fields. The requirement of its adaptive lighting technology is more and more rigorous, especially in the automatic on-line detecting system. In this paper, a closed loop feedback LED adaptive dimming lighting system based on incremental PID controller is designed, which consists of MEGA16 chip as a Micro-controller Unit (MCU), the ambient light sensor BH1750 chip with Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C), and constant-current driving circuit. A given value of light intensity required for the on-line detecting environment need to be saved to the register of MCU. The optical intensity, detected by BH1750 chip in real time, is converted to digital signal by AD converter of the BH1750 chip, and then transmitted to MEGA16 chip through I2C serial bus. Since the variation law of light intensity in the on-line detecting environment is usually not easy to be established, incremental Proportional-Integral-Differential (PID) algorithm is applied in this system. Control variable obtained by the incremental PID determines duty cycle of Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM). Consequently, LED's forward current is adjusted by PWM, and the luminous intensity of the detection environment is stabilized by self-adaptation. The coefficients of incremental PID are obtained respectively after experiments. Compared with the traditional LED dimming system, it has advantages of anti-interference, simple construction, fast response, and high stability by the use of incremental PID algorithm and BH1750 chip with I2C serial bus. Therefore, it is suitable for the adaptive on-line detecting applications.

Development and commercialisation of rechargeable wooden LED lamps

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bradley Schultz

2013-02-01

Full Text Available The focus of this project was to work with local staff at Kathmandu Alternative Power and Energy Group to commercialise a product which would generate recurring income for the organisation, to enable staff to learn the process of commercialisation and to provide employment and skills in the local community. Rechargeable Light Emitting Diode (LED lamps were deemed suitable for these aims, as they are a simple product, yet one that is urgently required in Nepal due to the prevalence of ‘load-shedding’ – scheduled electrical blackouts. After reviewing the market, it was found that it would be impossible to compete with the price of cheap imported Chinese rechargeable LED lamps, so an alternative approach was taken. This involved sourcing wooden off-cuts from a local furniture factory and transforming them into attractive desk lamps, with the target market being affluent Nepalis, ex-pats living in Nepal and tourists. Successful initial sales were achieved through a Kathmandu-based ex-pat email group, hotel-markets and souvenir stores. KAPEG staff have continued the project, producing variations on the initial design including Himalayan rock salt lamps, employing local people to manufacture lamps and selling them at markets in Kathmandu. Staffing and marketing challenges remain to ensure the lamp manufacture and sales continue.

Adaptive capacity and community-based natural resource management.

Science.gov (United States)

Armitage, Derek

2005-06-01

Why do some community-based natural resource management strategies perform better than others? Commons theorists have approached this question by developing institutional design principles to address collective choice situations, while other analysts have critiqued the underlying assumptions of community-based resource management. However, efforts to enhance community-based natural resource management performance also require an analysis of exogenous and endogenous variables that influence how social actors not only act collectively but do so in ways that respond to changing circumstances, foster learning, and build capacity for management adaptation. Drawing on examples from northern Canada and Southeast Asia, this article examines the relationship among adaptive capacity, community-based resource management performance, and the socio-institutional determinants of collective action, such as technical, financial, and legal constraints, and complex issues of politics, scale, knowledge, community and culture. An emphasis on adaptive capacity responds to a conceptual weakness in community-based natural resource management and highlights an emerging research and policy discourse that builds upon static design principles and the contested concepts in current management practice.

Development, implementation, and evaluation of a community pharmacy-based asthma care model.

Science.gov (United States)

Saini, Bandana; Krass, Ines; Armour, Carol

2004-11-01

Pharmacists are uniquely placed in the healthcare system to address critical issues in asthma management in the community. Various programs have shown the benefits of a pharmacist-led asthma care program; however, no such programs have previously been evaluated in Australia. To measure the impact of a specialized asthma service provided through community pharmacies in terms of objective patient clinical, humanistic, and economic outcomes. A parallel controlled design, where 52 intervention patients and 50 control patients with asthma were recruited in 2 distinct locations, was used. In the intervention area, pharmacists were trained and delivered an asthma care model, with 3 follow-up visits over 6 months. This model was evaluated based on clinical, humanistic, and economic outcomes compared between and within groups. There was a significant reduction in asthma severity in the intervention group, 2.6 +/- 0.5 to 1.6 +/- 0.7 (mean +/- SD; p < 0.001) versus the control group, 2.3 +/- 0.7 to 2.4 +/- 0.5. In the intervention group, peak flow indices improved from 82.7% +/- 8.2% at baseline to 87.4% +/- 8.9% (p < 0.001) at the final visit, and there was a significant reduction in the defined daily dose of albuterol used by patients, from 374.8 +/- 314.8 microg at baseline to 198.4 +/- 196.9 microg at the final visit (p < 0.015). There was also a statistically significant improvement in perceived control of asthma and asthma-related knowledge scores in the intervention group compared with the control group between baseline and the final visit. Annual savings of $132.84(AU) in medication costs per patient and $100,801.20 for the whole group, based on overall severity reduction, were demonstrated. Based on the results of this study, it appears that a specialized asthma care model offers community pharmacists an opportunity to contribute toward improving asthma management in the Australian community.

Community-based Rehabilitation Intervention for people with Schizophrenia in Ethiopia (RISE): study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Asher, Laura; De Silva, Mary; Hanlon, Charlotte; Weiss, Helen A; Birhane, Rahel; Ejigu, Dawit A; Medhin, Girmay; Patel, Vikram; Fekadu, Abebaw

2016-06-24

Care for most people with schizophrenia is best delivered in the community and evidence-based guidelines recommend combining both medication and a psychosocial intervention, such as community-based rehabilitation. There is emerging evidence that community-based rehabilitation for schizophrenia is effective at reducing disability in middle-income country settings, yet there is no published evidence on the effectiveness in settings with fewer mental health resources. This paper describes the protocol of a study that aims to evaluate the effectiveness of community-based rehabilitation as an adjunct to health facility-based care in rural Ethiopia. This is a cluster randomised trial set in a rural district in Ethiopia, with sub-district as the unit of randomisation. Participants will be recruited from an existing cohort of people with schizophrenia receiving treatment in primary care. Fifty-four sub-districts will be randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio to facility-based care plus community-based rehabilitation (intervention arm) or facility-based care alone (control arm). Facility-based care consists of treatment by a nurse or health officer in primary care (antipsychotic medication, basic psychoeducation and follow-up) with referral to a psychiatric nurse-led outpatient clinic or psychiatric hospital when required. Trained community-based rehabilitation workers will deliver a manualised community-based rehabilitation intervention, with regular individual and group supervision. We aim to recruit 182 people with schizophrenia and their caregivers. Potential participants will be screened for eligibility, including enduring or disabling illness. Participants will be recruited after providing informed consent or, for participants without decision-making capacity, after the primary caregiver gives permission on behalf of the participant. The primary outcome is disability measured with the 36-item WHO Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS) version 2.0 at 12 months. The sample

Towards a Community-led Agenda for Urban Sustainability Research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eames, Malcolm; Mortensen, Jonas Egmose; Adebowale, Maria

This report describes the findings from the Citizens Science for Sustainability (SuScit) Project. The report provides an overview of the innovative ‘bottom-up' public engagement and foresight process developed through the SuScit Project, before setting out a ten point agenda for urban...... sustainability research developed through our work with the local community in the Mildmay area of Islington, North London....

Patterns of HIV testing, drug use, and sexual behaviors in people who use drugs: findings from a community-based outreach program in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Science.gov (United States)

Mburu, Gitau; Ngin, Chanrith; Tuot, Sovannary; Chhoun, Pheak; Pal, Khuondyla; Yi, Siyan

2017-12-05

People who use drugs are an important priority for HIV programs. However, data related to their utilization of HIV services are limited. This paper reports patterns of HIV testing, drug use, and risk and service perception among people who use drugs. Study participants were receiving HIV and harm reduction services from a community-based program in Phnom Penh, comprised of itinerant peer-led outreach and static drop-in centers. This was a mixed-methods study conducted in 2014, comprising of a quantitative survey using a structured questionnaire, followed by two focus group discussions among a sub-sample of survey participants. Participants were recruited from hotspots in five HIV high-burden communes using a two-stage cluster sampling method. Quantitative descriptive analyses and qualitative thematic analyses were performed. This study included 151 people who use drugs with a mean age of 31.2 (SD = 6.5) years; 77.5% were male and 39.1% were married. The most common drugs used were methamphetamines (72.8%) and heroin (39.7%), and 38.0% injected drugs in the past 3 months. Overall, 83.3% had been tested for HIV in the past 6 months, of whom 62.5% had been tested by peers through community-based outreach. However, there were ongoing HIV risks: 37.3% were engaging in sex on drugs, only 35.6% used a condom at last sexual intercourse, and 10.8% had had a sexually transmitted infection in the last 6 months. Among people who reported injecting drugs in the past 3 months, 27.5% reported re-using needles/syringes. Almost half (46.5%) perceived themselves as being at lower risk of HIV compared to the general population. Qualitative results contextualized the findings of low perception of HIV risks and suggested that although services were often unavailable on weekends, at night, or during national holidays, peer-led community-based outreach was highly accepted. A peer-led community-based approach was effective in reaching people who use drugs with HIV and harm reduction

Palladium-based on-wafer electroluminescence studies of GaN-based LED structures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Salcianu, C.O.; Thrush, E.J.; Humphreys, C.J. [Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QZ (United Kingdom); Plumb, R.G. [Centre for Photonic Systems, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0FD (United Kingdom); Boyd, A.R.; Rockenfeller, O.; Schmitz, D.; Heuken, M. [AIXTRON AG, Kackertstr. 15-17, 52072 Aachen (Germany)

2008-07-01

Electroluminescence (EL) testing of Light Emitting Diode (LED) structures is usually done at the chip level. Assessing the optical and electrical properties of LED structures at the wafer scale prior to their processing would improve the cost effectiveness of producing LED-lamps. A non-destructive method for studying the luminescence properties of the structure at the wafer-scale is photoluminescence (PL). However, the relationship between the on-wafer PL data and the final device EL can be less than straightforward (Y. H Aliyu et al., Meas. Sci. Technol. 8, 437 (1997)) as the two techniques employ different carrier injection mechanisms. This paper provides an overview of some different techniques in which palladium is used as a contact in order to obtain on-wafer electroluminescence information which could be used to screen wafers prior to processing into final devices. Quick mapping of the electrical and optical characteristics was performed using either palladium needle electrodes directly, or using the latter in conjunction with evaporated palladium contacts to inject both electrons and holes into the active region via the p-type capping layer of the structure. For comparison, indium was also used to make contact to the n-layer so that electrons could be directly injected into that layer. (copyright 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)

In-situ metrology in multiwafer reactors during MOVPE of AIN-based UV-LEDs (Conference Presentation)

Science.gov (United States)

Knauer, Arne; Brunner, Frank; Kolbe, Tim; Hagedorn, Sylvia; Kueller, Viola; Weyers, Markus

2017-02-01

UV-LEDs are of great interest for applications like disinfection, gas sensing, and phototherapy. The cost sensitive LEDs are commonly grown by MOVPE on transparent AlN/sapphire templates. The large thermal and lattice mismatch between AlN and sapphire generates a very high dislocation density (DD) and causes big challenges in strain management. The threading dislocation density should be reduced to the order of low 108cm-2 for high internal efficiency of the AlGaN based UV-LED structures. The TDD will be reduced mainly by dislocation annihilation during the growth of thick Al(Ga)N layers, which is a challenge in terms of strain management. We present how in-situ reflectometry and curvature measurement (EpiCurveTT(at)LayTec) in commercial multiwafer growth reactors helps to optimize the growth processes concerning growth rates, surface roughening and avoidance of layer cracking on 2inch substrates and enhance the reproducibility of epitaxial growth. The growth of up to 3 μm thick planar AlN templates and up-to 10 μm thick AlN/sapphire templates by epitaxial lateral overgrowth of stripe patterned templates for UV-C LED structures will be highlighted. The implementation of different types of AlN/GaN superlattices for the subsequent growth of up to 5μm thick Al0.5Ga0.5N layer for UVB LED structures will be shown. Correlations to ex-situ measurements like X-ray diffraction and TEM analysis of defects in the LED structures will be shown. Some challenges of in-situ control through very narrow viewports as in Close Coupled Showerhead reactors will be discussed as well as the influence of silicon doping on curvature and dislocation density in Al(Ga)N layers.

Long-lived visible luminescence of UV LEDs and impact on LED excited time-resolved fluorescence applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jin, D; Connally, R; Piper, J

2006-01-01

We report the results of a detailed study of the spectral and temporal properties of visible emission from three different GaN-based ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diodes (UV LEDs). The primary UV emission in the 360-380 nm band decays rapidly (less than 1 μs) following switch-off; however, visible luminescence (470-750 nm) with a decay lifetime of tens of microseconds was observed at approximately 10 -4 of the UV intensity. For applications of UV LEDs in time-resolved fluorescence (TRF) employing lanthanide chelates, the visible luminescence from the LEDs competes with the target Eu 3+ or Tb 3+ fluorescence in both spectral and temporal domains. A UV band-pass filter (Schott UG11 glass) was therefore used to reduce the visible luminescence of the UV LEDs by three orders of magnitude relative to UV output to yield a practical excitation source for TRF

Implementation Fidelity of a Voluntary Sector-Led Diabetes Education Programme

Science.gov (United States)

Kok, Michele S. Y.; Jones, Mat; Solomon-Moore, Emma; Smith, Jane R.

2018-01-01

Purpose: The quality of voluntary sector-led community health programmes is an important concern for service users, providers and commissioners. Research on the fidelity of programme implementation offers a basis for assessing and further enhancing practice. The purpose of this paper is to report on the fidelity assessment of Living Well Taking…

Bereavement, silence and culture within a peer-led HIV/AIDS ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The argument draws on a number of qualitative studies and uses empirical evidence from an evaluation of a peer-led HIV/AIDS-prevention strategy aimed at providing psychosocial support for 10- to 13-year-old South African children living in resource-poor communities. The paper reveals a central paradox regarding how ...

Social capital, community-based governance and resilience in an ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

While the Mozambique government policy promotes community-based fisheries management in artisanal fisheries, we argue that under current conditions of ineffective community-based governance, a strong focus on reconstruction of social capital will be required before a community-based resource management process ...

Standardization of UV LED measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Eppeldauer, G. P.; Larason, T. C.; Yoon, H. W.

2015-09-01

Traditionally used source spectral-distribution or detector spectral-response based standards cannot be applied for accurate UV LED measurements. Since the CIE standardized rectangular-shape spectral response function for UV measurements cannot be realized with small spectral mismatch when using filtered detectors, the UV measurement errors can be several times ten percent or larger. The UV LEDs produce broadband radiation and both their peaks or spectral bandwidths can change significantly. The detectors used for the measurement of these LEDs also have different spectral bandwidths. In the discussed example, where LEDs with 365 nm peak are applied for fluorescent crack-recognition using liquid penetrant (non-destructive) inspection, the broadband radiometric LED (signal) measurement procedure is standardized. A UV LED irradiance-source was calibrated against an FEL lamp standard to determine its spectral irradiance. The spectral irradiance responsivity of a reference UV meter was also calibrated. The output signal of the reference UV meter was calculated from the spectral irradiance of the UV source and the spectral irradiance responsivity of the reference UV meter. From the output signal, both the integrated irradiance (in the reference plane of the reference meter) and the integrated responsivity of the reference meter were determined. Test UV meters calibrated for integrated responsivity against the reference UV meter, can be used to determine the integrated irradiance from a field UV source. The obtained 5 % (k=2) measurement uncertainty can be decreased when meters with spectral response close to a constant value are selected.

Using community-based participatory research and organizational diagnosis to characterize relationships between community leaders and academic researchers.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Karen H; Ray, Natasha J; Berg, David N; Greene, Ann T; Lucas, Georgina; Harris, Kenn; Carroll-Scott, Amy; Tinney, Barbara; Rosenthal, Marjorie S

2017-09-01

Sustaining collaborations between community-based organization leaders and academic researchers in community-engaged research (CEnR) in the service of decreasing health inequities necessitates understanding the collaborations from an inter-organizational perspective. We assessed the perspectives of community leaders and university-based researchers conducting community-engaged research in a medium-sized city with a history of community-university tension. Our research team, included experts in CEnR and organizational theory, used qualitative methods and purposeful, snowball sampling to recruit local participants and performed key informant interviews from July 2011-May 2012. A community-based researcher interviewed 11 community leaders, a university-based researcher interviewed 12 university-based researchers. We interviewed participants until we reached thematic saturation and performed analyses using the constant comparative method. Unifying themes characterizing community leaders and university-based researchers' relationships on the inter-organizational level include: 1) Both groups described that community-engaged university-based researchers are exceptions to typical university culture; 2) Both groups described that the interpersonal skills university-based researchers need for CEnR require a change in organizational culture and training; 3) Both groups described skepticism about the sustainability of a meaningful institutional commitment to community-engaged research 4) Both groups described the historical impact on research relationships of race, power, and privilege, but only community leaders described its persistent role and relevance in research relationships. Challenges to community-academic research partnerships include researcher interpersonal skills and different perceptions of the importance of organizational history. Solutions to improve research partnerships may include transforming university culture and community-university discussions on race

Evaluating Community-Based Participatory Research to Improve Community-Partnered Science and Community Health

Science.gov (United States)

Hicks, Sarah; Duran, Bonnie; Wallerstein, Nina; Avila, Magdalena; Belone, Lorenda; Lucero, Julie; Magarati, Maya; Mainer, Elana; Martin, Diane; Muhammad, Michael; Oetzel, John; Pearson, Cynthia; Sahota, Puneet; Simonds, Vanessa; Sussman, Andrew; Tafoya, Greg; Hat, Emily White

2013-01-01

Background Since 2007, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Policy Research Center (PRC) has partnered with the Universities of New Mexico and Washington to study the science of community-based participatory research (CBPR). Our goal is to identify facilitators and barriers to effective community–academic partnerships in American Indian and other communities, which face health disparities. Objectives We have described herein the scientific design of our National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study (2009–2013) and lessons learned by having a strong community partner leading the research efforts. Methods The research team is implementing a mixed-methods study involving a survey of principal investigators (PIs) and partners across the nation and in-depth case studies of CBPR projects. Results We present preliminary findings on methods and measures for community-engaged research and eight lessons learned thus far regarding partnership evaluation, advisory councils, historical trust, research capacity development of community partner, advocacy, honoring each other, messaging, and funding. Conclusions Study methodologies and lessons learned can help community–academic research partnerships translate research in communities. PMID:22982842

Talking about cancer with confidence: evaluation of cancer awareness training for community-based health workers.

Science.gov (United States)

Grimmett, Chloe; Macherianakis, Alexis; Rendell, Helen; George, Helen; Kaplan, Gwen; Kilgour, Gillian; Power, Emily

2014-09-01

To examine the impact of cancer awareness training for community-based health workers on confidence to talk about cancer, and knowledge of cancer risk factors and signs and symptoms. Community-based health workers from Sandwell, Birmingham and Solihull were invited to take part in one of 14 one-day training workshops. Trainees completed questionnaires at the beginning of the workshop and were followed up one month later. Confidence in talking about cancer was examined. Knowledge of cancer risk factors and signs and symptoms was assessed. Trainees were asked to rate the usefulness of the workshop, whether they would recommend it to others and whether they had put what they had learnt into practice. A total of 187 community-based health workers took part in the workshops, and 167 (89%) completed the one-month follow-up. Considerable improvements were observed in confidence to discuss cancer. For example, the proportion of participants reporting feeling 'very confident'/'fairly confident' in discussing signs and symptoms of cancer increased from 32% to 96% (p cancer at one month compared with 21% before training (p cancer signs and symptoms also increased from 2.3 (± 1.6) to 2.7 (± 1.5), (p = .02). Most trainees (83%) rated the workshop as 'very useful', and 89% said they would 'definitely' recommend the workshop. The cancer awareness training was reviewed positively by community-based health workers and led to improvements in confidence to talk about cancer, and knowledge of risk factors and warning signs of cancer. It is hoped that raising awareness among this group will help them to communicate and drive behaviour change in the at-risk populations with whom they work. © Royal Society for Public Health 2014.

Community-Based Programming: An Opportunity and Imperative for the Community College. Institutes & Workshops.

Science.gov (United States)

Boone, Edgar J.

Community-based programming (CBP) is a cooperative process in which a community college serves as the leader and catalyst in effecting collaboration among the people, leaders and community organizations in its service area. This report discusses the changing role of the community college, the nature of CBP, and expected outcomes of the process,…

Reflective learning in community-based dental education.

Science.gov (United States)

Deogade, Suryakant C; Naitam, Dinesh

2016-01-01

Community-based dental education (CBDE) is the implementation of dental education in a specific social context, which shifts a substantial part of dental clinical education from dental teaching institutional clinics to mainly public health settings. Dental students gain additional value from CBDE when they are guided through a reflective process of learning. We propose some key elements to the existing CBDE program that support meaningful personal learning experiences. Dental rotations of 'externships' in community-based clinical settings (CBCS) are year-long community-based placements and have proven to be strong learning environments where students develop good communication skills and better clinical reasoning and management skills. We look at the characteristics of CBDE and how the social and personal context provided in communities enhances dental education. Meaningfulness is created by the authentic context, which develops over a period of time. Structured reflection assignments and methods are suggested as key elements in the existing CBDE program. Strategies to enrich community-based learning experiences for dental students include: Photographic documentation; written narratives; critical incident reports; and mentored post-experiential small group discussions. A directed process of reflection is suggested as a way to increase the impact of the community learning experiences. We suggest key elements to the existing CBDE module so that the context-rich environment of CBDE allows for meaningful relations and experiences for dental students and enhanced learning.

Community Organizing for Healthier Communities: Environmental and Policy Outcomes of a National Initiative.

Science.gov (United States)

Subica, Andrew M; Grills, Cheryl T; Villanueva, Sandra; Douglas, Jason A

2016-12-01

Childhood obesity is disproportionately prevalent in communities of color, partially because of structural inequities in the social and built environment (e.g., poverty, food insecurity, pollution) that restrict healthy eating and active living. Community organizing is an underexamined, grassroots health promotion approach that empowers and mobilizes community residents to advocate for, and achieve, environmental and policy changes to rectify these structural inequities. This paper presents outcomes of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Communities Creating Healthy Environments initiative: the first national program to apply community organizing to combat childhood obesity-causing structural inequities in communities of color. Twenty-one community-based organizations and tribal nations (grantees) conducted 3-year community organizing-based interventions primarily designed to increase children's healthy food and safe recreational access. Grantees' policy wins (environmental and policy changes resulting from grantee interventions) were measured from 2009 to 2014 using semi-structured interviews conducted quarterly and 6 months post-grant, and independently coded and reviewed in 2015 by researchers and expert community organizers. The 21 grantees achieved 72 policy wins (mean=3.43, SD=1.78) across six domains: two directly addressed childhood obesity by enhancing children's healthy food (37.50%) and recreational access (33.33%), whereas four indirectly addressed obesity by promoting access to quality health care (8.33%); clean environments (9.73%); affordable housing (8.33%); and discrimination- and crime-free neighborhoods (2.78%). These findings provide compelling evidence that community organizing-based interventions designed and led by community stakeholders can achieve diverse environmental and policy solutions to the structural inequities that foment childhood obesity in communities of color. Copyright © 2016 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published

The diffusion of youth-led participatory research in urban schools: the role of the prevention support system in implementation and sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

Ozer, Emily J; Cantor, Jeremy P; Cruz, Gary W; Fox, Brian; Hubbard, Elizabeth; Moret, Lauren

2008-06-01

This article discusses the dissemination of a process of youth-led participatory research in urban secondary schools within the Interactive Systems Framework for Dissemination and Implementation (ISF) developed in collaboration with the CDC and its university partners (Wandersman et al. American Journal of Community Psychology, 41(3-4) 2008). The focus here is on the development of the Prevention Support System with respect to general and innovation-specific capacity building. The specific process under study involves youth-led needs assessment and research to inform the planning of prevention programs and policies to address students' health and developmental needs. The article first briefly describes the youth-led research process, its potential benefits, and a case example in two urban secondary schools. It then describes challenges and responses in providing support for the diffusion of this model in 6 secondary schools. The settings are urban public schools with a majority of students of color from diverse ethnic groups: Asian-American, Latino, and African-American. This project constitutes a collaborative partnership with a university school of public health and community-based organizations (CBOs) to build capacity for long-term, sustainable implementation of this innovative process within the local school system. The perspectives of the university-based researcher and the CBO partners on the development and effectiveness of the Prevention Support System are presented.

Elder abuse in the community : prevalence and consequences

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Comijs, H C; Pot, A M; Smit, J H; Bouter, L M; Jonker, C

OBJECTIVES: (1) To assess the prevalence and the consequences of chronic verbal aggression, physical aggression, financial mistreatment, and neglect in a community-based sample; (2) to investigate the circumstances that led to the abuse and the ways in which the victims handled the problem. DESIGN:

The cinema LED lighting system design based on SCM

Science.gov (United States)

En, De; Wang, Xiaobin

2010-11-01

A LED lighting system in the modern theater and the corresponding control program is introduced. Studies show that moderate and mutative brightness in the space would attract audiences' attention on the screen easily. SCM controls LED dynamically by outputting PWM pulse in different duty cycle. That cinema dome lights' intensity can vary with the plot changed, make people get a better view of experience. This article expounds the architecture of hardware system in the schedule and the control flow of the host of the solution. Besides, it introduces the design of software as well. At last, the system which is proved energy-saving, reliable, good visual effect and having using value by means of producing a small-scale model, which reproduce the whole system and achieves the desired result.

Developing Community-Based Rehabilitation Programs for Musculoskeletal Diseases in Low-Income Areas of Mexico: The Community-Based Rehabilitation for Low-Income Communities Living With Rheumatic Diseases (CONCORD) Protocol

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Background The negative impact of musculoskeletal diseases on the physical function and quality of life of people living in developing countries is considerable. This disabling effect is even more marked in low-socioeconomic communities within developing countries. In Mexico, there is a need to create community-based rehabilitation programs for people living with musculoskeletal diseases in low-socioeconomic areas. These programs should be directed to prevent and decrease disability, accommodating the specific local culture of communities. Objective The objective of this paper is to describe a research protocol designed to develop, implement, and evaluate culturally sensitive community-based rehabilitation programs aiming to decrease disability of people living with musculoskeletal diseases in two low-income Mexican communities. Methods A community-based participatory research approach is proposed, including multi and transdisciplinary efforts among the community, medical anthropology, and the health sciences. The project is structured in 4 main stages: (1) situation analysis, (2) program development, (3) program implementation, and (4) program evaluation. Each stage includes the use of quantitative and qualitative methods (mixed method program). Results So far, we obtained resources from a Mexican federal agency and completed stage one of the project at Chankom, Yucatán. We are currently receiving funding from an international agency to complete stage two at this same location. We expect that the project at Chankom will be concluded by December of 2017. On the other hand, we just started the execution of stage one at Nuevo León with funding from a Mexican federal agency. We expect to conclude the project at this site by September of 2018. Conclusions Using a community-based participatory research approach and a mixed method program could result in the creation of culturally sensitive community-based rehabilitation programs that promote community development and

Fabrication of moth-eye structure on p-GaN layer of GaN-based LEDs for improvement of light extraction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hong, Eun-Ju; Byeon, Kyeong-Jae; Park, Hyoungwon; Hwang, Jaeyeon; Lee, Heon; Choi, Kyungwoo; Jung, Gun Young

2009-01-01

Moth-eye structures were produced on a p-GaN top cladding layer by UV imprint and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etch processes in order to improve the light extraction efficiency of GaN-based green light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The height and shape of moth-eye structures were adjusted by controlling the thickness of Cr mask layer and ICP etching time. The transmittance of LED device stacks with moth-eye structure was increased up to 1.5-2.5 times, compared to identical LED sample without moth-eye structure and the intensity of photoluminescence from the InGaN multi-quantum well layer of LED sample with moth-eye structure was 5-7 times higher than that of the LED sample without the moth-eye structure.

Using community-based participatory research and organizational diagnosis to characterize relationships between community leaders and academic researchers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karen H. Wang

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Sustaining collaborations between community-based organization leaders and academic researchers in community-engaged research (CEnR in the service of decreasing health inequities necessitates understanding the collaborations from an inter-organizational perspective. We assessed the perspectives of community leaders and university-based researchers conducting community-engaged research in a medium-sized city with a history of community-university tension. Our research team, included experts in CEnR and organizational theory, used qualitative methods and purposeful, snowball sampling to recruit local participants and performed key informant interviews from July 2011–May 2012. A community-based researcher interviewed 11 community leaders, a university-based researcher interviewed 12 university-based researchers. We interviewed participants until we reached thematic saturation and performed analyses using the constant comparative method. Unifying themes characterizing community leaders and university-based researchers' relationships on the inter-organizational level include: 1 Both groups described that community-engaged university-based researchers are exceptions to typical university culture; 2 Both groups described that the interpersonal skills university-based researchers need for CEnR require a change in organizational culture and training; 3 Both groups described skepticism about the sustainability of a meaningful institutional commitment to community-engaged research 4 Both groups described the historical impact on research relationships of race, power, and privilege, but only community leaders described its persistent role and relevance in research relationships. Challenges to community-academic research partnerships include researcher interpersonal skills and different perceptions of the importance of organizational history. Solutions to improve research partnerships may include transforming university culture and community

The health risks associated with energy efficient fluorescent, LEDs, and artificial lighting

Science.gov (United States)

Panahi, Allen

2014-09-01

With the phasing out of incandescent lamps in many countries, the introduction of new LED based light sources and luminaries sometimes raise the question of whether the spectral characteristics of the LED and other energy savings Fluorescent lights including the popular CFLs are suitable to replace the traditional incandescent lamps. These concerns are sometimes raised particularly for radiation emissions in the UV and Blue parts of the spectrum. This paper aims to address such concerns for the common `white light' sources typically used in household and other general lighting used in the work place. Recent studies have shown that women working the night shift have an increased probability of developing breast cancer. We like to report on the findings of many studies done by medical professionals, in particular the recent announcement of AMA in the US and many studies conducted in the UK, as well as the European community to increase public awareness on the long term health risks of the optical and opto-biological effects on the human health caused by artificial lighting.

An Investigation of LED Street Lighting's Impact on Sky Glow

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kinzey, Bruce R. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Perrin, Tess E. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Miller, Naomi J. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Kocifaj, Miroslav [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Aube, Martin [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Lamphar, Hector A. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2017-04-25

A significant amount of public attention has recently focused on perceived impacts of converting street lighting from incumbent lamp-based products to LED technology. Much of this attention pertains to the higher content of short wavelength light (commonly referred to as "blue light") of LEDs and its attendant influences on sky glow (a brightening of the night sky that can interfere with astronomical observation and may be associated with a host of other issues). The complexity of this topic leads to common misunderstandings and misperceptions among the public, and for this reason the U.S. Department of Energy Solid-State Lighting Program embarked on a study of sky glow using a well-established astronomical model to investigate some of the primary factors influencing sky glow. This report details the results of the investigation and attempts to present those results in terms accessible to the general lighting community. The report also strives to put the results into a larger context, and help educate interested readers on various topics relevant to the issues being discussed.

29 January 2013 - Japanese Toshiba Corporation Executive Officer and Corporate Senior Vice President O. Maekawa in the ATLAS visitor centre with representatives of the CERN-Japanese community led by Former Collaboration Spokesperson P. Jenni.

CERN Multimedia

Maximilien Brice

2013-01-01

29 January 2013 - Japanese Toshiba Corporation Executive Officer and Corporate Senior Vice President O. Maekawa in the ATLAS visitor centre with representatives of the CERN-Japanese community led by Former Collaboration Spokesperson P. Jenni.

Source Materials for the Healthy Communities Toolkit: A Resource Guide for Community and Faith-Based Organizations.

Science.gov (United States)

Acosta, Joie; Chandra, Anita; Williams, Malcolm; Davis, Lois M

2011-01-01

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act places significant emphasis on the role of community-based health promotion initiatives; within this focus, community and faith-based organizations (CFBOs) are seen as critical partners for improving community well-being. This article describes a report that provides the content for a toolkit that will prepare community and faith-based organizations to take advantage of opportunities presented in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and engage faith and community leaders in promoting health in their communities. This includes key facts and figures about health topics, handouts for community groups, and web links for resources and other information in the following areas: healthcare reform; community health centers and development of the community health workforce; promotion of healthy families; mental health; violence and trauma; prevention of teen and unintended pregnancy and HIV/AIDS; and chronic disease prevention. The report also includes recommendations for testing the content of the toolkit with communities and considerations for its implementation.

Life-Cycle Assessment of Energy and Environmental Impacts of LED Lighting Products, Part 3: LED Environmental Testing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tuenge, Jason R.; Hollomon, Brad; Dillon, Heather E.; Snowden-Swan, Lesley J.

2013-03-01

This report covers the third part of a larger U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) project to assess the life-cycle environmental and resource impacts in the manufacturing, transport, use, and disposal of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting products in relation to incumbent lighting technologies. All three reports are available on the DOE website (www.ssl.energy.gov/tech_reports.html). • Part 1: Review of the Life-Cycle Energy Consumption of Incandescent, Compact Fluorescent and LED Lamps; • Part 2: LED Manufacturing and Performance; • Part 3: LED Environmental Testing. Parts 1 and 2 were published in February and June 2012, respectively. The Part 1 report included a summary of the life-cycle assessment (LCA) process and methodology, provided a literature review of more than 25 existing LCA studies of various lamp types, and performed a meta-analysis comparing LED lamps with incandescent and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Drawing from the Part 1 findings, Part 2 performed a more detailed assessment of the LED manufacturing process and used these findings to provide a comparative LCA taking into consideration a wider range of environmental impacts. Both reports concluded that the life-cycle environmental impact of a given lamp is dominated by the energy used during lamp operation—the upstream generation of electricity drives the total environmental footprint of the product. However, a more detailed understanding of end-of-life disposal considerations for LED products has become increasingly important as their installation base has grown. The Part 3 study (reported herein) was undertaken to augment the LCA findings with chemical analysis of a variety of LED, CFL, and incandescent lamps using standard testing procedures. A total of 22 samples, representing 11 different models, were tested to determine whether any of 17 elements were present at levels exceeding California or Federal regulatory thresholds for hazardous waste. Key findings include: • The selected

PENGEMBANGAN LAMPU LED DENGAN TEKNOLOGI PHOTOVOLTAIC (LED-PV SEBAGAI ALAT BANTU PENGUMPUL IKAN PADA PERIKANAN BAGAN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mochamad Arief Sofijanto

2015-03-01

fishes attracted to LED lights (positive phototaxis of the set bagan. The statistical analysis showed that the siginificant difference in the colour of the LED lamps by the difference of the number of catches the. Based on the calculation of the Least Significant Different (LSD, the blue LED lamps and followed by yellow, green, white and red.

71-Mbit/s ultraviolet-B LED communication link based on 8-QAM-OFDM modulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Xiaobin; Zhang, Zhenyu; Chaaban, Anas; Ng, Tien Khee; Shen, Chao; Chen, Rui; Yan, Jianchang; Sun, Haiding; Li, Xiaohang; Wang, Junxi; Li, Jinmin; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Ooi, Boon S

2017-09-18

A demonstration of ultraviolet-B (UVB) communication link is implemented utilizing quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). The demonstration is based on a 294-nm UVB-light-emitting-diode (UVB-LED) with a full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 9 nm and light output power of 190 μW, at 7 V, with a special silica gel lens on top of it. A -3-dB bandwidth of 29 MHz was measured and a high-speed near-solar-blind communication link with a data rate of 71 Mbit/s was achieved using 8-QAM-OFDM at perfect alignment. 23.6 Mbit/s using 2-QAM-OFDM when the angle subtended by the pointing directions of the UVB-LED and photodetector (PD) is 12 degrees, thus establishing a diffuse-line-of-sight (LOS) link. The measured bit-error rate (BER) of 2.8 ×10 -4 and 2.4 ×10 -4 , respectively, are well below the forward error correction (FEC) criterion of 3.8 ×10 -3 . The demonstrated high data-rate OFDM-based UVB communication link paves the way for realizing high-speed non-line-of-sight free-space optical communications.

Privatizing community animal health worker based veterinary ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Privatizing community animal health worker based veterinary services delivery system in West Kordofan, Southern Sudan; The needed roles of community animal health assistant (CAHA) and Pastoral unions.

Design of LED projector based on gradient-index lens

Science.gov (United States)

Qian, Liyong; Zhu, Xiangbing; Cui, Haitian; Wang, Yuanhang

2018-01-01

In this study, a new type of projector light path is designed to eliminate the deficits of existing projection systems, such as complex structure and low collection efficiency. Using a three-color LED array as the lighting source, by means of the special optical properties of a gradient-index lens, the complex structure of the traditional projector is simplified. Traditional components, such as the color wheel, relay lens, and mirror, become unnecessary. In this way, traditional problems, such as low utilization of light energy and loss of light energy, are solved. With the help of Zemax software, the projection lens is optimized. The optimized projection lens, LED, gradient-index lens, and digital micromirror device are imported into Tracepro. The ray tracing results show that both the utilization of light energy and the uniformity are improved significantly.

GaAs Led based NIEL spectrometer for the space radiation environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Houdayer, A.J.; Hinrichsen, P.F.; Barry, A.L.; Ng, A.

1999-01-01

A NIEL (non-ionizing-energy-loss) spectrometer for the Mir space station is described. The NIEL spectrometer package contained 20 GaAs LEDs, 10 SiC LEDs and 13 locations for TLD-700s. In order to probe different energy regions of the radiation field, the package is divided into 4 compartments covered by absorbers of varying thicknesses. This device has been submitted to proton irradiation. The effects on both the response time and the intensity of the light were measured as a function of the fluence. One of the advantages of LEDs as radiation monitors is their sensitivity and it is shown that it would be possible to detect a fluence of 4*10 7 p/cm 2 of 10 MeV protons, with sensitivity scaled as 1/E for other energies. (A.C.)

Luminescence properties and energy transfer of site-sensitive Ca(6-x-y)Mg(x-z)(PO(4))(4):Eu(y)(2+),Mn(z)(2+) phosphors and their application to near-UV LED-based white LEDs.

Science.gov (United States)

Kwon, Ki Hyuk; Im, Won Bin; Jang, Ho Seong; Yoo, Hyoung Sun; Jeon, Duk Young

2009-12-21

On the basis of the structural information that the host material has excellent charge stabilization, blue-emitting Ca(6-x-y)Mg(x)(PO(4))(4):Eu(y)(2+) (CMP:Eu(2+)) phosphors were synthesized and systematically optimized, and their photoluminescence (PL) properties were evaluated. Depending upon the amount of Mg added, the emission efficiency of the phosphors could be enhanced. The substitution of Eu(2+) affected their maximum wavelength (lambda(max)) and thermal stability because the substitution site of Eu(2+) could be varied. To obtain single-phase two-color-emitting phosphors, we incorporated Mn(2+) into CMP:Eu(2+) phosphors. Weak red emission resulting from the forbidden transition of Mn(2+) could be enhanced by the energy transfer from Eu(2+) to Mn(2+) that occurs because of the spectral overlap between the photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectrum of Mn(2+) and the PL spectrum of Eu(2+). The energy transfer process was confirmed by the luminescence spectra, energy transfer efficiency, and decay curve of the phosphors. Finally, the optimized Ca(6-x-y)Mg(x-z)(PO(4))(4):Eu(y)(2+),Mn(z)(2+) (CMP:Eu(2+),Mn(2+)) phosphors were applied with green emitting Ca(2)MgSi(2)O(7):Eu(2+) (CMS:Eu(2+)) phosphors to ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diode (LED)-pumped white LEDs. The CMS:Eu(2+)-mixed CMP:Eu(2+), Mn(2+)-based white LEDs showed an excellent color rendering index (CRI) of 98 because of the broader emission band and more stable color coordinates than those of commercial Y(3)Al(5)O(12):Ce(3+) (YAG:Ce(3+))-based white LEDs under a forward bias current of 20 mA. The fabricated white LEDs showed very bright natural white light that had the color coordinate of (0.3288, 0.3401), and thus CMP:Eu(2+),Mn(2+) could be regarded as a good candidate for UV LED-based white LEDs.

Valuing Our Communities: Ethical Considerations for Economic Evaluation of Community-Based Prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Crowley, Max; Jones, Damon

2017-12-01

Restricted public budgets and increasing efforts to link the impact of community interventions to public savings have increased the use of economic evaluation. While this type of evaluation can be important for program planning, it also raises important ethical issues about how we value the time of local stakeholders who support community interventions. In particular, researchers navigate issues of scientific accuracy, institutional inequality, and research utility in their pursuit of even basic cost estimates. We provide an example of how we confronted these issues when estimating the costs of a large-scale community-based intervention. Principles for valuing community members' time and conducting economic evaluations of community programs are discussed. © Society for Community Research and Action 2017.

Community-Based Ecotourism: The Transformation of Local Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pookhao Nantira

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Community-based ecotourism (CBET is considered a sustainable form of tourism that improves the quality of life of hosts at the tourist destination. Scholars have yet to explore the long-term operation of CBET in relation to its effects on the local way of life. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to examine the transformation of a local community due to the operation of CBET in relation to sociocultural, economic and environmental aspects. The findings reveal that the community encounters both positive and negative impacts of transformation. However, unintended impacts of the CBET operation lay embedded in the transformation of relationships among the community members. The study identifies that close relationships among the villagers has been initially transformed to loose relationships due to forgotten communal goals; CBET has transformed from being a conservation tool to being a business-oriented goal which causes conflicts of interest among local people and alters traditional social structure. The study also agrees with the notion of social exchange theory for villagers to enhance environmental sustainability, and proposes that slight inequalities of benefits received from CBET causes social transformation at the local level.

Community-based organizations in the health sector: A scoping review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wilson Michael G

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Community-based organizations are important health system stakeholders as they provide numerous, often highly valued programs and services to the members of their community. However, community-based organizations are described using diverse terminology and concepts from across a range of disciplines. To better understand the literature related to community-based organizations in the health sector (i.e., those working in health systems or more broadly to address population or public health issues, we conducted a scoping review by using an iterative process to identify existing literature, conceptually map it, and identify gaps and areas for future inquiry. We searched 18 databases and conducted citation searches using 15 articles to identify relevant literature. All search results were reviewed in duplicate and were included if they addressed the key characteristics of community-based organizations or networks of community-based organizations. We then coded all included articles based on the country focus, type of literature, source of literature, academic discipline, disease sector, terminology used to describe organizations and topics discussed. We identified 186 articles addressing topics related to the key characteristics of community-based organizations and/or networks of community-based organizations. The literature is largely focused on high-income countries and on mental health and addictions, HIV/AIDS or general/unspecified populations. A large number of different terms have been used in the literature to describe community-based organizations and the literature addresses a range of topics about them (mandate, structure, revenue sources and type and skills or skill mix of staff, the involvement of community members in organizations, how organizations contribute to community organizing and development and how they function in networks with each other and with government (e.g., in policy networks. Given the range of terms used to

Optimal LED-based illumination control via distributed convex optimization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aslam, Muhammad; Hermans, R.M.; Pandharipande, A.; Lazar, M.; Boje, Edward; Xia, Xiaohua

2014-01-01

Achieving illumination and energy consumption targets is essential in indoor lighting design. The provision of localized illumination to occupants, and the utilization of natural light and energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) luminaires can help meet both objectives. Localized illumination

Community Health Global Network and Sustainable Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rebekah Young

2016-01-01

Full Text Available With the achievements, failures and passing of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG, the world has turned its eyes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG, designed to foster sustainable social, economic and environmental development over the next 15 years.(1 Community-led initiatives are increasingly being recognised as playing a key role in realising sustainable community development and in the aspirations of universal healthcare.(2 In many parts of the world, faith-based organisations are some of the main players in community-led development and health care.(3 Community Health Global Network (CHGN creates links between organisations, with the purpose being to encourage communities to recognise their assets and abilities, identify shared concerns and discover solutions together, in order to define and lead their futures in sustainable ways.(4 CHGN has facilitated the development of collaborative groups of health and development initiatives called ‘Clusters’ in several countries including India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Myanmar. In March 2016 these Clusters met together in an International Forum, to share learnings, experiences, challenges, achievements and to encourage one another. Discussions held throughout the forum suggest that the CHGN model is helping to promote effective, sustainable development and health care provision on both a local and a global scale.

Tribal Community-Based Social Marketing Training Guide

Science.gov (United States)

The Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) Training Guide and recycling toolkit provides an overview of how to increase the adoption of sustainable behaviors and recycling practices with a community.

GaN-based integrated photonics chip with suspended LED and waveguide

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xin; Wang, Yongjin; Hane, Kazuhiro; Shi, Zheng; Yan, Jiang

2018-05-01

We propose a GaN-based integrated photonics chip with suspended LED and straight waveguide with different geometric parameters. The integrated photonics chip is prepared by double-side process. Light transmission performance of the integrated chip verse current is quantitatively analyzed by capturing light transmitted to waveguide tip and BPM (beam propagation method) simulation. Reduction of the waveguide width from 8 μm to 4 μm results in an over linear reduction of the light output power while a doubling of the length from 250 μm to 500 μm only results in under linear decrease of the output power. Free-space data transmission with 80 Mbps random binary sequence of the integrated chip is capable of achieving high speed data transmission via visible light. This study provides a potential approach for GaN-based integrated photonics chip as micro light source and passive optical device in VLC (visible light communication).

Portable plant chlorophyll fluorimeter based on blue LED rapid induced technology

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Yibo; Mi, Ting; Zhang, Lei; Zhao, Jun

2018-01-01

Fluorimeter is an effective device for detecting chlorophyll a content in plants. In order to realize real-time nondestructive detection of plant blades, a camera based fluorescence instrument based on two color mirrors has been developed. The blue light LED is used as the excitation light source, and the lens is used for shaping and focusing the excitation light to ensure the excitation intensity and uniform illumination of the light source. The device uses a 45 degree two color mirror to separate the chlorophyll a excited light path and the fluorescence receiving light path. Finally, the fluorescent signal is collected by the silicon photocell, and the signal is processed by the circuit to transmit the digital information to the display. Through the analysis of the experimental data, the device has the advantages of small size, easy to carry, fast induction, etc., and can be widely applied in outdoor teaching and field investigation.

Large-signal modulation characteristics of a GaN-based micro-LED for Gbps visible-light communication

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Pengfei; Wu, Zhengyuan; Liu, Xiaoyan; Fang, Zhilai; Zhang, Shuailong; Zhou, Xiaolin; Liu, Kefu; Liu, Ming-Gang; Chen, Shu-Jhih; Lee, Chia-Yu; Cong, Chunxiao; Hu, Laigui; Qiu, Zhi-Jun; Zheng, Lirong; Liu, Ran

2018-04-01

The large-signal modulation characteristics of a GaN-based micro-LED have been studied for Gbps visible-light communication. With an increasing signal modulation depth the modulation bandwidth decreases, which matches up with the increase in the sum of the signal rise time and fall time. By simulating the band diagram and the carrier recombination rate of the micro-LED under large-signal modulation, carrier recombination and the carrier sweep-out effect are analyzed and found to be the dominant mechanisms behind the variation of modulation bandwidth. These results give further insight into improving the modulation bandwidth for high-speed visible-light communication.

A review of studies on community based early warning systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Margaret Macherera

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Community-based early warning systems involve community driven collection and analysis of information that enable warning messages to help a community to react to a hazard and reduce the resulting loss or harm. Most early warning systems are designed at the national or global level. Local communities’ capacity to predict weather conditions using indigenous knowledge has been demonstrated in studies focusing on climate change and agriculture in some African countries. This review was motivated by successes made in non-disease specific community-based early warning systems with a view to identify opportunities for developing similar systems for malaria. This article reviewed the existing community-based early warning systems documented in literature. The types of disasters that are addressed by these systems and the methodologies utilised in the development of the systems were identified. The review showed that most of the documented community-based early warning systems focus on natural disasters such as floods, drought, and landslides. Community-based early warning systems for human diseases are very few, even though such systems exist at national and regional and global levels. There is a clear gap in terms of community-based malaria early warning systems. The methodologies for the development of the community-based early warning systems reviewed mainly derive from the four elements of early warning systems; namely risk knowledge, monitoring, warning communication and response capability. The review indicated the need for the development of community based early warning systems for human diseases. Keywords: community; early warning; disaster; hazards

Tomographic Particle Image Velocimetry using Pulsed, High Power LED Volume Illumination

OpenAIRE

Buchmann, N. A.; Willert, C.; Soria, J.

2011-01-01

This paper investigates the use of high-power light emitting diode (LED) illumination in Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) as an alternative to traditional laser-based illumination. The solid-state LED devices can provide averaged radiant power in excess of 10W and by operating the LEDs with short current pulses, considerably higher than in continuous operation, light pulses of sufficient energy suitable for imaging micron-sized particles can be generated. The feasibility of this LED-based ill...

Is a community still a community? Reviewing definitions of key terms in community ecology

OpenAIRE

Stroud, James T.; Bush, Michael R.; Ladd, Mark C.; Nowicki, Robert J.; Shantz, Andrew A.; Sweatman, Jennifer

2015-01-01

Abstract Community ecology is an inherently complicated field, confounded by the conflicting use of fundamental terms. Nearly two decades ago, Fauth et?al. (1996) demonstrated that imprecise language led to the virtual synonymy of important terms and so attempted to clearly define four keywords in community ecology; ?community,? ?assemblage,? ?guild,? and ?ensemble?. We revisit Fauth et?al.'s conclusion and discuss how the use of these terms has changed over time since their review. An update...

High-Voltage LED Light Engine with Integrated Driver

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Soer, Wouter [Lumileds LLC, San Jose, CA (United States)

2016-02-29

LED luminaires have seen dramatic changes in cost breakdown over the past few years. The LED component cost, which until recently was the dominant portion of luminaire cost, has fallen to a level of the same order as the other luminaire components, such as the driver, housing, optics etc. With the current state of the technology, further luminaire performance improvement and cost reduction is realized most effectively by optimization of the whole system, rather than a single component. This project focuses on improving the integration between LEDs and drivers. Lumileds has developed a light engine platform based on low-cost high-power LEDs and driver topologies optimized for integration with these LEDs on a single substrate. The integration of driver and LEDs enables an estimated luminaire cost reduction of about 25% for targeted applications, mostly due to significant reductions in driver and housing cost. The high-power LEDs are based on Lumileds’ patterned sapphire substrate flip-chip (PSS-FC) technology, affording reduced die fabrication and packaging cost compared to existing technology. Two general versions of PSS-FC die were developed in order to create the desired voltage and flux increments for driver integration: (i) small single-junction die (0.5 mm²), optimal for distributed lighting applications, and (ii) larger multi-junction die (2 mm² and 4 mm²) for high-power directional applications. Two driver topologies were developed: a tapped linear driver topology and a single-stage switch-mode topology, taking advantage of the flexible voltage configurations of the new PSS-FC die and the simplification opportunities enabled by integration of LEDs and driver on the same board. A prototype light engine was developed for an outdoor “core module” application based on the multi-junction PSS-FC die and the single-stage switch-mode driver. The light engine meets the project efficacy target of 128 lm/W at a luminous flux

Teaching Innovations in Marketing: A Brand-Based Student-Led Inquiry of Marketing Concepts and Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Hostetter, Leonard R., Jr.

2017-01-01

This teaching innovation is a brand-based student-led inquiry of marketing concepts and practices for an introductory marketing course. During the first week of class, teams of students (or individual students) each select a brand of interest to research and analyze throughout the course. The objective is for students to understand the practical…

ICP dry etching ITO to improve the performance of GaN-based LEDs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meng Lili; Chen Yixin; Ma Li; Liu Zike; Shen Guangdi

2011-01-01

In order to improve the light efficiency of the conventional GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs), the indium tin oxide (ITO) film is introduced as the current spreading layer and the light anti-reflecting layer on the p-GaN surface. There is a big problem with the ITO thin film's corrosion during the electrode preparation. In this paper, at least, the edge of the ITO film was lateral corroded 3.5 μm width, i.e. 6.43%-1/3 of ITO film's area. An optimized simple process, i.e. inductively couple plasma (ICP), was introduced to solve this problem. The ICP process not only prevented the ITO film from lateral corrosion, but also improved the LED's light intensity and device performance. The edge of the ITO film by ICP dry etching is steep, and the areas of ITO film are whole. Compared with the chip by wet etching, the areas of light emission increase by 6.43% at least and the chip's lop values increase by 45.9% at most. (semiconductor devices)

The reach and adoption of a coach-led exercise training programme in community football.

Science.gov (United States)

Finch, Caroline F; Diamantopoulou, Kathy; Twomey, Dara M; Doyle, Tim L A; Lloyd, David G; Young, Warren; Elliott, Bruce C

2014-04-01

To determine the reach and adoption of a coach-led exercise training programme for lower limb injury prevention. Secondary analysis of data from a group-clustered randomised controlled trial. A periodised exercise training warm-up programme was delivered to players during training sessions over an 8-week preseason (weeks 1-8) and 18-week playing season. 1564 community Australian football players. Reach, measured weekly, was the number of players who attended training sessions. Adoption was the number of attending players who completed the programme in full, partially or not at all. Reasons for partial or non-participation were recorded. In week 1, 599 players entered the programme; 55% attended 1 training session and 45% attended > 1 session. By week 12, 1540 players were recruited but training attendance (reach) decreased to <50%. When players attended training, the majority adopted the full programme-ranging from 96% (week 1) to above 80% until week 20. The most common reasons for low adoption were players being injured, too sore, being late for training or choosing their own warm-up. The training programme's reach was highest preseason and halved at the playing season's end. However, when players attended training sessions, their adoption was high and remained close to 70% by season end. For sports injury prevention programmes to be fully effective across a season, attention also needs to be given to (1) encouraging players to attend formal training sessions and (2) considering the possibility of some form of programme delivery outside of formal training.

Knowledge Exchange and Discovery in the Age of Social Media: The Journey From Inception to Establishment of a Parent-Led Web-Based Research Advisory Community for Childhood Disability.

Science.gov (United States)

Russell, Dianne J; Sprung, Jennifer; McCauley, Dayle; Kraus de Camargo, Olaf; Buchanan, Francine; Gulko, Roman; Martens, Rachel; Gorter, Jan Willem

2016-11-11

Efforts to involve parents and families in all aspects of research, from initiating the question through to dissemination and knowledge exchange, are increasing. While social media as a method for health communication has shown numerous benefits, including increasing accessibility, interactions with others, and access to health care information, little work has been published on the use of social media to enhance research partnerships. Our objective was to describe the development and evaluation of a Web-based research advisory community, hosted on Facebook and connecting a diverse group of parents of special needs children with researchers at CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research. The goal of this community is to work together and exchange knowledge in order to improve research and the lives of children and their families. The Web-based Parents Participating in Research (PPR) advisory community was a secret Facebook group launched in June 2014 and run by 2 parent moderators who worked in consultation with CanChild. We evaluated its success using Facebook statistics of engagement and activity (eg, number of posts, number of comments) between June 2014 and April 2015, and a Web-based survey of members. The PPR community had 96 participants (2 parent moderators, 13 researchers, and 81 family members) as of April 1, 2015. Over 9 months, 432 original posts were made: 155 (35.9%) by moderators, 197 (45.6%) by parents, and 80 (18.5%) by researchers. Posts had a median of 3 likes (range 0-24) and 4 comments (range 0-113). Members, rather than moderators, generated 64% (277/432) of posts. The survey had a 51% response rate (49/96 members), with 40 (82%) being parent members and 9 (18%) being researchers. The initial purpose of the group was to be an advisory to CanChild, and 76% (28/37) of parents and all the researchers (9/9) identified having an impact on childhood disability research as their reason for participating. A total of 58% (23/40) of parents and 56

Ultrabroad linewidth orange-emitting nanowires LED for high CRI laser-based white lighting and gigahertz communications

KAUST Repository

Janjua, Bilal; Ng, Tien Khee; Zhao, Chao; Oubei, Hassan M.; Shen, Chao; Prabaswara, Aditya; Alias, Mohd Sharizal; Alhamoud, Abdullah Ali; Alatawi, Abdullah Awaad; Albadri, Abdulrahman M.; Alyamani, Ahmed Y.; El-Desouki, Munir M.; Ooi, Boon S.

2016-01-01

intensity- and bandwidth-tunable for high color-quality remained unexplored. In this paper, we present for the first time, the proof-of-concept of the generation of high-quality white light using an InGaN-based orange nanowires (NWs) LED grown on silicon

Community-based dental education and the importance of faculty development.

Science.gov (United States)

McAndrew, Maureen

2010-09-01

Community-based dental education offers a variety of positive learning experiences for students while providing needed dental services for the underserved. More dental students are being instructed by a growing body of largely volunteer community-based faculty who practice in a wide range of community settings including community hospitals and clinics, nursing homes, and private practices. These geographically dispersed instructors may have little experience as educators. Their practice styles and their motivation to improve teaching effectiveness are likely to differ from the styles and motivation of school-based faculty members. Moreover, many dental schools have begun to emphasize practices that may be unfamiliar to community-based faculty such as evidence-based practice. Providing faculty development for them is challenging, yet crucial to the success of these programs and dental education in general. Fundamental elements that must be considered for effective community faculty development programming include fostering a culture of respect between school-based and community faculty members, basing programs on the actual needs of these educators, integrating principles of adult learning theory, and establishing ongoing institutional support. This article provides background on this movement, reviews the literature for faculty development programs geared specifically to community-based educators, makes recommendations for development programs for these dental educators, and includes suggestions for future research.

Characterization of an array of honeys of different types and botanical origins through fluorescence emission based on LEDs.

Science.gov (United States)

Lastra-Mejías, Miguel; Torreblanca-Zanca, Albertina; Aroca-Santos, Regina; Cancilla, John C; Izquierdo, Jesús G; Torrecilla, José S

2018-08-01

A set of 10 honeys comprising a diverse range of botanical origins have been successfully characterized through fluorescence spectroscopy using inexpensive light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as light sources. It has been proven that each LED-honey combination tested originates a unique emission spectrum, which enables the authentication of every honey, being able to correctly label it with its botanical origin. Furthermore, the analysis was backed up by a mathematical analysis based on partial least square models which led to a correct classification rate of each type of honey of over 95%. Finally, the same approach was followed to analyze rice syrup, which is a common honey adulterant that is challenging to identify when mixed with honey. A LED-dependent and unique fluorescence spectrum was found for the syrup, which presumably qualifies this approach for the design of uncomplicated, fast, and cost-effective quality control and adulteration assessing tools for different types of honey. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Family and community rejection and a Congolese led mediation intervention to reintegrate rejected survivors of sexual violence in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Science.gov (United States)

Kohli, Anjalee; Tosha, Maphie; Ramazani, Paul; Safari, Octave; Bachunguye, Richard; Zahiga, Isaya; Iragi, Aline; Glass, Nancy

2013-01-01

Our purpose in this study is to describe the multiple and inter-related health, economic, and social reasons for rejection and to provide an example of a Congolese-led family mediation program to reintegrate survivors into their families. We conducted this study in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and included two focus group discussions and twenty-seven interviews. Rejection extends beyond physical dislocation to include economic and social aspects. Family mediation is a process requiring knowledge of traditions and norms. Understanding the context of rejection and supporting promising local reintegration efforts will likely improve health, economic, and social outcomes for the survivor, her family, and her community.

LED-pumped Alexandrite laser oscillator and amplifier

Science.gov (United States)

Pichon, Pierre; Blanchot, Jean-Philippe; Balembois, François; Druon, Frédéric; Georges, Patrick

2018-02-01

In this paper, we report the first LED-pumped transition-metal-doped laser oscillator and amplifier based on an alexandrite crystal (Cr3+:BeAl2O4). A Ce:YAG luminescent concentrator illuminated by blue LEDs is used to reach higher pump powers than with LEDs alone. The luminescent 200-mm-long-composit luminescent concentrator involving 2240 LEDs can delivers up to 268 mJ for a peak irradiance of 8.5 kW/cm2. In oscillator configuration, an LED-pumped alexandrite laser delivering an energy of 2.9 mJ at 748 nm in free running operation is demonstrated. In the cavity, we measured a double pass small signal gain of 1.28, in good agreement with numerical simulations. As amplifier, the system demonstrated to boost a CW Ti:sapphire laser by a factor of 4 at 750 nm in 8 passes with a large tuning range from 710 nm to 800 nm.

Multispectral photoacoustic characterization of ICG and porcine blood using an LED-based photoacoustic imaging system

Science.gov (United States)

Shigeta, Yusuke; Sato, Naoto; Kuniyil Ajith Singh, Mithun; Agano, Toshitaka

2018-02-01

Photoacoustic imaging is a hybrid biomedical imaging modality that has emerged over the last decade. In photoacoustic imaging, pulsed-light absorbed by the target emits ultrasound that can be detected using a conventional ultrasound array. This ultrasound data can be used to reconstruct the location and spatial details of the intrinsic/extrinsic light absorbers in the tissue. Recently we reported on the development of a multi-wavelength high frame-rate LED-based photoacoustic/ultrasound imaging system (AcousticX). In this work, we photoacoustically characterize the absorption spectrum of ICG and porcine blood using LED arrays with multiple wavelengths (405, 420, 470, 520, 620, 660, 690, 750, 810, 850, 925, 980 nm). Measurements were performed in a simple reflection mode configuration in which LED arrays where fixed on both sides of the linear array ultrasound probe. Phantom used consisted of micro-test tubes filled with ICG and porcine blood, which were placed in a tank filled with water. The photoacoustic spectrum obtained from our measurements matches well with the reference absorption spectrum. These results demonstrate the potential capability of our system in performing clinical/pre-clinical multispectral photoacoustic imaging.

Community-based gang desistance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Højgaard Dichmann, Kirstine; Jensen, Tobias Bo; Mørck, Line Lerche

2018-01-01

of belonging to the communities in Homeboy Industries also facilitates self-reflection and identity transformation. Homeboy Industries is furthermore an important life changing resource because it offers former gang members a legal source of income. This provides them with a new and secure base, a way...

Life-Cycle Assessment of Energy and Environmental Impacts of LED Lighting Products Part 2: LED Manufacturing and Performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scholand, Michael; Dillon, Heather E.

2012-05-01

Part 2 of the project (this report) uses the conclusions from Part 1 as a point of departure to focus on two objectives: producing a more detailed and conservative assessment of the manufacturing process and providing a comparative LCA with other lighting products based on the improved manufacturing analysis and taking into consideration a wider range of environmental impacts. In this study, we first analyzed the manufacturing process for a white-light LED (based on a sapphire-substrate, blue-light, gallium-nitride LED pumping a yellow phosphor), to understand the impacts of the manufacturing process. We then conducted a comparative LCA, looking at the impacts associated with the Philips Master LEDbulb and comparing those to a CFL and an incandescent lamp. The comparison took into account the Philips Master LEDbulb as it is now in 2012 and then projected forward what it might be in 2017, accounting for some of the anticipated improvements in LED manufacturing, performance and driver electronics.

Strategy community development based on local resources

Science.gov (United States)

Meirinawati; Prabawati, I.; Pradana, G. W.

2018-01-01

The problem of progressing regions is not far from economic problems and is often caused by the inability of the regions in response to changes in economic conditions that occur, so the need for community development programs implemented to solve various problems. Improved community effort required with the real conditions and needs of each region. Community development based on local resources process is very important, because it is an increase in human resource capability in the optimal utilization of local resource potential. In this case a strategy is needed in community development based on local resources. The community development strategy are as follows:(1) “Eight Line Equalization Plus” which explains the urgency of rural industrialization, (2) the construction of the village will be more successful when combining strategies are tailored to regional conditions, (3) the escort are positioning themselves as the Planner, supervisor, information giver, motivator, facilitator, connecting at once evaluators.

A formative evaluation of a nurse practitioner-led interprofessional geriatric outpatient clinic.

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, Kevin T; McDonald, Cheryl; O'Hara, Sue; Post, Leslie; Silcox, Susan; Gutmanis, Iris A

2017-07-01

The number of older adults with multiple complex comorbidities and frailty is expected to increase dramatically in the coming decades, which will necessitate a concomitant increase in the need for skilled clinicians who are able to manage complex geriatric needs. Many physicians, however, lack the required formal training, often leading to long wait-lists for specialist clinics. Yet, clinics led by non-physician professionals specialising in geriatric care could decrease these delays. This article describes the development and evaluation of a nurse practitioner-led interprofessional geriatric outpatient clinic (Inter-D Clinic). A combination of semi-structured clinician interviews, post-clinic follow-up phone calls, satisfaction surveys, and information from the hospital workload management system served as data sources for this formative programme evaluation. Between January 2013 and December 2014, 293 patients were seen in the clinic with the majority being referred for either memory issues (49%) or functional decline (35%). The clinic assessment frequently uncovered other issues, which led to guidance around falls prevention, improved nutrition, medication management, and referrals to available community supports. Both patients and referring physicians were very satisfied with this model of care, which is likely transferable to other locations provided the needed clinical expertise and community support services are available.

Engaging the Deaf American Sign Language Community: Lessons From a Community-Based Participatory Research Center

Science.gov (United States)

McKee, Michael; Thew, Denise; Starr, Matthew; Kushalnagar, Poorna; Reid, John T.; Graybill, Patrick; Velasquez, Julia; Pearson, Thomas

2013-01-01

Background Numerous publications demonstrate the importance of community-based participatory research (CBPR) in community health research, but few target the Deaf community. The Deaf community is understudied and underrepresented in health research despite suspected health disparities and communication barriers. Objectives The goal of this paper is to share the lessons learned from the implementation of CBPR in an understudied community of Deaf American Sign Language (ASL) users in the greater Rochester, New York, area. Methods We review the process of CBPR in a Deaf ASL community and identify the lessons learned. Results Key CBPR lessons include the importance of engaging and educating the community about research, ensuring that research benefits the community, using peer-based recruitment strategies, and sustaining community partnerships. These lessons informed subsequent research activities. Conclusions This report focuses on the use of CBPR principles in a Deaf ASL population; lessons learned can be applied to research with other challenging-to-reach populations. PMID:22982845

Adaptive Management and Social Learning in Collaborative and Community-Based Monitoring: a Study of Five Community-Based Forestry Organizations in the western USA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria E. Fernandez-Gimenez

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Collaborative and community-based monitoring are becoming more frequent, yet few studies have examined the process and outcomes of these monitoring approaches. We studied 18 collaborative or community-based ecological assessment or monitoring projects undertaken by five community-based forestry organizations (CBFs, to investigate the objectives, process, and outcomes of collaborative ecological monitoring by CBF organizations. We found that collaborative monitoring can lead to shared ecological understanding among diverse participants, build trust internally and credibility externally, foster social learning and community-building, and advance adaptive management. The CBFs experienced challenges in recruiting and sustaining community participation in monitoring, building needed technical capacity for monitoring, and communicating monitoring results back to the broader community. Our results suggest that involving diverse and sometimes adversarial interests at key points in the monitoring process can help resolve conflicts and advance social learning, while also strengthening the link between social and ecological systems by improving the information base for management and increasing collective awareness of the interdependence of human and natural forest communities.

Using Photovoice as a Community Based Participatory Research Tool for Changing Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Behaviours in Usoma, Kenya

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elijah Bisung

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Recent years have witnessed an increase in the use of community based participatory research (CBPR tools for understanding environment and health issues and facilitating social action. This paper explores the application and utility of photovoice for understanding water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH behaviours and catalysing community led solutions to change behaviours. Between June and August 2013, photovoice was conducted with eight (8 women in Usoma, a lakeshore community in Western Kenya with a follow-up community meeting (baraza in May 2014 to discuss findings with the community members and government officials. In the first part of the study, photovoice one-on-one interviews were used to explore local perceptions and practices around water-health linkages and how the ecological and socio-political environment shapes these perceptions and practices. This paper, which is the second component of the study, uses photovoice group discussions to explore participants’ experiences with and (reaction to the photographs and the photovoice project. The findings illustrate that photovoice was an effective CBPR methodology for understanding behaviours, creating awareness, facilitating collective action, and engaging with local government and local health officials at the water-health nexus.

Community Based Networks and 5G

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Williams, Idongesit

2016-01-01

The deployment of previous wireless standards has provided more benefits for urban dwellers than rural dwellers. 5G deployment may not be different. This paper identifies that Community Based Networks as carriers that deserve recognition as potential 5G providers may change this. The argument....... The findings indicate that 5G connectivity can be extended to rural areas by these networks, via heterogenous networks. Hence the delivery of 5G data rates delivery via Wireless WAN in rural areas can be achieved by utilizing the causal factors of the identified models for Community Based Networks....

Lack of cross-scale linkages reduces robustness of community-based fisheries management.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard Cudney-Bueno

Full Text Available Community-based management and the establishment of marine reserves have been advocated worldwide as means to overcome overexploitation of fisheries. Yet, researchers and managers are divided regarding the effectiveness of these measures. The "tragedy of the commons" model is often accepted as a universal paradigm, which assumes that unless managed by the State or privatized, common-pool resources are inevitably overexploited due to conflicts between the self-interest of individuals and the goals of a group as a whole. Under this paradigm, the emergence and maintenance of effective community-based efforts that include cooperative risky decisions as the establishment of marine reserves could not occur. In this paper, we question these assumptions and show that outcomes of commons dilemmas can be complex and scale-dependent. We studied the evolution and effectiveness of a community-based management effort to establish, monitor, and enforce a marine reserve network in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Our findings build on social and ecological research before (1997-2001, during (2002 and after (2003-2004 the establishment of marine reserves, which included participant observation in >100 fishing trips and meetings, interviews, as well as fishery dependent and independent monitoring. We found that locally crafted and enforced harvesting rules led to a rapid increase in resource abundance. Nevertheless, news about this increase spread quickly at a regional scale, resulting in poaching from outsiders and a subsequent rapid cascading effect on fishing resources and locally-designed rule compliance. We show that cooperation for management of common-pool fisheries, in which marine reserves form a core component of the system, can emerge, evolve rapidly, and be effective at a local scale even in recently organized fisheries. Stakeholder participation in monitoring, where there is a rapid feedback of the systems response, can play a key role in reinforcing

Ensemble method: Community detection based on game theory

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xia; Xia, Zhengyou; Xu, Shengwu; Wang, J. D.

2014-08-01

Timely and cost-effective analytics over social network has emerged as a key ingredient for success in many businesses and government endeavors. Community detection is an active research area of relevance to analyze online social network. The problem of selecting a particular community detection algorithm is crucial if the aim is to unveil the community structure of a network. The choice of a given methodology could affect the outcome of the experiments because different algorithms have different advantages and depend on tuning specific parameters. In this paper, we propose a community division model based on the notion of game theory, which can combine advantages of previous algorithms effectively to get a better community classification result. By making experiments on some standard dataset, it verifies that our community detection model based on game theory is valid and better.

71-Mbit/s ultraviolet-B LED communication link based on 8-QAM-OFDM modulation

KAUST Repository

Sun, Xiaobin

2017-09-14

A demonstration of ultraviolet-B (UVB) communication link is implemented utilizing quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). The demonstration is based on a 294-nm UVB-light-emitting-diode (UVB-LED) with a full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 9 nm and light output power of 190 μW, at 7 V, with a special silica gel lens on top of it. A −3-dB bandwidth of 29 MHz was measured and a high-speed near-solar-blind communication link with a data rate of 71 Mbit/s was achieved using 8-QAM-OFDM at perfect alignment. 23.6 Mbit/s using 2-QAM-OFDM when the angle subtended by the pointing directions of the UVB-LED and photodetector (PD) is 12 degrees, thus establishing a diffuse-line-of-sight (LOS) link. The measured bit-error rate (BER) of 2.8 × 10−4 and 2.4 × 10−4, respectively, are well below the forward error correction (FEC) criterion of 3.8 × 10−3. The demonstrated high data-rate OFDM-based UVB communication link paves the way for realizing high-speed non-line-of-sight free-space optical communications.

71-Mbit/s ultraviolet-B LED communication link based on 8-QAM-OFDM modulation

KAUST Repository

Sun, Xiaobin; Zhang, Zhenyu; Chaaban, Anas; Ng, Tien Khee; Shen, Chao; Chen, Rui; Yan, Jianchang; Sun, Haiding; Li, Xiaohang; Wang, Junxi; Li, Jinmin; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Ooi, Boon S.

2017-01-01

A demonstration of ultraviolet-B (UVB) communication link is implemented utilizing quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). The demonstration is based on a 294-nm UVB-light-emitting-diode (UVB-LED) with a full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 9 nm and light output power of 190 μW, at 7 V, with a special silica gel lens on top of it. A −3-dB bandwidth of 29 MHz was measured and a high-speed near-solar-blind communication link with a data rate of 71 Mbit/s was achieved using 8-QAM-OFDM at perfect alignment. 23.6 Mbit/s using 2-QAM-OFDM when the angle subtended by the pointing directions of the UVB-LED and photodetector (PD) is 12 degrees, thus establishing a diffuse-line-of-sight (LOS) link. The measured bit-error rate (BER) of 2.8 × 10−4 and 2.4 × 10−4, respectively, are well below the forward error correction (FEC) criterion of 3.8 × 10−3. The demonstrated high data-rate OFDM-based UVB communication link paves the way for realizing high-speed non-line-of-sight free-space optical communications.

Medication reviews led by community pharmacists in Switzerland: a qualitative survey to evaluate barriers and facilitators

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Niquille A

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Objective: 1 To evaluate the participation rate and identify the practical barriers to implementing a community pharmacist-led medication review service in francophone Switzerland and, 2 To assess the effectiveness of external support.Methods: A qualitative survey was undertaken to identify barriers to patient inclusion and medication review delivery in daily practice among all contactable independent pharmacists working in francophone Switzerland (n=78 who were members of a virtual chain (pharmacieplus, regardless of their participation in a simultaneous cross-sectional study. This study analyzed the dissemination of a medication review service including a prescription and drug utilization review with access to clinical data, a patient interview and a pharmaceutical report to the physicians. In addition, we observed an exploratory and external coaching for pharmacists that we launched seven months after the beginning of the cross-sectional study. Results: Poor motivation on the part of pharmacists and difficulties communicating with physicians and patients were the primary obstacles identified. Lack of time and lack of self-confidence in administering the medication review process were the most commonly perceived practical barriers to the implementation of the new service. The main facilitators to overcome these issues may be well-planned workflow organization techniques, strengthened by an adequate remuneration scheme and a comprehensive and practice-based training course that includes skill-building in pharmacotherapy and communication. External support may partially compensate for a weak organizational framework.Conclusions: To facilitate the implementation of a medication review service, a strong local networking with physicians, an effective workflow management and a practice- and communications-focused training for pharmacists and their teams seem key elements required. External support can be useful to help some pharmacists improve their

Development of community plans to enhance survivorship from colorectal cancer: community-based participatory research in rural communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Lengerich, Eugene J; Kluhsman, Brenda C; Bencivenga, Marcyann; Allen, Regina; Miele, Mary Beth; Farace, Elana

2007-09-01

In 2002, 10.4% of the 10 million persons alive who have ever been diagnosed with cancer had colorectal cancer (CRC). Barriers, such as distance, terrain, access to care and cultural differences, to CRC survivorship may be especially relevant in rural communities. We tested the hypothesis that teams from rural cancer coalitions and hospitals would develop a Community Plan (CP) to enhance CRC survivorship. We used community-based participatory research and the PRECEDE-PROCEED model to train teams from rural cancer coalitions and hospitals in Pennsylvania and New York. We measured knowledge at three points in time and tested the change with McNemar's test, corrected for multiple comparisons (p < 0.0167). We also conducted a qualitative review of the CP contents. Fourteen (93.3%) of the 15 coalitions or hospitals initially recruited to the study completed a CP. Knowledge in public health, sponsorship of A National Action Plan for Cancer Survivorship, and CRC survivorship and treatment increased. Teams identified perceived barriers and community assets. All teams planned to increase awareness of community assets and almost all planned to enhance treatment-related care and psychosocial care for the CRC survivor; 50% planned to enhance primary care and CRC screening. The study demonstrated the interest and ability of rural organizations to plan to enhance CRC survivorship, including linkage of CRC survivorship to primary care. Rural cancer coalitions and hospitals may be a vehicle to develop local action for A National Action Plan. Access to more comprehensive care for CRC cancer survivors in rural communities appears to be facilitated by the community-based initiative described and investigated in this study. Efforts such as these could be replicated in other rural communities and may impact the care and quality of life of survivors with many types of cancers. While access to health services may be increased through community-based initiatives, we still need to measure

Community-Based Research: From Practice to Theory and Back Again.

Science.gov (United States)

Stoecker, Randy

2003-01-01

Explores the theoretical strands being combined in community-based research--charity service learning, social justice service learning, action research, and participatory research. Shows how different models of community-based research, based in different theories of society and different approaches to community work, may combine or conflict. (EV)

Heterostructures for Increased Quantum Efficiency in Nitride LEDs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Davis, Robert F. [Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)

2010-09-30

Task 1. Development of an advanced LED simulator useful for the design of efficient nitride-based devices. Simulator will contain graphical interface software that can be used to specify the device structure, the material parameters, the operating conditions and the desired output results. Task 2. Theoretical and experimental investigations regarding the influence on the microstructure, defect concentration, mechanical stress and strain and IQE of controlled changes in the chemistry and process route of deposition of the buffer layer underlying the active region of nitride-based blue- and greenemitting LEDs. Task 3. Theoretical and experimental investigations regarding the influence on the physical properties including polarization and IQE of controlled changes in the geometry, chemistry, defect density, and microstructure of components in the active region of nitride-based blue- and green-emitting LEDs. Task 4. Theoretical and experimental investigations regarding the influence on IQE of novel heterostructure designs to funnel carriers into the active region for enhanced recombination efficiency and elimination of diffusion beyond this region. Task 5. Theoretical and experimental investigations regarding the influence of enhanced p-type doping on the chemical, electrical, and microstructural characteristics of the acceptor-doped layers, the hole injection levels at Ohmic contacts, the specific contact resistivity and the IQE of nitride-based blue- and green-emitting LEDs. Development and optical and electrical characterization of reflective Ohmic contacts to n- and p-type GaN films.

Community-based first aid: a program report on the intersection of community-based participatory research and first aid education in a remote Canadian Aboriginal community.

Science.gov (United States)

VanderBurgh, D; Jamieson, R; Beardy, J; Ritchie, S D; Orkin, A

2014-01-01

Community-based first aid training is the collaborative development of locally relevant emergency response training. The Sachigo Lake Wilderness Emergency Response Education Initiative was developed, delivered, and evaluated through two intensive 5-day first aid courses. Sachigo Lake First Nation is a remote Aboriginal community of 450 people in northern Ontario, Canada, with no local paramedical services. These courses were developed in collaboration with the community, with a goal of building community capacity to respond to medical emergencies. Most first aid training programs rely on standardized curriculum developed for urban and rural contexts with established emergency response systems. Delivering effective community-based first aid training in a remote Aboriginal community required specific adaptations to conventional first aid educational content and pedagogy. Three key lessons emerged during this program that used collaborative principles to adapt conventional first aid concepts and curriculum: (1) standardized approaches may not be relevant nor appropriate; (2) relationships between course participants and the people they help are relevant and important; (3) curriculum must be attentive to existing informal and formal emergency response systems. These lessons may be instructive for the development of other programs in similar settings.

Community-Based Wildlife Management In Tanzania: The Policy ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Community-based wildlife management (CWM) approach – known to others as community-based conservation – was first introduced in Tanzania in 1987/88. The approach intends to reconcile wildlife conservation and rural economic development. In the 1990s Tanzanians witnessed a rush by government Ministries and ...

Community-based research in action: tales from the Ktunaxa community learning centres project.

Science.gov (United States)

Stacy, Elizabeth; Wisener, Katherine; Liman, Yolanda; Beznosova, Olga; Lauscher, Helen Novak; Ho, Kendall; Jarvis-Selinger, Sandra

2014-01-01

Rural communities, particularly Aboriginal communities, often have limited access to health information, a situation that can have significant negative consequences. To address the lack of culturally and geographically relevant health information, a community-university partnership was formed to develop, implement, and evaluate Aboriginal Community Learning Centres (CLCs). The objective of this paper is to evaluate the community-based research process used in the development of the CLCs. It focuses on the process of building relationships among partners and the CLC's value and sustainability. Semistructured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders, including principal investigators, community research leads, and supervisors. The interview transcripts were analyzed using an open-coding process to identify themes. Key challenges included enacting shared project governance, negotiating different working styles, and hiring practices based on commitment to project objectives rather than skill set. Technological access provided by the CLCs increased capacity for learning and collective community initiatives, as well as building community leads' skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy. An important lesson was to meet all partners "where they are" in building trusting relationships and adapting research methods to fit the project's context and strengths. Successful results were dependent upon persistence and patience in working through differences, and breaking the project into achievable goals, which collectively contributed to trust and capacity building. The process of building these partnerships resulted in increased capacity of communities to facilitate learning and change initiatives, and the capacity of the university to engage in successful research partnerships with Aboriginal communities in the future.

Improving healthcare value through clinical community and supply chain collaboration.

Science.gov (United States)

Ishii, Lisa; Demski, Renee; Ken Lee, K H; Mustafa, Zishan; Frank, Steve; Wolisnky, Jean Paul; Cohen, David; Khanna, Jay; Ammerman, Joshua; Khanuja, Harpal S; Unger, Anthony S; Gould, Lois; Wachter, Patricia Ann; Stearns, Lauren; Werthman, Ronald; Pronovost, Peter

2017-03-01

We hypothesized that integrating supply chain with clinical communities would allow for clinician-led supply cost reduction and improved value in an academic health system. Three clinical communities (spine, joint, blood management) and one clinical community-like physician led team of surgeon stakeholders partnered with the supply chain team on specific supply cost initiatives. The teams reviewed their specific utilization and cost data, and the physicians led consensus-building conversations over a series of team meetings to agree to standard supply utilization. The spine and joint clinical communities each agreed upon a vendor capping model that led to cost savings of $3 million dollars and $1.5 million dollars respectively. The blood management decreased blood product utilization and achieved $1.2 million dollars savings. $5.6 million dollars in savings was achieved by a clinical community-like group of surgeon stakeholders through standardization of sutures and endomechanicals. Physician led clinical teams empowered to lead change achieved substantial supply chain cost savings in an academic health system. The model of combining clinical communities with supply chain offers hope for an effective, practical, and scalable approach to improving value and engaging physicians in other academic health systems. This clinician led model could benefit both private and academic health systems engaging in value optimization efforts. N/A. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Community-Based Disaster Management: A Lesson Learned From Community Emergency Response Management in Banyumas, Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Pratama, A. Y.; Sariffuddin, S.

2018-02-01

This article aimed to review community-based disaster management in terms of its independent coordination and disaster management. Community resilience was tested during disaster emergency. While panic, the community is required to be viable and able to evacuate, manage logistic, collect data on damage and the victim, and coordinate with outsiders independently. The community in Gununglurah Village, Banyumas Regency which was hit by a landslide in 2015 provides a lesson learned about community based disaster management. This research used qualitative descriptive methodology with in-depth interview with 23 informants from the community, donor institution, village officers, and government officers. Through traditional and informal methods, the community implemented disaster management that was categorized into 3 mechanisms that were social, functional, and sequential mechanism. These mechanisms controlled different portion in which social mechanism holds the most important role in disaster management, then functional mechanism and sequential mechanism. Various community activities in the village equipped the community with organizational experience to manage logistic, human resource and other coordination. In 2007, in fact, there was vulnerability risk assessment done by the local government, which recommended efforts to be done by the community to reduce the disaster risk, yet it was not implemented. It was interesting to note that in spite of the independent disaster management there was a scientific assessment neglected. Based on this research, a new discussion on how to synchronize the endogenous knowledge with scientific modern knowledge was opened.

Improving the quality of perinatal mental health: a health visitor-led protocol.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Anne; Ilot, Irene; Lekka, Chrysanthi; Oluboyede, Yemi

2011-02-01

The mental health of mothers is of significant concern to community practitioners. This paper reports on a case study exploring the success factors of a well established, health visitor-led protocol to identify and treat women with mild to moderate depression. Data were collected through interviews with a purposive sample of 12 community practitioners, a focus group of four health visitors and observation of a multidisciplinary steering group meeting. The protocol was described as an evidence-based tool and safety net that could be used flexibly to support clinical judgments and tailored to individual needs. Success factors included frontline clinician engagement and ownership, continuity of leadership to drive development and maintain momentum, comprehensive and on-going staff training, and strategic support for the protocol as a quality indicator at a time of organisational change. Quality and clinical leadership are continuing policy priorities. The protocol enabled frontline staff to lead a service innovation, providing a standardised multiprofessional approach to women's mental health needs through effective support, advice and treatment that can be measured and quality assured.

Construction of Tungsten Halogen, Pulsed LED, and Combined Tungsten Halogen-LED Solar Simulators for Solar Cell I-V Characterization and Electrical Parameters Determination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anon Namin

2012-01-01

Full Text Available I-V characterization of solar cells is generally done under natural sunlight or solar simulators operating in either a continuous mode or a pulse mode. Simulators are classified on three features of irradiance, namely, spectral match with respect to air mass 1.5, spatial uniformity, and temporal stability. Commercial solar simulators use Xenon lamps and halogen lamps, whereas LED-based solar simulators are being developed. In this work, we build and test seven simulators for solar cell characterization, namely, one tungsten halogen simulator, four monochromatic (red, green, blue, and white LED simulators, one multicolor LED simulator, and one tungsten halogen-blue LED simulator. The seven simulators provide testing at nonstandard test condition. High irradiance from simulators is obtained by employing elevated supply voltage to tungsten halogen lamps and high pulsing voltages to LEDs. This new approach leads to higher irradiance not previously obtained from tungsten halogen lamps and LEDs. From I-V curves, electrical parameters of solar cell are made and corrected based on methods recommended in the IEC 60891 Standards. Corrected values obtained from non-STC measurements are in good agreement with those obtained from Class AAA solar simulator.

Community-led initiative for control of anemia among children 6 to 35 months of age and unmarried adolescent girls in rural Wardha, India.

Science.gov (United States)

Dongre, Amol R; Deshmukh, Pradeep R; Garg, Bishan S

2011-12-01

Studies in India have reported a high prevalence of nutritional anemia among children and adolescent girls. Nutritional anemia is associated with impaired mental, physical, and cognitive performance in children and is a significant risk factor for maternal mortality. To evaluate the effect of a community-led initiative for control of nutritional anemia among children 6 to 35 months of age and unmarried rural adolescent girls 12 to 19 years of age. This Participatory Action Research was done in 23 villages of the Primary Health Centre, Anji, in Wardha District of Maharashtra. In February and March 2008, needs assessment was undertaken by interviewing the mothers of 261 children and 260 adolescent girls. Hemoglobin levels of adolescent girls and children were measured with the use of the hemoglobin color scale. The girls were given weekly iron-folic acid tablets, and the children were given daily liquid iron prophylaxis for 100 days in a year through community participation. The adolescent girls and the mothers of the children and adolescent girls were also given nutritional education on the benefits and side effects of iron supplementation. In June and July 2008, follow-up assessment was performed by survey and force field analysis. There was a significant reduction in the prevalence of nutritional anemia from 73.8% to 54.6% among the adolescent girls and from 78.2% to 64.2% among the children. There was improvement in awareness of iron-rich food items among the adolescent girls and the mothers of the children. The benefits to girls, such as increase in appetite and reduction in scanty menses, tiredness, and weakness, acted as positive factors leading to better compliance with weekly iron supplementation. The benefits to children perceived by the mothers, such as increase in appetite, weight gain, reduction in irritability, and reduction in mud-eating behavior, acted as a dominant positive force and generated demand for iron syrup. The community-led initiative for

Automated system for the determination of patterns of high-intensity LEDs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baly, L.; Bolaño, L.; Arteche, R.; Broco, Y.; Quesada, I.; Rodríguez, E.

2008-01-01

Determination of high-intensity LEDs lighting patterns is an important step for the simulation and planning of arrays of these devices configurations. Currently there are systems based on CCD cameras able to efficiently solve this problem, however the high cost of these is a limiting factor for use. Another limitation of CCD cameras, is that they are designed for light levels much lower than those produced by a high-intensity LED. In this paper we present an automated system for the determination of the intensity of LEDs based on the scan point to point patterns. The results of the analysis of a type of LED based on arrays of bars with built-in optical system is presented.

High Efficiency Driving Electronics for General Illumination LED Luminaires

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Upadhyay, Anand

2012-10-31

New generation of standalone LED driver platforms developed, which are more efficient These LED Drivers are more efficient (≥90%), smaller in size ( 0.15 in3/watt), lower in cost ( 12 cents/watt in high volumes in millions of units). And these products are very reliable having an operating life of over 50,000 hours. This technology will enable growth of LED light sources in the use. This will also help in energy saving and reducing total life cycle cost of LED units. Two topologies selected for next generation of LED drivers: 1) Value engineered single stage Flyback topology. This is suitable for low powered LED drivers up to 50W power. 2) Two stage boost power factor correction (PFC) plus LLC half bridge platform for higher powers. This topology is suitable for 40W to 300W LED drivers. Three new product platforms were developed to cover a wide range of LED drivers: 1) 120V 40W LED driver, 2) Intellivolt 75W LED driver, & 3) Intellivolt 150W LED driver. These are standalone LED drivers for rugged outdoor lighting applications. Based on these platforms number of products are developed and successfully introduced in the market place meeting key performance, size and cost goals.

Assessing Payment and Community Based Distribution Issues in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Methods: Questionnaire interviews were conducted with randomly selected household heads or their representatives in five malaria holo-endemic communities of Southeast Nigeria. Interviews were also held with community leaders before and after ITNs sales. The sale of ITNs was based on the communities' distribution ...

The possible ocular hazards of LED dental illumination applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Stamatacos, Catherine; Harrison, Janet L

2013-01-01

The use of high-intensity illumination via Light-Emitting Diode (LED) headlamps is gaining in popularity with dentists and student dentists. Practitioners are using LED headlamps together with magnifying loupes, overhead LED illumination and fiber-optic dental handpieces for long periods of time. Although most manufacturers of these LED illuminators advertise that their devices emit "white" light, these still consist of two spectral bands--the blue spectral band, with its peak at 445 nm, and the green with its peak at 555 nm. While manufacturers suggest that their devices emit "white" light, spectral components of LED lights from different companies are significantly different. Dental headlamp manufacturers strive to create a white LED, and they advertise that this type of light emitted from their product offers bright white-light illumination. However, the manufacturing of a white LED light is done through selection of a white LED-type based on the peak blue strength in combination with the green peak strength and thus creating a beam-forming optic, which determines the beam quality. Some LED illuminators have a strong blue-light component versus the green-light component. Blue-light is highly energized and is close in the color spectrum to ultraviolet-light. The hazards of retinal damage with the use of high-intensity blue-lights has been well-documented. There is limited research regarding the possible ocular hazards of usage of high-intensity illuminating LED devices. Furthermore, the authors have found little research, standards, or guidelines examining the possible safety issues regarding the unique dental practice setting consisting of the combined use of LED illumination systems. Another unexamined component is the effect of high-intensity light reflective glare and magnification back to the practitioner's eyes due to the use of water during dental procedures. Based on the result of Dr. Janet Harrison's observations of beginning dental students in a

Determination of LEDs degradation with entropy generation rate

Science.gov (United States)

Cuadras, Angel; Yao, Jiaqiang; Quilez, Marcos

2017-10-01

We propose a method to assess the degradation and aging of light emitting diodes (LEDs) based on irreversible entropy generation rate. We degraded several LEDs and monitored their entropy generation rate ( S ˙ ) in accelerated tests. We compared the thermoelectrical results with the optical light emission evolution during degradation. We find a good relationship between aging and S ˙ (t), because S ˙ is both related to device parameters and optical performance. We propose a threshold of S ˙ (t) as a reliable damage indicator of LED end-of-life that can avoid the need to perform optical measurements to assess optical aging. The method lays beyond the typical statistical laws for lifetime prediction provided by manufacturers. We tested different LED colors and electrical stresses to validate the electrical LED model and we analyzed the degradation mechanisms of the devices.

CooLED - efficient LED bulbs with custrom optics - final report

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wolff, Jesper; Corell, Dennis Dan; Dam-Hansen, Carsten

Denne rapport indeholder en beskrivelse af arbejdet udført i og resultaterne af forsknings- og udviklingsprojektet EUDP 64012-0226, CooLED – en ny generation LED Lyskilde for det tidsløse high-end marked....

A community translational research pilot grants program to facilitate community--academic partnerships: lessons from Colorado's clinical translational science awards.

Science.gov (United States)

Main, Deborah S; Felzien, Maret C; Magid, David J; Calonge, B Ned; O'Brien, Ruth A; Kempe, Allison; Nearing, Kathryn

2012-01-01

National growth in translational research has increased the need for practical tools to improve how academic institutions engage communities in research. One used by the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI) to target investments in community-based translational research on health disparities is a Community Engagement (CE) Pilot Grants program. Innovative in design, the program accepts proposals from either community or academic applicants, requires that at least half of requested grant funds go to the community partner, and offers two funding tracks: One to develop new community-academic partnerships (up to $10,000), the other to strengthen existing partnerships through community translational research projects (up to $30,000). We have seen early success in both traditional and capacity building metrics: the initial investment of $272,742 in our first cycle led to over $2.8 million dollars in additional grant funding, with grantees reporting strengthening capacity of their community- academic partnerships and the rigor and relevance of their research.

White light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using (oxy)nitride phosphors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xie, R-J; Hirosaki, N; Sakuma, K; Kimura, N

2008-01-01

(Oxy)nitride phosphors have attracted great attention recently because they are promising luminescent materials for phosphor-converted white light-emitting diodes (LEDs). This paper reports the luminescent properties of (oxy)nitride phosphors in the system of M-Si-Al-O-N (M = Li, Ca or Sr), and optical properties of white LEDs using a GaN-based blue LED and (oxy)nitride phosphors. The phosphors show high conversion efficiency of blue light, suitable emission colours and small thermal quenching. The bichromatic white LEDs exhibit high luminous efficacy (∼55 lm W -1 ) and the multi-phosphor converted white LEDs show high colour rendering index (Ra 82-95). The results indicate that (oxy)nitride phosphors demonstrate their superior suitability to use as down-conversion luminescent materials in white LEDs

Efficient community-based control strategies in adaptive networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang Hui; Tang Ming; Zhang Haifeng

2012-01-01

Most studies on adaptive networks concentrate on the properties of steady state, but neglect transient dynamics. In this study, we pay attention to the emergence of community structure in the transient process and the effects of community-based control strategies on epidemic spreading. First, by normalizing the modularity, we investigate the evolution of community structure during the transient process, and find that a strong community structure is induced by the rewiring mechanism in the early stage of epidemic dynamics, which, remarkably, delays the outbreak of disease. We then study the effects of control strategies started at different stages on the prevalence. Both immunization and quarantine strategies indicate that it is not ‘the earlier, the better’ for the implementation of control measures. And the optimal control effect is obtained if control measures can be efficiently implemented in the period of a strong community structure. For the immunization strategy, immunizing the susceptible nodes on susceptible–infected links and immunizing susceptible nodes randomly have similar control effects. However, for the quarantine strategy, quarantining the infected nodes on susceptible–infected links can yield a far better result than quarantining infected nodes randomly. More significantly, the community-based quarantine strategy performs better than the community-based immunization strategy. This study may shed new light on the forecast and the prevention of epidemics among humans. (paper)

Employing a youth-led adult-guided framework: "Why Drive High?" social marketing campaign.

Science.gov (United States)

Marko, Terry-Lynne; Watt, Tyler

2011-01-01

The "Drugged Driving Kills project: Why Drive High?" social marketing campaign was developed and implemented by youth leaders and adult facilitators from public and community health to increase youth awareness of the adverse effects of marijuana on driving. The youth-led adult-guided project was founded on the Holden's youth empowerment conceptual model. This article reports on the results of the focus group evaluation, conducted to determine to what extent the tailored youth-led adult-guided framework for the "Why Drive High?" social marketing campaign provided an environment for youth leadership development.

Considerations for community-based mHealth initiatives: insights from three Beacon Communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Abebe, Nebeyou A; Capozza, Korey L; Des Jardins, Terrisca R; Kulick, David A; Rein, Alison L; Schachter, Abigail A; Turske, Scott A

2013-10-15

Mobile health (mHealth) is gaining widespread attention for its potential to engage patients in their health and health care in their daily lives. Emerging evidence suggests that mHealth interventions can be used effectively to support behavior change, but numerous challenges remain when implementing these programs at the community level. This paper provides an overview of considerations when implementing community-based mHealth initiatives, based on the experiences of three Beacon Communities across the United States that have launched text messaging (short message service, SMS) pilot programs aimed at diabetes risk reduction and disease management. The paper addresses lessons learned and suggests strategies to overcome challenges related to developing text message content, conducting marketing and outreach, enrolling participants, engaging providers, evaluating program effectiveness, and sustaining and scaling the programs.

Considerations for Community-Based mHealth Initiatives: Insights From Three Beacon Communities

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Mobile health (mHealth) is gaining widespread attention for its potential to engage patients in their health and health care in their daily lives. Emerging evidence suggests that mHealth interventions can be used effectively to support behavior change, but numerous challenges remain when implementing these programs at the community level. This paper provides an overview of considerations when implementing community-based mHealth initiatives, based on the experiences of three Beacon Communities across the United States that have launched text messaging (short message service, SMS) pilot programs aimed at diabetes risk reduction and disease management. The paper addresses lessons learned and suggests strategies to overcome challenges related to developing text message content, conducting marketing and outreach, enrolling participants, engaging providers, evaluating program effectiveness, and sustaining and scaling the programs. PMID:24128406

Stability and change in forest-based communities: a selected bibliography.

Science.gov (United States)

Catherine Woods Richardson

1996-01-01

This bibliography lists literature dealing with the concept of community stability, the condition of forest-based communities, and the relations between forest management and local community conditions. Most citations are from the 1970s to the mid 1990s, though some particularly pertinent earlier works also appear. The emphasis is on forest-based communities in the...

Medicaid program; state plan home and community-based services, 5-year period for waivers, provider payment reassignment, and home and community-based setting requirements for Community First Choice and home and community-based services (HCBS) waivers. Final rule.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-16

This final rule amends the Medicaid regulations to define and describe state plan section 1915(i) home and community-based services (HCBS) under the Social Security Act (the Act) amended by the Affordable Care Act. This rule offers states new flexibilities in providing necessary and appropriate services to elderly and disabled populations. This rule describes Medicaid coverage of the optional state plan benefit to furnish home and community based-services and draw federal matching funds. This rule also provides for a 5-year duration for certain demonstration projects or waivers at the discretion of the Secretary, when they provide medical assistance for individuals dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare benefits, includes payment reassignment provisions because state Medicaid programs often operate as the primary or only payer for the class of practitioners that includes HCBS providers, and amends Medicaid regulations to provide home and community-based setting requirements related to the Affordable Care Act for Community First Choice State plan option. This final rule also makes several important changes to the regulations implementing Medicaid 1915(c) HCBS waivers.

Studi Evaluasi Penerapan Community Based Tourism (CBT) Sebagai Pendukung Agrowisata Berkelanjutan

OpenAIRE

Nurhidayati, Sri Endah

2015-01-01

The role of government in the development of Community Based Tourism (CBT) is very important to strengthen communities around the tourism destination. Government has significant role to ensure that the community has accesses, opportunities and an important power in the development of tourism. The objectives of this research are: (1) describe the government's perception of the Community Based Tourism (CBT) development, (2) identifying government policies to support the Community Based Tourism...

Lessons learned from community-based participatory research: establishing a partnership to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ageing in place.

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, Leslie A; King, Diane K; Retrum, Jessica H; Helander, Kenneth; Wilkins, Shari; Boggs, Jennifer M; Portz, Jennifer Dickman; Nearing, Kathryn; Gozansky, Wendolyn S

2017-06-01

Due to a history of oppression and lack of culturally competent services, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) seniors experience barriers to accessing social services. Tailoring an evidence-based ageing in place intervention to address the unique needs of LGBT seniors may decrease the isolation often faced by this population. To describe practices used in the formation of a community-based participatory research (CBPR), partnership involving social workers, health services providers, researchers and community members who engaged to establish a LGBT ageing in place model called Seniors Using Supports To Age In Neighborhoods (SUSTAIN). A case study approach was employed to describe the partnership development process by reflecting on past meeting minutes, progress reports and interviews with SUSTAIN's partners. Key partnering practices utilized by SUSTAIN included (i) development of a shared commitment and vision; (ii) identifying partners with intersecting spheres of influence in multiple communities of identity (ageing services, LGBT, health research); (iii) attending to power dynamics (e.g. equitable sharing of funds); and (iv) building community capacity through reciprocal learning. Although the partnership dissolved after 4 years, it served as a successful catalyst to establish community programming to support ageing in place for LGBT seniors. Multi-sector stakeholder involvement with capacity to connect communities and use frameworks that formalize equity was key to establishing a high-trust CBPR partnership. However, lack of focus on external forces impacting each partner (e.g. individual organizational strategic planning, community funding agency perspectives) ultimately led to dissolution of the SUSTAIN partnership even though implementation of community programming was realized. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

LEDs based upon AlGaInP heterostructures with multiple quantum wells: comparison of fast neutrons and gamma-quanta irradiation

Science.gov (United States)

Gradoboev, A. V.; Orlova, K. N.; Simonova, A. V.

2018-05-01

The paper presents the research results of watt and volt characteristics of LEDs based upon AlGaInP heterostructures with multiple quantum wells in the active region. The research is completed for LEDs (emission wavelengths 624 nm and 590 nm) under irradiation by fast neutron and gamma-quanta in passive powering mode. Watt-voltage characteristics in the average and high electron injection areas are described as a power function of the operating voltage. It has been revealed that the LEDs transition from average electron injection area to high electron injection area occurs by overcoming the transition area. It disappears as it get closer to the limit result of the irradiation LEDs that is low electron injection mode in the entire supply voltage range. It has been established that the gamma radiation facilitates initial defects restructuring only 42% compared to 100% when irradiation is performed by fast neutrons. Ratio between measured on the boundary between low and average electron injection areas current value and the contribution magnitude of the first stage LEDs emissive power reducing is established. It is allows to predict LEDs resistance to irradiation by fast neutrons and gamma rays.

Green LED as an Effective Light Source for Curing Acrylate-Based Dental Resins in Combination with Irgacure 784

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katalin Bukovinszky

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Low intensity green light emitting diodes (LED were shown to be an effective light source to induce the photopolymerization of an acrylate-based photocurable dental restorative resin mixture of bisphenol A glycerolate dimethacrylate (BisGMA, triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA, and diurethane dimethacrylate (UDMA, in combination with fluorinated diaryl titanocene (Irgacure 784. Dental matrices were prepared by the LED light source at different intensities. The mechanical properties, such as Vickers microhardness, compressive strength, diametric tensile strength, flexural strength, and E-modulus of the created samples, were investigated. The kinetics of the photopolymerization was followed by Raman spectroscopy and conversion values were determined. It was found that, despite its narrow-emission range centered at a wavelength of 531 nm, the green LED light source is suitable for the preparation of dental matrices with good mechanical properties and high conversion values.

The impact of a community-led program promoting weight loss and healthy living in Aboriginal communities: the New South Wales Knockout Health Challenge.

Science.gov (United States)

Passmore, Erin; Shepherd, Brooke; Milat, Andrew; Maher, Louise; Hennessey, Kiel; Havrlant, Rachael; Maxwell, Michelle; Hodge, Wendy; Christian, Fiona; Richards, Justin; Mitchell, Jo

2017-12-13

Aboriginal people in Australia experience significant health burden from chronic disease. There has been limited research to identify effective healthy lifestyle programs to address risk factors for chronic disease among Aboriginal people. The Knockout Health Challenge is a community-led healthy lifestyle program for Aboriginal communities across New South Wales, Australia. An evaluation of the 2013 Knockout Health Challenge was undertaken. Participants' self-reported physical activity and diet were measured at four time points - at the start and end of the Challenge (via paper form), and 5 and 9 months after the Challenge (via telephone survey). Participants' weight was measured objectively at the start and end of the Challenge, and self-reported (via telephone survey) 5 and 9 months after the Challenge. Changes in body composition, physical activity and diet between time points were analysed using linear mixed models. As part of the telephone survey participants were also asked to identify other impacts of the Challenge; these were analysed descriptively (quantitative items) and thematically (qualitative items). A total of 586 people registered in 22 teams to participate in the Challenge. The mean weight at the start was 98.54kg (SD 22.4), and 94% of participants were overweight or obese. Among participants who provided data at all four time points (n=122), the mean weight loss from the start to the end of the Challenge was 2.3kg (95%CI -3.0 to -1.9, pChallenge was 2.3kg (95%CI -3.3 to -1.3, pChallenge, and 0.8kg/m 2 (95%CI -1.2 to -0.4, pChallenge, participants reported they were more physically active and had increased fruit and vegetable consumption compared with the start of the Challenge, and identified a range of other positive impacts. The Challenge was effective in reducing weight and promoting healthy lifestyles among Aboriginal people across New South Wales, and has potential to contribute to closing the health gap between Aboriginal and non

Final report LED solutions for public lighting; Eindrapportage LED oplossingen voor openbare verlichting

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2010-04-15

This report examines if and how LED can be used for public lighting on a large scale. Pilot projects in 29 municipalities were assessed to test the usefulness of LED lighting. This final report provides answers to the questions that relate to the feasibility of the deployment of LED in public lighting and provides some practical pointers. [Dutch] Er is onderzocht of, en zo ja op welke wijze, LED grootschalig toegepast kan worden in de openbare verlichting (OVL). In 29 gemeenten in Nederland zijn proefprojecten geevalueerd om LED verlichting te toetsen op bruikbaarheid. Deze eindrapportage geeft antwoord op vragen die betrekking hebben op de haalbaarheid van de toepassing van LED binnen de OVL en geeft wat praktische aandachtspunten.

Trust of community health workers influences the acceptance of community-based maternal and child health services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Merridy Grant

2017-05-01

Conclusion: Understanding the complex contextual challenges faced by CHWs and community members can strengthen community-based interventions. CHWs require training, support and supervision to develop competencies navigating complex relationships within the community and the health system to provide effective care in communities.

Studi evaluasi penerapan Community Based Tourism (CBT) sebagai pendukung agrowisata berkelanjutan

OpenAIRE

Sri Endah Nurhidayati

2015-01-01

The role of government in the development of Community Based Tourism (CBT) is very important to strengthen communities around the tourism destination. Government has significant role to ensure that the community has accesses, opportunities and an important power in the development of tourism. The objectives of this research are: (1) describe the government's perception of the  Community Based Tourism (CBT) development, (2) identifying government policies to support the Community Based Tourism...

Community based monitoring: engaging and empowering Alberta ranchers

Science.gov (United States)

Michael S. Quinn; Jennifer E. Dubois

2005-01-01

Community based monitoring (CBM), a form of citizen science, is presented as a potential contributor to ecosystem management and sustainable development. A conceptual model for CBM and lessons learned from a Canadian national pilot program, the Canadian Community Monitoring Network, are summarized along with a description of the European university-based “science shop...

Competing in the Global LED Industry: The Case of Taiwan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu-Shan Su

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Light-emitting diode (LED is a very essential application for energy-savings nowadays. The revenue of the Taiwan LED components industry is ranked top one in the world, followed by that of Japan and South Korea. Based on the advantage of their electronics industry, Taiwanese LED companies create a unique model to compete with the international firms. Large international LED companies achieve economies of scale by vertically integrating their operations. Taiwanese LED companies specialize and achieve an optimal efficiency by vertically disintegrating across the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors in the value chains. Taiwanese LED companies create economies of scale and economies of scope through a complete industrial value chain.

LED-roulette : LED's vervangen balletje

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Goossens, P.

2007-01-01

Iedereen waagt wel eens een gokje, in een loterij of misschien ook in een casino. Wie droomt er immers niet van om op een gemakkelijke manier rijk te worden? Met de hier beschreven LED-roulette valt weliswaar weinig te winnen, maar het is wel een uitstekende manier om het roulettespel thuis te

Implementing and managing community-based education and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background. A current challenge in the training of healthcare professionals is to produce socially responsive graduates who are prepared for work in community settings. Community-based education (CBE) and service learning (SL) are teaching approaches used in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free ...

The Preventable Admissions Care Team (PACT): A Social Work-Led Model of Transitional Care.

Science.gov (United States)

Basso Lipani, Maria; Holster, Kathleen; Bussey, Sarah

2015-10-01

In 2010, the Preventable Admissions Care Team (PACT), a social work-led transitional care model, was developed at Mount Sinai to reduce 30-day readmissions among high-risk patients. PACT begins with a comprehensive bedside assessment to identify the psychosocial drivers of readmission. In partnership with the patient and family, a patient-centered action plan is developed and carried out through phone calls, accompaniments, navigations and home visits, as needed, in the first 30 days following discharge. 620 patients were enrolled during the pilot from September 2010-August 2012. Outcomes demonstrated a 43% reduction in inpatient utilization and a 54% reduction in emergency department visits among enrollees. In addition, 93% of patients had a follow-up appointment within 7-10 days of discharge and 90% of patients attended the appointment. The success of PACT has led to additional funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Community-based Care Transitions Program and several managed care companies seeking population health management interventions for high risk members.

Laser Therapy and Dementia: A Database Analysis and Future Aspects on LED-Based Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniela Litscher

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Mainly because of the movement in the age pyramid, one can assume that the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia in general will increase in the coming decades. This paper employs a database analysis to examine the profile of publication activity related to this topic. Two databases were searched: PubMed and Cochrane Library. About 600 papers related to the research area “dementia and laser” and about 450 papers related to the search terms “Alzheimer and laser” were found in these two most commonly used databases. Ten plus one papers are described in detail and are discussed in the context of the laser research performed at the Medical University of Graz. First results concerning the measurement of the transmission factor (TF through the human skull of a new LED- (light emitting diode- based system are presented (TF = 0.0434 ± 0.0104 (SD. The measurements show that this LED system (using the QIT (quantum optical induced transparency effect might be used in the treatment of dementia.

Frontline over ivory tower: key competencies in community-based curricula

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adam Millar

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Background: The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada mandates that community experiences be incorporated into medicine-based specialties.  Presently there is wide variability in community endocrine experiences across Canadian training programs.  This is complicated by the paucity of literature providing guidance on what constitutes a ‘community’ rotation. Method: A modified Delphi technique was used to determine the CanMEDS competencies best taught in a community endocrinology curriculum. The Delphi technique is a qualitative-research method that uses a series of questionnaires sent to a group of experts with controlled feedback provided by the researchers after each survey round.  The experts in this study included endocrinology program directors, community endocrinologists, endocrinology residents and recent endocrinology graduates. Results: Thirty four out of 44 competencies rated by the panel were deemed suitable for a community curriculum.  The experts considered the “Manager” role best taught in the community, while they considered the community least suitable to learn the “Medical Expert” competency. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first time the content of a community-based subspecialty curriculum was determined using the Delphi process in Canada.  These findings suggest that community settings have potential to fill in gaps in residency training in regards to the CanMEDS Manager role.  The results will aid program directors in designing competency-based community endocrinology rotations and competency-based community rotations in other medical subspecialty programs.

Unmanned Carrier-Based Aircraft System: Debate over Systems Role Led to Focus on Aerial Refueling

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-24

Unmanned Carrier-Based Aircraft System: Debate over System’s Role Led to Focus on Aerial Refueling Prior to February 2016, the Navy had planned to...Background In a May 2015 report, we found that the intended mission and required capabilities of UCLASS were under review as there was debate ...environments, or largely strike with limited surveillance capability operating in highly contested environments.2 This debate delayed the expected

Epitaxial growth and properties of AlGaN-based UV-LEDs on Si(111) substrates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saengkaew, Phannee

2010-07-08

An increasing demand for bright and efficient ultraviolet light emitting diodes (UVLEDs) is generated by numerous applications such as biochemical sensors, purification and sterilization, and solid-state white lighting. Al{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}N is a promising material to develop UVLEDs due to the direct wide-bandgap material for emission wavelengths in the UV range and the capability of n- and p-type doping. To develop UV-LEDs on Si substrates is very interesting for low-cost UV-light sources since the Si substrate is available at low cost, in large-diameter size enabling the integration with well-known Si electronics. This work presents the first crack-free AlGaN-based UV-LEDs on Si(111) substrates by MOVPE growth. This AlGaN-based UV-LED on Si(111) substrate consists of Al{sub 0.1}Ga{sub 0.9}N:Si layers on LT-AlN/HT-AlN SL buffer layers and an active layer of GaN/Al{sub 0.1}Ga{sub 0.9}N MQWs followed by Mg-doped (GaN/Al{sub 0.1}Ga{sub 0.9}N) superlattices and GaN:Mg cap layers. It yields a {proportional_to}350 nm UV electroluminescence at room temperature and a turn-on voltage in a range of 2.6-3.1 V by current-voltage (I-V) measurements. The novel LT-AlN/HT-AlN superlattice buffer layers efficiently improve the crystalline quality of Al{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}N layers and compensate a thermal tensile strain in Al{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}N layers after cooling as observed by in-situ curvature measurements. The dislocation density could be reduced from 8.4 x 10{sup 10} cm{sup -2} in the AlN-based SLs to 1.8 x 10{sup 10} cm{sup -2} in the Al{sub 0.1}Ga{sub 0.9}N layers as determined by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements. Crack-free Al{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}N layers grown on these LT-AlN/HT-AlN superlattices with 0.05{<=}x{<=} 0.65 are achieved on Si substrates with good crystalline, optical, and electrical properties. The best crystalline quality of Al{sub 0.1}Ga{sub 0.9}N is obtained with {omega}-FWHMs of the (0002) and (10-10) reflections of

EVALUATING THE CULTURE-LED REGENERATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D'Angelo Francesca

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of the paper is to propose a new approach to urban planning, evaluating the culture-led regeneration processes. In the last few years, the cultural turn in urban planning played a central role in the urban studies. In this way we try to elaborate a more robust perspective interpreting the complex phenomenology emerging from the culture-led regeneration processes. Within the concept of complexity we discuss about the metabolic process that are the processes necessary to transform energy, material and information in goods and service functional to the complex urban system life. The approach that will be employed is the MuSIASEM that is based on several novel concept and an innovative methods never applied in this research field.

The Power of Community Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Capers, Natasha; Shah, Shital C.

2015-01-01

In this article, Shital Shah, who supports community schools as assistant director for educational issues at the American Federation of Teachers, and Natasha Capers, a coordinator for the New York City Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ), a parent-led collaborative of unions and community organizations, discuss the community schools movement…

Refrigerating liquid prototype for LED's thermal management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Faranda, Roberto; Guzzetti, Stefania; Lazaroiu, George Cristian; Leva, Sonia

2012-01-01

The heat management is the critical factor for high performance operation of LED. A new heat management application of refrigerating liquid integrated within a fabricated prototype is proposed and investigated. A series of experiments considering different heights of liquid level were performed to evaluate the heat dissipation performance and optical characteristics of the refrigerating liquid based prototype. The results reveal that the junction temperature decreases as the level of refrigerating liquid increases. The experimental results report that the refrigerating liquid reduces the junction temperature, and can positively influence the luminous radiation performances. An optimization investigation of the proposed solution was carried out to find an optimum thermal performance. The experiments indicated that refrigerating liquid cooling is a powerful way for heat dissipation of high power LEDs, and the fabrication of prototype was feasible and useful. - Highlights: ► New heat management application of refrigerating liquid on a fabricated LED prototype. ► Thermal models setup and comparison between the classical and the new solutions. ► The impact of refrigerating liquid level on LED thermal and luminous performances. ► The relationship between different levels of liquid with LED prototype performances.

Functional outcomes in community-based adults with borderline personality disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Javaras, Kristin N; Zanarini, Mary C; Hudson, James I; Greenfield, Shelly F; Gunderson, John G

2017-06-01

Many individuals in clinical samples with borderline personality disorder (BPD) experience high levels of functional impairment. However, little is known about the levels of functional impairment experienced by individuals with BPD in the general community. To address this issue, we compared overall and domain-specific (educational/occupational; social; recreational) functioning in a sample of community-based individuals with BPD (n = 164); community-based individuals without BPD (n = 901); and clinically-ascertained individuals with BPD (n = 61). BPD diagnoses and functional outcomes were based on well-accepted, semi-structured interviews. Community-based individuals with BPD were significantly less likely to experience good overall functioning (steady, consistent employment and ≥1 good relationship) compared to community-based individuals without BPD (BPD: 47.4%; Non- BPD: 74.5%; risk difference -27.1%; p < 0.001), even when compared directly to their own non-BPD siblings (risk difference -35.5%; p < 0.001). Community-based individuals with BPD versus those without BPD did not differ significantly on most domain-specific outcomes, but the former group experienced poorer educational/occupational performance and lower quality relationships with parents, partners, and friends. However, community-based individuals with BPD were significantly more likely to experience good overall functioning than clinically-based individuals with BPD (risk difference -35.2%; p < 0.001), with the latter group more likely to experience reduced employment status, very poor quality relationships with partners, and social isolation. In conclusion, community-based individuals with BPD experienced marked functional impairment, especially in the social domain, but were less likely to experience the more extreme occupational and social impairments seen among patients with BPD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bridgeless SEPIC PFC Converter for Multistring LED Driver

Science.gov (United States)

Jha, Aman; Singh, Bhim

2018-05-01

This paper deals with Power Factor Correction (PFC) in Low Voltage High Current (LVHC) multi-string light emitting diode (LED) using a bridgeless (BL) single ended primary inductance converter (SEPIC). This application is designed for large area LED lighting with illumination control. A multi-mode LED dimming technique is used for the lighting control. The BL-SEPIC PFC converter is used as a load emulator for high power factor. The regulated low voltage from flyback converter is a source power to the synchronous buck converters for multi-string LED driver and forced cooling system for LED junction. The BL-SEPIC PFC converter inductor design is based on Discontinuous Inductor Current Modes (DICM) which provides good PFC at low cost. Test results are found quite satisfactory for universal input AC (90-265 V). There is significant improvement in the power factor and input current Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) with good margin of harmonic limits for lighting IEC 61000-3-2 Class C.

Local natural and cultural heritage assets and community based ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Community based tourism (CBT) is seen as an opportunity which mass tourism does not offer for, especially, rural communities to develop their natural and cultural assets into tourism activities for the benefit of the community. The point of CBT is that the community, collectively and individually, gains a livelihood from ...

Recommendations for scale-up of community-based misoprostol distribution programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, Nuriya; Kapungu, Chisina; Carnahan, Leslie; Geller, Stacie

2014-06-01

Community-based distribution of misoprostol for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) in resource-poor settings has been shown to be safe and effective. However, global recommendations for prenatal distribution and monitoring within a community setting are not yet available. In order to successfully translate misoprostol and PPH research into policy and practice, several critical points must be considered. A focus on engaging the community, emphasizing the safe nature of community-based misoprostol distribution, supply chain management, effective distribution, coverage, and monitoring plans are essential elements to community-based misoprostol program introduction, expansion, or scale-up. Copyright © 2014 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Engaging Citizens In Discussions of Coastal Climate ChangeTwo examples of place-based research that engaged community members will be presented. Lessons learned in how to engage community members and working with high school students and hands-on learning across generations can provide insights into social and ecosystem change will be shared.

Science.gov (United States)

Kruger, L. E.; Johnson, A. C.

2017-12-01

By engaging community members as research partners, people become not just the subject of the story, they become storytellers as well. Participatory community-based research that engages community residents in gathering and sharing their lived experiences is instrumental in connecting people to each other and their forests and forest science and helpful when confronted by change. Two examples of place-based research that engaged community members as researchers will be presented. What factors led to collaborative outcomes that integrated citizen-informed knowledge with scientific knowledge? What lessons were learned in how best to engage community members? How did working with high school students draw even hesitant members of the community to participate? By strengthening bonds between students and their communities, both natural and social environments, we can provide young people with opportunities to better understand how they fit into the greater community and their natural environment. Hands-on learning that explores experiences in nature across generations can benefit communities, especially youth, and can provide insights into social and ecosystem change.

Setup of a LED light-pulser system for the OLYMPUS experiment; Aufbau eines LED-Lichtpulsersystems fuer das OLYMPUS-Experiment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rehman, Waqaas

2011-12-15

The aim of this thesis consists in the construction and test of an external light-calibration system based on light-emitting diodes (LED) for the application at the symmetric Moller/Bhabha (SYMB) luminosity monitor. In chapter 2 the theoretical foundations of the OLYMPUS experiment, especially of the SYMB luminosity monitor are explained. Thereafter in chapter 3 the details of the setup of the OLYMPUS experiment and the fundamental properties of the SYMB detectors are discussed. In chapter 4 the whole concept of the LED light-pulser system is treated. In chapter 5 then test measurements with the ready LED light-pulser system are described. Thereby the light source shall be optimized in the shape that thereafter light pulses with short signal width are producable. Also different measurements for the unique characterization of the systems are performed. In chapter 6 light-intensity measurements during the operation of the LED light-pulser system are described.

Resilience-based Diabetes Self-management Education: Perspectives From African American Participants, Community Leaders, and Healthcare Providers.

Science.gov (United States)

Lehrer, H Matthew; Dubois, Susan K; Brown, Sharon A; Steinhardt, Mary A

2017-08-01

Purpose The purpose of this qualitative, focus group study was to further refine the Resilience-based Diabetes Self-management Education (RB-DSME) recruitment process and intervention, build greater trust in the community, and identify strategies to enhance its sustainability as a community-based intervention in African American church settings. Methods Six 2-hour focus groups (N = 55; 10 men and 45 women) were led by a trained moderator with a written guide to facilitate discussion. Two sessions were conducted with individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who participated in previous RB-DSME pilot interventions and their family members, two sessions with local church leaders, and two sessions with community healthcare providers who care for patients with T2DM. Two independent reviewers performed content analysis to identify major themes using a grounded theory approach. The validity of core themes was enhanced by external review and subsequent discussions with two qualitative methods consultants. Results There was expressed interest and acceptability of the RB-DSME program. Church connection and pastor support were noted as key factors in building trust and enhancing recruitment, retention, and sustainability of the program. Core themes across all groups included the value of incentives, the need for foundational knowledge shared with genuine concern, teaching with visuals, dealing with denial, balancing the reality of adverse consequences with hope, the importance of social support, and addressing healthcare delivery barriers. Conclusion Focus groups documented the feasibility and potential effectiveness of RB-DSME interventions to enhance diabetes care in the African American community. In clinical practice, inclusion of these core themes may enhance T2DM self-care and treatment outcomes.

A University-Community Partnership in Teacher Education from the Perspectives of Community-Based Teacher Educators

Science.gov (United States)

Guillen, Lorena; Zeichner, Ken

2018-01-01

This article examines the experiences of a group of nine community-based mentors of teacher candidates who partnered for several years through a local, community-based organization with the graduate elementary and secondary teacher education programs at a research university in the Pacific Northwest. Following a brief discussion of the history of…

Transforming the urban food desert from the grassroots up: a model for community change.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, LaVonna Blair; Galloway-Gilliam, Lark; Flynn, Gwendolyn; Nomachi, Jonathan; Keener, LaTonya Chavis; Sloane, David C

2011-01-01

Confronted by continuing health disparities in vulnerable communities, Community Health Councils (CHC), a nonprofit community-based organization in South Los Angeles, worked with the African Americans Building a Legacy of Health Coalition and research partners to develop a community change model to address the root causes of health disparities within the community's African American population. This article discusses how the CHC Model's development and application led to public policy interventions in a "food desert." The CHC Model provided a systematic approach to engaging impacted communities in support of societal level reforms, with the goal to influence health outcomes.

Scoping study into community-based renewable energy projects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2000-07-01

This scoping study has been carried out by the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE), a charity which promotes energy efficiency and renewable energy. CSE have used their involvement in the development of the Energy Club (the first energy service company for householders in the UK) and the Bristol Environment and Energy Trust (a cross-sector organisation initiating environmental projects) as the basis of the study. This study is the first phase of a long term project to set up two small-scale renewable energy schemes to demonstrate the benefits of a community based approach. Specific objectives of the study were: to identify, quantify and cost, renewable energy resources for interested community organisations; to evaluate two routes for developing community based projects - Environment Trusts and Energy Clubs'; to organise a seminar with the objective of bringing together community interest groups with experts in renewable energy; to identify two communities with viable renewable projects for the next phase - full feasibility studies/pilot projects. (author)

Studi evaluasi penerapan Community Based Tourism (CBT sebagai pendukung agrowisata berkelanjutan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sri Endah Nurhidayati

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The role of government in the development of Community Based Tourism (CBT is very important to strengthen communities around the tourism destination. Government has significant role to ensure that the community has accesses, opportunities and an important power in the development of tourism. The objectives of this research are: (1 describe the government's perception of the  Community Based Tourism (CBT development, (2 identifying government policies to support the Community Based Tourism (CBT implementation in Batu City, East Java, and (3 describe the constraints that occur in the implementation of Community based Tourism (CBT in Batu City, East Java. This study uses qualitative approach by analyzing critical reality, being constructed locally and specifically. The study was conducted in Batu City, East Java. Perceptions of government on the implementation of community-based tourism reflected the mindset of the individual. The community-based tourism development in Batu city is considered the same as rural tourism development. The Government supervise the development of tourism products, especially the tourist village. To support the existence of a tourist village Department of Tourism and Creative Economy   help develop and market promotion. Barriers to the implementation of community-based tourism development with regard to the internal aspects of the government: the quality of human resources decision makers in the Batu Government do not possess educational background of tourism, government people less creative design programs and somewhat forced, the lack of trust the government to local communities, government is not able to map the condition social community related to the system's internal decision-making in the community that are less able to intervene in all components of society, a narrow understanding of CBT, and yet solid government policy coordination between stakeholders. While the external barriers are lack of insight into the

A community-based framework for aquatic ecosystem models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Trolle, Didde; Hamilton, D. P.; Hipsey, M. R.

2012-01-01

Here, we communicate a point of departure in the development of aquatic ecosystem models, namely a new community-based framework, which supports an enhanced and transparent union between the collective expertise that exists in the communities of traditional ecologists and model developers. Through...... a literature survey, we document the growing importance of numerical aquatic ecosystem models while also noting the difficulties, up until now, of the aquatic scientific community to make significant advances in these models during the past two decades. Through a common forum for aquatic ecosystem modellers we...... aim to (i) advance collaboration within the aquatic ecosystem modelling community, (ii) enable increased use of models for research, policy and ecosystem-based management, (iii) facilitate a collective framework using common (standardised) code to ensure that model development is incremental, (iv...

The analysis of colour uniformity for a volumetric display based on a rotating LED array

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Jiang; Liu, Xu; Yan, Caijie; Xia, XinXing; Li, Haifeng

2011-01-01

There is a colour nonuniformity zone existing in three-dimensional (3D) volumetric displays which is based on the rotating colour light-emitting diode (LED) array. We analyse the reason for the colour nonuniformity zone by measuring the light intensity distribution and chromaticity coordinates of the LED in the volumetric display. Two boundaries of the colour nonuniformity zone are calculated. We measure the colour uniformities for a single cuboid of 3*3*4 voxels to display red, green, blue and white colour in different horizontal viewing angles, and for 64 cuboids distributed in the whole cylindrical image space with a fixed viewpoint. To evaluate the colour uniformity of a 3D image, we propose three evaluation indices of colour uniformity: the average of colour difference, the maximum colour difference and the variance of colour difference. The measurement results show that the character of colour uniformity is different for the 3D volumetric display and the two-dimensional display

Solution of multi-element LED light sources development automation problem

Science.gov (United States)

Chertov, Aleksandr N.; Gorbunova, Elena V.; Korotaev, Valery V.; Peretyagin, Vladimir S.

2014-09-01

The intensive development of LED technologies resulted in the creation of multicomponent light sources in the form of controlled illumination devices based on usage of mentioned LED technologies. These light sources are used in different areas of production (for example, in the food industry for sorting products or in the textile industry for quality control, etc.). The use of LED lighting products in the devices used in specialized lighting, became possible due to wide range of colors of light, LED structures (which determines the direction of radiation, the spatial distribution and intensity of the radiation, electrical, heat, power and other characteristics), and of course, the possibility of obtaining any shade in a wide dynamic range of brightness values. LED-based lighting devices are notable for the diversity of parameters and characteristics, such as color radiation, location and number of emitters, etc. Although LED technologies have several advantages, however, they require more attention if you need to ensure a certain character of illumination distribution and/or distribution of the color picture at a predetermined distance (for example, at flat surface, work zone, area of analysis or observation). This paper presents software designed for the development of the multicomponent LED light sources. The possibility of obtaining the desired color and energy distribution at the zone of analysis by specifying the spatial parameters of the created multicomponent light source and using of real power, spectral and color parameters and characteristics of the LEDs is shown as well.

Hyperbolic mapping of complex networks based on community information

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zuxi; Li, Qingguang; Jin, Fengdong; Xiong, Wei; Wu, Yao

2016-08-01

To improve the hyperbolic mapping methods both in terms of accuracy and running time, a novel mapping method called Community and Hyperbolic Mapping (CHM) is proposed based on community information in this paper. Firstly, an index called Community Intimacy (CI) is presented to measure the adjacency relationship between the communities, based on which a community ordering algorithm is introduced. According to the proposed Community-Sector hypothesis, which supposes that most nodes of one community gather in a same sector in hyperbolic space, CHM maps the ordered communities into hyperbolic space, and then the angular coordinates of nodes are randomly initialized within the sector that they belong to. Therefore, all the network nodes are so far mapped to hyperbolic space, and then the initialized angular coordinates can be optimized by employing the information of all nodes, which can greatly improve the algorithm precision. By applying the proposed dual-layer angle sampling method in the optimization procedure, CHM reduces the time complexity to O(n2) . The experiments show that our algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.

Preventing adolescent suicide: a community takes action.

Science.gov (United States)

Pirruccello, Linda M

2010-05-01

Suicide is the third leading cause of death for adolescents and young people in the United States. The etiology of suicide in this population has eluded policy makers, researchers, and communities. Although many suicide prevention programs have been developed and implemented, few are evidence-based in their effectiveness in decreasing suicide rates. In one northern California community, adolescent suicide has risen above the state's average. Two nurses led an effort to develop and implement an innovative grassroots community suicide prevention project targeted at eliminating any further teen suicide. The project consisted of a Teen Resource Card, a community resource brochure targeted at teens, and education for the public and school officials to raise awareness about this issue. This article describes this project for other communities to use as a model. Risk and protective factors are described, and a comprehensive background of adolescent suicide is provided.

A consultant paediatrician led and public health nurse (PHN) provided Community Enuresis Clinic as a model of care.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Noone, D

2011-02-01

A dedicated Community Enuresis Clinic was established in 2004 in Cavan and Monaghan. The service was audited using ERIC (Education and Resources for Improving Childhood Continence) guidelines. There were 106 males and 47 females, giving an M: F ratio of 2.3:1. Monosymptomatic Nocturnal Enuresis (MNE) accounted for 127 (83%). Adequate follow-up was available for 108 children with MNE and in this group Initial Success was 49% (ERIC target 50%). 71% were dry at 1 year. There was a dropout rate of 20% in the MNE group (ERIC minimum standard < 25%). We believe the structure of this community based clinic and its approach to MNE management has been successful.

Novel rare-earth doped silicon-nitride based materials as promising conversion phosphors for white LEDs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Li, Yuan Qiang; Hintzen, H.T.J.M.

2006-01-01

Lighting world will change drastically due to the replacement of the traditional TL, PL and incandescent lamps by white LEDs. Advantageous features of white LEDs are a longer lifetime, lower energy consumption and extended possibilities for integration and miniaturisation. A white LED can be

Doing Climate Science in Indigenous Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Pandya, R. E.; Bennett, B.

2009-12-01

Historically, the goal of broadening participation in the geosciences has been expressed and approached from the viewpoint of the majority-dominated geoscience community. The need for more students who are American Indian, Native Hawaiian, or Alaska Native is expressed in terms of the need to diversify the research community, and strategies to engage more students are often posed around the question “what can we do to get more indigenous students interested in coming to our institutions to do geosciences?” This approach can lead to neglecting indigenous ways of knowing, inadvertently prioritizes western values over traditional ones, and doesn’t necessarily honor tribal community’s desire to hold on to their talented youth. Further, while this approach has resulted in some modest success, the overall participation in geoscience by students from indigenous backgrounds remains low. Many successful programs, however, have tried an alternate approach; they begin by approaching the geosciences from the viewpoint of indigenous communities. The questions they ask center around how geosciences can advance the priorities of indigenous communities, and their approaches focus on building capacity for the geosciences within indigenous communities. Most importantly, perhaps, these efforts originate in Tribal communities themselves, and invite the geoscience research community to partner in projects that are rooted in indigenous culture and values. Finally, these programs recognize that scientific expertise is only one among many skills indigenous peoples employ in their relation with their homelands. Climate change, like all things related to the landscape, is intimately connected to the core of indigenous cultures. Thus, emerging concerns about climate change provide a venue for developing new, indigenous-centered, approaches to the persistent problem of broadening participation in the geoscience. This presentation will highlight three indigenous-led efforts in to

Volume of Home and Community Based Services and...

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — Volume of Home- and Community-Based Services and Time to Nursing-Home Placement The purpose of this study was to determine whether the volume of Home and Community...

Correlating electroluminescence characterization and physics-based models of InGaN/GaN LEDs: Pitfalls and open issues

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Calciati, Marco; Vallone, Marco; Zhou, Xiangyu; Ghione, Giovanni [Dipartimento di Elettronica e Telecomunicazioni, Politecnico di Torino, corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino (Italy); Goano, Michele, E-mail: michele.goano@polito.it; Bertazzi, Francesco [Dipartimento di Elettronica e Telecomunicazioni, Politecnico di Torino, corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino (Italy); IEIIT-CNR, Politecnico di Torino, corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino (Italy); Meneghini, Matteo; Meneghesso, Gaudenzio; Zanoni, Enrico [Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell' Informazione, Università di Padova, Via Gradenigo 6/B, 35131 Padova (Italy); Bellotti, Enrico [Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University, 8 Saint Mary' s Street, 02215 Boston, MA (United States); Verzellesi, Giovanni [Dipartimento di Scienze e Metodi dell' Ingegneria, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, 42122 Reggio Emilia (Italy); Zhu, Dandan; Humphreys, Colin [Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, 27 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge CB3 0FS (United Kingdom)

2014-06-15

Electroluminescence (EL) characterization of InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs), coupled with numerical device models of different sophistication, is routinely adopted not only to establish correlations between device efficiency and structural features, but also to make inferences about the loss mechanisms responsible for LED efficiency droop at high driving currents. The limits of this investigative approach are discussed here in a case study based on a comprehensive set of current- and temperature-dependent EL data from blue LEDs with low and high densities of threading dislocations (TDs). First, the effects limiting the applicability of simpler (closed-form and/or one-dimensional) classes of models are addressed, like lateral current crowding, vertical carrier distribution nonuniformity, and interband transition broadening. Then, the major sources of uncertainty affecting state-of-the-art numerical device simulation are reviewed and discussed, including (i) the approximations in the transport description through the multi-quantum-well active region, (ii) the alternative valence band parametrizations proposed to calculate the spontaneous emission rate, (iii) the difficulties in defining the Auger coefficients due to inadequacies in the microscopic quantum well description and the possible presence of extra, non-Auger high-current-density recombination mechanisms and/or Auger-induced leakage. In the case of the present LED structures, the application of three-dimensional numerical-simulation-based analysis to the EL data leads to an explanation of efficiency droop in terms of TD-related and Auger-like nonradiative losses, with a C coefficient in the 10{sup −30} cm{sup 6}/s range at room temperature, close to the larger theoretical calculations reported so far. However, a study of the combined effects of structural and model uncertainties suggests that the C values thus determined could be overestimated by about an order of magnitude. This preliminary

Correlating electroluminescence characterization and physics-based models of InGaN/GaN LEDs: Pitfalls and open issues

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marco Calciati

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Electroluminescence (EL characterization of InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs, coupled with numerical device models of different sophistication, is routinely adopted not only to establish correlations between device efficiency and structural features, but also to make inferences about the loss mechanisms responsible for LED efficiency droop at high driving currents. The limits of this investigative approach are discussed here in a case study based on a comprehensive set of current- and temperature-dependent EL data from blue LEDs with low and high densities of threading dislocations (TDs. First, the effects limiting the applicability of simpler (closed-form and/or one-dimensional classes of models are addressed, like lateral current crowding, vertical carrier distribution nonuniformity, and interband transition broadening. Then, the major sources of uncertainty affecting state-of-the-art numerical device simulation are reviewed and discussed, including (i the approximations in the transport description through the multi-quantum-well active region, (ii the alternative valence band parametrizations proposed to calculate the spontaneous emission rate, (iii the difficulties in defining the Auger coefficients due to inadequacies in the microscopic quantum well description and the possible presence of extra, non-Auger high-current-density recombination mechanisms and/or Auger-induced leakage. In the case of the present LED structures, the application of three-dimensional numerical-simulation-based analysis to the EL data leads to an explanation of efficiency droop in terms of TD-related and Auger-like nonradiative losses, with a C coefficient in the 10−30 cm6/s range at room temperature, close to the larger theoretical calculations reported so far. However, a study of the combined effects of structural and model uncertainties suggests that the C values thus determined could be overestimated by about an order of magnitude. This preliminary

A Student-Led Global Health Education Initiative: Reflections on the Kenyan Village Medical Education Program

Science.gov (United States)

John, Christopher; Asquith, Heidi; Wren, Tom; Mercuri, Stephanie; Brownlow, Sian

2016-01-01

The Kenyan Village Medical Education Program is a student-led global health initiative that seeks to improve health outcomes in rural Kenya through culturally appropriate health education. The month-long program, which is organised by the Melbourne University Health Initiative (Australia), is conducted each January in southern rural Kenya. Significance for public health The Kenyan Village Medical Education (KVME) Program is a student-led global health initiative that involves exploring well-established strategies for the prevention of disease through workshops that are conducted in southern rural Kenya. These workshops are tailored to the unique needs and circumstances of rural Kenyan communities, and are delivered to community leaders, as well as to adults and children within the wider community. Aside from the KVME Program’s emphasis on reducing the burden of preventable disease through health education, the positive impact of the KVME Program on the Program’s student volunteers also deserves consideration. Throughout the month-long KVME Program, student volunteers are presented with opportunities to develop their understanding of cultural competency, the social and economic determinants of health, as well as the unique challenges associated with working in resource-poor communities. Importantly, the KVME Program also represents an avenue through which global health leadership can be fostered amongst student volunteers. PMID:27190974

Community Based Health Insurance Knowledge and Willingness to ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Community Based Health Insurance Knowledge and Willingness to Pay; A Survey of a Rural Community in ... Journal Home > Vol 6, No 1 (2012) > ... and is the most appropriate insurance model for rural areas where incomes are unstable.

'Living with Teenagers': feasibility study of a peer-led parenting intervention for socially disadvantaged families with adolescent children.

Science.gov (United States)

Michelson, Daniel; Ben-Zion, Ilan; James, Alana I; Draper, Lucy; Penney, Caroline; Day, Crispin

2014-08-01

To develop and test the feasibility of a peer-led parenting intervention for parents of adolescent children. Formative evaluation using a mixed-method cohort design. Socially deprived community sites in London, UK. Parents seeking help with managing behavioural difficulties of an index adolescent child (aged 11-17 years). A structured, group-based intervention ('Living with Teenagers') delivered by trained peer facilitators. We assessed feasibility in terms of uptake and completion rates (% parents completing ≥5 sessions); social validity (assessed by service satisfaction measure and participant interviews); and potential for impact (assessed by parent-reported measures of adolescent behaviour and mental health, parenting satisfaction, expressed emotion, and disciplinary practices). Participants (n=41) were predominately (79%) from minority ethnic backgrounds and nearly half were lone parents. Most had not previously accessed a structured parenting programme. The completion rate was 71%. Significant changes (p<0.05) were observed in reduced parental concern about adolescent problems, increased parenting satisfaction and less negative expressed emotion. There were non-significant changes in disciplinary practices and adolescent mental health. Participants were highly satisfied with their service experience and endorsed the acceptability of the intervention's content, materials and peer-led format, while suggesting an expanded number of sessions and more skills practice and demonstrations. Peer-led parenting groups are feasible and potentially effective for supporting parents of adolescents living in socially disadvantaged communities. These findings warrant more rigorous testing under controlled conditions. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Effectiveness of structured, hospital-based, nurse-led atrial fibrillation clinics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Qvist, Ina; Hendriks, Jeroen M L; Møller, Dorthe S

2016-01-01

OBJECTIVE: A previous randomised trial showed that structured, nurse-led atrial fibrillation (AF) care is superior to conventional AF care, although further research is needed to determine the outcomes of such care in a real-world setting. We compared the outcomes of patients in real-world, nurse...

Soil aggregation and bacterial community structure as affected by tillage and cover cropping in the Brazilian Cerrados

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Peixoto, R. S.; Coutinho, H. L. C.; Madari, B.; Machado, P. L. O. A.; Rumjanek, N. G.; Van Elsas, J. D.; Seldin, L.; Rosado, A. S.

2006-01-01

Microbial-based indicators of soil quality are believed to be more dynamic than those based on physical and chemical properties. Recent developments in molecular biology based techniques have led to rapid and reliable tools to characterize microbial community structures. We determined the effects of

Interface and transport properties of GaN/graphene junction in GaN-based LEDs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Liancheng; Zhang Yiyun; Liu Zhiqiang; Guo Enqing; Yi Xiaoyan; Wang Junxi; Wang Guohong; Li Xiao; Zhu Hongwei

2012-01-01

A normalized circular transmission line method pattern with uniform interface area was developed to obtain contact resistances of p-, u-, n-GaN/graphene contacts (p, u and n represent p-type doped, unintentionally doped and n-type doped, respectively) and N-polar u-, n-GaN/graphene contacts in GaN-based LEDs. The resistances of the graphene/GaN contacts were mainly determined by the work function gap and the carrier concentration in GaN. Annealing caused diffusion of metal atoms and significantly influenced the interface transport properties.

Using Community-Based Participatory Research to Identify Environmental Justice Issues in an Inner-City Community and Inform Urban Planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Mansyur, Carol Leler; Jeng, Hueiwang Anna; Holloman, Erica; DeBrew, Linwood

2016-01-01

The Southeast CARE Coalition has been using community-based participatory research to examine environmental degradation in the Southeast Community, Newport News, Virginia. A survey was developed to collect assessment data. Up to 66% of respondents were concerned about environmental problems in their community. Those with health conditions were significantly more likely to identify specific environmental problems. The top 5 environmental concerns included coal dust, air quality, crime, water quality, and trash. The community-based participatory research process is building community capacity and participation, providing community input into strategic planning, and empowering community members to take control of environmental justice issues in their community.

Social Entrepreneurship Andragogy-Based for Community Empowerment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hidayat Dayat

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The essence of social entrepreneurship is the ability to initiate, lead and implement problem-solving strategies, through cooperation with others in all types of social networks. The purpose of this study analyzes: 1 entrepreneurship training, 2 adult education assumptions, and 3 community empowerment. This study is discussed by using a comparative theory analysis method that related to entrepreneurship training, andragogy, and community empowerment from various literary sources. Analysis is conducted to find conclusions that can be justified scientifically. The results of the study conclude that: 1 social entrepreneurship training is an organized learning process from planning, implementation, and evaluation on non-formal education path aimed at enhancing community knowledge, attitude and skills for learning and endeavor, 2 entrepreneurship training based on andragogy conducted through a learning process that implements adults’ assumptions of self-conceptual, learning experiences, learning readiness, and learning orientation. 3 Community empowerment is a process of empowerment or strength to community to have the ability of individuals who completely agreed with the community in building social and economic empowerment of the community.

The 2014 Karnali River Floods in Western Nepal: Making Community Based Early Warning Systems Work When Data Is Lacking

Science.gov (United States)

Dugar, S.; MacClune, K.; Venkateswaran, K.; Yadav, S.; Szoenyi, M.

2015-12-01

Implementing Community Based Flood Early Warning System (EWS) in developing countries like Nepal is challenging. Complex topography and geology combined with a sparse network of river and rainfall gauges and little predictive meteorological capacity both nationally and regionally dramatically constrain EWS options. This paper provides a synopsis of the hydrological and meteorological conditions that led to flooding in the Karnali River, West Nepal during mid-August 2014, and analyses the effectiveness of flood EWS in the region. On August 14-15, 2014, a large, slow moving weather system deposited record breaking rainfall in the foothills of the Karnali River catchment. Precipitation depths of 200 to 500 mm were recorded over a 24-hour period, which led to rapid rise of river heights. At the Chisapani river gauge station used for the existing EWS, where the Karnali River exits the Himalaya onto the Indo-Gangetic Plain, water levels rapidly exceeded the 11 meter danger level. Between 3 to 6 am, water levels rose from 11 to 16. 1 meters, well beyond the design height of 15 meters. Analysis suggests that 2014 floods may have been a one-in-1000 year event. Starting with the onset of intense rainfall, the Chisapani gauge reader was in regular communication with downstream stakeholders and communities providing them with timely information regarding rising water level. This provided people just enough time to move to safe places with their livestock and key assets. Though households still lost substantial assets, without the EWS, floodwaters would have caught communities completely unaware and damage would almost certainly have been much worse. In particular, despite the complications associated with access to the Chisapani gauge and failure of critical communication nodes during the floods, EWS was instrumental in saving lives. This study explores both the details of the flood event and performance of the early warning system, and identifies lessons learned to help

A Modularity Degree Based Heuristic Community Detection Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dongming Chen

2014-01-01

Full Text Available A community in a complex network can be seen as a subgroup of nodes that are densely connected. Discovery of community structures is a basic problem of research and can be used in various areas, such as biology, computer science, and sociology. Existing community detection methods usually try to expand or collapse the nodes partitions in order to optimize a given quality function. These optimization function based methods share the same drawback of inefficiency. Here we propose a heuristic algorithm (MDBH algorithm based on network structure which employs modularity degree as a measure function. Experiments on both synthetic benchmarks and real-world networks show that our algorithm gives competitive accuracy with previous modularity optimization methods, even though it has less computational complexity. Furthermore, due to the use of modularity degree, our algorithm naturally improves the resolution limit in community detection.

Self-reported Impacts of LED Lighting Technology Compared to Fuel-based Lighting on Night Market Business Prosperity in Kenya

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johnstone, Peter; Jacobson, Arne; Mills, Evan; Mumbi, Maina

2009-02-11

The notion of"productive use" is often invoked in discussions about whether new technologies improve productivity or otherwise enhance commerce in developing-country contexts. It an elusive concept,especially when quantitative measures are sought. Improved and more energy efficient illumination systems for off-gridapplication--the focus of the Lumina Project--provide a case in which a significant productivity benefit can be imagined, given the importance of light to the successful performance of many tasks, and the very low quality of baseline illumination provided by flame-based source. This Research Note summarizes self-reported quantitative and qualitative impacts of switching to LED lighting technology on the prosperity of night-market business owners and operators. The information was gathered in the context of our 2008 market testing field work in Kenya?s Rift Valley Province, which was performed in the towns of Maai Mahiu and Karagita by Arne Jacobson, Kristen Radecsky, Peter Johnstone, Maina Mumbi, and others. Maai Mahiu is a crossroads town; provision of services to travelers and freight carriers is a primary income source for the residents. In contrast, the primary income for Karagita's residents is from work in the large, factory style flower farms on the eastern shores of Lake Naivasha that specialize in producing cut flowers for export to the European market. According to residents, both towns had populations of 6,000 to 8,000 people in June 2008. We focused on quantifying the economics of fuel-based and LED lighting technology in the context of business use by night market vendors and shop keepers. Our research activities with the business owners and operators included baseline measurement of their fuel-based lighting use, an initial survey, offering for sale data logger equipped rechargeable LED lamps, monitoring the adoption of the LED lamps, and a follow-up survey.

The Indigenous Observation Network: Collaborative, Community-Based Monitoring in the Yukon River Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Herman-Mercer, N. M.; Mutter, E. A.; Wilson, N. J.; Toohey, R.; Schuster, P. F.

2017-12-01

The Indigenous Observation Network (ION) is a collaborative Community-Based Monitoring (CBM) program with both permafrost and water-quality monitoring components operating in the Yukon River Basin (YRB) of Alaska and Canada. ION is jointly facilitated by the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council (YRITWC), an indigenous non-profit organization, and the US Geological Survey (USGS), a federal agency. The YRB is the fourth largest drainage basin in North America encompassing 855,000 square kilometers in northwestern Canada and central Alaska and is essential to the ecosystems of the Bering and Chuckchi Seas. Water is also fundamental to the subsistence and culture of the 76 Tribes and First Nations that live in the YRB providing sustenance in the form of drinking water, fish, wildlife, and vegetation. Despite the ecological and cultural significance of the YRB, the remote geography of sub-Arctic and Arctic Alaska and Canada make it difficult to collect scientific data in these locations and led to a lack of baseline data characterizing this system until recently. In response to community concerns about the quality of the YR and a desire by USGS scientists to create a long term water-quality database, the USGS and YRITWC collaborated to create ION in 2005. Surface water samples are collected by trained community technicians from Tribal Environmental Programs or First Nation Lands and Resources staff from over 35 Alaska Native Tribes and First Nations that reside along the YR and/or one of the major tributaries. Samples are analyzed at USGS laboratories in Boulder, CO and results are disseminated to participating YRB communities and the general public. This presentation will focus on the factors that have enabled the longevity and success of this program over the last decade, as well as the strategies ION uses to ensure the credibility of the data collected by community members and best practices that have facilitated the collection of surface water data in remote

Community-based tourism in practice: evidence from three coastal communities in Bohuslän, Sweden

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lindström Kristina N.

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Local involvement in tourism development is defined as a key issue for sustainable tourism, however it is often questioned and less seldom implemented in reality. Reasons behind this condition are lack of knowledge and practical experience on community-based tourism as a bottom-up approach. In this paper it is argued that local involvement in tourism development is both a democratic right and a strategic destination management tool. The paper scrutinizes a process of collaboration and local participation in a tourism development project within three coastal communities on the Swedish West Coast. A mixed-methods approach was employed in the project with the specific aim of investigating attitudes to the community and tourism development and of involving community stakeholders in exploring alternative avenues of tourism development. The article describes four phases of the process of local involvement in a tourism development project: step 1, formation of a representative project group and negotiation of community-based approach; step 2, consulting local stakeholders and employing a mixed-methods approach; step 3, elaborating results with local stakeholders; step 4, increased community collaboration.

Enhancing Community Detection By Affinity-based Edge Weighting Scheme

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yoo, Andy [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Sanders, Geoffrey [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Henson, Van [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Vassilevski, Panayot [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2015-10-05

Community detection refers to an important graph analytics problem of finding a set of densely-connected subgraphs in a graph and has gained a great deal of interest recently. The performance of current community detection algorithms is limited by an inherent constraint of unweighted graphs that offer very little information on their internal community structures. In this paper, we propose a new scheme to address this issue that weights the edges in a given graph based on recently proposed vertex affinity. The vertex affinity quantifies the proximity between two vertices in terms of their clustering strength, and therefore, it is ideal for graph analytics applications such as community detection. We also demonstrate that the affinity-based edge weighting scheme can improve the performance of community detection algorithms significantly.

Advanced Cardiac Resuscitation Evaluation (ACRE: A randomised single-blind controlled trial of peer-led vs. expert-led advanced resuscitation training

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hughes Thomas C

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Advanced resuscitation skills training is an important and enjoyable part of medical training, but requires small group instruction to ensure active participation of all students. Increases in student numbers have made this increasingly difficult to achieve. Methods A single-blind randomised controlled trial of peer-led vs. expert-led resuscitation training was performed using a group of sixth-year medical students as peer instructors. The expert instructors were a senior and a middle grade doctor, and a nurse who is an Advanced Life Support (ALS Instructor. A power calculation showed that the trial would have a greater than 90% chance of rejecting the null hypothesis (that expert-led groups performed 20% better than peer-led groups if that were the true situation. Secondary outcome measures were the proportion of High Pass grades in each groups and safety incidents. The peer instructors designed and delivered their own course material. To ensure safety, the peer-led groups used modified defibrillators that could deliver only low-energy shocks. Blinded assessment was conducted using an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE. The checklist items were based on International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR guidelines using Ebel standard-setting methods that emphasised patient and staff safety and clinical effectiveness. The results were analysed using Exact methods, chi-squared and t-test. Results A total of 132 students were randomised: 58 into the expert-led group, 74 into the peer-led group. 57/58 (98% of students from the expert-led group achieved a Pass compared to 72/74 (97% from the peer-led group: Exact statistics confirmed that it was very unlikely (p = 0.0001 that the expert-led group was 20% better than the peer-led group. There were no safety incidents, and High Pass grades were achieved by 64 (49% of students: 33/58 (57% from the expert-led group, 31/74 (42% from the peer-led group. Exact

Designing low cost LED display for the billboard

Science.gov (United States)

Hong, Yi-Jian; Uang, Chii-Maw; Wang, Ping-Chieh; Ho, Zu-Sheng

2011-10-01

With quickly advance of the computer, microelectronics and photonics technologies, LED display panel becomes a new electronic advertising media. It can be used to show any information whatever characters or graphics. Most LED display panels are built of many Light-Emitting Diodes arranged in a matrix form. The display has many advantages such as low power, low cost, long life and high definition. Because the display panel is asked to show rich color, the LED display panel's driving system becomes very complex. The design methodology of LED display panel's driver becomes more and more important to meet the market requirements. Cost is always the most important issue in public market domain. In this paper, we report a design methodology of LED display panel's driver based on the microprocessor control unit (MCU) system and LED display controller IC, HT1632C, to control three colors, RGB, color LED display panel and the modular panel size is 24*16 in matrix form. The HT1632C is a memory mapping LED display controller, it can be used on many applications, such as digital clock, thermometer, counter, voltmeter or other instrumentation readouts. Three pieces of HT1632C are used to drive a 24*16 RGB LED display panel, in our design case. Each HT163C chip is used to control one of the R, G and B color. As the drive mode is driven in DC mode, the RGB display panel can create and totally of seven colors under the control of MCU. The MCU generates the control signal to drive HT1632C. In this study, the software design methodology is adopted with dynamic display principle. When the scan frequency is 60Hz, LED display panel will get the clear picture and be able to display seven colors.

Community action research track: Community-based participatory research and service-learning experiences for medical students.

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Gimpel, Nora; Kindratt, Tiffany; Dawson, Alvin; Pagels, Patti

2018-04-01

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) and service-learning are unique experiential approaches designed to train medical students how to provide individualized patient care from a population perspective. Medical schools in the US are required to provide support for service-learning and community projects. Despite this requirement, few medical schools offer structured service-learning. We developed the Community Action Research Track (CART) to integrate population medicine, health promotion/disease prevention and the social determinants of health into the medical school curriculum through CBPR and service-learning experiences. This article provides an overview of CART and reports the program impact based on students' participation, preliminary evaluations and accomplishments. CART is an optional 4‑year service-learning experience for medical students interested in community health. The curriculum includes a coordinated longitudinal program of electives, community service-learning and lecture-based instruction. From 2009-2015, 146 CART students participated. Interests in public health (93%), community service (73%), primary care (73%), CBPR (60%) and community medicine (60%) were the top reasons for enrolment. Significant improvements in mean knowledge were found when measuring the principles of CBPR, levels of prevention, determining health literacy and patient communication strategies (all p's Projects were disseminated by at least 65 posters and four oral presentations at local, national and international professional meetings. Six manuscripts were published in peer-reviewed journals. CART is an innovative curriculum for training future physicians to be community-responsive physicians. CART can be replicated by other medical schools interested in offering a longitudinal CBPR and service-learning track in an urban metropolitan setting.