WorldWideScience

Sample records for protocol outlines methods

  1. An outline review of numerical transport methods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Budd, C.

    1981-01-01

    A brief review is presented of numerical methods for solving the neutron transport equation in the context of reactor physics. First the various forms of transport equation are given. Second, the various ways of classifying numerical transport methods are discussed. Finally each method (or class of methods) is outlined in turn. (U.K.)

  2. Outline-based morphometrics, an overlooked method in arthropod studies?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dujardin, Jean-Pierre; Kaba, D; Solano, P; Dupraz, M; McCoy, K D; Jaramillo-O, N

    2014-12-01

    Modern methods allow a geometric representation of forms, separating size and shape. In entomology, as well as in many other fields involving arthropod studies, shape variation has proved useful for species identification and population characterization. In medical entomology, it has been applied to very specific questions such as population structure, reinfestation of insecticide-treated areas and cryptic species recognition. For shape comparisons, great importance is given to the quality of landmarks in terms of comparability. Two conceptually and statistically separate approaches are: (i) landmark-based morphometrics, based on the relative position of a few anatomical "true" or "traditional" landmarks, and (ii) outline-based morphometrics, which captures the contour of forms through a sequence of close "pseudo-landmarks". Most of the studies on insects of medical, veterinary or economic importance make use of the landmark approach. The present survey makes a case for the outline method, here based on elliptic Fourier analysis. The collection of pseudo-landmarks may require the manual digitization of many points and, for this reason, might appear less attractive. It, however, has the ability to compare homologous organs or structures having no landmarks at all. This strength offers the possibility to study a wider range of anatomical structures and thus, a larger range of arthropods. We present a few examples highlighting its interest for separating close or cryptic species, or characterizing conspecific geographic populations, in a series of different vector organisms. In this simple application, i.e. the recognition of close or cryptic forms, the outline approach provided similar scores as those obtained by the landmark-based approach. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Protocol Fuel Mix reporting

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-07-01

    The protocol in this document describes a method for an Electricity Distribution Company (EDC) to account for the fuel mix of electricity that it delivers to its customers, based on the best available information. Own production, purchase and sale of electricity, and certificates trading are taken into account. In chapter 2 the actual protocol is outlined. In the appendixes additional (supporting) information is given: (A) Dutch Standard Fuel Mix, 2000; (B) Calculation of the Dutch Standard fuel mix; (C) Procedures to estimate and benchmark the fuel mix; (D) Quality management; (E) External verification; (F) Recommendation for further development of the protocol; (G) Reporting examples

  4. Language, Semantics, and Methods for Security Protocols

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Crazzolara, Federico

    events. Methods like strand spaces and the inductive method of Paulson have been designed to support an intensional, event-based, style of reasoning. These methods have successfully tackled a number of protocols though in an ad hoc fashion. They make an informal spring from a protocol to its......-nets. They have persistent conditions and as we show in this thesis, unfold under reasonable assumptions to a more basic kind of nets. We relate SPL-nets to strand spaces and inductive rules, as well as trace languages and event structures so unifying a range of approaches, as well as providing conditions under...... reveal. The last few years have seen the emergence of successful intensional, event-based, formal approaches to reasoning about security protocols. The methods are concerned with reasoning about the events that a security protocol can perform, and make use of a causal dependency that exists between...

  5. Immunocytochemical methods and protocols

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Javois, Lorette C

    1999-01-01

    ... monoclonal antibodies to study cell differentiation during embryonic development. For a select few disciplines volumes have been published focusing on the specific application of immunocytochemical techniques to that discipline. What distinguished Immunocytochemical Methods and Protocols from earlier books when it was first published four years ago was i...

  6. Antibody engineering: methods and protocols

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Chames, Patrick

    2012-01-01

    "Antibody Engineering: Methods and Protocols, Second Edition was compiled to give complete and easy access to a variety of antibody engineering techniques, starting from the creation of antibody repertoires and efficient...

  7. Network protocol 'EPAP'; Network protokoru 'EPAP'

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kobori, T.; Fujita, F.; Iwamoto, S. [Fuji Electric Co. Ltd., Toyo (Japan)

    2000-10-10

    The Ethernet, a standard of information networks, has begun to be applied to the control local area network (LAN). To apply the Ethernet to the field level, Fuji Electric has newly developed the communication protocol 'Ethernet precision access protocol (EPAP)' in which a command/response method is structured on the user datagram protocol (UDP) to realize real time and high reliability. Further, we have implemented the EPAP on the bus interface module of the open PIO. This paper outlines the EPAP and its implementation. (author)

  8. Discussion and Outline of a Course on Methods of Teaching a Foreign Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heiser, Mary

    This course, designed for instructing potential teaching assistants to teach college students a foreign language, concentrates on six major areas of preparation. A detailed outline covers: (1) course introduction and definitions, (2) applied linguistics, (3) approaches and methods, (4) testing, (5) classroom techniques, and (6) demonstrations.…

  9. Assessing the Efficacy of an App-Based Method of Family Planning: The Dot Study Protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simmons, Rebecca G; Shattuck, Dominick C; Jennings, Victoria H

    2017-01-18

    assess pregnancy status over time. This paper outlines the protocol for this efficacy trial, following the Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Intervention Trials checklist, to provide an overview of the rationale, methodology, and analysis plan. Participants will be asked to provide daily sexual history data and periodically answer surveys administered through a call center or directly on their phone. Funding for the study was provided in 2013 under the United States Agency for International Development Fertility Awareness for Community Transformation project. Recruitment for the study will begin in January of 2017. The study is expected to last approximately 18 months, depending on recruitment. Findings on the study's primary outcomes are expected to be finalized by September 2018. Reproducibility and transparency, important aspects of all research, are particularly critical in developing new approaches to research design. This protocol outlines the first study to prospectively test both the efficacy (correct use) and effectiveness (actual use) of a pregnancy prevention app. This protocol and the processes it describes reflect the dynamic integration of mobile technologies, a call center, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant study procedures. Future fertility app studies can build on our approaches to develop methodologies that can contribute to the evidence base around app-based methods of contraception. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02833922; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02833922 (Archived be WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6nDkr0e76). ©Rebecca G Simmons, Dominick C Shattuck, Victoria H Jennings. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 18.01.2017.

  10. Recommendations for Enhancing Implementation of Additional Protocol Declarations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Niina, Toshiaki; Nidaira, Kazuo; Aono, Yosuke

    2010-01-01

    Japan signed the Additional Protocol (hereafter, AP) in December 1998. The domestic law and regulation had been revised to implement the initial and annual declarations for the Agency and the Additional Protocol came into force in December 1999. Since initial declaration in 2000, Japan has submitted the annual declaration in every May. Until 2010, Japan has made 10 annual declarations. This paper gives recommendations to enhance implementation of Additional Protocol declarations based on 10-year experience in Japan and addresses the following: Current status of additional protocol declaration in Japan; Outline of processing method; AP Information Management System; Recommendations for improving quality of declaration. Preparation of additional protocol declaration in NMCC has been conducted in the course of contract with Japan Safeguards Office (hereafter, JSGO) for safeguards information treatment. (author)

  11. National Environmental Outline 1997-2020. 4

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1997-01-01

    According to the Dutch Law on Environmental Protection ('Wet Milieubeheer') every four years an environmental outline is drafted as a preparation for the national environmental plan (NMP3). In a separate publication (the background document) a methodical and numerical basis and account is given by means of data and literature references of the environmental outline. This main report, the outline, comprises an analysis of the expected bottlenecks and an outline of a number of solutions in order to determine the effectiveness of the current policy by means of which targets must be realized and how future policy could solve the most important bottlenecks. refs

  12. A model based security testing method for protocol implementation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fu, Yu Long; Xin, Xiao Long

    2014-01-01

    The security of protocol implementation is important and hard to be verified. Since the penetration testing is usually based on the experience of the security tester and the specific protocol specifications, a formal and automatic verification method is always required. In this paper, we propose an extended model of IOLTS to describe the legal roles and intruders of security protocol implementations, and then combine them together to generate the suitable test cases to verify the security of protocol implementation.

  13. Protocol design and implementation using formal methods

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Sinderen, Marten J.; Ferreira Pires, Luis; Pires, L.F.; Vissers, C.A.

    1992-01-01

    This paper reports on a number of formal methods that support correct protocol design and implementation. These methods are placed in the framework of a design methodology for distributed systems that was studied and developed within the ESPRIT II Lotosphere project (2304). The paper focuses on

  14. Introduction to basic immunological methods : Generalities, Principles, Protocols and Variants of basic protocols

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mejri, Naceur

    2013-01-01

    This manuscript is dedicated to student of biological sciences. It provides the information necessary to perform practical works, the most commonly used in immunology. During my doctoral and post-doctoral periods, panoply of methods was employed in diverse subjects in my research. Technical means used in my investigations were diverse enough that i could extract a set of techniques that cover most the basic immunological methods. Each chapter of this manuscript contains a fairly complete description of immunological methods. In each topic the basic protocol and its variants were preceded by background information provided in paragraphs concerning the principle and generalities. The emphasis is placed on describing situations in which each method and its variants were used. These basic immunological methods are useful for students and even researchers studying the immune system of human, nice and other species. Different subjects showed not only detailed protocols but also photos or/and shemas used as support to illustrate some knowledge or practical knowledge. I hope that students will find this manual interesting, easy to use contains necessary information to acquire skills in immunological practice. (Author)

  15. Tracing Method with Intra and Inter Protocols Correlation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marin Mangri

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available MEGACO or H.248 is a protocol enabling acentralized Softswitch (or MGC to control MGsbetween Voice over Packet (VoP networks andtraditional ones. To analyze much deeper the realimplementations it is useful to use a tracing systemwith intra and inter protocols correlation. For thisreason in the case of MEGACO-H.248 it is necessaryto find the appropriate method of correlation with allprotocols involved. Starting from Rel4 a separation ofCP (Control Plane and UP (User Plane managementwithin the networks appears. MEGACO protocol playsan important role in the migration to the new releasesor from monolithic platform to a network withdistributed components.

  16. Outlining and dictating scientific manuscripts is a useful method for health researchers: A focus group interview.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andresen, Kristoffer; Laursen, Jannie; Rosenberg, Jacob

    2018-01-01

    Young researchers may experience difficulties when writing scientific articles for publication in biomedical journals. Various methods may facilitate the writing process including outlining the paper before the actual writing and using dictation instead of writing the first draft. The aim of this study was to investigate the experiences and difficulties for young, experienced researchers when writing articles using a detailed outline and dictation of the first draft. We used qualitative focus group interviews and the study was reported according to the COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative research guideline. Participants were sampled from a group of researchers participating in a writing retreat/course. The interviews were recorded on a digital recorder and transcribed. The text was analyzed according to content analysis and coded and condensed into themes and subthemes. Groups of participants were added until data saturation was reached. A total of 14 researchers participated (9 women and 5 men). Their clinical experience was median (range) of 6 (1-11) years since graduation from medical school. Two themes arose during the analyses of the data: "Process guidance with the outline as the map" and "arrival at dictation." The outline was used in the preparation phase leading up to the day of dictation and was used in collaboration with co-authors and supervisors. The participants found it to be a useful tool for preparing the manuscript and dictating their initial first full draft. Experienced young researchers found beneficial effects of using a structured outline to prepare for dictation of scientific articles. The outline was a tool that would develop in close collaboration with co-authors and mentors. With dictation, a full first draft of a manuscript can be produced in a few hours. Participants positively evaluated this structured and reproducible way of producing scientific articles.

  17. DNA arrays : methods and protocols [Methods in molecular biology, v. 170

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Rampal, Jang B

    2001-01-01

    "In DNA Arrays: Methods and Protocols, Jang Rampal and a authoritative panel of researchers, engineers, and technologists explain in detail how to design and construct DNA microarrays, as well as how to...

  18. Momocs: Outline Analysis Using R

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vincent Bonhomme

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available We introduce here Momocs, a package intended to ease and popularize modern morphometrics with R, and particularly outline analysis, which aims to extract quantitative variables from shapes. It mostly hinges on the functions published in the book entitled Modern Morphometrics Using R by Claude (2008. From outline extraction from raw data to multivariate analysis, Momocs provides an integrated and convenient toolkit to students and researchers who are, or may become, interested in describing the shape and its variation. The methods implemented so far in Momocs are introduced through a simplistic case study that aims to test if two sets of bottles have different shapes.

  19. User-friendly matching protocol for online social networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tang, Qiang

    2010-01-01

    In this paper, we outline a privacy-preserving matching protocol for OSN (online social network) users to find their potential friends. With the proposed protocol, a logged-in user can match her profile with that of an off-line stranger, while both profiles are maximally protected. Our solution

  20. Climate Change And The Kyoto Protocol

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Comsan, M.N.H.

    2007-01-01

    The problem of global warming is addressed. Changes in earth surface temperature, emission of CO 2 and other four major green house gases are presented. Effect of global warming on weather, ocean, and ecosystem is discussed. A brief history of the Kyoto protocol starting from the 151 Earth Summit in 1972 is outlined. An overview of the protocol and a brief summary are given

  1. Method-centered digital communities on protocols.io for fast-paced scientific innovation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kindler, Lori; Stoliartchouk, Alexei; Teytelman, Leonid; Hurwitz, Bonnie L

    2016-01-01

    The Internet has enabled online social interaction for scientists beyond physical meetings and conferences. Yet despite these innovations in communication, dissemination of methods is often relegated to just academic publishing. Further, these methods remain static, with subsequent advances published elsewhere and unlinked. For communities undergoing fast-paced innovation, researchers need new capabilities to share, obtain feedback, and publish methods at the forefront of scientific development. For example, a renaissance in virology is now underway given the new metagenomic methods to sequence viral DNA directly from an environment. Metagenomics makes it possible to "see" natural viral communities that could not be previously studied through culturing methods. Yet, the knowledge of specialized techniques for the production and analysis of viral metagenomes remains in a subset of labs.  This problem is common to any community using and developing emerging technologies and techniques. We developed new capabilities to create virtual communities in protocols.io, an open access platform, for disseminating protocols and knowledge at the forefront of scientific development. To demonstrate these capabilities, we present a virology community forum called VERVENet. These new features allow virology researchers to share protocols and their annotations and optimizations, connect with the broader virtual community to share knowledge, job postings, conference announcements through a common online forum, and discover the current literature through personalized recommendations to promote discussion of cutting edge research. Virtual communities in protocols.io enhance a researcher's ability to: discuss and share protocols, connect with fellow community members, and learn about new and innovative research in the field.  The web-based software for developing virtual communities is free to use on protocols.io. Data are available through public APIs at protocols.io.

  2. Chapter 2: Commercial and Industrial Lighting Evaluation Protocol. The Uniform Methods Project: Methods for Determining Energy Efficiency Savings for Specific Measures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurnik, Charles W [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Gowans, Dakers [Left Fork Energy, Harrison, NY (United States); Telarico, Chad [DNV GL, Mahwah, NJ (United States)

    2017-11-02

    The Commercial and Industrial Lighting Evaluation Protocol (the protocol) describes methods to account for gross energy savings resulting from the programmatic installation of efficient lighting equipment in large populations of commercial, industrial, and other nonresidential facilities. This protocol does not address savings resulting from changes in codes and standards, or from education and training activities. A separate Uniform Methods Project (UMP) protocol, Chapter 3: Commercial and Industrial Lighting Controls Evaluation Protocol, addresses methods for evaluating savings resulting from lighting control measures such as adding time clocks, tuning energy management system commands, and adding occupancy sensors.

  3. Outline

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    First page Back Continue Last page Graphics. Outline. Cotton trends in India. The need for Bollgard cotton. Evaluation & approval. Safety; Field evaluation. Key statistics. Input Costs, Pesticide spend, Profit per acre; Area, Production, Productivity, etc. Value generated. 2005; 2006 Estimates. Summary.

  4. Line facilities outline

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1998-08-01

    This book deals with line facilities. The contents of this book are outline line of wire telecommunication ; development of line, classification of section of line and theory of transmission of line, cable line ; structure of line, line of cable in town, line out of town, domestic cable and other lines, Optical communication ; line of optical cable, transmission method, measurement of optical communication and cable of the sea bottom, Equipment of telecommunication line ; telecommunication line facilities and telecommunication of public works, construction of cable line and maintenance and Regulation of line equipment ; regulation on technique, construction and maintenance.

  5. Formal Analysis of SET and NSL Protocols Using the Interpretation Functions-Based Method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hanane Houmani

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Most applications in the Internet such as e-banking and e-commerce use the SET and the NSL protocols to protect the communication channel between the client and the server. Then, it is crucial to ensure that these protocols respect some security properties such as confidentiality, authentication, and integrity. In this paper, we analyze the SET and the NSL protocols with respect to the confidentiality (secrecy property. To perform this analysis, we use the interpretation functions-based method. The main idea behind the interpretation functions-based technique is to give sufficient conditions that allow to guarantee that a cryptographic protocol respects the secrecy property. The flexibility of the proposed conditions allows the verification of daily-life protocols such as SET and NSL. Also, this method could be used under different assumptions such as a variety of intruder abilities including algebraic properties of cryptographic primitives. The NSL protocol, for instance, is analyzed with and without the homomorphism property. We show also, using the SET protocol, the usefulness of this approach to correct weaknesses and problems discovered during the analysis.

  6. Protocol independent transmission method in software defined optical network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yuze; Li, Hui; Hou, Yanfang; Qiu, Yajun; Ji, Yuefeng

    2016-10-01

    With the development of big data and cloud computing technology, the traditional software-defined network is facing new challenges (e.i., ubiquitous accessibility, higher bandwidth, more flexible management and greater security). Using a proprietary protocol or encoding format is a way to improve information security. However, the flow, which carried by proprietary protocol or code, cannot go through the traditional IP network. In addition, ultra- high-definition video transmission service once again become a hot spot. Traditionally, in the IP network, the Serial Digital Interface (SDI) signal must be compressed. This approach offers additional advantages but also bring some disadvantages such as signal degradation and high latency. To some extent, HD-SDI can also be regard as a proprietary protocol, which need transparent transmission such as optical channel. However, traditional optical networks cannot support flexible traffics . In response to aforementioned challenges for future network, one immediate solution would be to use NFV technology to abstract the network infrastructure and provide an all-optical switching topology graph for the SDN control plane. This paper proposes a new service-based software defined optical network architecture, including an infrastructure layer, a virtualization layer, a service abstract layer and an application layer. We then dwell on the corresponding service providing method in order to implement the protocol-independent transport. Finally, we experimentally evaluate that proposed service providing method can be applied to transmit the HD-SDI signal in the software-defined optical network.

  7. Hospital Casemix Protocol - Medibank Private Perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Szakiel, John

    2010-06-01

    Hospital Casemix Protocol data provide a brief summary outlining morbidity data and costs associated with an episode of care. Federal government legislation requires that hospitals report this information to private health insurers who, in turn, merge these data with benefit outlays and report their findings to the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA). This article gives a brief outline of the collection, cleansing and processing of these data and subsequent reporting to DoHA by Medibank Private, which accounts for approximately 30% of collected data.

  8. Masonry fireplace emissions test method: Repeatability and sensitivity to fueling protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stern, C H; Jaasma, D R; Champion, M R

    1993-03-01

    A test method for masonry fireplaces has been evaluated during testing on six masonry fireplace configurations. The method determines carbon monoxide and particulate matter emission rates (g/h) and factors (g/kg) and does not require weighing of the appliance to determine the timing of fuel loading.The intralaboratory repeatability of the test method has been determined from multiple tests on the six fireplaces. For the tested fireplaces, the ratio of the highest to lowest measured PM rate averaged 1.17 and in no case was greater than 1.32. The data suggest that some of the variation is due to differences in fuel properties.The influence of fueling protocol on emissions has also been studied. A modified fueling protocol, tested in large and small fireplaces, reduced CO and PM emission factors by roughly 40% and reduced CO and PM rates from 0 to 30%. For both of these fireplaces, emission rates were less sensitive to fueling protocol than emission factors.

  9. Outdoor Irrigation Measurement and Verification Protocol

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurnik, Charles W. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Stoughton, Kate M. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Figueroa, Jorge [Western Resource Advocates, Boulder, CO (United States)

    2017-12-05

    This measurement and verification (M&V) protocol provides procedures for energy service companies (ESCOs) and water efficiency service companies (WESCOs) to determine water savings resulting from water conservation measures (WCMs) in energy performance contracts associated with outdoor irrigation efficiency projects. The water savings are determined by comparing the baseline water use to the water use after the WCM has been implemented. This protocol outlines the basic structure of the M&V plan, and details the procedures to use to determine water savings.

  10. An outline of the methods which will be used to evaluate shutdown margins, control rod worth and local criticality problems for the HTR - power reactors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dworak, A

    1971-09-28

    The methods to calculate control rod efficiency outlined in this paper were the results of an investigation carried out by A. Dworak and C. Hunt on the Dragon Charge I Core 1. There the theoretical results agreed very good with the experimental measurements. This paper gives a brief outline of the methods in question and summarizes the calculations done up to now.

  11. Quantitative methods for studying design protocols

    CERN Document Server

    Kan, Jeff WT

    2017-01-01

    This book is aimed at researchers and students who would like to engage in and deepen their understanding of design cognition research. The book presents new approaches for analyzing design thinking and proposes methods of measuring design processes. These methods seek to quantify design issues and design processes that are defined based on notions from the Function-Behavior-Structure (FBS) design ontology and from linkography. A linkograph is a network of linked design moves or segments. FBS ontology concepts have been used in both design theory and design thinking research and have yielded numerous results. Linkography is one of the most influential and elegant design cognition research methods. In this book Kan and Gero provide novel and state-of-the-art methods of analyzing design protocols that offer insights into design cognition by integrating segmentation with linkography by assigning FBS-based codes to design moves or segments and treating links as FBS transformation processes. They propose and test ...

  12. Turf Conversion Measurement and Verification Protocol

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurnik, Charles W. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Stoughton, Kate M. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Figueroa, Jorge [Western Resource Advocates, Boulder, CO (United States)

    2017-12-05

    This measurement and verification (M and V) protocol provides procedures for energy service companies (ESCOs) and water efficiency service companies (WESCOs) to determine water savings as a result of water conservation measures (WCMs) in energy performance contracts associated with converting turfgrass or other water-intensive plantings to water-wise and sustainable landscapes. The water savings are determined by comparing the baseline water use to the water use after the WCM has been implemented. This protocol outlines the basic structure of the M and V plan, and details the procedures to use to determine water savings.

  13. Security Protocol Review Method Analyzer(SPRMAN)

    OpenAIRE

    Navaz, A. S. Syed; Narayanan, H. Iyyappa; Vinoth, R.

    2013-01-01

    This Paper is designed using J2EE (JSP, SERVLET), HTML as front end and a Oracle 9i is back end. SPRMAN is been developed for the client British Telecom (BT) UK., Telecom company. Actually the requirement of BT is, they are providing Network Security Related Products to their IT customers like Virtusa,Wipro,HCL etc., This product is framed out by set of protocols and these protocols are been associated with set of components. By grouping all these protocols and components together, product is...

  14. Methods in Molecular Biology Mouse Genetics: Methods and Protocols | Center for Cancer Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mouse Genetics: Methods and Protocols provides selected mouse genetic techniques and their application in modeling varieties of human diseases. The chapters are mainly focused on the generation of different transgenic mice to accomplish the manipulation of genes of interest, tracing cell lineages, and modeling human diseases.

  15. Multi-scale Gaussian representation and outline-learning based cell image segmentation

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    Background High-throughput genome-wide screening to study gene-specific functions, e.g. for drug discovery, demands fast automated image analysis methods to assist in unraveling the full potential of such studies. Image segmentation is typically at the forefront of such analysis as the performance of the subsequent steps, for example, cell classification, cell tracking etc., often relies on the results of segmentation. Methods We present a cell cytoplasm segmentation framework which first separates cell cytoplasm from image background using novel approach of image enhancement and coefficient of variation of multi-scale Gaussian scale-space representation. A novel outline-learning based classification method is developed using regularized logistic regression with embedded feature selection which classifies image pixels as outline/non-outline to give cytoplasm outlines. Refinement of the detected outlines to separate cells from each other is performed in a post-processing step where the nuclei segmentation is used as contextual information. Results and conclusions We evaluate the proposed segmentation methodology using two challenging test cases, presenting images with completely different characteristics, with cells of varying size, shape, texture and degrees of overlap. The feature selection and classification framework for outline detection produces very simple sparse models which use only a small subset of the large, generic feature set, that is, only 7 and 5 features for the two cases. Quantitative comparison of the results for the two test cases against state-of-the-art methods show that our methodology outperforms them with an increase of 4-9% in segmentation accuracy with maximum accuracy of 93%. Finally, the results obtained for diverse datasets demonstrate that our framework not only produces accurate segmentation but also generalizes well to different segmentation tasks. PMID:24267488

  16. Diplomacy and Diplomatic Protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lect. Ph.D Oana Iucu

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available The present study aims to observe relationships and determining factors between diplomacyand diplomatic protocol as outlined by historical and contextual analyses. The approach is very dynamic,provided that concepts are able to show their richness, antiquity and polyvalence at the level of connotations,semantics, grammatical and social syntax. The fact that this information is up to date determines anattitude of appreciation and a state of positive contamination.

  17. Rethinking Protocol Analysis from a Cultural Perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smagorinsky, Peter

    2001-01-01

    Outlines a cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) perspective that accounts for protocol analysis along three key dimensions: the relationship between thinking and speech from a representational standpoint; the social role of speech in research methodology; and the influence of speech on thinking and data collection. (Author/VWL)

  18. Travel Agent Course Outline.

    Science.gov (United States)

    British Columbia Dept. of Education, Victoria.

    Written for college entry-level travel agent training courses, this course outline can also be used for inservice training programs offered by travel agencies. The outline provides information on the work of a travel agent and gives clear statements on what learners must be able to do by the end of their training. Material is divided into eight…

  19. Chapter 15: Commercial New Construction Evaluation Protocol. The Uniform Methods Project: Methods for Determining Energy Efficiency Savings for Specific Measures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurnik, Charles W. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Keates, Steven [ADM Associates, Inc., Atlanta, GA (United States)

    2017-10-09

    This protocol is intended to describe the recommended method when evaluating the whole-building performance of new construction projects in the commercial sector. The protocol focuses on energy conservation measures (ECMs) or packages of measures where evaluators can analyze impacts using building simulation. These ECMs typically require the use of calibrated building simulations under Option D of the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP).

  20. Transgenic mouse - Methods and protocols, 2nd edition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlo Alberto Redi

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Marten H. Hofner (from the Dept. of Pathology of the Groningen University and Jan M. van Deursen (from the Mayo College of Medicine at Rochester, MN, USA provided us with the valuable second edition of Transgenic mouse: in fact, eventhough we are in the –omics era and already equipped with the state-of-the-art techniques in whatsoever field, still we need to have gene(s functional analysis data to understand common and complex deseases. Transgenesis is still an irreplaceable method and protocols to well perform it are more than welcome. Here, how to get genetic modified mice (the quintessential model of so many human deseases considering how much of the human genes are conserved in the mouse and the great block of genic synteny existing between the two genomes is analysed in deep and presented in clearly detailed step by step protocols....

  1. Developing an optimum protocol for thermoluminescence dosimetry with gr-200 chips using Taguchi method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sadeghi, Maryam; Faghihi, Reza; Sina, Sedigheh

    2017-01-01

    Thermoluminescence dosimetry (TLD) is a powerful technique with wide applications in personal, environmental and clinical dosimetry. The optimum annealing, storage and reading protocols are very effective in accuracy of TLD response. The purpose of this study is to obtain an optimum protocol for GR-200; LiF: Mg, Cu, P, by optimizing the effective parameters, to increase the reliability of the TLD response using Taguchi method. Taguchi method has been used in this study for optimization of annealing, storage and reading protocols of the TLDs. A number of 108 GR-200 chips were divided into 27 groups, each containing four chips. The TLDs were exposed to three different doses, and stored, annealed and read out by different procedures as suggested by Taguchi Method. By comparing the signal-to-noise ratios the optimum dosimetry procedure was obtained. According to the results, the optimum values for annealing temperature (de.C), Annealing Time (s), Annealing to Exposure time (d), Exposure to Readout time (d), Pre-heat Temperature (de.C), Pre-heat Time (s), Heating Rate (de.C/s), Maximum Temperature of Readout (de.C), readout time (s) and Storage Temperature (de.C) are 240, 90, 1, 2, 50, 0, 15, 240, 13 and -20, respectively. Using the optimum protocol, an efficient glow curve with low residual signals can be achieved. Using optimum protocol obtained by Taguchi method, the dosimetry can be effectively performed with great accuracy. (authors)

  2. Use of photogrammetry for taking the outline of patients in radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Borel, F.; Defer, J.; Aget, H.; Gallet, O.; Urbajtel, M.; Laugier, A.

    1975-01-01

    A photogrammetric method for taking the outline of patients in radiotherapy is described. Using only one couple of photographs, this fast and very precise process may reconstruct many transversal or longitudinal cross-sections, after a photographic storage of information. An automatic numerical reading of the outline may be directly fed into a computer for dosimetry [fr

  3. Early Interventions Following the Death of a Parent: Protocol of a Mixed Methods Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pereira, Mariana; Johnsen, Iren; Hauken, May Aa; Kristensen, Pål; Dyregrov, Atle

    2017-06-29

    Previous meta-analyses examined the effectiveness of interventions for bereaved children showing small to moderate effect sizes. However, no mixed methods systematic review was conducted on bereavement interventions following the loss of a parent focusing on the time since death in regard to the prevention of grief complications. The overall purpose of the review is to provide a rigorous synthesis of early intervention after parental death in childhood. Specifically, the aims are twofold: (1) to determine the rationales, contents, timeframes, and outcomes of early bereavement care interventions for children and/or their parents and (2) to assess the quality of current early intervention studies. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods intervention studies that start intervention with parentally bereaved children (and/or their parents) up to 6 months postloss will be included in the review. The search strategy was based on the Population, Interventions, Comparator, Outcomes, and Study Designs (PICOS) approach, and it was devised together with a university librarian. The literature searches will be carried out in the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), PsycINFO, Excerpta Medica Database (EMBASE), and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool will be used to appraise the quality of eligible studies. All data will be narratively synthetized following the Guidance on the Conduct of Narrative Synthesis in Systematic Reviews. The systematic review is ongoing and the data search has started. The review is expected to be completed by the end of 2017. Findings will be submitted to leading journals for publication. In accordance with the current diagnostic criteria for prolonged grief as well as the users' perspectives literature, this systematic review outlines a possible sensitive period for early intervention following the death of a parent. The hereby presented protocol ensures

  4. Hippocampal volume change measurement: quantitative assessment of the reproducibility of expert manual outlining and the automated methods FreeSurfer and FIRST.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mulder, Emma R; de Jong, Remko A; Knol, Dirk L; van Schijndel, Ronald A; Cover, Keith S; Visser, Pieter J; Barkhof, Frederik; Vrenken, Hugo

    2014-05-15

    To measure hippocampal volume change in Alzheimer's disease (AD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), expert manual delineation is often used because of its supposed accuracy. It has been suggested that expert outlining yields poorer reproducibility as compared to automated methods, but this has not been investigated. To determine the reproducibilities of expert manual outlining and two common automated methods for measuring hippocampal atrophy rates in healthy aging, MCI and AD. From the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), 80 subjects were selected: 20 patients with AD, 40 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 20 healthy controls (HCs). Left and right hippocampal volume change between baseline and month-12 visit was assessed by using expert manual delineation, and by the automated software packages FreeSurfer (longitudinal processing stream) and FIRST. To assess reproducibility of the measured hippocampal volume change, both back-to-back (BTB) MPRAGE scans available for each visit were analyzed. Hippocampal volume change was expressed in μL, and as a percentage of baseline volume. Reproducibility of the 1-year hippocampal volume change was estimated from the BTB measurements by using linear mixed model to calculate the limits of agreement (LoA) of each method, reflecting its measurement uncertainty. Using the delta method, approximate p-values were calculated for the pairwise comparisons between methods. Statistical analyses were performed both with inclusion and exclusion of visibly incorrect segmentations. Visibly incorrect automated segmentation in either one or both scans of a longitudinal scan pair occurred in 7.5% of the hippocampi for FreeSurfer and in 6.9% of the hippocampi for FIRST. After excluding these failed cases, reproducibility analysis for 1-year percentage volume change yielded LoA of ±7.2% for FreeSurfer, ±9.7% for expert manual delineation, and ±10.0% for FIRST. Methods ranked the same for reproducibility of 1

  5. Hippocampal volume change measurement: Quantitative assessment of the reproducibility of expert manual outlining and the automated methods FreeSurfer and FIRST

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mulder, E.R.; de Jong, R.A.; Knol, D.L.; van Schijndel, R.A.; Cover, K.S.; Visser, P.J.; Barkhof, F.; Vrenken, H.

    2014-01-01

    Background: To measure hippocampal volume change in Alzheimer's disease (AD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), expert manual delineation is often used because of its supposed accuracy. It has been suggested that expert outlining yields poorer reproducibility as compared to automated methods, but

  6. System to outline the graduatestudents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alberto Schanaider

    Full Text Available Objective: to evaluate the system to outline the graduate students from the Post-Graduate Programs of CAPES Medicine III area. Method: it was analyzed the book of indicators and the Document of Area of the Post-Graduate Programs of Surgery, also checking the literature about this issue. Results: there was a paucity of data from most of the programs, as regards to the methods for evaluation of graduate students. The current system lacks a standard and an institutional support to outline the graduate students. In the public system there is a concentration of postgraduate students in Medicine; however, they represent a small part of those Brazilians students who finished their graduation courses in Medicine. In the current context, the quest for the post graduate courses and consequently for a research field or even a teaching career, has been replaced by the private sector jobs and the labor market, both in non-academic assistance activities. Conclusion: it is imperative to establish not only science and technology innovation policies but also educational and health policies acting harmoniously and stimulating the qualification and the teaching career, improving the post-graduate courses. It is necessary to develop a single form under the institutional guidance of CAPES with the conception of a National Program for Graduate Student in order to consolidate guidelines to mapping the graduate students of post-graduate programs in surgery, in our country.

  7. A new method for improving security in MANETs AODV Protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zahra Alishahi

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available In mobile ad hoc network (MANET, secure communication is more challenging task due to its fundamental characteristics like having less infrastructure, wireless link, distributed cooperation, dynamic topology, lack of association, resource constrained and physical vulnerability of node. In MANET, attacks can be broadly classified in two categories: routing attacks and data forwarding attacks. Any action not following rules of routing protocols belongs to routing attacks. The main objective of routing attacks is to disrupt normal functioning of network by advertising false routing updates. On the other hand, data forwarding attacks include actions such as modification or dropping data packet, which does not disrupt routing protocol. In this paper, we address the “Packet Drop Attack”, which is a serious threat to operational mobile ad hoc networks. The consequence of not forwarding other packets or dropping other packets prevents any kind of communication to be established in the network. Therefore, there is a need to address the packet dropping event takes higher priority for the mobile ad hoc networks to emerge and to operate, successfully. In this paper, we propose a method to secure ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV routing protocol. The proposed method provides security for routing packets where the malicious node acts as a black-hole and drops packets. In this method, the collaboration of a group of nodes is used to make accurate decisions. Validating received RREPs allows the source to select trusted path to its destination. The simulation results show that the proposed mechanism is able to detect any number of attackers.

  8. In silico toxicology protocols.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myatt, Glenn J; Ahlberg, Ernst; Akahori, Yumi; Allen, David; Amberg, Alexander; Anger, Lennart T; Aptula, Aynur; Auerbach, Scott; Beilke, Lisa; Bellion, Phillip; Benigni, Romualdo; Bercu, Joel; Booth, Ewan D; Bower, Dave; Brigo, Alessandro; Burden, Natalie; Cammerer, Zoryana; Cronin, Mark T D; Cross, Kevin P; Custer, Laura; Dettwiler, Magdalena; Dobo, Krista; Ford, Kevin A; Fortin, Marie C; Gad-McDonald, Samantha E; Gellatly, Nichola; Gervais, Véronique; Glover, Kyle P; Glowienke, Susanne; Van Gompel, Jacky; Gutsell, Steve; Hardy, Barry; Harvey, James S; Hillegass, Jedd; Honma, Masamitsu; Hsieh, Jui-Hua; Hsu, Chia-Wen; Hughes, Kathy; Johnson, Candice; Jolly, Robert; Jones, David; Kemper, Ray; Kenyon, Michelle O; Kim, Marlene T; Kruhlak, Naomi L; Kulkarni, Sunil A; Kümmerer, Klaus; Leavitt, Penny; Majer, Bernhard; Masten, Scott; Miller, Scott; Moser, Janet; Mumtaz, Moiz; Muster, Wolfgang; Neilson, Louise; Oprea, Tudor I; Patlewicz, Grace; Paulino, Alexandre; Lo Piparo, Elena; Powley, Mark; Quigley, Donald P; Reddy, M Vijayaraj; Richarz, Andrea-Nicole; Ruiz, Patricia; Schilter, Benoit; Serafimova, Rositsa; Simpson, Wendy; Stavitskaya, Lidiya; Stidl, Reinhard; Suarez-Rodriguez, Diana; Szabo, David T; Teasdale, Andrew; Trejo-Martin, Alejandra; Valentin, Jean-Pierre; Vuorinen, Anna; Wall, Brian A; Watts, Pete; White, Angela T; Wichard, Joerg; Witt, Kristine L; Woolley, Adam; Woolley, David; Zwickl, Craig; Hasselgren, Catrin

    2018-04-17

    The present publication surveys several applications of in silico (i.e., computational) toxicology approaches across different industries and institutions. It highlights the need to develop standardized protocols when conducting toxicity-related predictions. This contribution articulates the information needed for protocols to support in silico predictions for major toxicological endpoints of concern (e.g., genetic toxicity, carcinogenicity, acute toxicity, reproductive toxicity, developmental toxicity) across several industries and regulatory bodies. Such novel in silico toxicology (IST) protocols, when fully developed and implemented, will ensure in silico toxicological assessments are performed and evaluated in a consistent, reproducible, and well-documented manner across industries and regulatory bodies to support wider uptake and acceptance of the approaches. The development of IST protocols is an initiative developed through a collaboration among an international consortium to reflect the state-of-the-art in in silico toxicology for hazard identification and characterization. A general outline for describing the development of such protocols is included and it is based on in silico predictions and/or available experimental data for a defined series of relevant toxicological effects or mechanisms. The publication presents a novel approach for determining the reliability of in silico predictions alongside experimental data. In addition, we discuss how to determine the level of confidence in the assessment based on the relevance and reliability of the information. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  9. Developing an Optimum Protocol for Thermoluminescence Dosimetry with GR-200 Chips using Taguchi Method.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadeghi, Maryam; Faghihi, Reza; Sina, Sedigheh

    2017-06-15

    Thermoluminescence dosimetry (TLD) is a powerful technique with wide applications in personal, environmental and clinical dosimetry. The optimum annealing, storage and reading protocols are very effective in accuracy of TLD response. The purpose of this study is to obtain an optimum protocol for GR-200; LiF: Mg, Cu, P, by optimizing the effective parameters, to increase the reliability of the TLD response using Taguchi method. Taguchi method has been used in this study for optimization of annealing, storage and reading protocols of the TLDs. A number of 108 GR-200 chips were divided into 27 groups, each containing four chips. The TLDs were exposed to three different doses, and stored, annealed and read out by different procedures as suggested by Taguchi Method. By comparing the signal-to-noise ratios the optimum dosimetry procedure was obtained. According to the results, the optimum values for annealing temperature (°C), Annealing Time (s), Annealing to Exposure time (d), Exposure to Readout time (d), Pre-heat Temperature (°C), Pre-heat Time (s), Heating Rate (°C/s), Maximum Temperature of Readout (°C), readout time (s) and Storage Temperature (°C) are 240, 90, 1, 2, 50, 0, 15, 240, 13 and -20, respectively. Using the optimum protocol, an efficient glow curve with low residual signals can be achieved. Using optimum protocol obtained by Taguchi method, the dosimetry can be effectively performed with great accuracy. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  10. Replication protocol analysis: a method for the study of real-world design thinking

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Galle, Per; Kovacs, L. B.

    1996-01-01

    Given the brief of an architectural competition on site planning, and the design awarded the first prize, the first author (trained as an architect but not a participant in the competition) produced a line of reasoning that might have led from brief to design. In the paper, such ‘design replication......’ is refined into a method called ‘replication protocol analysis’ (RPA), and discussed from a methodological perspective of design research. It is argued that for the study of real-world design thinking this method offers distinct advantages over traditional ‘design protocol analysis’, which seeks to capture...

  11. A History of the Improvement of Internet Protocols Over Satellites Using ACTS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allman, Mark; Kruse, Hans; Ostermann, Shawn

    2000-01-01

    This paper outlines the main results of a number of ACTS experiments on the efficacy of using standard Internet protocols over long-delay satellite channels. These experiments have been jointly conducted by NASAs Glenn Research Center and Ohio University over the last six years. The focus of our investigations has been the impact of long-delay networks with non-zero bit-error rates on the performance of the suite of Internet protocols. In particular, we have focused on the most widely used transport protocol, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), as well as several application layer protocols. This paper presents our main results, as well as references to more verbose discussions of our experiments.

  12. Cooling Tower (Evaporative Cooling System) Measurement and Verification Protocol

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurnik, Charles W. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Boyd, Brian [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Stoughton, Kate M. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Lewis, Taylor [Colorado Energy Office, Denver, CO (United States)

    2017-12-05

    This measurement and verification (M and V) protocol provides procedures for energy service companies (ESCOs) and water efficiency service companies (WESCOs) to determine water savings resulting from water conservation measures (WCMs) in energy performance contracts associated with cooling tower efficiency projects. The water savings are determined by comparing the baseline water use to the water use after the WCM has been implemented. This protocol outlines the basic structure of the M and V plan, and details the procedures to use to determine water savings.

  13. AUTOMATIC BUILDING OUTLINING FROM MULTI-VIEW OBLIQUE IMAGES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Xiao

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Automatic building detection plays an important role in many applications. Multiple overlapped airborne images as well as lidar point clouds are among the most popular data sources used for this purpose. Multi-view overlapped oblique images bear both height and colour information, and additionally we explicitly have access to the vertical extent of objects, therefore we explore the usability of this data source solely to detect and outline buildings in this paper. The outline can then be used for further 3D modelling. In the previous work, building hypotheses are generated using a box model based on detected façades from four directions. In each viewing direction, façade edges extracted from images and height information by stereo matching from an image pair is used for the façade detection. Given that many façades were missing due to occlusion or lack of texture whilst building roofs can be viewed in most images, this work mainly focuses on improve the building box outline by adding roof information. Stereo matched point cloud generated from oblique images are combined with the features from images. Initial roof patches are located in the point cloud. Then AdaBoost is used to integrate geometric and radiometric attributes extracted from oblique image on grid pixel level with the aim to refine the roof area. Generalized contours of the roof pixels are taken as building outlines. The preliminary test has been done by training with five buildings and testing around sixty building clusters. The proposed method performs well concerning covering the irregular roofs as well as improve the sides location of slope roof buildings. Outline result comparing with cadastral map shows almost all above 70% completeness and correctness in an area-based assessment, as well as 20% to 40% improvement in correctness with respect to our previous work.

  14. Evaluating Management Information Systems, A Protocol for Automated Peer Review Systems

    OpenAIRE

    Black, Gordon C.

    1980-01-01

    This paper discusses key issues in evaluating an automated Peer Review System. Included are the conceptual base, design, steps in planning structural components, operation parameters, criteria, costs and a detailed outline or protocol for use in the evaluation.

  15. Method-centered digital communities on protocols.io for fast-paced scientific innovation [version 2; referees: 2 approved

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lori Kindler

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The Internet has enabled online social interaction for scientists beyond physical meetings and conferences. Yet despite these innovations in communication, dissemination of methods is often relegated to just academic publishing. Further, these methods remain static, with subsequent advances published elsewhere and unlinked. For communities undergoing fast-paced innovation, researchers need new capabilities to share, obtain feedback, and publish methods at the forefront of scientific development. For example, a renaissance in virology is now underway given the new metagenomic methods to sequence viral DNA directly from an environment. Metagenomics makes it possible to "see" natural viral communities that could not be previously studied through culturing methods. Yet, the knowledge of specialized techniques for the production and analysis of viral metagenomes remains in a subset of labs.  This problem is common to any community using and developing emerging technologies and techniques. We developed new capabilities to create virtual communities in protocols.io, an open access platform, for disseminating protocols and knowledge at the forefront of scientific development. To demonstrate these capabilities, we present a virology community forum called VERVENet. These new features allow virology researchers to share protocols and their annotations and optimizations, connect with the broader virtual community to share knowledge, job postings, conference announcements through a common online forum, and discover the current literature through personalized recommendations to promote discussion of cutting edge research. Virtual communities in protocols.io enhance a researcher's ability to: discuss and share protocols, connect with fellow community members, and learn about new and innovative research in the field.  The web-based software for developing virtual communities is free to use on protocols.io. Data are available through public APIs at protocols.io.

  16. A Survey of Automatic Protocol Reverse Engineering Approaches, Methods, and Tools on the Inputs and Outputs View

    OpenAIRE

    Baraka D. Sija; Young-Hoon Goo; Kyu-Seok Shim; Huru Hasanova; Myung-Sup Kim

    2018-01-01

    A network protocol defines rules that control communications between two or more machines on the Internet, whereas Automatic Protocol Reverse Engineering (APRE) defines the way of extracting the structure of a network protocol without accessing its specifications. Enough knowledge on undocumented protocols is essential for security purposes, network policy implementation, and management of network resources. This paper reviews and analyzes a total of 39 approaches, methods, and tools towards ...

  17. Systematic Literature Review Protocol: Teaching Novices Programming Using Robots

    Science.gov (United States)

    Major, Louis

    2010-01-01

    Teaching computer programming to novices is a difficult task due to the complex nature of the subject, as negative stereotypes are associated with programming and because introductory programming courses often fail to encourage student understanding. This Protocol outlines the plan that is to be followed in order to investigate the effectiveness…

  18. A Survey of Automatic Protocol Reverse Engineering Approaches, Methods, and Tools on the Inputs and Outputs View

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baraka D. Sija

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available A network protocol defines rules that control communications between two or more machines on the Internet, whereas Automatic Protocol Reverse Engineering (APRE defines the way of extracting the structure of a network protocol without accessing its specifications. Enough knowledge on undocumented protocols is essential for security purposes, network policy implementation, and management of network resources. This paper reviews and analyzes a total of 39 approaches, methods, and tools towards Protocol Reverse Engineering (PRE and classifies them into four divisions, approaches that reverse engineer protocol finite state machines, protocol formats, and both protocol finite state machines and protocol formats to approaches that focus directly on neither reverse engineering protocol formats nor protocol finite state machines. The efficiency of all approaches’ outputs based on their selected inputs is analyzed in general along with appropriate reverse engineering inputs format. Additionally, we present discussion and extended classification in terms of automated to manual approaches, known and novel categories of reverse engineered protocols, and a literature of reverse engineered protocols in relation to the seven layers’ OSI (Open Systems Interconnection model.

  19. Gait recognition based on integral outline

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ming, Guan; Fang, Lv

    2017-02-01

    Biometric identification technology replaces traditional security technology, which has become a trend, and gait recognition also has become a hot spot of research because its feature is difficult to imitate and theft. This paper presents a gait recognition system based on integral outline of human body. The system has three important aspects: the preprocessing of gait image, feature extraction and classification. Finally, using a method of polling to evaluate the performance of the system, and summarizing the problems existing in the gait recognition and the direction of development in the future.

  20. Momocs : outline analysis using R

    OpenAIRE

    Bonhomme, Vincent; PICQ, Sandrine; Claude, Julien; Gaucherel, Cedric

    2014-01-01

    We introduce here Momocs, a package intended to ease and popularize modern mor- phometrics with R, and particularly outline analysis, which aims to extract quantitative variables from shapes. It mostly hinges on the functions published in the book entitled Modern Morphometrics Using R by Claude (2008). From outline extraction from raw data to multivariate analysis, Momocs provides an integrated and convenient toolkit to students and researchers who are, or may become, interested in describing...

  1. Improved assessment of multiple sclerosis lesion segmentation agreement via detection and outline error estimates

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wack David S

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Presented is the method “Detection and Outline Error Estimates” (DOEE for assessing rater agreement in the delineation of multiple sclerosis (MS lesions. The DOEE method divides operator or rater assessment into two parts: 1 Detection Error (DE -- rater agreement in detecting the same regions to mark, and 2 Outline Error (OE -- agreement of the raters in outlining of the same lesion. Methods DE, OE and Similarity Index (SI values were calculated for two raters tested on a set of 17 fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery (FLAIR images of patients with MS. DE, OE, and SI values were tested for dependence with mean total area (MTA of the raters' Region of Interests (ROIs. Results When correlated with MTA, neither DE (ρ = .056, p=.83 nor the ratio of OE to MTA (ρ = .23, p=.37, referred to as Outline Error Rate (OER, exhibited significant correlation. In contrast, SI is found to be strongly correlated with MTA (ρ = .75, p  Conclusions The DE and OER indices are proposed as a better method than SI for comparing rater agreement of ROIs, which also provide specific information for raters to improve their agreement.

  2. A new type of In-core sensor validation outline

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Figedy, S.

    2006-01-01

    In this a new type of in-core sensor validation method is outlined, which is based on combination of correlation coefficients and mutual information indices. First experience with this approach is described and further improvements to enhance the outcome reliability are proposed namely through computational intelligence techniques (Authors)

  3. Methods for CT automatic exposure control protocol translation between scanner platforms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKenney, Sarah E; Seibert, J Anthony; Lamba, Ramit; Boone, John M

    2014-03-01

    An imaging facility with a diverse fleet of CT scanners faces considerable challenges when propagating CT protocols with consistent image quality and patient dose across scanner makes and models. Although some protocol parameters can comfortably remain constant among scanners (eg, tube voltage, gantry rotation time), the automatic exposure control (AEC) parameter, which selects the overall mA level during tube current modulation, is difficult to match among scanners, especially from different CT manufacturers. Objective methods for converting tube current modulation protocols among CT scanners were developed. Three CT scanners were investigated, a GE LightSpeed 16 scanner, a GE VCT scanner, and a Siemens Definition AS+ scanner. Translation of the AEC parameters such as noise index and quality reference mAs across CT scanners was specifically investigated. A variable-diameter poly(methyl methacrylate) phantom was imaged on the 3 scanners using a range of AEC parameters for each scanner. The phantom consisted of 5 cylindrical sections with diameters of 13, 16, 20, 25, and 32 cm. The protocol translation scheme was based on matching either the volumetric CT dose index or image noise (in Hounsfield units) between two different CT scanners. A series of analytic fit functions, corresponding to different patient sizes (phantom diameters), were developed from the measured CT data. These functions relate the AEC metric of the reference scanner, the GE LightSpeed 16 in this case, to the AEC metric of a secondary scanner. When translating protocols between different models of CT scanners (from the GE LightSpeed 16 reference scanner to the GE VCT system), the translation functions were linear. However, a power-law function was necessary to convert the AEC functions of the GE LightSpeed 16 reference scanner to the Siemens Definition AS+ secondary scanner, because of differences in the AEC functionality designed by these two companies. Protocol translation on the basis of

  4. Chapter 3: Commercial and Industrial Lighting Controls Evaluation Protocol. The Uniform Methods Project: Methods for Determining Energy Efficiency Savings for Specific Measures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurnik, Charles W. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Carlson, Stephen [DNV GL, Madison, WI (United States)

    2017-10-04

    This Commercial and Industrial Lighting Controls Evaluation Protocol (the protocol) describes methods to account for energy savings resulting from programmatic installation of lighting control equipment in large populations of commercial, industrial, government, institutional, and other nonresidential facilities. This protocol does not address savings resulting from changes in codes and standards, or from education and training activities. When lighting controls are installed in conjunction with a lighting retrofit project, the lighting control savings must be calculated parametrically with the lighting retrofit project so savings are not double counted.

  5. Qualitative methods in radiography research: a proposed framework

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Adams, J.; Smith, T.

    2003-01-01

    Introduction: While radiography is currently developing a research base, which is important in terms of professional development and informing practice and policy issues in the field, the amount of research published by radiographers remains limited. However, a range of qualitative methods offer further opportunities for radiography research. Purpose: This paper briefly introduces a number of key qualitative methods (qualitative interviews, focus groups, observational methods, diary methods and document/text analysis) and sketches one possible framework for future qualitative work in radiography research. The framework focuses upon three areas for study: intra-professional issues; inter-professional issues; and clinical practice, patient and health delivery issues. While the paper outlines broad areas for future focus rather than providing a detailed protocol for how individual pieces of research should be conducted, a few research questions have been chosen and examples of possible qualitative methods required to answer such questions are outlined for each area. Conclusion: Given the challenges and opportunities currently facing the development of a research base within radiography, the outline of key qualitative methods and broad areas suitable for their application is offered as a useful tool for those within the profession looking to embark upon or enhance their research career

  6. Exploring two methods of usability testing: concurrent versus retrospective think-aloud protocols

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van den Haak, M.J.; de Jong, Menno D.T.

    2003-01-01

    Think-aloud protocols are commonly used for the usability testing of instructional documents, Web sites and interfaces. This paper addresses the benefits and drawbacks of two think-aloud variations: the traditional concurrent think-aloud method and the less familiar retrospective think-aloud

  7. Exploring Two Methods of Usability Testing : Concurrent versus Retrospective Think-Aloud Protocols

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van den Haak, Maaike J.; De Jong, Menno D. T.

    2003-01-01

    Think-aloud protocols are commonly used for the usability testing of instructional documents, web sites and interfaces. This paper addresses the benefits and drawbacks of two think-aloud variations: the traditional concurrent think-aloud method and the less familiar retrospective think-aloud

  8. Renewable Energy Monitoring Protocol. Update 2010. Methodology for the calculation and recording of the amounts of energy produced from renewable sources in the Netherlands

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Te Buck, S.; Van Keulen, B.; Bosselaar, L.; Gerlagh, T.; Skelton, T.

    2010-07-15

    This is the fifth, updated edition of the Dutch Renewable Energy Monitoring Protocol. The protocol, compiled on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, can be considered as a policy document that provides a uniform calculation method for determining the amount of energy produced in the Netherlands in a renewable manner. Because all governments and organisations use the calculation methods described in this protocol, this makes it possible to monitor developments in this field well and consistently. The introduction of this protocol outlines the history and describes its set-up, validity and relationship with other similar documents and agreements. The Dutch Renewable Energy Monitoring Protocol is compiled by NL Agency, and all relevant parties were given the chance to provide input. This has been incorporated as far as is possible. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) uses this protocol to calculate the amount of renewable energy produced in the Netherlands. These data are then used by the Ministry of Economic Affairs to gauge the realisation of policy objectives. In June 2009 the European Directive for energy from renewable sources was published with renewable energy targets for the Netherlands. This directive used a different calculation method - the gross energy end-use method - whilst the Dutch definition is based on the so-called substitution method. NL Agency was asked to add the calculation according to the gross end use method, although this is not clearly defined on a number of points. In describing the method, the unanswered questions become clear, as do, for example, the points the Netherlands should bring up in international discussions.

  9. Acute stroke: automatic perfusion lesion outlining using level sets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mouridsen, Kim; Nagenthiraja, Kartheeban; Jónsdóttir, Kristjana Ýr; Ribe, Lars R; Neumann, Anders B; Hjort, Niels; Østergaard, Leif

    2013-11-01

    To develop a user-independent algorithm for the delineation of hypoperfused tissue on perfusion-weighted images and evaluate its performance relative to a standard threshold method in simulated data, as well as in acute stroke patients. The study was approved by the local ethics committee, and patients gave written informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. The algorithm identifies hypoperfused tissue in mean transit time maps by simultaneously minimizing the mean square error between individual and mean perfusion values inside and outside a smooth boundary. In 14 acute stroke patients, volumetric agreement between automated outlines and manual outlines determined in consensus among four neuroradiologists was assessed with Bland-Altman analysis, while spatial agreement was quantified by using lesion overlap relative to mean lesion volume (Dice coefficient). Performance improvement relative to a standard threshold approach was tested with the Wilcoxon signed rank test. The mean difference in lesion volume between automated outlines and manual outlines was -9.0 mL ± 44.5 (standard deviation). The lowest mean volume difference for the threshold approach was -25.8 mL ± 88.2. A significantly higher Dice coefficient was observed with the algorithm (0.71; interquartile range [IQR], 0.42-0.75) compared with the threshold approach (0.50; IQR, 0.27- 0.57; P , .001). The corresponding agreement among experts was 0.79 (IQR, 0.69-0.83). The perfusion lesions outlined by the automated algorithm agreed well with those defined manually in consensus by four experts and were superior to those obtained by using the standard threshold approach. This user-independent algorithm may improve the assessment of perfusion images as part of acute stroke treatment. http://radiology.rsna.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1148/radiol.13121622/-/DC1. RSNA, 2013

  10. Mouse cell culture - Methods and protocols

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CarloAlberto Redi

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available The mouse is, out of any doubt, the experimental animal par excellence for many many colleagues within the scientific community, notably for those working in mammalian biology (in a broad sense, from basic genetic to modeling human diseases, starting at least from 1664 Robert Hooke experiments on air’s propertyn. Not surprising then that mouse cell cultures is a well established field of research itself and that there are several handbooks devoted to this discipline. Here, Andrew Ward and David Tosh provide a necessary update of the protocols currently needed. In fact, nearly half of the book is devoted to stem cells culture protocols, mainly embryonic, from a list of several organs (kidney, lung, oesophagus and intestine, pancreas and liver to mention some........

  11. Performance Analysis of Secure and Private Billing Protocols for Smart Metering

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tom Eccles

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Traditional utility metering is to be replaced by smart metering. Smart metering enables fine-grained utility consumption measurements. These fine-grained measurements raise privacy concerns due to the lifestyle information which can be inferred from the precise time at which utilities were consumed. This paper outlines and compares two privacy-respecting time of use billing protocols for smart metering and investigates their performance on a variety of hardware. These protocols protect the privacy of customers by never transmitting the fine-grained utility readings outside of the customer’s home network. One protocol favors complexity on the trusted smart meter hardware while the other uses homomorphic commitments to offload computation to a third device. Both protocols are designed to operate on top of existing cryptographic secure channel protocols in place on smart meters. Proof of concept software implementations of these protocols have been written and their suitability for real world application to low-performance smart meter hardware is discussed. These protocols may also have application to other privacy conscious aggregation systems, such as electronic voting.

  12. Temporary Operational Protocol for making safe and managing Orphaned or Seized Radioactive Sources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2013-01-01

    This protocol outlines the arrangements to manage the safe interim storage of an orphaned radioactive source or of a source identified for seizure, pending its ultimate disposal. Such sources may be sources found outside of regulatory control, detected at a frontier or seized in the public interest. This includes a radioactive source arising from a CBRN, chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, incident, following neutralisation of any associated dispersal device and confirmation of the suspect object as radioactive. The arrangements in this protocol are meant to be consistent with and used in conjunction with relevant protocols to the Major Emergency Framework Document and may be revisited as necessary as those protocols are further developed

  13. Automatic detection of outlines. Application to the quantitative analysis of renal scintiscanning pictures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morcos-Ghrab, Nadia.

    1979-01-01

    The purpose of the work described is the finalizing of a method making it possible automatically to extract the significant outlines on a renal scintiscanning picture. The algorithms must be simple and of high performance, their routine execution on a mini-computer must be fast enough to compete effectively with human performances. However, the method that has been developed is general enough to be adapted, with slight modifications, to another type of picture. The first chapter is a brief introduction to the principle of scintiscanning, the equipment used and the type of picture obtained therefrom. In the second chapter the various approaches used for form recognition and scene analysis are very briefly described with the help of examples. The third chapter deals with pretreatment techniques (particularly the machine operators) used for segmenting the pictures. Chapter four presents techniques which segment the picture by parallel processing of all its points. In chapter five a description is given of the sequential research techniques of the outline elements, drawing inspiration from the methods used in artificial intelligence for resolving the optimization problem. The sixth chapter shows the difficulties encountered in extracting the renal outlines and the planning technique stages adopted to overcome these difficulties. Chapter seven describes in detail the two research methods employed for generating the plan. In chapter eight, the methods used for extending the areas obtained on the plan and for refining the outlines that bound them are dealt with. Chapter nine is a short presentation of the organization of the programmes and of their data structure. Finally, examples of results are given in chapter ten [fr

  14. A Self-Stabilizing Synchronization Protocol for Arbitrary Digraphs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malekpour, Mahyar R.

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents a self-stabilizing distributed clock synchronization protocol in the absence of faults in the system. It is focused on the distributed clock synchronization of an arbitrary, non-partitioned digraph ranging from fully connected to 1-connected networks of nodes while allowing for differences in the network elements. This protocol does not rely on assumptions about the initial state of the system, other than the presence of at least one node, and no central clock or a centrally generated signal, pulse, or message is used. Nodes are anonymous, i.e., they do not have unique identities. There is no theoretical limit on the maximum number of participating nodes. The only constraint on the behavior of the node is that the interactions with other nodes are restricted to defined links and interfaces. This protocol deterministically converges within a time bound that is a linear function of the self-stabilization period. We present an outline of a deductive proof of the correctness of the protocol. A bounded model of the protocol was mechanically verified for a variety of topologies. Results of the mechanical proof of the correctness of the protocol are provided. The model checking results have verified the correctness of the protocol as they apply to the networks with unidirectional and bidirectional links. In addition, the results confirm the claims of determinism and linear convergence. As a result, we conjecture that the protocol solves the general case of this problem. We also present several variations of the protocol and discuss that this synchronization protocol is indeed an emergent system.

  15. 9 CFR 114.9 - Outline of Production guidelines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Outline of Production guidelines. 114.9 Section 114.9 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT... REQUIREMENTS FOR BIOLOGICAL PRODUCTS § 114.9 Outline of Production guidelines. Each Outline of Production shall...

  16. An improved method for preparing Agrobacterium cells that simplifies the Arabidopsis transformation protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ülker Bekir

    2006-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The Agrobacterium vacuum (Bechtold et al 1993 and floral-dip (Clough and Bent 1998 are very efficient methods for generating transgenic Arabidopsis plants. These methods allow plant transformation without the need for tissue culture. Large volumes of bacterial cultures grown in liquid media are necessary for both of these transformation methods. This limits the number of transformations that can be done at a given time due to the need for expensive large shakers and limited space on them. Additionally, the bacterial colonies derived from solid media necessary for starting these liquid cultures often fail to grow in such large volumes. Therefore the optimum stage of plant material for transformation is often missed and new plant material needs to be grown. Results To avoid problems associated with large bacterial liquid cultures, we investigated whether bacteria grown on plates are also suitable for plant transformation. We demonstrate here that bacteria grown on plates can be used with similar efficiency for transforming plants even after one week of storage at 4°C. This makes it much easier to synchronize Agrobacterium and plants for transformation. DNA gel blot analysis was carried out on the T1 plants surviving the herbicide selection and demonstrated that the surviving plants are indeed transgenic. Conclusion The simplified method works as efficiently as the previously reported protocols and significantly reduces the workload, cost and time. Additionally, the protocol reduces the risk of large scale contaminations involving GMOs. Most importantly, many more independent transformations per day can be performed using this modified protocol.

  17. Computational Methodologies for Developing Structure–Morphology–Performance Relationships in Organic Solar Cells: A Protocol Review

    KAUST Repository

    Do, Khanh; Ravva, Mahesh Kumar; Wang, Tonghui; Bredas, Jean-Luc

    2016-01-01

    We outline a step-by-step protocol that incorporates a number of theoretical and computational methodologies to evaluate the structural and electronic properties of pi-conjugated semiconducting materials in the condensed phase. Our focus

  18. Commercial Building Energy Asset Score Program Overview and Technical Protocol (Version 1.1)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Na; Goel, Supriya; Makhmalbaf, Atefe

    2013-08-09

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is developing a voluntary national scoring system for commercial buildings to help building owners and managers assess a building’s energy-related systems independent of operations. The goal of the score is to facilitate cost-effective investment in energy efficiency improvements of commercial buildings. The system, known as the Commercial Building Energy Asset Score, will allow building owners and managers to compare their building infrastructure against peers and track building upgrades over time. The system will also help other building stakeholders (e.g., building investors, tenants, financiers, and appraisers) understand the relative efficiency of different buildings in a way that is independent from operations and occupancy. This report outlines the technical protocol used to generate the energy asset score, explains the scoring methodology, and provides additional details regarding the energy asset scoring tool. The alternative methods that were considered prior to developing the current approach are described in the Program Overview and Technical Protocol Version 1.0.

  19. An outline of ANPA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Del Nero, G.

    1997-01-01

    The activities of the Italian National Agency for Environmental Protection(ANPA) is outlined including the following: the institutive law of ANPA; main tasks of ANPA; structure of ANPA; personnel of ANPA; provisional structure of ANPA; principal nuclear sites in Italy

  20. IAEA TECDOC 055 Outline

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shull, Doug [Gregg Protection Services, Palm Beach Gardens, FL (United States)

    2015-07-13

    An outline of suggestions for updating a version of IAEA-TECDOC-1276 is provided. This update will become IAEA-TECDOC-055, titled ''IAEA handbook for designing and implementing physical protection systems for nuclear material and nuclear facilities.''

  1. Outline of a method for final storage of low- and medium-active waste from possible Danish power reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brodersen, K.; Jensen, J.; Oestergaard, K.

    1977-02-01

    A method is outlined for the final storage of Danish low-and medium-active power reactor waste. The waste drums are contained in large concretre blocks placed just below the ground surface. A plant for storing waste by means of this method is sketched. It consists of a system of reinforced concrete pits with the top level with the ground surface. Each pit measures c. 5 x 5 m and is c. 6 m deep. The pits are envisaged cast with a permanent inside, step-like shuttering of thin steel plates. The volume between the drums will be cast with concrete when a pit is filled. Calculations are given of the construction and running costs. It is estimated that the final storage of reactor wastes is only a small problem regarding economy and space, and also that there is hardly doubt that full safety can be achieved. (B.P.)

  2. Methods for the evaluation of hospital cooperation activities (Systematic review protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rotter Thomas

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Hospital partnerships, mergers and cooperatives are arrangements frequently seen as a means of improving health service delivery. Many of the assumptions used in planning hospital cooperatives are not stated clearly and are often based on limited or poor scientific evidence. Methods This is a protocol for a systematic review, following the Cochrane EPOC methodology. The review aims to document, catalogue and synthesize the existing literature on the reported methods for the evaluation of hospital cooperation activities as well as methods of hospital cooperation. We will search the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness, the Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and bibliographic databases including PubMed (via NLM, Web of Science, NHS EED, Business Source Premier (via EBSCO and Global Health for publications that report on methods for evaluating hospital cooperatives, strategic partnerships, mergers, alliances, networks and related activities and methods used for such partnerships. The method proposed by the Cochrane EPOC group regarding randomized study designs, controlled clinical trials, controlled before and after studies, and interrupted time series will be followed. In addition, we will also include cohort, case-control studies, and relevant non-comparative publications such as case reports. We will categorize and analyze the review findings according to the study design employed, the study quality (low versus high quality studies and the method reported in the primary studies. We will present the results of studies in tabular form. Discussion Overall, the systematic review aims to identify, assess and synthesize the evidence to underpin hospital cooperation activities as defined in this protocol. As a result, the review will provide an evidence base for partnerships, alliances or other fields of cooperation in a hospital setting. PROSPERO

  3. Effects of electronic outlining on students' argumentative writing performance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Smet, M.R.J.; Broekkamp, H.; Brand-Gruwel, S.; Kirschner, P.A.

    2011-01-01

    This study examined the effect of electronic outlining on the quality of students' writing products and how outlining affects perceived mental effort during the writing task. Additionally, it was studied how students appropriate and appreciate an outline tool and whether they need explicit

  4. LEACH-A: An Adaptive Method for Improving LEACH Protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jianli ZHAO

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Energy has become one of the most important constraints on wireless sensor networks. Hence, many researchers in this field focus on how to design a routing protocol to prolong the lifetime of the network. The classical hierarchical protocols such as LEACH and LEACH-C have better performance in saving the energy consumption. However, the choosing strategy only based on the largest residue energy or shortest distance will still consume more energy. In this paper an adaptive routing protocol named “LEACH-A” which has an energy threshold E0 is proposed. If there are cluster nodes whose residual energy are greater than E0, the node of largest residual energy is selected to communicated with the base station; When all the cluster nodes energy are less than E0, the node nearest to the base station is select to communication with the base station. Simulations show that our improved protocol LEACH-A performs better than the LEACH and the LEACH-C.

  5. A software defined RTU multi-protocol automatic adaptation data transmission method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Huiying; Xu, Xingwu; Wang, Zhanfeng; Ma, Weijun; Li, Sheng; Su, Yong; Pan, Yunpeng

    2018-02-01

    Remote terminal unit (RTU) is the core device of the monitor system in hydrology and water resources. Different devices often have different communication protocols in the application layer, which results in the difficulty in information analysis and communication networking. Therefore, we introduced the idea of software defined hardware, and abstracted the common feature of mainstream communication protocols of RTU application layer, and proposed a uniformed common protocol model. Then, various communication protocol algorithms of application layer are modularized according to the model. The executable codes of these algorithms are labeled by the virtual functions and stored in the flash chips of embedded CPU to form the protocol stack. According to the configuration commands to initialize the RTU communication systems, it is able to achieve dynamic assembling and loading of various application layer communication protocols of RTU and complete the efficient transport of sensor data from RTU to central station when the data acquisition protocol of sensors and various external communication terminals remain unchanged.

  6. Evaluation of Extraction Protocols for Simultaneous Polar and Non-Polar Yeast Metabolite Analysis Using Multivariate Projection Methods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolas P. Tambellini

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Metabolomic and lipidomic approaches aim to measure metabolites or lipids in the cell. Metabolite extraction is a key step in obtaining useful and reliable data for successful metabolite studies. Significant efforts have been made to identify the optimal extraction protocol for various platforms and biological systems, for both polar and non-polar metabolites. Here we report an approach utilizing chemoinformatics for systematic comparison of protocols to extract both from a single sample of the model yeast organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Three chloroform/methanol/water partitioning based extraction protocols found in literature were evaluated for their effectiveness at reproducibly extracting both polar and non-polar metabolites. Fatty acid methyl esters and methoxyamine/trimethylsilyl derivatized aqueous compounds were analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry to evaluate non-polar or polar metabolite analysis. The comparative breadth and amount of recovered metabolites was evaluated using multivariate projection methods. This approach identified an optimal protocol consisting of 64 identified polar metabolites from 105 ion hits and 12 fatty acids recovered, and will potentially attenuate the error and variation associated with combining metabolite profiles from different samples for untargeted analysis with both polar and non-polar analytes. It also confirmed the value of using multivariate projection methods to compare established extraction protocols.

  7. Replication protocol analysis: a method for the study of real-world design thinking

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Galle, Per; Kovacs, L. B.

    1996-01-01

    ’ is refined into a method called ‘replication protocol analysis’ (RPA), and discussed from a methodological perspective of design research. It is argued that for the study of real-world design thinking this method offers distinct advantages over traditional ‘design protocol analysis’, which seeks to capture......Given the brief of an architectural competition on site planning, and the design awarded the first prize, the first author (trained as an architect but not a participant in the competition) produced a line of reasoning that might have led from brief to design. In the paper, such ‘design replication...... the designer’s authentic line of reasoning. To illustrate how RPA can be used, the site planning case is briefly presented, and part of the replicated line of reasoning analysed. One result of the analysis is a glimpse of a ‘logic of design’; another is an insight which sheds new light on Darke’s classical...

  8. A Self-Stabilizing Distributed Clock Synchronization Protocol for Arbitrary Digraphs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malekpour, Mahyar R.

    2011-01-01

    This report presents a self-stabilizing distributed clock synchronization protocol in the absence of faults in the system. It is focused on the distributed clock synchronization of an arbitrary, non-partitioned digraph ranging from fully connected to 1-connected networks of nodes while allowing for differences in the network elements. This protocol does not rely on assumptions about the initial state of the system, other than the presence of at least one node, and no central clock or a centrally generated signal, pulse, or message is used. Nodes are anonymous, i.e., they do not have unique identities. There is no theoretical limit on the maximum number of participating nodes. The only constraint on the behavior of the node is that the interactions with other nodes are restricted to defined links and interfaces. We present an outline of a deductive proof of the correctness of the protocol. A model of the protocol was mechanically verified using the Symbolic Model Verifier (SMV) for a variety of topologies. Results of the mechanical proof of the correctness of the protocol are provided. The model checking results have verified the correctness of the protocol as they apply to the networks with unidirectional and bidirectional links. In addition, the results confirm the claims of determinism and linear convergence. As a result, we conjecture that the protocol solves the general case of this problem. We also present several variations of the protocol and discuss that this synchronization protocol is indeed an emergent system.

  9. A Formal Verification of the Alternating Bit Protocol in the Calculus of Constructions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bezem, M.A.; Groote, J.F.

    We report on a formal verification of the Alternating Bit Protocol (ABP) in the Calculus of Constructions. We outline a semi-formal correctness proof of the ABP with sufficient detail to be formalised. Thereafter we show by examples how the formalised proof has been verified by the automated proof

  10. Industrial wireless sensor networks applications, protocols, and standards

    CERN Document Server

    Güngör, V Çagri

    2013-01-01

    The collaborative nature of industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs) brings several advantages over traditional wired industrial monitoring and control systems, including self-organization, rapid deployment, flexibility, and inherent intelligent processing. In this regard, IWSNs play a vital role in creating more reliable, efficient, and productive industrial systems, thus improving companies' competitiveness in the marketplace. Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks: Applications, Protocols, and Standards examines the current state of the art in industrial wireless sensor networks and outline

  11. Technical basis for the ITER-FEAT outline design. Progress in resolving open design issues from the outline design report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2000-01-01

    In this publication the technical basis for the ITER-FEAT outline design is presented. It comprises the Plant Design Specifications, the Safety Principles and Environmental Criteria, the Site Requirements and Site Design Assumptions. The outline of the key features of the ITER-FEAT design includes main physical parameters and assessment, design overview and preliminary safety assessment, cost and schedule

  12. Costing 'healthy' food baskets in Australia - a systematic review of food price and affordability monitoring tools, protocols and methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, Meron; Lee, Amanda

    2016-11-01

    To undertake a systematic review to determine similarities and differences in metrics and results between recently and/or currently used tools, protocols and methods for monitoring Australian healthy food prices and affordability. Electronic databases of peer-reviewed literature and online grey literature were systematically searched using the PRISMA approach for articles and reports relating to healthy food and diet price assessment tools, protocols, methods and results that utilised retail pricing. National, state, regional and local areas of Australia from 1995 to 2015. Assessment tools, protocols and methods to measure the price of 'healthy' foods and diets. The search identified fifty-nine discrete surveys of 'healthy' food pricing incorporating six major food pricing tools (those used in multiple areas and time periods) and five minor food pricing tools (those used in a single survey area or time period). Analysis demonstrated methodological differences regarding: included foods; reference households; use of availability and/or quality measures; household income sources; store sampling methods; data collection protocols; analysis methods; and results. 'Healthy' food price assessment methods used in Australia lack comparability across all metrics and most do not fully align with a 'healthy' diet as recommended by the current Australian Dietary Guidelines. None have been applied nationally. Assessment of the price, price differential and affordability of healthy (recommended) and current (unhealthy) diets would provide more robust and meaningful data to inform health and fiscal policy in Australia. The INFORMAS 'optimal' approach provides a potential framework for development of these methods.

  13. Security Protocols in a Nutshell

    OpenAIRE

    Toorani, Mohsen

    2016-01-01

    Security protocols are building blocks in secure communications. They deploy some security mechanisms to provide certain security services. Security protocols are considered abstract when analyzed, but they can have extra vulnerabilities when implemented. This manuscript provides a holistic study on security protocols. It reviews foundations of security protocols, taxonomy of attacks on security protocols and their implementations, and different methods and models for security analysis of pro...

  14. How to write a surgical clinical research protocol: literature review and practical guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenthal, Rachel; Schäfer, Juliane; Briel, Matthias; Bucher, Heiner C; Oertli, Daniel; Dell-Kuster, Salome

    2014-02-01

    The study protocol is the core document of every clinical research project. Clinical research in studies involving surgical interventions presents some specific challenges, which need to be accounted for and described in the study protocol. The aim of this review is to provide a practical guide for developing a clinical study protocol for surgical interventions with a focus on methodologic issues. On the basis of an in-depth literature search of methodologic literature and on some cardinal published surgical trials and observational studies, the authors provides a 10-step guide for developing a clinical study protocol in surgery. This practical guide outlines key methodologic issues important when planning an ethically and scientifically sound research project involving surgical interventions, with the ultimate goal of providing high-level evidence relevant for health care decision making in surgery. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Design of PDT protocols using delta-aminolevulinic acid (5ALA)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacques, Steven L.; He, Xiao-Yan; Gofstein, Gary

    1993-06-01

    The kinetics of protoporphyrin IX (PPIX) synthesis, bioconversion to other metabolic products, and photobleaching were measured in cell cultures after incubation in media containing the metabolic precursor for heme synthesis, (delta) -aminolevulinic acid (5 ALA). A compartmental model described the kinetics in terms of rate constants for the three processes. The maximum amount of PPIX that can be attained in the cells and the concentration of 5 ALA in the medium that obtains this maximum were determined. Using this information, two dosimetry protocols are outlined which both involve complete photobleaching of the PPIX: (1) the classical acute protocol using maximum 5 ALA to produce maximum PPIX and a light treatment of about 0.5 - 1 hr, and (2) a novel prolonged protocol using continuous low-level 5 ALA delivery to produce only slightly elevated PPIX and an extended light exposure time of over 24 hrs.

  16. Reconstruction of Building Outlines in Dense Urban Areas Based on LIDAR Data and Address Points

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jarzabek-Rychard, M.

    2012-07-01

    The paper presents a comprehensive method for automated extraction and delineation of building outlines in densely built-up areas. A novel approach to outline reconstruction is the use of geocoded building address points. They give information about building location thus highly reduce task complexity. Reconstruction process is executed on 3D point clouds acquired by airborne laser scanner. The method consists of three steps: building detection, delineation and contours refinement. The algorithm is tested against a data set that presents the old market town and its surroundings. The results are discussed and evaluated by comparison to reference cadastral data.

  17. Protocol for development of authorized release limits for concrete at U.S. Department of Energy sites

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arnish, J.; Kamboj, S.; Chen, S.-Y.; Parker, F. L.; Smith, A. M.; Meservey, R. H.; Tripp, J. L.

    2000-01-01

    The purpose of this protocol is to assist US Department of Energy (DOE) sites in releasing concrete for reuse. Current regulations allow the sites to release surface-contaminated materials if their radioactivity falls below certain levels and to possibly release materials with volumetric contamination or higher levels of surface contamination on a case-by-case basis. In all cases, an ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) analysis that evaluates the risks of releasing volumetrically contaminated concrete or concrete with higher levels of surface contamination is required as a basis for proposing and setting new release limits that allow for reuse of the concrete material. To evaluate the dose impacts of reusing radioactively contaminated material, the measured radiation levels (pCi/g or disintegrations per minute [dpm]/100 cm 2 ) must be converted to the estimated dose (mrem/yr) that would be received by affected individuals. The dose depends on the amounts and types of isotopes present and the time, distance, and method of exposure (e.g., inhalation or external exposure). For each disposition alternative, the protocol provides a systematic method to evaluate the impact of the dose on the affected individuals. The cost impacts of reusing concrete also need to be evaluated. They too depend on the disposition alternative and the extent and type of contamination. The protocol provides a method to perform a detailed analysis of these factors and evaluate the dose and cost impacts for various disposition alternatives. Once the dose and cost impacts of the various alternatives have been estimated, the protocol outlines the steps required to propose new release standards that allow release and reuse of the concrete material

  18. Outline of OMEGA project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Umezawa, Hirokazu

    1989-01-01

    Attention has been paid to the research and development on the group partition and annihilation disposal technology which separates long life radioactive nuclides, rare stable nuclides and so on in high level radioactive wastes and utilizes those for respective suitable uses, or which searches for the possibility of promoting the nuclear disintegration of long life radioactive nuclides, as the basic research aiming at the further development of atomic energy. It was named 'OMEGA project' and its promotion has been carried out. The outline of the project and the international circumstances surrounding it are described. In the high level radioactive wastes generated from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, the alpha and beta-gamma radionuclides having long life are contained. Consequently, it is necessary to isolate them from human environment for very long period, and the basic method is the glass solidification and the disposal in deep strata, therefore the technical development has been advanced. The OMEGA project was decided in October, 1988, and the course of the research carried out so far, the international cooperation and the subjects of research and development are reported. (K.I.)

  19. A Guide to Writing a Qualitative Systematic Review Protocol to Enhance Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing and Health Care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butler, Ashleigh; Hall, Helen; Copnell, Beverley

    2016-06-01

    The qualitative systematic review is a rapidly developing area of nursing research. In order to present trustworthy, high-quality recommendations, such reviews should be based on a review protocol to minimize bias and enhance transparency and reproducibility. Although there are a number of resources available to guide researchers in developing a quantitative review protocol, very few resources exist for qualitative reviews. To guide researchers through the process of developing a qualitative systematic review protocol, using an example review question. The key elements required in a systematic review protocol are discussed, with a focus on application to qualitative reviews: Development of a research question; formulation of key search terms and strategies; designing a multistage review process; critical appraisal of qualitative literature; development of data extraction techniques; and data synthesis. The paper highlights important considerations during the protocol development process, and uses a previously developed review question as a working example. This paper will assist novice researchers in developing a qualitative systematic review protocol. By providing a worked example of a protocol, the paper encourages the development of review protocols, enhancing the trustworthiness and value of the completed qualitative systematic review findings. Qualitative systematic reviews should be based on well planned, peer reviewed protocols to enhance the trustworthiness of results and thus their usefulness in clinical practice. Protocols should outline, in detail, the processes which will be used to undertake the review, including key search terms, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the methods used for critical appraisal, data extraction and data analysis to facilitate transparency of the review process. Additionally, journals should encourage and support the publication of review protocols, and should require reference to a protocol prior to publication of the

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

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Coustham Vincent

    2011-03-01

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

  1. [Sampling and measurement methods of the protocol design of the China Nine-Province Survey for blindness, visual impairment and cataract surgery].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Jia-liang; Wang, Yu; Gao, Xue-cheng; Ellwein, Leon B; Liu, Hu

    2011-09-01

    To design the protocol of the China nine-province survey for blindness, visual impairment and cataract surgery to evaluate the prevalence and main causes of blindness and visual impairment, and the prevalence and outcomes of the cataract surgery. The protocol design was began after accepting the task for the national survey for blindness, visual impairment and cataract surgery from the Department of Medicine, Ministry of Health, China, in November, 2005. The protocol in Beijing Shunyi Eye Study in 1996 and Guangdong Doumen County Eye Study in 1997, both supported by World Health Organization, was taken as the basis for the protocol design. The relative experts were invited to discuss and prove the draft protocol. An international advisor committee was established to examine and approve the draft protocol. Finally, the survey protocol was checked and approved by the Department of Medicine, Ministry of Health, China and Prevention Program of Blindness and Deafness, WHO. The survey protocol was designed according to the characteristics and the scale of the survey. The contents of the protocol included determination of target population and survey sites, calculation of the sample size, design of the random sampling, composition and organization of the survey teams, determination of the examinee, the flowchart of the field work, survey items and methods, diagnostic criteria of blindness and moderate and sever visual impairment, the measures of the quality control, the methods of the data management. The designed protocol became the standard and practical protocol for the survey to evaluate the prevalence and main causes of blindness and visual impairment, and the prevalence and outcomes of the cataract surgery.

  2. Toward the elaboration of a Universal Design Protocol in the National University of Córdoba

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mauricio Alexei Mareño Sempertegui

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available This article is aimed at expressing the main aspects of the process of administration of an Urban and Building Protocol of Accessibility based on the principles of Universal Design in the National University of Cordoba in Argentina.The main concepts that form the theoretical structure are outlined, posing the need to overcome traditional conceptions which still remain in the policies of accessibility in regional universities and which are insufficient to guide the design of a respectful intervention of fundamental rights. In this way, the concepts of disability and accessibility should be redefined from a perspective of rights.This institutional protocol has as its main objective the guidance of the design and construction of an urban and building space for this university so it can be useful for all the people in a safe, self-sufficient-unexclusive way. Thus, some essential institutional conditions are outlined to guarantee its effective implementation.

  3. Genomics protocols [Methods in molecular biology, v. 175

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Starkey, Michael P; Elaswarapu, Ramnath

    2001-01-01

    .... Drawing on emerging technologies in the fields of bioinformatics and proteomics, these protocols cover not only those traditionally recognized as genomics, but also early therapeutich approaches...

  4. Quantitative assessment of inter-clinician variability of target volume delineation for medulloblastoma: quality assurance for the SIOP PNET 4 trial protocol

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Coles, Charlotte E.; Hoole, Andrew C.F.; Harden, Susan V; Burnet, Neil G.; Twyman, Nicola; Taylor, Roger E.; Kortmann, Rolf D.; Williams, Michael V.

    2003-01-01

    Background and purpose: To assess inter-clinician variability amongst specialist paediatric radiation oncologists in delineating clinical target volumes for treating medulloblastoma as a quality assurance exercise prior to the introduction of the SIOP PNET 4 trial protocol of conformal radiotherapy to the posterior fossa and tumour bed. Patients and methods: Participants from 17 UK centres attended an educational meeting and then completed a clinical planning exercise to outline: (1) the whole posterior fossa and (2) the tumour bed. Quantitative analysis of the volumes, lengths, spatial positioning and axial planes for each individual was carried out and variation between individuals analysed. Results: Outlining of the posterior fossa was reasonably consistent, although most variation was seen in defining the superior border of the tentorium. A major difference was the decision whether or not to include the post-surgical meningocoele in the clinical target volume (CTV). The CTV for the tumour bed was under treated by all participants due to lack of inclusion of pre-operative tumour extent. Conclusions: This exercise demonstrated several ambiguities in the draft protocol and highlighted particular areas of inter-clinician variation. Consequently the protocol was revised and improved to take account of these findings. We recommend that planning exercises, in conjunction with education and training, should be implemented before the start of any new radiotherapy trial. In the future, the use of image transfer will allow prospective peer review of target volumes before treatment commences. These measures are essential to ensure that alterations in clinical practice are achieved in a uniform way

  5. Bilaterally symmetric Fourier approximations of the skull outlines of ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Unknown

    These points denotes break in curvature of the outline and their positions can be compared to .... temnospondyl skull outlines by their shape variations. 2. .... their dentition are related to the feeding habits. Future ... pondyl families is not easy.

  6. Peculiarities of dynamic evaluation of globular formation outlines of the lungs with multislice computed tomography

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vladimir G. Kolmogorov

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. Visualization of infiltration in lung tissue surrounding the globular formation of the lungs (GFL determined by X-ray is one of the important points in the differential diagnosis of primary lung cancer, specific and non-specific inflammatory processes. At CT gauge body phantoms test facilities are widely used for evaluating the performance of scanners that allow the evaluation of scanner characteristics : noise, contrast sensitivity, positioning accuracy, stiffness of the radiation beam, the layer thickness, spatial resolution, etc.Aim. To develop a methodology for assessing the GFL outlines of the dynamics of multislice computed tomography (MSCT by selecting the optimal image processing algorithms.Materials and methods. The visual analysis of two- component physical model images of the electronic window level (WL and electronic window width (WW was installed on the basis of the best conditions for studying a specific group of tissues. In the case of indistinct, poorly defined outlines of globular formations, visual assessment is operator-dependent and requires development and application of quantitative methods of analysis. For a quantitative description of the outlines of the image of the GFL model, a vector in a polar coordinate system coming from the center of the figure mass bounded by the outline was used. The following outline complexity measures were adopted: modified Shannon information entropy H(S(k for k harmonics of the normalized spectral power density S(k of the length of oscillation of loop radius vector R(n; the number of local maxima L of signature radius vector R(n; the maximum value of the normalized power spectral density S(k; product (multiplicity of the entropy H(S and the number of local maxima L.Results. “Multiplicity”, “the number of local maxima” of the outline depend on the GFL geometric dimensions and cannot be used for diagnosis without first normalizing for GFL outline length. The parameters

  7. ITER-FEAT outline design report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2001-01-01

    In July 1998 the ITER Parties were unable, for financial reasons, to proceed with construction of the ITER design proposed at that time, to meet the detailed technical objectives and target cost set in 1992. It was therefore decided to investigate options for the design of ITER with reduced technical objectives and with possibly decreased technical margins, whose target construction cost was one half that of the 1998 ITER design, while maintaining the overall programmatic objective. To identify designs that might meet the revised objectives, task forces involving the JCT and Home Teams met during 1998 and 1999 to analyse and compare a range of options for the design of such a device. This led at the end of 1999 to a single configuration for the ITER design with parameters considered to be the most credible consistent with technical limitations and the financial target, yet meeting fully the objectives with appropriate margins. This new design of ITER, called ''ITER-FEAT'', was submitted to the ITER Director to the ITER Parties as the ''ITER-FEAT Outline Design Report'' (ODR) in January 2000, at their meeting in Tokyo. The Parties subsequently conducted their domestic assessments of this report and fed the resulting comments back into the progressing design. The progress on the developing design was reported to the ITER Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) in June 2000 in the report ''Progress in Resolving Open Design Issues from the ODR'' alongside a report on Progress in Technology R and D for ITER. In addition, the progress in the ITER-FEAT Design and Validating R and D was reported to the ITER Parties. The ITER-FEAT design was subsequently approved by the governing body of ITER in Moscow in June 2000 as the basis for the preparation of the Final Design Report, recognising it as a single mature design for ITER consistent with its revised objectives. This volume contains the documents pertinent to the process described above. More detailed technical information

  8. Gender-Specific Combination HIV Prevention for Youth in High-Burden Settings: The MP3 Youth Observational Pilot Study Protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buttolph, Jasmine; Inwani, Irene; Agot, Kawango; Cleland, Charles M; Cherutich, Peter; Kiarie, James N; Osoti, Alfred; Celum, Connie L; Baeten, Jared M; Nduati, Ruth; Kinuthia, John; Hallett, Timothy B; Alsallaq, Ramzi; Kurth, Ann E

    2017-03-08

    Nearly three decades into the epidemic, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains the region most heavily affected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), with nearly 70% of the 34 million people living with HIV globally residing in the region. In SSA, female and male youth (15 to 24 years) are at a disproportionately high risk of HIV infection compared to adults. As such, there is a need to target HIV prevention strategies to youth and to tailor them to a gender-specific context. This protocol describes the process for the multi-staged approach in the design of the MP3 Youth pilot study, a gender-specific, combination, HIV prevention intervention for youth in Kenya. The objective of this multi-method protocol is to outline a rigorous and replicable methodology for a gender-specific combination HIV prevention pilot study for youth in high-burden settings, illustrating the triangulated methods undertaken to ensure that age, sex, and context are integral in the design of the intervention. The mixed-methods, cross-sectional, longitudinal cohort pilot study protocol was developed by first conducting a systematic review of the literature, which shaped focus group discussions around prevention package and delivery options, and that also informed age- and sex- stratified mathematical modeling. The review, qualitative data, and mathematical modeling created a triangulated evidence base of interventions to be included in the pilot study protocol. To design the pilot study protocol, we convened an expert panel to select HIV prevention interventions effective for youth in SSA, which will be offered in a mobile health setting. The goal of the pilot study implementation and evaluation is to apply lessons learned to more effective HIV prevention evidence and programming. The combination HIV prevention package in this protocol includes (1) offering HIV testing and counseling for all youth; (2) voluntary medical circumcision and condoms for males; (3) pre-exposure prophylaxis (Pr

  9. The relationship between childhood body weight and dental caries experience: an umbrella systematic review protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susan J. Carson

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Obesity and dental caries are global public health problems which can impact in childhood and throughout the life course. In simple terms, childhood dental caries and body weight are linked via the common risk factor of diet. An association between dental caries and obesity has been described in a number of studies and reviews. However, similarly, a relationship has also been noted between low body weight and caries experience in children. This protocol will provide the framework for an umbrella review to address the following question: Does the available evidence support a relationship between dental caries experience and body weight in the child population? Methods This review protocol outlines the process to carry out an umbrella systematic review which will synthesise previous reviews of childhood dental caries experience and body weight. An umbrella review methodology will be used to examine the methodological and reporting quality of existing reviews. Discussion The final umbrella review aims to aggregate the available evidence in order to provide a summary for policymakers and to inform healthcare interventions. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42016047304

  10. A general protocol for the generation of Nanobodies for structural biology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pardon, Els; Laeremans, Toon; Triest, Sarah

    2014-01-01

    There is growing interest in using antibodies as auxiliary tools to crystallize proteins. Here we describe a general protocol for the generation of Nanobodies to be used as crystallization chaperones for the structural investigation of diverse conformational states of flexible (membrane) proteins...... and complexes thereof. Our technology has a competitive advantage over other recombinant crystallization chaperones in that we fully exploit the natural humoral response against native antigens. Accordingly, we provide detailed protocols for the immunization with native proteins and for the selection by phage...... display of in vivo-matured Nanobodies that bind conformational epitopes of functional proteins. Three representative examples illustrate that the outlined procedures are robust, making it possible to solve by Nanobody-assisted X-ray crystallography in a time span of 6-12 months....

  11. Comparative analysis of five DNA isolation protocols and three drying methods for leaves samples of Nectandra megapotamica (Spreng. Mez

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leonardo Severo da Costa

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the study was to establish a DNA isolation protocol Nectandra megapotamica (Spreng. Mez., able to obtain samples of high yield and quality for use in genomic analysis. A commercial kit and four classical methods of DNA extraction were tested, including three cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB-based and one sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS-based methods. Three drying methods for leaves samples were also evaluated including drying at room temperature (RT, in an oven at 40ºC (S40, and in a microwave oven (FMO. The DNA solutions obtained from different types of leaves samples using the five protocols were assessed in terms of cost, execution time, and quality and yield of extracted DNA. The commercial kit did not extract DNA with sufficient quantity or quality for successful PCR reactions. Among the classic methods, only the protocols of Dellaporta and of Khanuja yielded DNA extractions for all three types of foliar samples that resulted in successful PCR reactions and subsequent enzyme restriction assays. Based on the evaluated variables, the most appropriate DNA extraction method for Nectandra megapotamica (Spreng. Mez. was that of Dellaporta, regardless of the method used to dry the samples. The selected method has a relatively low cost and total execution time. Moreover, the quality and quantity of DNA extracted using this method was sufficient for DNA sequence amplification using PCR reactions and to get restriction fragments.

  12. Static Validation of Security Protocols

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bodei, Chiara; Buchholtz, Mikael; Degano, P.

    2005-01-01

    We methodically expand protocol narrations into terms of a process algebra in order to specify some of the checks that need to be made in a protocol. We then apply static analysis technology to develop an automatic validation procedure for protocols. Finally, we demonstrate that these techniques ...... suffice to identify several authentication flaws in symmetric and asymmetric key protocols such as Needham-Schroeder symmetric key, Otway-Rees, Yahalom, Andrew secure RPC, Needham-Schroeder asymmetric key, and Beller-Chang-Yacobi MSR...

  13. Shortened screening method for phosphorus fractionation in sediments A complementary approach to the standards, measurements and testing harmonised protocol

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pardo, Patricia; Rauret, Gemma; Lopez-Sanchez, Jose Fermin

    2004-01-01

    The SMT protocol, a sediment phosphorus fractionation method harmonised and validated in the frame of the standards, measurements and testing (SMT) programme (European Commission), establishes five fractions of phosphorus according to their extractability. The determination of phosphate extracted is carried out spectrophotometrically. This protocol has been applied to 11 sediments of different origin and characteristics and the phosphorus extracted in each fraction was determined not only by UV-Vis spectrophotometry, but also by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry. The use of these two determination techniques allowed the differentiation between phosphorus that was present in the extracts as soluble reactive phosphorus and as total phosphorus. From the comparison of data obtained with both determination techniques a shortened screening method, for a quick evaluation of the magnitude and importance of the fractions given by the SMT protocol, is proposed and validated using two certified reference materials

  14. Bilaterally symmetric Fourier approximations of the skull outlines of ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Present work illustrates a scheme of quantitative description of the shape of the skull outlines of temnospondyl amphibians using bilaterally symmetric closed Fourier curves. Some special points have been identified on the Fourier fits of the skull outlines, which are the local maxima, or minima of the distances from the ...

  15. Scientific Research & Subsistence: Protocols to Ensure Co-Existence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nachman, C.; Holman, A.; DeMaster, D.

    2017-12-01

    Commercial, industrial, and research interests in the Arctic are expanding rapidly. Potentials are numerous and exciting, giving rise to the need for guidelines to ensure interactions among waterway users do not conflict. Of particular concern is the potential for adverse impacts to U.S. Arctic coastal communities that rely on living marine resources for nutritional and cultural health, through subsistence hunts from small craft, ice edges, and shore. Recent events raised concerns over research surveys potentially interfering with subsistence hunts in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas. Incidents led to calls by Native Alaskan communities to restrict science activities with a mixed response from the scientific community (i.e., some sympathetic, some defensive). With a common goal of wanting to mitigate this potential interaction, Federal agencies made a commitment in the National Strategy for the Arctic Region to coordinate and consult with Alaska Natives and also to pursue responsible Arctic stewardship, with understanding through scientific research and traditional knowledge. The effort to create a "Standard of Care" for research surveys incorporates years of experience by subsistence hunters working to mitigate impacts of other anthropogenic activities in the region, as well as best practices by many in the research community. The protocols are designed to ensure potential conflicts between the scientific research community and subsistence hunters are avoided and to encourage mutual assistance and collaboration between researchers and hunters. The guidelines focus on enhancing communication between researchers and subsistence hunters before, during, and after research occurs. The best management practices outlined in the Standard of Care assist those overseeing and funding scientific research in making decisions about how best to accomplish the goals of the research while ensuring protection of the Alaska subsistence lifestyle. These protocols could also be

  16. Study design and protocol for a mixed methods evaluation of an intervention to reduce and break up sitting time in primary school classrooms in the UK: The CLASS PAL (Physically Active Learning) Programme

    OpenAIRE

    Routen, Ash C; Biddle, Stuart J H; Bodicoat, Danielle H; Cale, Lorraine; Clemes, Stacy; Edwardson, Charlotte L; Glazebrook, Cris; Harrington, Deirdre M; Khunti, Kamlesh; Pearson, Natalie; Salmon, Jo; Sherar, Lauren B

    2017-01-01

    Introduction Children engage in a high volume of sitting in school, particularly in the classroom. A number of strategies, such as physically active lessons (termed movement integration (MI)), have been developed to integrate physical activity into this learning environment; however, no single approach is likely to meet the needs of all pupils and teachers. This protocol outlines an implementation study of a primary school-based MI intervention: CLASS PAL (Physically Active Learning) programm...

  17. Schaum’s outline of fluid mechanics and hydraulics

    CERN Document Server

    Giles, Ranald V; Liu, Cheng

    2014-01-01

    Tough Test Questions? Missed Lectures? Not Enough Time? Fortunately, there's Schaum's. More than 40 million students have trusted Schaum's to help them succeed in the classroom and on exams. Schaum's is the key to faster learning and higher grades in every subject. Each Outline presents all the essential course information in an easy-to-follow, topic-by-topic format. You also get hundreds of examples, solved problems, and practice exercises to test your skills. This Schaum's Outline gives you: 622 fully solved problems; extra practice on topics such as buoyancy and flotation, complex pipeline systems, fluid machinery, flow in open channels, and more; and support for all the major textbooks for fluidmechanics and hydraulics courses. Fully compatible with your classroom text, Schaum's highlights all the important facts you need to know. Use Schaum's to shorten your study time - and get your best test scores! Schaum's Outlines - Problem Solved.

  18. Comparing calibration methods of electron beams using plane-parallel chambers with absorbed-dose to water based protocols

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stewart, K.J.; Seuntjens, J.P.

    2002-01-01

    Recent absorbed-dose-based protocols allow for two methods of calibrating electron beams using plane-parallel chambers, one using the N D,w Co for a plane-parallel chamber, and the other relying on cross-calibration of the plane-parallel chamber in a high-energy electron beam against a cylindrical chamber which has an N D,w Co factor. The second method is recommended as it avoids problems associated with the P wall correction factors at 60 Co for plane-parallel chambers which are used in the determination of the beam quality conversion factors. In this article we investigate the consistency of these two methods for the PTW Roos, Scanditronics NACP02, and PTW Markus chambers. We processed our data using both the AAPM TG-51 and the IAEA TRS-398 protocols. Wall correction factors in 60 Co beams and absorbed-dose beam quality conversion factors for 20 MeV electrons were derived for these chambers by cross-calibration against a cylindrical ionization chamber. Systematic differences of up to 1.6% were found between our values of P wall and those from the Monte Carlo calculations underlying AAPM TG-51, and up to 0.6% when comparing with the IAEA TRS-398 protocol. The differences in P wall translate directly into differences in the beam quality conversion factors in the respective protocols. The relatively large spread in the experimental data of P wall , and consequently the absorbed-dose beam quality conversion factor, confirms the importance of the cross-calibration technique when using plane-parallel chambers for calibrating clinical electron beams. We confirmed that for well-guarded plane-parallel chambers, the fluence perturbation correction factor at d max is not significantly different from the value at d ref . For the PTW Markus chamber the variation in the latter factor is consistent with published fits relating it to average energy at depth

  19. Thermal/optical methods for elemental carbon quantification in soils and urban dusts: equivalence of different analysis protocols.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yongming Han

    Full Text Available Quantifying elemental carbon (EC content in geological samples is challenging due to interferences of crustal, salt, and organic material. Thermal/optical analysis, combined with acid pretreatment, represents a feasible approach. However, the consistency of various thermal/optical analysis protocols for this type of samples has never been examined. In this study, urban street dust and soil samples from Baoji, China were pretreated with acids and analyzed with four thermal/optical protocols to investigate how analytical conditions and optical correction affect EC measurement. The EC values measured with reflectance correction (ECR were found always higher and less sensitive to temperature program than the EC values measured with transmittance correction (ECT. A high-temperature method with extended heating times (STN120 showed the highest ECT/ECR ratio (0.86 while a low-temperature protocol (IMPROVE-550, with heating time adjusted for sample loading, showed the lowest (0.53. STN ECT was higher than IMPROVE ECT, in contrast to results from aerosol samples. A higher peak inert-mode temperature and extended heating times can elevate ECT/ECR ratios for pretreated geological samples by promoting pyrolyzed organic carbon (PyOC removal over EC under trace levels of oxygen. Considering that PyOC within filter increases ECR while decreases ECT from the actual EC levels, simultaneous ECR and ECT measurements would constrain the range of EC loading and provide information on method performance. Further testing with standard reference materials of common environmental matrices supports the findings. Char and soot fractions of EC can be further separated using the IMPROVE protocol. The char/soot ratio was lower in street dusts (2.2 on average than in soils (5.2 on average, most likely reflecting motor vehicle emissions. The soot concentrations agreed with EC from CTO-375, a pure thermal method.

  20. Thermal/optical methods for elemental carbon quantification in soils and urban dusts: equivalence of different analysis protocols.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Yongming; Chen, Antony; Cao, Junji; Fung, Kochy; Ho, Fai; Yan, Beizhan; Zhan, Changlin; Liu, Suixin; Wei, Chong; An, Zhisheng

    2013-01-01

    Quantifying elemental carbon (EC) content in geological samples is challenging due to interferences of crustal, salt, and organic material. Thermal/optical analysis, combined with acid pretreatment, represents a feasible approach. However, the consistency of various thermal/optical analysis protocols for this type of samples has never been examined. In this study, urban street dust and soil samples from Baoji, China were pretreated with acids and analyzed with four thermal/optical protocols to investigate how analytical conditions and optical correction affect EC measurement. The EC values measured with reflectance correction (ECR) were found always higher and less sensitive to temperature program than the EC values measured with transmittance correction (ECT). A high-temperature method with extended heating times (STN120) showed the highest ECT/ECR ratio (0.86) while a low-temperature protocol (IMPROVE-550), with heating time adjusted for sample loading, showed the lowest (0.53). STN ECT was higher than IMPROVE ECT, in contrast to results from aerosol samples. A higher peak inert-mode temperature and extended heating times can elevate ECT/ECR ratios for pretreated geological samples by promoting pyrolyzed organic carbon (PyOC) removal over EC under trace levels of oxygen. Considering that PyOC within filter increases ECR while decreases ECT from the actual EC levels, simultaneous ECR and ECT measurements would constrain the range of EC loading and provide information on method performance. Further testing with standard reference materials of common environmental matrices supports the findings. Char and soot fractions of EC can be further separated using the IMPROVE protocol. The char/soot ratio was lower in street dusts (2.2 on average) than in soils (5.2 on average), most likely reflecting motor vehicle emissions. The soot concentrations agreed with EC from CTO-375, a pure thermal method.

  1. Pilot studies for the North American Soil Geochemical Landscapes Project - Site selection, sampling protocols, analytical methods, and quality control protocols

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, D.B.; Woodruff, L.G.; O'Leary, R. M.; Cannon, W.F.; Garrett, R.G.; Kilburn, J.E.; Goldhaber, M.B.

    2009-01-01

    In 2004, the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the Geological Survey of Canada sampled and chemically analyzed soils along two transects across Canada and the USA in preparation for a planned soil geochemical survey of North America. This effort was a pilot study to test and refine sampling protocols, analytical methods, quality control protocols, and field logistics for the continental survey. A total of 220 sample sites were selected at approximately 40-km intervals along the two transects. The ideal sampling protocol at each site called for a sample from a depth of 0-5 cm and a composite of each of the O, A, and C horizons. The Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Na, S, Ti, Ag, As, Ba, Be, Bi, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Ga, In, La, Li, Mn, Mo, Nb, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, Sb, Sc, Sn, Sr, Te, Th, Tl, U, V, W, Y, and Zn by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry following a near-total digestion in a mixture of HCl, HNO3, HClO4, and HF. Separate methods were used for Hg, Se, total C, and carbonate-C on this same size fraction. Only Ag, In, and Te had a large percentage of concentrations below the detection limit. Quality control (QC) of the analyses was monitored at three levels: the laboratory performing the analysis, the USGS QC officer, and the principal investigator for the study. This level of review resulted in an average of one QC sample for every 20 field samples, which proved to be minimally adequate for such a large-scale survey. Additional QC samples should be added to monitor within-batch quality to the extent that no more than 10 samples are analyzed between a QC sample. Only Cr (77%), Y (82%), and Sb (80%) fell outside the acceptable limits of accuracy (% recovery between 85 and 115%) because of likely residence in mineral phases resistant to the acid digestion. A separate sample of 0-5-cm material was collected at each site for determination of organic compounds. A subset of 73 of these samples was analyzed for a suite of

  2. Gene probes : principles and protocols [Methods in molecular biology, v. 179

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Rapley, Ralph; Aquino de Muro, Marilena

    2002-01-01

    ... of labeled DNA has allowed genes to be mapped to single chromosomes and in many cases to a single chromosome band, promoting significant advance in human genome mapping. Gene Probes: Principles and Protocols presents the principles for gene probe design, labeling, detection, target format, and hybridization conditions together with detailed protocols, accom...

  3. Developing frameworks for protocol implementation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Barros Barbosa, C.; de barros Barbosa, C.; Ferreira Pires, Luis

    1999-01-01

    This paper presents a method to develop frameworks for protocol implementation. Frameworks are software structures developed for a specific application domain, which can be reused in the implementation of various different concrete systems in this domain. The use of frameworks support a protocol

  4. Curriculum Outline for Tennessee Transition Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Esch, B. J.

    This curriculum outline for the Sevier County, Tennessee, transition program for special needs students provides goals and objectives for the following domains: domestic, vocational, community functioning, and recreation/leisure. The domestic domain covers personal hygiene/grooming, first aid, home nursing, birth control/pregnancy, parenting, drug…

  5. Security analysis of the decoy method with the Bennett–Brassard 1984 protocol for finite key lengths

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hayashi, Masahito; Nakayama, Ryota

    2014-01-01

    This paper provides a formula for the sacrifice bit-length for privacy amplification with the Bennett–Brassard 1984 protocol for finite key lengths, when we employ the decoy method. Using the formula, we can guarantee the security parameter for a realizable quantum key distribution system. The key generation rates with finite key lengths are numerically evaluated. The proposed method improves the existing key generation rate even in the asymptotic setting. (paper)

  6. An annotated outline for a traffic management center operations manual

    Science.gov (United States)

    2000-10-01

    This draft Traffic Management Center (TMC) and Operations manual outline is meant to serve as a model "checklist" for the development of similar manuals used in deployed environments. The purpose of this outline is to provide a reference for agencies...

  7. RT-PCR protocols [Methods in molecular biology, v. 193

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    O'Connell, Joseph

    2002-01-01

    .... Here the newcomer will find readily reproducible protocols for highly sensitive detection and quantification of gene expression, the in situ localization of gene expression in tissue, and the cloning...

  8. Computational Methodologies for Developing Structure–Morphology–Performance Relationships in Organic Solar Cells: A Protocol Review

    KAUST Repository

    Do, Khanh

    2016-09-08

    We outline a step-by-step protocol that incorporates a number of theoretical and computational methodologies to evaluate the structural and electronic properties of pi-conjugated semiconducting materials in the condensed phase. Our focus is on methodologies appropriate for the characterization, at the molecular level, of the morphology in blend systems consisting of an electron donor and electron acceptor, of importance for understanding the performance properties of bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells. The protocol is formulated as an introductory manual for investigators who aim to study the bulk-heterojunction morphology in molecular details, thereby facilitating the development of structure morphology property relationships when used in tandem with experimental results.

  9. Network protocols and sockets

    OpenAIRE

    BALEJ, Marek

    2010-01-01

    My work will deal with network protocols and sockets and their use in programming language C#. It will therefore deal programming network applications on the platform .NET from Microsoft and instruments, which C# provides to us. There will describe the tools and methods for programming network applications, and shows a description and sample applications that work with sockets and application protocols.

  10. An outline of the BIZET experiments and their interpretation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Helm, F.; Sanders, J.E.

    1979-01-01

    The Paper provides a general description of the BIZET experiments carried out at Zebra under collaboration between the DeBeNe and UK Fast Reactor Projects. This programme included a large assembly representing the essential features of a conventional power reactor and also two cores incorporating internal breeder regions typifying current heterogeneous designs. Emphasis throughout was on validating predictions of reaction-rate distributions, control rod performance, and sodium-voiding reactivity. The scope of these measurements is outlined. A brief account is given of the data and methods being applied to the analysis of results. Conclusions drawn so far from the experiments and their evaluation are summarised. (author)

  11. Protocol Monitoring Energy Conservation; Protocol Monitoring Energiebesparing

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Boonekamp, P.G.M. [ECN Beleidsstudies, Petten (Netherlands); Mannaerts, H. [Centraal Planburea CPB, Den Haag (Netherlands); Tinbergen, W. [Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek CBS, Den Haag (Netherlands); Vreuls, H.H.J. [Nederlandse onderneming voor energie en milieu Novem, Utrecht (Netherlands); Wesselink, B. [Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieuhygiene RIVM, Bilthoven (Netherlands)

    2001-12-01

    On request of the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs five institutes have collaborated to create a 'Protocol Monitoring Energy Conservation', a common method and database to calculate the amount of energy savings realised in past years. The institutes concerned are the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB), the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), the National Agency for Energy and Environment (Novem) and the Netherlands Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). The institutes have agreed upon a clear definition of energy use and energy savings. The demarcation with renewable energy, the saving effects of substitution between energy carriers and the role of import and export of energy have been elaborated. A decomposition method is used to split up the observed change in energy use in a number of effects, on a national and sectoral level. This method includes an analysis of growth effects, effects of structural changes in production and consumption activities and savings on end use or with more efficient conversion processes. To calculate these effects the total energy use is desegregated as much as possible. For each segment a reference energy use is calculated according to the trend in a variable which is supposed to be representative for the use without savings. The difference with the actual energy use is taken as the savings realised. Results are given for the sectors households, industry, agriculture, services and government, transportation and the energy sector; as well as a national figure. A special feature of the protocol method is the application of primary energy use figures in the determination of savings for end users. This means that the use of each energy carrier is increased with a certain amount, according to the conversion losses caused elsewhere in the energy system. The losses concern the base year energy sector and losses abroad for imports of secondary

  12. A single-aliquot OSL protocol using bracketing regenerative doses to accurately determine equivalent doses in quartz

    CERN Document Server

    Folz, E

    1999-01-01

    In most cases, sediments show inherent heterogeneity in their luminescence behaviours and bleaching histories, and identical aliquots are not available: single-aliquot determination of the equivalent dose (ED) is then the approach of choice and the advantages of using regenerative protocols are outlined. Experiments on five laboratory bleached and dosed quartz samples, following the protocol described by Murray and Roberts (1998. Measurement of the equivalent dose in quartz using a regenerative-dose single aliquot protocol. Radiation Measurements 27, 171-184), showed the hazards of using a single regeneration dose: a 10% variation in the regenerative dose yielded some equivalent dose estimates that differed from the expected value by more than 5%. A protocol is proposed that allows the use of different regenerative doses to bracket the estimated equivalent dose. The measured ED is found to be in excellent agreement with the known value when the main regeneration dose is within 10% of the true equivalent dose.

  13. A single-aliquot OSL protocol using bracketing regenerative doses to accurately determine equivalent doses in quartz

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Folz, Elise; Mercier, Norbert

    1999-01-01

    In most cases, sediments show inherent heterogeneity in their luminescence behaviours and bleaching histories, and identical aliquots are not available: single-aliquot determination of the equivalent dose (ED) is then the approach of choice and the advantages of using regenerative protocols are outlined. Experiments on five laboratory bleached and dosed quartz samples, following the protocol described by Murray and Roberts (1998. Measurement of the equivalent dose in quartz using a regenerative-dose single aliquot protocol. Radiation Measurements 27, 171-184), showed the hazards of using a single regeneration dose: a 10% variation in the regenerative dose yielded some equivalent dose estimates that differed from the expected value by more than 5%. A protocol is proposed that allows the use of different regenerative doses to bracket the estimated equivalent dose. The measured ED is found to be in excellent agreement with the known value when the main regeneration dose is within 10% of the true equivalent dose

  14. Cochrane Qualitative and Implementation Methods Group guidance series-paper 2: methods for question formulation, searching, and protocol development for qualitative evidence synthesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, Janet L; Booth, Andrew; Cargo, Margaret; Hannes, Karin; Harden, Angela; Flemming, Kate; Garside, Ruth; Pantoja, Tomas; Thomas, James; Noyes, Jane

    2018-05-01

    This paper updates previous Cochrane guidance on question formulation, searching, and protocol development, reflecting recent developments in methods for conducting qualitative evidence syntheses to inform Cochrane intervention reviews. Examples are used to illustrate how decisions about boundaries for a review are formed via an iterative process of constructing lines of inquiry and mapping the available information to ascertain whether evidence exists to answer questions related to effectiveness, implementation, feasibility, appropriateness, economic evidence, and equity. The process of question formulation allows reviewers to situate the topic in relation to how it informs and explains effectiveness, using the criterion of meaningfulness, appropriateness, feasibility, and implementation. Questions related to complex questions and interventions can be structured by drawing on an increasingly wide range of question frameworks. Logic models and theoretical frameworks are useful tools for conceptually mapping the literature to illustrate the complexity of the phenomenon of interest. Furthermore, protocol development may require iterative question formulation and searching. Consequently, the final protocol may function as a guide rather than a prescriptive route map, particularly in qualitative reviews that ask more exploratory and open-ended questions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Outline of High School Credit Courses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    South Carolina State Dept. of Education, Columbia.

    An outline is presented of the objectives and content of courses offered for credit in high schools in South Carolina. Courses in the following subjects are described: (1) art; (2) drama; (3) driver education; (4) environmental education; (5) foreign language: French, German, Russian, Spanish; (6) health; (7) language arts; (8) mathematics; (9)…

  16. Multi-centred mixed-methods PEPFAR HIV care & support public health evaluation: study protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fayers Peter

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background A public health response is essential to meet the multidimensional needs of patients and families affected by HIV disease in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to appraise curret provision of HIV care and support in East Africa, and to provide evidence-based direction to future care programming, and Public Health Evaluation was commissioned by the PEPFAR programme of the US Government. Methods/Design This paper described the 2-Phase international mixed methods study protocol utilising longitudinal outcome measurement, surveys, patient and family qualitative interviews and focus groups, staff qualitative interviews, health economics and document analysis. Aim 1 To describe the nature and scope of HIV care and support in two African countries, including the types of facilities available, clients seen, and availability of specific components of care [Study Phase 1]. Aim 2 To determine patient health outcomes over time and principle cost drivers [Study Phase 2]. The study objectives are as follows. 1 To undertake a cross-sectional survey of service configuration and activity by sampling 10% of the facilities being funded by PEPFAR to provide HIV care and support in Kenya and Uganda (Phase 1 in order to describe care currently provided, including pharmacy drug reviews to determine availability and supply of essential drugs in HIV management. 2 To conduct patient focus group discussions at each of these (Phase 1 to determine care received. 3 To undertake a longitudinal prospective study of 1200 patients who are newly diagnosed with HIV or patients with HIV who present with a new problem attending PEPFAR care and support services. Data collection includes self-reported quality of life, core palliative outcomes and components of care received (Phase 2. 4 To conduct qualitative interviews with staff, patients and carers in order to explore and understand service issues and care provision in more depth (Phase 2. 5 To undertake document

  17. Event-by-event simulation of quantum cryptography protocols

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhao, S.; Raedt, H. De

    We present a new approach to simulate quantum cryptography protocols using event-based processes. The method is validated by simulating the BB84 protocol and the Ekert protocol, both without and with the presence of an eavesdropper.

  18. Carbon Capture and Storage and the London Protocol

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2011-07-01

    The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that 100 Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects will be required by 2020 and over 3000 by 2050 if CCS is to contribute fully to the least-cost technology portfolio for CO2 mitigation. For CCS to reach its emissions reduction potential, the 2009 IEA publication Technology Roadmap: Carbon Capture and Storage recommends that international legal obstacles associated with global CCS deployment be removed by 2012 -- including the prohibition on transboundary CO2 transfer under the London Protocol. The London Protocol was amended by contracting parties in 2009 to allow for cross-border transportation of CO2 for sub-seabed storage, but the amendment must be ratified by two-thirds of contracting parties to enter into force. It is unlikely that this will occur in the near term; this working paper therefore outlines options that may be available to contracting parties under international law to address the barrier to deployment presented by Article 6, pending formal entry into force of the 2009 amendment.

  19. A content analysis of posthumous sperm procurement protocols with considerations for developing an institutional policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bahm, Sarah M; Karkazis, Katrina; Magnus, David

    2013-09-01

    To identify and analyze existing posthumous sperm procurement (PSP) protocols in order to outline central themes for institutions to consider when developing future policies. Qualitative content analysis. Large academic institutions across the United States. We performed a literature search and contacted 40 institutions to obtain nine full PSP protocols. We then performed a content analysis on these policies to identify major themes and factors to consider when developing a PSP protocol. Presence of a PSP policy. We identified six components of a thorough PSP protocol: Standard of Evidence, Terms of Eligibility, Sperm Designee, Restrictions on Use in Reproduction, Logistics, and Contraindications. We also identified two different approaches to policy structure. In the Limited Role approach, institutions have stricter consent requirements and limit their involvement to the time of procurement. In the Family-Centered approach, substituted judgment is permitted but a mandatory wait period is enforced before sperm use in reproduction. Institutions seeking to implement a PSP protocol will benefit from considering the six major building blocks of a thorough protocol and where they would like to fall on the spectrum from a Limited Role to a Family-Centered approach. Copyright © 2013 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Chapter 16: Retrocommissioning Evaluation Protocol. The Uniform Methods Project: Methods for Determining Energy Efficiency Savings for Specific Measures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurnik, Charles W. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Tiessen, Alex [Posterity Group, Derwood, MD (United States)

    2017-10-09

    Retrocommissioning (RCx) is a systematic process for optimizing energy performance in existing buildings. It specifically focuses on improving the control of energy-using equipment (e.g., heating, ventilation, and air conditioning [HVAC] equipment and lighting) and typically does not involve equipment replacement. Field results have shown proper RCx can achieve energy savings ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent, with a typical payback of two years or less (Thorne 2003). The method presented in this protocol provides direction regarding: (1) how to account for each measure's specific characteristics and (2) how to choose the most appropriate savings verification approach.

  1. Service-Oriented Synthesis of Distributed and Concurrent Protocol Specifications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jehad Al Dallal

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Several methods have been proposed for synthesizing computer communication protocol specifications from service specifications. Some protocol synthesis methods based on the finite state machine (FSM model assume that primitives in the service specifications cannot be executed simultaneously. Others either handle only controlled primitive concurrency or have tight restrictions on the applicable FSM topologies. As a result, these synthesis methods are not applicable to an interesting variety of inherently concurrent applications, such as the Internet and mobile communication systems. This paper proposes a concurrent-based protocol synthesis method that eliminates the restrictions imposed by the earlier methods. The proposed method uses a synthesis method to obtain a sequential protocol specification (P-SPEC from a given service specification (S-SPEC. The resulting P-SPEC is then remodeled to consider the concurrency behavior specified in the S-SPEC, while guaranteeing that P-SPEC provides the specified service.

  2. Outline of preparation construction of Shimane Nuclear Power Station No.3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oda, Yasuhiro; Sasaki, Yutaka; Matsukage, Shigeo; Kawahara, Kazufumi

    2004-01-01

    The preparation construction of Shimane Nuclear Power Station No.3 (No.3) started on 15th March in 2004. The main preparation construction consist of the site preparation, revetment works, breakwater works, production of blocks, flood-way and outlet works. The outline of the project is described by the time schedule of work, the cross section of site preparation, site, the revetment method used, the cross section of representative breakwater, structure style and improvement works of flood-way and outlet and content of each works. (S.Y.)

  3. Outline of Swedish activities on LWR fuel

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grounes, M [Studsvik Nuclear, Nykoeping (Sweden); Roennberg, G [OKG AB (Sweden)

    1997-12-01

    The presentation outlines the Swedish activities on LWR fuel and considers the following issues: electricity production; performance of operating nuclear power plants; nuclear fuel cycle and waste management; research and development in nuclear field. 4 refs, 4 tabs.

  4. A model-guided symbolic execution approach for network protocol implementations and vulnerability detection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wen, Shameng; Meng, Qingkun; Feng, Chao; Tang, Chaojing

    2017-01-01

    Formal techniques have been devoted to analyzing whether network protocol specifications violate security policies; however, these methods cannot detect vulnerabilities in the implementations of the network protocols themselves. Symbolic execution can be used to analyze the paths of the network protocol implementations, but for stateful network protocols, it is difficult to reach the deep states of the protocol. This paper proposes a novel model-guided approach to detect vulnerabilities in network protocol implementations. Our method first abstracts a finite state machine (FSM) model, then utilizes the model to guide the symbolic execution. This approach achieves high coverage of both the code and the protocol states. The proposed method is implemented and applied to test numerous real-world network protocol implementations. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method is more effective than traditional fuzzing methods such as SPIKE at detecting vulnerabilities in the deep states of network protocol implementations.

  5. Authentication Test-Based the RFID Authentication Protocol with Security Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Minghui Wang

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available To the problem of many recently proposed RFID authentication protocol was soon find security holes, we analyzed the main reason, which is that protocol design is not rigorous, and the correctness of the protocol cannot be guaranteed. To this end, authentication test method was adopted in the process of the formal analysis and strict proof to the proposed RFID protocol in this paper. Authentication Test is a new type of analysis and design method of security protocols based on Strand space model, and it can be used for most types of the security protocols. After analysis the security, the proposed protocol can meet the RFID security demand: information confidentiality, data integrity and identity authentication.

  6. The comparative cost analysis of EAP Re-authentication Protocol and EAP TLS Protocol

    OpenAIRE

    Seema Mehla; Bhawna Gupta

    2010-01-01

    the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) is a generic framework supporting multiple types of authentication methods. In systems where EAP is used for authentication, it is desirable to not repeat the entire EAP exchange with another authenticator. The EAP reauthentication Protocol provides a consistent, methodindependentand low-latency re-authentication. It is extension to current EAP mechanism to support intradomain handoff authentication. This paper analyzed the performance of the EAP r...

  7. Estimating Return on Investment in Translational Research: Methods and Protocols

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trochim, William; Dilts, David M.; Kirk, Rosalind

    2014-01-01

    Assessing the value of clinical and translational research funding on accelerating the translation of scientific knowledge is a fundamental issue faced by the National Institutes of Health and its Clinical and Translational Awards (CTSA). To address this issue, the authors propose a model for measuring the return on investment (ROI) of one key CTSA program, the clinical research unit (CRU). By estimating the economic and social inputs and outputs of this program, this model produces multiple levels of ROI: investigator, program and institutional estimates. A methodology, or evaluation protocol, is proposed to assess the value of this CTSA function, with specific objectives, methods, descriptions of the data to be collected, and how data are to be filtered, analyzed, and evaluated. This paper provides an approach CTSAs could use to assess the economic and social returns on NIH and institutional investments in these critical activities. PMID:23925706

  8. Estimating return on investment in translational research: methods and protocols.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grazier, Kyle L; Trochim, William M; Dilts, David M; Kirk, Rosalind

    2013-12-01

    Assessing the value of clinical and translational research funding on accelerating the translation of scientific knowledge is a fundamental issue faced by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its Clinical and Translational Awards (CTSAs). To address this issue, the authors propose a model for measuring the return on investment (ROI) of one key CTSA program, the clinical research unit (CRU). By estimating the economic and social inputs and outputs of this program, this model produces multiple levels of ROI: investigator, program, and institutional estimates. A methodology, or evaluation protocol, is proposed to assess the value of this CTSA function, with specific objectives, methods, descriptions of the data to be collected, and how data are to be filtered, analyzed, and evaluated. This article provides an approach CTSAs could use to assess the economic and social returns on NIH and institutional investments in these critical activities.

  9. Optimising social information by game theory and ant colony method to enhance routing protocol in opportunistic networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chander Prabha

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The data loss and disconnection of nodes are frequent in the opportunistic networks. The social information plays an important role in reducing the data loss because it depends on the connectivity of nodes. The appropriate selection of next hop based on social information is critical for improving the performance of routing in opportunistic networks. The frequent disconnection problem is overcome by optimising the social information with Ant Colony Optimization method which depends on the topology of opportunistic network. The proposed protocol is examined thoroughly via analysis and simulation in order to assess their performance in comparison with other social based routing protocols in opportunistic network under various parameters settings.

  10. Validation techniques for object-oriented proof outlines

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pierik, C.

    2006-01-01

    This thesis presents a proof outline logic for a simple object-oriented programming language. The language has all object-oriented features of popular programming languages like Java and C#. In particular, it supports inheritance, field shadowing, aliasing, dynamic object creation, subtype

  11. Evaluating Management Information Systems, A Protocol for Automated Peer Review Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Black, Gordon C.

    1980-01-01

    This paper discusses key issues in evaluating an automated Peer Review System. Included are the conceptual base, design, steps in planning structural components, operation parameters, criteria, costs and a detailed outline or protocol for use in the evaluation. At the heart of the Peer Review System is the criteria utilized for measuring quality. Criteria evaluation should embrace, as a minimum, appropriateness, validity and reliability, and completemess or comprehensiveness of content. Such an evaluation is not complete without determining the impact (clinical outcome) of the service system or the patient and the population served.

  12. A model-guided symbolic execution approach for network protocol implementations and vulnerability detection.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shameng Wen

    Full Text Available Formal techniques have been devoted to analyzing whether network protocol specifications violate security policies; however, these methods cannot detect vulnerabilities in the implementations of the network protocols themselves. Symbolic execution can be used to analyze the paths of the network protocol implementations, but for stateful network protocols, it is difficult to reach the deep states of the protocol. This paper proposes a novel model-guided approach to detect vulnerabilities in network protocol implementations. Our method first abstracts a finite state machine (FSM model, then utilizes the model to guide the symbolic execution. This approach achieves high coverage of both the code and the protocol states. The proposed method is implemented and applied to test numerous real-world network protocol implementations. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method is more effective than traditional fuzzing methods such as SPIKE at detecting vulnerabilities in the deep states of network protocol implementations.

  13. Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging protocol for endoscopic cranial base image-guided surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grindle, Christopher R; Curry, Joseph M; Kang, Melissa D; Evans, James J; Rosen, Marc R

    2011-01-01

    Despite the increasing utilization of image-guided surgery, no radiology protocols for obtaining magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of adequate quality are available in the current literature. At our institution, more than 300 endonasal cranial base procedures including pituitary, extended pituitary, and other anterior skullbase procedures have been performed in the past 3 years. To facilitate and optimize preoperative evaluation and assessment, there was a need to develop a magnetic resonance protocol. Retrospective Technical Assessment was performed. Through a collaborative effort between the otolaryngology, neurosurgery, and neuroradiology departments at our institution, a skull base MR image-guided (IGS) protocol was developed with several ends in mind. First, it was necessary to generate diagnostic images useful for the more frequently seen pathologies to improve work flow and limit the expense and inefficiency of case specific MR studies. Second, it was necessary to generate sequences useful for IGS, preferably using sequences that best highlight that lesion. Currently, at our institution, all MR images used for IGS are obtained using this protocol as part of preoperative planning. The protocol that has been developed allows for thin cut precontrast and postcontrast axial cuts that can be used to plan intraoperative image guidance. It also obtains a thin cut T2 axial series that can be compiled separately for intraoperative imaging, or may be fused with computed tomographic images for combined modality. The outlined protocol obtains image sequences effective for diagnostic and operative purposes for image-guided surgery using both T1 and T2 sequences. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. In-memory interconnect protocol configuration registers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cheng, Kevin Y.; Roberts, David A.

    2017-09-19

    Systems, apparatuses, and methods for moving the interconnect protocol configuration registers into the main memory space of a node. The region of memory used for storing the interconnect protocol configuration registers may also be made cacheable to reduce the latency of accesses to the interconnect protocol configuration registers. Interconnect protocol configuration registers which are used during a startup routine may be prefetched into the host's cache to make the startup routine more efficient. The interconnect protocol configuration registers for various interconnect protocols may include one or more of device capability tables, memory-side statistics (e.g., to support two-level memory data mapping decisions), advanced memory and interconnect features such as repair resources and routing tables, prefetching hints, error correcting code (ECC) bits, lists of device capabilities, set and store base address, capability, device ID, status, configuration, capabilities, and other settings.

  15. In-memory interconnect protocol configuration registers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Kevin Y.; Roberts, David A.

    2017-09-19

    Systems, apparatuses, and methods for moving the interconnect protocol configuration registers into the main memory space of a node. The region of memory used for storing the interconnect protocol configuration registers may also be made cacheable to reduce the latency of accesses to the interconnect protocol configuration registers. Interconnect protocol configuration registers which are used during a startup routine may be prefetched into the host's cache to make the startup routine more efficient. The interconnect protocol configuration registers for various interconnect protocols may include one or more of device capability tables, memory-side statistics (e.g., to support two-level memory data mapping decisions), advanced memory and interconnect features such as repair resources and routing tables, prefetching hints, error correcting code (ECC) bits, lists of device capabilities, set and store base address, capability, device ID, status, configuration, capabilities, and other settings.

  16. Symbolic Analysis of Cryptographic Protocols

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dahl, Morten

    We present our work on using abstract models for formally analysing cryptographic protocols: First, we present an ecient method for verifying trace-based authenticity properties of protocols using nonces, symmetric encryption, and asymmetric encryption. The method is based on a type system...... of Gordon et al., which we modify to support fully-automated type inference. Tests conducted via an implementation of our algorithm found it to be very ecient. Second, we show how privacy may be captured in a symbolic model using an equivalencebased property and give a formal denition. We formalise...

  17. DNA repair protocols

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bjergbæk, Lotte

    In its 3rd edition, this Methods in Molecular Biology(TM) book covers the eukaryotic response to genomic insult including advanced protocols and standard techniques in the field of DNA repair. Offers expert guidance for DNA repair, recombination, and replication. Current knowledge of the mechanisms...... that regulate DNA repair has grown significantly over the past years with technology advances such as RNA interference, advanced proteomics and microscopy as well as high throughput screens. The third edition of DNA Repair Protocols covers various aspects of the eukaryotic response to genomic insult including...... recent advanced protocols as well as standard techniques used in the field of DNA repair. Both mammalian and non-mammalian model organisms are covered in the book, and many of the techniques can be applied with only minor modifications to other systems than the one described. Written in the highly...

  18. Characterizing the Hofstadter butterfly's outline with Chern numbers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goldman, N

    2009-01-01

    In this work, we report original properties inherent to independent particles subjected to a magnetic field by emphasizing the existence of regular structures in the energy spectrum's outline. We show that this fractal curve, the well-known Hofstadter butterfly's outline, is associated with a specific sequence of Chern numbers that correspond to the quantized transverse conductivity. Indeed the topological invariant that characterizes the fundamental energy band depicts successive stairways as the magnetic flux varies. Moreover each stairway is shown to be labelled by another Chern number which measures the charge transported under displacement of the periodic potential. We put forward the universal character of these properties by comparing the results obtained for the square and the honeycomb geometries.

  19. The Geneva Protocol of 1925

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mc Elroy, R.J.

    1991-01-01

    This paper reports that when President Gerald Ford signed the instruments of ratification for the Geneva Protocol of 1925 on January 22, 1975, a tortured, half-century-long chapter in U.S. arms control policy was brought to a close. Fifty years earlier, at the Geneva Conference for the Control of the International Trade in Arms, Munitions and Implements of War, the United States had played a key role in drafting and reaching agreement on the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. The protocol, signed by thirty nations, including the United States, on June 17, 1925, prohibits the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids, materials or devices as well as the use of bacteriological methods of warfare

  20. Defining the lung outline from a gamma camera transmission attenuation map

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fleming, John S; Pitcairn, Gary; Newman, Stephen

    2006-01-01

    Segmentation of the lung outline from gamma camera transmission images of the thorax is useful in attenuation correction and quantitative image analysis. This paper describes and compares two threshold-based methods of segmentation. Simulated gamma camera transmission images of test objects were used to produce a knowledge base of the variation of threshold defining the lung outline with image resolution and chest wall thickness. Two segmentation techniques based on global (GT) and context-sensitive (CST) thresholds were developed and evaluated in simulated transmission images of realistic thoraces. The segmented lung volumes were compared to the true values used in the simulation. The mean distances between segmented and true lung surface were calculated. The techniques were also applied to three real human subject transmission images. The lung volumes were estimated and the segmentations were compared visually. The CST segmentation produced significantly superior segmentations than the GT technique in the simulated data. In human subjects, the GT technique underestimated volumes by 13% compared to the CST technique. It missed areas that clearly belonged to the lungs. In conclusion, both techniques segmented the lungs with reasonable accuracy and precision. The CST approach was superior, particularly in real human subject images

  1. Outline of nuclear monitor report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1979-01-01

    The questionnaire investigation was conducted by the Science and Technology Agency about the atomic energy monitoring. The time of report was from March 4, 1978, to March 25, 1978. The number of answers for this questionnaire was 276, and the percentage of answers is 54%. This questionnaire was sent out to men and women of various occupations and ages. There are three questions in this questionnaire; The first question is ''Do you think the measures of the government are sufficient for nuclear power plant construction[ What is the point to be improved['', the second question is ''In what points do you feel uneasiness about the safety of nuclear power generation[ What do you want to know['', and the third question is ''Have you ever seen the official report on atomic energy published by the Science and Technology Agency[ Do you think this official report on atomic energy is effective or not[ What is the point to be improved[ The abstract of each answer is outlined as the investigated result. The reports on occasions were obtained separately. The number of these reports was 162. The contents of these reports were classified into the official report on atomic energy, the safety of atomic energy, the administration of atomic energy, the developing and utilization, the monitoring system, the Mutsu, the energy saving, the reprocessing, etc., and these contents are outlined. The composition of these monitors is shown. (Nakai, Y.)

  2. Protocol and the post-human performativity of security techniques.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Grady, Nathaniel

    2016-07-01

    This article explores the deployment of exercises by the United Kingdom Fire and Rescue Service. Exercises stage, simulate and act out potential future emergencies and in so doing help the Fire and Rescue Service prepare for future emergencies. Specifically, exercises operate to assess and develop protocol; sets of guidelines which plan out the actions undertaken by the Fire and Rescue Service in responding to a fire. In the article I outline and assess the forms of knowledge and technologies, what I call the 'aesthetic forces', by which the exercise makes present and imagines future emergencies. By critically engaging with Karen Barad's notion of post-human performativity, I argue that exercises provide a site where such forces can entangle with one another; creating a bricolage through which future emergencies are evoked sensually and representatively, ultimately making it possible to experience emergencies in the present. This understanding of exercises allows also for critical appraisal of protocol both as phenomena that are produced through the enmeshing of different aesthetic forces and as devices which premise the operation of the security apparatus on contingency.

  3. Network protocols. Special issue; Netwerkprotocollen. Themanummer

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jansen, G.A. [RTB Van Heugten, Nijmegen (Netherlands); Rooijakkers, G.W.J. [GTI Building Automation, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Peterse, A. [Regel Partners, Hoevelaken (Netherlands); Smits, P. [Konnex Nederland, Valkenswaard (Netherlands); Hamers, E.P. [Van Dorp Installaties, Breda (Netherlands); Van der Velden, J.A.J. [Kropman, Rijswijk (Netherlands); Van Lingen, G.; Wijn, D.M. [Engineer Johnson Controls, Gorinchem (Netherlands); Deckere, W.J.M.A. [Deerns raadgevende ingenieurs, Rijswijk (Netherlands); Driessen, B. [Saia Burgess, Gouda (Netherlands); Van Olst, K. [K en R Consultants, Deventer (Netherlands); Mosterman, F. [Wago Building Technology, Harderwijk (Netherlands); Staub, R. [BUS-House, Zuerich (Switzerland); Meiring, O.B.; Hut, W.H. [Sauter Building Control Nederland, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Tukker, A. [Webeasy Products, Sliedrecht (Netherlands); Bakker, L.G.; Soethout, L.L.; Elkhuizen, P.A. [TNO Bouw en Ondergrond, Delft (Netherlands); Haeseler, U. [TAC GmbH, Berlin (Germany); Kerdel, J.F. [Siemens Building Technologies, Zoetermeer (Netherlands); Lugt, G.L.; Draijer, G.W.

    2007-11-15

    In 20 articles attention is paid to several aspects of network protocols by means of which building automation systems can exchange data: building automation and management, history of technical installations management, the open communication standard BACnet (Building Automation and Control network), the so-called ISO/IEC domotics and communication standard KNX or Konnex, the integration of electrotechnical and engineering installations by the LonWorks technology, other standard protocols as Modbus, M-bus, OPC (OLE for Process Control), an outline of TCP/IP, smart design of networks, automation and networks and building owners, the use of BACnet and Ethernet in a renovated office building, the use of an open management network in buildings, wireless open integrated systems, terminology in network communication, the use of BACnet in combination with KNX, the impact of BACnet on building automation, the role of the installation sector in the ICT-environment, knowledge of building automation and management, regulations with respect to building automation, and BACnet MSTP (Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol) [Dutch] In 20 artikelen wordt in dit themanummer aandacht besteed aan diverse aspecten m.b.t. netwerkprotocollen waarmee verschillende automatiseringssystemen gegevens met elkaar uitwisselen: gebouwautomatisering en beheer, geschiedenis van technisch installatie beheer, de open communicatie standaard BACnet (Building Automation and Control network), de zogenaamde ISO/IEC domotica en communicatie standaard KNX of Konnex, de integratie van electrotechnische en werktuigbouwkundige installaties met behulp van de LonWorks technologie, andere standaard protocollen zoals Modbus, M-bus, OPC (OLE for Process Control), uitleg over TCP/IP, slim ontwerpen van netwerken, gebouweigenaren over automatisering en netwerken, het gebruik van BACnet en Ethernet in een tot kantoorgebouw gerenoveerd monumentaal gebouw, het gebruik van een open management netwerk in gebouwen, draadloos met

  4. Correlation between volume and morphological changes in the hippocampal formation in Alzheimer's disease: rounding of the outline of the hippocampal body on coronal MR images

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Adachi, Michito; Sato, Takamichi; Kawakatsu, Shinobu; Ohshima, Fumi

    2012-01-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate whether the outline of the hippocampal body becomes rounded on coronal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as the volume of the hippocampal formation decreases in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Institutional review board approval of the study protocol was obtained, and all subjects provided informed consent for the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and MRI. The MRI and MMSE were prospectively performed in all 103 subjects (27 men and 76 women; mean age ± standard deviation, 77.7 ± 7.8 years) who had AD or were concerned about having of dementia and who consulted our institute over 1 year. The subjects included 14 non-dementia cases (MMSE score ≥ 28) and 89 AD cases (MMSE score ≤ 27). The total volume of the bilateral hippocampal formation (VHF) was assessed with a tracing method, and the ratio of the VHF to the intracranial volume (RVHF) and the rounding ratio (RR) of the hippocampal body (mean ratio of its short dimension to the long dimension in the bilateral hippocampal body) were calculated. Using Spearman's correlation coefficient, the correlations between RR and VHF and between RR and RVHF were assessed. Correlation coefficients between RR and VHF and between RR and RVHF were -0.419 (p < 0.01) and -0.418 (p < 0.01), respectively. There was a significant negative correlation between RR and the volume of the hippocampal formation. The outline of the body of the hippocampal formation becomes rounded on coronal images as its volume decreases in AD. (orig.)

  5. Generating Protocol Software from CPN Models Annotated with Pragmatics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Simonsen, Kent Inge; Kristensen, Lars M.; Kindler, Ekkart

    2013-01-01

    and verify protocol software, but limited work exists on using CPN models of protocols as a basis for automated code generation. The contribution of this paper is a method for generating protocol software from a class of CPN models annotated with code generation pragmatics. Our code generation method...... consists of three main steps: automatically adding so-called derived pragmatics to the CPN model, computing an abstract template tree, which associates pragmatics with code templates, and applying the templates to generate code which can then be compiled. We illustrate our method using a unidirectional...

  6. Compositional mining of multiple object API protocols through state abstraction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dai, Ziying; Mao, Xiaoguang; Lei, Yan; Qi, Yuhua; Wang, Rui; Gu, Bin

    2013-01-01

    API protocols specify correct sequences of method invocations. Despite their usefulness, API protocols are often unavailable in practice because writing them is cumbersome and error prone. Multiple object API protocols are more expressive than single object API protocols. However, the huge number of objects of typical object-oriented programs poses a major challenge to the automatic mining of multiple object API protocols: besides maintaining scalability, it is important to capture various object interactions. Current approaches utilize various heuristics to focus on small sets of methods. In this paper, we present a general, scalable, multiple object API protocols mining approach that can capture all object interactions. Our approach uses abstract field values to label object states during the mining process. We first mine single object typestates as finite state automata whose transitions are annotated with states of interacting objects before and after the execution of the corresponding method and then construct multiple object API protocols by composing these annotated single object typestates. We implement our approach for Java and evaluate it through a series of experiments.

  7. Balancing nurses' workload in hospital wards: study protocol of developing a method to manage workload.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van den Oetelaar, W F J M; van Stel, H F; van Rhenen, W; Stellato, R K; Grolman, W

    2016-11-10

    Hospitals pursue different goals at the same time: excellent service to their patients, good quality care, operational excellence, retaining employees. This requires a good balance between patient needs and nursing staff. One way to ensure a proper fit between patient needs and nursing staff is to work with a workload management method. In our view, a nursing workload management method needs to have the following characteristics: easy to interpret; limited additional registration; applicable to different types of hospital wards; supported by nurses; covers all activities of nurses and suitable for prospective planning of nursing staff. At present, no such method is available. The research follows several steps to come to a workload management method for staff nurses. First, a list of patient characteristics relevant to care time will be composed by performing a Delphi study among staff nurses. Next, a time study of nurses' activities will be carried out. The 2 can be combined to estimate care time per patient group and estimate the time nurses spend on non-patient-related activities. These 2 estimates can be combined and compared with available nursing resources: this gives an estimate of nurses' workload. The research will take place in an academic hospital in the Netherlands. 6 surgical wards will be included, capacity 15-30 beds. The study protocol was submitted to the Medical Ethical Review Board of the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht and received a positive advice, protocol number 14-165/C. This method will be developed in close cooperation with staff nurses and ward management. The strong involvement of the end users will contribute to a broader support of the results. The method we will develop may also be useful for planning purposes; this is a strong advantage compared with existing methods, which tend to focus on retrospective analysis. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence

  8. An in vivo investigative protocol for HDR prostate brachytherapy using urethral and rectal thermoluminescence dosimetry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Toye, Warren; Das, Ram; Kron, Tomas; Franich, Rick; Johnston, Peter; Duchesne, Gillian

    2009-01-01

    Purpose: To develop an in vivo dosimetry based investigative action level relevant for a corrective protocol for HDR brachytherapy boost treatment. Methods and materials: The dose delivered to points within the urethra and rectum was measured using TLD in vivo dosimetry in 56 patients. Comparisons between the urethral and rectal measurements and TPS calculations showed differences, which are related to the relative position of the implant and TLD trains, and allowed shifts of implant position relative to the prostate to be estimated. Results and conclusions: Analysis of rectal dose measurements is consistent with implant movement, which was previously only identified with the urethral data. Shift corrected doses were compared with results from the TPS. Comparison of peak doses to the urethra and rectum has been assessed against the proposed corrective protocol to limit overdosing these critical structures. An initial investigative level of 20% difference between measured and TPS peak dose was established, which corresponds to 1/3 of patients which was practical for the caseload. These patients were assessed resulting in corrective action being applied for one patient. Multiple triggering for selective investigative action is outlined. The use of a single in vivo measurement in the first fraction optimizes patient benefit at acceptable cost.

  9. Protocol vulnerability detection based on network traffic analysis and binary reverse engineering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wen, Shameng; Meng, Qingkun; Feng, Chao; Tang, Chaojing

    2017-01-01

    Network protocol vulnerability detection plays an important role in many domains, including protocol security analysis, application security, and network intrusion detection. In this study, by analyzing the general fuzzing method of network protocols, we propose a novel approach that combines network traffic analysis with the binary reverse engineering method. For network traffic analysis, the block-based protocol description language is introduced to construct test scripts, while the binary reverse engineering method employs the genetic algorithm with a fitness function designed to focus on code coverage. This combination leads to a substantial improvement in fuzz testing for network protocols. We build a prototype system and use it to test several real-world network protocol implementations. The experimental results show that the proposed approach detects vulnerabilities more efficiently and effectively than general fuzzing methods such as SPIKE.

  10. Principles of the new quantum cryptography protocols building

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kurochkin, V.; Kurochkin, Yu.

    2009-01-01

    The main aim of the quantum cryptography protocols is the maximal secrecy under the conditions of the real experiment. This work presents the result of the new protocol building with the use of the secrecy maximization. While using some well-known approaches this method has allowed one to achieve completely new results in quantum cryptography. The process of the protocol elaboration develops from the standard BB84 protocol upgrading to the building of completely new protocol with arbitrary large bases number. The secrecy proofs of the elaborated protocol appear to be natural continuation of the protocol building process. This approach reveals possibility to reach extremely high parameters of the protocol. It suits both the restrictions of contemporary technologies and requirements for high bit rate while being absolutely secret

  11. Immunochemical protocols

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Pound, John D

    1998-01-01

    ... easy and important refinements often are not published. This much anticipated 2nd edition of Immunochemzcal Protocols therefore aims to provide a user-friendly up-to-date handbook of reliable techniques selected to suit the needs of molecular biologists. It covers the full breadth of the relevant established immunochemical methods, from protein blotting and immunoa...

  12. Youth Unemployment Outline of a Psychosocial Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stamm, Margrit

    2006-01-01

    This analysis of education policy constitutes an attempt to outline the problem of youth unemployment. Building on a recognition that structural change in the "society of labourers" has also affected the social entity "young people", it shows the problems inherent in our concept of linear transitions to working life and the…

  13. Health care access for rural youth on equal terms? A mixed methods study protocol in northern Sweden.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goicolea, Isabel; Carson, Dean; San Sebastian, Miguel; Christianson, Monica; Wiklund, Maria; Hurtig, Anna-Karin

    2018-01-11

    The purpose of this paper is to propose a protocol for researching the impact of rural youth health service strategies on health care access. There has been no published comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of youth health strategies in rural areas, and there is no clearly articulated model of how such assessments might be conducted. The protocol described here aims to gather information to; i) Assess rural youth access to health care according to their needs, ii) Identify and understand the strategies developed in rural areas to promote youth access to health care, and iii) Propose actions for further improvement. The protocol is described with particular reference to research being undertaken in the four northernmost counties of Sweden, which contain a widely dispersed and diverse youth population. The protocol proposes qualitative and quantitative methodologies sequentially in four phases. First, to map youth access to health care according to their health care needs, including assessing horizontal equity (equal use of health care for equivalent health needs,) and vertical equity (people with greater health needs should receive more health care than those with lesser needs). Second, a multiple case study design investigates strategies developed across the region (youth clinics, internet applications, public health programs) to improve youth access to health care. Third, qualitative comparative analysis of the 24 rural municipalities in the region identifies the best combination of conditions leading to high youth access to health care. Fourth, a concept mapping study involving rural stakeholders, care providers and youth provides recommended actions to improve rural youth access to health care. The implementation of this research protocol will contribute to 1) generating knowledge that could contribute to strengthening rural youth access to health care, as well as to 2) advancing the application of mixed methods to explore access to health care.

  14. Genomics protocols [Methods in molecular biology, v. 175

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Starkey, Michael P; Elaswarapu, Ramnath

    2001-01-01

    ... to the larger community of researchers who have recognized the potential of genomics research and may themselves be beginning to explore the technologies involved. Some of the techniques described in Genomics Protocols are clearly not restricted to the genomics field; indeed, a prerequisite for many procedures in this discipline is that they require an extremely high throughput, beyond the scope of the average investigator. However, what we have endeavored here to achieve is both to compile a collection of...

  15. Decellularization of placentas: establishing a protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L.C.P.C. Leonel

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Biological biomaterials for tissue engineering purposes can be produced through tissue and/or organ decellularization. The remaining extracellular matrix (ECM must be acellular and preserve its proteins and physical features. Placentas are organs of great interest because they are discarded after birth and present large amounts of ECM. Protocols for decellularization are tissue-specific and have not been established for canine placentas yet. This study aimed at analyzing a favorable method for decellularization of maternal and fetal portions of canine placentas. Canine placentas were subjected to ten preliminary tests to analyze the efficacy of parameters such as the type of detergents, freezing temperatures and perfusion. Two protocols were chosen for further analyses using histology, scanning electron microscopy, immunofluorescence and DNA quantification. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS was the most effective detergent for cell removal. Freezing placentas before decellularization required longer periods of incubation in different detergents. Both perfusion and immersion methods were capable of removing cells. Placentas decellularized using Protocol I (1% SDS, 5 mM EDTA, 50 mM TRIS, and 0.5% antibiotic preserved the ECM structure better, but Protocol I was less efficient to remove cells and DNA content from the ECM than Protocol II (1% SDS, 5 mM EDTA, 0.05% trypsin, and 0.5% antibiotic.

  16. Chapter 6: Residential Lighting Evaluation Protocol. The Uniform Methods Project: Methods for Determining Energy Efficiency Savings for Specific Measures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurnik, Charles W [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Dimetrosky, Scott [Apex Analytics, LLC, Boulder, CO (United States); Parkinson, Katie [Apex Analytics, LLC, Boulder, CO (United States); Lieb, Noah [Apex Analytics, LLC, Boulder, CO (United States)

    2017-10-19

    Given new regulations, increased complexity in the market, and the general shift from CFLs to LEDs, this evaluation protocol was updated in 2017 to shift the focus of the protocols toward LEDs and away from CFLs and to resolve evaluation uncertainties affecting residential lighting incentive programs.

  17. Protocol vulnerability detection based on network traffic analysis and binary reverse engineering.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shameng Wen

    Full Text Available Network protocol vulnerability detection plays an important role in many domains, including protocol security analysis, application security, and network intrusion detection. In this study, by analyzing the general fuzzing method of network protocols, we propose a novel approach that combines network traffic analysis with the binary reverse engineering method. For network traffic analysis, the block-based protocol description language is introduced to construct test scripts, while the binary reverse engineering method employs the genetic algorithm with a fitness function designed to focus on code coverage. This combination leads to a substantial improvement in fuzz testing for network protocols. We build a prototype system and use it to test several real-world network protocol implementations. The experimental results show that the proposed approach detects vulnerabilities more efficiently and effectively than general fuzzing methods such as SPIKE.

  18. A Novel Morphometry-Based Protocol of Automated Video-Image Analysis for Species Recognition and Activity Rhythms Monitoring in Deep-Sea Fauna

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paolo Menesatti

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available The understanding of ecosystem dynamics in deep-sea areas is to date limited by technical constraints on sampling repetition. We have elaborated a morphometry-based protocol for automated video-image analysis where animal movement tracking (by frame subtraction is accompanied by species identification from animals’ outlines by Fourier Descriptors and Standard K-Nearest Neighbours methods. One-week footage from a permanent video-station located at 1,100 m depth in Sagami Bay (Central Japan was analysed. Out of 150,000 frames (1 per 4 s, a subset of 10.000 was analyzed by a trained operator to increase the efficiency of the automated procedure. Error estimation of the automated and trained operator procedure was computed as a measure of protocol performance. Three displacing species were identified as the most recurrent: Zoarcid fishes (eelpouts, red crabs (Paralomis multispina, and snails (Buccinum soyomaruae. Species identification with KNN thresholding produced better results in automated motion detection. Results were discussed assuming that the technological bottleneck is to date deeply conditioning the exploration of the deep-sea.

  19. Protocol Analysis as a Method for Analyzing Conversational Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aleman, Carlos G.; Vangelisti, Anita L.

    Protocol analysis, a technique that uses people's verbal reports about their cognitions as they engage in an assigned task, has been used in a number of applications to provide insight into how people mentally plan, assess, and carry out those assignments. Using a system of networked computers where actors communicate with each other over…

  20. Sessions and Separability in Security Protocols

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Carbone, Marco; Guttman, Joshua

    2013-01-01

    Despite much work on sessions and session types in non- adversarial contexts, session-like behavior given an active adversary has not received an adequate definition and proof methods. We provide a syntactic property that guarantees that a protocol has session-respecting executions. Any uncomprom......Despite much work on sessions and session types in non- adversarial contexts, session-like behavior given an active adversary has not received an adequate definition and proof methods. We provide a syntactic property that guarantees that a protocol has session-respecting executions. Any...

  1. Development of an analytic outline for the aflatoxins analysis in grains and flours

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sibaja Adams, Roxana

    2000-01-01

    The instrumental and analytic conditions were optimized for the aflatoxine determination B1, B2, 1 and G2 in corn and peanut byl iquid chromatography of high discharge following the analyzing method AOAC 994,08. Besides, it was defined a function for evaluating the dependence of the chromatographic discharge with the aflatoxine concentration. The analyzing method was validated, and four calibration curves were obtained for the aflatoxine B1, B2, G1 and G2, which turned to have a heterocedastico behavior. The applicability of this method was demonstrated, obtaining imagines of appropriate merit and comparable with those reported by the AOAC. Additionally, the applicability of the chromatographic method was demonstrated in fine layer for the presumptive analysis of aflatoxine, allowing both methods to propose an outline of reliable analysis of real samples [es

  2. Initial Characterization of Optical Communications with Disruption-Tolerant Network Protocols

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schoolcraft, Joshua; Wilson, Keith

    2011-01-01

    Disruption-tolerant networks (DTNs) are groups of network assets connected with a suite of communication protocol technologies designed to mitigate the effects of link delay and disruption. Application of DTN protocols to diverse groups of network resources in multiple sub-networks results in an overlay network-of-networks with autonomous data routing capability. In space environments where delay or disruption is expected, performance of this type of architecture (such as an interplanetary internet) can increase with the inclusion of new communications mediums and techniques. Space-based optical communication links are therefore an excellent building block of space DTN architectures. When compared to traditional radio frequency (RF) communications, optical systems can provide extremely power-efficient and high bandwidth links bridging sub-networks. Because optical links are more susceptible to link disruption and experience the same light-speed delays as RF, optical-enabled DTN architectures can lessen potential drawbacks and maintain the benefits of autonomous optical communications over deep space distances. These environment-driven expectations - link delay and interruption, along with asymmetric data rates - are the purpose of the proof-of-concept experiment outlined herein. In recognizing the potential of these two technologies, we report an initial experiment and characterization of the performance of a DTN-enabled space optical link. The experiment design employs a point-to-point free-space optical link configured to have asymmetric bandwidth. This link connects two networked systems running a DTN protocol implementation designed and written at JPL for use on spacecraft, and further configured for higher bandwidth performance. Comparing baseline data transmission metrics with and without periodic optical link interruptions, the experiment confirmed the DTN protocols' ability to handle real-world unexpected link outages while maintaining capability of

  3. Identification of a research protocol to study orthodontic tooth movement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annalisa Dichicco

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Aim: The orthodontic movement is associated with a process of tissue remodeling together with the release of several chemical mediators in periodontal tissues. Each mediator is a potential marker of tooth movement and expresses biological processes as: tissue inflammation and bone remodeling. Different amounts of every mediator are present in several tissues and fluids of the oral cavity. Therefore, there are different methods that allow sampling with several degrees of invasiveness. Chemical mediators are also substances of different molecular nature, and multiple kind of analysis methods allow detection. The purpose of this study was to draft the best research protocol for an optimal study on orthodontic movement efficiency. Methods: An analysis of the international literature have been made, to identify the gold standard of each aspect of the protocol: type of mediator, source and method of sampling and analysis method. Results: From the analysis of the international literature was created an original research protocol for the study and the assessment of the orthodontic movement, by using the biomarkers of the tooth movement. Conclusions: The protocol created is based on the choice of the gold standard of every aspect already analyzed in the literature and in existing protocols for the monitoring of orthodontic tooth movement through the markers of tooth movement. Clinical trials re required for the evaluation and validation of the protocol created.

  4. Identification of everyday objects on the basis of Gaborized outline versions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sassi, Michaël; Vancleef, Kathleen; Machilsen, Bart; Panis, Sven; Wagemans, Johan

    2010-01-01

    Using outlines derived from a widely used set of line drawings, we created stimuli geared towards the investigation of contour integration and texture segmentation using shapes of everyday objects. Each stimulus consisted of Gabor elements positioned and oriented curvilinearly along the outline of an object, embedded within a larger Gabor array of homogeneous density. We created six versions of the resulting Gaborized outline stimuli by varying the orientations of elements inside and outside the outline. Data from two experiments, in which participants attempted to identify the objects in the stimuli, provide norms for identifiability and name agreement, and show differences in identifiability between stimulus versions. While there was substantial variability between the individual objects in our stimulus set, further analyses suggest a number of stimulus properties which are generally predictive of identification performance. The stimuli and the accompanying normative data, both available on our website (http://www.gestaltrevision.be/sources/gaboroutlines), provide a useful tool to further investigate contour integration and texture segmentation in both normal and clinical populations, especially when top-down influences on these processes, such as the role of prior knowledge of familiar objects, are of main interest.

  5. Field validation of protocols developed to evaluate in-line mastitis detection systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamphuis, C; Dela Rue, B T; Eastwood, C R

    2016-02-01

    This paper reports on a field validation of previously developed protocols for evaluating the performance of in-line mastitis-detection systems. The protocols outlined 2 requirements of these systems: (1) to detect cows with clinical mastitis (CM) promptly and accurately to enable timely and appropriate treatment and (2) to identify cows with high somatic cell count (SCC) to manage bulk milk SCC levels. Gold standard measures, evaluation tests, performance measures, and performance targets were proposed. The current study validated the protocols on commercial dairy farms with automated in-line mastitis-detection systems using both electrical conductivity (EC) and SCC sensor systems that both monitor at whole-udder level. The protocol for requirement 1 was applied on 3 commercial farms. For requirement 2, the protocol was applied on 6 farms; 3 of them had low bulk milk SCC (128×10(3) cells/mL) and were the same farms as used for field evaluation of requirement 1. Three farms with high bulk milk SCC (270×10(3) cells/mL) were additionally enrolled. The field evaluation methodology and results were presented at a workshop including representation from 7 international suppliers of in-line mastitis-detection systems. Feedback was sought on the acceptance of standardized performance evaluation protocols and recommended refinements to the protocols. Although the methodology for requirement 1 was relatively labor intensive and required organizational skills over an extended period, no major issues were encountered during the field validation of both protocols. The validation, thus, proved the protocols to be practical. Also, no changes to the data collection process were recommended by the technology supplier representatives. However, 4 recommendations were made to refine the protocols: inclusion of an additional analysis that ignores small (low-density) clot observations in the definition of CM, extension of the time window from 4 to 5 milkings for timely alerts for CM

  6. Health risk behaviours amongst school adolescents: protocol for a mixed methods study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Youness El Achhab

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Determining risky behaviours of adolescents provides valuable information for designing appropriate intervention programmes for advancing adolescent’s health. However, these behaviours are not fully addressed by researchers in a comprehensive approach. We report the protocol of a mixed methods study designed to investigate the health risk behaviours of Moroccan adolescents with the goal of identifying suitable strategies to address their health concerns. Methods We used a sequential two-phase explanatory mixed method study design. The approach begins with the collection of quantitative data, followed by the collection of qualitative data to explain and enrich the quantitative findings. In the first phase, the global school-based student health survey (GSHS was administered to 800 students who were between 14 and 19 years of age. The second phase engaged adolescents, parents and teachers in focus groups and assessed education documents to explore the level of coverage of health education in the programme learnt in the middle school. To obtain opinions about strategies to reduce Moroccan adolescents’ health risk behaviours, a nominal group technique will be used. Discussion The findings of this mixed methods sequential explanatory study provide insights into the risk behaviours that need to be considered if intervention programmes and preventive strategies are to be designed to promote adolescent’s health in the Moroccan school.

  7. Chapter 14: Chiller Evaluation Protocol. The Uniform Methods Project: Methods for Determining Energy Efficiency Savings for Specific Measures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurnik, Charles W [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Tiessen, Alex [Posterity Group, Ottawa, ON (Canada)

    2017-10-06

    This protocol defines a chiller measure as a project that directly impacts equipment within the boundary of a chiller plant. A chiller plant encompasses a chiller - or multiple chillers - and associated auxiliary equipment. This protocol primarily covers electric-driven chillers and chiller plants. It does not include thermal energy storage and absorption chillers fired by natural gas or steam, although a similar methodology may be applicable to these chilled water system components.

  8. Topic Outlines in Microbiology: An Instructor's Guide for Junior and Community Colleges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC.

    This resource guide presents subject matter organized in outline form for four topical areas: introductory microbiology; medical microbiology; microbial genetics; and microbial physiology. The first two units comprise the two most frequently taught microbiology courses in community and junior colleges. The outlines for microbial genetics and…

  9. The Influence of Collaborative Reflection and Think-Aloud Protocols on Pre-Service Teachers' Reflection: A Mixed Methods Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Epler, Cory M.; Drape, Tiffany A.; Broyles, Thomas W.; Rudd, Rick D.

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine if there are differences in pre-service teachers' depth of reflection when using a written self-reflection form, a written self-reflection form and a think-aloud protocol, and collaborative reflection. Twenty-six pre-service teachers were randomly assigned to fourteen teaching teams. The…

  10. A survey on bio inspired meta heuristic based clustering protocols for wireless sensor networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Datta, A.; Nandakumar, S.

    2017-11-01

    Recent studies have shown that utilizing a mobile sink to harvest and carry data from a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) can improve network operational efficiency as well as maintain uniform energy consumption by the sensor nodes in the network. Due to Sink mobility, the path between two sensor nodes continuously changes and this has a profound effect on the operational longevity of the network and a need arises for a protocol which utilizes minimal resources in maintaining routes between the mobile sink and the sensor nodes. Swarm Intelligence based techniques inspired by the foraging behavior of ants, termites and honey bees can be artificially simulated and utilized to solve real wireless network problems. The author presents a brief survey on various bio inspired swarm intelligence based protocols used in routing data in wireless sensor networks while outlining their general principle and operation.

  11. Ocean Optics Protocols for Satellite Ocean Color Sensor Validation, Revision 4, Volume IV: Inherent Optical Properties: Instruments, Characterizations, Field Measurements and Data Analysis Protocols

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mueller, J. L.; Fargion, G. S.; McClain, C. R. (Editor); Pegau, S.; Zanefeld, J. R. V.; Mitchell, B. G.; Kahru, M.; Wieland, J.; Stramska, M.

    2003-01-01

    This document stipulates protocols for measuring bio-optical and radiometric data for the Sensor Intercomparision and Merger for Biological and Interdisciplinary Oceanic Studies (SIMBIOS) Project activities and algorithm development. The document is organized into 6 separate volumes as Ocean Optics Protocols for Satellite Ocean Color Sensor Validation, Revision 4. Volume I: Introduction, Background, and Conventions; Volume II: Instrument Specifications, Characterization and Calibration; Volume III: Radiometric Measurements and Data Analysis Methods; Volume IV: Inherent Optical Properties: Instruments, Characterization, Field Measurements and Data Analysis Protocols; Volume V: Biogeochemical and Bio-Optical Measurements and Data Analysis Methods; Volume VI: Special Topics in Ocean Optics Protocols and Appendices. The earlier version of Ocean Optics Protocols for Satellite Ocean Color Sensor Validation, Revision 3 is entirely superseded by the six volumes of Revision 4 listed above.

  12. Het effect van een elektronische outline-tool op het schrijfproduct en schrijfproces

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    De Smet, Milou; Brand-Gruwel, Saskia; Leijten, Mariëlle; Kirschner, Paul A.

    2012-01-01

    De Smet, M. J. R., Brand-Gruwel, S., Leijten, M., & Kirschner, P. A. (2012, June). Het effect van een elektronische outline-tool op het schrijfproduct en schrijfproces [The effect of an electronic outline tool on the writing product and writing process]. In R. Brouwer (Chair), Omgaan met ICT:

  13. A Lightweight Buyer-Seller Watermarking Protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yongdong Wu

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available The buyer-seller watermarking protocol enables a seller to successfully identify a traitor from a pirated copy, while preventing the seller from framing an innocent buyer. Based on finite field theory and the homomorphic property of public key cryptosystems such as RSA, several buyer-seller watermarking protocols (N. Memon and P. W. Wong (2001 and C.-L. Lei et al. (2004 have been proposed previously. However, those protocols require not only large computational power but also substantial network bandwidth. In this paper, we introduce a new buyer-seller protocol that overcomes those weaknesses by managing the watermarks. Compared with the earlier protocols, ours is n times faster in terms of computation, where n is the number of watermark elements, while incurring only O(1/lN times communication overhead given the finite field parameter lN. In addition, the quality of the watermarked image generated with our method is better, using the same watermark strength.

  14. Real Estate Course Outlines--Principles, Appraisal, Finance, Law, Math, Property Management, Investments, Marketing, Brokerage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyon, Robert

    This series of course outlines was developed by the Texas Real Estate Research Center to help instructors in developing courses in compliance with the Texas Real Estate License Act Section 7(a). The outlines are general in nature and designed to serve as the basis for the development of a comprehensive course outline based on the texts and…

  15. Collision and interaction phenomena - a historical outline

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Radmaneche, R.

    1977-09-01

    Collisions and interactions have become important for the description of matter. The author presents an outline which deals with elastic and inelastic collisions, with strong interactions, electromagnetic interactions, weak interactions and gravitational interactions. It is shown that the description of such processes has developed parallel with the understanding of matter and with the mechanism of the phenomena. Current and unsolved problems are mentioned

  16. Body Weight Determination from Foot Outline Length among the Iban Population in Malaysia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hairunnisa Bt Mohd Anas K

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Foot impressions form a valuable physical evidence to solve crime. Foot impression measurements provide valuable information in estimating stature, weight, gender and age in crime scene investigation. In Asian countries, many people living in rural places walk without footwear. The aim of this research is to generate regression equations to determine living body weight from foot outline length among the Iban population of Malaysia. The study involved 200 (100 males, 100 females adult Ibans, mostly living in Sarawak, a state in   Malaysia. Following the standard procedure, the foot outlines were collected followed by body weight measurements and were recorded for analysis. The collected data were analysed with PASW 20 computer software. The correlation coefficient (R between the foot outline lengths and body weight was determined for males, females and pooled sample. Based on the foot outline and body weight, 30 regression equations were generated, 10 for males, 10 for females and 10 for pooled samples/unknown gender. The correlation coefficient (R values were positive and statistically significant. It is concluded that the present investigation provided regression equations to determine body weight from foot outline anthropometry. These equations can be used to determine body weight even when partial foot impressions are available at crime scenes.   Keywords: Forensic Science, Body Weight, Foot Outline, Iban Population, Malaysia

  17. Heterogeneity among violence-exposed women: applying person-oriented research methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nurius, Paula S; Macy, Rebecca J

    2008-03-01

    Variability of experience and outcomes among violence-exposed people pose considerable challenges toward developing effective prevention and treatment protocols. To address these needs, the authors present an approach to research and a class of methodologies referred to as person oriented. Person-oriented tools support assessment of meaningful patterns among people that distinguish one group from another, subgroups for whom different interventions are indicated. The authors review the conceptual base of person-oriented methods, outline their distinction from more familiar variable-oriented methods, present descriptions of selected methods as well as empirical applications of person-oriented methods germane to violence exposure, and conclude with discussion of implications for future research and translation between research and practice. The authors focus on violence against women as a population, drawing on stress and coping theory as a theoretical framework. However, person-oriented methods hold utility for investigating diversity among violence-exposed people's experiences and needs across populations and theoretical foundations.

  18. Hamstring Muscle Injuries, a Rehabilitation Protocol Purpose.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valle, Xavier; L Tol, Johannes; Hamilton, Bruce; Rodas, Gil; Malliaras, Peter; Malliaropoulos, Nikos; Rizo, Vicenc; Moreno, Marcel; Jardi, Jaume

    2015-12-01

    Hamstring acute muscle injuries are prevalent in several sports including AFL football (Australian Football League), sprinting and soccer, and are often associated with prolonged time away from sport. In response to this, research into prevention and management of hamstring injury has increased, but epidemiological data shows no decline in injury and re-injury rates, suggesting that rehabilitation programs and return to play (RTP) criteria have to be improved. There continues to be a lack of consensus regarding how to assess performance, recovery and readiness to RTP, following hamstring strain injury. The aim of this paper was to propose rehabilitation protocol for hamstring muscle injuries based on current basic science and research knowledge regarding injury demographics and management options. Criteria-based (subjective and objective) progression through the rehabilitation program will be outlined along with exercises for each phase, from initial injury to RTP.

  19. Technical basis for the ITER-FEAT outline design

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2000-11-01

    This ITER EDA Documentation Series issue summarizes the results of the ITER Engineering Design Activities on the technical basis for the ITER-FEAT outline design. This issue also comprises some physical analysis activities as well as structure and goals of the Physics Expert Group activities.

  20. Technical basis for the ITER-FEAT outline design

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2000-01-01

    This ITER EDA Documentation Series issue summarizes the results of the ITER Engineering Design Activities on the technical basis for the ITER-FEAT outline design. This issue also comprises some physical analysis activities as well as structure and goals of the Physics Expert Group activities

  1. Outline and operations of benzene plant

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Omori, S; Hirooka, N; Nakamura, M; Goto, T

    1983-01-01

    An account is given of plant which can process 130,000 tonnes of by-product coke oven gas light oil (GLO) per year (via hydrodesulfurization, extraction and distillation) to produce benzene, toluene and xylene. The flowsheets and component equipment of the various production processes are explained, together with special features such as the production of hydrogen from coke oven gas by the PSA process and the processing of GLO by the ARCO process. Plant operation is outlined and the results of performance tests are noted.

  2. Chapter 23: Combined Heat and Power Evaluation Protocol. The Uniform Methods Project: Methods for Determining Energy Efficiency Savings for Specific Measures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurnik, Charles W. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Simons, George [Itron, Davis, CA (United States); Barsun, Stephan [Itron, Davis, CA (United States)

    2017-11-06

    The main focus of most evaluations is to determine the energy-savings impacts of the installed measure. This protocol defines a combined heat and power (CHP) measure as a system that sequentially generates both electrical energy and useful thermal energy from one fuel source at a host customer's facility or residence. This protocol is aimed primarily at regulators and administrators of ratepayer-funded CHP programs; however, project developers may find the protocol useful to understand how CHP projects are evaluated.

  3. ‘Fast cast’ and ‘needle Tenotomy’ protocols with the Ponseti method to improve clubfoot management in Bangladesh

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angela Evans

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The management of congenital talipes equino varus (clubfoot deformity has been transformed in the last 20 years as surgical correction has been replaced by the non-surgical Ponseti method. The Ponseti method, consists of corrective serial casting followed by maintenance bracing, and has been repeatedly demonstrated to give best results - regarded as the ‘gold standard’ treatment for paediatric clubfoot. Methods To develop the study protocol Level 2 evidence was used to modify the corrective casting phase of the Ponseti method in children aged up to 12 months. Using Level 4 evidence, the percutaneous Achilles tenotomy (PAT was performed using a 19-gauge needle instead of a scalpel blade, a technique found to reduce bleeding and scarring. Results A total of 123 children participated in this study; 88 male, 35 female. Both feet were affected in 67 cases, left only in 22 cases, right only in 34 cases. Typical clubfeet were found in 112/123 cases, six atypical, five syndromic. The average age at first cast was 51 days (13–240 days. The average number of casts applied was five (2–10 casts. The average number of days between the first cast and brace was 37.8 days (10–122 days, including 21 days in a post-PAT cast. Hence, average time of corrective casts was 17 days. Parents preferred the reduced casting time, and were less concerned about unseen skin wounds. PAT was performed in 103/123 cases, using the needle technique. All post tenotomy casts were in situ for three weeks. Minor complications occurred in seven cases - four cases had skin lesions, three cases disrupted casting phase. At another site, 452 PAT were performed using the needle technique. Conclusions The ‘fast cast’ protocol Ponseti casting was successfully used in infants aged less than 8 months. Extended manual manipulation of two minutes was the essential modification. Parents preferred the faster treatment phase, and ability to closer observe

  4. A Clustering Routing Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jinke Huang

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The dynamic topology of a mobile ad hoc network poses a real challenge in the design of hierarchical routing protocol, which combines proactive with reactive routing protocols and takes advantages of both. And as an essential technique of hierarchical routing protocol, clustering of nodes provides an efficient method of establishing a hierarchical structure in mobile ad hoc networks. In this paper, we designed a novel clustering algorithm and a corresponding hierarchical routing protocol for large-scale mobile ad hoc networks. Each cluster is composed of a cluster head, several cluster gateway nodes, several cluster guest nodes, and other cluster members. The proposed routing protocol uses proactive protocol between nodes within individual clusters and reactive protocol between clusters. Simulation results show that the proposed clustering algorithm and hierarchical routing protocol provide superior performance with several advantages over existing clustering algorithm and routing protocol, respectively.

  5. Gene probes : principles and protocols [Methods in molecular biology, v. 179

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Rapley, Ralph; Aquino de Muro, Marilena

    2002-01-01

    "Senior scientists Marilena Aquino de Muro and Ralph Rapley have brought together an outstanding collection of time-tested protocols for designing and using genes probes in a wide variety of applications...

  6. Using Think Aloud Protocols to Assess E-Prescribing in Community Pharmacies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olufunmilola K. Odukoya, BPharm, MS

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Think aloud protocol has rarely been used as a method of data collection in community pharmacies.Purpose: The aim of the report is to describe how think aloud protocols were used to identify issues that arise when using e-prescribing technology in pharmacies. In this paper, we report on the benefits and challenges of using think aloud protocols in pharmacies to examine the use of e-prescribing systems.Methods: Sixteen pharmacists and pharmacy technicians were recruited from seven community pharmacies in Wisconsin. Data were collected using direct observation alongside think aloud protocol. Direct observations and think aloud protocols took place between January-February, 2011. Participants were asked to verbalize their thoughts as they process electronic prescriptions.Results: Participants identified weaknesses in e-prescribing that they had previously not conceived. This created heightened awareness for vigilance when processing e-prescriptions. The main challenge with using think aloud protocols was due to interruptions in the pharmacies. Also, a few participants found it challenging to remember to continue verbalizing their thought process during think aloud sessions.Conclusion: The use of think aloud protocols as method of data collection is a new way for understanding the issues related to technology use in community pharmacy practice. Think aloud protocol was beneficial in providing objective information on e-prescribing use not solely based on pharmacist’s or technician’s opinion of the technology. This method provided detailed information on a wide variety of real time challenges with e-prescribing technology use in community pharmacies. Using this data collection method can help identify potential patient safety issues when using e-prescribing and suggestions for redesign.

  7. Objective and automated protocols for the evaluation of biomedical search engines using No Title Evaluation protocols.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campagne, Fabien

    2008-02-29

    The evaluation of information retrieval techniques has traditionally relied on human judges to determine which documents are relevant to a query and which are not. This protocol is used in the Text Retrieval Evaluation Conference (TREC), organized annually for the past 15 years, to support the unbiased evaluation of novel information retrieval approaches. The TREC Genomics Track has recently been introduced to measure the performance of information retrieval for biomedical applications. We describe two protocols for evaluating biomedical information retrieval techniques without human relevance judgments. We call these protocols No Title Evaluation (NT Evaluation). The first protocol measures performance for focused searches, where only one relevant document exists for each query. The second protocol measures performance for queries expected to have potentially many relevant documents per query (high-recall searches). Both protocols take advantage of the clear separation of titles and abstracts found in Medline. We compare the performance obtained with these evaluation protocols to results obtained by reusing the relevance judgments produced in the 2004 and 2005 TREC Genomics Track and observe significant correlations between performance rankings generated by our approach and TREC. Spearman's correlation coefficients in the range of 0.79-0.92 are observed comparing bpref measured with NT Evaluation or with TREC evaluations. For comparison, coefficients in the range 0.86-0.94 can be observed when evaluating the same set of methods with data from two independent TREC Genomics Track evaluations. We discuss the advantages of NT Evaluation over the TRels and the data fusion evaluation protocols introduced recently. Our results suggest that the NT Evaluation protocols described here could be used to optimize some search engine parameters before human evaluation. Further research is needed to determine if NT Evaluation or variants of these protocols can fully substitute

  8. Developing protocols for geochemical baseline studies: An example from the Coles Hill uranium deposit, Virginia, USA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Levitan, Denise M.; Schreiber, Madeline E.; Seal, Robert R.; Bodnar, Robert J.; Aylor, Joseph G.

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • We outline protocols for baseline geochemical surveys of stream sediments and water. • Regression on order statistics was used to handle non-detect data. • U concentrations in stream water near this unmined ore were below regulatory standards. • Concentrations of major and trace elements were correlated with stream discharge. • Methods can be applied to other extraction activities, including hydraulic fracturing. - Abstract: In this study, we determined baseline geochemical conditions in stream sediments and surface waters surrounding an undeveloped uranium deposit. Emphasis was placed on study design, including site selection to encompass geological variability and temporal sampling to encompass hydrological and climatic variability, in addition to statistical methods for baseline data analysis. The concentrations of most elements in stream sediments were above analytical detection limits, making them amenable to standard statistical analysis. In contrast, some trace elements in surface water had concentrations that were below the respective detection limits, making statistical analysis more challenging. We describe and compare statistical methods appropriate for concentrations that are below detection limits (non-detect data) and conclude that regression on order statistics provided the most rigorous analysis of our results, particularly for trace elements. Elevated concentrations of U and deposit-associated elements (e.g. Ba, Pb, and V) were observed in stream sediments and surface waters downstream of the deposit, but concentrations were below regulatory guidelines for the protection of aquatic ecosystems and for drinking water. Analysis of temporal trends indicated that concentrations of major and trace elements were most strongly related to stream discharge. These findings highlight the need for sampling protocols that will identify and evaluate the temporal and spatial variations in a thorough baseline study

  9. A Lightweight Protocol for Secure Video Streaming.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Venčkauskas, Algimantas; Morkevicius, Nerijus; Bagdonas, Kazimieras; Damaševičius, Robertas; Maskeliūnas, Rytis

    2018-05-14

    The Internet of Things (IoT) introduces many new challenges which cannot be solved using traditional cloud and host computing models. A new architecture known as fog computing is emerging to address these technological and security gaps. Traditional security paradigms focused on providing perimeter-based protections and client/server point to point protocols (e.g., Transport Layer Security (TLS)) are no longer the best choices for addressing new security challenges in fog computing end devices, where energy and computational resources are limited. In this paper, we present a lightweight secure streaming protocol for the fog computing "Fog Node-End Device" layer. This protocol is lightweight, connectionless, supports broadcast and multicast operations, and is able to provide data source authentication, data integrity, and confidentiality. The protocol is based on simple and energy efficient cryptographic methods, such as Hash Message Authentication Codes (HMAC) and symmetrical ciphers, and uses modified User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets to embed authentication data into streaming data. Data redundancy could be added to improve reliability in lossy networks. The experimental results summarized in this paper confirm that the proposed method efficiently uses energy and computational resources and at the same time provides security properties on par with the Datagram TLS (DTLS) standard.

  10. Breaking Megrelishvili protocol using matrix diagonalization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arzaki, Muhammad; Triantoro Murdiansyah, Danang; Adi Prabowo, Satrio

    2018-03-01

    In this article we conduct a theoretical security analysis of Megrelishvili protocol—a linear algebra-based key agreement between two participants. We study the computational complexity of Megrelishvili vector-matrix problem (MVMP) as a mathematical problem that strongly relates to the security of Megrelishvili protocol. In particular, we investigate the asymptotic upper bounds for the running time and memory requirement of the MVMP that involves diagonalizable public matrix. Specifically, we devise a diagonalization method for solving the MVMP that is asymptotically faster than all of the previously existing algorithms. We also found an important counterintuitive result: the utilization of primitive matrix in Megrelishvili protocol makes the protocol more vulnerable to attacks.

  11. Topology Discovery Using Cisco Discovery Protocol

    OpenAIRE

    Rodriguez, Sergio R.

    2009-01-01

    In this paper we address the problem of discovering network topology in proprietary networks. Namely, we investigate topology discovery in Cisco-based networks. Cisco devices run Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) which holds information about these devices. We first compare properties of topologies that can be obtained from networks deploying CDP versus Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and Management Information Base (MIB) Forwarding Database (FDB). Then we describe a method of discovering topology ...

  12. GENERALIZED MATRIXES OF GALOIS PROTOCOLS EXCHANGE ENCRYPTION KEYS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anatoly Beletsky

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The methods of construction of matrix formation the secret protocols legalized subscribers of public communications networks encryption keys. Based key exchange protocols laid asymmetric cryptography algorithms. The solution involves the calculation of one-way functions and is based on the use of generalized Galois arrays of isomorphism relationship with forming elements, and depending on the selected irreducible polynomial generating matrix. A simple method for constructing generalized Galois matrix by the method of filling the diagonal. In order to eliminate the isomorphism of Galois arrays and their constituent elements, limiting the possibility of building one-way functions, Galois matrix subjected to similarity transformation carried out by means of permutation matrices. The variant of the organization of the algebraic attacks on encryption keys sharing protocols and discusses options for easing the consequences of an attack.

  13. Chapter 22: Compressed Air Evaluation Protocol. The Uniform Methods Project: Methods for Determining Energy Efficiency Savings for Specific Measures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurnik, Charles W [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Benton, Nathanael [Nexant, Inc., San Francisco, CA (United States); Burns, Patrick [Nexant, Inc., San Francisco, CA (United States)

    2017-10-18

    Compressed-air systems are used widely throughout industry for many operations, including pneumatic tools, packaging and automation equipment, conveyors, and other industrial process operations. Compressed-air systems are defined as a group of subsystems composed of air compressors, air treatment equipment, controls, piping, pneumatic tools, pneumatically powered machinery, and process applications using compressed air. A compressed-air system has three primary functional subsystems: supply, distribution, and demand. Air compressors are the primary energy consumers in a compressed-air system and are the primary focus of this protocol. The two compressed-air energy efficiency measures specifically addressed in this protocol are: High-efficiency/variable speed drive (VSD) compressor replacing modulating, load/unload, or constant-speed compressor; and Compressed-air leak survey and repairs. This protocol provides direction on how to reliably verify savings from these two measures using a consistent approach for each.

  14. Gamma-H2AX biodosimetry for use in large scale radiation incidents: comparison of a rapid ‘96 well lyse/fix’ protocol with a routine method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jayne Moquet

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Following a radiation incident, preliminary dose estimates made by γ-H2AX foci analysis can supplement the early triage of casualties based on clinical symptoms. Sample processing time is important when many individuals need to be rapidly assessed. A protocol was therefore developed for high sample throughput that requires less than 0.1 ml blood, thus potentially enabling finger prick sampling. The technique combines red blood cell lysis and leukocyte fixation in one step on a 96 well plate, in contrast to the routine protocol, where lymphocytes in larger blood volumes are typically separated by Ficoll density gradient centrifugation with subsequent washing and fixation steps. The rapid ‘96 well lyse/fix’ method reduced the estimated sample processing time for 96 samples to about 4 h compared to 15 h using the routine protocol. However, scoring 20 cells in 96 samples prepared by the rapid protocol took longer than for the routine method (3.1 versus 1.5 h at zero dose; 7.0 versus 6.1 h for irradiated samples. Similar foci yields were scored for both protocols and consistent dose estimates were obtained for samples exposed to 0, 0.2, 0.6, 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 and 4.3 Gy of 250 kVp X-rays at 0.5 Gy/min and incubated for 2 h. Linear regression coefficients were 0.87 ± 0.06 (R2 = 97.6% and 0.85 ± 0.05 (R2 = 98.3% for estimated versus actual doses for the routine and lyse/fix method, respectively. The lyse/fix protocol can therefore facilitate high throughput processing for γ-H2AX biodosimetry for use in large scale radiation incidents, at the cost of somewhat longer foci scoring times.

  15. Relatorio: Exposicao de motivos (Report: Outline of Proposals).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ministerio da Educacao e Cultura, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

    This document is an English-language abstract (approximately 1,500 words) of an outline of proposals to improve education in Brazil, both administratively and content-wise. Various administrative changes are recommended to overcome the lack of coordination existing at that point between the various services of the Ministry, precluding any coherent…

  16. Formal Test Automation: The Conference Protocol with PHACT

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Heerink, A.W.; Ural, Hasan; Probert, Robert L.; Feenstra, J.; Tretmans, G.J.; von Bochmann, Gregor

    2000-01-01

    We discuss a case study of automatic test generation and test execution based on formal methods. The case is the Conference Protocol, a simple, chatbox-like protocol, for which (formal) specifications and multiple implementations are publicly available and which is also used in other case study

  17. Defining robustness protocols: a method to include and evaluate robustness in clinical plans

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McGowan, S E; Albertini, F; Lomax, A J; Thomas, S J

    2015-01-01

    We aim to define a site-specific robustness protocol to be used during the clinical plan evaluation process. Plan robustness of 16 skull base IMPT plans to systematic range and random set-up errors have been retrospectively and systematically analysed. This was determined by calculating the error-bar dose distribution (ebDD) for all the plans and by defining some metrics used to define protocols aiding the plan assessment. Additionally, an example of how to clinically use the defined robustness database is given whereby a plan with sub-optimal brainstem robustness was identified. The advantage of using different beam arrangements to improve the plan robustness was analysed. Using the ebDD it was found range errors had a smaller effect on dose distribution than the corresponding set-up error in a single fraction, and that organs at risk were most robust to the range errors, whereas the target was more robust to set-up errors. A database was created to aid planners in terms of plan robustness aims in these volumes. This resulted in the definition of site-specific robustness protocols. The use of robustness constraints allowed for the identification of a specific patient that may have benefited from a treatment of greater individuality. A new beam arrangement showed to be preferential when balancing conformality and robustness for this case. The ebDD and error-bar volume histogram proved effective in analysing plan robustness. The process of retrospective analysis could be used to establish site-specific robustness planning protocols in proton therapy. These protocols allow the planner to determine plans that, although delivering a dosimetrically adequate dose distribution, have resulted in sub-optimal robustness to these uncertainties. For these cases the use of different beam start conditions may improve the plan robustness to set-up and range uncertainties. (paper)

  18. Defining robustness protocols: a method to include and evaluate robustness in clinical plans

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGowan, S. E.; Albertini, F.; Thomas, S. J.; Lomax, A. J.

    2015-04-01

    We aim to define a site-specific robustness protocol to be used during the clinical plan evaluation process. Plan robustness of 16 skull base IMPT plans to systematic range and random set-up errors have been retrospectively and systematically analysed. This was determined by calculating the error-bar dose distribution (ebDD) for all the plans and by defining some metrics used to define protocols aiding the plan assessment. Additionally, an example of how to clinically use the defined robustness database is given whereby a plan with sub-optimal brainstem robustness was identified. The advantage of using different beam arrangements to improve the plan robustness was analysed. Using the ebDD it was found range errors had a smaller effect on dose distribution than the corresponding set-up error in a single fraction, and that organs at risk were most robust to the range errors, whereas the target was more robust to set-up errors. A database was created to aid planners in terms of plan robustness aims in these volumes. This resulted in the definition of site-specific robustness protocols. The use of robustness constraints allowed for the identification of a specific patient that may have benefited from a treatment of greater individuality. A new beam arrangement showed to be preferential when balancing conformality and robustness for this case. The ebDD and error-bar volume histogram proved effective in analysing plan robustness. The process of retrospective analysis could be used to establish site-specific robustness planning protocols in proton therapy. These protocols allow the planner to determine plans that, although delivering a dosimetrically adequate dose distribution, have resulted in sub-optimal robustness to these uncertainties. For these cases the use of different beam start conditions may improve the plan robustness to set-up and range uncertainties.

  19. Where Words Fail, Music Speaks: A Mixed Method Study of an Evidence-Based Music Protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daniels, Ruby A; Torres, David; Reeser, Cathy

    2016-01-01

    Despite numerous studies documenting the benefits of music, hospice social workers are often unfamiliar with evidence-based music practices that may improve end of life care. This mixed method study tested an intervention to teach hospice social workers and chaplains (N = 10) an evidence-based music protocol. Participants used the evidence-based practice (EBP) for 30 days, recording 226 journal entries that described observations of 84 patients and their families. There was a significant increase in EBP knowledge (35%). Prompting behavioral and emotional responses, music was described frequently as a catalyst that facilitated deeper dialogue between patients, families, social workers, and chaplains.

  20. A Suggested Curriculum Outline for German in Secondary Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clutterbuck, J. M.

    1975-01-01

    Outlines a four-year program of German study aiming to give students a basic ability in spoken and written German, knowledge of German culture, and preparation for advanced German study. Study topics and textbooks are included. (CHK)

  1. Comparison between evaluating methods about the protocols of different dose distributions in radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ju Yongjian; Chen Meihua; Sun Fuyin; Zhang Liang'an; Lei Chengzhi

    2004-01-01

    Objective: To study the relationship between tumor control probability (TCP) or equivalent uniform dose (EUD) and the heterogeneity degree of the dose changes with variable biological parameter values of the tumor. Methods: According to the definitions of TCP and EUD, calculating equations were derived. The dose distributions in the tumor were assumed to be Gaussian ones. The volume of the tumor was divided into several voxels, and the absorbed doses of these voxels were simulated by Monte Carlo methods. Then with the different values of radiosensitivity (α) and potential doubling time of the clonogens (T p ), the relationships between TCP or EUD and the standard deviation of dose (S d ) were evaluated. Results: The TCP-S d curves were influenced by the variable α and T p values, but the EUD-S d curves showed little variation. Conclusion: When the radiotherapy protocols with different dose distributions are compared, if the biological parameter values of the tumor have been known exactly, it's better to use the TCP, otherwise the EUD will be preferred

  2. Photoelectrochemical water splitting standards, experimental methods, and protocols

    CERN Document Server

    Chen, Zhebo; Miller, Eric

    2014-01-01

    This book outlines many of the techniques involved in materials development and characterization for photoelectrochemical (PEC) - for example, proper metrics for describing material performance, how to assemble testing cells and prepare materials for assessment of their properties, and how to perform the experimental measurements needed to achieve reliable results towards better scientific understanding. For each technique, proper procedure, benefits, limitations, and data interpretation are discussed. Consolidating this information in a short, accessible, and easy to read reference guide will allow researchers to more rapidly immerse themselves into PEC research and also better compare their results against those of other researchers to better advance materials development. This book serves as a "how-to" guide for researchers engaged in or interested in engaging in the field of photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. PEC water splitting is a rapidly growing field of research in which the goal is to deve...

  3. Conversion of a general quantum stabilizer code to an entanglement distillation protocol

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Matsumoto, Ryutaroh [Department of Communications and Integrated Systems, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8552 (Japan)

    2003-07-25

    We show how to convert a quantum stabilizer code to a one- or two-way entanglement distillation protocol. The proposed conversion method is a generalization of those of Shor-Preskill and Nielsen-Chuang. The recurrence protocol and the quantum privacy amplification protocol are equivalent to the protocols converted from [[2, 1

  4. Conversion of a general quantum stabilizer code to an entanglement distillation protocol

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsumoto, Ryutaroh

    2003-01-01

    We show how to convert a quantum stabilizer code to a one- or two-way entanglement distillation protocol. The proposed conversion method is a generalization of those of Shor-Preskill and Nielsen-Chuang. The recurrence protocol and the quantum privacy amplification protocol are equivalent to the protocols converted from [[2, 1

  5. An evaluation of two large scale demand side financing programs for maternal health in India: the MATIND study protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sidney Kristi

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background High maternal mortality in India is a serious public health challenge. Demand side financing interventions have emerged as a strategy to promote access to emergency obstetric care. Two such state run programs, Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSYand Chiranjeevi Yojana (CY, were designed and implemented to reduce financial access barriers that preclude women from obtaining emergency obstetric care. JSY, a conditional cash transfer, awards money directly to a woman who delivers in a public health facility. This will be studied in Madhya Pradesh province. CY, a voucher based program, empanels private obstetricians in Gujarat province, who are reimbursed by the government to perform deliveries of socioeconomically disadvantaged women. The programs have been in operation for the last seven years. Methods/designs The study outlined in this protocol will assess and compare the influence of the two programs on various aspects of maternal health care including trends in program uptake, institutional delivery rates, maternal and neonatal outcomes, quality of care, experiences of service providers and users, and cost effectiveness. The study will collect primary data using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, including facility level questionnaires, observations, a population based survey, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions. Primary data will be collected in three districts of each province. The research will take place at three levels: the state health departments, obstetric facilities in the districts and among recently delivered mothers in the community. Discussion The protocol is a comprehensive assessment of the performance and impact of the programs and an economic analysis. It will fill existing evidence gaps in the scientific literature including access and quality to services, utilization, coverage and impact. The implementation of the protocol will also generate evidence to facilitate decision making

  6. Risk factors which cause senile cataract evolvement: outline

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E.V. Bragin

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Examination of natural ageing processes including those caused by multiple external factors has been attracting re-searchers' attention over the last years. Senile cataract is a multi-factor disease. Expenditure on cataract surgery remain one of the greatest expenses items in public health care. Age is a basic factor which causes senile cataract. Morbidity with cataract doubles each 10 years of life. This outline considers some literature sources which describe research results on influence exerted on cataract evolvement by such risk factors as age, sex, race, smoking, alcohol intake, pancreatic diabetes, intake of certain medications, a number of environmental factors including ultraviolet and ionizing radiation. mane of these factors are shown to increase or reduce senile cataract risk; there are conflicting data on certain factors. The outline also contains quantitative characteristics of cataract risks which are given via odds relation and evolve due to age parameters impacts, alcohol intake, ionizing radiation, etc. The authors also state that still there is no answer to the question whether dose-effect relationship for cataract evolvement is a threshold or non-threshold.

  7. Latest approaches on green chemistry preconcentration methods for trace metal determination in seawater--a review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    La Colla, Noelia Soledad; Domini, Claudia Elizabeth; Marcovecchio, Jorge Eduardo; Botté, Sandra Elizabeth

    2015-03-15

    Evaluation of trace metal levels in seawater samples is undertaken regularly by research groups all over the world, leading to a growing demand for techniques involving fewer toxic reagents, less time-consuming protocols and lower limits of detection. This review focuses on providing a brief but concise description of the latest methodologies developed to this end, outlining the advantages and disadvantages of the various protocols, chelating and dispersive agents and instruments used. Conclusions are drawn on the basis of the articles reviewed, highlighting improvements introduced in order to enhance the performance of the protocols. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Multiprofissional electronic protocol in ophtalmology with enfasis in strabismus

    OpenAIRE

    RIBEIRO, CHRISTIE GRAF; MOREIRA, ANA TEREZA RAMOS; PINTO, JOSÉ SIMÃO DE PAULA; MALAFAIA, OSVALDO

    2016-01-01

    ABSTRACT Objective: to create and validate an electronic database in ophthalmology focused on strabismus, to computerize this database in the form of a systematic data collection software named Electronic Protocol, and to incorporate this protocol into the Integrated System of Electronic Protocols (SINPE(c)). Methods: this is a descriptive study, with the methodology divided into three phases: (1) development of a theoretical ophthalmologic database with emphasis on strabismus; (2) compute...

  9. Outline of recent studies on dosimetry for external radiations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamaguchi, Yasuhiro; Iwai, Satoshi.

    1995-01-01

    On the opportunity of adopting the new basic recommendation of ICRP in 1990, the research on the method of evaluating external radiation exposure dose has become to be carried out actively. In this recommendation, the definition of the dose used for radiation protection was changed largely, accordingly, the necessity to prepare the dose conversion factor based on the new definition and so on has arisen. Also in Japan, the research for this purpose has been carried out, and in January, 1995, the workshop on the recent method for evaluating external radiation exposure dose was held at Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. In this report, the contents discussed at the workshop and the outline of the recent studies on this subject are described. As the international trend of dose evaluation, the recommendation of ICRP in 1990, the ICRU report 51 and the ICRP publication 71 by the joint ICRP/ICRU task group are introduced. In Japan, the studies have been advanced centering around the reassessment of dose conversion factors for photons, electrons and neutrons. The dose evaluation for photons, electrons and neutrons, and the dose evaluation around high energy accelerators are explained. Many problems to be solved still remain as the subjects of research for hereafter. (K.I.)

  10. Protocol Implementation Generator

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Carvalho Quaresma, Jose Nuno; Probst, Christian W.

    2010-01-01

    Users expect communication systems to guarantee, amongst others, privacy and integrity of their data. These can be ensured by using well-established protocols; the best protocol, however, is useless if not all parties involved in a communication have a correct implementation of the protocol and a...... Generator framework based on the LySatool and a translator from the LySa language into C or Java....... necessary tools. In this paper, we present the Protocol Implementation Generator (PiG), a framework that can be used to add protocol generation to protocol negotiation, or to easily share and implement new protocols throughout a network. PiG enables the sharing, verification, and translation...

  11. Effects of electronic outlining on students’ argumentative writing performance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    De Smet, Milou; Broekkamp, Hein; Brand-Gruwel, Saskia; Kirschner, Paul A.

    2011-01-01

    De Smet, M. J. R., Broekkamp, H., Brand-Gruwel, S., & Kirschner, P. A. (2011). Effects of electronic outlining on students’ argumentative writing performance. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27(6), 557-574. doi: 0.1111/j.1365-2729.2011.00418.x

  12. Designing evaluation of learning in outline courses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Estévez, Orosmán V.

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper is intended to characterize the evaluation process of online courses from the perspectives of several scholars who are currently conducting research on the topic. The importance of an integral diagnosis and the interconnections between diagnosis, learning activities design and evaluation are outlined. The study leads the authors to the conclusion that evaluation in online courses in Cuba demands a thorough scientific research so as to go deeper into its characterizing features.

  13. Entanglement distillation protocols and number theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bombin, H.; Martin-Delgado, M.A.

    2005-01-01

    We show that the analysis of entanglement distillation protocols for qudits of arbitrary dimension D benefits from applying basic concepts from number theory, since the set Z D n associated with Bell diagonal states is a module rather than a vector space. We find that a partition of Z D n into divisor classes characterizes the invariant properties of mixed Bell diagonal states under local permutations. We construct a very general class of recursion protocols by means of unitary operations implementing these local permutations. We study these distillation protocols depending on whether we use twirling operations in the intermediate steps or not, and we study them both analytically and numerically with Monte Carlo methods. In the absence of twirling operations, we construct extensions of the quantum privacy algorithms valid for secure communications with qudits of any dimension D. When D is a prime number, we show that distillation protocols are optimal both qualitatively and quantitatively

  14. Citation Analysis and Histographic Outline of Scientific Output in Agriculture Using Science Citation Index (2000-2008

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mitra Pashootanizadeh

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available The present investigation, by reviewing 22,617 records indexed between 2000 and 2008 in the Web of Science database and employing citation analysis methods attempts to identify key authors and institutes and their degree of collaboration, core journals, rate of scientific output, publishing forms and languages and leading countries in this field. It also attempts to draw a histographic outline of the agricultural science. The average annual growth in publications for the period studied was shown to be seven percent. Total of 22,617 records were presented in 15 different formats in 25 languages. 173 countries were involved. All agricultural articles retrieved from WOS had been submitted from 14,852 institutes and published in 3252 journals. 51,655 authors were identified who had cited 658381 sources. The clusters formed in the histographic outline based on LCS and GCS also included five clusters.

  15. Vertical Protocol Composition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Groß, Thomas; Mödersheim, Sebastian Alexander

    2011-01-01

    The security of key exchange and secure channel protocols, such as TLS, has been studied intensively. However, only few works have considered what happens when the established keys are actually used—to run some protocol securely over the established “channel”. We call this a vertical protocol.......e., that the combination cannot introduce attacks that the individual protocols in isolation do not have. In this work, we prove a composability result in the symbolic model that allows for arbitrary vertical composition (including self-composition). It holds for protocols from any suite of channel and application...

  16. A simple method for estimating the effective dose in dental CT. Conversion factors and calculation for a clinical low-dose protocol

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Homolka, P.; Kudler, H.; Nowotny, R.; Gahleitner, A.; Wien Univ.

    2001-01-01

    An easily appliable method to estimate effective dose including in its definition the high radio-sensitivity of the salivary glands from dental computed tomography is presented. Effective doses were calculated for a markedly dose reduced dental CT protocol as well as for standard settings. Data are compared with effective doses from the literature obtained with other modalities frequently used in dental care. Methods: Conversion factors based on the weighted Computed Tomography Dose Index were derived from published data to calculate effective dose values for various CT exposure settings. Results: Conversion factors determined can be used for clinically used kVp settings and prefiltrations. With reduced tube current an effective dose for a CT examination of the maxilla of 22 μSv can be achieved, which compares to values typically obtained with panoramic radiography (26 μSv). A CT scan of the mandible, respectively, gives 123 μSv comparable to a full mouth survey with intraoral films (150 μSv). Conclusion: For standard CT scan protocols of the mandible, effective doses exceed 600 μSv. Hence, low dose protocols for dental CT should be considered whenever feasable, especially for paediatric patients. If hard tissue diagnoses is performed, the potential of dose reduction is significant despite the higher image noise levels as readability is still adequate. (orig.) [de

  17. Cryptographic protocol security analysis based on bounded constructing algorithm

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2006-01-01

    An efficient approach to analyzing cryptographic protocols is to develop automatic analysis tools based on formal methods. However, the approach has encountered the high computational complexity problem due to reasons that participants of protocols are arbitrary, their message structures are complex and their executions are concurrent. We propose an efficient automatic verifying algorithm for analyzing cryptographic protocols based on the Cryptographic Protocol Algebra (CPA) model proposed recently, in which algebraic techniques are used to simplify the description of cryptographic protocols and their executions. Redundant states generated in the analysis processes are much reduced by introducing a new algebraic technique called Universal Polynomial Equation and the algorithm can be used to verify the correctness of protocols in the infinite states space. We have implemented an efficient automatic analysis tool for cryptographic protocols, called ACT-SPA, based on this algorithm, and used the tool to check more than 20 cryptographic protocols. The analysis results show that this tool is more efficient, and an attack instance not offered previously is checked by using this tool.

  18. RETAIL ORGANIZATION, A SUGGESTED ADULT DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION COURSE OUTLINE.

    Science.gov (United States)

    MAURO, RALPH N.; AND OTHERS

    THIS SUGGESTED OUTLINE FOR A COURSE ON RETAIL ORGANIZATION IS PLANNED FOR FIVE 2-HOUR SESSIONS ON (1) EVOLUTION OF RETAIL ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE, (2) ORGANIZATION, INCLUDING CONCEPTS, PRINCIPLES, AND PRACTICES, (3) TYPICAL RETAIL ORGANIZATION PATTERNS, (4) ORGANIZATIONAL AND FUNCTIONAL ANAYSIS, INCLUDING MERCHANDISING, SALES PROMOTION, AND…

  19. Outline of additional installation works in Oi Nuclear Power Station

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shibata, Atsuo; Matsuoka, Motokazu

    1987-01-01

    At present in Oi Nuclear Power Station, Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc., No.1 and No.2 plants of 1175 MWe each are in operation. In order to stabilize power supply for a long term, the additional installation of No.3 and No.4 plants of 1180 MWe each is in progress. The No.3 and No.4 plants are PWRs, for which prestressed concrete reactor containment vessels were adopted, and the start of operation is scheduled in October, 1991 in No.3 plant and in August, 1992 in No.4 plant. In the execution of main construction works, the preservation of the existing plants is the most important. For excavating the tunnels for seawater channels, tunnel boring machines were used, to avoid blasting. Pneumatic caisson method was adopted for a part of the circulating pump building. No vibration, no noise piling method was adopted for respective sheathing construction. The blasting vibration control in the excavation for foundations and the analysis of the behavior of retaining walls are to be carried out by information-oriented work execution. The outline of the main construction works and the preservation of the existing facilities are reported. (Kako, I.)

  20. Commercial Building Energy Asset Score System: Program Overview and Technical Protocol (Version 1.0)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Na; Gorrissen, Willy J.

    2013-01-11

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is developing a national voluntary energy asset score system that includes an energy asset score tool to help building owners evaluate their buildings with respect to the score system. The goal of the energy asset score system is to facilitate cost-effective investment in energy efficiency improvements of commercial buildings. The system will allow building owners and managers to compare their building infrastructure against peers and track building upgrade progress over time. The system can also help other building stakeholders (e.g., building operators, tenants, financiers, and appraisers) understand the relative efficiency of different buildings in a way that is independent from their operations and occupancy. This report outlines the technical protocol used to generate the energy asset score, explains the scoring methodology, and provides additional details regarding the energy asset score tool. This report also describes alternative methods that were considered prior to developing the current approach. Finally, this report describes a few features of the program where alternative approaches are still under evaluation.

  1. EMS Adherence to a Pre-hospital Cervical Spine Clearance Protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Johnson, David

    2001-10-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: To determine the degree of adherence to a cervical spine (c-spine clearance protocol by pre-hospital Emergency Medical Services (EMS personnel by both self-assessment and receiving hospital assessment, to describe deviations from the protocol, and to determine if the rate of compliance by paramedic self-assessment differed from receiving hospital assessment. Methods: A retrospective sample of pre-hospital (consecutive series and receiving hospital (convenience sample assessments of the compliance with and appropriateness of c-spine immobilization. The c-spine clearance protocol was implemented for Orange County EMS just prior to the April-November 1999 data collection period. Results: We collected 396 pre-hospital and 162 receiving hospital data forms. From the pre-hospital data sheet. the percentage deviation from the protocol was 4.096 (16/396. Only one out of 16 cases that did not comply with the protocol was due to over immobilization (0.2%. The remaining 15 cases were under immobilized, according to protocol. Nine of the under immobilized cases (66% that should have been placed in c-spine precautions met physical assessment criteria in the protocol, while the other five cases met mechanism of injury criteria. The rate of deviations from protocol did not differ over time. The receiving hospital identified 8.0% (13/162; 6/16 over immobilized, 7/16 under immobilized of patients with deviations from the protocol; none was determined to have actual c-spine injury. Conclusion: The implementation of a pre-hospital c-spine clearance protocol in Orange County was associated with a moderate overall adherence rate (96% from the pre-hospital perspective, and 92% from the hospital perspective, p=.08 for the two evaluation methods. Most patients who deviated from protocol were under immobilized, but no c-spine injuries were missed. The rate of over immobilization was better than previously reported, implying a saving of resources.

  2. Compiling symbolic attacks to protocol implementation tests

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Rusinowitch

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Recently efficient model-checking tools have been developed to find flaws in security protocols specifications. These flaws can be interpreted as potential attacks scenarios but the feasability of these scenarios need to be confirmed at the implementation level. However, bridging the gap between an abstract attack scenario derived from a specification and a penetration test on real implementations of a protocol is still an open issue. This work investigates an architecture for automatically generating abstract attacks and converting them to concrete tests on protocol implementations. In particular we aim to improve previously proposed blackbox testing methods in order to discover automatically new attacks and vulnerabilities. As a proof of concept we have experimented our proposed architecture to detect a renegotiation vulnerability on some implementations of SSL/TLS, a protocol widely used for securing electronic transactions.

  3. Towards an efficient protocol for the determination of triterpenic acids in olive fruit: a comparative study of drying and extraction methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goulas, Vlasios; Manganaris, George A

    2012-01-01

    Triterpenic acids, such as maslinic acid and oleanolic acid, are commonly found in olive fruits and have been associated with many health benefits. The drying and extraction methods, as well as the solvents used, are critical factors in the determination of their concentration in plant tissues. Thus, there is an emerging need for standardisation of an efficient extraction protocol that determines triterpenic acid content in olive fruits. To evaluate common extraction methods of triterpenic acids from olive fruits and to determine the effect of the drying method on their content in order to propose an optimum protocol for their quantification. The efficacy of different drying and extraction methods was evaluated through the quantification of maslinic acid and oleanolic acid contents using the reversed-phase HPLC technique. Data showed that ultrasonic assisted extraction with ethanol or a mixture of ethanol:methanol (1:1, v/v) resulted in the recovery of significantly higher amounts of triterpenic acids than other methods used. The drying method also affected the estimated triterpenic acid content; frozen or lyophilised olive fruit material gave higher yields of triterpenic acids compared with air-dried material at both 35°C and 105°C. This study provides a rapid and low-cost extraction method, i.e. ultrasonic assisted extraction with an eco-friendly solvent such as ethanol, from frozen or lyophilised olive fruit for the accurate determination of the triterpenic acid content in olive fruit. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  4. A harmonized segmentation protocol for hippocampal and parahippocampal subregions: why do we need one and what are the key goals?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olsen, Rosanna K.; Berron, David; Carr, Valerie A.; Stark, Craig E.L.; Amaral, Robert S.C.; Amunts, Katrin; Augustinack, Jean C.; Bender, Andrew R.; Bernstein, Jeffrey D.; Boccardi, Marina; Bocchetta, Martina; Burggren, Alison; Chakravarty, M. Mallar; Chupin, Marie; Ekstrom, Arne; de Flores, Robin; Insausti, Ricardo; Kanel, Prabesh; Kedo, Olga; Kennedy, Kristen M.; Kerchner, Geoffrey A.; LaRocque, Karen F.; Liu, Xiuwen; Maass, Anne; Malykhin, Nicolai; Mueller, Susanne G.; Ofen, Noa; Palombo, Daniela J.; Parekh, Mansi B.; Pluta, John B.; Pruessner, Jens C.; Raz, Naftali; Rodrigue, Karen M.; Schoemaker, Dorothee; Shafer, Andrea T.; Steve, Trevor A.; Suthana, Nanthia; Wang, Lei; Winterburn, Julie L.; Yassa, Michael A.; Yushkevich, Paul A.; la Joie, Renaud

    2016-01-01

    The advent of high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has enabled in vivo research in a variety of populations and diseases on the structure and function of hippocampal subfields and subdivisions of the parahippocampal gyrus. Due to the many extant and highly discrepant segmentation protocols, comparing results across studies is difficult. To overcome this barrier, the Hippocampal Subfields Group was formed as an international collaboration with the aim of developing a harmonized protocol for manual segmentation of hippocampal and parahippocampal subregions on high-resolution MRI. In this commentary we discuss the goals for this protocol and the associated key challenges involved in its development. These include differences among existing anatomical reference materials, striking the right balance between reliability of measurements and anatomical validity, and the development of a versatile protocol that can be adopted for the study of populations varying in age and health. The commentary outlines these key challenges, as well as the proposed solution of each, with concrete examples from our working plan. Finally, with two examples, we illustrate how the harmonized protocol, once completed, is expected to impact the field by producing measurements that are quantitatively comparable across labs and by facilitating the synthesis of findings across different studies. PMID:27862600

  5. Legal protection against outline operating plans under mining law; Rechtsschutz gegen Rahmenbetriebsplaene im Bergrecht

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schmitz, Holger; Mausch, Marlen [Rechtsanwaltskanzlei Noerr LLP, Berlin (Germany)

    2011-03-15

    In the outline planning for a mining project the question of to what extent the interests of potentially affected surface owners must be taken into account at this early stage of project planning regularly arises. In this contribution the authors explain after a brief introduction to the subject the current jurisdiction of the Federal Administrative Court in respect of the corresponding legal requirements on the outline operating plants, the legal effects of the approval of an outline operating plan and the right of the surface owners to contest the operating plan approval. In addition the permissibility of the initial treatment of owner interests in subsequent special operating plans is described. It is evident that the binding effect of the outline operating plans on the one hand and the transfer of owner interests to special operating plans on the other conflict to a certain extent. (orig.)

  6. 26 CFR 1.679-0 - Outline of major topics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... transfers. (1) Principal purpose of tax avoidance. (2) Principal purpose of tax avoidance deemed to exist... Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) INCOME TAX (CONTINUED) INCOME TAXES Grantors and Others Treated As Substantial Owners § 1.679-0 Outline of major topics. This...

  7. Development of a Behavior Change Intervention to Improve Sexual Health Service Use Among University Undergraduate Students: Mixed Methods Study Protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cassidy, Christine; Steenbeek, Audrey; Langille, Donald; Martin-Misener, Ruth; Curran, Janet

    2017-11-02

    University students are at risk for acquiring sexually transmitted infections and suffering other negative health outcomes. Sexual health services offer preventive and treatment interventions that aim to reduce these infections and associated health consequences. However, university students often delay or avoid seeking sexual health services. An in-depth understanding of the factors that influence student use of sexual health services is needed to underpin effective sexual health interventions. In this study, we aim to design a behavior change intervention to address university undergraduate students' use of sexual health services at two universities in Nova Scotia, Canada. This mixed methods study consists of three phases that follow a systematic approach to intervention design outlined in the Behaviour Change Wheel. In Phase 1, we examine patterns of sexual health service use among university students in Nova Scotia, Canada, using an existing dataset. In Phase 2, we identify the perceived barriers and enablers to students' use of sexual health services. This will include focus groups with university undergraduate students, health care providers, and university administrators using a semistructured guide, informed by the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behaviour Model and Theoretical Domains Framework. In Phase 3, we identify behavior change techniques and intervention components to develop a theory-based intervention to improve students' use of sexual health services. This study will be completed in March 2018. Results from each phase and the finalized intervention design will be reported in 2018. Previous intervention research to improve university students' use of sexual health services lacks a theoretical assessment of barriers. This study will employ a mixed methods research design to examine university students' use of sexual health service and apply behavior change theory to design a theory- and evidence-based sexual health service intervention. Our

  8. [Analyzing consumer preference by using the latest semantic model for verbal protocol].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tamari, Yuki; Takemura, Kazuhisa

    2012-02-01

    This paper examines consumers' preferences for competing brands by using a preference model of verbal protocols. Participants were 150 university students, who reported their opinions and feelings about McDonalds and Mos Burger (competing hamburger restaurants in Japan). Their verbal protocols were analyzed by using the singular value decomposition method, and the latent decision frames were estimated. The verbal protocols having a large value in the decision frames could be interpreted as showing attributes that consumers emphasize. Based on the estimated decision frames, we predicted consumers' preferences using the logistic regression analysis method. The results indicate that the decision frames projected from the verbal protocol data explained consumers' preferences effectively.

  9. A protocol for a systematic literature review: comparing the impact of seasonal and meteorological parameters on acute respiratory infections in Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bishop-Williams, Katherine E; Sargeant, Jan M; Berrang-Ford, Lea; Edge, Victoria L; Cunsolo, Ashlee; Harper, Sherilee L

    2017-01-26

    Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally, and are often linked to seasonal and/or meteorological conditions. Globally, Indigenous peoples may experience a different burden of ARI compared to non-Indigenous peoples. This protocol outlines our process for conducting a systematic review to investigate whether associations between ARI and seasonal or meteorological parameters differ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups residing in the same geographical region. A search string will be used to search PubMed ® , CAB Abstracts/CAB Direct © , and Science Citation Index ® aggregator databases. Articles will be screened using inclusion/exclusion criteria applied first at the title and abstract level, and then at the full article level by two independent reviewers. Articles maintained after full article screening will undergo risk of bias assessment and data will be extracted. Heterogeneity tests, meta-analysis, and forest and funnel plots will be used to synthesize the results of eligible studies. This protocol paper describes our systematic review methods to identify and analyze relevant ARI, season, and meteorological literature with robust reporting. The results are intended to improve our understanding of potential associations between seasonal and meteorological parameters and ARI and, if identified, whether this association varies by place, population, or other characteristics. The protocol is registered in the PROSPERO database (#38051).

  10. Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P 2015 statement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mireia Estarli

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Systematic reviews should build on a protocol that describes the rationale, hypothesis, and planned methods of the review; few reviews report whether a protocol exists. Detailed, well-described protocols can facilitate the understanding and appraisal of the review methods, as well as the detection of modifications to methods and selective reporting in completed reviews. We describe the development of a reporting guideline, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses for Protocols 2015 (PRISMA-P 2015. PRISMA-P consists of a 17-item checklist intended to facilitate the preparation and reporting of a robust protocol for the systematic review. Funders and those commissioning reviews might consider mandating the use of the checklist to facilitate the submission of relevant protocol information in funding applications. Similarly, peer reviewers and editors can use the guidance to gauge the completeness and transparency of a systematic review protocol submitted for publication in a journal or other medium. Translation with permission of the authors. The original authors have not revised and verified the Spanish translation, and they do not necessarily endorse it.

  11. Hinkley Point 'C' power station public inquiry: outline statement of case

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1988-05-01

    This outline statement relates to the public inquiry to be held into the planning application by the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) to construct a 1200 MW Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) power station at Hinkley Point (Hinkley Point ''C'') in the United Kingdom, adjacent to an existing nuclear power station. The inquiry will consider economic, safety, environmental and planning matters relevant to the application and the implications for agriculture and local amenities of the re-aligning of two 400 kV overhead transmission lines. The outline statement contains submissions on: policy contest and approach; the requirement for Hinkley Point ''C''; design and safety; local issues. (UK)

  12. Extraction protocols for orthodontic treatment: A retrospective study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vaishnevi N Thirunavukkarasu

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Background and Objectives: Various extraction protocols have been followed for successful orthodontic treatment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extraction protocols in patients who had previously undergone orthodontic treatment and also who had reported for continuing orthodontic treatment from other clinics. Materials and Methods: One hundred thirty eight patients who registered for orthodontic treatment at the Faculty of Dentistry were divided into 10 extraction protocols based on the Orthodontic treatment protocol given by Janson et al. and were evaluated for statistical significance. Results: The descriptive statistics of the study revealed a total of 40 (29% patients in protocol 1, 43 (31.2% in protocol 2, 18 (13% in protocol 3, 16 (11.6% in protocol 5, and 12 (8.7% in Type 3 category of protocol 9. The Type 3 category in protocol 9 was statistically significant compared to other studies. Midline shift and collapse of the arch form were noticed in these individuals. Conclusion: Extraction of permanent teeth such as canine and lateral incisors without rational reasons could have devastating consequences on the entire occlusion. The percentage of cases wherein extraction of permanent teeth in the crowded region was adopted as a treatment option instead of orthodontic treatment is still prevalent in dental practice. The shortage of orthodontists in Malaysia, the long waiting period, and lack of subjective need for orthodontic treatment at an earlier age group were the reasons for the patient's to choose extraction of the mal-aligned teeth such as the maxillary canine or maxillary lateral incisors.

  13. Development of IT-based Data Communication Protocol for Nuclear Power Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jeong, K. I.; Kim, D. H.; Lee, J. C.

    2009-07-01

    The communication protocol, which provide overall communication rules and methods and give ways how to exchange information, is the most important part and it can affect the overall performance of communication network. Therefore, the first step of development of the communication network of an NPP is its own communication protocol design, which conforms to the requirements and characteristics of an NPP I and C. To manage the protocol development process, we establish development procedure and define detail substantive based on the procedure and we examine the adaptability of existing commercial communication protocols to the communication protocol of an NPP I and C. Existing commercial communication protocols based on Information Technology(IT) can be categorized into 3 groups: general commercial communication protocols, industrial communication protocols, military communication protocols. We analyze the design criteria and performance requirements of popular protocols in each group. And also, we examine the adaptability to the communication protocol of an NPP. Based on these results, we developed our own protocol for NPP I and C, which meet the required specifications through design overall protocol architecture and data frame format, definition of functional requirements and specifications

  14. Chapter 10: Peak Demand and Time-Differentiated Energy Savings Cross-Cutting Protocol. The Uniform Methods Project: Methods for Determining Energy Efficiency Savings for Specific Measures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurnik, Charles W [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Stern, Frank [Navigant, Boulder, CO (United States); Spencer, Justin [Navigant, Boulder, CO (United States)

    2017-10-03

    Savings from electric energy efficiency measures and programs are often expressed in terms of annual energy and presented as kilowatt-hours per year (kWh/year). However, for a full assessment of the value of these savings, it is usually necessary to consider the measure or program's impact on peak demand as well as time-differentiated energy savings. This cross-cutting protocol describes methods for estimating the peak demand and time-differentiated energy impacts of measures implemented through energy efficiency programs.

  15. Validation of internal dosimetry protocols based on stochastic method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mendes, Bruno M.; Fonseca, Telma C.F.; Almeida, Iassudara G.; Trindade, Bruno M.; Campos, Tarcisio P.R.

    2015-01-01

    Computational phantoms adapted to Monte Carlo codes have been applied successfully in radiation dosimetry fields. NRI research group has been developing Internal Dosimetry Protocols - IDPs, addressing distinct methodologies, software and computational human-simulators, to perform internal dosimetry, especially for new radiopharmaceuticals. Validation of the IDPs is critical to ensure the reliability of the simulations results. Inter comparisons of data from literature with those produced by our IDPs is a suitable method for validation. The aim of this study was to validate the IDPs following such inter comparison procedure. The Golem phantom has been reconfigured to run on MCNP5. The specific absorbed fractions (SAF) for photon at 30, 100 and 1000 keV energies were simulated based on the IDPs and compared with reference values (RV) published by Zankl and Petoussi-Henss, 1998. The SAF average differences from RV and those obtained in IDP simulations was 2.3 %. The SAF largest differences were found in situations involving low energy photons at 30 keV. The Adrenals and thyroid, i.e. the lowest mass organs, had the highest SAF discrepancies towards RV as 7.2 % and 3.8 %, respectively. The statistic differences of SAF applying our IDPs from reference values were considered acceptable at the 30, 100 and 1000 keV spectra. We believe that the main reason for the discrepancies in IDPs run, found in lower masses organs, was due to our source definition methodology. Improvements of source spatial distribution in the voxels may provide outputs more consistent with reference values for lower masses organs. (author)

  16. Validation of internal dosimetry protocols based on stochastic method

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mendes, Bruno M.; Fonseca, Telma C.F., E-mail: bmm@cdtn.br [Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear (CDTN/CNEN-MG), Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil); Almeida, Iassudara G.; Trindade, Bruno M.; Campos, Tarcisio P.R., E-mail: tprcampos@yahoo.com.br [Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (DEN/UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil). Departamento de Engenharia Nuclear

    2015-07-01

    Computational phantoms adapted to Monte Carlo codes have been applied successfully in radiation dosimetry fields. NRI research group has been developing Internal Dosimetry Protocols - IDPs, addressing distinct methodologies, software and computational human-simulators, to perform internal dosimetry, especially for new radiopharmaceuticals. Validation of the IDPs is critical to ensure the reliability of the simulations results. Inter comparisons of data from literature with those produced by our IDPs is a suitable method for validation. The aim of this study was to validate the IDPs following such inter comparison procedure. The Golem phantom has been reconfigured to run on MCNP5. The specific absorbed fractions (SAF) for photon at 30, 100 and 1000 keV energies were simulated based on the IDPs and compared with reference values (RV) published by Zankl and Petoussi-Henss, 1998. The SAF average differences from RV and those obtained in IDP simulations was 2.3 %. The SAF largest differences were found in situations involving low energy photons at 30 keV. The Adrenals and thyroid, i.e. the lowest mass organs, had the highest SAF discrepancies towards RV as 7.2 % and 3.8 %, respectively. The statistic differences of SAF applying our IDPs from reference values were considered acceptable at the 30, 100 and 1000 keV spectra. We believe that the main reason for the discrepancies in IDPs run, found in lower masses organs, was due to our source definition methodology. Improvements of source spatial distribution in the voxels may provide outputs more consistent with reference values for lower masses organs. (author)

  17. Outlines of a Multiple Trace Theory of Temporal Preparation.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Los, S.A.; Kruijne, W.; Meeter, M.

    2014-01-01

    We outline a new multiple trace theory of temporal preparation (MTP), which accounts for behavior in reaction time (RT) tasks in which the participant is presented with a warning stimulus (S1) followed by a target stimulus (S2) that requires a speeded response. The theory assumes that during the

  18. Preparing for severe contrast media reactions in children - results of a national survey, a literature review and a suggested protocol

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lindsay, R.; Paterson, A.; Edgar, D.

    2011-01-01

    Aim: To identify current practices within paediatric radiology in the UK with regard to the use of prophylactic medication, prior to administering intravenous (IV) radiocontrast medium (RCM). In addition, the pre-injection risk management strategies of the departments questioned was to be evaluated, and using consensus opinion, a protocol for managing patients identified as being at high risk for an adverse reaction to RCM was to be outlined. Materials and methods: An online survey of paediatric radiology consultants representing all geographic regions of the UK was carried out. The questions asked included an assessment of the risk factors for adverse reactions to RCM, and how such reactions are anticipated and managed. The questionnaire asked about the perceived indications for, and the use of prophylactic medication prior to RCM administration. Results: A response rate of 51% was achieved. The majority of respondents felt that a history of previous RCM reaction was an indication to administer prophylactic drugs prior to a further dose of RCM. No other risk factor was believed to require prophylactic medication. Conclusion: Using information obtained from the survey, a literature search was performed to assess the evidence available in support of each practice. A protocol was devised to identify children at risk of an adverse reaction to RCM, and guide the use of prophylactic medication in this group of patients. The survey highlighted considerable variability in the risk-assessment and management practices within paediatric radiology in the UK. The derived protocol may guide radiologists' management of children at risk for an RCM reaction.

  19. Improvement of "Novel Multiparty Quantum Key Agreement Protocol with GHZ States"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gu, Jun; Hwang, Tzonelih

    2017-10-01

    Quantum key agreement (QKA) protocol is a method for negotiating a fair and secure key among mutually untrusted participants. Recently, Xu et al. (Quantum Inf. Process. 13:2587-2594, 2014) proposed a multi-party QKA protocol based on Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states. However, this study points out that Xu et al.'s protocol cannot provide the fairness property. That is, the last involved participant in the protocol can manipulate the final shared secret key without being detected by the other participants. Moreover, according to Yu et al.'s research (2015), Xu et al.'s protocol cannot avoid the public discussion attack too. To avoid these weaknesses, an improved QKA protocol is proposed.

  20. Chapter 18: Variable Frequency Drive Evaluation Protocol. The Uniform Methods Project: Methods for Determining Energy Efficiency Savings for Specific Measures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Romberger, Jeff [SBW Consulting, Inc., Bellevue, WA (United States)

    2017-06-21

    An adjustable-speed drive (ASD) includes all devices that vary the speed of a rotating load, including those that vary the motor speed and linkage devices that allow constant motor speed while varying the load speed. The Variable Frequency Drive Evaluation Protocol presented here addresses evaluation issues for variable-frequency drives (VFDs) installed on commercial and industrial motor-driven centrifugal fans and pumps for which torque varies with speed. Constant torque load applications, such as those for positive displacement pumps, are not covered by this protocol.

  1. Field Monitoring Protocol. Heat Pump Water Heaters

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sparn, B. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Earle, L. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Christensen, D. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Maguire, J. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Wilson, E. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Hancock, C. E. [Mountain Energy Partnership, Longmont, CO (United States)

    2013-02-01

    This document provides a standard field monitoring protocol for evaluating the installed performance of Heat Pump Water Heaters in residential buildings. The report is organized to be consistent with the chronology of field test planning and execution. Research questions are identified first, followed by a discussion of analysis methods, and then the details of measuring the required information are laid out. A field validation of the protocol at a house near the NREL campus is included for reference.

  2. Field Monitoring Protocol: Heat Pump Water Heaters

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sparn, B.; Earle, L.; Christensen, D.; Maguire, J.; Wilson, E.; Hancock, E.

    2013-02-01

    This document provides a standard field monitoring protocol for evaluating the installed performance of Heat Pump Water Heaters in residential buildings. The report is organized to be consistent with the chronology of field test planning and execution. Research questions are identified first, followed by a discussion of analysis methods, and then the details of measuring the required information are laid out. A field validation of the protocol at a house near the NREL campus is included for reference.

  3. SALES PROMOTION, A SUGGESTED ADULT DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION COURSE OUTLINE.

    Science.gov (United States)

    RUBIN, ALAN J.; AND OTHERS

    THIS SUGGESTED OUTLINE FOR A BASIC COURSE IN SALES PROMOTION IS DESIGNED FOR NOT LESS THAN FIVE 2-HOUR SESSIONS ON (1) ASPECTS OF SALES PROMOTION, (2) SALES PROMOTION TECHNIQUES, (3) NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING, (4) WINDOW AND INTERIOR DISPLAY PRINCIPLES, AND (5) SELECTED PROMOTIONAL MEDIA AND DEVICES. POSSIBLE TEACHERS INCLUDE A SALES PROMOTION…

  4. Quality-assurance procedures: Method 5G determination of particulate emissions from wood heaters from a dilution tunnel sampling location

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ward, T.E.; Hartman, M.W.; Olin, R.C.; Rives, G.D.

    1989-06-01

    Quality-assurance procedures are contained in this comprehensive document intended to be used as an aid for wood-heater manufacturers and testing laboratories in performing particulate matter sampling of wood heaters according to EPA protocol, Method 5G. These procedures may be used in research and development, and as an aid in auditing and certification testing. A detailed, step-by-step quality assurance guide is provided to aid in the procurement and assembly of testing apparatus, to clearly describe the procedures, and to facilitate data collection and reporting. Suggested data sheets are supplied that can be used as an aid for both recordkeeping and certification applications. Throughout the document, activity matrices are provided to serve as a summary reference. Checklists are also supplied that can be used by testing personnel. Finally, for the purposes of ensuring data quality, procedures are outlined for apparatus operation, maintenance, and traceability. These procedures combined with the detailed description of the sampling and analysis protocol will help ensure the accuracy and reliability of Method 5G emission-testing results.

  5. A Secure and Efficient Handover Authentication Protocol for Wireless Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Weijia Wang

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Handover authentication protocol is a promising access control technology in the fields of WLANs and mobile wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we firstly review an effcient handover authentication protocol, named PairHand, and its existing security attacks and improvements. Then, we present an improved key recovery attack by using the linearly combining method and reanalyze its feasibility on the improved PairHand protocol. Finally, we present a new handover authentication protocol, which not only achieves the same desirable effciency features of PairHand, but enjoys the provable security in the random oracle model.

  6. Outline of a Hardware Reconfiguration Framework for Modular Industrial Mobile Manipulators

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schou, Casper; Bøgh, Simon; Madsen, Ole

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents concepts and ideas of a hard- ware reconfiguration framework for modular industrial mobile manipulators. Mobile manipulators pose a highly flexible pro- duction resource due to their ability to autonomously navigate between workstations. However, due to this high flexibility new...... approaches to the operation of the robots are needed. Reconfig- uring the robot to a new task should be carried out by shop floor operators and, thus, be both quick and intuitive. Late research has already proposed a method for intuitive robot programming. However, this relies on a predetermined hardware...... configuration. Finding a single multi-purpose hardware configuration suited to all tasks is considered unrealistic. As a result, the need for reconfiguration of the hardware is inevitable. In this paper an outline of a framework for making hardware reconfiguration quick and intuitive is presented. Two main...

  7. Opaque Watercolor (Tentative Course Outline). Art Education: 6673.05.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greenaway, Jean E.

    This tentative course outline is for use in one of the Quinmester Program classes, Opaque Watercolor. Designed for students in grades 7-12, with no prerequisite, the course includes the introduction of a variety of techniques in a number of opaque media including tempera, gouache, and cassein. Matting and mounting techniques are also taught. A…

  8. Affinity biosensors: techniques and protocols

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Rogers, Kim R; Mulchandani, Ashok

    1998-01-01

    ..., and government to begin or expand their biosensors research. This volume, Methods in Biotechnology vol. 7: Affinity Biosensors: Techniques and Protocols, describes a variety of classical and emerging transduction technologies that have been interfaced to bioaffinity elements (e.g., antibodies and receptors). Some of the reas...

  9. A modular method for the extraction of DNA and RNA, and the separation of DNA pools from diverse environmental sample types

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lever, Mark; Torti, Andrea; Eickenbusch, Philip

    2015-01-01

    tests, in which permutations of all nucleic acid extraction steps were compared. The final modular protocol is suitable for extractions from igneous rock, air, water, and sediments. Sediments range from high-biomass, organic rich coastal samples to samples from the most oligotrophic region of the world...... DNA pools without cell lysis from intracellular and particle-complexed DNA pools may enable new insights into the cycling and preservation of DNA in environmental samples in the future. A general protocol is outlined, along with recommendations for optimizing this general protocol for specific sample...

  10. A Secured Authentication Protocol for SIP Using Elliptic Curves Cryptography

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Tien-Ho; Yeh, Hsiu-Lien; Liu, Pin-Chuan; Hsiang, Han-Chen; Shih, Wei-Kuan

    Session initiation protocol (SIP) is a technology regularly performed in Internet Telephony, and Hyper Text Transport Protocol (HTTP) as digest authentication is one of the major methods for SIP authentication mechanism. In 2005, Yang et al. pointed out that HTTP could not resist server spoofing attack and off-line guessing attack and proposed a secret authentication with Diffie-Hellman concept. In 2009, Tsai proposed a nonce based authentication protocol for SIP. In this paper, we demonstrate that their protocol could not resist the password guessing attack and insider attack. Furthermore, we propose an ECC-based authentication mechanism to solve their issues and present security analysis of our protocol to show that ours is suitable for applications with higher security requirement.

  11. An electronic specimen collection protocol schema (eSCPS). Document architecture for specimen management and the exchange of specimen collection protocols between biobanking information systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eminaga, O; Semjonow, A; Oezguer, E; Herden, J; Akbarov, I; Tok, A; Engelmann, U; Wille, S

    2014-01-01

    The integrity of collection protocols in biobanking is essential for a high-quality sample preparation process. However, there is not currently a well-defined universal method for integrating collection protocols in the biobanking information system (BIMS). Therefore, an electronic schema of the collection protocol that is based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) is required to maintain the integrity and enable the exchange of collection protocols. The development and implementation of an electronic specimen collection protocol schema (eSCPS) was performed at two institutions (Muenster and Cologne) in three stages. First, we analyzed the infrastructure that was already established at both the biorepository and the hospital information systems of these institutions and determined the requirements for the sufficient preparation of specimens and documentation. Second, we designed an eSCPS according to these requirements. Finally, a prospective study was conducted to implement and evaluate the novel schema in the current BIMS. We designed an eSCPS that provides all of the relevant information about collection protocols. Ten electronic collection protocols were generated using the supplementary Protocol Editor tool, and these protocols were successfully implemented in the existing BIMS. Moreover, an electronic list of collection protocols for the current studies being performed at each institution was included, new collection protocols were added, and the existing protocols were redesigned to be modifiable. The documentation time was significantly reduced after implementing the eSCPS (5 ± 2 min vs. 7 ± 3 min; p = 0.0002). The eSCPS improves the integrity and facilitates the exchange of specimen collection protocols in the existing open-source BIMS.

  12. The Protocol of Choice for Treatment of Snake Bite

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Afshin Mohammad Alizadeh

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the current study is to compare three different methods of treatment of snake bite to determine the most efficient one. To unify the protocol of snake bite treatment in our center, we retrospectively reviewed files of the snake-bitten patients who had been referred to us between 2010 and 2014. They were contacted for follow-up using phone calls. Demographic and on-arrival characteristics, protocol used for treatment (WHO/Haddad/GF, and outcome/complications were evaluated. Patients were entered into one of the protocol groups and compared. Of a total of 63 patients, 56 (89% were males. Five, 19, and 28 patients were managed by Haddad, WHO, or GF protocols, respectively. Eleven patients had fallen into both GF and WHO protocols and were excluded. Serum sickness was significantly more common when WHO protocol was used while 100% of the compartment syndromes and 71% of deformities had been reported after GF protocol. The most important complications were considered to be deformity, compartment syndrome, and amputation and were more frequent after the use of WHO and GF protocols (23.1% versus 76.9%; none in Haddad; P = NS. Haddad protocol seems to be the best for treatment of snake-bitten patients in our region. However, this cannot be strictly concluded because of the limited sample size and nonsignificant P values.

  13. Multiprofissional electronic protocol in ophtalmology with enfasis in strabismus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CHRISTIE GRAF RIBEIRO

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT Objective: to create and validate an electronic database in ophthalmology focused on strabismus, to computerize this database in the form of a systematic data collection software named Electronic Protocol, and to incorporate this protocol into the Integrated System of Electronic Protocols (SINPE(c. Methods: this is a descriptive study, with the methodology divided into three phases: (1 development of a theoretical ophthalmologic database with emphasis on strabismus; (2 computerization of this theoretical ophthalmologic database using SINPE(c and (3 interpretation of the information with demonstration of results to validate the protocol. We inputed data from the charts of fifty patients with known strabismus through the Electronic Protocol for testing and validation. Results: the new electronic protocol was able to store information regarding patient history, physical examination, laboratory exams, imaging results, diagnosis and treatment of patients with ophthalmologic diseases, with emphasis on strabismus. We included 2,141 items in this master protocol and created 20 new specific electronic protocols for strabismus, each with its own specifics. Validation was achieved through correlation and corroboration of the symptoms and confirmed diagnoses of the fifty included patients with the diagnostic criteria for the twenty new strabismus protocols. Conclusion: a new, validated electronic database focusing on ophthalmology, with emphasis on strabismus, was successfully created through the standardized collection of information, and computerization of the database using proprietary software. This protocol is ready for deployment to facilitate data collection, sorting and application for practitioners and researchers in numerous specialties.

  14. Systema naturae or the outline of living world classification

    OpenAIRE

    Shipunov, Alexey

    2009-01-01

    Here we present the short outline of the classification of living things (to the level of classes), given with two main goals: to provide a compact, synthetic overview of the biological diversity; and to supply users with up-todate information of latest taxonomic achievements. The latter is especially important in the recent epoch of molecular revolution in the taxonomy.

  15. Proposal for outline of training and evaluation method for non-technical skills

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagasaka, Akihiko; Shibue, Hisao

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to systematize measures for improvement of emergency response capability focused on non-technical skills. As the results of investigation of some emergency training in nuclear power plant and referring to CRM training, following two issues were picked up. 1) Lack of practical training method for improvement of non-technical skills. 2) Lack of evaluation method of non-technical skills. Then, based on these 7 non-technical skills 'situational awareness' 'decision making' 'communication' 'teamworking' 'leadership' 'managing stress' 'coping with fatigue' are promotion factors to improve emergency response capability, we propose practical training method for each non-technical skill. Also we give example of behavioral markers as evaluation factor, and indicate approaches to introduce the evaluation method of non-technical skills. (author)

  16. Normalization of cortical thickness measurements across different T1 magnetic resonance imaging protocols by novel W-Score standardization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Jinyong; Yoo, Kwangsun; Lee, Peter; Kim, Chan Mi; Roh, Jee Hoon; Park, Ji Eun; Kim, Sang Joon; Seo, Sang Won; Shin, Jeong-Hyeon; Seong, Joon-Kyung; Jeong, Yong

    2017-10-01

    The use of different 3D T1-weighted magnetic resonance (T1 MR) imaging protocols induces image incompatibility across multicenter studies, negating the many advantages of multicenter studies. A few methods have been developed to address this problem, but significant image incompatibility still remains. Thus, we developed a novel and convenient method to improve image compatibility. W-score standardization creates quality reference values by using a healthy group to obtain normalized disease values. We developed a protocol-specific w-score standardization to control the protocol effect, which is applied to each protocol separately. We used three data sets. In dataset 1, brain T1 MR images of normal controls (NC) and patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) from two centers, acquired with different T1 MR protocols, were used (Protocol 1 and 2, n = 45/group). In dataset 2, data from six subjects, who underwent MRI with two different protocols (Protocol 1 and 2), were used with different repetition times, echo times, and slice thicknesses. In dataset 3, T1 MR images from a large number of healthy normal controls (Protocol 1: n = 148, Protocol 2: n = 343) were collected for w-score standardization. The protocol effect and disease effect on subjects' cortical thickness were analyzed before and after the application of protocol-specific w-score standardization. As expected, different protocols resulted in differing cortical thickness measurements in both NC and AD subjects. Different measurements were obtained for the same subject when imaged with different protocols. Multivariate pattern difference between measurements was observed between the protocols. Classification accuracy between two protocols was nearly 90%. After applying protocol-specific w-score standardization, the differences between the protocols substantially decreased. Most importantly, protocol-specific w-score standardization reduced both univariate and multivariate differences in the images while

  17. Clostridium difficile: methods and protocols

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Mullany, Peter; Roberts, Adam P

    2010-01-01

    .... difficile research to describe the recently developed methods for studying the organism. These range from methods for isolation of the organism, molecular typing, genomics, genetic manipulation, and the use of animal models...

  18. A Novel Process Audit for Standardized Perioperative Handoff Protocols.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pallekonda, Vinay; Scholl, Adam T; McKelvey, George M; Amhaz, Hassan; Essa, Deanna; Narreddy, Spurthy; Tan, Jens; Templonuevo, Mark; Ramirez, Sasha; Petrovic, Michelle A

    2017-11-01

    A perioperative handoff protocol provides a standardized delivery of communication during a handoff that occurs from the operating room to the postanestheisa care unit or ICU. The protocol's success is dependent, in part, on its continued proper use over time. A novel process audit was developed to help ensure that a perioperative handoff protocol is used accurately and appropriately over time. The Audit Observation Form is used for the Audit Phase of the process audit, while the Audit Averages Form is used for the Data Analysis Phase. Employing minimal resources and using quantitative methods, the process audit provides the necessary means to evaluate the proper execution of any perioperative handoff protocol. Copyright © 2017 The Joint Commission. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Invariant-based reasoning about parameterized security protocols

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mooij, A.J.

    2010-01-01

    We explore the applicability of the programming method of Feijen and van Gasteren to the domain of security protocols. This method addresses the derivation of concurrent programs from a formal specification, and it is based on common notions like invariants and pre- and post-conditions. We show that

  20. Variability in donation after cardiac death protocols: a national survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fugate, Jennifer E; Stadtler, Maria; Rabinstein, Alejandro A; Wijdicks, Eelco F M

    2011-02-27

    As donation after cardiac death practices expand, the number of institutional policies is increasing. We contacted organ procurement organizations throughout the United States and requested protocols in hospitals in their donor service areas. Sixty-four protocols were obtained with representation from 16 different states. The terminology and recommended practices varied substantially. The methods for death determination were not specified in 28 (44%) protocols. Most adhered to a 2- to 5-min observation time between circulatory arrest and organ procurement, but 10 (16%) provided no information. This variability reveals a need to define a uniform standard in donation after cardiac death protocols and death determination practices.

  1. Outlining adequate protocols for Lidia bull epididymal storage and sperm cryopreservation: use of glycerol, dimethylformamide and N-acetylcysteine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elvira Matilla

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The Lidia bovine breed is an important hallmark of the Spanish cattle industry. Bulls are selected based upon aggressiveness and epididymal sperm cryopreservation is the way to obtain and store their genetics. There are not specifically designed protocols yet to perform Lidia bull sperm cryopreservation. The present study aimed to determine if a tris-fructose-citrate-egg yolk (20% v/v; TFY extender supplemented with 7% glycerol (TFY1 or 3.5% glycerol plus 3.5% dimethylformamide (DMF; TFY2 are suitable media for cryopreservation of epididymal Lidia bull sperm. Moreover, the effect of N-acetylcysteine (NAC, a potent antioxidant, was evaluated. The epididymis were stored at 4°C for 24, 48, 72 or 96 h, and both freezing media were tested as such or supplemented with 1 or 2.5 mM of NAC. Our data demonstrated that post-thaw viability was well maintained (TFY1: 50.8% ± 1.9 at 24 h and 52.4% ± 0.8 at 96 h and TFY2: 52.6% ± 1.6 at 24 h and 56.1% ± 1.8 at 96 h; mean % ± SEM; p>0.05 as also were total and progressive sperm motility, high mitochondrial membrane potential, ROS production, DNA status and acrosomal intactness of Lidia bull sperm up to 96 h of epididymal storage, all extender variations being similar (p>0.05. In conclusion, the use of TFY medium supplemented either with 7% glycerol alone or the combination of 3.5% glycerol and 3.5% DMF were equally safe choices for epididymal Lidia bull sperm cryopreservation, and NAC addition did not significantly improve sperm post-thaw quality.

  2. Analyzing the effect of routing protocols on media access control protocols in radio networks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Barrett, C. L. (Christopher L.); Drozda, M. (Martin); Marathe, A. (Achla); Marathe, M. V. (Madhav V.)

    2002-01-01

    We study the effect of routing protocols on the performance of media access control (MAC) protocols in wireless radio networks. Three well known MAC protocols: 802.11, CSMA, and MACA are considered. Similarly three recently proposed routing protocols: AODV, DSR and LAR scheme 1 are considered. The experimental analysis was carried out using GloMoSim: a tool for simulating wireless networks. The main focus of our experiments was to study how the routing protocols affect the performance of the MAC protocols when the underlying network and traffic parameters are varied. The performance of the protocols was measured w.r.t. five important parameters: (i) number of received packets, (ii) average latency of each packet, (iii) throughput (iv) long term fairness and (v) number of control packets at the MAC layer level. Our results show that combinations of routing and MAC protocols yield varying performance under varying network topology and traffic situations. The result has an important implication; no combination of routing protocol and MAC protocol is the best over all situations. Also, the performance analysis of protocols at a given level in the protocol stack needs to be studied not locally in isolation but as a part of the complete protocol stack. A novel aspect of our work is the use of statistical technique, ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) to characterize the effect of routing protocols on MAC protocols. This technique is of independent interest and can be utilized in several other simulation and empirical studies.

  3. A Protocol for Advanced Psychometric Assessment of Surveys

    Science.gov (United States)

    Squires, Janet E.; Hayduk, Leslie; Hutchinson, Alison M.; Cranley, Lisa A.; Gierl, Mark; Cummings, Greta G.; Norton, Peter G.; Estabrooks, Carole A.

    2013-01-01

    Background and Purpose. In this paper, we present a protocol for advanced psychometric assessments of surveys based on the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. We use the Alberta Context Tool (ACT) as an exemplar survey to which this protocol can be applied. Methods. Data mapping, acceptability, reliability, and validity are addressed. Acceptability is assessed with missing data frequencies and the time required to complete the survey. Reliability is assessed with internal consistency coefficients and information functions. A unitary approach to validity consisting of accumulating evidence based on instrument content, response processes, internal structure, and relations to other variables is taken. We also address assessing performance of survey data when aggregated to higher levels (e.g., nursing unit). Discussion. In this paper we present a protocol for advanced psychometric assessment of survey data using the Alberta Context Tool (ACT) as an exemplar survey; application of the protocol to the ACT survey is underway. Psychometric assessment of any survey is essential to obtaining reliable and valid research findings. This protocol can be adapted for use with any nursing survey. PMID:23401759

  4. Structural barriers in access to medical marijuana in the USA-a systematic review protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valencia, Celina I; Asaolu, Ibitola O; Ehiri, John E; Rosales, Cecilia

    2017-08-07

    There are 43 state medical marijuana programs in the USA, yet limited evidence is available on the demographic characteristics of the patient population accessing these programs. Moreover, insights into the social and structural barriers that inform patients' success in accessing medical marijuana are limited. A current gap in the scientific literature exists regarding generalizable data on the social, cultural, and structural mechanisms that hinder access to medical marijuana among qualifying patients. The goal of this systematic review, therefore, is to identify the aforementioned mechanisms that inform disparities in access to medical marijuana in the USA. This scoping review protocol outlines the proposed study design for the systematic review and evaluation of peer-reviewed scientific literature on structural barriers to medical marijuana access. The protocol follows the guidelines set forth by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) checklist. The overarching goal of this study is to rigorously evaluate the existing peer-reviewed data on access to medical marijuana in the USA. Income, ethnic background, stigma, and physician preferences have been posited as the primary structural barriers influencing medical marijuana patient population demographics in the USA. Identification of structural barriers to accessing medical marijuana provides a framework for future policies and programs. Evidence-based policies and programs for increasing medical marijuana access help minimize the disparity of access among qualifying patients.

  5. Nitrous oxide emission from the agriculture in the Netherlands. Outline of effects of manure and ammonia measures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kros, J.; De Vries, W.; Oenema, O.; Velthof, G.; Kuikman, P.J.; Van Hove, B.

    2004-01-01

    By means of the model INITIATOR an integral outline was made of the effects of several measures within the framework of the manure and ammonia policy focusing on nitrous oxide emission. The results are compared with the IPCC method. The model INITIATOR is a mechanistic model by means of which the carbon cycle in the Netherlands can be differentiated on a regional scale as a function of land use, type of soil and hydrology [nl

  6. Improved ASTM G72 Test Method for Ensuring Adequate Fuel-to-Oxidizer Ratios

    Science.gov (United States)

    Juarez, Alfredo; Harper, Susana Tapia

    2016-01-01

    The ASTM G72/G72M-15 Standard Test Method for Autogenous Ignition Temperature of Liquids and Solids in a High-Pressure Oxygen-Enriched Environment is currently used to evaluate materials for the ignition susceptibility driven by exposure to external heat in an enriched oxygen environment. Testing performed on highly volatile liquids such as cleaning solvents has proven problematic due to inconsistent test results (non-ignitions). Non-ignition results can be misinterpreted as favorable oxygen compatibility, although they are more likely associated with inadequate fuel-to-oxidizer ratios. Forced evaporation during purging and inadequate sample size were identified as two potential causes for inadequate available sample material during testing. In an effort to maintain adequate fuel-to-oxidizer ratios within the reaction vessel during test, several parameters were considered, including sample size, pretest sample chilling, pretest purging, and test pressure. Tests on a variety of solvents exhibiting a range of volatilities are presented in this paper. A proposed improvement to the standard test protocol as a result of this evaluation is also presented. Execution of the final proposed improved test protocol outlines an incremental step method of determining optimal conditions using increased sample sizes while considering test system safety limits. The proposed improved test method increases confidence in results obtained by utilizing the ASTM G72 autogenous ignition temperature test method and can aid in the oxygen compatibility assessment of highly volatile liquids and other conditions that may lead to false non-ignition results.

  7. An Outline of the New Norwegian Criminal Code

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jørn Jacobsen

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available This article gives an overview of the new criminal code, its background and content. It maps out the code’s background, the legislative process and central ideas. Furthermore, the article gives an outline of the general criteria for criminal responsibility according to the code, the offences and forms of punishment and other reactions. The article emphasises the most important changes from the previous code of 1902. To some degree, strengths and weaknesses of the new code are addressed.

  8. The Influence of Instructions, Outlines, and Illustrations on the Comprehension and Recall of Scientific Texts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balluerka, Nekane

    1995-01-01

    Effects of 3 different instructional aids on the acquisition of information from a scientific passage were studied with 104 Spanish undergraduates. Written instructions, preparing a written outline, and seeing an illustration all led to higher performance. The outline condition led to the highest performance for questions requiring information…

  9. Effects of electronic outlining on the organization of text ideas

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    De Smet, Milou; Brand-Gruwel, Saskia; Broekkamp, Hein; Kirschner, Paul A.

    2011-01-01

    De Smet, M. J. R., Brand-Gruwel, S., Broekkamp, H., & Kirschner, P. A. (2011, August). Effects of electronic outlining on the organization of text ideas. Presentation at the annual meeting of the Junior Researchers of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, Exeter, UK.

  10. Study protocol for the Cities Changing Diabetes programme: a global mixed-methods approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Napier, A David; Nolan, John J; Bagger, Malene; Hesseldal, Louise; Volkmann, Anna-Maria

    2017-11-08

    Urban living has been shown to affect health in various ways. As the world is becoming more urbanised and almost two-thirds of people with diabetes now live in cities, research into the relationship between urban living, health and diabetes is key to improving the lives of many. The majority of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes, a subset linked to overweight and obesity, decreased physical activity and unhealthy diets. Diabetes has significant consequences for those living with the condition as well as their families, relationships and wider society. Although care and management are improving, complications remain common, and diabetes is among the leading causes of vision loss, amputation, neuropathy and renal and cardiovascular disease worldwide. We present a research protocol for exploring the drivers of type 2 diabetes and its complications in urban settings through the Cities Changing Diabetes (CCD) partnership programme. A global study protocol is implemented in eight collaborating CCD partner cities. In each city, academic institutions, municipal representatives and local stakeholders collaborate to set research priorities and plan implementation of findings. Local academic teams execute the study following the global study protocol presented here. A quantitative Rule of Halves analysis obtains measures of the magnitude of the diabetes burden, the diagnosis rates in each city and the outcomes of care. A qualitative Diabetes Vulnerability Assessment explores the urban context in vulnerability to type 2 diabetes and identifies social factors and cultural determinants relevant to health, well-being and diabetes. The protocol steers the collection of primary and secondary data across the study sites. Research ethics board approval has been sought and obtained in each site. Findings from each of the local studies as well as the result from combined multisite (global) analyses will be reported in a series of core scientific journal papers. © Article author

  11. Fr Luigi Giussani’s Concept of Education - an Outline

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alina Rynio

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available This outline focuses on the multifarious academic, pedagogical and social activities of Fr Luigi Giussani, Professor of Theology, Italian thinker and scholar renowned for his numerous accomplishments. Due to his exceptional attentiveness, inquisitiveness and courage he has been certainly well-known and highly-regarded not only in university and ecclesiastical but also in the cultural and political spheres of life. The author of this study describes Fr Giussani as an exceptional scholar and educator emphasising the pedagogical aspect of his activities. The study explains his understanding of pedagogy and education. Selected achievements from his biography con fi rm Fr Giussani to be an exceptional human being, educator and scholar. As an educator, Fr Giussani holds a sober and realistic view of man and his formation: the true value of man, he claims, lies in being rational and free. Complete trust in God and great love for a human person de fi ne the most fundamental elements of his approach. The outline also includes a short biographical note and describes popular ways of education, formative events, the educators and educatee’s personality constituents, and the relationship between freedom, conscience, tradition and education.

  12. Historical glacier outlines from digitized topographic maps of the Swiss Alps

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freudiger, Daphné; Mennekes, David; Seibert, Jan; Weiler, Markus

    2018-04-01

    Since the end of the Little Ice Age around 1850, the total glacier area of the central European Alps has considerably decreased. In order to understand the changes in glacier coverage at various scales and to model past and future streamflow accurately, long-term and large-scale datasets of glacier outlines are needed. To fill the gap between the morphologically reconstructed glacier outlines from the moraine extent corresponding to the time period around 1850 and the first complete dataset of glacier areas in the Swiss Alps from aerial photographs in 1973, glacier areas from 80 sheets of a historical topographic map (the Siegfried map) were manually digitized for the publication years 1878-1918 (further called first period, with most sheets being published around 1900) and 1917-1944 (further called second period, with most sheets being published around 1935). The accuracy of the digitized glacier areas was then assessed through a two-step validation process: the data were (1) visually and (2) quantitatively compared to glacier area datasets of the years 1850, 1973, 2003, and 2010, which were derived from different sources, at the large scale, basin scale, and locally. The validation showed that at least 70 % of the digitized glaciers were comparable to the outlines from the other datasets and were therefore plausible. Furthermore, the inaccuracy of the manual digitization was found to be less than 5 %. The presented datasets of glacier outlines for the first and second periods are a valuable source of information for long-term glacier mass balance or hydrological modelling in glacierized basins. The uncertainty of the historical topographic maps should be considered during the interpretation of the results. The datasets can be downloaded from the FreiDok plus data repository (https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/data/15008" target="_blank">https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/data/15008, https://doi.org/10.6094/UNIFR/15008" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.6094/UNIFR

  13. Development of a manualized protocol of massage therapy for clinical trials in osteoarthritis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ali Ather

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Clinical trial design of manual therapies may be especially challenging as techniques are often individualized and practitioner-dependent. This paper describes our methods in creating a standardized Swedish massage protocol tailored to subjects with osteoarthritis of the knee while respectful of the individualized nature of massage therapy, as well as implementation of this protocol in two randomized clinical trials. Methods The manualization process involved a collaborative process between methodologic and clinical experts, with the explicit goals of creating a reproducible semi-structured protocol for massage therapy, while allowing some latitude for therapists’ clinical judgment and maintaining consistency with a prior pilot study. Results The manualized protocol addressed identical specified body regions with distinct 30- and 60-min protocols, using standard Swedish strokes. Each protocol specifies the time allocated to each body region. The manualized 30- and 60-min protocols were implemented in a dual-site 24-week randomized dose-finding trial in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, and is currently being implemented in a three-site 52-week efficacy trial of manualized Swedish massage therapy. In the dose-finding study, therapists adhered to the protocols and significant treatment effects were demonstrated. Conclusions The massage protocol was manualized, using standard techniques, and made flexible for individual practitioner and subject needs. The protocol has been applied in two randomized clinical trials. This manualized Swedish massage protocol has real-world utility and can be readily utilized both in the research and clinical settings. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00970008 (18 August 2009

  14. Bayesian adaptive survey protocols for resource management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halstead, Brian J.; Wylie, Glenn D.; Coates, Peter S.; Casazza, Michael L.

    2011-01-01

    Transparency in resource management decisions requires a proper accounting of uncertainty at multiple stages of the decision-making process. As information becomes available, periodic review and updating of resource management protocols reduces uncertainty and improves management decisions. One of the most basic steps to mitigating anthropogenic effects on populations is determining if a population of a species occurs in an area that will be affected by human activity. Species are rarely detected with certainty, however, and falsely declaring a species absent can cause improper conservation decisions or even extirpation of populations. We propose a method to design survey protocols for imperfectly detected species that accounts for multiple sources of uncertainty in the detection process, is capable of quantitatively incorporating expert opinion into the decision-making process, allows periodic updates to the protocol, and permits resource managers to weigh the severity of consequences if the species is falsely declared absent. We developed our method using the giant gartersnake (Thamnophis gigas), a threatened species precinctive to the Central Valley of California, as a case study. Survey date was negatively related to the probability of detecting the giant gartersnake, and water temperature was positively related to the probability of detecting the giant gartersnake at a sampled location. Reporting sampling effort, timing and duration of surveys, and water temperatures would allow resource managers to evaluate the probability that the giant gartersnake occurs at sampled sites where it is not detected. This information would also allow periodic updates and quantitative evaluation of changes to the giant gartersnake survey protocol. Because it naturally allows multiple sources of information and is predicated upon the idea of updating information, Bayesian analysis is well-suited to solving the problem of developing efficient sampling protocols for species of

  15. Data transmission protocol for Pi-of-the-Sky cameras

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uzycki, J.; Kasprowicz, G.; Mankiewicz, M.; Nawrocki, K.; Sitek, P.; Sokolowski, M.; Sulej, R.; Tlaczala, W.

    2006-10-01

    The large amount of data collected by the automatic astronomical cameras has to be transferred to the fast computers in a reliable way. The method chosen should ensure data streaming in both directions but in nonsymmetrical way. The Ethernet interface is very good choice because of its popularity and proven performance. However it requires TCP/IP stack implementation in devices like cameras for full compliance with existing network and operating systems. This paper describes NUDP protocol, which was made as supplement to standard UDP protocol and can be used as a simple-network protocol. The NUDP does not need TCP protocol implementation and makes it possible to run the Ethernet network with simple devices based on microcontroller and/or FPGA chips. The data transmission idea was created especially for the "Pi of the Sky" project.

  16. Built to last? The sustainability of health system improvements, interventions and change strategies: a study protocol for a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braithwaite, Jeffrey; Testa, Luke; Lamprell, Gina; Herkes, Jessica; Ludlow, Kristiana; McPherson, Elise; Campbell, Margie; Holt, Joanna

    2017-11-12

    The sustainability of healthcare interventions and change programmes is of increasing importance to researchers and healthcare stakeholders interested in creating sustainable health systems to cope with mounting stressors. The aim of this protocol is to extend earlier work and describe a systematic review to identify, synthesise and draw meaning from studies published within the last 5 years that measure the sustainability of interventions, improvement efforts and change strategies in the health system. The protocol outlines a method by which to execute a rigorous systematic review. The design includes applying primary and secondary data collection techniques, consisting of a comprehensive database search complemented by contact with experts, and searching secondary databases and reference lists, using snowballing techniques. The review and analysis process will occur via an abstract review followed by a full-text screening process. The inclusion criteria include English-language, peer-reviewed, primary, empirical research articles published after 2011 in scholarly journals, for which the full text is available. No restrictions on location will be applied. The review that results from this protocol will synthesise and compare characteristics of the included studies. Ultimately, it is intended that this will help make it easier to identify and design sustainable interventions, improvement efforts and change strategies. As no primary data were collected, ethical approval was not required. Results will be disseminated in conference presentations, peer-reviewed publications and among policymaker bodies interested in creating sustainable health systems. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  17. End-to-end Configuration of Wireless Realtime Communication over Heterogeneous Protocols

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Malinowsky, B.; Grønbæk, Jesper; Schwefel, Hans-Peter

    2015-01-01

    This paper describes a wireless real-time communication system design using two Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) protocols. Messages are subject to prioritization and queuing. For this interoperation scenario, we show a method for end-to-end configuration of protocols and queue sizes. Such co...

  18. Methods for culturing retinal pigment epithelial cells: a review of current protocols and future recommendations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aaron H Fronk

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The retinal pigment epithelium is an important part of the vertebrate eye, particularly in studying the causes and possible treatment of age-related macular degeneration. The retinal pigment epithelium is difficult to access in vivo due to its location at the back of the eye, making experimentation with age-related macular degeneration treatments problematic. An alternative to in vivo experimentation is cultivating the retinal pigment epithelium in vitro, a practice that has been going on since the 1970s, providing a wide range of retinal pigment epithelial culture protocols, each producing cells and tissue of varying degrees of similarity to natural retinal pigment epithelium. The purpose of this review is to provide researchers with a ready list of retinal pigment epithelial protocols, their effects on cultured tissue, and their specific possible applications. Protocols using human and animal retinal pigment epithelium cells, derived from tissue or cell lines, are discussed, and recommendations for future researchers included.

  19. An outline of the systematic-dialectical method: scientific and political significance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Reuten, G.; Moseley, F.; Smith, T.

    2014-01-01

    The method of systematic-dialectics (SD) is reconstructed with a focus on what institutions and processes are necessary - rather than contingent - for the capitalist system. This allows for the detection of strengths and weaknesses in the actual structure of the system. Weaknesses should be

  20. THE ANALYSIS OF INTENSE-DEFORMED MONOLITHIC CONCRETE STRIP STATE OF UNDERGROUND STRUCTURES OF NONCIRCULAR OUTLINE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Aleksandrovna Bauer

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The research results of intense deformed state (IDS of the crepe and soil massif of un-derground structures having a non-circular outline with a depth of laying up to 50 m in unstable al-luvial rocks with dumps from 0.3 to 0.7 m are presented. The study was carried out by means of modeling the IDS of the soil massif and the hardening concrete of the monolithic support, erected after slaughter moving. To implement the proposed technological solutions ensuring the fixing of underground structures with monolithic concrete, it is necessary to use particularly fast solidifying compounds to exclude the use of temporary crepe. Based on the studies of a number of modifiers, various changes in mechanical properties of the most effective compositions have been established, which are used to simulate the concrete crepe of structures with time-varying characteristics. Purpose: the basis for using resource-saving technology for the construction of underground structures in a non-circular outline in a soil massif. Methods and methodology of the work: the studies were carried out by means of the finite element method (FEM using the optimal design of the experiment. Results: stress distributions were obtained in the hardening concrete crepe structures, stress concentration zones were established, displacement values in the soil massif and their spread on the surface were recieved. Areas of the result application: the results of research work can be used in the design of options for the construction of underground structures.

  1. A secure RFID mutual authentication protocol for healthcare environments using elliptic curve cryptography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Chunhua; Xu, Chunxiang; Zhang, Xiaojun; Zhao, Jining

    2015-03-01

    Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) is an automatic identification technology, which can be widely used in healthcare environments to locate and track staff, equipment and patients. However, potential security and privacy problems in RFID system remain a challenge. In this paper, we design a mutual authentication protocol for RFID based on elliptic curve cryptography(ECC). We use pre-computing method within tag's communication, so that our protocol can get better efficiency. In terms of security, our protocol can achieve confidentiality, unforgeability, mutual authentication, tag's anonymity, availability and forward security. Our protocol also can overcome the weakness in the existing protocols. Therefore, our protocol is suitable for healthcare environments.

  2. The relationship between childhood body weight and dental caries experience: an umbrella systematic review protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carson, Susan J; Abuhaloob, Lamis; Richards, Derek; Hector, Mark P; Freeman, Ruth

    2017-10-25

    Obesity and dental caries are global public health problems which can impact in childhood and throughout the life course. In simple terms, childhood dental caries and body weight are linked via the common risk factor of diet. An association between dental caries and obesity has been described in a number of studies and reviews. However, similarly, a relationship has also been noted between low body weight and caries experience in children. This protocol will provide the framework for an umbrella review to address the following question: Does the available evidence support a relationship between dental caries experience and body weight in the child population? This review protocol outlines the process to carry out an umbrella systematic review which will synthesise previous reviews of childhood dental caries experience and body weight. An umbrella review methodology will be used to examine the methodological and reporting quality of existing reviews. The final umbrella review aims to aggregate the available evidence in order to provide a summary for policymakers and to inform healthcare interventions. PROSPERO CRD42016047304.

  3. ESSENTIALS OF MERCHANDISING, A SUGGESTED ADULT DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION COURSE OUTLINE.

    Science.gov (United States)

    MARKMAN, STANLEY

    THIS OUTLINE FOR A COURSE IN THE ESSENTIALS OF MERCHANDISING IS DESIGNED FOR THE INEXPERIENCED RETAIL EMPLOYEE. THE COURSE IS PLANNED FOR SIX 2-HOUR SESSIONS ON (1) FUNDAMENTALS OF MERCHANDISING, (2) TERMINOLOGY AND MATHEMATICS OF MERCHANDISING, (3) BUYING POLICIES AND PRACTICES, (4) MARKET REPRESENTATIVES, (5) TERMS OF PURCHASE, INCLUDING…

  4. A Comparison Between Inter-Asterisk eXchange Protocol and Jingle Protocol: Session Time

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. S. Haj Aliwi

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Over the last few years, many multimedia conferencing and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP applications have been developed due to the use of signaling protocols in providing video, audio and text chatting services between at least two participants. This paper compares between two widely common signaling protocols: InterAsterisk eXchange Protocol (IAX and the extension of the eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (Jingle in terms of delay time during call setup, call teardown, and media sessions.

  5. National protocol framework for the inventory and monitoring of bees

    Science.gov (United States)

    Droege, Sam; Engler, Joseph D.; Sellers, Elizabeth A.; Lee O'Brien,

    2016-01-01

    This national protocol framework is a standardized tool for the inventory and monitoring of the approximately 4,200 species of native and non-native bee species that may be found within the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). However, this protocol framework may also be used by other organizations and individuals to monitor bees in any given habitat or location. Our goal is to provide USFWS stations within the NWRS (NWRS stations are land units managed by the USFWS such as national wildlife refuges, national fish hatcheries, wetland management districts, conservation areas, leased lands, etc.) with techniques for developing an initial baseline inventory of what bee species are present on their lands and to provide an inexpensive, simple technique for monitoring bees continuously and for monitoring and evaluating long-term population trends and management impacts. The latter long-term monitoring technique requires a minimal time burden for the individual station, yet can provide a good statistical sample of changing populations that can be investigated at the station, regional, and national levels within the USFWS’ jurisdiction, and compared to other sites within the United States and Canada. This protocol framework was developed in cooperation with the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the USFWS, and a worldwide network of bee researchers who have investigated the techniques and methods for capturing bees and tracking population changes. The protocol framework evolved from field and lab-based investigations at the USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Laboratory at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland starting in 2002 and was refined by a large number of USFWS, academic, and state groups. It includes a Protocol Introduction and a set of 8 Standard Operating Procedures or SOPs and adheres to national standards of protocol content and organization. The Protocol Narrative

  6. An Outline of Data Aggregation Security in Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boubiche, Sabrina; Boubiche, Djallel Eddine; Bilami, Azzedine; Toral-Cruz, Homero

    2016-04-12

    Data aggregation processes aim to reduce the amount of exchanged data in wireless sensor networks and consequently minimize the packet overhead and optimize energy efficiency. Securing the data aggregation process is a real challenge since the aggregation nodes must access the relayed data to apply the aggregation functions. The data aggregation security problem has been widely addressed in classical homogeneous wireless sensor networks, however, most of the proposed security protocols cannot guarantee a high level of security since the sensor node resources are limited. Heterogeneous wireless sensor networks have recently emerged as a new wireless sensor network category which expands the sensor nodes' resources and capabilities. These new kinds of WSNs have opened new research opportunities where security represents a most attractive area. Indeed, robust and high security level algorithms can be used to secure the data aggregation at the heterogeneous aggregation nodes which is impossible in classical homogeneous WSNs. Contrary to the homogeneous sensor networks, the data aggregation security problem is still not sufficiently covered and the proposed data aggregation security protocols are numberless. To address this recent research area, this paper describes the data aggregation security problem in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks and surveys a few proposed security protocols. A classification and evaluation of the existing protocols is also introduced based on the adopted data aggregation security approach.

  7. An Outline of Data Aggregation Security in Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sabrina Boubiche

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Data aggregation processes aim to reduce the amount of exchanged data in wireless sensor networks and consequently minimize the packet overhead and optimize energy efficiency. Securing the data aggregation process is a real challenge since the aggregation nodes must access the relayed data to apply the aggregation functions. The data aggregation security problem has been widely addressed in classical homogeneous wireless sensor networks, however, most of the proposed security protocols cannot guarantee a high level of security since the sensor node resources are limited. Heterogeneous wireless sensor networks have recently emerged as a new wireless sensor network category which expands the sensor nodes’ resources and capabilities. These new kinds of WSNs have opened new research opportunities where security represents a most attractive area. Indeed, robust and high security level algorithms can be used to secure the data aggregation at the heterogeneous aggregation nodes which is impossible in classical homogeneous WSNs. Contrary to the homogeneous sensor networks, the data aggregation security problem is still not sufficiently covered and the proposed data aggregation security protocols are numberless. To address this recent research area, this paper describes the data aggregation security problem in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks and surveys a few proposed security protocols. A classification and evaluation of the existing protocols is also introduced based on the adopted data aggregation security approach.

  8. An Outline of Data Aggregation Security in Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boubiche, Sabrina; Boubiche, Djallel Eddine; Bilami, Azzedine; Toral-Cruz, Homero

    2016-01-01

    Data aggregation processes aim to reduce the amount of exchanged data in wireless sensor networks and consequently minimize the packet overhead and optimize energy efficiency. Securing the data aggregation process is a real challenge since the aggregation nodes must access the relayed data to apply the aggregation functions. The data aggregation security problem has been widely addressed in classical homogeneous wireless sensor networks, however, most of the proposed security protocols cannot guarantee a high level of security since the sensor node resources are limited. Heterogeneous wireless sensor networks have recently emerged as a new wireless sensor network category which expands the sensor nodes’ resources and capabilities. These new kinds of WSNs have opened new research opportunities where security represents a most attractive area. Indeed, robust and high security level algorithms can be used to secure the data aggregation at the heterogeneous aggregation nodes which is impossible in classical homogeneous WSNs. Contrary to the homogeneous sensor networks, the data aggregation security problem is still not sufficiently covered and the proposed data aggregation security protocols are numberless. To address this recent research area, this paper describes the data aggregation security problem in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks and surveys a few proposed security protocols. A classification and evaluation of the existing protocols is also introduced based on the adopted data aggregation security approach. PMID:27077866

  9. Chapter 19: HVAC Controls (DDC/EMS/BAS) Evaluation Protocol. The Uniform Methods Project: Methods for Determining Energy Efficiency Savings for Specific Measures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurnik, Charles W. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Romberger, Jeff [SBW Consulting, Inc., Bellevue, WA (United States)

    2017-10-09

    The HVAC Controls Evaluation Protocol is designed to address evaluation issues for direct digital controls/energy management systems/building automation systems (DDC/EMS/BAS) that are installed to control heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment in commercial and institutional buildings. (This chapter refers to the DDC/EMS/BAS measure as HVAC controls.) This protocol may also be applicable to industrial facilities such as clean rooms and labs, which have either significant HVAC equipment or spaces requiring special environmental conditions.

  10. Outline of a fuel treatment facility in NUCEF

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sugikawa, Susumu; Umeda, Miki; Kokusen, Junya

    1997-03-01

    This report presents outline of the nuclear fuel treatment facility for the purpose of preparing solution fuel used in Static Experiment Critical Facility (STACY) and Transient Experiment Critical Facility (TRACY) in Nuclear Fuel Cycle Safety Engineering Research Facility (NUCEF), including descriptions of process conditions and dimensions of major process equipments on dissolution system of oxide fuel, chemical adjustment system, purification system, acid recovery system, solution fuel storage system, and descriptions of safety design philosophy such as safety considerations of criticality, solvent fire, explosion of hydrogen and red-oil and so on. (author)

  11. Systematic Review Protocol for the IRIS Chloroform Assessment (Inhalation) (Preliminary Assessment Materials)

    Science.gov (United States)

    In January 2018, EPA released the Systematic Review Protocol for the IRIS Chloroform Assessment (Inhalation). As part of developing a draft IRIS assessment, EPA presents a methods document, referred to as the protocol, for conducting a chemical-specific systematic revie...

  12. Standardized communication protocol for BAS (IEIEJ/p); BAS hyojun interface shiyo (IEIEJ/p)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Toyoda, T. [Hitachi Building System Co. Ltd., Tokyo (Japan)

    2000-10-05

    For the BEMS user, to construct his BEMS tinder the multiple vendors environment is very beneficial because he could choice the most appropriate vendor among many vendors about every subsystem for the view point of technique and cost at any time. The effective tool which makes the BEMS tinder the multiple environment possible is the BACnet protocol which had developed and been standardized by ANSI/ASHRAE of U.S.. Institute of Electrical Installation Engineers-of Japan (IEIEJ) offers IEIEJ/p based on BACnet as IEIEJ's standard which is added the function of autonomous decentralized control to enhance the BEMS reliability to fit the Japanese multiple vendors environment, In this paper I present the outline of it's specification and feature of IEIEJ/p. (author)

  13. Pregnancy outcome of “delayed start” GnRH antagonist protocol versus GnRH antagonist protocol in poor responders: A clinical trial study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abbas Aflatoonian

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Background: Management of poor-responding patients is still major challenge in assisted reproductive techniques (ART. Delayed-start GnRH antagonist protocol is recommended to these patients, but little is known in this regards. Objective: The goal of this study was assessment of delayed-start GnRH antagonist protocol in poor responders, and in vitro fertilization (IVF outcomes. Materials and Methods: This randomized clinical trial included sixty infertile women with Bologna criteria for ovarian poor responders who were candidate for IVF. In case group (n=30, delayed-start GnRH antagonist protocol administered estrogen priming followed by early follicular-phase GnRH antagonist treatment for 7 days before ovarian stimulation with gonadotropin. Control group (n=30 treated with estrogen priming antagonist protocol. Finally, endometrial thickness, the rates of oocytes maturation, , embryo formation, and pregnancy were compared between two groups. Results: Rates of implantation, chemical, clinical, and ongoing pregnancy in delayed-start cycles were higher although was not statistically significant. Endometrial thickness was significantly higher in case group. There were no statistically significant differences in the rates of oocyte maturation, embryo formation, and IVF outcomes between two groups. Conclusion: There is no significant difference between delayed-start GnRH antagonist protocol versus GnRH antagonist protocol.

  14. Development of an improved rapid BACpro® protocol and a method for direct identification from blood-culture-positive bottles using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yonezawa, Takatoshi; Watari, Tomohisa; Ashizawa, Kazuho; Hanada, Daisuke; Yanagiya, Takako; Watanabe, Naoki; Terada, Takashi; Tomoda, Yutaka; Fujii, Satoshi

    2018-05-01

    Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has been incorporated into pathogenic bacterial identification methods and has improved their rapidity. Various methods have been reported to directly identify bacteria with MALDI-TOF MS by pretreating culture medium in blood culture bottles. Rapid BACpro® (Nittobo Medical Co., Ltd.) is a pretreatment kit for effective collection of bacteria with cationic copolymers. However, the Rapid BACpro® pretreatment kit is adapted only for MALDI Biotyper (Bruker Daltonics K.K.), and there has been a desire to expand its use to VITEK MS (VMS; bioMerieux SA). We improved the protocol and made it possible to analyze with VMS. The culture medium bacteria collection method was changed to a method with centrifugation after hemolysis using saponin; the cationic copolymer concentration was changed to 30% of the original concentration; the sequence with which reagents were added was changed; and a change was made to an ethanol/formic acid extraction method. The improved protocol enhanced the identification performance. When VMS was used, the identification rate was 100% with control samples. With clinical samples, the identification agreement rate with the cell smear method was 96.3%. The improved protocol is effective in blood culture rapid identification, being both simpler and having an improved identification performance compared with the original. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. The French dosimetry protocol

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dutreix, A.

    1985-01-01

    After a general introduction the protocol is divided in five sections dealing with: determination of the quality of X-ray, γ-ray and electron beams; the measuring instrument; calibration of the reference instrument; determination of the reference absorbed dose in the user's beams; determination of the absorbed dose in water at other points, in other conditions. The French protocol is not essentially different from the Nordic protocol and it is based on the experience gained in using both the American and the Nordic protocols. Therefore, only the main difference with the published protocols are discussed. (Auth.)

  16. From protocol to published report

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Berendt, Louise; Callréus, Torbjörn; Petersen, Lene Grejs

    2016-01-01

    and published reports of academic clinical drug trials. METHODS: A comparison was made between study protocols and their corresponding published reports. We assessed the overall consistency, which was defined as the absence of discrepancy regarding study type (categorized as either exploratory or confirmatory...... in 1999, 2001, and 2003, 95 of which fulfilled the eligibility criteria and had at least one corresponding published report reporting data on trial subjects. Overall consistency was observed in 39% of the trials (95% CI: 29 to 49%). Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) constituted 72% (95% CI: 63 to 81......%) of the sample, and 87% (95% CI: 80 to 94%) of the trials were hospital based. CONCLUSIONS: Overall consistency between protocols and their corresponding published reports was low. Motivators for the inconsistencies are unknown but do not seem restricted to economic incentives....

  17. Intelligent Broadcasting in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: Three Classes of Adaptive Protocols

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael D. Colagrosso

    2006-11-01

    Full Text Available Because adaptability greatly improves the performance of a broadcast protocol, we identify three ways in which machine learning can be applied to broadcasting in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET. We chose broadcasting because it functions as a foundation of MANET communication. Unicast, multicast, and geocast protocols utilize broadcasting as a building block, providing important control and route establishment functionality. Therefore, any improvements to the process of broadcasting can be immediately realized by higher-level MANET functionality and applications. While efficient broadcast protocols have been proposed, no single broadcasting protocol works well in all possible MANET conditions. Furthermore, protocols tend to fail catastrophically in severe network environments. Our three classes of adaptive protocols are pure machine learning, intra-protocol learning, and inter-protocol learning. In the pure machine learning approach, we exhibit a new approach to the design of a broadcast protocol: the decision of whether to rebroadcast a packet is cast as a classification problem. Each mobile node (MN builds a classifier and trains it on data collected from the network environment. Using intra-protocol learning, each MN consults a simple machine model for the optimal value of one of its free parameters. Lastly, in inter-protocol learning, MNs learn to switch between different broadcasting protocols based on network conditions. For each class of learning method, we create a prototypical protocol and examine its performance in simulation.

  18. Intelligent Broadcasting in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: Three Classes of Adaptive Protocols

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Colagrosso Michael D

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Because adaptability greatly improves the performance of a broadcast protocol, we identify three ways in which machine learning can be applied to broadcasting in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET. We chose broadcasting because it functions as a foundation of MANET communication. Unicast, multicast, and geocast protocols utilize broadcasting as a building block, providing important control and route establishment functionality. Therefore, any improvements to the process of broadcasting can be immediately realized by higher-level MANET functionality and applications. While efficient broadcast protocols have been proposed, no single broadcasting protocol works well in all possible MANET conditions. Furthermore, protocols tend to fail catastrophically in severe network environments. Our three classes of adaptive protocols are pure machine learning, intra-protocol learning, and inter-protocol learning. In the pure machine learning approach, we exhibit a new approach to the design of a broadcast protocol: the decision of whether to rebroadcast a packet is cast as a classification problem. Each mobile node (MN builds a classifier and trains it on data collected from the network environment. Using intra-protocol learning, each MN consults a simple machine model for the optimal value of one of its free parameters. Lastly, in inter-protocol learning, MNs learn to switch between different broadcasting protocols based on network conditions. For each class of learning method, we create a prototypical protocol and examine its performance in simulation.

  19. Fault-Tolerant Consensus of Multi-Agent System With Distributed Adaptive Protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Shun; Ho, Daniel W C; Li, Lulu; Liu, Ming

    2015-10-01

    In this paper, fault-tolerant consensus in multi-agent system using distributed adaptive protocol is investigated. Firstly, distributed adaptive online updating strategies for some parameters are proposed based on local information of the network structure. Then, under the online updating parameters, a distributed adaptive protocol is developed to compensate the fault effects and the uncertainty effects in the leaderless multi-agent system. Based on the local state information of neighboring agents, a distributed updating protocol gain is developed which leads to a fully distributed continuous adaptive fault-tolerant consensus protocol design for the leaderless multi-agent system. Furthermore, a distributed fault-tolerant leader-follower consensus protocol for multi-agent system is constructed by the proposed adaptive method. Finally, a simulation example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis.

  20. Outline of physical protection exercise field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kawata, Norio; Wakabayashi, Shuji; Naito, Aisaku

    2012-01-01

    The Integrated Support Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security (ISCN) of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency set up exercise facilities for trainee of nuclear power emerging countries in Asia involved in Physical Protection (PP) including government officers in charge of nuclear security policy or nuclear security regulation, planning and management staff of PP facilities of operating companies, design professionals for PP facilities, and security personnel responsible for PP. After April in 2012, the facility started to be applied to actual ISCN's PP training and is expected as training field for not only Asian nuclear emerging country but also domestic nuclear energy companies and regulatory bodies. In order to provide effective and practical exercises, we set up the training facilities with basic measures and equipment typical of those used in actual PP facilities, e.g., protective fences, sensors, and cameras. This paper provides an outline of the facilities. (author)

  1. An evaluation of two large scale demand side financing programs for maternal health in India: the MATIND study protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sidney, Kristi; de Costa, Ayesha; Diwan, Vishal; Mavalankar, Dileep V; Smith, Helen

    2012-08-27

    High maternal mortality in India is a serious public health challenge. Demand side financing interventions have emerged as a strategy to promote access to emergency obstetric care. Two such state run programs, Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY)and Chiranjeevi Yojana (CY), were designed and implemented to reduce financial access barriers that preclude women from obtaining emergency obstetric care. JSY, a conditional cash transfer, awards money directly to a woman who delivers in a public health facility. This will be studied in Madhya Pradesh province. CY, a voucher based program, empanels private obstetricians in Gujarat province, who are reimbursed by the government to perform deliveries of socioeconomically disadvantaged women. The programs have been in operation for the last seven years. The study outlined in this protocol will assess and compare the influence of the two programs on various aspects of maternal health care including trends in program uptake, institutional delivery rates, maternal and neonatal outcomes, quality of care, experiences of service providers and users, and cost effectiveness. The study will collect primary data using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, including facility level questionnaires, observations, a population based survey, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions. Primary data will be collected in three districts of each province. The research will take place at three levels: the state health departments, obstetric facilities in the districts and among recently delivered mothers in the community. The protocol is a comprehensive assessment of the performance and impact of the programs and an economic analysis. It will fill existing evidence gaps in the scientific literature including access and quality to services, utilization, coverage and impact. The implementation of the protocol will also generate evidence to facilitate decision making among policy makers and program managers who currently work with or

  2. Automotive Mechanics Curriculum Outline for Secondary Schools. Vocational Education Curriculum Guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Louisiana State Dept. of Education, Baton Rouge. Div. of Vocational Education.

    This curriculum outline for secondary automotive mechanics is structured around Louisiana's Vocational-Technical Automotive Mechanics Curriculum. The curriculum is composed of 16 units of instruction, covering the following topics: benchwork, fundamentals of automotive engines, preventive maintenance, automotive brakes, steering and front…

  3. Network chemistry, network toxicology, network informatics, and network behavioristics: A scientific outline

    OpenAIRE

    WenJun Zhang

    2016-01-01

    In present study, I proposed some new sciences: network chemistry, network toxicology, network informatics, and network behavioristics. The aims, scope and scientific foundation of these sciences are outlined.

  4. Nr 621 - Report on the behalf of the Commission of foreign affairs, defence and armed forces on the bill project on the application of the additional protocol to the agreement between France, the European Atomic Energy Community, and the International Atomic Energy Agency related to the application of guarantees in France, signed in Vienna on the 22 September 1998

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Picchia, Robert del

    2013-01-01

    This report concerns an additional protocol which aims at reinforcing the efficiency of the international guarantee system. This system is part of an international approach for the struggle against nuclear weapon proliferation. The authors outline the necessary evolution of law to deal with the risk of development of clandestine military nuclear programs. They present the role of the IAEA, its organisation, its financing, and outline its reinforced role within the frame of the NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty) and of generalised guarantee agreements (a typology of these agreements is given). They also outline the limits of this guarantee system, and the necessity of its adaptation through an additional protocol. They discuss the difficulty of an international application (notably in the cases of Iran and North Korea). The articles are then discussed. They deal with definitions, declaration obligations, international verification, penal arrangements, arrangements related to overseas territories and other arrangements. The commission discussion is reported, and tables give comparisons between agreements

  5. Development and implementation of the Dutch protocol for rehabilitative management in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van den Berg, J P; de Groot, I J M; Joha, B C; van Haelst, J M; van Gorcom, P; Kalmijn, S

    2004-12-01

    In the Netherlands, rehabilitation care plays an important role in the symptomatic and palliative treatment of ALS patients. However, until 1999 there were no guidelines or practice parameters available for the management of ALS. Therefore, the Dutch protocol for rehabilitative management in ALS was developed. We describe the development process, the outcome and implementation of the protocol. A concept management protocol was written and the Delphi method was selected to develop the protocol further. This method comprises repetitive discussion sessions from postulates, using a combination of written questionnaires and work-conferences. Between 80 and 90 persons (rehabilitation team members of different professional backgrounds and neurologists) were involved in this process. The protocol was implemented by sending it to all consultants in rehabilitation medicine in the Netherlands; they were asked to inform all the treatment team members about the final protocol and to implement it in their treatment of ALS patients. The protocol was developed in 1999, implemented in 2000 and evaluated in 2001. Recommendations for improvement were made during the evaluation and improvements are currently being developed by an expert group. The protocol is widely used (88.9%) by consultants in rehabilitation medicine and their treatment teams in the Netherlands. The Dutch protocol for rehabilitative management was developed to provide an optimal and adequate care plan for patients with ALS. It is widely used in the Netherlands.

  6. Two mini-preparation protocols to DNA extraction from plants with ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    AJB SERVER

    2006-10-16

    Oct 16, 2006 ... samples to process and it is also a non expensive protocol. This method also ... because many of those chemicals inhibit PCR reactions. (Pandey et al., 1996) ... Spin at 15,000 rpm for 15 min and wash the DNA pellet with 1.2 ml ... Protocol: To 200 mg frozen and ground tissue plant material, add 900 µl of.

  7. Testing of toxicity based methods to develop site specific clean up objectives - phase 1: Toxicity protocol screening and applicability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hamilton, H.; Kerr, D.; Thorne, W.; Taylor, B.; Zadnik, M.; Goudey, S.; Birkholz, D.

    1994-03-01

    A study was conducted to develop a cost-effective and practical protocol for using bio-assay based toxicity assessment methods for remediation of decommissioned oil and gas production, and processing facilities. The objective was to generate site-specific remediation criteria for contaminated sites. Most companies have used the chemical-specific approach which, however, did not meet the ultimate land use goal of agricultural production. The toxicity assessment method described in this study dealt with potential impairment to agricultural crop production and natural ecosystems. Human health concerns were not specifically addressed. It was suggested that chemical-specific methods should be used when human health concerns exist. . Results showed that toxicity tests will more directly identify ecological stress caused by site contamination than chemical-specific remediation criteria, which can be unnecessarily protective. 11 refs., 7 tabs., 6 figs

  8. SU-F-207-16: CT Protocols Optimization Using Model Observer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tseng, H; Fan, J; Kupinski, M

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: To quantitatively evaluate the performance of different CT protocols using task-based measures of image quality. This work studies the task of size and the contrast estimation of different iodine concentration rods inserted in head- and body-sized phantoms using different imaging protocols. These protocols are designed to have the same dose level (CTDIvol) but using different X-ray tube voltage settings (kVp). Methods: Different concentrations of iodine objects inserted in a head size phantom and a body size phantom are imaged on a 64-slice commercial CT scanner. Scanning protocols with various tube voltages (80, 100, and 120 kVp) and current settings are selected, which output the same absorbed dose level (CTDIvol). Because the phantom design (size of the iodine objects, the air gap between the inserted objects and the phantom) is not ideal for a model observer study, the acquired CT images are used to generate simulation images with four different sizes and five different contracts iodine objects. For each type of the objects, 500 images (100 x 100 pixels) are generated for the observer study. The observer selected in this study is the channelized scanning linear observer which could be applied to estimate the size and the contrast. The figure of merit used is the correct estimation ratio. The mean and the variance are estimated by the shuffle method. Results: The results indicate that the protocols with 100 kVp tube voltage setting provides the best performance for iodine insert size and contrast estimation for both head and body phantom cases. Conclusion: This work presents a practical and robust quantitative approach using channelized scanning linear observer to study contrast and size estimation performance from different CT protocols. Different protocols at same CTDIvol setting could Result in different image quality performance. The relationship between the absorbed dose and the diagnostic image quality is not linear

  9. SU-F-207-16: CT Protocols Optimization Using Model Observer

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tseng, H [University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Fan, J [CT Systems Engineering, GE Healthcare, Waukesha, Wisconsin (United States); Kupinski, M [Univ Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)

    2015-06-15

    Purpose: To quantitatively evaluate the performance of different CT protocols using task-based measures of image quality. This work studies the task of size and the contrast estimation of different iodine concentration rods inserted in head- and body-sized phantoms using different imaging protocols. These protocols are designed to have the same dose level (CTDIvol) but using different X-ray tube voltage settings (kVp). Methods: Different concentrations of iodine objects inserted in a head size phantom and a body size phantom are imaged on a 64-slice commercial CT scanner. Scanning protocols with various tube voltages (80, 100, and 120 kVp) and current settings are selected, which output the same absorbed dose level (CTDIvol). Because the phantom design (size of the iodine objects, the air gap between the inserted objects and the phantom) is not ideal for a model observer study, the acquired CT images are used to generate simulation images with four different sizes and five different contracts iodine objects. For each type of the objects, 500 images (100 x 100 pixels) are generated for the observer study. The observer selected in this study is the channelized scanning linear observer which could be applied to estimate the size and the contrast. The figure of merit used is the correct estimation ratio. The mean and the variance are estimated by the shuffle method. Results: The results indicate that the protocols with 100 kVp tube voltage setting provides the best performance for iodine insert size and contrast estimation for both head and body phantom cases. Conclusion: This work presents a practical and robust quantitative approach using channelized scanning linear observer to study contrast and size estimation performance from different CT protocols. Different protocols at same CTDIvol setting could Result in different image quality performance. The relationship between the absorbed dose and the diagnostic image quality is not linear.

  10. Small Business Management. Part II. A Suggested Adult Course Outline.

    Science.gov (United States)

    New York State Education Dept., Albany. Bureau of Continuing Education Curriculum Development.

    This teacher's guide is a companion to "Small Business Management Part I" published by the New York State Education Department in 1968. The course outlined by the guide is primarily for those who aspire to own and operate their own business, and those in business who wish to improve their operations. The course consists of six lessons covering…

  11. Toward Synthesis, Analysis, and Certification of Security Protocols

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schumann, Johann

    2004-01-01

    Implemented security protocols are basically pieces of software which are used to (a) authenticate the other communication partners, (b) establish a secure communication channel between them (using insecure communication media), and (c) transfer data between the communication partners in such a way that these data only available to the desired receiver, but not to anyone else. Such an implementation usually consists of the following components: the protocol-engine, which controls in which sequence the messages of the protocol are sent over the network, and which controls the assembly/disassembly and processing (e.g., decryption) of the data. the cryptographic routines to actually encrypt or decrypt the data (using given keys), and t,he interface to the operating system and to the application. For a correct working of such a security protocol, all of these components must work flawlessly. Many formal-methods based techniques for the analysis of a security protocols have been developed. They range from using specific logics (e.g.: BAN-logic [4], or higher order logics [12] to model checking [2] approaches. In each approach, the analysis tries to prove that no (or at least not a modeled intruder) can get access to secret data. Otherwise, a scenario illustrating the &tack may be produced. Despite the seeming simplicity of security protocols ("only" a few messages are sent between the protocol partners in order to ensure a secure communication), many flaws have been detected. Unfortunately, even a perfect protocol engine does not guarantee flawless working of a security protocol, as incidents show. Many break-ins and security vulnerabilities are caused by exploiting errors in the implementation of the protocol engine or the underlying operating system. Attacks using buffer-overflows are a very common class of such attacks. Errors in the implementation of exception or error handling can open up additional vulnerabilities. For example, on a website with a log-in screen

  12. Protocol for Communication Networking for Formation Flying

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jennings, Esther; Okino, Clayton; Gao, Jay; Clare, Loren

    2009-01-01

    diverse local-area networks, this protocol offers both (1) a random- access mode needed for the early PFF deployment phase and (2) a time-bounded-services mode needed during PFF-maintenance operations. Switching between these two modes could be controlled by upper-layer entities using standard link-management mechanisms. Because the early deployment phase of a PFF mission can be expected to involve multihop relaying to achieve network connectivity (see figure), the proposed protocol includes the open shortest path first (OSPF) network protocol that is commonly used in the Internet. Each spacecraft in a PFF network would be in one of seven distinct states as the mission evolved from initial deployment, through coarse formation, and into precise formation. Reconfiguration of the formation to perform different scientific observations would also cause state changes among the network nodes. The application protocol provides for recognition and tracking of the seven states for each node and for protocol changes under specified conditions to adapt the network and satisfy communication requirements associated with the current PFF mission phase. Except during early deployment, when peer-to-peer random access discovery methods would be used, the application protocol provides for operation in a centralized manner.

  13. Inter-comparison of NIOSH and IMPROVE protocols for OC and EC determination: implications for inter-protocol data conversion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Cheng; Huang, X. H. Hilda; Ng, Wai Man; Griffith, Stephen M.; Zhen Yu, Jian

    2016-09-01

    Organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) are operationally defined by analytical methods. As a result, OC and EC measurements are protocol dependent, leading to uncertainties in their quantification. In this study, more than 1300 Hong Kong samples were analyzed using both National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) thermal optical transmittance (TOT) and Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environment (IMPROVE) thermal optical reflectance (TOR) protocols to explore the cause of EC disagreement between the two protocols. EC discrepancy mainly (83 %) arises from a difference in peak inert mode temperature, which determines the allocation of OC4NSH, while the rest (17 %) is attributed to a difference in the optical method (transmittance vs. reflectance) applied for the charring correction. Evidence shows that the magnitude of the EC discrepancy is positively correlated with the intensity of the biomass burning signal, whereby biomass burning increases the fraction of OC4NSH and widens the disagreement in the inter-protocol EC determination. It is also found that the EC discrepancy is positively correlated with the abundance of metal oxide in the samples. Two approaches (M1 and M2) that translate NIOSH TOT OC and EC data into IMPROVE TOR OC and EC data are proposed. M1 uses direct relationship between ECNSH_TOT and ECIMP_TOR for reconstruction: M1 : ECIMP_TOR = a × ECNSH_TOT + b; while M2 deconstructs ECIMP_TOR into several terms based on analysis principles and applies regression only on the unknown terms: M2 : ECIMP_TOR = AECNSH + OC4NSH - (a × PCNSH_TOR + b), where AECNSH, apparent EC by the NIOSH protocol, is the carbon that evolves in the He-O2 analysis stage, OC4NSH is the carbon that evolves at the fourth temperature step of the pure helium analysis stage of NIOSH, and PCNSH_TOR is the pyrolyzed carbon as determined by the NIOSH protocol. The implementation of M1 to all urban site data (without considering seasonal specificity

  14. The HPA photon protocol and proposed electron protocol

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pitchford, W.G.

    1985-01-01

    The Hospital Physicists Association (HPA) photon dosimetry protocol has been produced and was published in 1983. Revised values of some components of Csub(lambda) and refinements introduced into the theory in the last few years have enabled new Csub(lambda) values to be produced. The proposed HPA electron protocol is at present in draft form and will be published shortly. Both protocels are discussed. (Auth.)

  15. External evaluation of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group brachial plexus contouring protocol: several issues identified

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Min, Myo; Carruthers, Scott; Zanchetta, Lydia; Roos, Daniel; Keating, Elly; Shakeshaft, John; Baxi, Siddhartha; Penniment, Michael; Wong, Karen

    2014-01-01

    The aims of the study were to evaluate interobserver variability in contouring the brachial plexus (BP) using the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG)-approved protocol and to analyse BP dosimetries. Seven outliners independently contoured the BPs of 15 consecutive patients. Interobserver variability was reviewed qualitatively (visually by using planning axial computed-tomography images and anteroposterior digitally reconstructed radiographs) and quantitatively (by volumetric and statistical analyses). Dose–volume histograms of BPs were calculated and compared. We found significant interobserver variability among outliners in both qualitative and quantitative analyses. These were most pronounced for the T1 nerve roots on visual inspection and for the BP volume on statistical analysis. The BP volumes were smaller than those described in the RTOG atlas paper, with a mean volume of 20.8cc (range 11–40.7 cc) compared with 33±4cc (25.1–39.4cc). The average values of mean dose, maximum dose, V60Gy, V66Gy and V70Gy for patients treated with conventional radiotherapy and IMRT were 42.2Gy versus 44.8Gy, 64.5Gy versus 68.5Gy, 6.1% versus 7.6%, 2.9% versus 2.4% and 0.6% versus 0.3%, respectively. This is the first independent external evaluation of the published protocol. We have identified several issues, including significant interobserver variation. Although radiation oncologists should contour BPs to avoid dose dumping, especially when using IMRT, the RTOG atlas should be used with caution. Because BPs are largely radiologically occult on CT, we propose the term brachial-plexus regions (BPRs) to represent regions where BPs are likely to be present. Consequently, BPRs should in principle be contoured generously.

  16. Ontology-based configuration of problem-solving methods and generation of knowledge-acquisition tools: application of PROTEGE-II to protocol-based decision support.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tu, S W; Eriksson, H; Gennari, J H; Shahar, Y; Musen, M A

    1995-06-01

    PROTEGE-II is a suite of tools and a methodology for building knowledge-based systems and domain-specific knowledge-acquisition tools. In this paper, we show how PROTEGE-II can be applied to the task of providing protocol-based decision support in the domain of treating HIV-infected patients. To apply PROTEGE-II, (1) we construct a decomposable problem-solving method called episodic skeletal-plan refinement, (2) we build an application ontology that consists of the terms and relations in the domain, and of method-specific distinctions not already captured in the domain terms, and (3) we specify mapping relations that link terms from the application ontology to the domain-independent terms used in the problem-solving method. From the application ontology, we automatically generate a domain-specific knowledge-acquisition tool that is custom-tailored for the application. The knowledge-acquisition tool is used for the creation and maintenance of domain knowledge used by the problem-solving method. The general goal of the PROTEGE-II approach is to produce systems and components that are reusable and easily maintained. This is the rationale for constructing ontologies and problem-solving methods that can be composed from a set of smaller-grained methods and mechanisms. This is also why we tightly couple the knowledge-acquisition tools to the application ontology that specifies the domain terms used in the problem-solving systems. Although our evaluation is still preliminary, for the application task of providing protocol-based decision support, we show that these goals of reusability and easy maintenance can be achieved. We discuss design decisions and the tradeoffs that have to be made in the development of the system.

  17. Wireless Power Transfer Protocols in Sensor Networks: Experiments and Simulations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sotiris Nikoletseas

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Rapid technological advances in the domain of Wireless Power Transfer pave the way for novel methods for power management in systems of wireless devices, and recent research works have already started considering algorithmic solutions for tackling emerging problems. In this paper, we investigate the problem of efficient and balanced Wireless Power Transfer in Wireless Sensor Networks. We employ wireless chargers that replenish the energy of network nodes. We propose two protocols that configure the activity of the chargers. One protocol performs wireless charging focused on the charging efficiency, while the other aims at proper balance of the chargers’ residual energy. We conduct detailed experiments using real devices and we validate the experimental results via larger scale simulations. We observe that, in both the experimental evaluation and the evaluation through detailed simulations, both protocols achieve their main goals. The Charging Oriented protocol achieves good charging efficiency throughout the experiment, while the Energy Balancing protocol achieves a uniform distribution of energy within the chargers.

  18. Study on Cloud Security Based on Trust Spanning Tree Protocol

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lai, Yingxu; Liu, Zenghui; Pan, Qiuyue; Liu, Jing

    2015-09-01

    Attacks executed on Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) expose the weakness of link layer protocols and put the higher layers in jeopardy. Although the problems have been studied for many years and various solutions have been proposed, many security issues remain. To enhance the security and credibility of layer-2 network, we propose a trust-based spanning tree protocol aiming at achieving a higher credibility of LAN switch with a simple and lightweight authentication mechanism. If correctly implemented in each trusted switch, the authentication of trust-based STP can guarantee the credibility of topology information that is announced to other switch in the LAN. To verify the enforcement of the trusted protocol, we present a new trust evaluation method of the STP using a specification-based state model. We implement a prototype of trust-based STP to investigate its practicality. Experiment shows that the trusted protocol can achieve security goals and effectively avoid STP attacks with a lower computation overhead and good convergence performance.

  19. Estimation of the Thurstonian model for the 2-AC protocol

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Rune Haubo Bojesen; Lee, Hye-Seong; Brockhoff, Per B.

    2012-01-01

    . This relationship makes it possible to extract estimates and standard errors of δ and τ from general statistical software, and furthermore, it makes it possible to combine standard regression modelling with the Thurstonian model for the 2-AC protocol. A model for replicated 2-AC data is proposed using cumulative......The 2-AC protocol is a 2-AFC protocol with a “no-difference” option and is technically identical to the paired preference test with a “no-preference” option. The Thurstonian model for the 2-AC protocol is parameterized by δ and a decision parameter τ, the estimates of which can be obtained...... by fairly simple well-known methods. In this paper we describe how standard errors of the parameters can be obtained and how exact power computations can be performed. We also show how the Thurstonian model for the 2-AC protocol is closely related to a statistical model known as a cumulative probit model...

  20. Study protocol for the Cities Changing Diabetes programme

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Napier, A David; Nolan, John J; Bagger, Malene

    2017-01-01

    and management are improving, complications remain common, and diabetes is among the leading causes of vision loss, amputation, neuropathy and renal and cardiovascular disease worldwide. We present a research protocol for exploring the drivers of type 2 diabetes and its complications in urban settings through...... the Cities Changing Diabetes (CCD) partnership programme. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A global study protocol is implemented in eight collaborating CCD partner cities. In each city, academic institutions, municipal representatives and local stakeholders collaborate to set research priorities and plan...... Assessment explores the urban context in vulnerability to type 2 diabetes and identifies social factors and cultural determinants relevant to health, well-being and diabetes. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The protocol steers the collection of primary and secondary data across the study sites. Research ethics...

  1. Satellite Communications Using Commercial Protocols

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ivancic, William D.; Griner, James H.; Dimond, Robert; Frantz, Brian D.; Kachmar, Brian; Shell, Dan

    2000-01-01

    NASA Glenn Research Center has been working with industry, academia, and other government agencies in assessing commercial communications protocols for satellite and space-based applications. In addition, NASA Glenn has been developing and advocating new satellite-friendly modifications to existing communications protocol standards. This paper summarizes recent research into the applicability of various commercial standard protocols for use over satellite and space- based communications networks as well as expectations for future protocol development. It serves as a reference point from which the detailed work can be readily accessed. Areas that will be addressed include asynchronous-transfer-mode quality of service; completed and ongoing work of the Internet Engineering Task Force; data-link-layer protocol development for unidirectional link routing; and protocols for aeronautical applications, including mobile Internet protocol routing for wireless/mobile hosts and the aeronautical telecommunications network protocol.

  2. Evaluation and comparison of four protein extraction protocols for mono- and two-dimensional electrophoresis in Mytilus galloprovincialis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marina Ceruso

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available In this study, four protein extraction protocols from Mytilus galloprovincialis were evaluated with the aim to identify the most practical, efficient and reproducible method. Four extraction protocols frequently used for mussels and organic matrices were selected and compared. The methods were based on the use of: i TRIzol reagent; ii Lysis buffer; iii phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride; iv trichloroacetic acid-acetone. Protein concentration was measured by the Bradford method. Three specimens of mussels were studied and the analysis was conducted in triplicate for each of the four protocols. Results indicated that the four methods could extract significantly different protein profiles. The highest number of protein spots resolved in 2DE gels and the best reproducibility was obtained using trichloroacetic acid-acetone protocol. Results afforded the selection of a suitable extraction protocol to be used for ecotoxicoproteomics studies from mussels and for other proteomic studies conducted by particularly complex tissues such as Mytilus galloprovincialis.

  3. Report on the behalf of the Commission for Foreign Affairs on the bill project adopted by the Senate, bearing application of the additional protocol to the agreement between France, the European Atomic Energy Community, and the International Atomic Energy Agency related to the application of guarantees in France, signed in Vienna on the 22 September 1998. Nr 3428

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Destot, Michel

    2016-01-01

    This report first discusses an international context which requires a strengthened regime of nuclear non proliferation. It outlines that the struggle against nuclear proliferation is more than ever a matter of concern (a severe threat for peace, security and stability, a contrasted situation with noticeable advances in some countries and regions on the one hand, and severe proliferation crisis on the other hand). It analyses the contribution of the additional protocol to the strengthening of the non proliferation regime: a necessary strengthening of the IAEA guarantee system, the NPT as a keystone of the non proliferation regime, and a perfectible regime on other issues. The second part outlines that the bill project consolidates the French participation to the IAEA guarantee system. The Commission works are then reported, notably the detailed examination of the different bill project articles which deal with declaration obligations, international verification, penal arrangements, and arrangements related to overseas territories and other arrangements. Appendices propose an impact study, a comparative table between the text transmitted by the Senate and the provisions of the additional protocol, a comparison between the French additional protocol and the model adopter in 1997, a comparative table of additional protocols adopted by other countries, and a list of additional protocols

  4. Elaboration of the public services outline for energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bailly, B.; Tabet, J.P.

    2000-01-01

    France's public services outline for energy for the next 20 years will be adopted by decree in the autumn of 2001. Halfway through the process, the authors present the main points of a document whose preparation testified to a new approach in the policies for national development. Regional discussions that commence this month should give rise to numerous debates, based most particularly on the capacity territorial organisations have to participate in respect to the rational usage and decentralized production of energy. At the time of international negotiations on climatic changes, the questions raised are very quickly becoming inescapable. (authors)

  5. Protocol: An updated integrated methodology for analysis of metabolites and enzyme activities of ethylene biosynthesis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Geeraerd Annemie H

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The foundations for ethylene research were laid many years ago by researchers such as Lizada, Yang and Hoffman. Nowadays, most of the methods developed by them are still being used. Technological developments since then have led to small but significant improvements, contributing to a more efficient workflow. Despite this, many of these improvements have never been properly documented. Results This article provides an updated, integrated set of protocols suitable for the assembly of a complete picture of ethylene biosynthesis, including the measurement of ethylene itself. The original protocols for the metabolites 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid and 1-(malonylaminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid have been updated and downscaled, while protocols to determine in vitro activities of the key enzymes 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthase and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase have been optimised for efficiency, repeatability and accuracy. All the protocols described were optimised for apple fruit, but have been proven to be suitable for the analysis of tomato fruit as well. Conclusions This work collates an integrated set of detailed protocols for the measurement of components of the ethylene biosynthetic pathway, starting from well-established methods. These protocols have been optimised for smaller sample volumes, increased efficiency, repeatability and accuracy. The detailed protocol allows other scientists to rapidly implement these methods in their own laboratories in a consistent and efficient way.

  6. Aircraft Fuel, Fuel Metering, Induction and Exhaust Systems (Course Outline), Aviation Mechanics (Power Plant): 9057.02.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dade County Public Schools, Miami, FL.

    This document presents an outline for a 135-hour course designed to help the trainee gain the skills and knowledge necessary to become an aviation powerplant mechanic. The course outlines the theory of operation of various fuel systems, fuel metering, induction, and exhaust system components with an emphasis on troubleshooting, maintenance, and…

  7. Comparison Pregnancy Outcomes Between Minimal Stimulation Protocol and Conventional GnRH Antagonist Protocols in Poor Ovarian Responders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shamim Pilehvari

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Objective: To compare the pregnancy outcomes achieved by in vitro fertilization (IVF between minimal stimulation and conventional antagonist protocols in poor ovarian responders (PORs.Materials and methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 77 PORs undergoing IVF were selected and divided into two groups. First group was the minimal stimulation group (n = 42 receiving 100 mg/day clomiphene citrate on day 2of the cycle for 5 day that was followed by150IU/day human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG on day 5 of the cycle. Second group was the conventional group (n = 35 receiving at least 300 IU/daygonadotropin on day 2 of the cycle. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH antagonist protocol was applied for both groups according to flexible protocol. Number of retrieved oocytes and chemical pregnancy rate were the main outcomes.Results: There was no difference in number ofretrieved oocyte and pregnancy rate (2.79 ± 1.96 vs. 2.20 ± 1.71 and 5.6% vs. 4.1%; p > 0.05 between both groups. The gonadotropin dose used in the minimal stimulation group was lower than conventional group (1046 ± 596 vs. 2806 ± 583.Conclusion: Minimal stimulation protocol with lower gonadotropin used is likely to be considered as a patient- friendly and cost-effective substitute for PORs. 

  8. Gestroomlijnd schrijven: het effect van een elektronische outline-tool op de schrijfvaardigheid

    OpenAIRE

    De Smet, Milou; Brand-Gruwel, Saskia; Broekkamp, Hein; Kirschner, Paul A.

    2011-01-01

    De Smet, M. J. R., Brand-Gruwel, S., Broekkamp, S., & Kirschner, P. A. (2011) Gestroomlijnd schrijven: Het effect van een elektronische outline-tool op de schrijfvaardigheid. Levende Talen Tijdschrift, 12(4), 14-25.

  9. Addressing the need for biomarker liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry assays: a protocol for effective method development for the bioanalysis of endogenous compounds in cerebrospinal fluid.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benitex, Yulia; McNaney, Colleen A; Luchetti, David; Schaeffer, Eric; Olah, Timothy V; Morgan, Daniel G; Drexler, Dieter M

    2013-08-30

    Research on disorders of the central nervous system (CNS) has shown that an imbalance in the levels of specific endogenous neurotransmitters may underlie certain CNS diseases. These alterations in neurotransmitter levels may provide insight into pathophysiology, but can also serve as disease and pharmacodynamic biomarkers. To measure these potential biomarkers in vivo, the relevant sample matrix is cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which is in equilibrium with the brain's interstitial fluid and circulates through the ventricular system of the brain and spinal cord. Accurate analysis of these potential biomarkers can be challenging due to low CSF sample volume, low analyte levels, and potential interferences from other endogenous compounds. A protocol has been established for effective method development of bioanalytical assays for endogenous compounds in CSF. Database searches and standard-addition experiments are employed to qualify sample preparation and specificity of the detection thus evaluating accuracy and precision. This protocol was applied to the study of the histaminergic neurotransmitter system and the analysis of histamine and its metabolite 1-methylhistamine in rat CSF. The protocol resulted in a specific and sensitive novel method utilizing pre-column derivatization ultra high performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC/MS/MS), which is also capable of separating an endogenous interfering compound, identified as taurine, from the analytes of interest. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  10. Measurement of the equivalent dose in quartz using a regenerative-dose single-aliquot protocol

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murray, A.S.; Roberts, R.G.

    1998-01-01

    The principles behind a regenerative-dose single-aliquot protocol are outlined. It is shown for three laboratory-bleached Australian sedimentary quartz samples that the relative change in sensitivity of the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) during a repeated measurement cycle (consisting of a dose followed by a 10 s preheat at a given temperature and then a 100 s exposure to blue/green light at 125 deg. C) is very similar to that of the 110 deg. C thermoluminescence (TL) peak measured during the preheat cycle. The absolute change in the TL sensitivity with preheat temperature is different for samples containing a natural or a regenerative dose. Furthermore, the absolute change in sensitivity in both the OSL and TL signals is non-linear with regeneration cycle, but the relative change in the OSL signal compared to the following 110 deg. C TL measurement is well approximated by a straight line. Both signals are thought to use the same luminescence centres, and so some common behaviour is not unexpected. A new regenerative-dose protocol is presented which makes use of this linear relationship to correct for sensitivity changes with regeneration cycle, and requires only one aliquot for the estimation of the equivalent dose (D e ). The protocol has been applied to quartz from nine Australian sites. To illustrate the value of the regenerative-dose single-aliquot approach, the apparent values of D e for 13 samples, containing doses of between 0.01 and 100 Gy, have been measured at various preheat temperatures of between 160 and 300 deg. C, using a single aliquot for each D e measurement. Excellent agreement is found between these single-aliquot estimates of D e and those obtained from additive-dose multiple-aliquot and single-aliquot protocols, over the entire dose range

  11. Comparison of maxillary first molar occlusal outlines of Neandertals from the Meuse River Basin of Belgium using elliptical Fourier analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Williams Frank L’Engle

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Several Neandertals derive from the karstic caves of the Meuse river tributaries of Belgium, including Engis 2, Scladina 4A-4 and Spy 1. These may form a group that is distinct in maxillary first molar occlusal outlines compared to La Quina 5 from Southwest France. Alternatively, chronological differences may separate individuals given that Scladina 4A-4 from MIS 5 is older than the others from MIS 3. Neolithic samples (n = 42 from Belgium (Maurenne Caverne de la Cave, Hastière Caverne M, Hastière Trou Garçon, Sclaigneaux and Bois Madame dated to 4.6–3.9 kyr provide a context for the Neandertals. Dental casts were prepared from dental impressions of the original maxillary molars. Crown and occlusal areas as well as mesiodistal lengths were measured by calibrated Motic 3.0 microscope cameras. Occlusal outlines of the casts were captured through photostereomicroscopy and non-landmark smooth tracing methods. Occlusal outlines were processed using elliptical Fourier analysis within SHAPE v1.3 which reduced amplitudes of the harmonics into principal components (PC axes. The first two PC axes group the Neandertals, although Scladina 4A-4 falls nearly outside the convex hull for the Neolithic sample. Neandertals are imperfectly separated from the Neolithic sample on PC3 and PC4, and completely distinct on PC5 and PC6. Scladina 4A-4 differs from the other Neandertals on most PC axes. Chronology may best explain the separation of Scladina 4A-4 from the more recent fossils, and particularly Spy 1 and La Quina 5 which are the most similar in maxillary first molar occlusal outline shape.

  12. Business protocol in integrated Europe

    OpenAIRE

    Pavelová, Nina

    2009-01-01

    The first chapter devotes to definitions of basic terms such as protocol or business protocol, to differences between protocol and etiquette, and between social etiquette and business etiquette. The second chapter focuses on the factors influencing the European business protocol. The third chapter is devoted to the etiquette of business protocol in the European countries. It touches the topics such as punctuality and planning of business appointment, greeting, business cards, dress and appear...

  13. The EADC-ADNI Harmonized Protocol for manual hippocampal segmentation on magnetic resonance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Frisoni, Giovanni B; Jack, Clifford R; Bocchetta, Martina

    2015-01-01

    BACKGROUND: An international Delphi panel has defined a harmonized protocol (HarP) for the manual segmentation of the hippocampus on MR. The aim of this study is to study the concurrent validity of the HarP toward local protocols, and its major sources of variance. METHODS: Fourteen tracers segme...

  14. A robust ECC based mutual authentication protocol with anonymity for session initiation protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehmood, Zahid; Chen, Gongliang; Li, Jianhua; Li, Linsen; Alzahrani, Bander

    2017-01-01

    Over the past few years, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is found as a substantial application-layer protocol for the multimedia services. It is extensively used for managing, altering, terminating and distributing the multimedia sessions. Authentication plays a pivotal role in SIP environment. Currently, Lu et al. presented an authentication protocol for SIP and profess that newly proposed protocol is protected against all the familiar attacks. However, the detailed analysis describes that the Lu et al.'s protocol is exposed against server masquerading attack and user's masquerading attack. Moreover, it also fails to protect the user's identity as well as it possesses incorrect login and authentication phase. In order to establish a suitable and efficient protocol, having ability to overcome all these discrepancies, a robust ECC-based novel mutual authentication mechanism with anonymity for SIP is presented in this manuscript. The improved protocol contains an explicit parameter for user to cope the issues of security and correctness and is found to be more secure and relatively effective to protect the user's privacy, user's masquerading and server masquerading as it is verified through the comprehensive formal and informal security analysis.

  15. A robust ECC based mutual authentication protocol with anonymity for session initiation protocol.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zahid Mehmood

    Full Text Available Over the past few years, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP is found as a substantial application-layer protocol for the multimedia services. It is extensively used for managing, altering, terminating and distributing the multimedia sessions. Authentication plays a pivotal role in SIP environment. Currently, Lu et al. presented an authentication protocol for SIP and profess that newly proposed protocol is protected against all the familiar attacks. However, the detailed analysis describes that the Lu et al.'s protocol is exposed against server masquerading attack and user's masquerading attack. Moreover, it also fails to protect the user's identity as well as it possesses incorrect login and authentication phase. In order to establish a suitable and efficient protocol, having ability to overcome all these discrepancies, a robust ECC-based novel mutual authentication mechanism with anonymity for SIP is presented in this manuscript. The improved protocol contains an explicit parameter for user to cope the issues of security and correctness and is found to be more secure and relatively effective to protect the user's privacy, user's masquerading and server masquerading as it is verified through the comprehensive formal and informal security analysis.

  16. Evaluation of Protocol Uniformity Concerning Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy in The Netherlands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goossens, Richard H. M.; van Eijk, Daan J.; Lange, Johan F.

    2008-01-01

    Background Iatrogenic bile duct injury remains a current complication of laparoscopic cholecystectomy. One uniform and standardized protocol, based on the “critical view of safety” concept of Strasberg, should reduce the incidence of this complication. Furthermore, owing to the rapid development of minimally invasive surgery, technicians are becoming more frequently involved. To improve communication between the operating team and technicians, standardized actions should also be defined. The aim of this study was to compare existing protocols for laparoscopic cholecystectomy from various Dutch hospitals. Methods Fifteen Dutch hospitals were contacted for evaluation of their protocols for laparoscopic cholecystectomy. All evaluated protocols were divided into six steps and were compared accordingly. Results In total, 13 hospitals responded—5 academic hospitals, 5 teaching hospitals, 3 community hospitals—of which 10 protocols were usable for comparison. Concerning the trocar positions, only minor differences were found. The concept of “critical view of safety” was represented in just one protocol. Furthermore, the order of clipping and cutting the cystic artery and duct differed. Descriptions of instruments and apparatus were also inconsistent. Conclusions Present protocols differ too much to define a universal procedure among surgeons in The Netherlands. The authors propose one (inter)national standardized protocol, including standardized actions. This uniform standardized protocol has to be officially released and recommended by national scientific associations (e.g., the Dutch Society of Surgery) or international societies (e.g., European Association for Endoscopic Surgery and Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons). The aim is to improve patient safety and professional communication, which are necessary for new developments. PMID:18224485

  17. Assessing consumer responses to potential reduced-exposure tobacco products: a review of tobacco industry and independent research methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rees, Vaughan W; Kreslake, Jennifer M; Cummings, K Michael; O'Connor, Richard J; Hatsukami, Dorothy K; Parascandola, Mark; Shields, Peter G; Connolly, Gregory N

    2009-12-01

    Internal tobacco industry documents and the mainstream literature are reviewed to identify methods and measures for evaluating tobacco consumer response. The review aims to outline areas in which established methods exist, identify gaps in current methods for assessing consumer response, and consider how these methods might be applied to evaluate potentially reduced exposure tobacco products and new products. Internal industry research reviewed included published articles, manuscript drafts, presentations, protocols, and instruments relating to consumer response measures were identified and analyzed. Peer-reviewed research was identified using PubMed and Scopus. Industry research on consumer response focuses on product development and marketing. To develop and refine new products, the tobacco industry has developed notable strategies for assessing consumers' sensory and subjective responses to product design characteristics. Independent research is often conducted to gauge the likelihood of future product adoption by measuring consumers' risk perceptions, responses to product, and product acceptability. A model that conceptualizes consumer response as comprising the separate, but interacting, domains of product perceptions and response to product is outlined. Industry and independent research supports the dual domain model and provides a wide range of methods for assessment of the construct components of consumer response. Further research is needed to validate consumer response constructs, determine the relationship between consumer response and tobacco user behavior, and improve reliability of consumer response measures. Scientifically rigorous consumer response assessment methods will provide a needed empirical basis for future regulation of potentially reduced-exposure tobacco products and new products, to counteract tobacco industry influence on consumers, and enhance the public health.

  18. The role of academic health centres in building equitable health systems: a systematic review protocol

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edelman, Alexandra; Taylor, Judy; Ovseiko, Pavel V; Topp, Stephanie M

    2017-01-01

    Introduction Academic health centres (AHCs) are complex organisations often defined by their ‘tripartite’ mission: to achieve high standards of clinical care, undertake clinical and laboratory research and educate health professionals. In the last decade, AHCs have moved away from what was a dominant focus on high impact (clinical) interventions for individuals, towards a more population-oriented paradigm requiring networked institutions and responsiveness to a range of issues including distribution of health outcomes and health determinants. Reflective of this paradigm shift is a growing interest in the role of AHCs in addressing health disparities and improving health system equity. This protocol outlines a systematic review that seeks to synthesise and critically appraise the current state of evidence on the role of AHCs in contributing to equitable health systems locally and globally. Methods and analysis Electronic searches will be conducted on a pilot list of bibliographic databases, including Google Scholar, Scopus, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, CINAHL, ERIC, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, Cochrane Library, Evidence Based Medicine Reviews, Campbell Library and A+ Education, from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2016. Apart from studies reporting clinical interventions or trials, all types of published peer-reviewed and grey literature will be included in the review. The single screening method will be employed in selecting studies, with two additional reviewers consulted where allocation is unclear. Quality and relevance appraisal utilising Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tools will follow data extraction to a preprepared template. Thematic synthesis will be undertaken to develop descriptive themes and inform analysis. Ethics and dissemination As the review is focused on the analysis of secondary data, it does not require ethics approval. The results of the study will be disseminated through articles in peer-reviewed journals and trade publications as

  19. Beyond protocols

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vanderhoeven, Sonia; Branquart, Etienne; Casaer, Jim

    2017-01-01

    Risk assessment tools for listing invasive alien species need to incorporate all available evidence and expertise. Beyond the wealth of protocols developed to date, we argue that the current way of performing risk analysis has several shortcomings. In particular, lack of data on ecological impact...... information on risk and the exploration of improved methods for decision making on biodiversity management. This is crucial for efficient conservation resource allocation and uptake by stakeholders and the public......., transparency and repeatability of assessments as well as the incorporation of uncertainty should all be explicitly considered. We recommend improved quality control of risk assessments through formalized peer review with clear feedback between assessors and reviewers. Alternatively, a consensus building...

  20. Dysphonia risk screening protocol

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nemr, Katia; Simões-Zenari, Marcia; da Trindade Duarte, João Marcos; Lobrigate, Karen Elena; Bagatini, Flavia Alves

    2016-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: To propose and test the applicability of a dysphonia risk screening protocol with score calculation in individuals with and without dysphonia. METHOD: This descriptive cross-sectional study included 365 individuals (41 children, 142 adult women, 91 adult men and 91 seniors) divided into a dysphonic group and a non-dysphonic group. The protocol consisted of 18 questions and a score was calculated using a 10-cm visual analog scale. The measured value on the visual analog scale was added to the overall score, along with other partial scores. Speech samples allowed for analysis/assessment of the overall degree of vocal deviation and initial definition of the respective groups and after six months, the separation of the groups was confirmed using an acoustic analysis. RESULTS: The mean total scores were different between the groups in all samples. Values ranged between 37.0 and 57.85 in the dysphonic group and between 12.95 and 19.28 in the non-dysphonic group, with overall means of 46.09 and 15.55, respectively. High sensitivity and specificity were demonstrated when discriminating between the groups with the following cut-off points: 22.50 (children), 29.25 (adult women), 22.75 (adult men), and 27.10 (seniors). CONCLUSION: The protocol demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity in differentiating groups of individuals with and without dysphonia in different sample groups and is thus an effective instrument for use in voice clinics. PMID:27074171

  1. Dysphonia risk screening protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katia Nemr

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To propose and test the applicability of a dysphonia risk screening protocol with score calculation in individuals with and without dysphonia. METHOD: This descriptive cross-sectional study included 365 individuals (41 children, 142 adult women, 91 adult men and 91 seniors divided into a dysphonic group and a non-dysphonic group. The protocol consisted of 18 questions and a score was calculated using a 10-cm visual analog scale. The measured value on the visual analog scale was added to the overall score, along with other partial scores. Speech samples allowed for analysis/assessment of the overall degree of vocal deviation and initial definition of the respective groups and after six months, the separation of the groups was confirmed using an acoustic analysis. RESULTS: The mean total scores were different between the groups in all samples. Values ranged between 37.0 and 57.85 in the dysphonic group and between 12.95 and 19.28 in the non-dysphonic group, with overall means of 46.09 and 15.55, respectively. High sensitivity and specificity were demonstrated when discriminating between the groups with the following cut-off points: 22.50 (children, 29.25 (adult women, 22.75 (adult men, and 27.10 (seniors. CONCLUSION: The protocol demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity in differentiating groups of individuals with and without dysphonia in different sample groups and is thus an effective instrument for use in voice clinics.

  2. Data aggregation in wireless sensor networks using the SOAP protocol

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Al-Yasiri, A; Sunley, A

    2007-01-01

    Wireless sensor networks (WSN) offer an increasingly attractive method of data gathering in distributed system architectures and dynamic access via wireless connectivity. Wireless sensor networks have physical and resource limitations, this leads to increased complexity for application developers and often results in applications that are closely coupled with network protocols. In this paper, a data aggregation framework using SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) on wireless sensor networks is presented. The framework works as a middleware for aggregating data measured by a number of nodes within a network. The aim of the study is to assess the suitability of the protocol in such environments where resources are limited compared to traditional networks

  3. Data aggregation in wireless sensor networks using the SOAP protocol

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Al-Yasiri, A; Sunley, A [School of Computing, Science and Engineering, University of Salford, Greater Manchester, M5 4WT (United Kingdom)

    2007-07-15

    Wireless sensor networks (WSN) offer an increasingly attractive method of data gathering in distributed system architectures and dynamic access via wireless connectivity. Wireless sensor networks have physical and resource limitations, this leads to increased complexity for application developers and often results in applications that are closely coupled with network protocols. In this paper, a data aggregation framework using SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) on wireless sensor networks is presented. The framework works as a middleware for aggregating data measured by a number of nodes within a network. The aim of the study is to assess the suitability of the protocol in such environments where resources are limited compared to traditional networks.

  4. One Health in food safety and security education: Subject matter outline for a curricular framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angelos, John A; Arens, Amanda L; Johnson, Heather A; Cadriel, Jessica L; Osburn, Bennie I

    2017-06-01

    Educating students in the range of subjects encompassing food safety and security as approached from a One Health perspective requires consideration of a variety of different disciplines and the interrelationships among disciplines. The Western Institute for Food Safety and Security developed a subject matter outline to accompany a previously published One Health in food safety and security curricular framework. The subject matter covered in this outline encompasses a variety of topics and disciplines related to food safety and security including effects of food production on the environment. This subject matter outline should help guide curriculum development and education in One Health in food safety and security and provides useful information for educators, researchers, students, and public policy-makers facing the inherent challenges of maintaining and/or developing safe and secure food supplies without destroying Earth's natural resources.

  5. One Health in food safety and security education: Subject matter outline for a curricular framework

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John A. Angelos

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Educating students in the range of subjects encompassing food safety and security as approached from a One Health perspective requires consideration of a variety of different disciplines and the interrelationships among disciplines. The Western Institute for Food Safety and Security developed a subject matter outline to accompany a previously published One Health in food safety and security curricular framework. The subject matter covered in this outline encompasses a variety of topics and disciplines related to food safety and security including effects of food production on the environment. This subject matter outline should help guide curriculum development and education in One Health in food safety and security and provides useful information for educators, researchers, students, and public policy-makers facing the inherent challenges of maintaining and/or developing safe and secure food supplies without destroying Earth's natural resources.

  6. Power Saving MAC Protocols for WSNs and Optimization of S-MAC Protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simarpreet Kaur

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Low power MAC protocols have received a lot of consideration in the last few years because of their influence on the lifetime of wireless sensor networks. Since, sensors typically operate on batteries, replacement of which is often difficult. A lot of work has been done to minimize the energy expenditure and prolong the sensor lifetime through energy efficient designs, across layers. Meanwhile, the sensor network should be able to maintain a certain throughput in order to fulfill the QoS requirements of the end user, and to ensure the constancy of the network. This paper introduces different types of MAC protocols used for WSNs and proposes S‐MAC, a Medium‐Access Control protocol designed for Wireless Sensor Networks. S‐MAC uses a few innovative techniques to reduce energy consumption and support selfconfiguration. A new protocol is suggested to improve the energy efficiency, latency and throughput of existing MAC protocol for WSNs. A modification of the protocol is then proposed to eliminate the need for some nodes to stay awake longer than the other nodes which improves the energy efficiency, latency and throughput and hence increases the life span of a wireless sensor network.

  7. Simple proof of the unconditional security of the Bennett 1992 quantum key distribution protocol

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Quan; Tang Chaojing

    2002-01-01

    It is generally accepted that quantum key distribution (QKD) could supply legitimate users with unconditional security during their communication. Quite a lot of satisfactory efforts have been achieved on experimentations with quantum cryptography. However, when the eavesdropper has extra-powerful computational ability, has access to a quantum computer, for example, and can carry into execution any eavesdropping measurement that is allowed by the laws of physics, the security against such attacks has not been widely studied and rigorously proved for most QKD protocols. Quite recently, Shor and Preskill proved concisely the unconditional security of the Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) protocol. Their method is highly valued for its clarity of concept and concision of form. In order to take advantage of the Shor-Preskill technique in their proof of the unconditional security of the BB84 QKD protocol, we introduced in this paper a transformation that can translate the Bennett 1992 (B92) protocol into the BB84 protocol. By proving that the transformation leaks no more information to the eavesdropper, we proved the unconditional security of the B92 protocol. We also settled the problem proposed by Lo about how to prove the unconditional security of the B92 protocol with the Shor-Preskill method

  8. How to Teach Chess in the Public Schools: A Course Outline.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, Bernard

    Educational objectives and course outlines for beginning, intermediate, and advanced chess instruction in elementary and secondary schools are provided. Objectives are that students will develop analytical, synthetic, and decision-making skills, learn to engage in thorough chess research that will enhance their ability to do any research, and gain…

  9. Current Sterilization Protocols-An Orthodontic Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abraham Vinod Korath

    2010-01-01

    Part I of this article focuses on the working principles of various methods of sterilization with an appraisalof their effects on orthodontic instruments. Additionally,contributory factors of instrument damage is enumerated to emphasis the importance of adhering to precise protocols and manufacturer recommendations as well as in alleviating some misconceptions about sterilization induced instrument damage.

  10. Dynamic QoS management in Differentiated Services using bandwidth brokers, RSVP aggregation and load control protocols

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Westberg, Lars; Eriksson, Anders; Karagiannis, Georgios; Heijenk, Geert; Rexhepi, Vlora; Partain, David

    2001-01-01

    A method and network subsystem for providing on demand end to end Quality of Service (Qos) in a dynamic manner, use a combination of Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP), load control protocol (and its successors) and Bandwidth Brokers (BBs)(1106) which communicate using a predetermined protocol.

  11. Dynamic QoS management in Differentiated Services using bandwidth brokers, RSVP aggregation and load control protocols

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Westberg, Lars; Eriksson, Anders; Karagiannis, Georgios; Heijenk, Geert; Rexhepi, Vlora; Partain, David

    2009-01-01

    A method and network subsystem for providing on demand end to end Quality of Service (Qos) in a dynamic manner, use a combination of Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP), load control protocol (and its successors) and Bandwidth Brokers (BBs)(1106) which communicate using a predetermined protocol.

  12. Aldefluor protocol to sort keratinocytes stem cells from skin

    OpenAIRE

    Noronha, Samuel Marcos Ribeiro; Gragnani, Alfredo; Pereira, Thiago Antônio Calado; Correa, Silvana Aparecida Alves; Bonucci, Jessica; Ferreira, Lydia Masako

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Purpose: To investigate the use Aldefluor® and N, N - Dimethylaminobenzaldehyde (DEAB) to design a protocol to sort keratinocyte stem cells from cultured keratinocytes from burned patients. Methods: Activated Aldefluor® aliquots were prepared and maintained at temperature between 2 to 8°C, or stored at -20°C. Next, the cells were collected following the standard protocol of sample preparation. Results: Best results were obtained with Aldefluor® 1.5µl and DEAB 15 µl for 1 x 106 c...

  13. Linguistic research in the empirical paradigm as outlined by Mario Bunge.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zielińska, Dorota

    2016-01-01

    In view of the critique of the methodology of the dominant interdisciplinary research involving language studies as the main component, in particular clinical linguistics, Cummings (Pragmatic disorders. Perspectives in pragmatics, philosophy and psychology, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht, 2014) proposes that "It is perhaps appropriate at this point to move the debate onto non-empirical grounds." In Cummings (2014: 113) she starts such a debate on the grounds of the philosophy of language and pragmatics. In this article, I propose to expand that debate by including the input of the philosophy of science. I start the discussion by presenting the way one may carry out language research in the paradigm of empirical sciences from the perspective outlined in Bunge (Scientific research. Strategy and philosophy. Berlin, Springer, 1967; Method, model and matter (synthese library). D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, 1973; Emergence and convergence: qualitative novelty and the unity of knowledge. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2003) and constrained by Altmann's (Towards a theory of language. Glottometrica 1:1-25, 1978) assumption about self-originating and self-regulatory nature of language.

  14. A Survey on the Taxonomy of Cluster-Based Routing Protocols for Homogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naeimi, Soroush; Ghafghazi, Hamidreza; Chow, Chee-Onn; Ishii, Hiroshi

    2012-01-01

    The past few years have witnessed increased interest among researchers in cluster-based protocols for homogeneous networks because of their better scalability and higher energy efficiency than other routing protocols. Given the limited capabilities of sensor nodes in terms of energy resources, processing and communication range, the cluster-based protocols should be compatible with these constraints in either the setup state or steady data transmission state. With focus on these constraints, we classify routing protocols according to their objectives and methods towards addressing the shortcomings of clustering process on each stage of cluster head selection, cluster formation, data aggregation and data communication. We summarize the techniques and methods used in these categories, while the weakness and strength of each protocol is pointed out in details. Furthermore, taxonomy of the protocols in each phase is given to provide a deeper understanding of current clustering approaches. Ultimately based on the existing research, a summary of the issues and solutions of the attributes and characteristics of clustering approaches and some open research areas in cluster-based routing protocols that can be further pursued are provided. PMID:22969350

  15. Lower hybrid heating and current drive in Iter operation scenarios and outline system design

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1994-11-01

    Lower Hybrid Waves (LHW) are considered a valid method of plasma heating and the best demonstrated current drive method. Current drive by LHW possesses the unique feature, as compared to the other methods, to retain a good current drive efficiency in plasma regions of low to medium temperature, or in low-β phases of the discharges. This makes them an essential element to realize the so called 'advanced steady-state Tokamak scenarios' in which a hollow current density profile (deep shear reversal) - established during the ramp-up of the plasma current - offers the prospects of improved confinement and an MHD-stable route to continuous burn. This report contains both modelling and design studies of an LHW system for ITER. It aims primarily at the definition of concepts and parameters for steady-state operation using LHW combined with Fast Waves (FW), or other methods of generating a central seed current for high bootstrap current operation. However simulations addressing the use of LHW for current profile control in the high current pulsed operation scenario are also presented. The outline design of a LHW system which covers the needs for both pulsed and steady-state operation is described in detail. (author). 28 refs., 49 figs

  16. Cross-Layer Protocol as a Better Option in Wireless Mesh Network with Respect to Layered-Protocol

    OpenAIRE

    Ahmed Abdulwahab Al-Ahdal; Dr. V. P. Pawar; G. N. Shinde

    2014-01-01

    The Optimal way to improve Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) performance is to use a better network protocol, but whether layered-protocol design or cross-layer design is a better option to optimize protocol performance in WMNs is still an on-going research topic. In this paper, we focus on cross-layer protocol as a better option with respect to layered-protocol. The layered protocol architecture (OSI) model divides networking tasks into layers and defines a pocket of services for each layer to b...

  17. Implementation of a protocol for the prevention and management of extravasation injuries in the neonatal intensive care patient.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warren, Diane

    2011-06-01

    This project sought to determine nurses' understanding and management of infants with intravenous (IV) therapy. There were three specific aims: • To improve identification and management of extravasation injuries in neonates • To ensure management of extravasation injuries in neonates is classified according to IV extravasation staging guidelines • To develop a protocol that outlined actions required to manage extravasation injuries. This project utilised a pre- and post-implementation audit strategy using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Getting Research into Practice (GRIP) program. This method has been used to improve clinical practice by utilising an audit, feedback and re-audit sequence. The project was implemented in four stages over a 7-month period from 21 October 2009 to 30 May 2010. Initially, there was poor compliance with all four criteria, ranging from zero to 63%. The GRIP phase of the project identified five barriers which were addressed throughout this project. These related to education of staff and the development of a protocol for the prevention and management of extravasation injuries in the neonatal population. Following implementation of best practice, the second audit showed a marked improvement in all four criteria, ranging from 70 to 100% compliance. Overall, this project has led to improvements in clinical practice in line with current evidence. This has resulted in enhanced awareness of the risks associated with IV therapy and of measures to prevent an injury occurring within this clinical setting. © 2011 The Author. International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare © 2011 The Joanna Briggs Institute.

  18. Outline of the Fukushima Daiichi Accident. Lessons Learned and Safety Enhancements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hirano Masashi

    2017-01-01

    This paper briefly presents the outline of the Fukushima Daiichi accident and summarizes the major lessons learned having been drawn and safety enhancements having been done in Japan for the purpose of giving inputs to the discussions to be taken place in the Special Invited Session “Fukushima, 5 years after”.

  19. Desensitization protocols and their outcome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marfo, Kwaku; Lu, Amy; Ling, Min; Akalin, Enver

    2011-04-01

    In the last decade, transplantation across previously incompatible barriers has increasingly become popular because of organ donor shortage, availability of better methods of detecting and characterizing anti-HLA antibodies, ease of diagnosis, better understanding of antibody-mediated rejection, and the availability of effective regimens. This review summarizes all manuscripts published since the first publication in 2000 on desensitized patients and discusses clinical outcomes including acute and chronic antibody-mediated rejection rate, the new agents available, kidney paired exchange programs, and the future directions in sensitized patients. There were 21 studies published between 2000 and 2010, involving 725 patients with donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies (DSAs) who underwent kidney transplantation with different desensitization protocols. All studies were single center and retrospective. The patient and graft survival were 95% and 86%, respectively, at a 2-year median follow-up. Despite acceptable short-term patient and graft survivals, acute rejection rate was 36% and acute antibody-mediated rejection rate was 28%, which is significantly higher than in nonsensitized patients. Recent studies with longer follow-up of those patients raised concerns about long-term success of desensitization protocols. The studies utilizing protocol biopsies in desensitized patients also reported higher subclinical and chronic antibody-mediated rejection. An association between the strength of DSAs determined by median fluorescence intensity values of Luminex single-antigen beads and risk of rejection was observed. Two new agents, bortezomib, a proteasome inhibitor, and eculizumab, an anti-complement C5 antibody, were recently introduced to desensitization protocols. An alternative intervention is kidney paired exchange, which should be considered first for sensitized patients. © 2011 by the American Society of Nephrology

  20. Quality improvement initiative: Preventative Surgical Site Infection Protocol in Vascular Surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parizh, David; Ascher, Enrico; Raza Rizvi, Syed Ali; Hingorani, Anil; Amaturo, Michael; Johnson, Eric

    2018-02-01

    Objective A quality improvement initiative was employed to decrease single institution surgical site infection rate in open lower extremity revascularization procedures. In an attempt to lower patient morbidity, we developed and implemented the Preventative Surgical Site Infection Protocol in Vascular Surgery. Surgical site infections lead to prolonged hospital stays, adjunctive procedure, and additive costs. We employed targeted interventions to address the common risk factors that predispose patients to post-operative complications. Methods Retrospective review was performed between 2012 and 2016 for all surgical site infections after revascularization procedures of the lower extremity. A quality improvement protocol was initiated in January 2015. Primary outcome was the assessment of surgical site infection rate reduction in the pre-protocol vs. post-protocol era. Secondary outcomes evaluated patient demographics, closure method, perioperative antibiotic coverage, and management outcomes. Results Implementation of the protocol decreased the surgical site infection rate from 6.4% to 1.6% p = 0.0137). Patient demographics and comorbidities were assessed and failed to demonstrate a statistically significant difference among the infection and no-infection groups. Wound closure with monocryl suture vs. staple proved to be associated with decreased surgical site infection rate ( p site infections in the vascular surgery population are effective and necessary. Our data suggest that there may be benefit in the incorporation of MRSA and Gram-negative coverage as part of the Surgical Care Improvement Project perioperative guidelines.

  1. Classroom tandem – Outlining a model for language learning and ınstruction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katri Karjalaınen

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to outline classroom tandem by comparing it with informal tandem learning contexts and other language instruction methods. Classroom tandem is used for second language instruction in mixed language groups in the subjects of Finnish and Swedish as L2. Tandem learning entails that two persons with different mother tongues learn each other’s native languages in reciprocal cooperation. The students function, in turns, as a second language learner and as a model in the native language. We aim to give an overview description of the interaction in classroom tandem practice. The empirical data consists of longitudinal video recordings of meetings of one tandem dyad within a co-located Swedishmedium and Finnish-medium school. Focus in the analysis is on the language aspects the informants orient to and topicalize in their interaction. The language aspects vary depending on what classroom activities they are engaged in, text-based or oral activities.

  2. Protocol-based care: the standardisation of decision-making?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rycroft-Malone, Jo; Fontenla, Marina; Seers, Kate; Bick, Debra

    2009-05-01

    To explore how protocol-based care affects clinical decision-making. In the context of evidence-based practice, protocol-based care is a mechanism for facilitating the standardisation of care and streamlining decision-making through rationalising the information with which to make judgements and ultimately decisions. However, whether protocol-based care does, in the reality of practice, standardise decision-making is unknown. This paper reports on a study that explored the impact of protocol-based care on nurses' decision-making. Theoretically informed by realistic evaluation and the promoting action on research implementation in health services framework, a case study design using ethnographic methods was used. Two sites were purposively sampled; a diabetic and endocrine unit and a cardiac medical unit. Within each site, data collection included observation, postobservation semi-structured interviews with staff and patients, field notes, feedback sessions and document review. Data were inductively and thematically analysed. Decisions made by nurses in both sites were varied according to many different and interacting factors. While several standardised care approaches were available for use, in reality, a variety of information sources informed decision-making. The primary approach to knowledge exchange and acquisition was person-to-person; decision-making was a social activity. Rarely were standardised care approaches obviously referred to; nurses described following a mental flowchart, not necessarily linked to a particular guideline or protocol. When standardised care approaches were used, it was reported that they were used flexibly and particularised. While the logic of protocol-based care is algorithmic, in the reality of clinical practice, other sources of information supported nurses' decision-making process. This has significant implications for the political goal of standardisation. The successful implementation and judicious use of tools such as

  3. Impact of PET/CT system, reconstruction protocol, data analysis method, and repositioning on PET/CT precision: An experimental evaluation using an oncology and brain phantom.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mansor, Syahir; Pfaehler, Elisabeth; Heijtel, Dennis; Lodge, Martin A; Boellaard, Ronald; Yaqub, Maqsood

    2017-12-01

    In longitudinal oncological and brain PET/CT studies, it is important to understand the repeatability of quantitative PET metrics in order to assess change in tracer uptake. The present studies were performed in order to assess precision as function of PET/CT system, reconstruction protocol, analysis method, scan duration (or image noise), and repositioning in the field of view. Multiple (repeated) scans have been performed using a NEMA image quality (IQ) phantom and a 3D Hoffman brain phantom filled with 18 F solutions on two systems. Studies were performed with and without randomly (PET/CT, especially in the case of smaller spheres (PET metrics depends on the combination of reconstruction protocol, data analysis methods and scan duration (scan statistics). Moreover, precision was also affected by phantom repositioning but its impact depended on the data analysis method in combination with the reconstructed voxel size (tissue fraction effect). This study suggests that for oncological PET studies the use of SUV peak may be preferred over SUV max because SUV peak is less sensitive to patient repositioning/tumor sampling. © 2017 The Authors. Medical Physics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

  4. Optimized exosome isolation protocol for cell culture supernatant and human plasma

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard J. Lobb

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Extracellular vesicles represent a rich source of novel biomarkers in the diagnosis and prognosis of disease. However, there is currently limited information elucidating the most efficient methods for obtaining high yields of pure exosomes, a subset of extracellular vesicles, from cell culture supernatant and complex biological fluids such as plasma. To this end, we comprehensively characterize a variety of exosome isolation protocols for their efficiency, yield and purity of isolated exosomes. Repeated ultracentrifugation steps can reduce the quality of exosome preparations leading to lower exosome yield. We show that concentration of cell culture conditioned media using ultrafiltration devices results in increased vesicle isolation when compared to traditional ultracentrifugation protocols. However, our data on using conditioned media isolated from the Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC SK-MES-1 cell line demonstrates that the choice of concentrating device can greatly impact the yield of isolated exosomes. We find that centrifuge-based concentrating methods are more appropriate than pressure-driven concentrating devices and allow the rapid isolation of exosomes from both NSCLC cell culture conditioned media and complex biological fluids. In fact to date, no protocol detailing exosome isolation utilizing current commercial methods from both cells and patient samples has been described. Utilizing tunable resistive pulse sensing and protein analysis, we provide a comparative analysis of 4 exosome isolation techniques, indicating their efficacy and preparation purity. Our results demonstrate that current precipitation protocols for the isolation of exosomes from cell culture conditioned media and plasma provide the least pure preparations of exosomes, whereas size exclusion isolation is comparable to density gradient purification of exosomes. We have identified current shortcomings in common extracellular vesicle isolation methods and provide a

  5. SPECT/CT workflow and imaging protocols

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Beckers, Catherine [University Hospital of Liege, Division of Nuclear Medicine and Oncological Imaging, Department of Medical Physics, Liege (Belgium); Hustinx, Roland [University Hospital of Liege, Division of Nuclear Medicine and Oncological Imaging, Department of Medical Physics, Liege (Belgium); Domaine Universitaire du Sart Tilman, Service de Medecine Nucleaire et Imagerie Oncologique, CHU de Liege, Liege (Belgium)

    2014-05-15

    Introducing a hybrid imaging method such as single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/CT greatly alters the routine in the nuclear medicine department. It requires designing new workflow processes and the revision of original scheduling process and imaging protocols. In addition, the imaging protocol should be adapted for each individual patient, so that performing CT is fully justified and the CT procedure is fully tailored to address the clinical issue. Such refinements often occur before the procedure is started but may be required at some intermediate stage of the procedure. Furthermore, SPECT/CT leads in many instances to a new partnership with the radiology department. This article presents practical advice and highlights the key clinical elements which need to be considered to help understand the workflow process of SPECT/CT and optimise imaging protocols. The workflow process using SPECT/CT is complex in particular because of its bimodal character, the large spectrum of stakeholders, the multiplicity of their activities at various time points and the need for real-time decision-making. With help from analytical tools developed for quality assessment, the workflow process using SPECT/CT may be separated into related, but independent steps, each with its specific human and material resources to use as inputs or outputs. This helps identify factors that could contribute to failure in routine clinical practice. At each step of the process, practical aspects to optimise imaging procedure and protocols are developed. A decision-making algorithm for justifying each CT indication as well as the appropriateness of each CT protocol is the cornerstone of routine clinical practice using SPECT/CT. In conclusion, implementing hybrid SPECT/CT imaging requires new ways of working. It is highly rewarding from a clinical perspective, but it also proves to be a daily challenge in terms of management. (orig.)

  6. SPECT/CT workflow and imaging protocols

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Beckers, Catherine; Hustinx, Roland

    2014-01-01

    Introducing a hybrid imaging method such as single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/CT greatly alters the routine in the nuclear medicine department. It requires designing new workflow processes and the revision of original scheduling process and imaging protocols. In addition, the imaging protocol should be adapted for each individual patient, so that performing CT is fully justified and the CT procedure is fully tailored to address the clinical issue. Such refinements often occur before the procedure is started but may be required at some intermediate stage of the procedure. Furthermore, SPECT/CT leads in many instances to a new partnership with the radiology department. This article presents practical advice and highlights the key clinical elements which need to be considered to help understand the workflow process of SPECT/CT and optimise imaging protocols. The workflow process using SPECT/CT is complex in particular because of its bimodal character, the large spectrum of stakeholders, the multiplicity of their activities at various time points and the need for real-time decision-making. With help from analytical tools developed for quality assessment, the workflow process using SPECT/CT may be separated into related, but independent steps, each with its specific human and material resources to use as inputs or outputs. This helps identify factors that could contribute to failure in routine clinical practice. At each step of the process, practical aspects to optimise imaging procedure and protocols are developed. A decision-making algorithm for justifying each CT indication as well as the appropriateness of each CT protocol is the cornerstone of routine clinical practice using SPECT/CT. In conclusion, implementing hybrid SPECT/CT imaging requires new ways of working. It is highly rewarding from a clinical perspective, but it also proves to be a daily challenge in terms of management. (orig.)

  7. Protocols development for security and privacy of radio frequency identification systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sabbagha, Fatin

    There are benefits to adopting radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, although there are methods of attack that can compromise the system. This research determined how that may happen and what possible solutions can keep that from happening. Protocols were developed to implement better security. In addition, new topologies were developed to handle the problems of the key management. Previously proposed protocols focused on providing mutual authentication and privacy between readers and tags. However, those protocols are still vulnerable to be attacked. These protocols were analyzed and the disadvantages shown for each one. Previous works assumed that the channels between readers and the servers were secure. In the proposed protocols, a compromised reader is considered along with how to prevent tags from being read by that reader. The new protocols provide mutual authentication between readers and tags and, at the same time, remove the compromised reader from the system. Three protocols are proposed. In the first protocol, a mutual authentication is achieved and a compromised reader is not allowed in the network. In the second protocol, the number of times a reader contacts the server is reduced. The third protocol provides authentication and privacy between tags and readers using a trusted third party. The developed topology is implemented using python language and simulates work to check the efficiency regarding the processing time. The three protocols are implemented by writing codes in C language and then compiling them in MSP430. IAR Embedded workbench is used, which is an integrated development environment with the C/C++ compiler to generate a faster code and to debug the microcontroller. In summary, the goal of this research is to find solutions for the problems on previously proposed protocols, handle a compromised reader, and solve key management problems.

  8. [Multidisciplinary protocol for computed tomography imaging and angiographic embolization of splenic injury due to trauma: assessment of pre-protocol and post-protocol outcomes].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koo, M; Sabaté, A; Magalló, P; García, M A; Domínguez, J; de Lama, M E; López, S

    2011-11-01

    To assess conservative treatment of splenic injury due to trauma, following a protocol for computed tomography (CT) and angiographic embolization. To quantify the predictive value of CT for detecting bleeding and need for embolization. The care protocol developed by the multidisciplinary team consisted of angiography with embolization of lesions revealed by contrast extravasation under CT as well as embolization of grade III-V injuries observed, or grade I-II injuries causing hemodynamic instability and/or need for blood transfusion. We collected data on demographic variables, injury severity score (ISS), angiographic findings, and injuries revealed by CT. Pre-protocol and post-protocol outcomes were compared. The sensitivity and specificity of CT findings were calculated for all patients who required angiographic embolization. Forty-four and 30 angiographies were performed in the pre- and post-protocol periods, respectively. The mean (SD) ISSs in the two periods were 25 (11) and 26 (12), respectively. A total of 24 (54%) embolizations were performed in the pre-protocol period and 28 (98%) after implementation of the protocol. Two and 7 embolizations involved the spleen in the 2 periods, respectively; abdominal laparotomies numbered 32 and 25, respectively, and 10 (31%) vs 4 (16%) splenectomies were performed. The specificity and sensitivity values for contrast extravasation found on CT and followed by embolization were 77.7% and 79.5%. The implementation of this multidisciplinary protocol using CT imaging and angiographic embolization led to a decrease in the number of splenectomies. The protocol allows us to take a more conservative treatment approach.

  9. MEthods of ASsessing blood pressUre: identifying thReshold and target valuEs (MeasureBP): a review & study protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blom, Kimberly C; Farina, Sasha; Gomez, Yessica-Haydee; Campbell, Norm R C; Hemmelgarn, Brenda R; Cloutier, Lyne; McKay, Donald W; Dawes, Martin; Tobe, Sheldon W; Bolli, Peter; Gelfer, Mark; McLean, Donna; Bartlett, Gillian; Joseph, Lawrence; Featherstone, Robin; Schiffrin, Ernesto L; Daskalopoulou, Stella S

    2015-04-01

    Despite progress in automated blood pressure measurement (BPM) technology, there is limited research linking hard outcomes to automated office BPM (OBPM) treatment targets and thresholds. Equivalences for automated BPM devices have been estimated from approximations of standardized manual measurements of 140/90 mmHg. Until outcome-driven targets and thresholds become available for automated measurement methods, deriving evidence-based equivalences between automated methods and standardized manual OBPM is the next best solution. The MeasureBP study group was initiated by the Canadian Hypertension Education Program to close this critical knowledge gap. MeasureBP aims to define evidence-based equivalent values between standardized manual OBPM and automated BPM methods by synthesizing available evidence using a systematic review and individual subject-level data meta-analyses. This manuscript provides a review of the literature and MeasureBP study protocol. These results will lay the evidenced-based foundation to resolve uncertainties within blood pressure guidelines which, in turn, will improve the management of hypertension.

  10. New method development in prehistoric stone tool research: evaluating use duration and data analysis protocols.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, Adrian A; Macdonald, Danielle A; Giusca, Claudiu L; Leach, Richard K

    2014-10-01

    Lithic microwear is a research field of prehistoric stone tool (lithic) analysis that has been developed with the aim to identify how stone tools were used. It has been shown that laser scanning confocal microscopy has the potential to be a useful quantitative tool in the study of prehistoric stone tool function. In this paper, two important lines of inquiry are investigated: (1) whether the texture of worn surfaces is constant under varying durations of tool use, and (2) the development of rapid objective data analysis protocols. This study reports on the attempt to further develop these areas of study and results in a better understanding of the complexities underlying the development of flexible analytical algorithms for surface analysis. The results show that when sampling is optimised, surface texture may be linked to contact material type, independent of use duration. Further research is needed to validate this finding and test an expanded range of contact materials. The use of automated analytical protocols has shown promise but is only reliable if sampling location and scale are defined. Results suggest that the sampling protocol reports on the degree of worn surface invasiveness, complicating the ability to investigate duration related textural characterisation. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  11. Discrepancies in sample size calculations and data analyses reported in randomised trials: comparison of publications with protocols

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chan, A.W.; Hrobjartsson, A.; Jorgensen, K.J.

    2008-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: To evaluate how often sample size calculations and methods of statistical analysis are pre-specified or changed in randomised trials. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. Data source Protocols and journal publications of published randomised parallel group trials initially approved...... in 1994-5 by the scientific-ethics committees for Copenhagen and Frederiksberg, Denmark (n=70). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Proportion of protocols and publications that did not provide key information about sample size calculations and statistical methods; proportion of trials with discrepancies between...... of handling missing data was described in 16 protocols and 49 publications. 39/49 protocols and 42/43 publications reported the statistical test used to analyse primary outcome measures. Unacknowledged discrepancies between protocols and publications were found for sample size calculations (18/34 trials...

  12. Shoulder muscle endurance: the development of a standardized and reliable protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roy Jean-Sébastien

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Shoulder muscle fatigue has been proposed as a possible link to explain the association between repetitive arm use and the development of rotator cuff disorders. To our knowledge, no standardized clinical endurance protocol has been developed to evaluate the effects of muscle fatigue on shoulder function. Such a test could improve clinical examination of individuals with shoulder disorders. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to establish a reliable protocol for objective assessment of shoulder muscle endurance. Methods An endurance protocol was developed on a stationary dynamometer (Biodex System 3. The endurance protocol was performed in isotonic mode with the resistance set at 50% of each subject's peak torque as measured for shoulder external (ER and internal rotation (IR. Each subject performed 60 continuous repetitions of IR/ER rotation. The endurance protocol was performed by 36 healthy individuals on two separate occasions at least two days apart. Maximal isometric shoulder strength tests were performed before and after the fatigue protocol to evaluate the effects of the endurance protocol and its reliability. Paired t-tests were used to evaluate the reduction in shoulder strength due to the protocol, while intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC and minimal detectable change (MDC were used to evaluate its reliability. Results Maximal isometric strength was significantly decreased after the endurance protocol (P 0.84. Conclusions Changes in muscular performance observed during and after the muscular endurance protocol suggests that the protocol did result in muscular fatigue. Furthermore, this study established that the resultant effects of fatigue of the proposed isotonic protocol were reproducible over time. The protocol was performed without difficulty by all volunteers and took less than 10 minutes to perform, suggesting that it might be feasible for clinical practice. This protocol could be used to induce

  13. Outline of cold nuclear fusion reaction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tachikawa, Enzo

    1991-01-01

    In 2010, as the total supply capacity of primary energy, 666 million liter is anticipated under the measures of thorough energy conservation. The development of energy sources along the energy policy based on environment preservation, safety, the quantity of resources and economy is strongly demanded. The nuclear power generation utilizing nuclear fission has been successfully carried out. As the third means of energy production, the basic research and technical development have been actively advanced on the energy production utilizing nuclear fusion reaction. The main object of the nuclear fusion research being advanced now is D-D reaction and D-T reaction. In order to realize low temperature nuclear fusion reaction, muon nuclear fusion has been studied so far. The cold nuclear fusion reaction by the electrolysis of heavy water has been reported in 1989, and its outline is ixplained in this report. The trend of the research on cold nuclear fusion is described. But the possibility of cold nuclear fusion as an energy source is almost denied. (K.I.)

  14. Efficient medium access control protocol for geostationary satellite systems

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    王丽娜; 顾学迈

    2004-01-01

    This paper proposes an efficient medium access control (MAC) protocol based on multifrequency-time division multiple access (MF-TDMA) for geostationary satellite systems deploying multiple spot-beams and onboard processing,which uses a method of random reservation access with movable boundaries to dynamically request the transmission slots and can transmit different types of traffic. The simulation results have shown that our designed MAC protocol can achieve a high bandwidth utilization, while providing the required quality of service (QoS) for each class of service.

  15. BioBlocks: Programming Protocols in Biology Made Easier.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gupta, Vishal; Irimia, Jesús; Pau, Iván; Rodríguez-Patón, Alfonso

    2017-07-21

    The methods to execute biological experiments are evolving. Affordable fluid handling robots and on-demand biology enterprises are making automating entire experiments a reality. Automation offers the benefit of high-throughput experimentation, rapid prototyping, and improved reproducibility of results. However, learning to automate and codify experiments is a difficult task as it requires programming expertise. Here, we present a web-based visual development environment called BioBlocks for describing experimental protocols in biology. It is based on Google's Blockly and Scratch, and requires little or no experience in computer programming to automate the execution of experiments. The experiments can be specified, saved, modified, and shared between multiple users in an easy manner. BioBlocks is open-source and can be customized to execute protocols on local robotic platforms or remotely, that is, in the cloud. It aims to serve as a de facto open standard for programming protocols in Biology.

  16. Cryptographic Protocols:

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Geisler, Martin Joakim Bittel

    cryptography was thus concerned with message confidentiality and integrity. Modern cryptography cover a much wider range of subjects including the area of secure multiparty computation, which will be the main topic of this dissertation. Our first contribution is a new protocol for secure comparison, presented...... implemented the comparison protocol in Java and benchmarks show that is it highly competitive and practical. The biggest contribution of this dissertation is a general framework for secure multiparty computation. Instead of making new ad hoc implementations for each protocol, we want a single and extensible...... in Chapter 2. Comparisons play a key role in many systems such as online auctions and benchmarks — it is not unreasonable to say that when parties come together for a multiparty computation, it is because they want to make decisions that depend on private information. Decisions depend on comparisons. We have...

  17. Method for somatic cell nuclear transfer in zebrafish.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siripattarapravat, Kannika; Cibelli, Jose B

    2011-01-01

    Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has been a well-known technique for decades and widely applied to generate identical animals, including ones with genetic alterations. The system has been demonstrated successfully in zebrafish. The elaborated requirements of SCNT, however, limit reproducibility of the established model to a few groups in zebrafish research community. In this chapter, we meticulously outline each step of the published protocol as well as preparations of equipments and reagents used in zebrafish SCNT. All describable detailed-tips are elaborated in texts and figures. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Development of new method and protocol for cryopreservation related to embryo and oocytes freezing in terms of fertilization rate: A comparative study including review of literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barik, Mayadhar; Bajpai, Minu; Patnaik, Santosh; Mishra, Pravash; Behera, Priyamadhaba; Dwivedi, Sada Nanda

    2016-01-01

    Cryopreservation is basically related to meritorious thin samples or small clumps of cells that are cooled quickly without loss. Our main objective is to establish and formulate an innovative method and protocol development for cryopreservation as a gold standard for clinical uses in laboratory practice and treatment. The knowledge regarding usefulness of cryopreservation in clinical practice is essential to carry forward the clinical practice and research. We are trying to compare different methods of cryopreservation (in two dozen of cells) at the same time we compare the embryo and oocyte freezing interms of fertilization rate according to the International standard protocol. The combination of cryoprotectants and regimes of rapid cooling and rinsing during warming often allows successful cryopreservation of biological materials, particularly cell suspensions or thin tissue samples. Examples include semen, blood, tissue samples like tumors, histological cross-sections, human eggs and human embryos. Although presently many studies have reported that the children born from frozen embryos or "frosties," show consistently positive results with no increase in birth defects or development abnormalities is quite good enough and similar to our study (50-85%). We ensure that cryopreservation technology provided useful cell survivability, tissue and organ preservation in a proper way. Although it varies according to different laboratory conditions, it is certainly beneficial for patient's treatment and research. Further studies are needed for standardization and development of new protocol.

  19. A Web Resource for Standardized Benchmark Datasets, Metrics, and Rosetta Protocols for Macromolecular Modeling and Design.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shane Ó Conchúir

    Full Text Available The development and validation of computational macromolecular modeling and design methods depend on suitable benchmark datasets and informative metrics for comparing protocols. In addition, if a method is intended to be adopted broadly in diverse biological applications, there needs to be information on appropriate parameters for each protocol, as well as metrics describing the expected accuracy compared to experimental data. In certain disciplines, there exist established benchmarks and public resources where experts in a particular methodology are encouraged to supply their most efficient implementation of each particular benchmark. We aim to provide such a resource for protocols in macromolecular modeling and design. We present a freely accessible web resource (https://kortemmelab.ucsf.edu/benchmarks to guide the development of protocols for protein modeling and design. The site provides benchmark datasets and metrics to compare the performance of a variety of modeling protocols using different computational sampling methods and energy functions, providing a "best practice" set of parameters for each method. Each benchmark has an associated downloadable benchmark capture archive containing the input files, analysis scripts, and tutorials for running the benchmark. The captures may be run with any suitable modeling method; we supply command lines for running the benchmarks using the Rosetta software suite. We have compiled initial benchmarks for the resource spanning three key areas: prediction of energetic effects of mutations, protein design, and protein structure prediction, each with associated state-of-the-art modeling protocols. With the help of the wider macromolecular modeling community, we hope to expand the variety of benchmarks included on the website and continue to evaluate new iterations of current methods as they become available.

  20. Outlining a typology of sports coaching careers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Mette Krogh

    2014-01-01

    This paper aims to extend our understanding of sports coaching careers and challenge related stage-based models by outlining and describing a typology of careers in high-performance sports coaching. A constructivist research approach is applied that intends to gain insight into the realities...... of coaches’ careers.Datawere drawn fromin-depth interviews with 10 Danish high-performance sports coaches. Results identified four classifying features that pave the way for the establishment of a typology consisting of three ideal types: (1) the elite-athlete coach; (2) the academic coach; and (3) the early......-starter coach. The findings are theorized throughWenger’s concept of paradigmatic pathways and Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital. The study illuminates paradigmatic trajectories and conversions of cultural capital in high-performance sports coaching careers that may act as models for young athletes...

  1. Effectiveness of couch height-based patient set-up and an off-line correction protocol in prostate cancer radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin, Emile N.J.Th. van; Nijenhuis, Edwin; Huizenga, Henk; Vight, Lisette van der; Visser, Andries

    2001-01-01

    Purpose: To investigate set-up improvement caused by applying a couch height-based patient set-up method in combination with a technologist-driven off-line correction protocol in nonimmobilized radiotherapy of prostate patients. Methods and Materials: A three-dimensional shrinking action level correction protocol is applied in two consecutive patient cohorts with different set-up methods: the traditional 'laser set-up' group (n=43) and the 'couch height set-up' group (n=112). For all directions, left-right, ventro-dorsal, and cranio-caudal, random and systematic set-up deviations were measured. Results: The couch height set-up method improves the patient positioning compared to the laser set-up method. Without application of the correction protocol, both systematic and random errors reduced to 2.2-2.4 mm (1 SD) and 1.7-2.2 mm (1 SD), respectively. By using the correction protocol, systematic errors reduced further to 1.3-1.6 mm (1 SD). One-dimensional deviations were within 5 mm for >90% of the measured fractions. The required number of corrections per patient in the off-line correction protocol was reduced significantly during the course of treatment from 1.1 to 0.6 by the couch height set-up method. The treatment time was not prolonged by application of the correction protocol. Conclusions: The couch height set-up method improves the set-up significantly, especially in the ventro-dorsal direction. Combination of this set-up method with an off-line correction strategy, executed by technologists, reduces the number of set-up corrections required

  2. Cassandra - D6.3 - final protocol : Seventh Framework Programme THEME Monitoring and Tracking of Shipping Containers Security

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Malenstein, J.; Schewe, W.; Zomer, G.; Klievink, A.J.; Nijdam, M.; Visscher, W.

    2014-01-01

    The Cassandra project addressed procedures and methods (protocols) for government supervision of international trade lanes. Specifically, it looked at the impact of the Cassandra innovations on the procedures and methods to assess risks (risk assessment protocols). This covers the way in which the

  3. A modified FASP protocol for high-throughput preparation of protein samples for mass spectrometry.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jeremy Potriquet

    Full Text Available To facilitate high-throughput proteomic analyses we have developed a modified FASP protocol which improves the rate at which protein samples can be processed prior to mass spectrometry. Adapting the original FASP protocol to a 96-well format necessitates extended spin times for buffer exchange due to the low centrifugation speeds tolerated by these devices. However, by using 96-well plates with a more robust polyethersulfone molecular weight cutoff membrane, instead of the cellulose membranes typically used in these devices, we could use isopropanol as a wetting agent, decreasing spin times required for buffer exchange from an hour to 30 minutes. In a typical work flow used in our laboratory this equates to a reduction of 3 hours per plate, providing processing times similar to FASP for the processing of up to 96 samples per plate. To test whether our modified protocol produced similar results to FASP and other FASP-like protocols we compared the performance of our modified protocol to the original FASP and the more recently described eFASP and MStern-blot. We show that all FASP-like methods, including our modified protocol, display similar performance in terms of proteins identified and reproducibility. Our results show that our modified FASP protocol is an efficient method for the high-throughput processing of protein samples for mass spectral analysis.

  4. An outline of Nirex's research and safety assessment programmes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saunders, P.A.H.

    1987-11-01

    This document outlines the safety studies being carried out by Nirex to ensure that radioactive wastes are disposed of in such a way that significant exposure of the public to radiation is at a minimum. The studies comprise experimental and theoretical work and mathematical modelling to predict performance over a long time-scale. Laboratory experiments are concerned with the immobilisation and packaging of wastes. Field studies provide information on radionuclide migration and the geology of possible repository sites. The results should ensure that waste disposal meets the exacting government safety standards. (U.K.)

  5. How blockchain-timestamped protocols could improve the trustworthiness of medical science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Irving, Greg; Holden, John

    2016-01-01

    Trust in scientific research is diminished by evidence that data are being manipulated. Outcome switching, data dredging and selective publication are some of the problems that undermine the integrity of published research. Methods for using blockchain to provide proof of pre-specified endpoints in clinical trial protocols were first reported by Carlisle. We wished to empirically test such an approach using a clinical trial protocol where outcome switching has previously been reported. Here we confirm the use of blockchain as a low cost, independently verifiable method to audit and confirm the reliability of scientific studies.

  6. Tranexamic Acid versus Placebo to Prevent Blood Transfusion during Radical Cystectomy for Bladder Cancer (TACT): Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Breau, Rodney H; Lavallée, Luke T; Cnossen, Sonya; Witiuk, Kelsey; Cagiannos, Ilias; Momoli, Franco; Bryson, Gregory; Kanji, Salmaan; Morash, Christopher; Turgeon, Alexis; Zarychanski, Ryan; Mallick, Ranjeeta; Knoll, Greg; Fergusson, Dean A

    2018-05-02

    Radical cystectomy for bladder cancer is associated with a high risk of needing red blood cell transfusion. Tranexamic acid reduces blood loss during cardiac and orthopedic surgery, but no study has yet evaluated tranexamic acid use during cystectomy. A randomized, double-blind (surgeon-, anesthesiologist-, patient-, data-monitor-blinded), placebo-controlled trial of tranexamic acid during cystectomy was initiated in June 2013. Prior to incision, the intervention arm participants receive a 10 mg/kg loading dose of intravenously administered tranexamic acid, followed by a 5 mg/kg/h maintenance infusion. In the control arm, the patient receives an identical volume of normal saline that is indistinguishable from the intervention. The primary outcome is any blood transfusion from the start of surgery up to 30 days post operative. There are no strict criteria to mandate the transfusion of blood products. The decision to transfuse is entirely at the discretion of the treating physicians who are blinded to patient allocation. Physicians are allowed to utilize all resources to make transfusion decisions, including serum hemoglobin concentration and vital signs. To date, 147 patients of a planned 354 have been randomized to the study. This protocol reviews pertinent data relating to blood transfusion during radical cystectomy, highlighting the need to identify methods for reducing blood loss and preventing transfusion in patients receiving radical cystectomy. It explains the clinical rationale for using tranexamic acid to reduce blood loss during cystectomy, and outlines the study methods of our ongoing randomized controlled trial. Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) Protocol: MOP-342559; ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT01869413. Registered on 5 June 2013.

  7. Development of a bedside viable ultrasound protocol to quantify appendicular lean tissue mass.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paris, Michael T; Lafleur, Benoit; Dubin, Joel A; Mourtzakis, Marina

    2017-10-01

    Ultrasound is a non-invasive and readily available tool that can be prospectively applied at the bedside to assess muscle mass in clinical settings. The four-site protocol, which images two anatomical sites on each quadriceps, may be a viable bedside method, but its ability to predict musculature has not been compared against whole-body reference methods. Our primary objectives were to (i) compare the four-site protocol's ability to predict appendicular lean tissue mass from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry; (ii) optimize the predictability of the four-site protocol with additional anatomical muscle thicknesses and easily obtained covariates; and (iii) assess the ability of the optimized protocol to identify individuals with low lean tissue mass. This observational cross-sectional study recruited 96 university and community dwelling adults. Participants underwent ultrasound scans for assessment of muscle thickness and whole-body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scans for assessment of appendicular lean tissue. Ultrasound protocols included (i) the nine-site protocol, which images nine anterior and posterior muscle groups in supine and prone positions, and (ii) the four-site protocol, which images two anterior sites on each quadriceps muscle group in a supine position. The four-site protocol was strongly associated (R 2  = 0.72) with appendicular lean tissue mass, but Bland-Altman analysis displayed wide limits of agreement (-5.67, 5.67 kg). Incorporating the anterior upper arm muscle thickness, and covariates age and sex, alongside the four-site protocol, improved the association (R 2  = 0.91) with appendicular lean tissue and displayed narrower limits of agreement (-3.18, 3.18 kg). The optimized protocol demonstrated a strong ability to identify low lean tissue mass (area under the curve = 0.89). The four-site protocol can be improved with the addition of the anterior upper arm muscle thickness, sex, and age when predicting appendicular lean tissue mass

  8. A round-robin gamma stereotactic radiosurgery dosimetry interinstitution comparison of calibration protocols

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Drzymala, R. E., E-mail: drzymala@wustl.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63110 (United States); Alvarez, P. E. [Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core Houston, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States); Bednarz, G. [Radiation Oncology Department, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15232 (United States); Bourland, J. D. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157 (United States); DeWerd, L. A. [Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53705 (United States); Ma, L. [Department of Radiation Oncology, University California San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143 (United States); Meltsner, S. G. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710 (United States); Neyman, G. [Department of Radiation Oncology, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio 44195 (United States); Novotny, J. [Medical Physics Department, Hospital Na Homolce, Prague 15030 (Czech Republic); Petti, P. L. [Gamma Knife Center, Washington Hospital Healthcare System, Fremont, California 94538 (United States); Rivard, M. J. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02111 (United States); Shiu, A. S. [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90033 (United States); Goetsch, S. J. [San Diego Medical Physics, Inc., La Jolla, California 92037 (United States)

    2015-11-15

    Purpose: Absorbed dose calibration for gamma stereotactic radiosurgery is challenging due to the unique geometric conditions, dosimetry characteristics, and nonstandard field size of these devices. Members of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Task Group 178 on Gamma Stereotactic Radiosurgery Dosimetry and Quality Assurance have participated in a round-robin exchange of calibrated measurement instrumentation and phantoms exploring two approved and two proposed calibration protocols or formalisms on ten gamma radiosurgery units. The objectives of this study were to benchmark and compare new formalisms to existing calibration methods, while maintaining traceability to U.S. primary dosimetry calibration laboratory standards. Methods: Nine institutions made measurements using ten gamma stereotactic radiosurgery units in three different 160 mm diameter spherical phantoms [acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic, Solid Water, and liquid water] and in air using a positioning jig. Two calibrated miniature ionization chambers and one calibrated electrometer were circulated for all measurements. Reference dose-rates at the phantom center were determined using the well-established AAPM TG-21 or TG-51 dose calibration protocols and using two proposed dose calibration protocols/formalisms: an in-air protocol and a formalism proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) working group for small and nonstandard radiation fields. Each institution’s results were normalized to the dose-rate determined at that institution using the TG-21 protocol in the ABS phantom. Results: Percentages of dose-rates within 1.5% of the reference dose-rate (TG-21 + ABS phantom) for the eight chamber-protocol-phantom combinations were the following: 88% for TG-21, 70% for TG-51, 93% for the new IAEA nonstandard-field formalism, and 65% for the new in-air protocol. Averages and standard deviations for dose-rates over all measurements relative to the TG-21 + ABS

  9. Danish method study on cervical screening in women offered HPV vaccination as girls (Trial23): a study protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thamsborg, Lise Holst; Andersen, Berit; Larsen, Lise Grupe; Christensen, Jette; Johansen, Tonje; Hariri, Jalil; Christiansen, Sanne; Rygaard, Carsten; Lynge, Elsebeth

    2018-05-26

    The first birth cohorts of women offered human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination as girls are now entering cervical screening. However, there is no international consensus on how to screen HPV vaccinated women. These women are better protected against cervical cancer and could therefore be offered less intensive screening. Primary HPV testing is more sensitive than cytology, allowing for a longer screening interval. The aim of Trial23 is to investigate if primary HPV testing with cytology triage of HPV positive samples is a reasonable screening scheme for women offered HPV vaccination as girls. Trial23 is a method study embedded in the existing cervical screening programme in four out of five Danish regions. Without affecting the screening programme, women born in 1994 are randomised to present screening with liquid-based cytology every third year (present programme arm) or present screening plus an HPV test (HPV arm). The study started 1 February 2017 and will run over three screening rounds corresponding to 7-8 years. The primary endpoint is cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 or above. The trial is undertaken as a non-inferiority study including intention-to-treat and per-protocol analyses. The potential effect of primary HPV screening with a 6-year interval will be calculated from the observed data. The study protocol has been submitted to the ethical committee and deemed a method study. All women are screened according to routine guidelines. The study will contribute new evidence on the future screening of HPV vaccinated birth cohorts of women. All results will be published in open-access journal. NCT03049553; Pre-results. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  10. Automated Planning Enables Complex Protocols on Liquid-Handling Robots.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whitehead, Ellis; Rudolf, Fabian; Kaltenbach, Hans-Michael; Stelling, Jörg

    2018-03-16

    Robotic automation in synthetic biology is especially relevant for liquid handling to facilitate complex experiments. However, research tasks that are not highly standardized are still rarely automated in practice. Two main reasons for this are the substantial investments required to translate molecular biological protocols into robot programs, and the fact that the resulting programs are often too specific to be easily reused and shared. Recent developments of standardized protocols and dedicated programming languages for liquid-handling operations addressed some aspects of ease-of-use and portability of protocols. However, either they focus on simplicity, at the expense of enabling complex protocols, or they entail detailed programming, with corresponding skills and efforts required from the users. To reconcile these trade-offs, we developed Roboliq, a software system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) methods to integrate (i) generic formal, yet intuitive, protocol descriptions, (ii) complete, but usually hidden, programming capabilities, and (iii) user-system interactions to automatically generate executable, optimized robot programs. Roboliq also enables high-level specifications of complex tasks with conditional execution. To demonstrate the system's benefits for experiments that are difficult to perform manually because of their complexity, duration, or time-critical nature, we present three proof-of-principle applications for the reproducible, quantitative characterization of GFP variants.

  11. Multimode Communication Protocols Enabling Reconfigurable Radios

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Berlemann Lars

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper focuses on the realization and application of a generic protocol stack for reconfigurable wireless communication systems. This focus extends the field of software-defined radios which usually concentrates on the physical layer. The generic protocol stack comprises common protocol functionality and behavior which are extended through specific parts of the targeted radio access technology. This paper considers parameterizable modules of basic protocol functions residing in the data link layer of the ISO/OSI model. System-specific functionality of the protocol software is realized through adequate parameterization and composition of the generic modules. The generic protocol stack allows an efficient realization of reconfigurable protocol software and enables a completely reconfigurable wireless communication system. It is a first step from side-by-side realized, preinstalled modes in a terminal towards a dynamic reconfigurable anymode terminal. The presented modules of the generic protocol stack can also be regarded as a toolbox for the accelerated and cost-efficient development of future communication protocols.

  12. Ancestors protocol for scalable key management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dieter Gollmann

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Group key management is an important functional building block for secure multicast architecture. Thereby, it has been extensively studied in the literature. The main proposed protocol is Adaptive Clustering for Scalable Group Key Management (ASGK. According to ASGK protocol, the multicast group is divided into clusters, where each cluster consists of areas of members. Each cluster uses its own Traffic Encryption Key (TEK. These clusters are updated periodically depending on the dynamism of the members during the secure session. The modified protocol has been proposed based on ASGK with some modifications to balance the number of affected members and the encryption/decryption overhead with any number of the areas when a member joins or leaves the group. This modified protocol is called Ancestors protocol. According to Ancestors protocol, every area receives the dynamism of the members from its parents. The main objective of the modified protocol is to reduce the number of affected members during the leaving and joining members, then 1 affects n overhead would be reduced. A comparative study has been done between ASGK protocol and the modified protocol. According to the comparative results, it found that the modified protocol is always outperforming the ASGK protocol.

  13. Traffic Adaptive MAC Protocols in Wireless Body Area Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Farhan Masud

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs, every healthcare application that is based on physical sensors is responsible for monitoring the vital signs data of patient. WBANs applications consist of heterogeneous and dynamic traffic loads. Routine patient’s observation is described as low-load traffic while an alarming situation that is unpredictable by nature is referred to as high-load traffic. This paper offers a thematic review of traffic adaptive Medium Access Control (MAC protocols in WBANs. First, we have categorized them based on their goals, methods, and metrics of evaluation. The Zigbee standard IEEE 802.15.4 and the baseline MAC IEEE 802.15.6 are also reviewed in terms of traffic adaptive approaches. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of the protocols is made and their performances are analyzed in terms of delay, packet delivery ratio (PDR, and energy consumption. The literature shows that no review work has been done on traffic adaptive MAC protocols in WBANs. This review work, therefore, could add enhancement to traffic adaptive MAC protocols and will stimulate a better way of solving the traffic adaptivity problem.

  14. A critical analysis of a locally agreed protocol for clinical practice

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Owen, A.; Hogg, P.; Nightingale, J.

    2004-01-01

    Within the traditional scope of radiographic practice (including advanced practice) there is a need to demonstrate effective patient care and management. Such practice should be set within a context of appropriate evidence and should also reflect peer practice. In order to achieve such practice the use of protocols is encouraged. Effective protocols can maximise care and management by minimising inter- and intra-professional variation; they can also allow for detailed procedural records to be kept in case of legal claims. However, whilst literature exists to encourage the use of protocols there is little published material available to indicate how to create, manage and archive them. This article uses an analytical approach to propose a suitable method for protocol creation and archival, it also offers suggestions on the scope and content of a protocol. To achieve this an existing clinical protocol for radiographer reporting barium enemas is analysed to draw out the general issues. Proposals for protocol creation, management, and archival were identified. The clinical practice described or inferred in the protocol should be drawn from evidence, such evidence could include peer-reviewed material, national standards and peer practice. The protocol should include an explanation of how to proceed when the radiographers reach the limit of their ability. It should refer to the initial training required to undertake the clinical duties as well as the on-going continual professional updating required to maintain competence. Audit of practice should be indicated, including the preferred audit methodology, and associated with this should be a clear statement about standards and what to do if standards are not adequately met. Protocols should be archived, in a paper-based form, for lengthy periods in case of legal claims. On the archived protocol the date it was in clinical use should be included

  15. A protocol for the commissioning and quality assurance of new planning computers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ratcliffe, A.J.; Aukett, R.J.; Bolton, S.C.; Bonnett, D.E.

    1995-01-01

    Any new radiotherapy planning system needs to be thoroughly tested. Besides checking the accuracy of the algorithm by comparing plans done on the system with measurements done in a phantom, it is desirable for the user to compare the new equipment with a tried and tested system before it is used clinically. To test our recently purchased planning systems, a protocol was developed for running a comparison between these and our existing planning computer, an IGE RTPLAN. A summary of the test protocol that was developed is as follows: (1) A series of plans is created on the old system, to include at least one plan of each common type. The series includes at least one plan with a bone inhomogeneity, and one with an air or lung inhomogeneity, and these plans are computed both with and without inhomogeneity correction. Point dose calculations are made for a number of positions on each plan, including the dose at the centre of the treatment volume. (2) Each of these plans is reproduced as accurately as possible on the new system using the original CT data and patient outlines. (3) The old and new plans, including those with and without inhomogeneity correction are overlaid and compared using the following criteria: (a) how well the volumes of interest coincide, (b) how accurately the positions of the points of interest are reproduced, (c) the doses at the points of interest, (d) the distances between the isodoses defining the dose plateau, (e) the maximum displacement between the corresponding pairs of isodoses in the dose gradient around the tumour. The protocol has been used to test two systems: the (newly developed) Siemens Axiom and the Helax TMS (running on a DEC Alpha). A summary of the results obtained will be presented. These were sufficient to show up several minor problems, particularly in the Axiom system

  16. What is the most appropriate knowledge synthesis method to conduct a review? Protocol for a scoping review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kastner Monika

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background A knowledge synthesis attempts to summarize all pertinent studies on a specific question, can improve the understanding of inconsistencies in diverse evidence, and can identify gaps in research evidence to define future research agendas. Knowledge synthesis activities in healthcare have largely focused on systematic reviews of interventions. However, a wider range of synthesis methods has emerged in the last decade addressing different types of questions (e.g., realist synthesis to explore mediating mechanisms and moderators of interventions. Many different knowledge synthesis methods exist in the literature across multiple disciplines, but locating these, particularly for qualitative research, present challenges. There is a need for a comprehensive manual for synthesis methods (quantitative/qualitative or mixed, outlining how these methods are related, and how to match the most appropriate knowledge synthesis method to answer a research question. The objectives of this scoping review are to: 1 conduct a systematic search of the literature for knowledge synthesis methods across multi-disciplinary fields; 2 compare and contrast the different knowledge synthesis methods; and, 3 map out the specific steps to conducting the knowledge syntheses to inform the development of a knowledge synthesis methods manual/tool. Methods We will search relevant electronic databases (e.g., MEDLINE, CINAHL, grey literature, and discipline-based listservs. The scoping review will consider all study designs including qualitative and quantitative methodologies (excluding economic analysis or clinical practice guideline development, and identify knowledge synthesis methods across the disciplines of health, education, sociology, and philosophy. Two reviewers will pilot-test the screening criteria and data abstraction forms, and will independently screen the literature and abstract the data. A three-step synthesis process will be used to map the

  17. Protocols and guidelines for mobile chest radiography in Irish public hospitals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kelly, Amanda; Toomey, Rachel

    2015-01-01

    Background: The mobile chest radiograph is a highly variable examination, in both technique and setting. Protocols and guidelines are one method by which examinations can be standardised, and provide information when one is unsure how to proceed. This study was undertaken to investigate the existence of protocols and guidelines available for the mobile chest radiograph, to establish their nature and compare them under a variety of headings. Methodology: A postal survey was administered to the Radiography Service Managers in the public hospitals under the governance of the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland. The survey contained questions regarding hospital demographics, contents of existing protocols or guidelines, and why a protocol or guideline was not in place, if this was the case. Results: The response rate to the survey was 62% (n = 24). Those that had a specific protocol in place amounted to 63% (n = 15), 71% (n = 17) had a specific guideline, and 63% (n = 15) had both. Twenty nine percent (n = 7) had no specific protocol/guideline in place. Scientific research (88%, n = 15) and radiographer experience (82%, n = 14) were the most common sources used to inform protocols and guidelines. Conclusions: There are protocols and guidelines available to radiographers for mobile chest radiography in the majority of public hospitals in Ireland. The nature of the protocols and guidelines generally coincides with the HSE guidance regarding what sources of information should be used and how often they should be updated

  18. Light microscopy - Methods and protocols

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CarloAlberto Redi

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available The first part of the book (six chapters is devoted to some selected applications of bright-field microscopy while the second part (eight chapters to some fluorescence microscopy studies. Both animal and plant biology investigations are presented covering multiple fields like immunology, cell signaling, cancer biology and, surprisingly to me, ecology. This chapter is titled: Light microscopy in aquatic ecology: Methods for plankton communities studies and it is due to Maria Carolina S. Soares and colleagues from the Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Dept. of Biology, Federal University of Juiz de Fora (Brazil. Here they present methods to quantify the different component of planktonic communities in a step-by-step manner so that virus, bacteria, algae and animals pertaining to different taxa can be recognized and the contribution they made to the plankton composition evaluated. It descends that even how the plankton composition is changing due to environmental variations can be accurately determined....

  19. Epistemic Protocols for Distributed Gossiping

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krzysztof R. Apt

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Gossip protocols aim at arriving, by means of point-to-point or group communications, at a situation in which all the agents know each other's secrets. We consider distributed gossip protocols which are expressed by means of epistemic logic. We provide an operational semantics of such protocols and set up an appropriate framework to argue about their correctness. Then we analyze specific protocols for complete graphs and for directed rings.

  20. Distributed synchronization of networked drive-response systems: A nonlinear fixed-time protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Wen; Liu, Gang; Ma, Xi; He, Bing; Dong, Yunfeng

    2017-11-01

    The distributed synchronization of networked drive-response systems is investigated in this paper. A novel nonlinear protocol is proposed to ensure that the tracking errors converge to zeros in a fixed-time. By comparison with previous synchronization methods, the present method considers more practical conditions and the synchronization time is not dependent of arbitrary initial conditions but can be offline pre-assign according to the task assignment. Finally, the feasibility and validity of the presented protocol have been illustrated by a numerical simulation. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  1. New Heterogeneous Clustering Protocol for Prolonging Wireless Sensor Networks Lifetime

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Md. Golam Rashed

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Clustering in wireless sensor networks is one of the crucial methods for increasing of network lifetime. The network characteristics of existing classical clustering protocols for wireless sensor network are homogeneous. Clustering protocols fail to maintain the stability of the system, especially when nodes are heterogeneous. We have seen that the behavior of Heterogeneous-Hierarchical Energy Aware Routing Protocol (H-HEARP becomes very unstable once the first node dies, especially in the presence of node heterogeneity. In this paper we assume a new clustering protocol whose network characteristics is heterogeneous for prolonging of network lifetime. The computer simulation results demonstrate that the proposed clustering algorithm outperforms than other clustering algorithms in terms of the time interval before the death of the first node (we refer to as stability period. The simulation results also show the high performance of the proposed clustering algorithm for higher values of extra energy brought by more powerful nodes.

  2. Using semantics for representing experimental protocols.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giraldo, Olga; García, Alexander; López, Federico; Corcho, Oscar

    2017-11-13

    An experimental protocol is a sequence of tasks and operations executed to perform experimental research in biological and biomedical areas, e.g. biology, genetics, immunology, neurosciences, virology. Protocols often include references to equipment, reagents, descriptions of critical steps, troubleshooting and tips, as well as any other information that researchers deem important for facilitating the reusability of the protocol. Although experimental protocols are central to reproducibility, the descriptions are often cursory. There is the need for a unified framework with respect to the syntactic structure and the semantics for representing experimental protocols. In this paper we present "SMART Protocols ontology", an ontology for representing experimental protocols. Our ontology represents the protocol as a workflow with domain specific knowledge embedded within a document. We also present the S ample I nstrument R eagent O bjective (SIRO) model, which represents the minimal common information shared across experimental protocols. SIRO was conceived in the same realm as the Patient Intervention Comparison Outcome (PICO) model that supports search, retrieval and classification purposes in evidence based medicine. We evaluate our approach against a set of competency questions modeled as SPARQL queries and processed against a set of published and unpublished protocols modeled with the SP Ontology and the SIRO model. Our approach makes it possible to answer queries such as Which protocols use tumor tissue as a sample. Improving reporting structures for experimental protocols requires collective efforts from authors, peer reviewers, editors and funding bodies. The SP Ontology is a contribution towards this goal. We build upon previous experiences and bringing together the view of researchers managing protocols in their laboratory work. Website: https://smartprotocols.github.io/ .

  3. Evaluation method of offensive odor. Shuki no hyoka hoho

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Iwasaki, Y [The Tokyo Metropolitan Research Institute for Environmental Protection, Tokyo (Japan)

    1991-06-01

    As the evaluation method of offensive odor, two kinds of methods were outlined, a concentration measurement method for compounds emitting offensive odors and a sensory method by human olfactory organ. On the former, the method for measuring separately odors of twelve compounds controlled by the regulation act such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide was outlined as well as the method for measuring odors of compound groups such as total reduced sulfur and total hydrocarbon. On the later, the evaluation scale of essential properties of odor such as quality, intensity, acceptability and pervasiveness was discussed. As typical sensory techniques, a scentometer, syringe method, odorless chamber method and olfactometer were outlined, and a triangle odor bag method widely used for the evaluation at present was described in detail which was developed to reduce demerits of a syringe method such as adsorption of odorants on a syringe surface. 24 refs., 6 figs., 3 tabs.

  4. Development of a program theory for shared decision-making: a realist review protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Groot, Gary; Waldron, Tamara; Carr, Tracey; McMullen, Linda; Bandura, Lori-Ann; Neufeld, Shelley-May; Duncan, Vicky

    2017-06-17

    The practicality of applying evidence to healthcare systems with the aim of implementing change is an ongoing challenge for practitioners, policy makers, and academics. Shared decision- making (SDM), a method of medical decision-making that allows a balanced relationship between patients, physicians, and other key players in the medical decision process, is purported to improve patient and system outcomes. Despite the oft-mentioned benefits, there are gaps in the current literature between theory and implementation that would benefit from a realist approach given the value of this methodology to analyze complex interventions. In this protocol, we outline a study that will explore: "In which situations, how, why, and for whom does SDM between patients and health care providers contribute to improved decision making?" A seven step iterative process will be described including preliminary theory development, establishment of a search strategy, selection and appraisal of literature, data extraction, analysis and synthesis of extracted results from literature, and formation of a revised program theory with the input of patients, physicians, nurse navigators, and policy makers from a stakeholder session. The goal of the realist review will be to identify and refine a program theory for SDM through the identification of mechanisms which shape the characteristics of when, how, and why SDM will, and will not, work. PROSPERO CRD42017062609.

  5. A New Ultra-lightweight Authentication Protocol for Low Cost RFID Tags

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xin Wang

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID system has been widely used in almost every aspects of the society. At present, the problem of security and privacy become a key factor of severely blocking the widespread of its usage. However, due to restraints on RFID tag’s manufacturing cost, the traditional methods of encryption are not good candidate to defend the security of wireless communication channel between reader and tag. Designing lightweight or ultra-lightweight RFID authentication protocol has become a hot research topic recently. This paper proposes a new ultra-lightweight RFID authentication protocol with high robustness and execution efficiency. The proposed protocol requires only simple bit-wise operations, it has the characteristics of low storage requirement and communication cost. At the same time, through elaborate mechanism design, avoid the vulnerability of the existing ultra-lightweight authentication protocols.

  6. Biocoder: A programming language for standardizing and automating biology protocols.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ananthanarayanan, Vaishnavi; Thies, William

    2010-11-08

    Published descriptions of biology protocols are often ambiguous and incomplete, making them difficult to replicate in other laboratories. However, there is increasing benefit to formalizing the descriptions of protocols, as laboratory automation systems (such as microfluidic chips) are becoming increasingly capable of executing them. Our goal in this paper is to improve both the reproducibility and automation of biology experiments by using a programming language to express the precise series of steps taken. We have developed BioCoder, a C++ library that enables biologists to express the exact steps needed to execute a protocol. In addition to being suitable for automation, BioCoder converts the code into a readable, English-language description for use by biologists. We have implemented over 65 protocols in BioCoder; the most complex of these was successfully executed by a biologist in the laboratory using BioCoder as the only reference. We argue that BioCoder exposes and resolves ambiguities in existing protocols, and could provide the software foundations for future automation platforms. BioCoder is freely available for download at http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/india/projects/biocoder/. BioCoder represents the first practical programming system for standardizing and automating biology protocols. Our vision is to change the way that experimental methods are communicated: rather than publishing a written account of the protocols used, researchers will simply publish the code. Our experience suggests that this practice is tractable and offers many benefits. We invite other researchers to leverage BioCoder to improve the precision and completeness of their protocols, and also to adapt and extend BioCoder to new domains.

  7. Quality control protocols for radiodiagnosis agents and radiopharmaceuticals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Robles, A.; Condor, M.; Caballero, J.; Morote, M.; Garcia, C.; Benites, M.

    1997-01-01

    Based on the compilation of pharmacopoeia methods, literature, manuals and other information developed in our laboratory, protocols have been prepared to carry out quality controls for radiodiagnosis agents (RDA), better known as kits and RDA labelled with Tc99m. Quality control protocols cover physicochemical and biological controls. Physicochemical controls described for RDA include physical characteristics, particle size and number, pH, chemical identification, humidity, tin II; whereas biological controls include sterility, acute toxicity and bacterial endotoxin determination (LAL). Physicochemical controls described for radiopharmaceuticals labelled with Tc99m are pH and radiochemical purity; while biological distribution is described as a biological control

  8. Statistical principles for prospective study protocols:

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Robin; Langberg, Henning

    2012-01-01

    In the design of scientific studies it is essential to decide on which scientific questions one aims to answer, just as it is important to decide on the correct statistical methods to use to answer these questions. The correct use of statistical methods is crucial in all aspects of research...... to quantify relationships in data. Despite an increased focus on statistical content and complexity of biomedical research these topics remain difficult for most researchers. Statistical methods enable researchers to condense large spreadsheets with data into means, proportions, and difference between means...... the statistical principles for trial protocols in terms of design, analysis, and reporting of findings....

  9. Understanding protocol performance: impact of test performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turner, Robert G

    2013-01-01

    This is the second of two articles that examine the factors that determine protocol performance. The objective of these articles is to provide a general understanding of protocol performance that can be used to estimate performance, establish limits on performance, decide if a protocol is justified, and ultimately select a protocol. The first article was concerned with protocol criterion and test correlation. It demonstrated the advantages and disadvantages of different criterion when all tests had the same performance. It also examined the impact of increasing test correlation on protocol performance and the characteristics of the different criteria. To examine the impact on protocol performance when individual tests in a protocol have different performance. This is evaluated for different criteria and test correlations. The results of the two articles are combined and summarized. A mathematical model is used to calculate protocol performance for different protocol criteria and test correlations when there are small to large variations in the performance of individual tests in the protocol. The performance of the individual tests that make up a protocol has a significant impact on the performance of the protocol. As expected, the better the performance of the individual tests, the better the performance of the protocol. Many of the characteristics of the different criteria are relatively independent of the variation in the performance of the individual tests. However, increasing test variation degrades some criteria advantages and causes a new disadvantage to appear. This negative impact increases as test variation increases and as more tests are added to the protocol. Best protocol performance is obtained when individual tests are uncorrelated and have the same performance. In general, the greater the variation in the performance of tests in the protocol, the more detrimental this variation is to protocol performance. Since this negative impact is increased as

  10. Application of Quantum Process Calculus to Higher Dimensional Quantum Protocols

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simon J. Gay

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available We describe the use of quantum process calculus to describe and analyze quantum communication protocols, following the successful field of formal methods from classical computer science. We have extended the quantum process calculus to describe d-dimensional quantum systems, which has not been done before. We summarise the necessary theory in the generalisation of quantum gates and Bell states and use the theory to apply the quantum process calculus CQP to quantum protocols, namely qudit teleportation and superdense coding.

  11. Latin American Bioethics: intangible outline of the continent’s reality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dora Porto

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available This brief essay proposes to reflect on what could be Latin American bioethics, speculating about possible identity characteristics and operational limits of the idea of what constitutes Latin America, outlined conceptually by geographical, historical and cultural aspects. This attempt does not assume the task of defining exactly or definitively what Latin American bioethics is, but rather limits itself to the purpose of causing controversy in order to stimulate reflection on this topic to assess its usefulness.

  12. Evaluation of sensitivity of modified star protocol microbiological method for beta-lactame antibiotics detection in raw cow milk

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Borović Branka

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Antibiotic residues when present in animal tissues, through food chain, can enter human body, causing allergic reactions or facilitating the development of resistant bacterial strains. In order to determine the presence of antibiotics in animal tissues, it is appropriate to use convenient, reliable and sensitive methods. Microbiological methods applied for the detection of antibiotic residues in primary products of animal origin are based on the sensitivity of specific bacterial strains to a particular group of antibiotics. Regulatives on the amount of pesticides, metals and metalloids and other toxic substances, chemotherapeutics, anabolics and other substances which can be found in food ("Off. Gazette", No. 5/92, 11/92 - corr. and 32/02, state that milk and milk products can be used in commercial purposes only if not contain antibiotics in quantities that can be detected by reference methods. The applied method is modified STAR (Screening test for detection of antibiotics protocol, regulated by the CRL (Community Reference Laboratory Fougeres, France, in which the initial validation of the method had been carried out. In accordance with the demands of Regulative Commission EC No657/2002, the sensitivity of modified STAR protocol for beta lactam antibiotics group was examined , that is, there was carried out a contracted validation of the method, which initial validation had been performed at CRL. In a couple of series of experiments, 20 blank samples of raw cow milk originating from animals not treated by antibiotics, had been examined. By the beginning of the experiment samples were stored in a freezer at -20ºC. Samples of raw cow milk enriched by working solutions of seven beta-lactam antibiotics, in order to obtain concentrations at the level of 0.5, 1 and 1.5 MRL (Maximmum Residue Limit for each given antibiotic (Commission Regulation EC No. 37/2010. For detection of beta-lactam antibiotics, there was used Kundrat agar test with

  13. Automated Verification of Quantum Protocols using MCMAS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. Belardinelli

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available We present a methodology for the automated verification of quantum protocols using MCMAS, a symbolic model checker for multi-agent systems The method is based on the logical framework developed by D'Hondt and Panangaden for investigating epistemic and temporal properties, built on the model for Distributed Measurement-based Quantum Computation (DMC, an extension of the Measurement Calculus to distributed quantum systems. We describe the translation map from DMC to interpreted systems, the typical formalism for reasoning about time and knowledge in multi-agent systems. Then, we introduce dmc2ispl, a compiler into the input language of the MCMAS model checker. We demonstrate the technique by verifying the Quantum Teleportation Protocol, and discuss the performance of the tool.

  14. Latency correction of event-related potentials between different experimental protocols

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iturrate, I.; Chavarriaga, R.; Montesano, L.; Minguez, J.; Millán, JdR

    2014-06-01

    Objective. A fundamental issue in EEG event-related potentials (ERPs) studies is the amount of data required to have an accurate ERP model. This also impacts the time required to train a classifier for a brain-computer interface (BCI). This issue is mainly due to the poor signal-to-noise ratio and the large fluctuations of the EEG caused by several sources of variability. One of these sources is directly related to the experimental protocol or application designed, and may affect the amplitude or latency of ERPs. This usually prevents BCI classifiers from generalizing among different experimental protocols. In this paper, we analyze the effect of the amplitude and the latency variations among different experimental protocols based on the same type of ERP. Approach. We present a method to analyze and compensate for the latency variations in BCI applications. The algorithm has been tested on two widely used ERPs (P300 and observation error potentials), in three experimental protocols in each case. We report the ERP analysis and single-trial classification. Main results. The results obtained show that the designed experimental protocols significantly affect the latency of the recorded potentials but not the amplitudes. Significance. These results show how the use of latency-corrected data can be used to generalize the BCIs, reducing the calibration time when facing a new experimental protocol.

  15. Application of low-dose radiation protocols in survey CT scans

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fu Qiang; Liu Ting; Lu Tao; Xu Ke; Zhang Lin

    2009-01-01

    Objective: To characterize the protocols with low-dose radiation in survey CT scans for localization. Methods: Eighty standard adult patients, head and body phantoms were recruited. Default protocols provided by operator's manual setting were that all the tube voltage for head, chest, abdomen and lumbar was 120 kV; the tube currents were 20,10,20 and 40 mA, respectively. Values of kV and mA in the low-dose experiments were optimized according to the device options. For chest and abdomen, the tube position were compared between default (0 degree) and 180 degree. Phantoms were scanned with above protocols, and the radiation doses were measured respectively. Paired t-test were used for comparisons of standard deviation in CT value, noise and exposure surface dose (ESD) between group with default protocols and group with optimized protocols. Results: The optimized protocols in low-dose CT survey scans were 80 kV, 10 mA for head, 80 kV, 10 mA for chest, 80 kV, 10 mA for abdomen and 100 kV, 10 mA for lumbar. The values of ESD for phantom scan in default and optimized protocols were 0.38 mGy/0.16 mGy in head, 0.30 mGy/0.20 mGy in chest, 0.74 mGy/0.30 mGy in abdomen and 0.81 mGy/0.44 mGy in lumbar, respectively. Compared with default protocols, the optimized protocols reduced the radiation doses 59%, 33%, 59% and 46% in head, chest, abdomen and lumbar. When tube position changed from 0 degree to 180 degree, the ESD were 0.24 mGy/0.20 mGy for chest; 0.37 mGy/0.30 mGy for abdomen, and the radiation doses were reduced 20% and 17%. Conclusion: A certain amount of image noise is increased in low-dose protocols, but image quality is still acceptable without problem in CT localization. The reduction of radiation dose and the radiation harm to patients are the superiority. (authors)

  16. Outline of material accountancy system for Rokkasho reprocessing plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kitamura, Touko; Yamazaki Yoshihiro; Ai, Hironobu

    2004-01-01

    In January 2004, Facility Attachment (FA) for Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant (RRP) was entered into force and the safeguards has been implemented in accordance with the FA. So operator must carry out the effectual material accountancy on the basis of facility operation. RRP is large and complex facility and operated based on automatic and remote system. For efficient material accounting viewpoint, the system especially automatic data collection is established using RRP computer network. The paper describes the outline of material accountancy system, the structure of RRP computer network including how to collect the source data, to convert the batch data and the reporting. (author)

  17. Schaum's outline of theory and problems of differential equations

    CERN Document Server

    Bronson, Richard

    1994-01-01

    If you want top grades and thorough understanding of differential equations, this powerful study tool is the best tutor you can have! It takes you step-by-step through the subject and gives you 563 accompanying problems with fully worked solutions. You also get plenty of practice problems to do on your own, working at your own speed. (Answers at the back show you how you're doing.) Famous for their clarity, wealth of illustrations and examples, and lack of dreary minutiae, Schaum’s Outlines have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide—and this guide will show you why!

  18. Outline of cost-benefit analysis and a case study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kellizy, A.

    1978-01-01

    The methodology of cost-benefit analysis is reviewed and a case study involving solar cell technology is presented. Emphasis is placed on simplifying the technique in order to permit a technical person not trained in economics to undertake a cost-benefit study comparing alternative approaches to a given problem. The role of economic analysis in management decision making is discussed. In simplifying the methodology it was necessary to restrict the scope and applicability of this report. Additional considerations and constraints are outlined. Examples are worked out to demonstrate the principles. A computer program which performs the computational aspects appears in the appendix.

  19. Validation of a protocol for the estimation of three-dimensional body center of mass kinematics in sport.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mapelli, Andrea; Zago, Matteo; Fusini, Laura; Galante, Domenico; Colombo, Andrea; Sforza, Chiarella

    2014-01-01

    Since strictly related to balance and stability control, body center of mass (CoM) kinematics is a relevant quantity in sport surveys. Many methods have been proposed to estimate CoM displacement. Among them, segmental method appears to be suitable to investigate CoM kinematics in sport: human body is assumed as a system of rigid bodies, hence the whole-body CoM is calculated as the weighted average of the CoM of each segment. The number of landmarks represents a crucial choice in the protocol design process: one have to find the proper compromise between accuracy and invasivity. In this study, using a motion analysis system, a protocol based upon the segmental method is validated, adopting an anatomical model comprising 14 landmarks. Two sets of experiments were conducted. Firstly, our protocol was compared to the ground reaction force method (GRF), accounted as a standard in CoM estimation. In the second experiment, we investigated the aerial phase typical of many disciplines, comparing our protocol with: (1) an absolute reference, the parabolic regression of the vertical CoM trajectory during the time of flight; (2) two common approaches to estimate CoM kinematics in gait, known as sacrum and reconstructed pelvis methods. Recognized accuracy indexes proved that the results obtained were comparable to the GRF; what is more, during the aerial phases our protocol showed to be significantly more accurate than the two other methods. The protocol assessed can therefore be adopted as a reliable tool for CoM kinematics estimation in further sport researches. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. I-123 IBZM-SPECT: improved acquisition protocol with HR-collimator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sandrock, D.; Ivancevic, V.; Dopichaj-Menge, U.; Gruber, D.; Munz, D.

    2002-01-01

    Aim: Aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of different acquisition and reconstruction protocols on the quality of SPECT diagnostics with I-123 IBZM in patients with diseases of the dopaminergic system. Material and Methods: Overall, 30 patients (19 men, 11 women, aged 22 - 80 years) were studied with SPECT after i.v. injection of 5 mCi (185 MBq) I-123 IBZM. Acquisition was performed 60 min p.i. (protocol A) using a medium energy collimator, a 64 x 64 matrix, 64 projections, step and shoot technique, 5.6 0 and 20 seconds per step with a MultiSPECT2 double-head gamma camera (Siemens). Immediately afterwards, a second acquisition (protocol B, 90 min p.i.) using a high resolution collimator, a 128 x 128 matrix, 60 projections, step and shoot technique, 3 0 and 30 seconds per step was performed. The reconstruction was done in filtered backprojection technique and a Butterworth filter of order 7, in protocol A using a cutoff of 0.5 and in protocol B of 0.4. Finally, the net count ratios of the basal ganglia to the frontal lobe(s) were calculated and compared with the clinical diagnosis. Results: The visual analysis yielded - as expected -a better image quality for protocol B (concordant impression of 3 independent observers) with more accurate delineation of the basal ganglia. The count ratios with protocol B were (mean) 0.19 higher (equivalent to 13 %) than with protocol A. In the group of patients with count ratios > 1.55 there was the highest (and significant) difference between protocols A and B with (mean count ratio difference) 0.32 (equivalent to 20 %). Protocol B also allowed a better differentiation between patients clinically staged normal and abnormal. In patients with unilateral disease, this difference between normal and abnormal was more prominent (in comparison to the contralateral side as well as compared to the reference value [1.5]). The comparison of the count ratios with the clinical data revealed 7 patients with borderline results with

  1. A class-chest for deriving transport protocols

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Strayer, W.T.

    1996-10-01

    Development of new transport protocols or protocol algorithms suffers from the complexity of the environment in which they are intended to run. Modeling techniques attempt to avoid this by simulating the environment. Another approach to promoting rapid prototyping of protocols and protocol algorithms is to provide a pre-built infrastructure that is common to transport protocols, so that the focus is placed on the protocol-specific aspects. The Meta-Transport Library is a library of C++ base classes that implement or abstract out the mundane functions of a protocol, new protocol implementations are derived from base classes. The result is a fully viable user- level transport protocol implementation, with emphasis on modularity. The collection of base classes form a ``class-chest`` of tools .from which protocols can be developed and studied with as little change to a normal UNIX environment as possible.

  2. Comparison of IAEA protocols for clinical electron beam dosimetry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Novotny, J.; Soukup, M.

    2002-01-01

    In most beam calibration protocols so far used in clinical practice, the method recommended for the determination of absorbed dose to water in high-energy electron beams is based on either an exposure or an air kerma calibration factor of an ionisation chamber in a C0 60 gamma-ray or 2 MV x-ray beam. These protocols are complex and the overall uncertainty in the absorbed dose to water under reference conditions is about 3-4%. The new generation of protocols, namely IAEA TRS 398, are based on absorbed dose-to-water standards in photon beams from Co 60 and accelerator beams. The possible errors in absorbed dose determination in reference conditions in practical clinical dosimetry caused by replacement of TRS 277 and TRS 381 protocols for a new TRS 398 protocol were carefully studied for clinical electron beams in energy range 6-20 MeV. All measurements were performed on Varian CLINAC 2100 C linear accelerator. The electron beam energy ranged from 6 to 20 MeV. Basically three different detectors were used for measurements: PTW Roos plane-parallel ionization chamber, calibrated PTW 30002 Farmer type, ionization, Scanditronix electron diode detector. Measurements of central axis percentage depth doses were made by diode using Wellhoefer WP700 beam scanner in 40 cm x 40 cm x 50 cm water phantom. A reference chamber or semiconductor diode mounted on electron treatment cone was used to correct beam output variations for a chamber or diode measurements during scanning. Absolute dose measurements were carried out with Roos plane-parallel chamber connected to PTW UNIDOS electrometer always for preselected number of monitor units. In a new IAEA dosimetry protocol clinical reference dosimetry for electron beam is performed at depth of d ref = 0.6R 50 - 0.1 [cm] instead of d max as in previous ones. To check the stability of electron beams for energy and to establish d ref and standard deviation for reference depth position, the depth dose curves obtained during the quality

  3. Effective dose comparison between protocols stitched and usual protocols in dental cone beam CT for complete arcade

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Soares, M. R.; Maia, A. F.; Batista, W. O. G.; Lara, P. A.

    2014-08-01

    To visualization a complete dental radiology dental lives together with two separate proposals: [1] protocols diameter encompassing the entire arch (single) or [2] protocol with multiple fields of view (Fov) which together encompass the entire arch (stitched Fov s). The objective of this study is to evaluate effective dose values in examination protocols for all dental arcade available in different outfits with these two options. For this, a female anthropomorphic phantom manufactured by Radiology Support Devices twenty six thermoluminescent dosimeters inserted in relevant bodies and positions was used. Irradiate the simulator in the clinical conditions. The protocols were averaged and compared: [a] 14.0 cm x 8.5 cm and [b] 8.5 cm x 8.5 cm (Gendex Tomography GXCB 500), [c] protocol stitched for jaw combination of three volumes of 5.0 cm x 3.7 cm (Kodak 9000 3D scanner) [d] protocol stitched Fov s 5.0 cm x 8.0 cm (Planmeca Pro Max 3D) and [e] single technical Fov 14 cm x 8 cm (i-CAT Classical). Our results for the effective dose were: a range between 43.1 and 111.1 micro Sv for technical single Fov and 44.5 and 236.2 for technical stitched Fov s. The protocol presented the highest estimated effective dose was [d] and showed that lowest index was registered [a]. These results demonstrate that the protocol stitched Fov generated in Kodak 9000 3D machine applied the upper dental arch has practically equal value effective dose obtained by protocol extended diameter of, [a], which evaluates in a single image upper and lower arcade. It also demonstrates that the protocol [d] gives an estimate of five times higher than the protocol [a]. Thus, we conclude that in practical terms the protocol [c] stitched Fov s, not presents dosimetric advantages over other protocols. (Author)

  4. Effective dose comparison between protocols stitched and usual protocols in dental cone beam CT for complete arcade

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Soares, M. R.; Maia, A. F. [Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Departamento de Fisica, Cidade Universitaria Prof. Jose Aloisio de Campos, Marechal Rondon s/n, Jardim Rosa Elze, 49-100000 Sao Cristovao, Sergipe (Brazil); Batista, W. O. G. [Instituto Federal da Bahia, Rua Emidio dos Santos s/n, Barbalho, Salvador, 40301015 Bahia (Brazil); Lara, P. A., E-mail: wilsonottobatista@gmail.com [Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares / CNEN, Av. Lineu Prestes 2242, Cidade Universitaria, 05508-000 Sao Paulo (Brazil)

    2014-08-15

    To visualization a complete dental radiology dental lives together with two separate proposals: [1] protocols diameter encompassing the entire arch (single) or [2] protocol with multiple fields of view (Fov) which together encompass the entire arch (stitched Fov s). The objective of this study is to evaluate effective dose values in examination protocols for all dental arcade available in different outfits with these two options. For this, a female anthropomorphic phantom manufactured by Radiology Support Devices twenty six thermoluminescent dosimeters inserted in relevant bodies and positions was used. Irradiate the simulator in the clinical conditions. The protocols were averaged and compared: [a] 14.0 cm x 8.5 cm and [b] 8.5 cm x 8.5 cm (Gendex Tomography GXCB 500), [c] protocol stitched for jaw combination of three volumes of 5.0 cm x 3.7 cm (Kodak 9000 3D scanner) [d] protocol stitched Fov s 5.0 cm x 8.0 cm (Planmeca Pro Max 3D) and [e] single technical Fov 14 cm x 8 cm (i-CAT Classical). Our results for the effective dose were: a range between 43.1 and 111.1 micro Sv for technical single Fov and 44.5 and 236.2 for technical stitched Fov s. The protocol presented the highest estimated effective dose was [d] and showed that lowest index was registered [a]. These results demonstrate that the protocol stitched Fov generated in Kodak 9000 3D machine applied the upper dental arch has practically equal value effective dose obtained by protocol extended diameter of, [a], which evaluates in a single image upper and lower arcade. It also demonstrates that the protocol [d] gives an estimate of five times higher than the protocol [a]. Thus, we conclude that in practical terms the protocol [c] stitched Fov s, not presents dosimetric advantages over other protocols. (Author)

  5. Curriculum Outline for Introduction to Engineering Chemistry. First Edition. Review Cycle-Annual.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schlenker, Richard M.

    This curriculum outline consists of behavioral objectives (called terminal and enabling objectives) for Introduction to Engineering Chemistry, a one-semester, post-secondary course consisting of four 1-hour lectures each week. Course goal is to introduce marine engineering students to the rudiments of basic/introductory inorganic chemistry. The…

  6. Automatic Validation of Protocol Narration

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bodei, Chiara; Buchholtz, Mikael; Degano, Pierpablo

    2003-01-01

    We perform a systematic expansion of protocol narrations into terms of a process algebra in order to make precise some of the detailed checks that need to be made in a protocol. We then apply static analysis technology to develop an automatic validation procedure for protocols. Finally, we...

  7. A distributed Synchronous reservation multiple access control protocol for mobile Ad hoc networks

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    ZHANG Yanling; SUN Xianpu; LI Jiandong

    2007-01-01

    This study proposes a new multiple access control protocol named distributed synchronous reservation multiple access control protocol.in which the hidden and exposed terminal problems are solved,and the quality of service(QoS)requirements for real-time traffic are guaranteed.The protocol is founded on time division multiplex address and a different type of traffic is assigned to difierent priority,according to which a node should compete for and reserve the free slots in a different method.Moreover,there is a reservation acknowledgement process before data transmit in each reserved slot,so that the intruded terminal problem is solved.The throughput and average packets drop probability of this protocol are analyzed and simulated in a fully connected network.the results of which indicate that this protocol is efficient enough to support the real-time traffic.and it is more suitable to MANETs.

  8. Efficient secure two-party protocols

    CERN Document Server

    Hazay, Carmit

    2010-01-01

    The authors present a comprehensive study of efficient protocols and techniques for secure two-party computation -- both general constructions that can be used to securely compute any functionality, and protocols for specific problems of interest. The book focuses on techniques for constructing efficient protocols and proving them secure. In addition, the authors study different definitional paradigms and compare the efficiency of protocols achieved under these different definitions.The book opens with a general introduction to secure computation and then presents definitions of security for a

  9. Using Ovsynch protocol versus Cosynch protocol in dairy cows

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ion Valeriu Caraba

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available As a research on the reproductive physiology and endocrinology surrounding the estrous cycle in dairy cattle has been compiled, several estrous synchronization programs have been developed for use with dairy cows. These include several programs that facilitate the mass breeding of all animals at a predetermined time (timed-AI rather than the detection of estrus. We studied on 15 dary cows which were synchronized by Ovsynch and Cosynch programs. The estrus response for cows in Ovsynch protocol was of 63%. Pregnancy per insemination at 60 days was of 25%. Estrus response for cow in Cosynch protocol was of 57%. Pregnancy per insemination at 60 days was of 57%. Synchronization of ovulation using Ovsynch protocols can provide an effective way to manage reproduction in lactating dairy cows by eliminating the need for estrus detection. These are really efficient management programs for TAI of dairy cows that are able to reduce both the labour costs and the extra handling to daily estrus detection and AI.

  10. A shortened protocol for assessing cognitive bias in rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brydges, Nichola M; Hall, Lynsey

    2017-07-15

    Reliable measurement of affective state in animals is a significant goal of animal welfare. Such measurements would also improve the validity of pre-clinical mental health research which relies on animal models. However, at present, affective states in animals are inaccessible to direct measurement. In humans, changes in cognitive processing can give reliable indications of emotional state. Therefore, similar techniques are increasingly being used to gain proxy measures of affective states in animals. In particular, the 'cognitive bias' assay has gained popularity in recent years. Major disadvantages of this technique include length of time taken for animals to acquire the task (typically several weeks), negative experiences associated with task training, and issues of motivation. Here we present a shortened cognitive bias protocol using only positive reinforcers which must actively be responded to. The protocol took an average of 4days to complete, and produced similar results to previous, longer methods (minimum 30days). Specifically, rats housed in standard laboratory conditions demonstrated negative cognitive biases when presented with ambiguous stimuli, and took longer to make a decision when faced with an ambiguous stimulus. Compared to previous methods, this protocol is significantly shorter (average 4days vs. minimum 30days), utilises only positive reinforcers to avoid inducing negative affective states, and requires active responses to all cues, avoiding potential confounds of motivational state. We have successfully developed a shortened cognitive bias protocol, suitable for use with laboratory rats. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Annotated outline for the SCP conceptual design report: Office of Geologic Repositories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1987-06-01

    The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA) requires that site characterization plans (SCPs) be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), affected States and Indian tribes, and the general public for review and comment prior to the sinking of shafts at a candidate repository site. The SCP is also required by the NRC licensing procedures for the disposal of high-level waste. An Annotated Outline (AO) for Site Characterization Plans (OGR/B-5) has been prepared to provide DOE's standard format and guidance for preparation of SCPs. Consistent with the AO for SCPs. Chapter 6 of the SCP is to provide the requirements and references the media-specific design data base, describe the current design concepts, and discuss design information needs. In order to develop this design information, the Office of Geologic Repositories program is planning a SCP conceptual design phase as part of the overall repository design process. This phase is the first step in the design process, and the result and design can be expected to change as the program moves through the site characterization phase. The Annotated Outline which follows provides the standard format and guidance for the preparation of the SCP Conceptual Design Reports. It is considered to meet the intent of NRC's proposed Generic Technical Position philosophy contained therein. The SCP Conceptual Design Report will be the primary basis for preparation of Chapter 6 of the SCP and will be stand-alone reference document for the SCP. Appendix 1 to this Annotated Outline provides a correlation between Chapter 6 of the SCP and SCP Conceptual Design Report for the information purposes

  12. Management of Energy Consumption on Cluster Based Routing Protocol for MANET

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hosseini-Seno, Seyed-Amin; Wan, Tat-Chee; Budiarto, Rahmat; Yamada, Masashi

    The usage of light-weight mobile devices is increasing rapidly, leading to demand for more telecommunication services. Consequently, mobile ad hoc networks and their applications have become feasible with the proliferation of light-weight mobile devices. Many protocols have been developed to handle service discovery and routing in ad hoc networks. However, the majority of them did not consider one critical aspect of this type of network, which is the limited of available energy in each node. Cluster Based Routing Protocol (CBRP) is a robust/scalable routing protocol for Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) and superior to existing protocols such as Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) in terms of throughput and overhead. Therefore, based on this strength, methods to increase the efficiency of energy usage are incorporated into CBRP in this work. In order to increase the stability (in term of life-time) of the network and to decrease the energy consumption of inter-cluster gateway nodes, an Enhanced Gateway Cluster Based Routing Protocol (EGCBRP) is proposed. Three methods have been introduced by EGCBRP as enhancements to the CBRP: improving the election of cluster Heads (CHs) in CBRP which is based on the maximum available energy level, implementing load balancing for inter-cluster traffic using multiple gateways, and implementing sleep state for gateway nodes to further save the energy. Furthermore, we propose an Energy Efficient Cluster Based Routing Protocol (EECBRP) which extends the EGCBRP sleep state concept into all idle member nodes, excluding the active nodes in all clusters. The experiment results show that the EGCBRP decreases the overall energy consumption of the gateway nodes up to 10% and the EECBRP reduces the energy consumption of the member nodes up to 60%, both of which in turn contribute to stabilizing the network.

  13. A mechanical protocol to replicate impact in walking footwear.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Price, Carina; Cooper, Glen; Graham-Smith, Philip; Jones, Richard

    2014-01-01

    Impact testing is undertaken to quantify the shock absorption characteristics of footwear. The current widely reported mechanical testing method mimics the heel impact in running and therefore applies excessive energy to walking footwear. The purpose of this study was to modify the ASTM protocol F1614 (Procedure A) to better represent walking gait. This was achieved by collecting kinematic and kinetic data while participants walked in four different styles of walking footwear (trainer, oxford shoe, flip-flop and triple-density sandal). The quantified heel-velocity and effective mass at ground-impact were then replicated in a mechanical protocol. The kinematic data identified different impact characteristics in the footwear styles. Significantly faster heel velocity towards the floor was recorded walking in the toe-post sandals (flip-flop and triple-density sandal) compared with other conditions (e.g. flip-flop: 0.36±0.05 ms(-1) versus trainer: 0.18±0.06 ms(-1)). The mechanical protocol was adapted by altering the mass and drop height specific to the data captured for each shoe (e.g. flip-flop: drop height 7 mm, mass 16.2 kg). As expected, the adapted mechanical protocol produced significantly lower peak force and accelerometer values than the ASTM protocol (pfootwear style specific. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Managing symptoms during cancer treatments: evaluating the implementation of evidence-informed remote support protocols

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stacey Dawn

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Management of cancer treatment-related symptoms is an important safety issue given that symptoms can become life-threatening and often occur when patients are at home. With funding from the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, a pan-Canadian steering committee was established with representation from eight provinces to develop symptom protocols using a rigorous methodology (CAN-IMPLEMENT©. Each protocol is based on a systematic review of the literature to identify relevant clinical practice guidelines. Protocols were validated by cancer nurses from across Canada. The aim of this study is to build an effective and sustainable approach for implementing evidence-informed protocols for nurses to use when providing remote symptom assessment, triage, and guidance in self-management for patients experiencing symptoms while undergoing cancer treatments. Methods A prospective mixed-methods study design will be used. Guided by the Knowledge to Action Framework, the study will involve (a establishing an advisory knowledge user team in each of three targeted settings; (b assessing factors influencing nurses’ use of protocols using interviews/focus groups and a standardized survey instrument; (c adapting protocols for local use, ensuring fidelity of the content; (d selecting intervention strategies to overcome known barriers and implementing the protocols; (e conducting think-aloud usability testing; (f evaluating protocol use and outcomes by conducting an audit of 100 randomly selected charts at each of the three settings; and (g assessing satisfaction with remote support using symptom protocols and change in nurses’ barriers to use using survey instruments. The primary outcome is sustained use of the protocols, defined as use in 75% of the calls. Descriptive analysis will be conducted for the barriers, use of protocols, and chart audit outcomes. Content analysis will be conducted on interviews/focus groups and usability testing

  15. Variability of United States Online Rehabilitation Protocols for Proximal Hamstring Tendon Repair

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lightsey, Harry M.; Kantrowitz, David E.; Swindell, Hasani W.; Trofa, David P.; Ahmad, Christopher S.; Lynch, T. Sean

    2018-01-01

    Background: The optimal postoperative rehabilitation protocol following repair of complete proximal hamstring tendon ruptures is the subject of ongoing investigation, with a need for more standardized regimens and evidence-based modalities. Purpose: To assess the variability across proximal hamstring tendon repair rehabilitation protocols published online by United States (US) orthopaedic teaching programs. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: Online proximal hamstring physical therapy protocols from US academic orthopaedic programs were reviewed. A web-based search using the search term complete proximal hamstring repair rehabilitation protocol provided an additional 14 protocols. A comprehensive scoring rubric was developed after review of all protocols and was used to assess each protocol for both the presence of various rehabilitation components and the point at which those components were introduced. Results: Of 50 rehabilitation protocols identified, 35 satisfied inclusion criteria and were analyzed. Twenty-five protocols (71%) recommended immediate postoperative bracing: 12 (34%) prescribed knee bracing, 8 (23%) prescribed hip bracing, and 5 (14%) did not specify the type of brace recommended. Fourteen protocols (40%) advised immediate nonweightbearing with crutches, while 16 protocols (46%) permitted immediate toe-touch weightbearing. Advancement to full weightbearing was allowed at a mean of 7.1 weeks (range, 4-12 weeks). Most protocols (80%) recommended gentle knee and hip passive range of motion and active range of motion, starting at a mean 1.4 weeks (range, 0-3 weeks) and 4.0 weeks (range, 0-6 weeks), respectively. However, only 6 protocols (17%) provided specific time points to initiate full hip and knee range of motion: a mean 8.0 weeks (range, 4-12 weeks) and 7.8 weeks (range, 0-12 weeks), respectively. Considerable variability was noted in the inclusion and timing of strengthening, stretching, proprioception, and cardiovascular exercises

  16. A modified protocol for myocardial perfusion SPECT using natural plant extracts for enbancement of biliorg excretion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jeong, Hwan Jeong; Kim, Chang Guhn

    2003-01-01

    For good quality of myocardial perfusion images, an approximately 30 min to 1 hour of waiting time after radiopharmaceutical injection of fatty meal are asked of the patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the shortening of waiting time after radiopharmaceutical injection and improvement of image quality using natural plant extracts that promote bile excretion. Ten volunteers participated in protocol 1 (7 men, 3 women; mean age, 24.1±2.4 years) and protocol 2 (8 men, 2 women; mean age, 26.1±2.9 years), respectively. For the modified method of both protocols, subjects took natural plant extracts 15 minutes before the first injection of 99m Tc MIBI without taking fatty meals. Control (Conventional) methods were performed with intake of a fatty meal 20 to 30 minutes after 99m Tc MIBI injection. As the results of protocol 1 and 2, the ratio of myocardial to lung ratio were not different between modified and conventional method. Liver to lung ratio of modified method showed significantly lower value than that of conventional method. In modified method, myocardial to liver ratio was higher persistently. In protocol 2, natural plant extracts took before the first injection of 99m Tc MIBI exerted accelerating effect of excretion of bile juice into intestine until the end of examination. These results represent that natural plant extracts for facilitation of bile excretion before injection of 99m Tc MIBI may provide better quality of myocardial perfusion images without the need for preparations such as ingestion of fatty meal within the 2 hours compared with conventional method

  17. A family of multi-party authentication protocols

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cremers, C.J.F.; Mauw, S.

    2006-01-01

    We introduce a family of multi-party authentication protocols and discuss six novel protocols, which are members of this family. The first three generalize the well-known Needham-Schroeder-Lowe public-key protocol, the Needham-Schroeder private-key protocol, and the Bilateral Key Exchange protocol.

  18. A Secure Key Establishment Protocol for ZigBee Wireless Sensor Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yuksel, Ender; Nielson, Hanne Riis; Nielson, Flemming

    2009-01-01

    ZigBee is a wireless sensor network standard that defines network and application layers on top of IEEE 802.15.4’s physical and medium access control layers. In the latest version of ZigBee, enhancements are prescribed for the security sublayer but we show in this paper that problems persist....... In particular we show that the End-to-End Application Key Establishment Protocol is flawed and we propose a secure protocol instead. We do so by using formal verification techniques based on static program analysis and process algebras. We present a way of using formal methods in wireless network security......, and propose a secure key establishment protocol for ZigBee networks....

  19. Outline of examination guides of water-cooled research reactors in Japan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshino, F.; Kimura, R.

    1992-01-01

    The Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan published two examination guides of water-cooled research reactors on July 18, 1991; one is for safety design, and another is for safety evaluation. In these guides, careful consideration is taken into account on the basic safety characteristic features of research reactors in order to be reasonable regulative requirements. This paper describes the fundamental philosophy and outline of the guides. (author)

  20. Good quality Vitis RNA obtained from an adapted DNA isolation protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Isabel Baiges

    2003-03-01

    Full Text Available Grapevine is a woody plant, whose high carbohydrate and phenolic compound contents usually interferes with nucleic acid isolation. After we tried several protocols for isolating RNA from the Vitis rootstock Richter- 110 (R-110 with little or no success, we adapted a method reported to be satisfactory for grapevine DNA isolation, to extract RNA. With slight protocol modifications, we succeeded to obtain polysaccharide- and phenolic-free RNA preparations from all vegetative tissues, without excessive sample handling. RNA isolated by the reported method permitted to obtain highly pure mRNA (messenger RNA to construct a cDNA (complementary DNA library and allowed gene transcription analysis by reverse Northern, which guarantees RNA integrity. This method may also be suitable for other plant species with high polysaccharide or phenolic contents.

  1. Protocols of radiocontaminant air monitoring for inhalation exposure estimates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shinn, J.H.

    1995-09-01

    Monitoring the plutonium and americium particle emissions from soils contaminated during atmospheric nuclear testing or due to accidental releases is important for several reasons. First, it is important to quantify the extent of potential human exposure from inhalation of alpha-emitting particles, which is the major exposure pathway from transuranic radionuclides. Second, the information provided by resuspension monitoring is the basis of criteria that determine the target soil concentrations for management and cleanup of contaminated soil sites. There are other radioactive aerosols, such as the fission products (cesium and strontium) and neutron-activation products (europium isotopes), which may be resuspended and therefore necessary to monitor as well. This Standard Protocol (SP) provides the method used for radiocontaminant air monitoring by the Health and Ecological Assessment Division (formerly Environmental Sciences Division), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, as developed and tested at Nevada Test Site (NTS) and in the Marshall Islands. The objective of this SP is to document the applications and methods of monitoring of all the relevant variables. This protocol deals only with measuring air concentrations of radionuclides and total suspended particulates (TSP, or open-quotes dustclose quotes). A separate protocol presents the more difficult measurements required to determine transuranic aerosol emission rates, or open-quotes resuspension rateclose quotes

  2. Object-Based Dense Matching Method for Maintaining Structure Characteristics of Linear Buildings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Su, Nan; Yan, Yiming; Qiu, Mingjie; Zhao, Chunhui; Wang, Liguo

    2018-03-29

    In this paper, we proposed a novel object-based dense matching method specially for the high-precision disparity map of building objects in urban areas, which can maintain accurate object structure characteristics. The proposed framework mainly includes three stages. Firstly, an improved edge line extraction method is proposed for the edge segments to fit closely to building outlines. Secondly, a fusion method is proposed for the outlines under the constraint of straight lines, which can maintain the building structural attribute with parallel or vertical edges, which is very useful for the dense matching method. Finally, we proposed an edge constraint and outline compensation (ECAOC) dense matching method to maintain building object structural characteristics in the disparity map. In the proposed method, the improved edge lines are used to optimize matching search scope and matching template window, and the high-precision building outlines are used to compensate the shape feature of building objects. Our method can greatly increase the matching accuracy of building objects in urban areas, especially at building edges. For the outline extraction experiments, our fusion method verifies the superiority and robustness on panchromatic images of different satellites and different resolutions. For the dense matching experiments, our ECOAC method shows great advantages for matching accuracy of building objects in urban areas compared with three other methods.

  3. Object-Based Dense Matching Method for Maintaining Structure Characteristics of Linear Buildings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nan Su

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we proposed a novel object-based dense matching method specially for the high-precision disparity map of building objects in urban areas, which can maintain accurate object structure characteristics. The proposed framework mainly includes three stages. Firstly, an improved edge line extraction method is proposed for the edge segments to fit closely to building outlines. Secondly, a fusion method is proposed for the outlines under the constraint of straight lines, which can maintain the building structural attribute with parallel or vertical edges, which is very useful for the dense matching method. Finally, we proposed an edge constraint and outline compensation (ECAOC dense matching method to maintain building object structural characteristics in the disparity map. In the proposed method, the improved edge lines are used to optimize matching search scope and matching template window, and the high-precision building outlines are used to compensate the shape feature of building objects. Our method can greatly increase the matching accuracy of building objects in urban areas, especially at building edges. For the outline extraction experiments, our fusion method verifies the superiority and robustness on panchromatic images of different satellites and different resolutions. For the dense matching experiments, our ECOAC method shows great advantages for matching accuracy of building objects in urban areas compared with three other methods.

  4. Model-Checking Driven Design of QoS-Based Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhi Chen

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Accurate and reliable routing protocols with Quality of Service (QoS support determine the mission-critical application efficiency in WSNs. This paper proposes a model-checking design driven framework for designing the QoS-based routing protocols of WSNs, which involves the light-weight design process, the timed automata model, and the alternative QoS verification properties. The accurate feedback of continually model checking in the iterative design process effectively stimulates the parameter tuning of the protocols. We demonstrate the straightforward and modular characteristics of the proposed framework in designing a prototype QoS-based routing protocol. The prototype study shows that the model-checking design framework may complement other design methods and ensure the QoS implementation of the QoS-based routing protocol design for WSNs.

  5. A Cryptographic Moving-Knife Cake-Cutting Protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yoshifumi Manabe

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a cake-cutting protocol using cryptography when the cake is a heterogeneous good that is represented by an interval on a real line. Although the Dubins-Spanier moving-knife protocol with one knife achieves simple fairness, all players must execute the protocol synchronously. Thus, the protocol cannot be executed on asynchronous networks such as the Internet. We show that the moving-knife protocol can be executed asynchronously by a discrete protocol using a secure auction protocol. The number of cuts is n-1 where n is the number of players, which is the minimum.

  6. Protocol for fermionic positive-operator-valued measures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arvidsson-Shukur, D. R. M.; Lepage, H. V.; Owen, E. T.; Ferrus, T.; Barnes, C. H. W.

    2017-11-01

    In this paper we present a protocol for the implementation of a positive-operator-valued measure (POVM) on massive fermionic qubits. We present methods for implementing nondispersive qubit transport, spin rotations, and spin polarizing beam-splitter operations. Our scheme attains linear opticslike control of the spatial extent of the qubits by considering ground-state electrons trapped in the minima of surface acoustic waves in semiconductor heterostructures. Furthermore, we numerically simulate a high-fidelity POVM that carries out Procrustean entanglement distillation in the framework of our scheme, using experimentally realistic potentials. Our protocol can be applied not only to pure ensembles with particle pairs of known identical entanglement, but also to realistic ensembles of particle pairs with a distribution of entanglement entropies. This paper provides an experimentally realizable design for future quantum technologies.

  7. The Simplest Protocol for Oblivious Transfer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chou, Tung; Orlandi, Claudio

    2015-01-01

    Oblivious Transfer (OT) is the fundamental building block of cryptographic protocols. In this paper we describe the simplest and most efficient protocol for 1-out-of-n OT to date, which is obtained by tweaking the Diffie-Hellman key-exchange protocol. The protocol achieves UC-security against...... active and adaptive corruptions in the random oracle model. Due to its simplicity, the protocol is extremely efficient and it allows to perform m 1-out-of-n OTs using only: - Computation: (n+1)m+2 exponentiations (mn for the receiver, mn+2 for the sender) and - Communication: 32(m+1) bytes (for the group...... optimizations) is at least one order of magnitude faster than previous work. Category / Keywords: cryptographic protocols / Oblivious Transfer, UC Security, Elliptic Curves, Efficient Implementation...

  8. Telomerase Repeated Amplification Protocol (TRAP).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mender, Ilgen; Shay, Jerry W

    2015-11-20

    Telomeres are found at the end of eukaryotic linear chromosomes, and proteins that bind to telomeres protect DNA from being recognized as double-strand breaks thus preventing end-to-end fusions (Griffith et al. , 1999). However, due to the end replication problem and other factors such as oxidative damage, the limited life span of cultured cells (Hayflick limit) results in progressive shortening of these protective structures (Hayflick and Moorhead, 1961; Olovnikov, 1973). The ribonucleoprotein enzyme complex telomerase-consisting of a protein catalytic component hTERT and a functional RNA component hTR or hTERC - counteracts telomere shortening by adding telomeric repeats to the end of chromosomes in ~90% of primary human tumors and in some transiently proliferating stem-like cells (Shay and Wright, 1996; Shay and Wright, 2001). This results in continuous proliferation of cells which is a hallmark of cancer. Therefore, telomere biology has a central role in aging, cancer progression/metastasis as well as targeted cancer therapies. There are commonly used methods in telomere biology such as Telomere Restriction Fragment (TRF) (Mender and Shay, 2015b), Telomere Repeat Amplification Protocol (TRAP) and Telomere dysfunction Induced Foci (TIF) analysis (Mender and Shay, 2015a). In this detailed protocol we describe Telomere Repeat Amplification Protocol (TRAP). The TRAP assay is a popular method to determine telomerase activity in mammalian cells and tissue samples (Kim et al. , 1994). The TRAP assay includes three steps: extension, amplification, and detection of telomerase products. In the extension step, telomeric repeats are added to the telomerase substrate (which is actually a non telomeric oligonucleotide, TS) by telomerase. In the amplification step, the extension products are amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using specific primers (TS upstream primer and ACX downstream primer) and in the detection step, the presence or absence of telomerase is

  9. Coded Splitting Tree Protocols

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, Jesper Hemming; Stefanovic, Cedomir; Popovski, Petar

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents a novel approach to multiple access control called coded splitting tree protocol. The approach builds on the known tree splitting protocols, code structure and successive interference cancellation (SIC). Several instances of the tree splitting protocol are initiated, each...... instance is terminated prematurely and subsequently iterated. The combined set of leaves from all the tree instances can then be viewed as a graph code, which is decodable using belief propagation. The main design problem is determining the order of splitting, which enables successful decoding as early...

  10. Playing With Population Protocols

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xavier Koegler

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Population protocols have been introduced as a model of sensor networks consisting of very limited mobile agents with no control over their own movement: A collection of anonymous agents, modeled by finite automata, interact in pairs according to some rules. Predicates on the initial configurations that can be computed by such protocols have been characterized under several hypotheses. We discuss here whether and when the rules of interactions between agents can be seen as a game from game theory. We do so by discussing several basic protocols.

  11. Protocol compliance and time management in blunt trauma resuscitation.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Spanjersberg, W.R.; Bergs, E.A.; Mushkudiani, N.; Klimek, M.; Schipper, I.B.

    2009-01-01

    OBJECTIVES: To study advanced trauma life support (ATLS) protocol adherence prospectively in trauma resuscitation and to analyse time management of daily multidisciplinary trauma resuscitation at a level 1 trauma centre, for both moderately and severely injured patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: All

  12. Model Additional Protocol

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rockwood, Laura

    2001-01-01

    Since the end of the cold war a series of events has changed the circumstances and requirements of the safeguards system. The discovery of a clandestine nuclear weapons program in Iraq, the continuing difficulty in verifying the initial report of Democratic People's Republic of Korea upon entry into force of their safeguards agreement, and the decision of the South African Government to give up its nuclear weapons program and join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons have all played a role in an ambitious effort by IAEA Member States and the Secretariat to strengthen the safeguards system. A major milestone in this effort was reached in May 1997 when the IAEA Board of Governors approved a Model Protocol Additional to Safeguards Agreements. The Model Additional Protocol was negotiated over a period of less than a year by an open-ended committee of the Board involving some 70 Member States and two regional inspectorates. The IAEA is now in the process of negotiating additional protocols, State by State, and implementing them. These additional protocols will provide the IAEA with rights of access to information about all activities related to the use of nuclear material in States with comprehensive safeguards agreements and greatly expanded physical access for IAEA inspectors to confirm or verify this information. In conjunction with this, the IAEA is working on the integration of these measures with those provided for in comprehensive safeguards agreements, with a view to maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency, within available resources, the implementation of safeguards. Details concerning the Model Additional Protocol are given. (author)

  13. Research and application of ARP protocol vulnerability attack and defense technology based on trusted network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xi, Huixing

    2017-03-01

    With the continuous development of network technology and the rapid spread of the Internet, computer networks have been around the world every corner. However, the network attacks frequently occur. The ARP protocol vulnerability is one of the most common vulnerabilities in the TCP / IP four-layer architecture. The network protocol vulnerabilities can lead to the intrusion and attack of the information system, and disable or disable the normal defense function of the system [1]. At present, ARP spoofing Trojans spread widely in the LAN, the network security to run a huge hidden danger, is the primary threat to LAN security. In this paper, the author summarizes the research status and the key technologies involved in ARP protocol, analyzes the formation mechanism of ARP protocol vulnerability, and analyzes the feasibility of the attack technique. Based on the summary of the common defensive methods, the advantages and disadvantages of each defense method. At the same time, the current defense method is improved, and the advantage of the improved defense algorithm is given. At the end of this paper, the appropriate test method is selected and the test environment is set up. Experiment and test are carried out for each proposed improved defense algorithm.

  14. Asymptotic adaptive bipartite entanglement-distillation protocol

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hostens, Erik; Dehaene, Jeroen; De Moor, Bart

    2006-01-01

    We present an asymptotic bipartite entanglement-distillation protocol that outperforms all existing asymptotic schemes. This protocol is based on the breeding protocol with the incorporation of two-way classical communication. Like breeding, the protocol starts with an infinite number of copies of a Bell-diagonal mixed state. Breeding can be carried out as successive stages of partial information extraction, yielding the same result: one bit of information is gained at the cost (measurement) of one pure Bell state pair (ebit). The basic principle of our protocol is at every stage to replace measurements on ebits by measurements on a finite number of copies, whenever there are two equiprobable outcomes. In that case, the entropy of the global state is reduced by more than one bit. Therefore, every such replacement results in an improvement of the protocol. We explain how our protocol is organized as to have as many replacements as possible. The yield is then calculated for Werner states

  15. Comparison of DNA extraction protocols to detect Mycobacterium bovis in bovine tissue by PCR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cássia Yumi Ikuta

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The current scenario of international beef trading has increased the pressure for better and faster diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis. Although traditional culture remains the gold standard method to confirm Mycobacterium bovis infection, it is exceedingly time consuming, and demands viable mycobacteria. Molecular methods overcome the flaws of the bacteriological methods with faster detection and identification. However, mycobacterial features like a complex cell wall and pathogen–host interaction make the molecular detection a challenge. Three protocols for DNA extraction (A, B and C from bovine tissues were tested to verify the most suitable technique for routine diagnostic assessment of their specificity and sensitivity. Thirty culture-positive and thirty culture-negative granulomatous lesions were included in the trial. From each sample, three tissue suspensions at different dilutions (10-1, 10-2 and 10-3 were prepared and submitted to DNA extraction. PCR procedures targeting IS6110 were performed, employing two volumes of DNA: 5 µL of all three dilutions, and 2.5 µL of the 10-1 dilution. Protocol A was able to detect members of the M. tuberculosis complex in most samples. The sensitivity of the test decreased with increase in tissue-suspension dilution. Although Protocol A presented the highest sensitivity followed by C and B, it showed the lowest specificity, which can be due to a failure in primary isolation caused by the lack of viable organisms or incubation time. Regardless classical bacteriological methods are still recommended by OIE, after evaluating the sensitivity of DNA extraction protocols and PCR procedures, we conclude that the best strategy for M. bovis detection is to follow Protocol A on concentrated tissue suspensions.

  16. A novel multispectral glacier mapping method and its performance in Greenland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Citterio, M.; Fausto, R. S.; Ahlstrom, A. P.; Andersen, S. B.

    2014-12-01

    Multispectral land surface classification methods are widely used for mapping glacier outlines. Significant post-classification manual editing is typically required, and mapping glacier outlines over larger regions remains a rather labour intensive task. In this contribution we introduce a novel method for mapping glacier outlines from multispectral satellite imagery, requiring only minor manual editing.Over the last decade GLIMS (Global Land Ice Measurements from Space) improved the availability of glacier outlines, and in 2012 the Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI) attained global coverage by compiling existing and new data sources in the wake of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5). With the launch of Landsat 8 in 2013 and the upcoming ESA (European Space Agency) Sentinel 2 missions, the availability of multispectral imagery may grow faster than our ability to process it into timely and reliable glacier outline products. Improved automatic classification methods would enable a full exploitation of these new data sources.We outline the theoretical basis of the proposed classification algorithm, provide a step by step walk-through from raw imagery to finished ice cover grids and vector glacier outlines, and evaluate the performance of the new method in mapping the outlines of glaciers, ice caps and the Greenland Ice Sheet from Landsat 8 OLI imagery. The classification output is compared against manually digitized ice margin positions, the RGI vectors, and the PROMICE (Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet) aerophotogrammetric map of Greenland ice masses over a sector of the Disko Island surge cluster in West Greenland, the Qassimiut ice sheet lobe in South Greenland, and the A.P. Olsen ice cap in NE Greenland.

  17. Improved methods in Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of almond using positive (mannose/pmi) or negative (kanamycin resistance) selection-based protocols.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramesh, Sunita A; Kaiser, Brent N; Franks, Tricia; Collins, Graham; Sedgley, Margaret

    2006-08-01

    A protocol for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation with either kanamycin or mannose selection was developed for leaf explants of the cultivar Prunus dulcis cv. Ne Plus Ultra. Regenerating shoots were selected on medium containing 15 muM kanamycin (negative selection), while in the positive selection strategy, shoots were selected on 2.5 g/l mannose supplemented with 15 g/l sucrose. Transformation efficiencies based on PCR analysis of individual putative transformed shoots from independent lines relative to the initial numbers of leaf explants tested were 5.6% for kanamycin/nptII and 6.8% for mannose/pmi selection, respectively. Southern blot analysis on six randomly chosen PCR-positive shoots confirmed the presence of the nptII transgene in each, and five randomly chosen lines identified to contain the pmi transgene by PCR showed positive hybridisation to a pmi DNA probe. The positive (mannose/pmi) and the negative (kanamycin) selection protocols used in this study have greatly improved transformation efficiency in almond, which were confirmed with PCR and Southern blot. This study also demonstrates that in almond the mannose/pmi selection protocol is appropriate and can result in higher transformation efficiencies over that of kanamycin/nptII selection protocols.

  18. A protocol for amide bond formation with electron deficient amines and sterically hindered substrates

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Due-Hansen, Maria E; Pandey, Sunil K; Christiansen, Elisabeth

    2016-01-01

    A protocol for amide coupling by in situ formation of acyl fluorides and reaction with amines at elevated temperature has been developed and found to be efficient for coupling of sterically hindered substrates and electron deficient amines where standard methods failed.......A protocol for amide coupling by in situ formation of acyl fluorides and reaction with amines at elevated temperature has been developed and found to be efficient for coupling of sterically hindered substrates and electron deficient amines where standard methods failed....

  19. Deep-sequencing protocols influence the results obtained in small-RNA sequencing.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joern Toedling

    Full Text Available Second-generation sequencing is a powerful method for identifying and quantifying small-RNA components of cells. However, little attention has been paid to the effects of the choice of sequencing platform and library preparation protocol on the results obtained. We present a thorough comparison of small-RNA sequencing libraries generated from the same embryonic stem cell lines, using different sequencing platforms, which represent the three major second-generation sequencing technologies, and protocols. We have analysed and compared the expression of microRNAs, as well as populations of small RNAs derived from repetitive elements. Despite the fact that different libraries display a good correlation between sequencing platforms, qualitative and quantitative variations in the results were found, depending on the protocol used. Thus, when comparing libraries from different biological samples, it is strongly recommended to use the same sequencing platform and protocol in order to ensure the biological relevance of the comparisons.

  20. ASSESSMENT OF RIP-V1 AND OSPF-V2 PROTOCOL WITH CONSIDERATION OF CONVERGENCE CRITERIA AND SENDING PROTOCOLS TRAFFIC

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hamed Jelodar

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Routing Protocols are underlying principles in networks like internet, transport and mobile. Routing Protocols include a series of rules and algorithms that consider routing metric and select the best way for sending healthy data packets from origin to destination. Dynamic routing protocol compatible to topology has a changeable state. RIP and OSPF are dynamic routing protocol that we consider criteria like convergence and sending protocols traffic assessment RIP first version and OSPF second version. By the test we have done on OPNET stimulation we understood that the OSPF protocol was more efficient than RIP protocol.

  1. Supporting Tablet Configuration, Tracking, and Infection Control Practices in Digital Health Interventions: Study Protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Furberg, Robert D; Ortiz, Alexa M; Zulkiewicz, Brittany A; Hudson, Jordan P; Taylor, Olivia M; Lewis, Megan A

    2016-06-27

    Tablet-based health care interventions have the potential to encourage patient care in a timelier manner, allow physicians convenient access to patient records, and provide an improved method for patient education. However, along with the continued adoption of tablet technologies, there is a concomitant need to develop protocols focusing on the configuration, management, and maintenance of these devices within the health care setting to support the conduct of clinical research. Develop three protocols to support tablet configuration, tablet management, and tablet maintenance. The Configurator software, Tile technology, and current infection control recommendations were employed to develop three distinct protocols for tablet-based digital health interventions. Configurator is a mobile device management software specifically for iPhone operating system (iOS) devices. The capabilities and current applications of Configurator were reviewed and used to develop the protocol to support device configuration. Tile is a tracking tag associated with a free mobile app available for iOS and Android devices. The features associated with Tile were evaluated and used to develop the Tile protocol to support tablet management. Furthermore, current recommendations on preventing health care-related infections were reviewed to develop the infection control protocol to support tablet maintenance. This article provides three protocols: the Configurator protocol, the Tile protocol, and the infection control protocol. These protocols can help to ensure consistent implementation of tablet-based interventions, enhance fidelity when employing tablets for research purposes, and serve as a guide for tablet deployments within clinical settings.

  2. IMPROVED COMPUTATIONAL NEUTRONICS METHODS AND VALIDATION PROTOCOLS FOR THE ADVANCED TEST REACTOR

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    David W. Nigg; Joseph W. Nielsen; Benjamin M. Chase; Ronnie K. Murray; Kevin A. Steuhm

    2012-04-01

    The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is in the process of modernizing the various reactor physics modeling and simulation tools used to support operation and safety assurance of the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). Key accomplishments so far have encompassed both computational as well as experimental work. A new suite of stochastic and deterministic transport theory based reactor physics codes and their supporting nuclear data libraries (HELIOS, KENO6/SCALE, NEWT/SCALE, ATTILA, and an extended implementation of MCNP5) has been installed at the INL. Corresponding models of the ATR and ATRC are now operational with all five codes, demonstrating the basic feasibility of the new code packages for their intended purpose. Of particular importance, a set of as-run core depletion HELIOS calculations for all ATR cycles since August 2009 was successfully completed during 2011. This demonstration supported a decision late in the year to proceed with the phased incorporation of the HELIOS methodology into the ATR fuel cycle management process beginning in 2012. On the experimental side of the project, new hardware was fabricated, measurement protocols were finalized, and the first four of six planned physics code validation experiments based on neutron activation spectrometry were conducted at the ATRC facility. Data analysis for the first three experiments, focused on characterization of the neutron spectrum in one of the ATR flux traps, has been completed. The six experiments will ultimately form the basis for a flexible, easily-repeatable ATR physics code validation protocol that is consistent with applicable ASTM standards.

  3. Outlining a preventive oral health care system for China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saekel, Rüdiger

    2015-01-01

    The most recent Chinese health care reform, scheduled to run until 2020, has been underway for a number of years. Oral health care has not been explicitly mentioned in the context of this reform. However, oral health is an integral part of general health and the under-servicing of the Chinese population in the area of dental care is particularly high. The article describes how this problem could be addressed. Based on present scientific knowledge,specifically on evidence-based strategies and long-term empirical experience from Western industrialised countries, as well as findings from Chinese pilot studies, the author outlines a preventive oral health care system tailored specifically to the conditions prevailing in China. He describes the background and rationale for a clearly structured, preventive system and summarises the scientific cornerstones on which this concept is founded. The single steps of this model, that are adapted specifically to China, are presented so as to facilitate a critical discussion on the pros and cons of the approach. The author concludes that, by implementing preventive oral care, China could gradually reduce the under-servicing of great parts of the population with dental care that largely avoids dental disease and preserves teeth at a price that is affordable to both public health and patients. This approach would minimise the danger of starting a cycle of re-restorations, owing to outdated treatment methods. The proposal would both fit in well with and add to the current blueprint for Chinese health care reform.

  4. Adult Rhabdomyosarcoma Survival Improved With Treatment on Multimodality Protocols

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gerber, Naamit Kurshan; Wexler, Leonard H.; Singer, Samuel; Alektiar, Kaled M.; Keohan, Mary Louise; Shi, Weiji; Zhang, Zhigang; Wolden, Suzanne

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a pediatric sarcoma rarely occurring in adults. For unknown reasons, adults with RMS have worse outcomes than do children. Methods and Materials: We analyzed data from all patients who presented to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center between 1990 and 2011 with RMS diagnosed at age 16 or older. One hundred forty-eight patients met the study criteria. Ten were excluded for lack of adequate data. Results: The median age was 28 years. The histologic diagnoses were as follows: embryonal 54%, alveolar 33%, pleomorphic 12%, and not otherwise specified 2%. The tumor site was unfavorable in 67% of patients. Thirty-three patients (24%) were at low risk, 61 (44%) at intermediate risk, and 44 (32%) at high risk. Forty-six percent were treated on or according to a prospective RMS protocol. The 5-year rate of overall survival (OS) was 45% for patients with nonmetastatic disease. The failure rates at 5 years for patients with nonmetastatic disease were 34% for local failure and 42% for distant failure. Among patients with nonmetastatic disease (n=94), significant factors associated with OS were histologic diagnosis, site, risk group, age, and protocol treatment. On multivariate analysis, risk group and protocol treatment were significant after adjustment for age. The 5-year OS was 54% for protocol patients versus 36% for nonprotocol patients. Conclusions: Survival in adult patients with nonmetastatic disease was significantly improved for those treated on RMS protocols, most of which are now open to adults

  5. Adult Rhabdomyosarcoma Survival Improved With Treatment on Multimodality Protocols

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gerber, Naamit Kurshan [Department of Radiation Oncology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York (United States); Wexler, Leonard H. [Department of Pediatrics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York (United States); Singer, Samuel [Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York (United States); Alektiar, Kaled M. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York (United States); Keohan, Mary Louise [Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York (United States); Shi, Weiji; Zhang, Zhigang [Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York (United States); Wolden, Suzanne, E-mail: woldens@mskcc.org [Department of Radiation Oncology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York (United States)

    2013-05-01

    Purpose: Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a pediatric sarcoma rarely occurring in adults. For unknown reasons, adults with RMS have worse outcomes than do children. Methods and Materials: We analyzed data from all patients who presented to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center between 1990 and 2011 with RMS diagnosed at age 16 or older. One hundred forty-eight patients met the study criteria. Ten were excluded for lack of adequate data. Results: The median age was 28 years. The histologic diagnoses were as follows: embryonal 54%, alveolar 33%, pleomorphic 12%, and not otherwise specified 2%. The tumor site was unfavorable in 67% of patients. Thirty-three patients (24%) were at low risk, 61 (44%) at intermediate risk, and 44 (32%) at high risk. Forty-six percent were treated on or according to a prospective RMS protocol. The 5-year rate of overall survival (OS) was 45% for patients with nonmetastatic disease. The failure rates at 5 years for patients with nonmetastatic disease were 34% for local failure and 42% for distant failure. Among patients with nonmetastatic disease (n=94), significant factors associated with OS were histologic diagnosis, site, risk group, age, and protocol treatment. On multivariate analysis, risk group and protocol treatment were significant after adjustment for age. The 5-year OS was 54% for protocol patients versus 36% for nonprotocol patients. Conclusions: Survival in adult patients with nonmetastatic disease was significantly improved for those treated on RMS protocols, most of which are now open to adults.

  6. Research on Multioperator silk screen printer Based on Communication Protocol Macro

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhiming Zhang

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Multioperator silk screen printer is automatic silk screen printing equipment. There are many advantages, such as energy saving, reduce the labor intensity and so on. The control system consists of an intermittent movement main motor and eight color working station printing cycle motion motors. The system controls nine frequency converters through protocol macro communication by using PLC. This paper studies the principle and process characteristics of multioperator silk screen printer. Besides, this paper adopts protocol macro sequence generation method for communication between PLC and frequency converter. This method can control the programming of parameters, such as frequency, operation and monitoring. It also can realize the printing of eight color working stations and monitor the printing status in real time. The practical application proves that the method meets the technical requirements and the reliability is good.

  7. USA-USSR protocol

    CERN Multimedia

    1970-01-01

    On 30 November the USA Atomic Energy Commission and the USSR State Committee for the Utilization of Atomic Energy signed, in Washington, a protocol 'on carrying out of joint projects in the field of high energy physics at the accelerators of the National Accelerator Laboratory (Batavia) and the Institute for High Energy Physics (Serpukhov)'. The protocol will be in force for five years and can be extended by mutual agreement.

  8. OUTLINE FOR OCCUPATIONAL HOME ECONOMICS COURSE IN COMMERCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FOOD PREPARATION.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alabama State Dept. of Education, Montgomery. Home Economics Service.

    THE EXPERIMENTAL OUTLINE IS FOR TEACHER USE IN PLANNING A TWO-SEMESTER COURSE TO PREPARE 11TH AND 12TH GRADE STUDENTS FOR ENTRY LEVEL COMMERCIAL FOOD PREPARATION JOBS SUCH AS FOOD SERVICE WORKERS, COOK HELPERS, CATERER HELPERS, SALAD MAKERS, BAKER HELPERS, SHORT ORDER COOKS, AND TRAY LINE WORKERS. IT WAS DEVELOPED BY VOCATIONAL HOME ECONOMICS…

  9. A modified error correction protocol for CCITT signalling system no. 7 on satellite links

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kreuer, Dieter; Quernheim, Ulrich

    1991-10-01

    Comite Consultatif International des Telegraphe et Telephone (CCITT) Signalling System No. 7 (SS7) provides a level 2 error correction protocol particularly suited for links with propagation delays higher than 15 ms. Not being originally designed for satellite links, however, the so called Preventive Cyclic Retransmission (PCR) Method only performs well on satellite channels when traffic is low. A modified level 2 error control protocol, termed Fix Delay Retransmission (FDR) method is suggested which performs better at high loads, thus providing a more efficient use of the limited carrier capacity. Both the PCR and the FDR methods are investigated by means of simulation and results concerning throughput, queueing delay, and system delay, respectively. The FDR method exhibits higher capacity and shorter delay than the PCR method.

  10. Student-oriented learning outlines: a valuable supplement to traditional instruction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    VanArsdale, S K; Hammons, J O

    1998-01-01

    In a time of changing health care and funding restraints in institutions, continuing education and staff development departments are being challenged to produce better prepared nurses at reduced costs per employee. Improvements in how nurses are prepared are needed to ensure higher levels of competence without increasing the cost. This article describes the development and use of a practical strategy for mastery learning known as Student-Oriented Learning Outlines or SOLOs. This approach has been found to be effective in producing improvements in learning and ultimately patient care while reducing cost to the institution.

  11. [Computerized clinical protocol for occlusion].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salsench, J; Ferrer, J; Nogueras, J

    1988-11-01

    In making a protocol it is necessary that all members of the team who are going to collect information have the same unity of criterion about the different variables that compose it. The drawing up of this document is as much or more necessary than the protocol itself. In this work we all data collected in the protocol and we give the explanations of each concept.

  12. Bioremediation protocols

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Sheehan, David

    1997-01-01

    ..., .. . . . . .. ,. . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . .. . .. 3 2 Granular Nina Sludge Christiansen, Consortia lndra for Bioremediation, M. Mathrani, and Birgitte K. Ahring . 23 PART II PROTOCOLS...

  13. ATM and Internet protocol

    CERN Document Server

    Bentall, M; Turton, B

    1998-01-01

    Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a protocol that allows data, sound and video being transferred between independent networks via ISDN links to be supplied to, and interpreted by, the various system protocols.ATM and Internet Protocol explains the working of the ATM and B-ISDN network for readers with a basic understanding of telecommunications. It provides a handy reference to everyone working with ATM who may not require the full standards in detail, but need a comprehensive guide to ATM. A substantial section is devoted to the problems of running IP over ATM and there is some discussion o

  14. Group covariant protocols for quantum string commitment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tsurumaru, Toyohiro

    2006-01-01

    We study the security of quantum string commitment (QSC) protocols with group covariant encoding scheme. First we consider a class of QSC protocol, which is general enough to incorporate all the QSC protocols given in the preceding literatures. Then among those protocols, we consider group covariant protocols and show that the exact upperbound on the binding condition can be calculated. Next using this result, we prove that for every irreducible representation of a finite group, there always exists a corresponding nontrivial QSC protocol which reaches a level of security impossible to achieve classically

  15. Families of quantum fingerprinting protocols

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lovitz, Benjamin; Lütkenhaus, Norbert

    2018-03-01

    We introduce several families of quantum fingerprinting protocols to evaluate the equality function on two n -bit strings in the simultaneous message passing model. The original quantum fingerprinting protocol uses a tensor product of a small number of O (logn ) -qubit high-dimensional signals [H. Buhrman et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 167902 (2001), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.167902], whereas a recently proposed optical protocol uses a tensor product of O (n ) single-qubit signals, while maintaining the O (logn ) information leakage of the original protocol [J. M. Arazola and N. Lütkenhaus, Phys. Rev. A 89, 062305 (2014), 10.1103/PhysRevA.89.062305]. We find a family of protocols which interpolate between the original and optical protocols while maintaining the O (logn ) information leakage, thus demonstrating a tradeoff between the number of signals sent and the dimension of each signal. There has been interest in experimental realization of the recently proposed optical protocol using coherent states [F. Xu et al., Nat. Commun. 6, 8735 (2015), 10.1038/ncomms9735; J.-Y. Guan et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 240502 (2016), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.240502], but as the required number of laser pulses grows linearly with the input size n , eventual challenges for the long-time stability of experimental setups arise. We find a coherent state protocol which reduces the number of signals by a factor 1/2 while also reducing the information leakage. Our reduction makes use of a simple modulation scheme in optical phase space, and we find that more complex modulation schemes are not advantageous. Using a similar technique, we improve a recently proposed coherent state protocol for evaluating the Euclidean distance between two real unit vectors [N. Kumar et al., Phys. Rev. A 95, 032337 (2017), 10.1103/PhysRevA.95.032337] by reducing the number of signals by a factor 1/2 and also reducing the information leakage.

  16. Comments on the theory of radiation risk I Systematic outline of the theory of radiation risk

    CERN Document Server

    Neufeld, J

    1974-01-01

    Presents a systematic outline of the current theory of radiation risk. The most basic ideas of the theory can be expressed by two quantities which represent the administrative approach to radiation risk. These quantities are 'specific dose', D/sub s/, which relates to individual organs or tissues and 'overall dose', D/sub 0/, which relates to the entire human body. By taking D/sub s/ and D/sub 0/ as a starting point and by using postulational methods, two auxiliary quantities have been derived which are 'dose equivalent', D/sub e/(r), and quality factor, Q. Dose equivalent, D/sub e/(r), is a macroscopic field quantity and is, therefore, different from the ICRP defined dose equivalent, H, which is microscopic.

  17. Outline of the Therapeutic Process in Social Skills Training with Socially Dysfunctional Patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stravynski, Ariel; And Others

    1987-01-01

    Outlines the therapeutic process in social skills training with 22 socially dysfunctional outpatients who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria for avoidant personality disorder. Measured performance of prosocial target behaviors and associated subjective anxiety during baseline, treatment, and follow-up periods.…

  18. Comparison of the Full Outline of UnResponsiveness score and the Glasgow Coma Scale in predicting mortality in critically ill patients*.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wijdicks, Eelco F M; Kramer, Andrew A; Rohs, Thomas; Hanna, Susan; Sadaka, Farid; O'Brien, Jacklyn; Bible, Shonna; Dickess, Stacy M; Foss, Michelle

    2015-02-01

    Impaired consciousness has been incorporated in prediction models that are used in the ICU. The Glasgow Coma Scale has value but is incomplete and cannot be assessed in intubated patients accurately. The Full Outline of UnResponsiveness score may be a better predictor of mortality in critically ill patients. Thirteen ICUs at five U.S. hospitals. One thousand six hundred ninety-five consecutive unselected ICU admissions during a six-month period in 2012. Glasgow Coma Scale and Full Outline of UnResponsiveness score were recorded within 1 hour of admission. Baseline characteristics and physiologic components of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation system, as well as mortality were linked to Glasgow Coma Scale/Full Outline of UnResponsiveness score information. None. We recruited 1,695 critically ill patients, of which 1,645 with complete data could be linked to data in the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation system. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of predicting ICU mortality using the Glasgow Coma Scale was 0.715 (95% CI, 0.663-0.768) and using the Full Outline of UnResponsiveness score was 0.742 (95% CI, 0.694-0.790), statistically different (p = 0.001). A similar but nonsignificant difference was found for predicting hospital mortality (p = 0.078). The respiratory and brainstem reflex components of the Full Outline of UnResponsiveness score showed a much wider range of mortality than the verbal component of Glasgow Coma Scale. In multivariable models, the Full Outline of UnResponsiveness score was more useful than the Glasgow Coma Scale for predicting mortality. The Full Outline of UnResponsiveness score might be a better prognostic tool of ICU mortality than the Glasgow Coma Scale in critically ill patients, most likely a result of incorporating brainstem reflexes and respiration into the Full Outline of UnResponsiveness score.

  19. ISS protocol for EPR tooth dosimetry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Onori, S.; Aragno, D.; Fattibene, P.; Petetti, E.; Pressello, M.C.

    2000-01-01

    The accuracy in Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) dose reconstruction with tooth enamel is affected by sample preparation, dosimetric signal amplitude evaluation and unknown dose estimate. Worldwide efforts in the field of EPR dose reconstruction with tooth enamel are focused on the optimization of the three mentioned steps in dose assessment. In the present work, the protocol implemented at ISS in the framework of the European Community Nuclear Fission Safety project 'Dose Reconstruction' is presented. A combined mechanical-chemical procedure for ground enamel sample preparation is used. The signal intensity evaluation is carried out with powder spectra simulation program. Finally, the unknown dose is evaluated individually for each sample with the additive dose method. The unknown dose is obtained by subtracting a mean native dose from the back-extrapolated dose. As an example of the capability of the ISS protocol in unknown dose evaluation, the results obtained in the framework of the 2nd International Intercomparison on EPR tooth enamel dosimetry are reported

  20. Effectiveness of oxaliplatin desensitization protocols.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cortijo-Cascajares, Susana; Nacle-López, Inmaculada; García-Escobar, Ignacio; Aguilella-Vizcaíno, María José; Herreros-de-Tejada, Alberto; Cortés-Funes Castro, Hernán; Calleja-Hernández, Miguel-Ángel

    2013-03-01

    Hypersensitivity reaction (HSR) to antineoplastic drugs can force doctors to stop treatment and seek other alternatives. These alternatives may be less effective, not as well tolerated and/or more expensive. Another option is to use desensitization protocols that induce a temporary state of tolerance by gradually administering small quantities of the antineoplastic drug until the therapeutic dosage is reached. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of oxaliplatin desensitization protocols. A retrospective observational study was carried out between January 2006 and May 2011. The inclusion criteria were patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment with oxaliplatin who had developed an HSR to the drug and who were candidates for continuing the treatment using a desensitization protocol. The patients' clinical records were reviewed and variables were gathered relating to the patient, the treatment, the HSR, and the desensitization protocol administered. The data were analysed using version 18.0 of the statistics program SPSS. A total of 53 desensitization protocols were administered to 21 patients. In 89 % of these cases, no new reactions occurred while the drug was being administered. New reactions of mild severity only occurred in 11 % of cases, and none of these reactions were severe enough for treatment to be stopped. All patients were able to complete the desensitization protocol. This study confirms that oxaliplatin desensitization protocols are safe and effective and allow patients to continue with the treatment that initially caused an HSR.