End-User Driven Business Process Composition

OpenAIRE

Stoitsev, Todor

2009-01-01

Business Process Management (BPM) solutions enable enterprises to consolidate and optimize their business operations and to gain competitive advantage in the fast evolving global market. Often, the only ones to understand the matter and complexity of business processes are the end users of enterprise software, who execute them on a daily basis. The need to involve end users in business process composition during the implementation of BPM solutions in enterprises is clearly perceived. However,...

How to engage end-users in smart energy behaviour?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valkering Pieter

2014-01-01

Full Text Available End users will play a crucial role in up-coming smart grids that aim to link end-users and energy providers in a better balanced and more efficient electricity system. Within this context, this paper aims to deliver a coherent view on current good practice in end-user engagement in smart grid projects. It draws from a recent review of theoretical insights from sustainable consumption behaviour, social marketing and innovation systems and empirical insights from recent smart grid projects to create an inventory of common motivators, enablers and barriers of behavioural change, and the end-user engagement principles that can be derived from that. We conclude with identifying current research challenges as input for a research agenda on end-user engagement in smart grids.

Frame conditions for a well-functioning end user market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Livik, Klaus

1997-10-01

The aim of this report is to describe and define different frame conditions being necessary for the development of a well-functioning end user market. The report describes the sharing of roles between end users, grid owners, suppliers, system operators and market operators in the power market, and it points out how the interplay between these roles should be arranged. A particular attention is laid on how to involve the end user relations into the five different market roles during the development of a more active end user market. Products and eventual potentials are described and discussed being based on estimates as well as load measurements. 17 figs., 4 tabs

A Systematic Review of End-users Within Sustainable Innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Roed Nielsen, Kristian; Reisch, Lucia A.; Bogers, Marcel

with the advent Web 2.0, the continuously decreasing cost of communication, and the rise of multiple types of freeware has the knowledge and toolsets available for end-user innovation increased dramatically. With the rise of 3D-printing (and other open workshops), digital end-user generated content is also......Sustainable innovation is typically seen as within the purview of the producer with consumers (apart from offering critical input) only playing a peripheral role in the development of product(s) and service(s). Hence one could argue that end-users are dominantly perceived as passive adopters...... of sustainable products and services developed by firms and thus attention is typically paid to the (non-) diffusion of sustainable products and services. The literature on user innovation, however, sharply contrasts with this view denoting that end-users play key and growing role within innovation. Especially...

VMTL: a language for end-user model transformation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Acretoaie, Vlad; Störrle, Harald; Strüber, Daniel

2016-01-01

, these languages are largely ill-equipped for adoption by end-user modelers in areas such as requirements engineering, business process management, or enterprise architecture. We aim to introduce a model transformation language addressing the skills and requirements of end-user modelers. With this contribution, we......Model transformation is a key enabling technology of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE). Existing model transformation languages are shaped by and for MDE practitioners—a user group with needs and capabilities which are not necessarily characteristic of modelers in general. Consequently...... hope to broaden the application scope of model transformation and MDE technology in general. We discuss the profile of end-user modelers and propose a set of design guidelines for model transformation languages addressing them. We then introduce Visual Model Transformation Language (VMTL) following...

Managing the Risks Associated with End-User Computing.

Science.gov (United States)

Alavi, Maryam; Weiss, Ira R.

1986-01-01

Identifies organizational risks of end-user computing (EUC) associated with different stages of the end-user applications life cycle (analysis, design, implementation). Generic controls are identified that address each of the risks enumerated in a manner that allows EUC management to select those most appropriate to their EUC environment. (5…

Graphical User Interfaces and Library Systems: End-User Reactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Zorn, Margaret; Marshall, Lucy

1995-01-01

Describes a study by Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research Library to determine user satisfaction with the graphical user interface-based (GUI) Dynix Marquis compared with the text-based Dynix Classic Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC). Results show that the GUI-based OPAC was preferred by endusers over the text-based OPAC. (eight references) (DGM)

End-User Applications of Real-Time Earthquake Information in Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Cua, G. B.; Gasparini, P.; Giardini, D.; Zschau, J.; Filangieri, A. R.; Reakt Wp7 Team

2011-12-01

The primary objective of European FP7 project REAKT (Strategies and Tools for Real-Time Earthquake Risk Reduction) is to improve the efficiency of real-time earthquake risk mitigation methods and their capability of protecting structures, infrastructures, and populations. REAKT aims to address the issues of real-time earthquake hazard and response from end-to-end, with efforts directed along the full spectrum of methodology development in earthquake forecasting, earthquake early warning, and real-time vulnerability systems, through optimal decision-making, and engagement and cooperation of scientists and end users for the establishment of best practices for use of real-time information. Twelve strategic test cases/end users throughout Europe have been selected. This diverse group of applications/end users includes civil protection authorities, railway systems, hospitals, schools, industrial complexes, nuclear plants, lifeline systems, national seismic networks, and critical structures. The scale of target applications covers a wide range, from two school complexes in Naples, to individual critical structures, such as the Rion Antirion bridge in Patras, and the Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridge in Istanbul, to large complexes, such as the SINES industrial complex in Portugal and the Thessaloniki port area, to distributed lifeline and transportation networks and nuclear plants. Some end-users are interested in in-depth feasibility studies for use of real-time information and development of rapid response plans, while others intend to install real-time instrumentation and develop customized automated control systems. From the onset, REAKT scientists and end-users will work together on concept development and initial implementation efforts using the data products and decision-making methodologies developed with the goal of improving end-user risk mitigation. The aim of this scientific/end-user partnership is to ensure that scientific efforts are applicable to operational

Active Involvement of End Users When Developing Web-Based Mental Health Interventions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Derek de Beurs

2017-05-01

Full Text Available BackgroundAlthough many web-based mental health interventions are being released, the actual uptake by end users is limited. The marginal level of engagement of end users when developing these interventions is recognized as an important cause for uptake problems. In this paper, we offer our perceptive on how to improve user engagement. By doing so, we aim to stimulate a discourse on user involvement within the field of online mental health interventions.MethodsWe shortly describe three different methods (the expert-driven method, intervention mapping, and scrum that were currently used to develop web-based health interventions. We will focus to what extent the end user was involved in the developmental phase, and what the additional challenges were. In the final paragraph, lessons learned are summarized, and recommendations provided.ResultsEvery method seems to have its trade-off: if end users are highly involved, availability of end users and means become problematic. If end users are less actively involved, the product may be less appropriate for the end user. Other challenges to consider are the funding of the more active role of technological companies, and the time it takes to process the results of shorter development cycles.ConclusionThinking about user-centered design and carefully planning, the involvement of end users should become standard in the field of web-based (mental health. When deciding on the level of user involvement, one should balance the need for input from users with the availability of resources such as time and funding.

ERP ASSIMILATION: AN END-USER APPROACH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hurbean Luminita

2013-07-01

The paper discusses the ERP adoption based on the IT assimilation theory. The ERP lifecycle is associated with the IT assimilation steps. We propose a distribution of these steps along the lifecycle. Derived from the findings in the reviewed literature we will focus the cultural factors, in particular those related to the end-users (determined as a major impact factor in our previous study: Negovan et al., 2011. Our empirical study is centred on the end-users perspective and it tries to determine if and how their behaviour affects the achievement of the ERP assimilation steps. The paper reasons that organizations that understand the IT assimilation steps correlated to the ERP implementation critical factors are more likely to implement and use ERP successfully.

End-User Evaluations of Semantic Web Technologies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McCool, Rob; Cowell, Andrew J.; Thurman, David A.

2005-11-07

Stanford University's Knowledge Systems Laboratory (KSL) is working in partnership with Battelle Memorial Institute and IBM Watson Research Center to develop a suite of technologies for information extraction, knowledge representation & reasoning, and human-information interaction, in unison entitled 'Knowledge Associates for Novel Intelligence' (KANI). We have developed an integrated analytic environment composed of a collection of analyst associates, software components that aid the user at different stages of the information analysis process. An important part of our participatory design process has been to ensure our technologies and designs are tightly integrate with the needs and requirements of our end users, To this end, we perform a sequence of evaluations towards the end of the development process that ensure the technologies are both functional and usable. This paper reports on that process.

A well functioning end user market - what, who, why and how

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Groenli, Helle; Livik, Klaus

2000-01-01

The report describes a well functioning end user market, who is interested in participating, why various parties want to participate and how they may contribute. There are several illustrations and examples of possible profits, especially with respect to technology. Different products and services are surveyed and a closer look at what parties could be interested in them is taken. Various cooperation constellations between the parties in the end user market is discussed regarding possible profits due to complementary resources, may have scaled advantages or obtain reduced transaction costs. With a well functioning end user marked one understands a power market with frame conditions that stimulates a rational behaviour by the end user, the power supplier and the network company. In addition such conditions would contribute to the systems operator may activity use the end users as well as the power producers for handling of the systems services and the regulated power market. The market participants have different incentives for participation in a well functioning send user market. The end users would also be motivated by the possibilities for economical profits, environmental considerations, comfort and wish for a simpler existence. The power suppliers wish to earn money from the chosen competition strategy whether it may be cost management, differentiation, focusing or innovation. The network companies would be motivated by the possibilities of a more efficient network operation and reduced costs i.e. by reducing the maximal effect. The systems operator would also have a rational use of the reserves and the systems services as incentive. The effect reserve in the ordinary supply is estimated to ca. 4000 MW under certain conditions that indicates that a better functioning end user market would be advantageous for all market participants. Through active demands to the power supplier and the network company and adapting to conditions in their own preferences, the end

Where to place the saving obligation: Energy end-users or suppliers?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bertoldi, Paolo; Labanca, Nicola; Rezessy, Silvia; Steuwer, Sibyl; Oikonomou, Vlasis

2013-01-01

Obligations to save energy differentiate, among other features, by obliged parties. These are obligations on energy suppliers and energy end-users. Supplier obligations have been introduced in North America, Europe and Australia. Under supplier obligations energy suppliers have to comply with mandatory energy saving targets and thus they implement (directly or via third parties) energy efficiency projects on their clients’ premises, or they decide to trade certified project savings if this option is envisaged by their obligation scheme. In several emerging schemes such as the UK Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme, the Tokyo Emission Trading Scheme or the Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) Scheme in India, the obligation to reduce energy consumption is placed on large end-users directly and end-users are allowed to trade emissions allowances or energy saving certificates. The paper starts with presenting these two conceptually different ways for introducing energy saving obligations. Then it analyses advantages and disadvantages of end-users obligations compared to suppliers obligations. The preliminary conclusion of the paper is that supplier obligations seem to be well-suited for the residential sector, but end-user saving obligations may offer advantages when it comes to the industrial and commercial sectors. - Highlights: • We present different ways for introducing energy saving obligations. • We analyse energy end-users obligations vs. supplier obligations. • Supplier obligations seem to be well-suited for the residential sector. • End-user obligations offer advantages in the industrial and commercial sectors

Integration of End-User Cloud Storage for CMS Analysis

CERN Document Server

Riahi, Hassen; Álvarez Ayllón, Alejandro; Balcas, Justas; Ciangottini, Diego; Hernández, José M; Keeble, Oliver; Magini, Nicolò; Manzi, Andrea; Mascetti, Luca; Mascheroni, Marco; Tanasijczuk, Andres Jorge; Vaandering, Eric Wayne

2018-01-01

End-user Cloud storage is increasing rapidly in popularity in research communities thanks to the collaboration capabilities it offers, namely synchronisation and sharing. CERN IT has implemented a model of such storage named, CERNBox, integrated with the CERN AuthN and AuthZ services. To exploit the use of the end-user Cloud storage for the distributed data analysis activity, the CMS experiment has started the integration of CERNBox as a Grid resource. This will allow CMS users to make use of their own storage in the Cloud for their analysis activities as well as to benefit from synchronisation and sharing capabilities to achieve results faster and more effectively. It will provide an integration model of Cloud storages in the Grid, which is implemented and commissioned over the world’s largest computing Grid infrastructure, Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). In this paper, we present the integration strategy and infrastructure changes needed in order to transparently integrate end-user Cloud storage with...

Flexibility and adaptability - key elements of end-user participation in living space designing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jakšić Željko

2017-01-01

Full Text Available An end-user has the main role in the creation of space where spends most of its lifetime (home, workplace. That is why important that a designer (he first recognizes what requests of the end-user are. In the reference literature and researches that deal with the spatial organisations and designing of living area, the role of an end-user is essential. However, what does the end user participation mean, actually? At what level an end-user makes a final decision? Is it a choice among several alternative solutions provided by an architect or end-user himself? This article precisely deals with that subject - where begins and where ends participation of the end-user when the theme is the final spatial solution and under what circumstances. In this case, habitation represents the much more sensitive area than any other area for human needs or activities. In technical terms, an end-user could be someone who either knows nothing or knows a lot but not enough about both the spatial and functional organisations. His role should be reduced to choice of one from the group of high-quality solutions and, in a technical sense, logical solutions made by an expert. No more than that.

User friendly far front ends

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zagel, J.R.; Chapman, L.J.

1987-10-01

For years controls group hardware designers have designed microprocessor systems to accomplish specific functions such as refrigeration control. These systems often require years of software effort. The backlog of requests for even simple additions or modifications to software in embedded controllers has become overwhelming. We discuss the requirements of ''far forward'' controllers. Can we build a system that is modular enough to be configurable for specific applications without sacrificing performance? The hardware and software framework must be complete enough to isolate the end user from the peculiarities of bit and byte manipulation, but still allow system specifics to be implanted by the user. It is time to provide embedded controller systems as easy to use as workstation consoles

Government policy on privatization of power in Nigeria: end-users ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Since the privatization of the power sector in Nigeria in 1999, the cost impact to end-users have not received adequate empirical evaluation. Using data from consumers of privatized electricity power in Enugu State, this paper sought to evaluate the significant effect of privatization on end-users of electricity product.

Natural contextual reasoning for end users

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Metaxas, G.; Markopoulos, P.

2017-01-01

The realization and deployment of the Internet of Things require providing to non-programmers some level of programmatic control for tailoring system behaviour to their context and needs. We introduce a simple context-range semantics (CRS) and a context-range editor (CoRE) that support end users

End-user GHG emissions from energy. Reallocation of emissions from energy industries to end users 2005-2009

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fernandez, R. (European Environment Agency (EEA), Copenhagen (Denmark)); Watterson, J. (AEA Technology plc - EEA' s European Topic Centre on Air Pollution and Climate Change Mitigation (ETC/ACM) (United Kingdom))

2011-12-15

The objective of this report is to help improve the understanding of past greenhouse gas (GHG) emission trends in the energy sector from the demand or end-user side. To do this, the report develops a methodology to redistributes emissions from energy industries to the final users (by sector) of that energy. This reallocation is done on the basis of Eurostat's energy balances and GHG inventories for the energy sector as reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), for the period 2005-2009. (Author)

End-user GHG emissions from energy. Reallocation of emissions from energy industries to end users 2005-2010

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fernandez, R. [European Environment Agency (EEA), Copenhagen (Denmark); Watterson, J. [AEA Technology plc - EEA' s European Topic Centre on Air Pollution and Climate Change Mitigation (ETC/ACM) (United Kingdom)

2012-12-15

The objective of this report is to help improve the understanding of past GHG emission trends in the energy sector from the demand or end-user side. To do this, the report develops a methodology to redistributes emissions from energy industries to the final users (by sector) of that energy. This reallocation is done on the basis of Eurostat's energy balances and GHG inventories for the energy sector as reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), for the period 2005-2010. (Author)

7 CFR 782.21 - End-user and exporter records and reports.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... and exporter records and reports. (a) The end user or exporter shall retain a copy of each form FSA...). (b) The end user or exporter shall retain a copy of each form FSA-750, End-Use Certificate for Wheat... time as the wheat was loaded onto a conveyance for delivery to the foreign country or instrumentality...

Support for Quality Assurance in End-User Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Klepper, Robert; McKenna, Edward G.

1989-01-01

Suggests an approach that organizations can take to provide centralized support services for quality assurance in end-user information systems, based on the experiences of a support group at Citicorp Mortgage, Inc. The functions of the support group include user education, software selection, and assistance in testing, implementation, and support…

The Effects of Normalisation of the Satisfaction of Novice End-User Querying Databases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Conrad Benedict

1997-05-01

Full Text Available This paper reports the results of an experiment that investigated the effects different structural characteristics of relational databases have on information satisfaction of end-users querying databases. The results show that unnormalised tables adversely affect end-user satisfaction. The adverse affect on end-user satisfaction is attributable primarily to the use of non atomic data. In this study, the affect on end user satisfaction of repeating fields was not significant. The study contributes to the further development of theories of individual adjustment to information technology in the workplace by alerting organisations and, in particular, database designers to the ways in which the structural characteristics of relational databases may affect end-user satisfaction. More importantly, the results suggest that database designers need to clearly identify the domains for each item appearing in their databases. These issues are of increasing importance because of the growth in the amount of data available to end-users in relational databases.

An End User Development Approach for Mobile Web Augmentation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriela Bosetti

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The trend towards mobile devices usage has made it possible for the Web to be conceived not only as an information space but also as a ubiquitous platform where users perform all kinds of tasks. In some cases, users access the Web with native mobile applications developed for well-known sites, such as, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. These native applications might offer further (e.g., location-based functionalities to their users in comparison with their corresponding Web sites because they were developed with mobile features in mind. However, many Web applications have no native counterpart and users access them using a mobile Web browser. Although the access to context information is not a complex issue nowadays, not all Web applications adapt themselves according to it or diversely improve the user experience by listening to a wide range of sensors. At some point, users might want to add mobile features to these Web sites, even if those features were not originally supported. In this paper, we present a novel approach to allow end users to augment their preferred Web sites with mobile features. We support our claims by presenting a framework for mobile Web augmentation, an authoring tool, and an evaluation with 21 end users.

Declarative Parallel Programming in Spreadsheet End-User Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Biermann, Florian

2016-01-01

Spreadsheets are first-order functional languages and are widely used in research and industry as a tool to conveniently perform all kinds of computations. Because cells on a spreadsheet are immutable, there are possibilities for implicit parallelization of spreadsheet computations. In this liter...... can directly apply results from functional array programming to a spreadsheet model of computations.......Spreadsheets are first-order functional languages and are widely used in research and industry as a tool to conveniently perform all kinds of computations. Because cells on a spreadsheet are immutable, there are possibilities for implicit parallelization of spreadsheet computations....... In this literature study, we provide an overview of the publications on spreadsheet end-user programming and declarative array programming to inform further research on parallel programming in spreadsheets. Our results show that there is a clear overlap between spreadsheet programming and array programming and we...

Brain-computer interface controlled gaming: evaluation of usability by severely motor restricted end-users.

Science.gov (United States)

Holz, Elisa Mira; Höhne, Johannes; Staiger-Sälzer, Pit; Tangermann, Michael; Kübler, Andrea

2013-10-01

Connect-Four, a new sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) based brain-computer interface (BCI) gaming application, was evaluated by four severely motor restricted end-users; two were in the locked-in state and had unreliable eye-movement. Following the user-centred approach, usability of the BCI prototype was evaluated in terms of effectiveness (accuracy), efficiency (information transfer rate (ITR) and subjective workload) and users' satisfaction. Online performance varied strongly across users and sessions (median accuracy (%) of end-users: A=.65; B=.60; C=.47; D=.77). Our results thus yielded low to medium effectiveness in three end-users and high effectiveness in one end-user. Consequently, ITR was low (0.05-1.44bits/min). Only two end-users were able to play the game in free-mode. Total workload was moderate but varied strongly across sessions. Main sources of workload were mental and temporal demand. Furthermore, frustration contributed to the subjective workload of two end-users. Nevertheless, most end-users accepted the BCI application well and rated satisfaction medium to high. Sources for dissatisfaction were (1) electrode gel and cap, (2) low effectiveness, (3) time-consuming adjustment and (4) not easy-to-use BCI equipment. All four end-users indicated ease of use as being one of the most important aspect of BCI. Effectiveness and efficiency are lower as compared to applications using the event-related potential as input channel. Nevertheless, the SMR-BCI application was satisfactorily accepted by the end-users and two of four could imagine using the BCI application in their daily life. Thus, despite moderate effectiveness and efficiency BCIs might be an option when controlling an application for entertainment. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Using rapid prototyping to design a smoking cessation website with end-users

OpenAIRE

Ronquillo, C. E.; Currie, L.; Rowsell, D.; Phillips, J. C.

2016-01-01

Rapid prototyping is an iterative approach to design involving cycles of prototype building, review by end-users, and refinement, and can be a valuable tool in user-centered website design. Informed by various user-centered approaches, we used rapid prototyping as a tool to collaborate with users in building a peer-support focused smoking-cessation website for gay men living with HIV. Rapid prototyping was effective in eliciting feedback on the needs of this group of potential end-users\\ud fr...

FaceMashup: An End-User Development Tool for Social Network Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniele Massa

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Every day, each active social network user produces and shares texts, images and videos. While developers can access such data through application programming interfaces (APIs for creating games, visualizations and routines, end users have less control on such information. Their access is mediated by the social application features, which limits them in combining sources, filtering results and performing actions on groups of elements. In order to fill this gap, we introduce FaceMashup, an end user development (EUD environment supporting the manipulation of the Facebook graph. We describe the tool interface, documenting the choices we made during the design iterations. Data types are represented through widgets containing user interface (UI elements similar to those used in the social network application. Widgets can be connected with each other with the drag and drop of their inner fields, and the application updates their content. Finally, we report the results of a user-test on the FaceMashup prototype, which shows a good acceptance of the environment by end-users.

Visual Alphabets: Video classification by end users

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Israël, Menno; van den Broek, Egon; van der Putten, Peter; den Uyl, Marten J.; Petrushin, Valery A.; Khan, Latifur

2007-01-01

The work presented here introduces a real-time automatic scene classifier within content-based video retrieval. In our envisioned approach end users like documentalists, not image processing experts, build classifiers interactively, by simply indicating positive examples of a scene. Classification

Using Rapid Prototyping to Design a Smoking Cessation Website with End-Users.

Science.gov (United States)

Ronquillo, Charlene; Currie, Leanne; Rowsell, Derek; Phillips, J Craig

2016-01-01

Rapid prototyping is an iterative approach to design involving cycles of prototype building, review by end-users and refinement, and can be a valuable tool in user-centered website design. Informed by various user-centered approaches, we used rapid prototyping as a tool to collaborate with users in building a peer-support focused smoking-cessation website for gay men living with HIV. Rapid prototyping was effective in eliciting feedback on the needs of this group of potential end-users from a smoking cessation website.

Training leads to increased auditory brain-computer interface performance of end-users with motor impairments.

Science.gov (United States)

Halder, S; Käthner, I; Kübler, A

2016-02-01

Auditory brain-computer interfaces are an assistive technology that can restore communication for motor impaired end-users. Such non-visual brain-computer interface paradigms are of particular importance for end-users that may lose or have lost gaze control. We attempted to show that motor impaired end-users can learn to control an auditory speller on the basis of event-related potentials. Five end-users with motor impairments, two of whom with additional visual impairments, participated in five sessions. We applied a newly developed auditory brain-computer interface paradigm with natural sounds and directional cues. Three of five end-users learned to select symbols using this method. Averaged over all five end-users the information transfer rate increased by more than 1800% from the first session (0.17 bits/min) to the last session (3.08 bits/min). The two best end-users achieved information transfer rates of 5.78 bits/min and accuracies of 92%. Our results show that an auditory BCI with a combination of natural sounds and directional cues, can be controlled by end-users with motor impairment. Training improves the performance of end-users to the level of healthy controls. To our knowledge, this is the first time end-users with motor impairments controlled an auditory brain-computer interface speller with such high accuracy and information transfer rates. Further, our results demonstrate that operating a BCI with event-related potentials benefits from training and specifically end-users may require more than one session to develop their full potential. Copyright © 2015 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mining Users Mobility at Public Transportation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

joao ferreira

2017-02-01

Full Text Available In this research work we propose a new approach to estimate the number of passengers in a public transportation and determinate the users’ route path based on a passive approach without user intervention. The method is based on the probe requests of users mobile device through the collected data in wireless access point. This data is manipulated to extract the information about the numbers of users with mobile devices and track their route path and time. This data can be manipulated to extract useful knowledge related with users’ habits at public transportation and extract user mobility patterns.

End user orientation of TC projects. Special evaluation review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-12-01

The present review of the end use orientation of TC projects was undertaken as requested by the TC Department to identify: (a) end users and beneficiaries beyond the boundaries of the counterpart laboratories, as appropriate; (b) means provided or planned to reach the end users and beneficiaries; (c) performance indicators in quantifiable terms, including those related to the counterpart activities that could be foreseen during and after completion of Agency assistance; and (d) recommendations of additional means, if necessary, to reach the end users and beneficiaries. A total of 13 TC projects with large budgets of around $200,000 and above were selected from those first approved under the 1995-1996 biennial programme and supported under the TCF, representing diverse fields of Agency activities and covering all the geographical areas of the Agency's technical co-operation. The projects thus selected were one each from Argentina, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Mexico, Mongolia, Slovenia, Turkey and Viet-Nam. The overall budget of the 13 projects as originally approved for 1995 to 1998, amounted to $5,510,980. The current budget as of 8 November 1996 stands at $5,446,719, representing a decrease of more than one percent. Figs, tabs

Speaking of users: on user discourses in the field of public libraries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ase Hedemark

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. The aim of the study reported is to examine user discourses identified in the Swedish public library field. The following questions are posed: What user discourses can be found and what characterises them? How are users categorised and what does this categorisation imply? The departure point in this paper is that the ways users are categorised influence their information behaviour. Plausible consequences for the relation between the interest of the public library and the users are discussed. Method. The empirical focus of the paper is a discourse analysis with a starting-point in Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes discourse theory. Analysis. Sixty-two articles from three established Swedish library journals are analysed through a model in four phases. These phases include designations of users, user categories, themes within which users are described and user discourses. Results. Four user discourses are revealed: a general education discourse, a pedagogical discourse, an information technology discourse and an information management discourse. Conclusion. The discourses hold both levels of idealizing and experience related rhetoric. The dominant general education discourse is based on a tradition of fostering and refining as well as educating the general public and thereby reproduces inequality between the user and the library.

The representation of healthcare end users' perspectives by surrogates in healthcare decisions: a literature review.

Science.gov (United States)

Shah, Syed Ghulam Sarwar; Farrow, Alexandra; Robinson, Ian

2009-12-01

The representation of end users' perspectives in healthcare decisions requires involvement of their surrogates when the end users, i.e. certain patients, elderly people, children and people with disabilities, are unable to present their views. To review critical issues, and the advantages and disadvantages of involving surrogates in representing end users' perspectives in healthcare decisions. A systematic review of literature published in peer-reviewed journals from 1990 to 2005. Findings show that surrogates are used widely in health care and that they are necessary to represent end users' perspectives in healthcare decisions when the latter are unable to do so themselves. Critical issues in using surrogates include key ethical, social, cultural, legal and medico-technological factors; ascertaining the best interest of end users; potential conflict of interest; possible biased decisions and the burden on surrogates. The key advantage of surrogate involvement in healthcare decisions is their ability to represent end users' needs, values and wishes. The main disadvantages include potential discrepancies between the decisions and conclusions of surrogates and end users; the failure of surrogates to predict end users' preferences accurately and the lack of certainty that useful information will be obtained through the surrogacy process. This systematic review has revealed that the involvement of surrogates is an additional vital way to represent end users' perspectives in healthcare decisions where for a range of reasons their opinions are unable to be effectively ascertained. However, because of the heterogeneity of surrogates and end users, the selection of appropriate surrogates and deploying surrogate decisions require particularly careful consideration of their value in individual cases; thus, subsequent decision-making must be reviewed on a case-to-case basis to seek to ensure that the best interests, needs and wishes of the end user are fully and accurately

Antecedents and Outcomes of End User Computing Competence

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Case, David

2003-01-01

.... The end user has had to evolve and will continue evolving as well; from someone with low level technical skills to someone with a high level of technical knowledge and information managerial skills...

Design and evaluation of an end-user friendly tool for robot programming

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buchina, N.; Barakova, E.I.; Kamel, S.M.W.

2016-01-01

End-user programming for robots is becoming an increasingly important topic since robots are being introduced into a wide variety of domains. We propose a design of a web based programming interface that makes it possible for end-users with different backgrounds to program robots using natural

End user prices in liberalised energy markets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lijesen, M.G. [Afdeling Energie en Grondstoffen, Centraal Planbureau CPB, Den Haag (Netherlands)

2002-12-01

As European energy markets move towards deregulation, energy prices shift from classic 'cost plus' prices towards market prices. We develop a model for the retail and wholesale energy markets in Europe, based on Bertrand competition in a two part pricing structure with switching costs. We use the model to forecast end user electricity and natural gas prices and find that the introduction of competition in energy retail and wholesale markets will decrease standing charges, lowering total costs for energy users. A larger number of entrants, a cost advantage for one of the suppliers, or lower switching costs reduces standing charges further.

Analysing the relationship between wholesale and end-user prices in the Nordic electricity market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewis, P.E.; Johnsen, T.A.; Naervae, T.; Wasti, S.

2004-09-01

Efficient pricing in a deregulated market means prices which closely reflect the cost of obtaining electricity in the wholesale market. This research report analyses and explains the relationship between wholesale prices (especially Spot Prices) and end-user prices for residential, industrial and commercial users in the Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian electricity markets. The report primarily analyses the closeness of wholesale and end-user price patterns (the primary tracking period is 1998-2003, focusing especially closely on Finland and the period 2002-2003). The report reveals that Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish end- user prices can all be said to follow spot prices (and other wholesale prices) to a greater or lesser extent. The relationship is however complex and, especially regarding spot prices, clearly closest in Norway, followed by Sweden and then Finland. Whilst, overall, Finnish prices seem quite competitive and Nordic end-user prices currently seem to be extremely similar, there is some cause for concern in Finland. In particular, very few customers have spot based tariffs; wholesale prices (including spot prices) appear to sometimes have been used as an excuse for end-user price rises; Finnish suppliers have often been slow to respond to post-spike spot price reductions; offer prices are currently often higher than standard variable prices; and suppliers seem quite free to follow any pricing strategy, regardless of the presence of competition. Six factors are identified which influence end-user prices and their relationship with wholesale (and particularly spot) prices: hydro-dependency; concentration and entry barriers; cultural and historical determination; legislation; pricing strategies; the competitive environment. The report additionally specifically illustrates a wide variety of possible supplier strategies which might explain Finnish end-user pricing. Spot prices seem to provide only a minor explanation for Finnish end-user prices. (orig.)

User innovation in public service broadcasts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Khajeheian, Datis; Tadayoni, Reza

2016-01-01

and develop user innovations into professional content. This study follows a qualitative approach with a document study of Denmark's public service broadcast and two interviews. Findings indicate that the commitment to quality and professional content prevents managers of PSBs from outsourcing......This research aims to understand how public service media can encourage media entrepreneurship in the society to enrich user innovations as a source of ideas, products, contents, talent and creativity. The assumption is that media entrepreneurs turn users into sources of external creativity...... their production to media entrepreneurs, but they trust large media companies as external producers. This research contributes to the field by proposing that public service media can foster media entrepreneurship in a society indirectly and by creating demand for external sources of creativity. Large media...

A flexible energy market - electric power reserves at the place of the end-user

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Livik, Klaus; Groenli, Helle; Fretheim, Stig; Feilberg, Nicolai; Gjervan, Sverre; Dymbe, Lars

1996-01-01

If short-term as well as long-term prices in the electric power market are to be stable, then the market must be flexible and both energy and power related efforts must be taken at the end-user's place. The report analyses what type of actors in the electric power market are profiting from a flexible end-user market for energy and power. It is found that a flexible market has utilitarian value for end-users, network owners, suppliers, market operators and system operators. It is also clearly desirable from the point of view of the authorities. Considerable possibilities of developing the flexible energy and power market exist at the end-user. The possibilities can be realized by means of technological developments and political incentives such as by rules for monopoly control. End-user measures may have considerable utilitarian value, socio economically. Especially in areas with high marginal costs of power transport will network owners see the advantages of such measures

Web-based DAQ systems: connecting the user and electronics front-ends

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lenzi, Thomas

2016-01-01

Web technologies are quickly evolving and are gaining in computational power and flexibility, allowing for a paradigm shift in the field of Data Acquisition (DAQ) systems design. Modern web browsers offer the possibility to create intricate user interfaces and are able to process and render complex data. Furthermore, new web standards such as WebSockets allow for fast real-time communication between the server and the user with minimal overhead. Those improvements make it possible to move the control and monitoring operations from the back-end servers directly to the user and to the front-end electronics, thus reducing the complexity of the data acquisition chain. Moreover, web-based DAQ systems offer greater flexibility, accessibility, and maintainability on the user side than traditional applications which often lack portability and ease of use. As proof of concept, we implemented a simplified DAQ system on a mid-range Spartan6 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) development board coupled to a digital front-end readout chip. The system is connected to the Internet and can be accessed from any web browser. It is composed of custom code to control the front-end readout and of a dual soft-core Microblaze processor to communicate with the client.

Web-based DAQ systems: connecting the user and electronics front-ends

Science.gov (United States)

Lenzi, Thomas

2016-12-01

Web technologies are quickly evolving and are gaining in computational power and flexibility, allowing for a paradigm shift in the field of Data Acquisition (DAQ) systems design. Modern web browsers offer the possibility to create intricate user interfaces and are able to process and render complex data. Furthermore, new web standards such as WebSockets allow for fast real-time communication between the server and the user with minimal overhead. Those improvements make it possible to move the control and monitoring operations from the back-end servers directly to the user and to the front-end electronics, thus reducing the complexity of the data acquisition chain. Moreover, web-based DAQ systems offer greater flexibility, accessibility, and maintainability on the user side than traditional applications which often lack portability and ease of use. As proof of concept, we implemented a simplified DAQ system on a mid-range Spartan6 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) development board coupled to a digital front-end readout chip. The system is connected to the Internet and can be accessed from any web browser. It is composed of custom code to control the front-end readout and of a dual soft-core Microblaze processor to communicate with the client.

Give the people what they want: studying end-user needs for enhancing the web

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tak Yeon Lee

2016-11-01

Full Text Available End-user programming (EUP is a common approach for helping ordinary people create small programs for their professional or daily tasks. Since end-users may not have programming skills or strong motivation for learning them, tools should provide what end-users want with minimal costs of learning –i.e., they must decrease the barriers to entry. However, it is often hard to address these needs, especially for fast-evolving domains such as the Web. To better understand these existing and ongoing challenges, we conducted two formative studies with Web users –a semi-structured interview study, and a Wizard-of-Oz study. The interview study identifies challenges that participants have with their daily experiences on the Web. The Wizard-of-Oz study investigates how participants would naturally explain three computational tasks to an interviewer acting as a hypothetical computer agent. These studies demonstrate a disconnect between what end-users want and what existing EUP systems support, and thus open the door for a path towards better support for end user needs. In particular, our findings include: (1 analysis of challenges that end-users experience on the Web with solutions; (2 seven core functionalities of EUP for addressing these challenges; (3 characteristics of non-programmers describing three common computation tasks; (4 design implications for future EUP systems.

Power reserves in the end-user market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Livik, K.; Mo, B.

1994-10-01

Based on a detailed modelling of the end-user electric power market it is evaluated how a selection of energy conservation efforts will affect Norway's system curve for the day of maximum power load. The analysis given in this report is based on empiric load data and statistical analyses of how changing simultaneity in power consumption by the end-users contribute to an aggregated effect on the maximum power of the system. The computer code PMAX was used for the simulation. The following efforts are considered: controlling water heaters in the housing sector, replacing electricity by oil for heating in the housing sector and in the service sector, implementation of temperature control with reduced temperature at night/day in the housing and service sectors, energy conservation in the service sector, heat recovery in the service sector. Transition from electricity to oil in heating is the effort which most strongly affects the energy consumption and power load on the day of peak power load. The discussion excludes energy-intensive industries, pumps and boilers. 11 refs., 16 figs., 6 tabs

On the end-user QoS-awareness of a distributed service environment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Widya, I.; Stap, R.E.; Teunissen, L.J.; Hopman, B.F.

2001-01-01

A lot of attention has been given to network quality of service and efforts to make layers on top of the network also QoS-aware increase noticeably. This paper explores QoS-aware service provisioning at a level close to end-user's perception. It shows how end-user oriented QoS requirements have been

End-user challenges to security digitalisation and integration: a retail perspective

OpenAIRE

Lahtinen, Markus

2008-01-01

With the assumed digitalisation happening on the end-user side, progressive systems integrators stress the importance of changing the business concept from being installers to being service and solution providers. However, less is known about the details of this process on the end-user side. Based on an online survey of loss prevention managers it can be stated that security digitalisation and further business integration of security is a top agreement among the respondents. Integ...

Engineering of Data Acquiring Mobile Software and Sustainable End-User Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Benton T.

2013-01-01

The criteria for which data acquiring software and its supporting infrastructure should be designed should take the following two points into account: the reusability and organization of stored online and remote data and content, and an assessment on whether abandoning a platform optimized design in favor for a multi-platform solution significantly reduces the performance of an end-user application. Furthermore, in-house applications that control or process instrument acquired data for end-users should be designed with a communication and control interface such that the application's modules can be reused as plug-in modular components in greater software systems. The application of the above mentioned is applied using two loosely related projects: a mobile application, and a website containing live and simulated data. For the intelligent devices mobile application AIDM, the end-user interface have a platform and data type optimized design, while the database and back-end applications store this information in an organized manner and manage access to that data to only to authorized user end application(s). Finally, the content for the website was derived from a database such that the content can be included and uniform to all applications accessing the content. With these projects being ongoing, I have concluded from my research that the applicable methods presented are feasible for both projects, and that a multi-platform design for the mobile application only marginally drop the performance of the mobile application.

Storyboard method of end-user programming with natural language configuration

Science.gov (United States)

Bouchard, Ann M; Osbourn, Gordon C

2013-11-19

A technique for end-user programming includes populating a template with graphically illustrated actions and then invoking a command to generate a screen element based on the template. The screen element is rendered within a computing environment and provides a mechanism for triggering execution of a sequence of user actions. The sequence of user actions is based at least in part on the graphically illustrated actions populated into the template.

Synthesis of the initial survey related to PSAs End-Users needs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guigueno, Yves; Duflot, Nicolas; Durin, Thomas; Pihl, Joel; Benzoni, Stephane; Brac, Pascal; Gallois, Marie; Vasseur, Dominique; Loeffler, Horst; Nitoi, Mirela; Volkanovski, Andrija; Sevbo, Oleksandr; Ivanov, Ivan

2015-01-01

The ASAMPSA-E project aims at identifying good practices for the development of extended PSAs that include low-probability internal and external hazards which can lead to extreme consequences, and at discussing the application of extended PSAs for NPP safety enhancement decision making in the European context. A first questionnaire related to End-Users needs (ASAMPSA-E/WP10/D10.112013-4) has been disseminated at international level to PSA End-Users in November 2013 in order to identify the needs for guidance for the performance and application of extended PSA. This document presents the analysis of the responses to the survey. A draft version has been used to present the responses to the survey and discuss End-Users' needs during an international workshop organized on 26, 27 and 28 May 2014 in Uppsala (Sweden). The final version of this document has been prepared by incorporating the comments received from the project partners and the outcomes of the discussions at the Uppsala workshop. (authors)

Speaking of Users: On User Discourses in the Field of Public Libraries

Science.gov (United States)

Hedemark, Ase; Hedman, Jenny; Sundin, Olof

2005-01-01

Introduction: The aim of the study reported is to examine user discourses identified in the Swedish public library field. The following questions are posed: What user discourses can be found and what characterises them? How are users categorised and what does this categorisation imply? The departure point in this paper is that the ways users are…

Storage system software solutions for high-end user needs

Science.gov (United States)

Hogan, Carole B.

1992-01-01

Today's high-end storage user is one that requires rapid access to a reliable terabyte-capacity storage system running in a distributed environment. This paper discusses conventional storage system software and concludes that this software, designed for other purposes, cannot meet high-end storage requirements. The paper also reviews the philosophy and design of evolving storage system software. It concludes that this new software, designed with high-end requirements in mind, provides the potential for solving not only the storage needs of today but those of the foreseeable future as well.

Ideas on a system design for end-user robots

Science.gov (United States)

Bonasso, R. P.; Slack, Marc G.

1992-11-01

Robots are being used successfully in factory automation; however, recently there has been some success in building robots which can operate in field environments, where the domain is less predictable. New perception and control techniques have been developed which allow a robot to accomplish its mission while dealing with natural changes in both land and underwater environments. Unfortunately, efforts in this area have resulted in many one-of-a-kind robots, limited to research laboratories or carefully delimited field task arenas. A user who would like to apply robotic technology to a particular field problem must basically start from scratch. The problem is that the robotic technology (i.e., the hardware and software) which might apply to the user's domain exists in a diverse array of formats and configurations. For end-user robots to become a reality, an effort to standardize some aspects of the robotic technology must be made, in much the same way that personal computer technology is becoming standardized. Presently, a person can buy a computer and then acquire hardware and software extensions which simply `plug in' and provide the user with the required utility without the user having to understand the inner workings of the pieces of the system. This technology even employs standardized interface specifications so the user is presented with a familiar interaction paradigm. This paper outlines some system requirements (hardware and software) and a preliminary design for end-user robots for field environments, drawing parallels to the trends in the personal computer market. The general conclusion is that the appropriate components as well as an integrating architecture are already available, making development of out-of-the- box, turnkey robots for a certain range of commonly required tasks a potential reality.

Empowering the end-user in smart grids: Recommendations for the design of products and services

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geelen, Daphne; Reinders, Angèle; Keyson, David

2013-01-01

In discussions on smart grids, it is often stated that residential end-users will play a more active role in the management of electric power supply and demand. They are expected to shift from a passive role as consumer of electricity to an active role as co-provider. In this article, the extent to which current technologies, products and services empower end-users to take up an active role as co-providers is evaluated. Based on a review of literature and related pilot projects, current approaches were found to be driven by technical and financial considerations. There appears to be a lack of product and service design that supports end-users in their role as co-providers in a smart grid. This is reflected in the lack of thought given to how the end-users’ process of behavioral change can be supported to enable the transition from consumer to co-provider. Several recommendations are provided for product and service designers towards fostering the role of co-provider, which comes under under: (a) user interaction needs, (b) approaches to behavioral change and (c) community initiatives and management of resources. Designers are considered to play a bridging role between policy making and engineering, while facilitating involvement of end-users in the design process. - Highlights: • Overview of products and services for residential end-users in smart grids. • Evaluation of extent to which end-users are empowered to adopt a co-provider role. • Products and services often focus on technical functionality and financial incentives. • Behavioral aspects and social context would have to be taken into account more. • Design recommendations are proposed to empower end-users in becoming co-providers

The STEP database through the end-users eyes--USABILITY STUDY.

Science.gov (United States)

Salunke, Smita; Tuleu, Catherine

2015-08-15

The user-designed database of Safety and Toxicity of Excipients for Paediatrics ("STEP") is created to address the shared need of drug development community to access the relevant information of excipients effortlessly. Usability testing was performed to validate if the database satisfies the need of the end-users. Evaluation framework was developed to assess the usability. The participants performed scenario based tasks and provided feedback and post-session usability ratings. Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) was performed to prioritize the problems and improvements to the STEP database design and functionalities. The study revealed several design vulnerabilities. Tasks such as limiting the results, running complex queries, location of data and registering to access the database were challenging. The three critical attributes identified to have impact on the usability of the STEP database included (1) content and presentation (2) the navigation and search features (3) potential end-users. Evaluation framework proved to be an effective method for evaluating database effectiveness and user satisfaction. This study provides strong initial support for the usability of the STEP database. Recommendations would be incorporated into the refinement of the database to improve its usability and increase user participation towards the advancement of the database. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Presentations at the ARGONA End Users Conference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-01-01

The Uppsala conference is an opportunity for communication and dissemination of preliminary results from the ARGONA project and to give the project feedback on its preliminary results and recommendations. The intention is also to give a wider view of the state of knowledge about participation and transparency in radioactive waste management in Europe by the active participation of three other major on-going or recently ended projects - CARL (Citizen stakeholders, Agencies responsible for radioactive waste management, social science Research organizations and Licensing and regulatory authorities), OBRA (European Observatory for long-term governance on radioactive waste management) and CIP (COWAM (Community Waste Management) in Practice). The conference provides a forum for municipalities, other end users and researchers to discuss the outcome of research in the field, and to reach their own respective positions about their needs for participation and transparency in the future. The focus is thus on practical implications of research, (The ARGONA Project Arenas for Risk Governance) is a project within the sixth Euratom research and training Framework Programme (FP6) on nuclear energy of the European Commission). The following presentations can be viewed at the home page: Research on radioactive waste governance under the 6th Euratom Framework Programme for Research and Training on Nuclear Energy; The ARGONA Project - Background and objectives, preliminary conclusions and recommendations; The CARL Project; The OBRA Project: Vision and results; The CIP Project; An Internet Forum for Public Discussion on Nuclear Waste Management - An Uppsala Regional Council initiative; Implementing geological disposal of radioactive waste - A Technological Platform; The Transparency Programme of the Swedish National Council for Nuclear Waste; The need for implementation of research results on the governance of nuclear waste management

Educational Needs of Public Library Users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simona Šinko

2014-09-01

Full Text Available AbstractPurpose: The article explains the role of user education in public libraries based on the assessment of users’ educational needs in a selected public library. We present a part of the results of the needs assessment study conducted on users of the Ljubljana City Library (LCL. In this presentation, we focus on the thematic areas of users’ interest, the most appropriate time of day and the most appropriate period of the year for participating in education. The aim of presenting this information is to support the development of an appropriate adult education provision and an effective use of human, financial and material resources in public libraries.Methodology/approach: The basic research method used was descriptive and causal non- experimental. The study involved 943 adults LCL users who have filled in an online or a printed form of the questionnaire.Results: Results of data analysis showed that users express a greater degree of interest in the following course topics: travel, foreign languages, literature, public speaking and health. They express the lowest degree of interest in the topics: policy, motoring and mathematics. Afternoons and evenings suit them best, whereas the autumn and winter season are in their view the best time of the year for participating in education. The analysis also showed some statistically significant differences in relation to sex, age, status and educational level of the users.Research limitation: By the practical application of results the characteristics of the sample of users and the environment from which they come, as well as the shortcomings of the questionnaire as an instrument for data collection, have to be considered.Originality/practical implications: The data obtained are useful in preparing the basis of educational activities in LCL, as well as for the design of educational programs in other comparable public libraries and other providers of adult education. The survey results can also

User Categorization of Public Library Collections

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boter, J.; Wedel, M.

2005-01-01

To help users find their way around the large number of titles available, public libraries organize the collection by placing titles on shelves by genre, by adding classification codes in their online catalogs, and by pictograms on book covers. However, users may have different perceptions of how

75 FR 16819 - Notice of Proposed Information Collection for Public Comment Civil Rights Front End and Limited...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-02

... Information Collection for Public Comment Civil Rights Front End and Limited Monitoring Review AGENCY: Office... Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The...-free Federal Information Relay Service at 800-877-8339. (Other than the HUD USER information line and...

Developing End-User Innovation from Circuits of Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Fosstenløkken, Siw M.

2015-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to raise the question of how end-user product innovation is developed by exploring the underlying learning mechanisms that drive such idea realization in practice. A trialogical learning perspective from educational science is applied as an analytical approach to enlighten the black box of learning dynamics in user…

Potential for the adoption of probabilistic risk assessments by end-users and decision-makers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Frewer, Lynn J.; Fischer, Arnout R. H.; van den Brink, Paul J.

2008-01-01

-user and regulatory uptake has not been, to date, extensive. A case study, utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior, was conducted in order to identify potential determinants of end-user adoption of probabilistic risk assessments associated with the ecotoxicological impact of pesticides. Seventy potential end...

Electrodialysis recovery of boric acid and potassium hydroxide from eluates of SWC facilities at NPP with VVER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dudnik, S.N.; Virich, P.M.; Kramskikh, E.Y.; Masanov, O.L.; Turovsky, I.P.

1993-01-01

To extract boric acid and potassium hydroxide from regenerates of SWC-2-46 facilities, an electrodialysis-sorption process has been devised consisting of the following operations: separation of boron-alkaline regenerate solution into desorbate and wash water; filling of desalination and concentration chambers, respectively, with desorbate and was water of electrodialysis equipment; production of boric acid and potassium hydroxide from desorbate by electrodialysis; removal of chloride-ion from boric acid solution on ion-exchange filter AB-17-18. The flow-sheet was tested and boron containing alkaline regeneration solutions were recovered from Novovoronezh NPP

Market design : Common Nordic end-user market

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2009-07-01

No later than 2015, suppliers in the Nordic countries should be able to offer electricity to consumers in any Nordic country on equal terms. In this report NordREG has analyzed the present situation in the Nordic countries and identified the issues that should be harmonised in order to establish a common Nordic end-user market. In this report NordREG also suggests an indicative road map for the implementation process. (Author)

Design of an online health-promoting community: negotiating user community needs with public health goals and service capabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Ekberg, Joakim; Timpka, Toomas; Angbratt, Marianne; Frank, Linda; Norén, Anna-Maria; Hedin, Lena; Andersen, Emelie; Gursky, Elin A; Gäre, Boel Andersson

2013-07-04

An online health-promoting community (OHPC) has the potential to promote health and advance new means of dialogue between public health representatives and the general public. The aim of this study was to examine what aspects of an OHPC that are critical for satisfying the needs of the user community and public health goals and service capabilities. Community-based participatory research methods were used for data collection and analysis, and participatory design principles to develop a case study OHPC for adolescents. Qualitative data from adolescents on health appraisals and perspectives on health information were collected in a Swedish health service region and classified into categories of user health information exchange needs. A composite design rationale for the OHPC was completed by linking the identified user needs, user-derived requirements, and technical and organizational systems solutions. Conflicts between end-user requirements and organizational goals and resources were identified. The most prominent health information needs were associated to food, exercise, and well-being. The assessment of the design rationale document and prototype in light of the regional public health goals and service capabilities showed that compromises were needed to resolve conflicts involving the management of organizational resources and responsibilities. The users wanted to discuss health issues with health experts having little time to set aside to the OHPC and it was unclear who should set the norms for the online discussions. OHPCs can be designed to satisfy both the needs of user communities and public health goals and service capabilities. Compromises are needed to resolve conflicts between users' needs to discuss health issues with domain experts and the management of resources and responsibilities in public health organizations.

Fiber-to-the-home: bringing the services the end-user

Science.gov (United States)

van den Hoven, G. N.; Pluk, E. G. C.

2006-07-01

The ever increasing bandwidth demand will put large pressure on classical broadband communication networks. Optical fiber, with its high bandwidth, offers a solution to this emerging problem. Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) can provide end-users with virtually unlimited bandwidth, creating the opportunity to receive any service they like. FTTH networks consist of a passive network, active equipment and a top-layer which brings the services to the end-user. Companies and organisations who are deploying FTTH networks are not the traditional telecom and cable operators, but utility companies, housing corporations and local communities. The FTTH network deployed in Nuenen is a good example showing the strength of FTTH. In the future, bandwidth demand will increase even more. Intelligent solutions, such as flexible bandwidth, can have large added value for future FTTH networks.

Perspectives on User-Driven Innovation in Public Sector Services

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Langergaard, Luise Li

2015-01-01

of citizenship. Thus, we need to be aware of what different perspectives of user involvement imply for citizenship and collaborative innovation in the public sector. The chapter is based on a literature study and uses an empirical case as an example to illustrate and discuss differences in democratic......The chapter presents and discusses how we can conceptualize user involvement in the public sector, as well as users, in very different ways: As consumers, co-producers, lead users or citizens. One important question which is subsequently discussed, is what such different conceptualizations imply...... for citizenship understood in more traditional terms, i.e. defined by political deliberation and rights. This question is important because conceptualizations of users imply certain ideas about the public sector, state and society, which have political implications as well as implications for our understanding...

Assessing users satisfaction with service quality in Slovenian public library

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Igor Podbrežnik

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Purpose: A research was made into user satisfaction with regard to the quality of library services in one of the Slovenian public libraries. The aim was to establish the type of service quality level actually expected by the users, and to determine their satisfaction with the current quality level of available library services.Methodology: The research was performed by means of the SERVQUAL measuring tool which was used to determine the size and direction of the gap between the detected and the expected quality of library services among public library users.Results: Different groups of users provide different assessments of specific quality factors, and a library cannot satisfy the expectations of each and every user if most quality factors display discrepancies between the estimated perception and expectations. The users expect more reliable services and more qualified library staff members who would understand and allocate time for each user’s individual needs. The largest discrepancies from the expectations are detected among users in the under-35 age group and among the more experienced and skilled library users. The results of factor analysis confirm the fact that a higher number of quality factors can be explained by three common factors affecting the satisfaction of library users. A strong connection between user satisfaction and their assessment of the integral quality of services and loyalty has been established.Research restrictions: The research results should not be generalised and applied to all Slovenian public libraries since they differ in many important aspects. In addition, a non-random sampling method was used.Research originality/Applicability: The conducted research illustrates the use of a measuring tool that was developed with the aim of determining the satisfaction of users with the quality of library services in Slovenian public libraries. Keywords: public library, user satisfaction, quality of library services, user

Decision Making Under Uncertainty - Bridging the Gap Between End User Needs and Science Capability

Science.gov (United States)

Verdon-Kidd, D. C.; Kiem, A.; Austin, E. K.

2012-12-01

Successful adaptation outcomes depend on decision making based on the best available climate science information. However, a fundamental barrier exists, namely the 'gap' between information that climate science can currently provide and the information that is practically useful for end users and decision makers. This study identifies the major contributing factors to the 'gap' from an Australian perspective and provides recommendations as to ways in which the 'gap' may be narrowed. This was achieved via a literature review, online survey (targeted to providers of climate information and end users of that information), workshop (where both climate scientists and end users came together to discuss key issues) and focus group. The study confirmed that uncertainty in climate science is a key barrier to adaptation. The issue of uncertainty was found to be multi-faceted, with issues identified in terms of communication of uncertainty, misunderstanding of uncertainty and the lack of tools/methods to deal with uncertainty. There were also key differences in terms of expectations for the future - most end users were of the belief that uncertainty associated with future climate projections would reduce within the next five to 10 years, however producers of climate science information were well aware that this would most likely not be the case. This is a concerning finding as end users may delay taking action on adaptation and risk planning until the uncertainties are reduced - a situation which may never eventuate or may occur after the optimal time for action. Improved communication and packaging of climate information was another key theme that was highlighted in this study. Importantly, it was made clear that improved communication is not just about more glossy brochures and presentations by climate scientists, rather there is a role for a program or group to fill this role (coined a 'knowledge broker' during the workshop and focus group). The role of the 'knowledge

Awareness and use of electronic databases by public library users ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study investigated awareness, access and use of electronic database by public library users in Ibadan Oyo State in Nigeria. The purpose of this study was to determine awareness of public library users' electronic databases, find out what these users used electronic databases to do and to identify problems associated ...

An Australian Perspective On The Challenges For Computer And Network Security For Novice End-Users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patryk Szewczyk

2012-12-01

Full Text Available It is common for end-users to have difficulty in using computer or network security appropriately and thus have often been ridiculed when misinterpreting instructions or procedures. This discussion paper details the outcomes of research undertaken over the past six years on why security is overly complex for end-users. The results indicate that multiple issues may render end-users vulnerable to security threats and that there is no single solution to address these problems. Studies on a small group of senior citizens has shown that educational seminars can be beneficial in ensuring that simple security aspects are understood and used appropriately.

Users education in the virtual public library. Resources and procedures in the Spanish public libraries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francisco Javier García Gómez

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Some Spanish public libraries have sites Web in a new digital work environment. These libraries are already delivered some services in their virtual branches. We are interesting to analyze user education in their sites Web. We are reviewed and tested some digital resources and services for user education in public libraries at World Wide Web. Level developing obtained in this library work is shown in conclusions. Likewise, we contributed some references about public library web sites design focused in user education and library instruction

ANTECEDENTS OF END-USER SATISFACTION WITH AN ERP SYSTEM IN A TRANSNATIONAL BANK

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luís Kalb Roses

2011-08-01

Full Text Available The main objective of this study is to identify the antecedents of end-user satisfaction with an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP system, in the context of a transnational Bank. The Information System (IS success theory is applied for the end-user computing satisfaction (EUCS assessment. Quantitative data is analyzed through multivariate statistical techniques whereas qualitative data is analyzed through content analysis technique. The results indicate that the EUCS model is pertinent to the context of ERP systems for a fast data collection and overall perception of user satisfaction; nevertheless it is suggested the continuity of its evaluation in other research contexts and additional categories should be considered as antecedents to IS enduser satisfaction.

78 FR 69535 - Amendments to Existing Validated End-User Authorizations in the People's Republic of China

Science.gov (United States)

2013-11-20

.... (Samsung China), Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), SK hynix Semiconductor..., Chair, End-User Review Committee, Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th...)'' for Validated End-User Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) This final rule...

Changing assumption for the design process – New roles of the active end user

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Monika Hestad

2009-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to discuss how end user involvement in all stages of a product life cycle changes the assumptions of the design process. This article is based on a literature review and three case studies – Imsdal (Ringnes/Carlsberg, Jordan and Stokke. Several examples of how consumers or users are involved in various stages of the product life cycle are presented. The product development is affected both by end users’ activity and by previous knowledge of the product. The use of the product is changing the meaning, and even the disposal of the product is affecting how the product is perceived. The product becomes part of a cultural and historical context in which the end user is actively shaping.  

BIM-based Multiuser Collaborative Virtual Environments for end user involvement

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Jesper Bendix; Svidt, Kjeld

2017-01-01

This paper examines the potential of utilizing virtual mock-ups in end user involvement processes. To access if virtual mock-ups can optimize existing processes, current workflows using physical full-scale mock-ups on several projects are explored. Requirements regarding the traditional workflows...

Public Service Motivation, User Orientation, and Prescription Behaviour: Doing Good for Society or for the Individual User?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Ulrich Thy; Andersen, Lotte Bøgh

2015-01-01

Motivation to benefit individual recipients of public services (user orientation) can conflict with classic public service motivation linked to the interest of a collective entity. When actions intended to increase the well-being of an individual user can harm societal interests, the two types...... of motivation have different behavioural implications, but we know far too little about these potential trade-offs. This study analyses the relationships between public service motivation, user orientation, and antibiotic prescriptions for 407 general medical practitioners in Denmark. Use of antibiotics has...... a positive effect on the individual patient and (especially broad-spectrum antibiotics) a negative effect on society due to resistant bacteria. Combining survey and administrative data, we find that public service motivation and user orientation indeed are differently associated with prescription behaviour...

The Integrated Nordic End-User Electricity Market - Feasibility and identified obstacles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-02-01

The report identifies the various obstacles that currently exist which prevent the formation of a truly integrated Nordic electricity end-user market. The obstacles have been divided into three categories: technical, regulatory and commercial. NordREG proposes that to further integrate the Nordic end-user electricity markets, a number of differences of technical, legal and market nature ought to be gradually harmonized in order to facilitate market entry and cross-border trade. Technical obstacles: Especially the following problems related to the data and metering systems should be solved: Transferred messages, information and message timing should be harmonised; Message format should be decided; A common data transmission protocol should be specified. New solutions like web-based solutions should be studied; The identification of the final customers' metering point should be harmonised. Regulatory obstacles: The identified regulatory obstacles relate to three areas, namely the division of tasks between monopoly and competitive activities, the operation and duties of distribution network operators including how these are regulated, and the legal framework to provide protection for small end users. On the basis of the review of regulatory obstacles, the following recommendations are made: The principles of neutrality and the way these principles are being supervised by the regulator is a key issue to improve the functioning of the Nordic end-user market. Regulators should seek to harmonise regulation on neutrality and put it high on the agenda in a forthcoming process of market integration; The procedures for switching supplier should be as smooth, easy and quick as possible. It is also important that suppliers, especially the new market entrants, can participate in reliable, transparent and fluent switching practices, since this lowers the threshold for entering other than domestic electricity market. The switching model should be harmonised for the Nordic end-user

The Integrated Nordic End-User Electricity Market - Feasibility and identified obstacles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2006-02-15

The report identifies the various obstacles that currently exist which prevent the formation of a truly integrated Nordic electricity end-user market. The obstacles have been divided into three categories: technical, regulatory and commercial. NordREG proposes that to further integrate the Nordic end-user electricity markets, a number of differences of technical, legal and market nature ought to be gradually harmonized in order to facilitate market entry and cross-border trade. Technical obstacles: Especially the following problems related to the data and metering systems should be solved: Transferred messages, information and message timing should be harmonised; Message format should be decided; A common data transmission protocol should be specified. New solutions like web-based solutions should be studied; The identification of the final customers' metering point should be harmonised. Regulatory obstacles: The identified regulatory obstacles relate to three areas, namely the division of tasks between monopoly and competitive activities, the operation and duties of distribution network operators including how these are regulated, and the legal framework to provide protection for small end users. On the basis of the review of regulatory obstacles, the following recommendations are made: The principles of neutrality and the way these principles are being supervised by the regulator is a key issue to improve the functioning of the Nordic end-user market. Regulators should seek to harmonise regulation on neutrality and put it high on the agenda in a forthcoming process of market integration; The procedures for switching supplier should be as smooth, easy and quick as possible. It is also important that suppliers, especially the new market entrants, can participate in reliable, transparent and fluent switching practices, since this lowers the threshold for entering other than domestic electricity market. The switching model should be harmonised for the Nordic end-user

Overview of Graphical User Interfaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Hulser, Richard P.

1993-01-01

Discussion of graphical user interfaces for online public access catalogs (OPACs) covers the history of OPACs; OPAC front-end design, including examples from Indiana University and the University of Illinois; and planning and implementation of a user interface. (10 references) (EA)

End User Evaluations

Science.gov (United States)

Jay, Caroline; Lunn, Darren; Michailidou, Eleni

As new technologies emerge, and Web sites become increasingly sophisticated, ensuring they remain accessible to disabled and small-screen users is a major challenge. While guidelines and automated evaluation tools are useful for informing some aspects of Web site design, numerous studies have demonstrated that they provide no guarantee that the site is genuinely accessible. The only reliable way to evaluate the accessibility of a site is to study the intended users interacting with it. This chapter outlines the processes that can be used throughout the design life cycle to ensure Web accessibility, describing their strengths and weaknesses, and discussing the practical and ethical considerations that they entail. The chapter also considers an important emerging trend in user evaluations: combining data from studies of “standard” Web use with data describing existing accessibility issues, to drive accessibility solutions forward.

Cost effective maintenance to supply end user value: Visionary or utopian

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wessels, J.; Alten, K.; Turk, M.R.; Palić, S.Š.

2013-01-01

Infrastructure stakeholders expect maintenance managers to deliver acceptable End User Service Levels (EUSL), such as availability, comfort, and safety. Means of controlling these requirements involve technical maintenance and operative measures. Within the ERANET Road Program 'Effective asset

An end-user perspective on smart home energy systems in the PowerMatching City demonstration project

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Geelen, Daphne; Vos-Vlamings, Manon; Filippidou, Faidra; van den Noort, Albert; van Grootel, Maike; Moll, Henri C.; Reinders, Angèle; Keyson, David

In discussions on smart grids, it is often stated that residential end-users will play a more active role in the management of the electric power system. Experience in practice on how to empower end-users for such a role is however limited. This paper presents a field study in the first phase of the

An end-user perspective on smart home energy systems in the PowerMatching City demonstration project

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Geelen, D.V.; Vos-Vlamings, M.; Fillippidou, F.; van den Noort, A.; van Grootel, M.; Moll, H.; Reinders, Angelina H.M.E.; Keyson, D.

2013-01-01

In discussions on smart grids, it is often stated that residential end-users will play a more active role in the management of the electric power system. Experience in practice on how to empower end-users for such a role is however limited. This paper presents a field study in the first phase of the

The Design and Evaluation of a Front-End User Interface for Energy Researchers.

Science.gov (United States)

Borgman, Christine L.; And Others

1989-01-01

Reports on the Online Access to Knowledge (OAK) Project, which developed software to support end user access to a Department of Energy database based on the skill levels and needs of energy researchers. The discussion covers issues in development, evaluation, and the study of user behavior in designing an interface tailored to a special…

The Responsibility of Telemedicine Focused Organizations in regards to creating Compliant end Users Products and Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrian Dumitru Tanţău

2014-02-01

Full Text Available The main purpose of the present study is to provide a highly comprehensive methodological solution for carrying out products/services which fully comply with customers (i.e. end users functional and performance requirements in Telemedicine field, and furthermore to satisfy multitude end users simultaneously. By bringing into the light Systems Engineering (SE as a multidisciplinary theory used preponderantly in the aero-space segment for realization of complex projects, the paper illustrates the way it can be fulfilled the Functional and Performance Requirements of the end users from Romanian (non emergency medicine services in order to develop an innovative telemedicine product. The case study is based on two sets of qualitative researches as interviews in order to validate the telemedicine triggering idea among users, and to classify them, and secondly, as ample observations in order to gain insights on the users' scenarios and further to elaborate user requirements. Both sets of researches undertaken from users' specific environments were backed up with secondary information gained through document analysis. Relevant for this telemedicine research, it is the fact that the results of this survey have been already successfully used as a baseline to prototype the telemedicine product for Romanian market, in a European Space Agency (ESA Project.

Closing the Gap between Methodologists and End-Users: R as a Computational Back-End

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Byron C. Wallace

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The R environment provides a natural platform for developing new statistical methods due to the mathematical expressiveness of the language, the large number of existing libraries, and the active developer community. One drawback to R, however, is the learning curve; programming is a deterrent to non-technical users, who typically prefer graphical user interfaces (GUIs to command line environments. Thus, while statisticians develop new methods in R, practitioners are often behind in terms of the statistical techniques they use as they rely on GUI applications. Meta-analysis is an instructive example; cutting-edge meta-analysis methods are often ignored by the overwhelming majority of practitioners, in part because they have no easy way of applying them. This paper proposes a strategy to close the gap between the statistical state-of-the-science and what is applied in practice. We present open-source meta-analysis software that uses R as the underlying statistical engine, and Python for the GUI. We present a framework that allows methodologists to implement new methods in R that are then automatically integrated into the GUI for use by end-users, so long as the programmer conforms to our interface. Such an approach allows an intuitive interface for non-technical users while leveraging the latest advanced statistical methods implemented by methodologists.

Perceptions of user studies as a foundation for public programming ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of user studies and the evaluation of services in the development of effective public programming initiatives by the public archives of east and southern Africa. Users of the archives are the backbone of effective archival services. Sadly, it appears that the records are more ...

Public Auditing with Privacy Protection in a Multi-User Model of Cloud-Assisted Body Sensor Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Song; Cui, Jie; Zhong, Hong; Liu, Lu

2017-05-05

Wireless Body Sensor Networks (WBSNs) are gaining importance in the era of the Internet of Things (IoT). The modern medical system is a particular area where the WBSN techniques are being increasingly adopted for various fundamental operations. Despite such increasing deployments of WBSNs, issues such as the infancy in the size, capabilities and limited data processing capacities of the sensor devices restrain their adoption in resource-demanding applications. Though providing computing and storage supplements from cloud servers can potentially enrich the capabilities of the WBSNs devices, data security is one of the prevailing issues that affects the reliability of cloud-assisted services. Sensitive applications such as modern medical systems demand assurance of the privacy of the users' medical records stored in distant cloud servers. Since it is economically impossible to set up private cloud servers for every client, auditing data security managed in the remote servers has necessarily become an integral requirement of WBSNs' applications relying on public cloud servers. To this end, this paper proposes a novel certificateless public auditing scheme with integrated privacy protection. The multi-user model in our scheme supports groups of users to store and share data, thus exhibiting the potential for WBSNs' deployments within community environments. Furthermore, our scheme enriches user experiences by offering public verifiability, forward security mechanisms and revocation of illegal group members. Experimental evaluations demonstrate the security effectiveness of our proposed scheme under the Random Oracle Model (ROM) by outperforming existing cloud-assisted WBSN models.

Mobile Context-Aware Support for Public Transportation Users

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

von Buchwald, Esben; Larsen, Jakob Eg; Murray-Smith, Roderick

2012-01-01

compass bearing, in addition to a distance range chosen by a physical gesture. The main application tested in this paper is a system to support public transport users in Copenhagen. Users can point at any bus-stop or train station and be given timetables, next departure times, and buy a ticket via SMS...

Model Manipulation for End-User Modelers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Acretoaie, Vlad

, and transformations using their modeling notation and editor of choice. The VM* languages are implemented via a single execution engine, the VM* Runtime, built on top of the Henshin graph-based transformation engine. This approach combines the benefits of flexibility, maturity, and formality. To simplify model editor......End-user modelers are domain experts who create and use models as part of their work. They are typically not Software Engineers, and have little or no programming and meta-modeling experience. However, using model manipulation languages developed in the context of Model-Driven Engineering often...... requires such experience. These languages are therefore only used by a small subset of the modelers that could, in theory, benefit from them. The goals of this thesis are to substantiate this observation, introduce the concepts and tools required to overcome it, and provide empirical evidence in support...

End-user perspective of low-cost sensors for outdoor air pollution monitoring.

Science.gov (United States)

Rai, Aakash C; Kumar, Prashant; Pilla, Francesco; Skouloudis, Andreas N; Di Sabatino, Silvana; Ratti, Carlo; Yasar, Ansar; Rickerby, David

2017-12-31

Low-cost sensor technology can potentially revolutionise the area of air pollution monitoring by providing high-density spatiotemporal pollution data. Such data can be utilised for supplementing traditional pollution monitoring, improving exposure estimates, and raising community awareness about air pollution. However, data quality remains a major concern that hinders the widespread adoption of low-cost sensor technology. Unreliable data may mislead unsuspecting users and potentially lead to alarming consequences such as reporting acceptable air pollutant levels when they are above the limits deemed safe for human health. This article provides scientific guidance to the end-users for effectively deploying low-cost sensors for monitoring air pollution and people's exposure, while ensuring reasonable data quality. We review the performance characteristics of several low-cost particle and gas monitoring sensors and provide recommendations to end-users for making proper sensor selection by summarizing the capabilities and limitations of such sensors. The challenges, best practices, and future outlook for effectively deploying low-cost sensors, and maintaining data quality are also discussed. For data quality assurance, a two-stage sensor calibration process is recommended, which includes laboratory calibration under controlled conditions by the manufacturer supplemented with routine calibration checks performed by the end-user under final deployment conditions. For large sensor networks where routine calibration checks are impractical, statistical techniques for data quality assurance should be utilised. Further advancements and adoption of sophisticated mathematical and statistical techniques for sensor calibration, fault detection, and data quality assurance can indeed help to realise the promised benefits of a low-cost air pollution sensor network. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Factors Influencing Rural End-Users' Acceptance of e-Health in Developing Countries: A study on Portable Health Clinic in Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Hossain, Nazmul; Yokota, Fumihiko; Sultana, Nazneen; Ahmed, Ashir

2018-04-17

Existing studies regarding e-health are mostly focused on information technology design and implementation, system architecture and infrastructure, and its importance in public health with ancillaries and barriers to mass adoption. However, not enough studies have been conducted to assess the end-users' reaction and acceptance behavior toward e-health, especially from the perspective of rural communities in developing countries. The objective of this study is to explore the factors that influence rural end users' acceptance of e-health in Bangladesh. Data were collected between June and July 2016 through a field survey with structured questionnaire form 292 randomly selected rural respondents from Bheramara subdistrict, Bangladesh. Technology Acceptance Model was adopted as the research framework. Logistic regression analysis was performed to test the theoretical model. The study found social reference as the most significantly influential variable (Coef. = 2.28, odds ratio [OR] = 9.73, p acceptance behavior. The model explains 54.70% deviance (R 2  = 0.5470) in the response variable with its constructs. The "Hosmer-Lemeshow" goodness-of-fit score (0.539) is also above the standard threshold (0.05), which indicates that the data fit well with the model. The study provides guidelines for the successful adoption of e-health among rural communities in developing countries. This also creates an opportunity for e-health technology developers and service providers to have a better understanding of their end users.

Mapping the seafloor, with end users in mind

Science.gov (United States)

Lecours, V.

2017-12-01

In the last 25 years, as more seafloor data and user-friendly analysis tools have become available, the amount and diversity of applications making use of such data have considerably increased. While limitations in the utility of the data caused by the data collection and processing methods may be quite apparent to experts, such limitations may be less obvious to users with different background and expertise. For instance, it has been acknowledged many times in the literature that seafloor data are often treated as true representations of the seafloor rather that as models. This lack of understanding brings hidden dangers to unsuspecting end users misusing data, which may result in misleading outcomes/conclusions for different applications like marine geomorphology, marine habitat mapping, marine conservation, and management of marine resources. In this paper, I identify common practices of both data producers and users that can prevent a proper use of seafloor data. Using seafloor data from a variety of locations and sources, I demonstrate how the choice of soundings interpolator, elements of data quality, scale alterations, and backscatter representation can impact applications. I show how these elements propagate throughout analyses and directly influence outcomes, sometimes in predictable ways (e.g. in marine geomorphology) and sometimes in unpredictable ways (e.g. in marine habitat mapping). Regardless of the final use of seafloor data, better and more transparent error and uncertainty quantification and representation should be implemented at the data collection, processing, and analysis levels. Complete metadata should always be documented, with elements related to data provenance, survey, scale, error and uncertainty quantification, and any other information relevant to further use of seafloor data, in order to create a community of users aware of data quality and limitations. As the number of applications using seafloor data increases, some of the

Supporting Dynamic Service Composition at Runtime based on End-user Requirements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Goncalves da Silva, Eduardo; Ferreira Pires, Luis; van Sinderen, Marten J.; Dustdar, S.; Hauswirth, M.; Hierro, J. J.; Soriano, J.; Urmetzer, F.; Möller, K.; Rivera, I.

2009-01-01

Network-based software application services are receiving a lot of attention in recent years, as observed in developments as Internet of Services, Software as a Service and Cloud Computing. A service-oriented computing ecosystem is being created where the end-user is having an increasingly more

Public service providers and users in the information society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bernt Krohn Solvang

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The issue to be discussed in this article is to what extent does ICT create new challenges for the relationship between public service providers and users? It is important to recognize the concept of social capital because the concept is vital to the understanding of access to the information society and efficient functioning of government in its service to citizens. In this way we see social capital as a mediating “institution” between public authorities and the citizens (users.

End-user Acceptance of Online Shopping Sites in India

OpenAIRE

Bolar K; Shaw B

2015-01-01

Online shopping sites have recently gained momentum in India. Since the ecommerce industry is in infancy state, customer (end user) satisfaction with the online shopping is the prime concern because decreasing customer satisfaction leads to negative electronic word of mouth (eWOM) which is very severe for the business. Through a dataset gathered from 127 online shopping customers in with respect to online shopping sites in India, this study investigates the role of website quality, informatio...

MSAT wide-area fleet management: End-user requirements and applications

Science.gov (United States)

Pedersen, Allister

1995-01-01

MSAT (Mobile SATellite) Services will become a reality in North America in 1995. MSAT will provide wide-area voice, data and fax services to land, marine and aeronautical mobile users anywhere in North America including 200 nautical miles off the coasts and into the Arctic waters. MSAT will also convey GPS position information from mobiles to dispatch centers. One broad application of MSAT is Wide Area Fleet Management (WAFM). This paper defines WAFM, outlines end-user requirements and identifies potential applications of MSAT WAFM. The paper draws from information obtained in several preMSAT WAFM field trials in land, marine and aeronautical mobile environments. The paper concludes with an outline of the potential benefits of MSAT WAFM.

Support Services for Remote Users of Online Public Access Catalogs.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalin, Sally W.

1991-01-01

Discusses the needs of remote users of online public access catalogs (OPACs). User expectations are discussed; problems encountered by remote-access users are examined, including technical problems and searching problems; support services are described, including instruction, print guides, and online help; and differences from the needs of…

PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE OF ROAD-USER CHARGING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Neil THORPE

2002-01-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses upon public attitudes to and public acceptance of road-user charging as an effective means of managing travel demand, with the overall aim of identifying the characteristics of key interest groups, the kinds of attitudes they hold and their preferences for the distribution of the benefits of generated net revenues and released roadspace. It is argued that this knowledge can play a pivotal role in the design of road-user charging systems that satisfy two important criteria – namely, that they are capable of achieving their stated objectives and are generally acceptable to the public. A case-study of three toll-rings used for revenue generation by the Norwegian cities of Bergen, Oslo and Trondheim is selected, where a team of Norwegian interviewers administered a computer-based survey to a total of 756 respondents. Results of the analyses of the attitudinal data collected raise concerns about the approach of introducing initially low levels of road-use charge, designed to have negligible impacts on travel behaviour but to raise revenues to fund necessary improvements to public transport, both to familiarise private car-users with the principles of a pay-as-you-go system of charging and hopefully to reduce levels of public opposition prior to the introduction of the longer term objective of higher charges for traffic restraint. The timescale over which charges are increased may be crucial in terms of balancing a resistance to change in the longer term against the credibility of a system whose objectives are modified in the relatively short-term. The key conclusion from the first Stated Preference exercise is that there is a high degree of consensus among individuals on the importance of investing significant amounts of net revenues in new road infrastructure as well as improved public transport. The second Stated Preference exercise highlights respondents' concerns that the benefits in improved network performance achieved by a

2016 CSSE L3 Milestone: Deliver In Situ to XTD End Users

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Patchett, John M. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Nouanesengsy, Boonthanome [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Fasel, Patricia Kroll [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Ahrens, James Paul [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2016-09-13

This report summarizes the activities in FY16 toward satisfying the CSSE 2016 L3 milestone to deliver in situ to XTD end users of EAP codes. The Milestone was accomplished with ongoing work to ensure the capability is maintained and developed. Two XTD end users used the in situ capability in Rage. A production ParaView capability was created in the HPC and Desktop environment. Two new capabilities were added to ParaView in support of an EAP in situ workflow. We also worked with various support groups at the lab to deploy a production ParaView in the LANL environment for both desktop and HPC systems. . In addition, for this milestone, we moved two VTK based filters from research objects into the production ParaView code to support a variety of standard visualization pipelines for our EAP codes.

Public Key Encryption Supporting Plaintext Equality Test and User-Specified Authorization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tang, Qiang

2011-01-01

In this paper we investigate a category of public key encryption schemes which supports plaintext equality test and user-specified authorization. With this new primitive, two users, who possess their own public/private key pairs, can issue token(s) to a proxy to authorize it to perform plaintext

75 FR 80747 - End-User Exception to Mandatory Clearing of Swaps

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-23

..., via its Comments Online process: http://comments.cftc.gov . Follow the instructions for submitting... predominantly engaged in activities that are in the business of banking or financial in nature, as defined in... regarding use of the end-user clearing exception to be made through SDRs? What are the advantages or...

75 FR 12555 - Prescription Drug User Fee Act; Public Meeting

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-16

...] Prescription Drug User Fee Act; Public Meeting AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS. ACTION: Notice of... Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA). The legislative authority for PDUFA expires in September 2012. At that time, new legislation will be required for FDA to continue collecting user fees for the prescription...

Integrated graphical user interface for the back-end software sub-system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Badescu, E.; Caprini, M.

2001-01-01

The ATLAS data acquisition and Event Filter prototype '-1' project was intended to produce a prototype system for evaluating candidate technologies and architectures for the final ATLAS DAQ system on the LHC accelerator at CERN. Within the prototype project, the back-end sub-system encompasses the software for configuring, controlling and monitoring the data acquisition (DAQ). The back-end sub-system includes core components and detector integration components. One of the detector integration components is the Integrated Graphical User Interface (IGUI), which is intended to give a view of the status of the DAQ system and its sub-systems (Dataflow, Event Filter and Back-end) and to allow the user (general users, such as a shift operator at a test beam or experts, in order to control and debug the DAQ system) to control its operation. The IGUI is intended to be a Status Display and a Control Interface too, so there are three groups of functional requirements: display requirements (the information to be displayed); control requirements (the actions the IGUI shall perform on the DAQ components); general requirements, applying to the general functionality of the IGUI. The constraint requirements include requirements related to the access control (shift operator or expert user). The quality requirements are related to the portability on different platforms. The IGUI has to interact with many components in a distributed environment. The following design guidelines have been considered in order to fulfil the requirements: use a modular design with easy possibility to integrate different sub-systems; use Java language for portability and powerful graphical features; use CORBA interfaces for communication with other components. The actual implementation of Back-end software components use Inter-Language Unification (ILU) for inter-process communication. Different methods of access of Java applications to ILU C++ servers have been evaluated (native methods, ILU Java support

Winning end users active support to demand side response

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Osorio, Jose [Rede Electrica Nacional, S.A., Lisbon (Portugal); Estanqueiro, Ana [Laboratorio Nacional de Energia e Geologia (LNEG), Lisbon (Portugal)

2012-07-01

While objectives proposed for Smart Grids and Smart metering may seem to be able to win easily end user's supports, a considerable amount of studies on social behavior concerning energy efficiency and sustainability show the gap between the values people would like to fulfill and their real life performance. As TSOs envision here a source of System Ancillary Services, measures to make the source really dependable, so that an adequate market design may really work are pointed out. (orig.)

Internal versus external preference analysis : an exploratory study on end-user evaluation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kleef, van E.; Trijp, van H.C.M.; Luning, P.A.

2006-01-01

Internal and external preference analysis emphasise fundamentally different perspectives on the same data. We extend the literature on comparisons between internal and external preference analysis by incorporating the perspective of the end user of the preference analysis results. From a conceptual

Re-Mediating Research Ethics: End-User License Agreements in Online Games

Science.gov (United States)

Chee, Florence M.; Taylor, Nicholas T.; de Castell, Suzanne

2012-01-01

This article is a theoretical and empirical exploration of the meaning that accompanies contractual agreements, such as the End-User License Agreements (EULAs) that participants of online communities are required to sign as a condition of participation. As our study indicates, clicking "I agree" on the often lengthy conditions presented during the…

Identification and implementation of end-user needs during development of a state-of-the-art modeling tool-set - 59069

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seitz, Roger; Williamson, Mark; Gerdes, Kurt; Freshley, Mark; Dixon, Paul; Collazo, Yvette T.; Hubbard, Susan

2012-01-01

The U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE) Office of Environmental Management, Technology Innovation and Development is supporting a multi-National Laboratory effort to develop the Advanced Simulation Capability for Environmental Management (ASCEM). ASCEM is an emerging state-of-the-art scientific approach and software infrastructure for understanding and predicting contaminant fate and transport in natural and engineered systems. These modular and open-source high performance computing tools and user interfaces will facilitate integrated approaches that enable standardized assessments of performance and risk for EM cleanup and closure decisions. The ASCEM team recognized that engaging end-users in the ASCEM development process would lead to enhanced development and implementation of the ASCEM tool-sets in the user community. End-user involvement in ASCEM covers a broad spectrum of perspectives, including: performance assessment (PA) and risk assessment practitioners, research scientists, decision-makers, oversight personnel, and regulators engaged in the US DOE cleanup mission. End-users are primarily engaged in ASCEM via the ASCEM User Steering Committee (USC) and the 'user needs interface' task. Future plans also include user involvement in demonstrations of the ASCEM tools. This paper will describe the details of how end users have been engaged in the ASCEM program and will demonstrate how this involvement has strengthened both the tool development and community confidence. ASCEM tools requested by end-users specifically target modeling challenges associated with US DOE cleanup activities. The demonstration activities involve application of ASCEM tools and capabilities to representative problems at DOE sites. Selected results from the ASCEM Phase 1 demonstrations are discussed to illustrate how capabilities requested by end-users were implemented in prototype versions of the ASCEM tool. The ASCEM team engaged a variety of interested parties early in the development

A content validity approach to creating an end-user computer skill assessment tool

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shirley Gibbs

Full Text Available Practical assessment instruments are commonly used in the workplace and educational environments to assess a person\\'s level of digital literacy and end-user computer skill. However, it is often difficult to find statistical evidence of the actual validity of instruments being used. To ensure that the correct factors are being assessed for a particular purpose it is necessary to undertake some type of psychometric testing, and the first step is to study the content relevance of the measure. The purpose of this paper is to report on the rigorous judgment-quantification process using panels of experts in order to establish inter-rater reliability and agreement in the development of end-user instruments developed to measure workplace skills using spreadsheet and word-processing applications.

15 CFR Supplement No. 8 to Part 748 - Information Required in Requests for Validated End-User (Veu) Authorization

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... overview of any business activity or corporate relationship that the entity has with either government or... structure, ownership and business of the prospective validated end-user. Include a description of the entity...-site reviews by U.S. Government officials to verify the end-user's compliance with the conditions of...

Analyses Of Two End-User Software Vulnerability Exposure Metrics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jason L. Wright; Miles McQueen; Lawrence Wellman

2012-08-01

The risk due to software vulnerabilities will not be completely resolved in the near future. Instead, putting reliable vulnerability measures into the hands of end-users so that informed decisions can be made regarding the relative security exposure incurred by choosing one software package over another is of importance. To that end, we propose two new security metrics, average active vulnerabilities (AAV) and vulnerability free days (VFD). These metrics capture both the speed with which new vulnerabilities are reported to vendors and the rate at which software vendors fix them. We then examine how the metrics are computed using currently available datasets and demonstrate their estimation in a simulation experiment using four different browsers as a case study. Finally, we discuss how the metrics may be used by the various stakeholders of software and to software usage decisions.

Clinical information systems end user satisfaction: the expectations and needs congruencies effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Karimi, Faezeh; Poo, Danny C C; Tan, Yung Ming

2015-02-01

Prior research on information systems (IS) shows that users' attitudes and continuance intentions are associated with their satisfaction with information systems. As such, the increasing amount of investments in clinical information systems (CIS) signifies the importance of understanding CIS end users' (i.e., clinicians) satisfaction. In this study, we develop a conceptual framework to identify the cognitive determinants of clinicians' satisfaction formation. The disconfirmation paradigm serves as the core of the framework. The expectations and needs congruency models are the two models of this paradigm, and perceived performance is the basis of the comparisons in the models. The needs and expectations associated with the models are also specified. The survey methodology is adopted in this study to empirically validate the proposed research model. The survey is conducted at a public hospital and results in 112 and 203 valid responses (56% and 98% response rates) from doctors and nurses respectively. The partial least squares (PLS) method is used to analyze the data. The results of the study show that perceived CIS performance is the most influential factor on clinicians' (i.e., doctors and nurses) satisfaction. Doctors' expectations congruency is the next significant determinant of their satisfaction. Contrary to most previous findings, nurses' expectations and expectations congruency do not show a significant effect on their satisfaction. However, the needs congruency is found to significantly affect nurses' satisfaction. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

75 FR 62462 - Additions to the List of Validated End-Users in the People's Republic of China: Hynix...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-12

...-01] RIN 0694-AE95 Additions to the List of Validated End-Users in the People's Republic of China... Corporation to the list of validated end-users in the People's Republic of China (PRC). With this rule, exports, reexports and transfers (in-country) of certain items to one facility of Hynix Semiconductor...

From top to bottom: end user development motivation, creativity and organisational support

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kierkegaard, P.M.; Markopoulos, P.; Costabile, M.F.; Dittrich, Y.; Piccino, A.

2011-01-01

This paper examines the socio-technical and organisational factors that influence the adoption of End User Development (EUD) technology and practices at the workplace. This research focuses on the rehabilitation industry, where a 64-item paper-based survey was completed by 52 therapists working at

Users evaluation of transport mode characteristics with special attention to public transport

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Waerden, van der P.J.H.J.; Borgers, A.W.J.; Timmermans, H.J.P.; Berenos, M.

2007-01-01

The paper focuses on the influence of public transport use on the evaluation of transport mode characteristics. Based on stated choice data, several multinomial logit models that include parameters representing differences between users and non-users of public transport are estimated. The estimation

Visualization for Hyper-Heuristics. Front-End Graphical User Interface

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kroenung, Lauren [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2015-03-01

Modern society is faced with ever more complex problems, many of which can be formulated as generate-and-test optimization problems. General-purpose optimization algorithms are not well suited for real-world scenarios where many instances of the same problem class need to be repeatedly and efficiently solved because they are not targeted to a particular scenario. Hyper-heuristics automate the design of algorithms to create a custom algorithm for a particular scenario. While such automated design has great advantages, it can often be difficult to understand exactly how a design was derived and why it should be trusted. This project aims to address these issues of usability by creating an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) for hyper-heuristics to support practitioners, as well as scientific visualization of the produced automated designs. My contributions to this project are exhibited in the user-facing portion of the developed system and the detailed scientific visualizations created from back-end data.

Integrating virtual reality and BIM for end-user involvement in building design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petrova, Ekaterina Aleksandrova; Rasmussen, Mai; Jensen, Rasmus Lund

2017-01-01

The outcome of projects within Architecture, Engineering, and Construction is highly dependent on the quality of the collaboration between the involved actors. The end-users occupy the buildings on a daily basis, and therefore their involvement in the design process is essential to the output. Ho...

Public Auditing with Privacy Protection in a Multi-User Model of Cloud-Assisted Body Sensor Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Song; Cui, Jie; Zhong, Hong; Liu, Lu

2017-01-01

Wireless Body Sensor Networks (WBSNs) are gaining importance in the era of the Internet of Things (IoT). The modern medical system is a particular area where the WBSN techniques are being increasingly adopted for various fundamental operations. Despite such increasing deployments of WBSNs, issues such as the infancy in the size, capabilities and limited data processing capacities of the sensor devices restrain their adoption in resource-demanding applications. Though providing computing and storage supplements from cloud servers can potentially enrich the capabilities of the WBSNs devices, data security is one of the prevailing issues that affects the reliability of cloud-assisted services. Sensitive applications such as modern medical systems demand assurance of the privacy of the users’ medical records stored in distant cloud servers. Since it is economically impossible to set up private cloud servers for every client, auditing data security managed in the remote servers has necessarily become an integral requirement of WBSNs’ applications relying on public cloud servers. To this end, this paper proposes a novel certificateless public auditing scheme with integrated privacy protection. The multi-user model in our scheme supports groups of users to store and share data, thus exhibiting the potential for WBSNs’ deployments within community environments. Furthermore, our scheme enriches user experiences by offering public verifiability, forward security mechanisms and revocation of illegal group members. Experimental evaluations demonstrate the security effectiveness of our proposed scheme under the Random Oracle Model (ROM) by outperforming existing cloud-assisted WBSN models. PMID:28475110

End-user programming architecture facilitates the uptake of robots in social therapies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Barakova, E.I.; Gillesen, J.C.C.; Huskens, Bibi; Lourens, T.

2013-01-01

This paper proposes an architecture that makes programming of robot behavior of an arbitrary complexity possible for end-users and shows the technical solutions in a way that is easy to understand and generalize to different situations. It aims to facilitate the uptake and actual use of robot

User-oriented end-to-end transport protocols for the real-time distribution of telemetry data from NASA spacecraft

Science.gov (United States)

Hooke, A. J.

1979-01-01

A set of standard telemetry protocols for downlink data flow facilitating the end-to-end transport of instrument data from the spacecraft to the user in real time is proposed. The direct switching of data by autonomous message 'packets' that are assembled by the source instrument on the spacecraft is discussed. The data system consists thus of a format on a message rather than word basis, and such packet telemetry would include standardized protocol headers. Standards are being developed within the NASA End-to-End Data System (NEEDS) program for the source packet and transport frame protocols. The source packet protocol contains identification of both the sequence number of the packet as it is generated by the source and the total length of the packet, while the transport frame protocol includes a sequence count defining the serial number of the frame as it is generated by the spacecraft data system, and a field specifying any 'options' selected in the format of the frame itself.

Individual 3D measurements of end users to personalize work wear clothing

Science.gov (United States)

Mielicka, E.; Napieralska, L.; Jasińska, I.; Jarzyna, V.

2017-10-01

Body silhouette 3D measurements need to be performed separately in each country due to significant ethnic differences in body silhouette which preclude the transfer of European data to particular countries. Systematic research allows to update information on the population body silhouette and body proportions as well as select the size changes possible to implement in clothing construction modifications. The diversity in body silhouettes and sizes as well as the issue of clothing fitting encourage clothing producers to provide work wear clothing based on individual measurements of the end users’ bodies. In the framework of the carried research, the group of construction workers was selected as the target group of the analysed work wear clothing users. 42 construction workers, men only, were measured. The body silhouette measurement process was non-contact and was carried out with the use of 3D body scanner. The collected data on the body silhouette allowed to select sizes used to construct the work wear clothing and identify the clothing size. The selected measurement points of the body silhouette underwent statistical analysis to determine the distribution of random variables, here body sizes. The variables distribution characteristics were calculated. On that basis, the fitting appraisal of work wear clothing with respect to the size of the finished product corresponding to the adequate size of individually measured worker/end user was performed. The size overview of the work wear clothing used by the specific professional group and the appraisal of the size fitting to the body silhouette took into consideration the work wear clothing ergonomic functionality with respect to the body posture when performing the tasks, design and clothing construction. The analysis based on the currently gathered end users’ remarks and objections concerning the clothing fitting and performed body silhouette measurements allows to modify the existing work wear clothing for the

Operation management system evaluation in the central Finland health care district - end users' view of system implementation.

Science.gov (United States)

Lemmetty, Kaisa; Häyrinen, Eija

2005-01-01

In this paper we evaluate the implementation of the operation management system in the Central Finland Health Care District. The implementation of the operation management system changed the practice of operation management for the surgical clinic and concerned 500 personnel in total. A survey was carried out to investigate the end users' views on the system's usefulness, usability and the training and user support provided. The users' possibilities to accomplish their tasks and the kind of obstacles they face in operation management were explored. The assessment revealed that more end support is needed after the system implementation, even though a generally positive attitude towards the system was manifested among the staff.

Testing Universal Design of a Public Media Website with Diverse Users.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Weiqin; Kessel, Siri; Sanderson, Norun C; Tatara, Naoe

2016-01-01

Testing with users can identify more issues than other testing methods. Many researchers have argued for the importance of user testing in Universal Design. However, testing Universal Design with diverse users poses many challenges. In this paper we will share our experience with testing the Universal Design of a public media website with real users. We discuss the challenges faced and lessons learned in the process.

Factors affecting the diffusion of online end user literature searching.

Science.gov (United States)

Ash, J S

1999-01-01

The aim of this study was to identify factors that affect diffusion of usage of online end user literature searching. Fifteen factors clustered into three attribute sets (innovation attributes, organizational attributes, and marketing attributes) were measured to study their effect on the diffusion of online searching within institutions. A random sample of sixty-seven academic health sciences centers was selected and then 1,335 library and informatics staff members at those institutions were surveyed by mail with electronic mail follow-up. Multiple regression analysis was performed. The survey yielded a 41% response rate with electronic mail follow-up being particularly effective. Two dependent variables, internal diffusion (spread of diffusion) and infusion (depth of diffusion), were measured. There was little correlation between them, indicating they measured different things. Fifteen independent variables clustered into three attribute sets were measured. The innovation attributes set was significant for both internal diffusion and infusion. Significant individual variables were visibility for internal diffusion and image enhancement effects (negative relation) as well as visibility for infusion (depth of diffusion). Organizational attributes were also significant predictors for both dependent variables. No individual variables were significant for internal diffusion. Communication, management support (negative relation), rewards, and existence of champions were significant for infusion. Marketing attributes were not significant predictors. Successful diffusion of online end user literature searching is dependent on the visibility of the systems, communication among, rewards to, and peers of possible users who promote use (champions). Personal image enhancement effects have a negative relation to infusion, possibly because the use of intermediaries is still seen as the more luxurious way to have searches done. Management support also has a negative relation to

Brain Computer Interfaces on Track to Home: Results of the Evaluation at Disabled End-Users's Homes and Lessons Learnt

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Felip eMiralles

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The BackHome system is a multi-functional BCI system, the final outcome of a User Centred Design approach, whose ambition is to move BCI systems from laboratories into the home of people in need for their independent home use. The paper presents the results of testing and evaluation of the BackHome system with end-users at their own homes. Results show moderate to good acceptance from end-users, caregivers and therapists; which reported promising usability levels, good user satisfaction and levels of control in the use of services and home support based on remote monitoring tools.

Seeing the System through the End Users' Eyes: Shadow Expert Technique for Evaluating the Consistency of a Learning Management System

Science.gov (United States)

Holzinger, Andreas; Stickel, Christian; Fassold, Markus; Ebner, Martin

Interface consistency is an important basic concept in web design and has an effect on performance and satisfaction of end users. Consistency also has significant effects on the learning performance of both expert and novice end users. Consequently, the evaluation of consistency within a e-learning system and the ensuing eradication of irritating discrepancies in the user interface redesign is a big issue. In this paper, we report of our experiences with the Shadow Expert Technique (SET) during the evaluation of the consistency of the user interface of a large university learning management system. The main objective of this new usability evaluation method is to understand the interaction processes of end users with a specific system interface. Two teams of usability experts worked independently from each other in order to maximize the objectivity of the results. The outcome of this SET method is a list of recommended changes to improve the user interaction processes, hence to facilitate high consistency.

Broadband Wireline Provider Service: Optical Carrier - Fiber to the End User; BBRI_fiber12

Data.gov (United States)

University of Rhode Island Geospatial Extension Program — This dataset represents the availability of wireline broadband Internet access in Rhode Island via "Optical Carrier - Fiber to the End User" technology. Broadband...

76 FR 79198 - Generic Drug User Fee; Public Meeting; Correction

Science.gov (United States)

2011-12-21

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. FDA-2010-N-0381] Generic Drug User Fee; Public Meeting; Correction AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS. ACTION... meeting entitled ``Generic Drug User Fee.'' The document published with an inadvertent error in the Dates...

Gender-Based Behavioral Analysis for End-User Development and the "RULES" Attributes

Science.gov (United States)

Tzafilkou, Katerina; Protogeros, Nicolaos; Karagiannidis, Charalampos; Koumpis, Adamantios

2017-01-01

This paper addresses the role of gender in End-User Development (EUD) environments and examines whether there are gender differences in performance and in correlations between performance and a set of behavioral attributes. Based on a review of the most prominent EUD-related behavioral Human Computer Interaction (HCI) theories, and the influence…

Energy efficiency business options for industrial end users in Latin American competitive energy markets: The case of Colombia

Science.gov (United States)

Botero, Sergio

2002-01-01

Energy markets today in Latin America and worldwide are being restructured from monopolies, either state-owned or privately-owned, to be more openly competitive and incorporate more participation from the private sector. Thus, the schemes that were formerly developed to foster end use energy efficiency are no longer applicable because they were based on mandatory regulations made with political decisions, without sufficiently considering economic feasibility. A consensus exists that the only way energy efficiency could survive in this new paradigm is by being market oriented, giving better services, and additional options to users. However; there is very little information on what end users prefer, and which options would most satisfy customers. Using Colombia as a case study, this research determines and categorizes the energy efficiency business options for large energy end users that can freely participate in the competitive energy market. The energy efficiency market is understood as a market of services aiming to increase efficiency in energy use. These services can be grouped into seven business options. A survey, following the descriptive method, was sent to energy end users in order to determine their preferences for specific energy efficiency business options, as well as the decision-making criteria taken into account for such options. This data was categorized in ten industry groups. As a conclusion, energy efficiency providers should adapt not only to the economic activity or processes of each customer, but also to the potential business options. It was also found that not all industries consider performance contracting as their most preferred option, as a matter of fact, some industries show much higher preference for conventional business options. Among end users, the divergence in option preferences contrasted with the convergence in decision-making criteria. The decision-making criteria "cost-benefit ratio" overwhelmed all other criterion. End users

75 FR 25763 - Addition to the List of Validated End-Users: Advanced Micro Devices China, Inc.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-05-10

... People's Republic of China (PRC) Consistent with U.S. Government policy to facilitate trade for civilian...-user to the list of validated end-users in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Exports, reexports and... Hand Delivery/Courier: Sheila Quarterman, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security...

Near-real time forecasts of MeV protons based on sub-relativistic electrons: communicating the outputs to the end users

Science.gov (United States)

Sarlanis, Christos; Heber, Bernd; Labrenz, Johannes; Kühl, Patrick; Marquardt, Johannes; Dimitroulakos, John; Papaioannou, Athanasios; Posner, Arik

2017-04-01

Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) events are one of the most important elements of space weather. Given that the complexity of the underlying physical processes of the acceleration and propagation of SEP events is still a very active research area, the prognosis of SEP event occurrence and their corresponding characteristics remains challenging. In order to provide up to an hour warning time before these particles arrive at Earth, relativistic electron and below 50 MeV proton data from the Electron Proton Helium Instrument (EPHIN) on SOHO were used to implement the 'Relativistic Electron Alert System for Exploration (REleASE)'. The REleASE forecasting scheme was recently rewritten in the open access programming language PYTHON and will be made publicly available. As a next step, along with relativistic electrons (v > 0.9 c) provided by SOHO, near-relativistic (v work, we demonstrate the real-time outputs derived by the end user from the REleASE using both SOHO/EPHIN and ACE/EPAM. We further, show a user friendly illustration of the outputs that make use of a "traffic light" to monitor the different warning stages: quiet, warning, alert offering a simple guidance to the end users. Finally, the capabilities offered by this new system, accessing both the pictorial and textural outputs REleASE are being presented. This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 637324.

End users heat energy savings using thermostat regulation valves radiators, v. 16(64)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jakimovska, Emilija Misheva; Potsev, Eftim

2008-01-01

Billing the used heat energy offers the opportunity to motivate end users to use the heat energy rationally and to save the energy. Installing the thermostat valves on the radiators it is possible frequently to regulate the room temperature and to use the heat gains, obtaining comfortable climate in the apartments and saving the energy. Thermostat valves give the possibility to use the heat energy rationally and save the energy, and these way and users can regulate the heat energy consumption according to their own level of thermal comfort. (Author)

End users heat energy savings using thermostat regulation valves radiators, v. 16(63)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jakimovska, Emilija Misheva; Potsev, Eftim

2008-01-01

Billing the used heat energy offers the opportunity to motivate end users to use the heat energy rationally and to save the energy. Installing the thermostat valves on the radiators it is possible frequently to regulate the room temperature and to use the heat gains, obtaining comfortable climate in the apartments and saving the energy. Thermostat valves give the possibility to use the heat energy rationally and save the energy, and these way and users can regulate the heat energy consumption according to their own level of thermal comfort. (Author)

End-user flexibility in periods with scarcity - efficient use of ICT; Effektiv bruk av IKT : forbrukerfleksibilitet i knapphetssituasjoner

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Grande, Ove S.; Saele, Hanne

2002-07-01

In a period with limited extension of new power production, it is important to utilize the flexibility in consumption for end users. Last winter in Norway there was a new record in demand that outweighed the available power production. In addition, the country is gradually heading towards a larger energy deficit. The problem with power scarcity is concentrated in a limited number of hours and it is important that correct and efficient initiatives arc taken towards end users so that the power problem can be solved without increasing energy consumption. About 30% of the total demand in the Norwegian power system is flexible and can be disconnected or consumption patterns can be changed for shorter periods, but this potential is utilized only to a limited amount. These challenges have been addressed in a new research project ''End-user flexibility by efficient use of ICT'' that was established at SINTEF Energy Research in 2001. The main objective is to increase end-user flexibility in periods of scarcity of both energy and power. The project will test and evaluate different means of stimulating flexibility in consumption, based on the network tariff, the power price and new market solutions such as demand-side bidding. (author)

Exploring Association between Morphology of Tree Planting and User Activities in Urban Public Space; An opportunity of Urban Public Space Revitalisation

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Qi; Liu, Yan

2018-03-01

This paper discusses the association between the morphology of tree planting in urban riverside brown field and user activities. With the growth of popularity, the revitalisation of urban public space is also promising. This research used drone photography and mapping to systematically surveys sample sites. An original observation study of user activities proceed in four sample public spaces in Sheffield. The study results found there are huge popularity and duration difference of user activities between various tree planting morphologies and typologies. The public space with lawn and rounded by mature trees attracted most users with the most activity types; the neat and silent public space is the favourite choice of lunch and reading, meanwhile it got the longest activity duration; but the space with sparse morphology and small trees are more likely be forgotten and abandoned. This finding offered a great opportunity for urban public space revitalisation in post-industrial cities.

Public Service Motivation, User Orientation and Job Satisfaction: A Question of Employment Sector?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Lotte Bøgh; Kjeldsen, Anne Mette

2013-01-01

not differ significantly between the private and public sector, while the user orientation/job satisfaction association is strongest for private employees. This suggests that to understand the relationships between pro-social motivation, employment sector and job satisfaction, future studies could fruitfully...... satisfaction. Second, the relationship between job satisfaction and these two types of pro-social motivation, PSM and user orientation, may also be found in the private sector. This study tests whether job satisfaction is associated with PSM and user orientation, and whether these associations differ between......Public service motivation (PSM) has been shown to be positively related to job satisfaction in the public sector, but there are two gaps in the literature. First, not only PSM but also pro-social motivation directed towards helping specific others (called user orientation) may affect job...

76 FR 44014 - Generic Drug User Fee; Public Meeting; Request for Comments

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-22

... generic drug user fees. New legislation would be required for FDA to establish and collect user fees for... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. FDA-2010-N-0381] Generic Drug User Fee; Public Meeting; Request for Comments AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS...

Standardizing information exchange towards the end user. Present data models with two way communication over the Internet

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saele, Hanne; Graabak, Ingeborg; Tangen, Grethe

2000-01-01

The two-way communication towards the end consumer is in little use so far. There are probably several reasons for this but one important reason may be the lack of standardized interfaces for the information exchange towards the end user. The lack of such standards results in substantial system investment risks for the network companies because the systems may not be developed further and maintained should the deliverer leave the market. The communication channel Internet has expanded quickly and in Norway of today (1999) 25 to 30 % of the households have an Internet connection. The use of existing infrastructure and already tried out technology for information transferrals may contribute to making two-way communication more reasonable and functional. In the report various alternatives of standardized information exchange towards the end users are evaluated. Various formats are discussed with the following demands in mind: 1) Shall be suited for all types of communication media. 2) An international standard followed by everyone. 3) Reliable information transferral and flexible. The focus is on what kind of information is being transferred and how this is organized, and not on how the information is transferred. The discussed alternatives are evaluated both regarding traditional solutions for two- way communication and the use of the Internet. The following format alternatives are discussed: EDIEL/EDIFACT, ODEL(GS2), LonWorks/Echelon, UCA, DLMS/COSEM, COBRA and DCOM. The formats represent communication at various levels but they are mentioned in the report because they are often mentioned as possible standard formats towards the end user: ODEL, DLSM/COSEM and UCA. EDIEL is not suited for this interface. The market for two-way communication systems is international and it does not seem to be practical to establish a joint Norwegian/Swedish standard. The work with establishing one standard should therefore be continued through international standardization

What makes end-user training successful? : a mixed method study of a business process management system implementation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Benny de Waal; Ronald Batenburg

2012-01-01

Under what conditions is end-user training (EUT) as part of the implementation of a business process management (BPM) system successful? This question is addressed in this paper. Based on the literature on EUT and implementation success, we first argue that user involvement with, and attitude

What makes end-user training successful? A mixed method study of a business process management system implementation.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Waal, B.M.E. de; Batenburg, R.

2012-01-01

Under what conditions is end-user training (EUT) as part of the implementation of a business process management (BPM) system successful? This question is addressed in this paper. Based on the literature on EUT and implementation success, we first argue that user involvement with, and attitude

Tweeting badges: user motivations for displaying achievement in publicly networked environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Kwon, K Hazel; Halavais, Alexander; Havener, Shannon

2015-02-01

Badge systems, a common mechanism for gamification on social media platforms, provide a way for users to present their knowledge or experience to others. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of why social media users publicize their achievements in the form of online badges. Five motivational factors for badge display in public networked environments are distinguished-self-efficacy, social incentives, networked support, passing time, and inattentive sharing-and it is suggested that different badge types are associated with different motivations. System developers are advised to consider these components in their designs, applying the elements most appropriate to the communities they serve. Comparing user motivations associated with badges shared across boundaries provides a better understanding of how online badges relate to the larger social media ecosystem.

End-to-End Delay Model for Train Messaging over Public Land Mobile Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Franco Mazzenga

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Modern train control systems rely on a dedicated radio network for train to ground communications. A number of possible alternatives have been analysed to adopt the European Rail Traffic Management System/European Train Control System (ERTMS/ETCS control system on local/regional lines to improve transport capacity. Among them, a communication system based on public networks (cellular&satellite provides an interesting, effective and alternative solution to proprietary and expensive radio networks. To analyse performance of this solution, it is necessary to model the end-to-end delay and message loss to fully characterize the message transfer process from train to ground and vice versa. Starting from the results of a railway test campaign over a 300 km railway line for a cumulative 12,000 traveled km in 21 days, in this paper, we derive a statistical model for the end-to-end delay required for delivering messages. In particular, we propose a two states model allowing for reproducing the main behavioral characteristics of the end-to-end delay as observed experimentally. Model formulation has been derived after deep analysis of the recorded experimental data. When it is applied to model a realistic scenario, it allows for explicitly accounting for radio coverage characteristics, the received power level, the handover points along the line and for the serving radio technology. As an example, the proposed model is used to generate the end-to-end delay profile in a realistic scenario.

The opportunities and barriers of user profiling in the public sector

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pieterson, Willem Jan; Ebbers, Wolfgang E.; van Dijk, Johannes A.G.M.

2005-01-01

Like the private sector, the public sector makes more and more use of user profiling to personalize the electronic services that are being offered to citizens. User profiling offers great opportunities to make communication more effective and efficient, to infer and predict citizens’ behavior and to

Public Procurement of Innovation; Endogenous Institutions in User-Producer Interaction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjaltadóttir, Rannveig Edda

2013-01-01

Introduction 2010 government expenditure on works, goods and services in EU 19.7% of GDP - 2.406,98€ billion. Can be used to stimulate innovation Focus on public procurement of innovation in EU maintain competitive advantage and welfare Governments are important first users for high technology (U...... (Urban & von Hippel, 1988). Need interaction in public procurement of innovation (PPI). The aim of this research is to investigate the institutions that govern this interaction and how they influence performance in PPI. Institutions are “the rules of the game” (North, 1990)......Introduction 2010 government expenditure on works, goods and services in EU 19.7% of GDP - 2.406,98€ billion. Can be used to stimulate innovation Focus on public procurement of innovation in EU maintain competitive advantage and welfare Governments are important first users for high technology...

15 CFR Supplement No. 9 to Part 748 - End-User Review Committee Procedures

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... potential validated end-user is not included in calculating the 30 calendar day deadline for the ERC's... matter to the Advisory Committee on Export Policy (ACEP). The procedures and time frame for escalating... Supplement No. 7 to this part operates as clearance by all member agencies to publish the amendment in the...

Interinstitutional collaboration for end-user bioinformatics training: Cytoscape as a case study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marci D. Brandenburg, MS, MSI

2017-04-01

Conclusions: This collaboration furthered the U-M bioinformationist’s role in the field as an expert in Cytoscape instruction, while also establishing the CWML as a leader in providing support for analyzing and visualizing molecular data at Yale University. The authors found this collaboration to be a successful way for librarians to fill end-user training gaps in rapidly changing fields such as bioinformatics.

Why a well-designed HR shared service provider fails to create end-user value?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Meijerink, Jeroen Gerard; Bondarouk, Tatiana; Looise, Jan C.

2011-01-01

Human resource shared services centres (HR SSCs) are foreseen as improving HR service delivery for their end-users: employees, line managers and decentralized HR professionals. Although the concept expects the benefits of HR SSCs to come from centralizing knowledge and decentralizing the control

Perception and Information Behaviour of Institutional Repository End-Users Provides Valuable Insight for Future Development. A Review of: St. Jean, B., Rieh, S. Y., Yakel, E., & Markey, K. (2011. Unheard voices: Institutional repository end-users. College & Research Libraries, 72(1, 21-42.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lisa Shen

2012-06-01

source, which placed most IRs in a less favorable light.Additionally, researchers noted conflicting assumptions made by interviewees about IRs in the evaluation process for their content. Some interviewees believed all the content of an IR has been vetted through an approval process, while others distrusted all IR content that was not peer-reviewed.To what extent are end-users willing to return to an IR or recommend it to their peers?The great majority of interviews indicated they were likely to use IRs again in the future, and nearly all indicated they would recommend IRs to their peers. However, most interviewees did not know of any people using IRs. The few interviewees who did often knew of IR contributors rather than end-users.How do IRs fit into end-users’ information seeking behavior?Many interviewees noted that IRs provided them with content that was not commonly available through traditional publishing channels, including conference papers and dissertations. Others felt IRs made content available more quickly than other information sources. However, the results also suggested that most interviewees did not include IRs in their routine research process.Conclusion – This study identified current end-users’ perceptions of IRs and highlighted several areas for future IR development. Areas of improvement for IRs included intensifying publicity efforts; increasing content recruitment; making content recruitment policies more transparent; and improving appearance and navigation functionalities. The findings also suggested new directions for IR marketing, such as emphasizing on the networking and collaborating benefits of using IR.

Learning from the private sector: towards a keener understanding of the end-user for microbicide introduction planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Amy H; Breger, Tiffany L; Barnhart, Matthew; Kim, Ann; Vangsgaard, Charlotte; Harris, Emily

2014-01-01

In planning for the introduction of vaginal microbicides and other new antiretroviral (ARV)-based prevention products for women, an in-depth understanding of potential end-users will be critically important to inform strategies to optimize uptake and long-term adherence. User-centred private sector companies have contributed to the successful launch of many different types of products, employing methods drawn from behavioural and social sciences to shape product designs, marketing messages and communication channels. Examples of how the private sector has adapted and applied these techniques to make decisions around product messaging and targeting may be instructive for adaptation to microbicide introduction. In preparing to introduce a product, user-centred private sector companies employ diverse methods to understand the target population and their lifestyles, values and motivations. ReD Associates' observational research on user behaviours in the packaged food and diabetes fields illustrates how 'tag along' or 'shadowing' techniques can identify sources of non-adherence. Another open-ended method is self-documentation, and IDEO's mammography research utilized this to uncover user motivations that extended beyond health. Mapping the user journey is a quantitative approach for outlining critical decision-making stages, and Monitor Inclusive Markets applied this framework to identify toilet design opportunities for the rural poor. Through an iterative process, these various techniques can generate hypotheses on user drop-off points, quantify where drop-off is highest and prioritize areas of further research to uncover usage barriers. Although research constraints exist, these types of user-centred techniques have helped create effective messaging, product positioning and packaging of health products as well as family planning information. These methods can be applied to microbicide acceptability testing outside of clinical trials to design microbicide marketing

Modelling of electricity savings in the Danish households sector: from the energy system to the end-user

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baldini, Mattia; Trivella, Alessio

2017-01-01

sectors, has been extended in order to endogenously determine the best possible investments in more efficient home appliances. Second, we propose a method to relate the optimal energy system solution to the end-user choices by incorporating consumer behaviour and electricity price addition due to taxes...... of support to become profitable. The analysis quantifies energy and economic savings from the consumer side and reveals the impacts on the Danish power system and surrounding countries. Compared to a business-as-usual energy scenario, the end-user attains net economic savings in the range of 30–40 EUR per...

An end user evaluation of query formulation and results review tools in three medical meta-search engines.

Science.gov (United States)

Leroy, Gondy; Xu, Jennifer; Chung, Wingyan; Eggers, Shauna; Chen, Hsinchun

2007-01-01

Retrieving sufficient relevant information online is difficult for many people because they use too few keywords to search and search engines do not provide many support tools. To further complicate the search, users often ignore support tools when available. Our goal is to evaluate in a realistic setting when users use support tools and how they perceive these tools. We compared three medical search engines with support tools that require more or less effort from users to form a query and evaluate results. We carried out an end user study with 23 users who were asked to find information, i.e., subtopics and supporting abstracts, for a given theme. We used a balanced within-subjects design and report on the effectiveness, efficiency and usability of the support tools from the end user perspective. We found significant differences in efficiency but did not find significant differences in effectiveness between the three search engines. Dynamic user support tools requiring less effort led to higher efficiency. Fewer searches were needed and more documents were found per search when both query reformulation and result review tools dynamically adjust to the user query. The query reformulation tool that provided a long list of keywords, dynamically adjusted to the user query, was used most often and led to more subtopics. As hypothesized, the dynamic result review tools were used more often and led to more subtopics than static ones. These results were corroborated by the usability questionnaires, which showed that support tools that dynamically optimize output were preferred.

How additive manufacturing enables more sustainable end-user maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) strategies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wits, Wessel Willems; Reyes Garcia, José Roberto; Jauregui Becker, Juan Manuel

2016-01-01

This paper projects how Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) strategies can be optimized to the specific needs of end-users using Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies. AM can significantly reduce the design and production times for customized parts. This leads to key advantages for MRO

Evaluating a web-based health risk assessment with tailored feedback: what does an expert focus group yield compared to a web-based end-user survey?

Science.gov (United States)

Vosbergen, Sandra; Mahieu, Guy R; Laan, Eva K; Kraaijenhagen, Roderik A; Jaspers, Monique Wm; Peek, Niels

2014-01-02

Increasingly, Web-based health applications are developed for the prevention and management of chronic diseases. However, their reach and utilization is often disappointing. Qualitative evaluations post-implementation can be used to inform the optimization process and ultimately enhance their adoption. In current practice, such evaluations are mainly performed with end-user surveys. However, a review approach by experts in a focus group may be easier to administer and might provide similar results. The aim of this study was to assess whether industrial design engineers in a focus group would address the same issues as end users in a Web-based survey when evaluating a commercial Web-based health risk assessment (HRA) with tailored feedback. Seven Dutch companies used the HRA as part of their corporate health management strategy. Employees using the HRA (N=2289) and 10 independent industrial designers were invited to participate in the study. The HRA consisted of four components: (1) an electronic health questionnaire, (2) biometric measurements, (3) laboratory evaluation, and (4) individually tailored feedback generated by decision support software. After participating in the HRA as end users, both end users and designers evaluated the program. End users completed an evaluation questionnaire that included a free-text field. Designers participated in a focus group discussion. Constructs from user satisfaction and technology acceptance theories were used to categorize and compare the remarks from both evaluations. We assessed and qualitatively analyzed 294 remarks of 189 end users and 337 remarks of 6 industrial designers, pertaining to 295 issues in total. Of those, 137 issues were addressed in the end-user survey and 148 issues in the designer focus group. Only 7.3% (10/137) of the issues addressed in the survey were also addressed in the focus group. End users made more remarks about the usefulness of the HRA and prior expectations that were not met. Designers made

System Design and Cataloging Meet the User: User Interfaces to Online Public Access Catalogs.

Science.gov (United States)

Yee, Martha M.

1991-01-01

Discusses features of online public access catalogs: (1) demonstration of relationships between records; (2) provision of entry vocabularies; (3) arrangement of multiple entries on the screen; (4) provision of access points; (5) display of single records; and (6) division of catalogs into separate files or indexes. User studies and other research…

Ionosphere-related products for communication and navigation

Science.gov (United States)

Tobiska, W.; Schunk, R. W.; Sojka, J. J.; Carlson, H. C.; Gardner, L. C.; Scherliess, L.; Zhu, L.

2011-12-01

Space weather's effects upon the near-Earth environment are due to dynamic changes in the energy transfer processes from the Sun's photons, particles, and fields. Of the space environment domains that are affected by space weather, the ionosphere is the key region that affects communication and navigation systems. The Utah State University (USU) Space Weather Center (SWC) is developing and producing commercial space weather applications. A key system-level component for providing timely information about the effects of space weather is the Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements (GAIM) system. GAIM, operated by SWC, improves real-time communication and navigation systems by continuously ingesting up to 10,000 slant TEC measurements every 15-minutes from approximately 500 stations. Ionosonde data from several dozen global stations is ingested every 15 minutes to improve the vertical profiles within GAIM. The global, CONUS, Europe, Asia, South America, and other regional sectors are run with a 15-minute cadence. These operational runs enable SWC to calculate and report the global radio high frequency (HF) signal strengths and near vertical incidence skywave (NVIS) maps used by amateur radio operators and emergency responders, especially during the Japan Great Earthquake and tsunami recovery period. SWC has established its first fully commercial enterprise called Q-up as a result of this activity. GPS uncertainty maps are produced by SWC to improve single-frequency GPS applications. SWC also provides the space weather smartphone app called SpaceWx for iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Android for professional users and public space weather education. SpaceWx displays the real-time solar, heliosphere, magnetosphere, thermosphere, and ionosphere drivers to changes in the total electron content, for example, as well as global NVIS maps. We describe upcoming improvements for moving space weather information through automated systems into final derivative products.

Building Bridge between End-Users and E&T Organizations, Case Study: Romania

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pavel, G. L.; Ghitescu, P.

2016-01-01

Full text: Over the last decade a constant concern of both E&T providers and end-users was formalizing and shaping the content of transmitted knowledge in order to fit most the industry needs. The EU Member States were invited to relate their national qualifications systems and to use an approach based on learning outcomes when defining and describing qualifications, and promoting the validation of non-formal and informal learning. This approach is the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training together with the implementation of already existing in industry Systematic Approach to Training. Nevertheless a gap between the provided education and industry expectations still exists and the purpose of the case study was to build a bridge between E&T providers and end-users regarding exchange of information, needs, methodologies and tools, with the expected outcome of shaping the curriculum according to actual industry needs. University Politehnica Bucharest together with partners from industry (Energonuclear-Romania), research (Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia) and training (Tecnatom-Spain) developed a project aimed at filling this gap. Following the analysis of specific personnel needs based on a new proposed methodology, the partners evaluated the learning outcomes and proposed correction of curricula by new learning activities. (author

End-User Searching in a Large Library Network: A Case Study of Patent Attorneys.

Science.gov (United States)

Vollaro, Alice J.; Hawkins, Donald T.

1986-01-01

Reports results of study of a group of end users (patent attorneys) doing their own online searching at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Highlights include DIALOG databases used by the attorneys, locations and searching modes, characteristics of patent attorney searchers, and problem areas. Questionnaire is appended. (5 references) (EJS)

Voice-controlled Internet Browsing for Motor-handicapped Users

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brøndsted, Tom; Aaskoven, Erik

2006-01-01

The public-funded project "Indtal" ("Speak-it") has succeeded in developing a Danish voice-controlled utility for internet browsing targeting motor-handicapped users having difficulties using a standard keyboard and/or a standard mouse. The system has been designed and implemented in collaboration...... with an advisory board of motor-handicapped (potential) end-users and underlies a number of a priori defined design criteria: learnability and memorability rather than naturalness, minimal need for maintenance after release, support for "all" web standards (not just HTML conforming to certain "recommendations......"), independency of the language on the websites being browsed, etc. These criteria have lead to a primarily message-driven system interacting with an existing browser on the end users' systems...

Prescription drugs purchased through the internet: who are the end users?

Science.gov (United States)

Inciardi, James A; Surratt, Hilary L; Cicero, Theodore J; Rosenblum, Andrew; Ahwah, Candice; Bailey, J Elise; Dart, Richard C; Burke, John J

2010-07-01

Although prescription drugs are readily available on the Internet, little is known about the prevalence of Internet use for the purchase of medications without a legitimate prescription, and the characteristics of those that obtain non-prescribed drugs through online sources. The scientific literature on this topic is limited to anecdotal reports or studies plagued by small sample sizes. Within this context, the focus of this paper is an examination of five national data sets from the U.S. with the purpose of estimating: (1) how common obtaining prescription medications from the Internet actually is, (2) who are the typical populations of "end users" of these non-prescribed medications, and (3) which drugs are being purchased without a prescription. Three of the data sets are drawn from the RADARS (Researched Abuse Diversion and Addiction-Related Surveillance) System, a comprehensive series of studies designed to collect timely and geographically specific data on the abuse and diversion of a number of prescription stimulants and opioid analgesics. The remaining data sets include the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey. Our analysis yielded uniformly low rates of prescription drug acquisition from online sources across all five data systems we examined. The consistency of this finding across very diverse populations suggests that the Internet is a relatively minor source for illicit purchases of prescription medications by the individual end-users of these drugs. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Why do NRM regional planning processes and tools have limited effect? Presenting the perspective of the end user

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dana Reiter

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Natural resource managers are required to prepare a plan for managing the natural resources in their regions. Environmental decision support systems (EDSS have been developed to assist managers and stakeholders make decisions about complex natural resource problems. Research has shown that these EDSS are valuable and used internationally. However, sustainability science literature reports that too often these natural resource management (NRM plans are not consulted upon completion, and the EDSS are no longer used. To gain insight into why the EDSS are no longer used after the research and development phase of the NRM planning project, we have asked the stakeholders, as end users of the EDSS tool themselves, to share their perceptions of, and experience with development of the tool and then, the tool itself. This paper reports on the perspectives of the end users of an EDSS used in a South Australian NRM planning project from 2011 to 2013. The findings were mixed in that they show that the majority (90% of respondents felt the EDSS had overall value, yet it was virtually abandoned after the completion of the planning project. Further, just over half of respondents reported that they thought that the EDSS should have been used on a regular basis after the pilot project ended. We conclude that genuine capacity development, aided by the EDSS, took place during the project. However, the lack of use of the EDSS after the pilot project finished was the result of failures both with researcher follow up and especially with the lack of commitment from government agencies who support and influence the array of end users. Unless agencies commit to the changed practices identified by end users that would support ongoing use of EDSS it is inevitable that the legacy value of EDSS development will remain limited.

End-User Software for Efficient Sensor Placement in Jacketed Wine Tanks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dominik Schmidt

2018-06-01

Full Text Available In food processing, temperature is a key parameter affecting product quality and energy consumption. The efficiency of temperature control depends on the data provided by sensors installed in the production device. In the wine industry, temperature sensor placement inside the tanks is usually predetermined by the tank manufacturers. Winemakers rely on these measurements and configure their temperature control accordingly, not knowing whether the monitored values really represent the wine’s bulk temperature. To address this problem, we developed an end-user software which 1. allows winemakers or tank manufacturers to identify optimal sensor locations for customizable tank geometries and 2. allows for comparisons between actual and optimal sensor placements. The analysis is based on numerical simulations of a user-defined cooling scenario. Case studies involving two different tanks showed good agreement between experimental data and simulations. Implemented based on the scientific Linux operating system gmlinux, the application solely relies on open-source software that is available free of charge.

Extent of reference services to users in Ebonyi State Public Libraary ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Users are very satisfied with the extent of reference services provided to them by the public library studied. Findings further show that the reference section of Ebonyi State Public Library, Abakiliki is faced with the problems of inadequate reading space, equipment and furniture, reference information sources, unconducive ...

Evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of electrical stimulation therapy for pressure ulcers in spinal cord injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Mittmann, Nicole; Chan, Brian C; Craven, B Cathy; Isogai, Pierre K; Houghton, Pamela

2011-06-01

To evaluate the incremental cost-effectiveness of electrical stimulation (ES) plus standard wound care (SWC) as compared with SWC only in a spinal cord injury (SCI) population with grade III/IV pressure ulcers (PUs) from the public payer perspective. A decision analytic model was constructed for a 1-year time horizon to determine the incremental cost-effectiveness of ES plus SWC to SWC in a cohort of participants with SCI and grade III/IV PUs. Model inputs for clinical probabilities were based on published literature. Model inputs, namely clinical probabilities and direct health system and medical resources were based on a randomized controlled trial of ES plus SWC versus SWC. Costs (Can $) included outpatient (clinic, home care, health professional) and inpatient management (surgery, complications). One way and probabilistic sensitivity (1000 Monte Carlo iterations) analyses were conducted. The perspective of this analysis is from a Canadian public health system payer. Model target population was an SCI cohort with grade III/IV PUs. Not applicable. Incremental cost per PU healed. ES plus SWC were associated with better outcomes and lower costs. There was a 16.4% increase in the PUs healed and a cost savings of $224 at 1 year. ES plus SWC were thus considered a dominant economic comparator. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis resulted in economic dominance for ES plus SWC in 62%, with another 35% having incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of $50,000 or less per PU healed. The largest driver of the economic model was the percentage of PU healed with ES plus SWC. The addition of ES to SWC improved healing in grade III/IV PU and reduced costs in an SCI population. Copyright © 2011 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Authentication and Authorization of End User in Microservice Architecture

Science.gov (United States)

He, Xiuyu; Yang, Xudong

2017-10-01

As the market and business continues to expand; the traditional single monolithic architecture is facing more and more challenges. The development of cloud computing and container technology promote microservice architecture became more popular. While the low coupling, fine granularity, scalability, flexibility and independence of the microservice architecture bring convenience, the inherent complexity of the distributed system make the security of microservice architecture important and difficult. This paper aims to study the authentication and authorization of the end user under the microservice architecture. By comparing with the traditional measures and researching on existing technology, this paper put forward a set of authentication and authorization strategies suitable for microservice architecture, such as distributed session, SSO solutions, client-side JSON web token and JWT + API Gateway, and summarize the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

Status of occupational radiation protection at end users in Tanzania

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Muhogora, W.E.; Mwalongo, D.; Lema, U.S.; Mboya, G.; Banzi, F.P.

2008-01-01

Full text: This paper presents the results of the national survey conducted by regulatory authority to assess the awareness on occupational radiation protection (ORP) at end using facilities in Tanzania. The survey was done by using a questionnaire, which addressed elements required for desirable ORP infrastructure at end users. The questions were mainly structured with closed questions such that the first response could be 'yes' or 'no'. The elements included compliance to authorization requirements, cooperation to ensure the safety of employees of another employer, availability of radiation safety officer (RSO) with adequate power to discharge his/her functions, availability of radiation protection programme (RPP) and desirable management structure. Others; were the availability of programmes on staff selection, information and training; workplace (WP) monitoring, coverage of individual monitoring for external radiation service (IMERS), intervention and emergencies and health insurance. Aspects on effective control of doses, provisional of administrative control, quality management system and occupational exposures from natural sources were not covered because they were presumed to be less familiar. Out of 270 questionnaires distributed, seventy four questionnaires (28%) were returned for analysis. The results indicated that 65% responded to questions as requested and therefore had a satisfactory general awareness on ORP. Other positive findings were good understanding on authorization details and related compliance (92%), availability of RPP and recognition of RSO as well as a supportive management structure (86%) and fully coverage by IMERS (72%). The shortcomings were observed in the following areas: absence of cooperation agreements to ensure the safety of employees of other employers (96%); absence of formal information and training programmes (72%); absence of work place monitoring programmes (96%); absence of interventions and emergency programmes (78

Conceptions of end users in current smart grid research and opportunities for further social scientific research on users in smart grids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Lars Ege

of existing knowledge and seeing new possibilities for social scientific research where knowledge gaps appear. Different user representations and user roles are found through a content analysis of project related documents from a selection of European and North American smart grid projects. It is argued......Many resources have been put into preparing our energy provision systems for a future with more distributed and intermittent energy production. Especially in Europe and the US a large amount of public research funds has gone to the research field of smart grids. Within policy communities and smart...... grid research communities there is a consensus that a changed user-system relation where users become sensitive to system level constraints is a key element of smart grids. However, the way this sensitivity is conceptualized and the nature of claims differs from one project to the other and sometimes...

Rural public transportation technologies : user needs and applications : final report

Science.gov (United States)

1998-07-01

The Rural Public Transportation Technologies: User Needs and Applications study was conducted as part of the U.S. Department of Transportations (DOT) overall Rural Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Program. The study examined the opportuniti...

Rural Public Transportation Technologies: User Needs and Applications. Executive Summary

Science.gov (United States)

1998-07-01

The Rural Public Transportation Technologies: User Needs and Applications study was conducted as part of the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) overall Rural Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Program. The study examined the opportunities...

76 FR 24035 - Generic Drug User Fee; Public Meeting; Request for Comments

Science.gov (United States)

2011-04-29

... legislation would be required for FDA to establish and collect user fees for generic drugs, and FDA is... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. FDA-2010-N-0381] Generic Drug User Fee; Public Meeting; Request for Comments AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS...

Lake Representations in Global Climate Models: An End-User Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Rood, R. B.; Briley, L.; Steiner, A.; Wells, K.

2017-12-01

The weather and climate in the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada are strongly influenced by the lakes. Within global climate models, lakes are incorporated in many ways. If one is interested in quantitative climate information for the Great Lakes, then it is a first principle requirement that end-users of climate model simulation data, whether scientists or practitioners, need to know if and how lakes are incorporated into models. We pose the basic question, how are lakes represented in CMIP models? Despite significant efforts by the climate community to document and publish basic information about climate models, it is unclear how to answer the question about lake representations? With significant knowledge of the practice of the field, then a reasonable starting point is to use the ES-DOC Comparator (https://compare.es-doc.org/ ). Once at this interface to model information, the end-user is faced with the need for more knowledge about the practice and culture of the discipline. For example, lakes are often categorized as a type of land, a counterintuitive concept. In some models, though, lakes are specified in ocean models. There is little evidence and little confidence that the information obtained through this process is complete or accurate. In fact, it is verifiably not accurate. This experience, then, motivates identifying and finding either human experts or technical documentation for each model. The conclusion from this exercise is that it can take months or longer to provide a defensible answer to if and how lakes are represented in climate models. Our experience with lake finding is that this is not a unique experience. This talk documents our experience and explores barriers we have identified and strategies for reducing those barriers.

Combining interviewing and modeling for end-user energy conservation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goldblatt, David L.; Hartmann, Christoph; Duerrenberger, Gregor

2005-01-01

Studying energy consumption through the lens of households is an increasingly popular research avenue. This paper focuses on residential end-user energy conservation. It describes an approach that combines energy modeling and in-depth interviews for communicating about energy use and revealing consumer preferences for change at different levels and intervention points. Expert knowledge was embodied in a computer model for householders that calculates an individual's current energy consumption and helps assess personal savings potentials, while also bringing in socio-technical and economic elements beyond the user's direct control. The paper gives a detailed account of this computer information tool developed for interviewing purposes. It then describes the interview guidelines, data analysis, and main results. In general, interview subjects overestimated the environmental friendliness of their lifestyles. After experience with the program, they tended to rate external (technological, societal) factors as somewhat stronger determinants of their consumption levels than personal (behavioral and household investment) factors, with the notable exception of mobility. Concerning long-term energy perspectives, the majority of subjects felt that society has the ability to make a collective choice towards significantly lower energy consumption levels. Interviewees confirmed that the software and interactive sessions helped them think more holistically about the personal, social, and technological dimensions of energy conservation. Lessons can be applied to the development of future energy communication tools

Rural Public Transportation Technologies: User Needs and Applications. Final Report

Science.gov (United States)

1998-08-01

The Rural Public Transportation Technologies: User Needs and Applications Study was conducted as part of the U.S. DOT's overall Rural Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Program. The study examined the opportunities and challenges of planning and...

Achieving 10,000 steps: a comparison of public transport users and drivers in a university setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Villanueva, Karen; Giles-Corti, Billie; McCormack, Gavin

2008-09-01

To compare pedometer steps of university students who used public transport and private motor vehicles to travel to and or from The University of Western Australia (UWA). 103 undergraduate students in 2006 recruited by e-mail and snowballing wore a pedometer for five consecutive university days, and completed a travel and physical activity diary. Compared with private motor vehicle users, public transport users performed more daily steps (11443 vs. 10242 steps/day, p=0.04) After adjusting for gender, age group and average daily minutes of self-reported leisure-time physical activity, the odds of achieving 10,000 steps/day was higher in public transport users compared with private motor vehicle users (OR 3.55; 95% CI 1.34-9.38, p=0.01). Walking associated with public transport use appeared to contribute to university students achieving higher levels of daily steps. Encouraging public transport use could help increase and maintain community physical activity levels.

Solar cooking in Mozambique—an investigation of end-user's needs for the design of solar cookers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Otte, Pia Piroschka

2014-01-01

Sub-Saharan Africa is characterized by insufficient access to modern energy. One solution to this problem could be the use of solar energy to satisfy the current energy demand. However, solar energy technologies have shown limited success up to now. In the literature it is argued that solar cookers are often implemented as a “solution looking for a problem”, without consideration of the end-user needs. This study contributes to this debate by investigating the energy patterns and cooking profiles of public institutions for the design and implementation of solar cookers in the case of Mozambique. Interviews were conducted with 12 health institutions in Maputo and Sofala province in Mozambique. The paper concludes that solar cooking presents one solution to overcome the energy crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa but not the only solution. Solar cookers could improve the current cooking situation if combined with heat storage, back up, or a hybrid system that ensures reliability also during evening hours and rainy days. In general we could see that solar cookers should fulfill a variety of requirements related to cooking habits, schedule of daily routine and performance that are considered to enhance levels of use. - Highlights: • The study investigates energy patterns of public health institutions in Mozambique. • The aim is to find out how a solar cooker should be designed for implementation. • Solar cookers should be reliable and lead to economic savings. • Users are skeptical towards the use of solar cookers during the rainy season. • Solar cookers need to be combined with other energy sources to be successful

Public transport users' preferences and willingness to pay for a public transportation mobile APP in Madrid

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Velazquez Romera, G.; Monzon, A.

2016-07-01

Today, smart cities are presented as a solution to achieve a more sustainable urban development while increasing the quality of life of its citizens through the use of new technologies (Neirotti, 2013). Smart Mobility is based on innovative and sustainable ways to provide transport for the inhabitants of cities, enhancing the use of fuels or vehicle propulsion systems that respect the environment, supported by technological tools and a proactive behaviour of citizenship (Neirotti, 2013). In urban mobility, the purpose of the Smart Cities is to develop flexible systems for real-time information to support decision-making in the use and management of different transport modes, generating a positive impact, saving users time and improving efficiency and quality of service. In this context, several solution types are being introduced in the world’s cities. They enable the improvement of the abovementioned factors acting on the demand side resulting in more efficient journeys for individual travelers, and improved satisfaction with the service. (Skelley et Al., 2013) with a lower level of investment than that of infrastructure deployment or an increase in the level of service. One of the most extended solutions is the use of mobile apps for providing the user with contextualized -static and real time- transport information. The study is based on a survey carried out among users of public transport in Madrid under the European OPTICITES project of the 7th Research Framework Programme. The survey contained items on their transportation habits, their level of skills and technological capabilities, and their main expectations about the possibility of using a new application, the main desired capabilities and willingness to pay for use. The study results show the preferences of users of public transport capacity, static, real-time search and in-app services for a multimodal real-time application and willingness to pay for this service, all analyzed by different Slicers

Public Libraries, Museums and User Participation - An outline of a research projeckt

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jochumsen, Henrik; Rasmussen, Casper Hvenegaard

2013-01-01

The aim of this paper is to sketch a research project on user participation in public libraries and museums. For several years’ user participation, participatory culture and user driven innovation have been “buzzwords” in the ongoing development of cultural institutions in general and in museums...... of the research project. The case of Roskilde is particularly illustrative as it not only contains user participation, libraries and museums but also illustrate how the development of user participation actually blurs the borders of the two institutions. After a definition of the concept of user participation...... and a brief discussion of the institutional and political relevance of doing research into the field, we will pinpoint some challenges that both libraries and museums are facing so as to emphasize the importance of studying how the increasing focus on user development is expressed in both institutions...

End-user comfort oriented day-ahead planning for responsive residential HVAC demand aggregation considering weather forecasts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Erdinç, O.; Taşcikaraogυlu, A.; Paterakis, N.G.; Eren, Y.; Catalão, J.P.S.

2017-01-01

There is a remarkable potential for implementing demand response (DR) strategies for several purposes, such as peak load reduction, frequency regulation, etc., by using thermostatically controllable appliances. In this paper, an end-user comfort violation minimization oriented DR strategy for

Electrical network capacity support from demand side response: Techno-economic assessment of potential business cases for small commercial and residential end-users

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martínez Ceseña, Eduardo A.; Good, Nicholas; Mancarella, Pierluigi

2015-01-01

Demand Side Response (DSR) is recognised for its potential to bring economic benefits to various electricity sector actors, such as energy retailers, Transmission System Operators (TSOs) and Distribution Network Operators (DNOs). However, most DSR is provided by large industrial and commercial consumers, and little research has been directed to the quantification of the value that small (below 100 kW) commercial and residential end-users could accrue by providing DSR services. In particular, suitable models and studies are needed to quantify potential business cases for DSR from small commercial and residential end-users. Such models and studies should consider the technical and physical characteristics of the power system and demand resources, together with the economic conditions of the power market. In addition, the majority of research focuses on provision of energy arbitrage or ancillary services, with very little attention to DSR services for network capacity support. Accordingly, this paper presents comprehensive techno-economic methodologies for the quantification of three capacity-based business cases for DSR from small commercial and residential end-users. Case study results applied to a UK context indicate that, if the appropriate regulatory framework is put in place, services for capacity support to both DNOs and TSOs can result into potentially attractive business cases for DSR from small end-users with minimum impact on their comfort level. -- Highlights: •We present three business cases for DSR from domestic and commercial end-users. •A comprehensive techno-economic methodology is proposed for the quantification of each DSR business cases. •The regulatory implications associated with each business case are discussed

Bridging the Gap: Experiences of communicating climate information between producers and end-users in southern Africa

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Joubert, A

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Climate change information is difficult to communicate beyond the scientific community, due to its inherent uncertainty and complexity, yet at the same time end users need access to the information in a format that is appropriate to their decision...

End User and Implementer Experiences of mHealth Technologies for Noncommunicable Chronic Disease Management in Young Adults: Systematic Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Slater, Helen; Campbell, Jared M; Stinson, Jennifer N; Burley, Megan M; Briggs, Andrew M

2017-12-12

Chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as asthma, diabetes, cancer, and persistent musculoskeletal pain impose an escalating and unsustainable burden on young people, their families, and society. Exploring how mobile health (mHealth) technologies can support management for young people with NCDs is imperative. The aim of this study was to identify, appraise, and synthesize available qualitative evidence on users' experiences of mHealth technologies for NCD management in young people. We explored the perspectives of both end users (young people) and implementers (health policy makers, clinicians, and researchers). A systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies. Eligibility criteria included full reports published in peer-reviewed journals from January 2007 to December 2016, searched across databases including EMBASE, MEDLINE (PubMed), Scopus, and PsycINFO. All qualitative studies that evaluated the use of mHealth technologies to support young people (in the age range of 15-24 years) in managing their chronic NCDs were considered. Two independent reviewers identified eligible reports and conducted critical appraisal (based on the Joanna Briggs Institute Qualitative Assessment and Review Instrument: JBI-QARI). Three reviewers independently, then collaboratively, synthesized and interpreted data through an inductive and iterative process to derive emergent themes across the included data. External validity checking was undertaken by an expert clinical researcher and for relevant content, a health policy expert. Themes were subsequently subjected to a meta-synthesis, with findings compared and contrasted between user groups and policy and practice recommendations derived. Twelve studies met our inclusion criteria. Among studies of end users (N=7), mHealth technologies supported the management of young people with diabetes, cancer, and asthma. Implementer studies (N=5) covered the management of cognitive and communicative disabilities, asthma

AIRNET stakeholder survey. A report of end-users' air pollution and health information needs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fudge, N.; Totlandsdal, A.I. [Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Bilthoven (Netherlands); Sanderson, E. [Institute of Risk Assessment Sciences IRAS, Utrecht University, Utrecht (Netherlands)

2003-12-15

This report presents the results of the AIRNET stakeholder survey, which was conducted in order to identify the questions and issues of concern of AIRNET's end-users, how they would like their information to be presented and what they expect from AIRNET. In total 277 questionnaires were sent to a wide range of stakeholders employed in government agencies, the European parliament, the private sector (industry), NGOs and research institutes. 65 respondents returned their questionnaire resulting in an overall response rate of 24%. This survey has generated a list of stakeholder questions, which the AIRNET working groups will take into account when writing their state of the art reports. When discussing these questions during the 2nd annual AIRNET conference it became evident that stakeholder questions are more general than what scientists would prefer. Regarding the information needs the overwhelming response across all stakeholder categories was not the unavailability of sources, but the lack of time available to read and adsorb the information. The respondents expressed their preference for information that: Is presented as short overviews of about 1-2 pages, synthetic executive summaries and non-specialist summaries; Is ready for policy use by including a practical linkage between the research findings and implementation of public protection; Can be passed on to other users. Finally, the respondents' expectations of AIRNET can be summarised as AIRNET having a policy support role, an information role, a network role and as a project that identifies and considers stakeholders views.

Effectiveness of Agile Implementation Methods in Business Intelligence Projects from an End-user Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Maria Misiak

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The global Business Intelligence (BI market grew by 10% in 2013 according to the Gartner Report. Today organizations require better use of data and analytics to support their business decisions. Internet power and business trend changes have provided a broad term for data analytics – Big Data. To be able to handle it and leverage a value of having access to Big Data, organizations have no other choice than to get proper systems implemented and working. However traditional methods are not efficient for changing business needs. The long time between project start and go-live causes a gap between initial solution blueprint and actual user requirements in the end of the project. This article presents the latest market trends in BI systems implementation by comparing Agile with traditional methods. It presents a case study provided in a large telecommunications company (20K employees and the results of a pilot research provided in the three large companies: telecommunications, digital, and insurance. Both studies prove that Agile methods might be more effective in BI projects from an end-user perspective and give first results and added value in a much shorter time compared to a traditional approach.

Adapting Coastal State Indicators to end-users: the iCoast Project

Science.gov (United States)

Demarchi, Alessandro; Isotta Cristofori, Elena; Gracia, Vicente; Sairouní, Abdel; García-León, Manuel; Cámaro, Walther; Facello, Anna

2016-04-01

The extraordinary development of the built environment and of the population densities in the coastal areas are making coastal communities highly exposed. The sea level rise induced by climate change will worsen this coastal vulnerability scenario and a considerable amount of people are expected to be threatened by coastal flooding in the future. Due to the increasing number of catastrophic events, and the consequent increased number of damages and people affected, over the last decades coastal hazard management has become a fundamental activity in order to improve the resilience of coastal community. In this scenario, iCoast (integrated COastal Alert SysTem) project has been founded to develop a tool able to address coastal risks caused by extreme waves and high sea water levels in European coastal areas. In the framework of iCoast Project, a set of Coastal State Indicators (CSIs) has been developed in order to improve the forecasting and the assessment of coastal risks. CSIs are indeed parameters able to provide end-users with an essential information about coastal hazards and related impacts. Within the iCoast Project, following a comprehensive literature review about existing indicators concerning coastal risks, a list of CSIs have been chosen as parameters that can be derived from the meteorological and the hydrodynamic modules. They include both physical variables used as trigger for meteorological and flood warnings from the majority of the operational National/Regional warning systems and further essential parameters, so called 'storm integrated' coastal-storm indicators, able to describe the physical processes that drive coastal damages, such as erosion, accumulation, flooding, destructions. Nowadays, it is generally acknowledged that communities are not homogenous and hence their different vulnerable groups might need different warnings. Generally, even existing national EWS in developed countries are often ineffective to issue targeted warnings for

End-Users: Dreams or Dollars.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnold, Stephen E.

1987-01-01

Examines strategies for marketing online searching to new users, discusses reasons why people become online searchers, and presents data on the business information market. The pricing issue and special librarians as a market segment are also considered. (EM)

End user programming with personally meaningful objects

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Smith, Andrew C

2016-09-01

Full Text Available (Kimchi et al., 2003). Perceptual organisation is a neuro-cognitive process that dictates how we perceive objects in physical space and how we interpret some objects as being distinct from others and yet other objects as part of a whole (Helm, 2014... called the designer-cum-user. Using this approach, the user creates a personally meaningful artefact that represents the target product. Although not confirmed, we anticipate that this approach reduces the initial cognitive load on the user when he uses...

Individually adapted imagery improves brain-computer interface performance in end-users with disability.

Science.gov (United States)

Scherer, Reinhold; Faller, Josef; Friedrich, Elisabeth V C; Opisso, Eloy; Costa, Ursula; Kübler, Andrea; Müller-Putz, Gernot R

2015-01-01

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) translate oscillatory electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns into action. Different mental activities modulate spontaneous EEG rhythms in various ways. Non-stationarity and inherent variability of EEG signals, however, make reliable recognition of modulated EEG patterns challenging. Able-bodied individuals who use a BCI for the first time achieve - on average - binary classification performance of about 75%. Performance in users with central nervous system (CNS) tissue damage is typically lower. User training generally enhances reliability of EEG pattern generation and thus also robustness of pattern recognition. In this study, we investigated the impact of mental tasks on binary classification performance in BCI users with central nervous system (CNS) tissue damage such as persons with stroke or spinal cord injury (SCI). Motor imagery (MI), that is the kinesthetic imagination of movement (e.g. squeezing a rubber ball with the right hand), is the "gold standard" and mainly used to modulate EEG patterns. Based on our recent results in able-bodied users, we hypothesized that pair-wise combination of "brain-teaser" (e.g. mental subtraction and mental word association) and "dynamic imagery" (e.g. hand and feet MI) tasks significantly increases classification performance of induced EEG patterns in the selected end-user group. Within-day (How stable is the classification within a day?) and between-day (How well does a model trained on day one perform on unseen data of day two?) analysis of variability of mental task pair classification in nine individuals confirmed the hypothesis. We found that the use of the classical MI task pair hand vs. feed leads to significantly lower classification accuracy - in average up to 15% less - in most users with stroke or SCI. User-specific selection of task pairs was again essential to enhance performance. We expect that the gained evidence will significantly contribute to make imagery-based BCI technology

Individually adapted imagery improves brain-computer interface performance in end-users with disability.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reinhold Scherer

Full Text Available Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs translate oscillatory electroencephalogram (EEG patterns into action. Different mental activities modulate spontaneous EEG rhythms in various ways. Non-stationarity and inherent variability of EEG signals, however, make reliable recognition of modulated EEG patterns challenging. Able-bodied individuals who use a BCI for the first time achieve - on average - binary classification performance of about 75%. Performance in users with central nervous system (CNS tissue damage is typically lower. User training generally enhances reliability of EEG pattern generation and thus also robustness of pattern recognition. In this study, we investigated the impact of mental tasks on binary classification performance in BCI users with central nervous system (CNS tissue damage such as persons with stroke or spinal cord injury (SCI. Motor imagery (MI, that is the kinesthetic imagination of movement (e.g. squeezing a rubber ball with the right hand, is the "gold standard" and mainly used to modulate EEG patterns. Based on our recent results in able-bodied users, we hypothesized that pair-wise combination of "brain-teaser" (e.g. mental subtraction and mental word association and "dynamic imagery" (e.g. hand and feet MI tasks significantly increases classification performance of induced EEG patterns in the selected end-user group. Within-day (How stable is the classification within a day? and between-day (How well does a model trained on day one perform on unseen data of day two? analysis of variability of mental task pair classification in nine individuals confirmed the hypothesis. We found that the use of the classical MI task pair hand vs. feed leads to significantly lower classification accuracy - in average up to 15% less - in most users with stroke or SCI. User-specific selection of task pairs was again essential to enhance performance. We expect that the gained evidence will significantly contribute to make imagery-based BCI

76 FR 69609 - Amendment to Existing Validated End-User Authorizations in the People's Republic of China...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-09

... Destinations'' in the People's Republic of China (PRC). BIS also removes one facility from the list of...-01] RIN 0694-AF32 Amendment to Existing Validated End-User Authorizations in the People's Republic of... the ``Eligible Destinations'' column in ``China (People's Republic of)''. Dated: November 1, 2011...

Asynchronous P300-based brain-computer interface to control a virtual environment: initial tests on end users.

Science.gov (United States)

Aloise, Fabio; Schettini, Francesca; Aricò, Pietro; Salinari, Serenella; Guger, Christoph; Rinsma, Johanna; Aiello, Marco; Mattia, Donatella; Cincotti, Febo

2011-10-01

Motor disability and/or ageing can prevent individuals from fully enjoying home facilities, thus worsening their quality of life. Advances in the field of accessible user interfaces for domotic appliances can represent a valuable way to improve the independence of these persons. An asynchronous P300-based Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) system was recently validated with the participation of healthy young volunteers for environmental control. In this study, the asynchronous P300-based BCI for the interaction with a virtual home environment was tested with the participation of potential end-users (clients of a Frisian home care organization) with limited autonomy due to ageing and/or motor disabilities. System testing revealed that the minimum number of stimulation sequences needed to achieve correct classification had a higher intra-subject variability in potential end-users with respect to what was previously observed in young controls. Here we show that the asynchronous modality performed significantly better as compared to the synchronous mode in continuously adapting its speed to the users' state. Furthermore, the asynchronous system modality confirmed its reliability in avoiding misclassifications and false positives, as previously shown in young healthy subjects. The asynchronous modality may contribute to filling the usability gap between BCI systems and traditional input devices, representing an important step towards their use in the activities of daily living.

The deegree framework - Spatial Data Infrastructure solution for end-users and developers

Science.gov (United States)

Kiehle, Christian; Poth, Andreas

2010-05-01

The open source software framework deegree is a comprehensive implementa­tion of standards as defined by ISO and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). It has been developed with two goals in mind: provide a uniform framework for implementing Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) and adhering to standards as strictly as possible. Although being open source software (Lesser GNU Public Li­cense, LGPL), deegree has been developed with a business model in mind: providing the general building blocks of SDIs without license fees and offer cus­tomization, consulting and tailoring by specialized companies. The core of deegree is a comprehensive Java Application Programming Inter­face (API) offering access to spatial features, analysis, metadata and coordinate reference systems. As a library, deegree can and has been integrated as a core module inside spatial information systems. It is reference implementation for several OGC standards and based on an ISO 19107 geometry model. For end users, deegree is shipped as a web application providing easy-to-set-up components for web mapping and spatial analysis. Since 2000, deegree has been the backbone of many productive SDIs, first and foremost for governmental stakeholders (e.g. Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy in Germany, the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the En­vironment in the Netherlands, etc.) as well as for research and development projects as an early adoption of standards, drafts and discussion papers. Be­sides mature standards like Web Map Service, Web Feature Service and Cata­logue Services, deegree also implements rather new standards like the Sensor Observation Service, the Web Processing Service and the Web Coordinate Transformation Service (WCTS). While a robust background in standardization (knowledge and implementation) is a must for consultancy, standard-compliant services and encodings alone do not provide solutions for customers. The added value is comprised by a sophistic­ated set of

Clinical relevance and effect of surgical wound classification in appendicitis: Retrospective evaluation of wound classification discrepancies between surgeons, Swissnoso-trained infection control nurse, and histology as well as surgical site infection rates by wound class.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang-Chan, Anastasija; Gingert, Christian; Angst, Eliane; Hetzer, Franc Heinrich

2017-07-01

Surgical wound classification (SWC) is used for risk stratification of surgical site infection (SSI) and serves as the basis for measuring quality of care. The objective was to examine the accuracy and reliability of SWC. This study was purposed to evaluate the discrepancies in SWC as assessed by three groups: surgeons, an infection control nurse, and histopathologic evaluation. The secondary aim was to compare the risk-stratified SSI rates using the different SWC methods for 30 d postoperatively. An analysis was performed of the appendectomies from January 2013 to June 2014 in the Cantonal Hospital of Schaffhausen. SWC was assigned by the operating surgeon at the end of the procedure and retrospectively reviewed by a Swissnoso-trained infection control nurse after reading the operative and pathology report. The level of agreement among the three different SWC assessment groups was determined using kappa statistic. SSI rates were analyzed using a chi-square test. In 246 evaluated cases, the kappa scores for interrater reliability among the SWC assessments across the three groups ranged from 0.05 to 0.2 signifying slight agreement between the groups. SSIs were more frequently associated with trained infection control nurse-assigned SWC than with surgeons based SWC. Our study demonstrated a considerable discordance in the SWC assessments performed by the three groups. Unfortunately, the currently practiced SWC system suffers from ambiguity in definition and/or implementation of these definitions is not clearly stated. This lack of reliability is problematic and may lead to inappropriate comparisons within and between hospitals and surgeons. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Satellite Data of Atmospheric Pollution for U.S. Air Quality Applications: Examples of Applications, Summary of Data End-user Resources, Answers to Faqs, and Common Mistakes to Avoid

Science.gov (United States)

Duncan, Bryan Neal; Prados, Ana; Lamsal, Lok N.; Liu, Yang; Streets, David G.; Gupta, Pawan; Hilsenrath, Ernest; Kahn, Ralph A.; Nielsen, J. Eric; Beyersdorf, Andreas J.;

How Social Media Users Negotiate Self-Censorship in the Online Public Sphere

OpenAIRE

Scott, Jes

2015-01-01

Research about the public sphere and social media often focus on what is being posted, rather than examining what is being omitted or why. The aim of this research is to explore this gap by providing ethnographic, qualitative research on how social media users negotiate self-censorship while engaging in the online public sphere.

Challenging the ‘End of Public Space’: A Comparative Analysis of Publicness in British and Dutch Urban Spaces

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Langstraat, F.; Melik, R.G. van

2013-01-01

The increasing involvement of the private sector in the design and management of urban public space has prompted some critical scholars to predict the ‘end of public space’. This study reassesses the implications of private sector involvement through a comparative analysis of British and Dutch urban

End user interface and knowledge base editing system of CSPAR: a knowledge-based consultation system for preventive maintenance in nuclear plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sinohara, Yasusi; Terano, Takao; Nishiyama, Takuya

1988-01-01

Consultation System for Prevention of Abnormal-event Recurrence (CSPAR) is a knowledge-based system to analyze the same kind of events to a given fault reported on a nuclear power plant and to give users some informations for effective measures preventing them. This report discusses the interfaces of CSPAR for both end-users and knowledge-base editors. The interfaces are highly interactive and multi-window oriented. The features are as follows: (1) The end-user interfaces has Japanese language processing facility, which enables the users to consult CSPAR with various synonims and related terms for knowledge-base handling; (2) The knowledge-base editing system is used by knowledge-base editors for maintaining the knowledge on both plants' equipments and abnormal events sequences. It has facilities for easy maintenance of knowledge-bases, which includes a graphic oriented browser, a knowledge-base retriever, and a knowledge-base checker. (author)

Perceived effectiveness of environmental decision support systems in participatory planning: Evidence from small groups of end-users

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Inman, D.; Blind, M.; Ribarova, I.; Krause, A.; Roosenschoon, O.R.; Kassahun, A.; Scholten, H.; Arampatzis, G.; Abrami, G.; McIntosh, B.S.; Jeffrey, P.

2011-01-01

The challenges associated with evaluating the effectiveness of environmental decision support systems (EDSS) based on the perceptions of only a small sample of end-users are well understood. Although methods adopted from Management Information Systems (MISs) evaluation research have benefited from

Cash Cow: User Fees in Alberta Public Libraries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jason Hammond

2007-03-01

Full Text Available Alberta is the wealthiest province in Canada. It is also the only jurisdiction in NorthAmerica where the majority of local library boards charge patrons to use their publiclibraries.There are many reasons why these fees came into being in the 1980s and continue toexist today. Library trustees see them as an easy source of funds for their cashstrappedlibraries, some librarians feel that they help instill a sense of value in librarymaterials and services, library patrons realise the fees are often less than the cost of asingle paperback book and don’t mind paying them.But the main reason the fees still exist is because of the unique form of conservatismespoused by the popular Alberta premier Ralph Klein, who favoured big business, lowertaxes, and privatization of public services while leading the province from 1992 to 2006.Klein’s policies included a focus on user-pay models for all manner of services. Payingfor library cards is something that Alberta’s citizens have accepted for the most part. Butbecause of Alberta’s strong support for user-pay models, this isn’t just an issue for thelibrarians, patrons, and politicians of that province. The possibility also exists thatlibraries in other provinces could be opened up to a GATS challenge by for-profitcorporations outside of Canada because of Alberta’s current user fee policies.How this unique user fee arrangement developed, the current situation, and what thefuture may bring will be the subject of this paper.

Application of Natural Language Processing to Determine User Satisfaction in Public Services

OpenAIRE

Kowalski, Radoslaw; Esteve, Marc; Mikhaylov, Slava J.

2017-01-01

Research on customer satisfaction has increased substantially in recent years. However, the relative importance and relationships between different determinants of satisfaction remains uncertain. Moreover, quantitative studies to date tend to test for significance of pre-determined factors thought to have an influence with no scalable means to identify other causes of user satisfaction. The gaps in knowledge make it difficult to use available knowledge on user preference for public service im...

User guide to JINR server of scientific publications JDS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Filozova, I.A.; Zaikina, T.N.; Musul'manbekov, Zh.Zh.; Semenov, R.N.; Shestakova, G.V.

2011-01-01

In the framework of the international program OAI (Open Access Initiative) the digital open access archive-repository JINR Document Server (JDS) is built up. The main goal of the JDS is to collect at the JINR site all the publications of JINR researchers. The documents deposited in the repository are preprints, journal articles, books, conference papers, conference announcements, theses, annual reports, etc. Currently, the retrospective publications of JINR authors up to 1956 are deposited. The JDS, being an integrated digital library system, gives users an opportunity to deposit manuscripts in self-archiving mode, create personal catalogs, subscribe to alerts and RSS, send comments and arrange discussions on submitted papers

Capturing public opinion on public health topics: a comparison of experiences from a systematic review, focus group study, and analysis of online, user-generated content

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emma Louise Giles

2015-08-01

Full Text Available BackgroundCapturing public opinion towards public health topics is important to ensure that services, policy and research are aligned with the beliefs and priorities of the general public. A number of approaches can be used to capture public opinion. MethodsWe are conducting a programme of work on the effectiveness and acceptability of health promoting financial incentive interventions. We have captured public opinion on financial incentive interventions using three methods: a systematic review, focus group study, and analysis of online user-generated comments to news media reports. In this short, editorial-style, piece we compare and contrast our experiences with these three methods.ResultsEach of these methods had their advantages and disadvantages. Advantages include tailoring of the research question for systematic reviews, probing of answers during focus groups, and the ability to aggregate a large data set using online user-generated content. However, disadvantages include needing to update systematic reviews, participants conforming to a dominant perspective in focus groups, and being unable to collect respondent characteristics during analysis of user-generated online content. That said, analysis of user-generated online content offers additional time and resource advantages, and we found it elicited similar findings to those obtained via more traditional methods, such as systematic reviews and focus groups. ConclusionsA number of methods for capturing public opinions on public health topics are available. Public health researchers, policy makers and practitioners should choose methods appropriate to their aims. Analysis user-generated online content, especially in the context of news media reports, may be a quicker and cheaper alternative to more traditional methods, without compromising on the breadth of opinions captured.

Capturing Public Opinion on Public Health Topics: A Comparison of Experiences from a Systematic Review, Focus Group Study, and Analysis of Online, User-Generated Content.

Science.gov (United States)

Giles, Emma Louise; Adams, Jean M

2015-01-01

Capturing public opinion toward public health topics is important to ensure that services, policy, and research are aligned with the beliefs and priorities of the general public. A number of approaches can be used to capture public opinion. We are conducting a program of work on the effectiveness and acceptability of health promoting financial incentive interventions. We have captured public opinion on financial incentive interventions using three methods: a systematic review, focus group study, and analysis of online user-generated comments to news media reports. In this short editorial-style piece, we compare and contrast our experiences with these three methods. Each of these methods had their advantages and disadvantages. Advantages include tailoring of the research question for systematic reviews, probing of answers during focus groups, and the ability to aggregate a large data set using online user-generated content. However, disadvantages include needing to update systematic reviews, participants conforming to a dominant perspective in focus groups, and being unable to collect respondent characteristics during analysis of user-generated online content. That said, analysis of user-generated online content offers additional time and resource advantages, and we found it elicited similar findings to those obtained via more traditional methods, such as systematic reviews and focus groups. A number of methods for capturing public opinions on public health topics are available. Public health researchers, policy makers, and practitioners should choose methods appropriate to their aims. Analysis of user-generated online content, especially in the context of news media reports, may be a quicker and cheaper alternative to more traditional methods, without compromising on the breadth of opinions captured.

Recommendations for the user-specific enhancement of flood maps

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Meyer

2012-05-01

Full Text Available The European Union Floods Directive requires the establishment of flood maps for high risk areas in all European member states by 2013. However, the current practice of flood mapping in Europe still shows some deficits. Firstly, flood maps are frequently seen as an information tool rather than a communication tool. This means that, for example, local stocks of knowledge are not incorporated. Secondly, the contents of flood maps often do not match the requirements of the end-users. Finally, flood maps are often designed and visualised in a way that cannot be easily understood by residents at risk and/or that is not suitable for the respective needs of public authorities in risk and event management. The RISK MAP project examined how end-user participation in the mapping process may be used to overcome these barriers and enhance the communicative power of flood maps, fundamentally increasing their effectiveness.

Based on empirical findings from a participatory approach that incorporated interviews, workshops and eye-tracking tests, conducted in five European case studies, this paper outlines recommendations for user-specific enhancements of flood maps. More specific, recommendations are given with regard to (1 appropriate stakeholder participation processes, which allow incorporating local knowledge and preferences, (2 the improvement of the contents of flood maps by considering user-specific needs and (3 the improvement of the visualisation of risk maps in order to produce user-friendly and understandable risk maps for the user groups concerned. Furthermore, "idealised" maps for different user groups are presented: for strategic planning, emergency management and the public.

Adoption of ERP system: An empirical study of factors influencing the usage of ERP and its impact on end user

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christy Angeline Rajan

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Complex information systems like the ERP integrate the data of all business areas within the organization. The implementation of ERP is a difficult process as it involves different types of end users. Based on literature, we proposed a conceptual framework and examined it to find the effect of some of the individual, organizational, and technological factors on the usage of ERP and its impact on the end user. The results of the analysis suggest that computer self-efficacy, organizational support, training, and compatibility have a positive influence on ERP usage which in turn has significant influence on panoptic empowerment and individual performance.

Exploring the requirements for multimodal interaction for mobile devices in an end-to-end journey context.

Science.gov (United States)

Krehl, Claudia; Sharples, Sarah

2012-01-01

The paper investigates the requirements for multimodal interaction on mobile devices in an end-to-end journey context. Traditional interfaces are deemed cumbersome and inefficient for exchanging information with the user. Multimodal interaction provides a different user-centred approach allowing for more natural and intuitive interaction between humans and computers. It is especially suitable for mobile interaction as it can overcome additional constraints including small screens, awkward keypads, and continuously changing settings - an inherent property of mobility. This paper is based on end-to-end journeys where users encounter several contexts during their journeys. Interviews and focus groups explore the requirements for multimodal interaction design for mobile devices by examining journey stages and identifying the users' information needs and sources. Findings suggest that multimodal communication is crucial when users multitask. Choosing suitable modalities depend on user context, characteristics and tasks.

Increasing gas producer profitability with virtual well visibility via an end-to-end wireless Internet gas monitoring system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McDougall, M. [Northrock Resources Ltd., Calgary, AB (Canada); Benterud, K. [Zed.i solutions, Calgary, AB (Canada)

2003-07-01

This PowerPoint presentation describes how Northrock Resources Ltd. increased profitability using Smart-Alek{sup TM} while avoiding high implementation costs. Smart-Alek is a new type of fully integrated end-to-end electronic gas flow measurement (GFM) system based on Field Intelligence Network and End User Interference (FINE). Smart-Alek can analyze gas production through public wireless communications and a web-browser delivery system. The system has enabled Northrock to increase gas volumes with more accurate measurement and reduced downtime. In addition, operating costs have decreased because the frequency of well visits has been reduced and the administrative procedures of data collection is more efficient. The real-time well visibility of the tool has proven to be very effective in optimizing business profitability. 7 figs.

System of end-to-end symmetric database encryption

Science.gov (United States)

Galushka, V. V.; Aydinyan, A. R.; Tsvetkova, O. L.; Fathi, V. A.; Fathi, D. V.

2018-05-01

The article is devoted to the actual problem of protecting databases from information leakage, which is performed while bypassing access control mechanisms. To solve this problem, it is proposed to use end-to-end data encryption, implemented at the end nodes of an interaction of the information system components using one of the symmetric cryptographic algorithms. For this purpose, a key management method designed for use in a multi-user system based on the distributed key representation model, part of which is stored in the database, and the other part is obtained by converting the user's password, has been developed and described. In this case, the key is calculated immediately before the cryptographic transformations and is not stored in the memory after the completion of these transformations. Algorithms for registering and authorizing a user, as well as changing his password, have been described, and the methods for calculating parts of a key when performing these operations have been provided.

End-user support for a primary care electronic medical record: a qualitative case study of a vendor’s perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aviv Shachak

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Background In primary care settings, users often rely on vendors to provide support for health information technology (HIT. Yet, little is known about the vendors’ perspectives on the support they provide, how support personnel perceive their roles, the challenges they face and the ways they deal with them.Objective To provide in-depth insight into an electronic-medical record (EMR vendor’s perspective on end-user support.Methods As part of a larger case study research, we conducted nine semi-structured interviews with help desk staff, trainers and service managers of an EMR vendor, and observed two training sessions of a new client.Results With a growing client base, the vendor faced challenges of support staff shortage and high variance in users’ technical knowledge. Additionally, users sometimes needed assistance with infrastructure, and not just software problems. These challenges sometimes hindered the provision of timely support and required supporters to possess good interpersonal skills and adapt to diverse client population.Conclusion This study highlights the complexity of providing end-user support for HIT. With increased adoption, other vendors are likely to face similar challenges. To deal with these issues, supporters need not only strong technical knowledge of the systems, but also good interpersonal communication skills. Some responsibilities may be delegated to super-users. Users may find it useful to hire local IT staff, at least on an on-call basis, to provide assistance with infrastructure problems, which are not supported by the software vendor. Vendors may consider expanding their service packages to cover these elements.

community participatory sustainable land management byelaw

African Journals Online (AJOL)

ACSS

2014-02-11

Feb 11, 2014 ... Public SWC investments were largely based Focus on low cost SLM practices on food for work or cash ... land and environmental protection, livestock production and marketing agency, .... Government policy prohibit free grazing, but SWC structures destroyed, trees trampled and .... Nutrient flows and.

Cost-effective evolution of research prototypes into end-user tools: The MACH case study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Störrle, Harald

2017-01-01

's claim by fellow scientists, and (3) demonstrate the utility and value of the research contribution to any interested parties. However, turning an exploratory prototype into a “proper” tool for end-users often entails great effort. Heavyweight mainstream frameworks such as Eclipse do not address...... this issue; their steep learning curves constitute substantial entry barriers to such ecosystems. In this paper, we present the Model Analyzer/Checker (MACH), a stand-alone tool with a command-line interpreter. MACH integrates a set of research prototypes for analyzing UML models. By choosing a simple...... command line interpreter rather than (costly) graphical user interface, we achieved the core goal of quickly deploying research results to a broader audience while keeping the required effort to an absolute minimum. We analyze MACH as a case study of how requirements and constraints in an academic...

Designing human centered GeoVisualization application--the SanaViz--for telehealth users: a case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Joshi, Ashish; de Araujo Novaes, Magdala; Machiavelli, Josiane; Iyengar, Sriram; Vogler, Robert; Johnson, Craig; Zhang, Jiajie; Hsu, Chiehwen E

2012-01-01

Public health data is typically organized by geospatial unit. GeoVisualization (GeoVis) allows users to see information visually on a map. Examine telehealth users' perceptions towards existing public health GeoVis applications and obtains users' feedback about features important for the design and development of Human Centered GeoVis application "the SanaViz". We employed a cross sectional study design using mixed methods approach for this pilot study. Twenty users involved with the NUTES telehealth center at Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, Brazil were enrolled. Open and closed ended questionnaires were used to gather data. We performed audio recording for the interviews. Information gathered included socio-demographics, prior spatial skills and perception towards use of GeoVis to evaluate telehealth services. Card sorting and sketching methods were employed. Univariate analysis was performed for the continuous and categorical variables. Qualitative analysis was performed for open ended questions. Existing Public Health GeoVis applications were difficult to use. Results found interaction features zooming, linking and brushing and representation features Google maps, tables and bar chart as most preferred GeoVis features. Early involvement of users is essential to identify features necessary to be part of the human centered GeoVis application "the SanaViz".

Increasing operations profitability using an end-to-end, wireless internet, gas monitoring system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McDougall, M. [Northrock Resources Ltd., AB (Canada); Benterud, K. [zed.i solutions, inc., Calgary, AB (Canada)

2004-10-01

Implementation by Northrock Resources Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unocal Corporation, of a fully integrated end-to-end gas measurement and production analysis system, is discussed. The system, dubbed Smart-Alek(TM), utilizes public wireless communications and a web browser only delivery system to provide seamless well visibility to a desk-top computer. Smart-Alek(TM) is an example of a new type of end-to-end electronic gas flow measurement system, known as FINE(TM), which is an acronym for Field Intelligence Network and End-User Interface. The system delivers easy-to-use, complete, reliable and cost effective production information, far more effective than is possible to obtain with conventional SCADA technology. By installing the system, Northrock was able to increase gas volumes with more accurate electronic flow measurement in place of mechanical charts, with very low technical maintenance, and at a reduced operating cost. It is emphasized that deploying the technology alone will produce only partial benefits; to realize full benefits it is also essential to change grass roots operating practices, aiming at timely decision-making at the field level. 5 refs., 5 figs.

Public Libraries, Digital Literacy and Participatory Culture

Science.gov (United States)

McShane, Ian

2011-01-01

In recent years public libraries have experimented with user-generated or community-contributed content through the interactive tools of Web 2.0. For some commentators this not just establishes a new relationship between libraries and their publics, but signals the end of information hegemony and an "expert paradigm". Such claims need to…

Standardisation of an European end-user nutrient database for nutritional epidemiology: what can we learn from the EPIC Nutrient Database (ENDB) project?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Slimani, N.; Deharveng, G.; Unwin, I.

2007-01-01

the absence of a reference European nutrient database for international nutritional epidemiology studies, the EPIC Nutrient Database (ENDB) project has been set up to standardise nutrient databases (NDBs) across 10 European countries participating in the EPIC study. This paper reports the main...... problems in harmonising NDBs experienced by end-user in the ENDB project and the solutions adopted to prevent and minimize them, which are also relevant for other large European nutritional studies. Furthermore, it provides end-user recommendations for improving the comparability of European and other NDBs...

Evaluation of End-User Satisfaction Among Employees Participating in a Web-based Health Risk Assessment With Tailored Feedback

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vosbergen, Sandra; Laan, Eva K.; Colkesen, Ersen B.; Niessen, Maurice A. J.; Kraaijenhagen, Roderik A.; Essink-Bot, Marie-Louise; Peek, Niels

2012-01-01

Background: Web technology is increasingly being used to provide individuals with health risk assessments (HRAs) with tailored feedback. End-user satisfaction is an important determinant of the potential impact of HRAs, as this influences program attrition and adherence to behavioral advice.

Facilities improvement for sustainability of existing public office ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study examined the building design features of a cosmopolitan public office building in Abuja. The features were classified into Spatial Plan, Structure and Facilities, to determine which of the 3 variables requires urgent sustainable improvement from end-users' perspective in existing public office buildings in developing ...

Canadian 24-hour movement guidelines for the early years (0-4 years): exploring the perceptions of stakeholders and end users regarding their acceptability, barriers to uptake, and dissemination.

Science.gov (United States)

Riazi, Negin; Ramanathan, Subha; O'Neill, Meghan; Tremblay, Mark S; Faulkner, Guy

2017-11-20

It is important to engage stakeholders and end users in the development of guidelines for knowledge translation purposes. The aim of this study was to examine stakeholders' (experts in pediatric and family medicine, physical activity knowledge translation, and research) and end users' (parents and early childhood educators) perceptions of the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years (0-4 years). Stakeholders (n = 10) engaged in telephone interviews and end users (n = 92) participated in focus groups (n = 14) to discuss perceived clarity and need for the guidelines, potential barriers to implementation, identification of credible messengers, and methods for dissemination of the guidelines. A thematic analysis was conducted. The proposed guidelines were very well received by both stakeholders and end users. A clear need for such guidelines was identified, and most believed the guidelines were achievable. Stakeholders and end users identified several potential barriers to uptake, including low awareness of current guidelines; 'daily challenges' such as allure of screen time, lack of time, and competing priorities; and challenges in the context of shifting social norms. A range of methods and messengers of dissemination were identified. Medical and child care settings were the most frequently cited places for dissemination, and physicians and early childhood educators were the most common suggestions for messengers. There was consistent support for the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years (0-4 years) from both stakeholders and end users. Moving forward, it is important to dedicate appropriate support and funding toward dissemination efforts in order to reach end users, particularly parents and early childhood educators.

End-User Tools Towards AN Efficient Electricity Consumption: the Dynamic Smart Grid

Science.gov (United States)

Kamel, Fouad; Kist, Alexander A.

2010-06-01

Growing uncontrolled electrical demands have caused increased supply requirements. This causes volatile electrical markets and has detrimental unsustainable environmental impacts. The market is presently characterized by regular daily peak demand conditions associated with high electricity prices. A demand-side response system can limit peak demands to an acceptable level. The proposed scheme is based on energy demand and price information which is available online. An online server is used to communicate the information of electricity suppliers to users, who are able to use the information to manage and control their own demand. A configurable, intelligent switching system is used to control local loads during peak events and mange the loads at other times as necessary. The aim is to shift end user loads towards periods where energy demand and therefore also prices are at the lowest. As a result, this will flatten the load profile and avoiding load peeks which are costly for suppliers. The scheme is an endeavour towards achieving a dynamic smart grid demand-side-response environment using information-based communication and computer-controlled switching. Diffusing the scheme shall lead to improved electrical supply services and controlled energy consumption and prices.

Academic medical libraries' policies and procedures for notifying library users of retracted scientific publications.

Science.gov (United States)

Hughes, C

1998-01-01

Academic medical libraries have a responsibility to inform library users regarding retracted publications. Many have created policies and procedures that identify flawed journal articles. A questionnaire was sent to the 129 academic medical libraries in the United States and Canada to find out how many had policies and procedures for identifying retracted publications. Of the returned questionnaires, 59% had no policy and no practice for calling the attention of the library user to retracted publications. Forty-one percent of the libraries called attention to retractions with or without a formal policy for doing so. Several responding libraries included their policy statement with the survey. The increasing number of academic medical libraries that realize the importance of having policies and practices in place highlights the necessity for this procedure.

How US Smokers Refer to E-cigarettes: An Examination of User-Generated Posts From a Web-Based Smoking Cessation Intervention, 2008–2015

Science.gov (United States)

Amato, Michael S.; Wang, Xi; Zhao, Kang; Cha, Sarah; Cohn, Amy M.; Papandonatos, George D.; Graham, Amanda L.

2017-01-01

Introduction: A challenge in Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) research is how to refer to these devices in ways that are meaningful to current or potential users. The objectives of this study were to: (1) describe the frequency of ENDS terms in a web-based smoking cessation intervention; and (2) determine whether terms vary by US geographic region and date. Methods: Data were drawn from public posts between 2008–2015 on http://BecomeAnEX.org and limited to US users. We conducted “exact” and “fuzzy” searches to find posts containing ENDS keywords using custom Python scripts, and extracted geocoding data and date for each post. We examined counts and frequencies of ENDS terms by unique user, by unique user and region, and by unique user and date. Results: We identified 1023 unique US website users who had written a post containing one or more ENDS keywords. Posters were majority female (79%), educated (78% attended at least some college), and had a median age of 47 years. Overall, 92% of ENDS posters employed the term “e-cigarette” or a derivation. Derivations of “vape” became increasingly popular in 2013, whereas “NJoy” and “blu” were employed by fewer than 2% of posters. We found no variation in frequency of ENDS terms by US region. Conclusions: Researchers may have confidence that “e-cigarette” and “vape” are recognizable terms among US treatment-seeking smokers. Conversely, terms such as “ENDS,” commonly employed by researchers and public health advocates, are not used by smokers and may be an impediment to tobacco control research. Implications: Researchers may have confidence that “e-cigarette,” and, to a lesser extent, “vape” are recognizable terms among US adult smokers referring to ENDS (including accessories, brand names, and actions). Conversely, terms such as “electronic nicotine delivery systems,” commonly employed by researchers and public health advocates, are not used by US smokers and may be

[The treatment received by public health services users in Mexico].

Science.gov (United States)

Puentes Rosas, Esteban; Gómez Dantés, Octavio; Garrido Latorre, Francisco

2006-06-01

To document the fact that differences in the treatment received by health services users in Mexico are mainly dependent on the type of provider, regardless of the users' socioeconomic status. The data were obtained by means of a survey of 18 018 users who visited 73 health services in 13 states within Mexico. They were asked to grade the way the institution had performed in seven of the eight domains that define appropriate user treatment (autonomy, confidentiality, communication, respectful manner, condition of basic facilities, access to social assistance networks, and free user choice). The questionnaire included some vignettes to help determine user expectations. A composite ordinal probit model was applied; the perception of quality in connection with each of the appropriate treatment domains was the independent variable, whereas gender, educational level, age, type of provider, and user expectations were used as control variables. The type of provider was the main factor that determined users' perceptions regarding the treatment they received when visiting health services in Mexico. Institutions belonging to the social security system performed the worst, while the services provided under the program targeting the rural population (IMSS Oportunidades) received the highest scores. Overall, the domain that was most highly ranked was respectful manner, whereas the lowest score was given to the ability to choose the provider. Men felt they had been able to communicate better than women, while respectful manner, communication, and social support showed a significant negative association with educational level (P < 0.05). Differences were noted in the way different public health service providers in Mexico treat their users, regardless of the latter's socioeconomic status. Social security system providers showed the greatest deficiencies in this respect. Respectful manner was the domain that received the highest scores in the case of all providers. Organizational

Password Authentication from a Human Factors Perspective: Results of a Survey Among End-Users

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hoonakker, Peter; Bornoe, Nis; Carayon, Pascale

2009-01-01

Considering that many organizations today are extremely dependent on information technology, computer and information security (CIS) has become a critical concern from a business viewpoint. CIS is concerned with protecting the confidentiality, integrity, accessible information, when using computer...... systems. Much research has been conducted on CIS in the past years. However, the attention has been primarily focused on technical problems and solutions. Only recently, the role of human factors in CIS has been recognized. End-user behavior can increase the vulnerability of computer and information...

The Searching Behavior of Remote Users: A Study of One Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC).

Science.gov (United States)

Kalin, Sally W.

1991-01-01

Describes a study that was conducted to determine whether the searching behavior of remote users of LIAS (Library Information Access System), Pennsylvania State University's online public access catalog (OPAC), differed from those using the OPAC within the library. Differences in search strategies and in user satisfaction are discussed. (eight…

Participatory assessment of soil erosion severity and performance of mitigation measures using stakeholder workshops in Koga catchment, Ethiopia.

Science.gov (United States)

Jemberu, Walle; Baartman, Jantiene E M; Fleskens, Luuk; Ritsema, Coen J

2018-02-01

Farmers possess a wealth of knowledge regarding soil erosion and soil and water conservation (SWC), and there is a great demand to access it. However, there has been little effort to systematically document farmers' experiences and perceptions of SWC measures. Sustainable Land Management (SLM) has largely evolved through local traditional practices rather than adoption based on scientific evidence. This research aimed to assess soil erosion and performance of different SWC measures from the farmers' perspective by documenting their perceptions and experiences in Koga catchment, Ethiopia. To this aim, workshops were organised in three sub-catchments differing in slopes and SWC measures. Workshops included group discussions and field monitoring of erosion indicators and systematically describing the status of soil erosion, soil fertility and yield to assess the performance of SWC measures. Results show that farmers are aware of the harmful effects of ongoing soil erosion and of the impacts of mitigation measures on their farms. Sheet erosion was found to be the most widespread form of erosion while rill damage was critical on plots cultivated to cereals on steep slopes. The average rill erosion rates were 24.2 and 47.3 t/ha/y in treated and untreated farmlands, respectively. SWC reduced rill erosion on average by more than 48%. However, the impacts of SWC measures varied significantly between sub-watersheds, and farmers believed that SWC measures did not prevent erosion completely. Comparatively, graded stone-faced soil bunds revealed maximum desired impacts and were most appreciated by farmers, whereas level bunds caused water logging. Most traditional ditches were highly graded and begun incising and affected production of cereals. Despite the semi-quantitative nature of the methodology, using farmers' perceptions and experiences to document land degradation and the impacts of SWC measures is crucial as they are the daily users of the land and therefore directly

End-user satisfaction analysis on library management system unnes using technology acceptance model towards national standard of integrated library

Science.gov (United States)

Hardyanto, W.; Purwinarko, A.; Adhi, M. A.

2018-03-01

The library which is the gate of the University should be supported by the existence of an adequate information system, to provide excellent service and optimal to every user. Library management system that has been in existence since 2009 needs to be re-evaluated so that the system can meet the needs of both operator and Unnes user in particular, and users from outside Unnes in general. This study aims to evaluate and improve the existing library management system to produce a system that is accountable and able to meet the needs of end users, as well as produce a library management system that is integrated Unnes. Research is directed to produce evaluation report with Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) approach and library management system integrated with the national standard.

The Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall and the End User Communication Technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Sekloča

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The author critically analyses the contemporary debate about the law of the tendential fall in the rate of profit in which Marx summed up the central contradiction of the capitalist mode of production. The results of the analysis are then applied on the business strategies of the informational capitalism in the segment of end users of the informational and communicational technology. Unpaid labor of users for digital media platform owners as well as hardware and software purchase both resemble peculiar counteracting tendencies for the “law”. The analysis indicates that the immaterial labor and outsourcing of equipment may truly increase the profit rate in a way that was rather inconceivable in Marx's day, but this still does not undermine the “law’s” validity. Counteracting tendencies have their own limits and that is also why the capital does not allow them to reach their end and restore conditions for a “new” central contradiction conceptualized by Italian autonomists.

Road map towards a common harmonised Nordic end-user market. NordREG report 5 - 2013

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2013-07-01

The purpose of this road map is to describe the overall process to harmonise the Nordic electricity end-user markets. The main target groups for the road map are the Nordic governments, legislators and the electricity industry. The road map will continuously be updated as the project progresses, at least once a year. It describes the recommendations already made by NordREG, as well as indicates up-coming recommendations. One important part of the Nordic harmonisation process is the monitoring of the progress of the project. It will be communicated through national implementation monitoring overviews, which will describe the state of play for each recommendation made by NordREG. The road map highlights the importance of national commitment by different stakeholders, authorities and governments in order to successfully harmonise the Nordic end-user markets. This commitment is absolutely essential. The goal for 2015 is to harmonise some of the legislation, rules and processes that constitute barriers for suppliers to establish their business in other Nordic countries. In order to achieve this goal, NordREG is working towards defining responsibilities in the customer interface of the supplier centric model and the way of billing the customers. Another important task is related to development of an efficient way of communication among a large number of Nordic electricity companies. By 2015 the end-user markets should be harmonised to the extent that the most critical prerequisites have been achieved. But it is important to bear in mind that there are still many more steps to be taken also after 2015. The harmonisation process between the Nordic retail markets is a process that will continue for the foreseeable future. Since there is no supranational organisation or institution (like in the EU), it means that any future development of the Nordic retail market will have to be continuously coordinated between the Nordic countries to ensure that the markets maintain the

End-User Recommendations on LOGOMON - a Computer Based Speech Therapy System for Romanian Language

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

SCHIPOR, O. A.

2010-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper we highlight the relations between LOGOMON - a Computer Based Speech Therapy System and dyslalia's training steps. Dyslalia is a speech disorder that affects pronunciation of one or many sounds. This presentation of the system is completed by a research regarding end-user (i.e. teachers and parents attitude about the speech assisted therapy in general and about LOGOMON System in particular. The results of this research allow the improvement of our CBST system because the obtained information can be a source of adaptability to different expectations of the beneficiaries.

Enhancing Evacuation Plans with a Situation Awareness System Based on End-User Knowledge Provision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Augusto Morales

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Recent disasters have shown that having clearly defined preventive procedures and decisions is a critical component that minimizes evacuation hazards and ensures a rapid and successful evolution of evacuation plans. In this context, we present our Situation-Aware System for enhancing Evacuation Plans (SASEP system, which allows creating end-user business rules that technically support the specific events, conditions and actions related to evacuation plans. An experimental validation was carried out where 32 people faced a simulated emergency situation, 16 of them using SASEP and the other 16 using a legacy system based on static signs. From the results obtained, we compare both techniques and discuss in which situations SASEP offers a better evacuation route option, confirming that it is highly valuable when there is a threat in the evacuation route. In addition, a study about user satisfaction using both systems is presented showing in which cases the systems are assessed as satisfactory, relevant and not frustrating.

Institutionalizing end-user demand steering in agricultural R&D: Farmer levy funding of R&D in The Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klerkx, L.W.A.; Leeuwis, C.

2008-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the institutionalization of demand-driven modes of working in the R&D planning process and reveal possible weaknesses, through an analysis of a system of collective R&D funding by farmers. The findings indicate that, although end-users have

75 FR 2435 - Addition to the List of Validated End-Users in the People's Republic of China (PRC)

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-15

... published in the Federal Register on June 19, 2007, BIS revised and clarified U.S. export control policy for...: Sheila Quarterman, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, Regulatory Policy...: Elizabeth Scott Sangine, Acting Chair, End-User Review Committee, Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S...

A Study of End Users' Perceived Usefulness of and Satisfaction with Enterprise Resource Planning Systems in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Shau E. Eve

2012-01-01

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have become necessities in today's educational arena and are used extensively to improve office productivity and institutional efficacy. As the implementation of ERP systems usually is costly and time-consuming, it is imperative for administrators to understand how end users adopt the introduced…

End-User Control over Physical User-Interfaces: From Digital Fabrication to Real-Time Adaptability

OpenAIRE

Ramakers, Raf

2016-01-01

Graphical user interfaces are at the core of the majority of computing devices, including WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointer) interaction styles and touch interactions. The popularity of graphical user interfaces stems from their ability to adapt to a multitude of tasks, such as document editing, messaging, browsing, etc. New tools and technologies also enabled users without a technical background to author these kind of digital interfaces, for example, filters for quick photo editing, inte...

Human rights of drug users according to public health professionals in Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Ventura, Carla A A; Mendes, Isabel A C; Trevizan, Maria A; Rodrigues, Driéli P

2013-03-01

Health is a basic human right, and drug use represents a severe influence on people's health. This qualitative study aimed to understand how health professionals in a public health-care team working with drug users in a city of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, perceive the human rights of these users and how these rights are being respected in health care. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 10 health professionals at the service under analysis. A thematic analysis of the interviews reveals the professionals' difficulty to define the concept of human right and contextualize these rights in their work environment. A deeper understanding of the right to health, however, represents an important premise for a more humanized care practice in health services to drug users.

TabSQL: a MySQL tool to facilitate mapping user data to public databases.

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Xiao-Qin; McClelland, Michael; Wang, Yipeng

2010-06-23

With advances in high-throughput genomics and proteomics, it is challenging for biologists to deal with large data files and to map their data to annotations in public databases. We developed TabSQL, a MySQL-based application tool, for viewing, filtering and querying data files with large numbers of rows. TabSQL provides functions for downloading and installing table files from public databases including the Gene Ontology database (GO), the Ensembl databases, and genome databases from the UCSC genome bioinformatics site. Any other database that provides tab-delimited flat files can also be imported. The downloaded gene annotation tables can be queried together with users' data in TabSQL using either a graphic interface or command line. TabSQL allows queries across the user's data and public databases without programming. It is a convenient tool for biologists to annotate and enrich their data.

How US Smokers Refer to E-cigarettes: An Examination of User-Generated Posts From a Web-Based Smoking Cessation Intervention, 2008-2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Pearson, Jennifer L; Amato, Michael S; Wang, Xi; Zhao, Kang; Cha, Sarah; Cohn, Amy M; Papandonatos, George D; Graham, Amanda L

2017-02-01

A challenge in Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) research is how to refer to these devices in ways that are meaningful to current or potential users. The objectives of this study were to: (1) describe the frequency of ENDS terms in a web-based smoking cessation intervention; and (2) determine whether terms vary by US geographic region and date. Data were drawn from public posts between 2008-2015 on http://BecomeAnEX.org and limited to US users. We conducted "exact" and "fuzzy" searches to find posts containing ENDS keywords using custom Python scripts, and extracted geocoding data and date for each post. We examined counts and frequencies of ENDS terms by unique user, by unique user and region, and by unique user and date. We identified 1023 unique US website users who had written a post containing one or more ENDS keywords. Posters were majority female (79%), educated (78% attended at least some college), and had a median age of 47 years. Overall, 92% of ENDS posters employed the term "e-cigarette" or a derivation. Derivations of "vape" became increasingly popular in 2013, whereas "NJoy" and "blu" were employed by fewer than 2% of posters. We found no variation in frequency of ENDS terms by US region. Researchers may have confidence that "e-cigarette" and "vape" are recognizable terms among US treatment-seeking smokers. Conversely, terms such as "ENDS," commonly employed by researchers and public health advocates, are not used by smokers and may be an impediment to tobacco control research. Researchers may have confidence that "e-cigarette," and, to a lesser extent, "vape" are recognizable terms among US adult smokers referring to ENDS (including accessories, brand names, and actions). Conversely, terms such as "electronic nicotine delivery systems," commonly employed by researchers and public health advocates, are not used by US smokers and may be an impediment to tobacco control research and practice. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University

Authentication and Access: Accommodating Public Users in an Academic World

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lynne Weber

2010-09-01

Full Text Available In the fall of 2004, the Academic Computing Center, a division of the Information Technology Services Department (ITS at Minnesota State University, Mankato took over responsibility for the computers in the public areas of Memorial Library. For the first time, affiliated Memorial Library users were required to authenticate using a campus username and password, a change that effectively eliminated computer access for anyone not part of the university community. This posed a dilemma for the librarians. Because of its Federal Depository status, the library had a responsibility to provide general access to both print and online government publications for the general public. Furthermore, the library had a long tradition of providing guest access to most library resources, and there was reluctance to abandon the practice. Therefore the librarians worked with ITS to retain a small group of six computers that did not require authentication and were clearly marked for community use, along with several standup, open-access computers on each floor used primarily for searching the library catalog. The additional need to provide computer access to high school students visiting the library for research and instruction led to more discussions with ITS and resulted in a means of generating temporary usernames and passwords through a Web form. These user accommodations were implemented in the library without creating a written policy governing the use of open-access computers.

The effects of user factors and symbol referents on public symbol design using the stereotype production method.

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Annie W Y; Siu, Kin Wai Michael; Chan, Chetwyn C H

2012-01-01

This study investigated the influence of user factors and symbol referents on public symbol design among older people, using the stereotype production method for collecting user ideas during the symbol design process. Thirty-one older adults were asked to draw images based on 28 public symbol referents and to indicate their familiarity with and ease with which they visualised each referent. Differences were found between the pictorial solutions generated by males and females. However, symbol design was not influenced by participants' education level, vividness of visual imagery, object imagery preference or spatial imagery preference. Both familiar and unfamiliar referents were illustrated pictorially without much difficulty by users. The more visual the referent, the less difficulty the users had in illustrating it. The findings of this study should aid the optimisation of the stereotype production method for user-involved symbol design. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

User satisfaction with public and private dental services for different age groups in Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aline Macarevich

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract: This article aimed to describe the levels of user satisfaction in different age groups and to study the association between user satisfaction and different types of dental services in a representative sample of Brazilians. This study is based on the Brazilian Oral Health Survey, which evaluated the dental health of adolescents, adults and older adults in 177 Brazilian cities. The outcome variable was user satisfaction, related to the last dental visit, evaluated in a five-level Likert-type scale. The main exposure variable was the type of dental service (public service, private service, health plan or insurance. The independent variables were DMFT (decay, missing and filled teeth; pain intensity in the past six months; reason for the last dental visit; perceived need for treatment; frequency of use of dental services; sex; equivalent income; and educational level. An ordered logistic regression analysis was performed separately for each age group. Few participants evaluated the services as bad or very bad (4.3% of adolescents, 6.1% of adults and 4.1% of older adults. In the crude model, the use of public services was associated with lower satisfaction than the use of private services and health plans between all groups. However, after adjusting by covariates, this association remained only in adolescents, who showed lower satisfaction with the public service compared to the private service and health plans. In general, Brazilians are satisfied with dental services, but, among adolescents, the use of public services was associated with lower satisfaction. Public services may be focused on issues related to children, adults and older adults, and not to the adolescent audience, which has specific demands.

76 FR 2802 - Additions and Revisions to the List of Validated End-Users in the People's Republic of China...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-18

... Industrial Development Zone, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214061, China. Wuxi CR Semiconductor Wafers and Chips Co., Ltd... basis, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of exporters, reexporters, and end-users in the PRC. To... Tech Industrial Development Zone, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214061, China. Wuxi CR Semiconductor Wafers and Chips...

Bitmap indices for fast end-user physics analysis in ROOT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stockinger, Kurt; Wu Kesheng; Brun, Rene; Canal, Philippe

2006-01-01

Most physics analysis jobs involve multiple selection steps on the input data. These selection steps are called cuts or queries. A common strategy to implement these queries is to read all input data from files and then process the queries in memory. In many applications the number of variables used to define these queries is a relative small portion of the overall data set therefore reading all variables into memory takes unnecessarily long time. In this paper we describe an integration effort that can significantly reduce this unnecessary reading by using an efficient compressed bitmap index technology. The primary advantage of this index is that it can process arbitrary combinations of queries very efficiently, while most other indexing technologies suffer from the 'curse of dimensionality' as the number of queries increases. By integrating this index technology with the ROOT analysis framework, the end-users can benefit from the added efficiency without having to modify their analysis programs. Our performance results show that for multi-dimensional queries, bitmap indices outperform the traditional analysis method up to a factor of 10

A descriptive study on public transport user behaviour from Live Bus Arrivals

OpenAIRE

Dell’Amico, M.; Hadjidimitriou, S.; Kaparias, I.

2014-01-01

In order to offer public transport that meet citizens’ needs for transport and further increase the use of bus services, Public Authorities need to analyse and understand travellers behaviour. Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) data provide information on the observed time of arrival and departure of a bus at each stop. These data are fed into an algorithm to provide information to users on the expected time of arrival at the bus stop by an on-line service. In the city of London this service is...

ARIA: Delivering state-of-the-art InSAR products to end users

Science.gov (United States)

Agram, P. S.; Owen, S. E.; Hua, H.; Manipon, G.; Sacco, G. F.; Bue, B. D.; Fielding, E. J.; Yun, S. H.; Simons, M.; Webb, F.; Rosen, P. A.; Lundgren, P.; Liu, Z.

2016-12-01

Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) Center for Natural Hazards aims to bring state-of-the-art geodetic imaging capabilities to an operational level in support of local, national, and international hazard response communities. ARIA project's first foray into operational generation of InSAR products was with Calimap Project, in collaboration with ASI-CIDOT, using X-band data from the Cosmo-SkyMed constellation. Over the last year, ARIA's processing infrastructure has been significantly upgraded to exploit the free stream of high quality C-band SAR data from ESA's Sentinel-1 mission and related algorithmic improvements to the ISCE software. ARIA's data system can now operationally generate geocoded unwrapped phase and coherence products in GIS-friendly formats from Sentinel-1 TOPS mode data in an automated fashion, and this capability is currently being exercised various study sites across the United States including Hawaii, Central California, Iceland and South America. The ARIA team, building on the experience gained from handling X-band data and C-band data, has also built an automated machine learning-based classifier to label the auto-generated interferograms based on phase unwrapping quality. These high quality "time-series ready" InSAR products generated using state-of-the-art processing algorithms can be accessed by end users using two different mechanisms - 1) a Faceted-search interface that includes browse imagery for quick visualization and 2) an ElasticSearch-based API to enable bulk automated download, post-processing and time-series analysis. In this talk, we will present InSAR results from various global events that ARIA system has responded to. We will also discuss the set of geospatial big data tools including GIS libraries and API tools, that end users will need to familiarize themselves with in order to maximize the utilization of continuous stream of InSAR products from the Sentinel-1 and NISAR missions that the ARIA project will generate.

Design participation as an insurance: risk-management and end-user participation in the development of information systems in healthcare organizations.

Science.gov (United States)

Vimarlund, V; Timpka, T

2002-01-01

The aim of this paper is to build a theoretical framework for analysis of when decision-makers should use end-user participation as a form of insurance for unforeseen consequences of implementing information systems in healthcare organizations. Data were collected in a case study of an information system development project in a small clinical setting. During the initial phase, the future end-users of the system were allowed to actively influence the system design and test every new tool that was considered for implementation. The results of the case study suggest that when time and effort are invested in allowing healthcare staff to participate in information system development processes, the benefits can well exceed the costs throughout the life cycle of the project. Risk-averse decision-makers fearing negative secondary consequences of a HIS, with regard to clinical work flow, will always adopt measures to prevent future failures, if they can find a possibility of shifting these risks. Therefore, they calculate the present discounted value of the effects accrued over time to the unit and predict the amount of resources they are willing to pay to acquire on insurance (such as design participation) that will protect the organization from future losses. End-user participation in the design process can be the key positive influence on the quality of the service and, thereby, organizational effectiveness. Investments in broad design participation can, consequently, be a productive activity that transforms potential current income into future benefits.

An information management system for patients with tuberculosis: usability assessment with end-users.

Science.gov (United States)

Darby, Jonathan; Black, Jim; Morrison, David; Buising, Kirsty

2012-01-01

Information systems with clinical decision support (CDS) offer great potential to assist the co-ordination of patients with chronic diseases and to improve patient care. Despite this, few have entered routine clinical use. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infection of public health importance. It has complex interactions with many comorbid conditions, requires close supervised care and prolonged treatment for effective cure. These features make it suitable for use with an information management system with CDS features. In close consultation with key stakeholders, a clinical application was developed for the management of TB patients in Victoria. A formal usability assessment using semi-structured case-scenario based exercises was performed. Subjects were 12 individuals closely involved in the care of TB patients, including Infectious Diseases and Respiratory Physicians, and Public Health Nurses. Two researchers conducted the sessions, independently analysed responses and discrepancies compared to the voice record for validity. Despite varied computer experience, responses were positive regarding user interface and content. Data location was not always intuitive, however this improved with familiarity of the program. Decision support was considered valuable, with useful suggestions for expansion of these features. Automated reporting for correspondence and notification to the Health Department were felt worth the initial investment in data entry. An important workflow-based issue regarding dismissal of alerts and several errors were detected. Usability assessment validated many design elements of the system, provided a unique insight into workflow issues faced by users and hopefully will impact on its ultimate clinical utility.

Empowering the end-user in smart grids: Overview of and recommendations for the design or products and services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Geelen, Daphne; Reinders, Angelina H.M.E.; Keyson, David

2013-01-01

In discussions on smart grids, it is often stated that residential end-users will play a more active role in the management of electric power supply and demand. They are expected to shift from a passive role as consumer of electricity to an active role as co-provider. In this article, the extent to

Graphical user interfaces and visually disabled users

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Poll, L.H.D.; Waterham, R.P.

1995-01-01

From February 1992 until the end of 1993, the authors ((IPO) Institute for Perception Research) participated in a European ((TIDE) Technology Initiative for Disabled and Elderly) project which addressed the problem arising for visually disabled computer-users from the growing use of Graphical User

Overview of FEED, the feeding experiments end-user database.

Science.gov (United States)

Wall, Christine E; Vinyard, Christopher J; Williams, Susan H; Gapeyev, Vladimir; Liu, Xianhua; Lapp, Hilmar; German, Rebecca Z

2011-08-01

The Feeding Experiments End-user Database (FEED) is a research tool developed by the Mammalian Feeding Working Group at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center that permits synthetic, evolutionary analyses of the physiology of mammalian feeding. The tasks of the Working Group are to compile physiologic data sets into a uniform digital format stored at a central source, develop a standardized terminology for describing and organizing the data, and carry out a set of novel analyses using FEED. FEED contains raw physiologic data linked to extensive metadata. It serves as an archive for a large number of existing data sets and a repository for future data sets. The metadata are stored as text and images that describe experimental protocols, research subjects, and anatomical information. The metadata incorporate controlled vocabularies to allow consistent use of the terms used to describe and organize the physiologic data. The planned analyses address long-standing questions concerning the phylogenetic distribution of phenotypes involving muscle anatomy and feeding physiology among mammals, the presence and nature of motor pattern conservation in the mammalian feeding muscles, and the extent to which suckling constrains the evolution of feeding behavior in adult mammals. We expect FEED to be a growing digital archive that will facilitate new research into understanding the evolution of feeding anatomy.

End of paper registration forms for new computer users

CERN Multimedia

2007-01-01

As of 3rd December 2007 it will be possible for new users to sign the Computer Centre User Registration Form electronically. As before, new users will still need to go to their computing group administrator, who will make the electronic request for account creation using CRA and give the new user his or her initial password. The difference is that the requested accounts will be created and usable almost immediately. Users will then have 3 days within which they must go to the web page http://cern.ch/cernaccount and click on ‘New User’. They will be required to follow a short computer security awareness training course, read the CERN Computing Rules and then confirm that they accept the rules. If this is not completed within 3 days all their computer accounts will be blocked and they will have to contact the Helpdesk to unblock their accounts and get a second chance to complete the registration. During the introductory phase the existing paper forms will also be accepted ...

78 FR 41291 - Additions to the List of Validated End-Users in the People's Republic of China: Samsung China...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-07-10

...-Fabrication Equipment, Inc., China (AMEC) as VEUs. With this rule, exports, reexports and transfers (in...-Vogel, Chair, End-User Review Committee, Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Commerce... EAR). VEUs are reviewed and approved by the U.S. Government in accordance with the provisions of...

Online public health preparedness training programs: an evaluation of user experience with the technological environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Nambisan, Priya

2010-01-01

Several public health education programs and government agencies across the country have started offering virtual or online training programs in emergency preparedness for people who are likely to be involved in managing or responding to different types of emergency situations such as natural disasters, epidemics, bioterrorism, etc. While such online training programs are more convenient and cost-effective than traditional classroom-based programs, their success depends to a great extent on the underlying technological environment. Specifically, in an online technological environment, different types of user experiences come in to play-users' utilitarian or pragmatic experience, their fun or hedonic experience, their social experience, and most importantly, their usability experience-and these different user experiences critically shape the program outcomes, including course completion rates. This study adopts a multi-disciplinary approach and draws on theories in human computer interaction, distance learning theories, usability research, and online consumer behavior to evaluate users' experience with the technological environment of an online emergency preparedness training program and discusses its implications for the design of effective online training programs. . Data was collected using a questionnaire from 377 subjects who had registered for and participated in online public health preparedness training courses offered by a large public university in the Northeast. Analysis of the data indicates that as predicted, participants had higher levels of pragmatic and usability experiences compared to their hedonic and sociability experiences. Results also indicate that people who experienced higher levels of pragmatic, hedonic, sociability and usability experiences were more likely to complete the course(s) they registered for compared to those who reported lower levels. The study findings hold important implications for the design of effective online emergency

EURATOM research and training programme: towards a new way of developing-teaching science, closer to the end-users

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Goethem, G.

2015-01-01

important is public information and engagement in energy policy issues, notably in connection with nuclear decision making. In fact, a new way of 'developing - teaching science' is emerging in the EU, closer to the needs of the end-users, i.e.: society and industry. As a result, a strong scientific foundation is being established to support decision making in regulatory and/or industrial organisations, based on confirmed facts and research findings stemming from 'Best Available Science'. The article is followed by the slides of the presentation

Facilitating 3D Virtual World Learning Environments Creation by Non-Technical End Users through Template-Based Virtual World Instantiation

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Chang; Zhong, Ying; Ozercan, Sertac; Zhu, Qing

2013-01-01

This paper presents a template-based solution to overcome technical barriers non-technical computer end users face when developing functional learning environments in three-dimensional virtual worlds (3DVW). "iVirtualWorld," a prototype of a platform-independent 3DVW creation tool that implements the proposed solution, facilitates 3DVW…

Pengukuran End-User Computing Satisfaction Atas Penggunaan Sistem Informasi Akademik

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boy Suzanto

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Academic information system is very dependent on the components in generating information systems that fit their needs. The gap that occurs in the use of academic information system on the behavior of users of information systems will result in optimal intention to use by the user. Hence the need for in-depth measurement of academic information system that has been running against the attitude of academic information system users to improve the behavior of users of information systems is the goal of this study. Exploratory research methods using the number of respondents as many as 124 students. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM, component based Partial Least Squares (PLS. The results showed that the influence of academic information system on the attitudes of users by 0.57 or 57% and influence the attitude of academic information system users to conduct on the intention to use of academic information systems at 0.50 or 50%.

Empowering end-users in the energy transition : An exploration of products and services to support changes in household energy management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Geelen, D.V.

2014-01-01

Current discourse on smart grid deployment expects residential end users to play a more active role as co-providers in the electric power system. Their electricity consumption and production is considered a resource for balancing supply and demand in an electric power system with distributed

International user studies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Lene; Madsen, Sabine; Jensen, Iben

In this report, we present the results of a research project about international user studies. The project has been carried out by researchers from the Center for Persona Research and –Application, The IT University in Copenhagen and the Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University...... in Sydhavnen, and it is funded by InfinIT. Based on a qualitative interview study with 15 user researchers from 11 different companies, we have investigated how companies collect and present data about users on international markets. Key findings are: Companies do not collect data about end users in all...... the countries/regions they operate in. Instead, they focus on a few strategic markets. International user studies tend to be large-scale studies that involve the effort of many both internal and external/local human resources. The studies typically cover 2-4 countries/regions and many end users in each country...

Evolving Frameworks for Different Communities of Scientists and End Users

Science.gov (United States)

Graves, S. J.; Keiser, K.

2016-12-01

Two evolving frameworks for interdisciplinary science will be described in the context of the Common Data Framework for Earth-Observation Data and the importance of standards and protocols. The Event Data Driven Delivery (ED3) Framework, funded by NASA Applied Sciences, provides the delivery of data based on predetermined subscriptions and associated workflows to various communities of end users. ED3's capabilities are used by scientists, as well as policy and resource managers, when event alerts are triggered to respond to their needs. The EarthCube Integration and Testing Environment (ECITE) Assessment Framework for Technology Interoperability and Integration is being developed to facilitate the EarthCube community's assessment of NSF funded technologies addressing Earth science problems. ECITE is addressing the translation of geoscience researchers' use cases into technology use case that apply EarthCube-funded building block technologies (and other existing technologies) for solving science problems. EarthCube criteria for technology assessment include the use of data, metadata and service standards to improve interoperability and integration across program components. The long-range benefit will be the growth of a cyberinfrastructure with technology components that have been shown to work together to solve known science objectives.

Differences between users of six public parks in Barcelona depending on the level of perceived safety in the neighborhood

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Félix Pérez Tejera

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Research on the relation between fear of crime and public space has been often limited to psychosocial processes (place attachment, social cohesion, collective efficacy and the effect of environmental variables (brightness, graffitis, cleaness. Most of the behavioral aspects involved, however, have been neglected. In this work we carried out a systematic observational study of the types of users (gender, age, ethnicity, signs of poverty of six public parks in Barcelona. We examined whether there would be differences between users of three parks in the neighbourhood with the highest level of fear of crime and the users of three public parks in the neighbourhoods with the highest levels of perceived safety. The analysis showed significant differences in the spatial occupancy patterns between the two neighbourhoods. The differences highlighted processes of avoidance of public space by women, children and the elderly, and processes of spatial segregation depending on ethnicity and the presence of signs of poverty.

Unidata's Vision for Providing Comprehensive and End-to-end Data Services

Science.gov (United States)

Ramamurthy, M. K.

2009-05-01

This paper presents Unidata's vision for providing comprehensive, well-integrated, and end-to-end data services for the geosciences. These include an array of functions for collecting, finding, and accessing data; data management tools for generating, cataloging, and exchanging metadata; and submitting or publishing, sharing, analyzing, visualizing, and integrating data. When this vision is realized, users no matter where they are or how they are connected to the Internetwill be able to find and access a plethora of geosciences data and use Unidata-provided tools and services both productively and creatively in their research and education. What that vision means for the Unidata community is elucidated by drawing a simple analogy. Most of users are familiar with Amazon and eBay e-commerce sites and content sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr. On the eBay marketplace, people can sell practically anything at any time and buyers can share their experience of purchasing a product or the reputation of a seller. Likewise, at Amazon, thousands of merchants sell their goods and millions of customers not only buy those goods, but provide a review or opinion of the products they buy and share their experiences as purchasers. Similarly, YouTube and Flickr are sites tailored to video- and photo-sharing, respectively, where users can upload their own content and share it with millions of other users, including family and friends. What all these sites, together with social-networking applications like MySpace and Facebook, have enabled is a sense of a virtual community in which users can search and browse products or content, comment and rate those products from anywhere, at any time, and via any Internet- enabled device like an iPhone, laptop, or a desktop computer. In essence, these enterprises have fundamentally altered people's buying modes and behavior toward purchases. Unidata believes that similar approaches, appropriately tailored to meet the needs of the scientific

Increasing gas producer profitability with virtual well visibility via an end-to-end, wireless Internet gas monitoring system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McDougall, M.; Coleman, K.; Beck, R.; Lyon, R.; Potts, R. [Northrock Resources Ltd., Calgary, AB (Canada); Benterud, K. [Zed.i solutions, Calgary, AB (Canada)

2003-07-01

Most gas producing companies still use 100-year old technology to measure gas volumes because of the prohibitive costs of implementing corporate wide electronic information systems to replace circular mechanical chart technology. This paper describes how Northrock Resources Ltd. increased profitability using Smart-Alek{sup TM} while avoiding high implementation costs. Smart-Alek is a new type of fully integrated end-to-end electronic gas flow measurement (GFM) system based on Field Intelligence Network and End User Interference (FINE). Smart-Alek can analyze gas production through public wireless communications and a web-browser delivery system. The system has enabled Northrock to increase gas volumes with more accurate measurement and reduced downtime. In addition, operating costs were also decreased because the frequency of well visits was reduced and the administrative procedures of data collection was more efficient. The real-time well visibility of the tool has proven to be very effective in optimizing business profitability. 9 refs., 1 tab., 9 figs.

User Practices in Keyword and Boolean Searching on an Online Public Access Catalog.

Science.gov (United States)

Ensor, Pat

1992-01-01

Discussion of keyword and Boolean searching techniques in online public access catalogs (OPACs) focuses on a study conducted at Indiana State University that examined users' attitudes toward searching on NOTIS (Northwestern Online Total Integrated System). Relevant literature is reviewed, and implications for library instruction are suggested. (17…

Integrating a work-flow engine within a commercial SCADA to build end users applications in a scientific environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ounsy, M.; Pierre-Joseph Zephir, S.; Saintin, K.; Abeille, G.; Ley, E. de

2012-01-01

To build integrated high-level applications, SOLEIL is using an original component-oriented approach based on GlobalSCREEN, an industrial Java SCADA. The aim of this integrated development environment is to give SOLEIL's scientific and technical staff a way to develop GUI (Graphical User Interface) applications for external users of beamlines. These GUI applications must address the two following needs: monitoring and supervision of a control system and development and execution of automated processes (as beamline alignment, data collection and on-line data analysis). The first need is now completely answered through a rich set of Java graphical components based on the COMETE library and providing a high level of service for data logging, scanning and so on. To reach the same quality of service for process automation, a big effort has been made for more seamless integration of PASSERELLE, a work-flow engine with dedicated user-friendly interfaces for end users, packaged as JavaBeans in GlobalSCREEN components library. Starting with brief descriptions of software architecture of the PASSERELLE and GlobalSCREEN environments, we will then present the overall system integration design as well as the current status of deployment on SOLEIL beamlines. (authors)

Analysis of the importance of drug packaging quality for end users and pharmaceutical industry as a part of the quality management system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lončar Irma M.

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In this study, we collected and analyzed information on the importance of drug packaging quality to end users and pharmaceutical industry, as an indicator of the process of traceability and originality of drugs. Two surveys were conducted: one among the end users of drugs (252 patients and the other among professionals working in seven pharmaceutical companies in Serbia. For most end users (82.5% quality on the packaging of drugs was important, but only 41.8% of them thought that the appearance of the packaging could be an indicator of genuinity of drugs. The existence of the control marks (KM on drug packaging was not of great importance, since most of them (86.9% know, its function, but majority (60.2% would nevertheless decide to buy the drug without KM. Regarding the experts from the pharmaceutical industry, more then two-thirds of them (68.4% believed that the existence of KM did not contribute to efficient operations. Although a great number of pharmaceutical industry professionals (84.2% answered that the introduction of GS1 DataMatrix system would allow for complete traceability of the drug from the manufacturer to the end user, only 22.2% of them introduced this system to their products. This study also showed that domestic producers did not have a great interest for additional protection (special inks, holograms, special graphics, smart multicolor design, watermark, chemically labeled paper and cardboard etc.. on their products, given that only 15.8 % of them had some kind of additional protection against counterfeiting. Monitoring drug traceability from a manufacturer to end user is achieved by many complex activities regulated by law. A high percentage of responders said they were satisfied with the functionality of traceability systems used in their companies. As a way to increase the quality of drug packaging and business performance most responders saw in the continuous improvement of the system of traceability within the company

An assessment of business intelligence in public hospitals

OpenAIRE

Rikke Gaardboe; Niels Sandalgaard; Tom Nyvang

2017-01-01

In this paper, DeLone and McLean's information systems success model is empirically tested on 12 public hospitals in Denmark. The study aims to investigate the factors that contribute to business intelligence (BI) success. 1,352 BI end-users answered the questionnaire. A partial least square structural equation model was used to empirically test the model. We find that system quality is positively and significantly associated with use and user satisfaction, and that information quality is pos...

User Interface Technology for Formal Specification Development

Science.gov (United States)

Lowry, Michael; Philpot, Andrew; Pressburger, Thomas; Underwood, Ian; Lum, Henry, Jr. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

Formal specification development and modification are an essential component of the knowledge-based software life cycle. User interface technology is needed to empower end-users to create their own formal specifications. This paper describes the advanced user interface for AMPHION1 a knowledge-based software engineering system that targets scientific subroutine libraries. AMPHION is a generic, domain-independent architecture that is specialized to an application domain through a declarative domain theory. Formal specification development and reuse is made accessible to end-users through an intuitive graphical interface that provides semantic guidance in creating diagrams denoting formal specifications in an application domain. The diagrams also serve to document the specifications. Automatic deductive program synthesis ensures that end-user specifications are correctly implemented. The tables that drive AMPHION's user interface are automatically compiled from a domain theory; portions of the interface can be customized by the end-user. The user interface facilitates formal specification development by hiding syntactic details, such as logical notation. It also turns some of the barriers for end-user specification development associated with strongly typed formal languages into active sources of guidance, without restricting advanced users. The interface is especially suited for specification modification. AMPHION has been applied to the domain of solar system kinematics through the development of a declarative domain theory. Testing over six months with planetary scientists indicates that AMPHION's interactive specification acquisition paradigm enables users to develop, modify, and reuse specifications at least an order of magnitude more rapidly than manual program development.

The third sector, user involvement and public service reform: a case study in the co-governance of health service provision.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Graham P

2011-01-01

The ‘modernization’ of British public services seeks to broaden public sector governance networks, bringing the views of third sector organizations, the public and service users (among others) to the design, management and delivery of welfare. Building on previous analyses of the contradictions generated by these roles, this paper draws on longitudinal qualitative research to enunciate the challenges faced by one third-sector organization in facilitating service user influence in a UK National Health Service (NHS) pilot programme, alongside other roles in tension with this advocacy function. The analysis highlights limits in the extent to which lateral governance networks pluralize stakeholder involvement. The ‘framing’ of governance may mean that traditional concerns outweigh the views of new stakeholders such as the third sector and service users. Rather than prioritizing wider stakeholders' views in the design and delivery of public services, placing third sector organizations at the centre of governance networks may do more to co-opt these organizations in reproducing predominant priorities.

User-centric android flexible permissions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Scoccia, Gian Luca; Malavolta, Ivano; Autili, Marco; Di Salle, Amleto; Inverardi, Paola

2017-01-01

Privacy in mobile apps is a fundamental aspect to be considered, particularly with regard to meeting end user expectations. Due to the rigidities of the Android permission model, desirable trade-offs are not allowed. End users are confined into a secondary role, having the only option of choosing

Imagining value, imagining users: academic technology transfer for health innovation.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Fiona Alice; Sanders, Carrie B; Lehoux, Pascale

2009-04-01

Governments have invested heavily in the clinical and economic promise of health innovation and express increasing concern with the efficacy and efficiency of the health innovation system. In considering strategies for 'better' health innovation, policy makers and researchers have taken a particular interest in the work of universities and related public research organizations: How do these organizations identify and transfer promising innovations to market, and do these efforts make best use of public sector investments? We conducted an ethnographic study of technology transfer offices (TTOs) in Ontario and British Columbia, Canada, to consider the place of health and health system imperatives in judgments of value in early-stage health innovation. Our analysis suggests that the valuation process is poorly specified as a set of task-specific judgments. Instead, we argue that technology transfer professionals are active participants in the construction of the innovation and assign value by 'imagining' the end product in its 'context of use'. Oriented as they are to the commercialization of health technology, TTOs understand users primarily as market players. The immediate users of TTOs' efforts are commercial partners (i.e., licensees, investors) who are capable of translating current discoveries into future commodities. The ultimate end users - patients, clinicians, health systems - are the future consumers of the products to be sold. Attention to these proximate and more distal users in the valuation process is a complex and constitutive feature of the work of health technology transfer. At the same time, judgements about individual technologies are made in relation to a broader imperative through which TTOs seek to imagine and construct sustainable innovation systems. Judgments of value are rendered sensible in relation to the logic of valuation for systems of innovation that, in turn, configure users of health innovation in systemic ways.

Refining an asynchronous telerehabilitation platform for speech-language pathology: Engaging end-users in the process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annie Jane Hill

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Asynchronous telerehabilitation in which computer-based interventions are remotely monitored and adapted offline is an emerging service delivery model in the rehabilitation of communication disorders. The asynchronous nature of this model may hold a benefit over its synchronous counterpart by eliminating scheduling issues and thus improving efficiency in a healthcare landscape of constrained resource allocation. The design of asynchronous telerehabilitation platforms should therefore ensure efficiency and flexibility. The authors have been engaged in a program of research to develop and evaluate an asynchronous telerehabilitation platform for use in speech-language pathology. eSALT is a novel asynchronous telerehabilitation platform in which clinicians design and individualize therapy tasks for upload to a client’s mobile device. An inbuilt telerehabilitation module allows for remote monitoring and updating of tasks. This paper introduces eSALT and reports outcomes from an usability study that considered the needs of two end-user groups, people with aphasia and clinicians, in the on-going refinement of eSALT. In the study participants with aphasia were paired with clinicians who used eSALT to design and customize therapy tasks. After training on the mobile device the participants engaged in therapy at home for a period of three weeks, while clinicians remotely monitored and updated tasks. Following the home trial, participants and clinicians engaged in semi-structured interviews and completed surveys on the usability of eSALT and their satisfaction with the platform. Content analysis of data involving five participants and three clinicians revealed a number of usability themes including ease of use, user support, satisfaction, limitations and potential improvements. These findings were translated into a number of refinements of the eSALT platform including the development of a client interface for use on the Apple iPad®, greater variety in

CONSUMERS SATISFACTION OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT MONORAIL USER IN KUALA LUMPUR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

AMSORI MUHAMMAD DAS

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Public transport which also called public transit includes various services using shared vehicles to provide mobility to the public. Public transport is important for the societal mobility and can knowingly play a role in reducing the problems related to several transport externalities such as accidents and traffic congestion. Kuala Lumpur City has experienced growth significantly better in the field of economic, social, and other, which resulted in more intensively urban activity that boosts the demand for public transport facilities will need sufficient city. Urban public transport facilities are secure, fast, comfortable and effective environment-friendly society in terms of operating or service will encourage residents and fluency activities into one of the indicators effective and successful cities. This research seeks to identify and explore the community and user satisfaction of the effectiveness of the public transportation system monorail service, which is a modern public transport in Kuala Lumpur, and to learn and take decisions that need to maintain service facilities or obtain performance improvements and development priorities. From studies that have been conducted show that the KL monorail public transport system has the potential and growing. The average number of passengers in 2012 was 66,765 passengers per day and 3,709 passengers per hour, the percentage increase in the average number of passengers between the years 2003-2012 amounted to 11.04%. From the analysis of the method Importance Performance Analysis of factors important facilities and services according to the respondents to maintain satisfactory work performance, namely: Environmental and cleanliness in station, ticket counter, board information, punctuality of train arrival, cleanliness in the trains, security and installation of CCTV, reduce traffic congestion and environmental friendly. Factor facilities and services do not satisfy on the need to increase work

ScholarLens: extracting competences from research publications for the automatic generation of semantic user profiles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bahar Sateli

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Motivation Scientists increasingly rely on intelligent information systems to help them in their daily tasks, in particular for managing research objects, like publications or datasets. The relatively young research field of Semantic Publishing has been addressing the question how scientific applications can be improved through semantically rich representations of research objects, in order to facilitate their discovery and re-use. To complement the efforts in this area, we propose an automatic workflow to construct semantic user profiles of scholars, so that scholarly applications, like digital libraries or data repositories, can better understand their users’ interests, tasks, and competences, by incorporating these user profiles in their design. To make the user profiles sharable across applications, we propose to build them based on standard semantic web technologies, in particular the Resource Description Framework (RDF for representing user profiles and Linked Open Data (LOD sources for representing competence topics. To avoid the cold start problem, we suggest to automatically populate these profiles by analyzing the publications (co-authored by users, which we hypothesize reflect their research competences. Results We developed a novel approach, ScholarLens, which can automatically generate semantic user profiles for authors of scholarly literature. For modeling the competences of scholarly users and groups, we surveyed a number of existing linked open data vocabularies. In accordance with the LOD best practices, we propose an RDF Schema (RDFS based model for competence records that reuses existing vocabularies where appropriate. To automate the creation of semantic user profiles, we developed a complete, automated workflow that can generate semantic user profiles by analyzing full-text research articles through various natural language processing (NLP techniques. In our method, we start by processing a set of research articles for a

A Multifunctional Brain-Computer Interface Intended for Home Use: An Evaluation with Healthy Participants and Potential End Users with Dry and Gel-Based Electrodes

Science.gov (United States)

Käthner, Ivo; Halder, Sebastian; Hintermüller, Christoph; Espinosa, Arnau; Guger, Christoph; Miralles, Felip; Vargiu, Eloisa; Dauwalder, Stefan; Rafael-Palou, Xavier; Solà, Marc; Daly, Jean M.; Armstrong, Elaine; Martin, Suzanne; Kübler, Andrea

2017-01-01

Current brain-computer interface (BCIs) software is often tailored to the needs of scientists and technicians and therefore complex to allow for versatile use. To facilitate home use of BCIs a multifunctional P300 BCI with a graphical user interface intended for non-expert set-up and control was designed and implemented. The system includes applications for spelling, web access, entertainment, artistic expression and environmental control. In addition to new software, it also includes new hardware for the recording of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. The EEG system consists of a small and wireless amplifier attached to a cap that can be equipped with gel-based or dry contact electrodes. The system was systematically evaluated with a healthy sample, and targeted end users of BCI technology, i.e., people with a varying degree of motor impairment tested the BCI in a series of individual case studies. Usability was assessed in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. Feedback of users was gathered with structured questionnaires. Two groups of healthy participants completed an experimental protocol with the gel-based and the dry contact electrodes (N = 10 each). The results demonstrated that all healthy participants gained control over the system and achieved satisfactory to high accuracies with both gel-based and dry electrodes (average error rates of 6 and 13%). Average satisfaction ratings were high, but certain aspects of the system such as the wearing comfort of the dry electrodes and design of the cap, and speed (in both groups) were criticized by some participants. Six potential end users tested the system during supervised sessions. The achieved accuracies varied greatly from no control to high control with accuracies comparable to that of healthy volunteers. Satisfaction ratings of the two end-users that gained control of the system were lower as compared to healthy participants. The advantages and disadvantages of the BCI and its applications

The Association between Access to Public Transportation and Self-Reported Active Commuting

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Djurhuus, Sune; Hansen, Henning S; Aadahl, Mette

2014-01-01

Active commuting provides routine-based regular physical activity which can reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Using public transportation involves some walking or cycling to a transit stop, transfers and a walk to the end location and users of public transportation have been found to accumulate...... more moderate physical activity than non-users. Understanding how public transportation characteristics are associated with active transportation is thus important from a public health perspective. This study examines the associations between objective measures of access to public transportation...... and self-reported active commuting. Self-reported time spent either walking or cycling commuting each day and the distance to workplace were obtained for adults aged 16 to 65 in the Danish National Health Survey 2010 (n = 28,928). Access to public transportation measures were computed by combining GIS...

User constraints for reliable user-defined smart home scenarios

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Le Guilly, Thibaut; Nielsen, Michael Kvist; Pedersen, Thomas

2016-01-01

Defining control scenarios in a smart home is a difficult task for end users. In particular, one concern is that user-defined scenarios could lead to unsafe or undesired state of the system. To help them explore scenario specifications, we propose in this paper a system that enables specification...

The MedlinePlus public user interface: studies of design challenges and opportunities

Science.gov (United States)

Marill, Jennifer L.; Miller, Naomi; Kitendaugh, Paula

2006-01-01

Question: What are the challenges involved in designing, modifying, and improving a major health information portal that serves over sixty million page views a month? Setting: MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine's (NLM's) consumer health Website, is examined. Method: Challenges are presented as six “studies,” which describe selected design issues and how NLM staff resolved them. Main Result: Improving MedlinePlus is an iterative process. Changes in the public user interface are ongoing, reflecting Web design trends, usability testing recommendations, user survey results, new technical requirements, and the need to grow the site in an orderly way. Conclusion: Testing and analysis should accompany Website design modifications. New technologies may enhance a site but also introduce problems. Further modifications to MedlinePlus will be informed by the experiences described here. PMID:16404467

User Experimentation with Terminological Ontologies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pram Nielsen, Louise

This paper outlines work-in-progress research suggesting that domain-specific knowledge in terminological resources can be transferred efficiently to end-users across different levels of expertise and by means of different information modes including articles (written mode) and concept diagrams...... (graph mode). An experimental approach is applied in an eye-tracking laboratory, where a natural user situation is replicated for Danish professional potential end-users of a ter-minology and knowledge bank in a chosen pilot domain (taxation)....

Acceptance of new sanitation: The role of end-users' pro-environmental personal norms and risk and benefit perceptions.

Science.gov (United States)

Poortvliet, P Marijn; Sanders, Liese; Weijma, Jan; De Vries, Jasper R

2017-12-18

Current sanitation systems are inherently limited in their ability to address the new challenges for (waste)water management that arise from the rising demand to restore resource cycles. These challenges include removal of micropollutants, water (re)use, and nutrient recovery. New opportunities to address these challenges arise from new sanitation, a system innovation that combines elements of source separation, local treatment and reuse, and less use of water. New sanitation is applied, but not yet widespread, in several residential areas in Europe. Implementation is hindered by the lack of insight into the general public's willingness to engage in new sanitation, and the resulting uncertainty about this among decision makers and other stakeholders in wastewater management. Using value-belief-norm theory as a conceptual lens, this paper addresses the individual motivations (pro-environmental personal norms) and personal drivers (benefits) and barriers (risks) for acceptance of new sanitation by the Dutch general public. The results of an online survey (N = 338) indicated that both pro-environmental personal norms and risk and benefit perceptions predict consumers' willingness to accept new sanitation. More specifically, they showed that consumer acceptance is driven by perceived risks relating to the housing market and the need to change behavior, but also by environmental benefits. Overall, new sanitation was favorably evaluated by respondents: 64% indicated that they would likely use new sanitation if they were owner-occupiers. The results of this explorative study are discussed in light of the development of novel sanitation systems that are sensitive to perceptions of end-users and other key stakeholders. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Scholarly Electronic Full-Text Publications via the Internet: Issues and Impacts

Science.gov (United States)

Kosmin, Linda J.

1999-01-01

On-line access to complete texts of scholarly journal articles, conference papers, and books is facilitated by rapidly developing World-wide Web Internet access and capabilities. Meanwhile, print publications continue to be produced and read in spite of the proliferation of many networked electronic publications. The purpose of this presentation is to highlight fundamental issues impacting stakeholder groups, as the trend continues towards migration from paper to affordable ubiquitous networked full-text publications. Librarians, publishers, authors and end-users have various viewpoints, interests, and concerns. There are many issues challenging all stakeholder groups. For instance, all share concerns about administering copyright compliance and enforcing fair use. Uncontrollable electronic downstreaming could result in infringed copyright, while limiting a publisher's entitled revenue stream. Moreover, metered fee-based access may hamper scholarly information research. And, self-authoring on the Internet without peer filtering could lead to information clutter. Many related issues challenge librarians in particular. Among these are rising journal subscription prices, regardless if offered in print or electronic. Some electronic offerings are independent of print, others supplement or duplicate print; several publishers presently require subscribing to print in order to access electronic. Furthermore, numbers of publications are n'ow being marketed via the Internet directly to end-users, which can be viewed as encouraging users to bypass the traditional library. A key issue challenging publishers today is the rapidly expanding electronic user base that is demanding delivery of added-value full-text to desktop computers. Also of growing concern appears to be the decline in print sales to libraries, thereby reducing traditional revenue stream potential. Nowadays, publishers are more hesitant about investing in the production of publications geared toward small niche

Economic assessment of strategies to deploy publicly accessible charging infrastructure

OpenAIRE

Madina, Carlos; Barlag, Heike; Coppola, Giovanni; Gómez-Arriola, Inés; Rodríguez-Sánchez, Raúl; Zabala, Eduardo

2015-01-01

From the end user perspective, the main barriers for widespread electric vehicle (EV) adoption are high purchase cost and range anxiety, both regarding battery capacity and availability of accessible EV charging infrastructure. Governments and public bodies in general are taking steps towards overcoming these barriers by, among others, setting up regulatory requirements regarding standardisation, customer information and recommending objectives of publicly accessible charging infrastructure. ...

Evaluation of end-user satisfaction among employees participating in a web-based health risk assessment with tailored feedback.

Science.gov (United States)

Vosbergen, Sandra; Laan, Eva K; Colkesen, Ersen B; Niessen, Maurice A J; Kraaijenhagen, Roderik A; Essink-Bot, Marie-Louise; Peek, Niels

2012-10-30

Web technology is increasingly being used to provide individuals with health risk assessments (HRAs) with tailored feedback. End-user satisfaction is an important determinant of the potential impact of HRAs, as this influences program attrition and adherence to behavioral advice. The aim of this study was to evaluate end-user satisfaction with a web-based HRA with tailored feedback applied in worksite settings, using mixed (quantitative and qualitative) methods. Employees of seven companies in the Netherlands participated in a commercial, web-based, HRA with tailored feedback. The HRA consisted of four components: 1) a health and lifestyle assessment questionnaire, 2) a biometric evaluation, 3) a laboratory evaluation, and 4) tailored feedback consisting of a personal health risk profile and lifestyle behavior advice communicated through a web portal. HRA respondents received an evaluation questionnaire after six weeks. Satisfaction with different parts of the HRA was measured on 5-point Likert scales. A free-text field provided the opportunity to make additional comments. In total, 2289 employees participated in the HRA program, of which 637 (27.8%) completed the evaluation questionnaire. Quantitative analysis showed that 85.6% of the respondents evaluated the overall HRA positively. The free-text field was filled in by 29.7 % of the respondents (189 out of 637), who made 315 separate remarks. Qualitative evaluation of these data showed that these respondents made critical remarks. Respondents felt restricted by the answer categories of the health and lifestyle assessment questionnaire, which resulted in the feeling that the corresponding feedback could be inadequate. Some respondents perceived the personal risk profile as unnecessarily alarming or suggested providing more explanations, reference values, and a justification of the behavioral advice given. Respondents also requested the opportunity to discuss the feedback with a health professional. Most people

Gym-based exoskeleton walking: A preliminary exploration of non-ambulatory end-user perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Cahill, Aoife; Ginley, Orna Mc; Bertrand, Courtney; Lennon, Olive

2018-07-01

Robotic walking devices (RWD) have shown many physical benefits in Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) rehabilitation. No study to date has explored end-user perceptions of these devices or gained insight into the use of these devices in a gym-based setting. This preliminary study explores the perspectives of four non-ambulatory individuals with SCI on using an exoskeleton walking device in a gym-based community setting. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four SCI individuals living in the community. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Inductive thematic analysis established common overarching themes and subthemes. Four primary themes emerged addressing "The Psychological Adjustments Around Using RWDs with Respect to Disability", "Perceived Physical, Social and Psychological Benefits of Using an Exoskeleton", "The Role of External Influences", and "A Wellness Model to Health". A fully integrated gym setting was found to provide a positive and encouraging space to utilise the device. In addition, both the ability to set training goals and the positive attitude of robotic trainers were deemed to be important factors. This preliminary study provides detailed perspectives of four non-ambulatory individuals with SCI on utilising an exoskeleton walking device in a community setting. It suggests that gym-based RWDs impact positively on the users' lives and enhance their perceived wellbeing and sense of community integration. Enabling access to similar, community-based facilities should be prioritised for those with longstanding SCI disability. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

User interfaces of information retrieval systems and user friendliness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Polona Vilar

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with the characteristics of user interfaces of information retrieval systems with the emphasis on design and evaluation. It presents users’ information retrieval tasks and the functions which are offered through interfaces. Design rules, guidelines and standards are presented, as well as criteria and methods for evaluation. Special emphasis is placed on the concept of user friendliness as one of the most important characteristic of the user interfaces. Various definitions of user friendliness are presented and their elements are also discussed. In the end, the paper shows how user interfaces should be designed, taken into consideration all these criteria.

The Back-end of User Centred Innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lassen, Astrid Heidemann

2015-01-01

User Centred Innovation (UCI) has during the past decade developed into a widely acknowledged approach to innovation. Yet, in spite of plethora of methods and tools for conducting UCI, companies continue to struggle in relation to creating the desired effect UCI. In this paper, it is proposed tha...... of such challenges calls for a new focus in UCI research on interorganizational alignment and cross-functional collaboration....

End-user interest in geotechnical data management systems.

Science.gov (United States)

2008-12-01

In conducting geotechnical site investigations, large volumes of subsurface information and associated test data : are generated. The current practice relies on paper-based filing systems that are often difficult and cumbersome : to access by users. ...

Accessibility to Specialized Public Oral Health Services from the Perspective of Brazilian Users

Science.gov (United States)

de Castro, Ricardo Dias; Rangel, Marianne de Lucena; da Silva, Marcos André Azevedo; de Lucena, Brunna Thaís Lucwu; Cavalcanti, Alessandro Leite; Bonan, Paulo Rogério Ferreti; Oliveira, Julyana de Araújo

2016-01-01

The Specialized Dental Clinics (SDCs) represent the first government initiative in Latin America aimed at providing specialized oral health services. This study sought to evaluate the organizational accessibility to specialized oral health care services in Brazil and to understand the factors that may be associated with accessibility from the user’s perspective. This epidemiological, cross-sectional and quantitative study was conducted by means of interviews with individuals who sought specialized public oral health services in the city of João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil, and consisted of a sample of 590 individuals. Users expressed a favorable view of the classification and resolutive nature of specialized services offered by Brazilian public health. The binary logistic regression analysis revealed weak points highlighting the difficulty involved in obtaining such treatments leading to unfavorable evaluations. In the resolutive nature item, difficulty in accessing the location, queues and lack of materials and equipment were highlighted as statistically significant unfavorable aspects. While many of the users considered the service to be resolutive, weaknesses were mentioned that need to be detected to promote improvements and to prevent other health models adopted worldwide from reproducing the same flaws. PMID:27775584

Evaluation of agents and study of end-user needs and behaviour for e-commerce. COGITO focus group experiment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, V.; Hansen, C.B.; Andersen, H.H.K.

2001-01-01

-commerce in general and shopping at Internet bookstores in particular are outlined below. In this report user requirements for specification of web-sites meeting the overall wishes of the end- users have beenelicited. The needs are mainly based on experiments and discussions related to purchase of books......The process of buying products and services on the Internet often implies a high degree of complexity and uncertainty about the conditions of information seeking, about items for sale, the purchase of wanted products and the actual navigation on a site.Some important problems concerning e......, as this domain has been selected as the application domain for the e-commerce in COGITO, but the requirements are mostly common covering e-commerce ingeneral. One of the main features to consider, analyse and specify in COGITO was the use of .intelligent personalised agents. Therefore, a focus group experiment...

Invisible work of using and monitoring knowledge by parents (end-users) of children with chronic conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Lagosky, Stephanie; Bartlett, Doreen; Shaw, Lynn

2016-01-01

Parents who care for young children with chronic conditions are knowledge users. Their efforts, time, and energy to source, consider and monitor information add to the 'invisible' work of parents in making decisions about care, school transitions, and interventions. Little is known or understood about the work of parents as knowledge users. To understand the knowledge use patterns and how these patterns may be monitored in parents caring for their young children with cerebral palsy (CP). An embedded case study methodology was used. In-depth qualitative interviews and visual mapping were employed to collect and analyze data based on the experiences of three mothers of young children with CP. Knowledge use in parents caring for their young children with CP is multi-factorial, complex and temporal. Findings resulted in a provisional model elaborating on the ways knowledge is used by parents and how it may be monitored. The visual mapping of pathways and actions of parents as end users makes the processes of knowledge use more visible and open to be valued as well as appreciated by others. The provisional model has implications for knowledge mobilization as a strategy in childhood rehabilitation and the facilitation of knowledge use in the lives of families with children with chronic health conditions.

Micro practices of coordination based on complex adaptive systems: user needs and strategies for coordinating public health in Denmark.

Science.gov (United States)

Terkildsen, Morten Deleuran; Wittrup, Inge; Burau, Viola

2015-01-01

Many highly formalised approaches to coordination poorly fit public health and recent studies call for coordination based on complex adaptive systems. Our contribution is two-fold. Empirically, we focus on public health, and theoretically we build on the patient perspective and treat coordination as a process of contingent, two-level negotiations of user needs. The paper draws on the concept of user needs-based coordination and sees coordination as a process, whereby needs emerging from the life world of the user are made amenable to the health system through negotiations. The analysis is based on an explorative case study of a health promotion initiative in Denmark. It adopts an anthropological qualitative approach and uses a range of qualitative data. The analysis identifies four strategies of coordination: the coordinator focusing on the individual user or on relations with other professionals; and the manager coaching the coordinator or providing structural support. Crucially, the coordination strategies by management remain weak as they do not directly relate to specific user needs. In process of bottom-up negotiations user needs become blurred and this is especially a challenge for management. The study therefore calls for an increased focus on the level nature of negotiations to bridge the gap that currently weakens coordination strategies by management.

Effects of exposure to anti-vaping public service announcements among current smokers and dual users of cigarettes and electronic nicotine delivery systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Andy S L; Rees, Vaughan W; Rodgers, Justin; Agudile, Emeka; Sokol, Natasha A; Yie, Kyeungyeun; Sanders-Jackson, Ashley

2018-05-16

Anti-vaping public service announcements (PSAs) are intended to discourage vaping or use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). However, vaping portrayals in PSAs may have unintended effects if they increase smoking or vaping urges. This study examined benefits and unintended effects of anti-vaping PSAs with vapor portrayals on smoking and vaping-related outcomes. Young adult smokers (N = 171) and dual users (N = 122) aged 21-30 years were randomly assigned to view: 1) anti-vaping PSAs with vapor; 2) anti-vaping PSAs without vapor; 3) physical activity PSAs; or 4) anti-smoking PSAs with smoking cues. Outcomes were changes in vaping and smoking urges before and after viewing PSAs, post-test vaping and smoking intentions in the next hour, and post-test intention to purchase ENDS and traditional cigarettes. Smokers only: Exposure to anti-vaping PSAs with vapor (vs. physical activity) was associated with lower intention to vape and to purchase ENDS (ps vaping PSAs with vapor (vs. PSAs without vapor and vs. anti-smoking PSAs with smoking cues) was associated with lower intention to vape in the next hour (ps vaping PSAs without vapor (vs. physical activity) was associated with lower change in vaping urge (p vaping PSAs without vapor (vs. anti-smoking PSAs) was associated with lower intention to purchase ENDS (p vaping PSAs with vapor was not associated with unintended effects and may have benefits on reducing smoking and vaping-related outcomes. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Impact of different cloud deployments on real-time video applications for mobile video cloud users

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Kashif A.; Wang, Qi; Luo, Chunbo; Wang, Xinheng; Grecos, Christos

2015-02-01

The latest trend to access mobile cloud services through wireless network connectivity has amplified globally among both entrepreneurs and home end users. Although existing public cloud service vendors such as Google, Microsoft Azure etc. are providing on-demand cloud services with affordable cost for mobile users, there are still a number of challenges to achieve high-quality mobile cloud based video applications, especially due to the bandwidth-constrained and errorprone mobile network connectivity, which is the communication bottleneck for end-to-end video delivery. In addition, existing accessible clouds networking architectures are different in term of their implementation, services, resources, storage, pricing, support and so on, and these differences have varied impact on the performance of cloud-based real-time video applications. Nevertheless, these challenges and impacts have not been thoroughly investigated in the literature. In our previous work, we have implemented a mobile cloud network model that integrates localized and decentralized cloudlets (mini-clouds) and wireless mesh networks. In this paper, we deploy a real-time framework consisting of various existing Internet cloud networking architectures (Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Eucalyptus Cloud) and a cloudlet based on Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud over wireless mesh networking technology for mobile cloud end users. It is noted that the increasing trend to access real-time video streaming over HTTP/HTTPS is gaining popularity among both research and industrial communities to leverage the existing web services and HTTP infrastructure in the Internet. To study the performance under different deployments using different public and private cloud service providers, we employ real-time video streaming over the HTTP/HTTPS standard, and conduct experimental evaluation and in-depth comparative analysis of the impact of different deployments on the quality of service for mobile video cloud users. Empirical

LANCE Usage and User Analysis: Creating a Better System that Meets User Needs

Science.gov (United States)

Davies, D.; Boller, R. A.; Schmaltz, J. E.; Murphy, K. J.; Ilavajhala, S.; Ullah, A.; Joshi, T.

2012-12-01

This paper describes known uses of NASA's Land Atmosphere Near-real time Capability for EOS (LANCE) data and imagery and summarizes findings from informal interviews with LANCE users, undertaken to better understand their needs. LANCE, the NRT component of EOSDIS, provides products from MODIS, AIRS, OMI and MLS within 3 hours of satellite observation. LANCE has in excess of 50,000 unique anonymous users per month using data and imagery for wildfire management, air quality measurements, shipping, agricultural forecasting as well as monitoring volcanic plumes, dust storms, smoke plumes and floods etc. Users can be categorized as end users or as brokers who may repackage the imagery and pass it on to their own end users. Interactions with a sample of end users found the following: users like MODIS Rapid Response imagery but do not want to be confined to pre-defined subsets; they want a broader selection of imagery and those with higher bandwidth want the capability to pull in imagery in to their own web-mapping or GIS applications. Users with lower bandwidth want the capability to define their own areas-of-interest for simple download of an image file. Users also expressed a desire to see historic as well as near-real time data, so they can compare the current situation to the recent past. Users want download capabilities to enable information to be shared quickly and easily. These and other findings are being fed back to EOSDIS developers who are creating tools and services to better meet user needs. The findings from users have been valuable in ensuring that developers are on track. The most recent offerings, available http://earthdata.nasa.gov/lance, are Worldview - a web-based client which provides capability to interactively browse full-resolution, global, near real-time satellite imagery from 50+ data products from LANCE, and the Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) which enables both users and brokers to pull the latest imagery in to their own web mapping

An IoT-Based Gamified Approach for Reducing Occupants' Energy Wastage in Public Buildings.

Science.gov (United States)

Papaioannou, Thanasis G; Dimitriou, Nikos; Vasilakis, Kostas; Schoofs, Anthony; Nikiforakis, Manolis; Pursche, Fabian; Deliyski, Nikolay; Taha, Amr; Kotsopoulos, Dimosthenis; Bardaki, Cleopatra; Kotsilitis, Sarantis; Garbi, Anastasia

2018-02-10

Conserving energy amenable to the activities of occupants in public buildings is a particularly challenging objective that includes associating energy consumption to particular individuals and providing them with incentives to alter their behavior. This paper describes a gamification framework that aims to facilitate achieving greater energy conservation in public buildings. The framework leverages IoT-enabled low-cost devices, to improve energy disaggregation mechanisms that provide energy use and-consequently-wastage information at the device, area and end-user level. The identified wastages are concurrently targeted by a gamified application that motivates respective behavioral changes combining team competition, virtual rewards and life simulation. Our solution is being developed iteratively with the end-users' engagement during the analysis, design, development and validation phases in public buildings located in three different countries: Luxembourg (Musée National d'Histoire et d'Art), Spain (EcoUrbanBuilding, Institut Català d'Energia headquarters, Barcelona) and Greece (General Secretariat of the Municipality of Athens).

The Workplace Game : Exploring end users' new behaviour

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Bruyne, E.; De Jong, A.

2009-01-01

This paper describes the Workplace Game and its development. Changing the workplace layout alone appears to be insufficient to change office user behaviour. Through prototyping the game was designed as a tool to stimulate discussion and provide new and concrete insights into the behavioural

End User Perceptual Distorted Scenes Enhancement Algorithm Using Partition-Based Local Color Values for QoE-Guaranteed IPTV

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jinsul

In this letter, we propose distorted scenes enhancement algorithm in order to provide end user perceptual QoE-guaranteed IPTV service. The block edge detection with weight factor and partition-based local color values method can be applied for the degraded video frames which are affected by network transmission errors such as out of order, jitter, and packet loss to improve QoE efficiently. Based on the result of quality metric after using the distorted scenes enhancement algorithm, the distorted scenes have been restored better than others.

Service quality in public health clinics: perceptions of users and health professionals.

Science.gov (United States)

Campos, Domingos Fernandes; Negromonte Filho, Rinaldo Bezerra; Castro, Felipe Nalon

2017-10-09

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the expectations and quality gaps in services provided at city public health clinics in the city of Natal, Brazil, from the perspective of patients and healthcare service providers. Design/methodology/approach The research sample consisted of 1,200 patients who used public health services and 265 providers - doctors, nutritionists, physiotherapists, psychologists, pharmacists and managers at three health clinics in the city of Natal, Brazil. A scale with 25 health service attributes was used in data collection. Summary statistics and t-test were used to analyze the data. Findings The results show that the providers think that users have lower levels of expectations than those indicated by the users in all attributes. Providers and users have the most approximate insights into what attributes are considered most important: explanations, level of knowledge and attention dispensed by health professionals. Users and providers perceived similar quality gaps for most of the attributes. The gaps were statistically the same, when comparing the mean quality shortcomings by means of a Student's test, considering a significance level of 5 percent, obtained independently by the manifestation of users and providers. Research limitations/implications The results reveal only a photograph of the moment. The study did not consider the differences that may exist between groups with different income levels, genders or age groups. A qualitative study could improve the understanding of the differences and coincidences of the diverse points of views. A more advanced research could even study possibilities so that health managers could promote changes in the service, some of them low cost, as the health professionals training for contact with patients. Practical implications The evaluation of the service quality complemented by the matrix of opportunities, importance × quality gaps generates information to help make decisions in the

Micro practices of coordination based on complex adaptive systems: user needs and strategies for coordinating public health in Denmark

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Morten Deleuran Terkildsen

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Many highly formalised approaches to coordination poorly fit public health and recent studies call for coordination based on complex adaptive systems. Our contribution is two-fold. Empirically, we focus on public health, and theoretically we build on the patient perspective and treat coordination as a process of contingent, two-level negotiations of user needs.Theory and Methods: The paper draws on the concept of user needs-based coordination and sees coordination as a process, whereby needs emerging from the life world of the user are made amenable to the health system through negotiations. The analysis is based on an explorative case study of a health promotion initiative in Denmark. It adopts an anthropological qualitative approach and uses a range of qualitative data.Results: The analysis identifies four strategies of coordination: the coordinator focusing on the individual user or on relations with other professionals; and the manager coaching the coordinator or providing structural support. Crucially, the coordination strategies by management remain weak as they do not directly relate to specific user needs.Discussion: In process of bottom-up negotiations user needs become blurred and this is especially a challenge for management. The study therefore calls for an increased focus on the level nature of negotiations to bridge the gap that currently weakens coordination strategies by management.

User Privacy in RFID Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Singelée, Dave; Seys, Stefaan

Wireless RFID networks are getting deployed at a rapid pace and have already entered the public space on a massive scale: public transport cards, the biometric passport, office ID tokens, customer loyalty cards, etc. Although RFID technology offers interesting services to customers and retailers, it could also endanger the privacy of the end-users. The lack of protection mechanisms being deployed could potentially result in a privacy leakage of personal data. Furthermore, there is the emerging threat of location privacy. In this paper, we will show some practical attack scenarios and illustrates some of them with cases that have received press coverage. We will present the main challenges of enhancing privacy in RFID networks and evaluate some solutions proposed in literature. The main advantages and shortcomings will be briefly discussed. Finally, we will give an overview of some academic and industrial research initiatives on RFID privacy.

Online Public Access Catalog User Studies: A Review of Research Methodologies, March 1986-November 1989.

Science.gov (United States)

Seymour, Sharon

1991-01-01

Review of research methodologies used in studies of online public access catalog (OPAC) users finds that a variety of research methodologies--e.g., surveys, transaction log analysis, interviews--have been used with varying degrees of expertise. It is concluded that poor research methodology resulting from limited training and resources limits the…

An end-to-end secure patient information access card system.

Science.gov (United States)

Alkhateeb, A; Singer, H; Yakami, M; Takahashi, T

2000-03-01

The rapid development of the Internet and the increasing interest in Internet-based solutions has promoted the idea of creating Internet-based health information applications. This will force a change in the role of IC cards in healthcare card systems from a data carrier to an access key medium. At the Medical Informatics Department of Kyoto University Hospital we are developing a smart card patient information project where patient databases are accessed via the Internet. Strong end-to-end data encryption is performed via Secure Socket Layers, transparent to transmit patient information. The smart card is playing the crucial role of access key to the database: user authentication is performed internally without ever revealing the actual key. For easy acceptance by healthcare professionals, the user interface is integrated as a plug-in for two familiar Web browsers, Netscape Navigator and MS Internet Explorer.

Monitoring User-Based Accessibility Assessment in Urban Environments and in Public Buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gintaras Stauskis

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The research features analysis of user-experience-based accessibility assessment and progress monitoring of buildings and public spaces; this analysis is used as a tool for facilitating the development of humane, socially sustainable and an inclusive urban environment. A group of users representing people with different kinds of disabilities, the elderly and families with children was created to assess the quality of access to various buildings with different functions and locations across Vilnius and in Singapore. A school, two hospitals, a rehab centre and two offices were selected for access monitoring in Vilnius City, while a hotel, a café and two metro stations with public squares were chosen for access assessment in Singapore. As the same method was principally applied to assess accessibility of selected buildings in Vilnius City in 2000 and 2017 and in Singapore in 2012, the article draws a comparative analysis of access levels in these two cities located in different global regions. The results show a definite improvement of access quality over time and also identify the critical aspects in this process. The segment of plot planning represents the lowest quality of access for all assessed building types as compared to the building segment and the external–internal element segments. The paper also draws conclusions that access improvement is a continuous process of implementing advanced urban policy instruments, and city planners can contribute to it by constantly analysing and presenting to public the monitoring data about the progress in access improvement. Comparing the assessment results between Vilnius City and Singapore – cities that are located in different global regions and in different socio-economic environments – provides a practical tool for benchmarking and setting the priorities for this process.

Experiences and behaviors of end-users in a smart grid: the influence of values, attitudes, trust, and several types of demand side management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wiekens, Carina; Grootel, Maike; Steinmeijer, Sophie

2014-01-01

In this research, the experiences and behaviors of end-users in a smart grid project are explored. In PowerMatching City, the leading Dutch smart grid project, 40 households were equipped with various decentralized energy sources (PV and microCHP), hybrid heat pumps, smart appliances, smart meters

Users' demographic profile and quality attributes of bus services: The perspectives of users, operators and local authorities

Science.gov (United States)

Noh, Nur'Amirah Mhd.; Hamid, Ahmad Hilmy Abd

2017-10-01

Bus services that can help meet almost every bus user's needs are the goals of bus operators. Despite such an idealistic view, the operators themselves, users and even the local authorities have been found to hold different views about the quality of service that the bus should deliver. As the users i.e., customers are considered as important stakeholders, understanding their characteristics, profile and pattern is very crucial. To this end, the present study has attempted to gauge the perspectives of all the above-mentioned stakeholders. For the users, a customer satisfaction survey was employed to look into the relative influence of service attributes. In addition, surveys were also administered to bus operators and local authorities to study their perspectives in relation to this matter. 450 randomly selected respondents were surveyed. Identification of the service level was analyzed through the Likert scale whereas the perspectives of the operators and authorities were dealt with through mean value Analysis. Specifically, this study aims to identify the crucial attributes in determining the quality of the bus services. Findings of the study indicated that different attributes were selected by users, operators and authorities, which clearly enlightened the variations of the important attributes in determining the level of bus service quality. In its attempt to compare the service level attributes from three perspectives, this study has helped advance better improvement and strategies for the urban public bus operators and planners, in addition to the authorities in delivering user-friendly bus services by taking into account the local context, user profile and demographic characteristics.

Location Assisted Vertical Handover Algorithm for QoS Optimization in End-to-End Connections

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dam, Martin S.; Christensen, Steffen R.; Mikkelsen, Lars M.

2012-01-01

implementation on Android based tablets. The simulations cover a wide range of scenarios for two mobile users in an urban area with ubiquitous cellular coverage, and shows our algorithm leads to increased throughput, with fewer handovers, when considering the end-to-end connection than to other handover schemes...

End-to-end performance of cooperative relaying in spectrum-sharing systems with quality of service requirements

KAUST Repository

Asghari, Vahid Reza

2011-07-01

We propose adopting a cooperative relaying technique in spectrum-sharing cognitive radio (CR) systems to more effectively and efficiently utilize available transmission resources, such as power, rate, and bandwidth, while adhering to the quality of service (QoS) requirements of the licensed (primary) users of the shared spectrum band. In particular, we first consider that the cognitive (secondary) user\\'s communication is assisted by an intermediate relay that implements the decode-and-forward (DF) technique onto the secondary user\\'s relayed signal to help with communication between the corresponding source and the destination nodes. In this context, we obtain first-order statistics pertaining to the first- and second-hop transmission channels, and then, we investigate the end-to-end performance of the proposed spectrum-sharing cooperative relaying system under resource constraints defined to assure that the primary QoS is unaffected. Specifically, we investigate the overall average bit error rate (BER), ergodic capacity, and outage probability of the secondary\\'s communication subject to appropriate constraints on the interference power at the primary receivers. We then consider a general scenario where a cluster of relays is available between the secondary source and destination nodes. In this case, making use of the partial relay selection method, we generalize our results for the single-relay scheme and obtain the end-to-end performance of the cooperative spectrum-sharing system with a cluster of L available relays. Finally, we examine our theoretical results through simulations and comparisons, illustrating the overall performance of the proposed spectrum-sharing cooperative system and quantify its advantages for different operating scenarios and conditions. © 2011 IEEE.

NASA EOSDIS Enabling Science by Improving User Knowledge

Science.gov (United States)

Lindsay, F. E.; Brennan, J.; Blumenfeld, J.

2016-12-01

NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) has been a central component of the NASA Earth observation program since the 1990's. The data collected by NASA's remote sensing instruments, airborne platforms and field campaigns represent a significant public investment in Earth science research. EOSDIS provides free and open access of these data to a diverse end-user community worldwide. Over time the EOSDIS data user community has grown substantially in both number and in the diversity of their needs. Commensurate with this growth, there also have been substantial changes in internet-based technologies and the expectation of users demanding more sophisticated EOSDIS information products describing, highlighting and providing insight to our vast data collections. To meet these increased expectations and to more fully engage our users, EOSDIS is evolving our use of traditional forms of purely static methods of public engagement such as stand-alone text and imagery toward more immersive and interactive forms of communications. This paper highlights and elucidates the methods and forms used by EOSDIS in this emerging world of dynamic and interactive media. Lessons learned and the impacts of applying these newer methods are explained and include several examples from our current efforts. These examples include interactive, on-line webinars focusing on data discovery and access (including tool usage), informal and informative `data chats' with data experts across our EOSDIS community, and profiles of scientists, researchers, and managers actively using EOSDIS data. Our efforts also include improved conference and meeting interactions with data users through the ability to use EOSDIS data interactively during hyperwall talks and the EOSDIS Worldview data visualization and exploration client. The suite of internet-based, interactive capabilities and technologies has allowed EOSDIS to expand our user community by making the data and applications from

Supporting Regional Aged Care Nursing Staff to Manage Residents' Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia, in Real Time, Using the Nurses' Behavioural Assistant (NBA): A Pilot Site 'End-User Attitudes' Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Klein, Britt; Clinnick, Lisa; Chesler, Jessica; Stranieri, Andrew; Bignold, Adam; Dazeley, Richard; McLaren, Suzanne; Lauder, Sue; Balasubramanian, Venki

2018-01-01

This regional pilot site 'end-user attitudes' study explored nurses' experiences and impressions of using the Nurses' Behavioural Assistant (NBA) (a knowledge-based, interactive ehealth system) to assist them to better respond to behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) and will be reported here. Focus groups were conducted, followed by a four-week pilot site 'end-user attitudes' trial of the NBA at a regional aged care residential facility (ACRF). Brief interviews were conducted with consenting nursing staff. Focus group feedback (N = 10) required only minor cosmetic changes to the NBA prototype. Post pilot site end-user interview data (N = 10) indicated that the regional ACRF nurses were positive and enthusiastic about the NBA, however several issues were also identified. Overall the results supported the utility of the NBA to promote a person centred care approach to managing BPSD. Slight modifications may be required to maximise its uptake across all ACRF nursing staff.

School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) 2000 Public-Use Data Files, User's Manual, and Detailed Data Documentation. [CD-ROM].

Science.gov (United States)

National Center for Education Statistics (ED), Washington, DC.

This CD-ROM contains the raw, public-use data from the 2000 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) along with a User's Manual and Detailed Data Documentation. The data are provided in SAS, SPSS, STATA, and ASCII formats. The User's Manual and the Detailed Data Documentation are provided as .pdf files. (Author)

User-based representation of time-resolved multimodal public transportation networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Alessandretti, Laura; Karsai, Márton; Gauvin, Laetitia

2016-07-01

Multimodal transportation systems, with several coexisting services like bus, tram and metro, can be represented as time-resolved multilayer networks where the different transportation modes connecting the same set of nodes are associated with distinct network layers. Their quantitative description became possible recently due to openly accessible datasets describing the geo-localized transportation dynamics of large urban areas. Advancements call for novel analytics, which combines earlier established methods and exploits the inherent complexity of the data. Here, we provide a novel user-based representation of public transportation systems, which combines representations, accounting for the presence of multiple lines and reducing the effect of spatial embeddedness, while considering the total travel time, its variability across the schedule, and taking into account the number of transfers necessary. After the adjustment of earlier techniques to the novel representation framework, we analyse the public transportation systems of several French municipal areas and identify hidden patterns of privileged connections. Furthermore, we study their efficiency as compared to the commuting flow. The proposed representation could help to enhance resilience of local transportation systems to provide better design policies for future developments.

End-to-end interoperability and workflows from building architecture design to one or more simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, Tian-Jy; Kim, Younghun

2015-02-10

An end-to-end interoperability and workflows from building architecture design to one or more simulations, in one aspect, may comprise establishing a BIM enablement platform architecture. A data model defines data entities and entity relationships for enabling the interoperability and workflows. A data definition language may be implemented that defines and creates a table schema of a database associated with the data model. Data management services and/or application programming interfaces may be implemented for interacting with the data model. Web services may also be provided for interacting with the data model via the Web. A user interface may be implemented that communicates with users and uses the BIM enablement platform architecture, the data model, the data definition language, data management services and application programming interfaces to provide functions to the users to perform work related to building information management.

Public Access to NASA's Earth Science Data

Science.gov (United States)

Behnke, J.; James, N.

2013-12-01

Many steps have been taken over the past 20 years to make NASA's Earth Science data more accessible to the public. The data collected by NASA represent a significant public investment in research. NASA holds these data in a public trust to promote comprehensive, long-term Earth science research. Consequently, NASA developed a free, open and non-discriminatory policy consistent with existing international policies to maximize access to data and to keep user costs as low as possible. These policies apply to all data archived, maintained, distributed or produced by NASA data systems. The Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is a major core capability within NASA Earth Science Data System Program. EOSDIS is designed to ingest, process, archive, and distribute data from approximately 90 instruments. Today over 6800 data products are available to the public through the EOSDIS. Last year, EOSDIS distributed over 636 million science data products to the user community, serving over 1.5 million distinct users. The system supports a variety of science disciplines including polar processes, land cover change, radiation budget, and most especially global climate change. A core philosophy of EOSDIS is that the general user is best served by providing discipline specific support for the data. To this end, EOSDIS has collocated NASA Earth science data with centers of science discipline expertise, called Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). DAACs are responsible for data management, archive and distribution of data products. There are currently twelve DAACs in the EOSDIS system. The centralized entrance point to the NASA Earth Science data collection can be found at http://earthdata.nasa.gov. Over the years, we have developed several methods for determining needs of the user community including use of the American Customer Satisfaction Index survey and a broad metrics program. Annually, we work with an independent organization (CFI Group) to send this

Pathways to HIV risk and vulnerability among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered methamphetamine users: a multi-cohort gender-based analysis

OpenAIRE

Patterson Thomas L; Shoveller Jean A; Wood Evan; Marshall Brandon DL; Montaner Julio SG; Kerr Thomas

2011-01-01

Abstract Background Methamphetamine (MA) use continues to be a major public health concern in many urban settings. We sought to assess potential relationships between MA use and individual, social, and structural HIV vulnerabilities among sexual minority (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered) drug users. Methods Beginning in 2005 and ending in 2008, 2109 drug users were enroled into one of three cohort studies in Vancouver, Canada. We analysed longitudinal data from all self-identified sex...

Transversal analysis of public policies on user fees exemptions in six West African countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ridde Valéry

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background While more and more West African countries are implementing public user fees exemption policies, there is still little knowledge available on this topic. The long time required for scientific production, combined with the needs of decision-makers, led to the creation in 2010 of a project to support implementers in aggregating knowledge on their experiences. This article presents a transversal analysis of user fees exemption policies implemented in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Togo and Senegal. Methods This was a multiple case study with several embedded levels of analysis. The cases were public user fees exemption policies selected by the participants because of their instructive value. The data used in the countries were taken from documentary analysis, interviews and questionnaires. The transversal analysis was based on a framework for studying five implementation components and five actors’ attitudes usually encountered in these policies. Results The analysis of the implementation components revealed: a majority of State financing; maintenance of centrally organized financing; a multiplicity of reimbursement methods; reimbursement delays and/or stock shortages; almost no implementation guides; a lack of support measures; communication plans that were rarely carried out, funded or renewed; health workers who were given general information but not details; poorly informed populations; almost no evaluation systems; ineffective and poorly funded coordination systems; low levels of community involvement; and incomplete referral-evacuation systems. With regard to actors’ attitudes, the analysis revealed: objectives that were appreciated by everyone; dissatisfaction with the implementation; specific tensions between healthcare providers and patients; overall satisfaction among patients, but still some problems; the perception that while the financial barrier has been removed, other barriers persist; occasionally a

Transversal analysis of public policies on user fees exemptions in six West African countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Ridde, Valéry; Queuille, Ludovic; Kafando, Yamba; Robert, Emilie

2012-11-20

While more and more West African countries are implementing public user fees exemption policies, there is still little knowledge available on this topic. The long time required for scientific production, combined with the needs of decision-makers, led to the creation in 2010 of a project to support implementers in aggregating knowledge on their experiences. This article presents a transversal analysis of user fees exemption policies implemented in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Togo and Senegal. This was a multiple case study with several embedded levels of analysis. The cases were public user fees exemption policies selected by the participants because of their instructive value. The data used in the countries were taken from documentary analysis, interviews and questionnaires. The transversal analysis was based on a framework for studying five implementation components and five actors' attitudes usually encountered in these policies. The analysis of the implementation components revealed: a majority of State financing; maintenance of centrally organized financing; a multiplicity of reimbursement methods; reimbursement delays and/or stock shortages; almost no implementation guides; a lack of support measures; communication plans that were rarely carried out, funded or renewed; health workers who were given general information but not details; poorly informed populations; almost no evaluation systems; ineffective and poorly funded coordination systems; low levels of community involvement; and incomplete referral-evacuation systems. With regard to actors' attitudes, the analysis revealed: objectives that were appreciated by everyone; dissatisfaction with the implementation; specific tensions between healthcare providers and patients; overall satisfaction among patients, but still some problems; the perception that while the financial barrier has been removed, other barriers persist; occasionally a reorganization of practices, service rationing due to lack of

Adaptation and development of software simulation methodologies for cardiovascular engineering: present and future challenges from an end-user perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Díaz-Zuccarini, V; Narracott, A J; Burriesci, G; Zervides, C; Rafiroiu, D; Jones, D; Hose, D R; Lawford, P V

2009-07-13

This paper describes the use of diverse software tools in cardiovascular applications. These tools were primarily developed in the field of engineering and the applications presented push the boundaries of the software to address events related to venous and arterial valve closure, exploration of dynamic boundary conditions or the inclusion of multi-scale boundary conditions from protein to organ levels. The future of cardiovascular research and the challenges that modellers and clinicians face from validation to clinical uptake are discussed from an end-user perspective.

A Conceptual Model for Increasing Use of Electronic Medical Records by Primary Care Physicians Through End-User Support.

Science.gov (United States)

Randhawa, Gurprit K

2017-01-01

A conceptual model for exploring the relationship between end-user support (EUS) and electronic medical record (EMR) use by primary care physicians is presented. The model was developed following a review of conceptual and theoretical frameworks related to technology adoption/use and EUS. The model includes (a) one core construct (facilitating conditions), (b) four antecedents and one postcedent of facilitating conditions, and (c) four moderators. EMR use behaviour is the key outcome of the model. The proposed conceptual model should be tested. The model may be used to inform planning and decision-making for EMR implementations to increase EMR use for benefits realization.

User-Based Information Retrieval System Interface Evaluation: An Examination of an On-Line Public Access Catalog.

Science.gov (United States)

Hert, Carol A.; Nilan, Michael S.

1991-01-01

Presents preliminary data that characterizes the relationship between what users say they are trying to accomplish when using an online public access catalog (OPAC) and their perceptions of what input to give the system. Human-machine interaction is discussed, and appropriate methods for evaluating information retrieval systems are considered. (18…

Scenarios, personas and user stories: user-centered evidence-based design representations of communicable disease investigations.

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, Anne M; Reeder, Blaine; Ramey, Judith

2013-08-01

Despite years of effort and millions of dollars spent to create unified electronic communicable disease reporting systems, the goal remains elusive. A major barrier has been a lack of understanding by system designers of communicable disease (CD) work and the public health workers who perform this work. This study reports on the application of user-centered design representations, traditionally used for improving interface design, to translate the complex CD work identified through ethnographic studies to guide designers and developers of CD systems. The purpose of this work is to: (1) better understand public health practitioners and their information workflow with respect to CD monitoring and control at a local health agency, and (2) to develop evidence-based design representations that model this CD work to inform the design of future disease surveillance systems. We performed extensive onsite semi-structured interviews, targeted work shadowing and a focus group to characterize local health agency CD workflow. Informed by principles of design ethnography and user-centered design we created persona, scenarios and user stories to accurately represent the user to system designers. We sought to convey to designers the key findings from ethnographic studies: (1) public health CD work is mobile and episodic, in contrast to current CD reporting systems, which are stationary and fixed, (2) health agency efforts are focused on CD investigation and response rather than reporting and (3) current CD information systems must conform to public health workflow to ensure their usefulness. In an effort to illustrate our findings to designers, we developed three contemporary design-support representations: persona, scenario, and user story. Through application of user-centered design principles, we were able to create design representations that illustrate complex public health communicable disease workflow and key user characteristics to inform the design of CD information

AN ANALYSIS OF THE APPLICATION END TO END QUALITY OF SERVICE ON 3G TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORK

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cahya Lukito

2012-05-01

Full Text Available End to End Quality of Service is a way to provide data package service in a telecommunication network that based on Right Price, Right Service Level, and Right Quality. The goal of this research is to analyze the impact of End to End QoS use on 3G telecommunication network for voice service and data. This research uses an analysis method by doing the application on the lab. The result that is achieved in this research shows that End to End QoS is very influental to the Service Level Agreement to the users of the telecommunication service.Keywords: End to End Qos, SLA, Diffserv

Usability Evaluation of Public Web Mapping Sites

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, C.

2014-04-01

Web mapping sites are interactive maps that are accessed via Webpages. With the rapid development of Internet and Geographic Information System (GIS) field, public web mapping sites are not foreign to people. Nowadays, people use these web mapping sites for various reasons, in that increasing maps and related map services of web mapping sites are freely available for end users. Thus, increased users of web mapping sites led to more usability studies. Usability Engineering (UE), for instance, is an approach for analyzing and improving the usability of websites through examining and evaluating an interface. In this research, UE method was employed to explore usability problems of four public web mapping sites, analyze the problems quantitatively and provide guidelines for future design based on the test results. Firstly, the development progress for usability studies were described, and simultaneously several usability evaluation methods such as Usability Engineering (UE), User-Centered Design (UCD) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) were generally introduced. Then the method and procedure of experiments for the usability test were presented in detail. In this usability evaluation experiment, four public web mapping sites (Google Maps, Bing maps, Mapquest, Yahoo Maps) were chosen as the testing websites. And 42 people, who having different GIS skills (test users or experts), gender (male or female), age and nationality, participated in this test to complete the several test tasks in different teams. The test comprised three parts: a pretest background information questionnaire, several test tasks for quantitative statistics and progress analysis, and a posttest questionnaire. The pretest and posttest questionnaires focused on gaining the verbal explanation of their actions qualitatively. And the design for test tasks targeted at gathering quantitative data for the errors and problems of the websites. Then, the results mainly from the test part were analyzed. The

Who are your users?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Lene; Salminen, joni; Jung, Soon-Gyo

2017-01-01

One of the reasons for using personas is to align user understandings across project teams and sites. As part of a larger persona study, at Al Jazeera English (AJE), we conducted 16 qualitative interviews with media producers, the end users of persona descriptions. We asked the participants about...... their understanding of a typical AJE media consumer, and the variety of answers shows that the understandings are not aligned and are built on a mix of own experiences, own self, assumptions, and data given by the company. The answers are sometimes aligned with the data-driven personas and sometimes not. The end...

Exploring Programming Paradigms with IoT and Tiles for End-Users

OpenAIRE

Satcher, Daniel Alexander

2017-01-01

This work explores visual, textual, and physical programming paradigms in order to create software that allows non-technical users to create applications using a rule-based engine. This rule-based engine prototype, Tiles Recorder, has been implemented and tested with initial users. Future research will have the possibly of expanding the current prototype or continue testing to assess further relevance.

Understanding users

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johannsen, Carl Gustav Viggo

2014-01-01

Segmentation of users can help libraries in the process of understanding user similarities and differences. Segmentation can also form the basis for selecting segments of target users and for developing tailored services for specific target segments. Several approaches and techniques have been...... tested in library contexts and the aim of this article is to identify the main approaches and to discuss their perspectives, including their strenghts and weaknesses in, especially, public library contexts. The purpose is also to prsent and discuss the results of a recent - 2014 - Danish library user...... segmentation project using computer-generated clusters. Compared to traditional marketing texts, this article also tries to identify user segments or images or metaphors by the library profession itself....

Understanding your users a practical guide to user requirements methods, tools, and techniques

CERN Document Server

Baxter, Kathy

2005-01-01

Today many companies are employing a user-centered design (UCD) process, but for most companies, usability begins and ends with the usability test. Although usability testing is a critical part of an effective user-centered life cycle, it is only one component of the UCD process. This book is focused on the requirements gathering stage, which often receives less attention than usability testing, but is equally as important. Understanding user requirements is critical to the development of a successful product. Understanding Your Users is an easy to read, easy to implement, how-to guide on

Learning from the public: citizens describe the need to improve end-of-life care access, provision and recognition across Europe

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Daveson, B.A.; Alonso, J.P.; Calanzani, N.; Ramsenthaler, C.; Gysels, M.; Antunes, B.; Moens, K.; Groeneveld, E.I.; Albers, G.; Finetti, S.; Pettenati, F.; Bausewein, C.; Higginson, I.J.; Harding, R.; Deliens, L.; Toscani, F.; Ferreira, P.L.; Ceulemans, L.; Gomes, B.

2014-01-01

Background: Despite ageing populations and increasing cancer deaths, many European countries lack national policies regarding palliative and end-of-life care. The aim of our research was to determine public views regarding end-of-life care in the face of serious illness. Methods: Implementation of a

The Terminology of Fault Zones in the Brittle Regime: Making Field Observations More Useful to the End User

Science.gov (United States)

Shipton, Z.; Caine, J. S.; Lunn, R. J.

2013-12-01

Geologists are tiny creatures living on the 2-and-a-bit-D surface of a sphere who observe essentially 1D vanishingly small portions (boreholes, roadcuts, stream and beach sections) of complex, 4D tectonic-scale structures. Field observations of fault zones are essential to understand the processes of fault growth and to make predictions of fault zone mechanical and hydraulic properties at depth. Here, we argue that a failure of geologists to communicate their knowledge effectively to other scientists/engineers can lead to unrealistic assumptions being made about fault properties, and may result in poor economic performance and a lack of robustness in industrial safety cases. Fault zones are composed of many heterogeneously distributed deformation-related elements. Low permeability features include regions of intense grain-size reduction, pressure solution, cementation and shale smears. Other elements are likely to have enhanced permeability through fractures and breccias. Slip surfaces can have either enhanced or reduced permeability depending on whether they are open or closed, and the local stress state. The highly variable nature of 1) the architecture of faults and 2) the properties of deformation-related elements demonstrates that there are many factors controlling the evolution of fault zone internal structures (fault architecture). The aim of many field studies of faults is to provide data to constrain predictions at depth. For these data to be useful, pooling of data from multiple sites is usually necessary. This effort is frequently hampered by variability in the usage of fault terminologies. In addition, these terms are often used in ways as to make it easy for 'end-users' such as petroleum reservoir engineers, mining geologists, and seismologists to mis-interpret or over-simplify the implications of field studies. Field geologists are comfortable knowing that if you walk along strike or up dip of a fault zone you will find variations in fault rock type

An assessment of business intelligence in public hospitals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rikke Gaardboe

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, DeLone and McLean's information systems success model is empirically tested on 12 public hospitals in Denmark. The study aims to investigate the factors that contribute to business intelligence (BI success. 1,352 BI end-users answered the questionnaire. A partial least square structural equation model was used to empirically test the model. We find that system quality is positively and significantly associated with use and user satisfaction, and that information quality is positively and significantly associated with user satisfaction. User satisfaction is positively and significantly related to individual impact. The other paths in the model are insignificant. Our findings also provide empirical support for the role of user satisfaction as a mechanism that mediates the relationship between information quality or system quality and individual impact. User satisfaction is not only a critical construct in the information systems success model but it also serves as a mediator. Generally, the model finds empirical support, as it has a good fit and predictive value.

Open Source Software Success Model for Iran: End-User Satisfaction Viewpoint

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Niknafs

2012-03-01

Full Text Available The open source software development is notable option for software companies. Recent years, many advantages of this software type are cause of move to that in Iran. National security and international restrictions problems and also software and services costs and more other problems intensified importance of use of this software. Users and their viewpoints are the critical success factor in the software plans. But there is not an appropriate model for open source software case in Iran. This research tried to develop a measuring open source software success model for Iran. By use of data gathered from open source users and online survey the model was tested. The results showed that components by positive effect on open source success were user satisfaction, open source community services quality, open source quality, copyright and security.

Problem drug use the public health imperative: what some of the literature says.

Science.gov (United States)

Bevan, Gez

2009-12-16

With more than 200,000 problem drug users is contact with structured treatment services in England the public health imperative behind drug treatment is great. Problem drug use for many is a chronic and relapsing condition, where "cure" is often neither a reasonable or appropriate expectation and it can further be argued that in these circumstances problem drug use is no different from any number of chronic and enduring health conditions that are managed in the health care system and therefore should be conceptualised as such. A public health approach to drug treatment emphasises the need for drug users in or accessing treatment, to reduce their harmful drug use, reduce drug use related risks such as sepsis and overdose and stay alive for longer. However a public health perspective in relation to problem drug use isn't always either apparent or readily understood and to that end there is still a significant need to continue the arguments and debate that treatment and interventions for problem and dependent drug users need to extend beyond an individualistic approach. For the purposes of discussion in this article public and population health will be used interchangeably. A recognition and acceptance that a public and population health approach to the management of problem drug users is sound public health policy also then requires a long term commitment in terms of staffing and resources where service delivery mirrors that of chronic condition management.

Estimating Snow Cover from Publicly Available Images

OpenAIRE

Fedorov, Roman; Camerada, Alessandro; Fraternali, Piero; Tagliasacchi, Marco

2016-01-01

In this paper we study the problem of estimating snow cover in mountainous regions, that is, the spatial extent of the earth surface covered by snow. We argue that publicly available visual content, in the form of user generated photographs and image feeds from outdoor webcams, can both be leveraged as additional measurement sources, complementing existing ground, satellite and airborne sensor data. To this end, we describe two content acquisition and processing pipelines that are tailored to...

OLS Dialog: An open-source front end to the Ontology Lookup Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eidhammer Ingvar

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background With the growing amount of biomedical data available in public databases it has become increasingly important to annotate data in a consistent way in order to allow easy access to this rich source of information. Annotating the data using controlled vocabulary terms and ontologies makes it much easier to compare and analyze data from different sources. However, finding the correct controlled vocabulary terms can sometimes be a difficult task for the end user annotating these data. Results In order to facilitate the location of the correct term in the correct controlled vocabulary or ontology, the Ontology Lookup Service was created. However, using the Ontology Lookup Service as a web service is not always feasible, especially for researchers without bioinformatics support. We have therefore created a Java front end to the Ontology Lookup Service, called the OLS Dialog, which can be plugged into any application requiring the annotation of data using controlled vocabulary terms, making it possible to find and use controlled vocabulary terms without requiring any additional knowledge about web services or ontology formats. Conclusions As a user-friendly open source front end to the Ontology Lookup Service, the OLS Dialog makes it straightforward to include controlled vocabulary support in third-party tools, which ultimately makes the data even more valuable to the biomedical community.

User Defined Geo-referenced Information

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Konstantas, Dimitri; Villalba, Alfredo; di Marzo Serugendo, Giovanna

2009-01-01

. In this paper we present two novel mobile and wireless collaborative services and concepts, the Hovering Information, a mobile, geo-referenced content information management system, and the QoS Information service, providing user observed end-to-end infrastructure geo-related QoS information....

The participatory public library

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Casper Hvenegaard

2016-01-01

of theoretical approaches and practical examples to obtain a varied understanding of user participation in public libraries. Research fields outside library and information science have developed a wide range of theoretical approaches on user participation. Examples from cultural policy, museum studies......Purpose From collection to connection has been a buzzword in the library world for more than a decade. This catchy phrase indicates that users are seen not only as borrowers, but as active participants. The aim of this paper is to investigate and analyse three questions in relation to user...... participation in public libraries in a Nordic perspective. How can participation in public libraries be characterised? Why should libraries deal with user participation? What kinds of different user participation can be identified in public libraries? Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a selection...

Correlations between skin hydration parameters and corneocyte-derived parameters to characterize skin conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Masaki, Hitoshi; Yamashita, Yuki; Kyotani, Daiki; Honda, Tatsuya; Takano, Kenichi; Tamura, Toshiyasu; Mizutani, Taeko; Okano, Yuri

2018-03-30

Skin hydration is generally assessed using the parameters of skin surface water content (SWC) and trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL). To date, few studies have characterized skin conditions using correlations between skin hydration parameters and corneocyte parameters. The parameters SWC and TEWL allow the classification of skin conditions into four distinct Groups. The purpose of this study was to assess the characteristics of skin conditions classified by SWC and TEWL for correlations with parameters from corneocytes. A human volunteer test was conducted that measured SWC and TEWL. As corneocyte-derived parameters, the size and thick abrasion ratios, the ratio of sulfhydryl groups and disulfide bonds (SH/SS) and CP levels were analyzed. Volunteers were classified by their median SWC and TEWL values into 4 Groups: Group I (high SWC/low TEWL), Group II (high SWC/high TEWL), Group III (low SWC/low TEWL), and Group IV (low SWC/high TEWL). Group IV showed a significantly smaller size of corneocytes. Groups III and IV had significantly higher thick abrasion ratios and CP levels. Group I had a significantly lower SH/SS value. The SWC/TEWL value showed a decline in order from Group I to Group IV. Groups classified by their SWC and TEWL values showed characteristic skin conditions. We propose that the SWC and TEWL ratio is a comprehensive parameter to assess skin conditions. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Development of a Dynamic, End-to-End Free Piston Stirling Convertor Model

Science.gov (United States)

Regan, Timothy F.; Gerber, Scott S.; Roth, Mary Ellen

2003-01-01

A dynamic model for a free-piston Stirling convertor is being developed at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The model is an end-to-end system model that includes the cycle thermodynamics, the dynamics, and electrical aspects of the system. The subsystems of interest are the heat source, the springs, the moving masses, the linear alternator, the controller and the end-user load. The envisioned use of the model will be in evaluating how changes in a subsystem could affect the operation of the convertor. The model under development will speed the evaluation of improvements to a subsystem and aid in determining areas in which most significant improvements may be found. One of the first uses of the end-to-end model will be in the development of controller architectures. Another related area is in evaluating changes to details in the linear alternator.

Assessing the moderating effect of the end user in consumer behavior: the acceptance of technological implants to increase innate human capacities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jorge ePelegrín-Borondo

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Today, technological implants are being developed to increase innate human capacities, such as memory or calculation speed, and to endow us with new ones, such as the remote control of machines. This study’s aim was twofold: first, to introduce a Cognitive-Affective-Normative model of technology acceptance to explain the intention to use this technology in the field of consumer behavior; and second, to analyze the differences in the intention to use it based on whether the intended implant recipient is oneself or one’s child (i.e., the moderating effect of the end user. A multi-group analysis was performed to compare the results between the two groups: implant for me (Group 1 and implant for my child (Group 2. The model largely explains the intention to use the insideable technology for the specified groups (variance explained (R2 of over 0.70 in both cases. The most important variables were found to be positive emotions and (positive subjective norm. This underscores the need to broaden the range of factors considered to be decisive in technology acceptance to include variables related to consumers’ emotions. Moreover, statistically significant differences were found between the for me and for my child models for perceived ease of use and subjective norm. These findings confirm the moderating effect of the end user on new insideable technology acceptance.

Assessing the Moderating Effect of the End User in Consumer Behavior: The Acceptance of Technological Implants to Increase Innate Human Capacities.

Science.gov (United States)

Pelegrín-Borondo, Jorge; Reinares-Lara, Eva; Olarte-Pascual, Cristina; Garcia-Sierra, Marta

2016-01-01

Today, technological implants are being developed to increase innate human capacities, such as memory or calculation speed, and to endow us with new ones, such as the remote control of machines. This study's aim was two-fold: first, to introduce a Cognitive-Affective-Normative (CAN) model of technology acceptance to explain the intention to use this technology in the field of consumer behavior; and second, to analyze the differences in the intention to use it based on whether the intended implant recipient is oneself or one's child (i.e., the moderating effect of the end user). A multi-group analysis was performed to compare the results between the two groups: implant "for me" (Group 1) and implant "for my child" (Group 2). The model largely explains the intention to use the insideable technology for the specified groups [variance explained (R (2)) of over 0.70 in both cases]. The most important variables were found to be "positive emotions" and (positive) "subjective norm." This underscores the need to broaden the range of factors considered to be decisive in technology acceptance to include variables related to consumers' emotions. Moreover, statistically significant differences were found between the "for me" and "for my child" models for "perceived ease of use (PEU)" and "subjective norm." These findings confirm the moderating effect of the end user on new insideable technology acceptance.

The physical work environment and end-user requirements: Investigating marine engineering officers' operational demands and ship design.

Science.gov (United States)

Mallam, Steven C; Lundh, Monica

2016-08-12

Physical environments influence how individuals perceive a space and behave within it. Previous research has revealed deficiencies in ship engine department work environments, and their impact on crew productivity, health and wellbeing. Connect operational task demands to pragmatic physical design and layout solutions by implementing a user-centric perspective. Three focus groups, each consisting of three marine engineers participated in this study. Focus groups were divided into two sessions: first, to investigate the end-user's operational requirements and their relationship with ship physical design and layout. Second, criteria formulated from group discussions were applied to a ship design case study. All focus group sessions were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data were analyzed using Grounded Theory. Design choices made in a ships general arrangement were described to inherently influence how individuals and teams are able to function within the system. Participants detailed logistical relationships between key areas, stressing that the work environment and physical linkages must allow for flexibility of work organization and task execution. Traditional engine control paradigms do not allow effective mitigation of traditional engine department challenges. The influence of technology and modernization of ship systems can facilitate improvement of physical environments and work organization if effectively utilized.

Customer co-creation in innovations : a protocol for innovating with end users

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Weber, M.E.A.

2011-01-01

The transition into the information revolution or age has made it possible for consumers and users to interfere in the conceptualization, design, production and sales processes of firms. Consumers and users can express their needs in more direct way to producing firms, they have access to the way

Patient and public involvement in scope development for a palliative care health technology assessment in europe

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brereton, L.; Goyder, E.; Ingleton, C.; Gardiner, C.; Chilcott, J.; Wilt, G.J. van der; Oortwijn, W.; Mozygemba, K.; Lysdahl, K.B.; Sacchini, D.; Lepper, W.

2014-01-01

BACKGROUND: Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) helps to ensure that study findings are useful to end users but is under-developed in Health Technology Assessment (HTA). "INTEGRATE-HTA, (a co-funded European Union project -grant agreement 30614) is developing new methods to assess complex health

Sustainable user innovation from a policy perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Kristian Roed; Reisch, Lucia A.; Thøgersen, John

2016-01-01

these drivers and barriers. Third, the paper suggests how this form of innovation may be ameliorated from a policy perspective. The paper reveals that the literature on end-user innovation within sustainability is both diverse and compartmentalized. Hence, policy mechanisms designed to support this type......Sustainable innovation is typically viewed through the lens of the producer innovator, whereas end-users (or consumers) are perceived to play only a peripheral role in the development of sustainable products and services. A growing literature stream, however, sharply departs from this view...... by suggesting that end-users often play a critical role with regard to sustainable innovation. To further consolidate this field, the purpose of this paper is threefold. First, the paper summarizes and synthesizes key insights within the field based on 84 papers published from 1992 to 2015. Second, we offer...

Sustainable user innovation from a policy perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Kristian Roed; Reisch, Lucia A.; Thøgersen, John

2016-01-01

Sustainable innovation is typically viewed through the lens of the producer innovator, whereas end-users (or consumers) are perceived to play only a peripheral role in the development of sustainable products and services. A growing literature stream, however, sharply departs from this view...... by suggesting that end-users often play a critical role with regard to sustainable innovation. To further consolidate this field, the purpose of this paper is threefold. First, the paper summarizes and synthesizes key insights within the field based on 84 papers published from 1992 to 2015. Second, we offer...... these drivers and barriers. Third, the paper suggests how this form of innovation may be ameliorated from a policy perspective. The paper reveals that the literature on end-user innovation within sustainability is both diverse and compartmentalized. Hence, policy mechanisms designed to support this type...

Public storage for the Open Science Grid

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Levshina, T; Guru, A

2014-01-01

The Open Science Grid infrastructure doesn't provide efficient means to manage public storage offered by participating sites. A Virtual Organization that relies on opportunistic storage has difficulties finding appropriate storage, verifying its availability, and monitoring its utilization. The involvement of the production manager, site administrators and VO support personnel is required to allocate or rescind storage space. One of the main requirements for Public Storage implementation is that it should use SRM or GridFTP protocols to access the Storage Elements provided by the OSG Sites and not put any additional burden on sites. By policy, no new services related to Public Storage can be installed and run on OSG sites. Opportunistic users also have difficulties in accessing the OSG Storage Elements during the execution of jobs. A typical users' data management workflow includes pre-staging common data on sites before a job's execution, then storing for a subsequent download to a local institution the output data produced by a job on a worker node. When the amount of data is significant, the only means to temporarily store the data is to upload it to one of the Storage Elements. In order to do that, a user's job should be aware of the storage location, availability, and free space. After a successful data upload, users must somehow keep track of the data's location for future access. In this presentation we propose solutions for storage management and data handling issues in the OSG. We are investigating the feasibility of using the integrated Rule-Oriented Data System developed at RENCI as a front-end service to the OSG SEs. The current architecture, state of deployment and performance test results will be discussed. We will also provide examples of current usage of the system by beta-users.

Public storage for the Open Science Grid

Science.gov (United States)

Levshina, T.; Guru, A.

2014-06-01

The Open Science Grid infrastructure doesn't provide efficient means to manage public storage offered by participating sites. A Virtual Organization that relies on opportunistic storage has difficulties finding appropriate storage, verifying its availability, and monitoring its utilization. The involvement of the production manager, site administrators and VO support personnel is required to allocate or rescind storage space. One of the main requirements for Public Storage implementation is that it should use SRM or GridFTP protocols to access the Storage Elements provided by the OSG Sites and not put any additional burden on sites. By policy, no new services related to Public Storage can be installed and run on OSG sites. Opportunistic users also have difficulties in accessing the OSG Storage Elements during the execution of jobs. A typical users' data management workflow includes pre-staging common data on sites before a job's execution, then storing for a subsequent download to a local institution the output data produced by a job on a worker node. When the amount of data is significant, the only means to temporarily store the data is to upload it to one of the Storage Elements. In order to do that, a user's job should be aware of the storage location, availability, and free space. After a successful data upload, users must somehow keep track of the data's location for future access. In this presentation we propose solutions for storage management and data handling issues in the OSG. We are investigating the feasibility of using the integrated Rule-Oriented Data System developed at RENCI as a front-end service to the OSG SEs. The current architecture, state of deployment and performance test results will be discussed. We will also provide examples of current usage of the system by beta-users.

Spatial-temporal variability of soil water content in a cropland-shelterbelt-desert site in an arid inland river basin of Northwest China

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Qin; Gao, Guangyao; Hu, Wei; Fu, Bojie

2016-09-01

Knowledge of the spatial-temporal variability of soil water content (SWC) is critical for understanding a range of hydrological processes. In this study, the spatial variance and temporal stability of SWC were investigated in a cropland-shelterbelt-desert site at the oasis-desert ecotone in the middle of the Heihe River Basin, China. The SWC was measured on 65 occasions to a depth of 2.8 m at 45 locations during two growing seasons from 2012 to 2013. The standard deviation of the SWC versus the mean SWC exhibited a convex upward relationship in the shelterbelt with the greatest spatial variation at the SWC of around 22.0%, whereas a linearly increasing relationship was observed for the cropland, desert, and land use pattern. The standard deviation of the relative difference was positively linearly correlated with the SWC (p < 0.05) for the land use pattern, whereas such a relationship was not found in the three land use types. The spatial pattern of the SWC was more time stable for the land use pattern, followed by desert, shelterbelt, and cropland. The spatial pattern of SWC changed dramatically among different soil layers. The locations representing the mean SWC varied with the depth, and no location could represent the whole soil profile due to different soil texture, root distribution and irrigation management. The representative locations of each soil layer could be used to estimate the mean SWC well. The statistics of temporal stability of the SWC could be presented equally well with a low frequency of observation (30-day interval) as with a high frequency (5-day interval). Sampling frequency had little effect on the selection of the representative locations of the field mean SWC. This study provides useful information for designing the optimal strategy for sampling SWC at the oasis-desert ecotone in the arid inland river basin.

Partial QoS-Aware Opportunistic Relay Selection Over Two-Hop Channels: End-to-End Performance Under Spectrum-Sharing Requirements

KAUST Repository

Yuli Yang,; Hao Ma,; Aissa, Sonia

2014-01-01

it with transmission constraints imposed on the transmit power budget and interference to other users. By analyzing the statistics of received SNRs in the first and second hops, we obtain the end-to-end PLR of this scheme in closed form under the considered scenario

Early user involvement in designing intelligent products and environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuijt-Evers, L.; Steen, M.

2008-01-01

A literature review was conducted on user involvement in design. The focus of the review was on how researchers and designers attempt to cooperate with end-users, with the goal of making a better match with end-users’ needs and preferences. The main goal of the research was to get insight in which

An end-users oriented methodology for enhancing the integration of knowledge on soil-water-sediment systems in River Basin Management: an illustration from the AquaTerra project.

Science.gov (United States)

Merly, Corinne; Chapman, Antony; Mouvet, Christophe

2012-01-01

Research results in environmental and socio-economic sciences are often under-used by stakeholders involved in the management of natural resources. To minimise this gap, the FP6 EU interdisciplinary project AquaTerra (AT) developed an end-users' integration methodology in order to ensure that the data, knowledge and tools related to the soil-water-sediment system that were generated by the project were delivered in a meaningful way for end-users, thus improving their uptake. The methodology and examples of its application are presented in this paper. From the 408 project deliverables, 96 key findings were identified, 53 related to data and knowledge, and 43 describing advanced tools. River Basin Management (RBM) stakeholders workshops identified 8 main RBM issues and 25 specific stakeholders' questions related to RBM which were classified into seven groups of cross-cutting issues, namely scale, climate change, non-climatic change, the need for systemic approaches, communication and participation, international and inter-basin coordination and collaboration, and the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. The integration methodology enabled an assessment of how AT key findings meet stakeholders' demands, and for each main RBM issue and for each specific question, described the added-value of the AT project in terms of knowledge and tools generated, key parameters to consider, and recommendations that can be made to stakeholders and the wider scientific community. Added value and limitations of the integration methodology and its outcomes are discussed and recommendations are provided to further improve integration methodology and bridge the gaps between scientific research data and their potential uptake by end-users.

5G Visions of User Privacy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Lene Tolstrup; Khajuria, Samant; Skouby, Knud Erik

2015-01-01

Currently, the discussions are going on the elements and definition of 5G networks. One of the elements in this discussion is how to provide for user controlled privacy for securing users' digital interaction. The purpose of this paper is to present elements of user controlled privacy needed...... for the future 5G networks. The paper concludes that an ecosystem consisting of Trusted Third Party between the end user and the service providers as a distributed system could be integrated to secure the perspective of user controlled privacy for future systems...

Proficiency Testing for Bacterial Whole Genome Sequencing: An End-User Survey of Current Capabilities, Requirements and Priorities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Moran-Gilad, Jacob; Sintchenko, Vitali; Karlsmose Pedersen, Susanne

2015-01-01

The advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) has revolutionised public health microbiology. Given the potential impact of NGS, it is paramount to ensure standardisation of ‘wet’ laboratory and bioinformatic protocols and promote comparability of methods employed by different laboratories...... and their outputs. Therefore, one of the ambitious goals of the Global Microbial Identifier (GMI) initiative (http://​www.​globalmicrobiali​dentifier.​org/​) has been to establish a mechanism for inter-laboratory NGS proficiency testing (PT). This report presents findings from the survey recently conducted...... by Working Group 4 among GMI members in order to ascertain NGS end-use requirements and attitudes towards NGS PT. The survey identified the high professional diversity of laboratories engaged in NGS-based public health projects and the wide range of capabilities within institutions, at a notable range...

Proficiency testing for bacterial whole genome sequencing: an end-user survey of current capabilities, requirements and priorities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Moran-Gilad, Jacob; Sintchenko, Vitali; Karlsmose Pedersen, Susanne

2015-01-01

The advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) has revolutionised public health microbiology. Given the potential impact of NGS, it is paramount to ensure standardisation of 'wet' laboratory and bioinformatic protocols and promote comparability of methods employed by different laboratories...... and their outputs. Therefore, one of the ambitious goals of the Global Microbial Identifier (GMI) initiative (http://www.globalmicrobialidentifier.org/) has been to establish a mechanism for inter-laboratory NGS proficiency testing (PT). This report presents findings from the survey recently conducted by Working...... Group 4 among GMI members in order to ascertain NGS end-use requirements and attitudes towards NGS PT. The survey identified the high professional diversity of laboratories engaged in NGS-based public health projects and the wide range of capabilities within institutions, at a notable range of costs...

Delimitation of the user in the creation stages, modeling and prototyping of the clothing product

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elen Makara

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Because of complaints of clothes that do not fit well and bother, or even the difficulty of acquiring a suitable outfit for an occasion, to the clothing industry may be failing to consider the user in developing their products. The aim of this paper was to determine whether the steps for creating, modeling and prototyping of garment products the user is being considered, as for a design project is right to consider it at all stages of development. For this a literature review and interviews with professionals was held. With the results we can see the difficulty that professionals have to define the public to create the pieces. We also found that most professionals understand the importance of measures table however end up adjusting the empirically, and the realization of prototype testing many choose models that does not match the reality of the public company

Flippable User Interfaces for Internationalization

OpenAIRE

Khaddam, Iyad; Vanderdonckt, Jean; 3rd ACM Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems EICS’2011

2011-01-01

The language reading direction is probably one of the most determinant factors influencing the successful internationalization of graphical user interfaces, beyond their mere translation. Western languages are read from left to right and top to bottom, while Arabic languages and Hebrew are read from right to left and top to bottom, and Oriental languages are read from top to bottom. In order to address this challenge, we introduce flippable user interfaces that enable the end user to change t...

Analysis of a DSM program using an end use model; End use model wo mochiita DSM program no bunseki

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Asano, H.; Takahashi, M.; Okada, K. [Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Tokyo (Japan)

1997-01-30

An end use model used in the United States who is advanced in demand-side management (DSM) was used to discuss possibilities of designing and evaluating Japan`s future DSM measures. The end use model assumes energy demand based on such factors as device characteristics, meteorological data, energy prices, user characteristics, market characteristics and DSM measures. The model calculates energy demand amount by end uses basically by multiplying assumptions on device unit requirement, device retention rate, and number of users. A representative tool as an end use model that handles load shapes is the hourly electric load model (HELM). It assumes an annual load curve and predicts a maximum system load. The present discussions have performed estimation on demand for consumer use air conditioners in a day in which a maximum summer load occurs in a reference year, estimation on load in a maximum load day in an estimated year, and estimation on weather sensitivity of loads. 5 refs., 5 figs.

User participation in healthcare IT development: a developers' viewpoint in Finland.

Science.gov (United States)

Martikainen, Susanna; Korpela, Mikko; Tiihonen, Tuija

2014-03-01

Recent research showed that physicians in Finland were highly critical of their information technology (IT) systems. They were also critical of the methods of collaboration with the developers of the health IT systems (HITS) in use at the time of the questionnaire. This study turned the set-up around and asked systems developers the same questions about collaboration. What is developers' view on end user participation in HITS development at the moment? How would developers wish end users to participate in systems development? Do the developers' views differ from the physicians' (end users') views of the current state of collaboration in developing IT systems? A web-based questionnaire study was conducted in one of the major HITS provider companies in Finland among all developers, including software developers and customer support and sales personnel. Both quantitative and free-text questions of a previous study were adapted for the purpose. The responses were analyzed with qualitative and basic quantitative methods. The response rate of the questionnaire was 37% and 136 responses were received. The developers who responded were experienced workers; 81% of the respondents had 6 years or more of work experience in IT systems development and 35% of them had 6 years or more of work experience in the healthcare domain. Almost three-quarters (72%) of the respondents agreed with the statement 'I work with users'. Almost all the developers (90%) thought that they are interested in user feedback and also 81% thought that they take the end users' opinions and experiences into account when developing software. A majority of the developers (57%) considered that corrections and modifications are currently not implemented quickly enough. The most popular means of user participation were that 'users would present their work and needs related to it in their workplace' (76%), followed by user groups (75%). The developers suggested many traditional user-centered and usability design

On end-to-end performance of MIMO multiuser in cognitive radio networks

KAUST Repository

Yang, Yuli

2011-12-01

In this paper, a design for the multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) multiuser transmission in the cognitive radio network is developed and its end-to-end performance is investigated under spectrum-sharing constraints. Firstly, the overall average packet error rate is analyzed by considering the channel state information feedback delay and the multiuser scheduling. Then, we provide corresponding numerical results to measure the performance evaluation for several separate scenarios, which presents a convenient tool for the cognitive radio network design with multiple secondary MIMO users. © 2011 IEEE.

On end-to-end performance of MIMO multiuser in cognitive radio networks

KAUST Repository

Yang, Yuli; Aissa, Sonia

2011-01-01

In this paper, a design for the multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) multiuser transmission in the cognitive radio network is developed and its end-to-end performance is investigated under spectrum-sharing constraints. Firstly, the overall average packet error rate is analyzed by considering the channel state information feedback delay and the multiuser scheduling. Then, we provide corresponding numerical results to measure the performance evaluation for several separate scenarios, which presents a convenient tool for the cognitive radio network design with multiple secondary MIMO users. © 2011 IEEE.

News from the library: Lost in citations? Try EndNote Web

CERN Multimedia

CERN Library

2010-01-01

For a few months now, CERN users have had EndNote Web at their disposal, which comes together with access to the Web of Science online database. This bibliographic management tool will ease your work when collecting and organizing citations related to a research paper you are writing. It allows you to collect publication references from a wide variety of online sources via an online search, import text files or directly capture a bibliographic reference on a webpage with the Firefox EndNote plug-in.   You can store up to 10,000 references, which you can access from any computer and share with your colleagues. Thanks to this tool, you can format in one click your bibliography, according to the style of the journal you intend to submit your paper to. Last but not least, if you need to later export references already stored in EndNote Web, these can be saved in a standardized format, which makes them easy to manipulate and portable to other formats. The CERN Library will soon organize a training se...

The effectiveness of sharp end and rounded end bristle toothbrush

OpenAIRE

Paulus Januar; Anastasia Susetyo; Ratih Widyastuti

2010-01-01

Background: Numerous designs of manual toothbrush are available in the market with the claims of superiority in plaque removal. It often makes the public confuse which is the best design. The sharp end bristle toothbrush is a modification that commercially available in the market. Purpose: The objective of the study was to compare the effectiveness in plaque removal of the sharp end bristle toothbrush and the rounded end bristle toothbrush. Methods: This clinical trial was a double blind cros...

78 FR 20093 - Notice of Availability for Public Comment on the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System Advisory...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-03

... education, training, and experience to evaluate scientific and technical information related to the design... Web site URL: http://www.ioos.noaa.gov/advisorycommittee . For the public unable to access the... upgrade of technology components of IOOS; identification of end-user communities, their needs for...

N terminus of Swr1 binds to histone H2AZ and provides a platform for subunit assembly in the chromatin remodeling complex.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Wei-Hua; Wu, Chwen-Huey; Ladurner, Andreas; Mizuguchi, Gaku; Wei, Debbie; Xiao, Hua; Luk, Ed; Ranjan, Anand; Wu, Carl

2009-03-06

Variant histone H2AZ-containing nucleosomes are involved in the regulation of gene expression. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, chromatin deposition of histone H2AZ is mediated by the fourteen-subunit SWR1 complex, which catalyzes ATP-dependent exchange of nucleosomal histone H2A for H2AZ. Previous work defined the role of seven SWR1 subunits (Swr1 ATPase, Swc2, Swc3, Arp6, Swc5, Yaf9, and Swc6) in maintaining complex integrity and H2AZ histone replacement activity. Here we examined the function of three additional SWR1 subunits, bromodomain containing Bdf1, actin-related protein Arp4 and Swc7, by analyzing affinity-purified mutant SWR1 complexes. We observed that depletion of Arp4 (arp4-td) substantially impaired the association of Bdf1, Yaf9, and Swc4. In contrast, loss of either Bdf1 or Swc7 had minimal effects on overall complex integrity. Furthermore, the basic H2AZ histone replacement activity of SWR1 in vitro required Arp4, but not Bdf1 or Swc7. Thus, three out of fourteen SWR1 subunits, Bdf1, Swc7, and previously noted Swc3, appear to have roles auxiliary to the basic histone replacement activity. The N-terminal region of the Swr1 ATPase subunit is necessary and sufficient to direct association of Bdf1 and Swc7, as well as Arp4, Act1, Yaf9 and Swc4. This same region contains an additional H2AZ-H2B specific binding site, distinct from the previously identified Swc2 subunit. These findings suggest that one SWR1 enzyme might be capable of binding two H2AZ-H2B dimers, and provide further insight on the hierarchy and interdependency of molecular interactions within the SWR1 complex.

Development of a Virtual Reality Solution for End User Involvement in Interior Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svidt, Kjeld; Sørensen, Jesper Bendix

2016-01-01

This paper describes development and test of a prototype Virtual Reality system aimed at user involvement in hospital design. User needs and functional requirements are captured by interviews and observations in three case studies of ongoing projects in Denmark. Based on the identified requirements......, a prototype is developed based on a multitouch display for manipulating room layout in a floor plan view and a set of Oculus Rift glasses for experiencing the design in Virtual Reality. Together with users from the studied cases, test scenarios were performed to identify possible benefits, challenges...

The Effect of Transport Accessibility on the Social Inclusion of Wheelchair Users: A Mixed Method Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raquel Velho

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In recent years the accessibility of London buses has improved with the introduction of ramps and wheelchair priority areas. These advances are meant to remove physical barriers to entering the bus, but new conflicts have arisen particularly over the physical space aboard. We aimed to research the barriers faced by wheelchair users in public transport using a mixed methods approach to establish the breadth of issues faced by wheelchair users. To this end we quantified the push-force used alight a bus and a study to understand the coping mechanisms used by people to propel up a ramp. This quantitative approach found push forces which resulted in a load of 2 to 3 times body weight being transferred through people’s shoulders, forces which can be directly linked to shoulder injury. This could disable the user further, preventing them from being able to push their wheelchair. Alongside the quantitative study, we conducted qualitative research comprising of a number of in-depth interviews with wheelchair users about the barriers they face in public transport. Our main claim, highlighted through this interdisciplinary collaboration, is that proposed ‘solutions’ to accessibility, such as ramps, often generate problems of their own. These barriers can affect the life of wheelchair users, impacting on their confidence and causing social isolation. These can be long-term in nature or immediate.

Participatory soil and water conservation planning using a financial analysis tool in the west usambara highlands of tanzania

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tenge, A.J.M.; Okoba, B.O.; Sterk, G.

2007-01-01

Despite decades of soil and water conservation (SWC) efforts in Tanzania, the adoption of the recommended SWC measures by farmers is minimal. In the past, SWC plans did not incorporate farmers' knowledge, and the economics of SWC was not given much attention at the planning stage. This research

User-Friendly End Station at the ALS for Nanostructure Characterization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

F. J. Himpsel; P. Alivisatos; T. Callcott; J. Carlisle; J. D. Denlinger; D. E. Eastman; D. Ederer; Z. Hussain; L.J. Terminello; T. Van Buuren; R. S. Williams

2006-01-01

This is a construction project for an end station at the ALS, which is optimized for measuring NEXAFS of nanostructures with fluorescence detection. Compared to the usual electron yield detection, fluorescence is able to probe buried structures and is sensitive to dilute species, such as nanostructures supported on a substrate. Since the quantum yield for fluorescence is 10 -4 -10 -5 times smaller than for electrons in the soft x-ray regime, such an end station requires bright undulator beamlines at the ALS. In order to optimize the setup for a wide range of applications, two end stations were built: (1) A simple, mobile chamber with efficient photon detection (>10 4 times the solid angle collection of fluorescence spectrographs) and a built-in magnet for MCD measurements at EPU beamlines (Fig. 1 left). It allows rapid mapping the electronic states of nanostructures (nanocrystals, nanowires, tailored magnetic materials, buried interfaces, biologically-functionalized surfaces). It was used with BL 8.0 (linear polarized undulator) and BL 4.0 (variable polarization). (2) A sophisticated, stationary end station operating at Beamline 8.0 (Fig. 1 right). It contains an array of surface characterization instruments and a micro-focus capability for scanning across graded samples (wedges for thickness variation, stoichiometry gradients, and general variations of the sample preparation conditions for optimizing nanostructures)

SPoRT - An End-to-End R2O Activity

Science.gov (United States)

Jedlovec, Gary J.

2009-01-01

Established in 2002 to demonstrate the weather and forecasting application of real-time EOS measurements, the Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) program has grown to be an end-to-end research to operations activity focused on the use of advanced NASA modeling and data assimilation approaches, nowcasting techniques, and unique high-resolution multispectral observational data applications from EOS satellites to improve short-term weather forecasts on a regional and local scale. SPoRT currently partners with several universities and other government agencies for access to real-time data and products, and works collaboratively with them and operational end users at 13 WFOs to develop and test the new products and capabilities in a "test-bed" mode. The test-bed simulates key aspects of the operational environment without putting constraints on the forecaster workload. Products and capabilities which show utility in the test-bed environment are then transitioned experimentally into the operational environment for further evaluation and assessment. SPoRT focuses on a suite of data and products from MODIS, AMSR-E, and AIRS on the NASA Terra and Aqua satellites, and total lightning measurements from ground-based networks. Some of the observations are assimilated into or used with various versions of the WRF model to provide supplemental forecast guidance to operational end users. SPoRT is enhancing partnerships with NOAA / NESDIS for new product development and data access to exploit the remote sensing capabilities of instruments on the NPOESS satellites to address short term weather forecasting problems. The VIIRS and CrIS instruments on the NPP and follow-on NPOESS satellites provide similar observing capabilities to the MODIS and AIRS instruments on Terra and Aqua. SPoRT will be transitioning existing and new capabilities into the AWIIPS II environment to continue the continuity of its activities.

Automatic public access to documents and maps stored on and internal secure system.

Science.gov (United States)

Trench, James; Carter, Mary

2013-04-01

The Geological Survey of Ireland operates a Document Management System for providing documents and maps stored internally in high resolution and in a high level secure environment, to an external service where the documents are automatically presented in a lower resolution to members of the public. Security is devised through roles and Individual Users where role level and folder level can be set. The application is an electronic document/data management (EDM) system which has a Geographical Information System (GIS) component integrated to allow users to query an interactive map of Ireland for data that relates to a particular area of interest. The data stored in the database consists of Bedrock Field Sheets, Bedrock Notebooks, Bedrock Maps, Geophysical Surveys, Geotechnical Maps & Reports, Groundwater, GSI Publications, Marine, Mine Records, Mineral Localities, Open File, Quaternary and Unpublished Reports. The Konfig application Tool is both an internal and public facing application. It acts as a tool for high resolution data entry which are stored in a high resolution vault. The public facing application is a mirror of the internal application and differs only in that the application furnishes high resolution data into low resolution format which is stored in a low resolution vault thus, making the data web friendly to the end user for download.

40 CFR Appendix B to Subpart E of... - Federal Guidelines-User Charges for Operation and Maintenance of Publicly Owned Treatment Works

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... charges is to distribute the cost of operation and maintenance of publicly owned treatment works to the... not be acceptable. Savings resulting from economies of scale should be apportioned to all users or...

Modeling soil water content for vegetation modeling improvement

Science.gov (United States)

Cianfrani, Carmen; Buri, Aline; Zingg, Barbara; Vittoz, Pascal; Verrecchia, Eric; Guisan, Antoine

2016-04-01

Soil water content (SWC) is known to be important for plants as it affects the physiological processes regulating plant growth. Therefore, SWC controls plant distribution over the Earth surface, ranging from deserts and grassland to rain forests. Unfortunately, only a few data on SWC are available as its measurement is very time consuming and costly and needs specific laboratory tools. The scarcity of SWC measurements in geographic space makes it difficult to model and spatially project SWC over larger areas. In particular, it prevents its inclusion in plant species distribution model (SDMs) as predictor. The aims of this study were, first, to test a new methodology allowing problems of the scarcity of SWC measurements to be overpassed and second, to model and spatially project SWC in order to improve plant SDMs with the inclusion of SWC parameter. The study was developed in four steps. First, SWC was modeled by measuring it at 10 different pressures (expressed in pF and ranging from pF=0 to pF=4.2). The different pF represent different degrees of soil water availability for plants. An ensemble of bivariate models was built to overpass the problem of having only a few SWC measurements (n = 24) but several predictors to include in the model. Soil texture (clay, silt, sand), organic matter (OM), topographic variables (elevation, aspect, convexity), climatic variables (precipitation) and hydrological variables (river distance, NDWI) were used as predictors. Weighted ensemble models were built using only bivariate models with adjusted-R2 > 0.5 for each SWC at different pF. The second step consisted in running plant SDMs including modeled SWC jointly with the conventional topo-climatic variable used for plant SDMs. Third, SDMs were only run using the conventional topo-climatic variables. Finally, comparing the models obtained in the second and third steps allowed assessing the additional predictive power of SWC in plant SDMs. SWC ensemble models remained very good, with

Energy sources consumption: end uses, efficiency and productivity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martin, J.M.

2005-01-01

This document analyzes the impact of the choices made by all actors, from the energy producers to the process and infrastructure designers and the end users, in the evolution of energy consumptions. Some very little improvements made in the energy efficiency of appliances can become equivalent to the production of several oil fields or power plants at the world scale. More efficient energy uses will not replace the additional productions but they must be considered together to be compared. The energy files are first analyzed as a whole in order to show the hidden field of energy choices. In this framework, users, designers and fitters have to face very different choices because they consider efficiency improvements under different aspects: scientifical, technical, economical and social (public information and habits). These differences in efficiency uses have a time and spatial impact on the growth of energy consumption. The economical and social factors influence the collective way to consume energy and are expressed by the energy intensity of the economic activity. The last part of this document analyzes the influence of this notion on the world energy consumption scenarios at the 2050 prospects. (J.S.)

A SciCode web site: building bridges between owners and users

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gaver, C. [Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Mississauga, Ontario (Canada)

2000-07-01

Web technology is a tool that is gaining in popularity. Properly used, it is a powerful tool that has tremendous potential for providing better communication. It can also be effective as a training tool, an information-sharing tool, and as a means of simplifying work load, and facilitating compliance with Company procedures. The issue is one of communication. The challenge facing many large or geographically-distributed companies is how to communicate information to their staff and to their customers. Procedures overseeing quality-assurance programs and commitment to ensuring the quality of products need to be communicated to customers. Equally important is customer feedback. This information from users becomes the kernel for future product development. The issue is even more important when speaking of scientific analysis computer programs (SciCodes). Regular ongoing communication between Primary Holders and End Users is essential in the development and use of SciCodes. Without this communication, quality assurance is at risk. Quality assurance processes are an integral part in developing any SciCode. End Users also have a role to play. Primary Holders keep End Users informed of improvements or new releases. End Users must ensure they act on this information. Equally important, End Users must communicate problems or suggestions to the Primary Holder to remedy or incorporate in new releases. In other words, quality assurance processes become most effective when both Primary Holder and End Users are involved. This requires communication. Web technology offers AECL a means of providing regular, ongoing communication between its scientific-code (SciCode) Primary Holders-Owner Branches and the End Users of these codes within and outside the Company. Using the experience we have gained by developing the Y2K SciCode Web sites, setting up online documentation systems, and incorporating lessons learned from the Y2K project we have developed a model that is geared to

A SciCode web site: building bridges between owners and users

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gaver, C.

2000-01-01

Web technology is a tool that is gaining in popularity. Properly used, it is a powerful tool that has tremendous potential for providing better communication. It can also be effective as a training tool, an information-sharing tool, and as a means of simplifying work load, and facilitating compliance with Company procedures. The issue is one of communication. The challenge facing many large or geographically-distributed companies is how to communicate information to their staff and to their customers. Procedures overseeing quality-assurance programs and commitment to ensuring the quality of products need to be communicated to customers. Equally important is customer feedback. This information from users becomes the kernel for future product development. The issue is even more important when speaking of scientific analysis computer programs (SciCodes). Regular ongoing communication between Primary Holders and End Users is essential in the development and use of SciCodes. Without this communication, quality assurance is at risk. Quality assurance processes are an integral part in developing any SciCode. End Users also have a role to play. Primary Holders keep End Users informed of improvements or new releases. End Users must ensure they act on this information. Equally important, End Users must communicate problems or suggestions to the Primary Holder to remedy or incorporate in new releases. In other words, quality assurance processes become most effective when both Primary Holder and End Users are involved. This requires communication. Web technology offers AECL a means of providing regular, ongoing communication between its scientific-code (SciCode) Primary Holders-Owner Branches and the End Users of these codes within and outside the Company. Using the experience we have gained by developing the Y2K SciCode Web sites, setting up online documentation systems, and incorporating lessons learned from the Y2K project we have developed a model that is geared to

The PANTHER User Experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Coram, Jamie L. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Morrow, James D. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Perkins, David Nikolaus [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2015-09-01

This document describes the PANTHER R&D Application, a proof-of-concept user interface application developed under the PANTHER Grand Challenge LDRD. The purpose of the application is to explore interaction models for graph analytics, drive algorithmic improvements from an end-user point of view, and support demonstration of PANTHER technologies to potential customers. The R&D Application implements a graph-centric interaction model that exposes analysts to the algorithms contained within the GeoGraphy graph analytics library. Users define geospatial-temporal semantic graph queries by constructing search templates based on nodes, edges, and the constraints among them. Users then analyze the results of the queries using both geo-spatial and temporal visualizations. Development of this application has made user experience an explicit driver for project and algorithmic level decisions that will affect how analysts one day make use of PANTHER technologies.

Behavioural profile of drug users attending public drug-treatment centres in Sicily: the role of social context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesco Vitale

2007-12-01

Full Text Available

Objective: Investigations of injecting drug users (IDUs have suggested that the social context may influence high-risk behaviours in this population. The aim of this study was to describe knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of IDUs attending public drug-treatment centres in our area.

Study design and methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between July 2002 and February 2004, enrolling 607 drug users attending four public drug-treatment centres in the Palermo area. Two of them were located inside the urban area, whereas the other two were in rural districts near the city. All participants answered an anonymous questionnaire concerning social and demographic characteristic and potential high-risk behaviours.

Results: IDUs living in urban context have a higher educational level, higher number of sexual partners, as well as a lower prevalence of exchanging sex for drugs. Conversely, IDUs living in suburban/rural context are less likely to share syringes and more likely to have used light drugs in the past. Suburban/rural IDUs drink more alcohol but smoke less cigarettes/day, although both groups are strong smokers.

Conclusions: The results suggest that public drug-treatment centres should take in consideration the adoption of specific programs targeting specific groups, in line with the profile and needs of the subjects in each context in order to promote approaches leading to risk reduction.

Healthy End of Life Project (HELP): a progress report on implementing community guidance on public health palliative care initiatives in Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

Grindrod, Andrea; Rumbold, Bruce

2018-04-01

Contemporary end of life care policies propose increasing community capacity by developing sustainable skills, policies, structures, and resources to support members of a community in caring for each other at the end of life. Public health approaches to palliative care provide strategies to bring this about. Practical implementation can however be ineffective, principally due to failures to grasp the systemic nature of public health interventions, or to ensure that programs are managed and owned by community members, not the professionals who may have introduced them. This article outlines a comprehensive community development project that identifies local end of life needs and meets them through the efficient use of community resources. The project is the product of a three-phase enquiry. The first phase, carried out in a local community, examined carers' experiences of home-based dying, the networks that supported them during care, and broader community networks with the potential to extend care. Data were collected through in-depth research interviews, focus groups and consultation with a community research reference group. Findings were key issues to be targeted by a local community development strategy. In the second phase, these local findings were compared with other practice accounts to identify themes common to many contexts. A public health palliative care framework was then used to produce an evidence-informed community development model for end of life care. The third phase involves implementing and evaluating this model in different Australian contexts. A major theme emerging in phase one of the enquiry was the reluctance of carers to ask for, or even accept, offers of help from family, friends and community networks despite their evident need for support while providing end of life care at home. Others' willingness to provide support was thus hindered by uncertainty about what to offer, and concern about infringing on people's privacy. To develop

Overdependence on For-Profit Pharmacies: A Descriptive Survey of User Evaluation of Medicines Availability in Public Hospitals in Selected Nigerian States.

Science.gov (United States)

Ushie, Boniface Ayanbekongshie; Ugal, David Betelwhobel; Ingwu, Justin Agorye

2016-01-01

Lower availability of medicines in Nigerian public health facilities-the most affordable option for the masses-undermines global health reforms to improve access to health for all, especially the chronically ill and poor. Thus, a sizeable proportion of healthcare users, irrespective of purchasing power, buy medicines at higher costs from for-profit pharmacies. We examined user evaluation of medicine availability in public facilities and how this influences their choice of where to buy medicines in selected states-Cross River, Enugu and Oyo-in Nigeria. We approached and interviewed 1711 healthcare users using a semi-structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire as they exited for-profit pharmacies after purchasing medicines. This ensured that both clients who had presented at health facilities (private/public) and those who did not were included. Information was collected on why respondents could not buy medicines at the hospitals they attended, their views of medicine availability and whether their choice of where to buy medicines is influenced by non-availability. Respondents' mean age was 37.7±14.4 years; 52% were males, 59% were married, 82% earned ≥NGN18, 000 (US$57.19) per month, and 72% were not insured. Majority (66%) had prescriptions; of this, 70% were from public facilities. Eighteen percent of all respondents indicated that all their medicines were usually available at the public facilities, most (29%), some (44%) and not always available (10%). Reasons for using for-profit pharmacies included: health workers attitudes (43%), referral by providers (43%); inadequate money to purchase all prescribed drugs (42%) and cumbersome processes for obtaining medicines. Lower availability of medicines has serious implications for healthcare behavior, especially because of poverty. It is crucial for government to fulfill its mandate of equitable access to care for all by making medicines available and cheap through reviving and sustaining the drug revolving

Customer co-creation in innovations : a protocol for innovating with end users

OpenAIRE

Weber, M.E.A.

2011-01-01

The transition into the information revolution or age has made it possible for consumers and users to interfere in the conceptualization, design, production and sales processes of firms. Consumers and users can express their needs in more direct way to producing firms, they have access to the way products and services are made, and last but not least, have access to information on competing products and services that even producers don’t know about. Consumers have become more knowledgeable an...

Experiences with local power production at the end-user (case studies)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morch, Andrei Z.; Grinden, Bjoern; Fleten, Stein-Erik; Maribu, Karl Magnus; Johansen, Boerre; Vanebo, Torstein; Berner, Monica; Stang, Jacob; Naesje, Paal

2004-12-01

This report describes the results of case studies performed as part of the project 'Local power production at the end-user'. It was found that the construction of a power plant, even a small one, is not an easy task. It is important to exploit the resources optimally and to allow for many income and cost elements in calculating the profitability. It may therefore be worth while to consult qualified assistance at an early stage during the planning of such construction projects. It is also found that there are clear scale effects in the development of small power plants, that is, the relative costs (NOK/kWh) are larger for small plants than for bigger ones. This is true of both investment costs and operation costs. This will affect the profitability. Of 16 plants, there is enough data for analysing 15, although estimates must be used instead of real data where the latter is missing. For eight of the 15, the net present value is positive at a power price of 25 oere/kWh, 6% discount rate and 15-20 years lifetime. For the other plants it will be more economical to wait until the market price of power rises. The price that is necessary to make these plants profitable varies from 32 to 45 oere/kWh. Basically it is assumed that the developer of small power plants (up to 10 MW) wants to produce as much energy (kWh) as possible from the plant, both to cover his own consumption and to sell surplus energy to the power market. However, there is an economically interesting market for power (kW), in which the producer (over 25 MW) is paid for being ready to start production on short notice

Decree no. 2004-90 from January 28, 2004 relative to the compensation of electric public utility charges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-03-01

This decree defines the charges imputable to the missions of electric public utility, the procedure of determination of their amount, the contribution to these charges by end-users and the operations of recovery and transfer, the processing of declaration defects and payment failures and some other various dispositions. (J.S.)

User analysis of LHCb data with Ganga

CERN Document Server

Maier, A; Cowan, G; Egede, U; Elmsheuser, J; Gaidioz, B; Harrison, K; Lee, H -C; Liko, D; Moscicki, J; Muraru, A; Pajchel, K; Reece, W; Samset, B; Slater, M; Soroko, A; van der Ster, D; Williams, M; Tan, C L

2010-01-01

GANGA (http://cern.ch/ganga) is a job-management tool that offers a simple, efficient and consistent user analysis tool in a variety of heterogeneous environments: from local clusters to global Grid systems. Experiment specific plug-ins allow GANGA to be customised for each experiment. For LHCb users GANGA is the officially supported and advertised tool for job submission to the Grid. The LHCb specific plug-ins allow support for end-to-end analysis helping the user to perform his complete analysis with the help of GANGA. This starts with the support for data selection, where a user can select data sets from the LHCb Bookkeeping system. Next comes the set up for large analysis jobs: with tailored plug-ins for the LHCb core software, jobs can be managed by the splitting of these analysis jobs with the subsequent merging of the resulting files. Furthermore, GANGA offers support for Toy Monte-Carlos to help the user tune their analysis. In addition to describing the GANGA architecture, typical usage patterns with...

User analysis of LHCb data with Ganga

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maier, Andrew; Gaidioz, Benjamin; Moscicki, Jakub; Muraru, Adrian; Ster, Daniel van der; Brochu, Frederic; Cowan, Greg; Egede, Ulrik; Reece, Will; Williams, Mike; Elmsheuser, Johannes; Harrison, Karl; Slater, Mark; Tan, Chun Lik; Lee, Hurng-Chun; Liko, Dietrich; Pajchel, Katarina; Samset, Bjoern; Soroko, Alexander

2010-01-01

GANGA (http://cern.ch/ganga) is a job-management tool that offers a simple, efficient and consistent user analysis tool in a variety of heterogeneous environments: from local clusters to global Grid systems. Experiment specific plug-ins allow GANGA to be customised for each experiment. For LHCb users GANGA is the officially supported and advertised tool for job submission to the Grid. The LHCb specific plug-ins allow support for end-to-end analysis helping the user to perform his complete analysis with the help of GANGA. This starts with the support for data selection, where a user can select data sets from the LHCb Bookkeeping system. Next comes the set up for large analysis jobs: with tailored plug-ins for the LHCb core software, jobs can be managed by the splitting of these analysis jobs with the subsequent merging of the resulting files. Furthermore, GANGA offers support for Toy Monte-Carlos to help the user tune their analysis. In addition to describing the GANGA architecture, typical usage patterns within LHCb and experience with the updated LHCb DIRAC workload management system are presented.

Caring buildings: user based indoor climate control

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zeiler, W.; Houten, van M.A.

2007-01-01

Global warming, caused largely by energy consumption, has become a major problem. In comfort control strategy there is an exciting development based on inclusive design: the user's preferences and their behaviour have become central in the building services control strategy. Synergy between end-user

Multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessment of farming systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Van Passel, Steven, E-mail: Steven.vanpassel@uhasselt.be [Hasselt University, Faculty of Business Economics, Centre for Environmental Sciences, Agoralaan, Building D, 3590, Diepenbeek (Belgium); University of Antwerp, Department Bioscience Engineering, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerp (Belgium); Meul, Marijke [University College Ghent, Department of Biosciences and Landscape Architecture, Campus Schoonmeersen, Building C, Schoonmeersstraat 52, 9000, Gent (Belgium)

2012-01-15

Sustainability assessment is needed to build sustainable farming systems. A broad range of sustainability concepts, methodologies and applications already exists. They differ in level, focus, orientation, measurement, scale, presentation and intended end-users. In this paper we illustrate that a smart combination of existing methods with different levels of application can make sustainability assessment more profound, and that it can broaden the insights of different end-user groups. An overview of sustainability assessment tools on different levels and for different end-users shows the complementarities and the opportunities of using different methods. In a case-study, a combination of the sustainable value approach (SVA) and MOTIFS is used to perform a sustainability evaluation of farming systems in Flanders. SVA is used to evaluate sustainability at sector level, and is especially useful to support policy makers, while MOTIFS is used to support and guide farmers towards sustainability at farm level. The combined use of the two methods with complementary goals can widen the insights of both farmers and policy makers, without losing the particularities of the different approaches. To stimulate and support further research and applications, we propose guidelines for multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessments. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We give an overview of sustainability assessment tools for agricultural systems. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer SVA and MOTIFS are used to evaluate the sustainability of dairy farming in Flanders. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Combination of methods with different levels broadens the insights of different end-user groups. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We propose guidelines for multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessments.

Multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessment of farming systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Passel, Steven; Meul, Marijke

2012-01-01

Sustainability assessment is needed to build sustainable farming systems. A broad range of sustainability concepts, methodologies and applications already exists. They differ in level, focus, orientation, measurement, scale, presentation and intended end-users. In this paper we illustrate that a smart combination of existing methods with different levels of application can make sustainability assessment more profound, and that it can broaden the insights of different end-user groups. An overview of sustainability assessment tools on different levels and for different end-users shows the complementarities and the opportunities of using different methods. In a case-study, a combination of the sustainable value approach (SVA) and MOTIFS is used to perform a sustainability evaluation of farming systems in Flanders. SVA is used to evaluate sustainability at sector level, and is especially useful to support policy makers, while MOTIFS is used to support and guide farmers towards sustainability at farm level. The combined use of the two methods with complementary goals can widen the insights of both farmers and policy makers, without losing the particularities of the different approaches. To stimulate and support further research and applications, we propose guidelines for multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessments. - Highlights: ► We give an overview of sustainability assessment tools for agricultural systems. ► SVA and MOTIFS are used to evaluate the sustainability of dairy farming in Flanders. ► Combination of methods with different levels broadens the insights of different end-user groups. ► We propose guidelines for multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessments.

77 FR 70449 - Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act; Notice to Public of Web Site Location of Fiscal...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-11-26

... and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing the Web site location where the Agency will post two lists... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. FDA-2012-N-1021] Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act; Notice to Public of Web Site Location of Fiscal Year 2013...

76 FR 61367 - Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act; Notice to Public of Web Site Location of Fiscal...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-10-04

.... ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing the Web site location where... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. FDA-2007-N-0270; formerly Docket No. 2007N-0357] Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act; Notice to Public of Web Site...

78 FR 66746 - Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act; Notice to Public of Web Site Location of Fiscal...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-11-06

... and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) is announcing the Web site location where the Agency will... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. FDA-2012-N-1021] Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act; Notice to Public of Web Site Location of Fiscal Year 2014...

Recommended documentation for computer users at ANL

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Heiberger, A.A.

1992-04-01

Recommended Documentation for Computer Users at ANL is for all users of the services available from the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) Computing and Telecommunications Division (CTD). This document will guide you in selecting available documentation that will best fill your particular needs. Chapter 1 explains how to use this document to select documents and how to obtain them from the CTD Document Distribution Counter. Chapter 2 contains a table that categorizes available publications. Chapter 3 gives descriptions of the online DOCUMENT command for CMS, and VAX, and the Sun workstation. DOCUMENT allows you to scan for and order documentation that interests you. Chapter 4 lists publications by subject. Categories I and IX cover publications of a general nature and publications on telecommunications and networks respectively. Categories II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, and X cover publications on specific computer systems. Category XI covers publications on advanced scientific computing at Argonne. Chapter 5 contains abstracts for each publication, all arranged alphabetically. Chapter 6 describes additional publications containing bibliographies and master indexes that the user may find useful. The appendix identifies available computer systems, applications, languages, and libraries.

Climate change affects winter chill for temperate fruit and nut trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Luedeling, Eike; Girvetz, Evan H; Semenov, Mikhail A; Brown, Patrick H

2011-01-01

Temperate fruit and nut trees require adequate winter chill to produce economically viable yields. Global warming has the potential to reduce available winter chill and greatly impact crop yields. We estimated winter chill for two past (1975 and 2000) and 18 future scenarios (mid and end 21st century; 3 Global Climate Models [GCMs]; 3 greenhouse gas emissions [GHG] scenarios). For 4,293 weather stations around the world and GCM projections, Safe Winter Chill (SWC), the amount of winter chill that is exceeded in 90% of all years, was estimated for all scenarios using the "Dynamic Model" and interpolated globally. We found that SWC ranged between 0 and about 170 Chill Portions (CP) for all climate scenarios, but that the global distribution varied across scenarios. Warm regions are likely to experience severe reductions in available winter chill, potentially threatening production there. In contrast, SWC in most temperate growing regions is likely to remain relatively unchanged, and cold regions may even see an increase in SWC. Climate change impacts on SWC differed quantitatively among GCMs and GHG scenarios, with the highest GHG leading to losses up to 40 CP in warm regions, compared to 20 CP for the lowest GHG. The extent of projected changes in winter chill in many major growing regions of fruits and nuts indicates that growers of these commodities will likely experience problems in the future. Mitigation of climate change through reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can help reduce the impacts, however, adaption to changes will have to occur. To better prepare for likely impacts of climate change, efforts should be undertaken to breed tree cultivars for lower chilling requirements, to develop tools to cope with insufficient winter chill, and to better understand the temperature responses of tree crops.

First Toronto Conference on Database Users. Systems that Enhance User Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Doszkocs, Tamas E.; Toliver, David

1987-01-01

The first of two papers discusses natural language searching as a user performance enhancement tool, focusing on artificial intelligence applications for information retrieval and problems with natural language processing. The second presents a conceptual framework for further development and future design of front ends to online bibliographic…

Evaluation of Techniques to Detect Significant Network Performance Problems using End-to-End Active Network Measurements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cottrell, R.Les; Logg, Connie; Chhaparia, Mahesh; /SLAC; Grigoriev, Maxim; /Fermilab; Haro, Felipe; /Chile U., Catolica; Nazir, Fawad; /NUST, Rawalpindi; Sandford, Mark

2006-01-25

End-to-End fault and performance problems detection in wide area production networks is becoming increasingly hard as the complexity of the paths, the diversity of the performance, and dependency on the network increase. Several monitoring infrastructures are built to monitor different network metrics and collect monitoring information from thousands of hosts around the globe. Typically there are hundreds to thousands of time-series plots of network metrics which need to be looked at to identify network performance problems or anomalous variations in the traffic. Furthermore, most commercial products rely on a comparison with user configured static thresholds and often require access to SNMP-MIB information, to which a typical end-user does not usually have access. In our paper we propose new techniques to detect network performance problems proactively in close to realtime and we do not rely on static thresholds and SNMP-MIB information. We describe and compare the use of several different algorithms that we have implemented to detect persistent network problems using anomalous variations analysis in real end-to-end Internet performance measurements. We also provide methods and/or guidance for how to set the user settable parameters. The measurements are based on active probes running on 40 production network paths with bottlenecks varying from 0.5Mbits/s to 1000Mbit/s. For well behaved data (no missed measurements and no very large outliers) with small seasonal changes most algorithms identify similar events. We compare the algorithms' robustness with respect to false positives and missed events especially when there are large seasonal effects in the data. Our proposed techniques cover a wide variety of network paths and traffic patterns. We also discuss the applicability of the algorithms in terms of their intuitiveness, their speed of execution as implemented, and areas of applicability. Our encouraging results compare and evaluate the accuracy of our

Users Office - Removal

CERN Multimedia

CERN Bulletin

2010-01-01

As of 8 December 2010 and until the end of February 2011, the Users Office will move from Bldg. 60. New Location : Bldg. 510-R-033 Opening Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday : 08.30 – 12.30 Monday to Friday: 14.00 – 16.00 Closed Wednesday mornings.

Electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) battery-related burns presenting to US emergency departments, 2016.

Science.gov (United States)

Corey, Catherine G; Chang, Joanne T; Rostron, Brian L

2018-03-05

Currently, an estimated 7.9 million US adults use electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). Although published reports have identified fires and explosions related to use of ENDS since 2009, these reports do not provide national estimates of burn injuries associated with ENDS batteries in the US. We analyzed nationally representative data provided in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) to estimate the number of US emergency department (ED) visits for burn injuries associated with ENDS batteries. We reviewed the case narrative field to gain additional insights into the circumstances of the burn injury. In 2016, 26 ENDS battery-related burn cases were captured by NEISS, which translates to a national estimate of 1007 (95%CI: 357-1657) injuries presenting in US EDs. Most of the burns were thermal burns (80.4%) and occurred to the upper leg/lower trunk (77.3%). Examination of the case narrative field indicated that at least 20 of the burn injuries occurred while ENDS batteries were in the user's pocket. Our study provides valuable information for understanding the current burden of ENDS battery-related burn injuries treated in US EDs. The nature and circumstances of the injuries suggest these incidents were unintentional and would potentially be prevented through battery design requirements, battery testing standards and public education related to ENDS battery safety.

SHARP User Manual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu, Y. Q. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Shemon, E. R. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Thomas, J. W. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Mahadevan, Vijay S. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Rahaman, Ronald O. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Solberg, Jerome [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2016-03-31

SHARP is an advanced modeling and simulation toolkit for the analysis of nuclear reactors. It is comprised of several components including physical modeling tools, tools to integrate the physics codes for multi-physics analyses, and a set of tools to couple the codes within the MOAB framework. Physics modules currently include the neutronics code PROTEUS, the thermal-hydraulics code Nek5000, and the structural mechanics code Diablo. This manual focuses on performing multi-physics calculations with the SHARP ToolKit. Manuals for the three individual physics modules are available with the SHARP distribution to help the user to either carry out the primary multi-physics calculation with basic knowledge or perform further advanced development with in-depth knowledge of these codes. This manual provides step-by-step instructions on employing SHARP, including how to download and install the code, how to build the drivers for a test case, how to perform a calculation and how to visualize the results. Since SHARP has some specific library and environment dependencies, it is highly recommended that the user read this manual prior to installing SHARP. Verification tests cases are included to check proper installation of each module. It is suggested that the new user should first follow the step-by-step instructions provided for a test problem in this manual to understand the basic procedure of using SHARP before using SHARP for his/her own analysis. Both reference output and scripts are provided along with the test cases in order to verify correct installation and execution of the SHARP package. At the end of this manual, detailed instructions are provided on how to create a new test case so that user can perform novel multi-physics calculations with SHARP. Frequently asked questions are listed at the end of this manual to help the user to troubleshoot issues.

SHARP User Manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, Y. Q.; Shemon, E. R.; Thomas, J. W.; Mahadevan, Vijay S.; Rahaman, Ronald O.; Solberg, Jerome

2016-01-01

SHARP is an advanced modeling and simulation toolkit for the analysis of nuclear reactors. It is comprised of several components including physical modeling tools, tools to integrate the physics codes for multi-physics analyses, and a set of tools to couple the codes within the MOAB framework. Physics modules currently include the neutronics code PROTEUS, the thermal-hydraulics code Nek5000, and the structural mechanics code Diablo. This manual focuses on performing multi-physics calculations with the SHARP ToolKit. Manuals for the three individual physics modules are available with the SHARP distribution to help the user to either carry out the primary multi-physics calculation with basic knowledge or perform further advanced development with in-depth knowledge of these codes. This manual provides step-by-step instructions on employing SHARP, including how to download and install the code, how to build the drivers for a test case, how to perform a calculation and how to visualize the results. Since SHARP has some specific library and environment dependencies, it is highly recommended that the user read this manual prior to installing SHARP. Verification tests cases are included to check proper installation of each module. It is suggested that the new user should first follow the step-by-step instructions provided for a test problem in this manual to understand the basic procedure of using SHARP before using SHARP for his/her own analysis. Both reference output and scripts are provided along with the test cases in order to verify correct installation and execution of the SHARP package. At the end of this manual, detailed instructions are provided on how to create a new test case so that user can perform novel multi-physics calculations with SHARP. Frequently asked questions are listed at the end of this manual to help the user to troubleshoot issues.

Motives and perceptions regarding electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) use among adults with mental health conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Spears, Claire Adams; Jones, Dina M; Weaver, Scott R; Pechacek, Terry F; Eriksen, Michael P

2018-05-01

Smoking rates are disproportionately high among adults with mental health conditions (MHC), and recent research suggests that among former smokers, those with MHC are more likely to use electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). This study investigated reasons for ENDS use and related risk perceptions among individuals with versus without MHC. Among adult current ENDS users (n=550), associations between self-reported MHC diagnoses and motives for ENDS use and ENDS risk perceptions were examined, stratified by smoking status. There were no significant associations between MHC status and ENDS motives or perceptions in the overall sample. However, current smokers with MHC indicated thinking more about how ENDS might improve their health, and former smokers with MHC reported thinking less about how ENDS might harm their health, compared to their counterparts without MHC. Former smokers with MHC rated several reasons for ENDS use (e.g., less harmful than regular cigarettes; to quit smoking; appealing flavors) as more important than did those without MHC. Current and former smokers with MHC may be especially optimistic about health benefits of ENDS. However, they might also be prone to health risks of continued ENDS use or concurrent use with traditional cigarettes. It will be important for public health messaging to provide this population with accurate information about benefits and risks of ENDS. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cardiovascular risk in active, insufficiently active and inactive users of public parks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gustavo Fernades de Oliveira

2008-07-01

Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1980-0037.2008v10n2p170 Physical activity has been recommended for heart disease prevention and rehabilitation. However, when performed incorrectly, which is more common when practiced without supervision and in public places, the risk of cardiovascular events increases. The objective of this study was to compare cardiovascular risk factors among users of São Paulo´s public parks with differing levels of physical activity – active, insuffi ciently active, and inactive. The evaluation consisted of a questionnaire about cardiovascular diseases, symptoms and risk factors; physical activity practice; and anthropometric and arterial blood pressure measurements. There was no difference between the groups in terms of the prevalence of cardiovascular disease or controllable risk factors. However, inactive people had a higher prevalence of cardiovascular symptoms (35%. With regard to uncontrollable cardiovascular risk factors, there was a higher prevalence of the gender/age factor among active (50% and insuffi ciently active (45% subjects, and heredity was more prevalent among inactive people (35%. There was no difference in obesity or blood pressure between the groups. The study also showed that active and insuffi ciently active subjects have a better knowledge of their health status, and a higher prevalence of being prescribed physical activity by physicians. The results demonstrate that most of the people who exercise in public parks are elderly and are at a moderate to high cardiovascular risk from this practice, which suggests that a physical education professional should be present.

Linked data and user interaction

CERN Document Server

Cervone, H Frank

2015-01-01

This collection of research papers provides extensive information on deploying services, concepts, and approaches for using open linked data from libraries and other cultural heritage institutions. With a special emphasis on how libraries and other cultural heritage institutions can create effective end user interfaces using open, linked data or other datasets. These papers are essential reading for any one interesting in user interface design or the semantic web.

Barriers to electricity load shift in companies: A survey-based exploration of the end-user perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Olsthoorn, Mark; Schleich, Joachim; Klobasa, Marian

2015-01-01

As countries move toward larger shares of renewable electricity, the slow diffusion of active electricity load management should concern energy policy makers and users alike. Active load management can increase capacity factors and thereby reduce the need for new capacity, improve reliability, and lower electricity prices. This paper conceptually and empirically explores barriers to load shift in industry from an end-user perspective. An online survey, based on a taxonomy of barriers developed in the realm of energy efficiency, was carried out among manufacturing sites in mostly Southern Germany. Findings suggest that the most important barriers are risk of disruption of operations, impact on product quality, and uncertainty about cost savings. Of little concern are access to capital, lack of employee skills, and data security. Statistical tests suggest that companies for which electricity has higher strategic value rate financial and regulatory risk higher than smaller ones. Companies with a continuous production process report lower barrier scores than companies using batch or just-in-time production. A principal component analysis clusters the barriers and multivariate analysis with the factor scores confirms the prominence of technical risk as a barrier to load shift. The results provide guidance for policy making and future empirical studies. - Highlights: • We quantitatively assess barriers to load shift adoption among manufacturing firms. • Conceptually, we build on the literature on barriers to energy efficiency. • The most important barriers are interference with production and with product quality. • Companies with a continuous production process report lower barrier scores. • The barriers to load shift may be organized in distinct clusters via principal component analysis

Remote Sensing for Crop Water Management: From ET Modelling to Services for the End Users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alfonso Calera

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The experiences gathered during the past 30 years support the operational use of irrigation scheduling based on frequent multi-spectral image data. Currently, the operational use of dense time series of multispectral imagery at high spatial resolution makes monitoring of crop biophysical parameters feasible, capturing crop water use across the growing season, with suitable temporal and spatial resolutions. These achievements, and the availability of accurate forecasting of meteorological data, allow for precise predictions of crop water requirements with unprecedented spatial resolution. This information is greatly appreciated by the end users, i.e., professional farmers or decision-makers, and can be provided in an easy-to-use manner and in near-real-time by using the improvements achieved in web-GIS methodologies (Geographic Information Systems based on web technologies. This paper reviews the most operational and explored methods based on optical remote sensing for the assessment of crop water requirements, identifying strengths and weaknesses and proposing alternatives to advance towards full operational application of this methodology. In addition, we provide a general overview of the tools, which facilitates co-creation and collaboration with stakeholders, paying special attention to these approaches based on web-GIS tools.

NASA Earth Observation Systems and Applications for Health: Moving from Research to Operational End Users

Science.gov (United States)

Haynes, J.; Estes, S. M.

2017-12-01

Health providers and researchers need environmental data to study and understand the geographic, environmental, and meteorological differences in disease. Satellite remote sensing of the environment offers a unique vantage point that can fill in the gaps of environmental, spatial, and temporal data for tracking disease. This presentation will demonstrate NASA's applied science programs efforts to transition from research to operations to benefit society. Satellite earth observations present a unique vantage point of the earth's environment from space, which offers a wealth of health applications for the imaginative investigator. The presentation is directly related to Earth Observing systems and Global Health Surveillance and will present research results of the remote sensing environmental observations of earth and health applications, which can contribute to the health research. As part of NASA approach and methodology they have used Earth Observation Systems and Applications for Health Models to provide a method for bridging gaps of environmental, spatial, and temporal data for tracking disease. This presentation will provide a venue where the results of both research and practice using satellite earth observations to study weather and it's role in health research and the transition to operational end users.

AquaUsers: Improving access to remotely sensed data for non-specialists

Science.gov (United States)

Clements, Oliver; Walker, Peter; Calton, Ben; Miller, Peter

2015-04-01

In recent years more and more complex remotely sensed data have been made available to the public by national and international agencies. These data are also reprocessed by different organisations to produce secondary products that are of specific need to a community. For instance the production of chlorophyll concentration maps from ocean colour data provided by NASA for the marine community. Providing access to such data has normally been focused on simply making the data available with appropriate metadata so that domain specialists can make use of it. One area that has seen significant investment, both of time and money, has been in the production of web based data portals. Primarily these have focused on spatial data. By providing a web map visualisation users are able to quickly assess both spatial coverage and data values. Data portal improvements have been possible thanks to advancements in back end data servers such as Thredds and ncWMS as well as improvements in front-end libraries for data visualisation including OpenLayers and D3. Data portals that make use of these technological advancements have aimed at improving the access and use of data by trained scientific domain specialists. There is now a push to improve access to these systems by non-scientific domain specialists through several European Commission funded projects, including OPEC and AquaUsers. These projects have improved upon an open source web GIS portal created by Plymouth Marine Laboratory [https://github.com/pmlrsg/GISportal]. We will present the latest version of our GIS portal, discuss the designs steps taken to achieve the latest build and share user stories as to how non-domain specialists are now able to utilise the system and get benefits from remotely sensed data. A first version was produced and disseminated to end users for feedback. At this stage the end users included government advisors, fish farmers and scientific groups with no specific GIS training or knowledge. This

Training Requirements and Information Management System. Software user guide

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cillan, T.F.; Hodgson, M.A.

1992-05-01

This is the software user`s guide for the Training Requirements and Information Management System. This guide defines and describes the software operating procedures as they apply to the end user of the software program. This guide is intended as a reference tool for the user who already has an indepth knowledge of the Training Requirements and Information Management System functions and data reporting requirement.

Torrefaction Quality Control. Based on logistic and end-user requirements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zwart, R.W.R.; Kiel, J.H.A.; Verhoeff, F.; Pels, J.R. [ECN Biomass and Energy Efficiency, Petten (Netherlands)

2011-10-15

Torrefaction is a promising key technology for boosting large-scale implementation of bioenergy. It involves the heating of biomass in the absence of oxygen to a temperature of 200 to 300C. As a result, the biomass becomes easy to grind and water resistant, which reduces risks of spontaneous biological degradation and heating and permits outdoor storage. By combining torrefaction with pelletisation or briquetting, biomass is converted into a high-energy-density commodity solid fuel with superior properties in view of (long-distance) transport, handling and storage, and also in many major end-use applications (e.g., co-firing in coal-fired power stations, gasification-based biofuels production and production of bio-based chemicals). ECN is executing an extensive research and development program in which the most important aspects of torrefaction and pelletisation upstream as well as logistics and end-use downstream are investigated. ECN's torrefaction technology is now proven on bench-, lab- and pilot scale, with the 50-100 kg/hr pilot scale plant producing tonnes of torrefied material already used in specific semi-industrial milling and pelletisation trials. Furthermore, quality analysis are being performed in relation to logistics, on-site transport and handling, and end-use application of the torrefied wood pellets (i.e. co-firing in existing combustion and gasification plants). In the presentation, the results of torrefaction tests with different types of biomass (deciduous, herbaceous and coniferous) are outlined, including the consequences for logistics and end-use application. Furthermore, an update is be provided on the scale-up and demonstration of the ECN torrefaction technology, for which ECN has teamed up with a leading European energy company as well as a worldwide operating technology supplier to continue to develop its torrefaction technology and bring it to the market.

Game user experience evaluation

CERN Document Server

Bernhaupt, Regina

2015-01-01

Evaluating interactive systems for their user experience (UX) is a standard approach in industry and research today. This book explores the areas of game design and development and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) as ways to understand the various contributing aspects of the overall gaming experience. Fully updated, extended and revised this book is based upon the original publication Evaluating User Experience in Games, and provides updated methods and approaches ranging from user- orientated methods to game specific approaches. New and emerging methods and areas explored include physiologi

Models of Public Service Provision

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Lotte Bøgh; Kristensen, Nicolai; Pedersen, Lene Holm

2013-01-01

This article extends the framework of Le Grand (2003, 2010) to encompass responsiveness, and the main argument is that the combination of employee motivation, user capacity, and models of public service provision potentially has serious implications for responsiveness across service areas. Although...... research on employee motivation thrives, especially in the public service motivation (PSM) literature, few studies have investigated user capacity empirically, and we know little about the combination of PSM, user capacity and models of service provision. Analyzing four central service areas (day care......, schools, hospitals, and universities), we find variations in both user capacity and PSM. Taking this variation as a point of departure we discuss what implications different combinations of employee motivation, user capacity, and models of public service provision may have for responsiveness....

Co-evolution of soil and water conservation policy and human-environment linkages in the Yellow River Basin since 1949.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Fei; Mu, Xingmin; Li, Rui; Fleskens, Luuk; Stringer, Lindsay C; Ritsema, Coen J

2015-03-01

Policy plays a very important role in natural resource management as it lays out a government framework for guiding long-term decisions, and evolves in light of the interactions between human and environment. This paper focuses on soil and water conservation (SWC) policy in the Yellow River Basin (YRB), China. The problems, rural poverty, severe soil erosion, great sediment loads and high flood risks, are analyzed over the period of 1949-present using the Driving force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework as a way to organize analysis of the evolution of SWC policy. Three stages are identified in which SWC policy interacts differently with institutional, financial and technology support. In Stage 1 (1949-1979), SWC policy focused on rural development in eroded areas and on reducing sediment loads. Local farmers were mainly responsible for SWC. The aim of Stage 2 (1980-1990) was the overall development of rural industry and SWC. A more integrated management perspective was implemented taking a small watershed as a geographic interactional unit. This approach greatly improved the efficiency of SWC activities. In Stage 3 (1991 till now), SWC has been treated as the main measure for natural resource conservation, environmental protection, disaster mitigation and agriculture development. Prevention of new degradation became a priority. The government began to be responsible for SWC, using administrative, legal and financial approaches and various technologies that made large-scale SWC engineering possible. Over the historical period considered, with the implementation of the various SWC policies, the rural economic and ecological system improved continuously while the sediment load and flood risk decreased dramatically. The findings assist in providing a historical perspective that could inform more rational, scientific and effective natural resource management going forward. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The association between access to public transportation and self-reported active commuting.

Science.gov (United States)

Djurhuus, Sune; Hansen, Henning S; Aadahl, Mette; Glümer, Charlotte

2014-12-05

Active commuting provides routine-based regular physical activity which can reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Using public transportation involves some walking or cycling to a transit stop, transfers and a walk to the end location and users of public transportation have been found to accumulate more moderate physical activity than non-users. Understanding how public transportation characteristics are associated with active transportation is thus important from a public health perspective. This study examines the associations between objective measures of access to public transportation and self-reported active commuting. Self-reported time spent either walking or cycling commuting each day and the distance to workplace were obtained for adults aged 16 to 65 in the Danish National Health Survey 2010 (n = 28,928). Access to public transportation measures were computed by combining GIS-based road network distances from home address to public transit stops an integrating their service level. Multilevel logistic regression was used to examine the association between access to public transportation measures and active commuting. Distance to bus stop, density of bus stops, and number of transport modes were all positively associated with being an active commuter and with meeting recommendations of physical activity. No significant association was found between bus services at the nearest stop and active commuting. The results highlight the importance of including detailed measurements of access to public transit in order to identify the characteristics that facilitate the use of public transportation and active commuting.

The Association between Access to Public Transportation and Self-Reported Active Commuting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sune Djurhuus

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Active commuting provides routine-based regular physical activity which can reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Using public transportation involves some walking or cycling to a transit stop, transfers and a walk to the end location and users of public transportation have been found to accumulate more moderate physical activity than non-users. Understanding how public transportation characteristics are associated with active transportation is thus important from a public health perspective. This study examines the associations between objective measures of access to public transportation and self-reported active commuting. Self-reported time spent either walking or cycling commuting each day and the distance to workplace were obtained for adults aged 16 to 65 in the Danish National Health Survey 2010 (n = 28,928. Access to public transportation measures were computed by combining GIS-based road network distances from home address to public transit stops an integrating their service level. Multilevel logistic regression was used to examine the association between access to public transportation measures and active commuting. Distance to bus stop, density of bus stops, and number of transport modes were all positively associated with being an active commuter and with meeting recommendations of physical activity. No significant association was found between bus services at the nearest stop and active commuting. The results highlight the importance of including detailed measurements of access to public transit in order to identify the characteristics that facilitate the use of public transportation and active commuting.

Ethics of the profession of public relations--does the public relations affects on journalism in Croatia?

Science.gov (United States)

Tanta, Ivan; Lesinger, Gordana

2013-09-01

The UK's leading professional body for public relations "Chartered Institute of Public Relations" (CIPR) said that the public relations is about reputation--they are the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. Furthermore CIPR says that public relations are discipline whose objectives are safeguarding reputation, establishing understanding and pot pores, and the impact on the thinking and behavior of the public. Although the primary goal of public relations is to preserve and build a reputation, to tell the truth to a customer who has hired experts in this area, it seems that in its own way of development, public relations practitioners have stopped worrying about their reputation and the perception of the discipline within the public they address. All relevant professional bodies for public relations, including the Croatian Association for Public Relation (HUOJ), had set up codes of ethics and high standards according which the members and practitioners should be evaluated. Among other things stays that practitioner of public relations is required to check the reliability and accuracy of the data prior to their distribution and nurture honesty and accountability to the public interest. It seems that right this instruction of code of ethics has been often violated. In a public speech in Croatia, and therefore in the media, exist manipulation, propaganda, and all the techniques of spin, which practitioners of public relations are skillfully using in the daily transfer of information to the users and target groups. The aim of this paper is to determine what is the perception of the profession to the public. As in today's journalism increasingly present plume of public relations, we wish to comment on the part where journalism ends and begins PR and vice versa. In this paper, we analyze and compare codes of ethics ethics associations for public relations, as well as codes of ethics journalists' associations, in order to answer the question

[Gender violence and other factors associated with emotional distress in female users of public health services in Mexico].

Science.gov (United States)

Valdez-Santiago, Rosario; Juárez-Ramírez, Clara; Salgado-de Snyder, V Nelly; Agoff, Carolina; Avila-Burgos, Leticia; Híjar, Martha C

2006-01-01

To identify and describe the factors associated with emotional distress in a national sample of women users of public health services in Mexico, such a Secretaria de Salud (SSA), Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado (ISSSTE). This research study was conducted using the database of the National Survey of Violence against Women that consisted of the responses of a total of 26 042 female users of health care services provided by the Mexican government health agencies. The Personal Health Scale (ESP per its initials in Spanish) was used to assess emotional distress. To measure violence a 19-item scale which explores different types of violence as well as severity was used. The relationship between emotional distress and gender violence was determined through a binary logistic regression model, as were economic status and demographic variables. One of the most important findings of this study is the high prevalence of emotional distress (15.3%) among women seeking health care services from the public sector and the relationship of such emotional distress with the experience of marital physical, psychological, and sexual violence. Factors associated with emotional distress among female users of health care services were age (26 and older); activity (laborer); working hours (71 hours a week or more); alcohol intake (greater intake); abuse during childhood (frequency and types of abuse); severity of marital violence (severe violence); socioeconomic status (very low SES); and type of dwelling (urban). The principal predictor of emotional distress was intimate partner abuse, especially in severe expression. The next predictor was violence in childhood. Taking into consideration these predictors it is recommended to use screening instruments to identify emotional distress and gender violence in health setting. It is important to design and implement attention and reference programs in public

User centered integration of Internet of Things devices

Science.gov (United States)

Manione, Roberto

2017-06-01

This paper discusses an IoT framework which allows rapid and easy setup and customization of end-to-end solutions for field data collection and presentation; it is effective in the development of both informative and transactional applications for a wide range of application fields, such as home, industry and environment. On the "far-end" of the chain are the IoT devices gathering the signals; they are developed used a full Model Based approach, where programming is not required: the TaskScript technology is used to this purpose, which supports a choice of physical boards and boxes equipped with a range of Input and Output interfaces, and with a Tcp/Ip interface. The development of the needed specific IoT devices takes advantage of the available "standard" hardware; the software development of the algorithms for sampling, conditioning and uploading signals to the Cloud is supported by a graphical-only IDE. On the "near-end" of the chain is the presentation Interface, through which users can browse through the information provided by their IoT devices; it is implemented in a Conversational way, using the Bot paradigm: Bots are conversational automatons, to whom users can "chat". They are accessed via mainstream Messenger programs, such as Telegram(C), Skype(C) or others, available on smartphones, tablets or desktops; unlike apps, bots do not need installation on the user device. A message Broker has been implemented, to mediate among the far-end and the near-end of the chain, providing the needed services; its behavior is driven by a set of rules provided on a per-device basis, at configuration level; the Broker is able to store messages received from the devices, process and forward them to the specified recipient(s) according to the provided rules; finally, finally is it is able to send transactional commands, from users back to the requested device, to implement not only field observation but also field control. IoT solutions implemented with the proposed

AN AUTOMATED END-TO-END MULTI-AGENT QOS BASED ARCHITECTURE FOR SELECTION OF GEOSPATIAL WEB SERVICES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Shah

2012-07-01

With the proliferation of web services published over the internet, multiple web services may provide similar functionality, but with different non-functional properties. Thus, Quality of Service (QoS offers a metric to differentiate the services and their service providers. In a quality-driven selection of web services, it is important to consider non-functional properties of the web service so as to satisfy the constraints or requirements of the end users. The main intent of this paper is to build an automated end-to-end multi-agent based solution to provide the best-fit web service to service requester based on QoS.

Spectrometer user interface to computer systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salmon, L.; Davies, M.; Fry, F.A.; Venn, J.B.

1979-01-01

A computer system for use in radiation spectrometry should be designed around the needs and comprehension of the user and his operating environment. To this end, the functions of the system should be built in a modular and independent fashion such that they can be joined to the back end of an appropriate user interface. The point that this interface should be designed rather than just allowed to evolve is illustrated by reference to four related computer systems of differing complexity and function. The physical user interfaces in all cases are keyboard terminals, and the virtues and otherwise of these devices are discussed and compared with others. The language interface needs to satisfy a number of requirements, often conflicting. Among these, simplicity and speed of operation compete with flexibility and scope. Both experienced and novice users need to be considered, and any individual's needs may vary from naive to complex. To be efficient and resilient, the implementation must use an operating system, but the user needs to be protected from its complex and unfamiliar syntax. At the same time the interface must allow the user access to all services appropriate to his needs. The user must also receive an image of privacy in a multi-user system. The interface itself must be stable and exhibit continuity between implementations. Some of these conflicting needs have been overcome by the SABRE interface with languages operating at several levels. The foundation is a simple semimnemonic command language that activates indididual and independent functions. The commands can be used with positional parameters or in an interactive dialogue the precise nature of which depends upon the operating environment and the user's experience. A command procedure or macrolanguage allows combinations of commands with conditional branching and arithmetic features. Thus complex but repetitive operations are easily performed

[Plato's philosophy and the bioethical debate on the end of life: intersections in public health].

Science.gov (United States)

Siqueira-Batista, Rodrigo; Schramm, Fermin Roland

2004-01-01

This article discusses bioethical aspects of medical futility, focusing on some of its intersections in public health. Starting from a demarcation of finitude in the core of the philosophical and bioethical debate on the end of life, we confront the contemporary criticism regarding medical futility with the ideas of Plato (427-347 B.C.), a philosopher who proposed significant considerations on numerous features of the medicine of his time. We thus explore novel theoretic references to guide the disputes related to this essential problem, the implications of which are decisive to health and life.

User Centric Design of an NFC Mobile Wallet Framework

OpenAIRE

Kabir, Ziaul

2011-01-01

Near Field Communication (NFC) among various other things, allows end-users to enjoy contactless mobile services such as credit cards, transport tickets, office access etc. using NFC mobile phones. Such services are placed as software applications inside the secure-chip hardware of the NFC phone – often termed as a Secure Element (SE). Bringing these contactless smart-card services into mobile phones raises the need to allow the end-users to interact and control the information and the commun...

Nonspeech audio in user interfaces for TV

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sluis, van de Richard; Eggen, J.H.; Rypkema, J.A.

1997-01-01

This study explores the end-user benefits of using nonspeech audio in television user interfaces. A prototype of an Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) served as a carrier for the research. One of the features of this EPG is the possibility to search for TV programmes in a category-based way. The EPG

Health Information Technology Systems profoundly impact users: a case study in a dental school.

Science.gov (United States)

Hill, Heather K; Stewart, Denice C L; Ash, Joan S

2010-04-01

The purpose of this study was to increase our understanding of the impact of Health Information Technology Systems (HITS) on dental school users when the systems are integrated into chair-side patient care. We used qualitative research methods, including interviews, focus groups, and observations, to capture the experiences of HITS users at a single institution. Users included administrators, clinical faculty members, predoctoral students, support staff, and residents. The data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach, and nine themes emerged: 1) HITS benefits were disproportionate among users; 2) communicating about the HITS was challenging; 3) users experienced a range of strong emotions; 4) the instructor persona diminished; 5) there were shifts in the school's power structure; 6) allocation of end-users' time shifted; 7) the training and support needs of end-users were significant; 8) perceived lack of HITS usability made documentation cumbersome for clinicians; and 9) clinicians' workflow was disrupted. HITS integration into patient care impacts the work of all system users, especially end-users. The themes highlight areas of potential concern for implementers and users in integrating a HITS into patient care.

Measurements and analysis of end-to-end Internet dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paxson, Vern [Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Computer Science Division

1997-04-01

Accurately characterizing end-to-end Internet dynamics - the performance that a user actually obtains from the lengthy series of network links that comprise a path through the Internet - is exceptionally difficult, due to the network`s immense heterogeneity. At the heart of this work is a `measurement framework` in which a number of sites around the Internet host a specialized measurement service. By coordinating `probes` between pairs of these sites one can measure end-to-end behavior along O(N<sup>2</sup>) paths for a framework consisting of N sites. Consequently, one obtains a superlinear scaling that allows measuring a rich cross-section of Internet behavior without requiring huge numbers of observation points. 37 sites participated in this study, allowing the author to measure more than 1,000 distinct Internet paths. The first part of this work looks at the behavior of end-to-end routing: the series of routers over which a connection`s packets travel. Based on 40,000 measurements made using this framework, the author analyzes: routing `pathologies` such as loops, outages, and flutter; the stability of routes over time; and the symmetry of routing along the two directions of an end-to-end path. The author finds that pathologies increased significantly over the course of 1995 and that Internet paths are heavily dominated by a single route. The second part of this work studies end-to-end Internet packet dynamics. The author analyzes 20,000 TCP transfers of 100 Kbyte each to investigate the performance of both the TCP endpoints and the Internet paths. The measurements used for this part of the study are much richer than those for the first part, but require a great degree of attention to issues of calibration, which are addressed by applying self-consistency checks to the measurements whenever possible. The author finds that packet filters are capable of a wide range of measurement errors, some of which, if undetected, can significantly taint subsequent analysis.

A vision for end-to-end data services to foster international partnerships through data sharing

Science.gov (United States)

Ramamurthy, M.; Yoksas, T.

2009-04-01

Increasingly, the conduct of science requires scientific partnerships and sharing of knowledge, information, and other assets. This is particularly true in our field where the highly-coupled Earth system and its many linkages have heightened the importance of collaborations across geographic, disciplinary, and organizational boundaries. The climate system, for example, is far too complex a puzzle to be unraveled by individual investigators or nations. As articulated in the NSF Strategic Plan: FY 2006-2011, "…discovery increasingly requires expertise of individuals from different disciplines, with diverse perspectives, and often from different nations, working together to accommodate the extraordinary complexity of today's science and engineering challenges." The Nobel Prize winning IPCC assessments are a prime example of such an effort. Earth science education is also uniquely suited to drawing connections between the dynamic Earth system and societal issues. Events like the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina provide ample evidence of this relevance, as they underscore the importance of timely and interdisciplinary integration and synthesis of data. Our success in addressing such complex problems and advancing geosciences depends on the availability of a state-of-the-art and robust cyberinfrastructure, transparent and timely access to high-quality data from diverse sources, and requisite tools to integrate and use the data effectively, toward creating new knowledge. To that end, Unidata's vision calls for providing comprehensive, well-integrated, and end-to-end data services for the geosciences. These include an array of functions for collecting, finding, and accessing data; data management tools for generating, cataloging, and exchanging metadata; and submitting or publishing, sharing, analyzing, visualizing, and integrating data. When this vision is realized, users — no matter where they are, how they are connected to the Internet, or what

Life-threatening Vesicular Bronchial Injury Requiring Veno-venous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Rescue in an Electronic Nicotine Delivery System User

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Carter

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS is increasing across the United States as tobacco bans increase and more people use these devices in an attempt to quit smoking. They are unregulated by the Food and Drug Administration, and there is significant concern that ENDS could produce several toxic byproducts. In this case a 35-year-old female presented to the emergency department with sudden-onset dyspnea. She denied current tobacco smoking, but she was a user of ENDS. When bronchoscopy was performed, an extensive pattern of suspected chemical injury was noted in her airways. She required transfer to a tertiary center where she required extracorporeal membranous oxygenation. Despite public opinion that ENDS are generally safe, or at least safer than tobacco smoking, contrary evidence is mounting. We postulate that her injuries were likely suffered secondary to use of an ENDS.

ICT-Supported end User Participation in Creative and Innovative Building Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansson, Per; Dybro, U.; Svidt, Kjeld

2010-01-01

engineering and architectural companies. Experiences from design of the two companies’ new headquarters were used as input to method development and they have as well provided cases for method evaluations. The method supports user involvement in every phase of the design and construction process...

NNAlign: A Web-Based Prediction Method Allowing Non-Expert End-User Discovery of Sequence Motifs in Quantitative Peptide Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andreatta, Massimo; Schafer-Nielsen, Claus; Lund, Ole

2011-01-01

Recent advances in high-throughput technologies have made it possible to generate both gene and protein sequence data at an unprecedented rate and scale thereby enabling entirely new "omics"-based approaches towards the analysis of complex biological processes. However, the amount and complexity...... to interpret large data sets. We have recently developed a method, NNAlign, which is generally applicable to any biological problem where quantitative peptide data is available. This method efficiently identifies underlying sequence patterns by simultaneously aligning peptide sequences and identifying motifs...... associated with quantitative readouts. Here, we provide a web-based implementation of NNAlign allowing non-expert end-users to submit their data (optionally adjusting method parameters), and in return receive a trained method (including a visual representation of the identified motif) that subsequently can...

Providing end-to-end QoS for multimedia applications in 3G wireless networks

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Katherine; Rangarajan, Samapth; Siddiqui, M. A.; Paul, Sanjoy

2003-11-01

As the usage of wireless packet data services increases, wireless carriers today are faced with the challenge of offering multimedia applications with QoS requirements within current 3G data networks. End-to-end QoS requires support at the application, network, link and medium access control (MAC) layers. We discuss existing CDMA2000 network architecture and show its shortcomings that prevent supporting multiple classes of traffic at the Radio Access Network (RAN). We then propose changes in RAN within the standards framework that enable support for multiple traffic classes. In addition, we discuss how Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) can be augmented with QoS signaling for supporting end-to-end QoS. We also review state of the art scheduling algorithms at the base station and provide possible extensions to these algorithms to support different classes of traffic as well as different classes of users.

GRSAC Users Manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ball, S.J.; Nypaver, D.J.

1999-01-01

An interactive workstation-based simulation code (GRSAC) for studying postulated severe accidents in gas-cooled reactors has been developed to accommodate user-generated input with ''smart front-end'' checking. Code features includes on- and off-line plotting, on-line help and documentation, and an automated sensitivity study option. The code and its predecessors have been validated using comparisons with a variety of experimental data and similar codes. GRSAC model features include a three-dimensional representation of the core thermal hydraulics, and optional ATWS (anticipated transients without scram) capabilities. The user manual includes a detailed description of the code features, and includes four case studies which guide the user through four different examples of the major uses of GRSAC: an accident case; an initial conditions setup and run; a sensitivity study; and the setup of a new reactor model

GRSAC Users Manual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ball, S.J.; Nypaver, D.J.

1999-02-01

An interactive workstation-based simulation code (GRSAC) for studying postulated severe accidents in gas-cooled reactors has been developed to accommodate user-generated input with ''smart front-end'' checking. Code features includes on- and off-line plotting, on-line help and documentation, and an automated sensitivity study option. The code and its predecessors have been validated using comparisons with a variety of experimental data and similar codes. GRSAC model features include a three-dimensional representation of the core thermal hydraulics, and optional ATWS (anticipated transients without scram) capabilities. The user manual includes a detailed description of the code features, and includes four case studies which guide the user through four different examples of the major uses of GRSAC: an accident case; an initial conditions setup and run; a sensitivity study; and the setup of a new reactor model.

User participation in urban green spaces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fors, Hanna; Molin, Julie Frøik; Murphyc, Melissa Anna

2015-01-01

The provision and administration of high quality urban public green spaces intertwines issues of planning, design, management and maintenance with governance. The benefits of such spaces are often tied to social justice, public health and recreation, biodiversity and helping cities to deal...... with climate change. International policies and changes in public administration have encouraged user participation across multiple phases of green space development. Although sceptics towards participation are easily found supporting arguments sometimes stand without critique, not questioning how...... participation affects the physical quality of green spaces. This literature review surveyed empirical scientific studies seeking to answer the following research question: How does research to date reflect over user participation's contribution to public urban green space quality? The review includes 31...

User-centered design of discharge warnings tool for colorectal surgery patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Naik, Aanand D; Horstman, Molly J; Li, Linda T; Paasche-Orlow, Michael K; Campbell, Bryan; Mills, Whitney L; Herman, Levi I; Anaya, Daniel A; Trautner, Barbara W; Berger, David H

2017-09-01

Readmission following colorectal surgery, typically due to surgery-related complications, is common. Patient-centered discharge warnings may guide recognition of early complication signs after colorectal surgery. User-centered design of a discharge warnings tool consisted of iterative health literacy review and a heuristic evaluation with human factors and clinical experts as well as patient end users to establish content validity and usability. Literacy evaluation of the prototype suggested >12th-grade reading level. Subsequent revisions reduced reading level to 8th grade or below. Contents were formatted during heuristic evaluation into 3 action-oriented zones (green, yellow, and red) with relevant warning lexicons. Usability testing demonstrated comprehension of this 3-level lexicon and recognition of appropriate patient actions to take for each level. We developed a discharge warnings tool for colorectal surgery using staged user-centered design. The lexicon of surgical discharge warnings could structure communication among patients, caregivers, and clinicians to improve post-discharge care. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association 2017. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the United States.

An IoT-Based Gamified Approach for Reducing Occupants’ Energy Wastage in Public Buildings

Science.gov (United States)

Dimitriou, Nikos; Vasilakis, Kostas; Schoofs, Anthony; Nikiforakis, Manolis; Pursche, Fabian; Deliyski, Nikolay; Taha, Amr; Kotsopoulos, Dimosthenis; Bardaki, Cleopatra; Kotsilitis, Sarantis; Garbi, Anastasia

2018-01-01

Conserving energy amenable to the activities of occupants in public buildings is a particularly challenging objective that includes associating energy consumption to particular individuals and providing them with incentives to alter their behavior. This paper describes a gamification framework that aims to facilitate achieving greater energy conservation in public buildings. The framework leverages IoT-enabled low-cost devices, to improve energy disaggregation mechanisms that provide energy use and—consequently—wastage information at the device, area and end-user level. The identified wastages are concurrently targeted by a gamified application that motivates respective behavioral changes combining team competition, virtual rewards and life simulation. Our solution is being developed iteratively with the end-users’ engagement during the analysis, design, development and validation phases in public buildings located in three different countries: Luxembourg (Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art), Spain (EcoUrbanBuilding, Institut Català d’Energia headquarters, Barcelona) and Greece (General Secretariat of the Municipality of Athens). PMID:29439414

[End of life and vulnerability, a public health issue].

Science.gov (United States)

Boucomont, Aude

2016-02-01

End of life and precarity, two words which were linked by the French national observatory for end of life care in its work carried out in 2014. The study provided an overview of current support practices in different areas, highlighting certain lessons to be learned and making recommendations to the different partners involved. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Customization of electronic medical record templates to improve end-user satisfaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Gardner, Carrie Lee; Pearce, Patricia F

2013-03-01

Since 2004, increasing importance has been placed on the adoption of electronic medical records by healthcare providers for documentation of patient care. Recent federal regulations have shifted the focus from adoption alone to meaningful use of an electronic medical record system. As proposed by the Technology Acceptance Model, the behavioral intention to use technology is determined by the person's attitude toward usage. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to devise and implement customized templates into an existent electronic medical record system in a single clinic and measure the satisfaction of the clinic providers with the system before and after implementation. Provider satisfaction with the electronic medical record system was evaluated prior to and following template implementation using the current version 7.0 of the Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction tool. Provider comments and improvement in the Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction levels of rankings following template implementation indicated a positive perspective by the providers in regard to the templates and customization of the system.

MERBoard User's Guide

Science.gov (United States)

Trimble, Jay; Shab, Ted; Vera, Alonso; Gaswiller, Rich; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

An important goal of MERBoard is to allow users to quickly and easily share information. The front-end interface is physically a large plasma computer display with a touch screen, allowing multiple people to interact shoulder-to-shoulder or in a small meeting area. The software system allows people to interactively create digital whiteboards, browse the web, give presentations and connect to personal computers (for example, to run applications not on the MERBoard computer itself). There are four major integrated applications: a browser; a remote connection to another computer (VNC); a digital whiteboard; and a digital space (MERSpace), which is a digital repository for each individual user.

Assimilation of remote sensing data into a process-based ecosystem model for monitoring changes of soil water content in croplands

Science.gov (United States)

Ju, Weimin; Gao, Ping; Wang, Jun; Li, Xianfeng; Chen, Shu

2008-10-01

Soil water content (SWC) is an important factor affecting photosynthesis, growth, and final yields of crops. The information on SWC is of importance for mitigating the reduction of crop yields caused by drought through proper agricultural water management. A variety of methodologies have been developed to estimate SWC at local and regional scales, including field sampling, remote sensing monitoring and model simulations. The reliability of regional SWC simulation depends largely on the accuracy of spatial input datasets, including vegetation parameters, soil and meteorological data. Remote sensing has been proved to be an effective technique for controlling uncertainties in vegetation parameters. In this study, the vegetation parameters (leaf area index and land cover type) derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) were assimilated into a process-based ecosystem model BEPS for simulating the variations of SWC in croplands of Jiangsu province, China. Validation shows that the BEPS model is able to capture 81% and 83% of across-site variations of SWC at 10 and 20 cm depths during the period from September to December, 2006 when a serous autumn drought occurred. The simulated SWC responded the events of rainfall well at regional scale, demonstrating the usefulness of our methodology for SWC and practical agricultural water management at large scales.

Back End Programming in .NET Framework

OpenAIRE

Sapkota, Dinesh

2013-01-01

The main goal of the project was to develop a web application which provides the services for both web and mobile client. The complete application development process was carried out by the team of four members and a supervisor. According to the interest of group members the whole project was divided into four parts; that is user interface design, mobile application development, back end development for mobile services and server side back end development of application. I got the task of ser...

Thus Spake the OPAC User.

Science.gov (United States)

Markey, Karen

1983-01-01

Findings of focused-group interviews conducted for OCLC study of library users and online public access catalogs (OPACs) indicate users like OPACs, have problems finding right subject heading, envision features to improve subject access, want access to more than books, and want OPACs to provide new services. Eight references are listed. (EJS)

Public Relations In Nigerian Public Libraries: A Critical Assessment ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper critically assesses public relations in public libraries in Nigeria. A simple random sampling method was used to select 751 staff and 1161 users from 14 chosen public libraries. The result shows that about 60% of staff in public libraries were unaware of the importance of public relation in the delivery of effective ...

How to integrate street-level bureaucracies into public management?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aagaard, Peter; Pedersen, John Storm

the professionals in the public sector at the street-level such as social-workers, teachers, doctors, and other professionals have maintained autonomy regarding the provision, production and delivery of the specific core welfare services to the citizens as end users. By definition hard budget constraint...... and professionals´ autonomy do not fit well. To explore both theoretically and empirically the conflicts between hard budget constraint and professionals´ autonomy, the professionals´ provision, production and delivery of the services to the citizens with disability and socially disadvantaged people and the public...... management of the public spending on the services in Denmark is used as a case. Surprisingly, we find that the managers have been able to resolve the conflicts between the hard budget constraint and the professionals´ autonomy to a rather high degree. The managers have integrated the street...

Infrastructure Management Information System User Manual

Science.gov (United States)

1998-10-01

This publication describes and explains the user interface for the Infrastructure Management Information System (IMIS). The IMIS is designed to answer questions regarding public water supply, wastewater treatment, and census information. This publica...

Developing a User-Centred Planning Tool for Young Adults with Development Disorders: A Research-Based Teaching Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Ribu, Kirsten; Patel, Tulpesh

2016-01-01

People with development disorders, for instance autism, need structured plans to help create predictability in their daily lives. Digital plans can facilitate enhanced independency, learning, and quality of life, but existing apps are largely general purpose and lack the flexibility required by this specific but heterogeneous user group. Universal design is both a goal and a process and should be based on a holistic approach and user-centered design, interacting with the users in all stages of the development process. At Oslo and Akershus University College (HiOA) we conducted a research-based teaching project in co-operation with the Department of Neuro-habilitation at Oslo University Hospital (OUS) with two employees acting as project managers and students as developers. Three groups of Computer Science bachelor students developed digital prototypes for a planning tool for young adults with pervasive development disorders, who live either with their families or in supervised residences, and do not receive extensive public services. The students conducted the initial planning phase of the software development process, focusing on prototyping the system requirements, whilst a professional software company programmed the end solution. The goal of the project was to develop flexible and adaptive user-oriented and user-specific app solutions for tablets that can aid this diverse user group in structuring daily life, whereby, for example, photos of objects and places known to the individual user replace general pictures or drawings, and checklists can be elaborate or sparse as necessary. The three student groups worked independently of each other and created interactive working prototypes based on tests, observations and short interviews with end users (both administrators and residents) and regular user feedback from the project managers. Three very different solutions were developed that were of high enough quality that an external software company were able to

Smarter Grid through Collective Intelligence: User Awareness for Enhanced Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcel Macarulla

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Purpose – This paper examines the scenario of a university campus, and the impact on energy consumption of the awareness of building managers and users (lecturers, students and administrative staff.Design/methodology/approach – This study draws a comparison between direct fruition of the information by both skilled (building managers and unskilled (users recipients, and the effect of peer pressure and beneficial competition between users in applying the good practices. In fact, the usage of edutainment, implemented by the automatic publication on the Twitter platform of energy consumption data from different users, can promote general users’ awareness on best practices and their effect on energy consumption. In addition, the use of a social network platform allows the interaction between users, sharing experiences and increasing the collective intelligence in the energy efficiency field.Findings – Tests revealed that enhanced awareness helped managers to identify strategies that, if implemented in the whole building, could reduce energy consumption by about 6%. The tests on university users’ awareness hint that the expected energy savings can reach 9%, in addition to the previous 6%. In fact, the measures were implemented in one of the three common rooms, and at building level the total energy consumption decreased by 3.42%, proving that a large deal of energy can be saved by capillary actions targeting society at large. The emerging collective intelligence of the final users ends up having a stronger effect on energy saving than the actions of more educated professionals.Practical implications – The approach used in this paper moved the burden of evolving the energy saving strategies to new scenarios onto the collective intelligence of the users, by connecting the users – and their experiences in new scenarios – using a social network to provide guidelines to other users involved in the same decision processes